Britain has struggled as a motor show venue in recent years, with many car makers choosing to reveal new models at shows in Geneva, Paris, Frankfurt and Detroit.
The importance of emerging markets in the Far East has also seen countries like China become venues for new model debuts.
From 1937 to 1976 the British show was held at London’s Earls Court, and was the venue where famous models like the Land Rover and Morris Minor were first revealed.
In 1978 the event moved to the bigger NEC complex in Birmingham and became bi-annual, but falling attendances saw its future cast into doubt.
The last two UK motor shows have been held at the smaller ExCel venue in London’s Docklands, most recently in 2008, where visitor numbers rose on the previous show.
By Martin Gurdon
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Autotrader.co.uk is the UK’s largest motoring website and ranks as the second largest ABCe audited UK website with over 360,000 vehicles listed at any one time. It has a 38% share of the automotive classified market (Hitwise, August 2007).
