Car shows are to motoring enthusiasts what fashion week is to fashionistas. It is a chance to take a sneak peek at what the next season has in store, it gives you the opportunity to be in the same venue as those you worship and, most importantly, it gives you a heads-up on important concept vehicles and makes you seem far more knowledgeable than you might actually be.
South Africa is lucky to be the only country on the continent to host an internationally recognised motor show in Auto Africa and car manufacturers are getting ever more secretive about the products on display at Nasrec.
Sure, they will tell you they are going to be showing off pretty much their entire range of vehicles, but unless you’re unnaturally close to some manufacturers, you are unlikely to get the really exciting news about what concept cars are going to be on display. But, if you’ve been keeping an eye on other international motor shows, you will have a decent enough idea about what will be on display.
The nice thing about car shows though, is that unlike fashion where you have to be a skeletal and barely alive size 0 to be considered attractive, car manufacturers are always producing bigger engines (and subsequently bigger cars) to push out increasing amounts of power.
The big news for Nissan at Auto Africa will be the crossover Qashqai, Alfa will be showing off the Spider, Chana bakkies from China will be on display as well as a range of Audi vehicles including the S3, Bentley Continental GT convertible, Fiat’s Sedici, the Subaru B9 Tribeca, Volkswagen EOS, the Tata crossover and DaimlerChrysler will be showing off about 60 vehicles including the Dodge Nitro and the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class, which will be launched next month.
Auto Africa takes place at Nasrec from October 28 to November 5. Tickets for adults are R50 each, children under 12 pay R20 and the show runs from 9am to 8pm, though entry to the venue stops at 6pm