Melbourne Motor Show : Ignore the website wars – it’s awesome!

Nothing frustrates me more than media companies bagging other media companies or their staff, or the events they are associated with. Proudly, at EFTM we’re mates with our biggest competitors like TechGuide, GadgetGuy and Image Matrix Tech. But when it comes to motoring media, sadly, there are some narks out there.

And I’m going to do exactly what I hate, I’ll call one out specifically today, Car Expert and their writer Jordan Mulach. His article today “The return of the Australian motor show is greatly exaggerated” was published before the show opened, and to me seemed like a hit job based on the fact that Car Expert’s opposition Drive.com.au is the media partner of the event. How petty.

Now Jordan makes the point in his article that this show in Melbourne isn’t a pinch on the old days of the Sydney and Melbourne International Motor Shows. Nope, it’s not.

But it’s easily the greatest event for the motoring industry in this country in a decade or more – and that is what should be celebrated.

This is the crowd outside the doors 15 mins after the show opened:

30,000 tickets sold for Saturday, Sold out – and Sunday probably already sold out as I write this? Seems pretty clear that car lovers and people in the market for a car are keen on what the organisers have put on here.

I walked into the Melbourne Convention Center doors at 6.30am – three hours before it opened, and was instantly impressed. Big stands, impressive brands, and lots of cars!

That’s what makes a motor show special. Lots of cars to see, and get in to experience.

Look, Jordan tries to make his article about the good old days, but the team at Car Expert need to read the room. Even their own audience in the comments are calling BS on the whole article.

For a first go, the renewed Melbourne Motor Show in my mind is a huge success. I can imagine some of the other “established” brands looking at this and realising they do need to be seen here, they need to be at this event.

So best of luck to the organisers, and to the car companies who did show up! Here’s to 2026!

For the record, because I can just feel the narks here – I was contacted by JAC about the motor show a month ago, they said they were releasing a PHEV and I thought that’s a great story. I asked the Today Show if they wanted to do a cross, turns out they were keen to do several, so we did three! And Drive.com.au is owned by Nine, but I wasn’t required to talk to James Ward from Drive at the show, he’s just the most knowledgable person I saw there, and was generous in his time helping me. If Paul or anyone from the team at Car Expert had offered the same, I would have done the same – I don’t see ownership – I see content:)