The New Straits Times Autoshow 2013 – Is it worth going?

The News Straits Times Car of the Year Awards is arguably the most prestigious annual automotive event in Malaysia and is often referred to as the benchmark for the best cars available to Malaysians, as judged by Malaysians. To put it simply, we don’t care if every other magazine or automotive channel says the car is shyte, if it wins the NST COTY, it’s all that matters. And this year looks to be a very interesting year for COTY. Not only do we see an influx of over 90 new and facelifted models in our market, green technology is gaining greater traction and one of those highlights in this year’s event is an all-electric bus that visitors will get a chance to ride on.

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Some important information for you:

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Venue: Matrade, Jalan Khidmat Usaha, Off Jalan Duta, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Date of event: Friday, 4 October – Sunday, 6 October 2013

Opening hours: 10am – 9pm daily

Parking fee: RM5 per day for the parking area within Matrade. Space is extremely limited (thanks to Hyundai who occupied a large part of the parking zone for their Hyundai service and parking so it’s great if you’re coming in a Hyundai). You may also park further away and there is a free shuttle service running between the parking zones. Pick up points HERE

Entry fee: RM5 to enter the air-conditioned hall (Petronas Mesra Card holders get to enter for free but no lucky draw ticket. Prizes include a Proton Saga SV as well as other goodies). There are exhibits outside which are free.

So, if you’re going alone in a car and wish to park within the Matrade complex, prepare to fork out RM10.

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What can you expect for your RM5 parking fee?

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Quite a fair bit, actually.

First of all, they say old is gold as the saying goes and there is a number of ultra luxury supercar makes celebrating special birthdays. First up is Aston Martin which turns 100 years old this year. To commemorate this event, they’re launching a limited-to-100 units worldwide Centenary edition. It will feature a 2-tone paint scheme, special leather and contrast stitching. It will also have solid sterling silver wings badges with exquisite enamel inlay and numbered hallmarked solid Sterling silver commemorative plaques. Definitely going to be a collectors item in the future.

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Wanna guess what’s under the covers? Are we so lucky to get 3 of only 100 in the world?

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Aston Martin fans would also be treated with some current and classic models.

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Lamborghini also seems to be serving something up to celebrate 50 years old birthday.

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Oh, and the Porsche 911 turns 50 too this year

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You’d be hard pressed to find another venue where so many test cars await your pleasure. No, I don’t think the Porsche Panamera you see in the picture above is a test drive unit.

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Every pick-up truck fan’s dream: a RAM 5500, a 6.7litre turbo diesel that serves 305hp @ 2,900rpm and a whopping 827Nm of torque from a low 1,600rpm. Jungle crossings would look like a walk in the park for this.

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What can you expect to see if you pay the RM5 entry fee?

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It’s for a good cause as the money collected will go to charity.

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Unfortunately, there isn’t much else inside other than an amalgam of booths and displays of various car manufacturers (something that you can probably find in any car showroom, minus the large number of people here). NST’s COTY Autoshow is for manufacturers to display those models that have been nominated for this year’s awards. Naturally, this is the best place for manufacturers to sell their cars and other than cars, you’ll find the place swarming with sales advisors ever ready to serve you (and hopefully to take your cheque for a downpayment)

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There are essentially 3 halls and one center walkway. Starting with the walkway, you can find hybrid Honda booth, Mazda, Nissan and a smaller VW booth.

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Inside Hall A, you’ll find the main sponsor’s booth which is also the largest in the entire event. Proton naturally.

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I found the most fascinating thing about the Proton booth is the miniature clay model they displayed as part of a 3 piece showcase of the development phase of a new model.

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Part of the Proton marquee is Lotus and other motor sport related models.

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The other 2 manufacturers in Hall A are Suzuki and Honda.

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Hall B is the larger hall and is located on the ground floor. The most notable marquees here are Peugeot and VW

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The star attraction in the Peugeot booth is the 208 GTi, of course …. scheduled to be launched next Wednesday, 9 October 2013.

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VW on the other hand occupies the center stage.

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Some of the other manufacturers you can find here. The most obvious absentees today are Toyota (sorry, no new Vios to play with here), Hyundai, Kia and BMW (Mercedes has a small booth outside near the Aston Martin stage). The Mitsubishi Attrage is available for testing though.

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Hall C is located on the 1st floor and is heaven for bikers

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Up here you’ll also find car related accessories such as Meguiars detailing products, GPS devices and others.

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Today’s activities aren’t much. If you’re a biker, Saturday is a day you must be there as there will be an all bikers concours (more info on that HERE) and Naza will launch a new Aprilla model. Sunday on the other hand rewards classic car lovers with the 4th Malaysia International Vintage & Classic Cars Concours (info HERE) and His Royal Highness, the Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum
Sultan Iskandar who is an avid car collector and very much respected in the automotive sector will grace the event and will present the Sultan Ibrahim Cup by to the Concours Car of HRH’s choice.

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So, should you go? I’d say why not? The atmosphere should be quite euphoric and fun; probably the best time to hang around there is at 5pm onwards when it’s not so hot. Not sure until what time the test drives will run though and if it’s standard protocol, sundown means show’s over for the drives. Mornings are probably the best times to get behind the wheels since the crowd should be less. There ought to be a huge turnout so please exercise caution when driving around the Matrade compound. Manufacturers that offers test drives are as follows (in no particular order):-

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• Nissan
• Proton
• Peugeot
• Volkswagen
• Mitsubishi
• Suzuki
• Perodua
• Jaguar
• Ssangyong
• Citroen

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For more info, please visit here:

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http://nstautoshow.com/

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