More than 100,000 trade visitors and auto enthusiasts visited the recently held five-day Saudi International Motor Show 2012 in Jeddah organised by Al Harithy Exhibition Company.

The event, which was held at the Exhibitions and Forums Center, featured a lineup of some of the newest sports and luxury cars, sedans, SUVs, auto care, spare parts, customised cars and motorcycles presented by well-known local and international companies. Some of the models were formally launched during the event.

“We are delighted with the public's enthusiasm for this year's 34th edition. The event has exceeded expectations in scale to offer manufacturers a most satisfying and profitable platform," said Zahoor Siddique, vice president of Al Harithy Company for Exhibitions.

"We are extremely happy about the outcome of this year's Motor Show, as the number of visitors exceeded the previous show's count. We had the participation of international companies represented by seven countries, which included France, Japan, China, UK, India, Japan, Korea, and Germany.”

Visitors said the exhibition was excellent as it displayed under one roof few of the latest cars made in different parts of the world.

While the Japanese cars took center stage at the exhibition, the display of Korean and Chinese brands including Geely, BYD and Lifan attracted a sizeable number of visitors who had thronged the event, Siddique said.

Making the Saudi International Motor Show the platform for showcasing its unique models, Mohammed Mousa, marketing manager Volkeswagen Saudi Arabia, said: "Building on the success of our participation at the Riyadh Motor Show, we now offer people in Jeddah the opportunity to see up-close our extremely impressive range of models, which provide a combination of quality, innovative technology, German engineering all at competitive prices.”

VW showcased its impressive 2013 model lineup such as Passat, Polo, Jett, Passat CC, Touareg, Golf R and Tiguan.

Toyota, which made a strong presence at Sims, unveiled its all-new 2013 Avalon and the completely reengineered SUV Rav4 at the show.

Adel Ezzat, managing director of Marketing at Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ), the authorised distributor of Toyota in Saudi Arabia, said: “The Saudi International Motor Show is a world-class event and as such it is the ideal platform for us to unveil two key Toyota models, while also on display are the Toyota Prius, the pioneer of hybrid vehicles, some special editions for our youth and the complete range of Toyota cars.”

Dan Fer, vice general manager of Lifan said the future would be for Chinese cars after the substantial development in its automotive industry. "We are surprised and delighted by the visitors’ reach of the Saudi International Motor Show. It is been a success days here as we have sold around 38 cars in just two days and we expect to sell around 5,000 cars within the next three years.”

“The Saudi International Motor Show has been very successful for us, both in terms of exposure and in sales. We have been in Saudi Arabia for almost a year and we are doing great as we sold 2,000 cars in 2012 and expect to sell 6,000 in 2013,” said Marwan Massad, sales manager of MG in the Kingdom.

The Saudi International Motor Show also proved the ideal environment for parts, accessories and customisation companies to showcase their products and services. In a country where customisation is popular among Saudi youth, Ayman Taher an expert in customisation said that there is a huge demand for it and young people spend around SR30,000 ($7,999.67) 50,0000 to change the look of their cars.

The organisers, A-Harithy Company for Exhibitions have announced the dates for the next edition as December 24 to 28, 2013. – TradeArabia News Service