Disappointed..
Discussion
I went to the autosport show 3 years ago, the pistonheads bit was fantastic loads of fast road cars and members rides it was brilliant.
This year the pistonheads area appears to have become similar to the rest of the show, filled mainly with motorsport stands with a few nissans in 1 corner a pile of vx220's in the other and a load of cars owned by a car rental club on the back wall.
What happened?
This year the pistonheads area appears to have become similar to the rest of the show, filled mainly with motorsport stands with a few nissans in 1 corner a pile of vx220's in the other and a load of cars owned by a car rental club on the back wall.
What happened?
I can see your point of view, as the last time you were at the show we had 180 cars on display.
As the years have passed it has been increasingly difficult to recruit cars and, more importantly, it has been just a difficult for us to arrange decent care of the cars on display. Owners (quite rightly) expect cars to be cleaned regularly, for there to be good cleaning facilities when they arrive on site and to have a well run way of getting cars in and out of the hall. If we're honest we haven't got that right yet. Add in the fact that we are reliant on good weather (last year we saw snow and some cars were not able to make it leaving empty space) we decided to have a year off.
I'd like to think that we'll have cars back for 2012 as I do agree that we need metal on show to keep it PH, and we'll be giving it some thought post show.
As the years have passed it has been increasingly difficult to recruit cars and, more importantly, it has been just a difficult for us to arrange decent care of the cars on display. Owners (quite rightly) expect cars to be cleaned regularly, for there to be good cleaning facilities when they arrive on site and to have a well run way of getting cars in and out of the hall. If we're honest we haven't got that right yet. Add in the fact that we are reliant on good weather (last year we saw snow and some cars were not able to make it leaving empty space) we decided to have a year off.
I'd like to think that we'll have cars back for 2012 as I do agree that we need metal on show to keep it PH, and we'll be giving it some thought post show.
Was there yesterday - popped over to the PH stand. Saw Riggers mooching about, that was about it. bought the obligatory smiley, and ummed and aahed over a PH jacket. Was completely ignored by the Swisswax guys so spent a wad with Poorboys and Dodo Juice instead. I think it was definitely missing that something - Zondas, Koeniggsegg (sp), loads of top end car porn which would have been nice, but better than nothing. I must say that I was disappointed overall in comparison with 2009 when I last went, but shall be going again next yr.
I visited yesterday, first visit. Loved the Autosport side of it but must be honest really didn't think a lot of the PH section. Having said that it probably takes a lot of organising to do and there are always underlying reasons why things are done or aren't done.
One other thing my mate bought some stickers off the PH stand and the bloke who served him was a right miserable t
t. Customer prevention officer
One other thing my mate bought some stickers off the PH stand and the bloke who served him was a right miserable t
t. Customer prevention officer
broken biscuit said:
Was completely ignored by the Swisswax guys so spent a wad with Poorboys and Dodo Juice instead.
Same here, I'm a loyal fan/customer of Dodo juice anyway so I was going to spend my money with them anyway but I couldn't believe the lack of service from swisswax. There were 5 guys in swisswax shirts standing around, I spent a fair bit of time looking at the products and looking for prices and was just ignored.As for the show, it was ok, not as good as previous years but it was still a decent petrol heads day out.
I too was somewhat disappointed with the PH side of things, both the stand and the overall hall. It certainly didn't seem to have any of the 'ethos' that the website/forum does.
What is the goal of the PH hall? Is it to try and introduce new members to the PH site or is it a nice excuse for current members to meet up etc?
If it wasn't for the PH branding I'd have no idea that the hall had anything to do with PH!
ps I to spent far too much at the DODO stand
What is the goal of the PH hall? Is it to try and introduce new members to the PH site or is it a nice excuse for current members to meet up etc?
If it wasn't for the PH branding I'd have no idea that the hall had anything to do with PH!
ps I to spent far too much at the DODO stand
Bernieb said:
I too was disapointed with the show, but the real ironic thing for me was sitting to the rear of the thrust display all that technology was backed up with a stall full of cheap market tools and tat .
I'm not so sure, I was quite impressed with the drill bits that promised never to break!But yes, it was quite a surprise to find Bloodhound tucked away in the corner away from seemingly everything else.
I'm probably not saying anything that's already been said, but i too was disappointed with both the PH side of the show, and also the show as a whole.
PH could have really capitalised on the whole readers cars thing, that was one of the highlights for me in previous years. However i can appreciate you may struggle to get people to allow their cars to be shown.
The show in general I just felt was a bit small and there wasnt a huge amount to look at. Lotus, McLaren and Porsche all had good, impressive stands, but other than that it was all a bit boring and i felt like most stands were just trying to sell wheels and other tat. To be fair ive come away from this show feeling the same before so i dont think its necessarily got any worse.
I'd have been a bit hacked off if i'd paid £32 to get in though.
PH could have really capitalised on the whole readers cars thing, that was one of the highlights for me in previous years. However i can appreciate you may struggle to get people to allow their cars to be shown.
The show in general I just felt was a bit small and there wasnt a huge amount to look at. Lotus, McLaren and Porsche all had good, impressive stands, but other than that it was all a bit boring and i felt like most stands were just trying to sell wheels and other tat. To be fair ive come away from this show feeling the same before so i dont think its necessarily got any worse.
I'd have been a bit hacked off if i'd paid £32 to get in though.
No TVRs (apart from Dom TVR Powers's Sagaris tucked away on a stand) at the PH show! I'm shocked, a PH show without TVRs! There were 17 TVRs displayed in 2008
There were a few nice cars there but I felt it was not a good as previous years IMHO. In previous years I've spent a good couple of hours looking round the PH show, this year I was finished in about twenty minutes
There were a few nice cars there but I felt it was not a good as previous years IMHO. In previous years I've spent a good couple of hours looking round the PH show, this year I was finished in about twenty minutes
Pistonheads stands for like minded people talking about motors! I think there should have been more emphasis on what PH stand for rather than flogging merchandise!
EG
1) Have a section related to PH Sunday Service, with pics & videos
2) Pistonheads goes racing with Racing Pete!
3) PH does LeMans, a section about that!
4) PH Track days!
None of the above wz apparent to a newbee who does not know abt wot PH is!!
The above needs addressing in order for PH to grow!
EG
1) Have a section related to PH Sunday Service, with pics & videos
2) Pistonheads goes racing with Racing Pete!
3) PH does LeMans, a section about that!
4) PH Track days!
None of the above wz apparent to a newbee who does not know abt wot PH is!!
The above needs addressing in order for PH to grow!
The PH stand is always hard to get right, especially with so many areas to cover. It's not just the forums, there is the classifieds, forums, events, editorial, clothing, affiliate partners, oily pages etc, etc. Recruitement is not really our aim (believe it or not). I guess its not dissimilar to any other 'magazine' stands really, where the focus is on the sale of a copy rather than an explanation of the product.
Funny you should mention the merchandise size as it was actually reduced this year to give room for the car and the sofas to relax on. That said, the merchandise always does well and it's nice for people to be able to see what they are buying.
We'll certainly see what we can do to improve it for the future, and as said above we'll certainly look at adding more metal. The cars that were on display this year were there after car clubs/ companies reserved space to have their own display, so the marques shown were their choice. I did give an insight into why we had no readers cars earlier in the thread for those that missed it.
Ta for the feedback though, it's always useful and always discussed at the office.
Funny you should mention the merchandise size as it was actually reduced this year to give room for the car and the sofas to relax on. That said, the merchandise always does well and it's nice for people to be able to see what they are buying.
We'll certainly see what we can do to improve it for the future, and as said above we'll certainly look at adding more metal. The cars that were on display this year were there after car clubs/ companies reserved space to have their own display, so the marques shown were their choice. I did give an insight into why we had no readers cars earlier in the thread for those that missed it.
Ta for the feedback though, it's always useful and always discussed at the office.
Echoing raised points from others, and continuing from my criticism on various threads I was left feeling very disappointed. I'm not totally sure why PH retains a named part at the show really, the only PH interaction seemed to be the stand selling merchandise. Without the members car section it didn't feel very "special" but I do understand why it was dropped for this year.
Sorry guys but instead of visting ASI for the 8th time in 2012, i'm spending the money on going to the Geneva Motorshow instead!
Sorry guys but instead of visting ASI for the 8th time in 2012, i'm spending the money on going to the Geneva Motorshow instead!
D34NO87 said:
broken biscuit said:
Was completely ignored by the Swisswax guys so spent a wad with Poorboys and Dodo Juice instead.
Same here, I'm a loyal fan/customer of Dodo juice anyway so I was going to spend my money with them anyway but I couldn't believe the lack of service from swisswax. There were 5 guys in swisswax shirts standing around, I spent a fair bit of time looking at the products and looking for prices and was just ignored.As for the show, it was ok, not as good as previous years but it was still a decent petrol heads day out.
The show in general was ok (didn't bother with the Live Action Arena), like others I though the PH stand was a bit disappointing and wouldn't have really known that part of the show was PH themed, definitely needed more exotica.
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