The British Motor Show is an exciting bi-annual event which showcases new cars and trucks in Great Britain. However, the British Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders have arrived at the difficult decision of cancelling the event for the year 2010 after consulting the UK Motor industry. The decision to cancel the event came at the wake of the economic downturn all over the world.

The British Motor Show was also facing problems of low attendance as it was not being able to attract people in good numbers in recent editions of the show. During its heydays, in 1978 the show attracted over 900,000 people at Birmingham NEC. To increase the attendance of the crowd, the show was even relocated to London in 2006 but there was no significant increase.

The opinions are divided between people who think this is a temporary situation which would improve as the world economy picks up and people who think this is certainly the end of the road as far as the show is concerned. The unprecedented challenges and the economic downturn are definitely stopping the exhibitors to make any commitments to the event.

The British Motor Show is not the only motor show event to suffer. There have been reports that the Detroit Motor Show was also in doldrums following the withdrawal of many major automakers from the event citing the reason of the present economic crisis. The 2009 Tokyo Motor Show has also suffered a setback as Ford, GM, Volvo and Chrysler have chosen to withdraw from the event.

British auto show when held last year attracted over 472,000 visitors and was a great launch for the new cars like Opel, Alfa Romeo Mito and Vauxhall Insignia. This year, it is sad that no such great car will get this same platform for a successful launch. According to the SMMT, U.K. car sales, there was 28.7% downfall in U.K. car sales, within the first two months of 2009.

SMMT now expects U.K. new car sales to fall to another 1.72 million units in near future and after analyzing this 2010 British auto show has been called off. At present, some discussions are going on to replace the event with some other event, but nothing has been finalized as of now.

Jaguar’s XKR-S the worlds fastest Jaguar made its first public show at the British Motor Show. Jaguar features the dual advantage of being the fastest car along with a very luxurious interior. Being the fastest coupe Jaguar is capable of covering 0-62mph in just 5.2 seconds. The luxurious interior along with the double sutured soft leather includes the distinctive black metallic paint, red Alcon brake callipers and especially designed aero kit.