Barcelona Auto Show Cancelled

There were a few rumors before but no one believed it until the inevitable occurred. Organizers had to cancel the 2009 Barcelona Auto Show due to lack of automakers' interest, Autonews reported today. As expected, the blame is put on the ubiquitous financial crisis that is forcing the poor automakers to resort to extreme measure in order to cut down costs.

Apart from reducing production, massive layoffs and changes in the management board, another popular solution among car makers to cope with the economic disaster seems to be... retiring participation from the major 2009 auto shows. Unfortunately we won't be seeing beautiful women, hot cars and spectacular ads at Barcelona Auto Show this year for the simple reason there will be no show. The decision was taken on Wednesday by ANFAC, the Spanish auto manufacturers association as major automakers pulled out of the event which was scheduled to take place from May 9 to May 17.

Important car makers such as General Motors, Peugeot, Citroen and Nissan were the greatest disappointments of the organizers as they decided not to exhibit at the show. Their reaction was certainly justified: the weak state of the Spanish market combined with their cost-cutting measure.

Sales for new cars dropped heavily in Spain last year and automakers aren't regarding this market as a potential ground for selling their cars during such hard times. Even the ANFAC President Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz said that new car sales could suffer a 23 percent drop in 2009.

Now that the show has been cancelled, ANFAC wants to seek compensation for the loss. Therefore, they urged the Spanish government to supply the auto industry with additional add, apart the 800 million euros offered earlier this year for employee training and investments in green manufacturing and technologies.