July/August 2019

F ollowing a build up of anticipation across the sector, Automechanika Birmingham 2019 finally opened its doors on Tuesday 4 June. When those doors were flung open, the industry came flooding in. Across the three days, 12,145 automotive industry professionals visited the event, breaking records for the show. Back for the fourth time, the event attracted a record number of independent garages and bodyshops among the total. Organisers credit the launch of The Big UK Garage Event as providing a focus for garage businesses. The garage-dedicated area offered free seminars, CPD technical training and a wide selection of exclusive giveaways, discounts, prizes and deals worth more than £26,000. Automechanika Birmingham offered visitors more than 500 exhibitors from 21 countries, within three halls of the NEC. 120 companies exhibited at Automechanika Birmingham for the first time. There were also celebrity appearances by Guy Martin, Edd China, Nicolas Hamilton and other top drivers from the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) as well as Lord Sebastian Coe. You could also hear from some great speakers at various sites during the show, including Andy Savva, Frank Massey, James Dillon, Andy Crook and many, many others. In the Aftermarket Hall, visitors could find the Retail Accessories Village and the Bodyshop Zone. There was also more than 100 hours of training seminars and debates in the seminar areas, including the Aftermarket Seminar Theatre. Exhibitors Let's see what was on at the show. Aftermarket made its way around the halls during all three days, with a view to see as many key companies from the sector as possible. With the next show not until 2021 as a result of the Birmingham show alternating with Automechanika Frankfurt going forward, we wanted to make the most of this fantastic opportunity to see the whole industry under one roof. Pro-Align Pro-Align provided the kind of presentation on their stand that we expect to see every year. Among the products on display was the Hunter Quick Check Drive, which was also seen at the Frankfurt show last year. The Quick Check Drive is a touchless alignment inspection system, designed so the car drives through to provide instant alignment readings without the need for direct involvement by the technician. It is equipped with eight cameras and 32 laser sensors, that scan a vehicles tyre as they drive past. A vehicle can be scanned every few seconds, meaning every car that enters the workshop can be checked. Hofmann-Megaplan Hofmann-Megaplan were at the show with a spread of their products. Explaining what was on show, Andy Ringrose, Sales Manager for Hofmann-Megaplan said: "The main focus for us this year is ADAS. This has become more and more popular, as more vehicles have ADAS systems on them. We are at Automechanika Birmingham promoting our system. This is a little bit different compared with other systems. Instead of the interchangeable boards, we have a 65" monitor. With this system you don't have to keep adding additional boards. As long as you pay your license every year, it keeps updating free-of-charge. With this system, in the first three years of its use, it is probably going to save users about £10,000, because they are not having to buy the additional boards. "Moving on from the ADAS systems, we also have some tyre changers on display, as well as our wheel balancers. For example, the 1200P is a fully diagnostic wheel balancer. It does not only balance the wheels, it gives you the run-out of the wheel and the tyre as a unit 48 AFTERMARKET JULY/AUGUST 2019 AUTOMECHANIKA BIRMINGHAM 2019 www.aftermarketonline.net THE FOURTH PROTOCOL – BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER All the thrills and spills from Automechanika Birmingham Below: This year at Automechanika Birmingham