GUY BIRD

Writer & consultant
London

Business

Category:
My first job after my post-graduate journalism course was in business-to-business publishing for an independent garage and aftermarket magazine called AutoTrade. There I gained invaluable experience at the nuts-and-bolts end of the automotive industry. I landed my first full-time editorship at the fleet-focused BusinessCar in 1999 and continue to provide road tests, features and long-term tests for the title plus a few other business media, including What Van? and also Motor Trader, where I judged various categories of its 2021 Awards
“I provide road tests, news analysis, features and long-term tests for the business sector”

Consequently, I am as well-versed in company car tax and dealer profitability, as how a car might handle going round a corner. The BusinessCar cover story below reported on the first major motor show since the pandemic in autumn 2021, based in Munich and reborn as a mobility event with a difference…

Part downtown fun-fair experience and part city outskirts transport trade show, the IAA Mobility event in Munich, September 2021 was the first major attempt to host a global car show (outside of China) since the start of the global pandemic. Two years ago at the last Frankfurt event – which the Munich show replaces – most of the exhibits were in one location, within 12 large halls and with most major carmakers in attendance. The global jolt and 18-month economic restrictions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic unsurprisingly made the Munich IAA Mobility show by comparison a much smaller affair. Six of the Munich halls offered new-car automotive exhibits dominated by the German manufacturers and suppliers, plus a big stand for Renault and a smaller one for Polestar, while another hall was turned over to classic cars and memorabilia and a further two devoted to bicycles and scooters. In that respect, the renaming of the show to IAA Mobility was apposite…

The Motor Trader Industry Awards 2021 article