2026 German Auto show Sydney

Yesterday was the annual German car show here in Sydney.  This is organized by the Mercedes-Benz club, but generally well attended by the other major German car clubs.  I normally taken my 250SE along to this show.  This year I didn’t display a car, as I had a family commitment in the city.  The location being close to a train station meant I could still attend the show and then head to the city afterwards.

I though the show was a pretty big improvement from last year.  The new imagery was a nice change, it was well advertised, no confusion this year about where to buy tickets, there were a lot more sponsors and the whole thing had an air of being well organized.

Probably the only thing that wasn’t as good, as last year the cars were arranged in groups, roughly in 50s through 70s, 80’s and 90s and moderns.  This year it was to a degree, but they were mostly in wherever they could fit.   I suspect that numbers were up this year, and Gough Whitlam park is very space constrained.

As usual, there was a good display of Mercedes-Benz.  I’m much more focused on the older cars, and was able to see a good range of them.  I especially liked a dark blue W108 with a red leather interior and a manual gearbox.  This is a very unusual combination here in Australia.  While in the USA, W108s with leather are seen a bit, they are very rare in Australia.

There was also a good showing of W123s with a manual 200 carby, a signal red 280TE from Victoria and quite a few other nice examples.  W116s were also well represented, with two 450SE’s, a 280SEL and a 280SE.

I didn’t have as much time to spend in the other marques sections, but the Audi one seemed quite small.  I liked seeing the BMW E28 M5, and there were some nice older Porsches.

Overall, I thought the event team did a nice job putting on this event and I’m glad I was able to make it, even without displaying a car.