KARACHI, Sept 15: “If all motorbikes on the roads looked anything like these, I would stop cursing under my breath each time a biker crept by my side trying to create passage for himself in a traffic jam. I would be too busy admiring his bike,” commented a visitor while being greeted by four beautiful two-wheelers in bright colours at the entrance to the Karachi Auto Show organised by PakWheels.com at Port Grand here on Sunday.

And this was just the beginning. Karachi has seen its share of motor shows but the auto show stood out from the rest as it did not stop at just motorbikes, classic cars, four-wheel trucks, rally jeeps, etc, it had everything, even dune buggies and cars that no longer looked like their original selves.

For instance, there was this deep purple (or was it midnight blue?) Volkswagen Beetle, ‘foxy’, with a miniature silver model reminiscent of perhaps what it looked like before its makeover resting on its dashboard.

But now its front and rear pillars had been reduced in height and welded back on the roof rail while also reducing the height of the roof and the front and back windshields.

Its tyres, too, had been switched by the broad, dune buggy-like variety. Some thought it was cool, some saw it as an eyesore. But one thing is for certain ... unless the driver is a short person his head will hit the roof on every road bump.

Volkswagen Beetle lovers who cringed at the sight of the made over one, only had to turn right to find fine-looking well-maintained foxies preserved to perfection.

Nearby were several Mazda RX8, three in bright red colour and one in black, other sports cars and coupe, BMW, a couple of Mini Austin, Renault and whatnot.

Some visitors selected the most spectacular of vehicles to be photographed beside them. “I certainly cannot afford to keep something like this. I might as well get myself photographed with it,” said Arsalan Ahmed, a youngster posing with a Chevrolet Caprice Classic. “I'm uploading this as my new digital picture on Facebook as soon as I reach home,” he chuckled.

“This is the first of its kind auto show in Karachi as it has all varieties of vehicles. By holding this show, we have brought together the automotive community in Karachi under one roof,” CEO of PakWheels.com Mohammad Raza Saeed told Dawn.

“We have been holding auto shows in Lahore annually for the past three years and the last year we held a similar show in Islamabad as well.

Now we are in Karachi and after seeing the enthusiasm of the people here we plan to hold the show in all these cities every year,” he added, while explaining that all the participating vehicles in the Karachi show were primarily from the city and had not been brought here from Lahore or Islamabad.