Autogeek is Headed to Automechanika in GERMANY!

[Nick McKees37]

That's right, folks! Nick Rutter (that's me!), Mike Phillips and Yancy Martinez are headed to Germany this coming Saturday for the Automechanika show in Frankfurt! While we're in Germany we'll get a VIP tour of the FLEX manufacturing facility and...wait for it...SONAX headquarters! We leave Saturday, September 10th and arrive back in Florida the following Saturday.

What is Automechanika, anyway? Think of it as SEMA, except BIGGER.

Automechanika Frankfurt is the world’s leading trade fair for the automotive service industry and is unique with regard to product-range breadth and depth. The fair is the shop window for innovations in the automotive aftermarket across the entire value chain. As an international meeting place for all market participants from the industry, dealership trade and maintenance and repair segment, it provides a major platform for business and technological knowledge transfer.

[Nick McKees37]

Is anyone else planning on attending the show?

[ViperGuy21]

Is anyone else planning on attending the show?

If you would like to get me a plane ticket and a hotel.....SURE! Haha

[Angus]

Awesome!! Looking forward to the photos! Are you guys meeting up with Mike@DedicatedPerfection while you're there? I believe he's about 2hrs West of Frankfurt.

[ronkh57]

Cool

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Wow that is awesome! Would love to meet up with you guys!

[Mike Phillips]

Exciting news!

I've been hearing about Automechanika for years... starting with Barry Meguiar's and his trips with a team of staff from Meguiar's attending the show. Never been myself till this trip.

I'd like to say THANK YOU to SONAX and FLEX for sponsoring this trip as well as Bob McKee and Autogeek for their support and allowing Yancy, Nick and I the time away from our normal job duties to attend the show as well as take tours of the FLEX plant and the SONAX plant.


Thank you!


And yes, between the three of us you can expect to get a virtual tour of,

1. Automechanika
2. FLEX Corporate Offices and their manufacturing plant
3. SONAX corporate offices and their manufacturing plant

I've seen a lot of people attend Automechanika over the years but I've never seen a full write-up sharing pictures for everyone else's enjoyment. I'm happy to say that's not how we roll here at Autogeek. So you can bank on seeing pictures we post in real time to Facebook and the AGO forum and also a full write-up after we return.


Our trip begins this Saturday after the Tech Session at Autogeek's Cars & Coffee Car Show. Our Cars & Coffee car show is always the second Saturday of each month, (that's this Saturday), and our Tech Session is held inside the cool, air-conditioned Show Car Garage start at 9:00am and going to around 9:30am.

After wrapping up the Cars & Coffee car show we'll be heading to PBI or Palm Beach International airport for the first leg of our journey. Our jet leaves PBI at 1:30pm and gets into Atlanta International Airport at 3:30pm. We leave Atlanta at 5:40pm and get into the Frankfurt International Airport at 8:45am German time which is approximately 6 hours ahead of the East coat in America.


• Sunday, September 11th - Arrive Stuttgart Train Station. Take Taxi to Stuttgart Marriott Hotel. Dinner in Stuttgart.
• Monday, September 12th - Drive to Steinheim for Flex Tour and Meeting. Lunch in Steinheim.
• Monday evening, drive to Frankfurt, check into Hotel. Dinner with FLEX
• Tuesday and Wednesday, September 13th & 14th - attend Automechanika Show. Flex will supply badges.
• Thursday, September 15th - Check out of Schone Aussicht Hotel. Depart for Sonax.
• Friday September 16th - SONAX tour and dinner with SONAX
• Saturday, September 17th - Leave Frankfurt International Airport at 11:45am
• Saturday, September 17th - Arrive into Palm Beach International Airport at 9:00pm


Every day is busy so follow along on the forum and Facebook.


And again, thank you to FLEX, SONAX and Autogeek!

[ScottB]

good luck guys ... travel safe and enjoy. Cannot wait to see the results of this experience.

[Mike Phillips]

I've seen a lot of people attend Automechanika over the years but I've never seen a full write-up sharing pictures for everyone else's enjoyment.

I'm happy to say that's not how we roll here at Autogeek.

You can bank on seeing pictures we post in real time to Facebook and the AGO forum and also a full write-up after we return.

Because it's been 5 years since Nick and I made our trip to Germany to take a tour of the FLEX plant it's likely some of you have never seen the pictures FLEX gave us permission to share on the AGO forum....


Here's the link... LOTS of pictures showing pictures of FLEX tools being assembled on the assembly line. I was told we were the first people that had ever been given permission to not only take pictures but share them publicly.


Germany Flex Plant Tour Pictures

Time stamp: October 3rd, 2011


Excerpt

All the way through every process, all components are continually assembled into more complete and complex components and after each assembly step the individual component then goes through further refining step to perfect them and then they are measured and tested for precision and performance.






Here you can see the armature before and after it has been turned and trued-up to even tighter specifications...






So stay tuned!

[Mike Phillips]

What is Automechanika?


Automechanika Frankfurt is the world’s leading trade exhibition. The biennial show takes place at Messe Frankfurt from 13th - 17th September and will feature all of the major aftermarket suppliers from around the globe. Interesting stats from 2014 include,

4,660 exhibitors from 74 countries.

137,982 visitors from 176 countries.