The Bangkok International Motor Show, the biggest in Asia after Japan, will display 440 vehicles, with 1.6 million people expected to attend the 10-day event, said the show's organisers, Grand Prix International Co.

"Some 13,000 units were sold during last year's motor show. We expect this year's sales to be no fewer than that," Jaturont Komolmis, senior vice president of Grand Prix, told AFP.

Toyota's Lexus RX 400H, the world's first luxury hybrid vehicle, and Mercedes-Benz's 150-million-baht (4.28-million-dollar) racing car CLK-GTR were among the highlights of the show.

While the Lexus hybrid is sold here at 6.25 million baht (178,500 dollars), the CLK-GTR, the priciest vehicle at the show, is purely for display, the organisers said.

Automakers hope the event will spur domestic sales, with year-on-year sales figures falling sharply for five straight months after the military overthrew the elected government of Thaksin Shinawatra in a coup in September 2006.

In the first two months of the year, sales were down 20 percent compared with the same period last year.

With Thailand's consumer confidence at a five-year low and new political uncertainties arising due to swelling anti-coup sentiment, the auto industry is anything but upbeat about car demand.

"Political uncertainty is a major concern for auto sales. If March sales are at the same level of last year, we should be quite satisfied," Morikazu Chokki, president of Tri Petch Isuzu Sales Co. told AFP.

"We want political uncertainty to be short-term and hope that auto demand will recover in the later half of the year," said Chokki from the Japanese truck maker.

Even Toyota, the biggest automaker in the Thai market, was modest in its estimates about the motor show, saying its targeted sales would be the same as last year at 4,900 units.