Motor shows

Paris - am I seeing things?

2008-10-03T20:54:54Z

Maybe I’m just tired from a 16-hour day at the Paris show yesterday.

But looking at pics of the Audi A1 concept this motoring made me think of the Austin Maestro.

And the last A1 concept was called the Metro – maybe someone at Audi has an obsession with 80s British cars…

Anyway, try it yourself: cover up the grille with your hand and look at the rest of the profile – especially the rear end.

See more pics of the Audi A1 Sportback concept

Or is it just me?

Recession? What recession?

2008-10-03T17:18:51Z

I had my teeth gritted as I walked into the sprawling halls of the Paris motor show. And it wasn't because I was lugging the hefty bag of cameras and other electronic equipment that has replaced what was once a journalist's jotterpad and biro.

I was excited about what I was going to see, but I felt a bit uncomfortable about the financial backdrop and the effect this is apparently having on car buyers. Was it all going to be a bit puritanical or would we feel like we had our communal heads in the sand?

In fact, it was neither. The show-stopping glamour of the Citroen Hypnos, Lamborghini Estoque, Renault Ondelios and Mazda Kiyora, to name but a few, was superbly blended with a set of vehicles that looked as though they'd be just as much fun, but slightly more accessible.

The Nissan Nuvu may just be a concept, but it's got more than a hint of production car about its proportions and passenger capacity. Similarly, we all knew pretty much what the new Ka was about, but seeing it on the show floor in the metal, then zipping across the screen in the Quantum of Solace trailer, really did make you want to rummage around the back of the Ford stand for the keys.

It made you realise that even if there is a bit less money sloshing around, there are going to be some great cars out there - the Audi A1 Sportback concept, for example - that will be fun to drive, good to look at and easy on that strained wallet.

Kia's rise continues in Paris

2008-10-03T13:04:16Z

Amongst all the amazingly extravagant show cars at Paris this year there were also several significant new car launches.

It’s just a hunch but I think one of the most significant may end up being the Kia Soul.

The Soul is a funky looking thing with scaled down SUV looks, clothing what are fairly straightforward front-wheel drive mechanicals. Yet, for some reason, the looks and concept of this thing are hugely appealing to me. I also managed to clock a pair of them parked on the streets of Paris and they looked great.

It’s due to go on sale next March for around £11,000 and should be available with lots of the sort of personalisation add-ons pioneered by the Mini. With these looks and for this money it deserves to succeed.

Kia has already proved that it can deliver us well-engineered, no nonsense cars. Wouldn’t it be something if it started appealing to the fashion conscious as well?

Technorati Tags: Kia,Soul,Mini Cooper,SUV

Citroen wows the Paris show

2008-10-02T21:41:10Z

You’d expect the French manufacturers to be full of beans at their home motor show. But in terms of creativity, there was only one winner – with Citroen the victor by a good five lengths.

Interestingly, the Peugeot-Citroen home-team rivalry was conducted this year in the light of the departure of Peugeot’s barely installed new design director, evidently because his Citroen opposite number, Jean-Pierre Ploue, had just been elevated to the position as design director of the whole PSA group.

There is an inspiration and an optimism about Citroen’s offerings – especially the remarkable Hypnos GT saloon – which frankly eclipses everything else at the show.

Its most striking feature is an amazing, avant garde interior created by British designer Leighanne Earley, whose work has been gaining more and more credence within the double chevron design team.

Throw in the remarkable Citroen GT, a car designed purely for the latest generation Gran Turismo console game (but built in three-dimensions just for the hell of it) - and the anti-establishment C3 Picasso - and you have a collection of cars that put Citroen right back in the mix when it comes to creating avant-garde concepts.

Compared with this, Peugeot’s dowdy Hymotion4 Prologue and its more rakish but wholly predictable Hymotion4 RC were hardly in the game.

And Renault? My feeling is that the company has done better than Peugeot this year. The Megane has been caught unhappily between boss Carlos Ghosn’s edict that mainstream models should have calmer, longer-lasting styling – and the more recent realisation that today’s cars only attain sales-making prominance if they look good.

The CE electric van concept was decent enough, however, and the Laguna Coupe gave their whole stand a lift. But the observer couldn’t help thinking that the true remedy for Renault will be for top management to use a much, much lighter touch on design issues. Citroen’s Paris exhibits show how well it can work.

VW's show of strength

2008-10-02T11:53:05Z

Motor shows feature a lot of corporate self-promotion, on a grand scale. VW dispensed with the usual round of press conferences for its 11 launches (that’s 11 launches from seven brands) and held them all in one place on the night before the show.

It was a big event. 500-odd people gathered in a one-night-only amphitheatre at a cost of £850,000. Cars as diverse as the Bugatti Veyron GranSport and the facelifted Skoda Octavia were wheeled out (the Veyron slipping and sliding across the amphitheatre’s glossy white floor) in a reminder of the Group’s hugely diverse portfolio. Audi turned out an A4 that does 60mpg, and we even got a neat 4x4 Caddy van with windows, a kind of Teutonic version of the Kangoo Trekka.

All of this was for show, and as we left, workers were already dismantling the temporary structure, with its four bars and curved staircases and 50ft projector screen.

Sounds excessive, at a time when car makers are about to hit the buffers of the economic slowdown, and CEO Martin Winterkorn acknowledged that 2009 will be a difficult year. But this was a show of corporate strength from VW. Times are tough, it seemed to say, but we’ve got plenty of cash to spend and we’re not that worried. We’ll have to wait until next year to see if its confidence is justified.

Finally, I'm in Paris

2008-10-02T07:33:18Z

There's nothing quite like the thrill of the Paris motor show. Even as the show opens, there's already an atmosphere of anticipation across the hall: the dazzling lights, the hoards of car lovers and, of course, the cars.

But the biggest excitement of all, is when no one has yet seen the car. There's more of these at the Paris show this year than at any motor show that I can remember and it's going to be a riveting day.

Stay tuned for all the pictures and stories.

Sold… to the multi-millionaire

2008-08-19T11:26:17Z

Up until now my experience of car auctions has been fun and interesting but hardly high-rolling. You probably know the sort of thing: a freezing cold pit staring at a parade of Mondeos and Vectras, munching on a bacon sandwich while taking the scene in.

Which is why the Gooding auction I've just been to in Pebble Beach, California readjusted my set a bit.

Auctions like this are where the real high rollers come to buy and sell million dollar cars and are just as part of the annual Pebble Beach pageant as the Concours D'Elegance itself.

It's quite breathtaking to see Ferrari 250 GTOs take the plinth and then watch as the plummy Brit auctioneer moves the bids up in 100,000 dollar chunks.

I was only there for an hour but watched at least 20 million dollars being spent as casually as most of us buy a cup of coffee.

Also under the hammer was the first Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport which the highest bidder could then spec up and know that anything over the million pound list price was going to charity. In the end it went for a breathtaking 2.9 million dollars (£1.5million).

Fortunately, and just when I thought I was losing touch with reality, a guy came along and asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee or some sausage and chips. Maybe these different types of auctions do have something in common after all.

Technorati Tags: Bugatti Veyron,Grand Sport,Pebble Beach,California,Mondeo,Vectra

Name that car

2008-07-22T15:19:00Z

Would you know what a Hyundai Grandeur was if, for example, you fell over one on a stand at the London motor show? No; neither would I. Nonetheless it exists, and there's even one here at ExCel this week.

It happens to be the Korean brand's flagship saloon. It's just had a bit of a facelift, which is why Hyundai's making a fuss over it at the moment. And I've even taken a picture of one, just in case you think I'm making it up.

Hyundai has been selling this car for the last two years. It's the successor to the little-known XG30, and a popular car with high-powered Korean executives working in the UK. Unfortunately for Hyundai, high-powered Korean executives working in the UK are a bit thin on the ground, which is why they've only registered 20 of them so far. Most Italian exotics are considerably less rare.

The story of its life is a pretty unlikely one. Hyundai UK said yes to distributing it on condition that Hyundai Korea could build diesel-engined ones in right-hand drive. Later in the car's development, once the deal had been done, it emerged that Korea couldn't, in fact, make diesels in right-hand drive. So Hyundai UK got stuck with a £27,000, 3.3-litre, petrol-powered Mercedes E-class competitor that would shed its residual value fast enough to frighten most multi-millionaires.

That's not much of a saleable prospect, but instead of pulling out of the deal all together, Hyundai UK simply cancelled the marketing and advertising budgets, so the car wouldn't owe them anything. That way, it could afford to sell them in tiny numbers. And that's exactly what it has done.

Hyundai UK's managing director runs one, and we've been promised the loan of it sometime soon. I'm really looking forward to driving it. As long as you don't expect too much of them, cars like this can only put a big smile on your face. Good on Hyundai for enriching the UK's vehicular diversity with it, I say.

All show, no go

2008-07-18T10:25:11Z

I’m not quite sure at what point I fell out of love with the motor show.

It could have been some time in the late ‘70s when my dad stopped building exhibition stands for the event and I no longer got in for free. Then maybe it was the middle ‘80s when I was pressed into service at the London International Show at Earls Court and made to hang around on the BMW stand and bother innocent show goers.

I spent more time chatting up the hired totty, especially one girl who looked like Sheena Easton. Strange that I can remember her in perfect detail but I couldn’t tell you anything about the cars.

The ‘proper’ event in the rather less pokey NEC was a move in the right direction, it really did seem like sheds with cars in them. I can remember writing that show goers were being seriously short changed and that they’d be better off wandering around a car supermarket for a few hours.

Anyway, I’m sure the event at the Excel Centre has far more going for it, not least a chance to combine your show visit with a chance to see some really terrible ‘80s musicians. But in these difficult times, I can’t help thinking it should still be possible to get a similar motor show experience for considerably less outlay. So what’s a car enthusiast to do if he (or she) can’t make it to Docklands?

Well, just at the moment there will be a tremendous welcome in your local showroom, where they haven’t seen any serious buyers since October 2007. Not only do you get the peruse the full range in detail, but you’ll probably be given a free cuppa and quite possibly a complementary biscuit to dip in it – if the staff haven’t eaten all the supplies while waiting for rescue. If nothing else, they’ll be glad of the company - although you may have to chip in for the petrol if you want to take a test drive.

Then again you could go in search of show stars of the past. The Rover 75 and Jaguar S-Type both made quite a stir when they had the sheets twitched off them ten years ago at the NEC – and it should be possible to arrange something very similar on a local street using an old curtain.

Or how about the challenge of finding a Chrysler Alpine that hasn’t been landfilled? Or a Talbot Horizon that isn’t in the protective custody of the militant wing of its owner’s club? Alternatively, for the full 1970s effect, why not buy an old Capri for a couple of hundred quid and then persuade a couple of bikini-clad girls to drape themselves over it alluringly? You’d probably sell it at a profit to some randy old nostalgic.

My final suggestion is that you simply ignore the fact the show has moved and travel up to the NEC. I notice that while the Docklands bash is on Brum’s village hall is hosting an antiques fair, which might be a good place to unearth some of the last remnants of the British motor industry.

Ford crashes in at New York

2008-03-20T12:09:26Z

Carmakers don't often display crashed vehicles on their motor show stands. But Ford went to town at the New York show with a mangled Taurus saloon that had been converted into an interactive display.

The Ford Taurus is a mainstream saloon of the type that's the backbone of the US car market. It's about the size of a current Passat and has the look of the last-generation Mondeo. Ford says it is the 'safest large car in America'.

The white car on display had been put through the US industry standard 35mph '40 percent' offset frontal crash. That mimics a typical head-on collision where at least one driver manages to steer away from the oncoming car. But that makes things worse, because the crash force is then mostly concentrated on one corner.

Ford's Taurus was whacked on 28 February at its Dearborn crash test facility and had been converted into an exhibit by hollowing out the passenger compartment.

Walk into the open side, press the button and a crash test simulation is played through a TV screen positioned against the windscreen. The most disturbing part was not the fancy film editing of hurtling towards a barrier, but the stereo sound of crumpling metal and glass.

The front of the car is impressively mangled, though the front wheel has not been pushed back very far. Initially, the damage looks to have been confined to the front end, but look very closely and you can the driver's door is very slightly misaligned.

But it was inside that was most impressive. Despite the impact, the interior is virtually untouched. There were just a few plastic dash mouldings pushed out of line around the right hand side of the instrument binnacle.

Impressive. But then again, the Taurus is one of a number of Ford US models based on an upgraded version of the old Volvo S80 platform. Another reason, perhaps, that the Blue Oval decided not to sell Volvo after all.

Economy woes for New York show

2008-03-20T10:22:30Z

New York is grey, wet and under a cloud. After yesterday’s slashing of the base interest rate, Wall Street stocks jumped, but this morning, as the Auto Show opens in the city, the screens have gone red again.

President Bush is making rallying cries for the economy, but the whole of the city has one eye on the markets. As I was driven though the gridlocked streets this morning, the radio station was quoting the price of a barrel of oil as if updating the baseball results.

No surprise, then, that the NY show is quieter and more subdued than I’ve seen for the last few years.

The US economy seems to be teetering on the edge of a full-blown recession, so all the talk here of advances in lowering CO2 emissions and promises of future ‘clean diesel’ and hybrids is provisional.

If the US economy tips over, buying newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles will become a luxury. And shifting the metal will become the main concern of a beleaguered US car industry.

Lancia: who's convinced?

2008-03-06T18:24:03Z

The new Delta is an eye-catching beast in the flesh. It's a curious hybrid of the old long-roofed Lancia Beta HPE sports hatch and an imaginary medium-size version of the Rover 75. But the Rover comparison is apt.

Lancia has been on the rocks for over two decades. Last year it sold around 125,000 cars, relying on the home market and a continental taste for the ritzy Lancia Ypsilon supermini. Lancia's current design strategy, like that of Rover, could be looking for a
market for which little evidence exists. While the Rover 75 was a clever re-think of the hackneyed 'gentleman's club', the Lancia strategy is for the "relaxed, convivial atmosphere of an elegantly casual lounge."

So the idea of the traditional St James' gentleman's club interior has morphed into a vodka bar or a celebrity haunt such as Soho House, but it amounts to much the same thing.

Attempts, however, to sell space and interior ambience under a non-premium brand has never been more than moderately successful, if not a complete dead end. Think of the Rover 75 itself, the Renault Modus, Renault Vel Satis and Lancia's own Thesis executive car.

Worse still, Lancia is probably better known around the world as the maker of the Delta Integrale, a car that has lived on for the younger generations in the virtual world. Sure, the new Delta is very eye catching and stands out in the metal. And the interior space is impressive. But is it a Lancia as most of us would understand the brand? And who's really convinced by sophistication as measured by chrome, leg room and subtle interior tones?

Looking over Britain's £6k supermini

2008-03-05T12:51:08Z

Walking past the Dacia stand, my gaze fell on the just-unveiled Sandero hatchback – the £6k supermini made by Renault, and headed for a showroom near you in early 2009. Now, this probably isn’t the type of car you’d put on your list of must-sees at any motor show; it’s the type of car you wander past on route to somewhere else. And then curiosity takes hold.

That’s exactly what happened with me. The chance to check out what kind of car this is proved too much to resist: can Renault really make a properly-screwed together B-segment entrant, made from materials other than second-hand UHU glue and sandpaper, for less than the price of a Citroen C1?

Seems it can. Doesn’t matter which way you look at it, this is proper car. From without the Sandero looks modern, sophisticated, and no less attractive than a Hyundai Getz or Peugeot 207. Alright, so it’s not going to win any design awards, but it’s a Fiesta-sized car for £1000 less than a Ford Ka. Last time I checked, original Monets weren’t available in the best buys bucket.

On the inside, I was expecting ancient-looking switchgear, a paucity of equipment, and trim gaps you could lose your keys in. The Sandero has nothing of the sort. It had plenty of kit (show cars always do), and was as pleasant a place to spend time in as many a much more expensive supermini I could mention. All that let it down were some harder-than-average dash plastics – but even those were no harder than you’d find on a Mitsubishi Colt.

Perhaps the places where Renault saved money on the Dacia Sandero will become evident when we drive it. Maybe it’ll rattle and reverberate louder than a tin shack in a lightning storm. Maybe it’ll be slower and less pleasant to drive than the average supermini, or maybe it won’t last as well. But having seen Renault’s vision of cheap everyday motoring for the British masses with my own eyes, I doubt it.

If you’re in the market for a new supermini, I suggest you take a long look at this car as soon as you possibly can. I’ll make you wonder why you should bother paying another £3k for a car – almost any new supermini – that simply isn’t 50 per cent better.

This 500's no 'mini

2008-03-05T12:04:50Z

The thickness and heft of the options catalogue for the new Fiat 500 has (excuse the awful pun) been well documented. As anyone who’s seriously considered ordering one of these fashionable little cars will know, you can have one in any colour combination you like, with one of several interior colour and trim themes, and that’s before you’ve started with the accessories. But at Geneva this year, there’s one that comes with its own lift and espresso bar.

You couldn’t miss Fiat’s gigantic tribute to its hugely successful supermini at this year’s show. It’s literally the size of a house; you walk in via the wheelarches. Inside it there are interactive video displays on which you can view the 500 in all its guises and permutations. There’s a lift where the back seats should be, taking you up to the mezzanine level, where you can look at video screens positioned where the windows would be.

But what impressed me most was the scale-sized front seats, steering wheel and gearknob. Seeing them makes you feel like you’re in “Honey, Fiat Shrunk The Geneva Motor Show.” I don’t usually go much for this kind of show gimmick, but I have to hand it to Fiat for this one: it put a giant-sized smile on my face.

Geneva - baby Suzuki will be big

2008-03-05T11:19:00Z

It's always the way at big motor shows - sometimes you find yourself stumbling across cool stuff almost by accident.

In this case, the Suzuki A-Star - a handsome little concept that hints in very broad terms at Suzuki's new city car, developed in conjunction with Maruti Suzuki in India and coming later this year. The concept was originally shown at the Delhi show in India, perhaps explaining the lack of hoopla made over it here. But I thought it was a thoroughly handsome little thing, looking like an upmarket Aygo, even beneath the show bling.

I know that the Toyota iQ has won most attention here - but to me it's the baby Suzuki that's far closer to the future of smart urban transportation.

Technorati Tags: Mike Duff,Geneva motor show 2008,Suzuki,Aygo,iQ,small cars,A-star,maruti