It is astonishing how fast the agenda moves on in this business. Three weeks ago you couldn’t move for news of the Jaguar XE, it’s lavish London christening party and how it was going to redefine Jaguar’s business for the future.
Yet in Paris few that I spoke to mentioned it, despite the fact the show offered the first opportunity for most to have a really good poke around.
At least Jaguar’s decision to delay pricing information guaranteed it some headlines, and it’s interesting to see the base diesel priced exactly £1000 above the BMW 320d Efficient Dynamics – which has similar power but inferior CO2 emissions and fuel consumption to the XE.
But while almost everyone had something new to offer, it was hard to pick a theme for the show. Sometimes you’ll get a slew of supercars all turning up at once, or a field of green cars to prick your conscience, but if there was a thread in Paris, I failed to spot it.
Take Mercedes-Benz as an example: it launched a two seat supercar, a (Smart) two and four seat supermini and compact MPV. No thread there.
Even so, there were plenty of highs and lows. The Volkswagen Group scored direct hits with the Lamborghini Asterion and XL Sport concepts, but to my eyes, a clear miss with the Audi TT Sportback – which seemed to be a car unsure of whether it wanted most to be an Audi or a TT, which are two very different things.
It was good to see the Mazda MX-5 revert to its roots in style and concept, and fitting that the last Ferrari to be launched under Luca di Montezemolo’s stewardship is one that's as beautiful, striking and doubtless fabulous to drive as the 458 Speciale A roadster.
I liked the Land Rover Discovery Sport, too, despite those who called it dull and predictable: to me it’s a sign of company settling into a new design language and comfortable in the knowledge it will work for years to come.
There was plenty more, but I still got the sense of a slightly subdued show – maybe manufacturers are pausing to gather themselves for the next big push, possibly in Los Angeles next month but far more likely to be in Detroit in January.
If there is any truth at all to the rumours that Ford is preparing a successor to the fabulous Ford GT, that on its own would constitute grounds to brave the Michigan winter.
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exciting
Can't wait for first-drives and reviews
Haters gonna hate
If you don't like reading (your) perceived bias then don't read.
Audi with the TT sportback is for me another of the cul-de-sac cars that a lot of manufacturers seem to like making these days.
Mazda seem to be the only Japanese manufacturer with any sense of what a car's proportions and design should actually be like.