So, now that the show is all done and dusted for another year, I finally get around to writing that Motor Show report I promised. Overall it was a fairly good show, with enough significant new car launches to cause excitement, such as the new Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Insignia, as well as plenty of other interesting stands and a variety of things to do when you got bored of walking around the halls.
I'll begin with the Insignia, as that's where I began my walk around the halls. Vauxhall had a large number of cars and it was just as well because they were attracting a lot of attention. It's not hard to see why, because as medium sized family cars go, it's a very attractive one, better looking in my opinion than the new Mondeo, which looks messy in comparison. There isn't a great deal of difference in the look between the hatch and the saloon versions, but then this brings the preference down to what you want from the car, rather than which looks better. The interior seems very well built and also classy in a way we never saw from the Vectra, and at first glace reminded me of the Honda Accord, but with a more colourful use of plastics. Engines of note included the twin-turbo V6 all-wheel drive option, which is apparently faster around the Nürburgring than the Astra VXR.Vauxhall also had a rather pretty concept vehicle on their stand, the Opel FLEXtreme, which looked about Astra-sized, had suicide back doors (as is popular these days) and a compartment in the rear bumper that stored two Segways. Perhaps design cues will be on a future Astra. As part of GM, Vauxhall was surrounded by other GM brands. Hummer was disp
laying a concept vehicle that could easily be a model below the H3 to compete with hardcore Land Rover Defenders, and Caddilac was showing the sharp-looking CTS concept, which looks like a coupe version of the BLS. Saab also had a concept, the 9-X BioHybrid, which doesn't appear too different from the 9-X concept of 2001 but has a new green engine and some fantastic looking turbine-blade wheels. Saab also had their new soft-roader, the 9-4X, in concept form. The Chevrolet stand was fairly uninteresting except for the Camaro concept, though now that Chevy are producing the car you wonder why they didn't bring a production model over for show.
Next to Saab was the non-GM Kia, who'd actually made quite an effort and had a fairly large stand. Unusually far back but certainly not out of the spotlight stood the Kia Kee, a bright green V6 coupe concept featuring what could be many future design details, and sending out a clear message that Kia means business now and isn't prepared to be seen as an unexciting manufacturer. Taking pride of place at the front of the stand were a selection of other concepts, the eco_cee'd (almost production ready), the ex_cee'd, which is a pretty cabriolet version of the normal cee'd, and a trio of Soul concept vehicles. The Soul 'Burner' is a kind of street racer's version of the tall small car with matt paint and red accents, the 'Diva' a 'bling'd' out shiny one with gold wheels, and the 'Searcher' which looked more like an outdoors pursuit car.A short hop past the eco vehicles (I'll come to them later) found me at Nissan where the impressive GT-R was making it's UK debut. If you've seen Top Gear or played Gran Turismo 5 Prologue you'll know it's performance credentials, but it was interesting to see it in the flesh, along with a cutaway version of the car exposing it's technology to all. GT-R and an irrelevant to the UK electric powered Cube excepted, the Nissan stand had nothing to keep me interested so I walked to their partner Renault, where my eye was caught by two beautiful concepts, one a Laguna Coupe in pearlescent white (which if it makes production will be the be
st looking French car since the Peugeot 406 Coupe ten years ago), and the eye-catching Megane Coupe Concept. This featured two-part doors, where the glass hinged upwards in a gullwing fashion, and then the main body of the door followed suit, supported by a single huge hinge at the back of the door, allowing complete access to the funky cockpit. The good news about this car is that the next Megane will be heavily based on the styling of this concept. Renault was also displaying the Megane R26.R, which has recently set the fastest Nürburgring lap time of any hot hatch, at 8m'17s.Across the hall were Mazda, who had the usuall array of RX-8s and MX-5s and Mazda3s, as well as the excellent Mazda2 (one of which was being held aloft by paper cranes, another in new Mazdaspeed form) and a few examples of their new 6, which looks as sleek as it does in pictures. It actually looks quite
similar to the Insignia. At the back on a stage was the agressive and flowing Furai, with it's papery swoops lit up by LED lights and wearing a racing livery. In the centre of the hall were perfect original examples of the first generation Mazda MX-5 and the curvy RX-7. Opposite were the Jaguar and Land Rover stands. Jaguar didn't have anything particularly interesting to display but it was nice to see the XF up close, and Land Rover had the sleek LRX next to a pumped-up version of the Defender.The Ford area was predictably massive, with a row of new Fiestas taking centre stage, plenty of Mondeos, a Formula Ford on the wall, and a bright Lamborghini-green new Focus RS right in the middle attracting admiring grunts from people in baseball caps. With almost 300bhp going through the front tyres, it'll be exciting at the very least. The best looking version of the Fiesta was actually the Econetic low-emissions version they had on display, because the blue paint scheme suited it a lot better than some of the awful choices on the other cars. A quick sit inside revealed it was certainly better quality than the previous model and very well equipped. The gearchange is mounted high like the Mazda2 it's based on but space in the rear didn't look too special, even compared with my own ten year-old Fiesta. It's sure to be a good car, but on balance I'd prefer the Mazda2.
I also took a quick look inside the Kuga, Ford's soft-roader, to compare it with the VW Tiguan I'd had a closer look at a month or so back. Personally I prefer the VW still, but the Ford rep who joined me inside the car did a good job of highlighting some great features the Kuga has, such as a three-pin plug in the back for accessories. Much better than a fag lighter. Alas, he couldn't make the speech-recognition function understand his commands though.That was it for the first hall. Honda started the next, with a few new Accords being overshadowed by the sexy OSM (Open Study Model) concept, which in produ
ction form will be replacing the S2000 as Honda's sports car. The display model was front wheel drive and used a hybrid powertrain. Displaying the same characteristics was the Honda CR-Z, a spiritual successor to the old CRX and sporting the same split rear screen and looking every inch the agressive small coupe. On the upper stand was the FCX fuel cell vehicle, getting virtually no attention from the visitors. Hiding it isn't the best way to introduce the concept to the people.Suzuki had cars hidden away too, but not important ones. A special edition Jimny sat next to a Swift rally car and a couple of motorcycles, but out front were the Kizashi and A-star concepts, a sleek, powerful fastback and a small city car respectively. Next door, Lexus had their LF-A sports car on display next to their worthy but dull range of big saloons and SUVs. BRABUS and Mercedes-Benz were attracting more attention, making best use of V12 bombshell saloons and AMG models.
Toyota was once again pushing the Hybrid message, with the hyped-up Prius sitting uneasily near three off-roaders, one of which makes use of a 4.5 litre V8 engine, albeit a diesel. Mixed messages for potential Toyota customers. Also near the Prius was the Hybrid I concept, which looked just like a future Prius fitted with features that will never make production. The mid-engined Aygo Crazy was also on the stand, but isn't as interesting in person as it is in magazines. A disappointing range. Subaru also disappointed, with just a diesel Legacy and a slightly hotter Impreza WRX 'S' remotely getting any attention.
Alfa Romeo however had a fantastic array of cars and the stand was packed on both days I visited. Whatever shade of red and whatever lighting they'd chosen, was making the cars look absolutely stunning, glinting like rubies and attracting visitors like magpies. Pride of place was reserved to the two 8Cs (a coupe and a cabriolet), a Brera Spider and a Mito. Examples of most of their range were available to sit and poke around in, so I made a bee-line for the Mito, here in left-hand drive. It looks much better in real life than it does in pictures, so that was my first worry dispelled. The interior seems well made, very nicely designed and typically sporty. The leather seats were gorgeous and all the controls (pedals, gearshift) seemed light. I'll endeavour to get a road test once the model is in showrooms.SEAT had a large range of cars, with the Ibiza SC being the main attraction, but I didn't try it out for size. Looks good enough, but isn't particularly exciting. The Leon Cupra next to th
eir touring car, painted in white, looked the business though, and was attracting a number of admiring glances. Despite being a 5-door it's certainly one of the better looking hot hatchbacks available. At the other side of the stand were a line of three"Ecomotive" models, a Leon, old Ibiza and a Sharan. It seems every manufacturer is cashing in on the bandwagon. Apart from looking very basic and painted a crisp white they didn't show any signs of being any different from the regular models. They do apparently have low emissions though, so maybe I'm just being cynical.
Hyundai had a new coupe on display, as well as an i10 ice cream van with a pretty show girl handing out free ice lollies, and a decent looking i30, but otherwise nothing of note. Peugeot had even less on offer, save for the 308 RCZ which they were "unveiling" all week to draw a bit of attention to their range populated by ugly and boring passenger cars. No amount of Le Mans cars, tarted up 207s and track cars can give a halo effect to that range.I'll skip the supercars in the Sunday Times enclosure as you can read plenty about them elsewhere (most likely in the Times), but as far as sports cars Lotus' new Evora was drawing the crowds. Not as pretty as the Elise but a good looking sports car nonetheless. Lotus' stand, as usual, was populated by people of increased physical stature trying to feed themselves into Elises and Exiges and failing miserably.
After all this, there was much to do outdoors, if you could bear the queues. There was an off-road mountain style display with Land Rovers in police livery, and a VXR tent pumping out loud music the whole time and generally being as brash as the cars themselves. Honda had their own action arena that I neglected to go to for time and money reasons, but I did have a go at the Mazda Zoom-Zoom challenge, not wanting to miss the opportunity to try a Mazda2 and an MX-5 on a mini track. After an hour queueing you only get about five minutes of driving but even that is enough to confirm that the 2 feels very much like an MX-5 - there's some strong family DNA running through it. The gearshift in both is sweet and the steering accurate and with good feel for both cars. Pedal feel is lacking in both, though I'm sure with more miles you wouldn't notice. If you can't afford an MX-5, get a 2, you won't be missing out on much! Hopefully I'll get a longer drive in a 2 soon.
There were plenty of motorhomes on display which brought into mind images of epic Stateside road trips, and an array of commercial vehicles courtesy of What Van? Magazine giving them their own space. Like many of the manufacturer's standard cars, these were available to test drive.
So what of the no-shows? I was disappointed by the lack of Fiat, BMW, VW, Audi and Volvo most noticably, and it was a pity to not see Daihatsu there either, given that their parent company Toyota was there and yet had a pretty dull range. These manufacturers all have some great cars and some fairly recent releases (the VW Scirocco being a noticeable abscence) and although I'm sure they have their reasons for not attending, it would not surprise me if some customers shun these brands in favour of their rivals. Certainly, the Insignia was a high enough quality product to make people think twice about buying a 3-series or Audi A4.
Stand of the show definitely goes to Alfa Romeo. They're a brand on resurgence and the popularity of the stand can only be a good thing, even if it's made one extra person decide to get a 159 instead of a BMW. The Mito will certainly give MINI something to worry about. Car of the show for me was probably the Honda CR-Z, as it's exactly the sort of car I want to see, sporty, economical, small. As far as more mainstream cars go, the Insignia and new Fiesta will soon be everywhere but they're certainly going to be very good cars.
And so you've reached the end of Motor Show 2008. I'll soon be doing an electric/eco cars supplement so keep your eyes peeled!
All photographs ©Tarmac 2008
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