I, for one, spent much of day two of the show perusing compact and especially subcompact cars. Every self-respecting manufacturer has one or three to offer and they're all cooler than another. Check out the Suzuki Swift and Hyundai ix20. Very nice.
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| Hyundai ix20 (Photo: Matthieu Lambert/Auto123.com) |
On the people side, regardless of what I or other may think of the French ;-), the show is well organized and the staff is very helpful and patient. One thing to remember though, if you want a Mondial bag to carry Press kits, get it fast. If you want one of the famous Seat (that's Say-At) bags, best to show up the day before the doors open...
The real and best piece of advice I was given and am sharing with you is that as the Mondial is spread over nine pavillons and that only a few are directly related, so wear some comfortable shoes. My dogs were in pain on day one (my fancy dress-shoes...) but day two, I was sporting my Nike running shoes. Much better.
As for the crowds, they were large, especially on Thursday. My guess is that there were close to three thousand automotive types at the Mondial on day one, about half of that on day two. That would explain why Isuzu had strippers (wearing tights) working a pole on the back of one of their pickups on Thursday and not Friday... Yes, you read that right. I guess when you have no product, any way to get the name out is a good, and it apparently works...