There's still considerable question about which format will triumph and which features will be offered, but make no mistake that the communications revolution that has changed the way we do virtually everything else is about to sweep into our minivans and sport-utes and change them in ways we never expected either. In five or 10 years, it's now obvious, your new vehicle will be a more sophisticated and helpful information source than your home computer is now. It was even suggested that your car will have its own e-mail address, such as AlanKerr@KTU280.com, or whatever your name and license plate number.
It's unlikely that many of those plates in North America will be attached to any of the hardware displayed in the sprawling Messe convention centre of this smallish banking city.
Either the vehicles displayed were just not destined to cross the Atlantic (anything from a French car maker, for example), were too expensive to sell in much volume (the BMW Z8) or too small for our tastes (the Smart), are concepts (the Java) that may never see the light of day, or are a combination of more than one reason (the Java again).
It's a personal taste thing, of course, but we shouldn't lose too much sleep mourning the availability of many of the vehicles on display here. With the exception of a couple of French cars that are nicely shaped and nicely packaged (the Renault Scenic minivan comes to mind), there isn't much available here to stir the soul. Do you think many of use would actually buy a Fiat Multipla, the bubble-windowed minivan that looks like a re-incarnated Marty Feldman?