On the show floor
First thought that crosses the mind of a Geneva show rookie: The locals have much more room than the imports by default. This was the first car show I have ever experienced where the Chrysler Group, Chevrolet, Toyota and Honda did not take up 50% of the entire show surface. The Volkswagen Group took the largest portion of the show floor. What with Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, SEAT, Bentley and Lamborghini and being the biggest manufacturer in that part of the World, it only makes sense. Porsche was on its own in a different section. To give you an idea of the area covered by the Geneva event, I would say that it is roughly ¾ the size of the Detroit Auto show. Peugeot's display was particularly attractive with its full array 207s in a semi-circle. The Fiat Abarth display was the absolute worst: a wall surrounded the two cars they were presenting; it was impossible to get a good picture of them or to even get close to them.
The Geneva flow
The whole of the affair is fairly relaxed. For the most part, there is plenty of room between the stands but at some Press Conferences it was nearly impossible to get within 30 meters of the stage due to the large number of journalists around. This was especially true for the big names like BMW and Mercedes where everyone turned up. Other stands like Bolloré, the electric-car builder, were very attainable...
The tally is that the Geneva auto show is great. It is a pleasant kick-in-the-pant for any hardcore car enthusiast. Speaking of enthusiasm, it is altogether possible that my interpretation of Geneva is overly positive because this was my first trip to Switzerland to see the show.
Heartthrobs:
Fiat Panda 100hp
Any Peugeot 207
Citroen C4 (Loeb Edition)
BMW M3 Concept
Any Renault Clio or Mégane (Renault F1 especially)
Ford Fiesta
Ford C-Max and S-Max
Any Alfa Romeo (The Brera is dead-sexy!)
Toyota Corolla Verso
Volkswagen Passat Variant R36
Honda FR-V (Versatile and good-looking)
I could go on for days...
Slight turn-off:
Only because we do not have them: Ford's European line-up
Tata (Like most Chinese makers, a long way to go should they ever want to come to North America)
TechArt 911 GTstreet (Automatic! Fine, it is faster than the manual but is nothing sacred?)
Surprises:
Brilliance (Great-looking Chinese cars (the exception) with decent interiors)
Fiat Punto (A logical handsome city car)
photo:Alfa Romeo, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Spyker
First thought that crosses the mind of a Geneva show rookie: The locals have much more room than the imports by default. This was the first car show I have ever experienced where the Chrysler Group, Chevrolet, Toyota and Honda did not take up 50% of the entire show surface. The Volkswagen Group took the largest portion of the show floor. What with Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, SEAT, Bentley and Lamborghini and being the biggest manufacturer in that part of the World, it only makes sense. Porsche was on its own in a different section. To give you an idea of the area covered by the Geneva event, I would say that it is roughly ¾ the size of the Detroit Auto show. Peugeot's display was particularly attractive with its full array 207s in a semi-circle. The Fiat Abarth display was the absolute worst: a wall surrounded the two cars they were presenting; it was impossible to get a good picture of them or to even get close to them.
The Geneva flow
The whole of the affair is fairly relaxed. For the most part, there is plenty of room between the stands but at some Press Conferences it was nearly impossible to get within 30 meters of the stage due to the large number of journalists around. This was especially true for the big names like BMW and Mercedes where everyone turned up. Other stands like Bolloré, the electric-car builder, were very attainable...
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| Mercedes-Benz display |
The tally is that the Geneva auto show is great. It is a pleasant kick-in-the-pant for any hardcore car enthusiast. Speaking of enthusiasm, it is altogether possible that my interpretation of Geneva is overly positive because this was my first trip to Switzerland to see the show.
Heartthrobs:
Fiat Panda 100hp
Any Peugeot 207
Citroen C4 (Loeb Edition)
BMW M3 Concept
Any Renault Clio or Mégane (Renault F1 especially)
Ford Fiesta
Ford C-Max and S-Max
Any Alfa Romeo (The Brera is dead-sexy!)
Toyota Corolla Verso
Volkswagen Passat Variant R36
Honda FR-V (Versatile and good-looking)
I could go on for days...
Slight turn-off:
Only because we do not have them: Ford's European line-up
Tata (Like most Chinese makers, a long way to go should they ever want to come to North America)
TechArt 911 GTstreet (Automatic! Fine, it is faster than the manual but is nothing sacred?)
Surprises:
Brilliance (Great-looking Chinese cars (the exception) with decent interiors)
Fiat Punto (A logical handsome city car)
photo:Alfa Romeo, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Spyker