Gavin Green's 2008 Geneva show blog
By
Gavin Green
06 March 2008 16:38
Talk about a tale of two cities! At the not-so-long-ago Detroit Show, Ford’s stand looked more like a used car lot than the pointer to an exciting future. The one-time king of Motown was in a meek and muddled mood. Fast forward two months to the Geneva Show and Ford – although this time healthy Ford of Europe, not ailing Ford of North America – was bouncing with boundless self-confidence. It had the production car star of the show, the Fiesta (hit!) and was reporting booming sales and profits.
The Fiesta is timed to perfection. Just as the French apparently lose the knack of making chic small hatches – a quick glance at the Renault and Peugeot Geneva stands is proof – so Ford steps into the breach with a tot that looks fabulous inside and out but also about-faces the motor industry’s lazy drift into inexorably producing bigger and heavier cars. The new Fiesta is lighter and no bigger than its predecessor – hallelujah! – yet just as roomy, safer and more solid of feel.
If the ordinary looking 4x4 Kuga (miss!) on the stand didn’t quite live up to the same high standard, then at least Ford can console itself by looking at its new Focus, S-Max and Mondeo, all deserved family favourites.
A company that Ford know rather well – India’s Tata, to whom it’s selling Jaguar and Land Rover – was also a surprising star of the show. At last year’s Geneva Show, the Tata stand was about as popular as a bad Balti restaurant in Birmingham. But at the 2008 Geneva, its new cutprice Nano (hit!) – the world’s cheapest and most newsworthy car – was swamped by eager hacks. It is a remarkable car, not least its space efficiency: not since the Mini has a car devoted a greater percentage of its body area to interior space. It is truly the people’s car.
My favourite new small car though was the Toyota iQ (hit!). Not so much bigger than a Smart, it seats three adults (plus baby) in comfort thanks to some clever packaging, including its staggered asymmetric front seats (the back bencher sits behind the front passenger, the baby – or the bags – behind the driver).
Elsewhere BMW and Mercedes endlessly drummed on about reducing CO2 emissions – it actually got quite boring, so earnest was their corporate angst at saving the planet (while also showing the usual V12s and V8s that naturally fund all this eco research). They both had hybrids and better lithium ion batteries and energy regeneration systems and stop-start electronics and clever Germans on hand with doctorates of engineering and expensive dark suits explaining why tomorrow’s Benzes and Bimmers would be as environmentally friendly as daisies dancing in the breeze. Of course they both deserve credit (hits!) but it was amusing to see that old warhorse Bob Lutz (hit!) – General Motors’ car tsar and corporate vice chairman – tell hacks what he really thought of man-made global warming (‘a crock of shit’). Bob also said that hydrogen fuel cells (once described by GM as the key to clear conscience cars) may also be too expensive and impractical. This I think is not the official GM corporate line.
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