9:22 am, September 13, 2013
THE Germans pride themselves on having the world’s largest motor show – Frankfurt.
They love nothing more than to emphasise that if you go to their motor show, you’ll be able to amble around 11 halls filled with glitzy cars, glamorous girls and endless stalls selling sauerkraut.
Which is fine but as Car Dealer discovered this week, the Frankfurt Motor Show was, broadly speaking, a waste of time.
Sure there were the lovely concepts ‘expressing the future direction’ of car brands – the Jaguar CX-17, the Volvo Coupe Concept and the ghastly Lexus LF-NX to name but a few – but where was the interesting, down-to-eath stuff that we hadn’t heard about?
BMW took great pleasure in showing off its i8 – but we’ve known about the electric supercar for what seems like the past five years. Then there was the i3 electric car – something we’ve all been quite accustomed to for the past two months – while Audi fielded an SUV-cum-supercar-thing at the last minute, which bears little resemblance to anything that’s likely to appear in dealers’ showrooms in the next 10 years. Infiniti also took up great square-footage of its stand by showing off a concept of a car we know is going to look pretty much like that because they’ve told us it will – so why not reveal the final version?
Where was the new BMW 1 Series or the next Volvo XC90? Where were the cars dealers could be selling by the end of the year?
Star of the show? It has to be the Hyundai i10, really. Why? Because the Koreans did it properly. They released the images and scant details beforehand, allowing us journalists to poke around in it at the show. There had been no first drives by magazines before its unveiling and there was a wave of excitement by all those who visited the Korean maker’s stand.
My point is the Frankfurt Motor Show was frustrating. Behind all the glitz and glamour, there was nothing tangible – nothing that really reflected how car makers are putting all of their efforts into repairing the European car market.
Perhaps I’m being overly critical – particularly given Britain’s lack of its own motor show – but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed. Am I the only one? I’d be interested to hear your views.
