Up at something after four. London City Airport for a flight just after five. Sat down for an egg and bacon breakfast and a mug of tea. Up to the till. Sat down again to recover from the GBP17 bill. It’s a great airport but they do milk it.
News arrives that there will be a three hour delay. THREE HOURS. That’s pretty much the time I had in mind for covering all the new exhibits. Seriously consider heading back home and scrapping the cost of the flight.
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Arrive in the show hall at 11.30, having picked up the press pass and the schedule of events. Hang it; I’ve missed 27 new product reveals. On the flip side…there are still 37 to come between now and the flight home.
Decide to leave things to chance and start walking the floor to see who’s about and what’s occurring.
Instantly get mixed up with The Big Story. My man who knows the strength of the GM-PSA alliance gig from the inside marks my card. “It’s happening and it’s going to be very beneficial.” But is there really that much more money to be saved by shared bulk-ordering of common components? “It will be worth billions.” Don’t bother to ask if that’s euros or dollars. Billions is a lot in any language. Apparently there is a bit of a lucky coincidence in that model renewal timetables in both companies are identical. How about that for a wedding present.
Step on to the Land Rover stand and engage the only other spectator there in conversation about the looks of the DC100. Officially it’s not a replacement for the Defender. The man I’m with turns out to be one of the designers and justly proud. He says that he hopes the show car will make it to production in just the way that the Range Rover Evoque did after attracting enthusiastic applause.
Quick chat with English legend Peter Horbury who has become one of the world’s most-consistently good car designers. He’s off to China to give Geely a hand with design; seems more than 18 months ago that Geely bought Volvo and Horbury with it.
He had a quick spell in the Geneva limelight to unveil the new Volvo V40 and points out some vital carry-over Volvo design traits. Darned if I can see them but it’s a tidy enough car. But is enough going to be enough in the cut-throat, mid-sized sector? Geely’s homeland competitors are going to be all over that market sector like a rash within five years and the semi-premium makers will be under pressure.
A wander past the BMW stand where everything looks familiar: there at the back is a thing that looks like a 6-series. But it’s got four doors [the Gran Coupe – ed]. And it looks really good. I have always been a sucker for the Maserati Quattroporte as a concept…a really stylish four-seat executive saloon without being a formal business suit. And here now is a similar thing from a maker who screws things together well. Nice work BMW; that’s another niche filled.
Tried to get a grip of what’s afoot at Mini on the stand next door but they always seemed to have just started some sort of presentation or just finished. I worry about Mini a little; it seems to be losing its quirky Englishness without gaining anything of lasting value. They have been making a deal out of the return of the Mini van without making the message clear. It’s a highly significant car for many of today’s young pensioners who spent their youth horizontal and busy in the back. I wonder if the Germans know how to tip their hats to that pedigree?
Have the good fortune to route myself past the Alfa stand and acknowledge that yet again the Italians have bagged all the girls with the long legs. How do they do that? And why do they want to when Italian men all have stumpy little ones?
And finally… a call on Aston Martin. Is it not the case that these people make the most gorgeous-looking cars? It seems to me that they are a bit like Goldilocks’ porridge: not too Ferrari-hot and not too Mercedes-cold but just right.
Pass the Volvo stand again on the way out and notice that Percy and Doris have climbed into the front seats of the V40 and are demanding to know from a PR man how it all works. How do these guys get access on press day when we are all being so terribly busy and serious? They’re just people who buy cars and keep the whole show on the road. Have ‘em out.
The trip back is everything you could hope for. Door to door in not much over two hours. Geneva really is the best circus ring in Europe. There is nothing better than being co-located with an international airport. It makes every other get-together look like hard work.
