Audi R8 Stars At Paris Car Show
Big Lexus Hybrid, Mini, Kia Vie For Honours
And Don’t Listen To Anyone Saying That Paris Doesn’t Cut It
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PARIS It is amazing the tripe some people will write under orders. Britain’s Sunday Times’ new motoring section had a piece last week deliberately setting out to slag off Paris, apparently on the grounds that anyone can say what a great place it is, but nobody will read that.
I suppose I’m proving the Sunday Times’ point. I wouldn’t have noticed another story about how magnificent, beautiful, sexy, clean and efficient Paris is. But having just spent 4 days there, for the Paris Car Show, this travesty of the truth in the SunTimes hit me right between they eyes.
As I was leaving this jewel of a city, it occurred to me that we ought to persuade the Mayor of Paris to take over running dirty, dysfunctional, rip-off London, or perhaps even all of Britain’s incompetent, corrupt, government when he’s finished here.
The Paris Mondial de l’Automobile also made London’s Motor Show effort in July look scruffy, provincial and half-hearted, and not just because London’s was held way out in hard-to-access east London. The Paris show is close to the centre, inside the Peripherique by the Porte de Versailles, and was a much more dazzling affair, not least because there were lots of new models to see.
A strong candidate for star of the show was the fabulous Audi R8, the German company's new flagship mid-engined coupe. You will need about £75,000 (€110,000) to buy one of these 4.2 litre, V-8 powered all-wheel drive machines. The R8 uses the aluminium space-frame from the Lamborghini Gallardo. Audi owns the Italian sports-car owner. Audi plans to limit annual production to about 5,000 and will offer it to a limited number of top dealers in Europe and the U.S.
Lots of top executives at the show were talking about new technology and how to combat global warming, but Japan's Lexus, and its Toyota parent company, is actually producing the goods. Lexus unveiled the world's first V-8 hybrid, the Lexus LS600h, which combines a 5.0 litre gasoline engine and an electric motor. The combination produces 450 bhp, which matches the performance of large capacity V-12's power, smoothness and quietness.
Ford unveiled its new Mondeo in near production form with the Mondeo Wagon. The new Mondeo is bigger than the old one, and loaded with features usually found on premium sector cars - like adaptive cruise control, radar reversing and satellite navigation. The so-called upper-medium, or large family car sector, has been hemorrhaging sales to SUVs, minivans and cross-overs. The new Mondeo's job, aided by its "kinetic" styling, is to put a stop to this, when it goes on sale in Europe next spring.
Volvo is hoping to attract younger buyers with its smallest car to date, the Volvo C30 hatchback. The C30 goes on sale in Europe by the end of this year, and is likely to appear in America next year. The sporty Volvo C30 will have to beat out competition from the likes of the BMW 1 series and the Audi A3.
The Renault Twingo has been delayed for at least a year because Renault/Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn felt the original design was too difficult to make, and therefore wouldn't enhance the bottom line. This is the new car in concept form.
The Dodge Avenger was shown as a concept, and the bold, muscular design is likely to be embraced by Europeans when it hits the showrooms next summer. The Avenger will be offered with 2.0, 2.4 or 2.7 litre gasoline engines, and in Europe at least, a 2.0 litre turbodiesel from Volkswagen.
Alfa Romeo has been promising for some years now that it will re-enter the U.S., and if it does, the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione is likely to be the scout at the head of the column. This £106,000 (€160,000) super car has a 450 bhp 4.7 litre V-8 engine and rear wheel drive. Sales start in Europe late next year.
The new Mini is a bit bigger than the old one, but has new four-cylinder engines giving more power and up to 20 percent better fuel consumption, including a 1.6 litre power plant from BMW's partnership with Peugeot of France. The new car is almost impossible to differentiate from the old one. The new grille and headlamps with the orange spot in them are the giveaway evidence.
Landwind of China unveiled its Fashion minivan and Xpedition SUV. Both vehicles looked solid enough, although there has been some worry expressed about their safety The Great Wall Hover SUV from China is going on sale in Italy next month, and then in other southern European markets like Greece. Maybe "I've just bought a Great Wall Hover" sounds more exciting if you say it in Italian.
European car manufacturers are coming under renewed pressure from Korean producers like Kia, and its parent company Hyundai. These two companies have had moderate success so far in Europe, with rugged, reliable but boring looking cars. That era is now over as Kia showed with its stylish Cee'd car and Hyundai with its Arnejs concept. Both these cars will be built in brand new factories in Slovakia and Czechdom, producing up to 500,000 cars a year. The Cee'd will reach markets early in 2007, the Arnejs in 2008. Hopefully, both will be christened with sensible, spell-able and pronounceable names by then.
GM's Opel/Vauxhall subsidiary unveiled the Antara SUV, which is built alongside the Chevrolet Captiva by GM Daewoo in Korea. The Antara replaces the late and unlamented Frontera, which earned itself the reputation as one of the least desirable cars ever made until production was stopped 3 years ago.
No motor show worth its salt can get by without at least one folie de grandeur, and where better to do that than in France? Peugeot unveiled its 908 RC super car, which looks amazing, and is powered by a 5.5 litre 700 bhp V-12 diesel. Next year, Peugeot of France hopes to use this engine to challenge Audi at the Le Mans 24 hour sports car race, which the German company won earlier this year with the first ever diesel race-car engine
The Renault Nepta four-seater convertible concept will never see the light of day, but it did give the French company the chance to show how radical its designers could be. The Nepta will not go entirely to waste though; the grille and headlights are likely design cues for Renault's new Laguna large family car, which will go on sale in 2007.
Honda showed its new CR-V SUV, which is much more rounded and sleeker looking than its boxy-looking predecessor. I detect signs of the massive and pricey new Audi Q7, looking at the CR-Vs rear quarters. Honda says it has upgraded the engines and given the vehicle more car-like handling. The new CR-V will hit European streets early in the New Year.
The Paris Car Show closes its doors to the public on October 15.
Neil Winton – October 3, 2006
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