Geneva is over for the journalists, but we still will be bringing plenty of updates over the week as we refresh our picture gallery with everything from Geneva. For now, its time for the public to have their turn with all the new cars.
Last week I mentioned that every auto show has an underlying theme, and the one at Geneva was clear: honesty. It may not seem like much, but I found the mood to be refreshing and revolutionary.
There was a time (about fifty years ago) when the automotive press towed whatever line the car manufactures put out. Over the last few decades we, the press, (yes some blogs are press now) figured out that we spur more loyalty and sleep easier by being more honest than nice. Good news for us; bad news for some auto companies. Now we have an interesting relationship where the press still works close with the auto companies, but everyone keeps at least one card very tight to their chest.
So for auto companies to be that forthcoming, I should take the time to recognize some of the standouts…
Carl-Peter Forster, President of General Motors Europe wasn’t trying to present sunshine that wasn’t there. He acknowledged the troubles going on at GM worldwide and brought the right tone of seriousness that made the audience sympathetic.
His big unveil of the Opel Ampera wasn’t about the car that will save GM and the industry. He acknowledged that a full-scale change is needed (rare for a public unveiling) and if the companies can adapt, the Ampera will be the new face of Opel.
As an added bonus, the engineers who worked on the Ampera project did not try to disguise the Volt origins. They were very forthcoming that the Volt can adapt for 110V or 220V already, so only minor tweaks were needed to turn the Chevrolet Volt into the Opel Ampera (read more in Ampera review.) GM usually wants to show how distinctive each model is, but this time it recognized that it doesn’t need to show too much difference for completely different markets. This is something that would have never been heard in the days of brand engineering.
Aston Martin already had a bunch of unveilings with the DBS Volante, V12 Vantage, and One-77 mockup and skeleton. But on the second day, they cleared their platform to relaunch Lagonda as its own brand. The Lagonda will either be a crossover or a full-on SUV, and Aston Martin CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez knew Aston loyalists wouldn’t want this among it ranks. That’s why Lagonda is back. Bez’s press conference was less about how this was a revolutionary car, and more about how Aston can’t sell to all of the world because there are plenty of people with money but no roads. He was very upfront about how much Aston Martin is in the details of the Lagonda, but it by no means is an Aston Martin.
Honesty is great, but it can also come back to bite you. Tata is good example. They acknowledged that the Nano it brought to the show was one for the European market, and came with some extra upgrades. Unfortunately there were two problems with this:
/// First even if the Nano Europa was upgraded to an all-metal body, no one expects it to meet EuroCAP crash standards any time soon.
/// Second the upgrades, including leather seats, three-cylinder engine and power windows, couldn’t hide it’s not ready for prime-time status.
Even though this was a preproduction car, it was already falling apart. Tata kept the car locked from most journalists, so it wasn’t as if this car was getting heavy use. I was able to convince a representative to unlock the car for me. Once inside, I noticed trim pieces missing or loose, and these were not from the extra bits like the radio housing, but door covers and gearshift boot, and other pieces that will be even on the low-range home market cars.
This is supposed to be India’s Citroen 2CV – simple and cheap. Instead this seems to be just cheap. Hopefully all this is fixed when the Nano goes on sale next month in India, or else the people of that country may take a step backwards in it quest to get on four wheels.
There is a definite lesson to be learned from all of this, but I’m too busy going through the ultra-positive press releases to figure one out. No doubt it will be its own post in a few months.
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