Recession. What recession? As the Rolls Phantoms, Ferraris and Lamborghinis glided slowly and serenely around Geneva’s hopelessly traffic clogged streets, and ritzy hotels overlooking the lake were happily charging £1000-plus for rooms (all sold out, naturally), the world’s embattled, anxious and tormented motor industry managed to launch no fewer than 85 new cars (and counting) at its premier annual motor show.
If Geneva 2009 was full of hangdog car makers, ravaged by the wintry winds of recession, Geneva 2010 saw the very same car makers starting to move to the sunny uplands of spring. What’s more, the sun was shining. Those very car chiefs who last year were about as cheerful as a Leonard Cohen song were this year bouncing around like the Jackson Five. Things aren’t good. But they’re a hell of a lot better than they were last year.
Last year’s ‘lame ducks’ all now have reasons to be cheerful
Even those car makers who, a year ago, looked unlikely to join us at the Palexpo in 2010 were in a buoyant mood. General Motors, who since Geneva last year has been to bankruptcy and back, were humming with confidence, and what’s more announced a €1.9 billion cash injection to squash rumours of an another imminent cashflow crisis.
Just as important, it had two of the show stars, the handsome Flextreme GT/E – think of it as a performance version of the ‘range extended’ electric Ampera, and as a portent of the next Insignia – and the new Meriva, vastly roomy and imminently practical with its rear ‘suicide’ doors for easy ingress and egress. There were many small MPV/crossovers on show at Geneva: the Meriva and the facelifted Skoda Roomster were the two choices. Both are great examples of machines that optimize people carrying practicality, which when you think about is the whole point of a car.
Saab regains its mojo
Meanwhile Saab, whose bosses 12 months ago must have considered a trip a few miles up to the road for an assisted suicide, were positively ebullient about their 11th hour rescue by financier and car lover Victor Muller, of Spyker fame. If Muller’s enthusiasm is indicative of success, expect Saab to outsell BMW in a few years. Or maybe not.
The Dutchman was positively beaming. He was also carrying renderings of the ‘new’ small Saab on his smartphone, and wasted no time in giving me a peek. It is a Mini-rivaling small premium car, and he wants it on sale ‘within four years’.
Only Chrysler, among those makers which last year looked doomed to perish, had a quiet Geneva, although it did – bizarrely – share stand space with Lancia. It was an odd marriage: America’s quirkiest car maker alongside Italy’s weirdest. Thank goodness that daft Chrysler–badged Lancia Delta, as shown at the recent Detroit show, stayed in Michigan.
Handsome new Giulietta, elegant new Peugeots
Close by was the delectable new Alfa Giulietta, the prettiest new hatch at the show, and one that promises Golf and Focus rivalling practicality, or so Fiat’s bosses are saying. They also promise class-best dynamics, although given Alfa’s recent track record in this area, some scepticism is called for. Nonetheless it has an all-new platform, the Fiat Group is on a roll, and the interior also looks terrific. Alfa may finally deliver, fingers crossed.
The other style star was from Peugeot. Both 5 concept (a thinly disguised next-gen 508 saloon) and SR1 concept coupé signal a return to elegance and styling sensuality after recent ungainly Pugs, which – with their vast mouths and gaping eyes – seem to have been inspired by something Jacques Cousteau may have found on the ocean floor. The ‘creatures from the deep’ form language is now dead (hooray!) and what’s more Peugeot director general Jean-Marc Gales is promising more agile and spirited driving, a return to the good old 205 GTI days.
Renault is also moving ahead: its Wind (shame about the name) baby convertible and Megane CC were pleasingly quirky, while the new Renaultsport Clio Gordini 200 looks fantastic fun. New design boss Laurens van den Acker, complete with trademark technicolour trainers, was exuding confidence and promising a return to sensual French design. After the lost decade (2000-2009), the French may indeed be on the verge of a welcome return to form.
Audi’s embarrassing press conference
Elsewhere I loved the bold Nissan Juke, a British-designed and British-built ball of fun that looks fabulous with its frog-eye lights and curvy cuteness. The new baby Audi A1 also looks good, never mind that its predecessor (the 11-year-old aluminium A2) was a much cleverer piece of engineering. Its press conference was also the comic highight of the show, with Audi’s boss Rupert Stadler interviewing that well known car authority Justin Timberlake. Stadler, I’m afraid, is no Parky when it comes to prising open an interviewee’s inner secrets, while Justin – hired to give ‘youth appeal’ as a ‘brand ambassador’– seems to have a similar insight into the A1 as Stadler probably has with electropop.
Another German baby, the new Mini Countryman (designed in Munich, built in Austria) looks like an over-inflated rubber model of a proper Mini, complete with four doors. Though ungainly to look at, at least it’s loads more practical than the crazy (and slow-selling) Clubman.
The big about-face with design at BMW, Mercedes and Audi
The new 5-series looks classy and elegant, the best-looking BMW saloon since Chris Bangle was let loose. Strange how BMWs get progressively more cautious in style, and distance themselves from the Bangle rebellion. Meanwhile Mercedes, once an exemplar of conservative style, seems to be exploring more design directions than a catwalk fashion show. After the machete-styled E-class, the swoopy SLS and the almost Banglesque S-class, comes another new styling course. The new F800 Style concept previews the next CLS ‘four-door coupé’. Its soft curvaceous style is more French or Italian than German. Only Audi seems to be pursuing solid, Bauhausian German design these days, strong yet minimalist.
Hybrid frenzy at Geneva
The F800 also previewed plug-in hybrid and fuel cell/electric car technologies. Almost every maker was crowing about hybrids, including Porsche, Audi, Lotus, Peugeot and, most unlikely of all, Ferrari. Nissan’s upmarket Infiniti wing was also promising a hybrid advance in its handsome new Benz E-class rivaling M saloon. The Infiniti’s hybrid drive is not only pleasingly compact (more than a Lexus’s) but offers real oomph, not least a 62mph electric drive top speed.
Toyota is not about to let its hybrid lead slip. The Prius’s powertrain will soon be found on the supermini-sized Auris, Focus-size Lexus CT200h and will shortly get plug-in power back-up. Toyota UK MD Miguel Fonseca, fresh from his Fleet Street mauling over self-accelerating cars, says the plug-in Prius will soon outsell the normal one. Plug-in is Toyota’s hybrid future.
Toyota’s powertrain chief also said at Geneva that it saw no future in straight EVs (electric vehicles), which puts it at loggerheads with great Japanese rival Nissan, which is staking its future on them. And at odds with many other car makers, whose prototype EVs – rechargers sticking out like uncut umbilical cords – were studded around the show.
The overall official theme of the show, of course, was ‘going green’. All motor shows are, these days.
In fact, the real theme of Geneva 2010 is that the motor industry is regaining its swagger, never mind the uncertain sales future. Geneva was full of great cars – imaginative in style, enterprising of powertrain. The crisis isn’t over yet. But the smiles are back.