Hot! 2012 Paris Motor Show - The Anticipation Thread

[Centurion]

Mercedes and BMW have let me down this year. They aren't showing anything really big it *seems*.


M

I think BMW have already had a good year M5, 6er Gran Coupe and new 1er.

 

[Merc1]

I think BMW have already had a good year M5, 6er Gran Coupe and new 1er.

That has nothing to do with the show. Those cars I can see at my dealer, minus the 1er. Where is the new product, the stunning concepts or the thinly veiled productions cars? M3, 3er Coupe, 6GG M, something beside a new hatchback/crossover thingy. Huge letdown for me. Ditto for Mercedes, where is the CLA, the CLA45 or anything new? Show is a bust. The VW Empire is bursting with new productions on display and some surprises or two.


M

 

[HighestOfHigh]

Mercedes and BMW have let me down this year. They aren't showing anything really big it *seems*.


M

Maybe nothing "new", but at least they gave you something....

 

[Merc1]

YUCK.

M

 

[HighestOfHigh]

YUCK.

For 740hp it looks beautiful to me!

 

[Kilcrohane]

That has nothing to do with the show. Those cars I can see at my dealer, minus the 1er. Where is the new product, the stunning concepts or the thinly veiled productions cars? M3, 3er Coupe, 6GG M, something beside a new hatchback/crossover thingy. Huge letdown for me. Ditto for Mercedes, where is the CLA, the CLA45 or anything new? Show is a bust. The VW Empire is bursting with new productions on display and some surprises or two

- I agree, Merc1. The whole Paris 2012 show seems to be a great big damp squib.

I wonder if in the last two months or so a lot of stuff was pulled by the Germans, including maybe some stuff from VW group too.

I'm thinking that politics - isn't everything, ultimately - may have been at play here. Think about the key French-German relationship. The run up to IAA Paris 2012 has been dominated by the weakness and even possible going out of business of non-German volume makers in Europe, with PSA foremost and then GM Europe, Fiat and latterly Ford of Europe.

For the Germans to turn up all guns blazing - launching CLAs, A45 AMGs, production-ready i3/i8s, fancy new hybrids etc., etc. - in the French's backyard, and with riots happening elsewhere in Europe, in Spain and Greece, protesting austerity/general economic collapse, how wise would it have been for Zetsche, Reithofer, Winterkorn et al to rub the French's and Europe's nose in it collectively, and appear to miss the 'Zeitgeist' tone across Europe, of austerity, and a looming general economic depression?

That's my tuppenceworth. Like I said before, I believe several on-the-blocks launches had been postponed from Paris at the eleventh hour, like the CLA and probably S-class, in the hope that things pick up markedly in 6 months and it comes across less jarring launching plutocratic £100k conveyances and let's face it, toys basically for the 0.1% rich, at a time when cops are cracking heads in Madrid and many Greeks are literally destitute and starving.

 

[Wolfgang]

http://translate.google.de/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=http:///2012/09/mercedes-benz-auf-der-mondial-de-lautomobile-2012-in-paris-die-erste-impressionen/

 

[Kilcrohane]

This guy writing in 'Automobilwoche' today on the Paris motor show has a similar view to my own - put it through Google translate:

http://www.automobilwoche.de/articl...917/pariser-autosalon-gibt-sich-bodenstandig-

Donnerstag, 27. September 2012, 15.57 Uhr

Paris. "Vielfalt sieht anders aus. Wer auf dem Pariser Automobilsalon auf den Stand von Opel kommt, sieht dort nur ein einziges Auto: den neuen Kleinwagen Adam. Und bei der Konkurrenz ist es kaum anders. VW konzentriert sich auf den neuen Golf, Skoda zeigt nichts als den Rapid, und bei Renault dreht sich alles um die Neuauflage des Clio. Wo die Hersteller früher Traumwagen und futuristische Studien gezeigt haben, stehen diesmal vorrangig die wichtigen Brot-und-Butter-Modelle."

 

[klier]

Maybe nothing "new", but at least they gave you something....

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And BMW comes with the 1er GT. But yeah, nothing major from them no