Geneva Car Show 2011 - Hybrid, Electricity, and ..... ?

So, what's new at the Geneva Car Show 2011? Well, if you need the newspapers, then they claim that 170 new cars are shown by 700 exhibitors. Hmmh. What does "new" mean? I have seen lots of hybrid and semi-electrical derivatives of known cars. I have seen a number of interesting concept cars and a number of quite ugly ones too. I have seen new versions of sportscars.
So, what do I really remember after 8 hours of constant walking around and taking pictures? Yes, the BMW Vision concept car is quite impressive. The Alfa Romeo 4C concept car hopefully never makes it close to production, it's clearly not my cup of tea. I certainly will remember forever the highly attractive Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato (from 1962) at the Aston booth. It probably was the most beautiful car of the show. I was quite impressed by the Mazda 4 door saloon concept car, nice design and good presentation, really! And then the Bertone Jaguar 4 door saloon car. First I really liked the car, when I spotted it in a newspaper. But now, having seen it in the real world, I am not so sure anymore. Would the design really last well over time? I doubt it. It's too short term oriended in my eyes.
Wiesmann showed a design concept that makes you like the current designs even more. I was positively suprised when looking at the Carozzeria Touring design for a potential new Gumpert. The existing car is quite functional and beauty probably wasn't high on the criteria list, but the Touring version could make it one of the better super cars in my eyes.
Giugiaro showed a Volkswagen that makes the existing fleet of Volkswagen look quite old and outdated. Yes, that's a direction I could support! The Saab concept car makes you hungry for more, while the Lamborghini Aventador sort seems to be more of the same, no real quantum leap that I would have hoped Lamborghini could do (think Miura versus Countach). De Tomaso surprised with a comeback presenting the de Tomaso Deauville. There's a good and a bad message here: The Deauville is not pretty at all and really nothing you would dream of, the people from de Tomaso announced that they will present a new Pantera later this year, so we still can hope for better things to come. Some nice displays with old cars were shown as well, I mentioned the Aston, but there was also a Jaguary E Type from 1961, a Mercedes Simplex and a Lehner-Porsche. Too bad Renault only tried it halfway, cutting a 1961 Renault R4L in pieces ....
What would I want to buy? I honestly don't know!
More and other pictures can be found here!

Auto Zurich 2010 - McLaren MP4-12C Ferrari 599 GTO Aston-Martin Cygnet ...

Auto Zurich cannot be compared with the Geneva car show. But looking at the range of new cars presented in Zurich it must be said that it's still an impressive show. New cars on scene were the Ferrari 599 GTO (for people with a lot of money) , McLaren MP4-12C (for people with a need for exclusivity), Volkswagen Passat (for people with families), Aston-Martin Cygnet (for people who want to pay twice the money to receive a Toyota IQ), Ranger Rover Evoque (for people who thing the BMW X6 isn't nice enough), Brabus Mercedes-Benz SLS (for people who thing the standard thing isn't expensive enough), Mercedes-Benz CLS (or people who only know short people to get into the back), Porsche Carrera GTS (same as a standard 911 for the GT3 price when fully loaded), new Veritas (if convenience is not an objective), Mitsubishi MIEV (if electricity is available where you park), and so on. The Zurich show is also a good show, because you can see all the cars in roughly 90 minutes ...

Last Classic Car Blast before the Winter

One thing we, central European Classic Car drivers, share is the winter issue. At the end of every good classic car season there's the day where you take your car out for a blast the last time before you prepare it for the sleeping period over the winter. The last drive is always a great experience even if there's also some sadness combined with it. Why can't the Autumn just last forever, why can't we have more days like the ones we just experienced? Ten to fifteen degrees of Celsius, dry condition, wonderful Indian summer colors, that's a great combination for the last drive. Well, soon we'll see snow, salt on the streets and limited daylight conditions. That will be the time when you read all the old motor magazines, new books and test your reflexes on the Playstation 3.
Well, at least I had the opportunity to take out my cars once more. And they all seemed to respond to that last drive very well.

Does time heal bad design?

When I recently was waiting for the bus (yes occasionally I do use public transport ...) the new Mercedes E Convertible in white drove by, just as pictured here. I thought, what an ugly car this is! Well, it's not really ugly, but it's not a beauty neither. I specifically dislike the back of the car. It just doesn't look right. Well, what I thought was, whether I will like this car maybe in 3, 5 or 20 years in the future. I must say, I can't remember a car design that I didn't like when it was new and appreciate now that it's old. I still don't like the Ford Scorpio and I still don't like most of the Peugeots of the 21th century. So, my answer to the question in the title is: No. But let's see what other people think ....

Parking with classic cars is really much easier!

It's now official! Auto Motor and Sport compared a range of cars including the Volkswagen Touran, Mercedes E-Series Convertible, Toyota Prius, BMW 5-Series Station Wagon and a number of others in how easy it is to park them. They measured how much you can see from the driver position, how big the car is, how easy it gets into a 5.5 m parking spot and a number of other criterias and they also looked at the electronic gizmo to help with parking. Well, the winner is, the BMW 3-series E30 limousine from the 80ies. It actually has beaten the modern cars by a factor, thanks to the smaller body, the great 360 degree view and the fact that you can actually see the end of the car when you sit in it. Despite the fact that none of the modern accessories was on board, i.e. park distance control, parking assistance, cameras, etc., the people at AMS found it much easier to park this car compared to the modern rivals. I am really happy that they brought in this 80ies benchmark when comparing the modern cars, as this now so transparently shows how cars got worse along these criteria over time. Of course there are reasons, why modern cars are as they are, one being safety. But even with today's standards cars could have larger windows and better visibility today, if the designers didn't think differently.

It's not easy to make money by investing in cars, but it's possible

One of the most often read blog posts on "driving philosopher" is talking about today's investment opportunities in the automobile space. 10 cars are presented that have good chances of gaining in value. There's something to say however. Gaining in value isn't enough to be a worthwhile investment if the only objective is to make money. The chart here shows a very simple model. Assume you buy a car at € 20'000, 30'000.- or 500'000. Assume it will gain 10% in value every year over twenty years. Assume you spend some money to keep the car road worthy and properly stored and insured. At the end of the period your total gain was € 14'318 if you bought a € 20'000 car. This means you average interest rate per year was 3.6% if you kept the car for so long. But only after 17 years you actually are in the positive zone. Before that you lost money. What this chart also says is that it's easier to make money with more expensive cars. The reason is that maintenance and storage don't influence the figures as much as with less expensive cars. But, very few cars really gain 10% in value very year. It probably has been true for a Lamborghini Miura, few Ferraris and some rare racing and sports cars. But the well loved Mercedes 280 SL Pagoda (R113) for example gained only 30-40% in the last ten years, so less than 4% per annum. So this is a tricky business. Anyway, I stick with my argument mentioned earlier, buy your car because you like it and love to drive it, take any money you win with it as an expected up-sight.

Will the longplay die asked hobby in 1962

Here's one that is not really about cars, but still a nice "milestone" in history. In 1962 the magazine hobby asked whether the longplay (the black 30 cm disc we used to listen to Music ...) will die! Well, it actually almost did die, but much later than anticipated. And the alternative offered in 1962 didn't win the hearts of the consumer neither. And yes, the lady on the picture also looks pretty out of fashion today. And yes, there are two cars as well, and you probably recognize them easily.

Amazing night race at this years AVD Oldtimer Grand Prix

This years AVD Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nurburgring showed again amazing cars and races. One of the best for me was the race for two seater sportscars on Saturday night, started at 20:30 and ending 1 hour later, so going into the night. Not only was the field of cars impressive and exciting (you can spot two Maserati Birdcage, a Lotus 19, Lister, Ferraris, HWM, Lotus, Mercedes Gullwing, and many other precious sportscars), but the sound and light were just impressive too. The drivers gave their best and made the race a thrill. That's historic motor sport as we love it. But let the pictures speak!

Picture of the Week - Classic meets Modern

Seen recently at an oldtimer event (with cars and motocycles), this looks like a still live where tradition meets modern times. Funny enough barely anybody was interested in the Mercedes SLR while people really enjoyed the old motocycles (and cars).

Are Audis a renaissance of the body in different sizes like Devins or Buchanans?

Yes, this is the brand new Audi A7. You wouldn't have noticed? It looks like all the other Audis, specifically the A5 Sportsback or the A4? No, it's really a different car, even if you don't notice. For example, it's longer than the other mentioned. But having been mistaken myself, I honestly must say, they really look alike a lot.
It's almost as if the successful practice of Bill Devin producing many different (fiberglass) bodies with the same shape fitting different chassis and sizes is coming back. You want an Audi? Do you want 4.2, 4.5, 4.7 or 4.9 meter length? Well, then take this one or that one, they all look the same basically. It's like buying jeans, you have picked the brand, now it's about size. I think this is the wrong strategy with cars, especially with such expensive cars. And it's a bit boring and lacks imagination and innovation as well. BMW does a bit the same, but at least the different cars have more unique design features, same with Mercedes. I prefer cars that look unique and special, that's probably the reason why I like older cars so much ....