Blimey...don't think you saw the same live action show as me (the 3:30 one) - even the hard to impress Passat Driver was open mouthed at some of the stunts. Not a soul left before the very end.
Were you the foolish idiot driving the Impreza right on my bumper while I was test driving the Astra, I wonder??
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I'm pleased the live show got better, maybe they had a contingency plan to shorten the talking non-action bits. What didn't help the 11:00 show was one of the cars breaking down and shedding its engine oil over the floor so it had to be pushed out the way and the oil soaked up so the show could proceed. And no I was not the 'foolish idiot' on your bumper, all the Astras were parked up when I was out for the test drive!
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I went along today. Overall pretty positive but a few negatives. Even for the preview day it is too expensive and the parking is far too high. I also can?t understand why it doesn?t go on a bit more into the evening ? if you?re coming a fair way by the time you get there, have (as I did) a leisurely lunch over a bottle of wine and have done all the stands you can end up quite pushed for time. The Paris show, which this one seeks to emulate, costs 9 Euro for a day or 6 Euro for a half day and doesn?t close until 10.00pm.
Worst car of the show by far was the new VW Golf. Hideously and totally overpriced compared to the just as nice (in some ways nicer) SEAT and Skoda versions and most of the competition. One GTI on the stand listed at £23k including options. Quite liked the SEAT Altera or whatever its called although the packaging is nothing special ? best thought of as a ?different? hatch. Other thoughts (in no particular order):
1. Citroen gets the award for most generally cheaply assembled range. Not one car on the stand felt as if it would make the show in one piece. On the way out spotted a transporter load of Citroens which are probably tomorrow?s replacements!
2. Had a long chat with a guy from MG Rover. Despite what most people (including myself) think about the future of the company it was good to hear genuine enthusiasm for the future of MGR and its products from within. The Rover V8 also looks a lot better in the metal than in the pictures ? large grill included. 25 & 45 facelifts a bit desperate and new interiors felt even lower rent than the old ones. The 75/ZT?s were well presented though and should have impressed most visitors. They may be struggling but there are some good people in MGR and I hope they make it.
3. Honda are getting a very impressive range these days. Both the Jazz and Accord are particularly impressive.
4. FIAT getting better. New Panda and 500 concept give hope for the future.
5. Most difficult facelift to spot: Volvo S60 & V70.
6. Renault had an impressive stand with a LOT of cars. All very nice designs these days ? if I only had more confidence in all the features working for more than 5 minutes.
7. Audi? A6 looked OK but not very impressed. Certainly feels a larger car than old model. And have they dropped all the other models?
8. As they weren?t there I assume BMW either have or are going bust. Are they still scared of showing their face in the Midlands?
9. Mini Convertible. Award for most options fitted. Seems to have a lot of ?bling?.
10. Some manufacturers had very poor stands with a poor spread of models.
11. Is it me or is the Mazda 3 a more comfortable and solid feeling car than the 6?
12. Actually got a decent lunch at the NEC. Amazing. Catering has improved. Thanks also to VW and Porsche for the coffee and biscuits.
13. Empty halls. Walking through 2 completely empty halls on way in (halls which normally have cars in) does not impress.
14. Does Mercedes really think more people are interested in seeing the Maybach than the new SLK?
15. One Ford Mondeo estate on display was £27k including options but did not have a split rear seat.
16. Jaguar: Getting better ? like the new XJ and S-Type almost OK these days but the X-Type stills feels cheap, cheap, cheap.
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Jaguar: Getting better ? like the new XJ and S-Type almostOK these days but the X-Type stills feels cheap, cheap, cheap.
but i still can't afford it, it, it.
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Forgot to mention in my earlier report that we maintained the family tradition of trying to see how many rear door child locks we could set. I managed 23 doors, brother managed 15.
Silly game but really funny when you see some poor punter trapped in the back of a car trying to attract someone's attention to let him out.
At 38 I really should have grown out of that sort of thing.
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Reminds me of the time I took young RF to a motorshow. For some reason he is drawn to vans. (less crowded area tho!) Anyway there was a transit, west midlands police spec. In he scrambles, into the back, where the cage self locked and there he was trapped.
Best place for him.
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Forgot to mention in my earlier report that we maintained the family tradition of trying to see how many rear door child locks we could set. I managed 23 doors, brother managed 15.
That's very naughty, but also very funny.
Anyone going to a motor show now needs an extra piece of advice: check the child-proof locks carefully before closing the rear doors, especially if you see a 38yo man nearby with a big smirk on his face ...
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"Got straight on to the Ferrari/Maserati stand and had a sit in the 612 Scaglieti. "
If you are still able to sit in Ferraris when I go on the full public day (and I don't think you will) then that alone will be worth the price of admission.
Anyone know why BMW and MB are not at the show?. I just saw a 645i convertible while on my way home today and would have loved a closer look at it.
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I was lucky to get a sit in. The cars were all kept locked but while we were on the stand a bona fide type customer had them unlock the 612 and I slid my backside on the seat after he got out and before they could lock it.
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Ian,
good job you weren't on track at the same time as PG, her accident history seems to be appalling, and we'd have to hear all about about it for weeks.
Skinny women with large breasts - I don't see the problem! :0)
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Ian, good job you weren't on track at the same time as PG, her accident history seems to be appalling, and we'd have to hear all about about it for weeks.
I will not bite...I will not bite...
Punctuation.
Lamp-post incident, glass houses and stones.
Think that about sums it up. Can't say more in case I get accused of over-contributing to a discussion board.
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good job you weren't on track at the same time as PG, her accident history seems to be appalling, and we'd have to hear all about about it for weeks.
"number67", PG says she won't bite on your bait ... but that doesn't stop me saying that you are being unnecessarily rude.
PG told us all about her accident, when many backroomers would have said nothing. I suspect that her accident rate is probably much better than that of plenty of folks who keep quiet about theirs, and I've seen nothing to justify classing it as "appalling".
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Thank you, PG, for starting an excellent thread on Motorshow Live. Let's hope other Backroomers can keep it up to the same standard, by commenting on the show rather than driving off down side roads. Here's a reminder of the website URL: www.motorshowlive.com
HJ
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Went to the show today. left from Northern Biddulph (Stoke on Trent) at 7.45, filled up with petrol, down M6 , paid £2 for M6 toll road and arrived 9.20am for 66 miles. New M6 toll road was virtually empty and very nice to drive..
Impressions:
1. Price and parking exorbitant - but no different from past.
2, Went straight onto taster drives: apart from initial 9.30am queue, there were no subsequent queues..(except for Subaru Impreza STI). Drove Impreza, Legacy Forester XT, and Legacy 3 litre- the latter was outstandingly good to drive and very quiet round the very twisty track.Impressed. Drove Honda Jazz at 2pm - again no queue..
(you need your driving licence..)
3. Not many visitors it seemd but by 2pm it was busier.. but taster drives not busy at all.. hidden away and not advertised so easy to miss.
4. Food in outside between rooms was cheaper and I sat at table in sun.. not busy!
5. Maybach is so ugly in flesh and two tone. New RR is so ugly. New Bentley Continental looks nice but I would never buy one as it won\'t fit in a multistorey car park space:-)
6. Audi only show A6 - incredibly ugly front imo: some call it aggressive: I call it overdone.
7. In kit cars I saw GTM displaying 3 neat cars (and 2 neat ladies as well:-) . When I owned one 10 years ago, they were just moving out of kits: impressed.
8. New VW Golf: yawn. The Mark1 GTI they showed which was immaculate looked better styled than any current VW on the stand.
9. 4x4 experience in a Volvo with 2.7 twin turbo 9 something or other and 5 other passengers. very good. Queued for 25 minutes and free. Well worth it and if it rains a lot (it was very dry but had started to rain as I left) could get very interesting with 120 round trips on the course every hour - so it could soon turn very muddy. It was slow so my lunch stayed where it was (!) and very enjoybale. A must (and free) imo.
10. Other extras - which you pay for - I did not bother.
11. Other stands were as expected. Ford have a VERY noisy Thunderbirds show which broadcasts at 100 db (?) all over their cars and ruined all Ford/Volvo/Jaguar stands for me because of the noise.
The journye back up M6 at 3pm (no toll road) was abysmal with queues all the way to Junction 15 and with no stops for petrol took 2.5 hours for 65 miles..abysmal.
My advice: 4x4 and taster good: could get very busy - try them early.
madf
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This is just to bring the Motor Show thread back to the top of the page so that those of you who went today can easily find it and add your impressions. Telegraph Motoring seems to have taken an anti stance, but I'm remaining neutral and letting the real people decide for themselves.
HJ
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2 pages of photos now uploaded:
groups.msn.com/honestjohn/motorshow2004.msnw?album...2
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Bit late with the write up, but here's my impressions of the show, I visited Thursday 27th.
Took the M6 toll (first time) and it saved all that M6 grief. Worth £2 all day long IMHO. Better still, on returning to the car, found 2 leaflets offering a free cuppa at the M6 toll service station, so stopped for them, saving £3.60 making the toll cost only 40p in total. Even better!
I dashed to the Caterham experience first off, not realising it was a tenner. Paid anyhow and enjoyed it, but at something like 38 seconds of the car driven in anger, it was VERY expensive. You can watch what the experience outside one of the halls so worth checking before paying.
Stands were fairly good - Ford's Hall (Jaguar, Volvo, Aston, Mazda, Land/Range Rover and Ford) was impressive, just to realise how much is now centrally owned. The cars therein weren't too exciting, the best was probably the XJ8 - shut the doors and windows and sat there for a minute with only the fine classical music on the hifi to distract - a truly serene experience. The GT40 was OK, but can't help think the original was more honest. The show looked like it was going to be impressive, but turned out to be something more like BUtlins do Thunderbirds. After 10 minutes, nothing had happened so we left. It might have got better, but we were so bored, we didn't care by then.
I actually liked the MotorTheatre thing - the Meganes at the end with the groovy lady were the best bit. If I could get those hydraulics as an option, I'd chop in the MINI tomorrow. Maybe not worth £6 as it was an advert, but there's worse ways to spend that much these days.
Highlight cars for me were :
* Maybach 62 - just really ugly but clearly the best back of a car to be sitting in, anywhere.
* VXR 220 - fun to sit in, I'm sure much more fun to drive
* Renault Espace - not a new car, but still one of the best interiors from the driver forward
* Mercedes SLR / Porsche Carrera GT - just because there's nothing else quite like them
* Kia Sorrento - did the 4x4 experience in it (loved that too), but a really capable and comfortable car that won't break the bank
* Lexus 420 - awful in just about every way except the world's most comfortable seats
* Farboud - -What do you drive? -It's an £80k sports car. -Really, which one? - A Farboud? - A what?
* Fiat 500 convcept thing. Hope they build it. The Multipla has lost it's cool front end, which is a shame
The MINI experience was good, Russ Swift & team as ever put on a great display the radio station bit was very funny, and I loved watching it with my free drinks from the owners lounge. Until I thought how much of the money I paid for the car is spent purely on marketing. In fact, I'm not sure where MINI are going. The convertible is a nice car but I wonder if they're starting to lose their appeal as so many now fill the roads. Don't get me wrong, I still love the Cooper but I'm not sure I'd buy another now.
I liked the Seat Altea, yes, it's quite big but actually better in the flesh than I'd imagined it would be. Peugeot were painfully intrusive on their stand - you couldn't stand still for fear of someone trying to sell you the delights of the 807. Liked to automatic boot on the 607 though.
Citroen were very disappointing - they really need to get some better cars together - of all the cars I sat in, the Xsara was the most depressing - they really need the new model, and soon. The interior looks twenty years old and made of recycled Amstrad hifis. That half of their stand was full of vans tells the story that they've lost it with the cars. Certainly, being so close to the Peugeot stand, the low rent nature of Citroens current range was highly contrasted. Gutting as I still love the chevrons.
There were a few ladies who'd got dressed in a hurry (forgetting to put all their clothes on, or not fastening everything up) on some stands and annoying pestering you around the halls, but that will always happen. I was intrigued of how different manufacturers presented their dolly birds - Audi seemed to have a load of recent graduates who were working for some soulless accountancy firm, Fiat had clearly trawled the Benetton adverts. Ford, if I recall correctly had a load of girls wearing their grannies twin-sets. Caterham had raided the future and acquired thin girls wearing figure hugging space suits (top marks there).
Anyhow. I loved the whole show. First time I've been to the Motorshow (usually I'm at the Autosport) and it was impressive. I went on a preview day so perhaps it was quieter, but I liked that you could do more than just sit in the cars or just look at them. At the end of the day, I was tired in the same way a 7 year old child is after a sunny day at the seaside. Can't say fairer than that!
Lee.
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Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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Having only been to the NEC once and finding it just by following signs off the M6, can anyone advise whether the NEC is as clearly marked when travelling on that new toll road?. I haven't been on the toll road yet and don't even know where it begins and ends (travelling southbound). Would it be recommended for ease of use in finding the NEC for someone who isn't sure of exactly where they are going?.
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You\'re signposted to the NEC via the 42 from a few hundred metres from where the tollway starts or ends depending on which direction you\'re travelling. But when you leave you still have to do a complicated loop tghen come back on yourself via a roundabout to prevent too much traffic feeding onto the 42 at the same time. Until you know the area, the NEC is one of the most unfriendly places on earth to visit with a traffic plan that appears to have been designed by Ken Livingstone and strangely enough is equally unfriendly to pedestrians.
HJ
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I am off with young RF on Friday. For the benefit of myself, and others who are going, as well as your thoughts and reports, can we add tips, must see's, avoids, a game plan, any insider knowledge, where to find the best freebies,
Like - do we do the show first or late, how to book the offroad,.
I shall be buying at the door, can you book those things then?
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I don't really do the carrier bag collecting thing, but Vauxhall seemed to be the big bag of choice, also the Virgin stand are giving away chocolate truffles. There doesn't really seem to be much on offer - I rememeber I used to go with my dad and come home with model cars, torches etc, but I think you'll be lucky to get a pen this year.
You can buy tickets for the live show when you buy your ticket on the way in, but you'll then have to queue to book a slot for the test drives for later. We saw the afternoon show and had jacket potatoes from the stand outside the hall on the way, which wasn't too expensive and actually tasted nice! By 3pm it was nice to have a sit down, and when we came out it seemed like a lot of people had gone home so it was even more quiet.
As far as a gameplan goes, we just kind of wandered which possibly wasn't the best idea as I've since found out that the TopGear Toyota was there and that there was some sort of show on the Ford stand that I missed. There are lots of maps hanging from the ceiling, but as they're attatched to the ceiling you don't have the option to hold them and turn them around to face the way you're going, so they were no use to me! ;-)
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Thanks for the directions, HJ. I made it there and back without any problems, but as you mentioned, once you enter the realm of the NEC, the maze of roundabouts and carparks is daunting. It also didn't help that a few of them were blocked off which lead to concerns that we were in the wrong area.
I didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked to, but I still saw a fair bit. There didn't seem to be many glossy brochures to collect, most stands only had reps who would take your address in their little PDA things with the promise to send whichever brochure you were interested in. Not a bad idea as I am sure it cuts down on wasted brochures and related costs and they only send material to those who are interested enough to take the time to give an address. It also saves you having to lug numerous bags around with you. There are still goody bags being handed out so you don't leave there empty handed. Total non-brochure take was a pen, a keyfob and a frisbee, we probably could have gotten more if we accepted everything that people were offering us.
The taster test drives had a queue and the only car I was interested in trying (WRX STI) had a 40 min wait and I didn't have that much time. The Porsche and TVR stands also had a queue to enter their corral, which is good as you don't get a mob surrounding the car you want to sit in or take a pic of, but bad if you don't have unlimited time to spend at the show. Shame really as I wanted to see if I could fit in a 996. The Caterham drive looked like fun, but not 10 GBP worth of fun. I didn't even bother trying to figure out how to get on the 4X4 demos.
The Ford Thunderbird show was annoying, mostly because it was too loud, too dry-witted and drew such a crowd that I couldn't get a clear look at the GT40. I didn't have time or desire to see the motropolis show and while the MINI show sounded like fun, I had no clue where it was and couldn't spare the time to go looking for it.
The only other car shows I could compare it to are US car shows and this one was much better. Not sure if it was 4 times better though as it cost 4 times as much to get in, compared to the admission at the last US show I went to. The verdict is I enjoyed it and plan to go again next year.
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RF - for the 4x4 experience, head over to the Kia stand as soon as you get in and book yourself a slot - saves queueing later. The Kia 4x4 is a nice car and the chap who drove us (Pat) was a real hoot - we even jumped out of the car to take photos of it balanced on one front and one rear wheel.
VW, Volvo do the same sort of thing but avoid the Nissan and Honda drives, they don't go over as much fun terrain.
Lee.
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Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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Ta thanks for that tip Lee.
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And there was me hoping for some photos of you PG! Never mind eh?! (The other pictures looked great!)
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And there was me hoping for some photos of you PG! Never mind eh?!
T'yeah right... just so you know... that's never going to happen!
;-)
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