2006 British International Motor Show: a huge success!

Andrew Frankl
European Bureau Chief
The Auto Channel

It took the Motor Show 30 years to get back to London, where it belongs. The manufacturers tired very hard over the years to make it work in Birmingham, nearer to the middle of England but it never really took off. So, after a great deal of trepidation the organizers took the plunge and came back to London but to a brand new venue, right on the river Thames. With no disrespect to Detroit or Los Angeles the location makes both look very silly and second hand indeed.

Just think about it- 40 minutes from the center of London and literally 5 minutes from City Airport with direct flights from Amsterdam and Geneva to name but two major European cities. The Excel center is right on the river and during the show there will be rock concerts, on-water displays, power boar racing, jet ski demos and even the Tampa Bay Water Ski display team.

There are five hotels on the site with 5000 rooms. It would be fair to say that the Show stealers were BMW and Jaguar. One can always judge the interest in a car by the number of cameras and there were certainly an awful lot of them round the new M6 convertible and Jaguar’s XKR.

Regular readers may remember my test of the XK in Mexico not long ago. I loved it but suggested that to take business away from Porsche it needed more horsepower. Well, with 420 on tap my prayers have been answered. Dr Panke, BMW’s head honcho was not only very proud of the M6 convertible but was proud to point out that the company’s two British made cars—the Mini and Rolls Royce were both doing remarkably well.

GM CEO Wagoner surprised a few people just by turning up. He tried very hard to talk about the new Corsa (a small car) but of course all everybody was interested in were his talks with Carlos Ghosn of the Nissan/Renault conglomerate. Evasive is the way I would sum up his answers.

Ford Motor Company made a huge song and dance about their 2 billion dollar investment in green cars within the next five years. The company is doing very well in Britain and quite well on the Continent. I am sure that their efforts regarding green cars will be watched with great interest by their colleagues in Detroit. By the way fuel prices have just reached 1 pound a liter, which is approximately 1 dollar 85 cents. Multiply that by 4 and you get an idea of gas prices in Europe. No wonder diesel is getting more and more popular.

Talking of more popular keep your fingers crossed for the return to the United States if the new Alfa Romeo Spider. A classic two-seater convertible I am sure it would be a huge success Stateside. Interestingly enough both Cadillac and Corvette made an appearance but I think it is more symbolic than anything else as European tastes are very different. Hummer have also decided to join the party even though there is tremendous dislike of trucks this huge and this aggressive over here.

All in all it is a Show with lots of cars, but what is even more important, much, much more. I just wish that something as antiseptic and deadly as the LA Show could be more like this. A 3500 capacity theatre with 4 performances a day with world class performers and live musicians, an adventure lane where state of the art 4x4s can be driven by visitors and of course concerts organized by the legendary Harvey Goldsmith with great names such as Van Morrison and UB40 to name but two.