Geneva Motor Show
Volkswagen unveiled the electric-powered Bulli concept at the Geneva Auto Salon last week. The buzz on this side of the pond is that the new-age Microbus that America has been awaiting since the first New Beetle is finally here. VW’s North American chief, Jonathan Browning, has said he’d love to have a T1/Microbus-style minivan to sell here.
Browning needs all the North American-friendly product he can get. Wolfsburg has charged him with the goal of selling 800,000 Volkswagens in the United States by 2018. Last year, VW sold just under 257,000 vehicles, fewer than either Subaru, the Honda Accord or Toyota Camry. Browning’s first shots at the goal are the cheaper, decontented 2011 Jetta and Tennessee-built 2012 Passat.
Bulli, even with an internal combustion engine replacing the concept’s electric motor, is no Jetta or Passat. If sold here, it would fit in with other lower-volume, Euro-centric VWs already sold here like the Golf, CC and Touareg. What Browning needs, for volume, is a minivan with the Bulli’s styling stretched over the new, 110.4-inch wheelbase Passat’s large midsize platform. VW of America needs a Microbus roughly the size of the concept shown here at the 2001 Detroit auto show. That one used the T5 platform.
With two rows of fold-down bench seats, the Bulli is ostensibly a six-seater. Really, it’s more of a four-seater, for young couples or people with dogs, instead of kids. The seats fold down 50/50 front and back, and the rear windows roll down on conventional (not sliding) doors. There’s very little rear cargo space.
The Bulli, if sold here, would compete with the Soul, of which Kia sold 67,000 last year, or the Fit, of which Honda sold 54k. A good, Microbus-style Routan replacement would have to compete with the Honda Odyssey (108k in ’10), Toyota Sienna (98k) and the Chrysler twins (about 215k, combined) to be a significant contributor to VW’s ’18 goal.
Thoughtful Critiques and Other Ramblings: My Geneva Winners and Losers
Ask any automotive journalist which auto show they most prefer, and the majority will tell you Geneva. It’s not that we especially enjoy transcontinental flights, it’s what’s waiting for us at the other end.
Namely, it’s the layout. The Geneva Motor Show is held in one giant room with large signs hanging from the ceiling identifying each manufacturer. There’s no need to memorize a map or wear out your one good pair of dress shoes tromping all over hell and back to see a 15-minute presentation. This, of course, is not to mention the giant press room with ample seating and relatively fast internet (by auto show standards).
There’s more to it, though, than making our lives easier (not that you care, of course). Geneva is known for its concepts and its big debuts, and 2011 did not disappoint. The more thought I gave to this reconciliation, the more vehicles were added to my list. With no attention to order or ranking, then, I present the vehicles that delighted, depressed or otherwise elicited a response during my time on the show floor.
Best In Show: Alfa Romeo 4C Concept. It’s like a Lotus Elise, but it’s not ugly. I appreciate the track-oriented capabilities of the Lotus, but few would argue it’s a beautiful car. The 4C, which frankly is a near carbon-copy, is simply stunning. It even has a usable trunk in the rear! Like the Elise, I don’t care for a minute that it’s only got a four-cylinder engine or that it’s transversely oriented, it looks the part and if Alfa’s remembered anything from the days of the GTVs, Milanos and the like, it’ll be a joy to drive. I want one. Yesterday.
Francophilia? I Admit it, I Like French Cars
Written by: Todd Lassa on March 4 2011 7:43 AM
We’ve moved far beyond “freedom fries,” right? Anyway, they’re frites in this town, and when combined with a nice medium rare entrecote, they’re damn tasty. With that resolved, I’m ready to admit that one of the biggest draws at the 2011 Geneva auto show are the French cars.
Sure, there are more dazzling introductions. Sports cars rule, from the outrageous Lamborghini LP700-4 Aventador to Juha Kankkunen’s Bentley Continental Super Sports Ice Speed Record car to the new Morgan three-wheeler to the 542-horsepower Jaguar XKR-S to Ferrari’s take on the BMW Z3 M Coupe, the FF, to…sigh…that perfect blend of midengine balance and Italian brio, the Alfa Romeo 4c.
Nevertheless, the best execution of clean and handsome modern styling, with surface tension expressiveness comes from Citroen. This brand was all but given up for dead when Peugeot absorbed the company and starved it for good product. The new Citroen C4 is a compact family sedan competing in a segment known for its failed attempts to break out from vanilla styling. The C4 is far from a breakthrough sedan like the Traction Avant or DS19/21, though with it puts the automotive world on notice that Citroen is trying to make its way back.
The DS3 is Citroen’s answer to Mini. It’s larger than that car, a compact two-door hatchback with an unusual b-pillar, visible on the outside until a thin portion of the side glass covers it at the top. It’s a perfect example of how Citroen distinguishes each model, while retaining design cues that connect them to each other. Colorful and graphic options and accessories makes the DS3’s personalization options as impressive as anything on the market.
The Passion is Back? Behind The Scenes of the Toyobaru Sports Car
As you’ve seen from our coverage, Subaru and Toyota chose the 2011 Geneva show to update the world on the progress of their jointly developed front-engine, rear-drive sports coupe. The interesting bit is how differently these two companies are approaching the reveal of this long-anticipated vehicle.
For the heavyweights over at Toyota, the FT-86 II concept announcement was almost a throwaway remark in the statement made by Didier Leroy, President of Toyota Motor Europe. At the press conference on Tuesday, Leroy devoted nearly all of his speech to a detailed discussion of Toyota’s hybrid strategy and only briefly referenced the FT-86 II concept at the end of his remarks:
“I want to focus on the passion that’s returned to Toyota in recent months. That passion is back in everything we are doing and in every new product we are developing. You can feel the passion in the only non-hybrid we’ve got on the stand, our FT-86 II concept car. This is the evolution of the concept we showed in Geneva last year and closer to the final car we will launch next year, as part of a new wave of Toyota products.”
Pick One for the U.S.: Cruze Hatch, Ford B-Max or Suzuki Swift
It’s attractive even in rental car maroon metallic, the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback. Like the Ford B-Max and the Suzuki Swift concept, it’s the kind of car most of you find cool and useful and ready to make a splash in U.S. dealerships. How many of you would buy one? That’s not enough.
It’s like the argument for the diesel-powered, stick-shift station wagon. Sure, VW sells a few thousand such Jetta wagons a year. For a company like Volkswagen, with ambitions to more than triple its sales in the U.S. over the next seven years, that’s not enough.
Out of the Cruze hatchback, B-Max and Swift, all of which were revealed at this week’s 2011 Geneva show, only one of them would be a relative success in America, and (hint), “relative” is the key word.
Chevy Cruze hatchback?
The only argument Chevrolet has for bringing this car to the U.S. is the new 2012 Ford Focus hatchback. One Ford is so confident about that car that you can only get the base Focus model with its loss-leader price in the sedan bodystyle. Ford figures that because Americans have been willing to pay premium small car prices for the Mini they’ll do the same for a C-segment Ford.
