Press day 2
We started our second visiting journey through Frankfurt’s Messe by looking at all the industrial suppliers for automotive brands and we were really amazed by how much of them were present to showcase their knowledge compared to Geneva motor show. We then moved to Volvo taking our time to admire their new concept inspired from the P1800, which was very simply called the Coupe Concept. I have to say I really like the look of it, simple, pure, classic but still very elegant and with a certain agressivity I thought was lost long ago at the Swedish brand. So let’s just hope know that Volvo keeps its promises and make our dream of an affordable Swedish sports car come to life with this beautiful coupe.
Opposite, we went to Infiniti to check out their Q30 Concept, another small compact SUV that will compete against these very popular city crossovers like the Audi Q3, which has a strangely similar model name. As Infiniti is Nissan’s luxury brand and want to target younger customers in strategic markets such as China or Europe, we can probably expect a better equipped and better trimmed version of the Nissan Juke. Thankfully though the design of the Q30 looks less awkward, and we can imagine it will have more powerful engines. Production is supposed to start in 2015, in Sunderland, United Kingdom.
Another but bigger SUV that will be made in Britain which was presented on the show was Jaguar’s CX-17 Concept, the first SUV the brand has ever built. Our first day impressions remained: this car looks absolutely gorgeous. Jaguar has succeeded in proving they could make a stunning designed SUV for their entry on this very competed market place. 14 years after Porsche launched its Cayenne, the british brand wants to get back their customers from their competitors, and is providing itself the means to succeed. With this amazing success at the Messe, we can imagine this concept is on good way from the drawing papers to the production lines. Technically though the Jaguar has its own internal competitor in Tata’s group, who owns Land Rover as well, so engineers will have a tough work making this car not to disturb Range Rover’s sales, especially the Sport model, as they will probably share their engines as well…
Stepping in Maserati’s stand, we finally decided ourselves look in detail the Ghibli, as I had never seen it in real before. From the exterior it looks Maserat-ish from absolutely almost every angle. The front is very aggressive and reminds of the actual GranTurismo model, whereas the profile almost suggests a 4-door sports-coupé rather than a sedan. The only point of view I don’t really like is three-quarters from the back where it loses the usual Italian breed it has to look a bit too… German! These rear headlamps don’t really help but the four exhausts and especially the noise they produce help you remind yourself you are in an Italian flamboyant sports car.
