The heart of the Paris exhibition area is Palais 1, the largest hall by far, that usually hosts the local champions as well. This is where the Paris Car Show has always compensated the somewhat reserved efforts of the German brands, in comparison to Frankfurt.
The elite league of supersport cars and high-end luxury brands: Ferrari and the rest (Bugatti, Aston Martin, Lamborghini)
These brands were to provide stylish company to the extravaganza of the local brands. Their efforts however, were not as complete as in Frankfurt, or even in Brussels.
This time, only Ferrari seemed to boast a factory level representation, and they brought along the new catchy small series models that pay homage to the racing monopostos of the past. But do not get fooled by the 70 year old body concept, under the bodywork, you will find the newest technology of the 812 Superfast, purposefully tailored to driving.
The stages of Lamborghini and Aston seemed to remain far behind, on a level you would not take as a factory show. In fact, the Bugatti and Bentley stages in the Brussels Car Show were more memorable than in Paris.
During my stay, it seemed that French supercar manufacturer Bugatti will be represented by LEGO (????). Later I saw from the photos, that somehow, somewhere there was a Divo showcased.
Reinforcements from Asia
Palais 1 also hosts the two Korean brands that usually deliver quite a show with a carefully selected mix of all sort of attractions.
Hyundai spiced up its installation with the usual ingredients like the race cars of Belgian Rallye ace Thiery Neuville and the WTCR driver Norbert Michelisz, along with rallye simulators and a cool concept car.
The Kia was also unfortunate to be located in Pavilion 1, overall, the two brands delivered a 60-80% of their efforts shown in Brussels earlier this year, and light-years behind the IAA 2017.
There was one strange player in this Palais, an unknown brand from Vietnam. Vinfast has not done much so far (in terms of actually making cars), but they come up with one of the most beautiful stages of the car show.
So now it’s all on the local titans. This year, the German manufacturers left enough space for them to shine, and a considerable part of the automotive industry did not come at all. There was a more significant burden on the local champions than ever.
Renault – the 120-year-old birthday boy
Renault delivered quite a spectacle, with science-fiction trucks (that would make one heck of a food truck in Blade Runner),
and historic pieces like the first Renault model or the super cool blue “thing” from the ’30s.
In addition, a celebration parade was held with the jewels of the Renault Classic collection (some of them I could already see in Autoworld this summer, I never thought that the bluefin gas turbine car would roll on its own wheel).
I also liked the VR Gear F1 wheel change simulation, but Renault set up a number of other interactive installations, like a “time machine” to present the 120 years of Renault.
Given that the Palais was inaccessible during the afternoon due to a presidential visit, I could not further investigate PSA’s quarters. This, of course, had a significant influence on the overall experience of the show, as it got deprived of its major component.
Closing remarks
The Automotive World Fair of Paris always had a special place among car shows. In the past, it always boasted with visitor records but that goes at the expense of the visitor experience. In Paris, timing is more important than at any other event, so better aim at weekdays. Luckily, the show lasted long, so there are plenty of days to go for, but I do recommend staying away during weekends. Nevertheless, despite the round anniversary, the automotive industry seemed to ignore the event. Even the recently acquired Opel was far absent, so was Nissan. Hard to imagine, that Volkswagen missed too, while most of its brands attended. These are pretty big names to miss out, but even the mid-weight Volvo and Mazda, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and the Jeep (or even Chrysler) will leave an empty feeling, in particular, because almost were all of them were present in Brussels. The Paris Motor Show is still a flagship event, but the greatest challenge for these events will need to break this trend.
