2002 Paris Show, Part IV

The Paris Auto Show press days are over, but you can revisit our 2002 Paris Show index of coverage for all the news from the City of Lights.

Quite a crowd was gathered around the Delphi display at the biannual Paris auto show this year. It’s pretty unusual for a supplier to attract a crowd at one of the world’s most glamorous auto shows — but Delphi had a Segway and it was allowing people to try their hand at driving/riding the two-wheeled device. Everyone was fascinated to see how easy it is for people to master this unique (potential) future means of transportation.

A good segue for a show that had all the potential to be full of surprises. There weren’t many though as most new vehicles such as the Maybach, Porsche Cayenne, VW Touareg, VW Phaeton, Jaguar XJ8 and others had already been pre-announced to the media meaning there was a shortage of headline making intros. Perhaps that’s why the Segway “scooter” was drawing so much attention.

 

Subaru Facelifts the WRX
As rallying is so popular in Europe it’s no surprise that Subaru also concentrated on its rally successes as it showed off the face lifted Impreza model. The WRX gets a new headlight treatment and some aerodynamic and suspension tweaks, otherwise it looks much the same. In a masterful understatement Subaru said that the Impreza is critical to Subaru’s success in Europe. It’s certainly one of the “in” cars with young buyers in Europe just as it is in the USA.

 

Volvo Opts For More Performance
Who’d have dreamed that Volvo would ever consider performance as one of its major selling points? It certainly did as Hans Nilsson, Volvo’s Car Line Manager R, showed off the S60R and V70R models. They come with active suspension and all-wheel drive. Powered by a 300-horsepower 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine, they can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds. The three suspension settings can be adjusted from the dashboard: there’s one for comfort, one for sport and a third one for “Advanced Sport” which transforms the car into a road-hugging sports car according to Volvo. The two models will initially only be available with a six-speed manual gearbox and they’ll go on sale next spring.

 

Mazda Goes Zoom-Zoom 2
Mazda’s global advertising slogan fitted in well with the glamour of press days as rap dancers jumped all over the cars and around Stephen O’Dell, Mazda’s European chief and Lewis Booth, Mazda’s CEO. They introduced the 2 model, which is a small car designed in Europe. Compared to the similarly sized Citroen C3 Pluriel and the Nissan Micra the 2 looked somewhat ungainly. Nonetheless Mazda promises it will be spirited to drive.

 

DaimlerChrysler Serves up 16 New Cars
Mercedes-Benz had the most new cars at the show with no less than a dozen world premieres. Most were derivations of new or current models, such as the S600 Bi-Turbo, SL350 and E55K. After several launches in the past few months it’s strange to realize that Paris is the first time the public have gotten to see the two new Maybach models, although it was actually the first time the media saw the short-wheelbase Maybach 57.

With diesel-powered cars rapidly becoming the choice of the majority of buyers in Europe, the launch of the first AMG diesel was probably the most significant new car on Mercedes’ stand. The C30 CDi AMG is the first diesel “sports car” according to Mercedes-Benz. The AMG-modified engine produces 231 horsepower. Incidentally this year marks the 35th anniversary of AMG, which is now regarded as a sub-brand within the DaimlerChrysler company.

 

Nissan Micra Looks Cute
Carlos Ghosn, President and CEO of Nissan Co. certainly had a lot to smile about as he was once again able to discuss Nissan’s revival during the past couple of years. Last year at Frankfurt the Micra was shown as a concept and it drew rave reviews for its clean design. Paris saw the introduction of the production version that looks all but identical to the concept. It goes on sale in January in Europe and will be built at Nissan’s Sunderland plant in the U.K., which has now been producing Nissan models for 16 years. The Micra C+C, a concept convertible version of the Micra was on display, but with no word when or even if it will go on sale.

 

Euro Honda Accord to be an Acura?
Honda unveiled the European version of the Accord in Paris. As before it is different from the U.S. version as it is slightly smaller and offers greater dynamic performance to meet European demands for great handling cars. It will also be offered in a station wagon configuration later in the model run. A new Honda-developed diesel engine will be introduced for the car next year. More significantly it is expected that Honda will import this car into the U.S. as a future Acura model. Perhaps that is why it will no longer be made in Honda’s U.K. plant in Swindon but instead exported to Europe from Japan.