Unless you count the Moving Motor Show which takes place the day before the Goodwood Festival of Speed, there is no British Motor Show these days, so that means that anyone who wants to see an assembly of new cars in one place will either have to travel overseas, or avail themselves of one of the many regional events which take place. These tend to be populated with cars by local dealers, and so participation is all down to whether there is enough interest (and budget) to take place, meaning that you rarely get representation from all marques on sale, and there tends to be little in the way of new car launches. There has been a Bristol Motor Show for a number of years. After experimenting, unsuccessfully in holding the event in the Cabot Circus and Broadmead shopping area, it has been relocated back to The Mall at Cribbs Causeway. That means that it is less than 10 minutes from home for me. This fact, coupled with the advertised presence of Bentley and McLaren was enough to tempt me to go along and have a look.
AUDI
I resisted the urge to tell the Bristol Audi staff present why they have just lost my (servicing) business, and confined myself to looking at the cars instead. Highlight for me, and indeed for everyone that stopped by, not surprisingly, was the R8 Spider. This model might have been on sale for a good few years now, but it is still a massive crowd puller (don’t believe the lack of people in the pics, I had to wait quite a few minutes, even though it was early in the morning and there were not that many people about).
Newcomer at the event was this, the S1 model, which has not yet, as far as I know, officially gone on sale in the UK. It is clearly now imminent. All the attractions of Audi in A1 sized packaging, but with a lot of urge under your right foot could be an attractive proposition to those who don’t want a MINI or the rather brasher other rivals.
Also relatively new to the Audi range is the A3 Saloon. Western Europe was not the focus market for the saloon version of this car, so t will be interesting to see how well it sells. Its styling is very conservative Audi, in contrast to its Three-Pointed Star rival, but unlike the Mercedes CLA, you can actually get in the back of this one without bending in three, and once installed, you can actually get comfortable. I understand that it is better to drive, too.
The RS Q3 was launched at the beginning of the year. I’ve seen a couple on the roads. It costs over £40,000 but then so does a far less powerful Evoque even before you pile on all the extras on the upper models in the range, so although costly, it is clearly not completely out of court.
Other Audi on show included the familiar Q5 and Q7.
BENTLEY
A trio of Bentley on display comprised the Continental GT Coupe and Convertible and secondhand Arnage.
CHRYSLER
Not really a Chrysler, but a Lancia in all but UK badge. The little Ypsilon is a brave effort at a small car that is that bit different. I have enjoyed driving its predecessors in Italy, and whilst I am not convinced that the styling of this one is quite as attractive, the fact that you do see a few on our roads suggests that there are a limited number of UK buyers who want something that bit different.
CITROEN
No sign of the new C1, so the old one was on show, along with a duo of DS3 models, one of which was the convertible, and a C3 and C4 Picasso.
FORD
There were a number of Ford models on show, and no crowds around either the Fiesta ST or Focus ST, giving me an uninterrupted chance to sit in them and assess from the driver’s seat. They both need a completely different dashboard, in my opinion, as what appears in both is just a mess. I would really struggle to put up with the Focus’ inside, even though the seats did feel very comfortable. For me, that is. I suspect that for the larger framed person, they may be too tight and figure hugging.
Worse inside, by some measure, though, was the KA. I guess that in an effort to copy the style of the Fiat 500, the half-brother which has outsold the Ford by a huge margin, someone decided that ivory coloured plastic might be a good idea. Further proof that whoever designs Ford interiors needs to be replaced!
Other models on show included regular Fiesta, Focus, Kuga and some of the van based products.
HONDA
Chance to have a good poke around a range of Honda and wonder where it all went wrong. The CR-V seemed decent enough, but in a field of strong rivals, I’d struggle to figure out why you would prefer it to any of its competitors.
The Civic was present in hatch and Tourer versions. The latter has had god reviews, and it is certainly roomy inside, but it is also extremely expensive. It would not be my choice in this segment.
There was a Jazz there, and as I was scrutinising it, I did feel sorry for the salesman who had been collared by someone who clearly knew that a replacement is in the offing. The Sales man told him that the Japanese car is on sale and the US one is imminent so he could get some clues from the web, but nothing has been said yet about the European spec cars, but this did not seem to deter the prospective purchaser who said that he needed to resolve the spec now so he could buy a car in mid 2015. It made me feel sorry for the salesman for once! As to the current Jazz, you do sit up very high, but otherwise this is a very practical car that deserves the praise it has received over the years.
The CR-Z and Insight were both present, even though both have been deleted from the range.
JEEP
Lone Jeep on display was the Grand Cherokee. This is a decent effort, and I noted a lot of them in Italy when I was there a few days ago, but its biggest problem in the UK is that it has plenty of rivals, incIuding the local product from Solihul which have all the same attributes, and more dealers available.
MAZDA
I had a good look at all the Mazdas on show, as these are my favourite range of Japanese cars. This was the first right hand drive 3 I have experienced, and I certainly made friends with the stand staff when I expressed my approval for it. The interior is a big improvement on what went before, and the external styling makes it one of the best looking cars in its class.
I recently sampled a 2, a good looking hatchback that everyone tends, undeservedly, to forget. This one was some form of Limited Edition, called the Colour which meant as well as a plaque on the dash, you got some rather nasty plastic trim on the door grabs that were finished in body colour and just looked naff. Get the regular model instead.
Also on show were a 6 Estate, an MX5, a 5 and a CX5.
McLAREN
Centrepiece of the whole show was this, the newly launched 650S.
MERCEDES-BENZ
With a vast range of cars now in the Mercedes range, only a small subset could be accommodated in the available space. so Mercedes seem to have selected a mix of AMG and their smaller cars to form the core of their display. The CLA was present in regular 220CDi and AMG45 format. The latter, boasting a number of options, was listed at £49k, which makes it very pricey indeed. I would love to say that when the engine was fired up, that convinced me that I should like this car. But it sounded truly dreadful on idle. Car & Driver magazine recently used the word “contrived” to describe the CLA, and I’m afraid that I tend to agree with them. This is a very disappointing car statically, with awful rear seat access and no room inside it, and everything I have read suggests that dynamically, it is a let-down too.
The new GLA was also on show. I wonder if this less overtly Crossover will steal sales from the regular A Class. At a quick glance, the two look very similar.
The regular A and B Classes were on show.
There were a pair of E Class, too. The E220 CDI is the that everyone buys, whereas the E63 AMG is the one everyone would love to buy if only they could afford the purchase price and the running costs. A lovely car, but something of a financial liability, sadly.
PEUGEOT
The 308 was proudly sporting “Car of the Year” decals. It still think that it was a very unworthy winner. There’s nothing wrong with it -apart from the steering wheel that obscures the dials – but in a class of very able cars, it has nothing particularly new to add, and the styling is bland in the extreme.
The 3008 and 5008 were recently facelifted and these joined the 2008, the 107 and the RCZ on show, as well as a couple of vans, the little Bipper and slightly larger Partner.
SEAT
Another chance to look at the Leon Cupra 280, and to admire what Seat have done. This is a nicely presented car, with nothing much to shout about the power under the bonnet. Massive appeal to me.
Of the other two cars on show, a Leon ST and an Ibiza, they looked good, too.
SKODA
There were three Skoda on show, but I only seem to have a photo of one of them, the Citigo. There was also a Rapid Spaceback and a facelifted Yeti.
SUZUKI
A line of four cars, starting from the entry level Alto, through slightly larger Splash, the well regarded Swift and the recently launched S-Cross. This last looked and felt cheap. It seemed worthy enough, but my overall feeling with all these cars was that they are aimed at the sort of segment where Chevrolet Europe and Mitsubishi compete. Not premium, and not even mainstream, but not true bargain-basement. I suspect that is a small and not growing niche.
SHOW CARS
A quartet of cars with movie or tv connections were in a separate cordoned off display. These were the same cars as were present in 2013, and with no sign boards or anything, this looked a bit last minute.
Avon & Somerset Police had a couple of their current fleet on display, but there was no-one on hand to talk about them, or any other policing topics, when I was there.
This VW Beetle Cabrio came with matching trailer and was being used to serve ice creams.
The cars were parked up outside the main entrance to The Mall, with little in the way of additional stand display material, and whilst there were quite a few cars,and you could get inside and poke around almost all of them, and of course there was no admission charge, this was a pale imitation of what really constitutes a “Motor Show”. I have to say that for such a large catchment area, you would rather hope that the organisers could come up with something better than this. However, it did entertain and inform me for an hour so, so I did not feel that my 10 minute journey was wasted.