The impetus for writing these lines are the editorials in two unnamed motoring titles belonging to the same publishing house. In both cases, the editors-in-chief of the periodicals in question agreed that traveling to Geneva was actually a waste of time, that we already knew almost all the cars long in advance, that there were no cars for the masses on the stands and that concepts are also a useless relic… However, you can read in one breath , that almost the entire editorial team went on a trip to Switzerland, and the main article from Palexpo is the Skoda Superb , whose appearance was subjected to a detailed X-ray less than a month ago…
Personally, although I tried very hard, I am not going to Geneva this year. I tried all the more to capture live photos from colleagues who visited the exhibition and to absorb "megabytes" of data from the press releases of individual car companies. After all, you can see the efforts of me and my colleague in two clear articles , offering a comprehensive overview of everything new that Geneva offered this year. But back to the core of the poodle, to why I'm trying to be a would-be opinion columnist here.
As I have already submitted, for both editors-in-chief the visit to Geneva was a "waste of time" also because they could not find cars for the general population. Literally, their number could be "counted on the fingers of one hand." I only tried it with a really rough estimate, and although I recognize the exaggeration of course, I dare to object anyway. From the premieres for the normal car consumer, I will pick at random the Opel Karl, Renault Kadjar, Honda Jazz, Honda HR-V, Mazda CX-3, Subaru Levorg, VW Touran, VW Caddy, Seat 20V20 or the modernization of the Peugeot 208 and Toyota Auris. And I could go on like this up to the big double digits… As for super sports, hyper sports or cars for the select few – aren't these the cars we go to car shows for? Isn't it precisely the Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bugatti or Porsche stand where the biggest queues even among journalists regularly form? Isn't it the Koenigsegg where all the accredited people are trying to get to and maybe even sit down? After all, which ordinary mortal or journalist from the Czech Republic can afford to buy or at least test a car for 15 million or more , of which only a few dozen units will be produced at most? It also has a certain logic that it is not worth going to car shows because of the "regular" models, because after a while you just need to set aside one afternoon to go around the selected dealerships and try the models in person. However, I somehow do not understand the logic according to which a flood of unavailable cars is bad.
A similar example to luxury cars is "tons of more or less pointless concepts," to paraphrase a bit of one of the editorials. Again, the question arises whether these are not concepts that fill the pages of individual magazines and which make it worth going to the auto show even from a journalist's point of view. After all, some concept cars , no matter how absurd, often end up after the exhibition in the hands of private individuals or, worse, in a scrap metal shredder, and no one will ever see them again. Ask some people how much they would like to visit the Geneva Motor Show of, say, thirty years ago and see the "nonsensical concepts" of that time too.
The only point where it is possible to somehow agree is the problem of disclosure or official presentation of most of the news even before the very beginning of the motor show. Again, it's a matter of today's Internet age, which dictates that the model be presented as soon as possible so that he can enjoy his five minutes of fame. During the presentation at the motor show itself, there is a risk that journalists and fans might not even notice such an Opel Karl over the Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6.
Globally, however, this does not lessen my "indignation" at both editorials, quite the opposite. It has become a color to curse at every car show, how it's worth the shit, how there are either a lot of green cars or not a lot of green cars, a lot of super sports or not a lot of super sports, a lot of cars for normal consumers or a few cars for normal consumers, etc… In short, the automotive journalist of a large periodical is already dissatisfied in principle, at which the journalist of a small periodical , who usually does not get to a similar event, just shakes his head in disbelief…
Photo: Geneva Motor Show 2015
