Frankfurt Car Show

I spent the day at the Frankfurt International Car Show, which always has a number of interesting things.

1.  Diesel vehicle on display?  NO.  None.  It was very obvious.  The sales agenda appears to be completely dead now in Germany.

2.  TomTom, the navigational company, had a big display unit at the show.  It was surprising....lot of technology development, for both regular drivers and truckers. Worth ten minutes to look at the displays and what they are doing for future development.

3.  It's held at the Frankfurt Messe, and fairly easy to enter via the subway or S-Bahn system.  Cost?  Fourteen Euro.

4.  The model gals?  It's always interesting to note each car-brand, and the fashion-look that they use for this chat-girls.  Most have memorized forty lines of text.  In the background....are a dozen engineer guys who do most of the big-time talking, if required.

Hint....don't go asking in-depth questions over the cars to these gals.  They really don't know much beyond the tab that they tote around and refer you to the web site.

5.  Food.  Don't eat while there.  There are around forty different stands but it's lousy food.  I ate some fries which were fried up twice over.....they were about as crunchy as you can get fries and still be able to eat them.

6.  Battery cars?  I'd say everyone was trying hard to sell you on electric cars.  Probably forty-percent of the cars on display were electric.

7.  The Renault Twizy was on display....the two-seat battery car.

I'll say this for the car....seating-wise....it's just a fiberglass seat with some light foam.  If you were going to be sitting in it for two hours....you'd be in bad shape. A simple 40-minute ride to work?  Ok.  That back-seat?  It's mostly built for kids, your dog, or some young gal.

 It is fairly cheap, but you have to remember that it's not made to drive on autobahns....strictly state or local roads only.

The price deal? 8,900 Euro for the basic car....with NO batteries included.  Those come under a second contract where you LEASE the batteries and get a maintenance deal.  Distance on the battery?  This is the big negative, in my humble opinion.....roughly 100 km. You can figure it works well in the urban area....with one trip to work and back home.  That's it.

I liked the look of the vehicle, and just wish they had a gas-engine deal instead of batteries.

8.  They had one entire hallway just for parts-makers, which is an interesting twist to things.

9.  Tesla?  No, they weren't there, and that was obvious as well.  They say the show doesn't work well for them.

10.  Hard sell going on for battery cars.  They had that EU chart out on each car and telling you the sad issues with carbon or energy use.  Gas cargs look dismal.  This chart to the right was for the "Jimmy".  It's intended to push you to the green area and aim for a car with A-plus ratings on energy.

Frankly, this doesn't work well for me.

So, I highly recommend the show.....don't allocate the whole day....you just need for 3.5 hours max.  The Mercedes area is crowded.  About 20-percent of the show is out-doors.  Several drink establishments are there....with beer and soda offered.

It'll run until next Sunday.  Opens each day at 9AM.

As for the Chinese guys? That was a curious thing.....there must have been at least 500 Chinese guys walking around....looking at engine parts, undercoating, tire-rims, and seats.  Asking a lot of questions....taking a lot of pictures.  Back in 1979 when I went to my first Frankfurt Car Show...there might have been two Chinese guys there.