...but you can't take the Detroit out of the kid. In addition to me wearing a Tigers baseball cap (something that I never did when in the US, this simple fact means that when the auto show rolls into Paris, I can't help but drag myself down to the massive convention center complex on the south edge of town. Some brief observations:
- It's huge. Like really huge, at least twice as big as the Detroit show. I finished the first hall thinking, "that was decent, but it seemed like there were some big brands missing." I then found a map that showed me three additional halls. I had to hurry to see it all the cars (not the accessories and suppliers, race cars, driving schools, etc...) in four hours.
- Fuel economy is a major selling point here. Since gas costs about $8.50/gallon these days, that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Fuel data is not just printed on the little information sheet (or, increasingly, flat-screen display) next to the car, it's a big graphic on the door. Also, they present grams of CO2 emitted per kilometer. This is becoming a standard way of presenting energy efficiency in Europe so that you can easily compare the environmental impact of a trip by car versus a trip by train, for example.
- Pure American cars really stand out here. They are big and ungainly when shipped directly here. Ford, however, simply builds entirely different cars for the market and comes out looking like one of the crowd.
Here's some photographic evidence of what things look like over here:
Full album:
Addendum: A post like this is never complete without a picture of "my ride". Here she is: nuclear-powered, seats 200, God knows how many horsepoewr (probably around 2,000), yearly payments of about $600 for the loan, assurance, fuel, etc...:
Paris isn't all bad...
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