Here comes the final part of our Brussels Show report. We just let you enjoy all this again, as the show is also soon coming to its end…

Hans Knol ten Bensel

Armed with our faithful compact Canon PowerShot G9 X, which takes amazing pictures even with low light, we strolled further to the Nissan stand, where the all new Micra was on display. Nissan expects a lot from this urban gem, which has the all round and versatile qualities you expect from a compact car like this. It is quite agile and downright sporting, delivering lots of driving pleasure for the young at heart. It has good looks too. Soon we come back to this car and are of course keen to drive it soon.

Peugeot was presenting not only a boldly styled, angular lion, it also had its new 3008 compact SUV on the show. Mind you, this angular lion is a work of outstanding craftsmanship: the design center created the shapes of this new interpretation of the iconic lion, but the craftsmen of the firm LA FABRIK worked more than a month to execute the design. The sculpture is made of hardened polystyrene, covered with layers of wax and glass fibre. The used the most modern techniques like digital cutting along not less than five axes, and a lot of sanding by hand was also deemed necessary. The lion was then finally chromed via an electrolysis process, which took not less than 10 days…

The 3008 is restyled and has (almost) the panache of a show car, both inside and out. It must of course also be good to drive, economical and reliable if it is to be competitive in its class. The three cylinder 128 HP petrol engine looks promising on paper, and we expect it to deliver good performance. We look forward to drive it soon… It comes of course with a wide engine choice, both petrol and diesel, and also 6 speed manuals and auto boxes are available.

DS presented on the Brussels Show a new edition on the DS4 Crossback, with a new matte color. The car, dubbed DS 4 Crossback Moondust (due to its grey Platinium matte color) follows here the spring/ summer design trend of the big French fashion houses…

There is also the “Performance Line” available on all DS models, it has a black roof in combination with specific colors for the bodywork and glossy black wheels.

For Citroën, the DS3 took centre stage, an interesting car we also look forward to drive…

Honda presented its new Civic, it was first seen as an engineless prototype in Geneva last year, and it is now, Brexit or not, built in Swindon, UK,  by the 3,600-strong workforce for 70 markets around the world… The sporting Type R version is a Nürburgring record breaker, and of course we are also keen to drive the Civic soon…

Kia comes on strong…

In these columns, so far Kia has not appeared so far, and it is about (high) time it does. You all have noticed how well styled they are, thanks to designer Peter Schreyer, now Chief Design Officer at Kia Motors.

Did you know also that Albert Biermann – the man who used to head up BMW’s M Division – is in charge of vehicle testing and high performance development for Kia?

We looked on the show at the compact Rio. Highlight was also the hybrid crossover Niro, which made its Belgian debut at the show.

There was also the EV Soul and last but not least the Optima plug-in hybrid. We will soon take a closer (test drive) look at these cars, and have booked for now a test with the cee’d 1.6 CRDI SW. Kia is coming up strong, did you know that they have 435,316 cars sold in Europe last year, representing year-on-year growth of 13.1%?

 

Slovakian-built Kia models are now accounting for 55.7% of Kia’s European sales. Kia Motors Slovakia produces three model lines at its Žilina plant: the Sportage, Venga compact MPV, and the cee’d family (comprising five-door cee’d hatchback and cee’d Sportswagon, and the three-door pro_cee’d).

Recently, the top of the range Stinger took centre stage in Detroit: it received an EyesOn Design award for Production Car Design Excellence at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. More on this Stinger in a separate report.

Of course, there is still a lot more, as things go very fast. We suggest you look click on the “car news” category on our site for more news,

and keep an eye on our comments on the forthcoming auto shows…in the meantime, just look at the photos…

Hans Knol ten Bensel