Category: Car Events

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

 

Futuristic dashboard and instrument cluster of the Tesla Model X… are promises kept by E-cars? 

Our beloved Brussels Motor Show is now in its 95^th edition and focuses this year on light commercial vehicles, motorcycles, but also on the passenger car front there is much interesting news… We report here on our tour of the show, focusing on what’s new and interesting, and let you also enjoy the photos!

Hans Knol ten Bensel

We started our tour on the Tesla stand, where we stood eye to eye with their interesting Model X. A good occasion to get acquainted with the brand, as we have never driven a Tesla so far. We had a long and lively in depth discussion with a charming Tesla representative about the merits of E-power, stressing again the need for a dense recharging network to make E-cars a thoroughly practical proposition. It is a well known fact that the “official” range of E-cars is virtually halved in winter conditions, making them rather difficult to use regularly without frequent recharging.

They promised to get in touch with us, and we are looking forward to drive a Tesla – and use one for a few days to test out their range, which is impressive on paper at least.

We strolled further to the BMW stand, where E-power is also very much in the spotlight. We drove the “long range” i3 recently, and soon we will report you about our findings. Star of the show here was the latest generation 5 series. The new car has the looks, and indeed is, as BMW puts it, “the embodiment of the modern business saloon.” It is quite athletic, well proportioned as is crammed with state of the art technology, delivering on top of all that the so legendary driving pleasure so typical for BMW.

Virtual instrumentation is also the rule at BMW… but retains the typical lettering of the brand… 

We admired again the high-quality setting of the interior, and the driver is pampered with all the modern driving aids, inboard electronics and connectivity.

The big centrally placed screen keeps the BMW 5 series driver informed… 

Needless to say that we are anxious to drive one in the coming months…

There was also the European Premiere of the Mini Countryman, and here on the photo you see the Plug-in hybrid version, the Mini Cooper S E Countryman all 4. The Mini is an all time hit, and BMW succeeds in combining ever more interesting technology with the iconic panache of the Mini, making it a very desirable car indeed. Driving a Mini is also synonymous to tons of driving pleasure, and this, we would say, throughout the range. So this one is also on our list for driving this year!

Dramatic both in styling and technology is the Lexus LC 500h, a sophisticated and luxurious coupé. Lexus states it is built by Takumi craftspeople, with 20+ years of experience…

It has the 3,5 litre V6 Hybrid engine, coupled to world’s first 10-speed Multi Stage Hybrid transmission, a powerful electric motor coupled to Lithium-ion battery pack, and sprints in about 5 seconds to 100 kmh. Available around mid 2017, and it will certainly be one of the test drive highlights of the year…

We also spotted the Toyota CH-R, remarkable with its adventurous styling, a very interesting hybrid crossover which we will drive for you end of March. Stay tuned!

There were quite a few stars to be admired at the Audi stand, with the new Q2, the still newer Q5 and last but not least the world premiere of the S5 cabrio.

We just show you here some photos, and you agree that the restyling is very well done and the already well proportioned cabrio stays stunningly attractive for years to come.

Audi Import Director Didier Willems and PR Officer Sofie Luyckx are unveiling the elegant S5 cabrio…

The A4 Avant g-tron and TT RS Coupé are having a Belgian première, with the Audi S5 Coupé, A5 Sportback, Q2 en Q5 making in Brussels their Belgian show debut. We saw a lot of smiling faces at the Audi stand, as the brand has done very well last year on the Belgian market.

More to come in following reports…

Hans Knol ten Bensel