Re: The Mega Auto Expo 2012 Thread : General Discussion, Live Feed & Pics Hey all, will be posting my pics by 1:30 AM.
Highlights (on a scale of 1-10):-
1. Cars (10) no surprises here.
2. People (2)
Pushing and Shoving, even though there was less crowd today as compared to general hours. It was an absolute mess at some Halls. Rest were fine. God help the people planning to go in the general hours. Im not being elitist here, just an observation.
3. Management (1) :- Well, atleast they managed to avoid any skirmish was all that we could say about them. There was so much mis-management that they announced that they would be closing some halls because of over crowding for a small amount of time and yet people were still getting in, well the people here are partly to blame for this for the "approach" culture is quite popular in Delhi. Well i would be a hypocrite to not include myself in that category. The method was used by me to get inside the auto expo during media hours. Well, as a result of all of this the overcrowding was still there.
It was quite sad to see people queuing up in long lines and others just cutting in though we managed to raise a hue and cry every time someone attempted in the line that we were standing in, which after a while, the security guard gave me a "how many of them can you possibly stop" look. All i could tell myself at this point was that it would all disappear within a 10 odd years.
(4) Overall Verdict (6):-
1. The show was good, we saw an amazing line up of green cars which drew a surprisingly large (for our country) amount of attention.
2. Mercedes managed to display each and every model in their stable and then some.
3. Volvo only displayed trucks. I wonder why they complain of not getting any attention.
4. The Renault stand had a Duster but you couldn't go near it or see inside because of the blacked out mirrors, which was irritating as we had already seen it so many times on the internet and this was more or less the same.
5. No sign of Ferrari, RR, Bentley and the like. There was a Shreyans Group stand which had a california, Panamera, Quattroporte and that yellow three wheeled thing ( sorry, i plead ignorance dont know what its called). This looked more like Shreyans making its presence felt rather than these companies.
6. All the Ducatis were covered, well i cant really complain here but it was a real bummer.
7. Hero Honda did massive, borderline obsessive, marketing of the Impulse which after a while became a bit "in your face". The rest of the bikes were displayed with new Hero brandings.
8. It was nice to see some of our own small players like Doon Motors and Premier which had an impressive line up. I couldn't find Rajputana Customs or Chinkara anywhere though.
9. Ford impressed all with a magic show, the Ecosport naturally garnering most of the attention.
10. Chevrolet displayed a beautiful Top-down Camaro. The new Cruze looked amazing, especially the rear lights which now look legitimate, the earlier ones i'm my opinion looked like aftermarket fitments, have a look in my pictures.
11. There was a white i10 which had a refreshed bumper, the plate said next generation i10. Surprisingly it got lost in the crowd and got no attention at all.
12. The most impressive section was Mini's. Beautiful line up of cars which were the Cooper, Cooper Cabriolet and the Countryman. The volunteers there were well aware of the cars and their features and even though the section was tiny it was very well laid out.
13. Tata had a modded Safari Storme (not Storm) with lights, bullbars, winch and the works which looked fantabulous. The part that stood out was the color, which was Land Rover green. I just hope this color makes it to the showrooms. There was a modified Xenon with automatic transmission along with an Automatic version of the Aria which looked complete. I've test driven the Aria and the Gearbox let me down a bit. This would help in fixing the image of the Aria, at least from the product's point of view.
14. I either completely missed the Vintage car hall, or it was not there, still have no clue. Please let me know whether i'm a fool.
15. I apologize if the pics are not good quality as there was too much crowd and one only had about two nanoseconds to click a picture before someone passes by right in front of you, or better, does it even when he/she is aware that you are trying to take a photograph.
16. Force motors showed their One SUV which i had seen for the first time, it looked pretty good. They even shows the complete frame with the flawless Mercedes engine.
17. The biggest disappointment in my opinion was BMW which first of all didnt showcase the 3 series. They didn't even let anyone touch the cars, i mean literally "touch the cars" i saw a volunteer rudely grabbing a hand and shoving it aside in disgust when one guy tried to feel the lines on the fender of the 6 series coupe. That was not cool, at all, considering Mercedes let everyone even sit inside their AMGs and everything for as long as they wanted.
18. My review may seem a bit too critical so let me clarify. I was 11 years old when i went to my last auto expo in 2002. Ten years later i may have had some massive expectations which may have been a bit too high so i apologize in advance if i sound a bit too cynical and negative. I'm just giving a very clear and honest review of what i saw and what i didn't. |