Frankfurt motor show 2009: A-Z news and reviews

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman, Phil McNamara and Mark Hamilton

Motor Shows

15 September 2009 14:30

Welcome to CAR Online's coverage of the 2009 Frankfurt motor show, the world's biggest car show. The CAR team is reporting live from the 63rd Frankfurt show on Tuesday 15 September 2009 – and this is your handy guide with previews and reviews, news and blogs, photos and galleries of all the important new launches. Follow the CAR live blog by for 24/7 news and updates by clicking on the jump below.

Due to technical issues images from the Frankfurt motor show can be found by clicking here

CAR Online's A-Z preview of the 2009 Frankfurt motor show

• Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari
• Alfa Romeo Mito Cloverleaf
• Aston Martin Rapide
• Audi A5 Sportback
• Audi R8 Spyder
• Audi R8 Electric
• Bentley Mulsanne
• BMW EfficientDynamics supercar concept
• BMW 5-series GT
• BMW 320d EfficientDynamics
• BMW X1
• BMW ActiveHybrid X6 / BMW ActiveHybrid 7
• Citroen Revolte
• Citroën C3
• Citroën DS3
• Ferrari 458 Italia
• Fiat Punto Evo
• Ford C-Max
• Hyundai ix35
• Hyundai ix-Metro
• Jaguar XJ
• Kia Ceed facelift
• Kia Sorento
• Kia Venga
• Lamborghini Reventon Roadster
• Lexus LF-Ch
• Maserati Grancabrio
• Mazda CX-7 facelift
• Mazda MX-5 Superlight
• Mercedes E-class Estate
• Mercedes SLS AMG
• Mercedes Vision S500 Plug In Hybrid
• Mini Coupé Concept
• Peugeot RC Z
• Peugeot 5008
• Peugeot i0n
• Porsche 911 GT3 RS
• Porsche 911 Turbo
• Porsche 911 Sport Classic
• Renault's four electric cars
• Renault's Zoe ZE electric
• Renault's Fluence ZE electric
• Renault's Twizy ZE electric
• Renault's Kangoo ZE electric
• Rolls-Royce Ghost
• Saab 9-5
• Seat Leon Cupra R
• Skoda Superb estate
• Toyota Auris Hybrid, Prius Plug-in Hybrid, Land Cruiser and iQ
• Toyota Land Cruiser
• Vauxhall Astra
• VW 1L
• VW E-Up
• VW Golf R
• VW Polo 3dr
• Volvo C30
• Volvo C70

5.30pm: The Audi R8 e-Tron
TP Woops - turned out we missed the announcement that the electric R8 will go into limited series production. Yep, from 2012 you'll be able to buy an electric R8.

4.13pm: The original hybrid people speak
TP No wonder Toyota concentrated on its hybrid credentials. Just as the rest of the world catches up, it's releasing its third-gen petrol-electric cars. The new Prius Plug In Hybrid takes just 90 mins to recharge and will save a typical city commuter a tonne of carbon and £400 in fuel, says Toyota. Meanwhile, upmarket sibling Lexus showed the interesting LF-Ch. I'd bet the house that it'll look very close to this in production form when we see it next spring. Lexus is going 100% hybrid in the UK, with petrol engines being special order only. It's a sign of how much has changed in a decade.

4pm: Big news at Lotus
BP Make it to Lotus for its press conference where it's announced that Team Lotus will re-enter F1 in 2010 and that the Evora will start endurance racing next year too.

3.30pm: Perving at the Prancing horse
BP Back on the Ferrari stand for a proper poke around the 458. Fairly gorgeous if you ask me.

3.20pm: Hall 4... maybe?
MH Needing some fresh air after walking through halls 5 and 6, I walked into Hall 4, where I found a BMW M1 and a very eclectic collection of vendors. Bears further investigation tomorrow, but now I'm off back to hall 5 for Lotus presentation. Attempting to connect to wifi and 3G is killing the phone battery so I am switching to Twitter for more frequent updates - you can read it at Http://twitter.com/mvisible

3.20pm: Peugeot rediscovers its roots
TP One of my favourite cars of the show: the Peugeot RCZ. Sure, a Cayman would be a better drive but here's a sign Peugeot is rediscovering its sporty DNA. It looks cool, that double bubble roof and glass adding real urgency. They're going to do a limited run of 200 ice-white, black-wheeled 1.6s to launch with. And then a genuine surprise - the BB1 battery car. It's a futuristic Smart alike, just 2.5m short but seating four. Part car, part bike (check out that handlebar) it weighs just 550kg, 100 of which accounts for the battery. It shows Peugeot's tomorrow, while the badge-engineered Mitsu i0n shows the electric car short cut of today.

2.58pm: Merc and positive discrimination
TP Just spent half an hour with Merc boss Dieter Zetsche and he promises that all future product (caveat: 'where possible') will be engineered for right hand drive. 'That wasn't always the way and that's not good at all.' So in future GLKs and the like will be UK bound. Zetsche was illuminating on all sorts of topics, from recession predictions to eco realities. Full, separate story to follow. Over to Peugeot now, and Hall 8 is baking hot.

2.40pm: Ex Volvo design chief
TP Just spied Steve Mattin, Volvo's deposed design chief loitering outside the Merc stand. Motor shows are a great careers fair for people trying to reinvent themselves. We hope Brit Mattin, who penned the SLK among others, pops up somewhere else.

2.30pm: The first car
TP The Benz Patent-Motorwagen, aka the world's first car, greets you on the way in to the Mercedes hall. Kind of puts a lot of things in perspective.

2.05pm: Zippy might be your dad's Bentley
MH Before seeking refuge in the press area I took some time to consider the new Mulsanne. It was a vehicle that garnered a lot of comment when CAR released the scoop images, particularly for the front end which forum stalwart AReader likened to the loud-mouth Zippy from Rainbow (a UK children's TV show from the '70s, if you're an international or under-30 reader). In spite of the enthusiastic applause it received, I am still not convinced of the merits of those low-set sidelights and the beaming chrome grin. I would choose a Rolls-Royce instead if I was searching for that class of vehicle, because it has embraced a degree of visible modernity, yet the Bentley remains curiously retrospective in styling and powertrain. The sporting image of Bentley means I should prefer it to a Rolls as a self-drive luxury saloon with elegance and performance...yet the Mulsanne strikes me as an older person's car. Will be interesting to see how it sells.

2pm:Reflecting on the morning's events
MH The IAA is a massive event with each hall a motor show in itself. There are 11 halls so you'll forgive me for taking a seat in the press centre and thinking about the show so far. Green is the theme and everyone has an angle. There was a time when, coming from metric NZ, I used to have to do a bit of recalculating to put power and torque stats from CAR into terms that matched our system. No longer – the key figures are CO2 emissions and litres per 100km of fuel consumption. It is difficult to reconcile this understandable desire to build more efficient, less polluting vehicles with the traditional excitement of a beautiful, fast or powerful car. As cars become 'individual mobility' devices, as BMW put it this morning, is it the traditional 'power/torque/performance/handling' car enthusiast who is being left behind?

12:48pm: At the Audi Deathstar
MH I've left the Fiat toyland on a high after seeing the Maserati GranCabrio - gorgeous...with the top down. Don't know how it looks roof-up, but I imagine most will live in the sunshine anyway. Ben Pulman is covering Ferrari so I'm rushing from Fiat to VW for the Reventon Roadster. Here at the VW group hall, the theme is whiter-than-white as at Geneva. Audi's stand again resembles a launch bay for Darth Vader's fleet, although along with Imperial Stormtrooper White and Emperor's Guard Red, there are vehicles displayed in a sort of sludgy bronze, clearly i'm not the target market. Interesting that Bentley and Lamborghini inhabit a relatively dark corner of the hall...perhaps a reflection of the relative lack of eco- awesomeness which those marques can claim. For all that though, it was impossible to break through the media scrum to see the Mulsanne & Reventon Roadster unveilings.

1.43pm: Seething at Seat
BP Long story this, but when i was a kid i remember collecting every press pack at motor shows, and then making my poor parents carry them around behind me. But now i'm older i don't bother - you just can't lug them round while trying to work. But at every show Seat provide wheeled trolleys for those journos that still collect like children. They don't seen interested in anything but collecting and clipping heels.

1.20pm: Touchy feely
BP A quick poke around a few Vengas reveals some bright colours so hopefully you'll still be able to personalise it like the Soul. If not, it'll lose some crucial cool points

1.05pm: Audi goes electric
TP Rupert Stadler unveils the R8 e-Tron. Quite a few punchy claims from Audi in their centenary year. The e-Tron (230km range, Sanyo production-feasible battery like next year's Q5) is joined by a white R8 Spyder, but boss Rupert Stadler is more interested in talking up continuing sales success, claiming the no.1 spot in Europe so far this year and big growth in China. But how big can Audi get?

1.05pm: Kia comes good
BP In the same hall is Kia, which reports that sales are up 8.5% in the first 8 months year-on-year. The facelifted Ceed is on display, but i reckon it looked better pre-surgery. There's also the new Sorento SUV, and the Soul's sensible sister, the MPV Venga. Reports that the Venga Boys would perform don't prove to be true though.

12.39pm: Lambo largesse
TP Stephan Winkelman unveils the Reventon Roadster. Only one in 700 million people will own one. Better start saving...

12.25pm: MX-5 lite
BP I catch the end of Volvo's press conference after spending too long looking at Ferraris and Maseratis. The Swedes unveil facelifted versions of the C30 and C70. Then it's on to Mazda to see the lovely little Superlight concept. I'm told it won't be built though. even in a limited run. A shame.

12.25pm: Mulsanne whispers in
TP Franz-Josef Paefgen whisks the cover off the Arnage-replacing Mulsanne. And we hear more of the tech spec: 6.75-litre V8, cylinder deactivation, 512hp, a whopping 1010Nm of torque at just 1800rpm. And the best news? It looks way better than CAR's early scoop pix earlier this summer. Quite Conti-ish, but bigger, more imposing. And get this. It takes them 15 hours just to hand stitch the steering wheel. The cabin feels classic old Bentley, those veneers encircling the cabin take a fortnight to make. But it's dripping with tech. Those looks still divide some opinion, mind you.

12.20am: Exquisite Italian style
BP Ferrari starts its press conference perfectly, with a video of one red and one yellow 458 Italia racing and drifting around a race circuit. Then Luca di Montezemolo mentions 'innovations' about a million times before introducing Micheal Schumacher. Luca teases Schui about motorcycle racing (a crash injured his neck and stopped an F1 comeback) but as the seven-times champ now test drives Ferraris it can't all be bad.

11.50am: She's electric
BP Renault reveals four electric car concepts at its press conference. And the bosses are beaming because we'll see the Fluence and Kangoo on sale if early 2011, before the mad Twizy follows at the end of 2011. Bar the concept glitz they're ready, and then we'll see a five-door supermini 2012. They mean a lot more than an electric R8 concept.

11:45am: The Sleeping Beauty awakes?
MH I'm at Lancia now where a school classroom may have been the inspiration for the blackboards and storybook quotes. Lancia is the thoughtful, intelligent brand of the Fiat group, so all the spokesmodels are wearing glasses. There are many Lancia enthusiasts in the forum, and I wonder how they would perceive the Delta Executive, the Ypsilon Elle and the Musa, which they are proposing to market at The New City Limousine...

11.34am: Always work with animals
BP Aston unveils the Rapide and then boss Dr. Ulrich Bez lets two dogs out the back seats. He leaves design boss Marek Reichman to hold them, while he predicts that car sales won't return to 2007 levels until 2012. But the Rapide looks cool, and Bez all but confirms the Cygnet for production.

11.27am: VW's eco saints
TP VW's tech chief is introducing the new 87g/km Polo Bluemotion. Now it's the turn of the new T5 van - our long-term test California camper van has been facelifted. There's even a DSG version now. Shame ours has gone back... But now it gets more interesting. The bizarrely named E-Up is here and Piech's latest tech showcase the 1-litre car takes pride of place. A single gullwing canopy opens to reveal 1+1 seating. The car creeps forward through a sea of dancers and we see the thinnest, cigar-shaped mini you've ever seen. Tech boss Ulrich Hackenberg stresses how achievable it is: a two-cyl hybrid engine, carbonfibre build, diddy dimensions. You put 10 litres in, and you can drive 730km, says VW. It weighs just 380kg - but could be less if you junked the ESP etc. No word they're going to build it though. A shame.

11.23am: Volkswagen wins the corporate willy-waving
TP just walked into VW's Hall 3 and I'm blinded by a white citadel. The lights are bright. The decor is very white. It's epically vast, nearly as big as one entire half of the Geneva motor show. I'm late and there are no headsets. I don't appear to be missing much: they're introducing the board members individually. Now here's style chief Walter de Silva talking up the Polo 3dr. I was standing here when the 9/11 news broke eight years ago. A sobering thought.

11.21am: Prescott would be proud
BP Make that two Jags - just spotted a second (white) one. Still would.

11:20am: Babes in Toyland?
MH It's all gone a bit juvenile at the Fiat group compound here on Frankfurt. Fiat booth is decorated by children's drawings, and AstroTurf covers the floor. Fiat making grab for eco accolades with lowest average CO2 in its range. Bringing out the little kids who apparently did the booth illustrations to unveil the new Punto Evo is cute and fits the whole future-friendly zeitgeist. Having some of the spokesmodels in a sort of schoolgirl outfit is also...err...well. Discuss.

11.15am: Back tracking
BP With Ford's press conference over (and a seven seat version of the S-Max) unveiled alongside the five seater it's off to Aston Martin. But along the way i spy a new Jag XJ wafting around. It's brown, but i still wouldn't mind one as a taxi.

11:10am: Fiat Group's Cygnet Killer?
MH at Abarth Harald Wester is talking about the 696 Tributo Ferrari, and Assetto Corse 500s. Ferrari already using specially-built Abarth 500s as dealer courtesy vehicles...does this make the much- unloved Aston Cygnet more or less palatable to the readers? On another note, Robby1977's spokesmodel friend Petra is not at the Abarth booth as far as I could see, sorry mate.

11.09am: Ford goes to the maximum
TP Ford announces plenty of new products. The new C-Max looks like a baby S-Max with lashings of Kuga for good measure. And there'll be a seven-seat Grand C-Max this time. Read our separate story for the full details. Plenty of eco chat, too. Naturally. The C-Max family usher in the first European Ecoboost engines, with a turbo'ed, directly injected 1.6. And the battery powered Focus is unveiled; alas just a trial at this stage, but interesting nonetheless. Ford sounds confident and there's an oblique reminder that they've not been to bankruptcy, when CEO John Fleming reminds the audience what a tough year it's been for the industry. On this evidence, Ford is prospering...

11.02am: Ford press conference
BP Reach hall 3 for Ford's press conference but only find the VW Group. Bugger - it's on the next floor up. How big is this place?

10.40am: A doodle of designers at Citroen
TP What's a collective group of designers called? There are plenty of rival stylists mooching over the unfortunately named Citroen Revolte. Outgoing Renault design boss Patrick le Quement and Brit Julian Thompson are all here. The Revolte's interesting - a plug-in range extender whose tech will come to Citroen showroom by 2012. And I love the Alfa SZ style headlights. New C3's panoramic windscreen is cool and it'll be standard on most models.

10.55am: Tim in a toyshop!
TP always go off piste at a motor show, so important. En route to Ford's C-Max unveiling, I come across a whole row of toy car stands. Heaven! An especially detailed Dino catches my eye, but I'm travelling light today... Steely eyed JP Morgan analysts following a VW flag walk by looking they mean business. 
 

10.45am: SLS time
BP Once we've been sensible and seen the E-class EState Merc boss dieter Zetsche drives on stage in the new SL AMG. But then Lewis Hamilton appears as well, the photographers go mad, and after a few shots he has to almost run off to stop himself getting trampled. Poor lad.

10.30am: Mercedes madness
BP I make it to Merc's press conference - with a plan. Two years i was late to this press conference, stood at the back, and then got mobbed as the other journos lunged for press packs. This time i grab mine early to push to the front, ready for the next half hour

10:30 We're a happy family at VW/Porsche
MH Porsche press conference. Recovering from walk down from BMW (a newbie challenge from Tim?). Need for shuttle car a readily apparent now. Porsche CEO Michael Macht is bullish about the Panamera- already has 4500 orders&expecting to sell 20000 in the first year. Fun fact- Claim that Dr Porsche built the 1st car with hybrid drive in 1907. I may need to go hug a tree soon to get into the mood of the show. Then again, the new GT3 RS is next door... Fiat group coming up, best get over there

10.09am: Bonkers Brabus
BP Brabus starts its press conference on a different theme from Tesla, promising one of the new cars it will unveil today will easily best the 215mph top speed the Mercedes-powered F1 cars were acheiving at the weekend. Boss Bodo Buschmann pulls the wraps off a 800bhp twin-turbo V12 E-class. Just ten will be made, and top speed is around 230mph thanks to covers over the rear wheels. 498k Euros plus VAT, but including worldwide air delivery. Don't worry though - also revealed is a Smart car with an electric powertrain from Tesla meaning 3.7sec to 62mph. 

10.00am: Tesla's troubles
BP With Brabus-tuned Mercs in the background, Elon Musk kicks off his press conference by handing over the keys to the 700th car his company has built. But car alarms go off on other stands and with many mainstream manufacturers showing electric cars at Frankfurt this Pioneer is getting drowned out

9.53am: Wild Wiesmann
BP Thanks to my taxi service i'm early to Tesla, so there's enough time to looks over Wiesmann's MF5 Roadster. The 501bhp BMW V10 appeals, but the white paint and red leather doesn't

9.40am: Choosing not to walk
BP Tim's told me about BMW's press shuttles, a fleet of white EfficientDynamic cars that shuttle us between huge halls. In the interest of saving my legs i hitch a ride in a 3-series towards hall 5 to hear from Tesla.

9.35am: Opel in combative form
TP GM's European boss Carl-Peter Forster is in fighting spirit after last week's sale announcement. 'To those who say Opel is only surviving on government subsidy, I say allow us to do our job. We have an exciting future with Magna.' Forster says Opel will continue to develop cars with the US mothership. 'Otherwise cars like the Ampera won't be possible.' The new Astra is shown and the message is quality. It looks better in the metal - I thought it quite Leon-like in the photos but in rich red it looks edge, modern. I like. Prices will start at E15,900 in Europe and the Ecoflex one manages 109g/km, with sub 100g/km versions to follow. News on the Ampera plug-in hybrid too: the range has dipped to 60km (to protect the battery). It looks modern sitting next to the Astra; I just hope they can get the maths right and sell the Ampera at a realistic price. Otherwise, it'll sink.

9.24am: Mini's big birthday
BP boss Ian Robertson shouts 'Let's Mini'  and steps aside as a huge blow-up birthday cake floats up to reveal the company's two new concepts. Both are confirmed for production in Oxford, but no dates are given.  

8.40am: BMW starts the day
BP Bmw has built an oval track around it's hall, so company boss Klaus Draeger (boss of BMW's development programmes) arrives at high speed in 5 GT. Then we get a brown X1, new Efficient Dynamics 320d, the 7 and X6 hybrids and finally the stunning Vision sports car concept. No mention of the M versions of the X5 or X6, because this BMW presenting it's clean and green side

8.30am: BMW kick off the IAA
TP A Vision EfficientDynamics silently glides round the BMW bowl that rings the BM stand. Norbert Reithofer tells us of his plans for the new 'Megacity' clean small car, yet he also points out BMW sell more 4x4s than any other premium marque. Unlikely bedfellows? Am sitting next to CAR reader Car4mh - we missed the first bit of the press conference because the translator was late - arrived halfway through the show, amusingly out of breath! The EfficientDynamics looks awesome: fresh, different, new. A 1.5-litre turbodiesel supercar? Very apt for our times...

8.15am: It's show time!
BP Survived my taxi journey to the show in a Zafira (not as roomy as the Sedona in the back) but i've been dropped at the wrong end. That means a mile-long walk to the BMW stand for the first press conference of the day, talking and taking orders from Tim the whole way. 

2.30am: Time to finish uploading
TP Feeling a bit frazzled from all the uploading. Our man at the VW party has just finished sending his pictures over; if you're wondering why the homepage is a bit VW Group-tastic tonight, it's because they have a pre-show soirée where they unveil their cars before doing the same thing all over again in the morning. Strange, but true. I'm meeting CAR Online reader Car4mh at 8.00am at the show and need some kip before the big day. All those horror stories about the Frankfurt motor show are true: it must be four or five times the size of the Birmingham NEC and is frankly way too big. I remember a journalist died at my first Frankfurt show in 1999 from heat exhaustion. Best have a glass of water before bed!


MONDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2009

10.45pm: Back to the hotel
TP Motor shows sound glamorous, but believe me they're not in this digital age. It's back to the Mac to upload this evening's goings-on.

9.50pm: The Volkswagen group shindig
PMc Just seen the Bugatti Mulsanne for the second time after a sneak preview up at Crewe a few weeks back. But I'm far more interested in what Bentley (and Bugatti) boss Franz-Josef Paefgen is driving here, as he glides onto stage in a tiny yellow car. It's an ancient electric Bugatti that's been served up from the guts of an archive somewhere. Must have a closer look. Hard to reconcile this Ever Ready museum piece with a Veyron!

7.40pm: Downtown Frankfurt and a Lagonda
TP En route to a dinner with some industry types and I spot what must be the Aston Martin party. There's a wedgy slice of automobilia called the Lagonda parked outside a hotel in downtown Frankfurt, with a gaggle of latter-day Astons nearby. Looks v v far removed from that 4x4 thing we saw at Geneva. I do hope they get this Lagonda revival thing right – we plan to ask the question tomorrow.

6.45pm: The Sedona Express arrives
BP Think I might have picked the short straw. While associate ed Pollard and editor McNamara flew over to Germany, I drove in a revised Kia Sedona. But we've covered the miles quickly and are now in Frankfurt, although I have no idea where. That's sat-nav for you.

5.17pm: Blue Ovals checks in
TP Am out here on a Ford ticket, so just flown over with a gaggle of journalists. Ex-Ford bigwig Martin Leach was sitting behind me on the plane but was deep in conversation for the whole flight. I'd be intrigued to hear his views on the Magna takeover of Opel/Vauxhall, as Leach has experience of working with Russian firm Gaz. Hey-ho.

2.53pm: Bugatti's four-door concept

PMc Slightly roundabout route to Frankfurt, stopping off in Molsheim for a VIP preview of Bugatti's new car. It's a four-seat, five-door car, conceptually quite close to its Panamera stablemate. But with the Veyron's 16 cylinder engine, it will be even more rapid, the world's quickest four-seater no less. The grille, surfacing and lamps link it to the Veyron, the rear end is inspired by the legendary 57S Atlantic. The car won't be shown at Frankfurt, although a customer roadshow has already begun. Time to get to Frankfurt, sadly by train not Veyron...

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman, Phil McNamara and Mark Hamilton