Climb in, settle down and buckle in as we hit the open road to the lakeside city of Geneva to see what the automotive industry has rolled out to tantalize us with this year. Europe’s Finest Automakers Bring their Best to the 2009 Geneva Motor Show Of all the countries in the world to host a major auto show, Switzerland would seem the least likely. While several of its neighbors are home to major carmakers, Switzerland is almost entirely bereft of this industry. And yet, for many years, the Geneva auto salon has remained the most prominent annual motor show in Europe, if not the world. What has remained a bit of an anomaly most years, however, seems to make perfect sense this time around. With the world’s economy in shambles, the automotive industry has certainly not been exempt from financial turmoil. The newspapers have, for the past year or
SM Magazine Spring 2009
so, been packed with stories of automakers posting record losses, closing factories, laying off workers, scrambling to streamline operations, trimming extraneous spending, canceling programs, changing ownership and appearing before government bodies, hats in hand. With red ink encroaching on black on balance sheets across the industry, what better place, then, to convene than in the world’s banking capital? However, as the veils lifted at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, the world’s automakers seemed keener than ever to put their troubles behind them and celebrate the automobile in all its glory. By the time the doors will have closed this spring at Geneva’s
Palexpo, some of Europe’s – and indeed, the world’s finest automakers will have unveiled their latest concept and production vehicles, leaving us with little doubt that, financial crisis or not, the show must go on. So climb in, settle down and buckle in as we hit the open road to the lakeside city of Geneva to see what the automotive industry has rolled out to tantalize us with this year. Our road strip starts just offshore from the Continent in the United Kingdom, home to several of our favorite luxury automakers. A small carmaker by all accounts, Aston Martin astonished by unveiling no fewer than four new vehicles. The production version of the V12 Vantage showcar – the company’s smallest