2008 Canary Wharf London Motor Expo - Swedish & American Makes

Date: 15 June 2008
Venue: Canary Wharf, Docklands, London
Tube: Jubilee Line, DLR

I grouped this 2 makes together as there are not many Swedish makes around. American cars are not easily found in the UK and not cheap due to its market size. British people doesn't really like American cars...

Anyway, cut short all the stuff and lets have a look at Swedish cars first. Volvo came to the expo and most people around only know Volvo from Sweden. Other car makers in Sweden? I'm not sure about it myself... lazy to do research though...

Swedish - Volvo

This is the Volvo C30 hot hatch. I love the front but don't really like the rear view... looks a bit awkward...
C70 convertible
I love convertibles and I think C70 is quite a handsome looking car. Volvo nowadays really design good looking cars... not like in the 80s and early 90s... boxy tank design... gee...
XC90
It was launched few years back to grab a share in the European SUV market to compete with other SUVs like BMW X5, VW Touareg, Audi Q7 etc.
XC60
Latest SUV from Volvo which is smaller than the XC90 to compete with BMW X3 etc. This unit at the expo was the only unit in UK as it was not yet on sale by the time of the car expo so it's a left hand drive. Looks very very nice if compare to the BMW X3.
So much for Volvo.

Heading towards American cars. American cars are usually famous for its size, high fuel consumptions and strange designs. Due to that, it was not widely accepted around other parts of the world, and nowadays even Americans don't really like the idea of it. Famous American marques include Ford, GM, Chevrolet, Cadillac and etc.

Cadillac

It's an American marque which is very famous among the celebrities. It built strange cars and etc. Anyway...

Escalade
Celebrities like Escalade, rappers loves it. I don't know why... but they just love it.
CTS4
This looks better... Not much comment as I'm not too familiar with American cars....
STS
Probably the elder sibling of CTS4. Probably something like BMW 3 and 5 series's different. I prefer the CTS4 over this STS.

Chevrolet

The car Chevy displayed is the famous Corvette Z06 sports car. The only model displayed along with it's convertible version. As there are not much difference, i just put one here.

Hummer

Hummer, a brand of GM, is a controversial brand. It was started as a military vehicle but it was then mass produced to the consumer market. Hummer, totally famous for its massive size, massive engine displacement and massive fuel consumption. The H2 then tries to make its way to Europe but it didn't sell at all. Until the H3, which is the one shown here, start selling a bit. Smaller in size, smaller displacement but still high fuel consumption if compare to other SUVs. It's not as huge as H1 and H2. Even though most people doesn't like, celebrities still love it. Even Becks got a Hummer.


Anyway, that's all for the Swedish and American section. I'll cover about modification and special section if I got time later.

2008 Canary Wharf London Motor Expo - German Makes

Date: 15 June 2008
Venue: Canary Wharf, Docklands, London
Tube: Jubilee Line, DLR

The previous post is all about British cars and now it will be German cars. Germany has lots of history in car manufacturing. Most of Malaysian people are more interested in Mercedes, I really don't know why as I'm not a huge fan of it, but now I think it had already improved and it starts to catch my attention a little bit. As for other German manufacturers, there are Audi, BMW, Volkswagen, Porsche and etc. For me, I'm a total BMW fan.

In this Motor Expo, Audi did not participate and it does not participate in the British International Motor Show (BIMS) as well which is totally disappointing. Anyway, here are the pictures I took of the German marques.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen (VW), what do you think of when I mention it? Many people know VW Beetle, the classic cute car which started production since 1938 until 2003. In 1998, the New Beetle rolled out of the production line and sold since then, but the classic Beetle was still in production and was phasing out.

This is the New Beetle convertible which was displayed at the Motor Expo along with other VWs.
Another VW which grab the attention of the crowds is the VW Golf or known as VW Rabbit in some countries. The 2 models displayed at the Expo were the Golf Mk5 GTI and R32. Among the 2 models, most people choose to drive the GTI 2.0L rather than R32 even though R32 has the 3.2L V6 under the hood as to fuel consumption and many said the GTI is a better driving machine.
The difference from behind.... Silver one is the R32 while the red one is the GTI.
Other than the Beetle and Golf, there are still many more models available. Here are few of them which were displayed at the Expo.

This is the New Passat, similar size to the BMW 5 Series or the Mercedes E-Class.
This one is the Phaeton, the most luxurious is VW fleet.
This is the VW Eos convertible, another of my VW favourite. It's not too big and it's a convertible. The price is not too attractive though. I think it should be a fun car to drive.
As for SUVs, VW has 2 models displayed. The smaller Tiguan and the huge Touareg. Personally I go for the Touareg if I need to choose one.
Well, so much for the Volkswagen at the Expo.

Mercedes Benz

For the Mercedes Benz, I did not have much to say about it as I'm not really a big fan and I had seen too much of it running around. There is 2 models which I would like to share though. That will be the new CLC class and the facelifted SL. Other one displayed is the S-class and maybe there are others? I forgot... There are only 5 photos taken at the MB section and I'll show them all.

This is the CLC, looks quite similar to the old C-class hatch, but with uglier rear lights and the new C-class lookalike lights. I seriously doubt that the designers were drunk when they design the rear lights, and the cheapo wheels. They called it an entry level sports coupe!! Must be joking... No wonder it had poor reviews...
And the new SL facelift model. This unit which was displayed here actually was sold already. I wonder who bought it. I can't feel my adrenalin rushing at all.
Overall, I think I like the new S-class more and I think the best model will be the CLS which was not displayed at the expo. AMG models are more interesting but they are all not there.

Porsche

Yawn.... for the designs of Porsche.... every single one of them looks so similar that I can't really differenciate some of them... facelift no facelift it's all the same. In the end, I still love the classic ones as they have more characteristics.

Well this is the Cayenne GTS, a more powerful Cayenne. People around are saying the Cayenne looks horrible. I can't deny it though. In the end, I only love one thing about it, when the engine starts to consume fuel and roars. A true monster under the hood. Design wise.. duh...
This is the Cayman... I don't know what is special about it...
The 911 Turbo... I only know it is expensive... and it's a turbo.
and that's... Porsche..

BMW

BMW, I'm lovin' it, really. My wallpaper is a BMW, on my table there is BMW picture, my dream car is a BMW... geezz...
BMW, Bayerische Motoren Werke, or known as Bavarian Motor Works in English, used to build aircraft at first, that is why BMW logo is a blue and white propeller. It was founded in 1913 by building aircraft, then after World War 1, 1924, they start to build motorcycles. Then their automotive history started since even before 1924 as proposals and prototypes. They build their first car since 1927 onwards. Read more here.

So much for that, here are some of the models displayed.

This is the new 135i and the one displayed is the M Sport convertible version. They say the 135i is the replacement for the old E30 3 series which is still famous until now that no other BMWs can replace for it's niche handling. Actually this 135i really is similar to E30 in its size as the current 3 series has already grown up a lot in size like all other cars.
The 135i has paddle shift fitted.
The other one will be the X6 xDrive35d which has a controversial design of hatchback on a SUV body. The X6 has its own class which is called SAV, which stands for Sports Activity Vehicle.
I think it looks fabulous in real, better than in the picture. Even though some people doesn't like the design, I love it as it got its own character which nobody dares to think of.
And finally... my dream car.... The M3. This unit is the E93 convertible model.
It has the classic M3 wheels like previous version. The M style quad exhaust pipe for the new 4.0L 420hp V8 under the hood.
The guy then suddenly came out with the key and ignite the V8. My goodness it sounds so so nice and powerful!! Well, he revved the engine for a few times then there goes the roof. The roof retracted in 22 seconds.

Well, that's all for the German cars section. I'll post more about others in later posts...