Taipei Car Show 2013-2014

Let's start the show rolling with the biggest positive surprise at the Taipei Car Show: the Honda NSX concept. Hadn't seen it before, probably because I'm not that interested in Japanese cars in general, even though I spent most of my life driving various generations of Honda Civics. Another Japanese surprise follows further down.

For the first time ever, the Italians came to the show, or at least Ferrari and Maserati. You know the Ferraris, including the FF, so I only shot the Maseratis, including the Ghibli in its Taiwanese premiere.

Spyker is a rare Dutch treasure. They nearly broke the house by buying Saab, but here they are in Taipei.

As one of the most popular foreign car brands in Taiwan, Mercedes was strongly represented with models ranging from the A-class to the huge GL SUV. The emphasis was on the AMG line, though.

Eye to eye with the CLS Shooting Brake.

 The SL 63 AMG, rear and front.

 The Porsche Boxster. The Porsche Macan was guest of honor, but that meant it was locked up in a small room and you had to line up for half an hour if you wanted to see it. Not worth the effort, since it looks too much like the Cayenne.

 BMW also had a strong lineup, including the i3, which is already known from so many pictures. I loved their taillights, in this case a 3-series.

 Bentley, a brand with cars that cost at least half a million US dollars a piece in Taiwan. You still see them more and more.

 The Bentley Mulsanne, worth more than 750,000 US dollars.

 McLaren's first appearance in Taipei.

 Another one of my favorite German brands, Audi, with the R8 Spyder, aka Iron Man's car.

 The taillight of the Audi A8, sorry S8, to break the rhythm a bit.

 And finally, the other Japanese surprise: the Lexus LF-LC.

Conclusion: one of the best Taipei car shows ever. The brands that were absent either don't sell cars in Taiwan (GM, Chrysler, Fiat, Renault, Seat, Kia - which returns next year) or chose not to be there (Lamborghini, Rolls Royce). Everybody else was there: VW, Skoda, the Japanese from Toyota to Subaru and Daihatsu, and even Korea's ugly duckling, Ssangyong.
I also looked around for model cars, with Mercedes and Audi having excellent choice, but at inflated prices: about 70 USD for models so tiny I didn't even play when those when I was five, and more than 200 USD for the serious models, so I didn't buy anything.

The Taipei Car Show 6: Porsche Panamera 2

For all the Porsche fans I offended with my previous post, here's another dose of happiness: the same Panamera 4S as seen from the front. Sort of proves my point that all Porsches look very much the same, but hey, if that look is nice, why not. It kept the brand alive, which is more than you could say for Saab.
Surprisingly, the bankrupt General Motors daughter was quite strongly represented at the Taipei Car Show.
Totally absent were: the rest of the GM House of Horrors including Opel, all Italian car brands you can think of, Renault and Citroen from France.
Present: China's Chery whose cars I had never seen before, Taiwan's new Luxgen brand with the minibus and the even newer SUV, South Korea's Hyundai with a car that looked like a cheap Chinese Mercedes S-class ripoff, and of course all the big Japanese and German guys. Europe's car of the year, the tiny Volkswagen Polo, had just one modest yellow version present. Still, a well-spent morning at the Taipei Car Show. But next time, include the Italians.

The Taipei Car Show 5: Porsche Panamera

I'm one of those simple people who think all Porsches are alike and their looks never changed in 30 or 40 years.
The Cayenne was the first sign that something was happening in Porscheland, an SUV or a Porsche on stilts.
The next find: a Porsche for people who want to sit in the back of a car. The Panamera. With a car like a Porsche, you probably want to sit behind the wheel.
Let's hope the merger with Volkswagen only gives them good ideas, not Baby Porsches.