Paris Motor Show, the first day

It may not be the biggest in floor space — that's Frankfurt — but the Paris Motor Show attracts the largest number of visitors, I'm pretty sure, writes Brian Byrne.

It's also the one with the most glitz, as there's stacks of room for the exhibitors, especially the French. So it's all about style, the cars, the place and the people.

Except for us journalists, where comfortable clothes, especially shoes, are the dress order of the day, because there's an awful lot of going around between the various halls, trying to get news, views and pictures.

Like the Peugeot 508 RXH above, a variant of the rejuvenated medium family car with which the distributor in Ireland stole a march on Paris by getting one down to the recent National Ploughing Championships ... and that particular car was actually bought off the stand. The RXH is a 4WD version, which also has diesel hybrid power.



We were very taken too with this very rugged 2008 DKR from Peugeot, shown alongside the sporty 208 GTI 30th (below), both at extreme ends of the carmaking spectrum.

Nearby, sibling company Citroen was showcasing a variant of the Cactus which was only recently launched in Ireland, the Cactus Airflow Concept. With an even lighter construction than the standard car, and power from the upcoming compressed air hybrid which the company is developing, they reckon it will come in the fuel economy stakes at around 118mpg equivalent.

Ford is trying to get an edge on the large SUV market with its car of the same name, coming to Ireland from its native US towards the end of next year. The Mustang for Europe, the first time it will have been available officially over here, and in RHD form, comes a bit sooner, in mid year, as will the new Grand-C-MAX.

Jeep's little Renegade, a funky and friendly offroader which I drove in the metal and the mud last week, is the key car on the Jeep stand, though there is also considerable interest in the larger and more familiar offerings there.



One concept that we're definitely going to see in the fairly near future is the Type R Honda Civic, looking really good here in a special blue livery. It will have 280hp under the bonnet, which will easily see off most of the competitor compact hot hatches, and probably a few of the exotics too.



Another Honda offering is the new HR-V, which will pick up on a name in Ireland for which there is a very strong affection since before the older version ceased production.



And Honda has done some nice freshening to its CR-V, with smart new front and rear treatments and some more tweaking to the 1.6 diesel that has gained it a lot of customers in recent times.



There's continuing interest in fuel cell research over at Honda, and they're showcasing their Fuel Cell Sedan at Paris this year, the first time it has been in Europe. And it's a real car, going on sale in a number of global markets next year. Its only emissions are water vapour, and it has the range of a standard petrol car.



The Volkswagen offerings are in numbers, and among them are this Golf Alltrak, which adds to the range of ruggedised hatches and estates which are quite popular. In its own camp it also joins the Passat Alltrak, and gets the latest 4WD drive system from Haldex. On sale next year.



This Passat GTE is Volkswagen's first plug-in hybrid, and will offer CO2 emissions as low as 37g/km, not just making things good for cost-conscious buyers, but also bringing down the overall fleet average for emissions, critical for carmakers in Europe as we get closer to a 2020 deadline.



The key premiere on the Audi stand was the TTS Convertible. As before, it's a fabric top, and the company says it folds quicker and is quieter again than its predecessor. An interesting concept on the TT theme was a wagon version, or sportback, which might well become real if the attention that it was getting is any instruction to Audi.

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