Geneva is the Switzerland of auto shows. Without much of a local auto industry, Geneva is a neutral territory with no favorites. The 2014 show now underway is heavy on tech cars andgreen cars. This was where Apple chose to unveil CarPlay – the proprietary connection between iPhones and car infotainment systems – alongside Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. The 84th edition of Salon International de l’Auto is also heavy on supercars you’ll never afford; small cars and microcars that won’t come to the US because American behinds just won’t fit in narrow seats; and brands that lost footing in the US market and haven’t returned, such as Peugeot with its 308 compact hatchback European car-of-the-year.
Here are the top five new cars at the Geneva Motor Show with lots of promise and standout technology — and yes, they’re all coming to the US.
Volvo Concept Estate, the next XC-90
The Volvo Concept Estate (featured photo) is the stalking horse for the aging warhorse 2015 Volvo XC-90 midsize SUV. The Concept Estate has features intended to wow auto show attendees such as wafer-thin seats, two not four doors, and a low roofline. But the dashboard looks production ready with an LCD instrument panel, a big vertical center stack display in a 4:3 ratio, and few center stock buttons or knobs. Volvo designers share the distaste shown by Cadillac and Lincoln (until recently) for many center stack controls when there’s a touchscreen available. The Geneva center stack shows seven controls: hazard, parking assist, track forward and back, play-pause and volume (the big center knob), and two defrost buttons. If Cadillac CUE and MyLincoln Touch are typical, Volvo may hear mixed customer feedback.
The current XC-90 dates to 2003, an eternity for cars. The new XC-90 is slated for production in the second half of the year. Likely it will be the first Volvo with Apple CarPlay. It’s also the vehicle where Volvo tries to reclaim the high ground on safety from Audi-BMW-Mercedes — German automakers with adaptive cruise control and steering assist, active high beam lighting that blanks the area pointing at oncoming cars, low-speed car and pedestrian detection with warnings and auto-braking, even a pedestrian airbag in front, like a cow-catcher on a train only gentler. It will also get Volvo’s just-released 2-liter, 300-hp four-cylinder engine that uses both a turbocharger and supercharger. The XC-90 is about the size of an Acura MDX, BMW X5, or Toyota Highlander.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe banks in corners
The rich are different. They won’t get carsick as much going around curves if they’re in thenew Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe, a swoopy two-door version of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan, the reigning ExtremeTech Car of the Year. As part of Mercedes’ umbrella Intelligent Drive system and subset technology called Magic Body Controls, the S-Class sedan used a stereo camera to read the road ahead for bumps and adjusted the suspension before arriving at the bumps. The coupe at Geneva debuted an additional feature, active curve tilting function. When the coupe goes around a corner, the air suspension jacks up the outer side (right side when turning left) and the car actually banks into the turn. High-end automakers have had features to counter body lean once you’re in a curve; Mercedes appears to be predicting and adapting as the car enters the curve.
“The [coupe] leans into bends much like a motorcyclist … reducing the lateral acceleration acting on the vehicle’s occupants,” says Prof Dr Thomas Weber, the Mercedes board member overseeing R&D. “On country roads in particular, this means greater driving pleasure and ride comfort for our customers.”
All the other cool S-Class tech continues, from a fragrance dispenser to two huge LCD displays in the instrument panel and center stack up through semi-autonomous driving. The car’s multiple radars and cameras pace you to the car in front, slow for other cars, steer for you (as long as it feels your hands on the wheel), and swerves to avoid pedestrians and oncoming cars. If you feel the need, you can specify a headlamp package with Swarovski crystals. The coupe that banks requires money in the bank. The price starts at an estimated $115,000, $20,000 more than the sedan, and can hit $200,000 with the AMG high performance edition.
Taste is in the eye of the beholder, perhaps no more so than the optional offering of 47 Swarovski crystals to dress up the running lamp and turn signal on each side.
BMW 2 Series Active Tourer is (gasp) front-drive
A couple years ago, BMW surveyed customers in Europe. “Would front-drive cars fit with BMW’s image?” the company asked. Some respondents replied, “You mean BMWs aren’t front-drive already?” BMW enthusiasts wept, but that was the green light BMW needed to create a front-drive-platform car sharing technology with Mini. Front-drive technology with the engine mounted left to right (transverse mount) rather than front to back lets BMW create a vehicle with more space than a rear-drive vehicle of the same length. It is expected to be a 2016 vehicle. Best think of it as the cross between a hatchback compact car, say a VW Golf, and a taller SUV. From some angles, it looks like a Honda CR-V, only six inches shorter at 172 inches, or 4370 mm.
For the world market, there will be three-cylinder, four-cylinder, and four-cylinder diesel engines, all turbocharged. The US probably won’t get the diesel, even if it gets about 65 mpg highway. There will be lots of tech since this is a BMW and BMW has learned that customers often want well-equipped small cars, whether they’re boomers downsizing or San Francisco dot-com Millennials with money to burn even after paying for housing and carousing. Tech will include a head-up display, the first on a car this small; automatic rear tailgate opening; collision warning and city braking. All-wheel drive might come later, most likely as a hybrid with electric motors powering the rear wheels.
It will likely list for less than $30,000 since the rear-drive 1 Series sedan currently starts at $32,000 with freight and front-drive is lower in the pecking order. BMW last year added the 2 Series and 4 Series to its lineup to indicate a swoopier coupe version, still-rear-drive, of the 1 Series and 3 Series. Now the 2 Series nameplate also stands for a front-drive crossover/SUV. Either way, it would compete with the Audi A3 wagon and Mercedes-Benz GLA SUV. Don’t confuse the 2 Series Active Tourer with the just-announced BMW X4 Sports Activity Coupe, which is a downsized BMW X6. Both are effectively hatchback SUV versions of the X3 and X5.
