Insignia, Fiesta, MiTo: a great new generation of cars

I love the Motor Show. The glitter, the glamour, the sheen on improbably clean car you’re seeing for the first time in the metal. It’s all pulse-quickening stuff. And while car makers this time have pushed their low-CO2, eco-cars hard, there are still more than a few quick and exotic cars on their way to us, too.

My favourite from yesterday’s visit? The Alfa MiTo. This new baby hatchback didn’t draw me when I first saw pictures of it a few weeks back. But in the metal, it’s a better car: cute, neatly proportioned and a genuine character. And the best news is that one could be yours in a few months’ time for £11k or thereabouts.

The show saw two top-sellers unveiled: Vauxhall’s Vectra replacement, the Insignia, and the new Ford Fiesta. When Vauxhall announced some months back that it was dropping the Vectra name after 13 years, I felt puzzled. But when I sat in the Insignia, the penny dropped. It looks and feels a more expensive car than the Vectra ever was. And Vauxhall needed the name-change to make that plain. If it drives to match its looks, Vauxhall has a winner on its hands.

I have no doubt that the new Fiesta will be a whizz to pilot: the current one is already among the best at its size and price. But the new one is different because it looks distinctive and different without and within. Ford have also managed to trim the CO2 figure for its Econetic Fiesta to 98g/km – lower than any other conventionally fuelled car on sale. It has the hallmark of a winner.

While tramping the show’s aisles, I also thought about the names you won’t see at the ExCel venue: Audi, BMW, Fiat, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Skoda and Volkswagen. These companies have decided to keep the millions that exhibiting costs to spend elsewhere. For all the showbiz fun that the Motor Show provides, it is, after all, about selling cars.

But it’s hard for any maker to count just how many sales directly result from a buyer seeing a car on a stand. Which is why, I guess these seven decided to stay home.

If you’re going, enjoy the show. If you’ve comments on the show, or any car you saw, post ‘em below.