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THERE
are motor shows and there are motor shows. One could say
that each and every one has its own peculiarity. The
Tokyo Motor Show is all about technology. In Detroit it
is all about power and muscle, while in Paris it is
almost always about auto fashion. (What? It is France,
after all!)
But in
truly Filipino fashion, the 2nd Philippine International
Motor Show (PIMS) was all about hoopla, presentation and
entertainment.
A
presidential visit started the ball rolling with
Philippine Head of State Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo popping
in to give her take on the motoring industry and a few
other bothersome national issues. She then took a tour
of all the automobile-industry booths accompanied by
Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines
Inc. head Elizabeth Lee and personally congratulated
each and every officer of the industry.
But that
was just a taste of what was to happen the whole of the
opening day.
Next generation for a safer
world
Volvo’s unique presentation involved children who sang
about the advantages of a safer (motoring) world from a
Volvo point of view.
--JudeMorte
The
fanfare began at exactly 12 noon, when Hyundai began its
presentation. Hosted by no less than well-known TV
personality TJ Manotoc, the Hyundai spool was
highlighted by song diva Regine Velasquez belting out
Hyundai’s theme song while their new models were being
revealed to the media and the public.
Not to
be outdone, PGA Cars came next with a totally elitist
number by a world-class violinist, Jay Cayuca, doing his
thing around the (oh-so beautiful) Audi R8 and finally
ending it with the introduction of the new Porsche
Cayenne.
Toyota,
Honda and BMW came up with really tricky numbers before
introducing their new models, and Suzuki came out with a
smasher when it introduced its new Swift and Grand
Vitara.
But the
real lookers were the presentations of Volvo and Isuzu,
which were held in their booths located directly in
front of one another. Volvo, grandiose in its area with
apple cider in clinking wine glasses (no wine at 12:30
p.m., please), had socialite youths do the presenting
for them, similar to a high-end Disney-cum-Sesame Street
number that endeared them to the crowd.
Immediately thereafter Isuzu had its colorful,
80s-inspired number that was so masa that it was
a complete counterpoint to Volvo’s. This kept everyone
tapping their heels to the tempo.
And then
there was the ballet- and gymnastics-filled execution of
Kia’s “Earth and Sky, Fire and Ice” number combining
traditional Korean cultural numbers with modern
high-flying sequences.
Not to
be outdone, Mitsubishi followed suit with its booming
drums and brass number with thunder, fire and sparks all
over the place accompanying the introduction of the new
Mitsubishis that seem destined to be cult car items
again.
Nissan’s
was another splashing cultural number that promoted its
green campaign or, rather, a more environmental approach
to automobile manufacturing. This was followed by
General Motors’ rendition of a mechanic-and-garage
number that took real imagination to pull off, and pull
it off they did.
In a
nutshell, day one of the PIMS was a whirlwind of
presentations, treating the motoring media to
concert-type shows and class acts, as well as
complicated sequence numbers that brought the latter to
dizzying heights when it was over.
It won’t
be easy to forget that the shows were done in 30 minutes
and within three minutes from each other, not allowing
anyone in the audience to catch his/her breath or
prepare for the next exhilarating performance.
Truly,
this writer has been to most of the world’s motor shows,
and without any discrimination because he is Pinoy,
August 21 will not only be a hero’s day for him. It will
also be a day when we showed to the world how good we
can be at events like this, because I have never seen
the likes of it since I started doing the motoring beat
in 1995. |
