Reality intrudes on a dream date with Rover
By Andrew English

EVERY few years the motor industry goes through a period of soul searching about whether it should be at certain shows.

 The usual reasons for cutting back on exhibiting are cost, the large number of international shows and, this year, Rover's absence. With overall costs running at about £1 million for a large stand (Ford has spent nearly £12 million for the whole of Hall 4), there is some validity in this periodic introspection. One wonders, however, whether Rover has now spent the equivalent cost of exhibiting when it took press adverts yesterday to explain its absence. 

Yet car makers are like serial lonely hearts advertisers, they are desperate to meet people - people who might buy their cars. In one breath Dermot Kelly, passenger cars director of Mercedes-Benz, claims that the show is a waste of time and money and in the next he complains that with once-a-year servicing of his cars now common place, he hardly ever gets to see customers. 

Ford takes a more pragmatic view. The week before the show opened it had its stand up and running, and was showing its salesmen and dealers the new Mondeo. Even Ferrari's Tim Watson feels the show has a value. He said: "We think it's important to have somewhere dealers can bring potential clients and it's great that the public has a chance to take a look at cars they don't see every day."

 On the second public day of the show I strode out to meet the public, who were looking hard at the cars. Typical was Huw Rees, who had travelled over 200 miles to see and sit in the new Ford Mondeo and its newly launched competitors: VW's Passat, Renault's Laguna and Volvo's S60. It's interesting how companies deal with the public. The Jaguar stand, for instance, is thronged with people trying the leather seats yet the public are allowed on the Aston Martin stand only in small batches.

 One man, queueing with his small son, showed me a banker's draft in his pocket: a deposit for a new £92,500 DB7 Vantage. "If they don't let me on this stand soon," he said, "I'm off to buy a Jaguar." He was still waiting 10 minutes later. Steve Carman, conducting research for the Russell Organisation, confirmed that a great many people were here to buy cars. "About 10 per cent according to our figures," he said. Money that might have bought a Rover, perhaps?

 In the end, though, motor shows are not just about shifting the tin. Robin Woolcock, managing director of Volkswagen UK, said: "This show is a celebration of the car, where people can dream their dreams. I love shows, I love being here." Hear, hear.