My first IAA
09/12/2019
An article by professional colleague Malte Jürgens entitled "My last IAA", published in the last issue of Auto-Motor-und-Sport, inspired me to write this article. As you know, the 68th IAA opens its doors to trade visitors in Frankfurt today. As a journalist, I already had the opportunity to walk through the halls (and the endless aisles in between) on Tuesday.
However, I was by no means alone with my professional colleagues, but together with bloggers and influencers from all over the world who were eagerly filming and photographing with their cell phones. I couldn't spot Supercar Blondie anywhere, but it's quite possible that she was there. After all, there was a lot to see, old and new sheet metal (or plastics).
Whether my first IAA was also my last will depend in particular on the extent to which the IAA can compensate for the departure of the exhibitors with new attractions, such as this year's Motorworld IAA Heritage Hall with classic cars from all decades, and whether the visitors (and exhibitors) also appreciate this.
It won't be easy, even if exhibitors such as Mercedes, BMW Audi or VW, to give a few examples, are still going full throttle and creating impressive stands.
After my tour, which initially revealed to me many wrapped cars that have been on display on the Internet for some time, I naturally wondered what future mobility might look like.
Will the car do without wheels?
Will we be driving with six wheels in the future?
Will we only drive electrically and without mirrors?
Will we be driving Chinese or Taiwanese cars?
Will the electric future be as classic as a Mercedes study so beautifully depicts?
It was striking that almost all manufacturers are fully committed to the (electric) future. Opel, of all manufacturers, brought a bit of history to the show, with not only a late original Corsa (picture at the top), but also an Opel GT from back then (we will report on the Skoda Octivia and the original Mini in the detailed report).
And which car particularly surprised me at the IAA? Perhaps it was actually the Yello Talbo by Swiss visionary Frank Rinderknecht (Rinspeed) from 1996, which is for sale in the Motorworld IAA Heritage Hall for EUR 125,000. I had never seen this car in the flesh before and I wonder if there is even more than one of them ...
