Show time in Detroit! Even if the US is preparing for war and there's economic gloom around, the great American love affair with the car is as hot as ever. That's clear at the 2003 North American motor show which opened in a very snowy Detroit on Sunday. From Andrew Hamilton in Detroit.
Billionaires, especially of the ostentatious kind, still abound so what better place for the world launch of the BMW-inspired Rolls-Royce flagship which will cost probably €600,000 with an Irish plate. In the US it seems like a bargain at around €200,000.
It has an overpowering BMW pedigree, but Frank Keane, chairman of Motor Import Limited, isn't interested. "Our business as BMW importer in Ireland is the indigenious German manufactured cars which we've been successfully importing for over 35 years. But it's a great coup for BMW."
At the Detroit show, BMW had another coup. When the new Mini was launched in the US, everyone wondered would it sell. The good news for BMW is the Mini Cooper 2003 has been voted North American Car of the Year. Other highlights of the show include Ford's launch of a new version of its F150 pick-up, the best-selling vehicle of any kind in the US for 21 years.
One hundred years ago, near Detroit, the original Henry Ford, son of poor immigrants from Co Cork, opened his first plant producing his first vehicle called the Quadricycle. He, of course, changed the world with cheap mass transport. There's little sign of cheap mass transport in Detroit 2003.