PARIS MOTOR SHOW: Crisis? What Crisis?

Euro marques led a blinding flash of new model reveals at this week’s Paris motor show -- in the face of chronic auto production over-capacity, a parlous economic outlook, industrial and social unrest and grey skies and rain that refused to stop...

In the halls that hosted the 2012 Mondial de l'Automobile, it was like all was well in Europe again.

Crisis? What crisis? There was glamour aplenty, buckets of bling, $300 hairdos everywhere you looked and tightly cut outfits... There were also many well-dressed women.

For our party of jetlagged Aussie motoring journalists it was like the problems we'd been reading about had mysteriously evaporated overnight -- unlike the Parisian rain... Plant closures were brushed aside as the PR blurb screamed over 100 model debuts.

Indeed, in the halls there seemed to be a disproportionate number of genuinely new cars. And not niche, also-ran models either.

In terms of mass-market debuts it rarely gets bigger than a Volkswagen Golf – Paris was Gen Seven’s first official outing, while closer to home the Renault Clio 4 debuted in standard, RS and Estate versions.

Toyota unveiled the new Auris (nee: Corolla) and the Opel Adam -- an all-new supermini from General Motors -- drew an admiring crowd, despite a rap-style presentation that nobody older than 13 and three-quarters could make head nor tail of.

And there was more – all of these were just part of the line-up for a day of press reveals that ran every 15 minutes from 7.30am through to 6.45pm. Eurocentric marques like Renault-owned Dacia and VW's latin problem child SEAT both boasted important new cars. Important for them anyway... But we'll move on.

Lexus hinted at what the next IS will look like with its concept LF-CC coupe, BMW showed off its first front-drive model and the burgers at Audi tried to convince all who would listen that is so-called Crosslane Coupe wasn't the new Q2. Fail!

Collectively, the Volkswagen group's stands were bathed in light – millions of candlepower that threatened to barbecue showgoers that moved too slowly. The new Golf Bluemotion might boast 3.2L/100km fuel economy, but VW will have to sell hundreds of thousands of them to offset the CO2 emitted to power up the pavilion's light globes.

That fact wasn't lost on Greenpeace – supporters of which tried unsuccessfully to disrupt VW's presentation with a banner that was unfurled from the ceiling.

The banner read “Volkswagen Nous Enfume” – literally: Volkswagen is creating a smokescreen. To underscore the message a smoke bomb was released. Alas 95 per cent of the crowd thought it was just part of the razzmatazz... There's a message for event planners there somewhere.

At the monied end of town, Jaguar's "first sportscar in over 50 years" -- the F-TYPE -- was too pretty to be the subject of protest, and the all-new Range Rover joined McLaren's new P1 range-topper in a demonstration of Pommie power.

Mercedes-AMG postponed the appearance of its SLS Black Series and instead unveiled the long-awaited electric version. Its blue paint was shocking and in our eyes far from current - some might even say revolting... (Sorry!).

Maserati tweaked a GranCabrio to grab some attention but, perhaps more importantly, put official names to faces of its new sedan and SUV - Ghibli is back and Levante is the high-rider.

And you know it's a busy rollout when the all-new all-wheel drive version of Porsche's latest 911 hardly rates a mention... Yes, the new Carrera 4S was on hand – complete with ugly radar cruise control 'eye' dead centre of the lower grille – but the hallowed Zuffenhausen sportscar brand reserved its limelight for the S-badged Cayenne Diesel SUV and a mildly more elegant Panamera wagon concept.

And no motor show would be complete without yet another ever so slightly tweaked version of Lamborghini's Gallardo. Let the record show Paris was complete, though to be fair on this occasion the Sant’Agata crowd changed more than the paint. Just!

Indeed, Greenpeaceniks aside, the only hint inside the halls of the topsy-turvy world outside was the minor identity crisis that occurred on the Bentley and Porsche stands – conveniently located side by side... Where's the world at when Porsche is debuting a people-mover (okay, it was a station wagon) and Bentley, a GT3 racer...?

There was no shortage of auto eye-candy at this year's Paris show... Of that, there can be no doubt. But for us jaundiced observers the sheer volume of new stuff seemed just a little too good to be true.

Let us be hopeful, therefore, that the rich harvest of new metal was the result of sound practice, not the last flush of fruit from a once-productive tree whose branches are withering.

See all the photos from the Paris Motor Show at motoring.com.au

Read more Paris Motor Show stories at motoring.com.au

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