Some small initial amusement at this year’s Geneva motor show comes from Ferrari’s super secret, embargoed up the wazoo 599 with F1-style hybrid system. Which is finished in bright metallic green with a black roof…

 

 Bugatti 16C Galibier? Nope. Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera? Nah. And, sorry Walter Röhrl, your 918 Spyder was pretty cool but even this beast was bettered. By a Segway. 

 

Another press conference, another pitched battle for the press pack and inevitable USB stick containing the relevant info, this time at Ford. But, hey, it was worth the ruck for this one - check out the mini Ford Focus USB stick!

 

 His 10-year tenure at the helm of Aston Martin has seen the company's fortunes turned around and resulted in them turning a profit last year. Yes, that last year, the one where car companies were supposed to be having a hard time.

 

Most of the MSN team of eight going to the show are here for three days but I’m lucky enough to add in a bit of skiing beforehand too.

I’ve driven down as far as the outskirts of Geneva with Andy Wertheim, the PR boss of Mitsubishi and Toby Marshall, sales and marketing director, in an L200 pickup. We stop here tonight then head into the Alps tomorrow to hit the slopes. 

The chronology here is slightly out of kilter but here is the scene from earlier when we arrived from our budget flight to Geneva to be greeted by our man Tim and his very spangly Audi A8 - the Audi A8 we'll be rolling around in for the next couple of days. Quite a change after SqueezeyJet, I don't mind saying. And a bit more flash than Peter's pickup.  

First up apologies for the lousy quality picture - must get myself a better phone. Anyway, it shows the scene before me as the crowds gather beside the catwalk set up at the now traditional VW group preview evening ahead of the official press day at Geneva tomorrow. This is a great chance to get an early scoop on what the likes of VW, Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini will be showing off tomorrow and I've bagged a prime spot to get a good view of the action. Some we know about - the Polo GTI, new Touareg, Audi A1, RS5 and others. But what is Lamborghini going to wheel out? I don't know but I don't have long to wait to find out... And thanks to VW's free wifi nor will you, if not on the blog then definitely on the MSN Cars Twitter feed. Stay tuned!

Dan
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Links:
Top 10 Geneva debuts
20 cars that have rocked Geneva
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The very first motoring event is the opening Breakfast Club meeting of the year; aimed at pre-1973 tax free cars, Richard and I will be there – though I’m not yet going to let slip what we’re taking.