picking a top 10 from the Frankfurt motor show is always a struggle – not just because there are hundreds of world debuts to pick through, but the sheer size of the Messe Frankfurt exhibition complex means you’re unlikely to see everything on display. luckily our news editor wore his comfortable walking shoes and scoured all 11 halls to bring you the models he reckons matter the most.
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1. Citroen Cactus concept
Designing a concept that looks great is a hard enough, making one that says something meaningful about the brand takes forward thinking and showing one that previews an entirely new direction for the company takes nerves of steel. The Citroen Cactus gets my nod this year for daring to be different and harking back Citroen’s core philosophies of comfort and simplicity. As technology marches on relentlessly it doesn’t mean we want our cars to become ever more confusing, and the Cactus puts a stop to that. It’s not just a fantasy either – a production version arrives in February 2014.
• Read more on the Citroen Cactus
2. Jaguar C-X17 concept
It was always likely that a car ten years in planning (Jaguar almost made an SUV based on the Ford Explorer, but thought better of it) would cause the biggest swirl of interest in Frankfurt, and so it was. Some would call the C-X17’s design predictable; I would call it predictably stunning. There’s a story under the Celestial Blue paintwork, too – the C-X17 shows the flexibility of an all-new iQ[Al] aluminum platform that will underpin a shorter-wheelbase small saloon from 2015 onwards, followed by a production version of this SUV. If the C-X16 (which morphed from concept car to the F-Type virtually unchanged) is anything to go by, you’re already looking at the production car, minus the sci-fi interior.
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