What were the crowd’s favourites?

The Geneva Motor Show is a popular event in the exhibition calendar. The media like it because it’s a compact event that’s not spread over half of Switzerland. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Germany’s vast Frankfurt show.

It’s a slightly different story for the general public. An outsider’s view of Switzerland – polite people, chocolate, clocks, polluting motorcars generally frowned upon – is challenged by rows of garishly modified performance cars.

Okay, so there is some balance; the growing number of alternatively powered cars helps to redress the taste and decency mix. Some things never change though, and you’ll see a steady procession of visitors staring open-mouthed at cars with zero ride height, 25-inch wheels, covered in acres of carbon fibre and packing million horsepower engines.

Back in the real world the 2012 Geneva show threw up some pleasant surprises. Peugeot’s new 208 compact hatch is the long awaited replacement for the 207. There’s a lot riding on this car, and there was no shortage of curious visitors keen to check out the promised improved cabin quality and Peugeot’s new design policy.

The German marques also did well judging by the busy nature of the various stands. Anything with an ‘M’ badge will always draw a crowd, making BMW’s new M6 Coupe a particularly popular attraction.

Offering significantly less horsepower was Mercedes’ all-new A-Class. Effectively the firm’s rival to VW’s Golf, this car is a big deal for its maker and the display cars were swamped. A genuinely affordable Mercedes is back on the price lists, and the paying public showed considerable interest in this radical – for Mercedes – family hatchback.

Two seats is all you ever get with Porsche’s Boxster, but that didn’t prevent the car from being the focus of attention on the Porsche stand. This is another affordable car from a premium manufacturer, and its evolutionary design appeared to be a hit with showgoers.

The same was true with Ford’s new B-Max people carrier judging by the number of times its sliding doors were played with. As its name suggests, the B-Max sits below the popular C-Max in Ford’s pecking order. This innovative car boasts the footprint of a small family hatch but offers considerably more in the way of a versatile ownership experience. To its right Ford had placed a Fiesta ST, which displayed all the muscular sportiness you’d expect to see from a performance Ford. And yes, it turned plenty of heads.

There’s a predictability surrounding mainstream cars at motor shows: you know they’ll draw the crowds because they’re new. With the more exotic metal it’s more a case of how deep the crowds are.

If we’re to stick with this metric, Ferrari easily won with its F12Berlinetta. The replacement for the 599, it’s claimed to be the fastest Ferrari yet. In contrast, the assembled crowds were moving very slowly indeed past the Ferrari stand. Second place went to Maserati, although being next door to Ferrari probably helped.

And what about best in show? With only the odd exception there very few duff motors on display. The Mercedes A-Class could easily be a winner, as could anything on Audi’s vast stand plus Toyota’s hotly-anticipated FT-86 coupe. The various supercars from the likes of Lamborghini, Ferrari and Aston Martin predictably also did well. Bentley’s surprise SUV concept prompted the most interest, although probably for the wrong reasons.