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New York

Two men prostrated themselves before the new Freelander — in gratitude, presumably, for anything more reliable than the previous model — but it turned out that the turntable on which it was displayed had jammed. On the Hummer stand another man went from car to car covering the filler caps with sticky tape. I had no idea these were so desirable, but then this was the New York Motor Show and they were expecting 200,000 visitors. The filler cap is indeed satisfyingly chunky but the rest of the car looks as if it’s trying to be more than it is, like a man with shoulder pads.

Over at Mercedes there was consternation when the roof leaked on to the C50 Sport Sedan. The new C Class was disappointingly cramped in the rear, something you expect of the CLK but not from a four-door saloon. The CL65 AMG looked as potent as it is (V12, 0–60mph in 4.2 seconds), but you wouldn’t want to spend too long in the back of that, either. Nor, much more surprisingly, in the back of the BMW 7 series, where my head brushed the roof. It didn’t in the previous model.

This back-room business rapidly became my theme of the day as I hopped from car to car like an indecisive VIP. Others stared at the GM concept cars, or gobbled free sushi at the Nissan stand, or swigged Exhaust (water distilled from hydrogen cell power units) to keep themselves awake during the presentation by BMW’s technical director.

I didn’t bother with the forthcoming Ford Flex (sic), described as ‘a modern station wagon’ and looking like a 4×4 with a lowered roof designed for discreet use by undertakers. It should take four coffins. Toyota I visited more than once because, thanks to Exhaust, you had to go through its stand to get to the loos.