Rained and brought down temperatures considerably, the cold could be one reason for the lukewarm response the Auto Expo seems to be getting as we move into day-2. This is the first time that the second day has resulted in a jaded feeling, nothing much else to see as we've seen most of it. So now we go digging in the dirt for the diamonds, no way so many hard-nosed businessmen, read manufacturers, would put up stalls for millions just to display parking lot material, would they?

One of the audio manufacturers, stuck with dangerous electrical plug points, has sworn they will never come back again. Another, in this case an HCV manufacturer, is upset about the background location, has to do with unlucky numbers too. But there were some upsides too, depends on what you were looking for.

The surprise snazzy car, and why is it that Korean cars should look like "surprise snazzy", now that they've established their supremacy over most others, is the Hyundai Tiburon Turbulence. Tucked away at the rear of the stall, we noticed it today only when the press conference held by them caused us to, actually, look that-a-way. This does not mean that we are complaining about the boring press conference, where nothing much new was said. All we are saying is that the Tiburon Turbulence, powered by a 2.0 litre 153ps at 6000 rpm engine looks like a better Ford Mustang from the front! If I was a software type in the Valley, I would drive this car and have heads turn in jaded parking lots Milpitas way. Not for sale in India.

The LPG powered little scooter from TVS-Suzuki once again shows how versatile adaption by the "Indian" companies scores over the "dyed in ditchwater" mode the foreign companies adopt for the Indian market. This is a wonderful vehicle and should be commercially available soon. In another few months. 4-stroke, 150cc. B-fuel, petrol and LPG. Also, most technically sound press conference in terms of solid answers from technical people. The 2-wheeler market is moving from transport solutions to leisure, thus spracht TVS.

The Mahindra Quadro. MM-540 meets Classic, marries with shotgun supplied by possibly Dilip Chabbria, Dunkirk revisited as my WW-2 veteran friend from the landing forces said, with better paint job and plasticky nose. An otherwise prominent Auto-Expo presence, the Mahindra stall was always a designer's delight, both in concepts and execution. This time, apart from the lousy off the beaten track location, they went and hired some tapori type chaddee-banyan nachne-waalee chokra-chokree log to do some sort of wierd cabaret inside a glass cage straight out of Albertstrasse next to Reeperbahn in St. Pauli, Hamburg which would make the record dance in Coimbatore look like Balzac! Mahindra stall elected the red-light area of the Auto Expo.

Sleaze may be fine, and we are no prudes, but this? Turns off whatever reportage one wants to do on the Quadro jeep. Gender bias is bad enough in Delhi without taking it further, replicating cheapo prostitute dens, which I have had occasion to frequent, but as a seafarer out on the night run, and not as a business visitor to an automobile exhibition. Both have their places, and if it is M&M's contention that they wish to be in the cabaret business, because there are too many other participants in the MPV/SUV utility segment, then good for them!.

Back again to the Maruti stall, where the all-wheel drive car, the Kei, is still a wonderful mystery. All wheel drive, looks like a better Zen, but still simply a concept car. They run a similar 660cc version in China, abuout 60bhp, and it rides the offroads as well as highways like a dream. Not too much available by way of specs as yet. Great stall, simple displays which work but horrible dhaba-style loud music clashing with the suave cars on display.

The Daewoo stall has occupied the same position near the entry from gate number 2 of Pragati Maidan. Predictable stall of the fair, cars mounted on turntables. A VJ yapping out her inanities. Another CNG version on the Cielo. A few large Daewoo cars. Question on everybody's mind: will this be a GM stall next time? Because the current GM stall is an exercise in underplaying matters. An old car, a new car. Coming from the largest automobile company in the world.

The crowds are here to see the Toyota Landcruiser that should look like a Mitsubishi Pajero and end up vewing a Tata Sumo replica with slightly better seats. Nobody has pointed this out but if imitation is the best part of flattery, then this Sumo look-alike also known as Toyota Kijang-Qualis is proving the point. The stall itself has a neat gimmick in giving visitors a polaroid photograph in front of the vehicle. However, Toyota have lost a once in a lifetime chance of brand-building by keeping display only to the Qualis, and some heads will roll it is informed. In a trade fair berefit of other new vehicles, by and large, a display of a variety of vehicles by this manufacturer would have been great. Or is it that they feel we only deserve this . . . this, this competition to the M&M Commander? With a much better engine, no doubt.

Eicher never fail with their excellent and quietly efficient stalls, On one side a growing family of Royal Enfield motorcycles. On the other side, a growing family of trucks. The latest, a heavy truck, is good enough for taking on the best from the west in looks, performance and comfort. We know, we were and are the only media that asked for and got a drive-test. The gear-box is, obviously, bench marked on LCVs rather than the muscle crunchers.

LML and Escorts have similarly unimpressive stalls facing each other. One shows the YBX and the other shows the Daelim motorcycles which never came.

Before the rest of this becomes a dirge, let me halt. Personal sadness at the rather repetitive nature of ths fair, something like a 1998 re-visited, is not really true. It is at the components, lubricants and accesories stalls that you really see a resurgence and improvement in quality over the last time.

And that, another day, which we have to live and fight for!! Let us see, maybe the crowds will come now that the rains have stopped?

Veeresh Malik and Shailesh Khanolkar at the show