It was worth sticking around for and at least raises my level of understanding about what goes on under the skin with such vehicles. One minute Jag is tipped to be off, packaged with LR, and the next minute Aston Martin is offered up on a plate and suddenly Volvo looks more likely to be discarded.
Everyone was agreed that Renault and Nissan, especially, was going to be a major short-term gainer if GM joined up. Meeting was worth going to, if a bit predictable.
The noises in Paris last week suggested that the three-way talks had hit snags.
Another concept that is very close to the production version.
No, said Carlos - less well.
But China is a tough place to understand. And my colleague, Will Johnston, endured an abortive take-off on his flight from Paris to Birmingham when hydraulics on the front wheel failed halfway down the runway.
So, reluctantly at best, he assigns a team to look into it.
A profile of the French auto industry compared to the British one would certainly make for an interesting project. There's no shortage of investment bank and stockbroker analysts sticking the boot into Ford, naturally. Volvo once planned merger with Scania that was overuled as anti-competitive by the EU Commission. How far can nuclear technology be scaled down though? On one level, it seems daft to wrestle with the engineering conflicts involved in making a leisure vehicle that will do land and water. How far can nuclear technology be scaled down though? Good of Ford to host what is basically a tribute to British Leyland.
Afterwards, there's a tour of the factory, which should be good. No, said Carlos - less well.
AB Volvo - looking on impassively? There is distinct de-emphasis on project activity and prioritization of enterprise and ecosystem focus.
It's a boost for GM's management and can be cited as evidence that the turnaround strategy is beginning to yield results.