IN FRANKFURT, GERMANY - JUST as beauty pageants seldom feature the girl next door, motor shows are dominated by impossibly desirable dream cars. At least, it used to be like that.

The 62nd International Motor Show in Frankfurt - on from now till Sept 23 - has its share of supercars and outlandish concepts. But the dominant theme this year is cars for the average person.

And for once, carbon dioxide per kilometre matters more than horsepower per tonne. Or so it seems.

The theme is perhaps best encapsulated in the form of the Volkswagen Up! which, on the face of it, is a straightforward city car. At roughly 3,450mm long, it is compact but has four seats.

Like so many other concept cars, the Up! comes complete with incredulous claims and features. Its rear-mounted engine, which will have either two or three cylinders, will deliver an average fuel consumption of 3.5 litres/100km (or 28km/litre).

It will also have a novel multi-screen interface in the cabin. To make space, the seats - except the driver's, of course - can be removed and flat-packed into the area under the bonnet.

Over at the Toyota stand is another funky little runabout concept, one that is highly space efficient.

Toyota's iQ Concept

The iQ Concept is roughly as wide and tall as the Yaris. But at 2,980mm long, it is a good 770mm shorter than the Toyota hatchback. Even so, Toyota says the IQ is still spacious enough to offer 3+1 seating.

The fourth seat can be exchanged for luggage space when needed. Like the Up!, the iQ also features a fancy digital user interface, just so you know that this is a car of the future.

The question, though, is which of these two will eventually make production. At this point, bets are on the Up!, as Volkswagen seems to have thought through its idea more than Toyota.

Unlike the iQ, which was the work of the company's European design studio, the little Volkswagen was actually the first project initiated by Mr Martin Winterkorn when he came on board as VW's brand chairman. His idea was to return to Volkswagen's heritage as the people's car (the original Beetle).

Towards this end, VW is already looking into making the final Up! as accessible and attractive to buyers from emerging markets as it is to the sophisticated German consumer.

Even though no firm dates have been committed, the Up! is expected to make it to production before the end of this decade.