Well, Sydney Motor Show time is here again. This is one of the events that I look forward to all year: when you've been lucky enough to score a press pass you get to fiddle with cars that'd usually be locked-up and cordoned-off from people that (horror of horrors) aren't even contemplating spending half a million on a car ... Let's take a tour through the show, shall we? Starting at the top. I'll probably miss a few of the less memorable stands, but then if they're not memorable you surely don't care if you don't hear about 'em?
The Mercedes stand really didn't hold anything particularly exciting this year. A couple of new things like the 1.9 A-Class were on show, but the more exciting AMG cars were absent. The press material was more oriented towards Mercedes' financial products, and the cars on the stand somehow reflected this attitude.
Honda don't have all that much new either, with the S2000's release-hype having been a thing of a month or two ago. It's still pretty nice, as is the 141kW Integra Type-R; although for some reason, the Integra is still just a hotted-up "hairdresser's car" in my eyes. That'll probably change upon driving one, but I've got to work up the motivation to give it a try.
Toyota had quite a few new cars on display and nearly on display. The new 140kW Celica sounds like a real stonker, and the MR2 Spyder concept apparently gives a pretty good idea of what the upcoming production variant will look like. The Echo was also officially released, the new Corolla range (a new front on the hatch, and a new sedan) were released (noting that the corruption of the Levin name continues with further boring 1.8 models), and the "oh is that different to the old one?" 70-series Landbruiser was also released. Toyota also had who-knows-what-it-is doorless car with vinyl covers over the front and rear quarters, advertising the upcoming Avalon; the disguising of which seems a bit pointless, because surely we can see what an American-market Avalon looks like? The GT-One Le Mans car was also a centrepiece of the Toyota show; although such cars are pretty irrelevant in the real world, even if you do have the money to buy one!
Citroën have been pretty small-time in this country of late, possibly due to their quirks. I've always admired them in a way, and their new Xantia-based Picasso people-mover is a pretty stylish approach to vehicles that just aren't interesting. The Berlingo commercial van (Holden Combo on steroids?) is also a new release, although it was suggested to me that the name is just a little suggestive ...
Stepping over to VW, they were still talking about the overstyled Golf called the Beetle, although they haven't been released yet. The sporty Bora has always been a nice looking car, and their upcoming release here makes the VW range a little nicer (although maybe still a bit pricey for my tastes). An interesting Bora is the 5 cylinder 2.3, although the 150kW AWD ("4Motion") 2.8 V6 should be pretty cool (I've always preferred a sedan to a coupé or hatch, they seem somehow less pretentious).
Alfa Romeo's 166 is a nice car, managing to be larger than the 156 and still have the same balance of design; it's sits nicely alongside the classy coupés too. However, the Alfa stand was the one where I first noticed the plethora of manufacturers displaying car-styling accessories such as a range of alloys, body-kits, etc; and it was not the only one by a long shot. But even more so, a lot of makers had devoted a lot of space to clothing and non-automotive accessories; "lifestyle gear" and "sporty driver's apparel" were common. It must mean something when Ford expend effort selling clothes rather than cars.
Landrover and Range Rover had the same-as-usual range of offroad vehicles on display. There were a few going around the joke offroad track out the front of the exhibition centre, and except for a couple of sharp ramps it would've been tempting to take the Volvo on the track to show 'em how much you really needed a four-wheel-drive. Okay, well maybe it wasn't all that lame, but it was close ...
Hyundai were showing their usual range of cheap cars, although they had a concept car which was of interest - the very wedgy Euro-1. Hyundai are claiming future versions of the Coupé might have the styling of the concept-car, although I doubt they'll have the 283kW 2 litre engine. Another thing the Hyundai people were proud of is their Sonata-based people-mover ... complete with an 80's French style interior trim (chequered black and white ... erm, yes). This trend towards people movers is rather unsettling, by the way - they commit almost all the crimes that have annoyed me when carried out by 4WD's!
Ford is obviously worried a little about their image, as they continue to lag behind Holden in the "fwor!" department. They were pushing the FTE (Ford Tickford Experience) website (from which you can buy the FTE Fairlane, either of the two FTE Falcons, or the newly introduced Cougar coupé), but I can't see that it is an alternative to a dealer; why would anyone buy a car without driving it? The new mini-car Ka was also on display, as was a European Corolla-sized (Escort replacement) "edge"-styled Focus. The 2.5 Duratec V6 powered Mondeo ST24, to be released early next year, was also on show; as were a couple of show-car utes. The elevated centrepiece held the "my" show car, which claims to be a sports car that's also a family offroad vehicle; imagine a more tasteless jacked-up oversized four-door Audi TT and you're getting close to the face this thing bares to the world.
Probably because they're a little irrelevant to me, Ferraris have all been looking the same as each other to me lately, but the red cam-covers glaring through the back window of the black F360 Modena manage to look great (regardless of how tacky you expect it to look). It's 80% bolted and riveted together, meaning fewer welds; so does that make it cheaper to fix if you prang one in the K-Mart carpark? My uncle's got a pop-rivet gun....
At BMW, the only thing that was new has actually been out for a while. But it's the M5. Drool. The interior had the optional alcantara suede-lookalike material; not as loud as the same material on certain Italian marques, and put together a lot more nicely. The stainless steel trim is very classy too, but I suppose it'd want to be for 200 big ones!
Their wannabe-rival Audi had a few nice performance cars on display; the $75000 154kW AWD 6-speed S3, $115k 195kW AWD S4, and the 265kW AWD S8 (for anyone who hasn't seen Ronin, I'd suggest you remedy this situation!) were highlights. The 220kW V8 A6 was also released; the TT coupé is still a novelty but then we saw it last year. But the main thing is that Audi won the Biggest Press Release Bag competition with it's huge plastic-reinforced "Bag of Holding" easily swallowing the gear from all other manufacturers.
Mazda were making a big deal about the facelifted 626 ... it's been facelifted? There're a few changes like headlight shape, the bonnet, tail-lights; but you'd need to be an expert to pick it. The new Premacy may be ready to set that tantalising people-mover market alight, but to me it's just an oversized uglier 626 with a smaller engine (which is actually what it is, when you analyse it). It's interesting to see that Mazda are still trying to trade on the interesting cars they used to produce. The array of Series VI and II RX-7's, 323 SS rally car, and Cosmo was more interesting than anything they had on the stand (excepting maybe the MX-5; how does that survive in Mazda's current conservative corporate policy?).
A quick look at Rolls Royce and Bentley is always a must, although once again they're just that little bit irrelevant and so lose that edge of interest. Which is a shame, because something with 298kW and 835Nm - like the Arnage Red Label - has to be interesting to drive!
Over to Nissan, and the Maxima was about all that was new at the Nissan stand. They were situated near Mitsubishi, which makes me wonder if the company that sells the Skyline GT-R overseas has been borrowing a few elbow-patched cardigans locally. To further exacerbate this difference between Nissan locally and globally, we saw the road-car version of the Le Mans R390 GT1, with 410kW and sub 4 second 0-100km/h time ... not complianced here, of course.
Mitsubishi were showing a few attempts at cheaply grabbing a more performance oriented image. The new Lancer with a few stick-on bits isn't all that interesting, with all mechanicals essentially standard. The Magna GSR looks to be a step in the right direction; it's all minor stuff, but it sounds a bit more interesting with 17" wheels, bigger brakes, mildly upgraded exhaust, an upgraded interior with MOMO wheel, better headlights (multi-parabola units, I assume off the Verada or Diamante), and sportier suspension. As usual, the latest version of the HSR concept car is somewhat hideous... Their comment, after releasing the Magna GSR, was "Be assured, the cardigans are off." So maybe they did actually lend them to Nissan?
The Holden stand had the 300kW VTII GTS prominent, and with the crowds it was very popular. But then you don't often see Australian-made cars with 300kW, do you? Even if they have had help from Callaway. In fact, the Holden stand would have been the most popular when I went back at a later date. 5.1 second 0-100km/h times, and 13.3 second standing quarters are pretty serious for any factory car, let alone a Holden; and it'd have to be the cheapest full-sized sedan around that'll perform like that. It'll be interesting to see how good the new multilink independent rear is, too. Mind you, although that "300" number is pretty big, the new GTS didn't affect me like the Commodore coupé did last year. And probably more important to Holden at this year's show was the 240kW left-hand drive Cadillac Caprice SS - the more exports Holden can manage, the better-off they'll be in the long term. Oh, did I mention the 140kW Astra coupé? A fairly nice looking car, it's apparently not a dead-cert here yet, but might be interesting if it arrives.
Maserati's have always held more of an interest for me than for a lot of other people; they're a little understated for their performance level, I suppose. But surely the 3200GT is going to change such things; they do seem a little better assembled than the models of a few years ago. And they really do look better to gaze upon than in photos.
Saab had the new 9-5 Aero on display. Although I'm not sure of the wisdom of sticking so much power through the front wheels (the Viggen will apparently change lanes all by itself if you stomp on the go pedal), the numbers stack up pretty well for a production 2.3, with 169kW, and 350Nm available from 1900rpm. I suppose the 9-5 Aero is heavier than the Viggen, but the torque-steer must still surely be there.
At the Chrysler-Jeep stand, the Prowler and Viper are very nice, but you can't buy them new here from Chrysler; and besides, we've all seen them before. The Neon looks less interesting in person than I was thinking it would be (they've upgraded them?), although the 5-spoke hubcaps do the best job I've seen yet of looking like alloys.
Peugeot were going with a bit of an environmental push, as I suppose is fair when their most interesting new release, the 206GTi, is basically an econocar with spunk. That's not a putdown though; of all the new cars released recently, the 206GTi is probably the one I'd most consider owning, probably in that nice ruby metallic red.
The Aston Martin Vantage and DB7 were on display, their importers pushing them somewhat harder than the Diablo they were also displaying. There was also an announcement of a new Vantage LeMans, a 600hp version of which is to be available at a mere 917 thousand dollars. And not only that, they've splurged and joined you up with a road-service for the whole two years of the warranty; although it seems to me that these cars are more about the style than doing 0-100km/h in 3.2 seconds.
Subaru also revealed their next batch of STi WRX's, sedans this time. People are saying they'll bring down the value of the 2-door versions previously sold, but I don't see that happening myself; you still can't buy a 2-door Impreza here, let alone a 200kW one. Actually, the release had me rather excited; with the large rear wing, the STi looked bigger under the car-cover than it actually was, and I suspected for a moment they might have been releasing the twin-turbo Liberty B4. But we'll have to wait a bit longer before they tell us whether or not that goes ahead.
Jaguar and Porsche were side-by-side as they had been in the past, and both were displaying dream cars that we have seen before; except the new 911 GT3. Still, I'd still love an XK-R or XJ-R; can I get that in manual, please?
The Proton Satria GTi is another car which has some interest, but is let down by a few details. For example, the rectangular exhaust tips are just so tacked-on and just don't sit right; plus the fact that the Satria is such an old design. These relatively small things might be irrelevant if the cars drive well enough, as they're not all that expensive for a small 2 litre hatchback. But it makes you wonder about Mitsubishi again when the Satria can look nicer than a Mirage (when the Satria is basically a ten-year-old Mirage). Oh, and as a side-note, Proton won the Rudest PR Department Award; in order to get the information kit I was subjected to the third-degree, and only got away with my life because the Proton guy was distracted. I hope this attitude doesn't filter down to the dealers ...
Yep, this year's motorshow had heaps to look at, as I've missed out quite a few makes from the above commentary; like Lexus and Volvo. It didn't quite "do it" for me like last year's show (there was nothing as momentous for me as the Commodore coupé, as it looked so production-ready), but the Motor Show was still some fun. It certainly does its job, with a few dealers telling me they do tend to move more cars as the result of the show being on; and with buyers holding-off (believing they'll save money by waiting until the GST comes in) they could probably do with some assistance in this area.
But for me, the Motor Show is all about looking at new cars, and from an enthusiast's point of view it's great. I'm already looking forward to next year!
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