Aussie Motoring

The world’s biggest car manufacturer has announced that it will close 12 plants across the US and sack over 30,000 people in an attempt to move back into the black.

Sales of new cars and trucks fell this year to the point where the company lost more in the first nine months of this year than it earned in the whole of 2004. While GM likes to suggest that it’s economic woes are due to the costs or running a pension plan for its retirees there are several other major factors involved as well.

In recent years the company has focused on marketing its light trucks and SUVs and, as fuel prices have increased, those vehicles have become less popular.

Previous marketing ploys have also brought the company to the point where it is today. Immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Centre General Motors announced that it would support the sale of its vehicles with interest free loans and that certainly worked in the short term.

Now however the US car buyer expects that sort of deal all the time and sales only rise when great deals are offered.

During the recent hurricanes that hit Florida and New Orleans we saw the price of petrol in the United States finally begin to catch up to what the rest of the world pays for fuel.

Over time those increasing petrol prices are going to affect everyone, including those who live an affluent lifestyle. So it should come as no surprise that the luxury car market is beginning become a little soft although once you’ve experienced true luxury you really don’w ant to give it up if you can avoid it.

So in the US the luxury car market is beginning to see more owners trading their top of the range vehicles like this Hummer for entry level luxury cars.

But even worse may be to come for some buyers who until recently frequented the luxury car market are actually downsizing to cheaper and more affordable non-luxury cars.

I wonder what it’s like to move from a Hummer to a Hyundai Getz?

The new Hyndai Sonata has been out on the streets for a short time now and, despite what some reviewers think, the new Sonata is proving popular with owners

The Sonata comes in either a 2.4 litre 4 cylinder version or a 2.7 litre V6 and each version comes in various levels of creature comfort and body styles.

If you’re looking for a big booming drag machine so that you can burn off the lads at the lights then, if you ask an owner they will tell you that the car goes like a scalded cat. But if you ask a reviewer then neither version is going to quite get your adrenalin pumping.

The 4 cylinder version is probably the more lively of the two although the 6 cylinder equipped Sonata is definitely not sluggish. But let’s face it, this is a car that you are going to buy because you want creature comfort more than you want to win the traffic light drags and the Hyundai Sonata is going to deliver that comfort.

The Courier Mail has a full road test report that you can find here and they suggest that the car isn’t quite all it should be. That could be a little harsh because most of the criticism the reviewer had for the car seemed to stem from it’s less than blistering launch times at traffic lights.

Personally, as a long time Hyundai owner, I can tell you that the cars are generally well-built and will just keep on turning in the kilometres.

The one-time Jordan formula 1 racing team has now been renamed MF1 Racing and will race under a license from the Russian Automobile Federation. That makes it the first team to compete under the Russian flag in F1