Aussie Motoring

In another blow to the US car manufacturers Kia announced yesterday that it will be investing $1.2 billion dollars in an automotive assembly plant in West Point Georgia. The new plant will employ 2,500 workers and come on stream in 2009.

At full capacity the plant will be turning out 300,000 vehicles every year. Kia expects to have annual sales of 800,000 vehicles in North America by 2010

The F1 season got off to an interesting start last weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix. Already Renault have chalked up their first win but drivers agree that this year promises to be much closer than last year.

New engines - 2.4 litre V8’s in place of the 3 litre V10’s and a whole new raft of rules governing qualifying and tyres have also been introduced. You can read more about the new rules here

What motivates you to buy a certain vehicle?

Well, while you’re pondering that curly question a recent survey of 140 automotive executives from around the world found that the executives think that there are a number of reasons that influence a person when they buy a car.

87% felt that quality was an important consideration

84% felt that fuel efficiency was important

68% thought that affordability was a major factor

47% thought that sales incentives were important

So now you know the reasons that the auto industry thinks are important to you when you buy a car.

Take a moment to hit the ‘comments’ link to tell the other readers what is important to you when you buy a car.

The reason I buy a car is because my wife likes it - don’t laugh - a survey done last year showed that when it comes to buying most big ticket items it’s the wife who has the final say. Who am I to dare buck the system?

While the Honda Civic hybrid (pictured) and the Toyota Prius - perhaps the best known hybrid in Australia - did not seem to attract much attention at the Brisbane Motor Show that could all change in the next few years.

A recent survey by KPMG of 140 automotive executives from around the world found that almost 90% of them felt that sales of hybrid cars were set to boom in the next five years.

What that means for the local Aussie manufacturers does not look good. No one has a hybrid on the horizon and the industry is still geared towards big vehicles that are less fuel-efficient than the market may want.

At last I have actually seen one up close and personal and my wife and I sat in one at the Brisbane Motor Show while an eager young salesman practiced his sales pitch on us.

And our impression was … for $42,990 we will quite happily stick with our 2000 model..

My wife’s impression of the driver’s seat was that it was very comfortable. My impression of the passenger seat was that I’ve been more comfortable and clapped-out cabs.

Those motoring journalists who thought that the woodwork around the 2000 Grandeur was overdone should be quite happy with the woodwork in the new model – it looks as though it was added as an afterthought. Much of the woodwork from the 2000 model has been replaced with metal grillwork that reminded both of us of the back of a cheap computer box.

The choice of colours for the interior trim was curious. The car was black, the seats and trim were a light cream/caramel colour while the console between the front seats has some purple in it.

Speaking of the seats – here was a display model at a major motor show and the upholstery on one of the front seats was crinkled and didn’t look as though it fitted properly

The model certainly comes with some nice additions – side airbags were impressive and the courtesy light that comes on when the passenger opens the vanity mirror in the sun visor was interesting but over-all, we were disappointed.

But of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and you’re impressions could be quite different to ours.

My wife and I attended the Brisbane Motor Show on the opening day. Some things surprised us, some things disappointed us but overall we certainly came away thinking that we will be back next year.

Here are some random thoughts:

The cost of entry - $16.00 was good value

The weather wasn’t good on the opening day but we still expected to see more people attending. We had no trouble taking photos without others walking between us and the cars.

Some manufacturers had obviously come to sell while others had obviously come to … be seen? I understand that some of the high-end cars like Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini aren’t for the likes of mere yokels like you and me but even so it would have been nice to have them a little closer to the crowd barriers. The closest you could get to some was with a telephoto lens.

If you went looking for concept cars you would have been disappointed – there were really only two. The EffieJ and a Ford 4wd SUV/Ute that didn’t look much like a concept car at all.

If you’re going to display your exotic Australian made sports car you really need to have someone there who wants to talk to the crowd about it. A bored paper-reading temp who also doubles as the collectibles salesman is just not going to cut it.

If you go to just look at the cars you might find it all a bit boring but if you engage some of the sales people in conversation you will learn some interesting facts about some unusual cars.

Nissan obviously thinks that it’s exciting to raise and lower the top on their convertible – they made PA announcements about it every time they did it.

Nissan was supposed to have their 350Z concept car there but it certainly wasn’t obvious and I missed it completely.

Don’t take your wife/girlfriend unless you are prepared to find out that she really would like an orange and black Harley chopper fitted with a chrome skull for headlights for Christmas.

At the time we were there the Holden and Ford stands were among the most popular while few people seemed interested in the Mitsubishi stand - are they already dead but just haven’t realised it yet?

You have to wonder why some cars bother with rear seats because a legless dwarf wouldn’t be able to sit in them.

We took some great photos, we learned some interesting facts, we saw a few cars we would definitely like to own and many that made us drool and if we had gone with our cheque book we might have driven away in a Renault … or a Citreon … and she did like that chopper but they can definitely keep the latest Grandeur.

The motel we stayed at in Kedron was comfortable but the owner was far noisier than any guest and seemed to get off on abusing female guests in the room next to ours at the top of his voice. I don’t really care that he’s been running the motel for 11 years – there are quieter ways of dealing with problematic guests than screaming at them at the top of your voice. We won’t be staying at that one next time.

The Brisbane Motor Show opens it’s doors on March 3 and will run through to Sunday March 12.

This year promises to be bigger and better than ever with a record number of cars making their Queensland debut.

The range of production vehicles on display this year will include more than 50 vehicles from the cheapest Holden Barina at $12,990 through to the Pagani Zonda - a 2 seat roadster that you can pick up with $1.3 million of loose change.

Among the more exotic production cars on display will be the Maserati Gransport Spyder.

The opening times for the Brisbane Motor Show are noon till 10pm on weekdays, 10am to 10pm on Saturdays and 10am to 6pm on Sundays.

You can find more information about the show at the official website