Aussie Motoring

The BMW 3 Series convertible

Yesterday we looked at the Renault Megane Coupe Cabriolet - the only convertible on Australian road that comes with a glass roof. You will find a link to that article below. Today we’re going to look at a convertible that won’t be released until the Brisbane Motor Show next month - the BMW 3 series convertible.

2006 was a great year for BMW in Australia as more and more people turned to BMW for their next luxury car. Heck even She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed and I toyed with the idea of trading in the Grandeur on a beemer. So there’s no doubt that the release of the new 3 Series convertible in Australia is being eagerly awaited..

Sadly while it’s going to be released in Brisbane it’s not going on sale anywhere in Australia till late March.

While the specifications and pricing details for the Australian model are yet to be announced we do know that the BMW 3 Series convertible will come with a choice of 160 kW 325i straight six magnesium-aluminium engine, or the new top of the range all-aluminium Twin Turbo 225 kW engine in the 335i.

It takes just 22 seconds for the fully-lined retractable hardtop to unfold itself from behind the rear seats. The three-piece lightweight steel roof provides both superior sound insulation and extremely large windows for excellent visibility.

Opening the roof is a full second faster than closing, and once stowed, the boot retains a remarkable 210 litres of luggage space.

In addition, the rear section of the seat backs fold flat allowing a through-loading system that means bulkier items than ever can be carried securely.

It’s certainly going to be one car I can’t wait to see at the Brisbane Motor Show

Australian Summer Cars
2000 Holden Barina Cabriolet - the cheapest convertible

Renault Megane Coupe Cabriolet - it’s French so expect the ususual

The top markets for the top of the range luxury car

Rolls-Royce exported cars to over 50 different countries in 2006 and interestingly those 50 countries included some of the world’s poorest. Angola is one name that stands out.

The three largest markets for Rolls-Royce are the USA, the UK and China while the five top selling dealers in the world are located in Beveryly Hills who shares the top spot with Tokyo and then comes London, Dubai and New York.

Demand for Rolls-Royce vehicles has been so strong that the plant operations at Goodwood in southern England has been expanded to meet the demand.

Renault Megane Coupe Cabriolet

Yesterday we started this series with one of the cheapest way for someone to get into an open topped car in Australia - a 2000 Holden Barina Cabriolet. There’s no way today’s convertible could be called ‘cheap’ but it certainly is the most unusual of all the convertibles in the ones we will be looking at over the next few days.

While all the other convertibles in our list of Australian summer cars have either metal or cloth tops the Renault Megan Coupe Cabriolet comes with something very unique - a glass roof. But then unique is nothing new to Renault

The Renault Megane Coupe Cabriolet is powered by a 2 litre 16 valve 4 cylinder motor that puts out 98 kilowatts of power. It comes fitted with fully intergrated automatic roll bars, leather trimmed upholstery plus a full range of extras.

Prices start at $48990 for the manual version and rise to $51,490 for the automatic and you can see more of it here.

Convertibles are making a comeback in Australia

Despite the fact that we’re supposed to be taking more care of our skin and our summers are becoming hotter the Australian motoring public is showing a heck of a lot more interest in convertibles and this summer there are some hot ones hitting the streets.

Over the coming days Aussie Motoring will be showing you some of the best but right now let’s start off with a blast from the past.

This is a 2000 Holden Barina Cabriolet 5 speed 1.4 litre fuel injected. Average kilometres are anything between 90,000 and 110,000 and and according to Carsguide.com.au it’s worth somewhere between $9,700 and $12,400

For fun in the sun at a very cheap price this has got to be a great start.

New vehicle sales are down but not everywhere

In Western Australia new vehicle sales rose in 2006 by 10.2% - the only state to record an increase in new vehicle sales.

In Queensland - another state where the boom in mineral resources is keeping the economy afloat - new vehicle sales were down 1.7%

South Australia and Victoria both showed a decline in new vehicle sales of 5.6% while Tasmania showed the worst decline of all with new vehicle sales falling by 6.7%

Overall the decline in new vehicle sales was of the order of 2.6%

The Australian automotive industry has posted its second highest annual sales total on record.

Despite being the second highest annual figures the number of vehicles sold in 2006 are down 2.06% compared with 2005.

Toyota was the best-selling brand in 2006 for the fourth year in a row with a 22.2 per cent share of the total market.

It was followed by Holden (15.2 per cent), Ford (11.9 per cent) and Mazda (6.6 per cent) – their finishing positions unchanged from 2005.

Mitsubishi (5.6 per cent), Nissan (5.5 per cent) and Hyundai (4.8 per cent) dropped one spot each – all three leap-frogged by Honda (5.6 per cent) in an extremely tight sales tussle.

Volkswagen moved into the top ten by taking the spot previously held by Kia.

The 2006 results show some significant changes in the sales mix between vehicle segments.

Light car sales rose by 20,196 or 21.1 per cent while Small car sales remained much the same, up 1345 or 0.6 per cent.

“Light cars became more popular last year, not just because they were more fuel-efficient, but because they were roomier, more practical and better specified for the money than ever before,” said Mr Sturrock.

The Large car segment and the Medium SUV segment both suffered significant slowdowns – falling by 30,775 and 10,632 sales respectively.

In contrast to the apparent move to smaller vehicles was the strength of the Luxury SUV segment, which grew 1739 or 10.5 per cent.

Mr Sturrock pointed to the success of the 4X4 Pick-up/Cab Chassis segment which grew by 4911 vehicles or 7.8 per cent.

The buoyancy of the segment was in contrast to the Light Truck market as a whole, which declined slightly by 6087 vehicles or 3.6 per cent.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries is forecasting a steady outlook for 2007 with motor vehicle sales of 970,000.

A petrol head’s nightmare

A problem at the Shell refinery in Sydney has seen Canberra - and many other places - run out of Vpower, the premium fuel that powers many of the entrants in the Summer Nats.

With that even scheduled to start in Canberra later this week the lack of the premium fuel was going to cause headaches for competitors and organisers. However Shell announced today that it has been able to arrange a limited supply to Canberra during the time the Summer Nats is running.

I was recently talking to a tourist from England who complained that the highways here in Queensland had no lighting and that made driving at night quite hazardous.

I was too polite to suggest that maybe she should try turning the car’s headlights on but I did wonder what she would have thought of roads like you will find at this site - The Most Dangerous Roads in the World

Perhaps I’m showing my age but I can still remember when the Great Western Highway over the Blue Mountains west of Sydney included a number of bends with warning signs that advised you to sound your horn to alert oncoming traffic.

One country copper’s answer

As I write this the holiday road toll stands at 42 and, while everyone is wringing their hands and wailing about how terrible the situation is, none of the experts seem to be able to come up with a solution.

Our kids are killing themselves at an ever increasing rate on our roads and the people who have to face the carnage every day are the local police and ambos.

Recently Brisbane’s Courier Mail carried the story of the local copper in a north Queensland town who has managed to reduce the number of teenage road deaths in his small patch to none in the last three years.

Driving for Answers is definitely worth reading.