Aussie Motoring

by Stuart Livesey

It’s strange what thoughts can come to you in the dead of the night when all you want to do is sleep.

Yesterday I pointed out in The Japanese Manufacturers Turn Up Everywhere that two of the new vehicles Chrysler wants to introduce into Australia this year are built using a Mitsubishi platform.

Last night it dawned on me that our Hyundai Grandeur comes with a 3 litre V6 motor that’s built by Mitsubishi.

Now if so many other car makers around the world are using major components designed by you Mitsubishi why are you going broke?

by Stuart Livesey

Unless something major happens between now and later in the year 2007 will see Chrysler make a big splash in the Australian motoring market place.

Last year we say Chrysler launch the Dodge Caliber - a rather unattractive vehicle that seems to be neither one thing nor the other.

And this year we’re scheduled to see the introduction of the Sebring - a convertible that is probably going to be priced a little beyond the reach of the average Australian motorist.

Apart from the fact that Chrysler makes both of these vehicle they share another common feature and that involves a Japanese car maker. You see, when Chrysler went into design mode with these two vehicles they decided not to start from scratch. Instead they started with a platform designed by Mitsubishi so the basis of both these vehicles is Japanese.

Proudly American … but made in Japan. I wonder if they mention that in their publicity.

by Stuart Livesey

In case you haven’t noticed it there has been some increased sabre rattling going on in the Middle East. Little George who couldn’t win a fight anywhere has now decided to get tough with Iran and that’s going to push the price of oil up in the weeks ahead.

While economists are expecting a modest rice at the bowser of around three or four cents recent history shows that the greed factor will possibly make it go higher.

by Stuart Livesey

One of our daughters is thinking of buying a new small car and that’s a perfect excuse for someone like me to go tyre kicking and collecting a few brochures for her. It also helps that she’s about as tall as me … and that’s rather tall so I can cull the cars that just don’t have the leg room for us.

After knocking my knees … and head … on several cars in the class I’ve come up with a short list for her and sent off the brochures (she works on the Central Tablelands in New South Wales).

Most of the brochures were what you would expect but the Hyundai Elantra and Getz brochures were … well … different. They consisted of a single sheet showing a nice picture and colour samples on the front and all the technical details on the back.

So what was so different about that? All the technical details were in print so small and so fine that I couldn’t read them.

Australian Summer Cars 5

by Stuart Livesey

If you’re looking for a convertible to help you enjoy the Australian summer - and you have over a quarter of a million dollars to spend - then the BMW M6 is for you.

Some describe it as a street-legal F1 while the Australians who now own one are too busy having fun to say much at all.

The first of these high-tech cars to reach Australia have now all been delivered to those on the top of of the waiting list. Others will follow soon.

You’ll find all the details and more images of the BMW M6 by following the link.

And you’ll find the other cars in the series of Australian Summer Cars by following these links.

Australian Summer Cars
Chrysler Sebring - coming later in the year

2000 Holden Barina Cabriolet - the cheapest convertible

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

BMW Series 3 Convertible - making it’s debut at the Brisbane Motor Show

There may be no hands on the wheel in the future

by Stuart Livesey

How many times have you come up behind a car on the highway and found that you couldn’t really see anyone in the driver’s seat? Thankfully that’s usually because the driver may be a little vertically challenged but if you were to come up behind this this 2006 VW Passat wagon you just might find that there’s no one behind the wheel.

Meet Junior Stanford University’s latest venture into robotically driven motor vehicles. Last year there was Stanley - Stanford’s winning entry in the annual Grand Challenge run by the Defense Andvanced Research Projects Agency.

The challenge was to build an autonomously controlled vehicle that could cross 211 km of rugged desert terrain and after several years of trying Stanford University was the first entrant to meet the challenge. For that they used a VW Toureg.

This year the challenge is to build an autonomously controlled vehicle that can navigate through city streets while other vehicles are moving around it. That’s something that we humans do every day; we absorb information from a myriad of information through our eyes, ears and other senses too.

We take all that information and process it in an incredibly short time and we go on doing that every second that we’re out there on the road. To us it’s really not much at all but try and build a computer and all the sensory equipment it needs to do that and you will see what the engineers at Stanford are up against.

It’s a fascinating story and you read all about it here

It’s fast becoming a collector’s item in Australia

by Stuart Livesey

The Toyota Soarer was a luxury coupe built by Toyota in Japan from 1981 to 2005. In 1990 Toyota moved the Soarer from it’s regular vehicle line-up to the Lexus brand. The Soarer certainly fitted into the Lexus brand because it’s comfort and equipment levels were right at the cutting edge for it’s time.

The Soarer was never marketed directly here in Australia by Toyota however quite a few did find their way into the country over the years. Many owners imported their Soarers directly from Japan and the 1996 Soarer SC300 that you see here is one that arrived here in that way.

These days the Toyota Soarer is becoming popular with collectors and younger enthusiasts and the high demand, coupled with the low numbers in Australia, is keeping prices up.

One unusual fact about the Toyota Soarer is that there seems to be a regional popularity about them. Here in this town there are three or four Toyota Soarers that I see regularly yet while I was living in Tasmania and on the road every day I never saw one. Google currently suggests that more people in Adelaide are searching for ‘Toyota Soarer’ than in any other part of Australia.

This particular Toyota Soarer is currently for sale and you can see all the details of the vehicle - along with more photos by following the link.

Save heaps on brand-name workshop tools

It’s not in the wild just yet but the details, pricing and photos are

by Stuart Livesey

BMW released the X5 in Europe late last year and it’s Australian release - at the Melbourne Motor Show is only weeks away.

But BMW have released images, technical details and pricing and we’ve got them here at Aussie Motoring. The range certainly looks exciting and it includes the hot V8 you see here

Follow the link for all the details on the new BMW X5

If you can write a comic then you too can promote this vehicle

The Jeep Patriot is in currently in production and will be released in the United States in the near future.

In a rather unique marketing ploy Jeep is going to promote this vehicle via a comic … written by fans who are being encouraged to weave the car’s features into the story line.

So if you think you’ve got what it takes to write a comic about the new Jeep Patriot then head over to The Patriot Factor and become part of comic history.

And if you’re interested in this story from a marketing point of view then you’ll find more about it here

Would Holden ever give fans a voice?

Earlier this week Holden’s American cousin - Pontiac - opened Pontiac Underground, a new website designed to:

“designed to tap into the “street-level” energy of fans from all its active and retired brands by uniting and introducing the hundreds of offline and online groups already in existence”

With the slogan of “Where Passion for Pontiac Is Driven By You” Pontiac is taking the brave step of opening up a site where ordinary Pontiac owners can talk about their good … and bad … experiences of the brand.

2007 Pontiac Solstice

This is something that some companies in other industries have tried with varying degrees of success. Not only do sites like this attract some positive comments but they also give disaffected owners a chance to complain loudly about their problems.

Whether it works for Pontiac or not is something that’s worth watching but it does make you wonder if Holden, or even Ford, here in Australia would be prepared to open a site like this and give their buyers a voice.

You can read more about the marketing industry’s thoughts on the site here