Aussie Motoring

Well it’s obvious to us but sometimes it’s beyond the understanding of the Americans that their motor vehicles rank at the bottom of fuel economy standards in all industrialised nations.

Just how badly they rank can be seen in this article where you will read that America consumes 21 million barrels of oil EVERY day.

Of course Hyundai - the car company - is not in meltdown. But back in December I wondered should I be thrilled when I found that a part of my Hyundai Grandeur had melted and was having a very adverse effect on the acceleration.

It’s been so bad that our normally very responsive car has turned into something rather sluggish and finding a replacement took some time - our mechanic is great with motors but maybe not so good at remembering that he’s supposed to be tracking down a rather rare part.

But finally he did and late last week he came back to us with a price - $1,000 for a part about the size of a matchbox. You’ll see it in this photo.

Now even though that little solenoid is actually attached to the small silver bit by two bolts - and the small silver bit is attached to the manifold by three more bolts - the local Hyundai dealer claims that to replace it we’ve got to buy the whole manifold assembly … for $1,000.

To be honest we’ve not had a good experience with our local Hyundai dealer over the years and we weren’t surprised to be given a price like that. So now we’re trying wreckers and other Hyundai dealers because … well … do you have a thousand bucks to spend on a solenoid that needs to be replaced because the original one melted?

We’ve always been a nation of big car buyers. There was a time when you weren’t a real man unless you drove a six cylinder, a V8 or even a big 4WD and you could have been considered unpatriotic if you drove anything but a car built in Australia - unless of course you were driving that big 4WD that looked like a tank and could pull the side off a mountain.

But times change, pain in your hip pocket can cause you to make decisions that reflect on your manhood and your patriotism and now we’re beginning to see change in the buying habits of Australian motorists … and the local manufacturers have been caught flat-footed.

Sales of Imported Cars Surge
In the period January to June this year - at a time when new car sales were increasing substantially - less than 20% of cars sold were actually built in Australia. Ford and Mitsubishi were the hardest hit as Australian car buyers looked overseas for their next new car.

Sales of light and small cars continued to climb as did sales of smaller 4WDs. Sales of small 4WD models are up by over 18% while sales of big 4WDs have dropped by over 13%.

And this trend will only continue to become stronger. The strong Aussie dollar means that imports from overseas are cheaper, the rising cost of fuel - tipped to be $100 a barrel by year’s end - will reinforce the appeal of smaller cars and another rise in interest rates tipped for August will further impact on the sales of big cars.

Manufacturers’ Response
And where are the manufacturers in all of this. Toyota is doing very well with it’s Aurion and Camry models but Holden has the VE Commodore with a fuel consumption that hasn’t improved in years. Ford has a new Falcon coming out next year that is just another big car and Mitsubishi is revamping its 380 - a car that hasn’t sold well in the past and probably never will.

It seems that there’s just more pain on the horizon for the local manufacturers. Admittedly Ford has announced that it will begin production of the Ford Focus here in Australia but that won’t begin to happen till 2011 - the first smalal car to be built in Australia since 1999 - and you might be forgiven for wondering if, in today’s ever-changing world, Ford Australia can last that long.

Meanwhile more and more small cars are coming in from overseas as savvy manufacturers take advantage of the Australian car makers inability to respond to market trends and things are only set to get worse for the big car makers when Kia launches it’s new cee’d range later this year. Trendy economical small cars like the Kia cee’d hatch and cabrio will become even more appealing to Australian car buyers.

Holden and Ford have long been Australian icons and they have a very vocal following among motoring enthusiasts … but out in the real world they just plain suck … and it’s official … almost.

It seems that a comsumer website here in Australia - ProductReview.com.au asked owners to rate their vehicles in a number of categories including comfort and reliability. The score was out of five and the results were not good for the homegrown product.

Ford could only manage ninth spot while Holden did even worse coming in at number 15. Subaru topped the poll, Mitsubishi came second and even Hyundai managed a fourth spot.

I’m afraid I’m not currently feeling all warm and fuzzy about Hyundai. We finally got a price on the melted part for our Grandeur that I mentioned way back here - it’s a bit that for some obscure reason has partially melted.

It’s only about the size of a matchbox but it’s going to be a very very expensive matchbox - the part alone costs $1000.00. Yep, that’s right, it’s not a typo - it really is going to cost one thousand dollars.

So right now, from my point of view - if Holden and Falcon suck then so does Hyundai.

Chairman Mao would have been horrified - the epitome of capitalism is now right there in the centre of the home of Chinese Communism.

Rolls Royce has just opened their first showroom in China in Beijing

Even though the announcement is yet to be made everyone knows that Ford is set to close it’s engine plant in Geelong and switch to using imported V6 engines in the Falcon and Territory range that’s built here in Australia.

It really is just one more nail in the coffin of the Australian motor industry - and industry that the Australian government does not see as important enough to protect and one that is stuck back in the past.

While Ford is closing its engine plant here it’s prepared to open new capacity in other countries where Governments are prepared to be more accommodating.

A couple of days ago I admitted that I liked quirky French cars and we looked at a real no-frills car from France - the Renault Logan; if it ever reaches Australia the Logan could retail for as little as $9,500.

Today we’re going to look at another French car that certainly is quirky but it could never be described as no-frills and it sure ain’t cheap. It’s the Citroen C6 and it offers the maximum rating for passenger safety and a four star safety rating for pedestrians.

The Citroen C6 comes with your choice of a 3 litre V6 petrol engine or a 2.7 litre turbocharged diesel. This car also comes with just about every extra you could hope for fitted as standard but if you have a few dollars left over after you’ve ordered the car you can spend an extra $2,000 for an electric glass roof and $4,000 for Citroen’s in-car navigation system.

Of course, if you don’t want those extras then you can pick up the C6 for $102,000 for the petrol powered version and around $109,000 for the diesel version.

You can read more about the Citroen C6 here

I have to admit to having a serious soft spot for French cars. My first French car was a Renault 12 sedan and my second was a Peugot 404 wagon. They were different, they were quirky and they were reliable so it’s no wonder that I still look at French cars and sometimes get the itch to buy another one.

I’m not sure though that I would buy this one simply because I’ve gone beyond the no-frills level but if it were sold here in Australia it would probably sell like hot cakes on price alone.

It’s the Renault Logan built by Renault’s subsidiary Dacia and in Europe the base model retails for around 6,000 Euros - thats about $A9,500. While many pundits in the Europe described this car as an ugly duckling when it was launched in 2004 it has certainly captured a very large share of the market.

The demand is so great that in Germany and France there’s a 6 month waiting list for the sedan and the 7 seat wagon

Renault are preparing to move into Indian market and parts of South America with both the sedan and wagon and the new van that has just been released and expects to be selling one million Renault Logans worldwide by 2010.

Will we ever see the Renault Logan in Australia? The quirky side of me certainly hopes so.

You know, marketing is a strange beast; sometimes you don’t want people to see the product until the day you’re about to launch it and other times you want them to see it way in advance and sometimes you don’t want them to know that you want them see it well before the launch.

Confused? Don’t feel bad about it … just accept that and you’ll understand why photographs of the 2008 Ford Falcon, the car to take on the VE Commodore and hopefully help Ford recover some market share, were found on a rubbish tip in Melbourne.

Of course they just happened to be dropped in the rubbish at the Ford plant and end up on the tip, somebody who knows about cars and recognised it as the yet to be released Ford Falcon,just happened to find them and recognise them for what they were … yeah right!

Still, the 2008 Falcon - codenamed Orion (would Phoenix have been more appropriate?) - is a great looking car and you can see those rubbish-tip photos and read more about the new car here

Ford tried the Mondeo here in Australia a few years back without a great deal of success. These days you can pick one up at a private sale for under $10k and even one of the more recent upmarket versions is on Drive.com for $8,995.

The lack of interest in the past hasn’t stopped Ford from trying their hand with the Mondeo yet again. The new model will be released here later this year and you can expect to pay a hefty price for it because it’s coming from Europe and the the Aussie dollar does not have a great exchange rate against the Euro.

To get a sneak preview of the new Ford Mondeo follow this link.