2012 AIMS wrap: Small crowd, big sales

No, there wasn’t a lot of glamour and pizzazz at this year’s Australian International Motor Show in Sydney, and that – along with the absence of wow-factor brands including Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Lotus, BMW and Audi – no doubt contributed to record low attendance levels.

But for the exhibitors, that may have proved less of a problem than one might think.

Asked about the near 50 per cent of brands missing from the show, AIMS director Russ Tyrie responded that the 27 brands on display represent 95 per cent of the cars on sale in Australia. Our chats with visitors revealed there’s more to that than a carefully spun yeah-but.

Of the two-dozen-odd individuals and couples we canvassed at the show, 17 said they were there to look at cars they intended to buy, and to compare competing models in the same segment. That doesn’t mean they were days away from sealing the deal, but they were there as steak buyers – not just sizzle dreamers – lending weight to assertions that this year’s AIMS was a serviceable working trade show.

Mouthwatering concept cars serve a couple of important purposes at motor shows. For their makers, cars like Lexus’ LF-LC and Ford’s EVOS help strengthen brand value, showcase upcoming technologies and provide pointers to future design shifts. The more street-viable ones that garner sufficient response can turn into profitable production models, ala Holden’s latter-day Monaro and Volkswagen’s New Beetle.

But the LF-LC, the EVOS and the privately owned Aston Martin One-77 at this year’s AIMS also draw punters through the doors to generate passing trade for more accessible brands as well.

Motor shows mightn’t be as powerful as the internet when it comes to being a one-stop research tool, but they do provide prospective buyers with the ability to physically compare and contrast an up-to-the-minute range of models in whatever price range they’re considering. That’s why, even in the absence of brands like Audi and BMW, the volume-selling mainstream car-makers will always be there.

Our visit, late in the show, began inauspiciously. On arriving, we found a man in his late 30s walking around the new Mazda 6 taking pictures. “Piss off,” he said as we approached him for comment. 

During our visit, among the big hits of the show were Nissan’s new Pulsar and Patrol and Opel’s OPC coupe, but if any one car got the gong it was Mercedes-Benz’s next-generation A-Class.

Benz’s stand had much going for it, including the new CLS Shooting Brake wagon and lots of AMG fare. But it was the sleek new A that was grabbing the attention. It’s not just interesting to look at and well-equipped – from less than $40K on the road, it’s an affordable three-pointed star.

Benz did well out of the show. “We’ve had more than 500 qualified test drive requests coming out of the show,” Mercedes spokesman David McCarthy told carsales.com.au. In carworld, “qualified” means a realistic lead – they have ways of separating those they feel are and aren’t worth following up.

Some 10 to 15 per cent of those leads were for models worth $100,000 and over, Mr McCarthy added, which means 90 per cent were for stock-in-trade B, C and ML models. The count doesn’t include the new A-Class, which won’t be here until February 2013 at the earliest.

“But it’s generated huge inquiry levels. If we have a problem there, it’ll be on the supply side,” said Mr McCarthy.

June and Robbie, a couple in their early 30s, were all over the A-Class cars on display. “It’s what, $35,000?” June asked, marvelling at what you get for your money these days. Robbie was sceptical: “Let’s see what happens when you put it on the road with a few extras on it.” We bade farewell as she read him out a list of standard kit.

Another Robbie, this one a woman, lamented a notable omission over on the Volkswagen stand. “I actually came to try and see the new Golf,” she said. “Pity.”

A lead, even a qualified one, and a sale are very different things, said Ford’s brand communications manager, Neil McDonald.

“Our marketing people factor in a lag of up to nine months between the first expression of interest at something like AIMS and the actual sale. So it’s probably too early to talk about sales on the back of the show,” he said.

“But we don’t really see the show as a pure data gathering opportunity to secure sales. Buyers are very savvy now to online research. AIMS is more about the engagement and being able to check out our range in a low-pressure environment.”

While Ford’s interior stand was modest, the real Blue Oval action was outside. The company’s “Smart Drive” program gave visitors the chance to try out several safety and convenience features it has in its European line-up.

“Our whole-of-show target was 3000 people. We hit that in four days,” Mr McDonald told carsales.com.au. All up, Ford took more than 6000 requests for tests of the Kuga SUV’s “open sesame” keyless automatic tailgate,  the Focus Titanium’s standard Active Park Assist self-parking system and that car’s optional Active City Stop, designed to avert collisions at up to 30km/h.

“I like the car,” said Neville, 67, of the Focus. “I’d have one in a shot, but it wouldn’t be for that bloody parking thing. I can’t get over that.”

Holden, meanwhile, isn’t commenting on the kind of interest generated by its Volt, the first local example of which was handed over to the US ambassador in Australia. “But it’s been overwhelming down here, the whole week,” one stand staff member said.

For other visitors, the show provides a useful way of gauging whether to buy now or hold off for a model set for launch in the near future. Martin, a smartly suited fellow in his early 40s, said he won’t be replacing his two year-old Cayman until he gets a closer look at Jaguar’s F-TYPE on its arrival here in Q2 2013.

Even with a starting price somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000, if the response at the show is anything to go by, they won’t have any trouble moving them. Although out of reach in a fenced-off stand, the beautiful F was getting plenty of mindshare. Several people we spoke to mentioned it even well away from the Jag stand.

On the other half of Jaguar Land Rover’s stand, we caught up with a trio of blokes looking over the new Vogue. From a distance, anyway – like the F-TYPE, it stood fenced off on a stand. James and Ken, both in their 50s, were down from the Sunshine Coast and thought they’d look in. They liked the Rangie, but they were there to investigate Nissan’s Patrol.

They were particularly impressed by the Patrol’s deluxe interior. James said it’s “a bit up” on the Patrol he bought near-new 20 years ago. “But I still drive that car. When I look inside off-road cars like this and the Range Rover Sport [that he’s put off buying for the last couple of years], I wonder what they’ll be like after that sort of time. God, it looks like a Jag or a BMW or something inside.”

While Nissan’s GT-R drew an unwavering throng of young blokes with mobile phone cameras, one of the show’s bigger hits was the resurrected Pulsar. Gone is the board-game counter look of the Tiida; in its place is something harking back to Pulsar's past – and, as one unimpressed fellow in his 40s pointed it out, the Maxima. “Just looks like that big one, shrunken down,” he said.

It’s probably lucky they didn’t use the venerated Pulsar name on the Tiida, said Mahmoud, 29, describing the SSS hot-hatch on display as “more like it.” “I never understood why they killed it like they did.” A two-time SSS owner himself, he said he’s keen to try the newcomer, raising an eyebrow at the mention of a blown 1.6-litre four good for 140kW. He liked the sound of an early-mid $30K price, too.

Nissan spokesman Peter Fadeyev told carsales.com.au the Pulsars “generated significant traffic both on our own site and our retailers.” When it goes on sale in February, the base ST sedan will limbo in under the $20K mark by $10, plus on-road costs.

“So what will that be a month?” asked one woman of her friend as she looked over the base model. The friend guessed around $350. For them, the news is good. “The $299/month launch offer certainly caught some attention,” Mr Fadeyev added.

Nissan’s upmarket Infiniti brand also enjoyed “a tremendous response”, Mr Fadeyev continued. “It generated strong enquiries from both our stand and our Sydney retail centre since the show opened,” he said.

On the ground, the FX SUV appeared to be the biggest drawcard, competitively specced and priced as it is (from $83,900 plus on-roads for the base petrol FX37) against natural competitors from Lexus and the German prestige triumvirate.

Over with the other newcomer brand, Opel, we found a couple of people admiring the Astra OPC. IT consultant Mukesh, 36, told us he was at the show to draw comparisons between Volkswagen’s Scirocco R and Renault’s Megane RS265 Cup, and to take a look into Ford’s Focus ST.

“The Opel wasn’t even on my radar,” he said. “But $42K for a fair bit more power, I’ll be taking a closer look at that,” he said. (Actually it’s $42,990 plus on-roads, for 206kW against 188kW and 195kW for the costlier Scirocco and RS265 Trophy respectively, and 184kW for the cheaper Focus ST.) He’s prepared to wait till the OPC’s release in February before trading in his Monaro.

Despite the low total attendance numbers, Opel stand manager Martin van der Horst told us he hasn’t seen as much interest in 15 years working on other GM specialist brands – Hummer, Cadillac – as he has in Opel. Mukesh was far from unique, it seems.

“We took more than 10 pre-orders on the first Saturday alone, and it only arrives in February,” said Mr van der Horst. “It’s funny – I expected we’d take sales from the WRX, but all the interest has come from Megane RS and Scirocco buyers. It helps, obviously, that we’re not a new brand in Europe – I’ve spoken to a lot of European migrants in the last few days.”

After a couple of hours, we departed through the same door we’d come in through, near the Mazda stand. The same bloke was still walking around the new Mazda 6, still taking pictures.