MIMS shorts
Lost among the big news items at the Melbourne International Motor Show on the day, were these little gemsAustralia is now the ninth largest market in the world for RenaultSport products. By the way, all 20 of the 'new' R26s are yellow. There have been no specification or mechanical changes.
BMW's media and public relations chief Toni Andreevski told the Carsales Network at MIMS that it was unlikely the brand would attend the Sydney event, citing co-brand MINI's successful activities away from AIMS over the last couple of years as a factor, in addition to the success of BMW's own direct customer and prospect activities.
According to Porsche it is currently "examining" its options re Sydney. Our information is the marque is unlikely to attend the Sydney show.
"Hmmm… It's evolutionary isn't it… Very evolutionary. There's some very subtle lines and the design is very well resolved but subtleties like these [pointing to aspects of an XR on display] are lost on most of the general public.
"They've obviously addressed a lot of the challenges of the old car, but you could have skinned one of these cars yellow and run it as a cab for the last six months and nobody would have picked it.
"You can't rely on having an old car and a new car next to each other to tell people this one's new.
"It didn't have to be AU different, but it needed to be different…"
Thomson was in Melbourne for MIMS, to unveil the stunning three-door LRX concept (more here 2899656). The Carsales Network spoke to the Brit regarding the Defender and potential new segments for the brand -- like an all-wheel-drive pick-up.
"When Land Rover first came out [with Defender] there was nothing else like it -- now everything from a pick-up truck to a quad bike fills its role for different people…. The world has changed…
"Where we pitch it, where we put the [Defender] replacement, we took a good hard look at that… It's one of the many things we're looking at…
And what about a US (and Australian) market style pick-up?
"We do look at everything -- believe me. But I think in terms of fitting our image of what a premium vehicle is, it's probably a stretch too far for the brand. We've got to look at our values and what the car stands for," replied Thomson.
Could that change when Land Rover is not owned by Ford?
"Not really… I don't think so," Thomson opined.
"Pick-up trucks don't necessarily fit our image of premium sophisticated vehicles, really. On a whole they're working vehicles and I think even [in the case of a] Defender replacement it doesn't fall into the pick-up bracket. It's something more mature, more capable.
"A pick-up truck is too mainstream for Land Rover," he stated.
"It [the X6] just doesn't have any integrity to me. It does look like they just made it around the back. It's a cheap shot and seems to pander to the latest fad. I don't think vehicles like that have enough honesty and integrity about them…"
Ford's turn first… Regular Sydney Northern Beaches commuters will be interested to learn part of their daily drive plays an important part in Ford's development and sign off process for new cars. The traffic snarled and speed camera infested stretch from the Spit Bridge and the steep sidestreets and intersections of Balmoral all form part of Ford's special Sydney certification process.
Engineering boss Trevor Worthington confirmed the fact during the second tranche of FG Falcon briefings recently, saying the two areas were ideal for engineers to nail subjective qualities such as lane placement and instrument legibility in times of "high driver load". The Balmoral instersections help fine-tune step off response and stability control settings.
And Renault… Renault boss, Rudi Koenig revealed the French carmaker is using Australia for a significant amount of development testing. Both the new Laguna medium car and Renault's Koleos SUV have both been tested Down Under. In the case of the former for an extend period of around four-five months.
Sydney is used for high traffic, high heat and humidity testing as well as assessing the cars' performance in hilly urban conditions. The wider brown land gets used for hot weather and dust sealing trials as well as extreme humidity testing in FNQ.
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