Nine car ads from the noughties that brought us into the new Millennium

If the car ads of the '90s were defined by the matter of fact voice overs, bursts of colour and outdated fashion, then the car ads of the 2000s will be defined by the interesting choices of storytelling. The creative juices were flowing for advertisers and the nine car ads from the naughties we've hand picked are certainly a mixed bag of style, creative flair catchy songs of the era and utter WTF.

Ford brought the European Fiesta to Australia in the mid 2000s to take over small hatchback duties from the cheap and cheerful Festiva. So when launching a new product into a competitive small car market you've got to standout...The ad featuring several German 'Ford engineers' promoting the sexy car to the song I See You Baby by Groove Armada is very 2000s and somewhat disturbing.

Relive the new Millennium with your own Ford Fiesta here on carsales.

This is the ad that started the Zoom Zoom revolution in Australia. Before the mid 2000s Mazda was a considerably different car brand in the eyes of the Australian public. A bit of fun music, aspirational drives, simplification of naming conventions (The 626 became the 6) and alliteration can make all the difference. And we have Zoom Zoomed ever since.

Relive the new Millennium with your own Mazda 6 here on carsales.

The Honda Cog ad is quite possibly the most creative car ad ever created, and is certainly the most awarded car ad in the world. A simple idea of using the parts of a Honda Accord Euro in a game of dominoes to reveal the car is so clever. We could watch it all day.

Relive the new Millennium with your own Honda Accord Euro here on carsales.

Out of all the car brands on sale in Australia, Mitsubishi is the only one who has constantly combined all their models into one big emotive brand ad combined with an earworm of a song. The banger of You Get What You Give by the New Radicals set the tone for the new millennium when this ad hit screens in 2000 with excited and youthful people showcasing the Mitsubishi lineup.

Relive the new Millennium with your own Mitsubishi here on carsales.

Back in the 2000s, the RAV4 wasn't a family hauler and animals were used to help sell cars. Rocky the RAV4 camel was the star of many RAV4 ads including this one which is a spoof of the actual Rocky films. You could even buy your own Rocky stuffed toy camel for $19.95!

Relive the new Millennium with your own Toyota RAV4 here on carsales.

An ad that was controversial for two reasons...firstly it was for the Nissan Tiida, the unsuccessful follow up to the Pulsar (technically they were the same but Nissan globally wanted one unified name for the product). Secondly, the ad which was designed to create awareness for the new car and name featured Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall who played a version of her TV character Samantha Jones. This seemed to rub people up the wrong way especially in New Zealand where the ad was banned. With lines like "Why didn't you tell me it was so big?" and "Ah! That was amazing. Absolutely fabulous! I mean the great body and the way you moved it." It seemed to be very Samantha, but not very Nissan.

Relive the new Millennium with your own Nissan Tiida here on carsales.

Have you ever thought what a car version of Thomas the Tank Engine would look like? Well in 2005 Honda decided to give it a crack with a series of cute stop animation ads for the Jazz.

Touted as their "Billion Dollar Baby", the launch of the VE Commodore brought much fanfare and excitement down under. Not only was this a huge advancement in car making technology in Australia, a billion dollar investment into a standalone platform for the Commodore saw Holden's biggest ever investment in marketing and media too. They even had a blimp that flew around Australia playing Holden ads and the song Ready to Go by Republica on repeat. This ad really symbolises and visualises what the VE Commodore was about and what it came to do in 2006. RIP Commodore.

Relive the new Millennium with your own Holden Commodore here on carsales.

From the "We couldn't make that ad today" files, the Renault Megane hatch and its iconic big booty captured the imagination of car buyers worldwide with out there styling and French flare. In Europe, Renault used Groove Armada's I See You Baby to show off the car's derriere, but since Ford Australia were already using that song for the aforementioned Fiesta, Australia got the Sir Mix-A-Lot's timeless classic Baby Got Back instead. Who knew that the mid 2000s had that many songs about bums to choose from?

Relive the new Millennium with your own Renault Megane here on carsales.

Related: Nine car ads from the '90s that are a real blast from the past

Related: Nine cars from the noughties that brought us into the new Millennium

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