Risk it with Rawhide

Comment: Otto Insider

For all our Aussie larrikin hype, we're actually a very conservative bunch -- a hangover from the virtuous 19th century Victorians, the strict control of the church, and latterly the influx of well-mannered and cultured Asians from our north. And that's before you consider the stable political system where the differences between the parties are smaller than anyone's willing to admit!

In automobile terms, we're seen by the global industry as a vibrant melting pot of cultures: advanced enough to be used as a test bed of new ideas, yet isolated and small enough not to rock the boat if the marketing mavens in Tokyo or Detroit screw the pooch.

But take a brief reality check looking out into the traffic and see what's clogging the roads.

Do we make heroes of the quirky, cutting edge designs with their advanced engineering or do we play it safe with yet another cookie-cutter Corolla or Prado/LandCruiser (insert preferred Toyota mobility device). The MR2, possibly Toyota's most outlandish, sportiest and most involving machine barely troubled the VFACTS scorers, and the pseudo sexy Celica of bless'd memory was but a Camry 'neath its rounded skin in the 1990s.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, I hear you wail, pointing resolutely to rock solid resale value, durability and robust assembly from iron-clad componentry more than man enough to stand up to our climate, road surfaces and idiot drivers. But really, a market our size that voraciously consumes 10,000-plus Corollas every eight weeks cannot be too focussed on the jollier side of motoring.

With 22.2 per cent of the total car market year-to-date, the Toyota marketing message is stamped increasingly indelibly into the hearts and minds of car buyers country-wide. And not just fleet managers either.

Toyota equals risk free driving. You've all seen the TV ad where the chap drives on past the pretty woman stranded at the side of a deserted road with an apparently dead car. "Obviously a trap," he concludes, since the stricken car was a Toyota.

But for every 1000 risk-averse buyers, there's handful of robust souls who don't want to have the same car as their neighbours. For these guys, there's a new white knight on the warpath, raining down a bag of jolly Dolly Mixtures -- vehicles that sell themselves mostly on the sheer strength of their visual appeal. It's something of a guttural appeal.

Welcome the anti-Toyota. Step forward Chrysler Group's newly released product line-up; as far removed from Toyota conformity as is robotically possibly. These are vehicles to evoke an emotional response as hearty as Toyota's appeal is heady.

Armed with pricing on the fair side of sharp, equipment packages on the fruity side of fair, and motors that are quick enough, frugal enough and well-proven, the new Chrysler and Jeep products should have little trouble amassing a little league following. And as for Dodge -- well, it's the new punk on the block... Australia's most extrovert brand?

It's unlikely in the short term to worry Toyota in sales or resale values, but the virulent appeal of its products may well stir many a soul.

If Chrysler group's sales were to grow tenfold overnight Toyota wouldn't be in the least bit worried, but for the purposes of this argument, that is exactly the point. The Chrysler drop in the bucket gives that tiny percentage of the population, eager to make a statement, more firepower than they've had in a long while.

So for the intrepid small sedan buyer, cast ye aside thoughts of a Corolla and plump instead for a Dodge Caliber. Refuse a Camry and race for a Sebring, and pass up a Presara in favour of a 300C... It might be 12 per cent more expensive but you get a bigger and more prestigious and brutal-looking machine.

On the all-wheel drive SUV front, Toyota has been market leader since there was a market to lead. RAV 4 has been the colossus of roads sealed or not across 13 years, the standard by which all other compact SUV's are graded. So if your neighbourhood is wall-to-wall RAV, why not try a Jeep Patriot? It looks like a Jeep, smells like a Jeep, but drives more like the aforementioned Toyo...

Kluger is a Toyota byword in family transport. Okay so the Dodge Nitro is a row of pews short of a picnic party compared with the optioned up seven-a-side Kluger, but who wants to cart around other people's brood anyway? And the Nitro's bad-ass looks give soccer moms unusual 'don't mess with me, buster' bluster.

Toyota LandCruisers built Australia (well, bits of it anyway) but Telstra's workhorse in and out of the bush perhaps does not have the cachet of the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited nor the 'fridge-freezer-on-the-loose' looks. Painted forest green and with a couple of stars tacked on the side, you could kid yourself you're a Gulf War Rambo on shore leave, not an unarmed shell-shocked UN observer.

Wake from dreaming the American dream, and the numbers make sober reading. True, most of the Chrysler contingent is freshly washed up on our shores, but here's the main game. In the past two months, Toyota has cleared 10,350 new Corollas from its decks, 4635 Camrys from the forecourts and 4551 Aurions too. The RAV4's got traction with 2521 sales, as has the runout Kluger with 647 sales. And the monolithic and the soon to be replaced LandCruiser station wagon still appealed to 1088 buyers in two months.

No question Chrysler Group brands have no serious intention of taking down Toyota. But with every extra 1000 Toyotas that hit the road, the incentive to switch to Chrysler's deliciously deviant products and those of over non-homogenised marques must surely grow stronger.

Round 'em up... Head 'em out... Shoot 'em up...

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