Roofs off at Geneva
March in Switzerland may not be the warmest of places – in fact, it was snowing outside during the early part of the Geneva motor show – but that didn't stop a host of manufacturer's lifting the lids on a bunch of new convertibles.Alfa Romeo actually won the annual motor show prize for Cabrio of the Year with its new Spider, which was seen at Geneva for the first time.
It was against some stiff opposition with a veritable poultice of soft tops (and folding hard tops) from manufacturers as diverse as Jaguar, Audi, Ford and Mitsubishi.
Based on the Brera coupe, the Alfa Spider is a two-seater with a folding fabric roof, just like the GTV-based model it replaces.
It will arrive in Australia later this year, probably in November or a couple of months after the Brera.
It will be powered by the choice of a 2.2-litre four cylinder or a 191kW V6 derived from the General Motors Global V6 produced at Fishermens Bend in Melbourne.
Ford Australia is also looking closely at the Focus Coupe Cabriolet, seen in production form for the first time at Geneva.
The Focus CC was first seen as the Vignale concept car at the 2004 Paris motor show, and goes into production mid-2006 at Pininfarina's Italian plant. It won't be launched in Europe until a little after that, if and Ford gives the go-ahead could be in Australia as early as the first quarter of 2007.
Like four-seater rivals from Peugeot and Renault, it has a two-piece folding hardtop that allows 500 litres of luggage space with the roof in place. It is powered by a 1.6 or 2.0-litre petrol engine, or a 2.0-litre diesel.
At the wilder end of the scale, Audi unveiled a cabrio version of its RS4, powered by the same high-revving, 309kW 4.2-litre V8 as the already existing four-door sedan.
Although the RS4 Cabriolet isn't a confirmed starter for Australia, the RS4 Avant (that's wagon) that was also shown at Geneva will be here before the end of 2006.
Jaguar also showed its XK Convertible, Volkswagen had the production version of the Golf-based Eos coupe-convertible and Mercedes showed the mighty V8-powered CLK 63 AMG Cabriolet.
As if to prove not all convertibles have to be big and glamorous, Mitsubishi had the final production version of its Colt-based CZC.
The tiny, four-seater hard-top coupe-cabriolet will reach Australia in September with a 1.5-litre engine in both 80kW naturally-aspirated and 110kW turbo guises.
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