Tuesday, December 8, 2009
maybach 62 s
The Maybach brand from Mercedes-Benz broke the $300,000 barrier four years ago. To own a 62S today means parting with $400,000. The 62S gets a bigger urbocharged V12 than the "ordinary" 62 model, and about 50 extra horses, at 604 hp. It also gets upgraded upholstery that Maybach calls "Grand Nappa" leather, with color- contrasting piping, carbon fiber trim, different woods and exclusive paints.The Maybach brand from Mercedes-Benz broke the $300,000 barrier four years ago. To own a 62S today means parting with $400,000. The 62S gets a bigger urbocharged V12 than the "ordinary" 62 model, and about 50 extra horses, at 604 hp. It also gets upgraded upholstery that Maybach calls "Grand Nappa" leather, with color- contrasting piping, carbon fiber trim, different woods and exclusive paints.
Saab Director Praveen batish
“Sydney is… a very fickle market. It very much goes with the newest, the trends, and so on. But I think our customers have a little bit of unrest in terms of the dealer network over the last few years, and that doesn’t help because they don’t feel as confident.“Premium customers like to see familiar faces, they like to feel as though they’re important et cetera, which is quite right, really. Unfortunately, when you have a change of hands, it takes a bit of time for staff to understand the different customers.“When you’re used to selling a volume brand and all of a sudden you’re dealing with a premium brand, in terms of customers it’s a different feel. The time it takes for a premium customer to make a decision in terms of buying a car is that much longer. They’re not instantly turned on by whatever is being advertised as far as a tactical message is concerned.”Mr Batish said he believed sales would pick up in the second half of this year – “we’re hoping to be at least on a similar level to where we were last year” – and that Saab, on an international level, remained secure as a brand of General Motors.“I think Saab is very secure. If you look at the new product we showed in Detroit and in Geneva, you can see that there is investment in future products. And at the end of the day, future products is the lifeline of any brand,” he said.“For Saab, we’ve had the 9-5 for too long. And with the 9-3 you could argue that 90 per cent of the bodywork was changed, but we’ve had that probably longer than most people (competitors) would do in their cycle. And also, at the moment we don’t have the proliferation of products in terms of the range that our competitors do.”Saab will get AWD variants into its regular 9-3 range later this year, while the long-overdue new-generation 9-5 sedan has been pushed back to next year.The 9-4X SUV was shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January (with a 221kW/400Nm version of the 2.0-litre BioPower engine), while the 9-X BioHybrid unveiled at the Geneva motor show in March was the first official look at the forthcoming 9-1 compact car. An all-new 9-3 is also overdue.
Lack of traction in NSW, among fleets, is hurting Saab at the sales counter
SAAB Australia director Parveen Batish has blamed dealer issues in Sydney and a lack of fleet sales nationwide as the primary reasons behind the Swedish brand’s poor sales performance this year.Saab sales volume is down across all model lines and a massive 28.9 per cent for the marque as a whole in the first half of 2008, following just 214 sales in June - down 36.3 per cent on the June 2007 tally.With just 806 new buyers and a 0.1 per cent market share this year, Saab could sell fewer than 1500 cars for the entire year, down from around 1850 in 2007.“We’re suffering in the Sydney market – we’re not getting the sales from that area as much as we should do,” Mr Batish told GoAuto last week. “We had a change of dealerships in Sydney and it always takes a while for dealers to understand a premium brand and to get going.“The second thing is that we’re getting good traction with retail customers but we haven’t got good traction with fleet. We expected to have more of an input from fleet in terms of our overall sales.“If you take those two in combination, when you’re only selling 100 to 150 cars a month, having your biggest market in the country (Sydney) not performing, it has a big impact.”Mr Batish was unequivocal in his belief that Saab’s slow sales were due to its retail performance rather than marketing and advertising activities or the product itself.“If I was to show you our leads and test-drive enquiries for this year compared to the last three or four years – they’re up. We know we’re getting more people interested. We know we’re getting more people interested in a test drive, and we still have a very good conversion rate… it’s just getting them there,” he said.“(The problem) mainly seems to be Sydney. We’re really pleased with the performance that we’re getting in Perth, in Adelaide, in Canberra, and in fact in Melbourne. We don’t have a very large network – we only have 25 (dealers) – and of those 14 are in metro areas.“If we could get every one of those 14 dealers up and running, that 25 to 27 per cent negative (sales) would be 25 to 27 per cent positive.
Hyndai push to mandate
HYUNDAI is campaigning for electronic stability control to be fitted on all new cars sold in Australia and, to kick-start the campaign, is fitting the potentially life-saving technology on three of its models as standard for a limited time – including the Getz 1.6 SX at $14,990 driveaway.Until June 30, ESC is also being fitted free on the $19,990 Elantra 2.0 SX and the $24,990 Tucson City 2.0 SX, while the company’s cheapest car, the Getz 1.4 S at $13,990 driveaway, gets free ABS.“Our vision is to see ESP mandated across all new vehicles in Australia,” said Hyundai Australia sales and marketing director Kevin McCann
Thursday, November 5, 2009
volvo xc70
The Volvo XC70 is the go-anywhere toughened up version of the V70, with all the V70's practicalities, married to a slightly raised ground clearance, four wheel drive, hill descent control and a meaty looking off road body kit. Despite these additions the car is not a full 4x4 off roader, so don't expect mountain climbing ability, but a rugged farm track, or towing a trailer through a muddy field should be all in a days work.the XC70 sells in limited numbers, but has a cult following, and very few natural competitors - only the Audi Allroad (based on the A6) and the Subaru Forester can count themselves as true rivals, with most customers either opting for a traditional estate or a 'proper' 4x4. To match the limited numbers, Volvo only produces the XC70 with 2 different engines - either the evergreen 2.4 D5 diesel with 185bhp or the new 3.2 litre 6 cylinder petrol model. The D5 is a solid engine with decent power, but is starting to show its age, and can be a little gruff, but will still be the most popular choice due to the 40 mpg+ fuel consumption.
Volvo xc90
The XC90 is Volvo's Flagship model, and a semi-premium 4x4 offering to compete against the likes of the BMW X5 and Mercedes M Class off roaders. Available with a range of 3 engines, a 3.2 litre 6 cylinder petrol thats powerful and smooth, likes to rev but is thirsty with it, an even more powerful 4.4 petrol V8, primarily built for the American market, and the ever popular 2.4 D5 diesel with 185 bhp, which is available in all volvo carson sale in the UK today. In this application, the performance of the motor is gruff, and only just enough to pull the weight of the rather heavy XC90, but compared to the other powerplants, is vastly more frugal, averaging low 30's mpg.
Styling wise the Volvo xc90 comes across as graceful, without some of the overdone aggression built in to many 4x4's, suggesting rightly, along with the 7 seats that this is to be a family car, with a high proportion of female drivers. The cabin is built solidly and to a high quality, if maybe lacking a little of the style of some of its German rivals. It's spacious, with plenty of head and legroom in the first two rows of seats, however the back two seats are best left for kids, with limited legroom.
Styling wise the Volvo xc90 comes across as graceful, without some of the overdone aggression built in to many 4x4's, suggesting rightly, along with the 7 seats that this is to be a family car, with a high proportion of female drivers. The cabin is built solidly and to a high quality, if maybe lacking a little of the style of some of its German rivals. It's spacious, with plenty of head and legroom in the first two rows of seats, however the back two seats are best left for kids, with limited legroom.
New Jaguar XF Station Wagon to appear in September Show?
More rumours are circulating on the net regarding Jaguar possibly launching a station wagon (or Estate as the UK like to call it) version of the fantastic XF model.
The Image above is a photoshop job unfortunately but it's a very good effort, ans shows just how an XF station wagon could look. The image is taken from Auto Express magazine who have a varying reputation for their "scoops" -some extremely accurate, some less so - but we like this one so we thought we'd show it - you can find a link to the original article below.
It runs along the lines that the only other station wagon version of a Jaguar ever launched - the X-Type, was more of a lifestyle car rather than a true load lugger, and it's expected that the XF would follow the same thinking, and have similar space to say a BMW 5 series rather than the more spacious Audi A6 Avant.
Rumours suggest Jaguar could show this car at the Frankfurt motor show in Germany in September, but with the new Jaguar XJ so close to launch, it may be doubtful that Jaguar would show 2 new products at the same show, so the XF Station Wagon may have to wait until next year. With sales of big SUV's dropping in the US, this has prompted many buyers back into station wagon models, which may be what has prompted Jaguar to look again at this model.
The Image above is a photoshop job unfortunately but it's a very good effort, ans shows just how an XF station wagon could look. The image is taken from Auto Express magazine who have a varying reputation for their "scoops" -some extremely accurate, some less so - but we like this one so we thought we'd show it - you can find a link to the original article below.
It runs along the lines that the only other station wagon version of a Jaguar ever launched - the X-Type, was more of a lifestyle car rather than a true load lugger, and it's expected that the XF would follow the same thinking, and have similar space to say a BMW 5 series rather than the more spacious Audi A6 Avant.
Rumours suggest Jaguar could show this car at the Frankfurt motor show in Germany in September, but with the new Jaguar XJ so close to launch, it may be doubtful that Jaguar would show 2 new products at the same show, so the XF Station Wagon may have to wait until next year. With sales of big SUV's dropping in the US, this has prompted many buyers back into station wagon models, which may be what has prompted Jaguar to look again at this model.
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