Articles by Neil Dowling in Geneva

Kia's new frontline fighter is the Rio, which becomes the spearhead for the company this year and a pivotal model in its plan to rise beyond the bargain basement and become a brand with the cars and quality to challenge Japan's best.The new Rio, which will be sold in Australia from August as a five-door hatch priced from about $15,500, must sell far better than its predecessor and also deliver on Kia's quality promises."It's an extremely important car for us," Michael Choo, Kia's global communications manager, tells Carsguide.  "Here's an example - the old Rio sold 20,000 units a year in Europe. We expect the new Rio to sell 90,000 a year."The new Rio is a pivotal car and changes start with the design. The styling was done by a team working in three countries and, though it has a similar face to other new Kias including the Optima sedan and Sportage SUV, the body shape is all new.Action starts with the five-door hatch and it will be joined before the end of the year by a sedan and, in early 2012, a three-door model.  The new Rio is a chalk-and-cheese comparison with the outgoing car, as it is longer, wider and lower to provide greater cabin room and a sporty profile.The wheelbase is up by 70mm to 2570mm yet overall length expands by only 55mm. The Rio is also 15mm lower than the existing model and 25mm wider to result in more cargo space.  Globally, the Rio will be offered with six engines including a three-cylinder, 1.0-litre petrol and a 1.1-litre diesel.However, Kia Australia spokesman Kevin Hepworth says Australia will get a 1.6-litre engine and perhaps a 1.4-litre engine to set a starting price. The price penalty strikes Australia off the list for a potentially zippy - and Volkswagen Polo chasing - 1.2-litre direct-injection turbo-petrol engine.Kia says the Rio is aimed at buyers who are downsizing into the brand.  "A B-segment car as attractive as the Rio, with its driver-oriented cabin and interior trim options, will no doubt help consumers to be more comfortable making that switch," says Kia's director of overseas marketing, Soon-Nam Lee."The Rio is our 'next big step' in Kia's design revolution and we anticipate this model becoming even more popular than the current vehicle."While the Rio is the focus in Geneva, the company also unveils the Picanto city car, which is now firming for a place in Australian showrooms, as well as the Optima that is also on the wish list for local sales.

Bentley, which uses up to 12-cylinder engines in its 2-tonne-plus top-end saloons, says the fuel slashes its CO2 footprint by up to 70 per cent. The luxury carmaker in 2008 started making its cars compatible with E85 (85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol - or any variation in between) as a means of reducing emissions and meeting proposed European exhaust gas regulations. Bentley engineering director Dr Ulrich Eichhorn says even though E85 wasn't available in all markets, customers showed immense interest in towing a green line. "In markets where ethanol is available, we see high interest by customers,'' he says. "We estimate that from well to wheel - the lifecycle of the energy process - a Bentley running on sustainable E85 will have a whole of life CO2 reduction of more than 70 per cent. "It makes a rational reason why a buyer would buy a Bentley. It promotes an environmental message. "We know of one customer who traded in an almost-new Flying Spur model and bought the latest Flying Spur with the E85-compatible engine. "He did it for three reasons - environment, the fact that in Britain it saves him about $30 because of a lower tax; and his neighbour has a Prius and he is delighted that he can smuggly match its CO2 footprint. They may not be reasons chosen by most owners, but they make sense for him and there's a clear benefit to the environment.'' Bentley is facing a choice of going it alone with the proposed - and not yet legislated - 120g/km CO2 threshold of European delivery cars. It takes effect in January 2012 with a graduated introduction trough to 2015. "We can either join with Volkswagen and take advantage of the lower emission level of the group's fleet, or go it alone. It's being discussed. Personally, I think it makes more sense to stay within the Volkswagen Group's fleet.'' Bentley last month proved the worth of its E85 commitment by settling a world ice speed record on the frozen Baltic Sea off the coast of Finland. Former rally champion Juha Kankkunen sent a Bentley Continental GT at 330.69km/h over a 14km graded section of the 700mm-thick ice. The fuel used, says Eichhorn, was derived from waste straw.

It's sitting on the runway in its final countdown before showroom launch but Mazda still won't say much about its "baby" SUV, the CX-5.  Chief designer Masashi Nakayama says the car - designed to replace the Tribute on world markets - gave him a clean sheet approach to its design. But he says it is still influenced by its slightly bigger sister, the CX-7, and even the MX-5 of which he was one of the design team members.  Shown in pre-production guise at this week's Geneva motor show, the Minari concept is as close as it's likely to get before Mazda starts pressing the metal body panels. Surprisingly it's a lot bigger in the flesh than early pictures suggest.   Mazda Australia's Steve Maciver says it's only a few centimetres shorter than the CX-7, begging the question that the company now has a chance to build an even smaller SUV to take on rivals such as the Mitsubishi ASX. Nakayama won't talk about any future product and isn't discussing when it will hit the streets.  But he is keen to point out where the car has come from and who it's aimed at. "There is a huge market in SUVs and especially smaller SUVs,'' he says.  "Some of these are too big. This car is the right size and is designed for the driver. t's more like a passenger car in how it drives, but we know the market may be mainly for ladies with children.  So the Generation Y woman is the car's target.'' He says he had a free hand with the car and that it is not based on any existing platform.  "This is a SkyActiv platform (to be used first on the next Mazda3) and it's the perfect base for the SUV because it is the right size and is designed for sports driving.'' Though the show car is still regarded as a concept, its shape is almost definite. It will lose, however, the pop-out door handles and a lot of the intricate dashboard components. The SUV was shown at Geneva this week alongside the Shinari concept coupe that shares its new grille and headlight theme. It was finished in a brilliant metallic red that Nakayama says is a special colour reserved for the very best of show cars. "It doesn't represent the colour of the Japan flag of a rising sun, but of a sun that is high in the sky - in this case high in the SkyActiv technology,'' he smiles.

The i40 is a great-looking wagon - long, low, sleek and with some Mercedes CLS styling cues.  But Hyundai Australia's marketing boss, Oliver Mann, says getting it down under is still only a chance. "It has to make sense. It has to be the right price and work with the other models,'' he says in Geneva.  It's designed in Europe for Europeans and we have to see if it can work - pricing, specifications, features and so on - in Australia.'' What worries Mann is that the i40 will sit in a small market segment occupied now only by the Mazda6 and Ford Mondeo wagons.  "That's not a big segment and we don't have a customer base to call on,'' he says. "But it's a new concept for Hyundai and it has a lot of appeal.''  The i40 comes with the choice of a 1.7-litre turbo-diesel or 2-litre petrol engine and is made in Korea.  "It's our style leader in terms of quality and finish,'' Mann says. The i40 is in the same boat as the RB model that will replace the Accent.  Mann says this hatch is yet to be decided as an entrant into Australia. "We'll make a decision within one month,'' he says.  "It has been developed for all global markets. To a degree, the i20 replaced the Accent. The RB - possibly to become the i25 - is built on the i20 platform and is a four-door sedan, so it will appeal to a different buyer than the i20, says Mann.  A better bet is the MD model - no name yet but the money's on i35 -that replaces the Elantra. Mann says the sedan is here midyear and will be a strong boost to the affordable family-oriented sector.  On a more concrete note, Hyundai is preparing its unusual three-door Veloster coupe for Australia. It arrives late this year as a 1.6-litre petrol engined four-seater with two side doors on the left side of the car, and one on the right.  It has been specifically engineered for the right-hand drive markets - the left-drive US market gets the two doors on the other side - and will be the successor (in terms of market) to the original Hyundai S-Coupe. It also gives Hyundai the chance to re-enter the coupe market after it quietly withdrew the Tiburon two-door model from the Australian showrooms about 18 months ago.  

Prompted by the impressive handling of its new Toyota-shared, rear-drive coupe, Subaru is prepared to consider the layout for other models. It is a stark departure from a company that, in Australia especially, has built its market and loyal customer following on its "ALL 4'' branding. That may come as a shock but there's no surprise in moves within Subaru to make drastic changes to its styling direction and, in other areas, consider culling some models and adding some extras. In Geneva this week for one of Europe's key motor show event, Subaru's global marketing vice president Hidetoshi Kobayashi spoke candidly about the carmaker's future. He sees the link with Toyota to develop the coupe - called FT-86 by Toyota and as yet un-named by Subaru - as one possible step towards using the rear-drive design in other Subaru products. "It has very good dynamics,'' he says of the coupe. "It's much different from driving an all-wheel drive car - it's much better.'' Asked if he could see the rear-drive concept being used in other Subaru models, he says "yes''. The coupe will go into production in Japan by both companies in March next year and is estimated to be priced around $US24,000 - about the same as a Mazda MX-5 in Australia which sells for around $45,000. The coupes from Toyota and Subaru will be identical in drivetrain specs - 2-litre boxer engine and six-speed manual transmission from Subaru - and has no plans to be launched as a turbocharged car. Toyota, which owns about 16 per cent of Subaru, has donated a hatchback to Subaru which has rebranded it as a Subaru Trevia. The small car, with a front-wheel drive layout and 1.3-litre engine, gives Subaru a new entry in Japan's popular city-car sector since the demise of its R1 and R2 city cars. "We didn't have sufficient funds to develop a small B-segment car by ourselves,'' he says. "The engines are from Daihatsu, which is part of the (Toyota) alliance.'' But it's not all take. Subaru is looking at a small SUV model to sit beneath its Forester. "We have a study to see how popular a new crossover would be,'' Kobayashi says. "It would be smaller than the Forester.'' But there are no details on the engine, however could use the small engines from the Trevia which are also used in cars like the Yaris. Mr Kobayashi says Subaru and Toyota are discussing sharing 1.2-litre and 1.3-litre engines. "We really need small engines,'' he says. "Now we have only the Generation-3 flat four and the six cylinder engine.'' Mr Kobayashi says the future of the Tribeca SUV was being discussed. The US built and US focussed SUV has underperformed the market and could be culled. "We haven't made a decision on that,' he says, "but maybe it's not a proper fit with Subaru. Maybe it's not what we should be building.''