Brands drop entry price

The Mini Ray comes as GM Holden unleashes a special Thunder Commodore ute, Nissan boosts value on its 370Z, and Honda works to cash-in on a value boost to the Civic Hatch in March.

Renault has also stretched its appeal with the first five-year warranty deal on a European car, while Toyota is preparing a retail sales attack for May across its range and BMW has slashed up to 11 per cent from the showroom stickers on its 3 Series bedrock models.

The bottom line on the Ray has dropped all the way to $25,500, but Mini is protecting its mainstream models from erosion by limiting supply to just 300 cars and fitting hubcabs. The Ray also drops to a 1.6-litre engine with a meagre 72 kiloWatts, against 90 in a Mini Cooper, although the compensation is fuel economy of 5.4 litres/100km.

The Ray move is copied from Italy, where it worked well for the brand. Mini says the car still has six airbags, a six-speed manual gearbox and denies any dilution of the brand. At the opposite end, Renault is looking to boost its brand with a new flagship called Latitude. It takes the place of the unloved Laguna with a starting price of $36,990 and targeted rivals including the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

"We are ready to demonstrate our commitment to Australian customers," says Renault boss, Justin Hocevar, confirming the five-year warranty that applies to the Latitude and all passenger cars in the brand sold since April 1.

For Holden, the Thunder ute revives a package last seen on the VZ Commodore and claimed to celebrate the 60th birthday of the first Holden ute. It's a $3000 value boost on the SS and SV6 that only adds alloy wheels, leather seat bolsters, sat-nav and - predictably - special stickers.

Nissan has done more with the 370Z, although it has also lifted prices by $650 for the coupe and $800 for the roadster - despite the strength of the Australian dollar - and says the offset is a new sound and satnav system, a reversing camera, a cargo blind for the coupe, climate-controlled seats for the roadster, and wide-angle mirrors.

The 3 Series action at BMW is focussed above the starter car, but amounts to a $9100 reduction on some 325i models and even more than $3000 across the M3 collection. BMW Australia paints the move as a celebration of the five generations of 3 Series, but has done nothing on the basic 320 and 323 models.