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More than 60 car brands - one less without Opel - are now jockeying behind Toyota for their share of the Australian showroom pie. Each one is doing all it can to get things right, and nothing needs to be more right than the television advertising and the press preview.
The Carsguide crew is reminded of this every week, either as we tune in to tune out or during the latest airport run for a flyaway preview. Car company crews go to extraordinary lengths to ensure the look, feel and price of their newcomer - from the cheapest new Chery to an exotic belter Bentley - is reflected in the press presentation. Volkswagen even themes its pens to match the the package. But things can, and do, go wrong.
I remember the day when Bob Miller, the head of marketing at Toyota Australia at the time, responded to a question about the safety of a new-model Camry. It only had a single airbag, for the driver."If the car dies, the passenger dies too," Miller laughed, in an off-the-cuff comment that still rates as one of the most callous things I've heard in my career.
Miller is usually remembered for his creation of the 'Camry Chicken', but he also helped drive Toyota to the Number One sport in Australia motoring despite the safety shortcomings of his signature car. And that gaffe.
Further back, when Holden introduced its vital new Camira, it went all-out with a drive route that included racetrack laps and then an outback run through the country outside Townsville.
It was going well after day one despite the car's underwhelming 1.6-litre engine, but on day two the cars started to fall apart. A car I was driving snapped its gear linkage, and then the bonnet catch rattled loose, hardly a recommendation. There were others with flat tyres, broken body bits, and even one that went up-and-over on a gnarly corner.
Honda once brought a fuel-miser new Civic to Australia and decided a country run would be best to show its economy. It might have worked if the drive route hadn't included a long uphill climb, at full throttle to avoid marauding trucks, on the road from Bathurst back to Sydney over the Blue Mountains.
I am reminded of these mishaps as I battle a low-powered 1.6-litre turbo engine and an ancient four-speed automatic during the hilly preview drive of the good looking new Citroen DS3 Cabrio. It's nice to be bathed in sunshine in the middle of winter, but far less enjoyable to be battling to get any sort of drive out of the French baby.
Luckily there is another car, with a six-speed manual and more power, for the second leg of the drive. But I won't be recommending the auto, especially not to anyone who must to battle hills and cut-throat commuter traffic in Sydney.
This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover
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