Great Wall News

Where will it all end? Australian automotive manufacturers and importers are hoping the answer is: right here, right now.For the first time in months, there's a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel that may not be another oncoming train.The Federal Government's cash handouts have helped the Australian economy dodge a recession on a technicality, consumers are spending again and car showrooms are beginning to fill with a whole lot of shiny new offerings.With a fresh financial year dawning, something in the order of 60 all-new or refreshed models are waiting in the wings before the end of 2009.Ranging from the first of the Chinese invaders to a couple of machines from the supercar stratosphere, these are the recession-busters the automotive industry is relying on.Here are a handful of the key players in this revival.Great Wall Motors AFTER what seems an age of yes-we-are, no-we-aren't games, the first of the Chinese-made brigade will be in showrooms next month.A pair of workhorse utes — the 4x4 V240 (known as the Wingle in China) and the 4x2 SA220 — will come as single-specification models with prices expected to be "around two-thirds of their logical competitors".That could mean a starting figure of $17,000 to $19,000.Alfa Romeo MiToTHE classic Italian marque's new baby, which arrives next month, has the task of taking on BMW's iconic Mini in the quest for buyers with more cash than responsibilities."It's a growing market as people downsize their cars to achieve better fuel economy but don't want to give up performance or style," Alfa Romeo Australia's Edward Rowe says."Our aim is to beat the Mini on both price and equipment."To that end, Rowe says the newcomer — which sits on a Fiat Punto platform — will launch as two models: the 88kW MiTo and a sparkier, 114kW MiTo Sport.Both have turbocharged, 1.4-litre petrol engines with six-speed manual gearboxes. Expect a starting price in the low $30,000 range.Hyundai i20AFTER the success of the i30 hatch and wagon, Hyundai has high hopes for its German-designed, Indian- made small car.Expected to hit showrooms towards the end of this year, the three-door and five-door i20s will sit at the higher end of the light-car segment, beginning at $16,000 to $17,000.This will leave the popular Getz as Hyundai's entry-level model, but will likely spell the end of the Accent.VW Golf GTITHE sixth-generation Golf GTI arrives in October with all the shiny new technology seen on its more mundane stablemates but lots more go.With 155kW driving through a new limited-slip differential, it promises all the attitude of its predecessors wrapped into a more refined package."It has all the safety and enhancements of the Golf VI and more power than the outgoing GTI, yet it's quieter and more efficient," VW Australia's Karl Gehling says.Pricing isn't yet set, but should be close to the outgoing model's $39,990.Holden VE CommodoreTHE first mid-life makeover for GM-Holden's "billion-dollar baby" is likelyto be remarkable for what ishappening under the skin rather than for any cosmetic body changes.A founding member of the Large Family Car segment — the hardest- hit sector of the industry over the past couple of years — the Commodore will celebrate GM's survival with a much more focused and fuel-efficient engine package.Although a four-cylinder option isn't on the cards, a smaller V6 is. That could be a three-litre or even a version of the 2.8-litre that has recently been shipped to Mexico for the Cadillac SRX.Expect to see it around October.

However, Ateco Automotive chief, Ric Hull, is confident Chinese cars and light commercial vehicles will be in local showrooms by June.Ateco had originally aimed to launch some Chinese cars into our market last month.Hull says the delay "is purely a function of exchange rates at the moment".He's hoping the Australian dollar will recover or "market pricing levels will adjust to the exchange rates".For Ateco, the first cab off the rank will be four vehicles from Great Wall Motors.The lineup is tipped to be two light commercial pickups with 2.2 and 2.4-litre engines, a small 1.3-litre hatch and a 2.4-litre four-wheel drive off-roader.GWM has right-hand drive versions of the Wingle and Sailor pickups ready to go, as well as the stylish Hover off-roader."In tough times the light commercial segment is not a bad place to be," Hull says.In the third quarter, once its cars meet tough Australian Design Rules, the Chery brand will follow.Ateco has previously expressed interest in the Chery Tiggo off-roader A1 hatch and A5 sedan.News that China cars are still on the local agenda is worrying for marginal importers like Proton, SsangYong and recently launched Mahindra, all fighting for market share.Hull has a proven track record with start-ups, having been behind Hyundai, Daewoo and Kia in Australia.He is heading to China in April for the Shanghai Motor Show to meet with both GWM and Chery executives."Great Wall is talking about launching several new models this year, so we'll be interested in talking to them about those," he says.Like GWM, Chery will concentrate on the volume hatch and sedan small car segment, as well as the compact four-wheel drive segment.Hull says Ateco's strategy will aim at the rival Korean brands but add more equipment in the Chinese cars.This means buyers can expect safety and comfort features normally found on more expensive cars.Things like electronic stability control, anti-skid brakes, curtain airbags, a full suite of in-car electronics and high-end stereos are likely to be standard."The Koreans are an uncertain benchmark at the moment because the Won is one of the least affected currencies by the depreciation in the Australian dollar," Hull says.By comparison the Australian dollar has lost 40 per cent against the Japanese Yen.Ateco has signed 60 dealers, mostly metropolitan, to sell GWM cars."They are quite unperturbed by the delays; they understand completely," Hull says.

Given the cloying, choking blanket of grey coating the Beijing Olympics, it comes as no great surprise that China is en route to becoming the world's biggest car market.Well within the next decade, China should also overtake the US as the world's biggest maker of cars.It already manufactures more car components than any other nation, and the first Chinese cars to reach Australia will go on sale on November 1.The coming of the Chinese presages a seismic shock to the Australian new car market, of the sort not felt since the arrival of Korean cars in the 1980s.This push is aimed at the market's biggest growth segments. A new, well-equipped Chinese small car will cost about $12,000 and a compact SUV as little as $18,000 — or even less.Ateco Automotive — best known for importing Italian marques from Ferrari to Fiat — will this week announce details of a far humbler vehicle than the members of that prestigious, heritage-rich stable.The functionally named SA230 is a no-nonsense, twin-cab utility made by the altogether more evocatively titled Great Wall Motors (GWM).As the vehicle is known at home by the rather Chinglish model name Sailor, a less flowery moniker was deemed wise.GWM's ute for budget-conscious tradies will be followed by the Peri small car and the Hover compact SUV.The other half of the Sino-Ateco pincer movement is formed by the Chery company, whose budget wares, including the QQ3 small car and the Tiggo compact SUV, arrive next year.The tiny QQ3 has been on sale in South Africa since May, priced at less than $A11,600.Although ultra-cheap, it will be above the sub-$10,000 mark forecast by some more hysterical — not to say tacitly xenophobic — commentators who have sought to present the introduction of Chinese-made cars as a kind of automotive yellow peril that threatens our very way of life.This episode can more reasonably be seen as a delayed sequel to the early 1990s, when Hyundai priced its drive-away-then-throw-away Excel at $13,990 with a five-year warranty.“Strategically, I'm certain that China is the next major source of value-for-money products,” says Ateco managing director Ric Hull, who was previously in charge of the company's imports of Korean brand Kia.“China seems to be the future for everything. Even so, the approach will be gradual.“We're going to launch Great Wall with one product and, if everything goes perfectly to plan, we'll be selling some hundreds a month.“That's minuscule in the overall market. It will take years to earn a market share that affects anyone else.”But, if the strategy is initially more that of an incursion than an invasion, there's little doubt Ateco will achieve five-figure sales of its cheap and cheerful GWMs and Cherys sooner rather than later.Ateco boss Neville Crichton has been outspoken in his belief that Chinese cars are the next massive thing.The formidable New Zealand-born millionaire car salesman — perhaps best known as the owner and successful skipper of the maxi yacht Alfa Romeo — is no more known for backing losers than he is for suffering fools.So the derisive laughter with which adherents of the status quo greeted Ateco's announcement is beginning to sound hollow. And not a little desperate.Hyundai shook local car-makers to the core by turning out a functional new car for less than half the price of a Commodore or a Falcon.Now the ramparts formed by tariffs and multi-billion-dollar government assistance, which Holden and Ford have complacently sheltered behind, have almost crumbled.Among the recommendations in the Federal Government's review of Australia's car industry, which was handed down on Friday, tariffs on imported cars will be reduced to five per cent by 2010. Industry Minister Senator Kim Carr said pointedly that “the industry needs to continue embracing global competition”.In other words, if Australian manufacturers wish to survive, they should expect to do so without the help of taxpayers who long ago lost interest in the big family cars Holden and Ford continue to churn out.These cars rely on fleet and government sales to the tune of more than 75 per cent — and even that source is drying up.According to used-car dealers, a Commodore or Falcon bought new today will retain less than half its value — some $16,000 — after three years' ownership.That's hardly an attractive proposition for the private buyer, especially given the high fuel consumption of this type of car.Australians have never been so burdened by choice: the 50 car brands on sale here come from more than 20 countries.Indeed, in April this year, cars built in Thailand outsold those made locally.In a sense, the Chinese are already here in the form of SsangYong, a Korean car-maker 59 per cent owned by Shanghai Automotive Industries, one of the wealthiest manufacturers in China.“China is hardly a backward, Third World industry,” Ric Hull says. “It makes about 10 million vehicles a year.”But the salient concern remains that the vast majority of these vehicles are simply not of First World standard.In 2005, the Chinese Landwind 4WD earned no stars out of five in independent German testing, as did the unfortunately branded Brilliance BS6.Blood-curdling vision of patently poorly built Chinese cars can be seen on YouTube (enter “Chinese car crash tests”), but so can respectable efforts by more recent models.Nicholas Clarke, of the Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), which conducts independent crash tests of vehicles on sale here, says test results of the first GWM will be available in November.Chery was to have been Ateco's first Chinese offering, but for the decision to await a new model range from which superior test results are expected.Still, the spectre of safety hasn't dissuaded as many as 1000 buyers a month from Holden's Barina, which achieved only two stars — the least of any new car on sale here.Although the Barina is a rebadged, eight-year-old Daewoo Kalos — described by The Sunday Telegraph's Carsguide as “genuinely appalling” — buyers don't see beyond the price tag.Alex Bombaci, of the pricing authority Redbook, says Australians just won't buy base-model or poverty-pack cars.“That's been proved again and again. It's going to take anyone a long time to establish a presence,” Bombaci says.Predictably, Ric Hull is ready for this. “The state of sophistication of the vehicles that will be coming in from China bears no relationship to the state of sophistication of those that came in from Korea,” he says.“We'll be around Korean pricing, but we'll have a better specification level.“The Chinese may be largely substitutes for used cars, so will create a market in that sense.“The interesting possibility is that the Koreans will no longer be the cheapest cars on the market. What are they going to do with that new-found status?“It was the Koreans who enabled the Japanese to push themselves up in the market.“I wonder if the Chinese will do for the Koreans what the Koreans did for the Japanese?” Impact of importsGREAT WALL MOTORS SA230Price: $16,000 (est.) Due November 1Rivals: Ssangyong Sports DualCab $28,990Toyota HiLux SR 4X2 XTRA CAB $28,470GWM HOVERPrice: $20,000 (est.) Due TBARivals: Kia Sportage $24,990Hyundai Tucson: $24,990CHERY QQ3Price: $12,000 (est.) Due 2009Rivals: Holden Barina $13,690Hyundai Getz $13,990Kia Rio $14,990CHERY TIGGOPrice: $18,000 (est.) Due: 2009/2010Rivals: Suzuki SX4 $19,990 

New cars as cheap as $10,990 are about to zoom into the Australian market.Chinese models will be leading the way and are expected to shake up the local motoring scene, the way Korean cars did in the 1990s and Japanese makes in the 1970s.Budget-priced vehicles are also coming from India, Italy, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.China has hundreds of car makers with names such as Chery, Geely, Great Wall Motors, Nanjing, Hafei, Zhongxing, Zhonghua, Brilliance China and Shanghai Automotive.However, some of the Chinese models have fared poorly in European crash testing.The Brilliance BS6 sedan got only one star out of a possible five when tested last month, while an SUV Landwind made by Jiangling Motors scored a zero.It was the worst result in 20 years of testing.Details of what Chinese makes will be released here are being kept secret by executives of the companies which will join the invasion.The smaller Chinese cars are expected to start at $10,990.Industry observers agree and expect the Chinese strategy will be for cars to be priced under their Korean equivalents, which have recently been as low as $12,990 in order to get a footing in the crowded market.The arrival of the first Chinese-brand cars is being handled by Ateco Automotive, an independent importer which already brings in Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Citroen, Ferrari and Maserati.The deal is being masterminded by Ric Hull, the executive involved in establishing all the major Korean brands including Hyundai, Daewoo and Kia in Australia.Ateco spokesman Edward Rowe said Chinese cars could reach Australian showrooms by mid-2008. “We're still working on it. We're talking to specific companies but there is a confidentiality agreement in place,” he said.Rowe says the plan was to start Chinese imports with small cars, then increase the range. “Ultimately there will be a full range of cars and commercial vehicles,” he said.Chrysler has made a deal with Chery for a Chinese-made small car to be exported to the US and Canada.An Indian brand Mahindra went on sale in NSW last month and plans to open a Queensland dealer network by September.A spokeswoman said: “Talks are under way with a number of dealers. Queensland will be the next market for Mahindra, it's imminent.”The brand is starting with the Pik-Up utility, diesel-engined “one-tonners” from $23,990 but the spokeswoman said they were 'exploring their options' to sell more models.“There are other opportunities there, but we're concentrating on getting launched first.”Czech-made Skoda cars last sold here 25 years ago and will return in October, with a five-seat mini-people-mover called the Roomster, and the Octavia lift-back.Skoda head Matthew Wiesner said prices would be set against their Japanese equivalents, rather than at traditional European levels.

The striking little yellow Dongfeng D120 was a star at this week's Beijing motor show, the largest auto show in the massive Chinese market.The D120 was one of 15 cars at the show from Dongfeng, a major Chinese manufacturer. It has joint ventures with Citroen, Nissan and Honda.The show opened last Sunday amid rocketing sales with few signs that growing traffic congestion, pollution and rising oil prices were clouding the future of the industry.While international producers unveiled their latest products, the Chinese were displaying more than 180 domestic-made vehicles. Many of them are hoping that their inexpensive cars may one day find their way into global markets.Australian importer Ateco is looking at bringing Chinese-made cars Down Under within the next two years.Cars like the Geely, Great Wall, Chery and Red Flag are enjoying an almost 25 per cent market share in China, according to Xinhua news agency reports this week.After years of growth, China is the world's second largest car market after the US.In the first 10 months of 2006, 5.89 million cars were produced and 5.77 million cars sold in China, figures up 27 per cent and 26 per cent respectively from January-October 2005, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.If this trend does continue, China will have 100 million cars on its roads by 2020, up from43 million in 2005, a phenomenon that will cause severe pollution unless stricter emission controls are implemented, Xinhua says.More than 500,000 potential car buyers are expected to attend the 10-day show, many of them first-time buyers.International prestige brands are at the show keen to sell to the country's wealthy who are proud, and keen to flaunt their riches.It is this fast-growing generation of mainly under 35-year-old, self-made tycoons that the world's top luxury carmakers have now firmly set their sights on."We have more than 300,000 millionaires in China, so I think it's a good number for us to go into the market," Stephan Winkelmann, president and CEO of Lamborghini, says.Rolls Royce sales are up 50 per cent from last year and China has become its third largest market after the US and Britain, says Ian Robertson, chairman and chief executive."It is growing dramatically. There is a fast growing number of very rich people in this country," Robertson says.And sales in China, including Hong Kong, at 65 vehicles out of its global total of about 800, represented "nearly 10 per cent of our business," Robertson says.Porsche, which entered China in 2001, sold 857 cars in China last year and says it expects that figure to double this year.However, the show also comes as a new report shows there are problems with local production. Defects have been found in 77 per cent of domestically made cars, largely due to a price war forcing manufacturers to cut corners, according to an industry survey which was released this week.The range of defects, found within six months of the car being bought, involved tyres, airconditioning, brakes, locks and steering wheels, the China Daily newspaper reported, citing as its source the 2006 China Automobile Customer Satisfaction Index."The defects are a result of car makers constantly reducing prices and sacrificing quality," the paper quoted Fan Tianshun, director of the China Quality Association, which conducted the poll, as saying.For every 100 new cars, there were an average of 338 defects, much higher than last year's figure of 246.On average, China's car prices have dropped about 10,000 yuan ($A1250) per car each year over "the past few years" as manufacturers try to compete in the the booming market, the paper writes.Defects were more prevalent in cheaper cars in the 30,000 yuan ($A5000) to the 50,000 yuan ($A8240) range, such as China's Geely, Chery QQ and the Changan Alto.But fewer defects in more expensive cars helped result in customer satisfaction for China's domestically-built automobiles growing by 0.1 per cent so far this year over the figures reported in 2005. The index was based on a poll of 4648 participants in 36 cities this year, the paper reported.AFP