Rover News

Audi is looking to take over the world. Well, the world of luxury automobiles not the actual world. They don't like when you make those jokes. Audi has sky-high sales targets and it needs nearly every vehicle in its lineup to sell, and sell well. There are some vehicles it needs to sell... that haven't even arrived yet. Case in point is the oft-rumoured Audi Q8, a full-size SUV that has its sights set on some serious competition. According to Autocar, Audi is prepping the Q8 to arrive and tackle a rather legendary name among the SUV set. We're talking about Land Rover. More specifically the Range Rover Sport. The story goes that Audi will essentially build up the bodywork of the A8 sedan and plop it down on a revised version of the MLB platform. If the Q8 does come to see the light of day, it wouldn't be a surprise to see a potential flagship-grade SUV on the automaker's current favourite platform. Still, just as Bentley and Lamborghini were set to bring their respective sport utility vehicles out to dealerships around the country club, it would surprise no one if the idea of an Audi Q8 faded into the ether just the same. If Audi wants to see itself reach the lofty sales goals the company has placed upon itself, perhaps a near halo-like SUV isn't the right way to go. Of course, we still wish Audi went ahead with the R8 V12 TDI, so stay tuned for the Q8. www.motorauthority.com  

Chief executive Martin Ward said that while sales of new cars dropped off as soon as the crisis struck in 2008, tougher financial conditions forced the company to improve efficiency throughout its 90 franchised car yards on the east coast - moves that should have been made years before. The gain from this pain was evident earlier this month, when the car dealer upgraded its forecast annual profit for last year to $61 million, from $45.3m in 2010 and ahead of October market guidance of $54m-$57m. The audited results will be released late next month. The immediate effect of the guidance was to boost the company's share price from $11.80 to a high of $12.60 but since then it has dropped back to $12, still 20c above where it was before the announcement. The better result was achieved without selling any more new or used cars, which is the company's core business. Sales of new cars in Australia fell by 2.6 per cent last year, and Eagers shared in this pain, although there were signs of recovery in the second half. Mr Ward said there were two main contributors to Eagers' better result: the company's acquisition of South Australia-based Adtrans last year, and a better performance from the existing businesses - not from extra sales, but from greater efficiency. The listed car retail sector is not large. Automotive Holdings Group is the biggest company, but it is also involved in logistics in areas such as cold storage. The next two were Adtrans and Eagers. Eagers held about 27 per cent of Adtrans until it bought the company outright in 2010 in a scrip deal worth $100m. At the time, the purchase was described as ``a good buy with low mileage and one careful owner''. In many ways, AP Eagers' growth in the past few years has tracked several other Queensland companies that have expanded from state to national operations. Eagers is an established Queensland company that has operated in Brisbane for 99 years. It started selling cars almost as soon as they became commercially available. The company has been listed since 1957 - and as Ward was quick to point out, has paid a dividend every year. Until six years ago, it operated only in Queensland. Eagers operates on a franchise system. From 2005, about the time Mr Ward started with the company, it started growing interstate, but the big leap was the Adtrans acquisition, which provided an entry into South Australia and Victoria and increased its presence in NSW, giving it an entire east coast presence. Eagers now has 45 per cent of its operation in Queensland; 24 per cent in NSW; 19 per cent in South Australia; and 6 per cent each in Victoria and the Northern Territory. Adtrans is the largest car retailer in South Australia and a major truck retailer in NSW, Victoria and South Australia. Mr Ward said the acquisition occurred in late 2010, and it was only last year that the company started seeing real gains from the purchase. "What we've been able to do there is eliminate one whole layer of public company administration for one smaller company and combine it into a larger company, things like payroll,'' he said. "After you make an acquisition it takes a while to bed it down, and we're seeing the benefit from that now.'' Mr Ward said that almost exactly half of the projected upgrade in profit this year was due to the Adtrans acquisition, but the company had also found efficiencies in its operations. "This is a game of inches. It's an industry where a lot of people are on commission, and margins are always tight,'' he said. He said AP Eagers used accounting firm Deloittes to benchmark the company's performance every 90 days and that gave the company the capacity to identify problem areas very quickly. "So if we're not performing in an area, we can identify it and can take steps quite quickly to address the issue,'' he said. "We did a lot of things in 2008-09, which in hindsight we had been putting off for years, but the GFC really pushed us to do something about them. "What we've been able to do is lower our cost base, which before 2007 had been getting bigger. In some cases, that has involved moving to lower-cost facilities, where we get the same exposure but pay less.'' A good example of this is in Brisbane, where the company operated Ford and General Motors dealerships in two high-profile but expensive locations. They have now relocated, cutting costs, and added a Mitsubishi outlet as well.

Without trying to sound macabre - which we are - here's some of the famous people no longer with us because of the car. On a brighter note, lots of people are still with us because of the car - or more specifically, the ambulance.1. James Dean (Porsche 550 Spyder): Dean's status soared to cult levels after his untimely death in September 1955. In fact, so did the status of the car he was driving, a Porsche 550 Spyder that was the predecessor to today's Boxster. Dean died while driving when an approaching car turned in front of him. His passenger, mechanic Rolf Wutherich, survived that accident but died in a car crash in 1981.2. Diana, Princess of Wales (Mercedes-Benz S280): On August 31, 1997, the world woke to the shocking news that Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car accident in Paris. Her partner Dodi and driver were also killed. The accident is alleged to have been caused when the Mercedes was avoiding pursuing paparazzi.3. Princess Grace Kelly (Rover SD1): The former American actress and princess of Monaco died in 1982 after suffering a mild stroke at the wheel of her car, causing it to roll down a mountain in Monaco. Coincidentally, revered British motorcycle racer Mike Hailwood (1940-1981) was killed in a car accident a year earlier driving a similar car.4. Marc Bolan (Mini GT): Bolan, lead singer of glam rock group T-Rex, was killed instantly in 1977 when the purple Austin Mini GT in which he was a passenger failed to negotiate a bridge and hit a tree. Ironically, Bolan never learned to drive, fearing his untimely death in a car. The driver was his girlfriend, Gloria Jones.5. Peter "Possum" Bourne (Subaru Forester): Amiable New Zealand rally driver Possum Bourne was on a course inspection in 2003 on the "Race to the Sky" track at Cardrona in NZ's South Island when he collided head on with a Jeep Cherokee. He never regained consciousness. A statue of Possum is set on the mountain on an isolated rock overlooking the Cardrona village.6. Jackson Pollack (Oldsmobile 88): The reclusive artist crashed his 1950 Oldsmobile convertible while under the influence of alcohol, killing both himself and his passenger instantly in 1956. Pollock was aged 44.7. Jayne Mansfield (Buick Electra): In the early hours of June 29, 1967, Hollywood sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, died after the 1966 Buick Electra 255 in which she was a passenger smashed under the back of a slowing semi-trailer. Mansfield, her boyfriend Sam Brody and the driver were killed instantly. Her three children including Mariska, all in the rear of the car, survived with minor injuries.8. Desmond Llewelyn (Renault Megane): In 1999, one of the UK's most recognisable figures; Desmond Llewelyn, better known as Q in the James Bond films, died in a car crash aged 85. He was driving home from a book signing when his car collided head on with a Fiat.9. Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez (Mitsubishi SUV): In 2002, Lopez - singer with popular RnB group TLC - was thrown from the vehicle and died from injuries. The Mitsubishi was forced off the road by an oncoming truck that was trying to overtake a car on a Honduras road.10. George S. Patton (Cadillac Series 75): The famous United States general died from complications 12 days after a car accident near Mannheim, Germany. He was aged 60 years.