2015: What's On Offer?
It would be remiss of me to open this without an acknowledgement of the terrible fire situation occurring (as I write) in South Australia and Victoria. There’s been stock loss, properties destroyed, vintage cars burnt and, terribly, an animal hostel razed with horrendous loss. Our thoughts are with the families and owners.
A bit of news that came out of late 2014 that already has affected car buyers was the Free Trade Agreement signed off between Australia and Japan. Subaru immediately took advantage of this, by reducing their prices across their range, with savings up to a few thousand dollars being made available. At the time of writing, there was no word if Toyota were planning on doing the same.
Even better news for motorists overall was the sudden and dramatic drop in fuel prices, due, allegedly, to an oversupply of oil. The cynics amongst us would question this but there’s an undeniable benefit for metropolitan based drivers. However, it does appear to be mainly restricted to city dwellers only, with nowhere near the drop expected in regional areas. In some areas of Sydney, petrol (E10) was down to below $1.10 but still over 20c higher in regional areas.
Ford Australia released their final ever Falcon late in 2014; the FG-X has already been given negative reviews in some quarters for its exterior design, balanced out by positive drive reviews, especially for the reborn XR8. The main complaints in regards to the design appear to be centred around the resemblance to Mitsubishi’s Lancer (itself in dire need of a reskin) at the front and a Jaguaresque rear light cluster. All drive reviews have been nothing but glowing so far…we shall see.
2015 also takes us closer to the eventual shutdown of the Australian car making industry, with some pundits tipping an earlier than scheduled closure. In one respect, this would be a good thing, bringing us the promised American and European metal earlier, but, of course, the downside is the situation of unemployed Aussie car workers. Out of this came a discussion as to whether we should consider changing to driving on the right side of the road. Predictably, this was howled down, as the argument became fragile when it was pointed out most European countries, such as the U.K., drive on the left.
Electric car maker Tesla promised an expansion of their presence in Australia; with the first Australian deliveries taken by customers in December of 2014, the company announced that they would have a dealership in Melbourne and Brisbane, with a network of charging stations being set up along the eastern seaboard. With the stations designed to be independent of mains power by being solar charged, the company is looking to establish its technical cred.
Ford’s Mustang returns to Australia, however, for the first time, in factory right hand drive form. Powered by a range of engines, including a grunty turbocharged four cylinder (trust me, it’s nowhere near as bad as you think), presales here have been phenomenal. Holden has yet to confirm what we’re due to get, aside from sourcing at least three cars from Opel.
On the Australian motorsport scene, a new category called Formula Four launches in the second half of the year whilst February sees the Bathurst 12 Hour get underway, with over 50 entries and including a huge international presence, going head to head with the test weekend for the relogoed V8 Supercars, on the same weekend, at Sydney Motorsport Park.
There’s plenty more to come as the year ticks by and, as ever, Private Fleet is here to help you into your next car.
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