Euro brands snub Sydney show

AT LEAST five high-profile car brands won’t show their latest wares at this year’s Australian International Motor Show in Sydney from October 11.

In a highly public back-hander to Australia’s largest automotive exhibition, Mini, Fiat, Citroen, Alfa Romeo and now Jaguar have confirmed they will spend their marketing money elsewhere.

Jaguar Australia yesterday announced it will hold an exclusive Australian reveal of the model that will replace its S-Type in 2008, the XF sedan, in Sydney on October 10.

Closely based on Jaguar’s C-XF concept that debuted at the Detroit motor show in January, the production XF will make its global public premiere at the Frankfurt motor show on September 11, before heading Down Under a month later for its Australian unveiling the day before the Sydney show.

Jaguar says it decided not to appear at Darling Harbour because of its “mainstream” audience.

“We’ll be holding an exclusive event for press, dealers and our customers the day before the motor show, rather than at the motor show, which is a more mainstream event that’s not suited to our market,” Jaguar Australia marketing and public affairs manager Tim Krieger told GoAuto.

“Our decision is nothing against the Sydney motor show. We’re just catering to our customer base as a premium, niche brand,” he said.

Similarly, Mini will again stage a exclusive, as-yet-unnamed customer event instead of exhibiting its new five-door Clubman model in Sydney, which also makes its global debut at Frankfurt a month earlier.

“Last year we had the Mini Chase, which was extremely successful in reaching people who are the target market for Mini,” said BMW Group Australia’s communications and specialist media manager Alexander Corne.

“Mini sells cars to 0.2 per cent of the total Australian market, there is possibly five per cent that would consider a Mini and we know from the Mini Chase event that by holding our own unique event we can reach out to the very people we want to expose Mini to, in a cheeky yet exciting way.

“At this stage we’re not ready to declare what we’ll do in 2007, but you can be sure that Mini’s activities in Sydney later in the year will be as exciting as the Mini Chase, which led to an increase in test drives and helped drive sales of the R50 Mini,” he said.

Meantime, the desire to more directly target potential customers via alternative means such as direct marketing, the internet, sponsorship and conventional advertising is also believed to be behind Ateco Automotive’s decision not to present Fiat, Citroen and Alfa in Sydney this year.

Ateco is also the Australian and New Zealand importer for Ferrari and Maserati, and unlike Jaguar will again exhibit those brands in the same successful “closed displays” that have attracted well-heeled buyers at past shows.

Maserati sold three Quattroportes on the first day of the 2006 Sydney show, and this year will give the circa-$300,000 Granturismo its Oz debut.

But it is the first time in the decade Ateco has controlled Citroen here, and the nine years it has imported Alfa Romeo cars, that either brand will not appear at the Sydney show.

Ateco has also pushed back the launch of Fiat’s second passenger model here - the Ritmo-badged, Stilo-replacing Bravo – as it waits for automated manual DuaLogic transmissions to come on line. Both the Ritmo and born-again 500 mini-car will now be launched nationally next March, followed by the Punto Abarth in mid-2007.

“The decision (to appear in Sydney) for each brand is made on the basis of benefits for each brand – it’s not a sweeping decision across Ateco,” said company spokesman Edward Rowe.

“Everything we do is judged by criteria - will it sell cars and what is this the most cost effective way to sell cars? Having two or three major motor shows each year to attend becomes hard to justify in terms of their value in selling cars,” he said.

Porsche Cars Australia will exhibit in Sydney this year after all, following its 2006 no-show after failing to agree with show organisers over its allocated display area.

PCA says it has abandoned its policy to alternate between annual shows in Melbourne and Sydney to save costs, and will now attend those that best suit it. Porsche and Ateco are yet to reveal if they will appear at the next Melbourne motor show in March.

In the US, Porsche Cars North America has announced it will no longer have a presence at the Detroit motor show, starting from 2008. Instead, it says it will focus on more consumer-oriented auto shows such as those in New York and LA.