Subaru working on next big thing

FRESH from unveiling a world-first hot Subaru Forester S-Edition concept at the Australian International Motor Show, Subaru Australia has promised big things for the 2011 event, to be held in Melbourne in July.

Managing director Nick Senior told GoAuto his company was already working on its show plans for next year, saying it wanted to produce “something exciting” for the new-look show that now alternates annually between Melbourne and Sydney.

“Maybe not a world first, but instead of five new things we will have one big thing,” he said.

Mr Senior said that with only one motor show a year in Australia now, motor companies had only one opportunity to put their best foot forward at a big public event.

He said the new format had potential to place the show on the international show map, as evidenced by the number of global launches in Sydney this year.

Left: Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior.

Mr Senior also threw his support behind a permanent July date for the show, saying it would be fantastic for the industry in its annual lull after the June end-of-financial-year sales.

“The industry always starts July with a bit of a hangover,” he said. “If we had the motor show in that time slot, it would help to kick start the industry.” While next year’s show in Melbourne is locked in for July – mid-way between the traditional Melbourne date of March and Sydney date of October – it remains to be seen if Sydney’s Darling Harbour exhibition centre will be made available in July for the 2012 event.

Organisers of the new Australian show – a co-operative effort between the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries and the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce – are claiming 10 world premiers and more than 40 Australian or southern hemisphere firsts at this year’s show.

The media preview was attended by one of the largest international media contingents ever seen at an Australian show, mainly to see the global debut of the Mazda BT-50 and its Ford T6 Ranger variant.

Among the no-shows were BMW and Ferrari, but Mercedes-Benz was a notable returnee after holding out for two years in protest at the large number of state-based shows across Australia and the expense of attending them.