Category: Cars

Earlier this year, I wrote how Renault/Nissan boss and part-time Napoleon impersonator Carlos Ghosn was my nomination for the Automotive Executive of the Year for 2012*. It was January, actually. I called it early, when Ghosn ruled out bringing Renault to the US.

Since then, we’ve had Nissan unveil their entrant into Australia’s V8 Supercar racing series, a move that’s going to make the series more interesting than it’s been in ages. For a couple of decades now, the series has been fought between just Holden and Ford. Next year, Nissan and a team running some AMG Mercedes Benzes are set to liven things up. A small decision, but a good one.

Today we have another decision from Renault, one that only confirms my thinking. This isn’t a decision that’s going to boost Renault’s business revenue by any large degree. It’s more of a decision of character.

You already know that I’ve got a massive crush on the RenaultSport range of vehicles. Well, I have a feeling my French connection is about to get that little bit stronger:

Renault and Caterham Group today announced their decision to join forces in pursuit of a common project: to design develop and build future sports vehicles. This agreement reflects a similar passion and expertise in sports and motorsports vehicles.

The future vehicles will be distinctive, differentiated, and carry the respective DNA of Alpine and Caterham Cars, the automotive division of Caterham Group. They will be built at the Alpine plant in Dieppe, Normandy, in France.

The Caterham Group will own 50% stake in the Automobiles Alpine Renault company, currently 100 % held by Renault SAS. The Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham, which will be resulting from this partnership, shall be created in January 2013. It will be managed by Bernard Ollivier

This project, which ensures the Dieppe Plant a sustainable future, was made possible thanks to the incentive and to the substantial support and commitment provided by the French State and the Région Haute Normandie which also involved the contribution of Dieppe Maritime.

Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Renault:

“This innovative partnership with Caterham embodies a longstanding ambition: the creation of a sports car with the Alpine DNA. It carries both opportunities for the Dieppe plant and the development of its historic know-how.”

Sing to me, Carlos.

Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham. That’s SAAC for short, but I think we’ll just end up calling them Alpine. You can read a heck of a lot more about this exciting news at the press release.

This partnership in road vehicles will bring some serious motorsport cred along with it. Renault supply multiple F1 teams with engines, one of which is the Caterham team. Of course, Caterham already has plenty of sportscar cred with their range of lightweight roadsters. And then there’s the high esteem already held by RenaultSport for their chassis engineering, which won’t be mentioned specifically here, but only adds to the house that Alpine plans to build.

These won’t be cars for the everyday punter, but they’re going to bring some exciting and more ‘affordable’ competition to the upper end of the sports car market.

Kudos to them, and kudos to Carlos for signing off on it.

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* As it turns out, I was right back in January. In October 2012, Ghosn was actually named in the Eurostars awards given out by Automotive News Europe. He was credited for the Renault/Nissan’s visionary expansion into high-growth markets at a time when the European market was going quite poorly.

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for your advice regarding potential vehicle choices for the USA road trip we’re planning. There were some excellent thoughts there and I’m pondering the vast majority of them (all except Eggs’ offer of money to turn up in Tennessee in a Cadillac!).

Those of you who know me, even just a little, know that I’m very open to some car shopping. In fact, I’m beginning to worry about just how much I’m enjoying this. Is the whole trip just an excuse to buy a car in another part of the world? Honest answer – No, it’s not, but it’s part of the fun, for sure. This trip is all about seeing the United States and catching up with friends there.

But there is planning to be done and part of that includes what we’ll drive. I was hoping to once again tap into the collective wisdom of the experienced.

We will most likely buy a car rather than rent. Renting has its advantages but at the end of the day, what we drive will be a big part of the experience and I want freedom of choice in that. It involves some up-front costs and the potential for being stuck somewhere for repairs, but if we choose wisely and all goes well, we should do OK in terms of finances and much better in terms of experience.

To my current thought dilemma…..

There is a certain romance in doing a trip like this, a great American road trip, in a classic American car. That is, in an old car. Maybe even up to 50 years old.

What I’m wondering is whether or not anyone has recently journeyed this kind of distance in a car that is so old. I mean, usually, when a car gets old and the owner considers it of no use, they sell it to the companies (like Fast Car Salvage NI) that buy scrap vehicles.

However, I might not be like them! I am actually interested to test our aged automobiles. Actually, I am more interested to know whether our respective rear-ends would be able to handle six weeks in 1960’s style seating. I’ve got faith in the engines of the time to make the distance OK. One of the cars I’m thinking of will most likely have received a newer engine, anyway, an upgrade to a bigger powerplant that fits in the same engine bay (a Ford 289 or 302).

Is Mrs Swade going to get absolutely sick-to-death of the exhaust note (again, for six weeks?)

The other option – and the one I’m favouring as I write this – is to go with a more modern car. Still something that’ll make the trip memorable, but with greater comfort and amenity as well as a more efficient and powerful engine and less miles under its belt. Something that’s much cheaper to buy in America than it is in Australia, too. Possibly non-American. Say between 10 and 25 years old.

So, old or not-so-old?

At some risk of duplicating what I asked the other day….. what sort of cars have you actually used on a trip such as this? Would you recommend that vehicle both as a practical choice, but perhaps more importantly in terms of it having the character to be an important part of a memorable life-event?

CAR Magazine is 50 years old and they’ve just done a special photo shoot featuring their best 50 cars of the last 50 years – including the Saab 99 Turbo.

My guess is that they’ve used Chris’ 99T for this photo shoot, the same black 99 Turbo that Jeremy Clarkson and James May fell in love with on Top Gear.

Fourth row, fifth from the left.

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Also, please note that our American, French, German and English poll winners are nearly all present. The only one missing is the VW Beetle (how the Smart got in there when the Beetle couldn’t is beyond me).

In fact, I think the top two in each of our polls have made the grade (minus the Beetle). They would be:

• America – Ford Mustang, Chevy Corvette
• France – Citroen DS, Citroen 2CV
• Britain – Jaguar E Type, Mini
• Germany – Beetle (missing), Porsche 911

It seems we’re doing pretty well with our assessments.

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Some news articles caught my eye in the wake of my opinion on Holden from a few days ago. In that article, I suggested that Holden might end up being too small for GM to keep what is basically a one-country brand.

First, from this week’s autoextremist op-ed:

Let’s face it, GM has Cadillac and Chevrolet. Yes, Buick has its primary role in China and GMC has its place in North America but make no mistake, the future of GM lies in the global success of Cadillac and Chevrolet.

Of course, GM also has Opel (for the time being, at least) but they’ve already introduced the Chevrolet brand into Europe selling a level below Opel. It would be a natural strategy to now push Opel slightly upmarket but European customers are unlikely to let them do that. Opel is Opel. It is to European customers what Chevrolet is to American customers and I don’t think American customers are going to see Chevy as a player in the premium market any time soon.

The entry-level Chevrolet strategy outside the US is to put a bowtie on products designed by GM’s Asian subsidiary, Daewoo. They’re typically made in low-cost countries in either Asia or Eastern Europe and then sold more broadly. Then they add some more sophisticated products based on global designs (Cruze, Captiva, Camaro, Corvette) if the market’s rich enough to pay for them.

Right now, Holden is basically Chevrolet but with a different name. With it’s market share declining, a key dependence on the Commodore for its links to Holden’s past and no commitment to future Commodores beyond the upcoming VF model, it would seem to me that it’s a simple matter of marketing economics that will decide if and when Chevrolet takes over Holden in Australia.

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I mentioned Opel coming to Australia in my article earlier this week. It’s one of the real interesting developments for GM-watchers here.

Opel are being pitched as entry-level European vehicles. They’re not in the European luxury classes with the usual Teutonic suspects, but they’re definitely being pitched at a level above the basic Europeans and all the generic Asian brands.

So you have Holden and then a half-step up to Opel. Presumably, that’s the strategy.

So what are we to make of the Autoextremist’s claims about Cadillac’s global success also being pivotal to GM’s future? You might think he’s theorising, but he’s not.

From Autoblog, today:

General Motors has created the new position of global vice president for Cadillac. Stepping into that new role is GM senior executive and top lobbyist Robert E. Ferguson, who will oversee global growth and development of the luxury brand.

Ferguson is responsible for marketing, brand management and advertising for Cadillac around the world and is also expected to be responsible for sales in the new year. He will report directly to CEO Dan Akerson, who said of Ferguson, “The Cadillac brand will hit a higher gear under his watch.”

And from Daniel Howes at the Detroit News:

Cadillac is going global — again.

Like an aging rock star, General Motors Co.’s luxury brand is plotting yet another comeback on the world stage, this time led by a telecommunications exec-turned-Washington lobbyist theoretically armed with a strong Cadillac lineup. I can hear the chortling all the way from Munich and Stuttgart, where they’ve seen this show several times before.

Could the ending be any different?

It could, if GM and the masters of Cadillac can replicate effectively the kind of long-term product development discipline and aggressive brand management the automaker and its rival, Ford Motor Co., devote to their lines of full-size pickups. If not — and there’s a decent chance of that, considering past efforts — Cadillac-goes-global will be yet another laugher across the industry.

So once again, GM plan on filling your market with a vehicle for every purse and purpose. It won’t be like the old days, thank goodness, but the extra brand focus needed for a serious tilt at such a plan will likely put little Holden’s future even closer under the microscope.

And Opel? Who knows. The way things are going between GM and the German unions, anything could happen. I think it’s a miracle they’ve made it here at all.

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