Category: Cars

A few days ago I wrote an article here asking Does social media work in the car industry? The consensus answer – it could work, but in most cases, it isn’t working (yet).

This car deserves better – the Alfa Romeo 4C at Geneva, 2011

It follows naturally that I should present my own thoughts on what automotive companies can do with social media. I was going to put this all in one post, but it was getting to be too long. Instead, I’ve got a list of DO’s and DON’Ts below, and I’ll apply those in a real-world setting in my next post.

Most of what I’ll write over these two posts is a blueprint for how I would have liked to organize our social media presence at Saab (the company I used to work for).

Therefore, creating blueprints might have influenced me to get a clear idea about similar brands as well. With the help of local seo expert, all the key points are analyzed. And this organized planning eased the process of creating my blog about automobiles.

An aside: Nothing happened at Saab without a meeting. That’s just corporate culture. Holding live, virtual, and hybrid events has become a norm with the help of companies that offer event services. I attended 90% of those meetings, so I can’t say that I didn’t have my chance to influence decisions there. But the final decision was never mine and Saab’s social structure wasn’t how I would have set it up if I had free reign over decisions there.

Please keep in mind that I’m writing this with a specific company in mind – Alfa Romeo. It should be noted that some of what I’m going to write here won’t apply to other automotive brands (e.g. can you use “Kia” and “heritage” in the same sentence, in a positive way?)

Social DO’s and DON’T’s

• DO invest in social and look at it as a long term proposition.
• DO spread your resources over a number of social centers, but DON’T feel like you have to enter every new social outlet that comes along.
• DO build real, personal relationships with your customers but DON’T build those relationships with the primary aim of selling cars to them.
• DO allow people to have their say, but take measures to ensure that people frame their views in the right context. DON’T allow misinformation to overwhelm your discussions.
• DO make efforts to turn your customers/readers/friends into stars!
• DO make sure you leverage your history.
• DO control your message – it’s content and timing but DON’T simply re-post company press releases
• It’s OK to have some lightweight banter in your social discourse from time to time, but DO make sure that most of your content is comprised of good, solid meaty content.
• DON’T allow your social space to turn into a customer services complaints desk, but DO make efforts to help people where you can.

That’s not an exhaustive list, but it’ll do for now.

In my next post, I’m going to have some fun applying that to Alfa Romeo’s brand marketing and see if I can come up with a social framework that can build their audience and turn their fans into followers, then ambassadors.

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As many of you know, I used to work for Saab Automobile. I worked in the Marketing Division with some responsibility for the company’s social media presence. I say ‘some’ responsibility because I worked with another guy in this area. He had more responsibility for what you’d call the broader social campaigns such as Facebook and Twitter. My main responsibility was content creation and the running of the Inside Saab website (which, I’m pleased to say, is still online).

I was rapt to be working for Saab and I’m sad that that ride had to come to an end. And whilst I believed in what I was doing – the Saabs United experience had proved to me the power of real fan engagement – I did sometimes wonder whether the social media experiment had enough stickability to deliver tangible results.

It’s all well and good to put stuff out there. It’s even better if it gets views and engages some people. But does it influence buyer behaviour and can that influence be measured?

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Case in point: The Ford Falcon

Earlier this year, Ford introduced a 4-cylinder version of it’s large car here in Australia, the Falcon. The Ford Falcon is an icon here. Traditionally it had either a six or eight cylinder engine. Ford Falcon V8s are still raced today in Australia’s most popular racing series, the V8 Supercars.

The 4-cylinder Falcon features a turbocharged Ecoboost engine and sprints from 0-100km/h in the same time as the traditional six cylinder. It’s a large car, reasonably well equipped (less equipment in the 4-cyl version) and seats 5 adults in comfort.

By all reports, it’s a good car to drive and the power comparisons with the 6-cyl model speak for themselves.

The trouble: no-one’s buying it.

The Ford Falcon used to be one of the top selling vehicles in the country. Now it’s not even in the top 20 and the significantly more economical 4-cylinder version has done nothing to arrest the sales slide from large family cars to either small cars or SUV’s.

In a story on the Falcon yesterday, Ford Australia’s Neil McDonald talked about the advertising campaign, including the following Youtube clip, being a success.

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He measured the success in terms of the video having had 380,000 views on Youtube.

Unfortunately, that ‘success’ hasn’t translated into customer interest. The 4-cylinder Falcon has only found 53 private buyers here in Australia. In contrast, 159 of them have been sold to Ford Aus employees.

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General Motors and Facebook

Earlier this year, General Motors announced that they were stopping their spend on Facebook advertising. Here’s what I wrote back then:

Continue reading Does social media work in the car industry?

The Toyota 86 has been available in Australia for a little over a month now. I’ve even seen a few of them on the streets here in Slow-bart, which is something. Sales of the Subaru BRZ, however, got underway today and Subaru has elected to sell them online.

That’s online-only.

You can’t walk into a dealership and place and order. The dealer will gladly offer you a comfortable seat and a coffee, but most likely that would only be so that you could use his/her computer to order it online (and probably only if you promise to nominate them as the preferred delivery dealership).

Whilst Toyota went for a two-pronged model line around $30K and $35K plus ORC, Subaru has limited its range to one model only, selling at $37,150 driveaway (with 3 years service).

Subaru have just 201 BRZ’s to sell in Australia this year and 50 of them were sold within the first 90 minutes of their sales site going online today. It might have been more if the site could have handled the spike in traffic, but it crashed soon after going live and the ‘buy’ button wouldn’t appear.

Source: Drive.

UPDATE: Apparently all 201 sold within three hours. On Day 1.

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I’m very, very excited by the experiment from Subaru and I bet a lot of other manufacturers are watching as well.

Why?

From my own perspective, online sales was an idea that I was developing in my own head when I started working at Saab last year. In my mind, people could still go to a dealership to view or test drive a car, but they would then have the option of buying it online and like Subaru, nominating a dealer of choice for delivery and service.

I’m not sure how this would work in a mixed setting, with both dealer and online sales. It would most likely have to be part of a fixed price sales model, something that might not go down so well in some markets.

Buyers could still buy a car off the lot straight away if their desired configuration was on site. Haggling would be between the customer and the dealer as the dealer would have already bought the car from the factory (as they do now).

Some people don’t like the pressured environment involved with some sales experiences. I’m sure they’d be open to being able to configure, select and buy their car completely online, dealing only with the salesman at pickup time.

From the manufacturer’s perspective, this could be an interesting addition to the sales funnel that might mean greater margins for them and a new dealership model for the future. There are a lot of thins you can buy online today. Why not cars as well?

Subaru seem to have tripped with the infrastructure around the process on the first day, but hopefully they’ll get the resources sorted quickly and it’ll be interesting to see the feedback they receive.

Online sales for motor cars. Would you be into it?

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Speaking of the Toyobaru twins, here’s an absolutely sensational road test video of the Toyota GT86 in its European configuration. What makes this video so good isn’t limited to the photography, the roads and the facts you learn along the way. This video is extra-interesting because the guy testing the car currently owns a Toyota AE86 as a weekend trackday car. For him, this is personal.

It’s 20 minutes long, so make sure you’ve got some time to spare. I think you’ll enjoy it, however.

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IF YOU CALL YOURSELF A CAR NUT AND YOU HAVEN’T SEEN ERIC BANA’S FILM, LOVE THE BEAST, THEN DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR – SEEK IT OUT AND SEE IT.

I wrote about Love The Beast as part of my list of Top 5 Car Movies a few months ago. That post was enough to motivate Ian B to see the film and I’d like to share a note from him, received overnight, in an effort to encourage you to find this excellent film, then see it.

Hi Steven,

I was glad to finally have the opportunity to watch Love the Beast.

‘Passions’ are intrinsically self-indulgent but Eric Bana did a very good job of allowing the film to somehow transcend the subject matter and climb towards a study of the human state. Clearly one could substitute any brand of car – or other enthusiasm – into the centre-piece of this film. It struck me that he seemed to be trying to make sense of how much the whole thing meant to him. A lot of soul searching and seeking to justify to himself whether or not he should continue with his project, I think.

I have certainly wrestled with my conscience a time or three – as have we all I suspect? Usually about cars I have spent too much on and subsequently sold. The fact Eric Bana has the resources to repair his Beast a third time should always be born in mind by the observer in my opinion – but it’s not always easy to put mind over matter where cars are concerned.

‘Love the Beast’ certainly managed to draw me in as a viewer. It didn’t matter that, like Jeremy Clarkson, I have never had a particular affinity for muscle cars. Goes with the territory of being English I suppose: The closest we would have come would be the ubiquitous Ford V6 ‘Essex’ engine, which found its way into a myriad of 70’s & 80’s cars; most notably the Ford Capri.

In terms of having a passion outside of work (per Dr Phil) – that definitely sums up my attitude to life; whether it be running, cycling, Saabs (motoring in general/Saabs in particular) Cavalier King Charles Spaniels – whatever …these are the things that define us. As for there being a spiritual aspect to this subject – that may be open to debate…probably the hardest part to pin down. I’m not sure a well known Tibetan exile would necessarily agree for instance.

What really struck a chord with me was the camaraderie which bound together his closest friends over their life-span and particularly the bond that he shared through motoring, with his Dad. Like you I am not in a position to carry that forward with my Dad, though mine is still alive. I speak with him every week but it’s getting harder to maintain relationship due to his illness. I certainly found myself wishing he was sitting next to me while I watched that film… .and hence the tears flowed. Lucky I had a good pair of headphones and the dogs for company.

Best wishes

Ian

My thanks to Ian for sending along his thoughts on the film, and the photos.

I don’t know if this applies in all countries, but here in Australia, you can rent Love The Beast on YouTube. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

And for the Aussies reading this, Ian picked up a copy of the DVD at JB HiFi for $14, with the stickers included in the pack.

Watch it with your car club. Watch it with your Dad. Watch it with the family members who don’t understand your passion. Just make sure you watch it.

It’ll make you laugh, it’ll get your heart pumping and it’ll help anyone who sees it (including yourself) understand your obsessions just that little bit more.

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I’ve mentioned my fondness for RenaultSport vehicles here in the past. I had a RS Megane on my tentative shopping list earlier this year and I’m quite sure that I’ll pick one up one day (when I have the garage space for a third vehicle – I don’t foresee myself selling either the Alfa GTV6 or the Subaru Brumby any time soon).

Renault recently showed a new ‘concept’ vehicle. I say ‘concept’ because unlike most concept cars, this one actually goes really, really fast. It’s stonkingly good looking, too. It’s the Renault Alpine A110-50, made to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Renault Alpine A110.

You can see both the original A110 and the new A110-50 in the following video:

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This video (5 mins) is the A110-50 on its own, being thrown around in a more realistic manner on a more realistic track. The audio is quite amazing (and yes, I’ve heard a single car sound like a swarm of bees before, so it is indeed realistic).

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The original A110, or Berlinette, made its debut at the 1962 Paris Motor Show and quickly made an impact on the French rally circuit. Its first win was at the Rallye des Lions in 1963 and the car enjoyed continued success through to the mid-1970’s.

Alpine was an independent skunkworks-style car company using Renault engines to power its vehicles. The two companies got closer and closer until Renault finally took over Alpine’s operations completely in 1973.

1973 was a red-letter year for Alpine, and not only because it became part of Renault. The same year saw the first FIA World Rally Championship take place and the inaugural winner of the manufacturer’s trophy was none other than Renault-Alpine, running A110’s fitted with an 1800cc engine (Saab came first and second in the Swedish rally that year – Blomqvist and Eklund – with an Alpine A110 in third place).

The new A110-50 is a hint at some of the technology that might come from RenaultSport in the future. RenaultSport is, in many ways, the new Alpine. They make some of the most wonderful hot hatches in the world based on Renault’s Formula 1 and Formula Renault racing experience.

It’s significant, too, that RenaultSport weave their magic in Alpine’s old workshops, in Dieppe.

The new A110-50 uses the racing version of the Megane Trophy V6 as a base and incorporates much of it’s technology, whilst adding a few tricks of its own. The engine is the same V6 from the Trophy racer, making 400hp and 422Nm of torque from it’s 3.5 litres displacement.

And just how finished is this concept?

It’s got fully functioning racing stuff in it, such as the custom designed racing steering wheel with display and integral pneumatic jacks built in to facilitate quick tyre changes. There’s carbon fibre everywhere and it’s not just for decoration. The whole body is made from it as well as air intakes, etc.

The Renault Alpine A110-50 is one hot momma and it’s indicative of the kind of stuff that RenaultSport can do. Their regular vehicles are steaming hot as it is, but it’s very interesting to get an insight like this, as to what they might be capable of bringing to the road in the future.

Speaking of their regular vehicles……… I plan to have this one in my garage in 5-8 years from now.

I have a dream.

I have a dream that at some time in my life I will have a big, well equipped workshop. I have a dream that one day I might actually know how to use many of the tools in that workshop without breaking anything or anyone (namely me).

Alas, however, it’s all just a dream. I am, and will most likely remain, a mechanical dunce.

Fortunately, Darryl Carl isn’t. The former owner of New Salem Saab and current proprietor of Albany Speed Shop does indeed have a workshop AND the skills to put everything in it to good use.

Right now, he’s doing something I can only dream about – building a rear-wheel-drive Saab Sonett III fitted with an engine from a Suzuki Hayabusa.

Now, before I go and tip all the Saab purists off the deep end, let me declare my love of the standard Sonett. I’ve driven a couple of them (both the II and the III) and I’ve even been for a ride in one of the six original Saab Sonetts from the Saab Museum. Even with the standard, underpowered V4 engine, a Saab Sonett can be heaps of fun. Warm it up with carbs, cams, exhaust, etc and it becomes even more fun.

But there’s also something to be said for a man’s ability to do something more with it. Rather than just confine the idea to the “what if” section of his brain, Darryl has moved the idea to the “Just Do It” section and work is progressing very nicely indeed.

If you’re a friend of Darryl’s then you might have seen some video of this car in action on Facebook. Right now, the car is indeed running, though there’s still a fair bit of work to be done. The following two photos are stills taken from the video, just to give you a look at the rear and side profiles.

The Sonabusa (yes, it already has a name) will be running on 13″ wheels at the front and 14″ at the rear when finished. Darryl reckons they’ll be able to get 8″ wide tyres on the back and keep them within the regulation wheel arch.

They’re hoping to get the nose fitted back on this week. There are a bundle of other things waiting to be done, not the least of which is paid work from customers, but Darryl’s working pretty feverishly to get this car finished. In a brief note to me, he mentioned shortening the throw on the shifter, sourcing some suitable wheels and a whole bunch of wiring – including a dogged determination to make sure the headlights pop-up as intended.

I get the feeling he’d like to show it off at whatever Saab events might still be left this year (the final ever Swedish Car Day in Boston might be a fitting venue, eh?)

I’ll get some more images and video on site when Darryl makes it available. In the meantime, there’s a massive gallery of transformation images at Photobucket.

I finally got my Subaru Brumby home from Melbourne on Sunday morning. I’d like to say it was a smooth, simple transaction with a nice, breezy trip home, but that would be lying.

Let me say this up front – I think I’ve probably paid slightly too much for this car. The body is indeed rust-free, as advertised, but it has a few more dings in it than what I could see in the photographs. A slight impression has been made in one of the doors, an even slighter one in the hood of the car, and the numerous light scratches in the paintwork give a hint that the previous, elderly owner (now deceased), might have operated the machine using some sort of Braille technique.

With that said, I also believe it’s a very genuine car. The seller (who is the previous owner’s son) is a very genuine guy and the his description of the car’s history and condition was, over all, quite reliable. I first called him about the car last Monday but didn’t arrive to see it until Friday. He mentioned that he could have sold it several times during that week and one buyer even offered him an extra $500 to knock me out of the queue. I believe it, too, as these utes are sought after and examples like this – with ‘rocking-horse-poo’ power steering fitted – just don’t come around.

After the test drive and inspection, I had a few things to think about. Given the poorer-than-expected presentation of the vehicle and the fact that it was in need of a tune, I tried to whittle down the price by another $500. The seller wasn’t budging, however. Believe it or not, I actually stuck to my guns and drove away with my nephew, sans the Brumby.

10 minutes later, I was back. After thinking about both the practicalities of my situation (money invested, travel booked, etc) and the fact that this was still a very good car, I ended up buying it at the price we originally agreed.

Folly? The next 48 hours would both prove that it was, and that it wasn’t.

After we finished exchanging money and ownership details, I drove the car for the hour-long journey across the suburbs to visit my mother. Then on to get some dinner before finally arriving at my sister’s place where I stayed the night. No problems. The car drove perfectly. The next morning I had a few hours to kill, so I headed down to a shopping center nearby, hoping to buy a new USB-capable stereo system for the car. This is where the trouble began.

The first thing I noticed was a slight, but very familiar cooling-system smell. You know the one. A quick glance at my temperature gauge confirmed my fears and I quickly escaped the rather full carpark in search of some airflow. I eventually arrived at a service station nearby and checked the radiator, which appeared to be bone dry. The fluid trail emerging from the front end indicated it wasn’t quite bone dry YET, but was in the process of emptying itself.

I couldn’t tell where the leak was coming from, but several litres of water and some expert observation later, I learned that it was the water pump that was leaky.

I should add that by the time I got this diagnosed, I was around 2 hours away from closing time at the workshop (not enough time to get a part in and fix it) and I was also around 3 hours away from checking in for the overnight ferry back to Tasmania.

Do I re-book the ferry, delay my return and get it fixed on Monday? Or do I fill up a few large Coke bottles with water and embark on one of those seat-of-the-pants road trips in a completely unfamiliar car?

I think you all know the answer to that one.

Continue reading Subaru Brumby – Too Much, Tribulation and Triumph

Quijote currently owns a Viggen over in the US but is looking to update to a fresher Saab drop-top. His options are:

• A 2008 Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible (V6, 250hp), or
• A 2008 or 2009 Saab 9-3 Convertible 2.0T (4cyl, 210hp)

Some other factors to consider:

The V6 is actually cheaper to insure than the 2.0T, which will offset most (if not all) of the extra fuel the V6 might use.

Quijote’s a little put off by the faux-aluminium trim that can accompany the Aero models, especially on the steering wheel.

The 2.0T is around 15% cheaper to buy than the Aero.

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Quijote wrote to me to get my thoughts on the purchase. Here’s what I sent back:

I’m always partial to the 2.0T. I’ve not spent much time in convertibles, to be honest, so I’m probably not the best person to ask. I loved the 9-5 2.0T, however, compared to the V6. The V6 was much more powerful but I felt the 2.0T was more enjoyable to drive. One of those with a tuning package would have been perfect (never happy!)

You really need to drive both for yourself and see what you think. I can definitely see the attraction in the V6 and I enjoyed driving a 9-3 V6 quite a lot when I first tested one. Instant power and very smooth. But personally, I’m used to smaller, more nimble cars and the V6 is a heavy engine to have up front.

I should clarify my thoughts on the 9-5 a little. The V6 was much more powerful than the 2.0T, that much was very clear. I loved the 2.0T based on its potential, according to my own judgement, on it being a more fun car to drive.

With a Hirsch or Maptun tune on it, the 2.0T would deliver plenty of power. In standard trim it was quite OK, but not outright fast.

What the 2.0T had over the V6 was lightness. The four cylinder version of that car felt a lot more driveable to me. It really made the car feel a lot smaller on the road than what it actually was.

The 9-5 was a wonderful illustration of just how much a difference weight and lightness can make in a car.

Of course, we’re talking 9-3 Convertibles here, not the Saab 9-5. As I mentioned to Quijote, I’ve not had a whole lot of experience with Saab convertibles, so I figured it might be good to open this question up to people who do.

Have you had experience with both the 2.0T and the V6? Do you have some advice to offer on which one is more fun to drive?

Personally I’d be going for the 2.0T with some pepper added from my mate Fredrik at Maptun, but that’s just me. What say you?

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I wrote this a few months ago, after visiting Polestar’s Gothenburg office back in January. It was published here in Australia a few weeks ago at CarAdvice in conjunction with the Aussie launch of Polestar’s performance packages here. Seeing as how Polestar’s in the news again at the moment with the Polestar S60, I figured it might be a good time to share the post here – SW.

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Polestar.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that might be the name of a raunchy late-night reality show, but it’s not. This small company, based in a modest workshop in suburban Gothenburg, has been brought in to sex-up a brand traditionally known in Australia for it’s staid station wagons and steadfast commitment to safety. Polestar is Volvo’s official performance partner.

A lot of automotive brands now come with tuning companies attached. Some of them are in-house and official, like BMW’s M division and Mercedes’ AMG. Others are external and unofficial, but accepted as being authorities on their chosen marque – think RUF and Porsche. Polestar sits somewhere in the middle. They are their own entity, but a couple of key Polestar employees now have seats of their own in Volvo’s engineering offices and it’s from here that they fine tune Polestar’s performance enhancing products in conjunction with Volvo Cars.

Polestar’s work doesn’t stop at tuning, however. In fact, the tuning business is an offshoot from their core business – racing.

Step into that modest, modern workshop outside Gothenburg and the first thing you see isn’t a bunch of boffins in lab coats. The boffins come later. The first thing you’ll see is a collection of trophies lined up outside one of the company’s glass-walled meeting rooms. These trophies, around 20 of them, are the ones they don’t have space for in the board room. The people at Polestar are very good at what they do.

We’ve all seen behind-the-scenes coverage from Bathurst and Formula 1. It’s one thing to see the amazing things that a racing team can do on the television. It’s another thing to see it first-hand. I had a guided tour around the Polestar workshop for an hour, getting a close-up look at the cars, the strip-down engine benches, dynamometers and the chassis jigs that are used to ensure that absolutely everything is properly aligned.

The two Volvo C30 race cars are both immaculate, inside and out. You could eat your lunch off the bare passenger side floor. Every aspect of the car exudes a quality finish and all key components are built in-house to the team’s exacting standards. Like all race teams, Polestar are proud of what they do and the cars that they put out on the track are their best advertisement.

The results are impressive, too. The Swedish Touring Car Championship has proven to be Polestar’s bread, butter and test bench for nearly a decade. With support from Volvo, their success has grown to a point where the team has dominated both the driver’s and constructor’s championships for the last three years. They’ll take this success into a new series in Sweden for 2012, the Swedish Racing Elite League.

In 2011, Polestar also ran a development team in the World Touring Car Championship. If all goes to plan, full participation will most likely begin in 2013.

Continue reading Polestar adding performance to Australian Volvos

I’ve talked about this one for a while. At long last, the right vehicle has come up and I’m heading to Melbourne Friday afternoon to pick up my first ever ute – a Subaru Brumby.

This is it.

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So why a Brumby?

I’ve been looking for one of these for some time. The first utes were developed in Australia and feels like a rite of passage for an Aussie bloke to get one at some stage.

More than that, though, they’re just so incredibly practical. Our Saab 9000 can take a heck of a load in it, but I get sick of vacuuming leaves and twigs out of it (and worrying about the creepy crawlies that might have made a new home under the seats). It’ll be great to just chuck some junk in the back and clean the tray out afterwards without having to worry about damaging the upholstery.

These Subarus have a reputation for being pretty much unbreakable. There are examples for sale right now with well over 300, 400 and even 500,000 kilomoters on them. The only common problem is CV joint failure, which isn’t a problem on this car and should be easy to fix if and when it happens.

And the best part – this one is rust-free, only has 100,000kms on the clock, has air-conditioning and was fitted with power steering! That last one is an extra-special bonus because the Brumby never had power steering.

The unmarked interior…..

The car was owned from new by an older gentleman. He passed away recently and it’s being sold by his son. The Dad fitted power steering because he was older and didn’t like fighting to turn the car any more.

It’s got a new windscreen, too!

The only blemish is a small dent in the tailgate. Other than that, it’s all good!

We’ve got heaps of garden waste stacked in various parts of the yard, and plenty of other rubbish waiting to be cleaned out. This Brumby’s going to be my daily driver and weekend workhorse.

Can’t wait!

The Brumby has both low and high-range four-wheel-drive. It’s powered by a 4 cylinder, 1.8litre, carby boxer engine driven through a four-speed manual transmission. That’s not an inspiring sentence from a driving enthusiast’s point of view, but then that’s why I’ve got the Alfa Romeo GTV6, isn’t it?

This one’s for work and maybe a little bit of play on a muddy day out in the bush 🙂

More photos will come in due course.

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Encouraging little Brumby factoid…..

These cars carry some great residual values. They’re all 20 years or older and many of them are still fetching up to a third of their new car price. I’m getting this little red wagon at a decent, but fair price and I’m quite sure it’s still going to be worth every penny IF I go to sell it in a few years from now.