A Chance To Compare The Latest Offerings
The Age
Friday March 5, 1993
THE Melbourne International Motor Show, which opened yesterday for 10 days at the Royal Exhibition Building, offers buyers the chance to closely compare competing cars.
Buyers can assess for themselves whether the new, larger Toyota Camry or, in its GMHA form, the Holden Apollo, can compare with the space offered by a Mitsubishi Magna or an imported Mazda 626 V6.
There is also a question of whether the traditional six-cylinder rivals of these, the Commodore and Falcon, offer still more room for about the same or even a smaller price.
The battle for the wallets of six-cylinder buyers is the theme of 1993 as local manufacturers and importers scramble for what is seen to be a resurgence of the six-cylinder car.
Statistics which show that buyers are turning more to six-cylinder vehicles this year do not show the size of car. Ford Australia is looking for a Falcon-sized recovery in its fortunes.
Charts show the Holden Commodore and the Falcon leapfrog each other as top sellers when new models appear.
Neither has a fresh model for the Melbourne International Motor Show although there are newly available versions which will run on either LPG or petrol.
Those keen on shaving another dollar from their motoring budget may be nearly $400 better off each year with an LPG-fuelled car. If they run out of fuel, they only have to touch a switch and the car changes to petrol and runs normally immediately.
These new models have a three-way dashboard switch and differ more in the way they are brought to market than either their design intention or the way they drive.
GMHA has authorised a dealer-fitted conversion which adds a gas tank under the back window of the Commodore with independent rear suspension. Coil springs at the back are firmed up to carry the extra weight of the gas.
Ford has its own niche marketer, Tickford Vehicle Engineering, to add what is substantially a Californian conversion to the EBII Falcon. An 85-litre tank is added under the rear window and tucked neatly out of the way with stronger-than-usual cast feet bolted to the floor.
Another fuel-control module is added under the driver's seat and an addition to the inlet manifold which turns the LPG into a gas and introduces it to the engine.
The base model of the LPG-petrol Falcon adds $1995 to the price of the GLi Falcon.
Ford estimates it will take 65,000 kilometres at today's fuel prices for the LPG conversion to become amortised through savings from using the cheaper fuel.
The rear suspension remains unchanged and the higher centre of gravity of the loaded fuel tank does not upset the handling. The tank can only be 80 per cent filled under local LPG rules and the fuel packs less punch per litre than petrol so the distance the LPG will carry the car is less than for the equivalent amount of petrol.
But the conversion is attractive in the neat way it has been achieved and the professional air of the fittings.
Also at the motor show will be Holden's new Apollo version of the Toyota Camry with the usual interlocked model structure.
The surprise is the way the GM official styling has been integrated onto the Camry's lines. It looks far more like a Holden than a Toyota _ which is just the effect GMHA wanted.
From its 2.2-litre capacity, the Toyota engine produces eight per cent more power and 8.2 per cent more torque than the 2.0-litre engine it replaces. Twin balancer shafts to smooth out the capacity engine are mounted in the sump rather than the block as Mitsubishi does due to the need for a compact installation which can also be deleted.
There is a version in Japan without the balancer shafts. Given the excellent engine mounts of the four-cylinder engine and their ability to smooth out vibration it is probable that the balancer shafts are an extra refinement used only in sophisticated markets such as Australia.
It must take some power to drive these, however. Consider the output of the new 2.2-litre Mercedes engine (in the 220E also at the show).
This has has no balancer shafts but it does have the luxury of variable inlet camshaft timing. From similar capacity to the Toyota, the 2199 cc Mercedes produces 110 kW at 4000 rpm and 210 Nm torque at 4000 rpm. Measured to the German DIN standard, the 2164 cc Toyota engine produces 95 kW at 5200 rpm and 185 Nm torque at 4400 rpm.
If the Apollo or Camry buyer seeks extra performance, there is a 2959 cc, V6 engine with similar twin-cam, four-valve-a-cylinder technology which produces 136 kW at 5200 rpm and 264 Nm torque at the same 4400 rpm. This is an enlarged version of the 2.5-litre engine which was available in the previous Camry.
It is impressive in both output and unruffled performance. A nice touch is the hydraulically powered cooling fan. This is unlikely to spring into life unexpectedly like an electric fan.
Fuel use of the V6 new Camry-Apollo, with its mandatory automatic transmission, is according to Toyota, 11.5 litres over 100 kilometres in town and a usefully frugal 7.6 litres a 100 kilometres in the country.
The four-cylinder model's fuel use, by Toyota's measurement, is the same 10 litres a 100 kilometres in town whether it has manual or automatic transmission. In the country, the manual uses 6.4 litres and the automatic marginally more at 6.6 litres a 100 kilometres.
Other new vehicles at the motor show include the latest small cars from Japan which can be easily compared for size and security.
Different buyers have different priorities for fuel use, parkability and how comfortable they feel inside the car.
Whether the Camry-Apollo and its soon-to-be-released V6 Magna rival can eat into the traditional Holden-Falcon market depends on the size of families and their priorities.
Rising values for the Japanese currency have pushed up the price of four-wheel drive station wagons which were the darling of suburban buyers last year. Some dealers report they will be increasing prices for these by about three per cent every couple of months as manufacturers try to recoup currency losses.
The motor show offers extra value in the accessory areas. Bob Roman's Autotech, for example, is showing a variety of new steering wheels and seats from Momo in Italy and Recaro in Germany.
Those who find motoring pared to the bone by strong foreign currencies can add a little individual ``zing" to their cars with these luxury products.
They can also tailor the seats and wheel precisely to their own specification, wrapping and hanging the original equipment in the garage rafters until it is time to trade-in the car.
NORM BEECHEY'S Sunday began like those of many Melburnians last weekend. He strode out to the garage with his wife Margaret and daughter Amanda and set off for a day in the country, in the hills north east of Melbourne, at Rob Roy.
The car was a little noisy on the trip. It was, after all, the car in which he had won the Australian touring car championship nearly 30 years ago _ a Chevrolet Impala 409, a huge American four-door hardtop.
Once at the picnic site where it was raining, he stuck some numbers on the doors and the last part of the trip up the bitumen was done a little more briskly and without the family on board.
The road ended at a farmer's gate, fortunately open, since the huge Impala does not exactly stop on demand and it whistled through the gate.
The last part of the trip was timed to be third fastest of all the historic competition machinery in the Friends of Rob Roy's hillclimb.
The MG Car Club must have been happy since its promotion of the meeting managed to draw more than 4000 spectators to Rob Roy despite the weather.
The thunder of the Impala was impressive with the Ian Tait-built V8 pumping out more than 380 kW and modern tyres clinging better than the car could ever manage in its competition heyday.
Beechy's team mate from the 1960s Neptune Racing Team, Jim McKeown, had competed in his old Lotus Cortina. It was marginally faster than the Impala up the tricky hillclimb track.
In his final run, Beechey pumped more fuel into the engine than it could digest, it misfired at the critical one-in-three pinch up the hill and McKeown's smile widened but it did not really matter.
Who was fastest was not important that day. As Amanda began peeling the numbers off the doors of her father's Impala, the atmosphere was relaxed and cheerful. Many of the cars were driven to the circuit, timed up the climb and then driven home again emphasising the definition of sports cars.
Many of the classic cars are used daily such as Peter Latreille's aluminium-bodied 30/98 Vauxhall with its registration number the same as its engine number _ OE 039. Bugatti formula-one cars, familiar sports models such as Austin Healeys, Triumph TRs, Fritz Norden's competition special MG TC and a squadron of other MGs all emphasised the return to motor sport which was friendly and fun.
Someone noted there should have been a competition to pick the spectator without grey hair but Norden had a better competition ``spot the spectator without a smile". His was spread from ear to ear.
© 1993 The Age