Sydney Motor Show 1999

Ford have been will-they, won't-they (sell it in au) over the Ford Ka, the Ford mini-car with serious styling attitude (also at the Melbourne show). Now it is to be sold here. The Ka was shown in Geneva in 1994, and went on sale in Europe in 1996. It has the `Edge' styling which is quite radical for a major car maker and which works well in this small package, although it is less successful in the larger AU Falcon. The Ka has a 1.3 litre `Endura-E SEFI engine' 43kW at 5000rpm, 100Nm, 5-speed manual gearbox, dual airbags and belt pretensioners.

Ford have also recently brought out the AU Falcon `Classic' with a claimed $3.5K extras at no extra cost, rrp $30,690 ($au). A colour-coded grille is fitted in place of the contentious `Edge' grille.

Nissan are previewing the y2k Maxima V6 sedan, due to go on sale ~December. The Maxima has a 3.0 litre engine.

Nissan are also claiming 818 sales for the Patrol 4x4 in September ahead of its Toyota LandCruiser rival. Nissan has been running a strong advertising campaign.

For a piece of exotica, Nissan have brought back the 1998 R390 GT1 Le-Mans racing car, with a 3.5 litre, twin turbo-charged, V8 (410kW at 6800rpm).

Suzuki have the recently released 2 litre Grand Vitara 4WD hard-top and the soon to be released 1.6 litre Grand Vitara soft-top. The 2 litre produces 94kW at 6000rpm, 174Nm at 2900rpm, the 1.6 litre, 69kW at 5200rpm, 138Nm at 4000rpm. The soft-top will go on sale ~November at a price to be decided.

The Matiz is just 3495mm x 1495mm x 1485mm overall, and is powered by a 3-cylinder sohc engine of 796cc, (anyone remember the first Daihatsu Charade?) 37.5kW at 5900rpm, 68Nm at 4600rpm. It has airbags for the driver and front passenger. For $12,000 ($au) you get the car and three years free care (r) and maintenance.

The Nubira is a good deal larger, 4495mm x 1700mm x 1430mm (sedan), with a 4-cylinder dohc engine of 1998cc, 98kW at 5400rpm, 185Nm at 4400rpm. It takes on the likes of the Mitsubishi Lancer and seems to be a nice sensible, smaller family sedan (with fussy grille styling).

In the higher price regions, Mercedes Benz will have the CL500 Coupe, due to go an sale here next year and with innovations such as smart-card key-less operation.

Subaru have landed 400 four-door versions of the fast Impreza WRX STi VI's, to be launched at the show, and hoping to repeat the success of the 2-door WRX STi.

Subaru (au) points out that it is 10 years since the Liberty was launched - at the '89 Sydney Motor Show. The decade has seen Subaru sales grow dramatically and the company move to an all all-wheel-drive range.