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Mitsubishi Concept cX at Melbourne

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Poor old Mitsubishi hasn’t had a good run in Australia lately, they have recently announced that they would cease manufacturing in Australia stopping their troubled 380 six cylinder family car. But import wise they have been doing fairly well with some exciting products like the all new Lancer., And looking at the Mitsubishi Concept cX on the stand at the Melbourne Motorshow this week, the future will look even brighter. The Concept cX is a compact crossover vehicle which made it’s debut at last years Frankfurt Motor Show, it is powered by a 1.8 litre clean diesel engine which cleverly features a VG or variable geometry turbo charger and a DOC which is a diesel oxcidation catalyst which makes it Euro 5 ready. There’s a twin clutch SST Sports Shift Transmission fitted and together with the engine give remarkable fuel economy and performance while being kind to the environment. Inside the car also keeps our fragile environment in mind with Mitsubishi’s own special green plastic, its made from plant based resins instead of oil based, something we should expect to see in production vehicles in the not to distant future.

Holden’s Coupe Concept – The next Monaro?

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The Australian arm of GM, Holden has put a stunning 2 door coupe concept on show at the Melbourne Motorshow this week. Based of the Holden Commodore or Pontiac GTO, Vauxhall VRX or even Lumina in some markets. The concept car was designed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Holden. The vehicle features pillerless windows, a s tough body kit with Diamond Silver paint and a 6 litre LS2 V8 Engine. The car is finished with 21 inch slick wheels, LED taillights and twin side exhausts. Holden isn’t saying too much about the future of this car but if they were to make a new model Monaro, one would expect much of the DNA in this vehicle would be carried over to the new design. Like the 2 door coupe showed in 1998 which later became the Monaro, enough public interest might just be all Holden needs to take the design a bit further and invest in this project to put it in the showrooms in a few years time. Time will tell.

Hyundai Genesis shown at Melbourne

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Fresh from the stand at the LA Motorshow the Hyundai Genesis Coupe Concept is now wowing the crowds at the Melbourne Motorshow in Australia. Hyundai have been a major player in the Australian market over the last decade and are know for cheap affordable small family cars. The Genesis Coupe is a major departure with an exciting look and some pretty impressive features. Sure its only a concept at this stage but it shows the future direction of the Korean manufacturer and if the recently released I30 is anything to go by things are on the up. Hyundai are claiming a version of this car will be built and on sale next year it will be interesting to see how far a departure it is from this lovely concept but Hyundai are promising most affordable 300-plus horsepower car on the market. This car features a 3.8-liter V-6 under the carbon fiber hood, it also has a six-speed manual transmission, rear-wheel drive and a limited-slip differential. It will be very interesting to see the production car in the flesh.

New GT Falcon on show at Melbourne Motor Show

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Ford Performance Vehicle’s brand new muscle car the FG GT Falcon is being showed for the first time at the Melbourne Motor Show. Due to go on sale in May 2008 the V8 GT Falcon comes in a complete new body and interior and a range of bright colours. Price and performance figures are  yet to be announced but it is expected to be the most powerful Falcon ever overtaking the current 302 KW engine. For the first time in Falcon GT history the Ford badge is replaced by the Ford Performance Vehicle stylised Falcon badging. There will be 3 models of the GT they will be the GT and GT-P which have been available in earlier models and for the first time a stylish new luxury GT-E sedan. The vehicle is also sold in a utility vehicle and called the Pursuit. Other Ford Performance Vehicle Falcons on offer include the Turbo 6 Cylinder F6 range.

Landrover concept at Melbourne Motor Show

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Fresh from its unveiling on a few weeks ago at the Detroit Motorshow the Landrover LRX concept car has been put on display at the Melbourne Motorshow in Australia. The LRX Concept is a compact 4×4 vehicle with a three door bold look, but still with plenty of Landrover DNA. The car is powered by a 2.0 litre turbo diesel electric hybrid motor which can also run on bio diesel. The car has an integrated electric drive rear axle called ERAD which allows the vehicle to use the electric drive when at lower speeds and offer emissions similar to a micro car. The concept is 149 shorter than the Landrover Freelander 2 and sits 205mm lower and has a very striking appearance. There seems to be a trend with these nearly coupe 4×4 SUV vehicles at the moment with Audi and BMW also showing similar types of cars at recent shows. There is also a plan to release another exciting version of the LRX at the Geneva Motorshow which starts later this week.

That Pacer sure is ugly

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When designers come up with new car designs you would think they would go out to market research just to check that the public like it and then do a few tweaks. Even if they stuff up you would think management would say.. hey no one is going to like that and send them back to the drafting table, well what went on here? The AMC Pacer would have to be the ugliest car of all time, there isn’t a bit you could like. There have been several polls for the ugliest car over the year but the Pacer comes up tops most times, The AMC Gremlin (its sister) always ranks high, as does the Ford Pinto, The Chevy Aztek and the poor old Edsel from Ford. The Pacer was a two door compact produced between 1975 and 1980 it more resembled a jellybean on wheels than a car. You might remember the “Mirthmobile” in the Hit 90’s movie Wayne’s World and they had a stretched and convertible one in the sequel. The car also came in a station wagon form and with lovely wood panelling that was also just as hideous. The only thing I can’t understand with the whole Pacer story is AMC made 280,000 of them, who would have bought one?

If you have a Pacer and think we are being a bit unfair or have another ugly car to note drop us a line!

Los Angeles Auto Show concepts

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The LA Motorshow brought a few very interesting concepts to the stands and today’s You Tube video gives you a really good up close look. Some of the highlights include the Mustang Giugiaro, Ford got some really good Italian style to make this lovely vehicle. Honda showed a clay concept called the Remix which may become a future CRX style car. Hyundai showed their Hellion, this interesting vehicle with a very aggressive and curvy look. Like the host of our video we are not sure what Acura was doing with their so called Advanced Sedan, it is awful but there’s some clever technology going on, not half as good looking as the Mazda Nagara which gives a glimpse of Mazda’s new DNA.

Argentina’s Ford Falcon

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The Ford Falcon is Ford Australia’s flagship with 48 plus year history, Before becoming a uniquely Australian model in the late 1960’s the early vehicles were based on the 1959 US Ford Falcon. The same thing happend in Argentina, but unlike Ford Australia they kept pretty much the same design with a few modern tinkers up until 1991. Nearly half a million Argentinan Ford Falcons were produced, there was a facelift in the 1980’s which morphed a Ford Cortina like front and rear to the car and a new dash panel which looked like it came straight out of the European Cortina. The Falcon was very popular with the Police in Argentina and trusted design proved fairly reliable. Today Argentina sells many of the European Ford products like Mondeo, Focus, Fiesta and a facelifted version of the Ford Ka, which appears to be only for the South American market.

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