G’Day and welcome to Overdrive, where we take a populous approach to issues about cars and transport.
I’m David Brown
In the program Paul Murrell from seniordriveraus.com and I deliberate on
- Car sales so far this year – Is it a correction or huge on-going trend
- There’s a new ute on the Australian market and we don’t mean the KIA
- Geographic boundaries and naming your car
- Our young intern discusses the Nissan X-trail
- Are the first Honda motor cars s600/s800 becoming collectable
- And we look at the history of eight sports cars that didn’t really make it
Originally broadcast 20 April 2024
A more detail rundown of the program
Car Sales for the first quarter of 2024
01:42
It is indeed now the FCAI, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, has heralded the results for March this year, saying they surpassed the previous record, which was achieved in March 2018 and in fact year to date. The first quarter of this year is up 13.2 percent compared to 2023. Now is this an increase in sales due to a long term trend or just catching up
Could the reason be that Toyota is finally appearing to have some supply to be able to sell.
03:55
Toyota must be very happy with the fact that hybrids are doing well. That is part of their big marketing.
04:21
Full electrics are about 9% of new car sales. Again is this just catching up with the rest of the world which is now showing some caution with electric vehicles
06:24
Federal Chamber of Automotive industries use the occasion to cast doubt about the New Vehicle Efficiency Standards
Another New Ute of the Australian Market
07:50
There’s a newcomer to the Australian market and it’s not the Kia at this age, although that is coming. It’s a new Ute and it’s from JAC and their chairman says it’s an incredible step forward for the Australian automotive industry.
Is it?
10:00
China has many brands there were that we have never heard of.
11: 30
Other brands with utes, such as Great Wall Motors. LDV and SsangYong had a pretty good run but they are not doing as well this year.
12:54
How are the Pickups – the bigger than big utes going.
RAM is down. New playes such as the Ford F150 and some upgraded versions of Chevrolet Silverado are doing well
Alfa Romeo has a geographic name problem
14:11 DB
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet Shakespeare?
Alpha launched a new model and it’s sort of a successor to the MiTo. So it’s a small SUV, basically. The only problem was of course, they called it the Milano, but it’s actually built in Poland. And there’s a law in Italy which is you cannot pass something off as being Italian when it’s built outside Italy, much like you can’t call sparkliling white wine champagne unless it comes from the Champagne region.
Nissan X-Trail
19:15
Over the last year, Nissan has upgraded four of its important models. The three SUV’s and their sporty Z, and included in the SUV’s is their most popular.
One of our young interns has had a look inside it and had.
Very much a prominent front end. So my initial thought was it’s a big, big SUV. But as I kind of worked my way from the front to the back, it kind of became more normal. More familiar.
20:27
And the colour the sort of pastel they’re they’re bringing out rich coloured pastels. If that’s not almost a contradiction, it’s a very serious paint job, but it’s not bright red.
Could The Honda S600 from the late 1960s be worth something
28:44
Haggerty, which is the American Classic insurance have noted that a number of cars cars are showing specific signs of gaining in value.
Some are the very early tiny little sports cars from Honda the S600 and S800.
Paul Murrell owned one. Did he regret selling it?
30:11
It was a delightful little car, a jewel of a car. In fact, I did speak to the guy who one of the the design team who designed it, and they pretty much based it on the Lotus Elan because Soichiro Honda at the time owned a Lotus Elan and was highly impressed by it
Sports cars that didn’t quite make it
33:27 MG VA (1937)
36:19 Chevrolet Corvette (1953)
40:13 Mercedes-Benz 190SL (1955)
42:13 Porsche 912 (1965)
44:04 De Tomaso Mangusta (1967)
48:09 MGC (1967)
51:59 Ford Capri (1969)
56:25 De Lorean DMC-12 (1981)
For more information and the extended version of the program go to
Web Site: Driven Media: drivenmedia.com.au
iTunes: Cars Transport Culture
Spotify: Cars Transport Culture
Our YouTube site
Thanks to
- Paul Murrell
- Dylan Bish
- Hagerty
- Nissan Australia
- Classic Trader
- Hagerty Insurance
- Bring a trailer
- Mark Wesley
- Bruce Potter
