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This article was first published in 2001.
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Come with us as we take you back over another fifteen of the most interesting new car magazine ads that Australia has seen over the past three decades...
Here's a bold advertisement for one of most significant cars of the late '80s/early '90s. At a time when Ford's infamous Capri was the only other competitor in the affordable convertible market, Mazda could comfortably afford to inject some real action into their MX-5 campaign. The MX-5 was an all-round terrific car; and the basic design was made even better with release of the 1.8 litre version (up from 1.6-litres). At last, the car received (some of) the added power that the chassis so richly deserved. Somewhat inevitably, the MX-5 also became a big hit with 'mature age' buyers. Indeed, it was a great fix for those that used to own open-top Austin Healeys and MGs of yesteryear.
If you look closely at the advert's photo, you may notice that the male driver is covered a little thinly on top of his cranium. Yes, Mazda obviously had a pretty good idea of the buyer profile to which their MX-5 would appeal...
An 'interesting' phase of Australia's motoring history was the panel van craze: the days when it was cool to drive around in a loudly colour'd, loudly exhaust'd Holden Sandman with a bunch of your mates riding in the cargo area. Of course, the rear hatch had to be wide-open so that the big 308's gasses could belch out of the tailpipes and swirl straight back inside the cabin. Mmmm, can you say carbon monoxide poisoning? Toward the end of the '70s, Ford Australia launched a three-pronged attack on the Holden Sandman. (The Chrysler Drifter was the other panel van but it sold only a handful - has anyone ever even seen one?) The Ford attack comprised the XC Falcon panel van, Escort panel van and Transit post van - all were treated to lair-arse paint and stripes, a sprinkling of sports options and labelled as "Sundowners". C-o-o-l.
If these cars aren't amusing enough, you'll surely laugh over the 'wonder' of having "3-on-the-floor"...
Most new car advertisements are brassy with oversized lettering and claims of "the sale of the decade"; not this late '96 Porsche ad. Around half of this full-page promo goes completely bare, with just the sexy - and cleverly lit - curves of the 911 to draw your eye. The concept might initially seem a bit undercooked, but it sure works. Once you're attention is drawn by the gorgeous German, the underlying text is kept very much to the point. It reads: "Remember the woman you should have married? Don't make the same mistake twice." Indeed, it's the ideal theme to make the male buyer group realise that this might be their once-in-a-lifetime to secure such a beauty.
A prime example of how effective a simple but well schemed ad can be.
No, this particular ad wasn't intended for the Australian market, but it refers to a car that we did receive. Tracked down in a 1987 issue of Car, this Mazda 323 promo firmly fixes its sights on Saab and explains why Mazda outsells that manufacturer - even in Scandinavia. The focus is on cold starting, manifold heaters and minus 30 degrees Celsius testing - but it also slips in the cleverest of digs in the last line. "Dear Saab, you probably sell more aeroplanes in Scandinavia than we do."
Ouch!
Little did either manufacturer know that Ford and GM (respectively) would later buy them out; neither of them could have been selling too many cars!
Alfa Romeo's GTV 2+2 was released in the late 1980s. It came powered by a 2-litre four cylinder, driving through Alfa's trademark rear-mount gearbox. Like most Alfas of the time, the GTV was praised for its handling and styling, but it showed a lack of performance - especially when compared to its newcomer competition (such as the Mazda RX-7). Not long into the GTV's life, it was offered with the option of a 2.5 litre V6 - an installation that required a telltale bonnet bulge. This sweet-revving 116kW six was shared with the Alfa 90 sedan.
Newly endowed with V6 grunt, the GTV chassis was reborn as the GTV6 - and it was a terrific beast. Locally, it took out many Production Car class wins - as displayed by this 1986 ad - and (despite its reputation) displayed excellent reliability.
The GTV6 is a brilliant car that's largely forgotten about these days.
"Sex sells" - it's an advertising adage that goes back to the caveman. So when Mazda came to marketing the horny lookin' twin-turbo RX-7 in 1998, they drew the obvious parallels - but they did it without having anybody draped over the bonnet. Instead, they used just a few words to make the point - "Apparently, men think about it every seven seconds". A very clever ad!
The car itself was a real smoker. With its sequentially turbocharged, air-to-air intercooled 13B rotary, this thing could blast to 100 clicks between 5 and 6 seconds. After suffering limited sales in the late '90s (largely due to its RRP), the car was axed in late '98. In Australia, with it went the 20-odd year RX-7 legacy as well as the only production car to still use the rotary engine.
A sad time for anyone into high-tech performance.
Back in the early '90s, the Suzuki Swift GTi created an immense cult following. With its potent little DOHC 74kW heart pounding away, this hot hatch was a big-time seller (and image changer) for Suzuki. With 0-100 km/h ending in around 10 seconds, it brought six-cylinder family sedan sort of acceleration to what was - essentially - an econobox. When Holden released its Euro-style Barina GSi in 1994, everyone was expecting the newcomer to take over the hot hatch mantle. Indeed, the size of this market had grown immensely thanks to the Swift. Holden's GSi came delivered with ABS, sports tuned suspension and a 'Lotus developed' 1.6-litre four that could haul to 100 kays in around half a second less than the Swift. And it was all wrapped in an attractive body. For some reason, though, the Barina GSi failed to deliver the goods. Its rear drum brakes - for one - also did nothing to give it any cred with buyers who loved the techo image of the Swift.
So - instead of sweeping the hot hatch board clean - the hot Barina struggled on with limited sales until the recently updated model took over. If any manufacturer has taken over where the hot Swift left off, it would surely have to be Hyundai...
Amidst a wave of Cordia, Starion, Charade, ET and EXA turbos, Ford's 'White Lightning' Laser turbo was a fairly tentative toe in the water. The KB Laser turbo - the first serious performance Laser - was a limited build of 300. With its locally-developed draw-through carby turbo system (similar to the set-up used in the Mitsubishi Sigma GH turbo) the fully colour-coded-in-white hatches could hustle to 100 km/h in just over 10 seconds. For a variety of reasons, though, the KB turbo is another car that received limited acclaim - certainly in comparison to the aforementioned turbocars. Available in 3 and 5-door guise, the turbocharged buzz-box was sold only during 1985.
Flowing three models on from the KB Laser turbo was the "hot little package" KF TX3. This early '90s TX3 sported a DOHC 1.8 litre donk but - for some reason - the turbo 4WD version was never pushed very hard in advertising. This ad for the atmo version, however, uses the same kind of simple theme seen in the Porsche ad - but it doesn't work anywhere near as well as having a Porsche 911 and intimate references. And - as for it being hot as Tabasco sauce - I think the turbo 4WD version was much more deserving of that label...
Ten years after Ford's KF TX3 ad in 1990, it seems that some of the gurus from Audi's ad agency were struggling coming up with their own slogan for the twin-turbo S4 bahn stormer. The answer? Use two bottles of Tabasco sauce together with an aggressive, high-impact shot of the twin-turbo beast. Easy.
I think they should have drank some more red wine to loosen their creative side... Copy cats!
Mitsubishi Australia is only now starting to re-emerge on the performance car scene. Back in the early '90s, however, the company was blessed with the Lancer GSR rally gun and the big 3000GT twin-turbo tourer. Two clearly different - yet similar in design - flyers.
The GSR turbo was introduced into the market as the undisputed performance bargain - it debuted at almost the same price as Ford's lower-level TX3 4WD turbo. Certainly, 7-second 0-100 performance was easily within the 1.8 GSR's grasp. The 3000GT, on the other hand, was strictly for the well-heeled only. It arrived with 4WD, twin-turbos and just about every electronic option that you can think of. Despite weighing a heap, this big gun could fire to 100 in 5-6 seconds. Here, both cars can be seen in a very traditional style ad - studio photography alongside favourable quotes from the media.
After a recent Mitsubishi adrenaline drought, at least Australia now enjoys the Evo 6.5 Lancer and - hopefully, soon - the Ralliart Magna.
Volvo ads typically call for a photo of the new model driving down a leafy county lane. When it came to the turbocharged T-5R, however, it was time for a slightly different marketing pitch. Boasting a heavily-boosted version of the stock T-5 five cylinder turbo engine, this car was most un-Volvo. A substantial 177 killerwatts were on tap, making the 850 T5-R a (claimed) 6.8-second 0-100 km/h performer. Not bad, eh? The 'Pro-Stock' T5-R drag racer ad of 1996 gets the point across pretty clearly. With a GM-style blower growing out the bonnet and the massive rear tubs, you get the impression that this was a serious machine.
However - while this ad looks great - those big rear tubs would've certainly made it hard for the salespeople to argue the fundamentals of a hi-po front-wheel-drive...
In the late '80s/early '90s, it was becoming fashionable to equip cars with a multitude of technical-come-sales features. The addition of four-wheel steering, for example, was something that contemporary road testers were pretty well unconvinced by. The two early comers to the 'proper' four wheel steering system were Mazda's 626/MX-6 and Honda's Prelude. While it was Mazda that was initially trumpeting the arrival of the system, it was actually Honda that got the market jump (in Australia, at least). In the relatively simple Honda system, the direction that the rear wheels steered (in or out of phase) was dependant on road speed. The amount that the rear wheels were steered was dependant on the position of the steering wheel. The greater the steering angle, the greater the rear wheel angle.
So did all of this really provide any benefit over an identical 2WS car? Who knows, but (to our knowledge) no other major manufacturer has employed all-four-steer since the early '90s.
Not too many people will have seen this ad. Spotted in a 1977 issue of Australian Sports Car World Quarterly, this black-and-white specimen describes the origin and symptoms of 'Virus Lotus'. If you can't read the text, we'd highly recommend that you click and enlarge it. Those displaying signs of Virus Lotus could apparently be cured with the Elite 2+2, the Esprit 2-seater or the Éclat 2+2. And all it cost to be cured was $22,000 to $35,000.
Oh, but I guess that was at a time when a new Ford Falcon could be bought for under $6000. Imported medicines don't come cheaply...
Ahh, the Holden Gemini - an all-time Aussie favourite. The humble Gemini was never advertised really strongly, but its reputation for reliability, practicality and performance (in relative terms) ensured it was always in high demand. In 1982 - the time of this ad - the Gem's 1.6-litre engine pushed 50kW and there was also a diesel version on offer - but we've sworn never to talk about them... The same basic TC Gemini chassis continued 'till '86, when the front-wheel-drive Gemini took over the reign. The RB Gem was never anywhere near as successful as its ancestors, however. It didn't have the character of the original vehicles, plus there was a big wave of new improved Japanese small cars to contend with.
To this day, the Gemini remains one of the last rear-wheel-drive small capacity fours.
Holden was onto a pretty good concept back in the mid-late 80s - offering a 'Formula' sports dress-up option over the entire range of passenger cars. The Astra, Gemini, Piazza, Barina, Camira and, of course, the VL Commodore could all be optioned up with Formula air dams, spoilers and other such add-ons. Coming from an era of blokes wearing knitted blue cardigans, however, some of the styling now looks pretty putrid!
Note the presence of the Piazza; Holden had a lot of trouble shifting these expensive things off the showroom floor. Indeed, the Formula pack was aimed at selling the very last of them.
When all else fails, slap on an option kit for a discount price and watch 'em walk out the door!
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