Whether it's from the www, the latest motor show or the back doors of a carmaker near you, Carsales Network Confidential features the good oil other sources either won't publish, don't care about or don't know. Heard an automotive rumour or new model tip? Then let us know at editor@carpoint.com.au

The i's have it
Although Hyundai's marketing campaign (watch TVC here) for the new i30 claims the new car is not what we'd expect, Hyundai Motor Company Australia's (HMCA) Kevin McCann says it's a taste of things to come.

Director of sales for HMAC, McCann told the Carsales Network that the Euro focus for the i30 will be applied to models in line for replacement soon, such as Getz and Accent. That doesn't mean the US market and its predilections are not part of the consideration for the new models' packaging, however, he says.

"We know we can choose an American direction or a European direction, or both. There's a merging somehow and a fair degree of options we can choose to take for our markets here."

The draw on international influences and talent is indication the brand, which spends around $7b on research and development annually, is not too proud to drop the Asian styling of its cars and is serious about addressing the quality and safety levels deemed necessary in critical markets like Germany and Australia.

No surprise HMAC wasn't too concerned with buyers' reception to the new name for its hatchback small car, then. The 'i' prefix will appear on other models for Australia but won't suffer the same stilted introduction as Nissan's Pulsar replacement, the Tiida, says McCann.

"There's a management team in HMAC now with a strong German car background," says ex-VW/Audi man McCann.

"We look for logical solutions, and the naming history that we have on some models hasn't always followed a logical path.

"So when the Europeans [Hyundai's division in Europe] announced their alphanumeric naming concept -- starting with i30, then rolling out to other alphanumeric i-something-or-other -- we felt it was a path we could follow.

"Initially there was some resistance, in consideration of Elantra, because there had been a very bad experience for a Japanese competitor… We did some research, which suggested it didn't really matter if we changed the name so on that basis we went to South Korea, said we want i30, and after some to-ing and fro-ing they agreed.

"If we take more cars with European influence, then we'll take the [i-prefix] names, too."

Hyundai is also carefully considering adding a sportier edge to its products. The 'halo effect' a car company enjoys isn't necessarily a result of sports models, says McCann.

"How far down the sporty trail we want to go is a strategic issue, because we want to position ourselves as a mass-market brand with credibility. There can be a halo effect from several issues. Sporting models offer only one halo."

Fallen stars
McCann told the Carsales Network the company was disappointed with EuroNCAP's four-star safety rating for the i30 (more here). Contradictorily its sibling Kia C_eed was awarded five.

However, in the face of Lancer's segment-changing decision to add stability control, he defended Hyundai's decision not to fit ESP as standard in the new hatch.

"We did a lot of focus groups mid-year and found that buyers weren't particularly cognisant of what ESP [stability control] is, and it's very difficult to sell it to them because it's a matter of investment.

"We are in a position where we could easily include it as standard equipment in terms of its technological and logistical availability but we want to have a car that still offers an option to buy at a lower price.

"If you take i30's entry price and add to it the safety pack upgrade, you're still at a point below Lancer. The price point of the Lancer has played along nicely with our strategy. If we were ever told we had to have ESP to match we could include it and still have an attractive price advantage.

"Equally, our research told us we needed to have around the $18-19,000 price point to be successful. It was a tough call because on the one hand the public is influenced by insurance companies and the like saying all cars should have it [ESP], but on the other you have several thousand customers saying 'we don't actually care if it's in or not, we just want to pay less for the car'.

"We're essentially consumer-driven but also have to approach the market with a sense of responsibility."

Hatch back-log delays wagon
Apart from the potential of a 2.0-litre turbodiesel (more here), HMAC's plans for the i30 include a wagon model which will launch in the US in 2008 badged as an Elantra. McCann says supply constraints have delayed the production for right-hand drive variants of the wagon, however.

The supply issues are a result of Hyundai underestimating demand for the i30 in its home market -- historically not inclined to hatchbacks -- says McCann.

"It's been very difficult to sell hatchbacks in places like China and Taiwan, and indeed, until recently, South Korea. With that in mind, when they launched this car in South Korea they planned 1000 units a month but in that first month wrote 10,000 orders.

"Now there's a five-six month waiting list. It's a car that's completely changed perception of a body type in a marketplace," McCann said.

Beware of inflammatory Nitro remarks
She said it with a smile and it was plainly a comment made tongue-in-cheek, but when Hummer's engineering hot-shot Lee Visci described Dodge Nitro owners as 'poseurs' at this week's launch of the Hummer H3 in Melbourne was there just a touch of hubris in the remark, or perhaps regret?

In a presentation which drew parallels with the Ford Territory, Nissan Patrol (why?) and Toyota Prado, the Hummer team studiously ignored the elephant in the room, the Dodge Nitro.

Take it from us, the H3 is no wallflower when it comes to serious off-road duty (and no one is suggesting for a moment that the Nitro can cope with much more than a rough driveway!) but by the admission of Hummer chief, Parveen Batish, perhaps as many buyers will be interested in the Hummer as an expression of rugged individualism as those who are serious about going bush.

So when the Dodge -- another American wagon of a similar size and 'cut of the gib' -- significantly undercuts the Hummer on price and offers such niceties as five-speed auto, common-rail diesel option and coil springs (though we're not sure what happened to the dampers!), it must be cause for disappointment at Chez Hummer that the GM brand didn't get to market first

If not for the hold-up in ADR compliance, the Hummer might have been in the market ahead of -- or at least at the same time -- as the Nitro, leaving Dodge counting fewer chicks in the post-hatch wrap-up.

Still, Hummer has 400 orders in advance of the H3's release, which is pretty good going for a vehicle of this type, untested by private consumers. The GM prestige brand estimates there's at least a further 500 local sales hanging in the balance, once consumers can test-drive the vehicles.

Long haul led to long drop
Earlier this week (more here) we reported the Australian driver of a Pontiac G8 that drove over a steep embankment during an engineering run in Colorado.

The driver was fatigued from the long and demanding drive program, according to one of the Holden blokes from the Lang Lang proving ground, taking part in the recent Hummer launch. All the conspiracy theories of jet lag or hooning or whatever, remain just that -- theories.

Yellow to stop
The solid yellow that was the hero colour for Hummer's H3 range has been discontinued in the USA -- and that has a flow-on effect for export markets.

It's a long story, but the yellow had done its job in Main Street, America, providing a high-profile colour to promote the H3 for years. Since the cars are exported in CKD (Completely Knocked Down) kit form to South Africa -- where they're assembled -- the assembly plant receives the kits with the body parts already painted. Thus a decision to drop a colour in the US affects the colour palette elsewhere in the world too.

It's arguably an oversight on the part of the powers-that-be at Hummer. The colour which does most to promote the H3 gets gonged as the car is going on sale in international markets. Indeed, the LHD car that was displayed earlier this year at the Melbourne Motor Show was finished in this particular colour.

If you want your new H3 yellow, better get in for your chop while you can.

Building a better Hummer?
On the subject of the Hummer H3, readers might be interested in the following factoids:

• The chassis is related to the Holden (Isuzu I-190) Rodeo. From the original Isuzu platform, the forward section is lengthened for the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon models. The Hummer is built on a modified version of the Colorado/Canyon platform; the suspension components are revised (alloy in lieu of cast-iron).
• Australian market and global export model H3 Hummers are assembled at the Struandale plant at Port Elizabeth in South Africa
• The chassis initially runs down the production line upside down, but after the suspension components are fitted, the chassis is flipped over for the drivetrain components to be fitted. With the drivetrain in place the body is dropped in one piece on the chassis. The body is stamped and painted in the US, before shipping to SA, where it's assembled and mated to the chassis.
• The 4L60E transmission used in the H3 is the same basic automatic transmission as currently fitted to the VE Commodore Omega. The Hummer's DOHC engine is based on the inline 'Vortec' six-cylinder with one less cylinder. The engine was cut down for reasons of packaging.
• V-configuration engines are not compact enough to fit in the H3's current engine bay width, but a V8 will be offered in due course -- probably some time in 2009, by the time it gets here.
• A diesel engine is also being considered for the H3, but will not come to market before the V8 and other variants such as the H3 SUT (ute).

Whither Mitsubishi production
When even one of Holden's engineering team on the Hummer H3 launch professes that he has his fingers crossed for Mitsubishi, you just know that the 'other' Adelaide manufacturer is doing it hard.

Conventional wisdom reflects the lynchpin of the Hawke government's 'Button plan' for the automotive industry -- a local manufacturer can only be viable as a manufacturer with production of 40,000 units per year. The 380 isn't even cracking a thousand a month, so that's way short of the 40K figure.

CN Confidential asked Rob Chadwick at Mitsubishi about various options.

Firstly, there was the Ford strategy of adding an alternative product line to its local production portfolio and running the newer car down the same production line as the core product range.

It has been announced that Ford's South African plant will curtail Focus production, so Ford Australia is in the right place at the right time to pick up the Focus as a locally manufactured model running down the same production line as Falcon and Territory. Is it an idea Mitsubishi could apply? Sending Pajero or Lancer along the same line as 380?

"I think they (Ford) were fortunate with that," Chadwick says, "but also they were talking a fairly distant horizon. It wasn't something that was going to happen overnight.

"When you've got plants overseas which are able to have capacity increased by some minor changes, as opposed to re-tooling an entirely new plant, it makes more economic sense globally to expand capacity at existing facilities rather than create brand new ones."

That means an additional product on the line would need tooling costs to be amortised by local sales and that situation cannot be sanctioned when an imported model's tooling costs are already amortised for a different cost centre.

So how about offering production capacity to Holden?

"There are studies that go on at various times, but nothing's come to fruition at this time" Chadwick said.

"I think it would be a terribly difficult thing to make happen from both directions. Not too bad from a logistics point of view, but from a political point of view...

"Technically it would be feasible, but politically and practically, I think it would be a fairly difficult one to make happen."

Export markets? According to Chadwick, there aren't that many lucrative RHD export markets that would look seriously at a car such as the 380. Despite the fact 380 is based on the left-hand drive Gallant, it is different enough to require re-engineering for LHD production -- thus there's no opportunity in LHD markets without more investment.

But what about India? It's the largest RHD market in the world and it seems inconceivable that Aussie manufacturers wouldn't have considered that country as a target for export production.

"Oh, it's been thought about," said Chadwick emphatically, explaining that there are massive bureaucratic and legislative obstacles facing a manufacturer exporting to the sub-continent.

So what will happen with 380 and local production?

At risk of sounding paranoid, it's very quiet at Tonsley Park -- too quiet. We're left thinking there's something in the wind -- and given Mitsubishi's commitment to another upgrade of the 380 (more here), it's better than a 50/50 chance it will be something positive.

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