Saturday, November 30, 2019

VALÉ - CLIVE JAMES by John Crawford

What a literary titan. Clive James and ‘words’ were meant to be partners for life; but I’m afraid my lasting pleasure remains the series Clive recorded for television, featuring young Japanese men who were prepared to do ‘anything’ in front of the camera. It was a hoot!

I’m proud to say I have some history with the ‘Kid from Kogarah’ and our lives ran parallel, although we didn’t realise by just how much until we met in 1988. Clive and I were both born in Kogarah (although he was four years older than me); our families both moved to the southern Sydney suburb of Jannali, and we both attended the Jannali West Public School.

Jannali Railway Station

Clive went on to Sydney University, and I got a job, because my family could not afford for me to go to university.

Richard Drewett
But, back to the story. In March 1988 I had a call from England from the late Richard Drewett, who was a producer for London Weekend Television. Drewitt had met Stirling Moss at a cocktail party and told Stirling that the organisers of the Formula One GP in Adelaide had asked Clive to participate in the celebrity race, but hadn’t realised that he didn’t even have a driving licence. Richard was going to make a feature for LWT, but as for the next steps he was lost.

Stirling told him: “Call my friend JC in Sydney, he can sort anything out, and give you some pointers.” Then Stirling called me and outlined his conversation. Richard Drewett did not call me for several days, but I had assiduously worked on lining up some elements which would bring huge publicity benefits for Jaguar Rover Australia and for Jaguar.

From that phone call Richard and I worked side-by-side, 10,000 miles apart, right up until race day in Adelaide. First we had to set up the synopsis.

Here goes.

Clive can’t drive, so we line him up with Stirling Moss.

Stirling meets him at Goodwood (which Lord March made available FOC) and gives Clive a basic lesson; then we enrol Clive in the British School of Motoring to pass his test (which he did, first time).

Clive passes his driving test

Then we pulled a Jaguar Sovereign off the UK press fleet, and removed the back seat to fit a camera tripod, and Stirling takes Clive from basic driving into the realm of high performance in a powerful Jaguar sedan, piling on lap after lap around Goodwood.

After the program aired Jaguar Public Relations Director David Boole was amazed at the amount of free publicity Jaguar enjoyed, just by loaning a press car.

All the way to Adelaide on their Qantas flight, Stirling continues to drum the theory of high performance driving into Clive.

At this stage, he’s approaching burnout.

Once in Adelaide, the late Jim Murcott was their race instructor, and whilst Clive pounded around the circuit, Stirling, typically, went off to chat up the then Miss Australia, Judy Green.

Clive managed to achieve 21st place on the grid – right in the middle of the pack.

Prior to the race, we invited Clive and Stirling to our annual Jaguar Cocktail party at the Adelaide Hilton where he met F1 World Champion Alan Jones.

On race day at the Grand Prix circuit Clive sought input from the late Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, and some hilarious advice from the late James Hunt: “Listen Clive, when you get in a spot of bother, just close your eyes and push on. That’s what I do. I black out over 90 mph and I’m still here.”

Clive with Ayrton Senna, James Hunt and supporter, Barry Sheen
The celebrity race was ‘eventful’, with a few drivers crashing into the scenery, and lo and behold in his one and only motor race, Clive James finished two places up on his starting position, in 19th.

The film ran on the ABC in Australia, on London Weekend Television in the UK, where it was repeated several times. The script was written by Clive James and Richard Drewett, and featured Clive’s ascerbic wit, clever alliterations and wonderfully self-deprecating humour.
I corresponded with Clive James up until I went to the USA with Jaguar in 1990, and several times met Richard Drewett for drinks during visits to London.

It was then I discovered I was enjoying a friendship with the original producer of the Michael Parkinson Show. 

Drewett was a truly original thinker, and after his move from the BBC to LWT, everything he touched turned to gold, and he enjoyed a wonderful partnership with Clive James, producing a series of independent tv shows which rated very highly. They were two peas in a pod.


So long Clive, it was an honour and a pleasure to know you, if only briefly.

John Crawford

Monday, November 25, 2019

CORVETTE CENTERED by John Crawford

I will happily join the herd heaping accolades on the new mid-engined Chevy Corvette C8.


It’s a dramatic re-imagining of the Corvette lineage, and according to GM’s VP of Design, Michael Simcoe, represents a tribute to the man called the ‘Father of the Corvette’ Zora Arkus-Duntov.

It was Arkus-Duntov who was messing around with mid-engined sports cars back in the early 60s. He was responsible for developing the Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicles, codenamed CERV1, CERV2 and CERV3. CERV3 (bottom) bears more than a passing resemblance to the C8.


In fact the links between Zora Arkus-Duntov and the C8 are a fascinating sidebar to  Corvette history. Arkus-Duntov pushed GM to allow him to develop the concept of a mid-engined Corvette, and in addition to the CERVs, he finally got his way with a mid-engined concept, powered by, of all things, a 4-rotor Wankel engine.

Chev 4-rotor concept (top); Aerovette (centre and bottom)

Zora hated the Wankel powerplant, but later on in the late 60s, GM design chief Bill Mitchell used the 4-rotor design concept to create a concept called the Aerovette, powered by a standard small-block Chevy V8.

Many auto historians credit Zora with bringing a lot of European thinking to General Motors, especially where the lines of engineering and design crossed. He competed four times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning his class in 1954 in a Porsche.

He was a fixture at Le Mans, making friends with the famous and fabulous, such as Stirling Moss. He was also a big supporter of the Corvette racing team, with its thundering V8s competing alongside many more sophisticated racecars, such as Ferrari.
Looks like the familiar yellow Corvettes which thunder around the Le Mans circuit will be followed by this beauty - The C8.R

Now that GM has finally produced a stylish, and very competitively-priced mid-engined Corvette, it is set to reap big rewards in the market. GM is also hoping to lower its demographic, confident the new C8 will appeal to younger buyers. There’s even hope we may see it on sale in Australia, as a halo car, sitting above the Chevrolet Camaro.


The last words go to Michael Simcoe: “There’s more to come.” I, for one, can’t wait.

JOHN CRAWFORD

Sunday, November 24, 2019

LOOKING BACK AT LEYLAND'S LETTERS & NUMBERS by John Crawford

In early November I was delighted to be invited to address members of the BMC-Leyland Australia Heritage Group, made up of former employees going right back to the days of the British Motor Corporation in Australia, which became Leyland Australia (and then JRA Limited in 1983).

BMC got its start in 1954, and was renamed Leyland Australia in 1972. In 1975, when the British management took the decision to shut down the manufacturing operations in Australia, 6000 workers lost their jobs – so it’s a tribute to endurance and goodwill, that the current heritage club still boasts a large number of members, eager to meet regularly to celebrate the spirit of enterprise which drove their initiatives and performance.

I was personally thrilled and delighted to be welcomed to the gathering by my old friend, 89-year old Roger Foy, who boasts an incredibly long tenure with the company in a variety of engineering roles.

Believe me Roger has been involved in so many roles and projects at the very top level, there isn't much he doesn't know about.

He remains spritely, full of enthusiasm, and still fits into his original white lab coat from his time in the Experimental Department. 

Following the plant shutdown, it was Roger who invited me to drive both the nascent Force 7V hatchback coupe, and the one and only remaining P76 station wagon prototype, for a story in my magazine, MODERN MOTOR.


There was even a 1948 Morris Minor side-valve on display at the Heritage gathering, similar to my own very first car.

The meeting was also an opportunity to shine a light on another stillborn program initiated entirely within Leyland Australia – it was known as Project P82.

Leyland Australia recognized the folly of continuing with the underpowered Morris Marina, and the deathly unsafe Marina Red Six, and in concert with the development of the P76, a separate team of engineers embarked on a replacement for the Marina, using the same modular techniques being developed and employed on the P76.

Initially the range would consist of a two-door compact sedan; a four-door sedan and a two-door coupe. Two engines already existed: a 1.8L ‘E’ series 4cyl; a 2.6L ‘E’ series IL6; but the genius came in the development of a 3.3L V6 developed from the P76 V8.


Leyland Australia’s ‘whizzkid’ engineer Kjel Eriksson also developed a 2.2L 4cyl, using one bank of the P76 V8, and brought it to ‘hot run’ status as a skunkworks project.

Michelotti presented the original concept drawings, and the engineers managed to finish one prototype, and one V6 engine before the plant closure. 

After the closure everything related to P82 was shipped to the UK

The prototype did have one test outing in England, but was then pushed to the ‘back of the shed’ and forgotten.

As mentioned previously the BL management in the UK were completely against the idea of Leyland Australia developing its own unique range of vehicles.

It's said that BL only provided AUD$21 million for the development of the P76, barely enough the bring it to production status.

That's why P82 was conceived and developed 'in the shadows'.

However, the V6 engine went on to record a colourful history. The Director of BL Motorsport, John Davenport, developed the engine in tandem with TWR, and fitted it to the giant-killing MG Metro 6R4 Rallycar.

Later, when TWR was given the job of bringing the Jaguar XJ220 to market, Tom Walkinshaw told Jaguar the V12 engine was too impractical and too heavy, and the build proceeded with the twin-turbo V6.
In the ‘What if’ category, if the P76 had been successful, then P82 would have proceeded and would have provided Leyland Australia with a range of well-designed small, compact and large cars, which would have ensured local manufacturing continued – but, it was not to be.

JOHN CRAWFORD

A LOT CAN HAPPEN IN 45 YEARS by John Crawford

If you’re an Australian motoring enthusiast of a certain age (say, born in the mid-1940s) and to hear the words ‘Leyland Australia’ it immediately brings to mind the dramatic closure of one of Australia’s full-blown automotive manufacturers in the early 70s, and the death of a supposed ‘lemon’ – the Leyland P76.


The Leyland P76 was a bold and audacious move by the British-owned company (which had grown from assembling Austin and Morris cars in the 1950s), to challenge the market-leading Holden, Ford and Chrysler medium-size family cars. It was wholly designed and engineered in Australia, and featured Leyland Australia’s own 4.4L version of the famous all-alloy V8, which also powered the Range Rover.

The styling was initially the work of Italian carrozzeria, Michelotti, but badly finalised in Australia, where it was criticized almost from the time the first photos of prototypes appeared. The P76 was plagued with quality problems from day one, but gradually as the plant and the assembly workers found their mojo, quality improved dramatically, and the final versions were as good as anything from the American-owned companies.

In 1974 Leyland Australia’s PR chief, the late Evan Green, and navigator John Bryson entered a barely-modified P76 in the 17,000km World Cup Rally. The car finished the rally, having decisively won the stage held on the old Targa Florio route in Sicily, and the team decided to ‘drive it home’ over the route of 1968 London-to-Sydney car rally, resulting in a total of 37,000km on the clock.


Forty-five years ago, this month, I was invited to test drive the rally car, and I featured it in the magazine I edited – MODERN MOTOR. Briefly, my story reported that the car was in great shape, with nary a rattle, and its power and handling were outstanding.

Leyland Australia, still facing slowly-growing sales, decided to capitalise on the success of the rally car on the tough Targa Florio section of the World Cup event, and put together a P76 ‘package’ with extra equipment and a striping kit, releasing it as the P76 Targa Florio edition.


I also road-tested the production car, and came away very impressed with the vastly improved assembly quality, the light, predictable, and confidence-boosting handling and the smooth power delivery of the 4.4L V8.

Jump forward to 2013 and Sydney rally experts, Gerry Cowan and Matt Bryson (son of John, Evan Green’s navigator) decide to enter the gruelling Peking to Paris Rally (for cars made prior to 1976) in an almost-standard P76 Targa Florio. They won the event for a second time (having scored victory in 2010 in a Holden).


Now jump forward to 2019 and the 87-year old Cowan, and his younger teammate, romped home in the P76 for a second outright win in this rally for classic cars.

That’s not a bad result for a ‘lemon’ which financially broke the back of Leyland Australia, forcing it to shut down as a manufacturer, and be reborn as an importer of a variety of British-made cars. It's also a great result for the almost-90 driver, Gerry Cowan, right?


Coincidentally, in 1977 I competed in the Singapore Airlines London-to-Sydney Car Rally in a Mini Moke, sponsored by Leyland Australia.

Also, prior to the start of the Rally, I was awarded the role of Public Relations Manager on my return, to help the ailing company improve both its image and vehicle sales.

Okay, I always enjoy a challenge.

But, 13 years later I and my small PR team had lifted Leyland Australia, now renamed JRA Limited ,into positive PR territory, with vastly improved sales.

There are some interesting sidelights to this story:

Firstly, Giovanni Michelotti was upset and incensed at the design abomination which was the final production P76. It has been removed from any mention, in the various corporate histories of Carrozzeria Michelotti. There are no concept drawings or photos of clay models in any of the Michelotti archives.
Second, the British management of Leyland Australia's UK parent did everything it could to frustrate the spirit, the enterprise and the concept of indigenous Australian carmaking, especially the P76, at every turn.

JOHN CRAWFORD

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

BIG CHANGE IN THE BIG APPLE by John Crawford

There’s a longtime saying about New York, where few people ‘own’ cars - that New Yorkers only know two types of cars – yellow ones and black ones.

The hoi polloi take yellow cabs, whilst the tycoons and socialites use black limos.


For decades that business was ‘owned’ by Ford Motor Company, which sold thousands of Ford Crown Victorias to the cab companies; and Lincoln had a stranglehold on the limo market with the Lincoln Town Car.

They were basically the same car, with a body mounted on a ladder-frame chassis, but wearing different badges. As they weren’t monocoque construction they were labour-intensive, time-consuming and by modern standards, too expensive to build. So Ford decided, overnight, to abandon its dominant New York cab and limo business.

Lincoln did make an attempt to secure its market dominance, but instead of producing an imposing, low-line black passenger car, it merely put the Town Car badge on its then-current Lincoln Mark T.



Well, New Yorkers did not like arriving at premieres and red-carpet gigs in an ‘SUV’(!!)

Gradually Lincoln lost its share of the limo market.

However, Lincoln had ‘broken the mould’ and who stepped into its sector to take ownership? None other than its Detroit crosstown rival General Motors, so now there are hordes of big, black Chevrolet Suburbans cruising around the Apple.


Initially, as the distinctive yellow Crown Victorias aged and needed to be replaced it was Nissan which stepped in to try and fill the void, with perhaps the ugliest piece of design the car world has ever seen.

Sure, they were practical, but ugly as sin.

Initially Nissan sold plenty of these barges with twin sliding doors, but once again the mould had been broken and it was Toyota which jumped into the fray, first with hybrid Camrys; but as their back seat proved too cramped and uncomfortable for taller Americans, it was the ubiquitous Rav 4 which got the yellow paint job and a taxi medallion bolted to the hood.


It’s understandable why New Yorkers choose ‘hire by the trip’ transport, just look at the daily and monthly parking charges in one of the city’s hundreds of parking stations.


Also New York traffic is a nightmare, so who really wants to take on the traffic light grand prix, plus the dozens of ambulances, fire trucks and cop cars barging their way through the clogged streets?

Now, on the subject of inner city noise. When Rudy Giuliani was the Mayor, he instituted a ban on horn-blowing (which, in time has lapsed), but you'd have to say that now, New York is 'siren city' - 24 hours a day.



Lincoln has tried to worm its way back into the limo market for pretentious passengers with its Lincoln Continental, but even here the market has broken into shards, with the home-grown Cadillac XTS, and even Mercedes-Benz, vying for the limo company owners’ attention.
2020 Lincoln Continental (top) and Cadillac XTS

Just like most things in New York the cab and limo market is now a fruit salad of brands and badges, however, the public transport market has diversified even further with the disrupters, Uber, Lyft, Ola and Taxify.

Like everything else, the only thing permanent is change.

JOHN CRAWFORD

Friday, November 15, 2019

HIGH PERFORMANCE POSTER PINUPS by PAUL GOVER

Spoiler alert - this post is all about glitz and glamour.

Look away if you don’t want to be immersed in the sort of top-end loveliness that has covered bedroom walls, and inspired youngsters like the 12-year-old PG, from the time of the Lamborghini Countach and the Ferrari Daytona.

We’re closing fast on Peak Hypercar as major makers and many minnows look to cash-in at the top end of motoring, but these cars are instant classics.

Never mind that one of them looks a lot like an Aston Martin from Italy.


So the cars are the Ferrari Roma and the McLaren Elva.

When we will see these cars in Australia? Will we see them in Australia? What will they cost in Australia?

None of that stuff matters at all, because their existence is good enough.

And what a co-incidence - or not - that the Roma and Elva hit the internets within a couple of days and continue a simmering rivalry that helps fire McLaren, but is largely ignored by Ferrari.

Now, down to some of the details.

The Roma is a gorgeous front-engined car that is described as a ‘2+ Coupe’, fitted with a turbocharged V8 that makes 456 kiloWatts of power. I’m not sure what the + sign means, because it doesn’t look like people can actually fit in the back of the car.

Meantime, the Roma’s top speed is 320km/h and it will slingshot to 100km/h in 3.4 seconds.

There is no news yet on the production plan, or deliveries to Australia but one thing is certain - it will be a sellout.

The score is likely to be the same for the McLaren Elva, the first open-topped car in McLaren’s Ultimate series of road cars.

The name is taken from Bruce McLaren’s venture into CanAm racing in the 1960s. He designed the M1 (below left), based on an Elva chassis. However the newborn Elva is radically 21st century.


There is a little more detail on the Elva, with production limited to 399 cars at a price - preliminary - of $2.4 million.
The car has 599 kiloWatts an a 0-100km/h time below 3.0 seconds.

“The new McLaren Elva is a ferociously fast open-cockpit car; an extreme two-seater with a bespoke carbon fibre chassis and body but no roof, no windscreen and no side windows.

With every sensory input heightened, this is a car that exists to provide unparalleled driving pleasure on road or track,” says Mike Flewitt, CEO of McLaren Automotive.


It follows the Senna at the top end of McLaren land and proves that a car doesn’t have to be sensible - or electric or autonomous - to fire synapses around the globe.

If I was 12 again I’d be getting pictures of the Elva and Roma, two genuine pin-ups, up on my bedroom wall.




PAUL GOVER



Friday, November 8, 2019

WOMEN IN POWER

When my friend and colleague Paul Gover asked Linda Jackson (right) how she came to be running Citroen he got a rather blunt reply.

“Because I’m a woman?” she asked in return.

“No, because you’re British and Citroen is a very French company,” he replied.

And that raises an interesting question about women in senior posts at car companies.

Linda Jackson, the global head of Citroen, and Anouk Poelmann (left) who runs Renault's operations in Australia are a very welcome sign, seeing car company boards entrusting the operation and management to someone other than members of a huge ‘Boy's Club'.

I have worked with, and for, some very smart men during my time with some of the best known car brands in the world, but I don't believe in quotas or forced gender appointments, so it's heartening to see these two women rise in the ranks thanks to their own abilities, and how they've employed their past experiences to create a different approach to managing their brands outside France.

I very much admire some of the women who have broken the mould in the car industry, simply because they take almost a polar opposite view about the industry than their male counterparts.
Of course, there are other top female CEO's in the global car industry. Ford Motor Company handed its operations in Australia and New Zealand to Kay Hart (right).
Then there's the biggest fish in this swirling, volatile whirlpool that is the car business today, General Motors' Chair Mary Barra.

Boy, hasn't she been forced to make some tough calls over the past few years.
Through it all she has retained her dignity, calmness under pressure and, her femininity, which has not deflected her decision-making from pragmatic and commonse outcomes.
Just look at the scope of what she's dealt with – selling off GM Europe, cutting out brands, closing factories, restructuring GM's workforce and resources.
In varying degrees all the women I have mentioned have had their ‘big moments’ which tested their skill and resolve. But, for now they all have the green light to get on with the job, and do it their way.
That is - until!
Just like their male counterparts, when they can't continue to deliver substantial and sustainable growth, improved market penetration, and much more importantly shareholder value, is when it happens - they're out on their ear.
And, it's got nothing to do with whether they are men or women. Those are the tasks. It’s the same for every CEO, and if you don't deliver on those benchmarks, that's the biggest risk when you roll out your own unique form of management and decision-making.
Renault is sticking with passenger cars in Australia, but in the wings are important models like the Alaskan truck (built in Barcelona on the same production line as Nissan Navara and Mercedes-Benz X-Class); the Koleos large SUV, and the Kadjar small SUV. So, although Anouk Poelmann is covering all the bases, it remains to be seen if Clio and Megane can survive.
I was interested in some of the big calls mentioned by Jackson and Poelmann, because I've had considerable experience with both of those French brands. I am not sure I am calm and relaxed about the direction, and the decisions both women are proposing. Today, they may be speaking with every confidence that their Boards will back their judgment through thick and thin.
But, there still remains a rocky road in front of them to achieve their aims. Unfortunately, they are both trying to execute a fast, tight turn in an ocean liner, and in the car business, history tells us it’s damn near impossible.
Car companies grow like Topsy, basically out of control on a detailed, day to day basis. Down in the bowels, and even in the top executive suites, bad practices become ingrained, hubris replaces forward-thinking, brands are allowed to wither, and often there's a determined and stubborn dedication to retaining a car line which has come to an end, and should be put down.
In Australia that was the Holden Commodore and the Ford Falcon.
Of course, over decades and generations Jane and John Doe in customer-land form their own opinions and perceptions about cars, SUVs, sports cars etc., and many times those opinions are completely at variance with the views of car company executives. Staggeringly many (most?) of those executives exist in a bubble.
I can't recall the exact number of times CEOs, Marketing brainierds and various ‘experts' who told me they know exactly who their customers are, what they want, and that their company can provide the planned model on time and on budget.
However, this precise scenario usually manages to get screwed up along the way, either because of a change in consumers' preferences, new models from a competitor more in tune with buyers, or it’s over budget, and late, so it misses the ‘sweet spot' that existed when the original model was dreamed up.
And remember, you may dream up a concept today, but by the time you fight Boardroom, Engineering and Production battles, it could be 48 months before Job One rolls off the line.
And no, I haven't strayed too far from my original theme, and that's about smart, new female CEOs coming up with new directions, and plans to turn the ocean liner around faster.
There are myriad battles for these ladies to fight, to initiate their new ideas, and whether they succeed or not depends on (obviously) results, but really it all comes down to how much line the Board will let run, and whether their patience will hold out.
Traditionally we thought of cycle production plans as 36 months to conceive and design, to 48 months build and launch, then a facelift 24 months out from the launch date.
  

Those time periods underscore the fact that the car business conceives, builds and sells cars in long time cycles. Which is why it's hard to turn those ocean liners around quickly.
A lot can happen when you're making plans – the world doesn't wait for you.
I wish these ladies all the luck in the world, lots of patience and confidence from their Boards, and of course serendipitous market conditions.
They all need a sound strategy, sold-in convincingly, and ensure their full attention every day to all the minutia which is required to make every part of their plan to ‘gel' and work. They cannot take their eyes off any of the balls, to keep them in the air ALL THE TIME!

I talked about my own experiences with French car companies charging off into new and different markets far distant from their cozy offices in Paris. In the early 80s Renault launched a new coupe, called Fuego (Spanish for ‘fire’), based on the R17. The French management told the boss of the Down Under division they would only be allocated 250 cars for Australia, because demand in France and the rest of Europe was high.

I recall the Australian buyers may have also had to suffer a slight price premium due to currency rates, but surprisingly, those 250 cars raced out of dealers' doors.
“Fantastic”. Said the transplanted French CEO, and ordered an additional 250 cars. It took four years and a lot of damaging discounting to move the extra Fuegos.
The lesson? Pretty simple in hindsight. Renault was (is) a niche brand, with its own small band of stalwart, non-conformist enthusiasts. There were only 250 diehards prepared to buy the quirky French coupe – Renault had saturated the Aussie market with the first shipment!
Now we come to the stubborn suits which populated Peugeot's Paris HQ at 75 Avenue de la Grand Armeé.




The company I worked for, Jaguar Rover Australia, acquired a licence to assemble the Peugeot 505 range, as we had under-utilised assembly capacity.
We had many arguments over pricing and positioning during the time we held the franchise, but for me, the crowning glory (or more precisely pompous stupidity) arrived with the Australian launch of the Pininfarina-styled 405.




The car came in two models. A basic sedan with a 1.4L SOHC engine, which was a shade more expensive than the equivalent 1.6L Toyota Corona.



Then we had the sporty 405 Mi16, with a 2.0L, DOHC engine with four valves per cylinder. However, the retail price dictated by Paris was way above market expectations.

We vigorously campaigned for a lower price, roughly line-ball with the similarly-specced DOHC Toyota.
Non, no, don't be stupid said our French friends (?). THIS IS A PREMIUM CAR, AND MUST CARRY A PREMIUM PRICE. 

Okay, we finally agreed, after much furious international faxing to and from France.
Result, the Mi16 got off to a very slow start, and only achieved decent volumes when we added more equipment, and didn't raise the price!
The French perspective on the Australian market was that it was tiny, unimportant, and if the fools out there wanted to try and make decent business case, and a profit, assembling a few thousand extra cars, then okay.

However, once assembly ceased and the cars were fully imported, everything changed - as had the AUD-Franc currency rate, and then our calls for price parity to make Peugeots competitive, were ignored completely.
Peugeot has had a very uneven sales performance in Australia ever since.

JOHN CRAWFORD