The Year's Wheels Of Fortune

SUNDAY AGE

Sunday January 5, 1992

Michael Lynch

DRY ice hung hazily in the air and multi-sequence videos tracked to driving rock music over giant screens as the glitterati of the Australian motor industry gathered in Melbourne this week to pay tribute to its Cars of the Year.

Black ties and cocktail dresses were de rigueur as managing directors and their partners broke Christmas holidays and jetted back from places as far-flung as Cairns into Melbourne and the Radisson President Hotel for the 28th annual `Wheels' magazine Car of the Year award.

The award is the most prestigious _ and the oldest _ of the three annual titles for automotive excellence bestowed by it and Australia's other mainstream motoring magazines, `Wheels', `Modern Motor' and the David Syme Group's `Car Australia'.

The event, like `Wheels' itself, was a glossy affair.

It is a finely crafted piece of theatre and, some cynics might argue, has more to do with promoting `Wheels' among the car company decison-makers, and executives who hold the advertising purse strings, than the presentation of awards for motoring excellence.

By the end of the evening, after the controversial decision to name not one but two Cars of the Year _ the $160,000 Honda NSX supercar and the bread-and-butter Nissan Pulsar _ had been made public, neither Nissan's managing director, Mr Leon Daphne, nor Honda Australia's senior director, Mr Neal Robertson, cared overmuch. They had the awards and will now be able to make it a major theme in marketing and advertising for the rest of the year.

Hardly a week goes by without a suggestion that Nissan Australia is on the point of winding back manufacturing in favor of concentrating on vehicle imports _ a point Mr Daphne knew all too well after the award had been made.

``This is a tremendous boost to the morale of the Nissan business workers, suppliers and dealers, and I think it shows that Nissan Australia can build cars to a similar or better standard than any of its competitors," he said.

``But it does not say that the future is all secured. That is really all in the hands of the strategic planners who will make those decisions." The victory, however, coming hard on the wheels of the Nissan GTR Skyline's triumph in the Toohey's 1000 classic at Bathurst, is a powerful marketing weapon for the beleaguered company.

Honda Australia is no stranger to such awards, having picked up the Car of the Year title in January 1988 for its Prelude model, a title that opened up a year that was to see a significant growth in Honda sales.

The company has fallen back in the sales charts since the late 1980s, and realistically, sales of the NSX, at $160,000 a pop, are unlikely to be spurred as a result of this week's accolade.

Nevertheless, Mr Robertson, a senior director of the Melbourne-based car importer, said the title would help Honda sales over the next year.

``In 1988 the award helped sales right across the brand range, the Prelude in particular. It certainly did improve awareness of the Honda name. We will probably spend around $200,000 more on advertising, but it will be focused across all models, from the Civic up to the NSX.

``I believe the award has credibility and emphasises the quality and technology levels achieved by Honda. The award, and image-leading products like the NSX, positions Honda above the rest of the Japanese competition in the marketplace." The industry in general places most stock in the `Wheels' title. It has been running far longer than those of its competitors, gives a gong to only one vehicle (the others give category awards to cars from various market segments) and the magazine is the leader in its specialist field.

`Wheels' selects a short list from the many new products launched each year, has a panel of judges consisting of members of the magazine's staff plus outsiders (this year included the racing ace Colin Bond and the woman race driver Christine Gibson, a former General Motors international styling chief, Mr Leo Pruneau, and the environmentalist and TV personality, Carmel Travers, of `Beyond 2000') as judges who test the chosen contenders in a rigorous week-long exercise before voting.

In contrast, `Car Australia' this year is inviting its readers to vote on their best car of Australia, while `Modern Motor' traditionally polls around 50 specialist writers who have road-tested most of new vehicles launched in any given year, and asks them to vote for their personal choices.

This week's positive comments from Nissan and Honda are only to be expected from victors basking in the glory of the award. If those companies had picked up the titles from the other magazines they would have featured the achievement just as much in their marketing campaigns.

But what do past recipients _ Mr Robertson apart _ say of the value of motoring magazine awards?

Mr Malcolm Gough, the general manger of Mazda Australia, the company whose MX5 roadster made a clean sweep of all the titles in 1990, believed the awards did more to boost the company's overall corporate image than help sales of any one model.

A year after winning the titles, Mr Gough said: ``I would be very surprised if people who bought, say a Mazda 323, did so because they were influenced by the MX5 winning the car of the year award.

``The awards are held in high esteem by motor companies, it's a statement of approval by an individual body of experts." In 1991, `Wheels' editor, Phil Scott, happily courted controversy when the publication made Toyota's Lexus, a $120,000 Mercedes-beating luxury car from Japan, the car of the year.

Toyota Australia's vice-president, Mr John Conomos, has said that award success could not be quantified in dollar terms for marketing or promotional spending, but acknowledged that the title was a great help with advertising, particularly for an expensive mould-breaking Japanese product like Lexus.

Michael Lynch is a journalist with `The Australian Financial Review'.