Moneyweb DRIVE: From the Editor
On Niche and Mainstream
be delighted or confused as
to the options available in any
new car showroom. And talking
of options, those model-listings
don’t take into account the options you can add to your car,
to the point where things become downright confusing.
The advent of niche-marketing in
the global motor industry has led
to a proliferation of models that
have never been seen before in
the 130-year history of motorised
personal mobility.
From the likes of Mercedes-Benz,
BMW and even Volkswagen,
you get models with a so-called
“line” designation, such an
“AMG Line” or an “M Sport Line”
or an “R” line, that are not to be
confused with the hard-core
AMG, M and R models developed as sports-orientated thoroughbreds from the floor-pan
up, so to speak.
Run your eye down the models
available from any of the major players and you will either
Then you get niches that
weren’t even thought about a
few years ago, such as GT-like
SUVs, and four-door coupes, as
well as so-called crossover SUVs
with features that are weirder
and weirder.
One of these, the Ford B-Max, is
reviewed in this issue, launched
on the back of Ford’s recent
huge success globally and locally. We believe the B-Max is a
niche too far, but hell, we may
well be wrong. Who would have
thought that Merc’s CLS Coupe
would have been such a hit, or
that BMW’s X6 would be copied
by its competitors?
I guess when you have enjoyed
a resurgence as big as Ford has
in the past few years, you can
indulge your young designers in
building an attention-grabbing
car purely to announce that you
are really “out there”.
As for me, I feel about this model
proliferation the same way I do
when I order tea in a restaurant and
the waitron gives you a list ranging
from Five Roses to some greenish
stuff grown on a small-holding in
Paarl, or wherever. I tend to start
getting snippy and say: “Tea!
Good old fashioned tea, as grown
in Ceylon as far as I’m aware, the
stuff that goes a deep-red blackish colour, if you leave the bag in
long enough”.
For most people, you could substitute the word “wheels” for
“tea” when applied to personal
mobility. That’s what most of us
want. But I have to admit, the
sales figures have proved me
wrong on occasion.
Stuart Johnston
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