The CarExpert team’s biggest disappointments in 2024
Another year has almost ticked by in the automotive world, so it’s time to reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly.
This year brought some huge new model releases, including three all-new dual-cab 4×4 utes, as well as the axing of several established nameplates, the arrival of more than a few new Chinese auto brands, and the demise of an historic French one.
Here are the stories, trends, and cars that most disappointed the CarExpert team in 2024.
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Paul Maric: Jaguar relaunch
You couldn’t have screwed up a brand relaunch more even if you tried.
While some may see it as marketing genius, it illustrates what happens when you let woke marketers take the reigns of brands with a rich heritage and an enshrined customer base.
If you put the woeful and embarrassing marketing to one side, you’ve got the concept of moving a brand to the fully electric premium space.
You know, the space literally nobody is buying cars from at the moment. Every carmaker that has committed to going fully electric by a date that felt like a long time away, but no longer is, is now walking back those promises.
So, anyway, I wish them the best of luck. But I think you’ll find the entire marketing department will get the arse before the car is properly launched. And hopefully with it will come a sincere apology to all the engineers, designers, and manufacturing workers at the company that had no say in the marketing campaign.
Marton Pettendy: Kia Tasman design
So the Kia Tasman was revealed in October and after years of waiting, the Korean brand’s first ute is a bit of a disappointment.
Not because it won’t tick all the boxes in terms of capability (both for tradies and off-roaders), powertrains (an all-electric version will join the diesels by mid-2026), body styles (except for an extended-cab version) and cost of ownership (it will be backed by Kia’s seven-year warranty and a competitive capped price service program).
But because after all the sexy speculative com-gens and generations of sleek Schreyer designs, Kia’s first ute looks somewhat strange.
I can understand why Kia wanted to make its first global pickup stand out from the crowd, and the boxy body not only has a strong family resemblance to the EV5 and EV9 electric SUVs, but also brings advantages in terms of cabin and cargo space.
But ute buyers love tough truck designs – witness the good-looking Ford Ranger’s success – and the Tasman’s bluff front-end is flanked by a pair of precariously positioned narrow vertical headlights, at the front of the weirdest wheel-arch flares I’ve ever seen.
Of course, good design is in the eye of the beholder and the Tasman will no doubt sell its ugly nose off anyway, but to my eyes it makes even the new Mitsubishi Triton look good. That’s no mean feat given the collective sigh when it was revealed a year earlier.
At least Kia can’t be accused of releasing a new model that doesn’t look as good at its predecessor, and it has plenty of time to make its first ute look better.
William Stopford: Ford Puma axing
Ford Australia’s transition into a predominantly commercial vehicle brand continued this year with the axing of the Puma, my favourite light SUV and an utterly charming little rugrat.
The logic behind having an affordable passenger car or SUV isn’t necessarily to drive huge profits, but rather to have a model that people can enter the brand with.
Theoretically, if they have a good experience they might want to then upgrade to a brand’s larger, more expensive models as they grow older and wealthier or start a family.
Ford has thrown that away, but then it axed the Escape last year, which eliminated the next logical step for someone “growing up” in the Ford lineup.
A Puma owner wanting a larger vehicle would therefore have had to step up to a bulky off-roader (the Everest) or an electric SUV (the Mustang Mach-E), both of which are significantly more expensive propositions than the Puma or Escape.
Heaven forbid the ute market ever takes a dive here, because now Ford is heavily reliant on it. Sure, it builds a great ute and it’s Australia’s best-selling vehicle, but surely it would make sense to offer a range of complementary vehicles as the likes of Toyota does.
Instead, Ford wants to sell just utes, ute-based SUVs, vans, a sports car, and a single electric SUV (remember, it decided not to bring the electric Puma Gen-E after all).
Are they playing to their strengths, or being dangerously short-sighted?
Jordan Mulach: Geneva show demise
The demise of the Geneva motor show is most likely the biggest litmus test for the health of Europe’s car industry.
This 117-year institution was axed despite returning in 2024 following a multi-year hiatus, but the rise of Chinese carmakers and realignment from major legacy brands has seen it come to an end.
Sadly, Australia knows this feeling all too well. The last true Australian International Motor Show was held in Sydney back in 2012, and it’s unlikely we’ll ever see something on that level again.
Though the Geneva International Motor Show will carry on in 2025 – held in Doha as the GIMS Qatar – it won’t be the same event that hosted iconic unveilings such as the Jaguar E-Type.
Jack Quick: Jaguar relaunch
I’ve never been the biggest fan of Jaguar but its latest rebrand is nothing short of a joke.
It’s something to completely disregard almost 90 years of history altogether, but the rebranding of jaGUar looks downright ridiculous.
Regardless, it sure is getting Jaguar a lot of press – more than it arguably has in a really long time. It’ll be interesting to see how the striking Type 00 concept manifests itself as a production car.
It’ll also be interesting to see how JLR props up the Jaguar brand if it doesn’t have a car on sale until 2026.
Josh Nevett: Performance car departures
Death is one of the only certainties in life, and 2024 has been another year of sombre automotive goodbyes.
From my perspective, the end of the V8-powered Mercedes-AMG C63 was particularly painful, as was the curtain being drawn on Lamborghini’s V10.
To a lesser extent, the world feels like a worse place without the Abarth 695 and Renault Megane RS, affordable performance heroes that inspired a new generation of enthusiasts.
Then there’s the glorious Jaguar F-Type… but I’ve saved my thoughts on that for another piece that will go live over the Christmas period.
While disappointments of this nature are inevitable and often mark progress, it hurts to bid farewell nonetheless.
Max Davies: Subaru Forster STI Sport
I’ve long been a fan of Subaru’s extinct performance models – I can see a VA WRX STI in my future – and by extension Subaru itself, but the new special-edition Subaru Forester STI Sport I reviewed recently just didn’t hit the mark.
We don’t have a full-fat WRX STI anymore; instead we have to make do with tS ‘Tuned by STI’ suspension and cosmetic packages for the current WRX and BRZ. So when Subaru announced it would bring the Forester STI Sport to Australia, my interest was piqued.
But then as I read the details and found it would only bring new suspension tuning, new interior upholstery, and different wheels, my shoulders slumped. There’s no extra power, it still uses the same old CVT, and it’s just fairly uninspiring overall.
In Japan, the Forester STI Sport has a turbocharged engine that isn’t yet available in Australia in any Subaru model, and it delivers a notable torque boost over our Forester’s naturally aspirated unit.
That engine is at least somewhat worthy of wearing the STI badge, though probably still not the full-sized cherry-red one. A Forester grade more aligned to the Japanese one would be unique in Australia though, and better justify Subaru’s claim of it being a “collector’s item”.
Of course, it isn’t new for auto brands to offer models with only enhanced aesthetics but wearing the names of their performance divisions. The difference is the performance divisions of most of those brands still make actual performance cars.
But I digress, and it’s important to reiterate the Forester STI Sport itself isn’t a bad car. Subaru just put the wrong badge on it.
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