The first half of 2016 means a lot to Wearnes Automotive in Hong Kong. Having hosted both Volvo and Renault brands in on single showroom for years, these brands finally parted ways with the latter settling in a new showroom location just thirty seconds away, operative since early this year.
Meanwhile, the Volvo brand has taken over Renault's leftover space, resulting in a full showroom renovation for about 1.5 months since mid-April, which involved the venue's close-down (during which a mobile showroom service was deployed throughout the city). By end of June, the showroom has completed renovation and is now in operation, which also sees new floor tiles, a more spacious display area, auxiliary customer seating and bar areas and a very Scandinavian atmosphere throughout the premises. Official inauguration, however, is scheduled on August 18.
As expected, the first new vehicle to arrive after such renovation is the new S90 sedan, with the V90 wagon to arrive next by end of year. But the S90, despite available for pre-orders, is officially still under wraps as we speak. The vehicle will be press-launched on July 29 followed by a public roadshow, but a week before that, some privileged VIPs are invited to a no-frills showroom preview. So let's see how well Wearnes will pull this off -- given that Mini HK (BMWHK) is launching the new Cooper Convertible the same night at the other side of town. (Update: the S90 is still available for pre-arranged private viewing at a separate showroom partition; contact Wearnes for details.)
MGJMW has spotted the S90 T6 4WD Inscription a day before the preview, pending loading onto the showroom ground via manually-assembled metal ramps. With 320hp and costing ~HK$800k, it comes near-fully equipped, although exact options availability is still pending. Nonetheless, an excellent candidate to compete against the German mid-size luxuries, particularly the W213 E-Class where a properly-equipped E300 can cost in excess of $1M.
A lesser-equipped FF T5 Inscription (254hp) is also available at around ~$600k. R Design trim is also expected on the T6, but HK will have to wait till that trim has been market-deployed elsewhere later this year.
That said, the S90 is just the first offering after the showroom revamp. As announced by Wearnes earlier at a press gathering, the S60/V60 Polestar will also be deployed later, starting at around ~$800k. Meanwhile, the XC90 with four-seater exclusive interior may also make way for HK, although details and ETA are still pending.
MGJMW
won't be in the position of test-driving the S90, although the rest of the press pack have recently done so and will publish their findings later. Nevertheless, we will try to get up close on the HKDM model next week at
the press occasion, complete with more images. So stay tuned!
