Sommaire pour February 2024 de Wheels

DESPITE THE best efforts of the Reserve Bank of Australia, 2023 was a record year for new car sales. Cash-strapped Aussies clearly doing it tough flocked to car dealerships like never before, beating the previous record set in 2017 by 2.3 percent. The best-selling vehicle was the Ford Ranger 4x4 dual-cab, with the average list price hovering near $60,000. Small wonder that Treasurer Jim Chalmers wears the look of a man subjected to three times the force of gravity compared to a standard human being. Upon release of the buoyant car sales numbers, it was natural to expect the FCAI to indulge in a measure of celebratory chest-beating, but when chief executive Tony Weber signed off, it was with a note of caution. “As we celebrate this historic achievement, we…

TOYOTA WAS SO concerned that it might not be able to sell all of the required 25,000 GR Yarises that it needed for World Rally Championship homologation that it created a cheaper, ordinary version of the three-door car for Japan, called the RS. It comes with the standard Yaris’s humdrum 1.5-litre hybrid powertrain and none of the fancy running gear or hardware. They designed it to make up the numbers if the GR Yaris wasn’t successful. As it is, the good people at Toyota have been taken aback by the little hot hatch’s popularity. They’ve now made 32,000 of them, and counting. Not only has that justified this facelift, which Toyota didn’t imagine it would ever be in a position to produce, but it also means they’ve now committed to…

DOWNSIZING IS getting big. How many performance-oriented cars can you think of that have swapped a big multi-cylinder engine for something smaller, maybe boosted with forced induction or hybrid assistance? The mighty 6.2-litre AMG V8 became a turbo 5.5, then a turbo 4.0, and has now morphed into a 2.0-litre four with a bit of battery assistance. The Lamborghini Huracan’s gorgeous V10 is being traded for a V8, while the Ferrari 296 GTB ditched its V8 for a hybrid V6. Porsche pre-dated all of this when it booted the flat-sixes in its Boxster and Cayman models in favour of turbocharged flat-fours. Problem being, while the fours were nowhere near as bad as the gnashing teeth of Porschephiles would have you believe, the hardcore wanted their six-pots back. And Porsche clearly…

HAS THERE EVER been such a turbulent time for new cars? Apart from the invention of the motor car in the late 19th century (and perhaps the oil crises in the ’70s), the landscape has never been as fast-moving or diverse as it is today. Battery-electric vehicles are making a mark (the Tesla Model Y was Australia’s third best-selling SUV last year) but it’s the proliferation of Chinese automakers on a global scale that’s changing everything. BYD – or Build Your Dreams – may be new to Australia, however its EV sales surpassed Tesla to take number one spot globally in the fourth quarter of last year. The Atto 3 was invited to Wheels COTY last year and while it didn’t win, the BYD made a solid showing. Then came…

Price as tested $86,990 This month 1675km @ 16.9kWh/100km Overall 2775km @ 16.4kWh/100km UTTER CONFUSION. That’s been the overwhelming reaction to the Ford Mustang Mach-E from the public at large. I’ve yet to see another on Australian roads, so perhaps that’s understandable. “It’s a… Ford Mustang?” said the clearly befuddled man from the local pizza shop. “But it has four doors. Is it from China?” he asked, as if I’d casually ordered my Ford Mustang from Wish.com. Driving along the freeway to work in the morning is to witness either furrowed brows of other road users trying to figure out just what it is, the odd thumbs up, occasional camera-phone snapping and, in one instance, a full-bore bit of limiter-banging from a guy in a ‘proper’ Mustang V8. I can…

Price as tested $103,370 This month 1488km @ 19.2kWh/100km Overall 2858km @ 19.9kWh/100km AFTER SPENDING three months with the Electrified Genesis GV70, a Korean marvel, I am thoroughly convinced of Genesis’ potential in the Australian market. It’s time for brand snobs to momentarily set aside their oat cappuccinos and give this automaker a chance to showcase its worth. One of the most remarkable aspects of the Genesis GV70 is how effortlessly it integrates into daily life. Range anxiety – a constant concern when I first got behind the wheel – gradually faded away. It only resurfaced during longer journeys, reminding me of the transition from fossil fuel to electric power. Returning to a petrol car was an adjustment, to say the least. The absence of instant torque left me feeling…

PRICE Recommended retail figure at time of publication (asterisk indicates driveaway price) ENGINE TYPE L, in-line; V, vee; F, flat. Number of cylinders. T, turbo; S, supercharged; D, diesel; H, hybrid; E, electric SIZE Litres or kWh POWER kW TORQUE Nm TRANSMISSION M, manual; A, auto; D, dual-clutch; C, CVT WEIGHT Kerb, kg 0-100 km/h, acceleration in seconds (Wheels as-tested figures in italics) FUEL CONS Consumption in litres, or kWh, per 100km RON Octane of fuel required, as numbered, or D for diesel RESALE percent, 3-year resale in Glass’s ISSUE TESTED month/year DRIVE A, all-wheel; F, front; R, rear. Any figure in bold is our own estimate.…

THE 2025 VOLKSWAGEN Golf has debuted in Europe ahead of its Australian launch around 12 months from now. A mid-life facelift to the current Mk8 Golf launched in 2019, the latest ‘8.5’ model becomes the last combustion-engined Golf, with the Mk9 model due around 2028 to be all-electric, based on the Volkswagen Group’s new unified Scalable Systems Platform (SSP). Volkswagen Australia has confirmed the updated Golf hatch will enter production for our market in the fourth quarter of 2024 (October to December), with first arrivals likely around the beginning of 2025. Exterior design changes include a revised front end with sharper LED headlights, a new “high-performance” main beam for flagship versions fitted with matrix technology, new bumpers, a full-width light bar, and an illuminated Volkswagen badge. There are also a range…

HAVE YOU EVER used the parcel shelf for its intended purpose? The term’s first recorded usage was in 1884 by The Times. I wasn’t able to unearth the exact article, but it could have been in reference to Thomas Parker’s breakthrough electric car of the same year, or indeed a number of early automobiles. Further research on the parcel shelf was unexpectedly tricky (mostly forums asking for the name of it, or advising not to use it for parcels) and, anecdotally, they’re mostly for portaging little more than tissue boxes and dapper Panama hats (or, if you were a teenager in the sex-spec era, a pair of six-by-nine-inch Pioneers). Much like vehicles themselves, the parcel shelf has undergone rapid change in the last 20 years. The current Mazda CX-5’s cleverly…

PETROL AND DIESEL costs are an infuriating mystery to many of us. Why are pump prices so hard to pin down, and to what degree are we all being gouged by profiteering service station owners? It turns out costs are determined, for the most part, by macroeconomic forces such as supply side factors courtesy of OPEC, as well as local inflation and taxation. A mere sliver of the price you pay is a product of retailer mark-ups. The key point is this: most of Australia’s automotive fuels are imported from Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, India, Brunei and China – all displacing local facilities from the supply chain. Just a couple of Australian refineries are in operation today, down from four sites just a few years go, and they receive taxpayer…

Were you to start trying to pin down the greatest performance car ever built by a select group of countries, you’d end up with some genuine icons. For Britain, you could choose the McLaren F1. For Germany, it could be the Porsche 911. The US has the Chevy Corvette, Italy has the Ferrari F40, and France the magnificent Bugatti Veyron. But Japan? You could make a case for the Nissan GT-R line, the Mazda MX-5 or the Honda NSX, but in truth, the answer is none of the above. It’s the astonishing Lexus LFA. And it may always and forever be the Lexus LFA. What makes that fact even more astonishing is that the LFA is the only supercar that Lexus has ever built. Yes, we’ve had perfectly creditable offerings…

“Volume won’t be a problem with this car based on our sales planning,” says Sean Hanley, Toyota’s Australian boss as he looks across to the right-hand-drive Tundra pick-up, the culmination of a five-year project. Toyota calls this ute its ‘premium towing machine’ and it’s not hard to see why. With a rated towing capacity of 4.5 tonnes, it picks up where LandCruiser 300 and Hilux have left off. There’s been a long validation process and 280 customers and 20 Toyota internal staff are in the process of a year-long trial, so this is yet to be a signed-off program. When asked if he’s confident that the right-hand engineering, in partnership with Walkinshaw, will be up to scratch, he smiles confidently, leans in and says: “We’re certainly not doing this not…

AFTER A BIT of will-they-won’t-they, Peugeot’s local arm has settled on the e-2008 to spearhead its push into electrification. Peugeot isn’t necessarily a brand you associate with cutting-edge innovation. All the cool stuff in a Pug happens down below, with clever chassis solutions and (mostly) excellent ride and handling. I speak as an owner of a 25-year-old Peugeot 306 that is remarkably reliable and conservatively engineered but drives beautifully. Still. The 2008, despite being a compact SUV, manages to be a proper Peugeot. It’s fun to drive, interesting to look at, and comes with that long-established pedigree, though without that tinge of “that’s not a bug, it’s a feature” from its owners. Things look to have fallen apart on the starting line, however, as the e-2008 is priced at a…

It’s at 260km/h on Hangar Straight that my internal monologue pipes up for the first time since leaving the pits. Who the hell do you think you are? Kevin Estre? Fair question. I have, by twisting one of four dials on the steering wheel through a solitary ‘click’, just adjusted the behaviour of the limited-slip differential of our Porsche 911 GT3 RS, in anticipation of entering one of Silverstone’s many committed right-handers. Specifically, I’ve requested a decrease in the locking effect during ‘coast’ (that is, off the throttle). This should provoke the car into rotating more freely during the trail-braking phase. As a result, it should be pointing out of the bend sooner, those magnesium front wheels all the straighter for maximum uncorking of the 386kW 4.0-litre flat six nestled…

DESPITE HAVING the smallest battery (57.5kWh), the Model 3 RWD has a similar functional range to the BYD (520km) with its 87.5kWh pack. Able to get a claimed 513km from a full charge, the Tesla’s LFP battery is also more welcoming of 100% charge than the Ioniq 6’s nickel and cobalt-rich pack. The RWD Tesla’s 14.1kWh/100km tested efficiency was also the best, giving it a real-world roving distance of 408km. The Ioniq 6’s bigger battery (77.5kWh) meant it would get 450km before running flat (at 17.2kWh/100km) and the BYD will carry you 471km (17.5kWh/100km). At the public charger, it’s the Ioniq 6 that’ll get you on your way fastest – replenishing 10-80% in a mere 18 minutes compared to 25 minutes in the Model 3, and a glacial 37 minutes…

LET’S FACE IT. While new cars offer better value than they have for a very long time, price rises are still outstripping earnings. The data shows that most of us are more comfortable looking for something that’s run in but not worn out instead. Finding value in the used market has, over the past couple of years at least, been a fool’s errand. A lack of new-car supply caused used valuations to skyrocket to frankly ridiculous levels. Thankfully, that’s now changing and there is value to be found in the used sector. We’ve looked at nine key market segments and zeroed in on the cars we’d pick in three discrete tiers. The first tier is for nearly new and up to three years old. These represent good-condition cars with a…

NEAR NEW Ford Everest BETTER AND CHEAPER THAN A PRADO DESPITE ITS COMMERCIAL ute underpinnings, the Ford Everest possesses a civility that defies its roots. In fact, the Everest has shaped up as a great three-row rig for which to do some long-distance touring with, whether with or without a trailer attached. It also shapes up as a very compelling alternative to a Prado, a vehicle that remains heavily impacted by Toyota Tax thanks to raging demand. The crazy prices that followed the Everest into the market after its Wheels COTY win have eased slightly and it’s now possible to pick up a 2023 Everest 2.0-litre Ambiente with all-wheel drive for just over $60K. Prefer the 3.0-litre V6? You’ll need to pay from $75K for a lightly used Sport version.…

DOES ANYTHING EXEMPLIFY the demise of the hot hatch more gut-wrenchingly than the end of Renaultsport? Yes, we knew that the writing was on the wall in 2021, when the technical assets were transferred to Alpine, but Alpine sold four cars in Australia in 2022 and drew a complete blank in 2023, so it’s understandable if Aussie hot hatch fans feel somewhat dudded. The last batch of RS-badged Méganes were built in March last year and all are now in Australia, with just a handful of ‘regular’ RS and end-of-the-line Ultime special editions left in dealers. Choose between manual or dual-clutch models and be quick. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. What’s more, any putative replacement won’t be anything alike. It won’t have pistons for a start. In total, Australia received…

PRICEY PAPERWEIGHT You might be able to buy a Porsche Carrera GT but you sure as hell can’t drive it. Recall campaign number 23V241000 states that “the spherical joints that connect the wishbone suspension components on the front and rear axles can fail due to damage from mechanical stress and corrosion.” There is no ETA for part replacement. Owners are advised not to drive the CGT as insurers will not cover the vehicle under Porsche’s stop-use conditions. VALE DENIS BARTELL, DESERT EXPLORER Legendary desert adventurer Denis Bartell passed away peacefully on January 2nd after a short illness. He was first to drive the Simpson Desert from east to west, a crossing that was a prelude to more than 60 crossings by vehicle, camel and on foot. He named its biggest…

Keep it tight (no more than 200 words) and do include your suburb if via email: wheels@wheelsmag.com.au You can also have your say on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (search for Wheels Australia) “The Diablo SV sits alongside numerous ’90s supercars which were the icons of my childhood” I FEEL THE NEED… I JUST WANTED to thank Andy Enright and the Wheels crew for the article about the Lamborghini Diablo SV for the January 2024 issue. I was born in 1993 and now I’m 30 years old but Need For Speed, Gran Turismo and Test Drive games were a really big part of my childhood, and shaped my subsequent love of cars. All I can say is thank you for the nostalgia trip. The Lamborghini Diablo SV sits alongside numerous ‘90s…

ANOTHER YEAR has rolled around and the one it leaves behind is a blur of staggering figures. But among the smashed records and surpassed milestones in sales, performance and technology is one automotive number that always makes for sad reading. In 2023, 1266 Australians were killed on our roads. That’s up 7.3 percent compared with 2022 and, even when our booming population is factored in, that’s still an increase of 4.8 percent. I don’t like dwelling on the dark side of driving as it’s not just work for me but also one of my greatest passions. However, we owe it to those lost on the roads and their shattered families to consider that number, use it to drive change and make something better because, at the moment, it is used…

Wait, what? There was an LFA drop top? Yep. It appeared in January 2008 at the Detroit Show and had been papped by spy photographers on the Nordschleife in October 2005. Originally designed to showcase the torsional stiffness of the carbonfibre body, it also appeared at the Geneva Show, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the US Open golf tournament in 2008. The one-off LFA Spyder even debuted the pop-up rear spoiler ahead of the production LFA coupe.…

RUMOURED SINCE the JB74’s local launch in January 2019, Suzuki has finally relented and built the five-door Jimny buyers have been begging for. But do the two extra doors really make this dinky off-roader suitable for a big country like ours? Priced from $34,990 before on-road costs, the four-seat Jimny XL is assembled in India from Japanese-made parts kits. All external measurements are identical to the three-door bar an additional 340mm between the front and rear axles. The Jimny XL retains its ladder-frame underpinnings with live axles and its iconic appearance – just with a bit more space. You’ll even find the same 75kW 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine under the bonnet. Don’t kid yourself that, because it’s got five doors and a bigger boot, the Jimny XL is a do-it-all family…

KIA IS ABSOLUTELY sauntering right now, buoyed by a series of well-received new launches. After the fillip from the EV6 and EV9, the Korean giant has turned its attention to one of its volume favourites. Late last year we tested the run-out version of its Sorento seven-seat SUV in a group test and it put some comprehensive manners on the rest of the bunch. As such, there must be an element of hearts sinking into boots amid rivals as Kia whips the wraps off its Sorento PE. That’s ‘Product Enhancement’ in Kia-speak; mid-life facelift to the likes of us. Before we wade into what’s changed, it’s perhaps worth positioning the Sorento within Kia’s huge and growing range of SUVs. The Korean marque’s rapid push to electrification is well documented, with…

BYD Seal CONVENTIONAL IS NOT a word you could level at the BYD Seal. A rotating touchscreen, quilted leather, and funky materials certainly catch the eye. A physical gear lever in the middle, with buttons for key functions gathered around, and shapely door pulls make it a more tactile cabin to be inside. Storage is decent and, thanks to the low-profile Blade battery, the rear floor remains low – freeing up an extra bit of both toe and headroom in the rear seats. Hyundai Ioniq 6 FUTURISTIC BUT FROM the eyes of an established carmaker, the Ioniq 6’s cabin is the most consistent here with the best materials and the shallowest learning curve – and how funky is the two-spoke steering wheel? High-set seats and a low roofline mean taller…

NEAR NEW Hyundai i30 N PLENTY OF CHOICE, SO SNAG A GOOD ‘UN HOT HATCHES have long provided us with cut-price performance. But as the number of new-model offerings diminish, one hot hatch steadfastly remains: the Hyundai i30 N. Fortunately, it’s also one of the finer hot hatches made, with its rock-solid 202kW 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four driving the front wheels via a six-speed manual and super-tricky electronically locking front diff. There’s even a rorty active exhaust, customisable driving modes, and rev-matching – tech normally reserved for sports cars many times its price. Hyundai has regularly boasted about the i30 N’s durability, even on a racetrack. Second-hand examples built in 2019 can be yours for as little as $30,000, and come with plenty of safety features as standard. We recommend a…

Price as tested $48,786 This month 435km @ 17.9kWh/100km Overall 435km @ 17.9kWh/100km THERE’S SOMETHING quite grounding about doing a long-term deep dive on a car that the average Aussie might be able to afford. In this case, it’s arguably the sweet spot in the MG 4 EV line-up (a base Excite with 64kWh battery) – a car that is the only sweet spot in MG’s entire range – for an attainable $46,287 (ACT) to $49,281 (WA) list price, depending on which state you live in. Indeed, the chasm between the dynamics of the rear-drive MG 4 and its similarly priced MG ZS EV sibling is so vast that you could lose an ocean liner in it … which seems appropriate given that driving a ZS EV on a bumpy…