Índex per May 2023 a Wheels

THE VEHICLE TRACKING shot, as seen below, is a very particular thing. Here the snapper will be hanging out of a moving vehicle issuing vague hand signals that you’re expected to decipher without committing the professional sin of being seen to be looking at the camera. If you’re driving at 80km/h a few centimetres from a bunch of other cars, the complexity level ramps up further. If it then starts raining and wipers are involved or automatic lights start flicking on or off the process of coordination becomes trickier still. We ran a tracking shot of the finalists at this year’s Car of the Year that was just this difficult. Photographer Ellen Dewar was barking instructions about lights and wipers. Three of the cars complied and one didn’t – the Tesla…

THE FIRST BIG player in the electrified large ute segment was Ford with the F150 Lightning; now RAM has played its hand with this, the 1500 REV, which raises the stakes in terms of battery size, towing ability and payload. And it’s likely to be headed for Australia some time following its US launch in late 2024. Headlining the eye-widening specs are the choice of two massive battery packs, the basic tier boasting 168kWh of capacity, while the extended XR pack a segment-busting 229kWh. (For context, the F-150 Lightning offers 98kWh or 131kWh packs.) RAM is yet to validate its range figures with the US EPA, so the claims of 560km and 805km are, for now, based on the company’s own internal testing and calculations. Still, it’s pretty impressive stuff;…

ALMOST 22 YEARS ago, a young Alastair Doak left journalism to venture into pastures new in the upper echelons of Mazda’s Australian operations – and he hasn’t looked back since. Arriving on our shores in the late 1970s as a teen to Sydney, the Scot embarked upon his university studies – first in Canberra pursuing science, before moving into journalism in Melbourne. Always a car enthusiast, it wasn’t long before Doak was being paid to write about them as a journalist and with a bit of elbow grease he was quickly at the top of his game leading The Australian’s motoring desk as Editor between 1992 and 1999, followed by a stint in the equivalent role at The Age. But in 2001 a fresh challenge presented itself and the game…

Model LDV Mifa 9 Executive Motor Single (front) Max power 180kW Max torque 350Nm Transmission single-speed reduction gear Weight 2535kg 0-100km/h n/a Economy 21.5kW/100km Price $117,000 On sale Now YOU PROBABLY haven’t heard much about the LDV Mifa 9. That’s because when it launched in Australia late last year, most of the spotlight was nicked by its sister vehicle, the LDV eT60 – which made national headlines as Australia’s first electric dual-cab ute. That’s a shame because unlike the eT60, which is overpriced, under-specced and undercooked to drive, the Mifa 9 is far more convincing. For starters, this electric people-mover rides on a fresh platform, and is powered by the latest version of LDV’s battery and e-motor tech. It’s not only interesting to look at but it ushers in a…

JEEZ, THAT’S A serious bit of gear!” The booming voice carries across the service station forecourt and as we look up from refuelling the enormous, bright red RAM TRX, we see who it belongs to. Darcy the farmer is tall, with a decent beer belly and a bent nose covered in what looks to be freshly applied Band-Aids. “Hooooweeee, that’s a biggun!” he says and slaps the TRX’s tailgate like you would the rump of a horse. “Is this the V8?” Darcy is a LandCruiser 300 owner and he’s drawn towards the RAM like an eight-year-old at a monster truck show. Not once, during our five-minute exchange – “700hp!? Crikey, that’s a fair wedge!” – did Darcy cast an eye towards the Ford Ranger Raptor parked at the next bowser.…

When it comes to charging, Kia’s E-GMP’s 800-volt architecture reigns supreme. Hooked up to a 350kW charger, the EV6 GT took on 15kWh of charge (for 71km range) in 4m 47s. The Model Y added the same amount of electricity (for 84km range) in 8m 01s. As for the observed peak speeds on the charger, the EV6 held 220kW-plus until its battery climbed over 50 percent, while the Model Y maxxed at 151kW until it reached 37 percent. For a 10-80% charge, the Tesla requires 27 minutes; the EV6 just 18.…

X-Trail’s doors open much wider than the RAV4’s thanks to clever hinges. The rear doors open almost 90 degrees, giving incredibly easy access to the rear seats. The RAV4’s open about 60-70 degrees and still grant easy access, just not as generous as the X-Trail. The X-Trail’s back seat is also more versatile than the RAV4’s. Mounted on rails, the entire second row can be shifted fore and aft to give either greater rear-seat leg-room, or more boot space, or whatever balance between both you require.…

IN MOST CARS, getting in, starting it up and driving off is a straightforward procedure. In a Ranger Raptor, however, you have options to consider. How loud would you like your exhaust, for example? And how heavy should the steering be? Would you like Normal dampers, or perhaps Sport? And where would you like the power to go? All four wheels? Or just the back two? Ford’s engineers are proud that their burly dual-cab can rival a noughties BMW M Car for drive mode configurability (there’s still only one setting for the gearbox mind you, not three like an F10 M5), but it only took me a few days to decide which of the Raptor’s settings suit me best. My start-up routine is as follows: ignition on, drive mode to…

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) RON Octane of fuel required, as numbered, or D for diesel RESALE percent, 3-year resale in Glass’s ISSUE TESTED month/year FUEL CONS Consumption in litres, or kWh, per 100km DRIVE A, all-wheel; F, front; R, rear. Any figure in bold is our own estimate.…

LADIES AND GENTS, pour one out for the Mazda CX-9, a clear-cut winner at Wheels Car of the Year 2017 and a vehicle that’s so good, Mazda needs not one but two models to adequately replace it. The prior COTY winner to shuffle off into retirement with no direct replacement? That’d be 2014’s champ, the BMW i3, which made its low-emission exit last year. It’s not hard to understand why the CX-9 was such a hit with the judges. It was big, safe, spacious, well-built, reasonably handsome, keen value for money and it drove better than most of its ilk. In fact, the CX-9 was one of those few vehicles that were genuinely class-competitive right through to its final year on sale. It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that Mazda Australia…

FRESH FACTS FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED IN THE CAR WORLD THIS MONTH 1. A new who? SsangYong Motor Company will change its name to KG Mobility following a restructure. No word yet on when the badges on Aussie cars will bear the new name 2. EV exclusive: Kia has begun construction of a plant in Gyeonggi province that will build only electric vehicles, with production beginning in Q3, 2025 3. Back up: VW Golf GTI and R-Line variants are now available to order after being put on hold for four months due to a chip shortage that saw RHD variants being unavailable with the ADR-essential reversing camera 4. In the slammer: ANCAP now awards points to new cars equipped with ‘door exit warning’ tech designed to reduce the number of…

Craig Breen RALLYING’S MERCURIAL MAVERICK KILLED IN PRE-EVENT TESTING ACCIDENT IN CROATIA IRISH RALLY DRIVER Craig Breen was killed on Thursday 13th April after spinning off course and colliding with a wooden pole. The 33-year-old Breen, a veteran of 81 WRC events, was alternating in Hyundai’s third i20 N Rally1 with Spaniard Dani Sordo this season. His co-driver, James Fulton, escaped injury in the incident near the northern Croatian town of Zlatar. “Hyundai Motorsport is deeply saddened to confirm that driver Craig Breen today lost his life following an accident during the pre-event test for the Croatia Rally,” his team said. World rally champion Sebastien Ogier also expressed his shock at the death of the popular and engaging Breen. “I’m lost for words… Everyone loved Craig for his great Irish…

FOR MANY PEOPLE, a house is the most expensive thing they will ever buy, and the anxiety of signing up for many decades of debt is only just offset by the excitement of moving into your ‘own’ place. But imagine if shortly after being handed the keys, you found out that opening a blind to get a view of the park was going to cost you extra. Want to park in your garage? Sorry, that’ll require an additional pay-per-use fee. And while you might have thought accessing the garden shed was included in the agreed selling price, turns out it wasn’t. The window that overlooks the park was certainly fitted by the builders, as was the adjoining garage and the shed in the garden. Unfortunately, you can’t actually use any…

AS SCREAMER headlines went ‘HOW TOYOTA SPOILT THE MR2’ is right up there. Accompanied by a series of pictures of an SW20 MR2 spinning on track, the cover of CAR magazine’s May 1990 edition stuck the knife into Toyota’s box-fresh sportster with 100-point all caps. In today’s torrent of clickbait, such a headline would barely raise an eyebrow. It’d likely elicit a Jeff Lebowski shrug of ‘that’s just your opinion, man’ before scrolling on. Back then it was enough to permanently cast a shadow over the SW20 MR2’s legacy. But was there any truth to it? Toyota reacted. Stung by the criticism, it brought a Revision 2 version of the MR2 to market in January 1992. The suspension was altered, wider tyres were specified and JDM models got the option…

Mazda hasn’t exactly dived head-first into the electric revolution. The company’s only BEV to date has been the MX-30, which has managed only tiny Australian sales due in part to its small battery, circa-200km real-world range and $65,000 price tag. Rather than EVs, the company is betting heavily on plug-in hybrid technology, with the forthcoming CX-60 mid-sized SUV and CX-90 large SUV both to be offered with plug-in powertrains. Of course the company will transition to fully electric vehicles, but at this stage its only guidance is that it will develop a new dedicated EV platform to debut some time between 2025 and 2030, which will underpin three new electric models.…

WHEN MERCEDES introduced the GLB in 2019, its exterior styling was definitely a form-following-function thing because, into this reasonably small footprint, the engineers had crammed seven seats. The third row wasn’t hugely usable, but sufficient for the rare time people needed it. Switching out the internal combustion engine for an electric motor and a battery gave us the EQB250. Once again, that was a quirky-looking seven-seater with some changes to the exterior appearance to tell you it was electric. Adding a second motor at the rear has resulted in this EQB350, but it also meant binning the third row in favour of extra propulsion. And a bigger price tag to go with all the extra AMG bling. The EQB350, therefore, tops the two-car range at $106,700 before on-road costs, nearly…

Big horsepower demands a bulletproof drivetrain, so backing the TRX’s supercharged Hemi V8 is a heavy-duty TorqueFlite 8HP95 eight-speed automatic, while a BorgWarner 48-13 full-time active transfer case distributes power fore and aft, and a 2.64:1 low range offers a respectable crawl ratio. Out back is a beefy Dana M250 full-floating rear axle fitted with a 3.55:1 final drive and an electric-locking differential, while managing axle travel and articulation is a TRX-specific five-link suspension featuring longer links, a solid track bar, and forged aluminium control arms up front.…

THE BEST HOT HATCH in the world right now is built by Honda and you’re looking at it right here. That much is not really up for debate. The latest FL5-generation Civic Type R delivers a level of focus and ferocity that you’ll find nowhere else in its class. Quite what that class is though remains a debating point. The Type R begins to blur the boundaries between the usual front-drive cohort and the level of sophistication that you find in all-wheel-drive hyperhatches like the Audi RS3 and the Mercedes-AMG A45S. Or, to a lesser extent, the Volkswagen Golf R and the Toyota GR Corolla. We’ll put it up against those in due course, but the question we want answered today is exactly how far removed is it from a…

TOYOTA RAV4 HYBRID Interior of the RAV4 XSE feels way more rugged and basic than its Nissan rival, highlighted by chunky, no-nonsense HVAC controls and gear selector. Compared to the X-Trail, the digital displays are smaller, lower in resolution, with dinky, dated graphics. On the upside, the infotainment graphics are about to be updated to something much smarter for the MY23 RAV4. NISSAN X-TRAIL E-POWER The interior of our X-Trail e-Power Ti felt almost Infiniti-like with its faux woodgrain veneer, leather and piano black plastics – not to mention generously sized digital displays with smart, high-res infotainment graphics. Standard equipment includes 10-way adjustable leather appointed seats, sunroof, electric tailgate and Nissan’s ProPilot active safety bundle.…

IF YOU’RE one of those people who loves doing the household budget, who crunches the numbers meticulously prior to any new purchase, and may have once put a few avocados through the supermarket self-serve checkout as brown onions – yes, you know who you are – then you may initially blanch at the Jolion hybrid’s value equation compared to the regular petrol model. Consider that Toyota charges a premium of $2500 for the addition of a hybrid powertrain to its Corolla Cross small SUV. For the Jolion in our top-spec Ultra trim, the difference between hybrid and conventional ICE powertrains is $7000. With fuel at around $2.00 per litre, that’s 3500 litres, so even if you do 15,000km per year saving a couple of litres per 100km, it’s going to…

WILL THE PEOPLE BE MOVED? Could 2023 be the year of the upmarket people mover? Lexus has us pondering this with a press release regarding the next-generation LM model unveiled in China recently. There’s no official word from the local Lexus operation, but it seems likely, given the company’s Aussie ambitions to penetrate new segments. The current LM is based on the Toyota Alphard, and can be specced with an ultra-luxo four-seater layout called – get this – Emperor Suite. THAT’S SUB-PAR Tesla assures its customers that all images captured by the cars’ multiple cameras are subject to strict privacy protocols, but are they really? Ex-employees have recently revealed they shared a video showing a unique submersible vehicle parked inside a garage, according to a report by Reuters. Nicknamed Wet…

DUE Q2 FORD RANGER WILDTRAK X Intended to bridge the gap between the regular Wildtrak and the hardcore Raptor, Wildtrak X features wider tracks, increased ground clearance, and monotube-style Bilstein dampers running nitrogen-charged external reservoirs. Curiously, it’s offered only with the 2.0-litre turbo-diesel four, yet at $75,990, it’s around $6K more expensive than the V6-powered Wildtrak. DUE Q4 RENAULT MEGANE E-TECH Once a petrol-powered hatchback; now an electric crossover … it’s a case here of really only the name carrying over. Renault Australia has confirmed we’ll get just one high-spec Megane E-Tech, running a single front-mounted motor producing 160kW/300Nm for a 0-100km/h sprint in 7.4 seconds. The 60kWh battery provides a range of 450km. Price is TBC, but around $70,000 is the tip. DUE Q3 KIA EV9 Kia will be…

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 Revuelto looks as if somebody at Sant’Agata asked an AI program to update the styling of the Aventador” EV LIMITED AS AN ARDENT Lamborghini lover, I have to say that I’m left largely unenthused by the new Revuelto. The Aventador was in production for more than a decade and while I feel that its styling aged very well, the Revuelto looks as if somebody at Sant’Agata asked an AI program to update the styling of the Aventador. I know it’s not that straightforward and that the platform and the engine are all-new, but when it comes to…

THERE’S AN OLD JOKE about vegans. How do you know if someone is a vegan? They’ll tell you. I’ve been wrestling lately with how I’d navigate the social awkwardness of asking if there are trace elements of egg in my penne all’arrabbiata; or if a piglet was harmed in the making of my salad sandwich. How I’d survive reading food labels in back aisles of Aldi like I’ve got a disorder; of if I’d be driven to old-fashioned, standard-issue alcoholism from never being able to enjoy a steak again. The trappings, I mean, of being a vegan myself. The idea of veganism has grown in my mind over time, in an effort to deal with a possibly even more unpleasant feeling: guilt. A guilt that comes from being an enthusiast of…

I owned a Rev2 GT Turbo imported from Japan, powered by the Yamaha-fettled 3S-GTE lump good for 163kW, which seemed a whole hill of excitement, but doesn’t seem quite so imposing today. It also featured the JDM Bilstein dampers and optional traction control. The Rev3 lifted that output to 180kW, making the MR2 Turbo a quicker car than a Honda NSX, a Ferrari 348tb or a Toyota Supra RZ around Tsukuba, at least according to the occasionally erratic standards of Best Motoring.…

SO, YOU’VE GOT $100K burning a hole in your pocket and you want to go fast. Real fast. Turns out, you can crack the ton in under four seconds for that outlay – and not by buying some spine-compressing rally rocket or depreciated exotica. No, you can go that fast in SUVs with space for five adults in comfort. For that, we can thank the instant output and efficiency of electric motors, but as Wheels readers will know, outright speed is not enough. In fact, it gets boring pretty quickly. Performance cars – which the Tesla Model Y Performance and Kia EV6 GT profess to be – must deliver more than just face-melting acceleration. The flagship Kia EV6 GT has plenty going for it on paper. Its twin electric motors…

TOYOTA PRACTICALLY invented the compact crossover when it launched the RAV4 in Japan in 1993, while in the year 2000, Nissan unleashed X-Trail as a snowboard-lugging, mountain-bike-chasing small SUV rival. More than 20 years later, however, the RAV4 is the tearaway sales champion. And for the last few years, hybridisation has had a lot to do with RAV4’s success. But now, there’s a new generation X-Trail offering a petrol/electric powertrain. And a more clever one, argues Nissan. While the RAV4 Hybrid’s petrol engine still powers the wheels, Nissan has opted to power the X-Trail exclusively by electric motors. It’s just that, instead of a large battery you plug in to recharge, it has fitted a small battery needing to be almost constantly recharged by an internal combustion engine. The dual…

THE HYUNDAI i30 Sedan N has seen quite a few fills this month, sadly most of them with others at the wheel. With a steady stream of road test cars and a couple of new-car launches on my plate, for the last few weeks the i30 Sedan N has been in heavy demand among the road test team hankering after something a bit spicier than mainstream SUV fare. The fuel figures have had a bit of a kick, so I suspect the other journos about the office have been having fun with our sleek blue bolt. And the Sedan N really is one of those cars. After hopping back into its sculpted sports seats after a steady stream of mid-size SUVs, with a few hybrids sprinkled in between, it really…

AS I WRITE THIS, a genial chap called Chris is pulling out of the Wheels Media car park in ‘my’ Everest Sport. It’s on its way back to Ford having covered just over 10,00kms in a little over three months here. If you judge a long termer by its popularity, then the Everest Sport V6 might have been the most in-demand vehicle we’ve had through the garage in ages. Everybody had a use for it, whether that was towing a race car, family days out, a trip to IKEA or an off-road jaunt that they’d long had their eye on. I was pestered for the keys way more often than when McLaren saw fit to let us run a supercar with billionaire doors. Whenever it was returned, it drew praise.…

LAST MONTH in Retro we made the distinction between the world’s best-selling nameplate (the Toyota Corolla) and the best-selling car (the Volkswagen). In the same vein: what’s the world’s best-selling sports car? Surely, you say, it’s the Mazda MX-5, which has racked up more than 1.1 million sales since 1989. The original NA-series (1989-’98) recorded more than 431,000 units, by far the most popular of the MX-5’s four generations to date. Cigar-shaped – but no cigar. From 1962-’80, MG built 512,243 examples of the ubiquitous and enduring MGB, comprising 386,961 roadsters and 125,282 coupe GTs. Its design changed barely at all in those 19 years, with variations being the widely disliked ‘rubber-bumper’ facelift of 1974 to meet US legislation, and the Rover-powered 3.9-litre MGB GT V8, of which just 2591…