Table of contents for Summer 2016 in Wheels

COMMONALITY The planned Holden seven-seater will share mechanical components with the AWD version of the next Commodore LOW-RIDER Opel uses the CUV moniker because its vehicles are designed to be more like a car to drive A SEVEN-seat Opel SUV developed on the same E2XX architecture that will underpin the next-generation Holden Commodore looks very likely to head our way by 2020. The new model – one of three yet-to-be-revealed crossovers in Opel’s pipeline – will help flesh out a planned 24 new models from Holden by 2020. The SUV is shaping up to be very different to the high-riding, all-wheel-drive wagon version of the Opel Insignia dubbed the Country Tourer, which will become part of the first imported Commodore line-up in 2018. It’s one of at least three ‘crossover…

GET ready for the luxury ute, with Mercedes-Benz leading the way. In revealing the X-Class concept – a close-to-production precursor to Mercedes’ first pick-up, due in 2017 – the German luxury specialist has flagged an SUV-like evolution of the segment once reserved for tradies and farmers. Utes now account for a huge chunk of new vehicles sold in Australia – almost one in six – and the segment has grown 9.6 percent this year compared to 2015. The imminent arrival of even more upmarket utes promises to extend the surge. The Mercedes X-Class concept sits on modified Nissan Navara underpinnings and will be built in a Nissan factory in Spain. It will be available with either a four-cylinder diesel or a V6 for class-leading power – think upwards of 200kW…

DECEMBER ALPINA B3 Biturbo sedan and Touring, B4 Biturbo coupe and convertible; ASTON MARTIN DB11; AUDI A3/S3 facelift and S4; HOLDEN Barina facelift; MERCEDES-AMG S63 Cabriolet; SUBARU BRZ facelift; TESLA Model X; TOYOTA 86 facelift JANUARY-FEBRUARY AUDI Q2 and Q7 e-tron; BMW 5 Series; FORD Kuga facelift/rebrand; HOLDEN Trax facelift; HONDA Civic hatch; KIA Rio; MASERATI Levante and Quattroporte facelift; MAZDA MX-5 RF; MERCEDES-AMG C63 S Cabriolet; MERCEDES-BENZ E300, E400 4matic, E350e and GLE-Class plug-in hybrid; PEUGEOT 3008; VOLKSWAGEN Passat Alltrack Wolfsburg Skoda Superb S Take one dynamically adept Superb large sedan and wagon, featuring the Volkswagen Golf R’s sonorous 206kW turbo four-cylinder sending drive to all four corners. Add aggressively blade-spoked 19-inch alloys, black out some of the exterior trim for that touch of menace, and you have the…

Internal combustion will live on even as EVs proliferate. This will be creeping change As 2016 unfolded, it became ever more clear that electric vehicles are coming, and that their arrival spells the end of oil as undisputed king of automotive energy sources. But internal combustion will live on even as EVs proliferate. This will be creeping change, not a cataclysmic conflict. “You need to be able to think two thoughts at the same time,” says Ståle Frydenlund, communications advisor to the Norwegian EV Association. This relatively small outfit played an active role in making Norway a leader in EV adoption. Its influence is now spreading beyond this small Nordic nation’s borders. What Frydenlund means is obvious when you look at what his homeland is doing. Plug-ins have around a…

SO HERE we go. Holden hasn’t become an importer yet, but the arrival of the Astra small car is the latest significant milestone on the way to that momentous change for Australia’s automotive brand. The Opel-developed, Polish-built BK Astra five-door hatchback replaces the locally built Cruze sedan, hatch and wagon in Holden dealerships, while the previous-generation PJ Astra continues on for now in three-door coupe form. Cruze production ceased on October 7, about 12 months before locally developed Commodore draws the curtain on Aussie manufacturing. It’s back to the future for Holden with the Astra nameplate. Six different generations have been sold here – the first two were thinly disguised, locally built Nissan Pulsars – while the last four have come from Opel. The European arm of General Motors also…

THERE’S a figure that’s arguably more impressive and relevant than the 0-100km/h time for Audi’s new R8 Spyder. (Okay, that’s 3.6sec, 0.2sec slower than the coupe, to save you checking.) That figure is the number of seconds it takes the Spyder to transition from hushed, almost coupe-quiet cruiser, to barking, belching backroad blitzer. A mere 20sec, and it’s happy to do it at up to 50km/h, with the press of one button for the roof, and one button to remap all key vehicle parameters to ‘stun’. Yes, this is a car with plenty of bandwidth. One minute it’s wafting in sun-seeking coastal-cruise mode; the next, it’s cracking cliff faces as the 5.2-litre V10 bellows well past 8000rpm. Of course, measured objectively against the coupe, it’s heavier, blunter, less rigid and…

TAKE a small car, put a big engine in it, and car lovers will flock to it. BMW’s entry to the fray is a rear-driven outlier, recently updated extensively enough to outgrow its old M235i moniker and become the M240i. Its hatchback counterpart, M140i, has followed suit. Both cars retain a relatively oversized 3.0-litre turbo in-line six, now making 250kW and 500Nm. That’s a jump of 10kW and 50Nm, and gives the sub-M hot rod enough torque to put the M2 on high alert. This level of performance has never been so accessible. Figures on paper don’t reveal the full depth of engineering advances under the bonnet. Changes to the engine block, turbocharger and intake side are enough for the powerplant’s name to change from N55 to B58. Efficiency improves…

ITALIANS are not the sort of people to let a minor detail like the lack of a common language get in the way of asking questions about a brand new Alfa Romeo. During the course of three days in northern Italy in the new Giulia Quadrifoglio, we get interrogated about it practically every time we stop, in everything from excellent English to what’s little more than grunting and sign language. I can honestly say that every reaction is positive, from a road-repair guy on the Stelvio Pass to the man who left his Audi Q5 blocking a busy street in Turin to come and grab a closer look. It’s clear Italians still root for the home team. Yet in general they’ve given up on buying Italian cars. Snapper Tom Salt…

“Buying this car was more important to me than having the children” I THINK we can all understand, and even admire, the idea of paying an architect big bucks to design your house in such a way that you can see your precious supercar – parked in a glass box right in the middle – from every room. It’s the disco ball and the huge horse’s testicles we struggle with. Simon Boctor happily rips off his shirt to show me his shoulder-swallowing Prancing Horse tattoo within minutes of our first meeting (it reflects quite beautifully in his giant diamond earrings, his hairy torso less so), but even he struggles to explain his thinking. Boctor’s beloved red Ferrari F430 Spider sits on a bright yellow, logo-emblazoned turntable (“It spins both ways,…

IT MAY seem somewhat illogical for someone who works as a motoring journalist, but I don’t own a car. A shocking and possibly damning admission, I know, but before I get thrown to the wolves, let me explain. As a cash-strapped uni student my beloved first car (a faithful 1993 Toyota Corolla) had to be sold. But my aversion to any form of public transport meant I needed another means of getting around, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to go slip on the lycra. So I ended up cutting through traffic on a motorcycle. Starting full-time work might have meant rejoining the four-wheeled community, but the extreme cost of living in Sydney (or too much smashed avocado if one of Murdoch’s papers is to be believed) meant that…

ARE you one of the many misguided fools who dismiss the Audi TT as a mere hairdresser’s car? Repent, for the four-ringed fastback is, in actual fact, pretty handy at the kind of performancy things you wouldn’t associate with a salon sportscar. Keep in mind that my TT Sport quattro long-termer is just one rung up from the very bottom of the TT hierarchy. It’s not the hotter 210kW/380Nm TTS quattro, and it’s a long way from the monstrous 294kW/480Nm TT RS that tops the range. Nevertheless, the TT Sport’s on-road performance has hinted that it would shine fairly brightly in a more demanding environment. On mountain roads there were suggestions of a playful chassis lurking behind the electro-nannies, and its 169kW 2.0-litre turbo and six-speed dual-clutch combo deliver terrific…

1 HSV GTS 430kW For now the 6.2-litre supercharged V8 in HSV’s flagship makes it the fastest car to be produced in Australia. But in 2017 the HSV W1 is set to up the stakes by some 60kW. 2 HSV CLUBSPORT 400kW A detuned version of the LSA engine from the GTS makes for almost as much fun. Fantastic dynamics and plenty of rear-end traction add to the appeal of the big four-door. 3 FORD FALCON XR8 SPRINT 345kW The Sprint’s 345kW from its supercharged 5.0-litre V8 is just 6kW shy of the most powerful Falcon ever, the FPV GT-F. Seat-of-the-pants feel suggests there’s nothing in it. 4 FORD FALCON XR6 SPRINT 325kW Finding any Falcon Sprint in dealerships will be a challenge now production has finished. The boosted 4.0…

Skoda has added a more powerful petrol engine to its quirky Yeti soft-roader. The 1.4-litre turbo four-pot in the Outdoor 110TSI makes 110kW and 250Nm and comes only with a six-speed DSG transmission. Unlike the entry-level 81TSI front-driver, drive for the 110TSI is sent to all four wheels. While the compact SUV is more about the suburbs, black bumpers and some basic underbody protection on the Outdoor 110TSI add to its modest off-road capability. The Yeti gets a standard reversing camera, while the Outdoor picks up parking sensors at both ends, climate control air-con and sat-nav.…

AMG super-saloon Mercedes-AMG is rumoured to be developing a four-door version of its GT for a 2017 reveal as part of the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations. Expected to be called the GT 4, AMG’s fast four-door will be powered by the same twin-turbo V8 from the current line-up of two-door GTs, with power bumped to almost 450kW. The GT 4 is expected to reach showrooms by 2019, when it will accompany the already announced R50 hypercar, which will feature Mercedes’ F1 V6 hybrid powertrain. Grange farewelled HSV has rolled out its last Grange – the first Commodore-based model to sign off ahead of next year’s Holden factory closure. The November 4 announcement was made with a single photo posted on social media depicting the last Grange, number 2465, with the…

HSV No surprise that HSV is looking at a ute once the end of local manufacturing snatches the hot-shot Maloo away in early 2017. But it will be a very different machine, based on the Colorado. So don’t expect the firebreathing V8, but likely a tweaked version of the regular 147kW/500Nm 2.8-litre turbo-diesel. Instead, it will be suspension and styling getting the main HSV treatment. Audi An Audi ute would be an easy proposition – assuming Audi deems such a vehicle fits with its image. The four-ring brand is believed to be investigating an Amarokbased luxury ute, with the usual Audi design and dynamic style. Don’t expect it to arrive here until 2019 at the earliest, though, in line with the second-generation Amarok. Volkswagen Amarok V6   The just-arrived Amarok…

THAT’S THE WAY THE MERCEDES BENDS At least someone has finally committed to a position on the dilemma facing self-driving cars ( Mercedes says passengers more important than pedestrians , WheelsMag.com.au ). The people that can afford a Mercedes-Benz can take comfort in knowing that they and their family have done the best they can to keep themselves safe. The rest of us need to keep out of the way, start thinking for ourselves and take responsibility for our actions. Peter Zeidler, via Facebook We as a family clearly tried very hard to keep the Falcon alive FAREWELL FALCON This is the first time in all these years that I have written to you and I have been wondering why. I think it has something…

IT’S NOT surprising that Turin’s take on Hiroshima’s evergreen roadster handles much like an MX-5, which is already one of the world’s great steers. Even if you consider the 124 Spider its own thing – it shares next to nothing with the Mazda externally – comparisons with its step brother are inevitable … and the Abarth stacks up pretty well. That the MX-5’s malleable handling and sweet ride/handling compromise mostly carry into the 124 is a great thing, but there are differences beneath the Italianate exterior. Mazda resisted enthusiast pressure to build a turbocharged MX-5 for 15 years, eventually relenting with 2004’s SE, but Abarth has no historical distaste for the snail. The 1.4-litre turbo-petrol ‘Multi-air’ engine marks the big personality shift compared with the atmo 1.5- and 2.0-litre that…

WANT a pure electric car but can’t seem to get over the abject fear that your battery-powered ride may strand you short of your destination as the electrons dry up? BMW reckons it has the answer. The words “range anxiety is over” popped up several times at the launch of the updated BMW i3. However, there’s very little that’s different – primarily a more energy-dense battery that adds $2000 for an extra 70km of range. Otherwise, there’s some new dark wood trim inside and, for $962, you can have the same electric-blue paintwork as offered on the i8. You also get the previously optional ($790) DC-compatible charger that will bump the battery up to 80 percent for free in less than 40 minutes, but there’s just one of these rapid…

THE RS Q3 first lobbed onto the Australian market in early 2014, proudly laying claim to being the most affordable Audi RS model sold here. It lost that title in mid-2015 with the arrival of the cheaper RS3 Sportback, though with an original power output of 228kW, the RS Q3 never felt quick enough to justify the RS badge anyway. While the RS Q3 beat the Mercedes-AMG GLA45 to market (by a couple of months), its Mercedes rival made more power and sprinted harder where it counted. The RS Q3 has been in the Benz’s shadow ever since, even after an update last year brought new body plastics and a power boost to 250kW. But Audi Sport hasn’t given up just yet. The division’s only RS-badged SUV has been given…

In Australia it was the year of the big dead bird IN CHINA, 2016 was the year of the monkey. In the US, it was the year of the strangest election campaign since a cat named Hank ran for a Senate seat in Virginia (the politically active feline was beaten by Tim Kaine, who became Hillary Clinton’s running mate). And in Australia, it was the year of the big dead bird. Ford’s final Falcon, a sweet blue XR6 destined to be a travelling museum piece, flopped off the production line at Broadmeadows in early October. Actually, flopped is an unfairly negative term. The last Falcons were wonderful rides, sturdy yet refined, large yet remarkably poised on the road. They’d come a long way from the first models in 1960, which…

ON REFLECTION, it’s been a lot like Star Trek . Mazda began building its rotary engine 55 years ago, and for the past 40 of those the relatively small Japanese maker has gone boldly where no one has gone before. Its reward has been a screechingly powerful and jet-smooth little rotor-motor with a character unlike any other, and a galaxy of loyal enthusiasts. The recent news that Mazda continued to develop the rotary, even beyond the expiration of the RX-8 in 2012, gives hope that this adventure is far from over. On a glorious day at Mine, a racing circuit turned test track folded in the mountains near Hiroshima, Mazda gathered many of its rotary heroes. Only a few were off-limits. Unfortunately, these included the Speed…

CARS SUCH AS THE BMW i3, NISSAN LEAF AND TESLA MODEL S ARE MAINSTREAM CHOICES IN NORWAY THOUGH journeys through time are presently impossible, travelling to Norway is easy. And for a preview of the future of cars and driving, this is the place to come. Here the transition to electric vehicles is more advanced than anywhere else in the world. Perhaps, for you, this is a horrible prospect. If so, you’ll appreciate the destination I’ll be punching into the sat-nav of the BMW i3. Verdens Ende is Norwegian for World’s End… The i3 is a big hit in Norway. Following the release of the 94Ah model, with an improved battery and increased range, the monthly sales rate promptly doubled. BMW Norway estimates it will deliver up to 4000 in…

NO, WE haven’t gone mad here at Wheels, at least not yet. But we have decided to do something we’ve never done before – live with a ute. We’re not interested in shovelling dirt or working out what’s the best rig for a tradie looking to save a few bucks. Nope, we’re heading to the other end of the market, the dual-cab four-wheel drive loaded with fruit. It’s a booming segment, to the point that Mercedes-Benz is following an SUV-like trajectory into luxury. For now, though, the Toyota Hilux continues to lead the pack, and this year it’s even in with a shot of becoming the first ute to top the market. Many a Falcon and Commodore driver has traded in their sedan for something with less finesse and a…

THE XE’s fuel consumption average leaped half a litre this month. But it’s a small price to pay for the big fun we had. Before we get to that, some background. From our first test drive of the XE back in mid-2015, it was clear that Britain rather than Bavaria had created the spiritual successor to the much-loved BMW E36 328i of the 1990s. Project X760 owed nothing to its failed Mondeo-based X-Type predecessor, introducing instead an all-new rear-drive architecture with a largely aluminium body, 50/50 weight balance, double-wishbone front-end and integral-link rear. Such spec was the province of supercars not so long ago. With four months limited to either urban schlepping or intrastate runs, my secret test route provided some welcome respite to assess its dynamic mettle. Secluded from…

Kia has taken the axe to its Rondo range, dropping the diesel models and taking two seats out of the entry-level S. It has the same practical wagonette body, but there’s another 44 litres of boot space in the five-seater because there’s no third row of seats to hog floor space. The leather-and-all Platinum model has been dropped (blame it on slow sales) and prices are reduced, amping up the value. The five-seat S sells from $26,990, while the Si model adds the additional row of seats, alloy wheels and sat-nav for an extra $4500. The basic 2.0-litre four-pot is unchanged, as is the suspension.…

JAGUAR, a brand once seen as old-fashioned, is set to take on electrifying upstart Tesla with the launch of its stunning I-Pace EV. Chief designer Ian Callum claims he wasn’t even considering Tesla’s Model X when he began work on the top-secret, epoch-shifting I-Pace, which he admits marks the beginning of the end of the famous Jaguar V8 roar. “When we were designing it, we had no idea what the Model X looked like,” Callum said. “I try not to get influenced by anything. I would suggest Tesla is probably more influenced by Jaguar.” Callum says the I-Pace – a stunning piece of design inside and out that was launched in Los Angeles as a concept but is basically production ready and will go on sale in 2018 – is…

ALFA Romeo and Mazda have both revealed fresh new metal in the battle for mid-size SUV supremacy, as SUVs look poised to overtake passenger cars as Australia’s highest-selling segment. Sales of high-riding SUVs have boomed over the past decade, the segment having increased 139 percent since 2006. The biggest growth comes from mid-size SUVs, up 18.2 percent this year alone, and that’s where the new Alfa Romeo Stelvio and second-gen Mazda CX-5 will play when they land in Australia in 2017. The two models spearhead a wave of new mid-size SUVs set to hit our shores (see breakout). While the CX-5 is aimed firmly at stealing customers away from more ‘traditional’ passenger cars to SUVs, Alfa Romeo’s all-new Stelvio SUV, is pointed directly at higher-end buyers. “SUVs are very popular…

HIGHLIGHTS It was pretty much a case of treading water for the market October, falling 1.0% compared with the same period last year. Nissan and Volkswagen both grew their sales over September, with Nissan pushing up a place in the rankings. Fiat’s Abarth 124 Spider pegged 77 registrations in its first part-month on sale, accounting for a third of the brand’s October volume. Holden’s Barina (268) improved on the back of a driveaway deal. LOWLIGHTS While SUV sales shone, up by 4.9%, those for passenger cars retreated even further, falling 7.4% for the month compared with October last year. It was a tough month for BMW, which saw sales slide on every model in its line-up apart from the 2 Series coupe and 5 Series Gran Turismo. Citroen, meanwhile, posted…

AS A strong Pacific breeze gently sandblasts our Evoque Convertible’s lurid Phoenix Orange paint with some of Fraser Island’s coarser grades of grit, I come to a surprising realisation: this roofless SUV isn’t all that bad. Even at the local launch of the Range Rover Evoque Convertible on the world’s largest sand island – a Mecca for holiday-making 4WD enthusiasts – the topless Brit isn’t as out-of-its-depth as I imagined it might be. It definitely stands out though, even in shades that are more subtle than retina-searing metallic orange. Toorak Tractors are rare in this particular part of Australia, and we’d wager this is the first time a roofless one has rolled across the island’s sandy trails. If you disregard the Jeep Wrangler, this is the only truly convertible SUV…

HERE’S a question: is the Mercedes-AMG C43 Coupe a pukka AMG, a rip-snorting, dragon-slayer from Affalterbach? Or a savvy piece marketing: a warmed-up midrange performer that should be more truthfully called something benign like ‘C400 Sport’, but in reality wears AMG clothing to help Benz reel in a few more bucks? Even Mercedes wrestled with the question, and initially marketed it overseas as the C450 AMG Sport before giving it proper Mercedes-AMG status But while the C63’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 is hand-assembled by a single master engine builder, the C43’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 is built by robots on a production line. This engine is also hooked up to a conventional automatic rather than the MCT seven-speeders used by more hardcore AMGs (which ditch the torque converter), and power goes to…

DRIFT MODE WILL LIKELY OCCUPY YOU FOR FIVE MINUTES OR SO BEFORE THE NOVELTY WEARS OFF THIS wasn’t ever supposed to be a comparison. ‘A celebration of 2016’s most wanted’ was the brief, and on the face of it you can see why. The Ford Focus RS, BMW M2 Pure and Porsche 718 Boxster S don’t look like natural cross-shopping candidates, the Porsche costing almost three times the price of the Focus, but at some point between the Wheels office and the hills surrounding Eildon, the brief went out the window. Things became competitive. Some commonalities first. All three are German-built, sport a stick and three pedals, and come with heavily turbocharged powerplants. Beyond that, this divergent trio of hatch, coupe and roadster generate a host a questions for the…

Does power, performance and a towering price automatically bring greater satisfaction and enjoyment? I BLAME Max Verstappen. I point a wrinkly finger at his barely pubescent visage, his F1 podium glory, his fearless racecraft, and I put curse on his wretched, monumental talent. I do this because Max is the new face of the young and gifted. Society has idolised youth and virility since forever, but at least there was a window, through your 20s and 30s, where you were surely in life’s sweet spot. Now, no thanks to Max – born in 1997, for chrissake – that window has shifted south. Leaving blokes like me even older, crustier and closer to washed-up than we thought we were. So of course someone at Wheels had the genius brain-fart idea: why…

CHAMELEONS can change to almost any colour in as little as 20 seconds. That’s not the case with our Jeep, which took three months. But this had less to do with skin pigmentation and everything to do with user error. For the record, I wasn’t to blame. Donald – our flashy orange Jeep that debuted in the September issue – was damaged while not in our care, so we welcome a replacement Renegade to the Wheels garage. This one wears a beige power suit (Mojave Sands), a slight rattle in her chest, and a few technological glitches. So of course we’ve called her Hillary. We’ve spent the month bonding, as she arrived just in time for a country run. We’re pleased to report it’s been mostly positive. The Renegade drives…

ISN’T it funny how quickly annoyances that were once easily dismissed as small and trivial can manifest into niggles capable of spawning white-hot rage. Take my Cactus for example. When it was shiny and new, I didn’t care that its central touchscreen was a bit slow and clunky. Or that it doesn’t have one-touch electric windows, or that its damping isn’t perfect, or that its reversing camera activates at the speed of global warming. And can you blame me? When a car looks this interesting and has an interior this quirky, of course I’d focus on the bigger-picture positives. But now we’ve spent eight weeks together, I’m afraid my affection for the shiny yellow Cactus has lost some of its sheen. The touchscreen is of particular annoyance because, unlike the…

Peugeot has added gear to the auto-only Active version of its slow-selling 308. A reversing camera is (finally) standard and the sat-nav now comes with free map updates during the three-year warranty period. Peugeot Australia boss Kai Bruesewitz said the additional kit “also signals greater changes in store for the 308 range in the near future”, hinting the Active update is the precursor to more 308 revisions. Unchanged is the sweet 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder, excellent dynamics… and a frustrating touchscreen that buries ventilation controls behind various menus.…

IF FERRARI once fashioned its road cars as being built equally for commuting and competing, it was perhaps never better expressed than in the 250 GT SWB introduced, in coupe form, in 1959. Indeed, Enzo Ferrari himself said of this model: “These are cars that the sporting client can use on the road during the week and race on Sundays.” In this, he may have been getting a hurry-up in both arenas from the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Porsche and even Chevrolet’s new V8 Corvette in the booming US market. To placate not only its colourful (and race-credentialed) US importer Luigi Chinetti, Ferrari had in 1957 introduced a lovely California Spyder variant on the 2600mm wheelbase of his 250-series. These 250 GT Pininfarina cabriolets, in Series I and…

SHUNNING STUNTS Wayne Boatwright is at the wheel of Australia’s legendary precision driving team; not so often at the wheel of an Isuzu Ute stunt car. “I manage relationships, take bookings… The last time I tried driving on two wheels was about three years ago. I finally made a reasonable go of it. But I certainly wouldn’t give me a job in the show.” IT’S been a part of our culture for half a century, a staple at motor shows, agricultural shows and major sporting events. In its various guises, the Isuzu Team D-Max precision driving team – formerly, for 31 years, the Holden Precision Driving Team – is a yumpin’, slidin’, two-wheeling automotive institution. All of which might also describe its limelight-shunning ringmaster, Wayne Boatwright. Australia’s favourite stunt team…