Tabla de contenidos para September 2017 en Wheels

1967 Hyundai Motor Company founded. Kia built its first Mazda-licensed truck five years earlier 1976 Hyundai Pony exported to Chile and Argentina, among others 1986 Hyundai enters the US market with the Pony Excel (left); sells 168,800 cars, a record for first-year sales. Hyundai enters the Australian market via importer Bond Motor Sales 1992 Kia Motors America is incorporated in the US 1995 Third-gen Excel becomes Australia’s top-selling light car 1998 Financially stricken Kia is taken over by Hyundai 2002 The arrival of the Getz (right) sees Hyundai with another light car sales winner 2003 Hyundai sets up its own factory-backed Australian operation 2006 Kia hires ex-Audi gun Peter Schreyer (left) as chief design officer 2007 Hyundai achieves critical acclaim with the European-devised i30 hatch (above); wins numerous Aussie awards…

What is it? An evolution of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) wireless communication that enables cars to share information with buildings, road signs, and traffic signals, as well as other vehicles. Why does it matter? A functioning V2X network is one critical element in the infrastructure required to support high-level autonomous driving. Without it, self-driving cars must rely on relatively limited information from their own sensors, but a vehicle-to-X network allows a car’s awareness of its surroundings to be extended with almost unlimited scope. Ahead of the arrival of autonomous cars, V2X systems will start to improve the safety of road users by providing the driver with supplementary information including warnings of heavy traffic, hazards, and weather updates, before encountering them. Whether it’s the car or the driver that responds to the extra…

It’s said to be bad luck to give an empty wallet or purse as a gift, but after spending $168 on this cool kidney grille cash clip and key ring combo there may not be many notes left to fill it. The clip couple offers BMW drivers a subtle alternative to flashing the traditional propeller badge, yet remains unmistakably on-brand nonetheless. And if funds are short then you can always sell a kidney… BMW kidney grille cash clip and key ring, $89 and $79 respectively bmw.com.au/lifestyle It takes big back wheels to make a joke at your own spectacular failures, but that’s exactly what Renault has done with this exclusive teapot. The French car maker’s 1977 foray into turbocharged Formula 1 cars did not initially produce fire-breathing trophy…

Model Mercedes-Benz S400d LWB Engine 2925cc 6cyl, dohc, 24v, TTD Max Power 250kW @ 3600-4400rpm Max Torque 700Nm @ 1200-3200rpm Transmission 9-speed automatic Weight 1950kg 0-100km/h 5.4sec (claimed) Fuel economy 5.2L/100km Price $250,000 (estimated) On sale December SUCH is the complexity of the range and options available on this facelifted S-Class, that Mercedes-Benz claims no two cars built will be identical. When the updated version of the classic German luxury sedan goes on sale in Australia in December, it will offer six separate engines across a smorgasbord of models: S350d; S400d LWB; S450 LWB; S560; S560 LWB; AMG S63 LWB and, finally, the S650 Maybach – the only V12 to survive a cull of models at the very top end of the sedan range. Underneath the familiar exterior appearance, refreshed…

Model Audi Q5 2.0 TFSI Engine 1984cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max power 185kW @ 5000rpm Max torque 370Nm @ 1600rpm Transmission 7-speed dual-clutch Weight 1795kg 0-100km/h 6.3sec (claimed) Economy 7.3L/100km Price $73,211 On sale Now OTHER than brackish lagoons and miles of arrow-straight roads, there’s not a lot to see in South Australia’s Coorong region. If you’re in the latest Audi Q5 2.0 TFSI, there’s not a lot to hear, either. At an indicated 110km/h it’s eerily quiet. You hear your passenger’s jacket zip clinking as the car sits into the odd dip, a welcome spritz of treble over the blanketed bass tones of tyre and suspension. The car’s computer tells us we’ve been in front-wheel drive mode for 99.8 of the last 100km, the Q5’s ‘quattro ultra’ drive…

Model Volkswagen Golf 110TSI Comfortline Engine 1395cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max power 110kW @ 5000-6000rpm Max torque 250Nm @ 1500-3500rpm Transmission 7-speed dual-clutch Weight 1261kg 0-100km/h 8.2sec (claimed) Economy 5.4L/100km Price $28,990 On sale Now VOLKSWAGEN’S revered Golf finds itself at a definitive fork in the road. Does this midlife update offer an opportunity to sharpen the price and prime the model to do battle with likeable French, Japanese and South Korean contenders in the affordable small-car arena? Or does its compelling blend of quality, driving dynamics and style place it at the edge of the premium German and European rivals? Which way to turn? Volkswagen has made the deliberate move to the latter with an update that has increased the entry level price a little, but boosted the…

BLINK at the wrong second on the A20 Autobahn and you’ll completely miss the border that divides the northern German states of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. These days there’s no obvious difference on either side, a vista of fields and wind turbines with the boundary nothing more than a blurred signpost. In the Opel Insignia, we don’t even have to lift off, crossing at close proximity to the 130km/h speed limit. Yet it’s not long since this was the edge of the free world, and one of the most heavily defended frontiers in the world. The Inner-German Border separated West Germany from the German Democratic Republic, the communist statelet that was neither democratic or a republic. It had concrete walls, watch towers, attack dogs and even minefields. Not to mention armed…

PORSCHE is not alone among revered sports car brands in taking the odd evolutionary turn that initially sits about as comfortably as a sandpaper scarf around a purist’s neck. When the iconic 911 dropped its air-cooled engine for the 996 generation, for example, diehards ran around throwing their Nomex undies on bonfires. Then, more recently, when the entire Carrera range went turbo, Stuttgart flags were burned in the streets. Yet the 911 still stands elevated as among the most complete sports cars of them all. (If you think otherwise, there’s still space in next month’s Inbox to air your flameproof undergarments). The Panamera took the converse approach by starting out with weird proportions that polarised Porsche punters right up until its replacement, thankfully, with a second-generation version that looks more…

FOUR months in and nearly seven thousand kilometres on, it’s time for our Toyota Prius to check out. And, pun aside, what a shock this petrol-electric hybrid has been. Intriguingly, YGJ-73P has had to live alongside an actual electric vehicle, my partner’s 2012 Nissan Leaf – a car with true zero tailpipe emissions. I wanted to ascertain how a petrol-electric series-parallel hybrid would seem against a real EV. Ultimately, regarding the Prius as electric is like expecting an emu to fly. Neither offers much range. The paltry 2km (at under 37km/h) in the Toyota’s case barely registers, except in slow and heavy traffic, and when the internal-combustion engine does flare up, any EV smugness turns to smog. Far better then to focus on how the Toyota’s electricity enhances the experience…

IF YOU’VE been paying attention, my opinion on the Metallic Moss hatchback that is my Astra RS long-termer has oscillated wildly from ‘love’ through to ‘moderate discontent’. So now, after nearly half a year behind the wheel, where do I stand? Am I any less conflicted than I was in the beginning? It’s hard to develop an emotional attachment to something as prosaic as a mainstream small hatchback, and truth be told my eyes won’t be welling up as I hand back the keys to Holden. That being said, I will miss more than a few things. For starters, the engine is undoubtedly the cherry atop the sundae that is the Astra RS. Its 1.6 turbo makes mega torque for a hatchback that isn’t pitched as a performance car, yet…

1 PORSCHE PANAMER A SPORT TURISMO With a new ‘shooting brake’ rear end, Porsche’s Panamera has gone from being one of its most polarising to one of its most stunning. Not due here until next year, but demanding of mention. 2 FERRARI GTC 4LUSSO The most un-Ferrari ever to wear the prancing horse badge is still a true Ferrari with a choice of V8 turbo or atmo V12, blistering performance, room for four adults, and a 800L boot when rear seats are folded. 3 AUDI RS6 The epitome of hyper wagons. Take a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, send its 445kW to the road through all four wheels and give it 565 litres of load space, and you have one of the most supercar-crushing everyday drivers money can buy. 4 HSV CLUBSPORT…

HOLDEN’S announcement that the flagship of its next-gen Commodore range will wear a VXR badge signals the end of the line for the much-loved SS moniker. This clean break with the past appears a clear signal of intent, underscoring the change in focus from rear-wheel drive V8s to something very different. In repositioning the Commodore, it also opens the door for ever higher performance models to slot into GM-Holden showrooms. “It was a really natural decision for us,” said Holden spokesperson Sean Poppitt of the decision to choose the VXR badge. “This is not a direct V8 or SS replacement. There’s no question of us reusing that name, so we can retire it gracefully. “It’s been an amazing nameplate for us for a number of years, but this is about…

Airbags are meant to last the car’s life, but that is being called into question AUSTRALIA’S lethargy over the largest car-related recall in history has come home to roost. A normally survivable crash in suburban Sydney in July involving a Honda CR-V fitted with a defective Takata airbag has left the driver dead. Police are linking the incident to another 18 known deaths in the US, and hundreds of injuries. The level of violence the crash wrought shocked police: “This type of crash, in normal circumstances, would not have caused this level of injury,” they said. The scandal was first sparked in 2008 after Honda noticed some Takata-sourced airbags fitted to US versions of the Accord and Civic, up to seven years old, would burst and spray small bits of…

HIGHLIGHTS Australia nudged into record sales numbers for the fourth month running, with July closing a skinny 1.6 percent ahead of the same month last year. The hot spot is the medium-SUV class, where the annual sales tally is now 16.6 percent ahead of the same time last year. Subaru was the brand to watch, jumping three places on the charts thanks to the new-gen XV. Volkswagen’s run-out of the Golf VII was popular with buyers. Oh, and Honda snared its second customer for the $420,000 NSX hybrid sports car. LOWLIGHTS Floundering brands that dredged this month’s despair pit included Nissan (down 22 percent), Jeep (510, down 33 percent), and French brands Citroen (23, down 70 percent) and Peugeot (106, down 61 percent). Admittedly, the PSA pair are in a…

“Unless the electricity for our Teslas is sustainable, we’ll all be driving coal-powered cars” TAINTED POWER Unless the electricity used to charge Australia’s fleet of Teslas is sustainably generated, we’ll all be driving coal-powered cars (Is the car as we know it on borrowed time, Wheelsmag.com.au).This is just shifting the problem from one place to another.The big leap has to stem from how electricity is produced; only then we can all look smug. Ian Hartley, via Facebook SPEED UP, COUGH UP A camera inVictoria, 114km/h in a 110km/h zone, $196. Why did I pay that? In Italy I would have torn up the letter and binned it. But in Italy I wouldn’t have received it in the first place. Same in England. We vote and we pay – that’s our…

Model Holden Equinox 2.0T FWD Engine 1998cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max Power 188kW @ 5500rpm Max Torque 353Nm @ 2000rpm Transmission 9-speed automatic Weight 1600kg (estimated) 0-100km/h 7.5sec (estimated) Economy 8.4L/100km (US-spec) Price $35,000 (estimated) On sale December THERE’S a strange sense of déjà vu about the launch of the Holden Equinox. Eleven years ago, Holden rolled out the Daewoo-sourced Captiva in an effort to woo SUV buyers. Back then we were generally impressed by Holden’s efforts, but time wasn’t kind to the Captiva. Where its rivals evolved rapidly, the Captiva quickly became an also-ran and, latterly, an embarrassing exemplar of Holden’s developmental stasis. Now, here’s Holden again, admitting they’re behind the curve on SUVs, and the answer is to again scour the General’s portfolio for a pret-a-porter solution.…

Model Peugeot 3008 Allure Engine 1598cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max power 121kW @ 6000rpm Max torque 240Nm @ 1400rpm Transmission 6-speed automatic Weight 1371kg 0-100km/h 9.9sec (claimed) Economy 7.0L/100km Price $39,490 On sale Now A PERFECT storm might be overselling the sales forecast for Peugeot’s new medium SUV, but it certainly seems to line up enough fundamentals to give the brand a boost in Oz. As the effective replacement for the Mitsubishi Outlander-based 4007, the new 3008 is a conventional SUV rather than a hatch-derived crossover like its predecessor – the French quirks are in the details. The new 3008 is built on the excellent EMP2 platform that underpins the 308 hatch, to please buyers in Australia’s most popular and crowded segment, targeting the likes of the Mazda CX-5…

Model Audi RS3 sedan Engine 2480cc 5cyl, dohc, 20v, turbo Max power 294kW @ 5850-7000rpm Max torque 480Nm @ 1700-5850rpm Transmission 7-speed dual-clutch Weight 1515kg 0-100km/h 8.4L/100km Economy 4.1sec (claimed) Price $84,900 On sale Now IT’S A strange feeling when you give way to an Audi A4 and the driver stops in the middle of an intersection and stares. I’m driving the box-fresh Audi RS3 sedan and the chap obviously has enough Ingolstadt -flavoured octane coursing through his veins to know the significance of the first compact sedan to wear a RennSport badge. The four-door body style stands out from its mainstream A3 and S3 sedan siblings thanks to a bolder stance with wider tracks (20mm front/14mm rear), a 25mm lower ride height, and RS styling headlined by flared wheel…

PITCHING a handsome, eminently worthy value-branded offering in with the pack of wolves that is the premium European set is going to leave someone bloodied. Kia just hopes it’s the opposition, not its dramatic new Stinger. On paper, this perception-altering rear-drive liftback sedan has all its ducks in a row – strikingly muscular styling, purist drivetrain layout with an all-turbo engine line-up, a dedicated sporting focus and enough packaging proficiency to carry some credibility – yet the gamble of entering a declining global sedan market dominated by German brands with a Korean badge glued to your snout and tail can’t be overstated enough. In Europe and the US, Stinger faces an uphill battle overcoming entrenched brand snobbery, but somehow I don’t think that really applies to Australia. If there was…

SO COMPREHENSIVE was the Golf Mk7’s victory in the 2013 edition of Wheels Car of the Year, that there were many mutterers in the office who believed that were it eligible for entry the following year, it would have wiped the floor with the best of 2014’s crop. While this would have denied thousands of online commentators the chance to congratulate us on our choice of the BMW i3 for COTY 2014, the extravagantly talented Golf 7 has remained the benchmark car in its class, before being mildly refreshed this year in 7.5 guise. We’re used to there being barely a chink in the Golf’s armour, but examine the refreshed range and you’ll wonder why there’s such a gaping hole between the 110kW 1.4-litre TSI and the forthcoming 169kW 2.0-litre…

CURSE the rise of the SUV. Sales of the jacked-up, high-riding hatches and wagons now comfortably dominate Australia’s new-car landscape, and it’s coming at the cost of our once-strong love for traditional passenger vehicles, especially sedans. Down Under is now a marketplace where small cars, such as Subaru’s Impreza, need to make a big noise to stand out. Generation G5 of the Impreza, a 2017 Wheels Car of the Year finalist, has introduced the world to the Subaru Global Platform (SGP): a lighter, stiffer all-new modular chassis that will underpin future models, including plug-in hybrids. COTY testing clearly showed that the SGP is able to reacquaint the driver with something long absent from Subaru’s DNA; a level of dynamic prowess for which the Japanese carmaker was once renowned. A booted…

CONSIDER yourself a certified beanie-wearer if you can name the car that won the 1981 World Rally Championship. This was the year before rallying was re-written by both Group B and the all-wheel drive Audi Quattro … The 1981 drivers’ title was won by Ari Vatanen in the legendary Ford Escort RS – but few remember that the manufacturers’ championship was won by a square-cornered hatchback, the Talbot Sunbeam-Lotus. The Talbot brand had come with PSA-Peugeot’s 1978 purchase of Chrysler Europe; the Sunbeam was a tough, rear-drive hatch. The 2.2-litre Lotus-developed rally variants, driven by Guy Frequelin and Henri Toivonen, scored only one win but several podiums to nab the WRC constructors’ title. Some key elements here – the Talbot’s small size and serviceability, and Frequelin’s co-driver, Jean Todt –…

THE RACE to autonomy has kicked up a gear, with Audi laying out plans to leapfrog arch-rival BMW by offering a ‘highly autonomous’ car by next year. Revealed to Wheels recently as part of an Audi Technology Summit in Barcelona, the new, fourth-generation A8 will be the first production vehicle to deploy level-three autonomous driving capability, and it’s set to arrive next year, three years before BMW’s fully autonomous iNext (see Wheels August). Highly autonomous, or level-three capability, will take the next-gen A8 beyond current level-two cars, with the ability to assume control of safety-critical functions, allowing the car to drive itself, with a human placed to take the wheel when required. Yet it’s Ingolstadt’s next chapter that is truly compelling. According to Audi’s vision, the infant stages of level-four…

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER AUDI A5 and S5 cabriolet; BMW 2 Series/M2 facelift, 5 Series Touring, and M4 CS; CITROEN C3; HONDA Civic Type-R; HYUNDAI Kona and Sonata facelift; KIA Stinger; MERCEDES-AMG GT C roadster and GT R coupe; MERCEDES-BENZ E-Class Cabriolet; PEUGEOT 308 facelift; SKODA Octavia RS and Octavia RS245; VOLKSWAGEN Arteon; VOLVO XC60 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER AUDI RS5 and Q2 2.0TFSI quattro; BMW 3 Series facelift, 6 Series GT, and X3; HOLDEN Astra Sportwagon; HYUNDAI i30 N and Ioniq hybrid; JAGUAR F-Type 2.0 and XF Sportbrake; JEEP Compass and Grand Cherokee Trackhawk; KIA Sorento facelift; LEXUS CT200h facelift; McLAREN 570S Spider; MERCEDES-BENZ S-Class facelift; MITSUBISHI Eclipse; PORSCHE 911 GT3; RANGE ROVER Velar; ROLLS-ROYCE Phantom; TOYOTA Camry; VOLKSWAGEN Golf R Wolfsburg Edition Volkswagen Arteon The fancy-named replacement for the Volkswagen CC – VW’s former…

My two boys, aged 11 and 13, and I did a dollars-for-thrills comparo on specs alone of your Top Five Bantamweights (Showroom, July). A point for every $10K under $200K; power scaled one to five with the most powerful getting five; an index that divided value by weight with the lowest getting five; an index which divided value by the 0-100km/h time, with the lowest getting five points; and the 0-100km/h sprint outright, with the fastest getting five points. I think you get the idea by now. The result – two dead heats – was not totally surprising given the stratospheric price of the KTM, but it did get my boys thinking, and it was a bit of fun. We own two Suzuki Swifts, so it was a big grin…

Model Honda CR-V VTi-S AWD Engine 1498cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max Power 140kW @ 5600rpm Max Torque 240Nm @ 2000rpm-5000rpm Transmission CVT automatic Weight 1597kg 0-100km/h 9.9sec (claimed) Economy 7.4L/100km Price $35,490 On sale Now COMPACT Recreational Vehicle – that’s what CR-V stands for. And even though the scourge of ‘bracket creep’ has seen cars grow longer, wider and taller in successive generations, the all-new fifth-generation CR-V stays true to its name. At 4596mm long it’s just 66mm longer than the first-generation model that debuted in 1997, and among the key alternatives, it’s shorter than the RAV4, Forester, Koleos, Outlander and X-Trail. This helps the CR-V feel wieldy and manageable, and yet this new model has grown in a vital area – on the inside. A 40mm wheelbase stretch…

Model Renault Megane GT wagon Engine 1618cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max power 151kW @ 6000rpm Max torque 280Nm @ 2400rpm Transmission 7-speed dual-clutch Weight 1430kg 0-100km/h 7.4sec (claimed) Economy 6.0L/100km Price $39,490 On sale Now THE WINDING roads south of Albury are as good a place as any to see how the Renault Megane GT wagon compares to its similarly equipped hatch sibling. Like the Megane GT hatch, the wagon is a deceptively quick and agile car with its 4Connect steering system. Its 151kW/280Nm 1.6 turbo engine has performance that borders on hot-hatch territory, and is paired to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission that responds well to the revvy turbo’s midrange torque. The transmission does a reasonably good job of predicting and selecting the appropriate gear, but on the wet…

Model Ford Ranger FX4 Engine 3198cc 5cyl, dohc, 20v, TD Max power 147kW @ 3000rpm Max torque 470Nm @ 1750-2500rpm Transmission 6-speed automatic Weight 2250kg 0-100km/h 10.7sec (claimed) Economy 8.7L/100km Price $61,115 On sale Now THAT the Ford Ranger is a better ute than the Toyota Hilux takes some time to get used to. How do you go about beating the unbreakable legend? It turns out that getting the basics right, like offering decent ride quality, a gutsy engine, strong value, and keen utility are enough. It’s like Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson by the simple expedient of stepping to the side. The most obvious solutions are often hidden in plain sight. Ford shifted almost 31,000 4x4 Rangers last year, and almost two-thirds of them were up-spec XLT and Wildtrak…

AUSSIE chassis tuning of Kia’s rear-drive Stinger begins not in the flowing climbs of the Great Dividing Range, but deep inside Kia’s vast testing facility in Namyang, a two-hour bus haul from South Korea’s capital, Seoul. It’s the self-contained functionality of a proving ground that makes them so desirable. Here, you bolt in a new set of components, drive out the door and, a few minutes later, you’re flat out on the ride and handling circuit, unemcumbered by traffic and free of speed limits. And you have unlimited access to a head-scrambling number of competitor vehicles. As has been the case since 2010, passionate rally driver and talented automotive engineer Graeme Gambold is Kia’s go-to suspension guy. Gambold and his chassis development crew begin by plugging swathes of design data…

For a moment I wonder if Stefano Domenicali is really the right guy to be leading Lamborghini, one of the world’s most extrovert carmakers. If you have ever daydreamed of returning to your old school in triumph and finally exorcising the long-buried hurt of being passed over for sports teams, ignored by the opposite sex, and told you’ll never amount to much, with a display of your subsequent success (please say it’s not just me) – well, this arrival would do nicely. Stefano arrives at his old school in Imola in a yellow Lamborghini Huracan Performante with a police escort. The school is having a road-safety day and Stefano is the guest of honour. As he follows the police car into the grounds the crowd of kids and parents presses…

A LITTLE of what you don’t fancy does you good. At least, that’s my take on the Mini Countryman that’s now sitting in my garage. Let’s not mince words here. It’s a visually challenged thing, isn’t it? The exterior took a couple of weeks to get used to but the interior, well, it’s brown. Extravagantly, overwhelmingly slurry pit brown. I tried to find the upsides as I was handed the keys to a car that would be my daily for the next three months, but couldn’t look beyond that brown interior. And yet, after a month with the car, I find myself rather maddeningly liking it. Call it automotive Stockholm Syndrome. On the face of it, the Cooper SD All4 Countryman ought to appeal. It has a zingy 140kW diesel…

IN THIS business in which I work, it’s seen as a badge of honour to own a car; one you don’t need, that you rarely drive, and receives none of the love and attention that you originally promised it. It’s why the easiest way to spot me in a crowded room of motoring journos is to look for the rumpled bloke with the pebble-crete complexion and zero badges of honour. The last car I did buy, purely for my own pleasure, was way back when my head of hair was thick, and my Nokia phone even thicker. It was an E30 BMW 323i, a car which did see ample love, at least until I was love-tapped into a stout tree on Sydney’s lower north shore. Anyway, according to research regarding…

AFTER sinking my teeth into the E43 over the last few months, I genuinely have little to complain about, but there is a question I’ve been trying to answer: how much is the E43’s far-reaching driver-assistance tech really adding to my ownership experience? The E-Class is one of the most advanced vehicles on the road, and that’s central to its sales pitch, but on a day-to-day basis only some of it has proven useful so far. Benz stops short of using the term ‘selfdriving’ for its Drive Pilot systems because it gives customers the wrong idea about how much of their attention is required when the car is in control, and therein lies the rub: the answer is still ‘all of it’. As a party trick with somebody new in…

WHO’S AUSTRALIA’S fastest growing car manufacturer? You’re looking at him: expatriate Englishman David Brim, the 40-year-old CEO of Tomcar. The Melbourne-based enterprise has produced only about 200 of its off-road buggies since manufacturing kicked-off in 2012, but Brim intends for Tomcar to be one day producing 5000 to 8000 per year. By the end of this year, of course, he’ll be Australia’s largest car manufacturer. “We’re the fastest growing car company in Australia because everyone else is closing, but I want to hold the flag high and be a vanguard,” Brim says. “I want to see in 15 or 20 years, dozens of companies like Tomcar here in Australia, manufacturing a whole variety of mobility solutions.” Brim, a Londoner whose family has interests in publishing and property, came to Australia…