Sommaire pour March 2023 de Wheels

NEVER HAVE I agonised over a Wheels Car Of The Year decision quite like this one. I’ll be completely open about that. In the past, I’ve built up a clear picture of what was rising to the top of the running order whereupon I’d hand a voting slip to the editor, who’ disappear off to the traps to tally the numbers and declare the winner. Easy. When Ged Bulmer was in the big chair, he did likewise, remaining shtum when asked what the winner was by one of the judges. “You know I’m not about to tell you that,” he fired back, observing Wheels’ time-honoured confidentiality ahead of the big announcement. “But was the voting unanimous?” shot back the judge. “Yep,” said Bully, before realising his error. This year the…

THE LIVERY reveal for Red Bull’s 2023 car was unexpectedly glitzy. And it was held in New York. Attendees had been clued in beforehand that they should be prepared for something more than a new paint job for the RB19. And so it proved. Red Bull announced a collaboration with Ford that would see both Red Bull and its junior team, Alpha Tauri, use Ford-branded powertrains from 2026. Scheduled to run until at least 2030, this deal would see Ford provide technical input, with the Blue Oval looking to bolster Red Bull Powertrains’ expertise on the hybrid side of the engine. The 2026 rule set not only mandates 100-percent sustainable fuels but also an increase to almost 50 percent in the electrical component of the powertrain. Red Bull’s Milton Keynes…

BRITISH AUTHOR Lady Mary Montagu once said “Civility costs nothing, and buys everything” but spend a short amount of time on Australia’s roads and you may draw the conclusion that courtesy and civility are actually as expensive as To’ak chocolate-coated plutonium rolled in Martian saffron. Perhaps your impression of our fellow road users is different, but in my experience, ‘common courtesy’ from Australian drivers is about as common as unicorn turds. I recently saw a meme that read “old mate would rather die than let you merge” and I’m afraid it’s funny because it’s not that far from the truth. Unfortunately, the less funny side is the effect is has in practice. As Wheels readers and decent motorists, we understand that when you see a closed lane ahead, the only…

ALMOST A year after the W223-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class wowed us with its all-round excellence and supreme elegance – prompting the label of ‘best sedan in the world’ – BMW has responded with an all-new seventh-generation (G70) 7 Series. Simplified to just two variants for Australia – one petrol, one electric – the imposing new 7 Series has bucked convention and reimagined what a flagship sedan should be for BMW. Not only is it the first truly modern 7 Series design since the Chris Bangle-penned E65 of 2001, animated by an intimidating front-end, Munich’s statement sedan also rejects conservatism with its packaging. It’s offered in just one super-sized body style in all markets, rather than the short- and long-wheelbase variants of the past. At almost 5.4m long, riding on a slightly…

AUDI A3 35 TFSI SEDAN 1.5 4cyl turbo, FWD, 7spd dual clutch, 110kW/250Nm, 1320kg, 5.0L/100km, $49,400 Took its sweet time getting here but are svelte looks and tidy handling worth the wait? AUDI RS E-TRON GT Dual motor, AWD, 2spd auto, 440kW/830Nm, 2345kg, 20.2kWh/100km, $248,200 Twinned with the Porsche Taycan, so brings EV supercar sizzle to COTY AUDI RS3 SPORTBACK 2.5 5cyl turbo, AWD, 7spd dual clutch, 294kW/500Nm, 1570kg, 8.3L/100km, $91,391 Half a V10 makes for a whole lotta hatch; now with more advanced drivetrain tech BYD ATTO 3 LONG RANGE Single motor, FWD, 1spd rdctn, 150kW/310Nm, 1750kg, 16.0kWh/100km, $51,011 Controversial EV newcomer brings value, brave cabin and sorted dynamics. But a COTY? CUPRA FORMENTOR VZ 2.0 4cyl turbo, FWD, 7spd dual-clutch, 180kW/370Nm, 1608kg, 6.9L/100km, $53,790 Spain’s take on the…

ACOTY WINNER in original form in 2012, the GR86’s pre-match sparkle was tempered by the Subaru BRZ’s performance last year – still an incredible drive, but the follow-up album rarely has the sledgehammer impact of the first. As for the Nissan Z, its mere existence is cause for elation for the Wheels team. On the first day, in a meeting room running through specification sheets, the writing was already on the wall for the pair of sports cars. Neither has a current, valid safety rating. All is not lost, because we know the GR86 and Z ought to offer spectacular drives – after watching the other judges step out of the two-door sports cars wearing widescreen grins, I was excited to sample both. I got my chance in the sports…

WHAT A TERRIBLE day to have eyes,” chuntered editor Enright as he returned to the Car of the Year judges’ shark tank. He was referring to the beluga-like, navy blue Tesla Model Y sitting all alone on the fringe of the Lang Lang skidpan, looking like a giant egg laid by some enormous prehistoric bird. Luckily for the Model Y – currently Australia’s favourite electric vehicle – Car of the Year isn’t a motoring Miss, or Mister, Universe contest. Styling is for the market to judge. Instead, the much-hyped Model Y was an instant invite having come effectively runner-up in our recent EV megatest (pipped only by the Kia EV6, our reigning COTY champ). Sharing about 75 percent of its parts with the Model 3 sedan, the Model Y is…

“Everest is far more composed than than Ranger through the lane change” ALEX INWOOD THE JUDGES’ quotes were telling. “Really well thought-out. Ford has not just copied best practice in SUVs; it’s established best practice in many areas,” noted one. “Software has been developed by Australians for our conditions. You can feel the difference, especially in the effectiveness of the ABS calibration on gravel,” said another. “The chassis stability system’s tuning is outstandingly effective in Australian conditions.” Yep, they absolutely loved the Territory back in the February 2005 issue, marking the last time Ford walked away with the Wheels Car of the Year award. Fast-forward 18 years and there’s a strange kind of symmetry that marks the Blue Oval’s long-overdue return to the top step of the podium. The Territory…

EDITOR ENRIGHT has vacated the Hyundai i30 Sedan N for something significantly chunkier, so I was ecstatic when the keys to the sleek bright blue Hyundai were tossed to me. Not of the anticipation of something new, instead because the i30 Sedan N, to me, is a well-known quantity. I was lucky enough to be one of the first in the country to steer the N Division’s sports sedan at the Australian launch at the end of 2021, digging even deeper into it again as this very car passed through MOTOR’s final PCOTY in 2022. Having migrated across the aisle to Wheels since then, it’s only natural that cars with this level of dynamic focus pass through a little less frequently. So hopping back into the i30 Sedan’s sculpted sports…

REAL DRIVERS don’t rate the Audi TT. That’s what we’re told, isn’t it? That if you’re serious about driving, a Porsche Cayman or a Lotus Evora or one of many other alternatives was preferable to the rather fey TT. Yet strangely those same voices would parrot eulogies about the Volkswagen Golf GTI, a car that was mechanically identical to some TT variants yet was saddled with a poorer centre of gravity. How curious. Still, sales have been healthy enough to support the TT across a quarter of a century, Ingolstadt only now drawing the curtain on the nameplate with Final Edition versions in the UK. That’s quite an innings, divided between the Golf Mk IV based original 8N (1998-2006), the second-gen 8J that sat on Golf Mk5 bones (2006-2014) and…

DUE Q2 INEOS GRENADIER Here’s a familiar script: delayed deliveries and price increases. Yes, the Defender-inspired Ineos Grenadier 4x4, which has been available for Australian order since May ’22, now won’t lob until the second quarter of this year. And prices start at $97K, up from $84,500 when the order books opened. But we have driven it, and can confirm it’s worthy… DUE Q1 CHERY OMODA 5 Chinese brand Chery, which left Australia in 2015, is back for another bite. The model to relaunch the brand is the Omoda 5, a small SUV powered by a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol four making 115kW and 230Nm, and driving the front wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch. Chery has also confirmed that an EV will arrive in mid-2024, with a hybrid still under consideration. DUE…

AS AUSSIE AUTHORITIES honourably yet tepidly pursue ‘Towards Zero’ road fatality programs, the focus is on the same old five culprits: speeding, drug and alcohol use, not wearing a seatbelt, fatigue and distraction. I’d like to propose a sixth: people not giving the remotest damn about driving. In Australia, this is endemic. It’s baked into Australian driving culture like that bit of lasagne crust on the casserole dish that refuses to budge. In terms of it being a skill, the average Aussie thinks of driving in a binary way: once you merely know how to do it, you’re Max Verstappen. Humorously, the NSW Government’s strategy of reaching zero road fatalities is the ‘Safe System Approach’ focusing on safer roads, safer speeds, safer vehicles and safer people. Safer people is glazed…

HAVING TURNED 50 last May, the BMW M division is still in celebration mode. This year, the Garching power brokers are going to spoil their fan base with the new M2, M3 CS, M4 CSL and M3 Touring to be followed by the XM flagship, i7 M60 and X1 M35i. Ever since the first E30-based 3 Series Touring popped up in 1986, the brand community hoped for an M version of the five-door holdall. But although the go-faster branch had in fact built an M3 Touring prototype derived from the E46 platform which spawned the very first CSL, management took fright at their own courage and blackflagged the project at the eleventh hour. Disillusioned by the slow-selling M5 Touring (E34 of 1992-’95 and E61 of 2007-’10), the M3 Touring was…

I’D HAZARD A GUESS that, prior to COTY 2023 kicking off, not one judge was able to confidently predict the winner. We haven’t had a field this open in years because there are usually one or two cars that we know are going to perform well, but this time was different and, as a result utterly intriguing. Yes, the contender list was stacked with talent, but nominating which would be the last vehicle standing? That’s one for the ‘too hard’ basket. The sight of 26 gleaming vehicles lined up beneath blue skies at the Lang Lang proving ground felt like the most welcome of throwbacks to pre-pandemic times. But for all that is familiar, there have been some subtle updates to the formula. For the very first time, the COTY…

THE LANE-CHANGE witch’s hats on the Lang Lang skidpan looked impossibly tight and narrow, as if arranged for a go kart, as the Nissan Qashqai approached. The speedo read 100km/h – way too fast for a compact SUV. Every sinew – every cytoplasm – screamed “brake”, “what the hell are you doing?” and at least six different expletives. A swerve left, a quick swerve right, and then left again, a couple of graunches of ESC later and it was all over. No witches hats harmed, no Qashqais on their roof. In fact, the small Nissan SUV had sliced through the slalom like it’d found a loophole in the laws of physics. Dynamics of these high-riding vehicles are not what they used to be. SUVs are Australia’s most popular type of…

THE FORD Ranger is widely regarded as the nation’s one-tonne royal in what is consistently the most hotly contested vehicle segment in the country. There’s a natural symbiosis at play here – the Ranger is important to Australians (just look at the sales data, where it accounted for 71 percent of Ford’s total 2022 sales volume), but Australians are important to the Ranger, too. Ford’s local engineering hub, the largest left in Australia in the wake of our local industry, played an integral role developing the latest T6.2 platform. It underpins the esteemed Ranger XLT V6, demented Raptor, as well as the pair of Everests we have here in attendance. Developed in Australia, and bound for 180 markets globally, it’s Ranger and Everest that arguably achieved what our homegrown heroes…

MAKING THE final four at COTY after vanquishing seven tough combatants in our medium SUV Megatest (Wheels, February ’23) was enough to put some early scepticism towards the T33 Nissan X-Trail behind us. Reputation-wise, its T32 predecessor has a lot to answer for. It sold well, but there wasn’t much that got you too excited, apart from the price. The new car shares its CMF-C platform with the Mitsubishi Outlander, a car that wasn’t invited when it was eligible in 2021, but as you heard from Campbell earlier, Nissan’s family-friendly SUV is a more considered and well-rounded vehicle that sailed through static assessment and Proving Ground challenges. That attractive V-Motion grille, sharp LED headlights, squat proportions and bordering-on-premium cabin presentation make it a shoo-in for most improved. That’s not all.…

THE SLOGAN ‘Simply clever’ may belong to sister brand Skoda, but this new Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace Adventure variant that launched late last year is fairly bloody clever, too. Of course, as we’ll cover in this diary of my three months with the Tiguan, your perspective on that may vary. But first, let’s get up to speed on what this Adventure grade of the long-wheelbase Allspace represents in the line-up. Priced from $51,990 before on-road costs, the Adventure enters as the seventh variant in the Tiguan Allspace range, but it’s not intended as a permanent offering. Rather, it exists as an expedient solution to the ongoing semiconductor shortage, while also introducing an unusual combination of qualities in a configuration intended to test the market’s preferences. For starters, and perhaps most importantly…

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 TRANSMISSIONM, 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. Look us up! It’s back and bigger than ever. Independently compiled by Ian Lowry, the Wheels Index has been updated for 2022 and now…

01 MORE, NO BULL Seems Lamborghini Aventador-based special editions are a bit like a John Farnham “final farewell” concert tour, except they’re easier on the ear. Last year the company indicated the Ultimae was the last of the line, but no, the Invencible coupe and Auténtica roadster are absolutely, definitely the swangsong for the 573kW/720Nm V12 in the Aventador’s carbonfibre tub. The carbon-bodied specials are a very limited run (er, one of each) and arrive with POA price tags just as the new V12 plug-in hybrid powertrain is set to be unveiled. SONY AND HONDA CHIP IN In an era when chips, software and processing power are every bit as important as EV performance, the news last year of a partnership between Honda and Sony seemed logical enough. Now the…

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) “I rolled the auction dice and was the highest bidder on a 1997 V8 Commodore” FLEET FOOTED I HAVE EMBARKED on a journey to reach motoring Nirvana – a place where my driving desires are no longer left unfulfilled. What triggered this? I was staggered to see that a hybrid RAV4 would set me back $75K when shopping for a car. For those dollars I would get a competent SUV but it would only be a daily commuter. I couldn’t throw it around a track. It wouldn’t stir the emotions. I’d be too afraid to park it at…

THE 2023 GWM Tank 300 Hybrid has landed in Australian dealerships from $55,990 drive-away to become the first ever mass-production hybrid off-roader sold here. Tank is a GWM spin-off brand in China, but here in Australia it falls under the parent moniker and uses the same ‘P71’ ladder-frame underpinnings from the GWM Ute Cannon range. There are five models overseas, but the 300 is first to hit Aussies shores with the Prado-sized 500 likely to follow suit. Measuring 4.68 metres long and riding on a 2.75m wheelbase, the Tank 300 hybrid is essentially China’s answer to the Jeep Wrangler. The Tank’s price and looks alone are pretty attractive for a recreational off-roader, but it’s the 258kW power figure and 615Nm of torque that are the most headline-grabbing. This is a…

ANDY ENRIGHT With over a quarter of a century of road-testing smarts, editor Enright is rarely shy of expressing an opinion on the natural order of things at COTY. Sometimes it’s heartfelt, sometimes it’s a wry hand grenade lobbed in to spark discussion. Either way, it’s rarely dull. ALEX INWOOD Is there anything this bloke can’t do? Top-drawer road tester, video presenter, head of Wheels online, devoted dad, owner of immaculate coif and a big editorial brain, Inwood took on the logistics for this year’s event and delivered the smoothest-running COTY any of us can remember. JEZ SPINKS Spinks is the senior rating on deck at this year’s COTY, so we’ll pretend we didn’t notice him sideways in the Audi E-Tron GT RS on Lang Lang’s dirt course. Steadfastly maintains…

AUSTRALIANS MAY not yet be switching from pumps to plugs en masse, but exponential growth has shifted electric-car sales out of niche territory. Even against a backdrop of limited charging infrastructure and a dearth of truly affordable options, more than 33,000 electric cars were sold last year – a 550 percent annual increase that would be more staggering without the caveat of Tesla sales being counted officially for the first time. Three in every five EVs sold in 2022 was either a Model 3 sedan or Model Y SUV, and the latter is represented here as one of our favourite new electric cars from the past 12 months. It’s a potential COTY dark horse considering the Model 3 was a 2020 finalist. Reflecting the diverse offerings in this segment, the…

SMALL CARS USED to win COTY all the time. Between 2009 and 2016 nothing bigger than a VW Golf occupied the top step of the podium, but since then the humble hatch seems to have fallen on tough times. Ford has abandoned the sector, winding up sales of its Fiesta and Focus, and Hyundai doesn’t import the standard i20 and is about to pull the shutters down on i30 imports. But while the mass market has suffered, there’s still breathing room for more premium players, of which we’ve assembled three of 2023’s best right here in the chiselled shapes of the Audi A3, the Peugeot 308 and the Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo. Except it wasn’t just an A3 we invited along. So impressed were we with the RS3 Sportback that…

COTY WINNER debate, Wheels HQ. Spent coffee cups litter the table and with the final vote looming large, the mood amongst the seven judges is intense. We’ve been here for hours already and after some fierce back-and-forth, our group of finalists has been narrowed down to two potential winners: the Cupra Formentor or the Ford Everest. This is rarefied air for Cupra. For a brand to rock up to Car of the Year and snag the trophy in its very first attempt is a feat that’s only been achieved once, when Lexus turned out the landmark LS 400 way back in 1990. By now, of course, you’ll have deduced that the Cupra has ultimately fallen short but it was a close thing. In the final ballot the Formentor secured a…

IT’S BEEN a marathon stint for the Outlander in the Wheels garage. Mitsu’s fresh and much improved fourth-gen Outlander first joined our fleet in February 2022 and since then we’ve thrown the kitchen sink at it. We’ve covered 13,140km, burnt 1083L of fuel, taken it on four interstate road trips, hung photographers out it (fully harnessed, of course!), driven it on tarmac and dirt, and also exposed it, on a daily basis, to the greatest test any mid-size SUV can face: children. We’ve also explored both powertrain options having started in the 2.5-litre atmo petrol before moving into the smoother, quieter and thriftier (although more expensive) plug-in hybrid you see here. But with its departure date now looming, the time has come to answer some big questions. Namely, should you…

IMAGINE YOU had one shot at describing a Ferrari to someone – say, a Martian – who’d never heard of the brand. Would you show them a Formula 1 car – Lauda, or Schumacher? Or maybe a 250 GTO sports racer, or a front-engined V12 grand tourer like the GTB/4 Daytona? An F40? We’d pick the Ferrari 308 GTB, which was launched in 1975 in initial Berlinetta guise and two years later in the GTS (spyder) variant. Ferrari 12-cylinder snobs may wince at the 308’s mid-mounted V8 and its lineage from the unloved Dino 308 GT4 2+2 and the elegant but underpowered V6 Dino 246 GT – both of which Enzo Ferrari initially refused to put his surname to. But the two-seater 308 was pointy, Pininfarina-styled and one of the…