Sommaire pour January 2024 de Wheels

MORE THAN 2 million Teslas have been recalled in the US for ‘Autopilot’ safety concerns. The recall impacts owners of 2012-2023 Tesla Model S, 2016-2023 Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3 and 2020-2023 Model Y fitted with the Full Self-Driving (FSD) software including ‘Autosteer’. “In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature’s controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse of the SAE Level 2 advanced driver-assistance feature,” said the recall report. “Specifically, the investigation found that Tesla’s unique design of its Autopilot system can provide inadequate driver engagement and usage controls,” a spokesperson from not-for-profit US safety body NHSTA (National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration) said. At the time of publication, there has not been a recall issued for Teslas sold in Australia,…

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DO YOU KNOW the secret?” asked the Lamborghini driving instructor, conspiratorially. Given my frankly lamentable driving in the Diablo SV around Imola, I thought that I’d made it reasonably obvious that the secret was manifestly lost on me. As a twenty-something journalist with zero experience of driving supercars on track, I’d been subjected to the ultimate indignity of the instrcutor asking me to drive the car round the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari solely in third gear so I wouldn’t shock the driveline with my klutzy downchanges. The notes on my my braking read “violento e impreciso” which required little in the way of translation. I could almost feel the ghost of Ayrton Senna facepalming in horror with each pass of Tamburello. The Diablo SV wasn’t even supposed to…

CARS FROM China are shaking up the world of electric vehicles, and now they’re disrupting segments such as the retro-look, off-road SUV. At $60,990 drive-away for the range topping Ultra Hybrid, the Great Wall Motors Tank 300 undercuts vehicles in the same vein by tens of thousands of dollars. To get a five-door Jeep Wrangler, you’ll need at least $81,450 (before on-roads), while an Ineos Grenadier starts from $97,000 and the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, well, you know what they say – if you have to ask. A Suzuki Jimny, despite the addition of a longer wheelbase five-door variant seems as if it could probably fit in the Tank’s glovebox. That’s not to mention Great Wall has offered a hybrid, petrol-electric powertrain before any of the above – Jeep’s plug-in Wrangler 4xe…

01 Toyota Prado DUE June 2024 MODEL Prado PRICE From $80K+ IF WHEELS READER correspondence is anything to go by, the new Prado, due in June, is Australia’s most keenly anticipated new vehicle for 2024. With good reason too. The latest Prado has seriously stepped up. The ‘250 Series’ Prado rides on a TNGA-F body-on-frame chassis, shared with the LandCruiser 300, Lexus GX and LX, and the Tacoma and Tundra utes. It’s no great surprise, then, that its wheelbase is identical to that of the LandCruiser proper. Some markets see two separate aesthetic treatments but Toyota Australia has rejected the retro round headlamp front end for a more modern grille and rectangular lights. Under the bonnet expect to find a 48-volt mild-hybrid version of the current 2.8-litre four-cylinder diesel with…

CUSTOMISATION is king, or is it? The M2 has 10 adjustable parameters with between two and 10 different settings for everything including brake feel. The brake-by-wire Corvette comes close with four set modes adjusting sound to Suspension from Tour to Track with two fully customisable configurations: My and Z modes. Comparatively, the Supra is simple with Normal and customisable Sport button that adjusts throttle, damper, steering, and aural behaviour. The Emira is less complex again, only adjusting the tri-modal exhaust, stability control and throttle response over its three programs. In a world where you can adjust almost every parameter, the Emira’s simplicity is refreshing.…

IF YOU’VE BEEN fortunate enough to attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed, you’ll know the magic of that event doesn’t really lay in watching the cars blaze up the hill. The truly gleeful part about Goodwood, and the thing that blows the minds of first-time visitors, is wandering through the paddock. There you’re just as likely to trip over a Singer 911, or happen upon 12 McLaren F1s parked casually on the lawn, as you are to accidentally graze shoulders with Derek Bell as he slides into a Porsche 917 Longtail. The proximity and trust afforded at Goodwood feels alarming at first, especially for an Australian, as we’re usually barricaded from such precious things by velvet ropes and self-important people in high-vis vests. But at Goodwood you could actually climb…

Price as tested $103,370 This month 1015km Overall 1370km THE ROAD TRIP is an integral part of Aussie culture. It represents freedom; horizons unexplored. But is that even a possibility in an electric car? I recently pointed the Genesis GV70’s nose towards Bright in the Victorian High Country; a detsination some 320km from the Zlotin front door. The idea of travelling to Bright in an electric car initially filled me with hesitation. I even suggested taking my partner’s well-loved and mud-filled 2015 Isuzu MU-X instead. That’s how you know this princess was desperate for an alternative mode of transport. My concerns centred around the uncertainties of electric vehicle charging, especially on what I anticipated to be a busy weekend for road trips. It was also a hot weekend, and I…

MAZDA HAD SOME extremely modest expectations for the MX-30. When the company’s first battery-electric vehicle launched in Australia in 2021, a quota of 100 cars was sent to the factory. That’s it. Tesla would expect to sell 100 Model Ys in Australia in a decent afternoon, but Mazda hoped it could sell 100 MX-30s in totality. It even managed to exceed that target which, I guess, is one surefire way of declaring the project some sort of success. The MX-30’s issue was easy to pinpoint. Range. We ran one as a long termer and found that it would typically offer 168km on a full charge of the bonsai 35.5kWh battery. At this point it’s worth mentioning that the MX-30 wasn’t solely offered with purely battery power. The E35 electric model was,…

THE NARDO Handling Track in southern Italy is 3.9 miles of mostly fast or very fast turns nestled at the bottom of the Nardo Ring like a wonky arch in a goldfish bowl. For a pro driver to lap 2.8 seconds faster here in virtually the same car might require upgrades like stickier tyres, stiffer suspension and upgraded brakes. The Lamborghini Huracan Evo RWD test mule I’m driving has none of this (even stability control is entirely inactive), but it has achieved that same improvement with simply the flick of a switch. It’s a huge gap, one that’s not all that far off the 3.7sec advantage Lamborghini claimed for the Evo over the standard Huracan a few years back. Now Lamborghini chief technical officer Rouven Mohr wants me to feel…

Unveiled at the 1996 Geneva Motor Show, the Diablo SV-R was a lightweight competition version of the SV built for the Lamborghini Supertrophy. This race series ran for four years with its inaugural round being the as a support race at Le Mans in ‘96. The 28 Diablo SV-Rs entered were built in four months alongside production SVs and featured a power bump to 397kW, thanks largely to an early version of the VVT system that would later appear on production Diablos. A six-speed manual transmission was fitted, and Supertrophy cars also featured pneumatic air jacks, a full roll cage, fixed headlamps and an uprated aero package. Weight for the race cars was 1385kg, 191kg less than an equivalent road car. In total, 31 SV-Rs were built, with a handful…

THE TESLA MODEL 3’s SUV spin-off, the Model Y, has whizzed past it in local and global sales, but the sedan remains a significant contributor to the American tech company’s automotive success. It’s no coincidence that its number of electric four-door rivals continues to grow, with the BYD Seal the latest to arrive in Australia to join the BMW i4, Hyundai Ioniq 6, and Polestar 2. Tesla has wisely chosen against complacency and given its most affordable vehicle its first major overhaul since its 2018 Aussie debut, with substantial and much needed revisions both inside and out. Although pricing has pinballed around a fair bit over the past year or so – $57,400 as recently as midyear – its 2024 starting point is $61,900 for the entry-level ‘RWD’ tested here.…

JANUARY Volvo EX30 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Kia EV9 Kia Sportage hybrid Range Rover Evoque MY24 Land Rover Discovery Sport Mitsubishi Triton FEBRUARY Polestar 3 Corvette Z06 Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster Toyota BZ4x Ford Mustang Dark Horse Audi SQ8 e-tron Volkswagen Touareg R Peugeot e-208 Hyundai i30 Sedan N facelift MARCH Toyota C-HR Subaru Solterra Mazda MX-5 update Renault Megane e-Tech Suzuki Fronx Abarth 500e Audi SQ8 e-tron Lexus GX McLaren GTS APRIL Lexus LBX Porsche 992.2 SsangYong Torres Mercedes-Benz CLE Skoda Kamiq facelift Mercedes-Benz EQA/EQB facelift Isuzu D-MAX MY24 MAY BYD Seal U Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 S E Performance Mercedes-Benz E-Class Suzuki Swift JUNE Toyota Prado Porsche Panamera BYD Ute Audi Q4 e-tron Mercedes-AMG GT JULY Skoda Enyaq Volkswagen ID.4 Volkswagen ID.5 AUGUST Polestar 4 Subaru Outback Wilderness Ford F-150…

BMW M2 The most conventional here. A nicely laid-out dash with some sporty carbon fibre. Lots of tech in the centre screen that works brilliantly, but the driver’s display is over-designed – there are too many choices! Thankfully, the M1 and M2 buttons on the steering wheel can be programmed to short-cut you straight to preferrred drive modes. Choice extends to the optional buckets that are great with the auto but the ‘nutcracker’ between the knees doesn’t work with the M2’s offset pedals. Corvette Stingray Designed by an aircraft-obsessed teenager after one too many Mountain Dews? Maybe, whatever the cause the C8’s cabin is decidedly different. Usability is okay, although the touchscreen is dimwitted and storage is limited given the ’Vette’s size. The Quartic-style steering wheel feels better in the…

Price as tested $86,990 This month 1100km Overall 1100km I HAVE A FEELING that this one might be a bit controversial. There just don’t seem to be too many fence-sitters when it comes to the Mexican-built Mustang Mach-E and that largely comes down to the idea of the car rather than the nuts and bolts of it. I have to say that I don’t really buy into the Mustang branding. The Mach-E feels as if it has more in common with a latter-day interpretation of a Mondeo than a Mustang. It’s not cheap either. This single-motor Mach-E Premium was, at launch, lineball with the dual motor Tesla Model Y Performance, both wearing a c.$91K price tag. That’s until Ford backtracked and slashed almost five grand off the asking price to…

Price as tested $103,370 This month 4602km @7.9L/100km Overall 5942km @7.9L/100km I HAVEN’T SPENT as much time in the GLC as I would have liked this month. That’s largely because I drove three Porsche Cayennes in succession and, as such, the Mercedes has done a few really big drives but has otherwise spent a lot of time parked, feeling somewhat neglected. It wasn’t totally overlooked, however, as evidenced by the speeding fine that arrived at the office. After the sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, and the gradual realisation that I wasn’t anywhere near the Mercedes that day, a bit of asking around found the culprit and said colleague is now sworn to being a good deal more observant when he borrows one of the Wheels team’s long…

MG 5’S BIG FAT ZERO Oh dear. The MG 5 has scored zero stars from ANCAP. It’s the first vehicle to net a blank since the Mitsubishi Express van in 2021. ANCAP said it wasn’t able to award any stars to the vehicle “due to a range of limitations - in both physical crash protection and active collision avoidance perfromance”. The Mahindra Scorpio also scored a zero in testing. “Both brands have misjudged the safety expectations of today’s consumers,” said ANCAP CEO Carla Hoorweg. MG Is responding with tech updates. ‘FERRARI’ MOVIE INCOMING Any movie that features Adam Driver, Patrick Dempsey and Penelope Cruz and is directed by Michael Mann (Heat, Last of the Mohicans, Collateral etc) can’t be all bad. Given that Christian Bale bailed on the project and…

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) “It did sound OK with a light burble tone but that’s the catch, it was supposed to be an EV.” SOUNDS FISHY… WAS WATCHING the latest ad for the Hyundai “EV range’. It was a cool ad, very spacey, with an Ioniq wired up with lights. Yep, all very cute but the ad concluded with the last vehicle indicated as a ‘performance vehicle vehicle, driving flashing past. It did sound OK with a light burble tone but that’s the catch, it was supposed to be an EV. Then I suppose they couldn’t end the ad in silence! Mike…

1 Active Wheel Carrier features two wheel hubs sandwiched between suspension components and each wheel 2 Each hub features two eccentric cylinders connected by bearing packs and controlled electro-mechanically. Once activated, they can adjust camber and toe simultaneously or independently – theoretically as much as 60 degrees in one second. 3 Camber can be adjusted from +2.5 to −5.5 degrees, and toe by +/-6.6 degrees – the latter means a rear-wheel steering system is no longer necessary. The system is in a prototype stage for now, but expect it to add 20-25kg to the car. 4 LDVI (Lamborghini Dynamic Vehicle Integration) is key to the system’s natural feeling – it analyses driver inputs and the car’s dynamic state to pre-emptively adjust camber and toe. The result is up to 25…

IF YOU WALK into a Porsche dealership today holding a duffle bag full of notes that add up to $220,000, there’s a very slim chance you’ll be heading home in a brand-new 718 Cayman GTS. The Stuttgart sports car specialist is all sold out for the next 18 months and salespeople aren’t taking orders (because there’s a new electrified version on the way in 2025). So what’s a sports car fan to do, if not wait patiently for a Porsche? As we’re entering the last hurrahs of combustion-engined sports cars, that might not be so wise. Enter four left-of-field options: Lotus’s Emira – the Evora replacement – with its bonded aluminium chassis and mid-mounted 3.5-litre supercharged V6 for $199,990, the brash mid-ship C8 Corvette 3LT (from $205,000), BMW’s new M2…

IF YOU’RE hell-bent on getting a Cayman, Porsche has 718 Style Editions in stock. Based on the standard Cayman, it comes with stickers, a 220kW/380Nm turbo-petrol, flat-four, Xenon headlights, with PDLS active high beams and the same 7.0-inch touchscreen for $138,325. With adaptive suspension, the 718 Style Edition is capable and balanced, yet it misses out on the steering feel of the Lotus with its electric power steering rack. It’s still a great vehicle, but for those chasing the sort of thrill the cars in this test can dish out, the Style’s flat-sounding 2.0-litre turbo four may prove underwhelming.…

Price as tested $82,900 This month 554km @6.5L/100km Overall 554km @6.5L/100k LET’S FACE IT, Mazda hasn’t exactly been a blazing pioneer when it comes to electrification. Where rival brands like Hyundai, Kia and Toyota have all forged ahead with multiple hybrid and fully electric models, Mazda has been a little slower to dive head first into the world of excited electrons. And that’s entirely understandable. Aussies tend to have a warped view of Mazda simply because it’s so successful here. Thanks to a hard-won reputation for delivering a range of cars that are reliable and fun to drive, Mazda is a sales juggernaut Down Under and has long been our country’s second-best selling brand. Globally, however, it’s a much smaller player. Crunch the number for 2022 and Mazda doesn’t even…

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