Sommaire pour August 2024 de Wheels

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SO MANY SMALL cars have been cut from manufacturers’ ranges lately that it’s a sad fact of life that there are thousands of buyers in Australia who own a car in this class but won’t be able to replace it like-for-like when the time comes. There’s no longer a Ford Fiesta, Kia Rio or Nissan Micra, and more besides – almost 30 percent of the small-car sector has been binned. There is, however, a new Suzuki Swift, and this is it. And it’s good. It’s a conventional small-car offering and very Suzuki – light and frugal, with a strong list of equipment and keen pricing. The small-car share of the overall UK and Australian markets has indeed withered. As Dylan Campbell noted in his column last month, in 2009 the…

BY THE TIME you read this, you’ll have already seen the new BMW M5 uncamouflaged. And boy oh boy, is there a lot of it to see. The G90-generation M5 is the first M5 to stretch beyond five metres in length. And in terms of width? Compared with the already expansive 5 Series on which BMW’s latest super-sedan is based, the wheelarches are swollen by 75mm at the front and 48mm at the back. Had such a car been released three years ago, it wouldn’t have been an M5 but an M7 – the one product M division has never even attempted. As for weight, we will get to that topic in a moment because it’s the most eye-widening statistic of them all. Yet if M division has made an…

I SUPPOSE IT had to happen at some point. Despite having held a driving licence for 37 years, I had somehow escaped – and is there any delicate way of phrasing this? – being rear-ended in a car. Well that run of luck came to an end on Wellington Road in Melbourne last month, mere days after collecting my new Genesis GV80 long termer. It all seems so banal, of course. The snatch of locked brakes on the wet road and then the impact from behind. I pulled to the side of the road and there was an old Mercedes-Benz C-Class looking distinctly the worse for wear. Expecting a corresponding amount of damage to the Genesis, I was pleasantly surprised to see just a bit of cracking of the plastics…

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.…

FRESH FACTS FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED IN THE CAR WORLD THIS MONTH 1. The latest BMW M5 weighs 570kg more than its predecessor. That’s more than the cumulative weight gains of the five previous generational updates (435kg in total), from the 1430kg E28 to the 1865kg F90. 2. Is the Toyota Hilux’s age finally catching up with it? Ahead of a 2026 reboot, Hilux has slipped against the fresher Ford Ranger at the halfway point of 2024. Hilux sales were up 1.5% on last year, but Ranger recorded a massive 29.6% uptick versus 2023, ending the six-month period 5016 sales up on the Toyota. 3. If you own a BYD Atto 3, Seal or Dolphin, there’s good news. All now get wireless Apple CarPlay via an over-the-air update. 4. Missed…

THE 2025 Hyundai Inster micro electric car has been unveiled at the Busan motor show in South Korea ahead of its Australian launch. Based on the internal-combustion Casper hatch revealed in 2021, the Inster – meaning “intimate” and “innovative” – is intended to rival European electric A-segment cars like the Fiat 500e and Dacia Spring, as well as China’s BYD Dolphin Mini/Seagull models. It is due in Australia at the start of 2025 with a pricing target “below” 25,000 euros (around AU$40,000 before on-road costs), similar to larger electric hatches from China, like the GWM Ora ($35,990 drive-away), BYD Dolphin ($36,890 before on-road costs) and MG 4 ($39,990 drive-away). The most affordable Hyundai electric car currently sold in Australia is the Kona Electric small SUV, which starts from $54,000 before…

BENEDETTO VIGNA couldn’t have been any clearer. Speaking at the unveiling of its gleaming e-building facility in Maranello, Ferrari’s CEO was blunt about how the company needs to move in the future. “When you feel too confident about the future, then you fail… You know what is the biggest risk to Ferrari? That since we were successful, that we believe that we will always be successful.” Humility hasn’t always been a characteristic of Ferrari. Oftentimes it’s been quite the opposite. Projecting an implacable shell of Rossa Corsa confidence carried the brand when the times weren’t as good as they could have been. Luca Montezemolo’s reset when he assumed the Ferrari president role in 1991 was a moment of truthful introspection. Vigna’s position is different. The company is riding high, buoyed…

MG WAS ESTABLISHED specifically for building sports cars, yet the last time an all-new one bearing that famous octagon emerged, your reviewer wasn’t even born. So the Cyberster is a big deal. Further to that, MG under Chinese ownership has been transformed into a maker of budget-conscious family cars. Further again, this is the first electric roadster with a sensible price tag. Goodness, where to start? Oddly, in 1924, because MG is launching the Cyberster to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The idea dates back to 2017, when designers at SAIC’s London studio sketched a vision of a modern MG B. They weren’t told to: it was a passion project. Indeed, the program was nearly cancelled several times, especially during Covid. But when SAIC chairman Chen Hong saw the reaction to…

ARE WE SICK of SUVs yet? The sales figures say “haha, no”, yet the imminent arrival of Ford’s new Tourneo makes a compelling argument as family-friendly transport – and one that might entice at least a few of us to trade in the Kluger or Prado and get ourselves into a boxy bus instead. The Tourneo takes aim at similarly sized people-movers with commercial-vehicle origins such as the Toyota Granvia, Hyundai Staria and Volkswagen Multivan, as well as the reigning king of the people-mover segment, the Kia Carnival. This is new territory for the Blue Oval’s Australian arm, with the only Transit-based personnel carriers to date being utilitarian buses and dual-cab variants of the commercial van range. Does the Tourneo have a warmer vibe than those efforts? And with the…

LET’S NOT CALL it panic stations. Call it standing in the remote Simpson Desert on a Sunday night with pieces of Ranger Raptor sitting in the dust, crews sliding under the car as they tried to figure out what the hell had just happened. Only hours earlier the Ford squad was on a serious high. In 2023, the same crew with the same car – the actual Ford Ranger Raptor that took a class win in the 2022 Baja 1000 – claimed victory in the Production 4WD Class of the legendary Finke Desert race. US off-road legend Brad Lovell drove the Raptor with – get this – 16-year-old son Byam to a new Finke course record on the second and final leg to take victory on debut for Ranger. You’d…

WHAT DOES THIS button even do? Let’s rewind a bit. You’d have thought that working with cars for 27 years as an automotive photographer I’d have been reasonably up to speed on how cars work, but I’ll admit it – I’m floundering a little with this plug-in hybrid Mitsubishi Outlander. Let’s just say it’s a steep learning curve. I’ll concede that driving and testing vehicles isn’t the same as photographing them. With the former, you tend to stand in fewer cow pats, your suntan is pretty feeble, and the way that you interact with the car is very different. Put somebody like Ponch or Dylan in a car and they’ll figure it out in minutes. Me? I’ll take a bit longer, and that’s why I reckon I’m going to be…

THERE ARE CERTAIN constructs that really aren’t all that to boast about. In Victoria, I once chanced upon the world’s tallest moss. Likewise, the smallest SUV sounds likely to leave you overwhelmingly underwhelmed. To that end, we bid sayonara to the MF-generation Suzuki Ignis. It had been predicted for some time, with reports from November of last year quoting dealers who were adamant that the Ignis was about to be given the hoof due to its lack of Autonomous Emergency Braking function. Suzuki’s Australian arm denied it, in a kind of mealy-mouthed manner, and yet here we are. “Ignis is at the end of its lifecycle,” said Suzuki Australia’s general manager Michael Pachota at the new Swift launch. The reason? Something something AEB. Which is strange because UK cars get…

AUSTRALIA’S KEI-TASTROPHE Looking to buy a Japanese kei-car? That process might just have become a lot more complicated. In a stunning about-face, the Australian government has suspended import documents for a number of models that do not pass side-impact crash safety standards. Thousands of cars have been wrongly certified over the past two years, according to a report from Drive. These cars won’t be recalled, but customers waiting for cars on order have been left in limbo. Imported under an environmental criterion, the kei cars that have been suspended entirely include the Suzuki Spacia, Suzuki Hustler, Mitsubishi eK X Space, Daihatsu Taft and the Nissan Sakura. SON OF VICTOR, MATE OF MUNCHER Remember the one-off Aston Martin Victor? It seems that the good Mr Stroll has decided to spread a…

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 don’t think there is any ‘Yowzer’ about the fuel consumption of the BYD Sealion YOU SAY that the BYD Sealion 6 can do 1100km on a 60-litre fuel tank. My Toyota Corolla SX Hybrid sedan does 1100km regularly on a 40-litre tank. I don’t think there is any “Yowzer” about the fuel consumption of the BYD Sealion. BYD also claims 80km on electric-only range while my Corolla does 40 to 50km on a full electric charge. I don’t have the inconvenience of plugging and unplugging an electric charging cable as the Corolla charges while it’s driving. I…

What do you reckon is the most obscure Ford Laser ever made? The mind-your-heels Carla Zampatti editions? The long-lived but mostly ignored Laser wagon? Or the boosted, all-paw KE Laser poster child, fully imported directly from Mazda in Japan rather than assembled by Ford in Sydney? I reckon you’d be pretty accurate, at least recognition-wise, if your instinct said option number three – the 1987-90 TX3 4WD Turbo, the most expensive ’80s Laser ever sold in Australia. But how has the greater populous managed to forget the hardest-charging, most technology-packed four-cylinder Ford up to that point? First, some background. The Laser (and its Meteor sedan sister) was born out of an economically driven desire by Ford Australia to expand its small-car market penetration via a cultural shift away from European-derived…

AS OUR world becomes increasingly fractured, so too does the line-up of Volvo’s sporty-premium offshoot, Polestar. Each new Polestar EV introduces a fresh consecutive number, and while that numerical nameplate strategy might make parts-ordering or vehicle chronology relatively easy, it ain’t so simple out in the real world. After Polestar 1 (rare, expensive, high-performance coupe), 2 (medium EV liftback-sedan) and 3 (large premium SUV) comes the 4 (upper-medium coupe SUV), the supposedly imminent 5 (expensive, performance-focused four-door GT) and the 6 (a two-plus-two performance roadster, based on a shortened version of the 5’s aluminium platform with shared 800-volt architecture). Of those undoubtedly appealing models, however, only the five-year-old Polestar 2 (which has just been updated for MY25) and the all-new 4 (tested here in early-production form) will be able to…

CARDS ON TABLE TIME. I’ve never been to Le Mans before. Despite living a mere two-and-a-half-hour drive from the track for many years, it was never somewhere that appealed to me and that’s photographer David Bailey’s fault. As a little tacker, I’d watched a documentary that featured Bailey, possibly the world’s most jaded man, being commissioned to capture the heroism of the drivers at Le Mans. As he slouched into the paddock, he glared at the fans crowding the fences and sneered: “Look at all those tossers in their polyester jackets,” or words to that effect. To him, they were just clutter, visual noise. And the die was cast. I didn’t want to be one of the tossers. Well, who would? Friends would invite me to the race, but I…

THIS MATCH-UP feels like a bit of a barometer for the car industry. We’ve done BMW 5 Series versus Mercedes-Benz E-Class many times before. Amazingly, the first such comparo in the Wheels archive came surprisingly late. In December 1988 we compared W124 260E with a BMW E34 525i and that was the first of many. Various trends, types of cars and entire car makers have come and gone, but this pairing has felt like such a constant. It charts not only how cars have inflated in size but also the rate of inflation – like a classier version of the Big Mac Index. More than anything, it reflects the preferred powertrain of the day. Our original contenders in Peter McKay’s review came with straight-six petrol engines, moving to the big…

IT’S EASY TO romanticise the great Aussie road trip. Big days, big kays, and a big brown land to explore are as deeply sown into our cultural DNA as Akubras and meat pies. But as much as road trips are about car games and creating family memories, they’re also about something else. And that is packing. Few families take this as seriously as we do, or pass it down through generations so steadfastly as the Inwoods. Get it right and packing a car delivers the same sense of deep satisfaction as dropping in the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle or nailing that final move in Tetris. Get it wrong, as I once witnessed my father do when I was a young boy, and it can mean the spectacular turfing…