Wheels的April 2022目录

ALLOW YOUR eyes to run over the striking image above and you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s Porsche’s newest sports-car concept. The proportions, the 2+2 layout, the Speedster-like arch of the rear deck – it all has whiffs of Stuttgart. Let your gaze linger, however, and you realise this striking concept hails from Sweden, not Germany. It’s the latest creation from EV-only brand Polestar, dubbed the O2 concept, and it doesn’t only offer a tantalising glimpse into how its future models will look, but it also provides a hint at how they’ll drive. For lurking under that chiselled exterior sits a new aluminium-bonded platform set to underpin actual production models like the upcoming Polestar 5 flagship, a 2+2 sports GT that will rival the likes of the Porsche Panamera/Taycan. But…

2022 Car OF THE Year ALL THE CONTENDERS BMW iX Honda Civic Hyundai Ioniq 5 Hyundai i20 N Hyundai Palisade Hyundai Tucson Genesis GV70 Kia Carnival Kia EV6 Kia Sportage Lexus NX Mazda MX-30 Mercedes C-Class Mercedes S-Class Polestar 2 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo Skoda Octavia Subaru BRZ Subaru Outback Toyota LandCruiser Volkswagen Golf HYUNDAI i20 N DISTILLING MUCH OF the brilliance of its bigger brother – the excellent i30 N – into a smaller and more affordable package makes the i20 N one of 2022’s most exciting hot hatches. It makes a convincing on-paper case against COTY’s Function and Value criteria, too, meaning Hyundai’s pint-sized contender is tipped by many to feature at the pointy end of the process. Translating that on-paper promise into the real thing is no…

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) ‘What would past generations think if I could take one of today’s cars back in time?’ STEP BACK IN TIME I WAS RECENTLY daydreaming about when I got my first job after university and moved to Roma, Queensland, in 1978. I had a Mk1 Golf and it was the only one in town, creating much interest. It was so different to the everyday car back then. Contrast this to my work car – a HX Kingswood with a big bullbar that exacerbated the already chronic understeer. It was gutless as all hell and averaged about 18mpg (15.7L/100km). The…

01 Your Nio automatically reverses on to rollers. Small actuates nudge against the base of the tyres, perfectly positioning the car horizontally. It’s all computer controlled, with 239 sensors at work. 02 The car is automatically hoisted, a laser-guided robot unscrews the depleted battery pack, lowers it, then swaps in a freshie in reverse order. The whole process takes three minutes. 03 The depleted battery enters a stack to be recharged. Each station contains 14 battery packs. An app tells drivers what battery pack sizes are at a station, and how many are ready to go. 04 Each station can complete 312 swaps per day. In China, battery swapping is free for new Nios; second-hand Nio owners pay a kWh rate. But even then, a swap – and 400-odd kilometres…

Model Nissan X-Trail Engine 2488cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v Max power 135kW @ 6000rpm Max torque 245Nm @ 3800rpm Transmission CVT Weight 1608kg 0-100km/h 8.9sec (estimated) Economy 8.1L/100km Price From $32,000 (estimated) On sale H1 2022 WHEN THE NEW Nissan X-Trail arrives here, we’ll be somewhat familiar with the all-new model. Underneath, the fourth-generation X-Trail is based on the same architecture that underpins the incoming Qashqai and the latest Mitsubishi Outlander. On top of that, designers have retained cues from the current X-Trail while shortening the car 38mm overall and trimming 5mm from its height. The styling itself tightens up the soft lines of the previous model. LED headlights are standard, with top trims scoring LED fog lights. The front grille also has active-aero shutters. Also important will be rear doors…

IF HYPE WERE a power source, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 would be fully charged before getting anywhere near a plug point. While the Korean brands’ first electrified efforts – the (unrelated) Ioniq sedan and Niro SUV, respectively – flew somewhat under the radar, their first vehicles to sit on a dedicated electric vehicle (EV) platform are stylistically driven, head-turning blips that have stirred the internet. The Ioniq 5 landed last year in a blaze of retro-futuristic glory and its limited allocation sold out within hours. It’s no easier to get your hands on Kia’s swoopier, curvier version, with Australia’s 2022 EV6 supply currently limited to 500 against a backdrop of consumer eagerness that saw expressions of interest thrash those of the company’s previous halo model, the Stinger…

THOUGH IT WEARS a Ferrari badge, the 296 GTB is above all a delivery vehicle. This is the car created to carry the company’s most important new road-car engine, in decades, into the arena. Codenamed F163, this V6 will power who-knows-how-many future Ferraris. And for its first appearance Maranello has chosen to demonstrate that less, done their way, is more. The electrified 3.0-litre engine of the 296 GTB isn’t just a little more powerful than the 3.9-litre V8 of the F8 Tributo, it’s a lot more. While its 80kW advantage isn’t the only factor at work, the 296 GTB also cuts a significantly quicker lap of Ferrari’s famed Circuito di Fiorano test track. Reflecting its place in the performance pecking order, the 296 GTB is priced above the F8 Tributo.…

THE BIGGEST THRILL in driving the Aston Martin DB5 Goldfinger Continuation isn’t channelling your inner Sean Connery, revolving the number plates, firing the machine guns, activating the bullet-proof shield and the rest of the 007 arsenal. No, it’s the fact that you’re driving a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 that’s brand new from its Avon cross-ply tyres up. The machine guns don’t fire real bullets, it sprays water out the rear rather than oil, and you can’t get rid of a troublesome passenger with an ejector seat. But the DB5 Goldfinger Continuation is a genuine Aston Martin. It’s made by Aston Martin Works, the company’s in-house classic and restoration shop, at Newport Pagnell – where fewer than 900 DB5s were built between 1963 and 1965 – using parts and components manufactured…

KIA SPORTAGE GT-LINE Price as tested $55,510 (inc paint; D/A) This month 1608km @ 7.2L/100km Overall 2481km @ 8.6L/100km OUR long-term Kia Sportage has piled on another 1600km, serving not only as my family car, but also as support for Wheels Car of the Year and MOTOR Performance Car of the Year testing. A significant chunk of that travel came on the highway – where diesels are at their best and motoring journo diets are at their worst – so fuel consumption for our 2.0-litre turbo-diesel Sportage has fallen to a respectable 7.2L/100km as a result (down from 10.1L/100km in our last instalment, of mostly urban driving). All that road trippin’ provided ample opportunity to consider the cabin of this new Korean, which now rides on a longer wheelbase for…

IT WAS BMW’S first production EV and the first electric car to ever win our Car of the Year award, but now the plug is being pulled. After eight years of production, slowing sales – and the advance of EV tech and expectations – means the BMW i3 meets its end in 2022. This, of course, isn’t BMW giving up on EVs, rather changing its EV direction somewhat, much like the expectations of the car-buying public. When the i3 launched in 2014, sedans and hatchbacks still dominated the market. SUVs were still ‘on the up’ rather than sitting on the throne, and despite the arrival of the Tesla Model S, applying EV technology to small cars was seen as the smart move. It’s easy to see how BMW saw the…

BUILD THE BEST CAR in the world. That was the brief from Toyota president, Eiji Toyoda, to a crack team of 4000 highly talented staff for the new ‘Circle F’ project – ‘F’ standing for ‘flagship’. It was August 1983. By 1991, that team could lay claim to a brimming trophy cabinet including Wheels Car of the Year after it achieved the unthinkable: it beat the Germans with the ground-breaking Lexus LS400. “As a luxury car it’s almost faultless,” said our introduction to our 1991 Wheels COTY. Editor Phil Scott described the LS400 as, “The closest automotive equivalent to a Rolex watch there is.” Other judges from our 1991 COTY were just as effusive. These included Michael Stahl, who said, “Hadn’t expected the communicative ride and steering or the Lexus’s…

Model Cupra Born e-Boost Motor Single (rear axle) Battery 58kWh Max power 170kW Max torque 310Nm Transmission single-speed reduction Weight 1825kg 0-100km/h 6.6sec (claimed) Economy 15.5–16.7kWh/100km Price $55,000 (estimated) On sale Q4 2022 (estimated) CUPRA’S NEW Born shows electric entertainment doesn’t have to be shockingly expensive. This speedy and sporty EV from the young Barcelona-based brand costs less than some ICE-powered hot hatches, while delivering a similarly decent dose of driver delight. In Europe the Born is already on sale in some markets, priced below the VW Golf GTI, a car that in Australia is $53,100 before on-road costs. The Cupra’s price advantage in Italy, for example, is the equivalent of $5000. And this is before EV incentives are taken into account. While the Born is confirmed for Australia, it…

EVERYONE IN THE US loves the new SL at first sight. Gary the graffiti artist in his ramshackle caravan perched on a hill near Desert Shores. The tanned retiree at the wheel of a bleached black S55. The poker-faced valet who made the $10 tip disappear like a seasoned casino croupier. The young surfer dude and his two nymphettes in San Clemente. The highway trooper who flagged us down at 55 in a 55mph zone just because she could. We also got loads of thumbs-up from hikers and bikers of all ages, the homeless Trumpists at Bombay Beach and Sean the uniformed immigration officer from El Centro near the Mexican border who knew full well that the gleaming steel blue roadster was not Checo and Conchita’s Trojan horse to the…

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY SUBSCRIBING TO Wheels has always made sense – a handy discount on your favourite car magazine, delivered to your door. But now it’s even more attractive. Yes, we’re providing our loyal subscribers with the magic key to the magazine’s huge digital archive stretching back to the first issue published in 1953. To celebrate, we’ve dusted off three cracking stories that capture the diversity of Wheels feature writing … and hopefully motivate you to join the club……

THE PREMISE, AT LEAST on the face of it, seemed reasonably straightforward. It’s 2016, and the new Bentley Bentayga is touted as being fit for royalty. The illustrious British brand is, after all, official supplier to her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth. So naturally we felt compelled to have the regal SUV tested by our own royalty – if only we could find any. Turns out there is royalty in Australia, you just have to look very hard. After much searching, author Stephen Corby and photographer Thomas Wielecki found an elusive royal family living in the Hutt River Province, a parcel of land the size of Hong Kong tucked away in a remote corner of Western Australia that’s been hived off from the rest of Australia since 1970. Straight from the…

HYUNDAI i30 N DCT Price as tested $52,000 (+ORC) This month 1292km @ 9.05L/100km Overall 4274km @ 10.55L/100km HAVE YOU ever been embarrassed by your car? I have. When I started up the Hyundai i30 N in my neighbourhood street one early morning, I winced as the i30 N’s exhaust tips shattered the pre-dawn peace with the car’s soundtrack. There isn’t much you can do to suppress the i30 N’s exhaust note during a cold start, either. The idle plays a bassy tone, no matter what the revs are, sometimes fooling me to think the exhaust’s valves are stuck open until I accidentally hit the N-mode button. Then it really turns things up. I love the i30 N’s wild streak far away in the mountains, but its obnoxious exhaust has…

MAZDA MX-30 E35 ASTINA Price as tested $65,490 (+ORC) This month 485km @ 18.6kWh/100km Overall 485km @ 18.6kWh/100km IT’S SAID that numbers never lie, but sometimes they can deliver a bit of a smokescreen that can cast a veil across reality. And as dull as number can be – unless you’re an easily excited mathematician – they’re impossible to ignore when explaining the strengths and weaknesses of Mazda’s first production EV. We’ll deal with the thorny issue of range and recharging in a moment; first, let’s take the electric MX-30’s peak power and 0-100km/h acceleration times as examples. In isolation, the numbers look limp. The motor makes 107kW, which is actually 7kW down on the max output of the 2.0-litre petrol engine in the red G20e Astina I’ve been in…

ALFA ROMEO – BMW YOUR COMPLETE NEW CAR BUYER’S GUIDE WHAT IT ALL MEANS 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. BMW – FORD YOUR COMPLETE NEW CAR BUYER’S GUIDE…

FORD HAS pulled the wraps off the new-generation 2022 Everest, the locally developed and designed seven-seat SUV it hopes will conquer the sales charts when it hits Aussie shores in the second half on 2022. Almost every number is up, even marginally: exterior dimensions, cabin space, towing capability, kerb weight, GVM and GCM, as well as the number of cylinders – with a V6 offered in Everest for the first time. After debuting in 2015 as the Territory replacement, the Everest now benefits from being developed alongside the new Ranger, helping Ford America amortise investment across a greater volume, given Ranger’s popularity and Bronco’s introduction in North America. “That’s the beauty of doing the platform development at the same time,” Chief Platform Engineer Ian Foston says. “The building blocks before…

BMW iX3 DESPITE A PROMISE for deliveries of the iX3 to begin in November 2021, BMW’s electric mid-size SUV didn’t arrive on Aussie shores until the middle of February this year. As such, it missed the cut-off for our testing by a few weeks. But even if it had arrived as planned, the iX3 wasn’t guaranteed to make it. The arrival of BMW’s other EV SUV, the (admittedly more expensive) flagship iX, would have thrown the iX3’s converted ICE-platform, smaller battery, lower ground clearance and tighter interior space under the microscope. MERCEDES EQS ALSO SCHEDULED TO arrive at the end of 2021 but supply issues and the semiconductor shortage have hit Mercedes’ EV luxo sedan hard. It’s now not expected until mid-way through ’22, but the first variant off the…

DUE H2 NISSAN X-TRAIL Nissan Australia has confirmed the new X-Trail for a 2022 launch, with range pricing likely to fall between the low $30,000s and $50,000, amounting to a small increase over current-gen pricing. Expect a light tweak to the 2.5-litre atmo petrol four to deliver around 135kW and 245Nm. Nissan’s five-mode all-wheel drive system and some semi-autonomous features have been confirmed. DUE Q2 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE L Priced from $82,250 before on-roads, exclusively with an atmo 3.6-litre petrol six, the L will mark the fifth-gen Grand Cherokee’s arrival in Australia. The flagship Summit Reserve is priced from $115,450, while a PHEV-optional five-seat Grand Cherokee – offering similar technology and styling to the seven-seat L – is due here by the end of 2022. DUE H2 KIA SORENTO HYBRID…

IMAGINE AN ELECTRIC vehicle that can go from zero range to 500km in just three minutes – without even asking you to unbuckle your seatbelt. It sounds like something from 2050, but it’s here right now. In China, upstart electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Nio has installed more than 700 battery ‘swap stations’ for its budding range of new electric models, and has performed more than four million battery exchanges since 2017. In the next three years, it hopes to have 3000 such stations in China, and 1000 more overseas – including, potentially, Australia. The technology is as simple as it sounds. Nio – launched in 2014 by Chinese tech billionaire William Li, dubbed the ‘Elon Musk of China’, and pumped full of Chinese government cash – can sell you its…

THERE’S BEEN A lot of hype about this one. The story behind it is eerily familiar; a monstrously powerful electric sports sedan that hails from Silicon Valley and which arrives with convention-busting 0-100km/h times and screens galore. And yet you’re looking at a car that was not laser-focused on taking down Tesla, but California’s answer to a new-age Mercedes S-Class. One conceived before Stuttgart’s own EQS had seen the light of day. The Lucid Air seems like a car of contradictions on the face of it. If the big claim is that it’s a luxe limo with one of the chunkiest range figures we’ve yet seen from an EV – up to 837km on the US EPA testing cycle from a full charge – then why can you spec one…

Model Volkswagen ID Buzz Motor single (rear) Battery 77kWh Max power 150kW Max torque 310Nm Transmission single-speed reduction Weight 2500kg 0-100km/h 9.8sec (estimated) Economy 24kWh/100km (estimated) Price TBA On sale Not confirmed for Australia BE SURE to wear flowers in your hair, or perhaps even don that tie-dyed rainbow hippie outfit before taking VW’s new retro-futuristic electric Microbus for a test drive when it eventually hits showrooms either late this year or early 2023 – as long-wheelbase people mover or cleverly packaged cargo van. Designed with a sublime grasp of flair, style and tradition, the versatile e-van shares more elements than expected with the 1950s classic. Its powerplant is again rear-mounted, driving the adjacent wheels accompanied by subtle transformer whine. In long-wheelbase guise, it seats up to seven passengers in…

IF YOU WANT to get ahead in a South Korean car company, speak German. In the last decade, Kia and its parent company Hyundai – encompassing sub-brands Ioniq, N and Genesis – have seemingly lived by an unofficial mantra of ‘if you can’t beat them, or join them, or buy them – hire them’. Senior designers and engineers from Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen Group have flocked to the world’s third-biggest auto manufacturing group, and it’s paying – and has paid – huge dividends. For example, dismiss the build quality of a base model, brand-new Hyundai these days and you’ll be quickly corrected by most people. The South Korean motoring giant has raised its own bar, but also that of most segments it’s entered. Hit after hit, like a rock…

WE’VE ALL HEARD the mountaineering explanation for climbing Everest. Seems similar thinking – ‘because it’s there’ – was applied by Peter Robinson and Steve Cropley when, in late 1979, they decided to have a crack at breaking their previous personal best for a trans-Australia run from Sydney to Perth. Some three years earlier, the pair had completed the epic 4000km drive in 32 hours and 56 minutes in a 4.9-litre Falcon. Robbo figured there was a chance to lop a couple of hours off that; maybe crack the sub 30-hour barrier, and had visions of doing it in a manual 5.0-litre Commodore with a tall final-drive ratio and 200-litre tank. But that plan came to nothing, and in the end it was Alfa dealer Brian Folley who supplied a red…

YOU COULD be forgiven for thinking that a farewell story for the R35 GT-R might mean that after 14 years, production has ceased for Nissan’s long-serving halo sports car. You’d be wrong. As you read this, men in overalls are (probably) still cobbling together R35 GT-Rs at Tochigi in Japan, and no end-date to production has actually been set. In what is approaching an almost Beetle-esque run of uninterrupted assembly (save for that thing that happened in 2020), the Nissan R35 GT-R will be around for an indeterminate amount more time yet, potentially a couple more years. And don’t get us wrong, while some may joke that its end would be a merciful one, actually we’d be sad – a twin-turbo sports car in production is a twin-turbo sports car…

SUBARU OUTBACK TOURING Price as tested $47,790 (+ORC) This month 1243km @ 8.1L/100km Overall 1945km @ 9.1L/100km LAST MONTH, I signed off hoping that I’d get the chance to take the Outback further off the beaten track and boy, I wasn’t disappointed! You see, the next issue is the Wheels Car of the Year edition. This year, the team headed down to the Australian Automotive Research Centre, located near Anglesea on Victoria’s Surf Coast. The AARC is a phenomenal venue, set in a spectacular setting. It is a fair hike from Melbourne, though, and with 20 cars, six judges and a stack of content to be made, COTY is quite the operation, requiring plenty of additional personal and support vehicles. And so, my supremely practical Outback was commandeered by photographer…

FERRARI HAS RECENTLY confirmed that the Purosangue SUV will go into production this year. Spy photos suggest the family-friendly Ferrari is more oversized hot-hatch than soccer-mum SUV, but we still can’t shake our vision of Enzo Ferrari spinning in his grave at 7500rpm. Il Commendatore famously declared there would never be a four-door Ferrari. His view was rein-forced in 2014 by Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Ferrari (and Fiat-Chrysler) until his sudden passing in 2018: “There will be no four-door or SUV from Ferrari.” Three years later, Marchionne announced the SUV project. Four-seater Ferraris had long been another matter. The first true production Ferrari four-seater (overlooking various low-volume coachbuilds) was the 250 GTE 2+2, launched in 1960. With more than 950 made, the 3.0-litre V12 250 GTE became the biggest selling…