Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i Wheels

THE INDUSTRY PROFILE feature written by Paul Gover each month has quickly become a Wheels favourite — and it’s easy to see why. His pieces are entertaining, insightful, and always reveal something new. Many of those he profiles are long-time friends, but even when meeting someone for the first time, one thing’s certain: his subjects usually know who he is long before he calls to arrange a chat. Paul — or PG, as we all call him — does his homework well before the interview begins. He also tends to ask questions that people don’t necessarily like to answer. That’s journalism, and in 2025, it’s a profession that can still carry risk, even when the battleground is a boardroom rather than a war zone. In short, PG is someone we’re…

THE SIZE-UP I did enjoy your recent comparison of the Audi, Merc and BMW small premium sedans (October, 2025). Myself, and likely a lot of your readers, may be in the market for a premium small/medium seda… but maybe not so premium. $100k plus for this trio is likely out of the reach of the average punter. May I suggest comparing their entry level models of the three then toss in a few ICE sedans of similar size (KIA, Hyundai, etc) but packed to the gills with extras. Then let’s see how premium stacks up in the real world. BTW, many decades ago Holden, Ford and Valiant would provide several examples of the same model but at different price points, e.g. Belmont v Falcon, Kingswood v Falcon 500, Premier v…

THE MERCEDES-BENZ G-Wagen is one of those cars that just demands respect. At home in Double Bay or the Simpson Desert, it’s status has continued to grow since its introduction in 1979. Now in its latest ‘W465’ generation, Mercedes-Benz Australia has re-introduced diesel power in a new 270kW G 450 d form, to sit underneath the recently introduced electric G 580 with EQ Technology and range-topping AMG G 63. While it’s not as fast as the high-performance AMG G 63 that’s currently sold out in Australia for the rest of 2025, it is more fuel efficient and less expensive to the tune of over $150,000. The new G 450 d is available in either Standard or Offroad form, with the latter adding off-road tyres as standard, but both are priced…

CALL IT THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES. This is the story of how the legendary Lancia Delta HF Integrale came into being, but before we get there, it’s worth reminding ourselves how and why that car earned such iconic status. When Lancia set out to build its no-holds-barred 1980s Group B rally weapon in the shape of the Delta S4, it never quite met expectations. Despite this twin charged mid-engined silhouette car’s fearsome 368kW power output, it was beaten by Peugeot and Audi in the 1985 season and by the dominant Peugeot 205 T16 again in 1986. Henri Toivonen’s fatal crash at the Portuguese round of the world rally championship in 1986 put an end to Group B. For the format that was to succeed it, Group S, Lancia had already…

IF I’D KNOWN THAT I would ever become this useful, I would have chosen a different career. I’ve just emerged from my home garage where I’ve spent the afternoon slithering about on the floor, replacing a torn oil hose on a motor scooter. Prick of a job, actually. That came after a couple of hours repairing the dishwasher, which was a first for me and not on my bingo card when I woke up this morning. It sometimes seems that I’m channelling my grandfather, who lived through two world wars and was typical of a generation that learned to fix stuff, cobble something together, or just do without. Although, I don’t relate so much to the last part. Like plenty of Wheels readers, I keenly remember this magazine’s brilliant ‘Dirty…

MG is adamant it won’t be known only as a seller of small, cheap vehicles AS FAR as announcing yourself to the Aussie market goes in 2025, a dual-cab ute is as big a statement as you can make. Mercedes-Benz tried it. And failed. Volkswagen did it and realised it was so expensive to keep up, that partnering with Ford made more fiscal sense. And now, a BT-50 is a D-Max, and an Amarok is a Ranger, even though a BT-50 used to be a Ranger, such is the convoluted way this segment works. Medium SUVs aside, there is no harder fight in the Australian new-car market than dual cabs. Opinions are like – well, you know what they’re like – and everyone has an opinion on dual cabs. Mostly,…

WHEN DID WE GROW SO COMFORTABLE WITH THE IDEA OF EXCESS? It’s a question that’s hard to dismiss as I’m looking at the new Hyundai i30, the Mazda3 and the Toyota Corolla. After all, we’re a nation that traditionally loves a big car and this trio, which would be deemed ‘family hatches’ in Europe, are relegated to the ‘small car’ category here. Maybe we’re just no good at efficient packing. For mine, these are some of the cleverest and most interesting cars for sale at any price, largely because they need to manage so many compromises so smartly. It’s not difficult to build a car that does one thing really well, as a whole host of Chinese ingenues are ably demonstrating. Building a car that’s safe, comfortable, reliable, fuel-efficient, stylish,…

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, Toyota will have closed the order books on the GR Supra in Australia. The timing does seem strange, given that as recently as July, the company had launched a new Track Edition of the car and the competition version of the fifth-gen Supra is in the process of being softlaunched for the 2026 Supercars season. First launched here in September 2019, the GR Supra logged sales of just over 1400 cars and endeared itself to Wheels testers, who loved its pugnacious attitude and unapologetic focus. However, in hitching its cart to BMW in the development of the vehicle, Toyota ceded control of manufacturing. Sharing its underpinnings with the BMW Z4 roadster enabled Toyota to bring the GR Supra to market in a cost-effective manner,…

CHINA’S EXPONENTIAL GROWTH in exports of its cars is naturally of concern to the automakers of Europe, Japan and Korea, who have divided up market share between them for many decades now. In 2010, just 15 years ago, Chinese’s automotive exports were around 510,000 units. By 2024, China was exporting more than 10 times that at 6.4 million units – and that’s despite the Chinese not yet selling cars in the huge North American market. But after attending the recent IAA Mobility Show in Munich, Germany, it appears the fight back is on. There was renewed excitement in the European industry and the sense that a number of manufacturers would no longer rest on their laurels. The 2025 IAA show was the biggest in years, according to those who attend…

‘SUPER’ IS A RIPPER WORD. Shunt it to the front of something ordinary and it can instantly make it special. Think of superhero, superstar, superbike and, of course, supercar. Each and every one of them is instantly elevated. Anything with super on the front is supercharged – there it is again – to rise above the rest of the pack. And now we have something new for the super stakes in the car world. It’s the ‘Super Hybrid’. This new term has been created by Chinese newbie brands looking to add some extra impact in the hybridfriendly world of Australian cars. To you and me they might be just plain old Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, or PHEVs, but now they are the Super Hybrids in the showrooms of Geely, Chery…

NISSAN could do with registering one in the W column right now. It’s had a bit of a tough time of late, and the fact that Australia gets the Ariya fully four years after it was first launched in Japan doesn’t immediately fill you with hope for this Tesla Model Y rival. In fact, the first time we saw this car on a motor show stand was back in 2019 in Tokyo, so it’s fair to say its gestation Down Under has been lengthy. Question is, was it worth the wait? It’s not too hard to figure out what Nissan’s trying to do with the Ariya. This is the car intended to rehabilitate the brand’s electric chops. After all, the pioneering Leaf broke ground in 2010, and then… nothing. For…

FULL DISCLOSURE – this isn’t your normal Wheels first drive. Most of the time, we get to spend a few hours with the vehicle in question in which to form our opinions. The Toyota LandCruiser 300 Hybrid? Mere minutes, on a closed circuit. Still, in that regard it’s probably not too different to the breathless first reports you’ll read on, say, a new Ferrari hypercar where drivers are strapped in and sent for a handful of laps around Fiorano. Breathless isn’t how you’d describe the experience in the new electrified LandCruiser. In fact, most of it was undertaken at little over walking pace, rock crawling and wading. The big takeaway you’ll need to know about this vehicle is that it’s been designed to offer the same level of off-road ability…

DRIVEN SPARE Time for the Dark Horse to earn its keep as a daily driver. DUE TO A LOT of business travel for the Wheels brand you are reading right now, the Dark Horse has only accumulated 300-odd Tasmanian kilometres since its Sydney to Hobart drive a few months ago. An odometer reading that is, quite frankly, pathetic on my behalf and in many ways it could be argued that such a low figure hardly warrants a report. However it’s been a long week and an update allows me to have a rant instead of looking at spreadsheets, so I’ll take the opportunity. A few issues back I mentioned that the Dark Horse doesn’t come with a spare wheel, jack or anything else that might come in handy if you…