Table of contents for May 2025 in Wheels

IT’S NO EASY FEAT to launch a new version of your best-selling product. You’ve got to refine, improve and add more value to it but also not change it too much so as to alienate its fanbase. Otherwise, those loyal fans could easily head elsewhere. Originally sold as a smaller X5, the BMW X3 is now in its fourth generation and is the brand’s global best-seller. Has BMW successfully improved the X3 or should buyers look elsewhere? We tested the entry level X3 20 xDrive to find out. Codenamed ‘G45’ – but using the same ‘CLAR’ platform as before – the new X3 has been given a thorough glow up to launch it into 2025, and is now longer, wider and taller in every direction. The controversial exterior styling is…

A GLANCE at the sales figures shows Australians have cooled on choosing electric power when purchasing a new vehicle but their advantages remain clear: fuelfree (from the tailpipe) emissions, stronger performance, reduced running costs and in some cases, a similar purchase price. But not everybody has access to effective charging infrastructure and for that reason, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) can be a great option to lessen emissions and not rely on EV chargers. GWM is the latest to launch a new PHEV locally with the Haval H6GT. The regular H6 and coupe-styled H6GT mid-size SUVs feature a big cabin, lots of equipment and a low starting price: a RAV4-sized car for just $30,990 drive away has strong appeal. The coupe H6GT is priced from $44,990 drive away – more expensive than…

‘The sedan was Australia’s car of choice for many decades and then something changed’ YOU COULD SEE the mild panic in their eyes. What was assured confidence was giving way to creeping doubt. The current and ex-editors who formed the Wheels Car Of The Year 2024 jury were, at the cull of the three finalists, reasonably sure that the hugely exciting Hyundai Ioniq 5 N was going to win, and by some margin. Then, after the final round of drives, you could see chinks in the armour. As judge after judge climbed out of the Toyota Camry and heaped praise upon it, maybe COTY wasn’t such a done deal after all. “Who needs a Lexus?”, asked Peter Robinson, impressed by the big sedan’s sophistication and value. I wasn’t too worried…

IT’S A FUN GAME, predicting which cars are likely to become future classics. Of course, if anything becomes old enough and rare enough, it gains a certain curiosity value, but once in a while a car is launched and it becomes instantly and unambiguously apparent that it’s a nailed-on cert for classic status. And not even future classic status – it’s a fixture from launch. The BMW Z3 M Coupe is just such a car. But as if to undermine the sheer arbitrariness of it all, the car that it was based on – the drop top M Roadster – has often had a lukewarm reaction from car enthusiasts. That’s because so much of what makes the M Coupe special is the way that it looks. True, the more rigid…

YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD but Smart, the brand famous for making tiny city cars from the early 2000s, is back. Now co-owned by Chinese giant Geely and creator Mercedes-Benz, Smart recently relaunched locally with two models: the #3 and #1, both competing in the small electric SUV segment. We tested the #3 in last month’s issue and were quite impressed but does the slightly smaller #1 also measure up? Priced from $54,900 plus on-road costs and offered in three models – Pro+, Premium and performance Brabus – we tested the mid-spec Pro, which is priced at $58,900 +ORC. While its Zeekr X cousin is $5,000 less, its other cousin the Volvo EX30 is $5,090 more and we think it’s well priced for the equipment on offer. The #1 Premium…

“IT’S FULL OF BALLS.” When Hyundai told me I’d be picking up the new Santa Fe XRT from John Cain Arena in Melbourne and that it might have some promo material from the weekend’s Melbourne Mavericks netball match in it, I wasn’t expecting a boot full of unsecured Gilbert Phoenix size fives. This could prove a problem, especially as the route I’d chosen for the day took us out of Melbourne and into some of the most inhospitable parts of Victoria. It would certainly be a test for the Santa Fe, an SUV that blends seamlessly into suburbia, but which doesn’t really do arduous. With the XRT accessory pack, Hyundai wants to add some attitude to this mild-mannered box. Or, if you prefer, some balls. The XRT Peak Option Pack,…

HAVING LIVED in Sydney and Melbourne my whole life I now call Tasmania home – at least that’s where I try to spend most of my time. It’s worth noting that Tassie is a relativity small place. Hobart to Devonport (where the Spirt of Tasmania docks) is a 285km drive and takes a little over three hours to complete. Much the same as Sydney to Canberra. Why do I mention that? As I pointed out last month I believe EVs make a lot of sense, but only if you also have a non-EV in the garage for longer trips. Nothing in Tasmania can really be considered a long trip. Tasmania is different. No exact science to this, but the place is only 270km long and 320km wide. If you leave…

HERE’S AN ODD THING. There are cars that review really well that nevertheless don’t tug on our heartstrings in any particular way. Take the Volkswagen T-Roc as an example. It has won every Wheels comparison test it’s ever been entered into. Then there are cars that achieve quite the opposite. Case in point? The Suzuki Swift Sport. It’s been discontinued here due to the demands of Australian Design Rule 98/00, requiring the fitment of autonomous emergency braking to all vehicles imported to Australia as of March 1. It’ll be missed. The Swift Sport is much loved but never won a Wheels comparison test. The Sport version of Swift IV came second last (in an 18-car field) in the July 2007 ‘Handling Olympics’ test and last in a December 2007 four car…

This month, a sample of the huge reaction to Matt O’Malleys Starter letter from April issue… BOLD BEHAVIOUR I just read your Wheels mag intro, freshly delivered today to my home. Including your email and mobile number? The audacity. Boom! That’s a mic drop if ever there was one. You pulled no punches and I loved it. Congrats. I’m excited for Wheels’ future. Slavko Jovanoski, via email SUIT UP Enjoyed your Starter column and best of luck. I fully understand commercial pressures having been a journalist and self employed for 50 years. Gosh, am I that old? Yes, the grey hair tells me so. I have read Wheels, Modern Motor and Motor Manual as a passion. If I could make a couple of suggestions – I like to see the…

IF I WAS the kind of rabid right-wing hater who thinks climate change is a hoax, I’d be really enjoying the twist in the tale of Tesla. Here is a car brand largely bought by the kind of soft lefties who think we should save whales and future generations of human beings. People who drive the marque with pride do so as a badge of their principled existence. And now, if they can’t afford to sell these cars at a loss, they are driving around in a giant rolling billboard that brings to mind the antithesis of their beliefs, Elon Musk, a man who has flip-flopped on climate science like a fish dying in a dried-out lake. The only comparison is with the keen cyclists who used to wear a lot…

BETWEEN BEING UNVEILED in concept form in 2021 and reaching production, Hyundai’s newest SUV grew. Not literally but figuratively: the Ioniq 7 became the Ioniq 9, an adjustment intended to crown the large six- or sevenseater as the flagship of the Korean firm’s electric range, and possibly to ensure parity with sister brand Kia’s related EV9. Given how many car makers have stumbled on nomenclature when trying to add EVs into their already bulging line-ups, credit to Hyundai for the pre-emptive minor course adjustment. And in its size, ambition and lashings of premium splendour, this car feels every inch the king of Hyundai’s ‘chess piece’ Ioniq family. That approach refers to Hyundai’s determination to give each Ioniq model a distinct character. Sure enough, park the 9 next to the 5…

IN AN EFFORT to find the world’s toughest and most resilient killing machines, the Special Air Service (SAS) subjects candidate soldiers to an horrific series of physical and mental fitness tests, one of which varies in its exact nastiness but goes something like this. The person is stuffed into a corrugated iron tube, partially submerged in water or somewhere hot, while the exterior is lashed with lengths of heavy chains by huge shouting men. The exercise is designed to disorientate and confuse, and establish the participant’s ability to remain focused on a task and not turn into a shuddering mass of PTSD. This, I’ve discovered, is a lot like being taken for a lap of the Monteblanco circuit in Ferrari’s new 296 Challenge. The confined space is provided by a…

REVERSE AEB saved me this month. There, I’m not too proud to admit it. I was in the process of reversing the BT-50 out of a parking spot in a local shopping centre when a Corolla had shot out of a nearby space. I would have nerfed it had the Mazda’s autonomous braking system not intervened. It’s always a shock to have a car brake for you, and this was the third time the BT-50 had done so. The other two had been entirely spurious and unwelcome overreactions to filtering onto roundabouts and in slow-moving traffic, but I’ll take those minor inconveniences if it saves me from a modest fender bender. It also taught me two things. Firstly, don’t be lazy and reverse into the parking spot to begin with.…