Table of contents for June 2022 in Wheels

BMW’S POLARISING exterior design shows no signs of mellowing on the company’s imminent and imposing 7 Series flagship. The 7 Series – which will be offered with six ICE powertrains and as an i7 with two levels of electrification – incorporates a massive (optionally) glowing grille flanked by two-tier matrix LED headlights. The upper lights act as the DRLs and indicators and are bejewelled with Swarovski crystals, while the lower deck is for the main headlight beams. Love it or loathe it, what isn’t up for debate are the prodigious outputs of the all-electric i7. The flagship i7 M70 xDrive is the most powerful seriesproduction vehicle ever produced by BMW, featuring a dual-motor set-up, producing 485kW and more than 1000Nm of torque, with a 0-100km/h sprint in less than four…

DUE AUG NISSAN LEAF The updated Nissan Leaf will sell for $1000 more than the current version when it arrives in August. Powertrains for the 2023 Leaf carry over with the 110kW/320Nm base model boasting a driving range of 270km from its 40kWh lithium-ion battery, coming in at $50,990 before on-road costs. The Leaf e+ runs a 160kW/340Nm electric motor and 62kWh battery for a range of 385km. DUE Q4 BMW i7 The fully electric i7 will become available for local buyers in its ‘entry-level’ xDrive60 guise, with the dual-motor powertrain good for 400kW/745Nm, powered by a 101.7kWh battery pack which allows the luxury sedan to boast a driving range of up to 625km. It can reach 100km/h in 4.5 seconds, with a recharge rate of 195kW allowing 10 minutes…

SIGN OF THE times: if you want to be taken seriously as a producer of premium performance vehicles in the 21st century you simply must build a sporty SUV. Performance sedans are a dying breed, and sports cars have always been niche products. Sporty SUVs with a premium badge are where the money is these days. That’s why the new 2023 Maserati Grecale exists. It pitches Maserati into a competitive segment dominated by Porsche’s Macan and the performance versions of the Mercedes-Benz GLC and BMW X3/X4, with Jaguar’s F-Pace and Alfa Romeo’s Stelvio squabbling at the margins. The Grecale is built on a modified version of the Giorgio platform that underpins the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. The Grecale’s 2901mm wheelbase is 83mm longer than that of the Stelvio, 94mm longer than…

Model Volkswagen Tiguan R Engine 1984cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbo Max power 235kW @ 5600-6500rpm Max torque 400Nm @ 2000-5600rpm Transmission 7-speed dual-clutch Economy 8.8L/100km (combined) 0-100km/h 5.1sec (claimed) Price $68,990 On sale Now VOLKSWAGEN’S R providence, from Passat R36 to Touareg R50, has traditionally carved a deeper niche for luxo-performance than ambitions of track savviness. But the form guide suggests the Tiguan R, just landed in Oz, is more serious, driverfocused business. Wolfsburg’s debut go-very-fast mid-sized SUV essentially sports the heroic Mk8 Golf R’s newly pumpedup running gear, right down to the newfound twin-clutch torque-vectoring rear axle. Complete with a dedicated Race mode. Whether or not you think a Volkswagen family hauler should go anywhere near a race track, this one promises that you could. It lobs into interesting…

WHEN SOMETHING is good – like, really good – there’s the temptation to reinvent it. Musicians, dizzy from the success of an initial album, try to rekindle the fire with a follow-up record, only to have it fizzle. Michelin-starred chefs open second restaurants oddly bereft of the magic of the first. And in the world of politics, examples such as Kevin Rudd’s second term as PM are probably best left as dusty Wikipedia articles in a dark crevasse of the internet. It’s the same with cars. Capturing a certain je ne sais quoi of an original hit is like trying to bottle a mood – and many have faltered. The new Toyota Supra is a prime example, having off-sided at least as many ‘fans’ as it’s won customers. It’s fair…

IT DOESN’T TAKE a great stretch of the imagination to believe that the number-one selling ‘car’ in the United States is, by a substantial margin, Ford’s F-Series truck. Nor would you be labelled particularly gullible to be convinced that the world’s most popular car is the Toyota Corolla. But when it comes to the global best-selling plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), you might want a few more guesses. I’ll save you the trouble. With more than 300,000 sales to its name, the first-generation Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is officially the world’s favourite plug-in, and the secret to its success is relatively simple. In the early 2000s, Mitsubishi, like many other brands, felt the turning tide as more and more motorists ditched their sedans, hatchbacks and wagons in favour of an SUV.…

HERE’S A QUESTION: does anyone actually stage a pedal-to-the-metal 0-100km/h run? It’s a figure quoted all the time, and taken very seriously in certain circles. If you regard it as the hot-hatch holy grail, then here’s the spoiler: Audi claims a sprint time of 3.8sec for the RS3, the Mercedes-AMG A45 S can do the job in supposedly 3.9sec, while the BMW M240i is another four-tenths behind at 4.3sec. Half a second between first and last. But that dragstrip exercise is, in reality, only a fragment of the bigger picture. Neither the RS3 nor the A45 feels as quick off the mark as a PDK-equipped Cayman GT4, for instance, which claims a time identical to the Merc. And when it comes to seat-of-the-pants feel, the M240i xDrive really doesn’t seem…

MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER EXCEED Price as tested $48,629 (+ORC) This month 542km @ 9.9L/100km Overall 1071km @ 9.9L/100km WELCOMES TO the Wheels garage don’t get much warmer than the one I gave this Mitsubishi Outlander last update. Perhaps it was the lingering memory of the underwhelming old model that saw this fourth-gen version make such a positive impression but in virtually every metric it exceeded my expectations. Eye-catching looks, a high-quality interior, comfortable seats, loads of equipment, refined road manners… I’ll admit I was suitably impressed. But there’s an elephant in the room that needs addressing. When we compared this new Outlander with the Kia Sportage and ageing Subaru Forester in a recent issue, the Mitsu came stone cold last. It wasn’t a browbeating by any means – the Outlander scored…

THE 1990s BROUGHT a resurgence for ‘British’ sports cars, especially if you were a Japanese manufacturer. But back in the homeland, Lotus had made a return to its tiny sports car roots with a roadster so driver-focused it made the likes of the MX-5 look like it was for filthy casuals. The Lotus Elise was a car for serious drivers. Its mid-mounted engine drove the rear wheels, unlike the front-engine Elan it spiritually replaced. In its infancy, the Elise gained its name from, well, an infant. The granddaughter of Lotus’s then-owner Romano Artioli, Elisa, was a baby when the ‘Type 111’ made its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1995. Artioli suggested the name of his granddaughter for the car, and then-head of public relations for Lotus, Patrick…

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LAND ROVER HAS sold more than 800,000 Range Rover Sports since the second-generation model launched in 2013. That’s why the third-generation Range Rover Sport looks very familiar at first glance. You don’t mess with success. In truth the new Sport is a very different beast. Codenamed L461, it has been developed almost in tandem with the new full-size L460 Range Rover, sharing its aluminium-intensive MLA-Flex vehicle architecture and powertrain components. MLA-Flex has been designed to accommodate mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and full battery electric powertrains, and JLR’s powerful EVA 2.0 electronic architecture. The body structure is 35 percent stiffer than the outgoing Sport’s, and the dynamic air suspension features two chamber air springs to help reduce pitch and roll, and Bilstein dampers to better control body motions. JLR vehicle programs…

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) “The Land Rovers were flat-chat at 50mph, and the slightest paint blemish meant rejection!” RIVETING STUFF JOHN CAREY’S column (Wheels, May 2022) brought back memories of my first paid employment while I was a humble uni student. It was in the mid-1960s and I got work at Pressed Metal Corporation in Enfield, Sydney. At that time PMC were assembling many iterations of the Land Rover: SWB, LWB, civilian and Army versions. Four-cylinder petrol and diesel, deafeningly noisy, and crash gearbox on first and second gear. The six-cylinder was a huge step forward in noise reduction and the all-synchro…

Model Lexus LX600 Ultra Luxury Engine 3445cc V6 (900), dohc, 24v, twin turbo Max power 305kW @ 5200rpm Max torque 650Nm @ 2000-3600rpm Transmission 10-speed automatic Weight 2660kg 0-100km/h 7.0sec (claimed) Economy 12.1L/100km Price $210,800 On sale Now REMEMBER the old LX? Of course you do. It was around for 14 years, after all, quietly occupying a corner of the Lexus showroom as a slightly more polished counterpart to Toyota’s 200-series LandCruiser – albeit one that was slightly hobbled by being petrol-only for much of its lifespan. A comprehensive facelift in 2017 modernised its interior and exterior, while a diesel option cribbed from the ’Cruiser was added in 2018, but the old LX was a fairly limited proposition, with few flavours on the menu. That ends with the arrival of…

BMW’S i4 IS A breath of fresh air for an Aussie EV market dominated by SUVs and crossovers. It helps that the i4 is based on probably the prettiest of BMW’s sometimes-challenging-looking portfolio, the 4 Series Gran Coupe. Finally, EV buyers not wanting an SUV have a choice that isn’t from the Mind of Musk, looks good, and, with any luck, just might help reboot the EV sedan. Except it’s not really a sedan, it’s a Gran Coupe which is the liftback/four-door-coupe shape the Germans fell in love with before ruining SUVs with awkward coupe rooflines. More to the point, it’s a car. The i4 must have been at once an easier and more difficult EV for BMW to make. Based on the CLAR platform (ie, not a dedicated EV…

Kudos to Mazda for ploughing money into new ICE development when the rest of the car industry seems to be doing exactly the opposite IT DOESN’T look exceptional. Maybe that’s the point, but if you’d never clapped eyes on a Mazda CX-60 before but tried to imagine something that slots in above a CX-5, I’d wager that you’re imagining something like this car. But while the design language may be familiar, there’s something in the basic proportioning that’s a little different. The bonnet is longer, the cab’s pushed subtly rearwards, and the flanks are slabbier. There’s some visual heft here, the CX-60 casting a bigger shadow than the likes of the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLC. But why is it even here? What’s the point of another SUV…

AT $47,200 drive-away, the Honda Civic is the catalyst for this comparo. It’s the sole Civic on offer in Australia now that Honda’s local office has (vastly) simplified the line-up by reducing it to a single spec, and the first all-new model to transition to the company’s non-negotiable national drive-away pricing scheme. Think you’ll be able to haggle the dealer down? Forget about it. That’s a lot of dosh for a small hatchback, even factoring in the inclusion of all on-road costs, so it begs the question: why buy a Civic when there are so many other options at the circa-$50K mark from brands that aren’t averse to a bit of negotiation? Shopping at this price point opens the door to things like powerful midsize sedans and brands with proper…

GENESIS G70 SHOOTING BRAKE Price as tested $81,000 (+ORC) This month 121km @ 10.6L/100km Overall 121km @ 10.6L/100km VERY occasionally, a product-planning decision from a major automotive manufacturer can have you scratching your head while simultaneously trying to give a polite little golf clap. Which can be challenging from an anatomical point of view, trust me. Case in point: the Genesis G70 Shooting Brake. I must admit its arrival last year did catch me offguard a little, given the overall decline in the wagon market globally. Consider the fact that Mercedes-Benz no longer offers the CLS shooting brake, while the CLA shooting brake, which is still available overseas, isn’t part of the local line-up. No matter − Genesis clearly figured that even a small slice of the declining wagon market…

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…

NISSAN WILL soon go from having one of the oldest showrooms in Australia to boasting one of the freshest thanks to a plan to launch four new models over the next six months. The arrival of a new-generation Qashqai, X-Trail and Pathfinder will transform Nissan’s SUV lineup – and see it introduce its ePower hybrid tech for the first time – but spearheading the product onslaught will be the 2023 Nissan Z sportscar. Set to arrive around July (exact arrival timing is fluid due to global supply chain chaos) the first new Zed in more than a decade will cost from $73,300 before on-roads. That means it will undercut its chief rival in the Toyota Supra by up to $24,000 given the Supra is currently priced at $87,303 for the…

WHAT WEIGHS MORE than two tonnes, posts 14-second quarters and could shame European rivals in a heartbeat? The FPV Territory F6X 270, that’s what. This fire-breathing family friendly SUV was the result of a passionate bunch of enthusiasts who cooked up a world-beating recipe way ahead of its time, and that perhaps Australians just weren’t ready for. What remains is a highly collectible piece of motoring legend that can still punch well above its weight. Shown at the 2008 Sydney Motor Show, the Territory F6X 270 – known internally as Project Indigo at FPV – was a more potent, extreme version of Ford’s Territory Turbo that had arrived in 2006. The Territory itself was a revelation for Ford Australia. After the controversy of the now cult-status AU Falcon – which…

THREE MOTORS. Almost 1000Nm. And 4.5-second 0-100km/h performance. In creating its debut sports EV, Ingolstadt has figured that a tri-motor, 370kW/973Nm, mid-four-second proposition is seductive enough to fit conventional S expectations. As it should. The e-Tron S is derived from existing ICE-sourced MLB Evo architecture rather than a dedicated EV platform (a la Q4’s MEB underpinnings) and lobs at $168,400 for the wagon with a $7K premium for the coupe-like Sportback version ($175,400). Wagon or Sportback, the e-Tron S features list is suitably plump. It’s 46mm wider at the guards than the regular e-Tron, runs 21-inch wheels, height-adaptive sport air suspension, S-specific styling, a panoramic glass roof, a gesture-control tailgate and Matrix LED headlights. Inside, the e-Tron S fits heated Valcona leather sports seats, a heated paddleshifter wheel, 12.3-inch Virtual…

Derived straight from the acclaimed concept car, Tonale exudes plenty of flair and chic style THE TONALE is the first Alfa Romeo which had full access to the Stellantis parts bin. And as an SUV, it should, in today’s commercial environment, be a licence to print money. As it happens, Alfa needs plenty of money to fund the transformation from DOHC fame and quattrovalvole emotion to anonymous inverters and nondescript performance electronics. Tonale is, in fact, the final old-school product to be released before the E-age begins late next year with a set of four dedicated electric vehicles on Stellantis’s ‘STLA’ large vehicle architecture. The newest addition to the range is based on the oldest platform the engineers could find, namely the Fiat-Chrysler CUSW components set first introduced in 2010…

I’VE DREAMED of driving a Formula 1 car all my life. But I never dreamed that, when it finally happened, I would be driving it in a room tucked away on an anonymous industrial estate on the outskirts of Bristol, in the west of England. It began exactly as I imagined, exactly as I’ve seen a thousand times on TV: Cinched tightly into a hip-hugging carbonfibre tub, gripping a butterfly steering wheel festooned with brightly coloured buttons. Pirelli slicks towering over my knuckles as I look down the track. A voice crackling in my helmet: “Radio check.” “I hear you.” There’s an incessant, industrial-strength drone in my ears, the sound of a 1.5-litre turbocharged V6, idling at 5000rpm. “Right, you’re good to go,” says the voice. “It’s best to feather…

COMING UP with a new Range Rover is similar to eye surgery or bomb disposal; you really don’t want to mess it up. Like the Hilux for Toyota or the 911 for Porsche, the Range Rover is the heart of what Land Rover does; the nucleus from which everything else radiates. Get this one wrong and they’d kill the reflected glory that shines on the Sport and Velar and Evoque. So when Land Rover needs to make a new Range Rover there are no half measures. It starts with a fresh platform, brand new from the wheels up and not seen under any other model, though it will be used under the next RR Sport and other Land Rovers to follow. Compared to the last Range Rover, the wheelbase grows…

SKODA KODIAQ RS Price as tested $67,440 (+ORC) This month 597km @ 11.2L/100km Overall 597km @ 11.2L/100km THE VOLKSWAGEN Group’s Australian arm is on a bit of a spree when it comes to launching quick SUVs, with its new Tiguan R hero arriving recently and new brand Cupra due to launch the Ateca and Formentor models later this year. But, of all the quick SUVs here now and on the way, it was Skoda’s Kodiaq RS that got in first. It arrived as a diesel offering, producing 176kW and 500Nm to deliver a claimed 0-100km/h time of just 6.9 seconds. It was a good thing. Not cheap, at $65,990 before on-road costs, but for those seeking a well-equipped seven-seater with prodigious torque and fairly frugal fuel consumption, it was compelling.…

IT’S SOMETIMES HARD to tell what makes a car a classic, even when you’re one of the people designing it. My friend Robert Cumberford, automotive designer and critic, started his professional design career at age 19 in the styling studio of General Motors in 1954. He was put to work on the 1956-’57 Corvette, GM’s Motorama dream cars, and the 1957-’58 Chevrolet, a substantially new model to replace the already completed ’55-’56. But the engineering department was having problems with the new mainstream model. Word came down that the ’55-’56 range would have to be tarted up and trotted out for another year and made to look bigger and more luxurious, as was being anticipated for the florid, four-headlamp replacement. Robert recalled that the team (which included Joe Schemansky, who…