Table of contents for December 2025 in Wheels

HAVING ‘WHEELS EDITOR’ on my CV wasn’t really something I’d ever envisaged. Writing doesn’t come naturally to me, but reading certainly does, and I’ve been reading Wheels since I could remember. For a few years leading up to our company’s purchase of the famous Wheels brand and then for some time afterwards, I have to say I didn’t really like what I was reading much anymore. Sure, I was reading Wheels, but it wasn’t really the Wheels I remembered. Wheels had lost its touch. Most concerning of all was the fact Wheels wasn’t going down a future path that I thought particularly sustainable. It needed to be refocused. It had lost something and we needed it back… Back in March this year I had no real choice but to take the…

ROAD GOADING Our cars need to be roadworthy, but are the roads car-worthy? This pretty much sums up the state of affairs drivers now have to live with. When thinking about buying a new car, its ability to cope with the reality of our badly maintained roads is becoming a significant priority. I’d love a sporty car to replace my Skoda Rapid, but the cost on wheels and tyres is just too high. It’s no surprise that utes are now so popular, as they can cope with the craters, sinkholes, and crumbling edges of our main roads. I think many potential buyers would probably appreciate Wheels including in your reviews how vehicles cope with our disintegrating road network. Ed, via e-mail DRIVER DISTRACTIONS I was interested to read Paul Gover’s…

THIS IS IT, the end of the road for the fifth generation Toyota Supra. Sadly, what we’re not talking about here is the Final Edition, the official farewell to the A90 Supra that’s limited to 300 units and only offered overseas. Manual-only and wicked up to 321kW/571Nm, it also scores an Akrapovic exhaust, manually adjustable KW dampers, 395mm front brake rotors, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, carbon fibre bucket seats and the aero kit from the GT4 race car. Then again, it also lists at around A$250,000. Yes, really. As consolation prizes go, the Supra Track Edition is a pretty good one, not least because its $105,295 (plus on-road costs) sticker price is just $10,000 north of the standard GTS. And it’s available with either a six-speed manual or eight-speed…

AT THE TIME of its launch, Mazda Australia claimed the CX-60 was a premium product, with premium pricing, directed at taking on the established premium and luxury brands. It would appear however, that Australian buyers want a more affordable CX-60, with sharper pricing a key focus of the new entry point to the extensive range. This new G25 model grade, then, is significantly more affordable than the previous entry-point to the CX-60 range, and is clearly the result of Mazda Australia listening to customers who wanted this car at a more fetching price. From launch, you’ll be able to buy the new CX-60 G25 for $47,990 drive-away (except for WA) for the entry Pure model, while the G25 Evolve starts from $49,240 before on-road costs and the G25 Touring starts…

AMONG 2025’S LIST of automotive surprises is a massive 155.6 per cent increase in plug-in hybrid sales to 33,550 units (to the end of August). PHEVs, which combine a combustion engine with a hybrid system that’s charged with a plug to give electric range before the engine starts, have not until recently been that popular in Australia. But a range of new Chinese entrants mean that more affordable PHEV options are now available, including the car reviewed here, the Jaecoo J7 SHS. Jaecoo is the premium arm of Chery and just as Audi does with parent company Volkswagen, Jaecoo’s products are mechanically similar but look and feel quite different to Cherys. The J7 is based on the Chery Tiggo 7 and competes against SUVs like the Hyundai Tucson. As we’ve seen…

Car supplied by Young Timers Garage THE GLOBAL REVEAL OF THE JAGUAR XJ220 WAS NOT PROCEEDING TO PLAN. The sleek show car’s V12 engine had seized on Friday and the car had to be pushed onto the British motor show stand at 3am on Saturday, October 18, 1988 ahead of the event opening at 11am. Given that there were only five of the 48-valve 6.2-litre engines in existence, 20 per cent of the total supply of these motors had just been welded into an expensive paperweight. Nevertheless, the car was a huge hit with show visitors. Ferrari’s new F40 was on display next to Jaguar’s stand, but few paid much attention to the Italian car. An attractive model appeared on the Ferrari stand, shedding clothes in the hope that the…

DRIVING HOME from the country recently with one of my daughters, we were talking about cars and driving. That’s not unusual: both my daughters are now of driving age, and it makes me happy that they’re conscious of the activity in which they’re engaged. We were talking about things like processing the constant stream of information from surrounding traffic, a cloud of dust or smoke beyond a crest, a truck labouring up a distant hill. I write scenarios in my head, which may or may not happen, but it certainly keeps my brain in the game as I drive. Mostly unrelated to that, Stahlette No.1 suddenly asked me: what would I have imagined cars would look like in 2025, back when I was a kid? (She didn’t say “in the olden…

IF THE ‘REGULAR’ Nissan Patrol isn’t quite enough for you, Aussie aftermarket experts Premcar have you covered with the even more formidable 2025 Nissan Patrol Warrior. It’s the ultimate expression of a legendary off-roader and it’s also the last of its kind. We know the days of the Y62 Nissan Patrol are numbered – the impending release of the new Y63 Patrol means the now-legendary V8 petrol engine will sail into an off-road sunset to make way for a new, more environmentally responsible option. In this modern, emissions-focused automotive world, where governments are forcing manufacturers down a path they might otherwise not want to traverse, it is the way of the future. Whether we like it or not. As such, the $110,660 plus on-road costs (or $119,978 drive-away in NSW,…

IT’S FAIR TO SAY that Isuzu’s 3.0-litre engine is the stuff of 4WD legend. Tough, reliable, with a long service life, and the ability to tackle heavy loads or difficult off-road work without issue, Isuzu’s big four-cylinder has been a favourite with Australian buyers for years now. Head to any remote outback town and chances are you’ll see an Isuzu D-Max or MU-X rolling through, often with a caravan in tow. If you’re wondering just how popular Isuzu’s two-model line-up is, at the time of the launch of the new 2.2-litre engine, D-Max sat in third behind Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux (in the 4x4 segment) for monthly sales, while MU-X also sat in third behind Toyota Prado and Ford Everest. Heavy hitters indeed, and proof that Isuzu is right up…

IT WAS A VERY DIFFERENT TIME IN THE AUSTRALIAN MOTORING LANDSCAPE, 1968, and the concept of a truck-based light duty vehicle was something of a novelty. We (by which I mean ‘Australia’) had, of course, invented the concept of the ‘utility vehicle’ but a light truck was a very different proposition. With more focus on work, and less focus on play, the HiLux made its entry into the Australian new car sales race, and in many ways has never looked back. Fast forward to 2025 and now every manufacturer seemingly wants a shot at the segment that has been our most popular for some years now. You could argue that Australians are buying dual cabs at such a rate because they can’t access Holden and Ford utilities anymore. You could…

THERE’S ALWAYS a slight concern when running a long-termer that you already know to be a very good car. I’ve driven and reviewed the Hyundai i30 Sedan N before and know it to be excellent, for reasons that will become apparent over the coming months, so there’s a worry these updates will come off like a speech at a colleague’s retirement party – endless platitudes that lose sincerity, regardless of their veracity. Happily, then, the i30 Sedan N – I kind of wish it was still called Elantra like in the US – and I got off to a slightly shaky start. The tyre pressure monitors were going off despite being within a couple of psi of the recommendation – turns out they’re just sensitive and haven’t piped up since…

MY DAILY RUN from the Illawarra to the Southern Highlands clocks around 20,000km a year – plenty of seat time to bond with a car. For the past decade, that’s been my 2015 Mazda MX-5. Its 1.5-litre Skyactiv engine is a gem: light, rev-happy, and frugal at 6.0L/100km. But over 10 years, that’s still 12,000 litres of petrol burned, puffing out 28.7 tonnes of CO2 and costing around 12 grand. Not bad for a proper driver’s car – but the thought of all those emissions started to sting a little. Time to see what the electric side of motoring had to offer. Being a spreadsheet tragic, every EV I could find went under the microscope: price, battery size, power, torque, weight, acceleration, consumption, driveline – you name it. I even…

LANG LANG without a Holden is wrong. Just wrong. The historic proving ground on the long grind from Melbourne down to Phillip Island was the spiritual home of the red lion brand through the creation of generations of Australian family favourites. It’s where I drove the 48-215 called ‘Number One’, as well as the raunchy Torana GTR-X coupe concept that never quite made it into production. And it’s where I was given a sliding, skidding, sideways, smiling ride by Peter Brock in one of the Commodores that had dominated the Repco Reliability Trial in 1979. Today it’s owned by Vinfast, a fledgling automotive maker out of Vietnam that swooped on a bargain during the fire sale of GM-Holden assets when local car-making collapsed. But Vinfast is not the headline act…

WHEN I WAS YOUNGER I could change a flat tyre in less than two minutes… on my own. There was a reason for this youthful speed and efficiency, as I was driving rally cars and they were prone to punctures. Every second wasted with a flat tyre meant a big hit in the results. So I learned to do a rapid change on my own, from the wheel nuts to the jack – not forgetting to ‘chock’ a wheel – through to re-packing the boot. I was reminded of my flat-tyre routine when I stopped recently to help a bloke and his boy who were struggling with a flat. Their first mistake was jacking the car before loosening the wheel nuts . . . Then I read a survey from the…

THE MERCEDES-BENZ GLC is the company’s quiet achiever. Its sales are up by 48 per cent year on year, and it’s easily the biggest selling model in the Australian lineup, more than doubling the sales of the A-Class hatch and tripling the registrations of the C-Class sedan. In other words, it’s a vehicle that Mercedes can’t afford to get wrong. While it’s a strong performer, since the diesel models have been deleted from the range, there’s been one area where you could criticise it. With an all-petrol range, you had to make a very deliberate choice between economy and performance. The only way you could have both was by choosing the $214,000 Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 S with its plug-in hybrid technology, but that was clearly a model beyond the budget of…

THERE ARE QUITE A FEW firsts with the new Porsche 911 GT3. Essentially the mid-life update of the 992 generation of the 911, known to marque devotees as the 992.2, the changes to this car look subtle but it’s a vehicle that breaks some new ground, for a GT3 at least. We’ll get to that in a bit, because there’s a big one that you probably weren’t expecting. The backstory here is that noise and emissions regulations are doing their best to kill cars like the GT3. It’s powered by a naturally-aspirated 4.0-litre flat-six, which makes the same 375kW as its predecessor, while peak torque has fallen by 20Nm to 450Nm. At first glance, this would seem a bit of a capitulation on Porsche’s part, but that’s far from the…

RECENTLY, the Volvo XC60 overtook the iconic Volvo 240 as the company’s most popular product of all time. With 2.7 million units produced since the first vehicle left the production line in 2008, the XC60 is a bona fide success story and is still Volvo’s most popular product both in Australia and globally. With the second-generation model in its eighth year, the XC60 has just received an update to keep it fresh against a slew of rivals in the hugely popular and highly competitive mid-size SUV segment. Unsurprisingly, the interior of the XC60 sports a classy Nordic vibe throughout. The quality is excellent – even the lower plastics are soft to touch – and it also feels tight, with a solid thud when the doors close. The switchgear is high…

AS I EXIT TURN SIX OF THE LEGENDARY PISTA DI FIORANO, the nose of the 296 Speciale points skyward as it climbs the blind crest, crossing the bridge over the straight below, hitting a cross track rut that does its best to unsettle the otherwise composed chassis. The mid-range acceleration is utterly, eye-blurringly violent. The savagery of the way the Speciale delivers its power is brutal, scary even, for the first few laps, as my brain tries to catch up to just how fast this new 296 is. In the blink of an eye, I’m hard on the brakes – really hard – as I steady the nose for the tight, right-hand turn seven and the run down through the gentle eight and into the hairpin nine. In my periphery…

AFTER A FEW hundred kilometres of travel around Hobart town in the last report, I believe I’ve redeemed myself. In less than 48 hours the Dark Horse managed to put on an additional 1350 kms when I enlisted it to take me from Hobart to Adelaide via a bunch of meetings in Melbourne. Working to mid-afternoon and without much time to get from Hobart to Devonport, I had no choice but to go the direct route right up the guts of the island to meet my date with the Spirit of Tasmania. A shame because that stretch of road is probably the least scenic of all roads on the Apple Isle – one big non-event really, except that the Dark Horse is a rather comfortable place to be. The only…

THE VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG is facing the axe, with production due to cease early next year. The luxury SUV was introduced in 2002 alongside the Porsche Cayenne, the two models sharing a platform. While the Cayenne transformed Porsche’s volumes, the Touareg never created quite such a cultural shift within Volkswagen. Given that luxury SUVs ought already be quite amply catered for, and would have been a better fit for the Audi brand within the group, it might seem odd that Volkswagen wanted to push upmarket in this way, but in the late 1990s, Ferdinand Piech’s manic brand extensions were in full flight and all the tenets of traditional brand management seemed to have been cast to the winds in Wolfsburg. In some market sectors, Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and SEAT were all…