Category: Road Test

Road Test Review

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2015 BMW M135i REVIEW

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The great thing about BMW is that despite a fairly sober reputation – albeit for building excellent driver’s cars – head office still signs off mildly ridiculous products. The M135i is one of those. It’s a small hatchback, considered a family car in countries with rather less room to move than we have, with a whopping great engine. The 1.5-litre triple is flung out, replaced by Munich’s tremendous 3.0-litre turbo-petrol straight six. It also gets some attention from BMW’s M subsidiary, purveyors fast car pedigree like the M3 and M5…. Read more

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2016 MAZDA2 SEDAN REVIEW

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Mazda’s new ‘2 landed this year to almost universal acclaim, something that generally happens only when a truly impressive new car comes along. In the hard-fought small car segment, it’s doubly hard. In an SUV-mad market it’s now mildly surprising when a small car gets a sedan variant and more surprising still when a carmaker goes through the aggro of getting it ready for sale in Australia. The Mazda2 sedan doesn’t have a lot of competition but when the small sedan segment is tiny to start with, the Japanese company… Read more

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ALL-NEW CADDY FROM VOLKSWAGEN

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The biggest news about the latest Volkswagen Caddy is that the glovebox now has a lid – previously it was just a gaping hole in the dashboard. Which sounds like a strange way to open a story, but it illustrates the new direction in which VW is aiming the Caddy. That is, moving it mildly upmarket. The complete driving area of the Caddy has been given a working over to make it less van like and more in the manner of a car. Good idea, we’ve never understood why van… Read more

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FORD FOCUS ST: GENUINE HOT HATCH

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It’s way too early to call time on the ‘hard stuff’ from Ford. The Blue Oval ‘home brew’ – making cars in Australia – may be about to go down the gurgler but there is still plenty of spirit there. For example, the new Mustang is selling its socks off here; the Falcon is duking it out with arch rival Holden in the V8 Supercar championships – and the new Focus ST is taking it up to the hot hatches of Europe. The LZ series Focus ST, is the latest… Read more

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2015 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF ALLTRACK REVIEW

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Volkswagen Golf Alltrack is the latest Golf 7 variant to reach us downunder. A smaller brother of the Passat Alltrack, it has a tougher look than the standard Golf station wagon it’s based on and may appeal to some looking for a mild SUV, but don’t want to be seen as the macho type. While not really an SUV this Alltrack sits higher off the ground and has some off-road ability. In fact it this Alltrack competes in a market segment with many SUV lookalikes that only have 2WD, so… Read more

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2016 MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS REVIEW

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Mini’s rebirth has brought some great things to our roads. The garagiste name, John Cooper Works, is certainly one of those things. With the new range from the British-based maker well and truly out, BMW-owned Mini has brought out the last-but-one of its big guns – the JCW. VALUE Based on the current Mini hatch – more commonly seen with a three-cylinder – the 2.0-litre turbo kicks off at $47,400 for the six-speed manual. With this sobering figure, you’ll be buying plenty of good stuff; body kit, 18-inch JCW wheels,… Read more

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2016 BMW M5 NIGHTHAWK REVIEW

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BMW’s M5 is an automotive icon in its own right – the big fast Bavarian autobahn-crusher is the consummate all-rounder, blending a high level of luxury with astounding performance. The twin-turbo monster isn’t what you’d call cheap, though – the standard car used to cost a fair bit more than the Audi competition. Now with the stripped out M5 Pure landing at $185,000, BMW whipped out the spreadsheets and had some fun with the specification to produce the Nighthawk and White Shadow editions while at the same time cutting the… Read more

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MAZDA MX-5: BRILLIANT LITTLE SPORTS MACHINE

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At last we’ve had a chance to spend a week in a Mazda MX-5. We were a bit slow at putting up our hands to borrow one to drive on our home territory after the successful media launch drives early in the year. When we say slow, we are talking about being a few seconds late off the mark. The tiny Mazda roadster has proven as popular with the motoring press as it has with owners. Close to 200 MX-5s with the ‘big’ 2.0-litre engine were sold before the first… Read more

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HYUNDAI TWINS TAKE LEAD IN NEW SERIES

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The popular Hyundai mid-size twins, the i40 Sedan and Tourer, have had a mid-life spruce-up and it’s much more than a once-over with a damp face cloth. Not only have the pair smartened up, they have a few new technological tricks up their sleeve. Hyundai Series II i40 comes in sedan or Tourer (station wagon) form, with the choice of either petrol or diesel power and in a couple of specification levels – Active and Premium. We tried out the Hyundai i40 1.7-litre CRDi turbo-diesel automatic Active Tourer, which comes… Read more

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NEW BMW 1 SERIES IS BETTER IN AND OUT

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A BMW for under forty grand? Not so long ago, that was a ridiculous idea, and even if the sticker had the magic 3 in the tens-of-thousands column, the market assumed you had to spend another ten grand to get an AM radio. Now, we’re used to the idea, and BMW’s upgraded F20 1 Series comes with a sharpening of the standard features list. The 118i replaces the 116i as the cheapest of the BMW line-up (not counting Mini, obviously) and in Urban Line still squeaks under $40,000 before on-roads,… Read more