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ALFA ROMEO MiTo 2009 – 2016

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2009 Alfa Romeo MiTo

Alfa Romeo MiTo Italian is a small three-door hatchback that has the sort of driving verve and excitement keen drivers just love. Prompt handling, lively engine (in some, see later) and a general feeling of liking to be in the car. The little Alfa is lovely to look at it and the gorgeous styling, inside and out, makes it stand out from the typically sensible German and upmarket Asian small cars in this market segment. Marking was poor, however. MiTo was overpriced when introduced here in July 2009 and sales… Read more

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NEW MERCEDES VARIANT GLC IS BARGAIN PRICED

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Mercedes-Benz has added a lower cost model to the GLC SUV range. It has a 2.0-litre, turbo-petrol engine (135kW/300Nm), full-time rear-wheel-drive, rides on 19-inch alloy wheels and uses LED headlights. The Mercedes GLC 200 SUV has a recommended retail price of $61,990. This new Mercedes GLC 200 SUV replaces the previous GLC 220 d models, which were significantly more expensive at $67,500 for the GLC SUV and $78,500 for the Coupe. Standard on the new model are Parking Pilot with a 360-degree camera, Audio 20 entertainment system which includes seven-inch… Read more

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COMMODORE STILL GOOD TO GO THE DISTANCE

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For close on forty years, the Holden Commodore, together with sibling Calais, were large sedans and station wagons capable of carting a family and its gear over long distances in comfort, while making good time. So now, how does the European-sourced, Australian-revised, replacement compare with the traditional Aussie-built icon? What better way to find out than by taking a family trip from the Gold Coast to Sydney and back? We were blessed with a Commodore RS-V V6 AWD Liftback for our big trip. STYLING Approaching the vehicle from all angles,… Read more

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2018 HYUNDAI i30 N review

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Hyundai i30 N is the first hot-hatch from a South Korean marque and is a brilliant initial attempt. Never a company to be afraid to ask for help in any new project, Hyundai employed experts from other brands, with a designer from Audi and an engineer from BMW becoming major assets for the Koreans in recent years. As is the norm these days, Hyundai development work was also done in Australia by Aussies and Koreans. In particular suspension and steering tuning but also hot weather testing where many thousands of… Read more

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BMW 2 TOURER REVISED

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BMW 2 Series Active Tourer has been given a freshen-up front and rear together with new-design alloy wheels. An interior upgrade includes Dakota leather trim. LED head and foglights are standard and sit beside a bolder grille shape than we have seen before. Chromed highlights further life the appearance. As does the use of twin exhaust tailpipes A range of five interior trims are available, with Fine-wood trim ‘Fineline’ Stream standard on Luxury Line. M Sport-optioned vehicles feature Aluminium Hexagon trim for additional sports feel. The Dakota leather trim is… Read more

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KIA CARNIVAL PRODUCT ENHANCEMENT

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Kia’s Carnival eight-seat people mover has been enhanced with a facelift and range of safety and comfort upgrades in a mid-life freshen up. Kia’s stylists have revised the look of the ‘tiger nose’ grille and there are sleeker headlight clusters that sweep into the grille. Integrated foglights are part of the revision. At the rear the lower tailgate panel and rear three-quarter panels have been mildly reshaped. As befits a vehicle aimed at carting kids safety is paramount and every model now comes as standard with autonomous emergency braking and… Read more

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MAZDA CX-5 NOT RESTING ON ITS LAURELS

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Never a company to follow mainstream thinking, Mazda has just introduced a series of fascinating engineering changes to Australia’s most popular SUV, the Mazda CX-5. Australia is highly regarded by Mazda so the program manager for the CX-5, Hideki Matsuoka, flew to Australia to introduce the upgraded model to us. He explained that performance and efficiency have been significantly across all engine grades. We have carried out an extensive drive program out of Canberra to examine two of these significantly uprated engines, the 2.2 diesel and 2.5 petrol. SKYACTIV-D 2.2-LITRE… Read more

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PORSCHE CAYENNE E-HYBRID

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Porsche is expanding its range of hybrids sold in Australia the new Cayenne E-Hybrid. Following the old adage that racing ‘improves the breed’ the German sportscar maker has dominated the famed LeMans 24-hour race with hybrid cars for several years. Cayenne E-Hybrid has a 3.0-litre V6 engine (250 kW) combined with an electric engine (100 kW) to generate system power of up to 340 kW. The apparent mathematical discrepancy here is due to the fact that the two powerplants provide their best at different times. The maximum torque of 700… Read more

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2018 HOLDEN CALAIS TOURER

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We reckon the Holden Tourer wagon will be the one buyers will opt for, preferring it to the five-door hatchback. Why? See the Styling section of this review for details, but let’s give it a general look over to start with. Tourer is a European Opel design but features a V6 engine specific to Australia, all Euro models have a turbo four-cylinder. It competes mainly with European high-riding wagons such as Audi Allroad, VW Alltrack and Volvo Cross Country, as well as the Japanese wagon with the very Aussie name,… Read more

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TRIUMPH DOLOMITE ROADSTER

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1938 Triumph Dolomite Roadster

Donald Healey joined Triumph in 1933 not long after his win in the 1931 Monte Carlo Rally, and was appointed as the company’s technical director. In this role he initially set out to prove his credentials by developing first the supercharged Dolomite Straight Eight and then upgrading Triumph’s production car range of Glorias and Vitesses. Then he developed a new family of four – and six-cylinder engines for a completely new range of cars planned for release in 1936 which would also carry the Dolomite name. These cars were to… Read more