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RENAULT LAGUNA 2006 – 2011

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2009 Renault Laguna Estate wagon

Renault Laguna is a medium sized French car sold as a sedan, hatchback and station wagon, though not all bodies were offered at the same time. Though Renault is one of Europe’s biggest manufacturers its history in Australia was a bit hit and miss over the years; ranging from local assembly to missing almost altogether. The current importer is doing an excellent job but is concentrating on smaller, lower cost passenger vehicles, not those in the semi-prestige Laguna class. (It’s also strong on light commercials, but that’s another story.) All… Read more

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MITSUBISHI PAJERO SPORT PUSHES OUT THE BOUNDARIES

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The Mitsubishi Pajero Sport has extended itself with the addition of a third row of seats, giving the big sports utility vehicle a fine balance of occupant comfort and cargo-carrying flexibility. The Pajero Sport, the most technically advanced off-roader Mitsubishi has produced, replaces the Challenger and comes in three versions – GLX, GLS and Exceed – and continues to offer exceptional value and performance in the genuine 4×4 SUV class, with smooth eight-speed automatic transmission, thrifty 2.4-litre turbo-diesel engine and Super Select II four-wheel drive. The well-specified GLX starts the… Read more

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2017 MERCEDES-BENZ E220D REVIEW

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The Mercedes-Benz E-Class has long been that middle child unable to truly hog the spotlight despite its long list of favourable talents. With the sublime S-Class as a confident older sibling and the precocious headline-grabbing C-Class as a younger, you have to jump pretty high to get noticed. Now, however, repositioned as the core of the brand and charged with taking the Mercedes-Benz tradition of style, comfort and top-class innovations into the future, the E-Class is taking centre stage. We put the E220d, which starts at $92,900, to the family… Read more

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INFINITI Q60 RED SPORT ARRIVES

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The eagerly awaited Infiniti Q60 sports coupe in V6 format has finally arrived in Australia, making the model range now complete. The turbo-petrol four-cylinder units arrived here late in 2016, and while the fours are very good, performance buyers in this class tend to lean towards the most powerful powerplants on offer. Tagged as the Infiniti Q60 Red Sport it has an all-new design 3.0-litre V6 twin-turbo-petrol engine that’s a member of the ‘VR’ powertrain family. It produces up to 298 kW of power, torque is 475 Nm. As it’s… Read more

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TALBOT-LAGO T-150

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The STD company was a joint British-French automotive manufacturing company which produced Sunbeam, Talbot and Darracq cars between both the two World Wars, but which unfortunately failed in 1935. Following this Anthony Lago rescued the French Talbot section of the company and commenced production of Talbot-Lago cars carrying the Talbot badge at a plant in Seine, France. Incidentally it was at this time that that the Rootes group acquired the British interests including the Sunbeam and Darracq marques. Lago was a brilliant engineer and he immediately set about developing a… Read more

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2017 FORD MONDEO UPDATE

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Ford Australia is selling more Mondeos than ever before. Buyers are often those who used to be in Falcons and want to stick with largish Ford passenger cars. Sadly there’s no sedan in the current Mondeo range in Australia, but the large wagon works nicely and the five-door hatchback has plenty of style. As well as ex-Falcon buyers the Mondeo also seems to be taking sales from others in the medium to large car class. To keep sales on that upwards track Ford Australia has taken the simple visual route… Read more

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2017 RENAULT MEGANE GT REVIEW

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The Renault Megane GT is the range topper of the new Megane range, at least until the much anticipated RS arrives on these shores next year. The warm hatch is presented as a performance slanted, but more practical, replacement for the Megane RS275. The latter, if you remember, was a manual, two-door offering that excited the real drivers amongst us but had limited lustre for buyers with conflicting priorities. Renault has spruced up the design of this fourth-generation Megane, dropped the price and tweaked the drive in the hope it… Read more

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CITROEN SM

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1970 Citroen SM

Although a French manufacturer, Citroen acquired a controlling interest in the Italian sportscar manufacturer Maserati in the late 1960s. As a result of this acquisition the Citroen SM, introduced in 1970, was derived from the best features of both brands. The SM was a prestige car using a small V6 engine adapted from Maserati’s quad-cam V8 engine. Because of French tax laws which punished cars with a capacity above 2.8 litres, the capacity of the SM engine was kept at 2.7 litres. Citroen has always been noted for its innovative… Read more

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2017 MAZDA2 UPDATES

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Like a featherweight fighter, the Mazda2 has just squared up to opponents in the light-car division with upgraded versions of its popular sub-compact passenger vehicle. Available in four hatchback versions – Neo, Maxx, Genki and GT – and three sedans – Neo, Maxx and GT- the new Mazda2 follows on from the Mazda3 and 6 with G-Vectoring Control producing even safer handling. In a first for the light-car segment, blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert come to Mazda2, being fitted as standard on up-spec Genki and GT. This… Read more

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IMPREZA HATCH LOOKING TO IMPRESS THE MILLENNIALS

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Subaru Impreza has been on sale in Australia for nearly a quarter of century and has earned a well-deserved reputation for long life and reliability. Brand loyalty has also been one of Subaru’s strengths but not one on which the company can rest on its laurels given that loyal buyers, inevitably, get older every year. With this in mind the latest (fifth generation) Impreza, launched here at the end of 2016, breaks away from the wagon-like lines of previous hatchback models to a more eye-catching style no doubt to try… Read more