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RELIANT SCIMITAR

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The Reliant Scimitar was an Italian styled, British-built sports car that proved very popular in the USA. One of its best known owners was Princess Anne who gave the car quite a deal of publicity when she was booked for speeding in her Scimitar. With its distinctive plastic body the Scimitar SS1 two seater was introduced to the market by Reliant early in 1985. Reliant had a lot of experience in building short-run models with glass fibre bodies and outsourced running gear. In mid-1986 Reliant upgraded its Scimitar by introducing… Read more

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MAZDA MX-5 RF: FIRST DRIVE

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The fascinating Mazda MX-5 RF (Retractable Fastback) has finally arrived in Australia. Even before it hit our shores it had already attracted a lot of interest and many have put down deposits to be first to get themselves into one. A few months ago Mazda MX-5 program manager Nobuhiro Yamamoto visited us in Australia and told us the retractable hardtop accounted for more than half of all NC (third generation) MX-5s sold because it offered all-season comfort. The fourth-generation retractable hardtop model embodies the core value of Lots of Fun…. Read more

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CITROEN PICASSO LETS THE SUNSHINE IN

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Citroen C4 Picasso isn’t an easy car to categorise. While strictly speaking it’s a five-door hatchback it comes with the option of seven seats so can be seen as a mini people mover but also has many of the qualities which attracts buyers to compact SUV crossovers. Where it does stand alone is in the amount of natural light provided inside the car through the combination of a huge windscreen and panoramic glass roof. The top of the windscreen continues back till it’s almost above the front seats while the… Read more

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NEW IGNIS NOT HELD BACK BY TRADITION

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Suzuki is getting very serious on the new-car market in Australia. Hard on the heels of the Suzuki Baleno bounce-back, the Japanese company that specialises in small cars and SUVs has breathed new life into the Ignis and has launched the compact sports utility vehicle onto our market. Coming to market in two specification levels – GL and GLX – the Suzuki Ignis is unusual in being offered in four and five-seat versions. The entry level GL manual comes to market at $16,990 driveaway, the CVT $17,990, while the GLX,… Read more

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ALL-PURPOSE AUDI MOVES TRADITION FORWARD

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While a tsunami of sports utility vehicles is well on its way to swamping passenger car markets around the world, some marques are offering a middle ground vehicle. Versions of the traditional station wagon with higher ground clearance and all-wheel-drive. Frankly these sensible high-riding wagons are not proving popular because buyers prefer the macho image of a 4WD (even if its does have 2WD and compromised ground clearance…). The latest version of the A4 comes in Avant (station wagon) style, with the top of the heap being the new second-generation… Read more

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PEUGEOT 308 2008 – 2016

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Peugeot 308 is a small-medium French car that’s well regarded for style and comfort. It has never reached the sales heights of the likes of models in its class from Hyundai, Mazda and Toyota and so on. But those who like driving something out of the ordinary should put a Peugeot 308 somewhere on their short list. Despite its styling flair the 308‘s designers hadn’t forgotten about function, it has a good-sized rear seat for its class, and sensible luggage space. Indeed, European owners regard cars in the Peugeot 308… Read more

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ALL-NEW KIA RIO

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Kia’s fourth-generation Rio has arrived and it’s significantly better than the already good gen-three model. It features improved ride and handling, safety and has full connectivity for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Kia is very much a global player and was styled in the company’s design centres in Germany and California, overseen by the design Namyang, Korea. Naturally the company’s famed design chief, Peter Schreyer, kept a close eye on the work. The design is neat and tidy and already looks to be timeless rather than ground breaking. It has… Read more

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INFINITI Q50: AN AFFORDABLE PREMIUM SEDAN

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They say that imitation is the sincerest format of flattery so when Infiniti launched the first batch of its ‘Q’ cars in early 2014 and named them Q50 (for its mid-sized sedan), Q60 (coupe and convertible) and Q70 (large sedan) it was fairly obvious that the Japanese car maker was setting its sights high by imitating the BMW and Audi numbering format. More realistically Infiniti’s main rival is likely to be its Japanese compatriot Lexus. This week’s review car is the Infiniti Q50 and its chances of becoming a realistic… Read more

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PORSCHE 911 GTS MODELS ANNOUNCED

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Porsche Australia has added five new 911 GTS models to its range. Carrera GTS with rear-wheel drive, 911 Carrera 4 GTS with all-wheel drive, both in coupe and cabriolet bodies, and the 911 Targa 4 GTS with all-wheel drive. A newly developed turbocharger for the 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine increases power to 331 kW (450 hp), up by 22 kW (30 hp) from the 911 Carrera S. Maximum torque of 550 Nm is 50 Nm above that of the Carrera S. It comes in at 2150 rpm and runs all the… Read more

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BALENO IS BACK – WITH MUCH MORE

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Something old, something new, something borrowed and, if you wish, something (Premium Ray) Blue. That’s what’s on offer with the new Suzuki Baleno – the name, the design, the engine and the colour. Sounding more like an exotic dance, the Baleno took its first steps in the 1990s as a ‘light’ passenger car. Now it has jumped the fence into the ‘small’ passenger segment, having the exterior dimensions of the former with interior space of the latter. The new Baleno comes in two specification levels – GL with a 1.4-litre… Read more