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JAGUAR F-PACE IS BEAUTIFULLY STYLISH

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Famed for making low slung sedans for many decades it’s no surprise that the British marque’s first every SUV, the F-Pace, takes the stylish low slung direction. Not low slung to the extent that it becomes impractical, the F-Pace sits somewhere between a conventional station wagon and a 4WD in its shape. We love it. Jaguar is far from alone in this hardest fought of all upmarket automotive market segments; Audi, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, and Porsche are already there and making nice profits, thank you. STYLING The large grille with… Read more

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MERCEDES-BENZ C-CLASS CABRIOLET

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Mercedes-Benz Australia has added to its line-up by introducing an open-top C-Class Cabriolet in both standard and AMG variants. Given the obvious love of the high-performance models – Australia is number one globally for AMG models as a percentage of overall sales – there’s a big emphasis on using Mercedes-AMG components in every Cabriolet coming here. To make the convertible usable at short notice, its soft-top can be opened and closed in 20 seconds at speeds up to 50 km/h. We prefer the use of a soft-top to a folding… Read more

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BUGATTI TYPE 57

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As the 1930s progressed, Bugatti sportscars became even more flamboyant. This was necessary to compete with other well-known cars of the time including the Delages, Delahayes and Bentleys – the market leader with a range of large-engined brutally fast cars prior to its takeover by Rolls-Royce in 1931. The Bugatti T57, first seen in 1934, was fitted with a 3.3-litre twin-overhead-camshaft straight eight engine mounted on a strong steel chassis with a body built by Bertelli and designed by Eric Giles. During its production life the T57 was sold in… Read more

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BMW’S LITTLE HOTSHOTS GET MAJOR UPGRADE

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BMW M240i Convertible

  BMWs 1 and 2 Series models have received major upgrade in their engine and technology departments, with a further emphasis on improving fuel efficiency in their already impressive drivetrains. By way of explanation, the BMW 1s are the everyday small five-door hatchbacks – if you can ever describe any BMW as being everyday – whereas the 2s are the specialty variants based on the 1 Series. Special in that the ‘2s come with coupe and convertible bodies. Both are offered with high-performance versions that further improve driver involvement. Given… Read more

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NEW HONDA CIVIC IS ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL

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Honda has unveiled its tenth generation Civic hatchback at the recent Paris Motor Show. It won’t arrive in Australia until next year but it does give us a good segue into our recent test of the gen-10 Civic four-door sedan that went on sale here a few months back. Civic has been a staple of the Honda range since it made its debut in 1973 Civic. Not only is it the Japanese carmaker’s all-time biggest seller, it also sits fifth on the list of the world’s all-time biggest selling passenger… Read more

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NEW RENAULT MEGANE

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Renault’s continuing strong push into the Australian market will be boosted by the introduction of an all-new Megane hatch. Aimed at offering a European car at a similar price to one from Japan or South Korea, French flair will be a major selling point of fourth generation Megane. Prices start at $22,490 plus on-road costs for a six-speed manual version with the interesting title of Megane Life; its the only variant with a manual gearbox, a sign of the times – all others have a dual-clutch seven-speed automatic. Moving up… Read more

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EJ HOLDEN

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The EJ Holden saw the introduction of the ‘Premier’ optioned version of the Station Sedan and the introduction of two completely new six-cylinder engines. The first of these was rated at 100 hp with a 149 cubic inch capacity and a 33 per cent increase in power over the previous engine and the other a 115 hp engine with a 179 cubic inch capacity developing 53% more power. Not only did these new engines provide more power, but due to their newly designed combustion chambers and an 8.8:1 compression ratio… Read more

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FORD AUSTRALIA’S FUTURE IS ASSURED

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he last Falcon, but it’s certainly not the end of Ford’s work in Australia. Ford Australia CEO, Graeme Whickman says the company is here to stay

Let’s look at the good news and forget about the bad. Ford may no longer making cars in Australia, but it is doing an ever increasing amount of work in design, engineering and testing as a major part of Ford’s global development team. Ford Australia’s, president and CEO, Graeme Whickman, says, “Ford will remain a major presence in Australia and we will carry forward the legacy of our manufacturing team by continuing to design and engineer world-class vehicles for Australia and the world for many years to come.” In fact,… Read more

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FORD TERRITORY TITANIUM

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Sadly, Ford is no longer making cars in Australia, so it seemed like a good time for us to carry out our final test of one of the best models Ford ever designed – the Territory. The big SUV completely designed and developed in this country so is better than any other in the class at meeting Australian drivers needs and desires. When the Falcon FG X was introduced in 2014 the Ford Territory received a major refresh using some of the latest Falcon components, particularly in technology. This saw… Read more

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HYUNDAI ELANTRA SR: FIRST DRIVE

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Last week we attended the launch of the Hyundai SR sedan, a model termed as a ‘warm-hatch’ rather than a ‘hot-hatch’ by Hyundai. While we published technical details in our article immediately afterwards, Hyundai put an embargo on drive impressions until today. Before getting into that here are some of the leading specifications: The 1.6-litre engine in the Elantra SR Turbo produces 150 kW of power, and 265 Nm of torque across a wide spread from just from 1500 rpm to 4500 revs. It has direct fuel injection, continuously variable… Read more