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BMW 3 SERIES OFFERS INCREASED VALUE

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It’s now 40 years since the launch of the 3 Series name tag on the small-medium BMW car. Early this month [SUB October] the 10 millionth 3 Series was sold. Obviously the 3 Series is extremely important to the company in the never ending sales war, not only with its German rivals, but also with Jaguar and Lexus. Midway through the life of the gen-six model changes have been made to the 3 Series in Australia. These not only include styling alterations and major mechanical improvements, but also offer significantly… Read more

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SERIES II VF COMMODORE IS THE MOST POWERFUL YET

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With the clock ticking down towards the end of local production Holden has released the Series II version of its VF Commodore. Because the nameplate is set to continue as an import after the factory closes in 2017 Holden is aware of the importance of keeping Commodore up to date and so hasn’t ruled out another update sometime in 2016. However it’s safe to say that this will be the final major change to the car that has been such a feature of the Australian automotive industry for the past… Read more

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CISITALIA

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1947 Cisitalia coupe

To aid post-World War II recovery of the motor car industry in general and the motor racing business in particular Piero Dusio, an Italian businessman, established a small firm in Turin to concentrate on car racing and body design. As production of the Fiat 1100 had been restarted and stock was becoming readily available he chose the Fiat 1100 engine, modified to yield 37kW or 45kW as the basis of his design, fitting them to a single seater sports car using a tubular space frame and suspension of advanced design…. Read more

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2015 MASERATI GRANTURISMO MC SPORTLINE

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Cars that have had this many birthdays on sale don’t really deserve to look this good, but the GranTurismo’s first impression is a good one – it’s so pretty and that Birdcage-inspired nose, if anything, is getting better looking. They don’t really deserve to be this engaging, either. Maserati’s range continues to expand with the Ghibli finally coming on line but the real attention-grabber remains the GranTurismo. And in this Sport Line guise, you get a bit of Stradale visual aggro without the chiro-inducing ride. VALUE The GranTurismo MC Sportline… Read more

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MAZDA BEEFS UP BT-50

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Mazda is in serious competition for number two spot in the Australian sales race. While Toyota is in first place by a huge margin, Mazda, Hyundai and Holden are at it hammer and tongs for the second spot on the podium. What better way to increase sales than to upgrade its BT-50, Mazda’s entrant in one of the hottest of all market segments in Australia. Though this area is apparently that of light commercial pickup trucks the big movers aren’t the working vehicles, rather dual-cabs with stacks of accessories are… Read more

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AUDI RS3 IS ONE HOT PERFORMER

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A few months ago we spent an enjoyable day in Italy punting an Audi RS3 at the Vallelunga racing circuit. That’s always an interesting exercise, because some high-performance cars that feel great on normal roads falter when taken to extremes on tracks. Audi’s RS3 is certainly not one of them, it stormed around the combination of high land low speed corners without ever looking like putting a wheel out of place. Now the Audi RS3 has just landed in Australia and we spent another great day at the wheel of… Read more

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ALL-NEW TOYOTA HILUX: TOUGHER THAN EVER

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Pickup trucks, particularly sporty dual-cabs models are huge sellers in Australia these days. By far the biggest player in the segment is the long running Toyota HiLux. An all-new Toyota HiLux, the eight generation, has just gone on sale, and must be seriously worrying the opposition as many thousands of potential buyers have already expressed interest. Some have even signed up to buy a HiLux before knowing the price. Why? To get to the front of what threatens to be a long queue. It’s well known that many pickup buyers… Read more

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MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD SEDAN STEPS UP WITH A TASTE OF LEXUS LUXURY

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The ES goes back almost to the beginnings of Lexus in Australia in the early 1990s, being the second car to come here after the LS 400. Since then it has pretty much ploughed a straight, if unspectacular, furrow. Now the mid-size sedan has been given a makeover to bring it into line with the latest company thinking and offer buyers an introduction, and possible step up, to the next level of Lexus luxury. This has been done by taking cues from the company’s L-Finesse design language. The new ES… Read more

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SUZUKI KIZASHI 2010 – 2015

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2010 Suzuki Kizashi

Suzuki’s strength in Australia for many decades was in clever small cars and excellent 4WDs. Then in January 2010, it made the interesting move into medium size cars with a new model called Kizashi. Aimed at a huge number of competitors, including the Ford Mondeo, Honda Accord Euro, Mazda6, Subaru Liberty in a market segment that wasn’t particularly strong Kizashi was less successful than the importer hoped. It’s a good looker with a powerful appearance that gives a fair touch of sportiness. In August 2010 the Suzuki Kizashi Sport arrived…. Read more

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2015 MINI JCW REVIEW

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A few weeks back we enjoyed a great day at Phillip Island thrashing around in a series of brightly coloured gen-three Mini JCWs. Now we have come back to reality having road tested one for a week on our home turf on the Gold Coast – traffic, speed cameras, rough and ready roads, the full catastrophe. Given the high-tech nature of the all-new third-generation John Cooper Works (JCW) and engineering ability of BMW, which runs Mini these days, it didn’t come as a surprise that the real-world didn’t faze the… Read more