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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

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LEXUS HUNTING FOR NEW LEVEL OF LUXURY

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Lexus, not usually seen as a predator, is on the prowl. The hunting grounds are the upper reaches of the medium passenger sedan sales segment and the lower branches of the premium car market tree. A major player in the luxury car market in Australia since the early 1990s, the Japanese marque is looking to broaden its appeal and has chosen a sports sedan, the IS 200t, with a blend of performance and economy to do this. A replacement for the IS 250, sharp prices characterise the range which consists… Read more

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2015 AUDI RS7

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Ingolstadt’s big fast cars don’t make headlines the way their BMW and Mercedes counterparts do. We’re not entirely sure why because Audi’s RS6 and RS7 are two of the most capable cars on the planet. Following a trip around Philip Island in the RS7 where its abilities were worked hard, we borrowed the keys for a week to live with the big coupe on the road. VALUE The Audi-RS7 kicks off at a stout $241,610, an increase of $12,500 over the Avant-only (station wagon) RS6. Your money buys you a… Read more

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MERCEDES-BENZ B 250 MIXES FUN WITH FUNCTION

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The Mercedes B-Class has been on sale in Australia for almost a decade, having evolved from one of Benz’s cleverest products, the A-Class city car. The latter was one of the first little-big cars – managing to combine a small exterior with a deceptively large, strictly two-seat interior, largely through its tall body. The B-Class inherited many of these qualities but with a more conventional styling than its boxier older sibling, but nevertheless it’s still taller than the average five-door hatchback. The benefits include easy step-in access, a relatively high… Read more

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FERRARI 166

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1948 Ferrari 166M

After a five-year break in activity because of World War II, Enzo Ferrari’s links with Alfa Romeo were severed, and he resolved to start building his own cars for the first time. His first chief engine designer was Gioacchino Colombo, who produced the classic V12 engine that was to be the mainstay of Ferrari road cars, in so many different forms, for a great many years to come. The original V12 engine was a 1500cc single overhead cam design, first seen in 1947, and cars using it were known as… Read more

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2016 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER EXCEED PETROL REVIEW

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Mitsubishi Outlander is an important vehicle for the Japanese giant, competing as it does in one of the strongest market areas in Australia, that of midsize SUVs. Mitsubishi has long been a major player in the field of comfortable passenger-oriented vehicles, having introduced the Pajero to a surprised public downunder 33 years ago. Back then 4WDs were somewhat crude truck-based vehicles, Mitsubishi showed it didn’t have to be like that. Outlander first arrived in Australia in 2003 as a smaller brother to Pajero and has sold consistently since the get-go…. Read more

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VOLKSWAGEN GOLF ALLTRACK: AN EXCELLENT ALTERNATIVE

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Volkswagen Golf Alltrack is an interesting variant on the Golf station wagon, offering a tougher look, some off-road ability and easier entry and exit. While not a full-on SUV in the accepted sense the Alltrack upstages many SUV lookalike vehicles that only have two-wheel drive and are nothing more than station wagons with macho bodies. The body protection side and wheelarch panels give the Golf 7 Alltrack a serious appearance, as does the revised design of the bumpers. There’s also additional protection on the underbody. Bi-xenon headlights have a cornering… Read more

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FORD FALCON 1998 – 2015

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2006 Ford Falcon XR6

In September 2015 Ford Falcon celebrated its 55th birthday in Australia. Sadly, it has just entered its final year of production. They have long been favourites on the used-car scene, especially for those living in the bush. Most Falcons are everyday sedans, station wagons and utes. Two-door hardtops and panel vans were also built back in the old days beyond the scope of this article. The demise of the Falcon may mean specialised models, such as XR6, XR8, GT, and any with supercharged or turbocharged engines (except for the four-cylinder… Read more

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MGB

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Among popular and mid-priced European sportscars of the 1960s, front engines, rear-wheel-drive and four-speed gearboxes were still the norm. However, the use of synchromesh on all gears became standard on most cars in place of the crash-first gear boxes which were common in the 1950s. By the end of the decade, the five-speed gearbox – confined mainly to the Italian marques in the 1950s – slowly began to gain ground and, in addition, the availability of automatic transmissions as an option was offered by some makes. At the beginning of… Read more