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NEW CAR SALES HIT A RECORD HIGH IN 2023

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The Australian automotive market has achieved an unprecedented milestone, breaking all- time records for new vehicle sales in 2023. A total of 1,216,780 vehicles were delivered during the year, the previous highest sales result of 1,189,116 was achieved in 2017. Toyota was the top selling car brand with 17.7 per cent of the market while the top selling vehicle was the Ford Ranger (63,356). SUVs and light commercials accounted for 78.4 per cent of sales and comprise all the top 10 vehicles sold in 2023. Battery electric vehicles accounted for… Read more

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LEXUS LX600 ULTRA LUXURY LIVES UP TO ITS NAME

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Effectively an upmarket version of the Toyota LandCruiser, the Lexus LX large premium SUV has been around since the mid-1990s. The latest (fourth generation) LX arrived here at the end of 2021 shortly after the new LC300. It comes with petrol or diesel power, four equipment variants, three seating options and a host of new safety and tech features. The four variants are base LX, Sports Luxury, F Sport, and Ultra Luxury. The first three are available with either petrol or diesel engines, the Ultra Luxury is petrol only. Prices… Read more

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TOYOTA COROLLA 1.8 ZR HYBRID HATCH

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Finished in black over silver, Toyota’s ZR Corolla looks more eye-catching than ever. In the past few years the company has been able to transform the image of the car from staid and conservative into something much more sporty that has younger buyer appeal — at least that’s the plan. Flanking the hatch is the more traditional sedan for mums and dads and rally bred, three- door, all-wheel drive GR hot hatch at the other end of the scale for the boy racers (and boy racers at heart). Each grade… Read more

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MAZDA3 SEDAN

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Mazda3 has been on sale here for almost 20 years on the Australian market. Indeed, you can make that 45 years if you include the 323 that preceded. The ‘3’ has been a consistently high seller for most of its life often contesting the top spots in both its small-medium segment as well as overall sales against perennial rivals like Toyota Corolla, Kia Cerato, Nissan Pulsar and Hyundai i30. The latest, fourth generation, Mazda3 arrived here in February 2019 year in five-door hatchback form with the four-door sedan joining it… Read more

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NEW KIA PICANTO

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Kia has announced details of the latest version of its Picanto city car. Cars of this size have historically been poor sellers in Australia with its sprawling suburbs however increasing environmental awareness did there was a surge in popularity of the segment which saw Kia begin importing the Picanto in 2015. The arrival of compact SUVs has seen the micro segment dwindle to just two cars – Picanto and Fiat 500 with the little Kia outselling the Italian mini by a ratio of 9 to 1. As with the other… Read more

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RENAULT LAUNCHES ALL-NEW KANGOO E-TECH COMMERCIAL VAN

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Renault has rejoined the Australian electric commercial van market with its new Kangoo E- Tech. It replaces the previous fully-electric Z.E. Kangoo which was on sale here between 2017 and 2022. Renault has been a pioneer in electric mobility and a leader in electric commercial vehicles in Europe since 2011 with the Z.E. selling around 70,000 vehicles as well as nearly 200 here. Kangoo E-Tech is available in both short- and long-wheelbase variants and with a range of option packs. The SWB variant will arrive in February 2024, priced from… Read more

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HONDA CR-V VTi LX AWD

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It’s been a little over 12 months since we drove the previous Honda CR-V. Introduced to Australia in 1997, CR-V has grown to become Honda’s most successful model globally. Released in July last year the sixth-generation of the five- and seven-seat SUV, like its predecessors, is targeted at families. This time around the styling is more sophisticated and some might say sporty, with particular attention to the interior. As Japanese car makers fight to stave off the onslaught of increasingly better Chinese competitors, Honda was one of the first companies… Read more

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DEFENDER DESIGNED FOR ‘ENDLESS’ SURFING SAFARI

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Surfing can be an expensive undertaking, especially if you need the right set of wheels to reach secluded locations. Enter the Land Rover Defender Pacific Blue Edition, limited to just 15 examples and priced from $129,976 plus on-road costs. Pacific Blue Edition will be sold exclusively in short wheelbase 90 body design with a D250 3.0-litre twin turbo-diesel that delivers 183kW of power and 570Nm of torque. Each of the 15 Limited Edition models will be wrapped in a stunning Pacific Blue matte finish, contrasted with a white roof and… Read more

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TOYOTA ADDS PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS TO ITS MARKET-LEADING HILUX

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Toyota scoured the globe to find something extra for its best-selling HiLux pick-up range. With inspiration coming from the Dakar, one of the toughest off-road endurance events in the world, plus input from the company’s Australian design team in Melbourne and extensive testing here, the result is the all-terrain performance GR Sport dual cab. Seen as a replacement for the range-topping Rugged X, Toyota landed on the GR HiLux racecar that was making its presence felt in one of the world’s toughest off-road endurance events, the Dakar Rally, for inspiration,… Read more

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FORD FOCUS 2011 – 2022

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  Ford Focus is a small-medium European model that has never had the success it  deserves in Australia. That’s probably because dual-clutch automatics sold from 2011 till  2015 had many problems and these led to the complete car being given a poor reputation.   The dual-clutch was replaced by a six-speed conventional torque convertor automatic  transmission in September 2015 as part of a major makeover of the complete range.   Ford Focus is pretty well made these days, though generally not to the extremely high  standards of the Asian models…. Read more