CAR ADVICE

First published May 27, 2017. As we all work hard at celebrating the end of a big year and the start of a new one, we’re looking back on some favourites of 2017!  I’ve just discovered that I love desert. No, not double-cream-topped, Belgian-choc-filled, Heston Blumenthal-frozen Masterchef -style  dessert , but the sun-scorched, dusty, cactus-smattered, don’t-go-wandering-off-or-you’ll-die environment of America’s Wild West. On my first-ever visit, I’ve become smitten by Arizona, and all of the (ahem) good, the bad and the ugliness it crams inside 300,000 square kilometres. Everything, from the gleaming capitalist excess of Scottsdale, to the barren desolation of Navajo Country. It’s an utterly fascinating place. It is entirely plausible that this Clint Eastwood tragic’s perception of the Arizona experience has been (desert) rose-tinged through the high-octane filtration of wickedly quick Mercedes-AMG GT Roadsters – a small squadron of them in a variety of...

2017 is over. It’s time for sunshine and rose-tinted reflection on the year gone by. But here at CarAdvice , we aren’t taking our foot off the pedal just yet – instead, we’re taking the chance to look back at a huge part of the Australian motoring landscape: Holden. With a new year comes a fresh beginning for Holden . September 26 saw the closure of the Lion Brand’s plant in Elizabeth, South Australia and, by extension, the end of Australian car manufacturing. Rather than letting the big, rear-drive Aussie sedan fade quietly into the night, we pulled out all the stops to celebrate what was great about the Commodore. Things we’ll miss: The V8 ute The ute is a uniquely Australian creation. Although the body-style was initially developed by Ford , it was Holden which decided to make the breed handle, go and stop like a proper performance car. In its final iteration, the Commodore SS-V Redline ute combined a 6.2-litre LS3 V8 engine with an independent rear suspension, making it ...

Electric vehicles are coming, and the past year has seen a number of big manufacturers roll out their plans for the electric revolution. Although each is shooting for the same goal – profitability in an era of tighter emissions regulations – there are a number of different theories on how to get there. Here are the latest formal plans, collated in the one place. If you notice a brand is missing – and many are – that means they’ve yet to offer any detailed announcement of plans for an electrification program. Audi Audi has promised to offer three new electric vehicles by 2020, with a third of all cars sold by 2025 to be electrified in some form. Lower in the range, the rollout of electrification is likely to begin with mild 48-volt hybrids . Cars fitted with these systems use a water-cooled belt-driven generator in place of a traditional starter motor, allowing the car to coast with the engine off for almost a minute in the right conditions. When the throttle is prodded, the e...

The 2018 BMW 118i represents an incredibly affordable entrée into the BMW stable, and while it might not be as premium as its bigger brothers and sisters, it’s still very much a premium offering at the affordable end of the small-hatch segment. With pricing that starts from $39,990 before on-road costs, a sub-$40K BMW is no longer a pipe dream. Well, before you pay any extras of course. If you’ve seen or read this new 1 Series referred to as LCI, that stands for ‘Life Cycle Impulse’ – BMW’s term for a midlife update – so let’s leave that jargon to one side. The 118i is definitely something of an oddball, whether BMW fans want to admit it or not. It’s the cheapest BMW money can buy, it’s powered by a 1.5-litre three-cylinder, has an eight-speed automatic and is RWD… Which parts of this mashed-up equation feel like a BMW and which parts don’t, then? Let’s try to find out. What is very decidedly BMW is the iDrive 6 infotainment system, which has been added to the 118i’s cabin an...

2017 is officially over. It’s time for sunshine and rose-tinted reflection on the year gone by. But here at CarAdvice , we aren’t taking our foot off the pedal – instead, we’re taking the chance to look back at some of the most interesting, exciting and downright strange stories published this year. Across all of CarAdvice.com , the five stories below – news and reviews alike – came through as our most visited pieces for last year. What do you think of the result? 5. 2018 Toyota Prado facelift leaked The Toyota Prado is consistently Australia’s top-selling large SUV, duking it out with its Kluger stablemate for overall supremacy. In June, the face-lifted version of the Japanese off-roader surfaced on social media, giving us a look ahead of its official reveal at the Frankfurt motor show in September. Headlining changes included a new face and the addition of the company’s latest driver assistance systems like autonomous emergency braking and adaptive cruise control. You can...

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQtO8M4kLIA Genovation Cars will use CES 2018 to unveil the GXE, an all-electric Corvette capable of topping 350km/h. So, how does the GXE deliver that monstrous top speed? To start with, it makes a lot of power and torque: 597kW and 950Nm, to be precise. Along with the headline speed figure, Genovation is claiming a sub-3.0 second sprint to 97km/h. The company says its dual-stack motors make use of Le Mans and F1 technology, allowing it to deliver all that torque in a way the paddle-shift automatic or seven-speed manual gearbox – that’s right, this is an electric car with a manual – can handle. There are a few problems, though. For one, the Corvette body was never meant to house batteries and electric motors, which means the number of batteries the Genovation team can fit is limited. As a result, range is expected to be somewhere around the 210km mark. Beyond the performance, the GXE aims to set itself apart from the super/sports car crowd with ...

2017 is almost over. It’s time for Christmas parties, sunshine and rose-tinted reflection on the year gone by. But here at CarAdvice, we aren’t taking our foot off the pedal just yet – instead, we’re taking the chance to look back at some of the most interesting, exciting and downright strange stories published this year. Here are a few of our favourite concept cars from 2017, as selected by our journalists on their travels around the biggest motor shows in the world. Honda Urban EV Sorry if this isn’t surprising – Mike Stevens has already professed his love for the cute Urban EV on the pages of  CarAdvice  – but this little electric car was simply too cool to ignore. There are a few surefire ways to get motoring enthusiasts fired up. Lovingly executed retro design, a forward-thinking powertrain and compact proportions always go down well, and the Urban EV ticks all those boxes. The exterior is a delightful reference to the first-generation Civic hatch , with slim a-pi...