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Menampilkan postingan dari Juli, 2025

2026 Honda Prelude hybrid coupe to use Civic Type R DNA

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Honda has confirmed its revived Prelude coupe, set to debut later this year, will use the same suspension, brakes and wider wheel tracks as the Civic Type R hot hatch. More details about the 2026 Honda Prelude hybrid coupe – the first model to wear the name in two decades – have been confirmed ahead of its reveal in the coming months. Honda has announced the Prelude will share components with the related Civic Type R hot hatch , including its suspension, Brembo front brakes, and wider front and rear wheel tracks compared to a standard Civic. This includes the Type R’s dual-axis front suspension design to minimise torque steer, which first appeared in the previous FK2 and FK8 models from 2015 and 2017, respectively, and was carried over to the current FL5 generation from 2022. MORE: 2026 Honda Prelude confirmed – coupe returns with hybrid after 25 years, Australia possible – Video It is despite using a version of the 2.0-litre hybrid system from the Civic, Accor...

Porsche offering up to $10,000 off Macan Electric in Australia with finance offer

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Porsche, not known for running special offers in Australia, has announced finance deposit contributions of up to $10,000 across its new Macan Electric range. The 2025 Porsche Macan Electric is now up to $10,000 more affordable in Australia with new finance offers available until the end of September. Porsche Australia , which doesn’t usually offer special deals on its vehicles, has announced a $5000 deposit contribution for eligible new, demonstrator and service loan Macan Electric models . Accessible at most Porsche dealerships until September 30, 2025, a further deposit contribution of up to $5000 – totalling $10,000 – is also available when financing with Porsche Financial Services, depending on the variant. MORE: 2025 Porsche Macan Electric review – Australian first drive The Macan Electric and Macan 4 Electric have a further $3000 contribution with a 36 to 48-month loan term with guaranteed future value, while $4000 is available for the Macan 4S Electric, and $50...

Chery eyes Top 10 sales spot with long-game play: ‘We haven’t just come and started selling cars’

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A good ownership experience, value-for-money products, dealers in the right places, and availability of spare parts are what Chery says will eventually help it land a place in the Top 10 best-selling car brands. Chery’s local boss says the brand hasn’t “just come and started selling cars”, it is playing the long game in a bid to become one of Australia’s Top 10 best-selling car makers. Speaking with Drive at the launch of the new Chery Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid SUVs, Lucas Harris, Chery Australia’s Chief Operating Officer, said eventually the marque wants to break into the Top 10. “I think any car maker who says they don’t want to be in the Top 10 is probably telling fibs, right? An obvious next step for us is how do we break into that Top 10,” he told us. At the mid-point of 2025, Toyota leads the sales charts, ahead of Ford, Mazda, Hyundai, BYD, Kia, GWM, Mitsubishi, Isuzu and Subaru to round out the Top 10 most popular new-car brands . While many of those...

Mini Moke electric car conversion ups performance to modern ute levels, but it does not come cheap

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Buyers will need to provide their own Mini Moke and up to an additional $140,000 for an all-electric 72kW/175Nm, ADR-compliant classic. The original, off-beat Mini Moke has gone electric thanks to an Australian engineering company that is building conversion kits for the classic convertible. Jaunt Motors, an electric vehicle (EV) conversion company, has produced a platform that is completely Australian Design Rules (ADR) compliant that will bring the Moke into the modern era. This means the Moke EV can be registered in Australia and “been engineered to meet modern safety standards,” according to Jaunt. Fitted with a single electric motor, the tailpipe emissions-free Moke features a 50kW/175Nm output, boosted to 72kW/175Nm in sport mode. MORE: The cult of Mini Moke | Drive Flashback This is significantly more power and torque offered by locally delivered Mokes with a 1275cc engine, which is estimated to output around 39kW/84Nm. With a relatively small 400-volt 19kW...

Australia’s only McLaren F1 could be yours… for a cool $37 million

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Buy Australia’s only McLaren F1 and you’ll never be upstaged by something ‘better’ at a Cars and Coffee show ever again. Image: JamesEdition One of the most iconic chapters of motoring lore could be yours, with Australia’s only McLaren F1 listed for sale. Of the 106 F1s built between 1992 and 1998, the Australian example is one of only 64 road cars. The McLaren F1 holds a number of accolades, being the fastest production car at the time of its release, the last road-legal series production car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the first production car with a full carbon-fibre monocoque chassis and body. The F1 is also noteworthy for its central driving position, which places the driver in the middle of he car with a passenger seat on either side, slightly rearward. MORE: 2025 McLaren W1 revealed – $AU3.9m hybrid V8 hypercar replaces P1 Image: Instagram – @dc.autoimagery A BMW developed 6.1-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine, producing 461kW and 650N d...

Motorists argue if Australia’s maximum speed limit should be raised

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Last week, Drive ran a poll on whether or not the maximum speed limit should be raised – the results had a resounding response to one answer. In a recent  Drive poll, we asked our readers: Do you want to see the maximum speed limit in Australia raised to 130km/h? After receiving nearly 2500 responses, the answers are clear-cut. RELATED: This is the best Australian city to drive in, as voted by you A whopping 84 per cent of respondents (1977) voted yes to the poll, and only 16 per cent (378) were against raising the limit. Our comment sections saw a mixture of differing opinions, with some providing support for raising the limit, others opposing it, and others pointing out why it’ll never happen. “People are generally inclined to drive at a speed that they are themselves comfortable with; otherwise, they would feel mentally exhausted within 15 minutes. When I worked in Germany, I noticed that even on the German autobahns, 95 per cent of all road users sit somewhere be...

2026 GWM Tank 500 facelift revealed in China with built-in fridge, fold-down TV, styling tweaks

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Australia will stick with the current Tank 500 for now, including a plug-in hybrid model due in a few months, as the Chinese version gains new technology and tweaked styling. An updated version of the GWM Tank 500 off-road SUV has debuted in China – but, at this stage, the changes will not make an appearance in local showrooms. The 2026 GWM Tank 500 features a revised grille design which now extends below the headlights on each side, and is different from a new-look ‘sports’ grille introduced in Australia earlier this year complete with a blacked-out Vanta flagship. It also introduces new alloy wheel designs, a dark green exterior colour option, and updated GWM Tank badging on its tailgate. MORE: GWM Tank 500 update spied testing in China with mysterious sensors However, a GWM Australia spokesperson told Drive the latest revisions are “focused on the Chinese market only”. “I can confirm there are no changes planned for the Tank 500 line-up in Australia at this sta...

Victoria trialling new traffic cameras, but won’t tell us why

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A new traffic camera is now on Victoria’s roads, but the government won’t answer questions on what it does, or even what it looks like. Stock photo. A new type of traffic camera is now on Victoria’s roads, but the government will not provide detail on what it does, or even what it looks like. During the trial, the mobile road safety trailer camera being tested will not be issuing any fines to motorists. Drive contacted the Department of Justice and Community Safety Victoria (DJCS), who are running the trial, with a series of questions. However a DJCS spokesperson declined to comment on what the camera is designed to detect, or what the new camera looks like. New mobile road safety trailer camera trial locations The spokesperson also declined to answer what is different about the trialled camera compared to any existing cameras. The DJCS did clarify that the technology does not rely on artificial intelligence for enforcement purposes. A Department of Justice and Co...

Leapmotor cuts warranty period to ‘rebalance’ aftersales care

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A shorter warranty for 2025 Leapmotor C10s, but also cheaper and longer capped-price servicing for Stellantis’ Tesla Model Y competitor. Leapmotor Australia has shortened its seven-year/160,000km warranty to six years/150,000km less than 12 months after launching its first local model, the C10 electric family SUV. Applicable to all model year 2025 (MY25) vehicles, including the battery electric vehicle (BEV) and range extender electric vehicle (REEV) versions, the new assurance period also sees a change in the capped-price servicing and roadside assist plans from five to eight years. While the MY24 C10 BEV would cost $2000 over a five-year period, the MY25 version will run buyers back $3000 over eight years for maintenance – or $4000 for the newly-launched REEV variant . While Leapmotor Australia is yet to provide a cost breakdown per year, the average service for the MY25 C10 BEV works out to be $375 per year or 20,000km, whichever occurs first, compared with the average...

What can void your electric vehicle’s battery warranty?

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While electric vehicle battery degradation is inevitable, you’d be surprised to know the conditions that come with your warranty. Electric vehicles are starting to become a common fixture on Australian roads. With more Australians making the jump to battery-powered models, various car brands are looking to challenge Tesla’s dominance in the domestic market. Whether it’s offering competitively priced models and even free home chargers, manufacturers are under pressure to increase their EV presence as Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) – which penalises brands for exceeding specific CO2 limits – started in early July 2025. RELATED: The car brands with the longest electric vehicle battery warranties To entice consumers to make the transition into electric, some car makers have started to offer extended warranty coverage not just on the vehicle, but its battery as well. As previously reported by Drive , MG offers the longest electric car battery at 10 years/2...

Nissan to close its first production plant outside of Japan amid financial troubles

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Nissan is continuing to shut down production plants all over the world, with two in Mexico now set to shut shop by 2027. After Nissan announced its closure of a long-standing Japanese plant in Oppama, the car maker is now set to shut down two assembly plants in Mexico, including a joint manufacturing venture with Mercedes-Benz, according to reports. US publication, Automotive News , stated the nearly 60-year-old plant in Jiutepec, just south of Mexico City, is expected to shut down by the end of Japan’s financial year, March 2027, or perhaps even sooner. The Civac plant, in Jiutepec, was Nissan’s first full-vehicle manufacturing plant to operate outside of Japan – excluding locations assembling ‘knock-down shipped from its home market – and builds the Navara and Latin America’s Frontier utes. Nissan is also set on closing the Cooperation Manufacturing Plant Aguascalientes (COMPAS) joint venture with Mercedes-Benz at the large factory in Aguascalientes, Mexico by early 2...