Category: New Releases

2021 Ford Ranger Wildtrak X Bi-turbo Review

June 10, 2021

Ford’s best-selling Ranger is soon to be superseded by a next generation, but let’s see how the current Aussie favourite shapes up in Wildtrak X flavour.   Ford has somewhat of a problem on its hands. It’s currently readying up a successor to the wildly popular Ranger ute, which is promising, but with sales of its current-generation Ranger still ticking along at industry-leading rates, Ford can’t afford to stuff up its successor. Despite the T6...

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2021 Mercedes-AMG GLS63 Review

May 6, 2021

The whopper. The big kahuna. Big cheese. Or maybe Grand Poobah? These are all phrases that I kept dishing out whenever someone enquired about the rather meaty 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLS63. That’s because it is all of those things – some good, some bad. As the top dog (there’s another) of Mercedes-AMG SUVs, it needs to deliver. We’ll kick off with where the GLS63 sits in the wider AMG SUV range. It’s priced from $255,700 before on-roads. That’s precisely $33,000 more...

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Kia Seltos 2021 Review

April 12, 2021

The Kia Seltos is edgy, good-looking and packs plenty of features, but can it stand tall in the crowded small-SUV segment? The Kia Seltos is quickly becoming one of the brand’s most sought-after cars. An all-important offering in the Kia SUV portfolio, the Seltos is captivating, edgy, and developed by a brand that was once a challenger and is now a mainstay. Arriving in late 2019, the Seltos has proved its worth and managed to stand tall in a...

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2021 MG ZST Essence Review

April 12, 2021

The MG ZST small SUV may not be as well known as city SUVs from Kia, Honda or Mitsubishi, but it’s not too far off the pace of those established brands. Within the range of options in the very busy small-SUV segment in Australia, the 2021 MG ZST Essence certainly looks complete. The styling is rather appealing, and there are no oddball touches or out-there flourishes. It’s a people-pleaser. Perhaps the most pleasing aspect is the price....

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2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Elite | Review

March 8, 2021

It might look familiar, but Hyundai’s updated seven-seater is packing plenty of new metal.   Hot on the heels of Kia’s all-new Sorento, sister company Hyundai has updated its own seven-seat SUV – the Santa Fe – for 2021. Along with a tweaked look inside and out, the 2021 Santa Fe wades back into the large-SUV battleground with some extra tricks up its sleeve. And if you think what we are looking at is just a facelifted Santa...

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Hyundai Kona 2021 Review

February 18, 2021

The Hyundai Kona – the second-best seller for the last two years in a row in an overcrowded class of more than 20 small SUVs – has had its first major update since arriving in local showrooms in 2017. Crash-avoidance technology has been added across the 2021 Hyundai Kona range, although only the most expensive models come with the full suite of advanced safety systems – and speed-sign recognition is still not available.   There are six models in the revised line-up, starting with the...

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2021 Kia Carnival Reveiw

January 12, 2021

Thinking about buying a large SUV for your growing family, with no plans of going off-road? Don’t. Buy the 2021 Kia Carnival instead.   It’s impossible to dislike a car, when it happens to be very good at its core role. And the new 2021 Kia Carnival people mover is exactly that. This ain’t no muscular, swooping, coupe-SUV-off-road-shooting-brake-family-sportscar, like so many segment-blurring models that are currently crowding showrooms. The Kia Carnival is a god-damned, unabashed people mover. And...

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2020 Ford Mustang GT Convertible Review

November 7, 2020

If we could apply a Peter and the Wolf style approach to cars, where the characters are described only by music, then the 2020 Ford Mustang GT Convertible would surely be ‘voiced’ by the opening salvo of Bon Jovi’s Raise Your Hands. The combination of Sambora’s catchy, big-hair metal riff, balanced with JBJ’s almost doppler-effect scream, is the perfect metaphor to suit the soundtrack of the perpetual midlife-crisis-encouragement machine. Too much analysis there you think? Well, this is the key...

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2020 Hyundai Venue Elite

November 7, 2020

Hyundai’s compact SUV is becoming more and more common on our roads. Let’s find out if you should join the herd. Elite. It’s a word the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as meaning “the best of a class”. If true, that’s a bold claim for Hyundai to affix to the top-spec variant of its small SUV, the Venue. After all, the small-SUV class isn’t exactly lacking in competition. So, the key question is: Should you consider the Venue above all...

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