HANG THE EXPENSE
ONE OF THE more memorable recurring features in this magazine’s long and illustrious history was the ‘King of the Hill’ series, started in the late 1970s, pitting a desirable-spec Holden against the Ford Falcon equivalent.
As made clear in editor Peter Robinson’s opening paragraph back in the January 1978 original, the comparison helped ascertain whose model range was better, down to the bread-and-butter HZ Kingswood SL and XC Falcon 500 that made up the bulk of Australia’s two top sellers’ volumes. The GTS and GXL V8s as tested representing them respectively were simply their makers’ best feet forward. Readers loved it. It also sold many magazines.
The world has changed unrecognisably since, of course, with big sedans all but dead and the local heroes gone, replaced in the hearts and minds of Aussie consumers with SUVs. The juggernaut started with the pioneering Toyota RAV4’s debut in 1994. Now everybody’s at it, and demand is showing no signs of letting up.
Welcome, then, to King of the Hills – or Heights, Vales, Meadows, Lakes, Creeks or whatever suburbia suffix applies. Instead of V8s, we’ve assembled a trio of
