September 2023

Wheels

Australia’s original motoring magazine.

Wheels2 min read
Upfront
IT’S EASY TO crash a car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The typical run up the hill usually involves you being introduced to your vehicle of choice about two minutes before you get flagged to go. A representative from the manufacturer in question
Wheels1 min read
30 Days
1. To accelerate its EV development, Audi has entered a partnership with Chinese state owned carmaker SAIC Motor. 2. Mitsubishi has confirmed it’s exiting the Chinese market following a sharp decline in vehicle sales and inability to compete with loc
Wheels2 min read
The Wrap
It seems Brad Pitt’s on-screen ambitions to be a fast but old (he’s 59) F1 driver have hit a roadblock. Production for his next film, about a driver who comes out of retirement to help a struggling rookie, was underway at the British GP at Silverston
Wheels3 min read
What Kept You?
THE FIRST all-new Toyota LandCruiser Prado in 14 years has debuted, featuring mild-hybrid tech powering a bigger body and likely to boast an uprated towing capacity. The latest ‘250 Series’ Prado, due here in mid-2024, is closely related to the new L
Wheels3 min read
Running Of The Bull
IF YOU thought 2023’s 24 Hours of Le Mans was good, wait until next year when Lamborghini joins the hypercar fray. The famed Italian marque has used the Goodwood Festival of Speed to whip the covers off the SC63, which comes under the control of its
Wheels3 min read
Block Party
HYUNDAI CLAIMS its fifth-generation Santa Fe large SUV, due for local launch early next year, has adopted a “life style based design typology”, which would seem to translate to bluff, boxier, Land Rover-inspired styling, new H-shaped lighting, and a
Wheels3 min read
Diamond Advantage?
MITSUBISHI’S SIXTH-gen Triton boasts fresh underpinnings, a more potent twin-turbo diesel engine, and an uprated 3.5-tonne braked towing capacity. It’s expected to arrive in Australian showrooms in early 2024, around the same time it returns to Japan
Wheels1 min read
Incoming
Unexpected ‘Outback’ version of about-to-die Lambo Huracan is claimed to be an “all-surface supercar” with raised ride height (by 44mm), bespoke suspension set-up with a Rally mode, and 19-inch wheels with all-terrain tyres. Visually defines its miss
Wheels1 min read
The Market
Easing of delivery delays helped contribute to the strongest July in Australian new-car sales history. Results from by the Federal Chamber of Automobile Industries (FCAI) reveal 96,859 vehicles were registered in July this year. That may be down on J
Wheels1 min read
High Five!
Toyota was comfortably the dominant brand for July, recording 19,191 sales. A solid performance when compared to Mazda’s 8307 sales (up 5.4% from 7879) but one that still represents a 1.9% dip from the same month last year, and a 20.9% deficit to mak
Wheels1 min read
Ready To Fire
Honda’s new mid-sized ZR-V SUV hasn’t translated into booming sales yet, with the brand recording just930 total deliveries last month – a stagnant performance from 2022 with just two more vehicles registered, and down 10.1% year-to-date. Honda Austra
Wheels4 min read
Inbox
Keep it tight (no more than 200 words) and do include your suburb if via email: wheels@wheelsmag.com.au You can also have your say on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (search for Wheels Australia) I LOVED PORING over the Greatest 70 as pulled together
Wheels3 min read
Squeaky Wheel
WHILE LAST MONTH’S Wheels detailed advances in the ‘personal mobility aircraft’ industry, it won’t surprise many of you that I remain deeply sceptical of the whole flying car thing. The notion, I’ll admit, is a tantalising one. Who wouldn’t want to b
Wheels3 min read
Flat Chat
MY GRANDMOTHER IS visibly upset. Her arms crossed, she laments that she can no longer drive her car. “You all took it off me,” she crows to assembled family. Her licence, she means. At 82, she’s still a spring chicken in some circles, but the python
Wheels1 min read
WIN DAD this GW GEARWRENCH
655-PIECE DOUBLE TOOL CHEST AND TROLLEY HIT THE QR CODE TO GO INTO THE DRAW TO WIN THIS STUNNING 655-PIECE GEARWRENCH TOOL CHEST AND TROLLEY FOR FATHER’S DAY! IF YOU'RE AN EXISTING OR NEW SUBSCRIBER, YOU GET TEN BONUS ENTRIES FOR NIX! PRIZE VALUED AT
Wheels6 min read
The Man Behind BMW M
THE MAN IN charge of the performance world’s most famous single letter, M, closes his eyes and shakes his head, a pained expression passing across his face. Frank van Meel is cold, his chin tucked into the high collar of his branded jacket as we hudd
Wheels7 min read
TOYOTA Century
SHOPPING IN JAPAN is an exercise in being overwhelmed by the tyranny of choice. You’re buried in an avalanche of features, specifications, colours and nested niches to the extent that you begin to wonder how this Darwinian proliferation of products i
Wheels9 min read
Bigger, Quieter, More Richly Equipped And Better To Drive
WHAT’S THE most important new model for Mercedes-Benz to get absolutely right? A new SL? The flagship S-Class? One of its many cutting-edge EVs? Nope, it’s a mid-size SUV. This mid-size SUV, in fact. Mercedes sells more GLCs than it does any other mo
Wheels4 min read
Poised To Be The Wrx For The Ev Generation?
HERE’S THE snapshot: the MG4 X-Power is a dual-motor battery performance car touted as the world’s first dedicated, all-electric hot hatch – and it’s coming to Australia in late 2023. The MG4 X-Power comes with a 64kWh battery offering 385km of claim
Wheels6 min read
Mazda’s Premium Pivot Point
LIFE IS made more interesting by ambitious individuals. And companies. Mazda is certainly not short on that attribute, for the car maker from Hiroshima – a relative minnow in the auto industry – has always been propelled forward by the spark of its o
Wheels7 min read
Munich’s Electric SUV For Those Who Don’t Need To Make A Song And Dance
AWARD FOR biggest improver of 2022? That probably goes to BMW’s X1 which, in third-generation guise, really seemed to find its feet. But as much as we approved of the petrol versions of the X1, the electric iX1 xDrive 30 was always going to be the mo
Wheels2 min read
All The Gear, But No Idea?
THE FORD Ranger swept all before it when it was unleashed on Australia’s booming dual-cab market in 2022. A range-topping Platinum model has now been perched atop the regular Ranger line up, albeit still a good deal more affordable than the special i
Wheels8 min read
Dark horse
THE FORD MUSTANG will soon be the last pony car standing. At least one with an internal-combustion motor under the bonnet. Chevrolet is about to axe the Camaro (again) and Dodge’s Challenger/Charger duo are set to be replaced by an electric interpret
Wheels5 min read
Worth The Weight?
PUT TOGETHER on a shoestring budget by a small team operating in makeshift premises, the first Lotuses were the brainchildren of Colin Chapman, the half-crazed purveyor of ultra-lightweight constructions, radical aerodynamics, brutal decontenting and
Wheels1 min read
3 Things You Should Know
Thanks to two Qualcomm 8155 ‘System-On-Chips’, Lotus claims bestin-class processing power from the head unit behind the 15.1-inch OLED touchscreen. As for premium audio, it’s from KEF. The set-up provides 2160 watts of amplification and Dolby Atmos p
Wheels7 min read
718 Spyder Rs
ANDREAS PREUNINGER is great company. Porsche’s director of GT products is the man who dreams up all the really illicit stuff. While SUVs like the Macan and Cayenne swell the coffers, the beating heart of Porsche is borne of purity: of pared-back, fie
Wheels7 min read
Lock & load
HERE’S A TRUTH about comparison tests. You often learn more about a new car by taking it out of its segment pigeonhole and applying a bit of wider-focus perspective than you do by finding the closest rival possible. People don’t shop for the performa
Wheels3 min read
Civilised Outback
Price as tested $52,190 This month 1736 @ 9.1L/100km Overall 1736 @ 9.1L/100km I HAVE AN admission to make. I’ve been driving a Subaru for the last month and I don’t actually know which one it is. I know it’s an Outback and that it’s the turbocharged
Wheels7 min read
MG FACTORY Inside The Dragon
THE LITTLE orange hatchback edges down the production line, sitting atop a metal jig. Yet to receive its headlights, wheels, engine, doors or even interior, it’s but a naked body. Looking down the production line, which inches forward slowly but unce
Wheels4 min read
A Rapt Wrap
Price as tested $54,990 This month 1058km @ 9.4L/100km Overall 3464km @ 9.1L/100km AND SO my family comes to the end of its time with the Tiguan Allspace Adventure 162TSI 4Motion. We’ll miss it. With power in spades, a smart and responsive dual-clutc
Wheels3 min read
Mover, Not A Shaker
Price as tested $49,990 drive away This month 1211km @ 9.2L/100km Overall 2101km @ 9.0L/100km THIS MONTH WAS a lot more serious in the X-Trail. We did longer trips. We bought stuff that had to go in the boot. Trips to airports were made. People were
Wheels1 min read
1800+
PRICE Recommended retail figure at time of publication (asterisk indicates driveaway price) ENGINE TYPE L, in-line; V, vee; F, flat. Number of cylinders. T, turbo; S, supercharged; D, diesel; H, hybrid; E, electric SIZE Litres or kWh POWER kW TORQUE
Wheels1 min read
Wheels
WHEELS EDITOR Andy Enright ART DIRECTOR Damien Pelletier SENIOR EDITOR Ash Westerman DIGITAL EDITOR Alex Inwood NEWS EDITOR Kathryn Fisk NEWS DESK Jordan Hickey JOURNALIST John Law HEAD OF PHOTOGRAPHY Ellen Dewar CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER Felipe Ubilla W
Wheels2 min read
Rallying To The Cause
IT TAKES AN automotive romantic with a long memory to gush about Lancia as one of the great marques. It sure doesn’t look that way today – Lancia currently sells one model, the outdated Ypsilon hatch, and only in Italy – and it’s been much the same s
Wheels3 min read
KIA Picanto GT
THERE ARE CERTAIN small indulgences that make life that little bit more tolerable. It might be a decent cup of coffee or the luxury of a weekend lie-in. The Kia Picanto GT always felt like one of those slightly giddy joys that felt so good it almost

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