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First Drive in NZ: All-New Subaru Forester High On Refinement, Space

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Just been driving the new Forester XT turbo in New Zealand, and it's the first Subaru Turbo I've driven with a CVT.

I had mixed feelings about how that transmission would work with the turbo, but I guess that the fact that Subaru's new third generation Lineartronic is going to be used with its new range of European market turbodiesels in both the Outback and Forester later in the year means that it will take the torque.

I noticed no disconcerting flare - often a bugbear with CVTs and more powerful engines - and loved the way the car stepped smoothly off the line, settling into low-revving cruise mode for town and around work, and open-road driving very decorously.

Well-chosen gearing allows the Forester to surf along on its low to mid-revolution biased torque curve, which will allow pretty useful economy in normal running, while the surge of energy on tap when you mash the throttle is very pleasing. With a rise in engine pitch, the Forester XT quickly catches up with itself in that distinctive CVT way, and dispatched overtaking maneuvers with great aplomb.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Any automaker that wants to play with the big names in the premium car league needs a performance lineup.

Just think about it; even Cadillac, which for the most part of its history was associated with luxury and cars that resembled...land yachts caved in and created the V-Series once its parent company GM got serious about competing against the Germans.

In all fairness, Volvo gave it a try much earlier with the 249hp 850 T-5R in the mid-1990s followed by the 296hp S60 R in the early 2000s before officials pulled the plug on the 'R' designation (not to be confused with the R-Line accessories and trim levels) in 2007.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Toyota is one of the world's most successful automotive brands, and in the States, the Camry mid-sizer is their best seller. In Australia, it's easily the de facto choice in its class for rental and taxi companies, government fleets and private buyers. Join us as we take the Australian-spec Atara S for one of our weeklong road test and reviews. Read more »

Pagani's New 720hp Huayra Video Reviewed Again

Thursday, June 21, 2012

As time goes by, more and more publications are getting some quality seat time behind the wheel of Pagani's newest exotic supercar, the cumbersomely named Huayra.

In this latest video, we see CAR magazine's deputy editor Ben Barry driving the car that replaces the famed Zonda around Pagani's headquarters in Modena, Italy.

Friday, March 9, 2012

The new BMW M550d xDrive may be a forbidden fruit in the largest English-speaking markets of the world but that doesn't make the diesel-powered sports saloon any less interesting.

In the latest edition of his online show, DRIVE, Chris Harris sat in the driver's seat of the new BMW M Performance car and took it for a test drive.

Before you watch the video after the break, we'll remind you that the M550d xDrive sports a 3.0-liter inline-six diesel with three turbochargers sending 381PS (375bhp) and a monstrous 740Nm (546 lb-ft) of peak torque to all-four wheels through a standard 8-speed automatic for a 0-100km/h (62mph) sprint time of just 4.7 seconds.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Chevrolet's Corvette and Porsche's 911 are two of the most recognized and longest living sports car nameplates in history. Both models have evolved in many ways over the years but also remain true to their heritage.

The 2012 Porsche 911 was only just introduced into the market this year sporting an entirely new platform and a lighter body, while the sixth generation of Corvette has been with us since 2005 and has entered its final year of production as Chevrolet will present an all new model next year.

Nonetheless, since we live in the "today", Motor Trend's editor-at-large Angus MacKenzie took the 436-horsepower 2012 Corvette Grand Sport and compared it with the 400-horsepower 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

They may be different as night and day in most aspects, but we shouldn't forget that both the 2013 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and the latest 2013 Nissan GT-R are aimed at the sports car enthusiast.

Nevertheless, we do find the pairing from Road & Track for its latest test a tad odd for one specific reason: pricing.

You see, Camaro ZL1 with its 580HP 6.2L supercharged V8 will retail for $54,995 (€41,800) when it arrives in dealerships this spring, whereas the 2013 edition of the 545HP Nissan GT-R starts from $96,820 (€73,500) not including destination and handling fees. This means there's more $40,000 difference between the two cars.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

The car that most Americans know as the Chevy Caprice PPV (Police Patrol Vehicle) owes as much to the Australian designed and built Holden Caprice luxury sedan reviewed here as the latter owes to business decisions Ford Australia made a couple of decades ago.

In the early 1970s, Holden – GM’s Australian subsidiary – introduced two new models to compete with local rival Ford. The first was the Statesman, a vehicle with no Holden badging whatsoever, designed as a direct competitor to Ford’s Australian-built Fairlane and as a replacement for the unloved Brougham sedan.

A few years later came the Statesman Caprice, an even more luxurious model, introduced to compete with Ford’s freshly minted LTD.

Thus the Caprice name was born. Over the years the Caprice has grown in interior room, price and standard equipment but retains the same basic idea of what Aussie luxury should be. We took the V8 engined V Series II model out for a week long road test and review.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Our coverage on the production version of what we came to know as the FT-86 in concept form but which Toyota decided to name GT 86 for the European region and simply '86' in its home market of Japan, continues with two fresh videos that depict the rear-wheel drive sports car in action.

The first clip is from a quick spin around the Fuji Speedway racetrack, while the second video includes a more comprehensive test drive from a Japanese car magazine that provides us with a more in-depth look at the sights and sounds of the 86 as well as in a wider palette of colors.

Toyota is highly optimistic about the '86', which it describes as an "entirely driver-focused sports car, designed to recapture the fundamental joys of motoring".

The Japanese firm's recipe includes a 200HP naturally-aspirated engine mounted up front matched to a six-speed manual (or 6sp automatic) and a limited slip differential driving the rear wheels, and a near-perfect 53:47 front-to-rear weight distribution.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Being that's only a matter of weeks before the new CR-V arrives in Honda's showrooms across the United States, it doesn't come to much of a surprise that the media has already had some time behind the wheel of the Japanese maker's crossover model.

Today, we found two first test drive videos of the 2012 Honda CR-V from Motor Trend magazine and Consumer Reports, both of which, more or less state the same: that the crossover model has been refined in an evolutionary manner building on the qualities of its predecessor.

You can watch both tests along with Honda's first web-commercial on the new CR-V right after the break.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Some ~~guys~~ girls have all the luck - like Fifth Gear’s Vicki Butler-Henderson who recently had the opportunity to drive Ferrari’s brand-new 458 Italia Spider on the twisty roads around Maranello.

Now, we’ve watched one too many episodes of the British motoring TV show to know that Vicki can really drive – so no blonde jokes here, despite the fact that she does seem to have a great sense of humor.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Now here's a review that is bound to get the conversation heated up. Motor Trend's senior editor, Jonny Lieberman of former Jalopnik, The Truth About Cars and Autoblog fame, tried out the new 2012 Ford Explorer with the 2.0-liter EcoBoost turbocharged four that produces 240-ponies. And well, let's just say he didn't like it one bit.

After testing the Explorer, Lieberman states, among other things, that the 2.0-liter model is "slow, clumsy, pricey, thirstier than we would have thought, and a packaging disaster".

Friday, September 23, 2011

It’s been a long time since Peugeot had a serious contender in the hotly contested sub-premium segment. The 407 was unloved and lacking in style; a “307 with a boot” purchased exclusively by the brand faithful. It was a bit bland and outdated compared to its major European competitor: the Mk 4 Ford Mondeo.

With the 508, Peugeot hopes to change all that. A carbon copy of the Peugeot 5 Concept that premiered at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, the 2011 Peugeot 508 puts the verve – that oh-so-important French flair – back into Peugeot’s line-up.

We take the wheel of Peugeot’s flagship, AU$52,990 508 GT with a 2.2-liter turbocharged diesel and a 6-speed automatic for a week-long road test and review.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Picture this: you’re chasing down an escaped con in a stolen police van when one of his buddies rams your police cruiser off the road. No matter, as you can jump out of your body and into that of suburban soccer mom, using her minivan to disable the escapee and complete the mission.

This is the main gimmick of Driver: San Francisco, the latest in a long-line of cops ‘n’ robbers driving games from developer Ubisoft. And it works, thanks to intuitive game play mechanics and missions that encourage thinking outside the box.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Tilda’s (Shannon Beckner) life is less than perfect: her boyfriend is a layabout body builder who refuses to work because of a back injury, her boss (Oded Fehr) is a sexist asshat who has just passed her over for a promotion and her estranged nephew (Ryan Kennedy) talks about her behind her back.

She works at the 29th District Garage in Chicago, the place where all the accident vehicles go. The garage’s latest resident is a near-totaled Chevrolet Nova with a matte black paint job.

Only this isn’t just any old car: it’s actually a shape-shifting, man-eating killing machine! With the garage closed for renovations over the weekend and our band of misfits sealed in, it is a race to survive against nature’s smartest – and most devious – predator.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

British motoring show Fifth Gear flew over to Germany to try out the new 2012 BMW 1-Series hatchback.

The TV show's crew was going to film the first test drive of the Bavarian model on a normal camera but a mishap forced them to shoot the entire clip through one of their Apple iPhones (it probably looks better than it sounds).

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

We won't be seeing the new 2013 Chevrolet Malibu in U.S. showrooms until after next year's Super Bowl XLVI, but GM is already handing out early prototypes to journalists for a first encounter with the mid-size sedan.

This time, it's Motor Trend magazine editor Todd Lassa who was handed the keys to Chevrolet's newcomer. However, being that the example he drove and which you can see in the video after the hump, isn't a final production model but a showcar, there wasn't much to say about the Malibu's handling or other characteristics.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Appearing soon after General Motors announced its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, the Cruze – which launched in Oz almost two years ago– aims to appeal to buyers that would normally not buy a Holden. Its key competitors in the Australian market are the Toyota Corolla, Mazda3 and the (European) Ford Focus.

With the recent launch of the Aussie-built Cruze Series II, we thought it was about time we tackled GM’s “game changing” small car. The 1.4 L turbo is said to be the cherry on top of the Cruze cake, and the perfect target for a review. The question is: can it live up to the hype? Read on…

Sunday, April 24, 2011

2011 is a very special year for two Australian motoring icons. For one, it’s the 50th anniversary of Queensland’s first permanent, purpose-built raceway: Lakeside Park. It’s also marks the 60th anniversary of Holden’s FX Utility, a vehicle widely considered by enthusiasts to be the forefather of the home grown Aussie “ute”. In recognition of these historic occasions, we took a Holden VE Series II SS Ute for a test drive and headed north to attend the first of Lakeside’s three 50th anniversary events. Part one of this feature will cover my impressions of the Ute, whilst part two will take in the event itself. So let’s get cracking.

Overview

The VE Ute is already an attractive vehicle and in SS guise this is complemented with 18-inch alloys, front fog lights and a lowered sports suspension. With its 6.0 L V8 the SS is certainly powerful, but it’s also safe with a maximum 5-star ANCAP rating thanks to its six airbags and electronic stability control.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Our man Tristan has snagged the keys to a Holden Ute Series II SS V8 model for a first drive in Queensland, Australia this week, and just to make it a bit more interesting, he’ll be driving the Down Under-flavored El Camino to a classic car gathering in Brisbane.

Blurring the line between cars and trucks, the Holden Commodore-based sport pickup comes from a long line of Utes dating back to the middle of the previous century. The Ute almost made it to North America when Pontiac revealed the G8 Sport Truck at the 2008 New York Auto Show, but GM’s growing financial troubles at the time put a stop to that plan, and eventually the brand itself which was discontinued in 2009, and finally shut down in 2010.