Car Reviews

When I was growing up I was a big fan of the 1994 Mazda 323 Astina. It was the car that pioneered the combination of a sleek coupe body with four doors and it looked fantastic. Those frameless windows and slim headlights, the low nose and liftback rear, and the …

Remember the Volkswagen Up? The pint-size Kia Picanto reminds me a lot about Volkswagen’s delightful little micro car from six years ago. Unlike the Up which was a sales disaster, the Picanto commands nearly 81 per cent of its market segment so far this year and is by far the …

The Lexus RC F is the Japanese luxury marque’s baddest and most potent offering since the ballistic LFA supercar. It’s rivals are all Germans, namely the BMW M4, Mercedes-AMG C 63 Coupe and Audi RS 5 Coupe. And instead of trying to be one of them, Lexus chose to forge …

 The Mazda3 is a special car. I owned a first-generation model for 8 years and its entertaining dynamics and sharp handling always brought joy to my journeys, big or small. It was one of the most stylish small cars on the road with an equally smart interior, and it …

The Endura is Ford’s latest SUV brought in from the brand’s Canadian factory to replace the Australian built and developed Territory which was last sold in 2016. Sharing the same platform as the Ford Mondeo mid-size sedan, the Endura is about the same size as the Territory, which places it …

The modern small SUV has replaced the humble hatch back as a jack-of-all-trades, offering space, style, and the all-important elevated driving position we can’t seem to get enough of. And if you want something a little bit fancier, there are rich pickings, too from the premium brands where it’s possible …

Volvo has enjoyed tremendous growth in the past few years thanks to a rejuvenated line up that started with the XC90. Its cars are now far sexier, more high-tech and crucially, much better to drive than ever before. Last year, the brand grew 40 per cent in Australia and is …

Think luxury sports sedan and the BMW 3 Series immediately springs to mind. Since its inception in 1975, the 3 Series has been often regarded as the de facto rear-wheel drive, driver-focused compact executive saloon. It is the German marque’s best-selling model, accounting for nearly one-third of the brand’s annual …

It feels like the Toyota Corolla has been around forever. It must feel that way because it’s now in its 12th-generation and it’s still immensely popular. Not because it’s anything special but because it’s a name synonymous with words like sensible, reliable and dependable. In other words – it’s just …

 These days, hot hatches not only have to be fast and can tackle corners better than Douglas Santos tackling the soccer ball, they also have to be easy to live with and versatile enough to fulfil modern life’s demands of being good at almost everything. It is for this …

Not just another small car – says the new Ford Focus commercial. There is every reason for Ford’s marketing team to sell their latest Focus as unique in the segment because this class is one of the most competitive today. At the time of writing there’s no fewer than 10 …

What you see here is the world’s best-selling hybrid vehicle. The pioneering Toyota Prius became the world’s first mass-produced hybrid car back in 1997 and has since racked up over 5 million sales globally. It represents more than half of all hybrids sold worldwide by Toyota. The automotive landscape has …

What is it? The 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric (as the name suggests) is the EV version of the Kona small SUV, which itself comes with a range of propulsion options. It is built on the same line as its regular internal-combustion engine (ICE) siblings at the Korean giant’s Ulsan plant …

Lexus may have been a late comer to the increasingly hot urban luxury crossover market but its arrival is certainly not a quiet one. The all-new Lexus UX is the Japanese luxury marque’s smallest and most affordable SUV offering targeting the younger crowd, many of whom stepping up to the …