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The week that was: New Navara revealed, car sales on the rise, and more

Become an armchair expert with this list of last week’s biggest or most interesting news stories. We really need a trivia night for this stuff.


After months of blurry spy photos and corporate teaser images we finally got to see the new Nissan Navara laid bare. It’s due in Australian showrooms in early 2021. Here’s what we managed to find out so far.

New-car sales results for October were released this week and, after months of misery, there was finally some good news to report. Australians are back to buying new cars at almost the same rate as this time last year – to pre-coronavirus levels – as the industry remains hopeful the worst is behind it and there is a clear road ahead. Here is the full story – and the data – in detail.

Sad news for Holden fans, as it looks like dealers are getting close to running out of stock, with only 165 cars reported as sold in October. More than half of Holden’s dealer network have taken down their iconic signs and the brand is estimated to have fewer than 300 cars remaining in the network. Details here.

Porsche earned headlines this week after it shut down Sydney Airport’s third runway so journalists and well-heeled customers could try to hit 300kmh (indicated, not GPS) before they ran out of road. And yes, the top speed runs were driven towards the ocean. Read all about it here.

Toyota GR Yaris sales have hit the brakes since the price went up by $5000. The first 1000 examples at $39,950 drive-away sold out in a week. In the following month, Toyota sold just 50 examples at the new price of $44,950 drive-away. And Toyota is threatening to raise prices again. 

We know you might be exhausted reading about Takata airbags but this update is worth a quick recap, with 90,000 cars remaining – just two months before the completion deadline.

Meanwhile, some car makers still have a long list of cars to clear, because they are trying to locate vehicles driven by owners who are refusing to have their cars fixed. The deadline could be extended by the ACCC if not enough owners come forward. This is life and death, kids. The details behind the latest Takata dilemma are outlined here.

The guys at US sports car company SSC have agreed to attempt their record 508kmh top-speed run once more, after the internet went ballistic and accused the firm of faking the results. Read more here. 

Not convinced autonomous car tech is quite ready yet? Nor are we. Get this: a robotic race car in an event designed to demonstrate and promote the benefits of autonomous tech, inexplicably turned right on a main straight and crashed into a wall. On an empty race track. Right, so the automotive industry wants us to trust autonomous car tech on the road, and they’re still making mistakes in testing. Read about it here.

Hot hatch fans rejoice: new VW Golf R unveiled. It’s likely due in Australian showrooms in 2022 at this stage (Golf GTI should be 2021, fingers crossed). So if you’re one of the few VW Golf R fans that haven’t see the new model yet, click here.

  

 

Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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