One of the most iconic gas guzzlers and images of excess of the modern motoring era – the military-inspired Hummer brand – could make a comeback in the US a decade after being dumped...
More than 18,000 Toyota, Mazda and Suzuki cars made between 1996 and 1999 have been ordered off the road due to a new type of deadly Takata airbag – in a recall estimated to cost in excess of $54 million to buy back affected vehicles. Toyota is offering to buy back vehicles or provide long-term alternative car hire until replacement airbags are available...
The 2020 Toyota GR Yaris hot hatch has shed its disguise in a dust-covered debut that pays tribute to the brand’s world rally heritage. Although price is yet to be announced, Toyota has laid bare all the facts and figures behind its first in-house all-wheel-drive performance car in 20 years...
The Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger might have stolen the limelight in the end-of-year sales race, but there are still some bargains to be had at the bottom end of the market. There are normally slim pickings below $40,000 but a few special deals have emerged that provide buyers on a budget more options...
Audi had a year it would rather forget after being hamstrung by supply of new models due to certification delays out of Europe, while German rivals BMW and Mercedes weathered the 2019 storm by holding their own in a declining market. The other surprise to come from the luxury-car sector was Japan’s Lexus, which posted its best result since being established in Australia 29 years ago...
The top end of town treated themselves to record numbers of supercars in 2019 while the rest of us did it tough. Ferrari posted its fifth record in a row – and the seventh all-time high in nine years – while Lamborghini notched up its second record in a row and the fourth in the past five years...
Buying a “demonstrator” model is normally a great way to save thousands on a new car. However, changes to the way the industry counts new-car sales means customers need a crash course in understanding the differences in “demonstrator” models. “Demonstrator” models were originally designed to be just that: a car the dealer registered for people to take on test drives...
Australian car sales statistics are being overhauled after rubbery figures inflated true customer demand for the past decade. Contrary to widespread belief, new-car sales data has historically not been based on actual registrations – instead the Australian Bureau of Statistics, CommSec and others have relied on “self-reported” figures supplied by car companies and dealers...
Hyundai’s sister brand Kia was the only brand inside the Top 10 to report sales growth in 2019 – the slowest new-car market since 2011 – after posting its fifth record result in a row and tripling its sales in 10 years. Kia wasn’t even in the Top 10 until 2004 and 2005 – when it scraped into 10th place – when the Korean cars were imported by an independent distributor...
Holden has posted its lowest annual sales since 1954 – after a year that produced six of the slowest months since the brand was established in 1948 – while Ford wound the clock back to 1968. Both brands have struggled since shutting their local factories in 2016 (Ford) and 2017 (Holden), but vow to turn around their fortunes...
The reins have been pulled on the Ford Mustang after an initial sprint in the sales charts. Sales of the Ford Mustang muscle car have halved in three years and dropped by a third last year, proving that even icons can lose some of their lustre...
Utes have cemented themselves as Australia’s favourite cars, with the Toyota HiLux becoming the nation’s top-selling vehicle outright for the fourth year in a row – as pick-ups filled the top two positions for the third year in succession...
The hugely popular Ram 1500 pick-up is about to get a new rival from within. Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) is about to ramp up production of the new generation Chevrolet Silverado 1500 in right-hand drive – on an adjacent assembly line under the same Melbourne roof where the Ram 1500 is being converted 24 hours a day...
The first 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8 has landed in Australia, according to a post on Holden’s official Instagram page (pictured below). The new generation Corvette was photographed inside Holden’s engineering centre in Melbourne with test equipment and a Holden Acadia SUV in the background...
The Ram pick-up from the USA has passed a major milestone in Australia, with the 5000th example converted to right-hand drive locally in less than four years. Demand for the Ram 1500 – and its bigger Ram 2500 and 3500 siblings – is so strong the Melbourne facility that remanufactures the trucks to right-hand drive has been operating 24 hours a day since the 1500th example was made in middle of 2019 (pictured below)...
