Car News

EXCLUSIVE A volunteer fire fighter whose ute and home were torched on New Year’s Eve – while he was fighting deadly blazes on the NSW south coast – has taken delivery of a brand-new Toyota HiLux, a large portion of which was donated to him by a well known businessman and one of Australia’s biggest Toyota dealers.

A set of convincing new – but speculative – renderings have surfaced online that might offer our best look yet at the new-generation BMW 4 Series. In this case, it's the 4 Series Gran Coupe – the fastbacked four-door last spied on CarAdvice pages in November last year. Perhaps the most promising takeaway from these renderings is that, with a licence plate in position, the new 4er's buck-toothed visage won't be quite as overwhelming as it would otherwise appear.

Ford factory workers in the US will wear buzzing wristbands to help maintain social distancing, the Bloomberg news agency has reported. Initially, only 12 workers will take part in the experiment wearing the ‘watch-like’ or ‘fitness-like’ wristbands. The devices are supposed to vibrate when employees come within six feet (about 1.8 metres) of each other, a Ford spokesperson told the news agency.

EXCLUSIVE A new, fatter crash test dummy has joined Australian safety authorities to better reflect our growing waistlines – and to meet new global standards that come into force this year. The new $1.4 million crash test dummy – named Thor (Test Human Occupant Restraint) – will join the existing family of five safety mannequins of various sizes, who have been used in thousands of simulated crashes in Australia over the past three decades.

Toyota Australia has issued a recall of 780 of its model-year 2020 Corolla hatch petrol (MZEA12 model code) and hybrid (ZWE211 model code) cars due to faulty reverse light wiring. Toyota lists 661 of the vehicles as being sold between 5-12 December 2019, while the other 119 remain in dealer stock. The defect relates to electrical components in the rear hatch that may be susceptible to corrosion resulting in reduced lamp function in the reversing lights.