Car News

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.

Liam Murphy • Toyota’s luxury division Lexus has introduced capped-price servicing for its Australian customers. The option comes more than 11 years after Lexus’ parent company Toyota introduced capped-price servicing to the Australian market in 2008. Available on all Lexus models delivered from January 1, 2020, the initiative is an expansion of the brand’s Encore Owner Benefits Program.

Klaus Fröhlich, the head of research and development for BMW, says the company will "streamline" its engine offerings in order to develop motors that are compatible with tougher, yet more divergent, regulations throughout the world. Speaking with Automotive News Europe, Fröhlich noted the most immediate victim will be the company's 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo-diesel engine.

A series of supercar skirmishes in the past 24 hours have proven in no uncertain terms that just because you can afford a fast car doesn't necessarily mean you know how to drive one. In the past 24 hours a Ferrari crashed into the shopfront of a jewellery store in Sydney's CBD – caught on several cameras for peak embarrassment – while a trio of exotic cars appeared on a California Highway Patrol Facebook page after being busted doing more than 160kmh (100mph).

It's possible, one day in the not-too-distant future, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo cars will be sold with common petrol engines. According to a report in Automobilwoche (via Reuters), Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, and Geely, which owns Volvo, could soon jointly develop internal combustion engines and, possibly, electric drivetrains too.