Ford Endura

Ford has revealed a new pet accessory concept designed to soothe sensitive ears during the fireworks on New Year's Eve. The Blue Oval cites statistics showing an estimated 45 per cent of dogs in the UK show signs of fear when they hear fireworks, causing distress for the animals and also their owners.

This week Mandy Turner, Kez Casey, and Mike Stevens are broadcasting from the winner of our man cave competition's place – congratulations to Craig Jamieson! In car news, the Kia Niro EV/e-Niro is set for Australia in 2019, NSW has imposed tougher drink driving penalties, Ford has announced pricing and specs for the 2019 Endura, and Volkswagen has moved to a five-year warranty, but only until the end of 2018.

This week Mandy Turner and Trent Nikolic are recording from Tasmania at the CarAdvice event where five readers got the chance to experience being a motoring journalist for a day in the 2019 Mazda CX-9. In car news, the 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC has been revealed, Apple has reported its first self-driving crash, the Ford Endura ST-Line has been confirmed for Australia, and the Lexus UX will be launching without Apple CarPlay Down Under.

We have a special guest on the panel with Mandy Turner and Mike Stevens, this week: Melissa Ong is a CarAdvice reader, and she took our company-owned Abarth 595 for a week-long test drive. On the show, we chat about her experience with the little Italian firecracker.

As revealed by CarAdvice last year, Ford's new Edge SUV will come to Australia in 2018 with a starting price of $49,990 with seven seats and a diesel engine. At that stage, however, its final local name was yet to be confirmed. We can now exclusively reveal that model will be known as the Ford Endura, with the Edge badge already owned locally by Toyota. Indeed, the Japanese giant recently renewed its trademark to ensure it could not be lost to Ford.