Australian New Car Buyer

The new models are coming thick and fast this year, so we have acquired the considerable skills, experience and knowledge of three of Australia’s finest motoring writers, John Carey, Byron Mathioudakis and Paul Pottinger, to help sort out what’s wort

Byron is a car tragic. His love affair with cars predates memory, but a dream as a toddler of driving an Austin A35 pretty much sealed his fate. He held various jobs, including being a singing telegram, music video extra, bartender and working in a r

After a very lengthy gestation, Alfa Romeo’s highly anticipated golden child, the 4C, has finally arrived in Australia. At $109,900, the initial 75-unit batch of local examples is the hard-core and enhanced Launch Edition version, which may be all so

The $251,700 Aston Martin Vantage S coupe is a more performance-focused piece than the Vantage. It’s been designed to go toe to toe with the Porsche 911, however in performance, style and specification the Roadster, which costs $280,600, can also be

Audi’s current A3 range, like its predecessors, shares its architecture and most of its componentry with parent brand Volkswagen’s Golf. Prices for the five-door A3 Sportback start at $35,900 for the 92kW 1.4-litre turbopetrol/sevenspeed automated tw

A parent’s search for the perfect family SUV is a quest for that “just right” moment, when you open the door, like what you see, picture the billy lids safe and happy in the back seat and realise that this is the one. Audi’s Q5 has indeed been exactl

BMW’s M badge used to adorn only its elite performance cars, such as the M3 and M5, but M also stands for Money and now BMW is cashing in on its badge cachet. A second tier of M models, called M Performance, now sits below the weaponsgrade hardware.

BMW’s F10 5 Series sedan is available with five engines. The base 135kW 2.0-litre turbodiesel 520d is $82,900 while the 135kW 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbopetrol 520i is $80,400. The same engine with 180kW of power in the 528i is $97,900. Six-cylinde

BMW’s X3, introduced in early 2011, is now much closer in size to the X5 and unless you need seven seats, it’s a great value alternative. The X3 lineup opens with the xDrive 20i, priced at a very attractive $61,100. It runs BMW’s 2.0-litre direct-inj

In a market where the default solution for parents looking for a kid carrier is the lumbering SUV, Citroen offers an alternative that, by rights, should be in every second suburban driveway. It’s that good. Citroen’s Grand C4 Picasso seven-seater cos

Falcon sales are collapsing in the lead-up to the close of local production at the end of next year. The new Europeandesigned and -built Mondeo is, effectively, Ford Australia’s new flagship family and fleet car. There are three spec levels (Ambiente

The FG X Falcon XR sedan range opens at $35,590 with the XR6; the XR6 Turbo is priced at $43,490. The EcoLPi gas-powered XR6 is $40,290. The XR8 is $53,490. The XR6 runs the base 4.0-litre Falcon donk with 195kW of power at 6000rpm and 391Nm of torqu

Holden’s VF Commodore SS 6.0-litre V8/six-speed manual costs $42,990. The six-speed auto SS is priced at $45,190. Over and above base Evoke specification (see the VF Commodore test), the SS, like the 3.6-litre SV6, gets 18-inch alloys, LED running li

The VF reinforces the Holden ute’s position as the world’s most sophisticated, capable and safe pickup truck, a unique vehicle that, when Holden ceases local manufacture in 2017, will surely become a collectable, as evidenced by extremely strong resa

Holden’s Malibu goes up against the Mazda6, Honda Accord, Hyundai i40, Subaru Liberty and others in the midsize sedan segment. The Malibu has plenty going for it, not least aggressive pricing and generous equipment levels. The Malibu lineup kicks off

Kicking off from $14,990 for the VTi, the latest GKseries Honda Jazz hatch brings fewer variants, lower prices and — bar one backward step — more for your money. For example, you’ll find a reversing camera, emergencybraking indicator flashes, hill-st

Honda put the Civic hatch back into mainstream calculations in the fiercely competitive small car class with big price cuts in 2012 and specification upgrades in 2013 and 2014. Prices start at $21,650 for the VTi-S six-speed manual; a fivespeed autom

CARS OF THE YEAR WINNER HSV’s Gen-F 325kW 6.2-litre six-speed manual Clubsport sedan is priced at $61,990. A six-speed auto, with paddle shifters for 2015, adds $2500. The Clubsport R8, with the V8 tuned for 340kW, plus leather upholstery, 20-inch al

CARS OF THE YEAR WINNER Mazda’s mid-size 6 is available as a sedan and wagon. Prices start at $32,540 for the 138kW 2.5-litre fourcylinder petrol/six-speed automatic Sport sedan. The Touring is $37,820, the GT is $42,720 and the top-of-therange Atenz

The second-generation Mercedes B Class sticks firmly to the kid carrier brief, offers high-tech fuel-efficient engines and affordable prices. The range opens with the B180 Blue Efficiency, priced at $41,400, with a 90kW/200Nm 1.6-litre turbopetrol en

As with its lesser brethren, the top-of-the-range Mercedes CLA45 AMG shares its architecture, underpinnings and specification with the A45 AMG hatchback. Priced at $88,400, the sedan is $12,600 more expensive than the five-door, which doesn’t quite c

CARS OF THE YEAR WINNER Now in its fifth iteration, the 2015 W205 Mercedes-Benz C-Class, priced from $60,900 for the C200, is as large as its big-brother E-Class was just two generations ago. Yet it is the S-Class flagship that has provided inspirati

Mercedes W222 S-Class prices start at $196,500 for the S300 Bluetec 2.1-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel hybrid, which produces 150kW/500Nm yet averages a mere 4.5L/100km. The 190kW/620Nm 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel is available in the S350, priced at $2

If you owned a Mitsubishi i-MiEV (pronounced I-meev), and had a solar power system on your roof, you could drive out the gate each morning in a genuine sun-powered car — as in spinfree, honest-to-goodness zeroemissions motoring. Mitsubishi claims the