BMW MAY HAVE defined the sports-sedan class decades ago, but it’s been left chasing Tesla in the electric-four-door stakes. The i4 arrived internationally in 2021, three years after Tesla’s Model 3 single-handedly revived interest in the sedan body s

CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC. That’s how I’d describe the mood among the Wheels road testing team as we arrive at our meeting spot on the outskirts of Moe in southern Victoria. It’s drizzling and three of the four charging stations we need to use before we

IT’S WHEELS trivia-night time! What does the secondgenerationVolvo XC90 have in common with the likes of I a 2002 Ford BA Falcon, 2004 VW Golf Mk5, 2007 Hyundai FD i30, 2008 Jaguar XF, 2010 Kia Sportage, and 2017 Toyota C-HR? I’ll avoid making you re

Keep it tight (no more than 200 words) and do include your suburb if via email: wheels@wheelsmag.com.au You can also have your say on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (search for Wheels Australia) I RECENTLY had the misfortune to lose the keys to my ca

IF THIS WAS a beauty contest, the Audi RS e-tron GT would have won the instant it rolled through the gates at Haunted Hills. Long, low and wide, with coke-bottle hips and a bonnet the size of a tennis court, Audi’s top-tier electron-burner is a flags

THERE CAN’T BE many vehicle manufacturers with a broader model range than Toyota. Sure, one could haul a Mercedes hatchback in a Merc Arctic, but they don’t live next to each other in showrooms, whereas you could drive away from a Toyota dealer in an

DEDICATED EV platforms are becoming widespread, and the best battery-electrics are without doubt those that were built from the ground-up to forgo any form of combustion power. However, manufacturers are still banking some easy wins by hooking all-el

DO YOU DRIVE a ‘best in class’ car? By that, I mean was your everyday driver widely acknowledged as the best car available in its category when you bought it? I’m prepared to bet that most of you don’t and I love you for that. Wheels’ foundation is b

GAME CHANGER. Horribly overused, isn’t it? But as I tip the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N into another corner at Haunted Hills and once again feel it transition smoothly into an easily controlled drift, it’s hard to think of a better term for this overgrown Kore

I’VE DRIVEN 102KM along the freeway from work and I’ve consumed over 50 percent of the Abarth’s battery. That right there will tell you why people who love driving won’t buy this car. Because the Abarth’s tiny 37.3kWh useable battery won’t let you do

ELECTRICITY and limousines are a match made in a bridal suite in a ludicrously expensive hotel. More than any other vehicle type, they’re truly meant for each other – a union built on silence, torque and enough real estate to comfortably accommodate

SOUND THE CANCELLATION klaxon because the Mercedes-Benz CLS has headed to destination discontinued. The CLS was always a bit of a thorny concept for some customers to wrap their heads around. The first generation C219 model, launched back in 2004, mi

IT’S SAID THAT comparisons can be odious. We’d beg to differ, as this one was utterly absorbing. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N came in as the pre-match favourite, and while it certainly lived up to its big billing, there were other highlights along the way t

THE NEW-GENERATION Toyota C-HR compact SUV range is finally here, with the second-gen line-up going hybrid only. That plays to Toyota’s strengths, but in a number of ways, this product is a bit of a miss for the small SUV market. Pricing has increase

WHEN HOLDEN MADE the decision to extend the Commodore nameplate to an Opel Insignia, there was a tangible sense of uncertainty in the air. Few beyond the confines of the head office were entirely convinced that a nameplate could seamlessly transition

AS PORSCHE reveals its most powerful EV yet, the firm is preparing to electrifyits longest-standing model line, the 911, with a hybrid due to join the line-up as part of a heavily updated 2025 car. Nearing the end of its two-year development program,

THIS IS THE NEW 2024 Volkswagen Passat? It certainly is, although we wouldn’t blame you for feeling a mite underwhelmed. Where the outgoing, eighth-generation Passat was a chiselled thing – and charmingly rugged in Alltrack spec – this new car lacks

LIFTING THE PRICE ceiling beyond $80,000 for Part Two of our exhaustive Wheels Best EVs testing theoretically blows the field wide open – from Mercedes-Benz’s entire EQ line-up to the superb Porsche Taycan and splendiferous new Rolls-Royce Spectre. B

IT ENDED WITH a whimper, not a bang. On February 27th, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams, told the 2000 employees engaged in Project Titan, Apple’s EV venture, that the entire project was being cancelled. The 12-minute video conference d

So you’re across NVES – the Federal Government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard – and the debate, how Australia is the only country in the developed world besides Russia without a fuel efficiency mandate, and how the final proposed legislation was u

THIS MONTH IN BRIEF On the face of it, Lotus Technology making revenues of $1.014bn in 2023 is an incredible achievement. It also smashed existing records in having delivered 6790 cars in the calendar year. At no point in Lotus’s 76-year history has

Here we are then: two of the top contenders in the highly competitive, and potentially highly profitable, luxury mid-size electric SUV class and neither of them is a dedicated, built-from-the-ground-up EV. That might be a surprise but it’s also an in

JUST LIKE the hand-held devices that have become the bane of our existence when there’s a pedestrian glued to them, the electric MG 4 requires software updates. Perhaps ‘requires’ is being a bit dramatic because if everything was perfect, it wouldn’t

AS PISTONS AND spark plugs make way for synchronous electric motors and lithium-ion batteries, at least one constant could survive far into the electric performance-car age: rear-wheel drive. If it wasn’t for rear-wheel drive, we mightn’t pay much at