Price and equipment If you need further proof of the Mini’s influence over this car, Citroen says “no DS3 need ever be the same” because of an extensive array of customisation options. The company describes these as “infinite”, though in reality there are about 38 combinations. There’s no extra cost [...]
Price and equipment Prices kick off at $35,990 (plus on-road and dealer costs) for the XSE turbo petrol model, putting the 3008 a step above your average Korean or Japanese compact soft-roader and on a price par with Volkswagen’s Tiguan. We sampled a top-line XTE model, which starts at $39,490 in [...]
Price and equipment With Renault’s Sport Megane 175 dCi no longer available and BMW’s 123d Sports hatch costing more than $50,000, the GTD, from $39,290 (plus on-road and dealer costs), stands alone in the lexicon of affordable sporty diesel hatches. That’s $300 more than you’ll pay to get into the [...]
IT DOESN’T look like a butch four-wheel-drive, nor does it look like a one-box people-mover. In fact, the Mazda CX-9 is a bit of both, almost perfectly defining the term “crossover”. It does have all-wheel-drive and a high-ride chassis but that has absolutely nothing to do with going off-road. Inside, it’s all about [...]
Price and equipment Plenty of attention – and not always of the wanted kind. The WRX has always been one of the most likely cars to provoke other drivers into trying to challenge you to a street duel, and the more conspicuous bodywork is only likely to attract more antagonists. Our [...]
Price and equipment The X5 tested here is the xDrive40d Sport. xDrive is BMW’s rear-biased all-wheel drive system, 40d is the designation for the uprated twin-turbo 3.0-litre diesel straight six engine (previously referred to as the 35d and before that as the 3.0sd). “Sport” means the 40d has sports suspension, [...]
THERE was a time when Nissan’s original, mid-1990s Micra was viewed as a fairly cutesy looker. However, line it up against the current-shape Micra that landed here in 2007 and the earlier car suddenly comes across as frumpy and bulbous. It also makes the newer model look seriously cute and the funkier [...]
Price and equipment The i20 range starts at $14,990 with the three-door model. An extra $1000 gets you five doors but the same 1.4-litre engine as the three-door. The first batch sold here came with only two airbags, although Hyundai has said previously it will fit six airbags to all i20s [...]
Convertibles with folding metal roofs must surely be one of the defining trends of the past decade in the automotive industry. They might have started with big-dollar prestige makes and models but it seems just about every car maker now has a metal-topped cabriolet in its line-up. For a mass-market company such [...]
Price and equipment The TDI e’s primary fuel-saving feature is what Audi calls “start-stop” – pull up, slot the gear lever into neutral, release the clutch and the 2.0-litre turbo diesel engine stops. Push down on the clutch again and the engine fires up. Audi says this technology can save up [...]
