The car has changed enormously over the past few decades. Some of that progress is obvious, be it electrification, huge touchscreens, a plethora of safety systems and the introduction of enough computing power to run all of those at once.
But what manufacturers see as great leaps forward are often viewed as backwards steps by buyers as gear that was once considered normal is suddenly nowhere to be found on the latest models. Here are 10 car features that have disappeared from the new car market…
1. Pop-up headlights
Pop-up headlights were especially popular from the 1970s through to the 1990s and featured on everything from affordable sports cars to some pretty exotic machinery. Examples include the NA-generation Mazda MX-5, Toyota MR2, second-generation Honda Prelude, Nissan 180SX, Chevy Corvette, Lamborghini Countach and of course, the Ferrari F40.
While they didn’t exactly serve a purpose beyond looks and aerodynamics – many, many cars were launched without them – there was something very cool about watching the lights raise. However, they had several problems: the mechanisms added weight, complexity and cost, while increasingly strict pedestrian-impact regulations in certain markets made designing cars with them a lot more difficult.
Improved lighting technology also played a role. Projector, xenon and eventually LED tech meant that designers could create thin, more stylised lighting units with far superior quality. By the early 2000s, pop-ups were dead and the C5 Chevy Corvette and Lotus Esprit were the last production cars that featured them. We miss them dearly.
2. Bench seats
Go back way before the millennium and three people sitting across the front of a car was far from unusual. Front bench seats were particularly common in large American and Australian cars, with models such as the Ford Falcon and Holden Kingswood offering the ability to squeeze three people across the front row and another three in the back. Go overseas and bench-seat models lasted a lot longer, like the Fiat Multipla and Honda FR-V from the early 2000s.
Combined with a column-mounted gear selector, bench seats effectively turned large sedans into six-seaters without needing three rows of pews. However, the rise of centre consoles, bucket seats, floor shifters and increasingly sophisticated safety equipment gradually killed the traditional front bench. Buyers also wanted more supportive seats, more storage and arm rests, which didn’t help the bench seat’s cause. They still exist in some markets in commercial vehicles, but are extinct in passenger cars.
3. Cassette and CD players
In 2026, there’s precisely one new car available with a CD player, and that’s the Subaru WRX. Cassette players? Good joke. For decades, cassette players were featured in almost every car. Even after CDs became mainstream during the 1990s, plenty of brands like Lexus products offered both formats as manufacturers catered for enormous existing cassette collections. Eventually the CD player took over, before suffering exactly the same fate as the tape deck: extinction.
Today, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring, as well as streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, have made physical media like CDs and cassettes pretty much redundant. Plenty of new cars don’t even have an auxiliary input anymore, let alone somewhere to insert a cassette. Let’s not even start on the screens the media is played through…
4. Manual chokes
Before electronic fuel injection became universal, starting a cold engine often required considerably more involvement than simply pressing a button. Enter the manual choke. Common on older carburetted petrol engines, a choke restricted airflow into the carburettor to enrich the fuel mixture and help the engine start when cold. Drivers would pull a knob or lever when starting, then gradually push it back in as the engine warmed.
Forget to use enough choke and the engine might refuse to start. Leave it engaged too long and you’d waste fuel, run poorly or potentially ruin the spark plugs. Automatic chokes eventually reduced the driver’s workload before electronic fuel injection made the entire process redundant. Modern cars can automatically adjust fuelling for temperature, altitude and countless other variables before you’ve even finished putting on your seatbelt. We don’t miss this one.
5. Built-in car phones
Long before Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay or even the smartphone itself, there was no greater automotive status symbol than having a telephone built into your car. Car phones became particularly associated with luxury machinery during the 1980s and 1990s. Big Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs and other high-end models could be equipped with proper telephone handsets, often mounted prominently on the centre console or tucked neatly into an armrest.
At the time, it was seriously impressive technology. Being able to make a phone call while travelling without stopping to find a payphone felt futuristic, and immediately suggested that the driver was quite important. Early systems were bulky and expensive, while later factory-integrated phones became considerably slicker. Some even featured steering-wheel controls and hands-free functionality, foreshadowing the connectivity features we now take for granted.
Then, of course, mobile phones ruined the party. As handheld phones became smaller, cheaper and more widespread, there was little reason to permanently install one in a car. Bluetooth connectivity allowed drivers to use their own phones through the vehicle’s speakers without needing a dedicated handset, which really spelled the end for the car phone.
6. Cigarette lighters and ashtrays
For decades, manufacturers built dedicated equipment for smoking into virtually every car. Most dashboards contained a cigarette lighter – that is: push it in, wait for it to heat up and it would pop back out, glowing red – while ashtrays could be found throughout the cabin. Some luxury cars even provided individual ashtrays and lighters for rear-seat passengers.
Changing attitudes towards smoking eventually made them redundant, and the cigarette lighter itself underwent one of the automotive industry’s more unusual career changes. Its 12-volt socket survived long after the lighter disappeared, becoming a convenient power source for everything: GPS units, dash cams, phone chargers and even portable fridges. But now, even the 12V socket is gradually disappearing as USB-A, USB-C and wireless charging become commonplace.
7. Manual window winders
This one really is for the older folk among us. Remember when lowering a window required exercise?Manual window winders were once completely normal, particularly on entry-level cars. In decades past, electric windows were a luxury feature often proudly listed alongside air conditioning and central locking in advertisements. By the 1990s and 2000s, power windows gradually worked their way down into mainstream models, although plenty of affordable cars continued using winders in the rear to save a few dollars and kilos.
Today, however, it’s difficult to think of a new car that still has manual window winders in Australia, but they can still be found in markets like Europe. Modern electrical vehicle architectures have made power windows relatively inexpensive to manufacture, while buyers simply expect them as standard.
8. Full-size spare wheels
This one hasn’t completely disappeared, but thanks to the explosion of hybrids and EVs on the market, it’s certainly heading that way. For decades, opening a car’s boot revealed another complete wheel and tyre hiding underneath the floor, even in something tiny like a Mazda MX-5. Get a puncture, swap it over and continue driving normally. But then came space-saver spare wheels, and increasingly since then, no spare whatsoever.
Many modern cars instead rely on tyre repair kits, while others use run-flat tyres. EVs have accelerated the trend because enormous battery packs compete for space underneath the cabin, and manufacturers are constantly looking to reduce weight. Removing a full-size wheel can save a significant amount of mass while creating additional luggage space and shaving manufacturing costs. We hope manufacturers find a way to downsize other elements and change back in the future, because you never know when you’ll need a spare.
9. Headlight wipers
There was a time when simply cleaning the windscreen wasn’t enough – your headlights apparently deserved their own tiny windscreen wipers, too. Headlight wipers became particularly associated with European cars during the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, featuring on everything from Volvos and Saabs to high-end Mercedes-Benz models. Watching a pair of miniature wiper arms furiously sweep across the headlights was strangely satisfying.
Before today’s powerful lighting technology became commonplace, keeping the headlight lenses clear of dirt, snow and road grime could make a meaningful difference to visibility, particularly in the miserable winter conditions encountered in areas like northern Europe. But headlight design changed dramatically to suit more aerodynamic shapes, wiping out the need for them.
Xenon and LED lighting also improved illumination, while high-pressure headlight washers provided a simpler way of removing grime without miniature wiper mechanisms. Today, headlight washers can still be found on some new cars, but the wipers have vanished. They were probably only necessary every once in a while in Australia, but we still want to see them make a comeback.
10. Physical keys
This one is happening right now. For more than a century, the physical key was an essential part of driving. It got you into the vehicle, then you inserted it into the ignition barrel, twisted it and your engine came to life. Remote central locking and keyless entry then arrived, while push-button starters increasingly eliminated the need to remove your key from your pocket at all. Now some manufacturers are removing the traditional key altogether.
Digital keys can allow a smartphone or smartwatch to unlock and start a vehicle, while ultra-wideband technology can detect an authorised device as its owner approaches. The traditional metal key hasn’t entirely vanished yet – plenty of key fobs still contain one hidden inside for emergencies – but its days as something you actually interact with are numbered. Turning a key and hearing an engine crank into life was once the universal beginning to almost every journey. Soon upcoming generations of drivers may never experience it at all.
What else is disappearing?
Within the next five years, we think there will be more features to add to this list. CD players are already effectively gone. Manual handbrakes are rapidly being replaced by electronic buttons, analogue instrument clusters are losing ground to digital screens and traditional gear levers are being replaced by buttons, rotary controllers and column-mounted selectors.
Even physical climate-control buttons are under threat as manufacturers cram more functions into touchscreens – though, judging by the recent return of physical controls in some new models, buyers may finally be fighting back on that one.
There’s also the manual transmission. While it isn’t dead yet, particularly in enthusiast cars, its share of the new-car market continues to shrink as automatics become faster, more efficient and cheaper, while hybrids and EVs eliminate the conventional multi-speed gearbox entirely.
If you were to try to create a perfect day for an Aussie petrolhead, it would be hard to beat bringing Peter Brock and Colin Bond to Mount Panorama so they could drive the wheels off a quartet of local V8s including a 1971 Falcon GTHO Phase III. Ford’s peerless sedan went up against a 1983 HDT SS Group 3 Commodore, 1992 Falcon XR8 Sports Pack 3 and 1992 HSV Club Sport in a 1992 Wheels comparo, and if you thought it would show its age against its younger rivals, think again…
First published in the August 1992 issue of Wheels magazine, Australia’s best car mag since 1953. Subscribe here and gain access to 12 issues for $109 plus online access to every Wheels issue ever printed.
From Panorama’s pit lane you can hear the lap unfold corner by corner. The sacred sequence between Hell and Murrays can’t be seen, but the mind’s eye puts pictures to the sound of every heel and toe downchange, every slammed home upshift. Grainy black and white pictures from the high shelves of the mental archive.
The 1971 Falcon GTHO Phase Ill is alone in this fearsome foursome, audible the whole way round Bathurst’s 6.213 km circuit. Still winter air carries the sound of the dozen year younger HOT Commodore SS Group 3, too, but there’s a break in transmission over the top of the mountain. The present day HSV Club Sport Commodore and the Ford Falcon XR8 Sports Pack 3, unless they’re on Conrod, Pit or Mountain straights, you look at the stopwatch and guess.
Australia’s homespun brand of V8 performance cars have had their voices muted in the course of 21 years. And interior sound meter readings only serve to prove what is obvious from outside. But what else has changed?
That’s the question we set out to answer. Using modern methods, how would the legends stand up to scrutiny? Would myths explode in the face of the thorough objective analysis allowed by modern technology? And driven back to back round Bathurst, by drivers who were contemporary then and still are now, which would prove quickest?
Choosing the moderns wasn’t difficult. Holden Special Vehicles’ Club Sport is the rawest sporting Commodore today. Its equipment level is basic, sparse even. HSV began the creation of a Club Sport with an Executive specification car, although it does get the optional independent rear suspension that became available when VP replaced VN. HSV endows it with a 180 kW engine – 15 more than stock – sporting suspension and sticky 225/50ZR16 Dunlop 040 M2 tyres. And some aerodynamic additions.
The XR8 Sports Pack 3 is – at least until the arrival of the new GT later this year – the most sporting Falcon money can buy. Like the Club Sport, it proclaims its role with a body kit. Also like the Holden, the Ford has 16 inch alloy wheels wearing high quality low-profile rubber – 225/50ZR16 Michelin MXX – and lower, stiffer sporting suspension. Although no badge proclaims the fact, all the extras are installed in the Ford by Tickford Special Vehicle Engineering. Unlike the Holden its engine is standard, producing 165 kW – the same as an unmodified Holden 5.0 litre V8. Against this present day pair would be pitted a GTHO Phase Ill and a Brock modified SS Group 3 Commodore. Landmark cars both.
Curiosity was sharpened by the knowledge that our predecessors at Wheels had played crucial roles in manufacturing the reputations of the Phase Ill and Group 3. There’s Uwe Kuessner’s famous over-the-shoulder photograph of Mel Nichols driving the HO from the October 1971 issue, headlined The Biggest Stick. Tacho needle nearer 7000 than 6000 and speedometer face retouched to make it look as though the car was in third. It was actually in fourth. True speed? Around 220 km/h on a public road. Offence might have been taken in some quarters. Fast forward to December 1982 and read Bob Murray’s closing words on the Group 3: “And if it’s not the best sports sedan for the money in the world, I’ll stand rooted”.
There are people who treasure the cars which provoked such candid admiration. Like Paul and Vince, owners of the Phase Ill and Group 3 respectively. The Phase Ill must be one of the most original around. With wide ratio gearbox and 3.25 differential, it matches exactly the car Wheels tested in 1971. It has a genuine 40,000 miles on its odometer, and the only departures from standard are silicone brake fluid and 15 inch Globe wheels almost identical to those offered to all GTHO owners by Ford to homologate the larger diameter alloy wheels for Bathurst ’72. A set of 205/70VR15 Pirelli PS tyres were fitted for the comparison. Expert advice indicated these were the closest available modern equivalent to the car’s period tyres. With hot laps of Mount Panorama on the agenda, the use of correct vintage rubber – even if it could have been found and bought – was unconscionable.
The same course was taken with the SS Group 3, which had a set of 225/60VR15 Bridgestone S340 Eager tyres on its lrmscher alloys. This 65,000 km car is original, save for a pair of adjustable Koni rear dampers. And although it was built in ’83 and bought in ’84, its specification is the same as that first released from HOT in ’82.
But even before owners willing to aid our exercise had been found, two things
were clear.
First, the size of the Australian high performance V8 has remained pretty well constant over 21 years. Variations in wheelbase, length, width and height have not been huge. Each of the four cars would fit in a box 4900 mm long, 1900 mm wide and a little more than 1400 mm high, without much slack to spare.
Second, today’s cars are more expensive. Comparing new price with average gross weekly earnings reveals an upward trend. The GTHO cost just 52 weeks of then current wages. That’s cheap compared with the 70 required to purchase the Group 3. Even though the most recent accurate statistics presently available are from 1990, the 1992 prices of the XR8 Sports Pack 3 and the Club Sport translate to 74 weeks and 82 weeks of wages. From ’71 GTHO to ’92, the Club Sport represents a rise of at least 55 per cent in relative price.
The extra cost does pay for an elevated level of sophistication. Just how much more became apparent when the four were rolled in turn onto the dynamometer and connected to a four-gas exhaust analyser at the NRMA Vehicle Inspections Department in Sydney.
Tested at idle and at dynamometer-simulated loads equivalent to 60 km/h and 100 km/h, the modern cars convincingly demonstrated the benefits of electronic engine management and exhaust catalysers. The results give a clear idea of comparative efficiency. The hydrocarbons and oxygen present in the exhaust gas represent fuel and air that have passed through the engine unburnt. Carbon monoxide is a toxic product of combustion, one that a catalytic convertor lowers to more acceptable levels by turning it into carbon dioxide. Although carbon dioxide isn’t at all toxic, it is the major contributor (by volume) to the greenhouse effect.
Put bluntly, the modern cars were clean and the old cars were filthy. The Club Sport was slightly richer than the XR8 at idle, with a higher level of hydrocarbons. Both produced little carbon monoxide. Little oxygen remained in their exhausts, evidence of very accurate fuel metering. Higher carbon dioxide levels mean their catalytic convertors were working properly. The results, according to the NRMA engineer who conducted the tests, were representative of unleaded cars with catalytic convertors.
The lumpy idle of the GTHO meant its hydrocarbon output and oxygen count were extremely high. As the big VS got into stride, however, the HC readings fell to levels slightly lower than the SS Group 3. Both cars produced significantly more carbon monoxide and left more unused oxygen in their exhausts than the modern V8s. The readings – aside from the GTHO’s idle hydrocarbons – are typical of cars of their age.
Now consider that over the course of this comparison the GTHO consumed leaded fuel 70 per cent faster – and that’s no misprint – than the most economical car, the XR8 Sports Pack 3. The SS Group 3 had a 15 per cent greater thirst than the modern Falcon, although the old Commodore actually returned an average slightly better than its Club Sport descendant. Part of the explanation for the fuel consumption of the older cars is that they have only four speed gearboxes, as opposed to the five speeders of both Club Sport and XR8.
The much better consumption of the SS Group 3, compared with the GTHO, is partly accounted for by its lightness. As measured on a recently calibrated weighbridge, the old Commodore was easily the lightest of the four cars. Each was weighed in its trim for the performance tests at the Eastern Creek Raceway dragstrip. That is, with a half filled tank. Rounded to the nearest 10 kg, the SS Group 3’s weight was lightest by 130 kg. The GTHO was heaviest, with the XR8 and the Club Sport not far behind it.
On the dragstrip that weight proved no handicap for the conservatively estimated 260 kW of the GTHO’s 5.8 litres. The 21-year-old car was in a class of its own when it came to acceleration. Its best of several one-way runs – observing the valuable car’s 6000 rpm redline – was a 14.9 second 400 metres. The next quickest car, the SS Group 3, was almost a full second slower, with the Club Sport and XR8 hot on its hammer.
Colin Bond, who drove the cars for all the instrumented tests, including the Correvit timed acceleration runs, found it easy to overwhelm the grip of the GTHO’s Pirellis. The Falcon turned rubber into smoke without any apparent effort. And despite the GTHO’s leaf sprung rear end, axle tramp was never apparent.
Once correct launch revs had been established, quick runs proved effortless. “I was amazed how fast the GTHO is in standing start runs, ” Bond said later. “The way it just gets off the line and does it easily.” The car’s 6.8 second 0-100 km/h time – more than a full second faster than anything else – affirmed the ferocity of the Phase Ill’s take off.
The only independent rear suspension car of the four, the Club Sport, was also the sole car to exhibit any tendency to tramp during the acceleration runs. Bond also discovered the old gearboxes are better to use than those of the modern cars. “You don’t even think about missing a gear in either of the four speed cars whereas with the five speed cars, particularly the Ford, you have a bit of a wander in no man’s land,” Bond said.
The tables were reversed in the next phase of testing at Eastern Creek – Correvit recorded cornering speed and timed agility exercises, with tyre pressures raised to appropriate levels for the racetrack. Around the two left handers Wheels has used for past handling comparisons, the GTHO was slowest. The Group 3 was quicker than the old Falcon, but trailed both the modern cars. “The SS wanted to slide more than the others … the Club Sport and XR8,” said Bond. Of the XR8 Sports Pack 3 and the Club Sport, the racer preferred the Falcon. He disliked the sharpness of the Holden’s steering, which made it difficult to place the car accurately. “I just feel the steering’s a little bit snappy for me and that makes the car a bit harder to place where you really want to place it,” Bond said. “On the road, at normal speeds, it isn’t a problem. But you notice it in these exercises.” Brock’s analysis of the Club Sport’s steering the next day was remarkably similar.
Bond thought, however, the Club Sport had possibly the better chassis balance of the modern pair. “Near the limit the XR8 wanted to understeer, and there’s not that much you can do about it,” he said. “The Holden didn’t do that. It would turn into a corner and if you went too fast the whole car would slide … like in a four-wheel drift situation.”
The basic handling traits of the XR8, SS Group 3 and GTHO, Bond found basically alike, despite the differences in speed. “They’re a bit inclined to understeer on the long sweeping corners,” he said, before noting that Eastern Creek was an understeer circuit.
A similar order emerged in the times the four cars recorded through the double lane change and slalom manoeuvres. The International Standards Organisation lane change manoeuvre was entered at 100 km/h, the five cone slalom at 80 km/h. Both tests give an indication of how well a chassis copes with an accumulation of abrupt direction changes that demand fine transient responses from a chassis and accurate throttle response from an engine.
The modern pair were fastest, with identical best times. Next came the SS Group 3, with the GTHO again trailing. “The new cars are easier to drive because the throttles are a lot more progressive, ” said Bond. “In the HO particularly the throttle is jerky.” This made the Phase Ill visibly more difficult to hustle through the slalom.
At Bathurst the following morning the cars were fitted in turn with electronic equipment for measuring G forces generated by each of the cars while cornering and braking. Tyres were again inflated to suitable levels for these laps. The G-analyst was set to record direct to the memory of a laptop computer strapped in the passenger’s seat.
Rain the previous night meant the circuit was still damp in places when Bond ventured out at the start of the first two hour session at Mount Panorama, arranged with the co-operation of Bathurst City Council.
The modern cars went first – the routine; a warm up followed by a flying lap. Despite the slick sections over the top of the mountain, Bond recorded times between three minutes and three minutes 10. The circuit had dried by the time the SS Group 3 was fitted with the G-analyst and the threatening weather held off for the GTHO’s run.
In order for the G-analyst’s results to be consistent, Bond repeated the experiment at the beginning of the second test session in the afternoon, before Peter Brock drove what proved to be the fastest flying laps in each of the cars.
Although the Club Sport did prove Bond’s assessment that the present day Commodore had the best cornering grip, the XR8 trailed it by only a small margin – 1.20G compared with 1.15G. The Falcon proved, however, to have the better brakes. It was able to brake consistently harder than the Commodore. As at Eastern Creek, Bond found the XR8 the easier of the modern pair to take to the limit.
The SS Group 3’s lap time was affected by its gearing. Bond reported the car was hitting the 5000 rpm redline quite early during the blast down Conrod. “There may be a second in it if you could have gone a bit faster,” he said.
The ’80s car was able to muster the same braking force as the Club Sport, although its cornering G force peak was 1.0G, similar to the GTHO.
Unsurprisingly the GTHO’s combination of front discs and rear drums – the others had four discs, and the XR8 anti-lock as well – proved least effective.
Under hard braking the GTHO developed a tendency to lock its rear brakes, and Bond was forced to compensate with early and relatively gentle braking. Fade was noticeable in all four cars, although the race driver thought the XR8’s stoppers superior. He estimated the Ford might be good for two fast laps of Mount Panorama, while the others were good for only one.
“It’s a combination of these cars having standard pads and standard brake fluids in them,” Bond said.
He also noticed an uncomfortable jumpiness in the rear suspension of the SS Group 3 under power, traced later with the aid of Brock to the hard settings of the adjustable rear dampers.
Bond’s overall impressions? “Basically, the main difference you notice between the old cars and the new cars – just when you sit in the things – is that in the new ones the seats and seatbelts fit you better,” he said. “In the Phase Ill you’re hanging on, sliding across from one side to the other.” The big, shapeless vinyl covered buckets were a contributor to his lack of confidence in the oldest car.
There was no doubt, however, that the GTHO was fast on the circuit’s straights, able to pull its redline revs in fourth for 220 km/h plus.
Both the GTHO and SS Group 3 registered higher G-analyst values for acceleration than the modern cars – further evidence of the Commodore’s good power to weight ratio and the Falcon ‘s brutal power.
Peter Brock, after his laps in the four cars, agreed with Bond. He ranked the XR8 easiest, the GTHO most difficult, with the Commodores somewhere in between. The amazing fact is that the Mountain King recorded similar times in the XR8, Club Sport and GTHO. The SS Group 3 was the second slower that Bond judged its short top gear would cost.
An aside here. We don’t believe that hand timing is accurate to more than tenths of a second, but stopwatches do give times to hundredths of a second. The car that recorded the outright fastest lap in Brock’s hands – by a handful of hundredths – was the GTHO. But when numbers were rounded to the nearest full tenth of a second, the XR8 and GTHO ended with identical lap times.
So the progress we set out to measure and define can’t be told by lap times around the spiritual home of the Australian V8 performance car. It’s the host of changes demanded by legislators and consumers – for clean exhausts, comfort, quietness, safety – that have wrought the real changes.
Consider this – the XR8 can lap Bathurst in the same time as the GTHO with at least 95 fewer kW, using much less fuel, spewing out a fraction of the pollutants as it does so. It’s also quieter, brakes better, grips better and handles better. The same is true of the XR8 in comparison with the SS Group 3. It’s just that the gulf is not so wide.
And as well as being clearly superior in so many ways compared with the old cars – price is the only major factor where the moderns lose badly – the XR8 also beats the Club Sport. Just.
Despite the modern Commodore’s excellent balance, it’s impossible to ignore the criticisms levelled by both Bond and Brock at the car’s on-the-limit steering response. Both of them rated the Ford’s handling the most accessible. That, and its superior brakes, are enough to make it the better of the modern pair and the best of the four.
And the legends?
They bellowed … around the track and across the years .. . a reminder that performance V8s used to be more thrilling, more dramatic than they are today.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has called for Australia to revive its defunct carmaking industry, saying technological advances in production methods and the electric vehicle revolution have paved the way for its return.
The 26th PM was addressing the National Press Club on Thursday in his capacity as the Global CEO of the Asia Society when he made the call. He also torched the forces he believes were behind the demise of car manufacturing down under.
The last Australian-built Holden rolled off the production line in October 2017, shortly after Toyota closed its Melbourne plant after 54 years of operation. Ford ended 91 years of local vehicle manufacturing in October 2016.
Rudd called the automotive sector “a sovereign capability we are sorely missing” as he made scathing remarks about the Coalition’s role in the upheaval.
“Of all the shortsighted acts of economic vandalism in recent decades, the closure of our car industry by the Abbott-Hockey government stands apart,” Rudd said. “Australia under my government had one of the most modest industry subsidies in the auto world.
“But politics triumphed over reason, sacrificing tens of thousands of jobs, tearing the beating heart out of Australia’s engineering and manufacturing base, and rendering us 100 per cent dependent on auto imports.
“Now the 3D printing and EV revolutions mean we can rebuild an Australian auto sector and repair this fatal vulnerability in our national security.”
Rudd’s speech was titled “The Complacent Country” and its main thrust was that Australia now faces an “unprecedented” set of strategic, economic and technological challenges. He said the nation is living on “borrowed time” and needs a “radical change in our national mindset”.
He identified seven sectors in which government and industry can collaborate to establish world-class companies and take advantage of AI-driven growth, with car manufacturing the sixth sector on his list.
Rudd isn’t alone in his call to bring back the auto industry. Shadow industry minister Andrew Hastie did the same last September when he posted an image to social media showing him standing next to a vintage Ford Falcon and wrote, “We used to make complex things in this country… competition drove innovation in our car industry. But that’s all gone.”
Monza, September 4, 1966. A day like no other in Formula One history, and a day like no other in Australian history.
It was on this day that British driver John Surtees retired from the Italian Grand Prix on lap 32, his Cooper Maserati suffering from a fuel pump failure, handing Australia’s own Jack Brabham the third of his three Formula One world championships.
It was a significant win in more ways than one. Yes, it was Brabham’s third championship, following on from his 1959 and ’60 triumphs. But significantly, it was the first F1 championship victory for a driver in a car of his own construction, bearing his own name. It’s a feat that will – likely – never be repeated.
But more than just Brabham driving a Brabham, the BT19 that carried him to victory was the result of a distinctly Australian effort. The car itself was designed by British-born Aussie, Ron Tauranac, while the 3.0-litre V8 that powered Brabham to victory in four of the season’s nine grands prix, was designed and built by a small team, led by legendary engine builder Phil Irving, in Repco’s engine shop in Melbourne.
Nigel Tait was part of that small but dedicated team. Freshly minted with a pair of diplomas for mechanical and automotive engineering from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Tait’s first job – in January 1966 – was in Repco’s engine shop in Richmond, where the V8s that would go on to power Brabham to his third world title were being developed.
“I applied for the job as a cadet engineer,” Tait recalls with a hint of mischief in his eyes. “And I told them all these lies about my previous history, making cars and engines and all that. And that was lucky, because I managed to get a job as a cadet, and to be at Repco.”
Tait may have, by his own admission, been a touch frugal with the truth on his job application, but he did undersell his mechanical experience just slightly.
A tinkerer from an early age, Tait was building home -made billy-carts from the age of 10 (“They were more than billy-carts. One was almost like a car. It had a roof, everything…”) before graduating to cars while still at school.
An old Austin 7, bought for £10 in around 1958 or ’59, was soon transformed into a race car.
“I took the body off, chucked it away and made a race car with a view to running it in the Austin 7 Formula,” Tait says.
This was in his last year of boarding school in Geelong and as Tait admits, the school’s chapel services were an especially productive time.
“I was able to use the time usefully by polishing things and bits [for the car],” he chuckles.
In a case of impeccable timing, Tait completed his high school studies in 1960 just as RMIT was about to launch – in 1961 – its first ever Fellowship Diploma of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering.
“It was the first time they ever had that course available and as it turned out, there were only two of us doing it,” he says.
Four years later, and armed with his diplomas, Tait – in yet another case of superlative timing – joined Repco in January 1966, just as the Australian automotive engineering business was about to become a global Formula One powerhouse. The significance of that sublime piece of timing wasn’t lost on Tait.
“I joined at the beginning of ’66, and there we were working on engines for Jack Brabham. Now, I was only a cadet, and I was under the stewardship of some of the more senior guys,” he recalls.
“But it was wonderful to be there, where we were building the engines that won the championship for Jack that year. Extraordinary.”
That those world-beating engines were made in what amounted to little more than a tin shed in a dim laneway in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond makes this story even more remarkable.
“When you consider that year, our engines – I was only a cadet, remember – but our engines powered Jack to his third world championship. And the next year Denny Hulme won and Jack came second,” Tait looks back with pride in his voice.
“So for two years on the trot… Repco was known all around the world, all of a sudden. Who’s this company, Repco? Where are they making their racing engines?” he continues. “Well, it was an old tin shed in ‘Lavatory Lane’, Richmond.”
The colourful street name has passed into motorsport folklore, a colloquial address used by Repco employees because the building’s toilets could only be accessed from the laneway.
“Truly,” reveals Tait. “If you walk down the little lane off Burnley Street, on the right-hand side, there’s a chem lab, and then there’s an office where my boss sat, and then the next thing was a door into the washer and toilets.
“And then the other side of that little laneway was the doors of the tech centre, which we called the engine lab. And that was where the racing engines were born.”
It’s an origin story a world removed from the high-octane environment of Formula One. But it’s all so typically Australian, too, a tale of smart people with clever ideas taking on what must have seemed like an insurmountable challenge and doing it with a blend of typical Aussie humour and ingenuity.
“That was where it all started, and we had, at that point, only one of [Repco’s] four dynamometers being used for the racing project,” he explains. “And [Repco engine builder and dyno technician] Michael Gasking and myself and others were the only ones building the engines… and, you know, it was hand to mouth.
“There was one time with Jack, during ’66, we were hand-to-mouth getting engines to him. One night we had to work all night, Michael and I, to finish an engine off, run it on the dynamometer and check it all out. And we had to get it air-freighted from Essendon Airport to Jack in England.
“So I took it out to Essendon Airport behind my old Rover on a trailer that I’d built myself,” says Tait before adding, “Jack’s engine! I don’t know for sure which of the four grands prix that he won that year, but certainly that engine went into his car, the BT19, and it won the championship. He won the championship.”
Even 60 years on, it still feels like Tait can’t quite believe his luck, his stories told with more than a hint of ‘pinch-me moments’ that it is impossible to not be drawn in by.
And looking around his workshop today, a discreet building in suburban Melbourne that offers no hint of the history that lies beyond its shuttered doors, it’s clear his passion for Brabham, the man and his cars, runs deep.
Tait remained at Repco even after the company stepped away from supplying F1 engines at the end of 1968 with a perfect record. Two seasons, two drivers’ championships, two constructors’ titles.
“Formula One had moved on,” says Tait of Repco’s withdrawal. “More people got involved, Cosworth came into it and it would have become prohibitively expensive and difficult, logistically, to run a Formula One program from [Melbourne].”
Without an F1 engine program, Repco continued to design and build engines for a number of Australian series, tasting success, mostly with Frank Matich, in sports car racing and later in Australia’s premier open-wheeler category, Formula 5000.
“Matich was an extraordinary driver,” says Tait. “And had he gone into Formula One, he would have been a contender for Formula One championships, I’m sure.”
But by April 1974, Repco had called time on motor racing, its energies turned towards its core – and growing – automotive parts business. Fast forward to 1986 and Repco, no longer manufacturing engine components, was looking to offload its remaining engine parts division. Tait stepped in as part of a management buy-out, setting up what would become known as Automotive Components Limited (ACL) which at its peak employed around 1000 people.
The buy-out deal included Brabham’s championship-winning BT19 as well as Matich’s fearsome all-conquering Repco-powered SR4. He still owns the SR4 today, but the Brabham BT19 is back with Repco (“they paid us a nice amount of money for it”) and spends much of its time on display in the foyer of its Melbourne headquarters, although Tait – as the official caretaker – remains very hands-on with the car he helped build.
“They wanted me to still be connected [to the BT19],” says Tait, “and also the knowledge [I have].”
But it’s more than just “knowledge” that underscores Tait’s place in history. Tucked away in a nondescript office, a filing cabinet overflows with drawings, documents, and paperwork that painstakingly detail the Repco-Brabham’s history, from concept to development, and engine test logs with meticulously recorded handwritten notes that detail specific engine outputs through the rev band. There are dates, times, places, a full historical and handwritten record of every component, every screw, nut and bolt that went into the Repco engines that conquered the world two years running.
Tait acknowledges the significance of the legacy housed in that discreet office with what I’ve come to learn over the course of an afternoon is a genuine humility.
“I’m nothing really in the scheme of things,” he says, “but it’s just wonderful to me to think that I’ve been lucky enough to put this stuff together. And I’m taking steps to make sure it stays together.
“It’s not mine, but I’m trying to make sure that it never gets seen on a footpath, you know? I would regard this as Jack’s still… I inherited most of it by looking after it during the Repco days. And I think I’ve done the right thing by making sure that it’s here.
“If it wasn’t here, it wouldn’t be anywhere.”
This story first appeared in the September 2026 issue of Wheels magazine, now on sale. Subscribe here and gain access to 12 issues for $109 plus online access to every Wheels issue since 1953.
Australia’s growing crop of affordable Chinese cars isn’t just putting pressure on established new car brands – it could increasingly give used-car buyers something to think about as well. That’s the view of Chinese newcomer Forthing, which believes the $36,990 driveaway starting price of its first Australian-spec SUV could tempt second-hand buyers into going with a new vehicle instead.
Forthing has launched locally with its new Taikon 5 medium SUV, which is offered with a choice of either range-extender hybrid or fully electric powertrains, priced from $36,990 and $38,990 driveaway respectively.
Asked what sort of buyer Forthing expects to attract in Australia, national manager Sean Garrard acknowledged it’s too early to establish a precise customer profile, but said its aggressive pricing could attract shoppers who hadn’t initially intended to buy a new vehicle.
“Given the price point, it’s quite possible that these are people considering used cars [or] bargain hunters,” he told WhichCar by Wheels, pointing to Forthing’s lengthy warranty coverage as another factor that could persuade buyers to make the leap from used to new.
“You get a seven-year, 200,000-kilometre warranty. You get eight years on the battery, for the price of what some legacy brands have as used cars,” Garrard said.
It’s an interesting proposition at a time when Australia’s new car market is being reshaped significantly by increasingly affordable Chinese vehicles. A budget of around $35,000 to $40,000 usually gives SUV shoppers the choice of a smaller new model or a larger second-hand vehicle from an established manufacturer. But the arrival of brands such as Forthing is increasingly blurring that line, with buyers able to access a brand-new electrified medium SUV at a price point that overlaps with plenty of used alternatives.
Forthing’s range-extender hybrid is particularly unusual at $36,990 driveaway as it combines a sizeable 31.9kWh battery with a petrol engine that operates solely as a generator. Unlike a conventional plug-in hybrid, the combustion engine never directly powers the wheels, giving it EV-like driving characteristics without relying entirely on charging infrastructure.
Forthing claims up to 178km of electric-only driving range on the WLTP cycle, while its combined petrol and electric range stretches to 937km. Another $2000 buys the fully electric version, which uses a 64.4kWh battery and offers up to 427km of WLTP driving range.
Of course, the equation isn’t quite as simple as new versus used. A second-hand SUV from Toyota, Mazda, Hyundai or Kia comes with an established reputation in Australia, a mature dealer and servicing network, known resale values and, depending on its age, potentially several years of remaining factory warranty.
Forthing, in contrast, is starting from scratch. While parent company Dongfeng is one of China’s largest automotive groups, the Forthing name has virtually no history with Australian consumers, and as such, its future resale values are an unknown.
The company is attempting to offset some of that uncertainty with its ownership package, including a seven-year/200,000km warranty and while it currently has 20 active Australian dealers, it plans plans to increase that number to 35 before the end of 2026.
The Australian SUV market is about to get even more competitive with the news that Omoda Jaecoo is bringing its Omoda 4 and Omoda 7 models down under, with both expected to arrive in showrooms in the first half of 2027.
The newcomers sit below the Omoda 9, with the Omoda 7 positioned as a mid-size SUV and the 4 slotting into the compact class. The company says both are “aimed at a younger generation of Australian buyers” with their distinctive looks derived from the ‘Cyber Mecha’ design philosophy.
Unveiled in October last year, the Omoda 4 (pictured above) replaced the Omoda 3 as the brand’s entry-level SUV. While the company won’t take the covers off the specs and cost until close to launch, pricing is expected to be sharp as it competes with rivals like the Toyota Corolla Cross, MG 4 and Hyundai Kona.
The 4 should come with a sizeable amount of powertrain options like plug-in hybrid, full electric and turbo petrol. Omoda Jaecoo’s Super Hybrid system, which features in the Omoda 9, is reportedly good for around 165kW with 1000km of WLTP-tested range.
Built on the T1X platform from Chery, the Omoda 4 is all about sharp angles inside and out, with features like a 13.2-inch central touchscreen, LED lighting, digital instrument cluster and even a flip cover for the start button, which looks like something out of a weapons system.
Last November, government approval documents listed the powertrain for the Omoda 7 (pictured above) as a PHEV system with a 105kW petrol engine and 150kW electric motor driving the front wheels. A close relative of the Jaecoo J7 SHS, it will probably pack an 18.3kWh lithium iron phosphate battery.
“Expanding our new energy range is central to our growth in Australia, because it gives buyers the choice to match the technology to the way they actually drive,” said Omoda Jaecoo Australia chief commercial officer Roy Munoz.
BMW M has announced plans for some exclusive editions of its cars to mark the 100th anniversary of the legendary Nürburgring race track in Germany. Called the 100 Jahre Nürburgring and based on a range of six of the marque’s high-performance models, the new special edition pays tribute to a stretch of blacktop that “stands like no other for driving dynamics, precision and performance”.
Full details for Australia are yet to be announced, but in Europe at least, the special edition will be available on the M2 coupe, M3 sedan and Touring, M4 coupe and M5 sedan and Touring models.
BMW will also offer 100 Jahre Nürburgring editions from its Motorrad motorbike range, with the the M 1000 RR, M 1000 R, and M 1000 XR offered in Europe, with Australian availability yet to be announced.
Featuring on all of the models is the exclusive ‘Nürburgring Green’ paint finish, which was developed specifically for the special edition. It’s accompanied by edition-specific details such as a ‘100 Years’ logo, ‘Nürburgring since 1927’ wording and a silhouette of the Nordschleife track, also known at the Green Hell.
Edition graphics appear on the front doors, C-pillar, and rear side sections, depending on the model, while roof graphics also feature. On the M2, M3 sedan, M4 coupe and M5 sedan, the design extends the M carbon roof, while the BMW M3 Touring and BMW M5 Touring feature the design on their steel roofs.
Light grey, Nürburgring Green and black form the special edition’s colour palette, complemented by model-specific green accents on the wheels and kidney grille surrounds. Alternatively, the edition models are also available in ‘Black Sapphire’ metallic paintwork.
“The Nürburgring is much more than just a racetrack for us – it is a second home for BMW M. All our production vehicles are put through their paces on the Nordschleife. With the Edition 100 Jahre Nürburgring, we celebrate our long-standing and successful relationship with the Nürburgring,” BMW CEO Frank van Meel said.
If you’re unfamiliar, the 20.8km Nürburgring Nordschleife is considered one of the most demanding racetracks in the world with its 73 corners, significant elevation changes, and varying track characteristics. Most of the world’s car manufacturers use it when developing their new models.
Australian details for the BMW 100 Jahre Nürburgring special editions will be announced ahead of their local arrivals.
A sweeping new study has identified which brands’ vehicles are the most likely to reach 250,000 miles – just a tad over 400,000km – and the results add more weight to Toyota’s enviable reputation for build quality.
The research by iSeeCars examined the odometer readings on 395 million vehicles to arrive at the rankings, which also feature Jaguar and Maserati at the bottom of the table with a zero per cent chance of reaching the milestone.
Toyota easily topped the list with a 19.7 per cent chance of lasting for 250,000 miles, significantly ahead of Lexus on 14.4 per cent and Honda on 13.3 per cent. Honda’s premium Acura brand scored 9.5 per cent, and the overall average across all brands tested was 5.4 per cent.
The biggest surprise in the rankings is how German brands fared. Despite being widely hailed for their craftsmanship and longevity, BMW, Audi and Porsche struggled badly, and Mercedes-Benz wasn’t a lot better. Mercs had a 2.6 per cent chance of reaching the mark, with Volkswagen on 1.5 per cent, Beemers on just 0.5 per cent – the same as Audi – and Porsche coming third last overall at 0.3 per cent.
Mazda came in at just under the industry average on 5.3 per cent, with Nissan on 3.4 per cent, Subaru on 2.8 per cent and Kia on 0.8 per cent. Tesla, the lone EV-only brand tested, scored 3.3 per cent.
Chinese manufacturers weren’t covered in the study, which is somewhat American-centric. Of the US brands, General Motors was best with 5.8 per cent, with Lincoln on 4.7, Ram on 4.2 and Ford on 4.1 per cent.
However, there is a caveat with the results for luxury brands. iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer pointed out that those types of vehicles often aren’t driven as much as their mainstream counterparts. “For instance, Porsche’s low probability is more a reflection of lower use by Porsche owners than a lack of quality or durability,” he said.
The strong result for Toyota won’t come as a surprise to Aussies. The marque won the Automotive Brand of the Year title at the Roy Morgan Trusted Brands Awards earlier this month, making it the eighth straight year it has taken the crown.
Chinese newcomer Forthing has confirmed an expansion of its Australian line-up with at least three new models planned over the next 18 months. Owned by the giant Dongfeng corporation, Forthing has only just launched locally with its first medium SUV, available with both battery-electric and range-extender hybrid powertrains. Now its Australian distributor Ateco Automotive is already looking beyond its debut model.
Speaking at the brand’s Australian media launch, Forthing national manager Shaun Garrard confirmed the growth spurt, saying: “We plan to launch at least three new models over the next 18 months in Australia.”
First cab off the rank will be a people mover, which Forthing says will be offered with a choice of both pure-electric and plug-in hybrid powertrains. The new model will make its first public Australian appearance at the Everything Electric show in Sydney starting from September 18, although the example on display will be a prototype and its final local seating configuration is yet to be locked in.
According to Garrard, Forthing sees an opportunity to position the new people mover at the more affordable end of the market, particularly as a growing number of Chinese manufacturers introduce increasingly expensive electrified vans.
“Right now, there have been a lot of introductions with new electric MPVs from other Chinese brands, but none of them are focusing on bringing affordable, accessible MPVs to Australia,” Garrard said.
Forthing has also confirmed a larger SUV for Australia, though its launch is planned for 2028, while a third model is also in the works, but the brand wasn’t willing to reveal what it is. “In addition to that, we’re planning another exciting model, but we’re keeping that under wraps,” Garrard said. “And this is just the start.”
The range expansion will give Forthing much greater coverage of the Australian new car market than its initial medium SUV offering, which starts at $36,990 driveaway for the range-extender hybrid and $38,990 driveaway for the fully-electric version.
The brand isn’t willing to publicly commit to sales targets at this stage, however, instead saying its immediate focus is establishing a sustainable operation.
“Our plan is sustainable growth. Our plan is to be here for the long term,” Garrard said. “We’re not going to make bold promises about sales volumes today, but we can affirm that Forthing is serious about Australia.”
Forthing is part of the Dongfeng Motor Group, one of China’s largest state-owned vehicle manufacturers. Its Australian operation is handled by Ateco Automotive, which also distributes brands including LDV and Renault locally.
Further details of Forthing’s next Australian models, including pricing, specifications and launch timing, will be announced closer to their respective arrivals.
Forthing is preparing to tackle our people mover market with a new model promising both electric and plug-in hybrid power at an attainable price. The newcomer will be Forthing’s next model after the Taikon 5 medium SUV, which launched the brand in Australia, and it’s due to make its first local public appearance at the Everything Electric show in Sydney from September 18.
Forthing believes there’s room beneath the increasingly expensive field of electrified Chinese people movers already on sale in Australia. “Right now, there have been a lot of introductions with new electric MPVs from other Chinese brands,” said the brand’s national manager, Sean Garrard.
“But none of them are focusing on bringing affordable, accessible MPVs to Australia. That’s what we want to be the first one trying to do.”
Forthing hasn’t announced Australian pricing for the model, although the brand’s positioning with its first SUV gives a strong hint of just how it will be priced. Its debut Taikon 5 medium SUV is priced from $36,990 driveaway in range-extender hybrid form, while the fully electric version starts at $38,990 driveaway.
Final Australian specifications are yet to be confirmed, including one particularly important detail for people mover buyers: how many people it will actually carry.
“The vehicle will be on display at the Everything Electric show, so that’ll be our first Australian debut,” Garrard said. “Note that it will be a prototype and we haven’t settled completely on the seating arrangements just yet.”
The model will enter a rapidly expanding market for Chinese-made people movers. The sector has traditionally been dominated locally by models such as the Kia Carnival, but more recently, Chinese manufacturers have introduced a wave of more premium electric and plug-in hybrid MPVs.
Forthing sees an opportunity to take the opposite approach by making electrification more attainable. The new MPV will also form part of a much broader expansion for the new brand as it has confirmed plans to introduce at least three additional models to Australia over the next 18 months, while a larger SUV is also earmarked for release in 2028.
Another yet-to-be-revealed model is also under consideration for the local market. More details about Forthing’s new people mover – including its name, Australian specifications, pricing and launch timing – are expected closer to its arrival.
