Friday News Review

Happy scorching hot Friday friends of WhichCar,

Hope you're staying cool while Melbourne boils as the mercury tops 38 degrees today! Last week it was Sydney's Storm of the Century – bit of a fizzer if you ask me – and this week Melbourne's roasting over an open flame. Next week: snowstorms in Adelaide!

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We do check boot space!

The automotive week started off just as hot with the new Subaru Forester winning a comparison test against fancied favourites Mazda CX-5, Ford Escape and VW Tiguan. From there we leapt to the defence of tyres as the unsung hero of performance cars, and followed it up with an ever practical look at cars with the best boot spaces. (Just quietly, you'd be amazed how popular that last article is.)

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…but only while we're working

We wrapped up the LA Show with our list of star cars coming Downunder, took a gander at the new Mitsubishi E-Evolution – a crossover that double crosses between an SUV, an electric car and a real-life computer game. We also bumped into Mark Webber in LA, who voiced grave concerns over Ricciardo's move to Renault next year. Personally, we reckon that Alpine A110 will make a ripper F1 steed for Our Dan. Meanwhile, Victoria's Dan Andrews revealed plans to repeal roadwork speed limits when the roadgang's not working. Isn't that the same as abolishing them outright?

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Get a load a ma grille!

Across the pond in Africa, we met the new sexier VW Touareg, and discovered 18 things that make it better than the last one – including Porsche-style badging! Meanwhile, in Germany, somebody leaked images of the new BMW M8, which we duly shared with our 800,000-strong audience. Lastly, we wish somebody had leaked images of the new Chevrolet Silverado, so we could have had time to prepare for the shock!

In other news, Infiniti waved the makeover wand at the Q30 and QX30 range, throwing additional equipment in an attempt to boost sales. Honda also refreshed the CR-V range, although important additions like AEB were strangely withheld from the base spec base price.

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In the beginning… which is when, exactly?

SsangYong started the week at pace, launching not one, not two but three new cars with sharp pricing, long warranties and inoffensive styling. We also wrote a story about Suzuki setting a launch date for the new Jimny – the interest in this little doer is just astonishing – and we wrote another news story about Genesis still not having a launch date set, even though it was crash tested and achieved five stars.

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The Wrangler's new design is pole-arizing

I suppose that's better than an all-new, totally redesigned and completely re-engineered new Jeep achieving just one star in EuroNCAP crash testing… Some leapt to the defence of the new JL Wrangler, saying it's designed for rugged offroad use, and for all its panels to come off. Perhaps Jeep needs to convince ANCAP before the JL gets to Oz in 2019 that that feature is actually a safety boon which makes it easier to free occupants after a crash.

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It's the Ioniq, man!

We drove the new electric Hyundai Ioniq this week, covered the new Mazda CX-5 turbo, drove the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Ti, the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Audi E-Tron, and a few other tasty morsels. We also covered VFacts' November results, down 7.4pc on November 2017. And we welcomed yet another dual-cab ute – Mitsubishi Triton – into the top ten as passenger cars continued to slide.

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Miami realtor trials house and car package

Now some weird and wonderfully wacky stories from the week. ZF revealed plans to fit external airbags to minimise T-bone damage to cars' noses and sides (and occupants too, presumably). Is it April 1? In Miami, a penthouse was offered for sale complete with free Lamborghini and Rolls Royce – full-size, not matchbox models.

And on that note, have a wonderful and slightly wacky weekend!