Car enthusiasts around the country have been grappling with this conundrum for decades – should you spend your hard-earned money on a brand-new model, or get a bargain on a used classic?
It’s an issue that has been raging at Wheels HQ, so we decided to dive in and try and offer some real-world advice.
We paired up a series of new and used choices from core areas in the market, across a selection of price ranges, and worked out the running costs and potential pit falls of each offering.
There were some fascinating insights!
We didn’t spend all our time browsing the classifieds though. The road-testing team has been hard at work putting some of the most popular cars on the market through our rigorous comparison process.
First up are the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and Ram 1500. How do these Yank Tanks fare with Aussie roads, and what sort of benefit do you get compared to a regular dual-cab?
We find answers and discover which of the pair you should be spending your money on.
Despite their American engineering, both pick-ups are bolted together on Aussie soil by Aussie workers.
But those aren’t the only manufacturing jobs in the country, with a new mob called H2X looking to build hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles right here Down Under.
Our news team investigated who the hell H2X actually are, and whether their plan will become a reality.
The original super wagon, the Audi RS2, came in for a closer look as this month’s Modern Classic. Will you be able to spot all the Porsche bits on this iconic load lugger?
We also head into a Welsh forest with three generations of the McRae clan. With several of Colin’s racers at their disposal, the family patriarchs help teach the next era of the McRae legend how to sling dirt with the best of them.
Read all about that, and much more – including the usual array of news, long term reviews, and first drives – in our latest issue, out now!
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More cool car things for your iso boredom
Remember those window stickers that would helpfully tell you when the registration for your car was due? While they might have been a little unsightly, a quick glance at the corner of your windscreen was a handy visual reminder to keep your car registered and legal.
These days, the process to find your registration isn’t as instantaneous but that information still remains fairly easy to access – it’s in the palm of your hand.
Every state and territory has a vehicle registration-check website that will tell you when your registration needs to be renewed. All you have to do is go to your relevant state’s website and either input your number plate or your vehicle identification number (VIN) to find out when you need to renew.
Also, your state’s road authority will send you a reminder via mail, email or text message to renew your registration just prior to the expiry date.
If no registration renewal is paid by the expiry date, your car is no longer registered. Usually, a car’s registration can be renewed up to three months after that expiry date before registration is cancelled.
It then becomes a more involved process of re-registry, requiring the surrender of your car’s number plates, and obtaining another roadworthy certificate in order to register the car again.
Keep an eye on the relevant website or smartphone application to keep your car registered and legal, while minimising the legwork and expense.
How to check if a number plate is available
If you want to spice up your ride that much more, the option of securing a personalised plate is available. All road authorities in Australia have specific websites to order a personalised number plate, like vplates.com.au for Victorians or myplates.com.au for those in New South Wales. alt=”” rel=”122424″ />Just do a web search for “personalised number plate [state]” and click the relevant link to your state’s website.
Simply input your desired combination into the entry field and the website will tell you whether you’re able to order that specific number plate.
From there, customisation options are available like choosing the physical plate colour, design or size.
On the back of a couple of years of Wheels Car of the Year success, Volvo continues to surprise and delight with its reborn range of SUVs.
We’ve taken delivery of the XC90 T6 R Design, which now costs $96,990 plus on-road costs after a recent hefty price cut. Our Thunder Grey seven-seater also comes equipped with a Premium Pack, which adds a tinted panoramic sunroof, tinted rear glass, air-sprung suspension and 1400W of high-end Harman Kardon audio to the mix.
Sitting pretty on its 22-inch rims, the T6 uses a 246kW 2.0-litre supercharged and turbocharged four-cylinder engine to drive all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic.
Volvo has spent big on the interior of the XC90. Scandinavian simplicity and logic abounds, while clever and artful design lifts the cabin everywhere you look. The seats are brilliant, and even incorporate shock-absorbing technology should you be unlucky enough to run off the road and suffer an impact through the bottom of the car.
Second-row occupants are well looked after on the outside seats, but the centre seat is a child-only proposition. Luckily, that’s where Volvo has located a clever child seat booster cushion.
The third row features a pair of full-size seats, proper headrests and armrests to boot, but it should only be regarded as an option for smaller adults and kids. Volvo itself says it optimised for people under 170cm.
The front seats are powered in all directions, with extendable bases and adjustable side bolsters. They are supremely comfortable over a couple of hours, and can be had with heating and/or venting.
The 9.0-inch portrait screen in the centre console has allowed Volvo to reduce the number of hard buttons on the centre stack down to just nine (from an average of 30-35). It operates the same way as a typical tablet, and it also houses the very useful Apple CarPlay/Android Auto functionality, as well as the amazing parking feature seen above.
It controls all functions via three main screens, while individual buttons can be repositioned to suit. The steering wheel, too, houses a large number of functions, but it needs a period of familiarity to really get the most out of it.
Visibility is great. It could probably do with at least one more USB port in the front, and it definitely needs them in the rear, though both back rows are well covered for bottle holders, hidey-holes and ventilation controls.
We’ve racked up about 1000km so far, getting about 9.5L/100km on our fuel economy. The quoted economy is 8.5L/100km, so we’re not far off. It’s still almost two tonnes in weight, so to get nearly 750km from a tank is pretty impressive.
We’re still getting to know all the features and functions, and we’ll bring you more videos and pics as we live with our big Swede.
Update #2
A long weekend away was exactly what the doctor ordered in these confined and claustrophobic times.
We got our hands on the Volvo XC90 and loaded her up for a joyride in which we navigated our way from Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs to the underrated (I feel) rural town of Dubbo to really put her through her paces and get some wind in the hair.
The first thing we noticed is how the requirement to play tetris in order to fit our bags and gear was non-existent. Despite the four of us ‘well-prepared’ women having packed for all scenario’s and occasions, there was no squashing or shoving of kit into the boot to cram it all in – the boot size is that generous. We were immediately off to a cracking start!
Once we hit the road, we were, naturally, chatting up a storm. Em, my navigator and chief DJ had fun playing with the sound settings of our music. On the ginormous screen on the console, you can choose your settings from an In-Studio or concert hall experience in the sound settings.
It’s also easy to direct from what end and side of the car you’d like the sound to come from so as conversation swings or dies down to let room for some car-pool karaoke it’s easy to adapt!
When the music wasn’t being tinkered with, the large console is a dream to navigate with and makes hands-free undeniably easy as well as also appearing on the driver’s dashboard to ensure you don’t miss a single turn.
Aside from the obvious on-road comfort the XC90 oozes in city life, it became evident that the XC90 was more than qualified to handle the tight country roads of regional NSW and even more so, some of the ragged farmland we drove through.
The car handles beautifully and finds its track in the natural canvas of the sometimes quite uneven roads. In the paddocks, you’d be hard pushed to know the earth beneath you was cracked and dried through the months of draught.
As smooth as a seal, I was complimented more than once on my steady driving although I can guarantee I didn’t deserve all that credit.
As we met up with friends throughout the weekend, we did struggle at times with getting the middle seats forward in order to fit people into the back. I’d say this was very likely to be user error although it did have me frustrated at times when I couldn’t nail it first time round.
In saying that, once we did all fit in after a night next to country bonfire, in single digit cool night-air temperatures, I’ve never been so chuffed to have seat warmers. Virtually instant, the seat warmers in the XC90 warm you from the bottom up. Literally.
Other features of the XC90 that we loved were the large sun roof, the automatic park in and park out features (who knew that Dubbo streets would demand such tight parallel parks) and the automatic shade feature on the wing mirrors (as pictured) to help with the sun setting glare.
All in all, this car is an absolute dream. It’s smooth and it’s sexy and it’s practical with all the functional bells and whistles. I couldn’t recommend it anymore for those who are seeking a larger, comfortable vehicle to get you safely from A to B in style.
2020 Volvo XC90 T6 R-Design price and specifications
Price: $96,990 (plus on-road costs) Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged-/supercharged-petrol Output: 246kW/440Nm Transmission: Eight-speed automatic Fuel: 8.5L/100km (ADR Combined) Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP
If – knock on wood – I was ever going to cop a case of SARS-CoV-2, it was going to be in the arrivals hall of Los Angeles International Airport.
Think of a warehouse that’s the size of 10 football fields, stuffed to the gills with lines of travellers that are elbow-to-elbow, and there’s not a bottle of hand sanitiser in sight.
In late February, we flew to Arizona to drive the new BMW X5M and X6M pairing, just as COVID-19 was rearing its head in various spots around the world. While it still seemed real enough, the US was singularly unconcerned, by the feel of it.
Flying overseas for a few days at a time to drive cars for the WC team was nothing new – and funnily enough, I’ve never brought home even so much as a case of the sniffles, despite travelling twice or even three times a month locally and overseas for the last few years.
The COVID-19 threat was real enough, though, that our travel party quietly joked amongst ourselves that if we had to lock down in our hotel in Scottsdale, it wouldn’t be so bad.
As of Friday 17 July, 135,000 cases had been confirmed in the state of Arizona, and 2500 people have died thus far. Ulp.
As it turned out, we were amongst the last travellers to return to Australia before worldwide travel restrictions kicked in. I was actually due to head to Geneva Motor Show four days after coming back from Arizona, but that show was cancelled at the last moment, and we’ve been grounded ever since.
It was a bit of an unusual shoot for us as well. Working with a new crew is always a reach into the unknown, and the limited opportunities to film meant we had to be pretty flexible.
Luckily for us, cameraman Rene was not only a dab hand at the art of video capture – he’d worked a few Olympics and other big events in a storied career – but he was a very funny bloke to boot. He was also adaptable, working out a few technical snafus on the fly to keep the show rolling.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9DWZ2OncTT/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
Shooting two cars in one film is never easy, either, and needed a bit of cooperation from a group of Argentinian journos to ensure both cars could be captured in one frame. We made sure to thank them at the bar later!
I also used the visual trick of the hat forwards and backwards to separate the two cars – not sure it worked, but as I mentioned we had very limited opportunity to shoot the quantity of stuff that the WCTV editing crew need to make a clip.
The trip to Arizona could well be the last overseas launch for us for quite a while, and even though it was short, it worked out well. Hope you enjoy it!/Tim Robson
It sits beneath a dust cover in the back of a hangar in Hullavington, UK. James Dyson’s billion-dollar folly is an SUV with seven seats, sleek styling, some beautiful interior design quirks, a claimed range of 965km and no viable business case.
“Electric cars are very expensive to make. The battery, battery management, electronics and cooling are much more expensive than an internal combustion engine,” Dyson told the Financial Times, rueing the fact that the car would need to retail at $300,000 in order to break even.
At that price point, it would be hopelessly undercut by its rivals.
The three-year development project, which employed 500 workers was quietly shelved last October. What went wrong?
Others “are making huge losses on every electric car they sell”, said Dyson.
“They’re doing it because it lowers their average CO2 and NO2 emissions overall, helping them to comply with EU legislation.
“I don’t have a fleet. I’ve got to make a profit on each car or I’d jeopardise the whole company … it was too risky.”
Elon Musk understands those risks better than most.
In twelve years of selling electric cars, Tesla has never made an annual profit. It ended 2019 with a A$1.3bn loss, which is good compared to its two previous years.
But even before coronavirus halted the Fremont lines, Musk had acknowledged that “we’re not too worried about demand. We’re worried about production.”
So are the ‘legacy manufacturers’ really underwriting EV costs with the sales of internal combustion-engined cars as Dyson claims?
If they are, it’s not a durable strategy.
In September of last year, Daimler’s development chief Markus Schafer said that “there are no new plans for further ICE development.”
That draws a line in the sand when its EVs need to pay back.
Even with subsidies, it’s hard to make anything with a battery stack up on the balance sheet. One German premium manufacturer confided to Wheels that the cost of building a plug-in hybrid version of a model is double that of building a conventional ICE version.
Volkswagen’s broad strategy of custom EV platforms could see it become the first global auto manufacturer to make EVs profitable.
A report by Swiss investment bank UBS points to VW’s EV line being in the black from 2022.
It’ll need to kick some A$54bn worth of development budget into the group’s coffers, repaying a line of EVs across its mass market brands. It’ll be a stretch.
The three hurdles for electric vehicles to overcome
- Changing the buyer focus away from cost per kilometre and towards overall richness of ownership experience.
- In 2010 batteries cost $1100/kWh. In 2019, $156. The magic $100 breakover point is predicted for 2024.
- US consultants McKinsey crunched the numbers and could only see profits with decontented dedicated EV platforms.
Just days after Maserati revealed a defiant petrol-snorting twin-turbo V6 petrol engine, the Italian carmaker has followed up with an even more jaw-dropping announcement – the company has its first hybrid.When it was revealed earlier this month, the Nettuno 463kW combustion-powered donk was apparently thumbing its nose at the rest of the automotive world’s transition into electrified drivetrains, but just two weeks later, Maserati has unveiled the Ghibli Hybrid.
But don’t get too excited (or perhaps you should) because Maserati’s adoption of electrification is relatively benign for now.Instead of the 3.0-litre V6s that power the rest of the Ghibli range, under the newest variant’s bonnet is a 2.0-litre four-cylinder, which elbows out the slow-selling diesel.
The new engine replaces the diesel with comparable efficiency, but power, torque and performance more akin to the entry Ghibli turbo V6 petrol.The secret? It’s relatively diminutive displacement is boosted by a single turbo and backed up by an electric supercharger.
As per some other manufacturers including Audi and Mercedes, the Hybrid has a 48-volt electrical subsystem, which provides its eBooster with enough grunt to eliminate turbo lag at low engine load and revs.
Unlike the Nettuno engine destined for the imminent MC20 sportscar, the new hybridised four-pot is not a ground-up new engine and is instead a re-engineered and repurposed version of the 2.0-litre that powers some Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio variants.
Power stored in its battery under the boot is used to drive the eBooster electric supercharger.Despite the extra electric hardware, the new Hybrid weighs less than the petrol V6 versions and a significant 80kg lighter than the diesel.
Significant attention was given to the exhaust system to deliver “the distinctive growl of every trident model”.Like all other Ghiblis, power is sent to the rear wheels via a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission, alloy double-wishbone suspension supports the front end with a five-link system at the tail end, and Brembo has provided the stopping power.
Electric vehicle pioneer Tesla has been banned in Germany from using ‘misleading’ language to describe its driver assistance technology which features across its current line-up.The Berlin court ruling (coincidentally the same location for Tesla’s first European factory) took particular umbrage with the term ‘Autopilot’ which “suggests that their vehicles are technically able to drive completely autonomously”.Proceedings were sparked after the German equivalent of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Wettbewerbszentrale (Competition Centre), objected to promotional material on Tesla’s website.
It’s not hard to believe owners put undue faith in a system that shares its name with aviation technology that is capable of taking off, completing an intercontinental flight and then touching down, all without a single human intervention.However, Tesla’s system is yet to prove it can perform a similar door-to-door trip reliably and with repeatable success. But that hasn’t stopped a number of reckless drivers from testing it, occasionally with disastrous results. Germany’s action is an effort to prevent further acts of idiocy.Secondly, even if the systems were 100 percent reliable, Germany has not yet authorised fully autonomous driving cars on public roads.
Regardless of what inspired the branding, the company will now have to come up with a different, more accurate, name for its driver assistance features in Germany at least – and it appears that Tesla has already rebadged the system Autodrive for the German market.The company is known for its unorthodox and sometimes playful nomenclature including a Ludicrous Mode acceleration setting.Another example of hyperbolic but misleading branding includes the more sinister and potentially alarming Bioweapon Defense Mode (sic) cabin filter which, says Tesla, is not primarily intended to protect occupants from Ricin, Q fever and smallpox, but nasty smells and air pollution.If a similarly enthusiastic Tesla driver decides to put the technology to the ultimate biological weapon resistance test – as the name suggests – perhaps we will see another ruling … and a few more nominees for the Darwin Awards.
It’s likely Germany – which will be home to Tesla’s first European factory in Berlin – will be one of the first nations to roll out widespread public autonomous legislation and infrastructure, and it’s various native manufacturers are fanatical about the technology’s safety.
Virtually all the German brands have made statements to the effect of postponing the introduction of full autonomy until the vehicles, infrastructure and consumers are all equally ready.
Tesla Australia was contacted to investigate if the recent developments will have any knock-on effect Down Under, but a change of nomenclature is unlikely without similar court action locally.
NOW CHECK OUT The craziest Tesla hacks ever
I guess in some ways, playing Monopoly is like lapping the Green Hell: people say it can be done quickly, but whenever I’ve tried it, it’s taken an embarrassingly long time and ended in tears. Monopoly probably suits a roadtrip more than a racetrack, something like driving from Darwin to Adelaide. Just like a game of Monopoly, the early stages are full of excitement and promise, but after about 400 hours, you’re just praying it will be over soon, and without anyone flipping anything over.
Can a board game really capture the feeling of motorsport? I suppose you could make a fairly convincing “Demolition Derby” edition of Hungry Hungry Hippos. You could create a NASCAR edition of Snakes & Ladders, by taking out all the snakes and making the dice all sixes: “Turn left! Go faster! Turn left! Go faster!”
I could see a Cluedo: Formula One Special Edition. “Who killed Formula One? It was Jean Todt, in the boardroom, with the rule book!” You actually could create a Monaco Grand Prix edition of Monopoly: instead of “Do not pass Go, do not collect $200”, it would be all “Do not pass. Collect $200 million.”
WRC could be like Mousetrap – you construct this elaborate track only to end up with someone flying through the air and crashing into something – except for the dusty old Group B edition, which would be just picking up an old chess board, then chopping someone in the head with it ’til they’re dead.
The Isle of Man TT is less like a board game and more like putting on a blindfold and sprinting through a pine forest. And the Bathurst 1000 would be, I dunno, Trivial Pursuit or something – it doesn’t really matter because all you’ll remember is the first thirty minutes, then a long VB-flavoured blur, then being startled awake at the end and wondering where your pants are.
I feel sorry for the makers of board games: for sheer excitement, trying to compete with Fortnite or Gran Turismo 7 must be like Metamucil trying to compete with methamphetamine. So they hope that if they make a new version with enough flash, you won’t notice that you’re sitting at home with Mum and Dad on a Saturday night, killing time until a re-run of Friends comes on.
But the real question is, how desperate are the owners of the Nurburgring to agree to this? And who even owns it at the moment? It’s not that long ago that the entire Nurburgring complex was sold for a gazillion Euros, with plans to build a schmicko hotel and turn the whole thing into some kind of Disneyland for petrolheads. Looks like the new owners pulled the “pay hospital fees” card from Community Chest instead of the “second prize in a beauty contest” they were hoping for.
If Monopoly really wants to create a Special Edition that makes sense, they should pivot from motorsport to the motoring industry. Like the Monopoly: Volkswagen Audi Group Special Edition: “You falsified emissions tests: go to jail!” “You made a racist TV ad: go to jail!”
Or the Carlos Ghosn Special Edition: “You under-reported your income: go to jail!” “You paid someone to smuggle you out of jail: now they go to jail!”
Or just wait 10 years ’til Tesla merges with Toyota and becomes the only car manufacturer on the planet. That’ll be a real monopoly.
While Queensland’s COVID-19 lockdown laws might be more lax than the rest of the country, it looks like they may have come to bite someone in the hip pocket.
Reports are emerging that a genuine Ferrari F40 has been binned near the town of Nerang, 70km south of Brisbane.
While many people are deriding the car as a replica, our sources suggest that the rare right-hand-drive car is owned by a Gold Coast car collector.
The clue is in the wheels. “You never see those rims on a replica,” says our snout.
He also reckons that, while the damage to this rare F40 looks significant, it’s not fatal.
“It can be fixed,” he reckons.
Even so, it’s a mistake that could cost a LOT of money.
However, an F40 in far worse shape is in the midst of a rebuild.
Despite the fire, it’s currently being put back together in Maranello.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBaX1aLj9W0/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
Details of the F40 crash in Queensland are sketchy, but it looks as if the driver has overdone it with the right foot, looped the mid-engined monster at a right-hand turn and exited stage backwards, up over the kerb and over the top of a traffic light.
By the look of the concrete base that’s been ripped out of the ground, the F40 has gone in with some pace.
The cabin is intact, which suggests the occupants exited the vehicle, but there’s extensive damage to the bodywork.
The presence of a dealer number plate is interesting, as well.
Very strict rules govern the use of trade plates, which are used by car dealers to take new or unregistered cars out for a test drive. It also suggests that the plates on the car itself are for show.
An amazing shot of F40s lined up
Media reports suggest the driver was given a ticket for negligent driving.
In today’s market, the F40 trades at auction for about AU$1.8m, according to the team at Unique Cars. In the local market, they are generally advertised for $2.3m-$2.5m.
Back in 2012, Maranello Motorsport advertised a delivery-condition example for $455,000, which illustrates how far values have come.
Contributing – Alex Affatt, Unique Cars
