There’s a new top-dog in the Maybach range as the Pullman limo has received a facelift.
The Mercedes-Maybach S650 Pullman now pumps out 463kW/1000Nm from its 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12.
The style was first seen on the Mercedes-Maybach 6, the two-door cabriolet which resembled a futuristic land-yacht.
Inside, two passengers sit in the ‘executive’ seats which face forward, though they can be joined by two more passengers who sit facing them in reverse.
Passengers can also see what’s happening in the direction of travel via a front-view camera, with a monitor in the rear of the cabin.
The Pullman, however, “starts at around half a million euro,” signifying that Maybach knows its customers likely won’t miss “around” 500 big ones from their bank accounts. Specifics be damned.
The Lexus RC F sports coupe has received an upgrade that includes a pseudo launch control system along with multimedia and active safety enhancements, which have also been added to the RC 300 and RC 350.
The RC F and range-topping RC F Carbon now feature Drive Start Control, which provides smoother starts and optimised gear changes for swifter take-off acceleration when the driver is using the shift lever manually.
The system manages power and torque delivery from the RC F’s naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V8 engine to its rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission, but, in a nod to the purists, it won’t engage the system when traction control is switched off to allow keen drivers to do the work themselves. A light in the instrument panel indicates when the system is operational.
The RC F also gains a new customisable mode for its Drive Mode Select system, which allows the driver to individually specify a preferred powertrain, chassis and air conditioning setting under the one drive mode.
There are new colour options for the RC F, too, including Zinna Yellow, which first appeared on the LC coupe. A hue dubbed Titanium replaces Sonic Silver.
Infotainment has been enhanced in all RC models, with the display screen stretched from 7.0-inches to a panoramic 10.3-inches, and now shows the latest version of Lexus’ multimedia system. Controlling on-screen functions is now easier thanks to the larger touch pad mountied on the centre console.
Meanwhile, the Lexus Safety System+ driver assistance package gains pedestrian detection for its pre-collision warning function, while the active cruise control system has new buttons making it simpler to operate. Lane departure warning now includes steering assist, to help keep the car between the lines, and a vibrating alert built into the steering wheel. Automatic high beam, which dips when a vehicle is detected ahead, has also been included.
From an aesthetic perspective the range-topping RC F Carbon’s 20-spoke forged alloy wheels have a new matte finish, while the carbonfibre bonnet is now aluminium resulting in a $6248 price drop.
The RC 350’s 3.5-litre quad cam V6 has also received some attention from Lexus engineers resulting in a slight performance tweak to 232kW and 380Nm and 3.2 percent improvement to fuel economy, now 9.1L/100km.
2018 Lexus RC pricing
- RC 300 Luxury – $65,400
- RC 300 F Sport – $74,700
- RC 300 Sports Luxury – $84,900
- RC 350 Luxury – $68,400
- RC 350 F Sport – $77,700
- RC 350 Sports Luxury – $87,900
- RC F – $138,100
- RC F Carbon – $152,300
Yes, we’ve all heard the Honda mower jokes when a Civic shows up to, well, most places.
But Honda has actually built a mower capable of overtaking cars on the highway. It’s called the Mean Mower.
It only weighs about 200 kilograms, and it’s powered by a Honda Fireblade CBR1000RR’s 999cc engine.
Essentially, we’re talking a 1:1 bhp-to-kg ratio.
Oh yes, they have done it before. Meet Mean Mower Mk1.
Honda’s BTCC partner, Team Dynamics, have built both versions, though this time Top Gear is stepping aside to let former British Karting Champion Jessica Hawkins take the Sparco racing wheel.
And the thing looks almost completely standard.
“In other words, it still has to look like a mower. See that front cowl? That’s a standard part. As is the grass box – they’ve both been pinched off a completely normal mower, the HF2622, which you or I could buy.
“In fact, the grass box still has actual, real-life grass in it – it’s not even been cleaned out since it was last used.
So, who needs some grass cut?
THE Federal Government has signalled an end to the Luxury Car Tax as it moves to open trade talks with the European Union.
The Luxury Car Tax, introduced by the Howard Government in the lead-up to the introduction of the 10 percent Goods and Services Tax, has targeted luxury car buyers since its introduction. It has since been modified to allow people buying fuel-efficient vehicles to gain some tax relief compared with those who choose to buy a car that uses more than 7.0L/100km.
It is believed that upcoming talks over a free trade agreement with the EU will specifically target LCT.
“Australia seeks to commence FTA negotiations with the European Union as soon as possible,” a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Wheels.
“We envisage the FTA will include reciprocal elimination of barriers to trade and goods; reciprocal reduction in impediments to trade in services; and rules aimed at improving the conditions for trade and investment.”
That means barriers to trade such as the LCT are likely to be traded off against gains for the goods we most commonly export the EU. On the flip side, European car makers will be keen for negotiations to remove a barrier that advantages other global markets, such as the US and Japan, where free trade agreements have removed all tariffs on vehicles flowing into Australia.
Mercedes-Benz Australia public relations senior manager David McCarthy told Wheels the tax would need to go.
“Under World Trade Organisation rules it’s [the LCT] a false tariff,” McCarthy said. “In the free trade agreement with the EU, it [LCT] will be part of the negotiations, and it will disappear, and ultimately it will have to disappear because you won’t be able to keep it in place with NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] and the Thai free trade agreement, so it will disappear.
“And that will happen within the next two to three years,” he said. “The reality is Luxury Car Tax is on the horizon, and it’s going to disappear over the horizon within a couple of years because of the free trade agreement.
“The government won’t be able to keep Luxury Car Tax.”
The tax was thrown firmly into the spotlight this week after the Greens proposed lifting the LCT to 50 percent of each dollar of a car’s value above $65,000 – effectively a 17 percent gas guzzler tax on top of the 33 percent LCT – in an effort to pay for a wider roll-out of electric vehicle recharging stations.
Part of the Greens’ proposal was to ban petrol- and diesel-engined cars from sale in Australia by 2030 – just 12 short years away.
LCT adds about $2100 to the price of an $80,000 car, with accessories and options counting towards the amount of tax levied. On a $1.1 million long-wheelbase Rolls-Royce Phantom, high net worth buyers are handing over $236,000 in luxury car tax.
The Turnbull Government’s forward estimates have anticipated that around $680 million will flow into the public purse this financial year from the LCT. Because it flows into general revenue, where the money goes after that is entirely up to the federal exchequers.
Mercedes-Benz Australia was a vocal opponent to opening up Australia’s shores to parallel imports, another federal Government initiative that would have made luxury cars cheaper for buyers here.
The car maker opposed the move on the grounds that it would open the door to warranty and provenance issues for buyers bringing near new, low-kilometre cars here from Britain and Japan at much cheaper prices than those sourced locally.
AUDI has confirmed it’s working on a performance version of its Q2 crossover, and it is likely to make its way Down Under.
One of Ingolstadt’s worst-kept secrets, the SQ2 was confirmed at the company’s annual press conference this week, and is slated to for a late 2018 debut.
Spy pics have given a glimpse of the beefed-up looks that are likely to go with the extra grunt, including broader front air intakes and quad exhaust pipes, and large brake discs behind blackened rims wrapped in low-profile rubber.
With Q2 prices roughly in line with the A3 Sedan here, expect the SQ2 to arrive with a price tag of around $63,000 before options, making it a relatively affordable base model in Audi’s performance SUV range alongside the SQ5 and SQ7, which cost $99,611 and $153,327 respectively.
CAR thieves appear to have developed some taste, with the Holden VE Commodore rising to the top of the ranks as the most stolen vehicle in 2017, the latest national theft statistics show.
The latest National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council statistics for 2017 show 42,592 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were stolen across Australia last year, with Victoria accounting for almost one in every three vehicles to go missing.
On the bright side, though, overall vehicle thefts fell 7.1 percent compared with 2016’s numbers. Almost 80 percent of the cars stolen had an immobiliser fitted.
Last year, 908 Holden VE Commodores went missing, 46 fewer than for the previous year, but still making it the most popular model to nick in 2017. Add in the older models dating back to the VT Commodore, and the nameplate was responsible for 3280 thefts, or almost one in every 10. The Commodore’s rise to the top of the ranks displaces 2016’s theft magnet, the Nissan Pulsar.
The second-most stolen vehicles in 2017 were versions of the Nissan Pulsar that are almost a quarter of a century old, accounting for 747 thefts. After that, it’s decade-old versions of the Toyota Hilux (596), and then the Ford BA Falcon (577).
Three out of every five cars stolen happened to be valued at less than $5000, the statistics show, accounting for only 10 percent of the estimated $506 million worth of merchandise nicked in 2017. One in five thefts were of cars valued from $10,000 to $20,000, while cars valued at more than $50,000 accounted for only one in every 50.
The Audi e-tron GT is coming, and it looks to be aimed at toppling Tesla’s Model S.
It was revealed during a speech by Audi board of management chair Rupert Stadler at the recent annual press conference.
“You, ladies and gentlemen, will today gain an advance, exclusive and intimate insight into our product planning,” Stadler announced.
Audi has previously introduced the e-tron moniker to the Audi R8, in the form of a concept which was intended for production, but ultimately abandoned.
The demise of the R8 e-tron raises the question as to whether this car may be its successor, despite having two extra doors.
A further link, the e-tron GT will be built in the same plant as the R8, Audi Sport’s Böllinger Höfe factory.
“This highly emotive spearhead from Audi Sport is to be produced at our Böllinger Höfe plant near Neckarsulm as of 2020,” says Stadler.
“We will lead our high-performance brand Audi Sport into the electric future with models like this.”
Audi’s future is looking more and more electric, proven by the reveal of an e-tron prototype at the Geneva Motor Show, meaning its petrol-powered performance cars could be on their way out.
McLaren Special Operations (MSO), McLaren Automotive’s bespoke division, has created another limited edition car to entice collectors to open their wallets.
The McLaren 570GT MSO Black Edition series will consist of a run of 100 slightly tweaked 570GTs, which score unique styling, an MSO titanium exhaust which is 5dB louder than standard, and a handling upgrade.
In terms of styling, the series’ name makes the colour options pretty self-explanatory. Hope you like Carbon Black. MSO says the colour was specifically developed for this car.
Even the brake calipers are black.
An optional electrochromic roof is also tinted ‘black’ and filters UVs.
“Black is a colour associated with elegance, power and authority whilst also surrounded by a certain air of mystery.
“The end result remains true to the luxurious nature of the 570GT but we managed to further amplify its sleek, sporty character with a wealth of new MSO Defined options which I am sure will delight discerning owners.”
The boss of Lotus Australia says he is determined to make the British sports car maker a proper player in this market, as dealerships expand across the country and new product such as sports SUV are tipped to be delivered into local showrooms within three years.
In 2016, Lotus polled its lowest sales in 15 years with just 31 units sold as the beleaguered brand switched distributors from Ateco Automotive conglomerate to Sydney’s independent Simply Sports Cars dealership (which had long been the brand’s top-selling dealer anyway).
“We’d be hoping to hit out 100-plus cars somewhere around the year 2019,” Gibbs tells MOTOR.
“We are confident, based on the communications that are coming to us, that we are going to see some new product in the coming years. We are thinking it’s probably a couple of years away.”
That will likely include a Porsche Macan-rivalling medium SUV, Gibbs says, although he is clear that such a model from Lotus must have a focus on light weight and the racetrack.
The Lotus APX concept was revealed in 2006, but unsurprisingly never made it to production.
“There are a lot of Lotus owners at the moment towing their cars around on trailers behind other brands’ SUVs and I’m sure if they feel the Lotus is a viable option, they are quite happy to tow behind a Lotus,” he says of the local potential.
“There is certainly a high degree of interest within the existing community. As to the market, whether the market can cope with another SUV coming in, I guess we would just look to the broader market trends and statistics and attitudes at the moment, and at the moment there doesn’t seem to be any let-up at all in the appetite for SUVs.
A new Elise, Exige and Evora are then also tipped to follow by the early 2020s.
Lotus currently has one dealership in each of the five mainland states only, but a new Simply Sports Cars dealer in Melbourne will open this month to complement the Zagame operation in nearby Richmond.
“You don’t do that sort of stuff [buy-out] unless you plan to do something with it and grow and benefit from it,” he adds.
FORD has teased a potential replacement for the EcoSport small SUV as it maps out a new-car future filled with hybrid and electric vehicles – including one classed as a “performance utility”.
The US-based global car maker overnight mapped out its future plans for the North American market with hybrid drivetrains including plug-ins spreading across the Mustang, an “entirely new” Ford Escape, and the Bronco that’s based on the Ford Australia designed and developed T6 Ranger/Everest platform (pictured, below).
We already knew that Ford was working on a performance version of a battery-powered SUV; the car maker used this year’s reveal of the Bullitt Mustang ahead of the Detroit Motor Show to tease the idea as the “Mach 1”. The first battery-powered vehicle for North America will kick off in 2020 with the Mach 1, with Ford saying it would add another six electric vehicles by 2022.
The car maker said it planned to reduce the “sketch to showroom” time for its new vehicle development by around 20 percent, part of its aim to reduce the average age of its showroom fleet from 5.7 to 3.5 years.
“By 2020, Ford plans an industry-leading lineup of eight SUVs – five of which will offer hybrid powertrains and one battery electric,” it said. “After recently introducing an all-new model at each end of the SUV spectrum – the subcompact EcoSport and full-size Expedition – Ford’s next push is in the highest volume SUV segments. Entirely new versions of the Escape and Explorer debut next year; combined, these two models make up 70 percent of Ford’s SUV volume.”
Ford has even hinted at how the hybrid version of the F-150 truck will work. “ On the F-150 Hybrid, Ford will lean in to capability, such as the low-end torque for extra pulling power and the fact it can serve as a mobile generator,” it said. The car maker has also indicated the Mustang is moving away from V8 power for its hybrid version, saying it would deliver “V8-like performance with more low-end torque”.
Ford global markets president Jim Farley said the time was right for the car maker to start and think about hybrid – something of an oxymoron given it will soon have to meet even tougher emissions targets. “Hybrids for years have been mostly niche products but are now on the cusp of a mainstream breakout,” Farley said in a statement. “The valuable capability they offer – plus fuel efficiency – is why we’re going to offer hybrid variants of our most popular and high-volume vehicles, allowing our loyal, passionate customers to become advocates for the technology.” Ford said its hybrid system was designed to be more efficient and less expensive than previous generations.
Meanwhile, the electric vehicle program will focus on removing the “pain points” that Ford believes are still a barrier to electric vehicle ownership – including the need to plug it in regularly. “Throwing a charger in the trunk of a vehicle and sending customers on their way isn’t enough to help promote the viability of electric vehicles,” Ford’s autonomous and electric vehicles vice-president, Sherif Marakby, said. “In addition to expanding our electric vehicle lineup, we are redesigning the ownership experience to ensure it addresses customer pain points that currently hold back broad adoption today.” That’s likely to include wireless recharging.
In terms of vehicle development, Ford said it would move to “flexible vehicle architectures” for future products. “Ford’s five flexible vehicle architectures – body-on-frame, front-wheel-drive unibody, rear-wheel-drive unibody, commercial van unibody and BEV – are paired with module “families” that address the power pack, electrical pack and vehicle configurations,” it said. “Seventy percent of each vehicle’s engineering will be driven from this new architecture approach, with 30 percent of content – including grilles, hoods, doors and more – customised for each vehicle.” It will also reduce the number of variants on offer.
Ford Australia has been asked for comment on how the North American plans would affect the company’s products sold here.
