Is this the next Ford Falcon?
Spied slipping into the country at Sydney airport, this US-built Ford Taurus SHO is one option to replace the condemned Falcon in 2016.
Ford recently confirmed the Falcon would cease production when it closes its Australian plants in three years’ time, officially ending one of the world’s longest running nameplates.
The Taurus in question, snapped here in transit, was eventually shipped to Ford engineers in Melbourne.
What for, we can only speculate, but it’s clear the Taurus is a viable Falcon replacement.
The imported car is a Taurus SHO, a turbo-charged, 272kW all-wheel-drive sedan that’s similar in power to the current Falcon G6E Turbo.
Ford has sold the Taurus in Australia before, but it was a sales flop throughout the 1990s and discontinued after two years.
HSV has just released pricing of its new VF range, and as expected, the flagship GTS comes in under $100,000.
The new GTS, which is Australia’s fastest and most powerful car thanks to its new 430kW 6.2-litre LSA V8, will cost $92,990 (plus on-road and dealer costs) in manual trim and $94,490 for the six-speed automatic.
That makes the GTS significantly cheaper than its European performance rivals, including the BMW M5 ($230,000), Audi RS6 ($230,000 est) and Mercedes-Benz E-Class E63 AMG ($240,000).
The remainder of the HSV VF range has also copped a price drop, with the base Clubsport reduced by $4000 to $60,990 and the Clubsport R8 to retail from $71,290 (down $210).
The Clubsport R8 Tourer also gets a small cut, and will start from $72,290.
The Maloo ute is the cheapest HSV on sale, starting at $58,990 with the Maloo R8 to cost $68,290.
The new Senator will start at $83,990 ($3000 cheaper) while the HSV grange retails at $85,990.
Australia’s most powerful car, the new 430kW HSV GTS, will be sold cheaper in the United Kingdom than it is at home.
The GTS, which will be rebadged as the Vauxhall VXR8 GTS, will cost UK buyers just 54,999 pounds or $86,500 Australian
At today’s conversion rate, that’s $6490 less than the Australian GTS’s $92,990 asking price.
Worse yet, the Aussie price tag doesn’t include on-road or dealer charges, which will tip the big performance sedan closer to $100,000.
But it’s not all good news for UK buyers – their GTS might be cheaper, but they’ll have to pay more to maintain it.
Not only is fuel more expensive in the UK – a litre of juice costs around $2.20 – but UK owners have to pay a 1065 pound tax bill when they buy a new GTS, and a further 490 pounds in tax each year after that.
Still, there’s no denying the GTS offers BMW M5 and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG killing performance for significantly less, with UK enthusiasts already able to order a new GTS – despite the fact it won’t be built until August.
Photo credit: DailyAutoFix.com
No this isn’t a joke. What you’re looking at really is a BMW X5 utility.
Built by a BMW dealer in Brisbane, this one-off, heavily modified ute is based on a standard BMW X5 SUV.
The handiwork of the dealers’ in-house panel shop, the BMW ute took around 700 hours to create and cost upwards of $35 grand – on top of the X5 donor car’s purchase price.
Using the same platform and chassis as the stock X5, the ute also boasts its 4.4-litre V8.
And don’t think it’s an exercise in creativity over practicality. The ute is fully road legal and even comes with its own personalised number plates: BMWTE.
Iron man has one, but it looks like production of Audi’s R8 e-tron could be limited to just one unit, after the company announced it will no longer build the electric supercar.
Audi says building the 280kW electric car, which shattered a record at the infamous Nurburgring, isn’t financially feasible.
The news broke at an Audi technology day, where journalists were invited to drive one of 10 near-production e-tron prototypes.
Apparently, Audi isn’t happy with the current state of battery technology, regarding costs and recharging time.
Still, the company plans to use the information garnered from the e-tron in upcoming production models, and is said to be putting its weight behind the 1.4-litre A3 Sportback e-tron which arrives in Europe early next year.
Mercedes-Benz has shattered the record at the Nurburgring for an electric car.
The German brand’s new SLS AMG Electric Drive clocked 7m55s at the legendary circuit, shattering the old mark of 8m09s held by Audi’s R8 E-tron.
The SLS also becomes the first electric car to lap the ‘Ring in under eight minutes.
And happily for us, unlike the R8 E-tron, the SLS AMG Electric Drive is actually being built.
Nice.
Women who are aged 50+ are officially Australia’s most environmentally friendly drivers, a new study has found.
The research, conducted by insurance heavyweight AAMI, found older women are Australia’s ‘green champions’ as they have a greater tendency to leave the car at home, drive smoothly, avoid speeding and service their cars regularly.
Unsurprisingly males aged 18-24 have the heaviest impact on the environment when it comes to their driving habits.
More than 3,700 drivers were surveyed from across Australia, which also revealed New South Wales is the ‘greenest’ state.
The ACT is the least environmentally friendly motoring state.
To reduce your impact on the environment while driving, the study recommends the following steps:
• Service your car as often as the manufacturer recommends
• Carpool as often as possible
• Drive smoothly, without hard braking or acceleration
• Avoid high speeds or driving in a gear lower or higher than needed
• Regularly check your tyres are inflated to the correct pressure
• Remove unnecessary weight from the boot or roof racks
Hate flying but need to cover long distances?
Is there a spare $3 million burning a hole in your pocket?
Then this motor home is for you.
Called the Marchi Mobile Elemment, this luxurious motor home is basically a private jet on wheels.
Equipped with its own pop-up roof bar, barbeque areas, fog machine and ice makers, the Elemment also has 50 square metres of entertaining space.
Don’t think it’s slow either, with a 380kW diesel engine providing the grunt, while a twin-sports exhaust and supercar-like rear diffuser is housed at the rear.
Ford has landed a major movie role, with its new Mustang Shelby GT500 to star in the upcoming movie adaptation of the popular video game Need For Speed.
Of course, with such a lucrative role up for grabs, Ford developed a one-of-a-kind Mustang to suit the part.
Featuring a custom ‘wide’ body, the movie ’Stang boasts unique 22-inch wheels, bigger air intakes and a tweaked supercharged V8.
A customised interior has been designed to fit the Need For Speed theme, with the film to hit theatres on March 14, 2014.
Volkswagen’s embarrassing product recall has spread. Wheels can confirm that VW company cousins Audi and Skoda will have to recall thousands of vehicles due to a gearbox problem. Volkswagen announced 25,928 of its vehicles will be recalled and now Skoda says 1746 of its vehicles will also be affected, with Audi admitting too that a recall will be issued for A1 and A3 1.4 and 1.8 turbo petrol models from July 2008-July 2011.
It’s the type of nightmare that keeps car company PR execs awake at night – somebody dies in one of your vehicles and then your customers turn on you like cage full of monkeys that haven’t been fed in a week. That’s what Volkswagen Australia is going through right now with it issuing a recall of almost 26,000 of its vehicles after an onslaught of complaints from VW owners about their cars. The outrage follows the death of a Melbourne woman Melissa Ryan in 2008 who, while driving her Golf, experienced a loss of power resulting in a collision with a truck.
The complaints centre around Volkswagen’s DSG transmission (dual-clutch gearbox). During the past weeks Fairfax readers have been writing into The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age with their accounts and the papers in turn have championed the case. This led to Volkswagen pulling its advertising from the publications. Other news outlets began to be flooded by similar complaints from angry Volkswagen owners. Now in an almost admission of guilt Volkswagen announced the recall of Golf, Jetta, Polo and Caddys built from June 2008 –September 2011 with 7-speed DSG transmissions.
The thing is, the Golf that Ryan was driving at the time of her death had a manual transmission. It’s a good gearbox, and the reason for the sudden loss of power in Ryan’s car still has not been determined. Nonetheless the incident has been a catalyst in the remedy of VWs older DSG, which for years has been troubling us and our own readers, too with its at times jolty and unrefined behaviour. The new DSG appears to have had those bug ironed out, though.
General Manager of PR for Volkswagen Karl Gehling says that he can’t comment on the events surrounding Ryan’s death as the inquest has not been concluded. In terms of the DSG issue he did state: “In isolated cases, an electronic malfunction in the control unit inside the gearbox mechatronics may result in a power interruption. We will be contacting the customers affected.”
But there’s more to this story. The same DSG gearbox is found in Skodas and Audis (both part of the Volkswagen group).
When asked if the DSG problem affects Skoda Gehling says: “Yes, 1746 of them – Octavias and Superbs.”
And Audi? We spoke to Audi’s General Manager of Corporate Communications Anna Burgdorf who tells us there will be Audis affected, too.
“We will also conduct a voluntary recall of the A1 and A3 vehicles – the 1.4 and 1.8 TFS models built between July 2008 and July 2011,” Burgdorf says.
“The voluntary recall affects the DQ200 transmission and certain Audi vehicles have this transmission. We will follow suit with our sister company and we will also conduct a voluntary recall of these vehicles. Our customers are our greatest concern.”
