We were sitting having coffee with one of our friends the other day when she popped that question … what car should I buy?

Her need arose because she’s about to change jobs and in that change she’s going to lose the use of the company car (a Subaru Liberty) that she had with the job that she’s leaving. While the new job entails a lot of traveling … further into Brisbane on some days and out to Nambour (a bit over an hour’s drive) on others she won’t have the use of a company car.

So she’s looking for one that suits her driving habits … her lifestyle … and her bank balance both in purchase price and running costs.

Her driving habits … well she likes to move along at a good pace and she doesn’t like wasting time (read into that whatever you think is appropriate). Her lifestyle … she’s got grown-up kids and a partner in the building trade who drives a ute.

A reasonably priced car … something a little more up-market that what Top Gear describes as ‘a reasonably priced car’ … isn’t going to break the bank and she would probably be in a position to replace the car when the warranty period expired.

However, when it comes to running costs, she knows that the price of fuel is going to continue to rise and she doesn’t want to see a large chunk of her pay disappear into the fuel tank of whatever car she does buy.

So Toni and I sat and pondered for a moment and then came up with two sedans and one SUV that would just about tick all the boxes for her … and her partner too. After all he’s going to be driving the vehicle at some stage.

Sedans
With a lot of city driving in our friend’s near future it would have been tempting to suggest something like the Barina Spark, or Ford Fiesta but those vehicles don’t quite fit the after-hours lifestyle of our friend … she’s just not a small car kind of person.

We could have also recommended a really fuel efficient vehicle such as the VW Golf BlueMotion but she needs the car now and the Golf BlueMotion won’t be here till next year. We could have also recommended the Prius but … well … this is a lady with some style and the Prius … well it’s just not in the same class as our friend.

So the first sedan we recommended was the Toyota Hybrid Camry. At a combined cycle of 6.0L/100km it’s going to be cheap on fuel and that was important to our friend. Fixed price servicing also keeps the cost of servicing down.

Despite all of its economy and hybridness the Toyota Hybrid Camry is no tortoise on the road. It has great acceleration and the handling is outstanding and that’s what this lady would want in a car.

It’s also very comfortable and can fit plenty of luggage when our friend and her partner want to head off for a week or a weekend so it’s not going to put a crimp in her lifestyle either.

Of course there’s always some resistance to new technology and while it’s unlikely that buying a hybrid would be a problem for our friend we thought we should offer her a more conventional alternative and the one we both thought would be a good fit for her was the Hyundai i45 Premium.

While the i45 is certainly no hybrid it does return some great fuel consumption figures and a combined cycle of 7.9L/100km is going to keep her fuel bills down.

The Hyundai i45 certainly has the looks that would appeal to our friend and the combination of great acceleration and the paddle shift gear change that would really appeal to her. You could just see her eyes light up when we described how the paddles worked and what they added to the driving experience.

There’s good interior comfort in the i45 too and you can load it up and head off for some time away and not have to worry about fitting everything in.

The SUV
Toni and I both love our old Honda CR-V … it just goes … and goes and despite being over 10 years old it’s still comfortable and fun to drive. But we haven’t had an opportunity to test the latest CR-V and we do know that between our 2000 model and the latest CR-V there have been some problems so we opted instead for the Hyundai ix35 Highlander.

The choice of a compact SUV when we had been recommending mid-sized sedans may seem a little strange but you can fit everything you might carry in a mid-sized sedan into the ix35 and you have the added benefit of driving a smaller vehicle in city traffic.

The ix35 Highlander is the top of the range and it comes with all the creature comforts you could hope for. It also comes with a 2.0-litre diesel that will give a combined fuel consumption cycle of just 7.5L/100km.

While the diesel-engined ix35 may not be quite as nippy as the two sedans it’s still got plenty of get up and go and it would certainly keep our friend happy.

The ix35 also has the added advantage of the seating position that comes with just about every SUV. It’s quite different to what you find in any sedan and it is more ergonomically correct and well suited to older hips and backs.

There were certainly other vehicles in both the mid-sized sedan and SUV category that we could have recommended and I’m sure that you will have your own personal favorites but these were the three that stood out for us.

Not only do they tick all the boxes for our friend but they’re also readily available and there are plenty of dealers on either of her routes to work where she could get one of these vehicles serviced and that’s an important point too.

Buying a much more exotic vehicle than the ones we mentioned here can be fun but that fun soon wears off when you have to take the car you’ve bought halfway across town to get it serviced.

Feel free to share your thoughts about the right car to buy in the comments section.

The Falcon FG Ute scored 14.62 out of a possible 16 in the frontal offset crash test and 15.96 out of 16 in the side impact crash test and a total of 33.58 out of 37 for overall safety … the highest score ever recorded for a utility in Australia.

According to Ford the only vehicle to ever get a higher safety rating is the FG sedan.

While the agreement is still subject to approval by regulatory bodies it is expected to go through without a hitch.

Skelta is built in Toowoomba Qld but it’s not hiding away from the competition. It will soon be making it’s mark on the European circuits. And how competitive is the Skelta?

Well it’s certainly not all show and no go … last weekend at the Noosa Hill Climb … one of the premier hill climb events in Australia … a Skelta G-Force took a class win with a lead of four seconds over the nearest rival and finished in the top 10 outright amongst more specialized vehicles. Before that a Skelta finished third outright in this years Targa Tasmania.

Drop into one of these and you can forget about your comfort zone … this is a handbuilt car that offers performance with no compromise.

The chassis is chrome Molybdenum steel reinforced with carbon fibre combined with aluminium honeycomb sandwich centre tunnel and side pods and a carbon composite body sits on top.

The engine is the buyer’s choice of either a 340bhp 2-litre supercharged Honda or a 460bhp 3-litre Harley V8 coupled to a Honda 6-speed box.

Suspension is double wishbone with inboard MCA Proflex damper/spring units and it’s adjustable for track camber, caster and toe. The brakes are cross-drilled discs with 4-piston calipers front and rear.

Buyers get their choice of body style … either an open-topped 2-seater known as the Spyder or a 2-seater with detachable gullwing targa top known as the G-Force.

To finish off our look at the Skelta come for a ride in the cockpit of the winning car at the Suncoast Classic Rally … crank up the volume – this car deserves it.

And now you’re in the cockpit for the Cathana stage of the 2008 Targa Tasmania and a dice with a pesky RX7

Finally something just a little more sedate:

The Amarok is already in production at Volkswagen’s plant in Argentina and it will be released around December 11 and it should be here some time next year. Volkswagen have released few details about the Amarok but we do know that it will be available in petrol or diesel models and the claim has already been made that the diesel version of the Amarok will have a range of 1,000km.

While there are a few photos appearing around the Net Volkswagen claims that they are from an earlier concept vehicle and don’t depict the final production model. Volkswagen has released a movie of that early concept vehicle and you will find it by following this link to the Amarok mini-site.

It shows quite a stylish looking vehicle that seems to be a little lacking in tray space so your average tradie who wants a work and recreational vehicle probably won’t be chasing one of these.

The vehicle you will see in that movie is fitted out for left-hand drive but Volkswagen has no plans to release the United States even though Volkswagen claims to have tested the Amarok there. Instead the Amarok will be sold in South America, Asia, Africa and Australia.

Over the last few weeks Volkswagen has been revealing more and more of the Amarok in the Amarok newsletter so it won’t be long before we get to see the complete vehicle.

Three women allegedly jacked the car but only made it 150 metres down the road before they gave up. They were arrested a short time later. I wonder if they would have even made it that far if the vehicle had been equipped with four on the column?

Perhaps we’ve reached the point where a manual transmission should be considered to be an anti-theft device.

“This was a good month with a stronger than expected result,” FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said.

This September result is down 3.5 per cent (2,807 vehicles) compared to September last year but there were increases in some segments;

* SUV Luxury – up 30.9 per cent
* Sports Cars – up 17.1 per cent
* SUV Compact – up 5.0 per cent
* Light commercial vans – up 4.9 per cent
* Light passenger cars – up 3.0 per cent
* 4×4 Utes – up 1.5 per cent
* Medium passenger cars – up 1.2 per cent

“The September figure demonstrates signs of consolidation in the new vehicle market,” Mr McKellar said.

“Some areas of buyer confidence remain fragile and an interest rate rise is premature,” he said.

“Economic stimulus has resulted in positive business sales but private buyers need the confidence to return to showrooms in larger numbers,” Mr McKellar said.

Year-to-date 681,974 new vehicles have been sold, down 13.1 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Toyota remains in the top sales position for September with 16,007 vehicle sales, ahead of Holden with 9,744 and Ford with 8,427.

This ends the company’s 19 year involvement in the World Rally Championship that saw it take out three titles in the manufacturers and drivers’ categories.

My thanks to Twitpic and docbaty for the use of the photo

The Detroit show is considered to be THE motor show of the year in the United States but already Suzuki, Nissan, Land Rover, Rolls Royce and Mitsubishi have decided not to exhibit there in 2009 and Nissan have also announced that they won’t be at the Chicago show either.

Not only will the plant stay open but Ford will invest $21 million to upgrade the plant to the point where its products will meet tough European standards.

The big three manufacturers in the US are reported to be planning on approaching the White House for a bail out similar to what the banking and finance industry received recently.

And globally Toyota has slashed its profit forecast by 68%.

This Porsche 993 Turbo for sale is owned by an enthusiast who has maintained it with an open checkbook policy and you can see the work that has been carried out on this beautiful machine over the years if you follow the link. How could you pass up a classic sports car like this Porsche 993 Turbo with only 48,000 miles on the clock?

But will things get as tough as they are in the United States? Here in Australia new car sales are down 3.1% compared to this time last year. Over there one in five new car dealerships could close. One of the biggest dealerships in the country … a company with revenues last year that were measured in the billions has filed for bankruptcy protection. Companies are laying off staff as fast as they can.

Every major car maker in the US market posted a decline in sales in September as sales dropped by a whopping 26%. And finally Toyota … the leading seller of cars in America (and Australia) has finally had to offer zero interest on loans as an encouragement to get people to buy their cars.

While I doubt that we’ll ever see zero interest rates here in Australia you can be sure that things are going to get worse here in Australia and before long the sales of new cars will fall below last year’s figures. When that happens you can expect to see some nice incentives offered to encourage you to buy a new car.

General Motors experienced a 37% drop in the sale of SUVs and vans in the United States during May and, when you consider that GM makes more money from the sale of SUVs than it does from conventional vehicles, it’s no wonder that GM is re-thinking its future strategy.

GM did have a team of engineers working on developing fuel-saving technologies for their SUVs with a view to introducing them by 2012 but no more. The team has been dispanded and re-assigned to other projects and General Motors may soon be making changing it’s focus from SUVs to more fuel efficient cars.

Volkswagen is also experiencing some problems in what it describes as “a difficult market environment”. While sales are surging in China they are falling when taken on a worldwide basis. VW reported a drop in of 0.8 percent in worldwide sales in May.

Kia on the other hand reported a 16.5% increase in worldwide sales during May with large increases in all markets. Most noteable were a 56.8 percent increase in sales to China, an 8.8 percent increase in sales to Europe and an 8.6 percent increase in sales to North America.

We left well before dawn and took a back road from Hervey Bay across to the Bruce Highway at Torbanlea.

The light straight ahead is the full moon while the light slightly to the left is a reflective road sign. It’s a back road so you wouldn’t expect to see much lighting but the next picture was taken on the Bruce Highway – part of Australia’s Highway 1.

No lights but for the tail lights of the only other car on the road at that hour of the morning, one lane in each direction and plenty of road kill to be seen once the sun came up.

 

Since BMW took over the Mini you get all the information on your dashboard that you could ever want. 

There’s the time, the temperature, the distance you’ve travelled and two other interesting bits of information as well.

On the left beside the bowser icon you’ll see what your current fuel consumption is and alongside that a suggestion of what gear you should be in as well.

Sometimes you just have to wonder if too much information doesn’t take all the fun out of driving. However BMW would really have to work hard to take the fun out of the new Mini John Cooper Works models. The hardtop will do 0-100km/h in 6.5 seconds while the Clubman will do it in 6.8 seconds and both can reach 238km/h.

The price for one of these hairy little beasts starts at $48,000 plus onroad costs.

Official VFACTS figures released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show that 88,640 cars, trucks and buses were sold in May – an increase of 43 vehicles on the same month last year.
“This is a good result for the automotive industry, although there is evidence that interest rate rises and other factors have slowed the rate of growth in recent months,” FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said.

Year-to-date the car market is now up 4 per cent on the same period in 2007, which was an all-time record year.

The May figures reveal a ‘two-phase’ car market, with the passenger car market down slightly (2.5 per cent) while the SUV and light commercial markets continue to boom.

Sales in the medium SUV segment were up 16.8 per cent on May 2007 and the large SUV segment was up 12 per cent, despite the impact of higher fuel costs.

The light commercial vehicle market also continues to be buoyant – with ute sales particularly strong.

The pick-up/cab-chassis 4×4 segment rose 5.7 per cent over May last year, while the van segment rose 22.5 per cent.

Mr McKellar said an increasing number of passenger vehicles and SUVs are being bought with clean-diesel engines.

“Several new common-rail injection clean diesels have entered the market in the past few months, and we can see that Australian drivers are keen to give the new technology a try,” Mr McKellar said.

Vehicle buyers seeking improved fuel efficiency do not necessarily have to choose a smaller vehicle.

“The traditional image of diesel vehicles has changed, he said. Diesel vehicles can provide significant benefits in terms of fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions but have good power and performance.”

Mr McKellar said higher fuel prices should not scare consumers away from traditional petrol engines either, because new technology has made these more efficient.

“Our analysis shows that higher fuel costs are prompting people to shop around to find a new car that both suits their needs and also has better fuel economy than the one they are currently driving,” he said.

Toyota remained the top-selling marque in May with 23.4 per cent of the market, followed by Holden with 12.5 per cent and Ford with 10.9 per cent.

So far this year Toyota leads the sales race with 101,816 vehicles sold, followed by Holden with 55,155 and Ford with 44,183.

What was not so obvious though was that General Motors also planned to close part of its plant at Fisherman’s Bend Plant in Melbourne. Reports suggest that up to 500 jobs could be lost and Holden closes the four cyclinder engine production line.

That could be about to change though and as early as 2011 we could be seeing cheap hybrid cars arriving here in Australia.

This is the Honda CRZ concept car. It’s powered by a low-cost petrol-electric engine and Honda plans on developing this concept into a global car that it will sell around the world.

Drive.com is reporting that a 5 door version of this concept could hit the streets of Australia by 2011.

And the bottom line? Honda is aiming to have this in the showrooms for a price in the mid $20k range.

You can see more of the Honda CRZ concept car by following the link.