As seen on:

SMH Logo News Logo

Call 1300 303 181

Australia’s Best New Car News, Reviews and Buying Advice

Archive for January, 2014

Corporate Knight Rider: BMW introduces virtual marketplace

Don’t you just hate it when you are watching a program on television or about to watch the latest hilarious clip on YouTube and then you are faced with one of the greatest menaces known to modern human life? ADVERTS. One of the few words that brings a horrifying shudder of recognition to any humble soul. Who doesn’t just love watching an emotionally charged thrill ride of a film, and just as the lead faces the greatest battle of his life, standing on the edge of his own mortality, you hear those famous words…

“ARE YOU PAYING TOO MUCH FOR YOUR CAR INSURANCE? HAVE YOU HAD AN ACCIDENT AT WORK THAT WASN’T YOUR FAULT?”

It is just the BEST isn’t it? Anyone would think that we are all living in a money crazed world where profits are everything. But I am getting distracted. My point is, adverts are pretty annoying, right? It would seem that you cannot escape them. Even some of the most famous tourist landmarks are characterised by advertising. Times Square. Piccadilly Circus in London. Sometimes it does feel nice to escape the corporate manipulation, I don’t always want the latest mouthwatering burger filled with the tastiest flavours covering the meat… Is anyone else hungry all of a sudden?

Sometimes the drivers seat of my very own cave of tranquility is the only escape there is from this modern menace. Well, if you have the radio off that is. The uninterrupted joy of driving is a sensation that rivals no other. Car manufacturers would never want to do anything to ruin that. That would just be idiotic. I mean, imagine if a company decided to change its manufacturing process and put advertising inside your car. What mindless, logicless, money-driven, cheese eating surrender monkeys would…

Oh hey BMW...

Oh hey BMW…

…I’m sorry what?

…so BMW have announced the introduction of the ‘virtual marketplace’ to their new models. If it was going to be anyone, it was probably going to be the Germans. The BMW is THE definition of golf playing, money driven, bluetooth wearing businessmen. So in many ways it is the perfect choice for a car that tries to sell you products as you drive along. Economically speaking it is a stroke of genius, considering how much time most of us spend behind the wheel. And with all the technology available inside cars these days, chances are you could purchase all these glorious products as you drive. Here is some advice on advance, maybe you shouldn’t go driving if you have had a bad day or are feeling depressed. In your drive home from work, you may have bought yourself a whole new wardrobe, and if there was traffic maybe even a whole new kitchen. It’s a real risk that we all have to recognise now. Thanks BMW, thank you so much.

With all this talk of intelligent cars, it is only a matter of time before BMW go completely insane and create this... not that I would be sad about this

With all this talk of intelligent cars, it is only a matter of time before BMW go completely insane and create this… not that I would be sad about this

Is there any logic to this seemingly insane move by BMW?

Well honestly, when you look into some of the details, it may not be as mind-bogglingly ridiculous as I first thought. Some of the proposed aspects of this virtual marketplace include some consumer useful location-based services. For example, the system will be able to locate free parking spaces, cheap fueling stations and even provide deals on coffee breaks along your route. This actually sounds quite attractive. The cooperation with the GPS system in the car actually makes a great deal of sense. If I could have a car that would automatically find me the most fun driving route home, I am not going to be one to complain.

Were you starting to be sold on this idea after all? Well hang on a minute, because I haven’t finished yet. Just as I was beginning to think that this virtual marketplace could be a step in the right direction, BMW deliver yet another near knockout blow. I think the BMW technology team are quite fans of ‘1984’. They are proposing that this new system will ‘predict’ the needs of the driver based upon the proposed route, weather conditions and time of day and produce a tailor made advert selection.

What a load of total rabbit remains. It is almost scary to think that a car might ‘know’ what you need. It is almost a dark, twisted version of Herbie or Knight Rider. Can you imagine being told by your car that based on the length of time you spent at your last coffee stop, your bladder is full and there is a toilet located a few miles up the road?

kitt-20070403025803441

“Oh hey, I noticed that it is your wedding anniversary today and you have not got a present yet. There is a jewellery shop 10 miles from your current location. But based on your usual relationship attitude, I have also located for you the nearest service station that sells flowers”

If these cars could indeed predict the needs and wants of the driver, the consequences could be disastrous. We all know what many single men are like, and the kinds of things they like to enjoy when they are alone. Imagine if a man in his BMW suddenly had the latest adverts for the closest dirty chat line beamed to his system. Distraction may not even cover it.

BMW will be watching...

BMW will be watching…

BMW, did you really think this through?

However, based on everything I said there is one salvation. One escape from this world of commercial advertising. The OFF button. BMW have promised that this service will be optional and can be used at the drivers’ convenience. Good save, BMW. Good save.

What are your views on this? Would you like to have yourself tailored advertising on your drive?

Let’s see how this develops over time…

Keep Driving People!

Follow me on Twitter @lewisglynn69

Peace and Love! http://credit-n.ru/forex.html

Four Wheeled Multiculturalism.

australian_flag_3Much has been made of the fact that, for such a relatively small population base, Australia has one of the highest number of car brands to choose from.  Sure, it’s a case of overkill but in the light of Australia Day, let’s have a look at our multicultural automotive range.

Home Grown
Holden
Holden has to be a first up runner with a history that goes back to the 1850s. James Alexander Holden emigrated to South Australia from the The V8 SupercarsU.K. and established a saddlery business. In the early years of the twentieth century the firm had evolved to perform carriage building and upholstery repairs before establishing a body building facility in 1919. By 1923 they were producing around 12000 shells, including for Ford Australia whilst their own factory was being completed. 1926 saw General Motors (Australia) established after two years of Holden Motor Body Builders producing for GM. It was 1931 when GM bought out the firm and it became General Motors-Holden. Apart from the locally built Commodore, the range is either Korean sourced (Malibu, Barina, Captiva) or world car based (Volt and Cruze).

Ford Australia
Ford Australia was established in the mid 1920s, as the Australian arm of the American owned Canadian branch. At the time, Ford Canada was a separate entity to Ford North America, with Henry Ford granting building rights to Commonwealth countries for Canadian investors. Of note was the release of the coupe utility in 1934 and the engineered for Australia Falcon. The “ute” as it’s famously become to be known, was born outCoupe utility of the Depression era need to perform dual duties, moving both family and livestock plus, as a working vehicle, became eligible for loans to farmers as passenger cars were seen as a luxury. Like Holden, Ford Australia sources virtually all of the vehicles from overseas; think Fiesta or Focus and, of course, the recent announcement of the Mustang returning as a Ford backed product for here.

Toyota Australia
Although it can be argued, that as a Japanese owned company, it’s not strictly Australian, that argument could be applied to both Ford and Holden. For the sake of expediency, I’ll leave that alone.
The Australian history of Toyota goes back to the 1950s and the Snowy Mountains hydro electric project, with Thiess Toyota importing the LandCruiser for the project. Production of Australian made Toyotas was underway by 1963, out of Port Melbourne by Australian Motor Industries. corolla-1965In 1972 Toyota bought out the share in AMI that British Leyland held and by 1978 was producing engines for export. In 1986 the first Australian Toyota car was exported, to New Zealand whilst in 1994 the vehicle manufacturing section had shifted to Altona, Victoria. Currently Toyota Australia continues to build the Camry and Aurion in Australia and imports a range of other vehicles including the legendary Corolla nameplate and the tough as guts HiLux.

There’s also HSV (Holden Special Vehicles), HDT-SV (Holden Dealer Team Special Vehicles) and the now defunct, in their own right, Ford Performance Vehicles.

World Brands
Mitsubishi Australia is now, alongside Nissan Australia, full importers of the Japanese brands vehicles into Australia. Mitsubishi-Lancer-Evolution-GSR-PictureNissan, originally known as Datsun, first came to Australia in the 1950s whilst Mitsubishi Australia came into being in 1980 after taking over the Australian arm of American brand, Chrysler. Both companies built vehicles here and now, as full importers, continue to offer cars covering most segments of the Aussie market, including the long running nameplate Lancer, Triton, 370Z and Navara, just to name a few.
Mazda is perhaps one of the biggest Japanese brands selling in Australia, with the Mazda3 the best known. Alongside is the CX5, a better packaged entity than the now discontinued CX7, plus the multi-award winning Mazda6 and solid BT-50 platform shared with Ford’s Ranger.
Honda is another major Japanese brand for Australia, with the local operation dating back to 1981. Based in Tullamarine, north of Melbourne. Their current range includes the multi award winning Odyssey, the Jazz and the long name plated Civic. Isuzu (trucks and 4wd utes), Infiniti (Nissan’s luxury arm), Subaru, Suzuki, Lexus and even Yamaha are other Japanese brands currently available in the automotive market here in Australia, with vehicles such as the Liberty, Swift, IS 250 and Yamaha’s all terrain vehicles.

From Korea comes Kia and Hyundai, with the former part owned by Hyundai (nearly 33%). Kia goes back to 1944 and gained traction in 1986 by coproducing cars with Ford. Hyundai dates back to 1967 as a motor company but even further back, to 1947 as the Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company. Models currently include the Sorento/Santa Fe, Sportage/ix35 and Cerato/Optima/i30/i40 models. There’s also SsangYong, perhaps better known for their “unique” vehicle designs such as the Stavic and Korando.

In the UK there’s a long and distinguished historical link to Australia when it comes to cars. Small open cockpit cars such as the Caterham, Westfield and Lotus 7 butt up against Jaguar with their XJ/XF/XK range of luxury and sports oriented models,jag f type hard top plus their new F-Type convertible and hard top. Long time stable mates Land Rover chime in with their range, such as the Range Rover, Land Rover Discovery, the glorious looking Evoque and the tough as nails Defender. There’s the stunningly gorgeous Aston Martin family, including the DB9, Rapide and the blindingly beautiful Vantage. For something quirky, there’s old timer Morgan with their quirky three wheeler of the monstrous Aero Supersports, plus speed kings McLaren with the 12C and, of course, Rolls-Royce, Bentley and the (BMW produced) Mini. For race car lovers, based out of Sydney Motorsport Park at Eastern Creek, is the Radical brand, a two wheeled Le Mans style open cockpit firebreather.

reventonThe Australian market certainly loves the Europeans, with brands such as: Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen all long termers and the recent reappearance/disappearance of Opel from Germany being found here, plus the once one car brand but now diverse Porsche (911/Cayman/Boxster/Cayenne and the forthcoming Macan); Renault/Citroen/Peugeot from France; Maserati, Fiat, Lamborghini, the legendary Ferrari sports cars and Alfa Romeo from Italy plus, rarely but expensively, Pagani. A brand seen as a leading exponent of safety in their cars, Volvo, have maintained a presence here. Volvo, founded in 1927, hail from Sweden and were once renowned for producing boxy looking designs. Once owned by American giant, Ford, and now owned by Chinese conglomerate Geely, the brand offers cars from small (V40) to large all wheel drives such as the XC90. The other well known Swedish maker, SAAB, are currently undergoing a substantial restructure after going bankrupt and then bought by Hong Kong based National Electric Vehicles Sweden.Citroen ds3

Not unexpectedly, the Americans have a sizeable presence, with Chrysler presenting the 300C, chrysler-300-srtthe Jeep range (think Wrangler and Grand Cherokee), Dodge Journey (shared with the Fiat Freemont), Chevrolet (predominantly imported cars such as the Camaro and SUVs range), the mooted return of Cadillac, Ford US (again predominantly SUVs or models shared with other companies such as Mazda) and the sporty Mosler. On the other side of the planet comes Tata, owner of the Tata-Tuff-Truck-Front-3-4finalWJaguar/Land Rover group, with the recent introduction of the Xenon 4×4 dual cab ute, against the Chinese Great Wall range of SUV and 4×2/4×4 single and double cab utes. There’s Geely as well, plus Chery, both recent entrants to an already crowded market place.

Clearly, when it comes to automotive brands, Australia truly is a diverse mix and and four wheeled multicultural one at that. http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/creditplus-online-zaimi.html

What's On The Menu for 2014

The 2014 British Touring Car Championship has been blown out of the stratosphere with an announcement to end all announcements. Team BMR has been teasing fans and media alike for some time with rumours regarding the identity of its four driver line up. Throughout the day, the phrase ‘Double Champion’ was thrown around. And only a few minutes ago, fans of the BTCC were given the greatest gift they could ever have asked for.

Joining Jack Goff, Aron Smith and Warren Scott for Team BMR is the absolute legend of motorsport, Alain Menu.

Alain Menu is one of the greatest living touring car drivers. He managed to conquer the BTCC twice during the Super Touring Era, which can be described as the galactic emperor of touring car racing. Success in the BTCC during the 90s gained international recognition; to win a championship propelled you into the history books as one of the great racing drivers. To win this title twice in this time, this was more than your average champion.

The distinctive No.2 Renault Laguna of Alain Menu defined the BTCC in the mid-90s

The distinctive No.2 Renault Laguna of Alain Menu defined the BTCC in the mid-90s

I first became aware of Menu in 1992 in which he drove a BMW, with little success. From 1993, Menu began his love affair with the Renault team. The Renault 19 seemed to only really work in the rain, which in Britain is never a bad thing. However, it will not gain you championship success. In 1994, the 19 became the Laguna, and for 3 years in a row Menu finished second in the championship. That is three times coming so close to ultimate glory. And then in 1997, the Williams Renault team and Menu had had enough. Not only did he win the championship, but he absolutely annihilated the competition, securing himself the championship just over half way through the season. Never before had such a dominant display been shown without accusations of cheating. (I am of course referring to the 1994 Alfa Romeo challenge, but that is another story). In 1998, Menu was still the best driver on the grid (in my humble opinion) but due to a run of bad luck, his championship challenge left him 4th overall.

This is what you call bad luck…

It must have felt so good to finally have No.1 on the side of his car after 3 years of near misses

It must have felt so good to finally have No.1 on the side of his car after 3 years of near misses

In 1999, Menu joined the flagging Ford team with Anthony Reid and together gained significant success with the new name. However, it was in 2000 that Menu proved the flame was still very much alive. In a Ford team with the two other legends of Rickard Rydell and Anthony Reid, Menu proved that he was still the one to beat. However, unlike in 1997 the title went down to the final race at Silverstone.

The Super Touring Car era was over. And what a moment to end it on. The greatest touring car driver winning the final Super Touring championship in the greatest manufacturer to have ever been involved in the sport. It was an emotional moment I have to say. Especially because it was a night race.

The multi-million pound Ford Mondeo brought Alain Menu his second BTCC championship in 2000

The multi-million pound Ford Mondeo brought Alain Menu his second BTCC championship in 2000

From 2005 t0 2013, Menu made the move to the World Touring Car Championship with the Chevrolet team. When he first joined, the team was driving the Lacetti, soon to be replace by the Cruze. By 2011 and 2012, Menu was back to his winning ways, finishing 3rd and 2nd respectively. As great an achievement as this is, by this stage the FIA had once again ruined yet another racing series and Chevrolet was the only team that really mattered in the WTCC. It was clear that Menu wanted a fresh new challenge. While Menu was travelling around the world, the BTCC was recovering from its early 00’s slump to become something magical again. The BTCC is his home. No one can resist its charm. Let alone the true God of the sport.

The Chevrolet Cruze defined the WTCC in the last few years. And for Menu it proved successful

The Chevrolet Cruze defined the WTCC in the last few years. And for Menu it proved successful

Alain Menu defines what it means to be a Touring Car driver. He has the speed, the consistency and the regulated aggression needed for greatness. He knows how to race on the limits of what is possible without having to break the rules to get what he needs. He is one of the few drivers who can race and pass others cleanly without feeling the need to push him out the way to get what he wants. He possesses talent, a rare and indeed powerful ally for any race car driver.

He also has one of the most infectious personalities on the BTCC grid. Always smiling, always there with a cheeky wink. I have met the man twice and he is seriously one of the nicest men you will meet. Always willing to chat and have a picture with you. When asked who they think will win the 2000 BTCC season, only he could get away with…

“If I had to pick anyone, it has to be me, eh?” *cheeky wink*

Hearing that my favourite living race driver is returning to my all time favourite race series has made me the happiest person I could be. I was already excited for the upcoming season, but this has just taken it to a whole new level.

Good luck Menu, it is time for you to show these people what racing really is once again.

Menu will be driving the Volkswagen Passat CC. Only the Season Launch at Donington Park in March will reveal the look of the car that will seat the great man himself.

The stage has been set. The legend has returned. Here we go…

The face of a legend. Oh that smile...

The face of a legend. Oh that smile…

Keep Driving People!

Follow me on Twitter @lewisglynn69

Peace and Love! http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/denga-zaimy-nalichnimi.html

When Smart Keys Go Through The Wash

smartkeyWhen I first encountered them, I considered smart keys to be a bit of an unnecessary frippery.  However, I have grown to like them very much, especially on our recent family camping holiday.  If the kids discovered that there was something they needed in the boot or the back of the family Ford Fairlaine after we had turned in for the night, there was no need to go through all the palaver of wriggling out of bed, pulling on dressing gowns and getting out of the caravan (hence the need for a large-engined Ford) and unlocking the car.  One press of the button and the MP3 player or book could be retrieved by Mr or Miss Forgetful.  I guess heaps of us have also come to enjoy the convenience of smart keys as well.  Some of the modern ones (especially on some of the recent releases from Mercedes) get even smarter, unlocking the door for you if you get within a certain radius and no need to even press a button.

However, the other day, seeming disaster struck.  In spite of the family policy of putting car keys in the wooden bowl on the fridge where they belong once you’ve finished driving, a set of car keys got left in the pocket of a pair of jeans (and it wasn’t me who did this, incidentally).  And the jeans went through the wash, smart keys and all. The keys were only discovered at the bottom of the washing machine after going through the full wash, rinse and spin.  Panic.  Did they still work?  (We do have a spare set – always a good idea, as accidents happen).

They didn’t.  However, all was not lost.  For one thing, the actual key bit can still be used to unlock the door and the boot manually the old-fashioned way.  There is a way to get them working again without all the hassle of having to order a new one and get it activated – a lengthy and expensive process.  It was very simple, too:

Step 1: Open up the fob of the smart key.  There’s a weeny screw on the back of our set that needs an equally weeny screwdriver to open up.  Every home should have a tiny screwdriver in both flat and Phillips for jobs like this.  Other keys may open in another way, so have a good look at what you’ve got.

Step 2: Take out the battery.

Step 3: Dry the battery and let the rest of the key’s innards dry out properly.  Leaving it in the sunshine is the best bet.  Don’t be a muggins and try putting it in the microwave or in a conventional oven.

Step 4:  Put the battery back in and put the key back together again.

Hey presto – one key almost as good as new again, unlocking and locking the door and the boot again like magic.  If we wanted it to be just as good as new, we could have changed the battery – they do run out after a while.

A quick bit of research has also revealed that if your smart keys fall into liquid that isn’t fresh water (i.e. not the washing machine, toilet or swimming pool), an extra step can be added between Steps 2 and 3.  This step will involve giving everything a good rinse in clean fresh water to get all the salt water/beer/coffee off the working parts.  However, I can’t vouch for this one, not having tried it personally.

If you are really unlucky, the “open it up and let it dry” method won’t work and your smart keys are stuffed.  In this case, your only hope is to either (a) use the spare set, (b) resort to locking and unlocking the car manually or (c) getting a new $et of $mart key$ from your local lock$mith.

And guess who’s going to be checking pockets before doing the laundry now? http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/ezaem-zaim-online-za-15-minut.html