Buy A New Car
You're On Course: Golf Stars In The Suburbs.
It’s not quite the age old question: in the rich and the poor suburbs, around Australia, what do people drive? It’s fair and reasonable to presume that the “toffs” are redolent in their Beemers, Mercs, Jags and maybe even the higher end stuff like Astons, Bentleys or Maseratis. One of Australia’s biggest online presences has dug into the archives, “crunched the numbers” in regards to enquiries on cars and has come up with some very surprising answers…
To start of, let’s look at what are Australia’s wealthiest suburbs. In NSW, there’s a few, such as Edgecliff, Rushcutters Bay, Vaucluse, Spit Junction. Victoria has St Andrews, Toorak and Hawksburn, whilst Perth sees beachside Cottesloe and riverside Peppermint Grove. In fact, NSW has six of the listings (multiple suburbs) with Victoria taking three of the other four. The guideline was pretty simple, what’s the mean incomes of the suburbs?
From here, the investigation took an unexpected turn. Far from the list of cars previously mentioned, the number one car enquired about wasn’t the latest Mercedes or BMW or Lexus….step up, Volkswagen Golf! 
Yup, the car most enquired about in the number one wealthiest suburbs, is a German made, five door, with a four cylinder engine. The second highest income suburb, St Andrews in Victoria, had an even more surprising choice. Nope, not German. Nope, not a hatchback. Hello Mitsubishi Triton!
The next four groups of wealthiest suburbs also decided that the little car from Germany was worth enquiring about, with Hawksburn and Toorak in there, in fifth position, but semi staying to type, with the also German BMW X5 tying with the Golf. The Golf features in three of the bottom five, with tenth placed Northbridge (NSW) seeing the only British entry, with the Range Rover Sport, and seventh placed Portsea (Victoria) shunning the Golf and looking, instead, towards yet another German car, with the ML350 from Mercedes-Benz. Ninth placed Hunters Hill and Woolwich (both NSW) also stayed German, with the X5 the star enquiry.
Then there’s the breakdown into the most enquired car on a state by state basis. Raise a glass to the local hero and it wears the lion…in South Oz, N.S.W., the A.C.T. and Victoria, Holden’s Commodore was the car most people enquired about. The mining money in Western Australia went to Japan, as did Queensland, with Toyota’s LandCruiser going west and north to the N.T. and the HiLux getting the sun in the north eastern parts. The “take no BS” Subaru Forester went south, tackling the Tasmanians and the broad open plains, with one section of unlimited speed on a highway, also had the big LandCruiser as the most wanted in the Northern Territory.
The spread of choice in the wealthy suburbs is completely at odds with the cars of choice for the poorest, with the LandCruiser, HiLux, Prado featuring alongside the RAV4, Nissan’s Navara, Mazda BT50, Commodore and in the interestingly named Bogan Gate, the Kia Sorrento.
Viewing habits in regards to researching new cars also through up a surprise: Saturday is not the day to look for info, with 13.6% of weekly searches being done on that day. fast forward two and three days instead, with Monday claiming the lion’s share at 15.5% and Tuesday with 15%.
Of note was the breakdown in Golf numbers; buyers say they looked at the Golf for its size and ability to drive around town and in the wake of the emissions scandal, just 16% of Golfs were diesel…There’s also some crowding at the top of the ladder in this class, with the top three small cars (Corolla, Mazda 3, Hyundai i30) all selling from 43000 to 31000 units, whilst Golf and Holden’s Cruze sat on 20000 and 17000 for fourth and fifth. Those numbers for the Golf also have it in tenth place overall in the sales figures to 30 June, 2015.
How does Sir like his coffee? White? Just over 27% of Golf enquiries went the same way, Australia wide. Yet, in that number, the variations across the country for specific colours is noticeable. In the north, Territorians had just over 59% of their Golfs in silver and Queenslanders contributed to that 27% by ordering white to the tune of 34%. At the other end of the colour spectrum, the N.T. and QLD considered black to the tune of just 3.7% and 12%. Nationwide silver clocked up just under 25% (with the A.C.T. going to nearly 35%) and 17.5% in black. Blue and red averaged under 9% for the nation however the Sangropers went for the colour to match the Indian Ocean, with 12.3%…
The current model Golf was launched in 2013 and is halfway through its model cycle, which may account for a monthly drop of 31 units in 2014-15 to the year before. In regards to engine choice, enquiries barely varied from a ratio of 83% to 17%, petrol to diesel.
So, if you’re considering “Golf”ing, you’re on course.
NB: Information supplied by Red Agency via Carsales.com.au
Private Fleet Car Review: 2015 Kia Rio S Premium
The small car market is populated with some pretty good cars and therefore is hotly contested in that segment. Kia’s entry, the Rio, has been an entrant since 2000 in the small car class and has undergone a few body style changes. In its current guise, it’s a three or five door hatch with a 1.4L engine (1.6L in the Sport) and archaic four speed auto (in the test car provided, there is a six speed manual as standard for the 1.4L and an auto only for the 1.6L). A Wheel Thing spent a week with the 1.4L, four speed auto, S Premium and came away more than a little surprised.
It’s a compact, almost boxy body, with the current iteration sitting on a 2570 mm wheelbase and is just 4045 mm in length. Toss in a 1220 kilo weight with driver and Kia’s claims of 5.7L (manual) and 6.3L (auto) of unleaded from a 43 litre tank seem feasible, with A Wheel Thing finishing on 6.9L, not far off (8.2L/100km highway, 5.2L/100 km highway). 
The 1.4L engine pumps out just 79 kW at 6300 revs and a seemingly undertorqued figure of 135 Nm (4200 revs). That light weight makes the difference but a four speed auto simply dulls it down to a lacklustre feel. Acceleration, overtaking, aren’t measured in seconds but by calendars.
It’s not an unattractive car, especially in the Deep Blue paint ($520 option…); there’s the signature Kia “tiger” grille, somewhat goggle eyed headlights, plastic inserts at the front bumper extremities (driving lights get fitted in the Sports model) and, in profile, the nose rises gently to meet the A pillars in an almost constant line, with a couple of subtle crease lines joining front and rear.
The roofline rolls off nicely to a vertical and pert backside. Considering the overall size of the Rio, it’s a pleasant surprise to find a very usable 288L of cargo space available with the 60/40 split fold rear seats up, which increases to 923L when they’re laid flat.
Wheelwise, the Rio S Premium sits on 15 inch alloy wheels and they’re clad in 185/65 rubber. Forward motion is hauled in by 256 mm vented front discs and 263 mm solid rears, with surprisingly competent brake feel.
The interior in the S Premium (model tested, there’s an S below and Si/SLi above) is spacious enough however lacks an amount of pop and sizzle. It’s a standard steering wheel nowadays with audio controls but does include Bluetooth and cruise, seats are manually adjusted and there’s more a sitting on than in sensation. The centre console is bare and the radio screen is old school, with red dot matrix lighting, sitting above some delightfully simple aircon dials and aircraft styleflick switches.
The dash dials housed in the binnacle are as basic as they come, with two large ones for speed and revs with fuel and temperature housed in two separate, small sections to the right of the speedo, which houses a similarly red matrix display. No auto headlights is also a no-no nowadays and only the driver’s window is auto up and down. There’s some class, with piano black surrounds for the audio and ventilation controls, some alloy look highlights for the gear selector and steering wheel and tasteful shades of charcoal and off white for the rest of the cabin.
Driving the Rio S Premium turned out to be a mix of fun and frustration, erring on the fun side, showing you sometimes don’t need power or speed to enjoy a car. Hamstrung, as it was, by a comparatively underpowered and undertorqued engine, it still managed to raise a smile with sheer grit and tenacity. How? By exhibiting life, character, verve in its handling. It’s not surefooted, it’s not well planted, it’ll rebound a few times in freeway undulations, it’ll kick the rear around and get unsettled easily but it involves the driver in the driving, not isolating you and leaving you six inches away from the tiller.
There’s bump steer (and the steering tends towards understeer), needing instant attention, some body roll and a bit of sponginess, yes, but it brings you, the driver, into its world and asks you to be part of it. Absolutely, you need a water bottle, a cut lunch and a calendar if you’re thinking of overtaking but that’s the fun, the involvement because the driver is no longer waiting on the expectation of the car to do what you think it will do. There’s planning, calculation involved and that can only be a good thing.
Once the engine is wound up, there’s a bit of a rasp, a sense of rortiness, from the front, as the speedo does its impression of global warming by moving glacially at first then starts to pick up speed. The gearbox is smooth enough under normal driving but the hole between first and second is noticeable as the revs fall right off and you have to start again.
It might be a small car, but it doesn’t scrimp on safety, with a full array of airbags across the range, hill start assist is also standard but only the SLi gets rear parking sensors. There is ISOFIX child seat mounting points and pretensioning seatbelts as standard in all models.
The Wrap.
The car provided was listed as $19690 plus $520 for the metallic paint, totalling $20210, with the S Premium starting from $16990 (manual). Compared to cars it’s not in direct competition with, that’s a fair amount of coin to ask and A Wheel Thing struggles somewhat to reconcile that figure with what is delivered. Not everyone will see the fun factor the Rio has however the economy will be a strong point in its favour. Lacking a more modern looking dash, again, may not faze some, but that’s no excuse to offer something that the 1980’s quickly forgot about.
For pricing and more details, click here: 2015 Kia Rio 5 door
Tesla Powers Up The Hume.
American based electric car maker, Tesla, announced that it has opened two new car supercharging stations for the Hume Highway, which connects Melbourne and Sydney. The stations will allow an owner of a Model S vehicle to potentially achieve 270 kilometres of travel after just thirty minutes of charging time.
The Goulbourn station is located at the visitor’s centre in the town itself and is provisioned to charge up to eight cars at once. The Wondonga station, located in the riverside town at 5-13 Havelock Street, will allow up to six cars to be parked for the quick charge system. Both stations have been strategically placed to allow drivers access to town amenities whilst their cars are plugged in and will complement the two charger station at Euroa, north of Melbourne. Power provided is up to 120 kilowatts.
All charging stations are programmed in and can be found by the Google Maps navigation system the Model S cars have. Accessed by the 17 inch touchscreen the vehicles come standard with, it provides peace of mind for a Tesla Model S driver, as the system also shows a clear indication of expected range under driving conditions. The charging system itself can be seen as akin to rapidly filling a glass of water then backing off the flow so as to not overflow, as the charging system computer slows the charge rate as full charge nears. To achieve full charge can take up to eighty minutes as opposed to approximately 80 percent in just that half hour.
The two new stations bring the total amount, worldwide, to 501 with close to 2300 individual charging bays. The Goulbourn station at 201 Sloane Street is also the largest in the southern hemisphere. A highlight of the charging stations is that there is no charge (no pun intended) to the driver. For life.
Tesla has also added to its range, with the launch in the U.S. of the Model X. An SUV based design, the Model X is unique in having “double-hinged Falcon Wing” doors, which require a mere 30 centimetres of room either side for passengers to board or step out. For extra safety, each door is fitted with capacitive, inductive and sonar sensors to monitor the surroundings and for extra pizzaz, the driver’s door opens and closes automatically as the driver approaches or exits.
The Model X has been designed and engineered on a clean sheet, to be the safest SUV available. Across the categories measured, it will receive a five star rating, the first SUV to do so. Adding to the safety aspect is the standard fitment of autonomous emergency braking, 360 degree sonar sensors, a forward looking camera plus locates the battery pack, like the Model S, in the floor, giving the Model X an exceptionally low centre of gravity. Steel rails reinforce the aluminuim pillars to provide both extra strength for the passenger safety cell and reduce weight if afull steel cage was used.
These add up to give the Model X a zero to 100 kmh time of 3.2 seconds (with the recently announced Ludicrous program engaged), the quickest of any SUV, with a top speed of just over 240 kmh. Aiding these numbers is an exceptionally low drag figure, just 0.24 cD and an all wheel drive system.
When it comes to passenger comfort, there’s a full HEPA air filtration system plus monopost seats that slide fore and aft, allowing both flexibility and ease of access to the third row seats. For the driver, Tesla add their Auto Park and Auto Steer systems.
Pricing for Australia is yet to be confirmed. 
Private Fleet Car Review: 2016 Jaguar XE Prestige
Jaguar‘s renaissance has continued with the September 2015 launch of the XE, the smaller sibling to their XF saloon. Powered almost exclusively, for the moment anyway, by a range of four cylinder engines from the diesel and petrol powered (as the S gets the 250kW V6 found in the XF…), there’s a four model range to select from, being the Prestige, S, Portfolio and R-Sport. A Wheel Thing was handed the keys to the Prestige, with a 2.0L petrol turboed four on board.
There’s a clear family resemblance, as expected, to the XF, but also design cues from the F-Type family. Toss in a mix of style hints from the XJ, such as the bluff, vertical nose, the lonnnnng bonnet and short tail with F-Type inspired tail lights and it’s clear it’s a Jag.
The Prestige, as mentioned, is powered by a two litre petrol engine with a little extra help for the induction side. There’s two levels of oomph, with either 147 kW or 177 kW and 280/340 torques available from a mesa flat 1750 to 4000 revs. Transmission comes in any ratio spread you like as long as it’s an eight speed auto. Economy is (ahem) not bad from the 63L tank, with Jaguar quoting 10.2/6.0/7.5L per 100 kilometres on the urban/highway/combined cycles.
A Wheel Thing levelled out at around 7.0L/100 km. Considering the 1530 kg weight (dry, thanks to the aluminuim construction), that’s pretty decent. Plus, Jaguar have engineered in a regenerative charging system that helps to top up the battery under braking and passes the fuel savings on to the engine.
The XE is aimed fair and square at Germany; Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen too in the mix. Physically it’s a good size, at 4672 mm long, 1850 mm wide (excluding mirrors) and a compact 1416 mm in height. Check out an A4, 3 series, C Class etc and they’ll all be in there size wise. Riding on a 2835 mm wheelbase you’d be forgiven for presuming there’s a bucketload of room inside. More on that, later.
Wheelwise, the XE (coated in a gorgeous “Ultimate Black” and a $1300 option for the Prestige) rolled on 225/45 rubber with black painted “Matrix” alloys of an 18 inch diameter. There’s plenty of option packs available for the XE range, including a Black Pack for the Portfolio, lobbing you a black grille, side window surrounds and more. Does an XE look good in black? Does it ever!
At night the tail lights glow with an almost volcanic orange hue, a neon line on either side, balanced by the J curve of the LED running lights at the front. There’s a phosphor blue interior light, plus, with the driving modes on offer, Sport mode lights up the dash dials with a deep red.
On the road the XE sets the dynamic cat amongst the benchmark pigeons. Yes, it’s that good. There’s next to no main road surface that will unsettle it, the EPAS (electric powered assisted steering) is knife edge sharp in response and perfectly weighted. Turns are smooth, with next to no hint of understeer when pushed and balanced on the throttle there’s no understeer, thanks to the near 50:50 weight distribution. Body roll is unheard of and when Dynamic mode is selected (via centre console mounted buttons) the “cat” comes more alive.
Throttle response is sharper, the steering feels, incredibly, more en pointe, the suspension feels more glued to the car and the road, feeling every ripple and tracking every curve yet screens out the annoying bumps and transmits pure driving joy. The acceleration from the 2.0L turbo petrol is astounding in Dynamic and more than pleasing in Normal. The aluminuim construction helps, with torsional stiffness and rigidity (22 kNm/degree) holding the bodyshell taut as the XE is driven with verve, plus gives the XE the lightest body in its class.
The eight speedauto in Eco or Normal mode is smooth, like a fresh made vanilla milkshake. Under acceleration, be it light, moderate or exuberant, there’s forward motion and gear changes blurring imperceptibly. Using the paddle shifts elicits the same response…then there’s the Dynamic mode. Changes aren’t as crisp, sharp, there’s even some indecisiveness at low speeds.
In profile, the XE looks as if there’s plenty of room inside. There is, for the front seat passengers but even a driver of average height, having settled and adjusted the electric seats and steering column, leaves the rear seat passengers a touch cramped for leg room. Some smart engineering allows head room, with an indentation in the roof just behind the sunroof’s rolling fabric screen locker, but leg room is an issue. Having the rear seats a couple of inches forward of where logic (and we’re not talking safety or engineering here, mind you) would have you think they’d be, contributes to the feeling of tightness.
Luxury wise, the XE Prestige needs some more. There’s hard plastic for the centre console, hard as in there’s NO give whatsoever and a driver’s left knee rests naturally on it and it becomes painful. Even the door trims and dash covering need more softness, as could the steering wheel, it’s just that tad too unpadded. Ergonomically, the cabin is mostly ok, however the two level door trim, with (driver’s side) window switches high up and 3 position memory seating almost where you’d expect the armrest to be, clash with the simple and clearly laid out aircon controls on the lower centre dash, underneath the 6.1 inch touchscreen ( a delight to use in its own right). Noticeable, in its absence, is any hint of woodgrain, but the XE does get the curved upper dash wrap around as first seen in the XJ.
The seats are, naturally, wonderful to sit in (but heating and cooling are options…), allowing the driver and passenger to look at a dash where the outer air vents are set too low down for true effectiveness. A laid back angle to help direct air upwards would help or a relocation further upwards. The dials in the driver’s binnacle are easy to read and of a mechanical needle style, however a full or partial LCD screen here would also have been nice. There’s the aforementioned sunroof, with a roll into the roof fabric screen, to start with before the glass is exposed.
The sound system is from Meridian, all 380 watts of it, and has the front mounted tweeters cleverly mounted to fire at the driver and passenger, rather than across the cabin as many others do. The touchscreen system makes adjustment of the sound and utilising the nav system a doddle.
There is some great tech on board, with Jaguar’s All Surface Progress Control, allowing the traction system to work as a low speed cruise control. Working between 3.6 kmh and 30 kmh, it gives the driver the ability to steer the XE on slippery and wet surfaces, even on a downhill run, stopping or minimising loss of traction. There’s another acronym to learn, EDC or Engine Drag torque Control, which ties in with the ABS by providing more torque to the braking wheels under heavy deceleration on slippery surfaces.
Naturally there’s a reverse camera, which can also be selected whilst the Jaguar is under way, the engine Stop/Star system, parking assist (front and rear sensors for rear and nose in parking), Lane Departure Warning, Tyre Pressure Monitoring and a swag more. Storage wise, the boot is a considerable 455L.
The Wrap.
There’s little doubt the Jaguar brand is thriving, with the launch of the XE and F-Pace, Jaguar’s first SUV, plus a new XF on the way for Australia as well. The big cat, the XJ, also underwent a styling update recently. The XE range is aimed, it would seem, at a “younger” audience, with the somewhat unJaguar like lack of anything resembling wood, the slightly cramped rear passenger section but it’s a market that’s growing.
Jaguar also recognises the growth in the SUV segment, with the F-Pace on the way. There’s plenty of tech-spec to play with, such as the (almost) purely turbo charged engine range with four pot configuration, it’s possibly one of the best cars in a dynamic sense in its class and doesn’t look half bad either, an important consideration for some. It’s keenly priced to attract that segment of buyers, as well, starting in the low $60K bracket. Should the Germans, the target for the XE’s guns, be worried?
Yes. They should.
Information, including brochure downloads,can be found here:Jaguar XE range and brochure downloads
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