Private Fleet Car Review: 2019 SsangYong Rexton Limited.
This Car Review Is About: The redesigned SsangYong Rexton. It’s part of a three model range from the Korean car maker, with the Musso and Tivoli the other two. The Tivoli is to be replaced by a name semi-familiar to Australians in the form of Korando. 
Under The Bonnet Is: A diesel engine for the Limited. The Euro6 compliant 2.2L pumps 133kW and 420Nm through a Mercedes sourced eight speed auto, down to the rear wheels or all four in a high and low range choice. The transfer case is engaged via an electronically operated system, accessed by a jog dial in the console. The torque is available from 1600 through to 2600rpm. Go for the petrol fed powerplant in the lower models and the gearbox is from Aisan.
Combined fuel consumption is rated as 10.4L/100km, with 13.9L/100km in the urban drive cycle. Get out on the highway and SsangYong says 8.4L/100km. We finished on 10.9L/100km from the 70L tank for a mainly urban drive.
Jeep Readies For Battle With The Gladiator.
Jeep has unveiled its four door ute. Named Gladiator, it’s a Wrangler clone from the front until the beginning of the tray. From here it gets big. 5.5 metres big. The tray itself has a unique imprint which is part of the aim to have it seen as a lifestyle vehicle, not a “tradie’s ute”. For the family oriented, a dirt bike imprint in the front of the tray says straight away it’s for fun, not work. Backing that up is the set of four tie down points to help strap in the two wheelers.
Jeep have also ensured that when the going gets tough, it’s up to the task. The body underneath is steel, ensuring there is plenty of strength. The lower sides of the Gladiator are alloy.
Traffic Sign Recognition: What Is It?
What’s one of the more common scenarios for picking up a speeding ticket besides simply being leadfooted? Apart from accidentally letting the speedo creep up because you’re looking at the road ahead rather than at the dial (avoidable with cruise control, of course), the other time speeding tickets happen to nice well-behaved drivers who weren’t meaning to go too fast and wanted to keep to the limit is when you’re driving in an unfamiliar town or (even more annoyingly) a part of town that you knew but has recently been redeveloped.
You know how this one goes. You’re toddling along through town and then you get to a bit that looks like the houses are coming to an end and you’re getting into more rural areas so you press the accelerator down a wee bit to get up to 70 km/h. Or you know that there’s a town coming up ahead but it still looks like you’re in market garden and lifestyle block land so you keep your pace up a bit. but next thing you know, there’s disco lights in the rear view mirror and you’re getting a ticket. Because what you thought was now a 70 km/h area actually wasn’t one at all and you should have been doing 50 km/h. Dagnabbit!
Car Review: 2019 Suzuki Vitara AllGrip Turbo
This Car Review Is About: The revamped for 2019 Suzuki Vitara range, specifically the 1.4L Boosterjet AllGrip. It sits at the top of a tidied up three tier range. There is a choice of a 1.6L normally aspirated engine, a 1.4L 2WD, or the AllGrip as tested. The range starts at a decent $22,490 plus ORC, the turbo 2WD is $29,990, and the AllGrip is $33,990. Options and metallic paint are separate costs items, at $500 for metallic and $1,250 for the two tone choice. There are eight choices available and the test car was in Atlantis Turquoise Pearl with Metallic Black roof. The naming structure has also been revamped to reflect, simply, that it’s a Vitara, Vitara Turbo, and Vitara AllGrip.
Under The Bonnet Is: 103kW and 220Nm. The torque is available from 1500rpm through to 4000rpm. Transmission in the AllGrip is a six speed auto only. A slightly different version is available for the 2WD and you can spec a five speed manual for the 1.6L. The turbo drinks 95RON from a 47L tank and is rated as 6.2L/100km on a combined cycle. It’s attached to a dial that brings up Auto, Snow, Sport, and Lock, for those times where more torque for the rear wheels is required. And there is no longer a diesel. Suzuki rates the gross vehicle mass, GVM, as 1,730kg.
On The Inside Is: A slightly made over interior. The most notable change is to the driver’s display. There is a full colour 4.3 inch screen, and this shows the drive modes in high definition. It’s beautiful to read and very easy on the eye. The AllGrip gets a G-force meter, a kilowatt and Nm pair of of circular graphs, a bar graph for brake and accelerator. The drive modes themselves are available via a centre mounted dial. The newly recovered for a soft touch binnacle itself has two push stalks, located at the ten and two o’clock positions on the silvery toned dials and a little hard to find otherwise. Aircon is dial controlled and Suzuki looks towards Lexus by adding a small but classy looking analogue clock that sits between the two centre mounted vents.
Seats are manually operated in the AllGrip, and really should be powered here. Trim was a black diamond cloth with leather bolstered sides, and were super comfortable. The normal plastics on the dash and doors didn’t appeal or seem as being of the quality to look at and touch in a top level vehicle but a light gunmetal insert that runs full width does add a splash of colour.
Front leg room for the driver and passenger were more than adequate, rear seats had plenty for people to a certain (teenaged) size and have privacy glass too. ISOFIX child seat mounts are standard, and the cargo area is adequate without being overwhelming in a small SUV. It starts at 375L, and maxes at 1,120L. The tail gate is manually operated. The roof in the review car had a full glass roof and light coloured cloth sun shield, however there was still plenty of heat getting through to the cabin.
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