Australian Aftermarket Association For Cars Seeks Better Protection
The aftermarket industry for the automotive field is a multi-billion dollar industry. It covers items such as oil, filters, light globes, seats and seat covers, wheels, tyres, roll bars, roo bars, lights and more. And there’s a push to make sure that you, the buying motorist, gets looked after. The Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA) submission to the Australian Consumer Law Review demands better protection for Australia’s 17 million vehicle owners.
The AAAA wants a special focus on protection of vehicle owners’ consumer rights because of the high value of the initial purchase and ongoing maintenance, and the vital contribution vehicles make to consumers’ working and family lives and to the Australian economy.
Private Fleet Car Review: 2016 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport Exceed
What the Australian car market has known as the Mitsubishi Challenger, for some two decades, is no longer. Enter the Pajero Sport, bringing us into line with the international naming system. Built upon the Triton platform but given Mitsubishi’s “shield” nose job to visually break away from the Challenger, the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport is currently available as a five seater only (the seven seater has been signed off for ADR) and is aimed fairly and squarely at the family.
Complete with a 2.4L diesel and new eight speed auto, A Wheel Thing reviews the top of the range Pajero Sport Exceed.
Straight up, it’s an imposing looking vehicle, standing 1805 mm high. There’s side steps adding to the visual appeal, plenty of chrome up front (burying the headlights in the look), a kicked up rear window line echoing the raked front window and an odd looking tail light design, almost as if the lights have melted and run down the tail gate’s sides.
Private Fleet Car Review: 2016 Subaru Liberty 3.6R Sedan
Subaru’s Liberty sedan is an unsung hero in Subaru’s fleet, with the Outback and WRX getting all of the eyeballs That’s a shame because it’s big, roomy, nice to be in and not unattractive to look at. When the 3.6 litre boxer engine is slotted into the engine bay, it then becomes an entrant in the large car class, against Aurion, Commodore, Falcon…and so it should. In February of 2016, A Wheel Thing attended the launch of the updated Liberty, Forester and Outback and recently sampled the 2.0L diesel and 3.6L petrol powered versions of the Outback Premium.
The Liberty sedan with the 3.6L is, effectively and essentially, the same as the Outback wagon, bar the extra ride height and sheetmetal. It certainly has the same excellent ride quality and handling, with a lot to be commended. Of note were the subtle changes to the suspension in the wagons. It’s A Wheel Thing’s opinion that the Outback is one of the best in the medium wagon class for ride and handling and the Liberty sedan slots right in there. There is a bit of competition out there such as the Mondeo, Superb, and Octavia, just to mention a couple, but the incremental development work that Subaru Japan and Subaru Australia have jointly been involved in has paid off.
Tested on dirt and tarmac roads in South Australia during the launch, and driven hard in its most likely environment, suburbia, both sedan and wagon exhibited the kind of ride a discerning driver looks for. On undulating roads,there’s no sense of continuing the motion, with the Liberty Premium simply following the up and down movement while simultaneously isolating the cabin from it.
Glow In The Dark Highways
Have you ever been driving along a road at night and suddenly had that moment of disorientation as you realise that something has happened to the road markings? It’s pretty disconcerting and if you have been a little drowsy, that tends to snap you awake… well, it snaps me into full alert, anyway. It’s particularly alarming on rural roads, where there isn’t much other light from streetlights and the like around to guide you.
The safe and sane thing to do here is to slow down a tad and to look around you more carefully. Usually, you’ll be able to spot the white lines and yellow lines showing you where you ought to be and where the road is going. The posts marking the sides of the roads can be a different story. Although they’re vital for road safety, things always happen to them. Cows use them as scratching posts and snap them. People who tackle corners far too quickly clip them and take them out (there’s only so much all the active safety features in any car can do and the laws of angular momentum still apply). Idiots think that it’s fun to pull them out and do goodness knows what with them. Bushes and grass grow over them and obscure them.
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