In 2022 we published nearly 300 new videos – averaging more than five new uploads per week over on the Chasing Cars YouTube channel. We’re proud to have Australia’s most dedicated team of presenters, researchers, videographers, editors and logisticians here at Chasing Cars that make this mammoth effort happen.
Video production at this kind of mass scale is a hugely complex task – but it is also so rewarding. We love making video reviews, comparisons and news announcements at Chasing Cars because there’s little substitute for seeing the vehicle we’re talking about.
That’s why our video program will continue at full stride into 2023. But before we start our new catalogue of vids next year – let’s look back on the ten most popular videos we uploaded in 2022.
Don’t miss our list of the 10 most popular car stories we published on the Chasing Cars website this year next.
#1: Toyota Land Cruiser 76 series review (943K+ views)
It was only our fifth most popular story here on the Chasing Cars website, but over on the popular CC YouTube channel, our review of the 2022 Toyota Land Cruiser 76 Series 70th Anniversary took the gold medal.
Amassing 943,000 views and counting in 2022, our review of the top-end 76 Series wagon captured hearts and minds this year. In a world full of new EVs and hybrids, there’s certainly something to be said for mechanical simplicity and old-school V8-manual charm.
#2: Hyundai N Vision 74 walkaround (840K+ views)
Hyundai stopped presses in the motoring world when it casually unveiled an incredible, seventies-throwback hydrogen-electric supercar concept in Busan, South Korea. We were there amongst a small group of global motoring press and jaws hit the floor.
The N Vision 74 evokes the styling of Hyundai’s first two-door car – the showcar Pony coupe – of 1974 and transforms it into a hectic hybrid supercar that we would later go on to drive (quickly) at a private track in Germany – see number 8 on this list.
#3: 2022 midsize SUV megatest (656K+ views)
Our signature megatest of 2022 comparing more than 10 midsize SUVs from Australia’s most popular new car category ranked highly this year. Our entire editorial team decamped to Goulburn in regional NSW to test the best medium-sized crossovers.
Of course, in a test like this there has to be a winner – and perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the Toyota RAV4 hybrid. Frugal, smooth to drive and well-packaged, the Toyota regularly appears in our list of Australia’s most popular new cars by sales, despite being wracked by long wait times.
#4: 2022 dual-cab 4×4 ute megatest (293K+ views)
It was another megatest that came in at fourth place in our most popular videos of 2022. This time around, it was our comparison of eight dual-cab 4×4 utes. Again based out of Goulburn, our team used Wakefield Park raceway and the Land Cruiser Club of Australia to really test the mettle of this octet of dual-cabs.
This video was something of a farewell comparison to the outgoing Px Mk III Ford Ranger and first-gen Volkswagen Amarok. They might be old, but they were still on top of this megatest though across our fields of assessment – with the locally-adapted Nissan Navara Warrior coming in third.
#5: Ford Everest walkaround (289K+ views)
A major improvement in curb appeal thanks to American-inspired exterior styling has allowed the new Ford Everest large SUV to step up in perceived quality. We were at Ford’s proving ground in Victoria when the covers were ripped off the Everest for the first time, and our walkaround of the Trend model scored big on our channel this year.
The Everest has since gone on to launch locally with a choice of four-cylinder diesel or V6 diesel engines, though there is no sign of a hi-po Raptor version. We live in hope!
#6: Full details of the new Volkswagen Amarok (280K+ views)
The Volkswagen Amarok has been a thinking person’s ute in Australia since its inception earlier in the 2010s, and the biggest shift yet is underway for the classy pick-up. The next Amarok joins the Ford Ranger (and Everest) on the blue oval’s T6.2 platform, and it’s set for launch in Australia in early 2023.
We stayed up extra-late mid-year to bring you all the details of the ute from its live reveal broadcast in Germany. We’ve since reviewed the 2023 Amarok in South Africa and got a first taste of just how differentiated it is from the popular new Ranger.
#7: Mercedes-Benz C-Class (W206) review (272K+ views)
When we reviewed the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class earlier in 2022, we declared that “good ride quality [was] back”. And so it went for the latest baby-Benz, which performed well at our 2022 Car of the Year testing program – but principally in base, passively-damped guise. We decided we’d skip the optional adaptive suspension, and the C300 engine entirely.
That’s why we are now running a C200 Edition C as a long-term test car, which has had its introduction over on the Chasing Cars YouTube channel. Expect to hear more of our thoughts on Mercedes-Benz’s latest attempt to dethrone the BMW 3 Series as our favourite midsize luxury sedan soon.
#8: Hyundai N Vision 74 review (268K+ views)
If we were stunned to see Hyundai’s superb new N Vision 74 concept at an intimate media unveiling in Korea, we were gobsmacked to learn that the vehicle isn’t a static showcar – it was driveable.
After the huge success of our walkaround tour of the N Vision 74 from Busan, we were given the nod to be amongst a tiny cadre of global road testers to get to review the N Vision 74 at the sinewy and technical Bilster Berg racetrack in northern Germany. That was a real highlight of 2022.
#9: Ford Ranger Wildtrak V6 diesel review (227K+ views)
The quiet success of the outgoing Volkswagen Amarok V6 TDI made clear that there is a market for polished, higher-output utes in Australia – so it was no surprise to learn that Ford had selected a diesel V6 for top versions of its next-gen Ranger ute.
When the T6.2 Ranger line-up landed in Australia, we made a bee-line right for the Wildtrak V6 diesel grade, and found it to be powerful, refined and generally good to drive in our first review.
#10: Mazda 3 review (211K+ views)
Revealed in 2018, the latest-generation Mazda 3 was actually the first model to initiate Mazda’s now well-established plan to add a premium stream of vehicles to its showrooms in Australia (and around the world). This year, we ran a Mazda 3 hatchback as a long-termer to see how the model is faring.
But it was our regular full-format review of the Mazda 3 Evolve SP hatch that came in at number-ten on our list, with our video finding that the car remains a likeable, and good-value, contender in the small car segment.