This week on Chasing Cars: Outback lands, Ioniq 5 unveiled and Golf GTI priced

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Some of you may have missed us this week after Facebook took us offline but fear not we have been bashing away at our keyboards covering all the car news that matters.

From international reveals of the Ioniq 5 EV giving us a solid glimpse into the future to Lexus stubbornly refusing to let the naturally aspirated V8 die and plonking on in their IS 500, this week has shown the sheer scale of appetites car manufactures have to cover.

We also saw Volkswagen drop the Australian pricing of its feisty new Mk8 Golf GTI and Subaru doing the same with their new Outback, with both expected to attract a lot of attention at the dealership.

Lexus IS 500 snubs Australia

In a move that no doubt triggered tantrum throwing across the country, Lexus unveiled the IS 500 that crams a huge V8, making 352kW of power and 536Nm of torque, between the shock towers – but decided to leave Australia off the invite list.

The IS 500 is an extreme car to say the least, for starters the five-litre V8 barely fits and Lexus had to raise the bonnet five-centimetres and hammer down the edges to make it work. 

Couple that to a chassis that we’ve seen in the IS 350 is plenty capable of handling a bit of hooliganism, then clean it up with a rear limited-slip differential and a handling package that includes Yamaha-developed dampers and you have a serious performance car on your hands. 

Subaru Outback 2021 launched

You might have already seen a few of them driving around the suburbs and sitting in dealerships but the sixth-generation Subaru Outback was only officially unveiled this week.

The new Outback is impressive to say the least and with a starting price of $39,990 before on-roads for the base model packed full of standard features like a 11.6-inch portrait touchscreen, two-tonne towing and a huge list of safety features.

In saying that we – and apparently many of you – are very disappointed Australia has been denied the lusty 2.4-litre turbo flat-four (194kW/375Nm) with the wheezy naturally aspirated 2.5-litre flat-four (138kW/245Nm) now our sole powertrain option.

Ioniq 5 EV unveiled

It’s not every day that a new car from an entirely new brand is launched so don’t dismiss the fully-electric Ioniq 5 as ‘just another midsize SUV’.

The Ioniq 5 sits on the Hyundai Motor Group’s bespoke EV platform known as E-GMP and will get around 470 kilometres of range on a single charge.

Available in both a rear and all-wheel-drive configuration, making 160kW/350Nm and 225kW/605Nm respectively, the Ioniq 5 is no slouch and is expected to arrive in Australia in the third quarter of 2021.

Other car and SUV news we covered this week

• Volkswagen announced the official pricing for the Golf GTI which starts at $53,100 before on-road costs, which is $5,910 more than the asking price of the outgoing Mk7.5 Golf GTI

• A little Italian company known as Easy Rain has found a ‘solution’ for hydroplaning that uses water jets to stop tyres from losing contact with the road. 

• Maserati shared teaser images of its incoming Grecale that will sit under the Levante large SUV when it is officially unveiled later this year.

• Mercedes-Benz announced the next-generation C-Class this week features significantly improved interior space, rear-wheel steering and a big update to the safety equipment on board.

• Alongside the main four-cylinder powertrains Mercedes-Benz also announced a C-Class plug-in hybrid would be coming with 100km of electric-only range, impressive.

• Like the Subaru Outback but want to get serious offroad? Subaru America is cooking up a ‘Wilderness Edition’ with a boosted ride height and other goodies, we may even get it in Australia but nothing is confirmed.

• Chevrolet released the new Bolt which is available as a hatchback and a small SUV. Both can do 400km on a single charge and cost around $40k Australian, so will it come here? Not right now at least.

• Lexus announced the UX 200 Crafted Edition which adds some new trimmings and gives you a gateway into a very cool ownership experience that could see you loaning out the likes of an LC 500 or many other high-end Lexus models for a weekend away. 

• A Lexus NX Crafted Edition was also announced which includes all of the above and is available in four-different powertrain configurations.

• The Lexus RX Crafted Edition also includes the car swapping experience but is sadly only available in the five-seat configuration but with two powertrain options.