Welcome back to your weekly wrap up of car news and reviews, where we find all the bits that matter and condense them down into one easy read
If you wanted a definitive sign that Chinese car manufacturers were becoming a serious contender for Australian buyers then this week had to be it.
With MG climbing up the sales charts month after month, a new Chinese ute in the form of the LDV T60 Max on sale in Australia and the Lynk & Co brand on the way, their market share is growing.
You may not have realised that well-known car brands such as Volvo and Lotus are Chinese owned – and often built – so it’s no wonder people are taking them seriously.
It was a busy week at Chasing Cars with some big industry movements as the Federal Government announced its wet noodle of an EV policy and multiple car brands rallied against a COP26 pledge to ditch combustion engines by 2035.
On the review side of things, we finally got to review the new-generation Kia Sportage and pitched our Genesis GV80 long termer against the formidable Audi Q7.
But that’s just a handful of things we covered this week so let’s jump into it.
Once upon a time utes used to be cheap, durable machines and wouldn’t require you to take out a second mortgage on your home to buy -those days are now over. Or are they?
The facelifted LDV T60 (now known as the T60 Max) is determined to prove that cheap utes can be worth owning and the latest update brings some worthwhile features.
This begins – but doesn’t end – with the 2.0-litre twin-turbo four-cylinder engine that produces more power than a top-spec Toyota Hilux with up to 160kW and matches it for torque at 500Nm.
Priced from $35,779 driveaway and topping out at $42,621 driveaway, the T60 Max can be had in a choice of two grades with either a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic and all feature four-wheel drive with low range.
A 10.25-inch touchscreen comes standard, it can tow 3.0-tonnes braked, it has disc brakes and on the high trim gets power seats with leather trim. It does lack some important safety equipment like AEB, however.
But how does it compare against its closest rival the GWM ute? We’ve written up a separate article to compare it spec for spec.
In some ways, the F-Type switching to a V8-only strategy in 2022 is essentially saying that the reasonably large model range has been gutted to just two grades – but that’s also not quite fair.
For one, Jaguar now offers two V8 grades – known as the R-Dynamic P450 and the full-fat R – with the former available as both a coupe and convertible while the R enjoys no such top-drop shenanigans.
Both are fitted with Jaguar’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine that produces 331kW of power and 580Nm of torque in the P450 and 423kW/700Nm in the R.
Jaguar previously offered the F-Tyre with a 2.0-litre turbo four-pot and a 3.0-litre supercharged V6 in Australia but its local arm said it was time for a change.
The Chinese-owned car industry giant Geely announced this week that its Lynk & Co brand would be expanding into a slew of new markets including Australia.
Although only founded in 2016, Lynk & Co has gained some serious momentum with a line-up of six vehicles that it could send to Australia, including a punchy hatchback, a sports sedan and a few fully-electric SUVs.
Nothing has been announced yet but the Geely brand has already shown with Volvo, Lotus and now Polestar that it’s committed to Australia.
We’ve detailed the six cars that could potentially come to Australia but Lynk & Co will soon expand its lineup even further with five new models to diversify its model range – so who knows what we could end up getting.
Over on the Chasing Cars Youtube Channel we are getting excruciatingly close to 100k subscribers so if you haven’t already, please go join the fun.
It’s also worth mentioning that we now do a video version of the weekly wrap up that packs in the best news of the week into a bite-sized video.
Our now full-time staff member John Law reviewed the Kia Sportage and gave his thoughts on the latest midsize SUV. We’ve published the review in both video and written form.
This week we reviewed the recently updated Lexus ES that now has an expanded line-up due to the demise of the IS sedan. After a hard week of driving in the ES, editor Tom Baker explained why he thought the ES was a good pick due to its lovely suspension and build quality – with a price point that will be appealing for fleet buyers.
Next, it was time to pitch our Genesis GV80 long-termer against the arguably segment-leading Audi Q7 to find out which luxury seven-seat SUV comes out on top.
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