Podcasts about dsl9a3mwemnbw

Soft shackle versus hard (steel) shackle for 4x4 recovery operations: Which shackle do you use, and where to you use them to maximise safety and reliability? The definitive guide. 14.7 tonne Saber soft shackle from Sparesbox: http://bit.ly/14softshackle 17 tonne Saber soft shackle from Sparesbox: http://bit.ly/17softshackle 4.75 steel bow shackle from Sparesbox: http://bit.ly/bowshackle Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url There’s two parts to this, right? First - the part about relative positives and negatives. Second - the part about myth-busting the bullshit of 4WD recovery. There’s a lot of that. See, shackles and other items - wire rope in winches, slings … things of that nature - are generally adapted from the hoisting industry (you know, cranes and such)... ...and the parts have been cobbled together to form a system for off-road recovery, which (kinda) works. If you take a shackle and a sling and a wire rope hoist and a hook, maybe a snatch block, you’re essentially looking at the load-bearing parts of a winch recovery. And the way the numbers work, the way they are presented to you, and the bullshit claims made about some of the parts in particular - especially winches - the former Soviet Union bureaucracy couldn't do a worse job, frankly. This is compounded by never really knowing what the actual loads are. See, if you want to put a tank under a giant crane, one generally knows exactly how much it weighs, and one can then put a hoisting package together so that the working load limit of each component is not exceeded. Recovery is not like that - there’s generally no way of knowing the loads. It’s all quite confusing, frankly, if you don’t have engineering training or work in industry. So I’m gunna unpack some of that right now - the beer-garden physics of recovery. For this report I got my Saber soft shackle from Sparesbox. About $60 - link in the description. I had a bunch of steel shackles lying around already. Who doesn’t? Steel shackles last (statistically) for eternity, which is almost as long as it’s been since I’ve had ‘it’ thrown at me with at least vestigial enthusiasm. Links to the hard and soft shackles from Sparesbox, in the description. Full disclosure there: I’ll get a small commission if you purchase using those links. Sparesbox is a good, reliable operation based in Sydney - but they’re not sponsoring this episode. I bought the soft shackle myself, and this report is my honest personal opinion.

In a parallel universe there’s a Defender designed by Land Rover but R&D-ed and sold by Toyota - and it is the perfect off-roader. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url The new Defender is certainly not the old one - it’s lost the whole ‘hose out’ utilitarian thing. Ergonomics and safety - vastly improved. Obviously. But - just look at the specs - it remains a proper weapon off road: The angles. The wading depth - 900mm #respect. Terrain response - yesssss! Awesome system. You can put 168 kilos on the roof - #FFS - and it’s a monocoque. There’s like 900 kilos of payload, and an 85-litre fuel tank. So, a potentially compelling tourer also. It’s bloody expensive though. Like, if you want to throw $170 grand at a Defender in 2021, step right up, dude. The range-topping 3.0-litre turbo petrol straight six … I think they call it a P400 X is about $148k drive-away - but if you want to add third row seating ($3400) a front jump seat ($1900), the cold climate pack ($1500) orange painted recovery points ($800), satin protective film ($6500), tow pack with the eye cover ($2500), three-zone climate air ($2400), solar-shield windscreen and privacy glass ($1400), roof rails ($900 - they couldn’t even throw them in, the cheap bastards), and maybe you want to go the ‘full pimp’ and add 22-inch alloys - that'll be $3600 (they’ll be shit off-road though, and good luck getting a replacement 22-inch tyre in Dingo Piss Creek). So - we just spent hypothetically $25,000 in options, and (ladies and gentlemen) there’s your $170,000 Land Rover Defender. [SIGHS] And a complimentary divorce from reality. They throw that in, free, if you tick every box. It’s literally the least they could do. $170 grand is a fully-loaded 200 Series LandCruiser Sahara - and no need to tow an acoustically transparent aluminium shitter from this busted-arse salt-pan to the next one, because you’ve got $35,000 left over to spend on four- and five-star accommodation inclusive of a water-closet more than two feet from the dining table. Yesssssss! You caravaners and your 3.5-tonne porta-potties. Just saying. Defender is kinda big, too - like, it’s just over an inch longer than a 200 Series, meaning it’s only 10cm shorter than a Kia Carnival - but 21 centimetres taller (than the Carnival) .It’s about an inch taller than ‘Cruiser, and it craps all over the ‘Cruiser’s approach and departure angles, and offers 200mm more wading depth. Three and a half tonne tow capacity (but only 150 kilos on the towball - that’s a joke). They’re suggesting you can tow 3500 kilos and carry 900 kilos of payload - of which 168 kilos could go on the roof. That’s insane - like, properly insane. As in, worst idea ever. To me, new Defender is nothing like old Defender. Except perhaps in turning circle, which remains atrocious. They’ve recycled the badge to get more people across the line - Defender tragics, basically. But new Defender is really what Discovery used to be. And Discovery today is what Range Rover was. And Range Rover today is what Maybach would be - if Land Rover had a brand specifically devoted to even richer, more enthusiastic wankers. Like Daimler does.

This new Mitsubishi 10-year warranty … let’s just say, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, good thing we didn’t step in it. Worst new car warranty ever. Complain to the ACCC: https://www.accc.gov.au/contact-us/contact-the-accc/make-an-enquiry Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Here’s my biggest problem with the Bits-o-shitty 10-year bullshit warranty proposal: Let’s say your transmission just crapped out at 120,000 kilometres, eight years in. And it’s not on you. You go back to Mitsubishi. They say: ‘Well, three years ago you had your car serviced independently - so you’re not covered. That’ll be $14,000.’ This proposed warranty will inevitably be used like this in the service department as a trigger to brush you, and profiteer from it. It’ll seem legitimate, too - like, it’s there in black and white. Warranty is completely separate from the legislated Consumer Guarantees, about which there is absolutely nothing optional. Your warranty might be burned, but the requirements of consumer law compliance - the obligation upon Bits-o-shitty to provide you with a remedy - absolutely still exists. But consumers have to be informed enough to know that, and not all consumers are. So, in the future, I have no doubt that this warranty will be used as a device to deny legitimate consumer law claims. Tragically, not all consumers will know that they can push back - legitimately - and make a claim under Australian Consumer Law. Some of them will cop it on the chin, and (call me an old cynic) but I think this is Mitsubishi’s real objective here. Look like warranty heroes, while acting like warranty bastards. Disgraceful. It’s a huge pity Mitsubishi didn’t just bite the bullet and align the new warranty with the requirements of consumer law, thus ascending uninjured to the summit of Warranty Mountain here in ‘Straya, and spruik the crap out of it - Shitsville’s best warranty - because that would have been a real good news story. If they want to get more owners servicing their cars at the dealer, then just make that a commercially compelling proposition instead of the hateful, expensive and borderline bullying experience it often is in dealerships today. If Mitsubishi wants to shift more genuine parts - price them competitively. After all, they’re buying them in bulk. The extortionate pricing of genuine parts - industry-wide - is simply indefensible. So, they come up with these cartel-like strategies to coerce consumers into bending over, while the ACCC sleeps. Unfortunately, as things stand, this 10-year warranty is just a grubby grab for more business and an attempt to dilute consumer law claims in the 5-10-year term. That’s how it seems to me. I don’t think there’s any guarantee the ACCC will wake up to quash this, but I certainly hope they veto the genuine servicing requirement. Dangerous, anti-consumer precedent. You might choose to put your objection in writing on the ACCC’s online contact form. (Link above). If the ACCC gets sufficient informed blow-back from you, it might help turn this anti-consumer tide and force Bits-o-shitty back to the boardroom, where they might choose to un-arsehole themselves and offer you a 10-year warranty without the free handcuffs.

The truth about carbon deposits in modern engines. Details next. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url With direct injection, a fuel injector sits inside the combustion chamber. It injects fuel directly into the chamber, at exactly the right time, with the valves closed, hence the name. Injection directly into the chamber. Fuel is thus completely separate from the inlet air system. In the older, port-style fuel injection system, a far less hi-tech injector was located in the inlet port, right on top of the inlet valve. (This tended to wash the valve - by spraying the valve more or less continuously with fuel, which is a powerful solvent. But it was a fairly wasteful and imprecise way of delivering fuel.) So, with direct injection, only air goes into the inlet system. Crankcase vapours are also sucked in (via the PCV system - for ‘positive crankcase ventilation’), and some exhaust gas is recirculated (that’s called ‘EGR’ - exhaust gas recirculation). Although they are coarsely filtered, crankcase vapours tend to be a bit oily, and recirculated exhaust gas can be a bit hot (even though it’s water-cooled). So, if you mix the oily vapours and the hot EGR, you can burn the oily vapours to carbon and give the inlet manifold and ports the equivalent of atherosclerosis. This happens a lot if the EGR or PCV systems are defective or badly designed - so premature profound carbonisation is often symptomatic of a problem with PCV or EGR. If you don’t drive on the open road much (for about an hour a fortnight, ballpark) your engine oil gets pretty contaminated. This is due to the hi-tech miracle of blow-by. The PCV vapours get a bit filthier than usual when the oil is contaminated, and this can lead to the formation of significant oily, sooty deposits in the inlet tract, which is a good idea to clean up before it gets serious and impacts engine performance. It’s a problem mainly for engines that do only short trips and lots of cold starts. The EGR tends to bake it on - but, frankly, this tends to be more profound on a diesel, which does a lot more volume of EGR as a proportion of total operational flow. Going for a long drive every few months is insufficient to purify the oil. The open-road driving has to be reasonably regular. To be clear - the highway driving doesn’t clean up any contamination already in the inlet plumbing. Once it’s there, it’s there. If it’s there and serious enough, you need to get it cleaned away mechanically - if the degree of contamination is likely to affect engine operation. The purpose of the highway driving is: it purifies the engine oil and thus prevents the deposits from forming. That highway-style lean burning and sustained full operating temperature evaporates off all the water and the volatile components of unburned fuel, which exit via the PCV. If you’re not going to do regular highway driving, get your oil changed more often - say twice a year - but still try to get out on the highway as often as you can. 30-60 minutes routinely is a good target.

How much is your silence worth? Could Mercedes-Benz buy yours for $500? Or would you leak evidence of their frankly grubby behaviour to someone such as me? In this report, let’s see what’s behind door number two. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact ACCC complaint process: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/complaints-problems/make-a-consumer-complaint AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Philip Lakic made a mistake in 2017. He bought a Mercedes-Benz A-Class. No - I don’t know why either. It’s kinda like getting hitched on the spur of the moment, in Las Vegas. This story is like a fling with Tiffany from the office. Everything was new and exciting for a little while, and then Three-pronged suppository Death Star management turned off their outdated Windows-based connectivity tech, which they had talked up heavily in the brochure, calling it COMMAND Online. “I thought you might be interested in an update from Mercedes-Benz Australia Pacific RE COMAND Online MB Apps failures. I submitted a letter of demand for a fix or a refund, which was not met (surprise), but did get back this pitiful letter of offer from MBAuP, which I rejected.” - Philip Lakic I cannot be the only person here seeing the massive disconnect between the company’s position publicly, and the one taking place under the table, metaphorically. And let’s not forget that Mr Lakic’s A-Class is only three years old. It’s hardly a relic. I am also - frankly - gobsmacked that Daimler and Microsoft (two of the world’s biggest corporations) were unwilling to get together and come up with a wireless browsing system that would endure for - I dunno - 10 years of operation. I’m further gobsmacked that their disregard for current owners is so profound that they simply couldn’t be arsed coming up with a patch for this problem. Last word here to Mr Lakic: "I will now start pursuing a course of action through the ACCC and if that fails, I'll have to start lining some lawyer's pockets. I truly expected more from Mercedes-Benz as our family bought three AMG vehicles which were collectively worth approximately $300k when bought new." "I had to experience that Mercedes-Benz customer service feeling for myself, before I truly realised how shit Mercedes-Benz really are. In the end you were right. I wish you weren't, but you are. I should have bought a BMW. I hope that your YouTube channel serves to educate more people on the practices of brands within the Australian Car industry." I did not elicit that commentary from Mr Lakic - it just lobbed without warning in my inbox, as these things often do. I did not go trawling for endorsement, nor did I seek brand-trashing experiences upon which to get my rocks off. I do not recommend Mercedes-Benz, and Mr Lakic’s unsolicited experience is emblematic of why. Buying Mercedes-Benz is like entering into a dysfunctional relationship with a profound power imbalance. It seems to me that Mercedes-Benz customers - at least in Australia - care somewhat more about the brand than the brand fundamentally cares about them.

Critical automotive industry update, ‘Straya. October 2020. Year of the Weasel. Details next. In this report: Alfa Romeo updates Guilia for 2021 The plan to resurrect Wheels and Motor magazines New BT-50 pricing announced Hyundai i30 N DCT launch timing for Oz Jaguar interiors made from landfill 500,000 Nissan Leafs roll off the line Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Mazda has announced pricing for the new BT-50. BT-50 is of course the somewhat effeminate clone of the new Isuzu D-MAX. Built in the same factory, etc. BT-50 kicks off at $42,090 for the XT dual-cab chassis base-model and extends to $59,990 for the GT, which is about $3000 less than the top-spec D-MAX. Hyundai - industriously taking geologic time to launch the 8-speed dual clutch version of a car for which I have enduring mad love: The Golf GTI-killing i30 N. Total weapon. The Fastback - so sexy. I30 N is seriously popular on this channel - 550,000 views across five videos, and counting. It’s one of the most popular performance car buying enquiries I get as well. And I can tell you the most popular impediment to buying one is - manual only. Typically the prospective owner has a partner, and said partner either can’t or won’t drive a manual - so, game over. The dual-clutch is the solution - due for local launch (finally) in the first half of 2021 here in Shitsville. Pro tip - have fun test driving this car, obviously, when you can. (Safely.) But don’t just test-drive it like you stole it. The DCT is gunna be awesome at that - it’s a done deal. DCTs are all excellent when you’re up them for the rent. Do as much test-driving as possible at low speeds - three-point turns, reverse-parking off a hill-start. Stuff like that. This is typically what DCTs are bad at. But if the new 8sp DCT in Sorento is anything to go by (and I don’t know how closely they are related, but probably quite a bit) you just might be pleasantly surprised. They’re also talking up the new lightweight seats - but I’d suggest that’s BS. They’re only 2.2 kilos lighter, and it’s a reduction in the sprung mass. So there’s that... The forged 19-inch alloys are probably more relevant - 14 kilos less in total, and all off the unsprung mass. Bigger brakes too. Not that it really needed that - they were already fairly death-proof. I did try to kill them, and I failed.

After a lengthy search, they have just appointed a fully qualified volleyball referee. I know that sounds like a joke - the pope and a volleyball referee crash into a bar, AND… - but unfortunately, it’s not. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url ANCAP - the Shitsvillian and Sheepshaggistani New Car Assessment Program - appears to me increasingly to be doing you, out there in Consumerville, a disservice. These are the dudes who persevere with publicising (for example) Volkswagen’s alleged five-star safety rating with Amarok. I just went to the ANCAP website this morning and checked. Searched ‘Volkswagen Amarok - current models only’. The result: five stars. This vehicle has not been tested for nine long years. Nine. ‘Current models only’ - please. Amarok, of course, lacks airbags for row 2 occupants, among other critical safety omissions. So it would be kinda lucky to get three stars if tested today. Basically, you might survive getting gently T-boned in your allegedly five-star Amarok, but things aren’t so certain for the kids in the back… Would it not be a great pity if a tragedy such as that occurred after you had concluded that your Argentinain Volkswagen shitheap was ‘safe enough for the fam’ after cursory interrogation of the ANCAP website, as part of your pre-purchasing research? I think that would be a real shame, not to mention a gross consumer disservice. In 2016, four years before now, and five years after ANCAP awarded Amarok five stars, the Volkswagen Death Star launched the popular V6 Amarok. At the launch, James Ward from CarAdvice asked Dr Jan Michel - who is some wonky Volkswegian international sales dude - about the still absent Amarok row two airbags: “We are working on it.” - Dr Jan Michel, Invernational Sales Director, VW Commercial They’re still working on it, four years later, apparently. Because: Still absent. So, well done there, on the management of a five-star safety rating, and the community dissemination thereof. ANCAP will retort, of course, look at the date, dude, but to understand that, a consumer would then need to understand the temporal and physical context of the evolution of the safety ratings system. And, look at the typical YouTube comments feed: Many consumers are incapable of that. This is ANCAP’s inherent dysfunctionality, in my view. The burden of understanding not all five-star ratings are equivalent should not be imposed upon ordinary people. Because not all of them can handle the truth. Old five-star ratings are meaningless, basically. ANCAP, or course, lacks the budget and other resources to maintain a current ratings system, and today’s hodge-podge of retrospectively irrelevant ratings is systematically vulnerable to consumer misinterpretation (personal opinion). ANCAP is also somewhat responsible for your next new car being so profoundly annoying. All those safety systems, warning you about all those nonexistent threats, incessantly. That’s a direct consequence of carmakers humping ANCAP’s leg like the dog that’s just gotten into the Viagra, so they can get five stars (not the dog - he doesn’t want five stars - the carmaker - pro tip).

Time for some long overdue uplifting, and constructively critical commentary from you. In other words, let us cross the border and enter the Nutbag City Limits - yessssssssss! Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Now look, I’m not above criticism. And that’s how you’ve gotta be on YouTube, because the comments feed is something of a cesspit. But, frankly, I just haven’t been getting the hate I deserve lately. And I blame you. Only one video in my past 30 sits below 90 per cent likes. And it’s at 89.8 - so it’s only technically hated. Where have all the haters gone? Now, the glace cherry on the icing of the nutty cake today, allegedly from the Grand Cherokee Owners’ Club of Shitsville Facebook page, from a dude I’ll call, simply ‘Trev’: “The guys an absolute flog with an agenda” - Trev. Goodness - I think he means me. My recent ‘Jeep/don’t buy’ report the other day: 97.3 per cent likes to dislikes. Trev was probably one of the 2.7 per cent. I do enjoy ‘absolute flog’ status these days - that’s quite true. Lifetime platinum, double diamond advantage flog. It’s awesome - straight into the Chairman’s Lounge at Club Flog. And yet, for so much of my life I was only a partial flog. And not for want of trying. But then I got ‘Dickhead Pro’ and my life changed. I went properly ‘next level’. I decided to become your next Pry Mincer and Make Australia Less Shit. It’s certainly audacious. But, together, I know we can do this. And let’s face it, ‘absolute flog’ is the minimum accepted qualification to be Pry Mincer these days. That’s in the constitution. You can tell I am qualified from my Linkedin profile, which I updated this morning, the better to reflect Trev’s assessment of my Pry Minsterial suitability. Clearly I do have an agenda, which I enthusiastically prosecute: To prevent as many people as possible from buying badly supported shitheaps. And I do find Grand Cherokee in particular so disappointing - because it looks so good and goes so well, and is so capable across a breadth of operating conditions, and the price is so right, frnkly. Pity about the reliability, the ownership cost, and (of course) the emphatically crap support. Trev, of course, was unfinished in the domain of critical assessment. He was on a roll: “I bet he hasn’t owned or even driven a Jeep … the only thing he drives is a b*tt plug all the way up.” - Trev. Trev, mate … I generally prefer dinner and a few drinks before we go for the plug. Perhaps we could pre-emptively discuss current events and have a few laughs. Get out on the dance floor. Sing some karaoke. Get to know one another first. There are social conventions here mate. Still, I do rather look forward to hosting the annual Grand Cherokee Owners’ Club of Shitsville convention to be held this year (at my suggestion) at iconic Sydney kink dungeon, Temple 22, where I sincerely hope Grand Cherokee club members will get a different taste of pain and denial - at a somewhat lower cost, and without the public humiliation they are so used to. So that’s nice. The late, great Chrissy Amphlett, of course, sang the haunting ballad of the Jeep owner, entitled so memorably: ‘I touch Myself’. And in Ms Amphlett’s own words, in respect of Jeep ownership, I think it’s fair to say there’s a fine, fine line between pleasure and pain.

New D-MAX. New BT-50. So exciting - but (of course) fools rush in where angels fear to tread. So, here’s how you can save thousands on these newly-released vehicles. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url New D-MAX and BT-50 utes. Impossibly stimulating. Finally here, kind of. The bogan horde is strapping on their best blue singlets and doing little wees in their Bisley work trousers and Tradie Lady underwear - such is the ambient level of excitement when not one but two new shitbox utes are deployed after more than a decade of Joan Rivers-inspired facelifts upon facelifts upon facelifts upon facelifts, seemingly without end. VO G’day John, long time YouTube watcher first time query. I am seriously looking at the 2021 Isuzu D-max and I have found that there are none to be had. It seems that every man and his dog wants one, and I am being told that the delivery date at this stage is January next year. I realise that, that is the way that it is, but with an order and wait type scenario, and the massive amount of people wanting them, is there still a way for you to get them cheaper than the current $58,990 drive away price? I don’t want to waste your time and effort, cause, you know time and money. Whadayareckon? - Andrew Been getting a lot of this. Such a classic - it’s, like, how to do this wrong. Do not order and wait, if you want to save thousands. Pull yourself back from the brink. Never order and wait. Just wait, then order, when the car is in stock. Isuzu dealers are frothing at the mouth, and perhaps other orifices, because of latent demand in the market. Buyers queueing up, over the horizon. It seems everyone is dead keen to get out of their old shitbox D-MAX and into an all-new shitbox D-MAX. Demand has swamped supply. And don’t the dealers love it. My strong advice to Andrew - and perhaps you, if you are caught up in ‘D-MAX fever’ - is just to chill out. Do not pay a deposit. Do not sign a contract. Just wait, dude. Wait until January - it’s just a few more lockdowns and endless weeks of bushfires, and a fortnight of tolerating her family over Christmas. That’s nothing. You’re match fit here. You can do this. If you go to a dealership now, and commit, you will pay the full freight, and you will be locked in. If it emerges, between now and delivery, that there are unexpected problems with the new D-MAX, it will cost you thousands to back out. So just wait. Be a spectator. Halfway through January you might be pleasantly surprised. The first wave of D-MAX delusion might be over by then, and dealers might have unallocated stock on the showroom floor - which is exactly what you want, if you want them to drop their trousers (commercially). And, trust me, nothing is nicer than the sound of a car dealer's trousers hitting the floor - I think you’d agree. There is no advantage to you - that I can see - to joining the party of imbeciles eager to pay the full freight, lock themselves in at a high price, and queue up and wait.

Pro tip: Let someone else be the lab rat in the mad experiment on car ownership risk. Details next. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Jeep Shitsville says it’s redressing its former customer crap-ness, which was inspired by Idi Amin, by increasing warranty, adding capped price servicing and lifetime roadside assist, reducing parts costs, increasing tech support, and moving customer care onshore. Problem is: None of these things affects reliability. Poor reliability stems from under-done R&D. It’s like, bad design plus crap implementation equals poor reliability. Longer warranty doesn’t change that. But reliability is only half of the customer satisfaction equation. Being dealt with fairly and expeditiously when you have a problem is the other half. No evidence yet that I’ve seen - on moving the needle there, away from ‘Idi Amin’ and towards ‘Nelson Mandella’ on that. Cultural change is very hard. Especially when you’ve got one organisation importing the product and separate businesses selling it, and they’re currently not profitable. Selling Jeeps cannot be profitable at the moment. My standard advice to would-be Jeep Buyers is: If you are truly committed to being a lab rat in this experiment, contact your friendly neighbourhood psychiatrist. Wait for some evidence before dropping the big bucks on an enduring bad idea. When you’re out there asking people their opinion, the needle moves all over the spectrum. Very confusing. "Just wanted some advice on this vehicle. A lot of people say not to buy and others say it’s a good car. I have heard Jeep has a bad reputation of reliability and service but I would just like to hear your thoughts on his please. Thank you, - Linda Let’s say you’re out there, researching a new car, asking people you know about their experiences. Everyone you ask seems to be representing their honestly held view, and yet these are often deeply polarised and seemingly irreconcilable with other people’s accounts. Jeep cannot be both stellar and also Satan in a Suit. And yet, owners you ask will vote either way. It’s very confusing for the would-be owner, like Linda. Most people considering these dud brands … they kinda know (or they strongly suspect) that it’s a bad idea. But they are also emotionally enamoured. The gravitational pull of a brand can be quite strong. And yet, the stories of under-done engineering and malevolent customer support are too prolific and credible to ignore completely. But these act on a different part of the brain. The attraction goes straight to the id, whereas the part that screams ‘bad idea’ hits you in the intellect. It’s a conflicted state, and because you know what you want, confirmation bias is so insidious: so perhaps you look for, and find, that dude who thrashed his Grand Cherokee for 300,000 kilometres and it was bulletproof. Despite never being serviced and all attempts to break it. So - there’s your evidence. Justification. Whatever. If you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail - that’s confirmation bias. The real problem here is metadata, and bad conclusions. Almost everyone takes their own personal experience of one vehicle, and they extrapolate it up to the brand. That’s the problem.

This is my first look at the new Hyundai Tucson, due to go on sale late in the first half of 2021. It's a pre-production model, for visual display only. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url A heavy commercial burden attaches to Tucson. It’s Hyundai’s top-selling model, totalling seven million units in traffic so far. That’s since 2004. Seven million - so if you parked them all nose-to-tail they would encircle the earth. That’s a lot of Tucsons. Roughly one for every resident of Arizona. And this one is the 4th Generation - it’s a little bigger but, frankly, a lot more polished. Just don’t be breath-holding on this. Not yet. Today’s just a pricktease, of sorts. We won’t get this new Tucson in Shitsville until late in the first half of 2021. Of course, the principal design challenge with all new models is instantly to make the outgoing one look just a little bit crap - because nothing motivates an otherwise happy owner to upgrade more than an injection of new hotness on the showroom floor. Just gotta have it mate. And in this respect, I think they’ve knocked it out of the park. It’s definitely a head-turner. And it makes the outgoing one instantly obsolete. Apparently there’s that new CVVD technology as well - the continuously variable valve duration thingo, which is quite clever because it improves combustion efficiency across a range of operating conditions and punts fuel economy to the next level without compromising refinement or power delivery. So that’s quite a neat thermodynamics hack. You can expect the full safety suite with new Tucson, which is to say: top-shelf crashworthiness - including, probably, that new headbutt-preventing centre airbag between the seats at the front, plus (sadly) all of the borderline annoying, false-positive-overdosed crash prevention stuff, which is there principally to hump ANCAP’s leg so enthusiastically, in pursuit of five stars. All the carmakers are doing this lately, not just Hyundai. An unfortunate and annoying sign of the times. The interior is rather gorgeous. The exterior is edgy. Not everyone’s gunna be infatuated with the sharp angles. So, basically, I think new Tucson, when it lobs, is going to make some competitors - notably X-TRAIL, CR-V, RAV4, maybe even CX-5, and certainly Sportage - look old. It’s a super-competitive segment, so they’ll need to be sharp with the price. But if you’re in the market for a five-seat SUV and you’re not up against the pressure of time, I’d give it four or five months. Because this is a segment disruptor right here. I’ll keep you posted when I know more.

Are you stuck in a dead-end job, on lockdown, during COVID-19? I just found the perfect automotive industry job for you. And me. It’s perfect. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url The Feral Chamber of Automotive Industries - the Coca-Cola of anti-consumer lobby groups in Cannnnnnnnnnnn-bruh, which specialises in championing the car industry’s grubbier objectives in front of those fact-resistant politicians, is seeking a director of evil policy and underhanded advocacy. I could do that. So could you. Piece of piss mate. ‘Straya! You just know an organisation is getting a bit top-heavy when it needs one of those policy and advocacy directors. Policy Dude for the Galactic Empire looks quite good on Linkedin. I know this because I changed my profile to reflect that, this morning, in anticipation of actually getting the gig. It would be the chance to work with people who you find invariably entertaining and interesting - and you can’t say that about every job. I’m looking at you, chicken processing plant. You should apply too. Like, let’s make this a fair fight. (Getting the gig.) Properly Darwinian. Gloves off. Seconds out. No holds barred. However, in truth, I fear Ronald McDonald could do this job. It’s all fairly predictable stuff, attribute-wise. “...dynamic self starter” (like, hey, I got up at the crack of 11, on a Friday morning. Without a cattle prod.) … “capable of influencing policy direction at the highest level” (shit, yeah) … “recognised expertise in the important areas of government relations and policy influencing” … (Look, if you know how to pay for the long lunches and the … let’s call them … personal assistants, what else is there? It’s just basic lobbying stuff.) “Mentors and develops subordinate staff” … very important to inculcate a small, faithful clutch of unquestioningly loyal underlings who are dead keen to get ahead but also just dumb enough to believe in you … like, Goldilocks dumb - especially if you’re working in the kind of cesspit where some lackey might need to go under the bus at short notice. It’s always better if you can sell it to them, and they go willingly. ‘This is a real opportunity for you,’ kind of thing. (This happens a lot in TV.) “Serious contenders.” (Easter Island face, on the job, mate. That’s me, clearly.) “Capacity to work autonomously.” (It’s 2020 - don’t we all?) “AND under the broad direction of the CEO.” Hmmmmmmm - I think that’s currently the boss of Toyota. It’s hard to keep up. That revolving door. Anyway, he loves me, (the CEO) especially after that piece I did alerting Toyota to the problem they were having with their 2.8 diesels all seemingly going poopy in their trousers so prolifically, nationwide. I think the Galactic Emperor really appreciated the deeply respectful ‘heads-up’, from me, on that. It’d be great for he and I to work closely again like that. I’d love it. Just like Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers, only (of course) I get to be Fred, and he can be the one doing everything backwards, wearing heels.

Why is the car industry so emphatically, notoriously crap at customer care? These things are expensive. In a sane universe, you’d expect this industry to be better at looking after you. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Only the car industry could retrofit the term ‘care’ to mean, in practice: ‘Not only not to give a shit about someone who spent a lot of money here, but also to take every opportunity to violate that person financially.’ I got an e-mail from a dude named Jay Merola. Mr Merola owns a 2012 Mazda CX-9 with 109,000km on the clock. So - slightly below average kays. It developed what he calls a (quote) “small transmission kickdown issue from 5th to 4th”. So he drops it off at the dealership - it’s due for a service anyway - and he picks it up at 5pm, whence he was: “...told by the service staff that the transmission was completely shot and the car needed a new one at a cost of $18k. They recommended not to drive it but if I chose to I would have to sign a waiver. I left it there.” Ouch: Standard service and transmission tweak: That’ll be $18k. And if you want the car back, you must sign this document. Pro tip: It’s your car. You can take it any time. Never be coerced into signing any document in order to collect your own property. If they try that on: Sex and travel, if you know what I mean. "They referred the matter to their locked down Melbourne Death Star leaders [Mazda head office] who basically told them and me that there was no evidence of mechanical failure. So I had the dealer technician expert telling me the transmission was dead vs a keyboard warrior telling me there was no issue. What the???" Nothing like getting your stories straight. Nothing like it. So, just before the Bat Pumpy came out... "After some slightly heated discussions they took the car to an independent local transmission guy who changed the oil, reconfigured the TCU and said she was good to go." What if he had reluctantly just said ‘OK’ and copped the $18k on the chin? Mr Merola says "Dealers are only interested customers as cash cows. Their business model appears to be that a slight mechanical problem needs to be ripped out and completely replaced rather than repaired/serviced. Mazda does not service auto transmissions as part of routine servicing because it adds costs that consumers whinge about and they deem transmission oils as lifetime items - but a lifetime to a dealer is the warranty period. I will never buy another Mazda because the after sales service is rubbish." In a parallel universe, there’s a parallel Jay Merola in a parallel CX-9, and the parallel dealer says: “Look - we need to investigate what’s wrong with you transmission. There’s a safety dimension to this, so here’s a demonstrator CX-9 - take that home for a few days. I’d be interested to see what you think of it, because there’s been a number of enhancements over the past few years. We’ll give you a call when it’s sorted.” In the parallel universe, of course, parallel Mr Merola buys another CX-9, later that week. He tells everyone he knows how awesome Mazda’s aftersales support was, and how amazing his new CX-9 is. He doesn’t get up at 6.30 on a Saturday to vent to Darth Varder’s automotive understudy about how poorly Mazda has treated him. (I get that dealerships are independent businesses, but they fly the flag, and so, to consumers, that distinction is moot, and it’s disingenuous for carmakers to claim this as evidence in mitigation.)

How to cut new car depreciation in half. (Dead easy.) Three easy tips in this report are all it takes. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url You buy a new car. It depreciates. It’s like throwing a $50 bill out the window every few days. The truly insidious thing about depreciation is the way it attacks covertly. You don’t pay it to the end, when your knuckles are white and you’re waiting for the sales dude to come back with his trade-in offer. You know you’re about to get bent over, and the question is: ‘How hard? If you had to pay your depreciation once a week, perhaps in cash, at the post office (like, if that was a law) new car sales would plummet over the perceived injustice. So, I’ve got three tips for you that will cut the depreciation you pay in half - inspired by a somewhat disappointed dude named Laurie Howell, who’s one of us. One of you - whatever. "In 2017, partly on the strength of your reviews, we bought a Kia Sorento. It is a wonderful car - silent, economical, packed with features, comfortable and with enough power to do what you want. However, I recently saw an ad for a second-hand Sorento of the same spec and similar kilometres to ours and noted that it was selling at approximately 60% of what ours cost new. A quick check of other ads, and some Googling has revealed that the Sorento has one of the highest depreciation rates around - interestingly exceeded only by the CX-9. "What is behind this high depreciation rate? Has the 7 seater SUV bubble burst? It certainly doesn't seem to be anything about the car itself - in fact if you want a roomy, comfortable SUV, a second hand Sorento or CX9 would have to be a good buy I would think. Also, with such a high depreciation rate ($130 per week by my estimation) would we have been better off leasing the vehicle?" - Laurie Howell We’ll look at the data in detail, but no - no bubble bursting there, with seven-seat SUVs. Used car values are underpinned by supply and demand. In fact there’s a bubble in used cars generally at the moment - COVID-19 has caused many new car supply shortages, and that’s reduced the supply of late-model used cars in the market, because trade-ins are delayed, which has ramped up the value of whatever used cars are available. Also, leasing is not a hedge against depreciation - unless you jump into one of those ‘guaranteed future value’ deals with a manufacturer, and those are often completely extortionate in terms of the other aspects of the finance contract. There’s no free lunch on depreciation, and you cannot beat it with finance. Let’s crunch the numbers in this report.

Are you thinking of buying a big, fat, seven-seat SUV for the family? Maybe saving a few thousand bucks and going for the ‘poverty’ powertrain? These front-drive SUVs - if you tick this box, I fear you might discover the vehicle is just hard to live with, over time. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url When you look at some arbitrary SUV model range - there’s generally a premium powertrain and a poverty powertrain. And you have to pick one. The premium powertrain is often the one with AWD. The poverty powertrain is front-drive, typically. Sometimes there’s a better engine with the AWD - Hyundai and Kia do that. Toyota does not with Kluger - same engine (3.5 V6 atmo petrol) and the distinction there is just AWD for premium or front drive for poverty, with Kluger. Mazda borrows from the Toyota playbook on this for CX-8 and CX-9. CX-8 offers only the 2.2 diesel - in either front-drive or AWD. CX-9 - ditto, a 2.5 turbo petrol four with AWD as the ‘premium’ and front drive as the ‘poverty’. It costs you $4000 more to tick the ‘AWD’ box with Kluger and CX-8, and nearly $4500 in CX-9. Obviously, manufacturing this premium powertrain adds a transfer case (like, a gearbox module) hanging off the back of the transmission, which splits the drive front and rear, plus you have to pay for all the rear-drive componentry - the propshaft, rear diff and rear axles. Stuff like that. So it’s not as if they’re just stitching you up. AWD does cost more. That’s justified. Over at Hyundai and Kia the poverty powertrain in Sorento and Santa Fe is a 3.5-litre atmo petrol V6 with front-drive, and the premium is a 2.2-litre turbo diesel four with all-wheel drive. And the difference in price is just $3000. And I think the price gap shrinks there because V6 engines are expensive to build and package. I really tried to make the case for the V6 front driver. Like, who would buy this? Who is it right for? So, my objective was not to kick the V6 gratuitously in the nuts at the outset - because it doesn’t purport to be an equal kind of option to the diesel AWD. It’s worse. We all know it’s not going to be as good. Because the V6 is pumping all that drive to the front two wheels, and because it needs a rev to perform, it’s easy to spin the front wheels off the mark. In terms of motive power, you’ve only got about half the traction potential of the AWD. Typically you’ll feel this wheelspin when you dart out of a side street onto an arterial road, and you notice a B-double bearing down on you, unexpectedly - so you give the accelerator a squirt and the front inside wheel starts to spin. Like, what else can it do? There’s rear weight transfer thanks to the pitch and right weight transfer thanks to the roll - the left front wheel unloads and spins. They’ve done a pretty good job dialling back the throttle response in this situation, and the intervention of the traction control is pretty mild too - so, well done there, making this process as civilised as it can be. The steering gets a bit squirmy, but it’s not full-tilt torque steer, which feels like it can pull the wheel out of your hands, in extremis. And this is not that, but it’s still not as refined as the all-wheel drive option, which just grabs the road and goes.

Mitsubishi Motors, ‘Straya wants to give you a 10-year, 200,000km warranty on your future new triple-diamond-badged whatever - but there’s a catch, and you might not like it. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url I hate it when carmakers do this. Always a catch. The carrot and the stick. The good and the bad. This risk and the reward. The yin and the yang. The loan and the interest. The honeymoon, and the divorce. The blonde and the friggin’ redhead. Always the catch... Why can’t life simply be all the carrot, the good, the reward, the loan, the honeymoon, the yin, and (of course) the redhead? So, bits-o-shitty is proposing to offer you 10 years of warranty, which is up from the seven they occasionally hand out on (quote-unquote) ‘selected’ models - but here’s the catch - only if you get the car serviced by a Mitsubishi dealer. If you don’t, the warranty will revert to the five- or seven-year warranty currently on offer. Which seems harsh. As consumer law currently stands, it’s illegal for a carmaker to leverage the warranty against so-called ‘authorised dealer’ servicing. In other words, if you get your car serviced on time, by a qualified independent mechanic, etc., that cannot intrinsically void your warranty. But doubtless a bunch of arsehole lawyers have worked hard on finding a loophole in terms of the way this particular proposal is structured. The ACCC is yet to sign off on bits-o-shitty’s 10-year warranty terms. I don’t think they’re next scheduled to be awake until about October or November. And they can’t decide for themselves whether it’s a good idea or not, so they’re currently calling for submissions on this, from you, by October 2. So they haven’t yet decided to let bits-o-shitty off the chain with this one. Personally I find it absurd that a major corporation such as bits-o-shitty would offer you such a seemingly substantial consumer carrot, while at the same time threatening to lash you with such a big stick. Doubtless the carrot will be up in lights and the stick will be buried in the fine print. But why offer you such a generous gift, with such intrinsic marketing potential - like, ‘Australia’s best factory warranty’ - why offer you this present in such coercive wrapping? That’s bullshit. I get that carmakers want to make dealership servicing a mandatory thing. Unfortunately, this would be uncompetitive, and therefore it’s illegal. On one level it’s not that much of a big deal. Annual servicing - who cares? Once a year. But in reality there are several good reasons, perhaps, to get your car serviced independently. Let me know what you think about this Mitsubishi proposal in the comments below. In my view, all carmakers should just acknowledge the reality: Here in Shitsville, consumer law says cars need to be reasonably durable, in the context of their value and how you’ve used them. Ten years and 200,000 kilometres on average seems reasonable, and it shouldn’t come with unnecessary strings attached. If carmakers and car dealers want you to use their service departments, here’s a revolutionary suggestion: Make them a truly better option than the independent guy down the road. Then you wouldn’t need the friggin’ stick, and life would be all carrots - and redheads… ...and isn’t that what we all really want?

Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url I mentioned this in my full Sorento buyer’s guide and review, Monday. Kia quietly touted a 2500-kilo tow capacity for this vehicle, as early as January, and a lot of people waited a lot of months specifically for that. Unfortunately, the WonderBra effect here proved something of a let-down, and the vehicle lost a complete cup-size, lobbing with a 2000-kilo tow limit, not the anticipated 2500. I hate it when that happens. And many of you - presumably those among you who were waiting for the metaphoric double-Ds to be unleashed - have since reached out to me, somewhat deflated. I am reading some comments that the tow capacity is in fact going to be only 2t. Even the spec sheet on the Kia au website lists tow capacity as 2000kg. Can you confirm what the truth is? It would be a deal breaker for me as I tow a horse float that is just over 2t fully loaded. Thanks. - ptvfr80 Adding fuel to the fire of tow capacity confusion/conspiracy was this, which was mentioned a lot in comments and e-mails: I was interested to see that in Australia the braked towing limit is 2000kg whereas in NZ and the UK the 2.2 diesel is rated at 2500kg. I rang Kia and they couldn't explain it. Maybe it does relate to different tow ball designs in the various countries as the weights otherwise seem to be the same. Shame though. I took the GT-Line for a short test drive and was very impressed. It looks great too. - Mike Langran This of course is quite true - the Sheep-Shaggistani Kia website does list the Kiwi tow capacity at 2.5 tonnes, both in the online specs and the downloadable PDF brochure. I’m no self-appointed Kia apologist. It’s a proper egg-on-face event for them. That disappearing 500 kilos. I’m sure they had meetings about it. I’m further sure they wished they had just shut up about this, at the outset. Because with no pre-emptive commentary, there’s no vector for public disappointment. So I just want to lay out how this happened, and what gives - literally. And then we’ll crunch the numbers on what you can tow with a new Sorento, and how much payload you can carry when it’s at its maximum tow capacity. Up front though, this vehicle still represents a substantial tow capacity upgrade in real terms. And it’s currently up there with equal class leaders in this category. So, it’s hardly a disgrace in those terms. Sorento is not trying to be a Pajero Sport in terms of heavy lifting. The two tonnes carries over, but the towball download on new Sorento has increased from 100 kilos in the old model to 200 kilos on this one. And in practise this makes achieving two tonnes easier, because it can be quite difficult to limit the towball to just five per cent of aggregate trailer mass on some Aussie-spec trailers. (Typically they’re designed for 10 per cent.) Also worth acknowledging: Mazda CX-8 and CX-9 offer 2000 kilos with 150 on the ball - but both of them have a space-saver spare, which is a comprehensive pain for towing. Kluger has a full-sized spare and 2000-kilo max tow capacity, but Toyota doesn’t list towball download in its specs. And Santa Fe has 2000 kilos maximum, full-sized spare, so that’s good, but (out of the box) just 100 kilos on the towball. You can upgrade that to 150 if you fit the Genuine Load Assist Kit (which is a replacement set of rear springs, basically). I did that on my Santa Fe and did a 2000-kilo tow test with it. That worked fine. It towed brilliantly, but again, you need to work hard to tweak the towball download down to achieve not more than 7.5 per cent of ATM.

After driving the 2021 Kia Sorento for a week now, I have a question for you: How do the premium German brands differentiate themselves, into the next decade? Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url If you are an actual car-buyer … someone with cash and the need for seven seats, the new Sorento is good. Not perfect, but really good. Certainly far better than the notion you might have in your head when someone says ‘flagship Kia’. If you last looked at Kia in about 2010 (or even earlier) it’s time for you to re-calibrate. In this report I’m going to lay out exactly what I like about the new Sorento - and there is a lot to like about this vehicle. But there are imperfections too, and some things it does poorly - right at the end of this report I’ll address those shortcomings. This review is independent. Everything I say here is my honest personal opinion about the vehicle, and the company selling it. This is the fourth generation Sorento - and all-new platform, updated diesel, all new transmission for the diesel, new interior and exterior, new infotainment OS, etc. The diesel is a 2.2-litre turbo - an evolution of the predecessor. It’s got an aluminium block now, which shaves almost 20 kilos off the bathroom scales, and delivers hybrid-like fuel economy - 6.1 litres per 100km on the official combined cycle test, and 5.3 on the highway. You really should consider the diesel, but if you’re a ‘petrol-only’ kind of dude or dudette, there’s a V6 petrol in the range as well. If you’re an average sort of driver looking for a versatile SUV with five seats and a large cargo bay, or seven seats and modest cargo capacity, then Sorento V6 is a definite starter. The diesel is definitely better - it’s smoother and more composed thanks in part to the all-wheel-drive powertrain, and also because the diesel just makes more mid- and low-rpm power. It’s also a lot more fuel efficient, but more expensive. Sorento diesel AWD is compatible with dirt roads and easy fire trails and driving of that nature - but if you throw properly difficult terrain its way, you’ll probably break something. It’s just not designed for that. All-wheel drive is a real plus for family camping. Like, if it rains overnight and the dirt road you drove in on turns to mush, you stand a far better chance of fronting up for work Monday morning, with AWD. If that’s you, buy the diesel. There are four specification grades. Starting at the bottom is the ‘S’, then the ‘Sport’, ‘Sport+’ and (topping out the range) the GT-Line. And there’s an $18,000 gap between the V6 front drive ‘S’ poverty pack at about $47k drive-away, and the range topping diesel AWD GT-Line at about $65k. So, how do you make sense of that? I’d suggest it’s like this: Bottom of the range is there to appeal to beancounters - specifically the kind of beancounters who buy vehicles by the dozen for corporate fleets. They strip out almost everything they can to get the price low. If you’re buying for yourself, on a tight budget, take one step up because Sport is a lot better than S - and it’s only $3000 more. Sport+ is the smart choice on value - it’s a $4500 step up. You get a proximity key with pushbutton start, power tailgate for juggling the groceries, leather, remote start, heated seats and USBs in the back. GT-Line is the works burger - also diesel only - and it’s going to cost you about $6500 more than Sport+. It’s got everything - premium instrument cluster, blind view monitor, you can park it remotely, you get a 360 camera, and premium sound. This stuff is all nice, but can you live without it in Sport+? Yeah. Absolutely.

The albatross around Volkswagen’s neck, which we know and love as ‘Dieselgate’, is certainly not flying away any time soon. The latest uplifting development there is in this report. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Germany: a court this week happily ruled that former Volkswagen CEO, Martin Winterkorn, will stand trial on fraud charges linked to the company’s global emissions crimes, where it knowingly put profit ahead of human health, and said ‘hey, love us anyway’. Which worked out so well for them, through the prism of retrospectivity. To date, Volkswagen has paid more than 30 billion Euros (which is about $50 billion in Shitsvillian micro-pesos) in penalties and settlements for being such fine, outstanding citizens and paragons of global virtue, etc. They dropped their reputation in the sewer, as a consequence of these careful decisions approved at the highest level, which remains a real ‘surprise and delight’ event for a reporter such as me. Imagine how close we’d be to having a therapeutic goods administration-approved zombie-pandemic-curing vaccine with that kind of spare cash to throw at it. Just saying… Like, what can’t you cure or solve, for 30 billion Euros? After five years of carefully thinking this through, a three-judge panel in beautiful downtown Braunschweig in Volkswagen's neck of the woods (Lower Saxony) ruled that car buyers suffered a financial loss when they bought a car without being aware it was equipped with the illegal software. Such a paradox. It’s not like they could have put: “New Golf diesel, now with loss-ensuring illegal code to pump up the toxicity” in the brochure. Not even in the fine print. Epicurus could have had a field day with that, except of course he’s been dead for 2360-ish years... The court in Bratwurst found a (quote) “predominant likelihood” of conviction in the fraud charge. Ze Chermans are quite precise like that. Look at how well they run their railways. It’s amazing. They’re good at predicting the foreseeable future. Just saying. The three wise Cherman judges said four other defendants would face trial on fraud charges connected to aggravated tax evasion and illegal advertising. Dates for a trial are yet to be set. They hate tax evasion. Courts, and governments. Just ask Wesley Snipes. They have no sense of humour whatsoever, on this stuff. To regulators, tax evasion is worse than murder. Public trials are always fun, too, which Big Marty’s is apparently set to be. There’s really nothing a former corporate rockstar loves more than having his dirty laundry oxygenated on the nightly news.

You probably saw Daimler’s claims this week about introducing Level Three autonomy by way of robot S Class. Let’s talk about that. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Level Three is where the so-called ‘driver’ might as well be brain-dead - up to 60 kays an hour. Big, bad suppository says the lawyers are just working it out with the government and they’ll roll it out forthwith. Apparently Level Three is gunna be unlocked on the new S-Class after the regulatory imprimatur in Germany, from Angela. And then they might hide these features in, lesser Mercs, behind a paywall. Like, swipe black Amex here if you want that unlocked, kinda thing. Maybe a monthly subscription. Because, avarice knows no bounds in the Daimler boardroom. Let us not forget Daimler just promised failsafe autonomous cars up to 60 kays an hour, but can’t actually get a right-drive AWD Benz not to crab like the worst pre-production prototype ever, whenever you’re not going dead ahead. I’m just saying that for technical perspective. They won’t even admit the cars do that, and when they do, they claim it’s not a defect, but rather an ‘operational characteristic’. So: are these really the kinds of dudes you want putting robot cars out there on the roads, around us? I was all set to pat them on the back here - like, well done. Level Three. Substantial technical achievement. Electric Jesus is gunna have a fit … so that’s nice. But then, Ola Kallenius said: “If we are successful with the legal framework for Level Three which we predict we will be, then [we will be] the first one to plant a flag on the moon in terms of doing Level Three.” - Ola Kallenius, boss of Daimler Did he just compare Level Three autonomy to Apollo? I suppose just putting a flag on the moon is not that hard. But you have to get it there first. (It’s an intrinsic part of the activity.) And that is properly difficult. Getting a flag on the moon certainly puts Level Three autonomy in perspective. So, to Ola Kallenius from Daimler I would say: This comparison is offensive to the greatest technical achievement in human history. I’m no snowflake. I don’t want him cancelled. I actually find it quite entertaining when these masters degree bigwigs throw their credibility under the bus by being so staggeringly out of touch with the facts. Just pointing out it’s a completely crass comparison which is also divorced from reality. Let’s compare the two achievements, with a little beer-garden rocket science, shall we?

If you're thinking about buying an electric car, listen to this report. Is there a rational case for spending the big bucks on a Hyundai Kona Electric? I lived with one for three months to find out - and I'm the country's least-evangelical EV reviewer. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

If you don't get your car serviced at the authorised dealer, you might lose your 'free' roadside assistance. (Even if you got it serviced on time by an authorised mechanic.) This report is based on the recent real-life experience of an AutoExpert viewer who suffered a dead battery at the roadside, and found his roadside assistance had been cancelled. Kia's roadside assist T&Cs: https://www.kia.com/au/owners/roadside-assist.html Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

I just wanted to make you aware of some upcoming imminent developments in some of my recommended new vehicles. That’s next. I’m John Cadogan from AutoExpert.com.au … and I get new cars cheap for buyers here in ‘Straya. You can enquire here >> for that. AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ * Kia Sorento update: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/2021-kia-sorento-details-leaked-dealer * 4x4 ute developments: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/2020-ute-market-buyers-guide * New BT-50: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/2021-mazda-bt-50-is-it-really-worth-buying * Lewis Hamilton's incredible race with a statue: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/lewis-hamilton-loses-a-race-with-reality Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url I’ve worked quite hard to be the country’s most hated automotive journalist … and also the most biased new car reviewer on the planet. In this era of equality I remain so emphatically prejudiced against cars that are shit, and which you should not buy, and against carmakers who seem to think there’s no obligation to look after you if you have a genuine problem. I am a bastard like that. People view bias like it’s a bad thing. Au contraire, I say. Anyhoo - there’s movement at the station, etc., in respect of some of my most recommended cars. So I guess you need to stay informed, the better to decide whether to sit on your suitcase full of Shitsvillian micro-pesos, or strike while the iron is - kinda - warm in respect of a strong runout deal on the outgoing model.

If you think you can get away with towing an absurdly heavy or poorly levelled trailer with a cheap hack, think again. Weight distribution hitches and load-levelling hitches are not the get out of jail card you might be hoping for... Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

In this report: Big difference between what you might be told when buying a new car, and what goes on the contract. Pro tip: What you're told is likely to be A) persuasive in nature, or B) flat-out coercive, and as a result C) it's highly likely to be bullshit. It's what's in the contract that counts. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

The world’s most high profile bullshitting billionaire genius, Electric Jesus, sent Tesla shares into a six per cent tailspin when he recently unveiled a stainless steel joke without a punchline, at the Plug-in Scientology cult facility in Freemont, California. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url The world’s most high profile bullshitting billionaire genius, Electric Jesus, sent Tesla shares into a six per cent tailspin when he recently unveiled a stainless steel joke without a punchline, at the Plug-in Scientology cult facility in Freemont, California. The so-called Tesla Cybertruck is essentially a Homer Simpson-designed stainless steel Humvee minus of course all connection to satire. It also has an element of mentally retarded stealth fighter about it also, I think you’d agree. It’s the perfect prank reveal, that wasn’t. The ‘Stevie Wonder’ launch edition Cybertruck is expected to retail for $39,990 Retardistani Pesos for the poverty pack with just one electric motor, and rear drive. It’ll stretch up to just under 70 Retardistani big ones for the three-motor all-wheel drive version. There’s a dual-motor AWD version as well, somewhere in the middle on price. Apparently the poverty version is good for 400 kilometres. The dual motor variant offers 480 kays of range and the tri-motor jobbie will take you 800 kilometres. But they’re all just just claims from the summit of Electric Bullshit Mountain at this stage, of course. Like the much hyped Tesla Semi which, EJ assured us would be clogging the roads by now, the Cybertruck does not actually exist. So there’s still hope. It’s just a threat at this stage. Speaking of which, Bullshit Six says the tri-motor Cybertruck will do 0-100 in 2.9 seconds. Which is rather fast. It’ll carry a payload of up to 1.6 tonnes and tow more than 3.4 tonnes. If you want the self-driving one that doesn’t really drive itself and isn’t actually autonomous, that’ll be a $7000 option. It’s a six-seater, the body is made of (quote) “ultra-hard 30X cold-rolled stainless steel” which kinda explains the ridiculous shape. And of course it’s glazed with (quote) “armour glass”. The English language: so friggin’ complex. However, at the reveal, when wannabe Tony Stark’s conscripted some - I dunno - some millennial piss boy from the cult to demonstrate the toughness of the vehicle’s illiterate glass by throwing a metal ball at it (which is not one of bulletproof glass’s toughest tests, I note) the window shattered. Twice. Yesssssss! Which is just impossibly excellent as public spectacles go, I think you’d agree. If you suspend all disbelief, you will ‘learn’ (if that’s the right word) that the new Tesla ‘Stealth Cockroach’ Stupidtruck will be offered with an electric ATV, the so-called Cyberquad, which Electric Jesus says will be available only as a genuine Cybertruck option. (Note to self - might need an extra charging point in the Fat Cave. Or not.) So, if you’re a rich, environmentally evangelical dick with a dysfunctional relationship with aesthetics, who failed physics and seeks to save the planet by overconsuming absurd products that really won’t help, the new Tesla tri-motor Stevie Wonder Cybertruck and Cyberquad boxed set could be just right for you. No plans have been announced for right-hand drive or ‘Strayan homologtion for the mighty Tesla Stupidtruck, and I think we can all thank the Lord, Electric Jesus, sincerely, for that.

If your car has a problem and you're not getting it resolved at the dealership, here are the essential steps you must take. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did this report help you? You can help support the channel, and keep consumers better protected, via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

If you’re about to spit out a child and deliver just what humanity needs - a higher population count - yessssss! - buying an SUV is seen (by many) as the price of admission to Club Breeder. Keep watching, though, because this report will save you $5-$10k. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url This is all one question, but I get a hundred different flavours of this every month, so split it up into chunks, the better to slice and dice it once and for all. "I need some help! We're about to have a baby and it's time to upgrade the wife's car (currently a VW Golf GTi) and get her something bigger and safer. I've been watching a lot of John's videos to narrow down the options. We want something new-ish (dealer demo or very low Ks). The wife is a tech-savvy car enthusiast who likes her cars to have a sporty feel/performance. She's also big into design and branding so looks (interior and exterior) play a big part. She's big on sunroofs (panoramic a bonus). She wants boot space (pram/shopping/suitcase). The upper limit of my budget is around $35K. I'm not really much of a car/brand man, so I just want bang for buck around a time where we're going down to one income and we can better use the money elsewhere." How unlike a woman to want it all, despite racing up to a cliff of impending financial constraint… So let’s weigh this up in the domain of objective facts: $35k is insufficient for a new/demo sporty, hi-tech, fully loaded, panoramic sunroofed SUV that’s objectively larger than a Golf (which is really a conventional ’small car’ segment entry like a Kia Cerato, Hyundai i30 or Corolla/Mazda3, etc). It’s a complete industry misnomer because the so-designated ‘small’ cars really are not that small. Back to the demands of the sunroof-infatuated car-nut brand snob wife: Medium to large SUVs under $100k are not going to be as sporty as a Golf GTI. Obvious conclusion: It’s time to compromise. Fact: The Golf and all other cars in this segment are large enough for a baby capsule, a pram, a suitcase and shopping. Especially as the rear seat split-folds. Cars in this segment are also quite safe. My advice is: Get a pram and some shopping bags, and a suitcase, and experiment with the Golf. Leave the kerbside rear seat up (because you want to be taking your kid out of the car on the kerbside, for safety) and fold the other part of the rear seat down. Guess what? All that baby-related crap fits - without leaving the baby compromised. So I’m really not seeing an objective reason to upgrade, beyond just a personal preference to join the ‘I spat out a baby and bought an SUV’ club. Do remember: a nice, sporty SUV with all the toys - like a Tucson Highlander or a CX-5 Akera - is going to be around $50k. And that’s $15,000 more than you want to spend, on the cusp of sucking it up financially and going down to one income, at the same time as bringing a money-sucking diminutive human home from hospital.

Dealer delivery fee: Just look up at the clock on the wall in the dealership: It’s bullshit o’clock, again. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Let us bust some entrenched car dealer and car industry bullshit: My Local mini dealership in Brisbane is asking $3990 dealer delivery. MINI Australia suggests $2500. The Local dealer claims the dealer delivery fee comprises the sea freight/land transport form UK factory, to Brisbane, Australia. I’m highly doubtful of their claim. Please advise. - Allyn Dealer delivery is a substantially bullshit charge - an entrenched industry rip-off. $4k ‘delivery’ on a $30k car - you’ve got to be kidding. The industry generally charges about $2000 foe so-called ‘delivery’ on mainstream cars, and heaps more than that if you’re too stupid to resist the proposed $15 grand on a Porsche, or $7000 on a Range Rover. Just for disambiguation: The price here does not include international shipping. That’s just classic car dealer bullshit. Get them to show you an invoice where they pay the shipping. (Pro tip: such an invoice does not exist.) The dealer does not ship the car to Australia. The importer does. The dealer pays the importer a wholesale price for the car. This includes the car, the shipping cost, taxes, GST - whatever - when they buy the car to put it in stock, to sell to you. There is no separate shipping charge that is magically passed on separately. If it were, cars would be the only consumer item on earth with this quaint pricing structure. Can you imagine buying a refrigerator for $1000, only to be told across the counter that you’ll need to spring for another $150 to cover the cost of shipping to Australia? Can you imagine paying such a charge on a refrigerator, without question? Without evidence? Neither can I. Dealer delivery is a fee for registering the car, screwing on the number plates, filling the tank, detailing the car and making sure it starts and runs. (If you’re lucky.) Dealers will say it includes shipping from overseas, because otherwise the cost looks unjustifiably extortionate, which it is (especially at $4k for a friggin’ MINI). $500-$1000 is probably reasonable. Anything more is extortion in a velvet glove. They don’t even deliver the car. You come in and collect it. So - classic falsehood right there. This is one of those situations where you and the salesman are not equals. You have all the power in a new car negotiation, which is why they so like to take charge. But should you choose to take the upper hand you can - because you have the money, and there are dozens of other cars you could buy. Make sure they know this. Offer - very generously - to pay them no more than $1000 for delivery. Make sure they know you’re walking out the door if they don’t agree, and don’t negotiate. Definitely don’t split the difference on this.

Hybrid technology follow-up - some of you disagree with me on their underlying energy management voodoo. And that’s totally OK Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url While I agree that a small diesel is best on the highway, I'd still say hybrids are better than standard petrol cars because they use Atkinson cycle engines. These engines are quite a lot more efficient than a standard petrol, but are low powered for their size, this doesn't matter as they have an electric motor to help out when you need to get up to speed quickly. - aussieguy69 I kind of agree with that - if you want fuel efficiency and not performance. Hybrids (and some other cars like the new Kia Seltos with 2.0-litre CVT powertrain) use the Atkinson cycle. Atkinson is a thermodynamics hack - they leave the inlet valve open a bit longer and this ejects, by contra-flow, a little of the inlet air, from the cylinder. (It contra-flows back up the inlet port.) And that hacks the ratio of the compression ratio to the expansion ratio. Atkinson cycle engines have less compression relative to their expansion, and that derives greater thermal efficiency - at the expense of peak power performance. So you typically don’t see Atkinson cycle engines on exciting cars. My point about hybrids is that the regenerative braking is how they do their energy management voodoo. This - and not the Atkinson cycle - is what sets hybrids apart. Capturing kinetic energy under brakes, converting it to electricity and using it to get going again. That is hybrid’s big trick. On the highway, where regenerative braking opportunities are minimised, it would be better if you could simply wave Harry Potter’s wand and magic away the whole electric side of the hybrid system - because in those conditions it really is just excess baggage. If you want confirmation of this, look up the fuel figures and compare ordinary cars to hybrids. Hybrids are generally better on fuel around town than they are on the highway, even though urban driving is very energy inefficient driving (with lots of stop-start). The latest Corolla Hybrid, for example, uses 10 per cent more fuel out on the highway, compared with the ‘urban’ test. It’s regenerative braking doing that, not the Atkinson cycle. Aussieguy69 went on, representatively. "Just one other thing, hybrids not only charge their batteries from regenerative braking, but they also charge from the engine if it's ever running but not under enough load to be most efficient.....then it turns the engine off and uses electricity until the battery is drained a bit, then re-starts the engine and repeats the process". - aussieguy69 Some hybrids will charge the battery with the internal combustion engine. Absolutely. Typically the ones with big batteries that rely on them heavily for conventional levels of motive power. This is also a nice idea, potentially, but unfortunately that’s not an example of energy management voodoo. It’s a compromise in hybrid vehicles where the electric side of the powertrain is designed to do a lot of the heavy lifting. You really don’t get a thermodynamics or efficiency benefit from that - if you did, it would be a violation of the second law of thermodynamics. And that’s really just a happy fantasy.

Nissan has done the absolute minimum to refresh the 2020 Patrol. (But they have managed to go all-out botching the English language and applied science. So that’s nice.) And yet, the new Patrol might still be actually worth buying - full details next. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Patrol is like kinda Joan Rivers - ongoing exterior upgrades, but same old bones. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. They’ve been quite durable. And so also with the Patrol. It’s pretty tough too. This time around, all you get is: new lights, new bumpers and some bolt-on safety tech. Ugliness has gone up at least one order of magnitude - almost to elite LX 570 visual abomination levels. Especially the Ti-L. It’s bean beaten with the ugly stick, and left for dead. Well done there. No fundamental changes, however - same powertrain, same body. Significant price-hike. Nissan Shitsville is simply milking Patrol for all it’s worth before phasing the old girl out, basically. They’ve also changed the wheels - but they’re still 18s; just a different design - and added all the borderline-annoying safety features that the car industry is yet to think through properly. Like auto emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance, rear cross-traffic alert and blind-spot monitoring. About the only worthwhile inclusion there is adaptive cruise control on the low-spec Patrol Ti. (Previous Ti-L already had that.) But brace for impact on the price, because it has ramped up again, for the third time in two years. Let’s look at the economics, though, because that’s actually still pretty strong. Top-spec Toyota Landcruiser Sahara diesel is a more or less direct competitor that costs $133,000, drive-away, and the latest Patrol Ti-L is $103,000. Diesel Landcruisers offer more range on a full tank, and diesel is safer for refuelling at the roadside from portable containers, if you’re a proper outback adventurer beating the desert into submission, or something. The diesel is also better for towing, obviously, with more peak torque, but the Patrol has more peak power, so it’s better for highway overtaking. And this ‘dusting’ issue does hang, like a cloud, over the Landcruiser. Based on the official fuel tests, Landcruiser drinks 9.5 L/100km combined cycle, while the Patrol is 14.4. The $30,000 price difference and the consumption difference are interesting: Out there, in the future, there’s a point on the odometer where the Patrol buyer and the Landcruiser buyer reach fuel and capital cost equivalence. The Patrol starts out cheaper and then the higher cost of fuel kicks in, while the Cruiser starts out expensive, but, kay-for-kay, you pay less for fuel. Have a guess how far you have to drive for those costs to become coincident? It’s about 400,000 kays. So, ballpark estimate, for the first 10 laps of the planet, the Patrol buyer remains in front on price. This is a powerful incentive to prefer the Patrol, I must say. When you run the numbers.

Should you buy a hybrid? This obviously depends on you - what you want and how you drive - and this report is inspired by common questions from people like you. Full details next. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Toyota and to a lesser degree Hyundai have really inspired many mainstream new car buyers right now to consider a hybrid for the first time. Toyota with the hype surrounding the new RAV4 Hybrid (pity about the production botch there) but also with the company’s affordable Corolla Hybrid and the Prius, which has become the Coca-Cola of hybrids, owing to smart positioning and long-term market presence. Hyundai also lobbing relatively recently with the Ioniq - which was just upgraded. As well as a straight EV version, Ioniq is available in two flavours of hybrid - the self-charging one that recharges the battery with regenerative braking, and the PHEV Ioniq, which also recharges by plugging into the grid (optionally). So, more people than ever are considering hybrids for the first time. Tim Bosher is one of them: We live in regional Vic. My wife drives about 100k per week locally and has a weekly 250k return trip to the city at freeway speeds - so her annual k's are a bit over the average. I have asked a couple of dealers about the pros & cons of hybrid cars for the above type of driving mix and their responses seem to be largely bullshit. What is your take - and when does the price premium for hybrids make them a realistic proposition. - Tim Bosher Here’s the answer that lines up with reality: hybrids do their energy management voodoo by regeneratively braking. When you brake or even just coast to slow down, they convert some kinetic energy to electricity and store it in a battery to help you get going again, presumably when the lights go green. It is proper energy management voodoo - if you use Arthur C Clarke’s epic definition for magic. And if you don’t: look it up. It’s awesome. Hybrids are therefore far more effective at saving fuel driving around town. Because that’s where you do all the voodoo-invoking coasting and braking. On the freeway, all the hybrid equipment - the battery and the motor, and the control and management architecture - it all tends just to become excess baggage. It’s just not very effective ‘out there’. In Tim’s case, 70 per cent of his wife’s driving is on the freeway, so she’d probably get a better result on fuel economy and emissions in a small diesel car, like an i30 diesel. Because diesels really stretch their fuel economy legs on the freeway - and that kind of driving is just ‘Goldilocks’ for keeping the DPF (the diesel particle filter) happy and healthy. PHEV is a hybrid with a bigger than usual battery that you can plug in overnight and recharge. So it’s kinda BEV + ICE as a range extender, as the good doc says, but I’d categorise it more as a Hybrid with a big battery that gives it additional, but still extremely short-distance, low demand battery-only operating capability. That’s generally how they roll. You might get 30 or 40 kays of battery-only operation at low loads - but if you pull out to overtake, the internal combustion engine will kick in. Because the electric side of the plug-in hybrid is only good for low to moderate performance. On the battery - in a PHEV it’s a big battery in the context of hybrids but still small for an EV. Batteries are so expensive, which is why, for example the PHEV Hyundai Ioniq is so much cheaper than the full-on Ioniq EV.

Supercar-shaped Corvette headed to Shitsville in 2020. Yesssssss! It'll cost about $170,000. Jesus. Same car in Retardistan: $60 grand US (which is about $90k ‘Strayan). So: Who’s gouging who? Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url This report is inspired by a dude named Chris Papa, by e-mail. "Could you detail Luxury Car Tax and other hidden fees? The 2020 Chevrolet Corvette is set to arrive in Australia in RHD. Its estimated retail price here will be about $170,000. This is preposterous considering that in the US the 2020 Corvettes will retail for around USD $60,000 and converted to AUD that equates to approximately $87,000. "Why is there such an outrageous markup (of about 100 per cent)? How much of that is LCT? What would the rest of the cost be made up of? Why are carmakers (desperate to make more sales and some with very deep pockets) not lobbying the Australian Federal Government to abolish LCT?" - Chris Papa Just to get the finances out of the way here: Australia has a free-trade agreement with Retardistan. That’s been in place for nearly 15 years, so to the best of my knowledge there’s no protective import duty on US cars. Nor is there import duty on cars from Japan, Thailand or South Korea - for the same reason. So the vast majority of cars on sale in Australia currently are import duty-free. Luxury car tax is indexed so the threshhold increases every year with the CPI. It’s currently imposed on conventional cars over $67,525, or allegedly green cars over $75,526. In both cases it’s an additional 33 per cent on the amount of that car’s value over the threshhold. So if you run the numbers on that, ballpark, if the 2020 Shitsville Corvette is $170,000 - that equates to about $25,000 in luxury car tax. Meaning the cost of the Corvette minus LCT is about $145,000. So, ballpark again: if the same car in Retardistan is $90k, there’s a $55k disparity between the Retardistan Corvette and ours. Part of that is going to be amortising the cost of gearing up for right-hand drive production over the number of right-drive units they think they’ll produce. There’s not too many right-drive markets - there’s us, Japan, the UK, Macau. But essentially the bulk of Corvettes are going to be left-hookers. So that’s part of it. The rest is just GM’s internal pricing structure and what they think they can get away with here. You can look at it like a gouge if you want, but the Corvette is going to be faster - a lot faster, at least in a straight line - than a car like a BMW M4, which is about the same price. And it’s a lot cheaper than a proper mid-engined supercar. Still got that legendary GM build quality, however. Which could be entertaining. Just for perspective, the ‘poverty’ 911 Porsche (not strictly speaking mid-engined) is about $230k here in Shitsville. Exactly the same car with the wheel on the same side, in Brexitpotamia is $155k (including 20 per cent VAT). The povvo 911 is $60k more than the Corvette, as well as being more than a second slower to 100. So there’s that. If you want that level of performance, it’s cheap at $170,000.

Nissan and Mazda - dead from the neck up, sadly. Kinda like a cockroach minus its head. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Five or six weeks ago, I fired a broadside into Nissan when the company - through its local dealer - sought to dodge what I viewed as its consumer law obligations. It attempted to stitch up a shitbox leaf owner, Philip Carlson, to the tune of $33,000 for a replacement Nissan Leaf battery, which in my view should have been replaced for free under Australian Consumer Law. Happily enough, 170,000 people just like you watched those two Nissan reports, to date. For a total of 1.4 million minutes. Which is, to me, a brain bender. It’s a total eyeballs-on-screen engagement of 2.6 years worth of cumulative watch time, distributed among 170,000 people. Potential car buyers. Exactly one month later I covered the case of Mazda being dragged to the ankle-grabbing room - I mean: Federal Court - by the ACCC for alleged deception and unconscionable conduct. Also quite serious, if proven. Two videos there. 130,000 viewers - eyeballs glued to the screen for a total of just over one million minutes. (That’s almost two years.) In these reports, I urged you to write to Nissan’s and Mazda’s chief spin doctors, Karla Leach and Mark Flintoft, respectively, politely but firmly to deliver unequivocally what you thought about each company’s conduct. And I know hundreds of you e-mailed these two PR types - because dozens and dozens of you CC’d me on those e-mails. And I was extremely gratified by the polite tone and well thought out, reasoned, rational arguments I saw. You know what didn’t happen - to the absolute best of my knowledge? No response from Mazda or Nissan to you. So, let’s say you are a PR type, and one day, without warning, your inbox fills up with critical feedback from the public. This is in your wheelhouse. What do you do? Do you pretend it’s just not happening and concentrate instead on keeping your sinister clutch of tame journalists and influencers happy, and maintain your platinum frequent flier status, which, let’s face it, is quite important? I really don’t think ‘deafening silence’ is an option. Here’s why: if somebody out there, in the public, takes the time to write what they think, to you, politely and respectfully, as the CC’d e-mails I received were, and they send it to you … then I’d suggest there’s a level of quite strong commitment behind that stated position embodied in those actions. For the recipient - the spin doctor - it’s a binary proposition: You can choose to respond, or not. And hey - if you respond it doesn’t have to be bespoke. It can be canned, cut and paste, and the intern can filter your e-mails and send back the canned responses, but at least it’s a friggin’ response. I’d suggest that every critical e-mail is the chance to turn someone around, and this is the business you spin doctors are in. ‘We understand your concerns, we hear what you’ve said, and here’s what we’re doing to address the issue.’ How f-ken hard is it? Electing not to respond is a gold-plated guarantee of the sender inferring you are a worthless mother-lover who does not give a fuck what they think. And that’s exactly what has occurred here, I suspect. Because not one of the 300,000 people who viewed those reports sent me an e-mail with Nissan’s nor Mazda’s responses in it, nor posted the same in the comments feed. Conclusion: It didn’t happen.

BMW says: Stop driving our cars. Right now. Literally: Put down the keys and walk to the nearest taxi, and we’ll pick up the tab. Full details next. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Here’s some confronting news for you, if you own an ageing 3 Series BMW: In an unprecedented move, BMW Shitsville is urging the owners of 12,663 E46 3 Series BMWs - built between 21 November 1997 and June 30, 2000 to stop driving those vehicles immediately. As in, today. Now. According to Rod Sims’s henchman - henchperson - at the ACCC, Delia Rickard: “Because of the critical level of risk, the ACCC urges people to stop driving their vehicle immediately and to contact BMW to arrange to have their vehicle inspected as soon as possible.” I’d suggest that conservative corporations and regulators in this sphere, such as BMW and the ACCC respectively, do not use terms like ‘immediately’ and ‘critical level of risk’ frivolously. Safe to assume this message is not clickbait. A new type of defective Takata airbag has been linked to what the ACCC is calling (quote) “an abnormal pattern of airbag deployments in Australia, Japan and the US”. Bottom line: the Takata airbag recall just got slightly bigger, and somewhat more serious. It’s being reported that these specific airbags have been linked to one death and one serious injury here - authorities are being a little cagey about the details surrounding that, however, because the death remains a matter before the coroner. The ACCC and BMW are collaborating and co-operating on this. There’s no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of BMW. You can check the VIN code online to see if your ageing 3 Series is affected at recall.bmw.com.au (repeat). Or call 1800 243 675 (repeat) - that’s a dedicated BMW airbag recall hotline - or drop into (or call) your local dealer. In a taxi. Keep the receipt. Or, better still: “BMW will arrange to tow your vehicle to repair facilities for inspection, or send a mobile technician out to your premises or vehicle’s location to inspect the vehicle.” - ACCC And here’s my favourite part of this story: “If your vehicle has been fitted with one of these dangerous airbags, BMW will arrange a loan or hire car or reimbursement for alternative transportation costs until airbag replacement parts are available or until other arrangements are made. You may also wish to discuss the vehicle being purchased back by BMW.” - ACCC This is an example of rock solid corporate conduct - a rarity in the car industry here, I think you’d agree. These affected vehicles are two decades old, but nobody’s being left out in the cold, and BMW is picking up the tab. You want to see robust commitment to the customer? This is it. Even if that customer is the second, third or fourth owner. I’m really not sure we’d see the same level of ethical conduct from the Monkey-gassers at the Volkswagen Group, or the three-pronged Swastika specialists at Daimler. So - complete respect for doing the right thing on this occasion. It could take the BMW as long as 18 months to replace any defective airbags - and that’s simply gotta be a supply issue. Hence the offer for loan and hire cars, taxi reimbursement, and/or buybacks.

In this episode I took my new YouTube live-streaming setup out of the blocks for the first time - properly out of the blocks, and decided to do a whole half-hour segment entirely ad-lib, answering your questions. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

This episode was an opportunity to test-drive my new live-streaming 3-camera video studio and also get inside the head of the kinds of issues that do new-car buyers' heads in... Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

Vlog-style report today - it's not every day you have to pick up a $350k luxury saloon, and deal with people who seem hell-bent on shooting themselves in the foot in the service department. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url "Regrettably, my 2015 Captiva has a (potentially) blown turbo. I am taking it to Holden next week for it to be assessed. Luckily my car is still under warranty. Will my turbo be replaced under warranty?" So I’m not going to use the guy’s name here, because I don’t want to embarrass him or affect the drama playing out at the dealership. And in response to him, I explained that warranty covers manufacturing defects and premature failures. So, if you have your car serviced on time and you don’t abuse it, these kinds of defects are almost certain to be covered under warranty. If you don’t get it serviced properly then they’re standing on a pretty strong foundation when they tell you the repair bill is going to be your problem. So I asked our hero about the service history - and the response I got made me feel a little like Neo, taking the red pill. "I got the car regularly serviced at the kms but not in line with the months. For example, when it was due for the 75,000km/45-month service, it was serviced at 76,500km/50 months. Would that be a risk to a warranty claim? The car had never been abused just driven as a family car." It’s the time or the distance - whichever comes first. That’s absolutely clear in all the documentation. ‘I didn’t know’ is not a defence. Most modern cars have a service indicator - a message pops up and says ‘service due now’. There’s absolutely no ambiguity about what that means. A massive five months late on the time. Jesus. Five months… (That’s owner abuse, even if you drive like Liz Regina’s in the back, every day.) So this is the bit where I explain to the punter that bracing for significant financial impact seems prudent. If you’re ever in this position I wouldn’t mention the service history - but it’s gunna take a miracle of Biblical proportion for them to overlook that. You simply must get services done on time - meaning time or distance - whichever occurs first - otherwise it does constitute owner abuse. The average car in Australia drives just under 15,000 kilometres a year, and that means about half of all cars subject to 12-month/15,000-kilometre service intervals are going to have the time come up before the distance. The other thing to realise is that the time component is not a rip-off. If you don’t drive that much, this is hell on earth for engine oil. Lots of impurities get into your oil, thanks to not very much full-temperature operation between each cold start. This is very bad for your engine. It’s why they engineer in a time component in the first place. And you can’t negotiate this away, no matter how clever an orator you are. It’s not a debate. Servicing is a black and white obligation. If you fail to meet these obligations and you’re looking at a massive bill, about all you can do is think about getting a decent independent mechanic to do the repairs, because that’s gunna be thousands of dollars cheaper than a dealership, and you could also think about fitting a quality, aftermarket turbo for the same reason.

Should you still buy a new Mazda in light of the ACCC’s unconscionable conduct consumer law court case? Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Lot of response to Friday’s report on the ACCC’s festive Mazda-reaming legal preparations. "Weren’t you recommending Mazda over other brands? Or is it a case of do you want to be shot once with a 22 or six times with a 357 magnum?" - Anon Amos To those of you who are confused or uncertain about where I stand on this, and whether or not to buy a new Mazda, now, or in 2020: I’d say decide for yourself, but to me it plays out like this: The engineering from Mazda is typically first-rate. Mazda today is what Honda was in the 1990s - the BMW of the east, essentially. BMW would probably disagree there. Whatever. 21st Century Mazda is a real driver of mainstream automotive innovation. The ACCC’s allegations point to a culture of poor customer service within the organisation, here in Arse-trailer, and if true, that is a serious problem. This is yet to be determined by a court. You might infer a line between smoke and fire here, but sometimes smoke is just smoke. We’ll have to see. Mazda is reacting to the ACCC’s court case now. It’s inconceivable that, in addition to making defensive bullshit public statements in respect of the pending court case, that a series of far more serious commercial meetings and confidential communications is not also taking place at Mazda right now. One of those meetings would be about making sure the ACCC does not get any more cannon fodder from customers who get stiffed this week, next week, and into the future. Like, let’s not give the regulator any more ammunition. If you were Big Bhindi - boss of Mazda Shitsville - do you think you might send an urgent communique to all your dealers directing them to be model citizens of customer compliance and complaint resolution, henceforth? I think you probably would. I certainly would. So, in short, because of the excellence of the engineering, the high-level regulatory scrutiny, and the perfect storm of depressed sales generally compounded by what I’m sure will be a stampede of customers away from Mazda following the ACCC’s high profile press conference last week, I actually think it’s a pretty solid time to buy a Mazda. The product has always been pretty good, and recent events suggest to me that consumer law compliance is likely to improve dramatically from today. I know that’s counterintuitive - or at least that’s how it might seem to you - but I don’t want to punish Mazda. Mazda’s commercial success or failure is a matter for them. I think compliance will improve from today, and the product remains excellent. The icing on the cake here is: If you give it a couple of weeks, and there is a profound drop in enquiry across Mazda dealerships, the end of this month will be a real opportunity for you to secure an excellent deal on a new Mazda.

Triton's a quiet achiever with decent performance and a proven track record of good reliability and support - unlike most other utes in the market Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Full review on my blog: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/mitsubishi-triton-review-buyers-guide The current model Mitsubishi 'L200' Triton is one of two 4x4 utes I routinely recommend and this one is even better than before thanks to a mid-life makeover. The Triton is number three 4x4 ute in the country behind the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger, but is ahead of the Holden Colorado. Since the Triton began production 40 years ago they’ve managed to sell 4.7 million units. It’s a profound automotive success any way you carve that figure. The first thing about Triton is its nice, tractable 2.4-lite turbo diesel engine Pricing and features make the Triton worth a good look, as does the long warranty and extended service interval. I get complaints about plenty of utes, from owners getting hung out to dry - typically Rangers and Colorados. Triton is the exact opposite. The few complaints I've had over Triton in the past few years were mainly dealers behaving badly - once they were made aware, Mitsubishi Motors resolved them pretty quickly.

In breaking news: the ACCC just woke up. Amazing. Plus, they’ve invited Mazda to a public ankle-grabbing contest. Act now, because front row seats to this one are certain to sell out fast. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url The ACCC has decided to sue Mazda Australia Dickheads Proprietry Limited for alleged breaches of consumer law and behaving like unprincipled cocks generally in relation to customer support. Apparently the ACCC has assembled a conga line of disgruntled customers - I think they call them ‘witnesses’ now - stretching over the horizon, back to 2013, and the watchdog says Mazda Dickheads could not fix the problems, fobbed them off to case managers who were completely ineffective, lied about the severity of faults, and told the affected owners they were not entitled to refunds - which is such bullshit, but pretty typical for the Shitsvillian car industry. “We allege that Mazda repeatedly refused to provide a refund or a replacement at no cost to the consumers and pressured them to accept lesser offers which were made by Mazda only after multiple failures of the vehicles and repeated attempted repairs.” - Rod Sims This is the one that does my head in: The ACCC says in cases of protracted problems, instead of offering a refund or a free replacement vehicle, which is what the law demands, Mazda customers were offered less money than their cars were actually worth as a buyback - and then, Mazda arseholes put owners under extreme pressure to accept their bullshit offers, by claiming the offers were short-term and final. The mafia does business this way.

You can help support the podcast, securely via PayPal: Or paste this code into your browser du jour: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Today's question: "New cars have a build date and a compliance plate. If a car has an August 2019 build date and the same year for compliance, how can it be a 2020 Model? My daughter is buying a car and it is supposed to be a 2020 model but both plates are showing 2019. Your help please." - Daryl There are four dates: the build date (which is self-explanatory - that’s when your car rolls off the production line) plus the compliance date (when the compliance plate goes on) the Model Year (or MY) and the first registration date. Build date - easy. Compliance date - that really just tells you which version of the regulations the car complies with. There’s all these compliance standards for everything from emissions to the placement of headlamps and tail lights. We call them ADRs (Australian Design Rules). These days, ADRs are really just cut-and-paste Retardistani or Eurotrash regulations (called FMVSSs or UN ECE regulations, respectively). There might be the odd exception, but the regulations are essentially globally homogenised to reduce compliance cost in particular markets. Compliance regulations evolve over time, so the compliance plate basically draws a line in the sand and says ‘here’s the time stamp for regulatory compliance for this vehicle’. Compliance date really doesn’t matter much to owners. Then there’s Model Year - which does a lot of people’s heads in. This concept of Model Year was invented by the Retardistanis, which explains a lot. So, in general, a MY20 (2020 model year) cars start getting built in the fourth quarter of 2019. It’s completely arbitrary. MY19 cars can be identical to MY20, or there might be a refresh, or a minor spec upgrade with 2020, or MY20 could herald the introduction of an all-new vehicle. Often, there’s no change. Historically, the fourth quarter adoption of the following model year was to give sufficient lead time to things like TV advertising. This was in, like, the 1950s, when things took time - before the world got hooked on crack and because the delight we experience daily. And then there’s first registration date - which is when you buy the car. Pretty simple. So, right now, in October 2019 you can be looking at an MY20 car built in August 2019. So - four different dates. And here’s where you need to look out, and protect yourself. At trade-in time, the dealer is likely to use the build date to talk you down on price. If he gets this bullshit proposition across the line, and you buy it, he adds another year’s worth of depreciation to the trade-in equation and guts you just a little bit harder. Then he details the car and sells it as a 2020 model. Because … hey, there’s a body of evidence in support of the thesis that car dealers are just immoral cocks. Just be firm. Right at the moment there’s a potential minefield out there. Holden, for example, has thousands of cars on ice, essentially rotting away in paddocks because nobody wants them. I’m sure you can buy an allegedly brand new 2017 model if you look hard enough. Volkswagen is defecating in its trousers right now, too, because they have a surplus of unsold 2018 Touaregs on hand - so you’ll get a discount there if you achieve ‘polite arsehole’ negotiator status. But on these old ‘brand new’ shitheaps, the problem is: trade-in. What’s the benefit of saving five grand up front if the trade-in costs you an additional $5k in depreciation? You would have been better off in a brand new, brand new car.

You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal >> Or Paste this link in your browser: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url ‘Holden posts lowest monthly sales since 1948.’ Kinda says it all, really. Just 2863 sales in September - lowest result in 71 years. And that’s after Detroit disinterred and re-animated Dave Buttner - it was all very ‘Frankenstein’. Incidentally, February, April and July this year were also record monthly lows for Holden. I’m sensing a pattern. And that pattern would be that not even Deadpool’s dad, the former boss of Toyota Shitsville, can pump water out of the bilges fast enough. The iceberg was just too big... Expect more Holden dealership closures in coming months as the brand continues to slide further into obscurity. And whatever you do, don’t buy one - in an environment like this, you’re setting yourself up for a resale disaster. Tung Nguyen. And the Academy award for best male porn star name ever by a motoring journalist, goes to the Carsguide news editor, Tung Nguyen - yesssssss! Anyway, Deep Tung (as I would call Mr Nguyen if we shared an office) Deep Tung went on to transcribe Holden’s bullshit excuses for dropping the ball so badly in September. According to a Holden bullshit excuse monger, there was a delay selling some Colorados to fleet and rental customers. Deep Tung also transcribed this epic bullshit excuse: “...and a significant sell down of dealer demonstrator inventory as a result of our demonstrator clearance sale.” If a Holden bullshitter had ‘explained’ this to be, I would have retorted with ‘How ill-informed do you think I am?’ See, sales figures don’t actually track sales. Of course. The car industry is in fact a movie I would call ‘Bullshit Inception’ - it’s bullshit inside bullshit inside bullshit - little Russian dolls carved out of bullshit - all the way down to the quantum level. Sales figures actually track registrations. So, when a month looks like going bad, for a carmaker, the mother ship tells all its dealers to go out and register, like, 10 cars. If you’ve got 200 dealers, that’s 2000 additional registrations that get chalked up as sales, and they go on the books as demonstrators even though most never get driven. Then the mother ship pays the dealer a back-hander to sell the demonstrators at a discount, seeing as it’s no longer worth as much as a new car. So, essentially, that makes the carmaker look better in that month, but it engineers an even bigger slump the next month, potentilly, and it is therefore a very short-term sales strategy. So, if you’re a proper journalist, the pro tip there would be to call them on it. Because this is what happens when you cook the books in August and it bites you on the arse in September. Because the fundamental problem is the cat’s out of the bag on Holden’s appalling conduct vis-a-vis the factory closure almost two years ago today. Clever advertising can’t right the ship. I know this because Holden even released a brand new advertising campaign at considerable expense, detailing the joys of Holden SUV ownership. A Holden Heist, they called it. ‘This is how we SUV.’ (As if ‘SUV’ is a fucking verb…) Very nicely shot. Expensive. Stabilized rigs on cars. Couple of nice drone shot inserts. Wouldn’t be surprised if they dusted off three or four Arri Alexas or the Red Weapon Heliums. (It’s very good, production-wise. Almost Hollywood. But, at the same time, nauseating.) It’s a bullshit concept. They’re selling vehicles nobody wants. Under a brand they burned. Most of us know the real Holden heist involved the Australian taxpayer - and not even the most accomplished ad agency in the world could shove that down my throat and make it taste like fois gras…

You can help support the podcast, securely via PayPal >> Or just paste this link text in your browser: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url On the first of October I brought you Phillip Carlson, a Canberra-based engineer, who bought a shitbox Leaf in 2012. Today he says it’s down to just 40 kilometres per charge, or 25 in winter with the heater on. So it’s little more than heavily depreciated roadside furniture at that point. That shitbox has a design defect. There’s no heat exchanger protecting the battery. So it gets too hot, and it dies early - especially in warm environments, where the mercury regularly nudges 40 degrees C in summer, like where Mr Carlson lives. Unlike other EVs on the same evolutionary timeline those Nissan arseholes cut serious corners on R&D. And now they expect owners to pay. It’s basically impossible to cool those batteries passively, and it’s impossible to think those Nissan clowns did not know about this in R&D. Passive cooling won’t work. You cannot hang the batteries out in the breeze, for convection, because they have to be weather sealed and well protected against mechanical damage The battery installation is badly designed. They overheat and they crap out early. According to the ACCC, the ‘refund’ test examines the length of time it’s reasonable for the product to be used, and the amount of time it’s reasonably expected to tolerate use before failure. The warranty status is not part of the ‘refund’ test. Your shitbox Leaf can be out of warranty and you may still be entitled to a full refund if it fails badly enough, early enough. If I paid $53,500 for a car, as Mr Carlson did, I’d expect it to be useful for more than 90,000 kilometres and seven years. Instead of doing the right thing by customers and obeying consumer law, honouring the refund obligation, those Nissan arseholes dumped this steaming pile of bullshit into the laps of Leaf owners Down Under: “Nissan put in place a battery exchange program on April 1st for any customers of a series 1 LEAF where their Lithium-Ion battery no longer provided the owner with the capacity to support their driving range requirements.” - Ben Warren, National Manager for Electrification and mobility at Nissan Shitsville I’m no lawyer, but that certainly seems somewhat less than the law requires, at least to me. “Beyond the manufacturer’s warranty period, Nissan has introduced a subsidised battery exchange program for vehicles sold by its Australian dealers.” - Nissan Export-grade bullshit: Let us be quite clear about who’s subsidising who. Nissan is not subsidising the cost of premature battery replacement on shitbox Leafs. You are paying $10,000 - plus fitting. Therefore you are subsidising Nissan for the company’s shit R&D. These arseholes are profiteering from their own crap engineering. That’s grossly immoral and completely unethical. And you’re not even getting a new battery pack - my understanding is: it’s a refurbished one, on an exchange basis. And only if you meet some bullshit criteria. “Whilst the cost is above $10K after labour, it is a 24Kw battery and when you consider the costs of a home battery storage system of that capacity – it actually compares quite favourably.” - Nissan Exactly the same bullshit refurbished battery program, introduced at exactly the same time in Japan costs 300,000 Yen, which is only $4200 Shitsville dollars. Why is Nissan charging Australian Leaf owners more than double what the Japanese pay? It’s exactly the same battery in exactly the same car. If you’ve ever wondered what reverse-racism looks like, in the automotive industry, this is it.

You can help support this podcast, securely via PayPal Or just paste this text into your browser: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url My heart was as heavy as a field of butterflies in spring when the news lobbed on Monday that high-level [LOOK LEFT] cocks in Wolfsburg had signed off on allowing their inconsequential Arse-tra-alien subordinates to bend and stretch their way to a class-action settlement in the time-honoured game of prison shower Twister. Yesssss! Ze Chermans will kick the tin for up to $127.1 million for Dieselgate class action victims, who own (or owned) the company’s disgraceful, filthy shitheaps. If you’ve been dead from the neck up since about 2015, Dieselgate was, of course, the board-level criminal conspiracy, in which a decision was taken to kill people prematurely in the name of profit, by cheating emissions regulations and pumping up oxides of nitrogen in Volkswagen dung-box diesel exhausts. Oxides of nitrogen kill about 50,000 people annually in Retardistan. If you read the peer-reviewed study in respected academic journal, Environmental Pollution, you’d see they estimated fraudulent Dieselgate emissions causing 45,000 disability-adjusted life-years to be lost, at a cost of $39 billion US dollars (and that’s just in ‘Murica). Dieselgate has now cost Volkswagen more than 30 billion Euros, in total, and several high-level Volkswagen and Audi arseholes have gone to prison. Others, of course, parachuted out onto their wallets, fortuitously to live happily ever after, presumably in a hot tub full of Veuve Cliquot. And high-class hookers. In countries that don’t extradite. And, let’s face it - if you’re going to be in prison, that’s how to do it. Even more of a side-splitter for me: Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda are doing this “without admission of liability”. I ask you: Could they actually harbour some hope against hope of looking any less like morally adrift mother-lovers? In fact, those disingenuous Volkswagen ‘Straya arseholes said, in a statement, that the $40 million (wriggle room) settlement would be a: “...significant step towards fully resolving the diesel lawsuits in Australia.” I guess that’s true - except for the people who became disabled because the excessive NOx gave them some life-limiting cardiovascular disease. But, really, who cares about them? The company droned on, seemingly without end: "The settlement, on a no-admissions basis, concerns five class-action lawsuits covering all affected vehicles in Australia. Volkswagen expects the proceedings will be concluded in 2020." If only Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda cars were as reliable as their corporate bullshit. Here’s my problem with this ‘zero admission of liability’ caper: If the cops kick in your door at 3am, they zip-tie you at gunpoint and tell you they think you really did kill all those children, and the Department of Public Prosecutions agrees, you get two basic options: One: Plead ‘guilty’ and go straight to sentencing. Two: Plead ‘not guilty’ and go to trial, where your guilt (or not) is established. What you specifically don’t get to do, when some dude in a wig says: “How do you plead?” Is get in wig-man’s face and argue: “Maaaate, look, I’m not sayin’ I killed all those schoolgirls, right - but just gimme … I dunno ... 8.7 to 12.7 years, we’ll sort that out, and that’ll be the end of it. I think you’d agree that’d be a significant step towards fully resolving this mutually inconvenient issue.” And yet - that’s kinda what’s happening here.

Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: Or paste this link in your browser: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url Toyota - the world’s leading manufacturer of boring vehicles - is succumbing to its own bullshit in a scary parallel. Cue George Orwell, because the company no longer even calls those who buy its cars ‘customers’: “Our guests know that Toyota will look after them and the overwhelming feedback we get on a recall of any major proportion is largely a big thank you from our guests for acting so quickly on an issue.” Sean Hanley - Toyota behavioural apologist and sales and marketing wonk, towing the company line in respect of a recent recall 'Our guests’ - allow me to retort: If I buy something from you, I’m not a guest; I’m a customer. Legislation is ushered in to confirm my commercial status. So, I will not be downgraded to ‘guest’ by Toyota because of some social justice bullshit. I’ll remain here in ‘business class’ and be a customer,. Toyota spent recent years stonewalling on the issue of the DPF design fiasco in 2.8 diesel Hilux, Fortuner and Prado. Customers… Sorry: ‘guests’ - are having their ‘unbreakable’ Hiluxes break all over the former convict paradise, and Toyota’s response is to re-enacting The Emperor’s New Clothes. This is how the cake of bullshit gets baked. Glaciers advance faster than the fix for the actual DPF issue. You are forced to return to the dealer many times, before they will install a manual DPF burn-off switch. Perhaps the most under-done engineering Band-Aid I have ever seen. I really don’t see how this in any way addresses the fundamental underlying hardware deficiency. The Big T says - it’s all fixed now. Gotta keep shifting those new Toyotas. “Through all our learnings of previous-generation diesel technology, we believe that with the new vehicles and the manual burn-off switch, the communication with our customers - what DPF represents, how it works, what to look for, the support that we provide - we believe it is fixed.” - Sean Hanley How is this is a belief issue? ‘We believe it’s fixed.’ There’s no epistemic dimension to fixing a design deficiency. It’s not a matter of belief. Either it’s fixed or it’s not. It’s an entirely ontological proposition. This engine is also too easily ‘dusted’. A euphemism for the incursion of dust past the air filter, where it forces the vehicle into ‘limp’ mode. The mouthpiece says only 0.2 per cent of 170,000 vehicles have been ‘dusted’. Mr Hanley went on to explain (if that’s the right word) that this dusting business happens only in (quote-unquote) “extreme conditions” - as if this is in some way acceptable. Perhaps we should not forget we’re talking about filtering dust from air in a pipe. Dust is easy to arrange. Air filter integrity is easy to test. The fact that dust gets past 0.2 per cent of Hilux air filters is a design disgrace. The actual defect rate is of course much higher because many Hiluxes are never tested by entering extremely dusty environments. Toyota’s goodwill is in flames, and it seems nobody is yet reaching for an extinguisher. All they have to do is admit problems, address them fast, and be honest. It doesn’t sound that hard, but it is. The worst thing about Toyota’s bullshit is that they’ve apparently started to believe it internally - perhaps because it’s more compelling and palatable than the facts, which are that their engineering integrity and internal validation processes are slipping. If you’ve ever wondered why I don’t gush about Toyota, this is it.

You need to act, but is it life and death for your engine? It’s unsettling, but if your diesel particulate filter warning light comes on here’s what you do… Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

Do tyre pressure monitoring systems actually need calibration? How do they work? Is the dealership ripping you off if you’re forced to seek help? Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

How much fuel and therefore money can you actually save using engine stop-start systems? Perhaps your car has this feature - so how much use do you suppose you need to get out of it in order to break even or, perhaps, save a reasonable amount? Let's talk about that... Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

Here are the facts about fuel octane and the busting of all those myths you'll find bouncing around in uninformed comments feeds, unqualified blogs and touted by beard-stroking half-wits proliferating themselves on the internets. Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/ Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url