Month: December 2022

Just like that 2022 is coming to a close!

There have been a quite a number of new vehicles that launched during the year amid continuing component and semiconductor shortages.

Here are the top-five new car reviews that caught the most attention from our native Australian readers.

2022 Toyota Corolla Hybrid review

The Toyota Corolla is a vehicle that needs little introduction.

In Australia, the Corolla consistently tops the passenger vehicle sales charts, comfortably beating the Hyundai i30, Kia Cerato and Mazda 3.

Part of the Corolla’s recent success is the option of a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain, with most competing models still unable to offer similar engine technology at competitive pricing.

Toyota has since rolled out an update to the Corolla range for the 2023 model year which brought updated tech, a more powerful hybrid, and some cosmetic tweaks.

Click here to read more

2023 Mazda CX-60 review

Mazda has

It was bright and sunny this morning, with the kind of clear blue sky with minimal overcast that begged for you to go out and take a stroll to warm your body up in preparation to face Christmas weekend. So that’s exactly what I did.

Two hours and close to 8km later, I felt refreshed, yet a little sick at the same time. My entire upper airway felt like it was covered in a layer of mucous. The blue sky made the day look like it was fresh and clean, but in reality the air felt a little thick, like it was a little powdery to be honest.

The source – internal combustion engine vehicle pollution, it’s everywhere. Even as I sit here writing this story on the first floor of a commercial centre while having a cup of coffee, the air is horrible thanks to the high volume of

Nissan has previously flirted with the idea of applying the Z brand to a crossover, but it’s never actually gone ahead and done it properly.

Although it’s still not a proper production car, the Fairlady X is the closest thing yet.

Developed by students at the Nissan Automobile Technical College (NATS) in Kyoto, the Fairlady is what happens when you mix a Z with a Murano.

“We are students of Nissan Kyoto Automobile College. This is a vehicle that we imagined and built with our hands. It will be a vehicle that remodels Murano and resembles Fairlady Z,” the students said on Twitter.

Those headlights and tail lights have been lifted from the Z, as have the grille and rear spoiler, but there’s more to the Fairlady than a nose transplant and butt lift. It has flush-fitting door handles from a GT-R, custom fenders, and wide Rays wheels as well.

As Wednesday arrives, so does another round of fuel price updates in Malaysia, with the ministry of finance having announced the retail prices of fuels for the coming week of December 22 to 28, 2022.

Once again, spirits should be lifted as the price of RON 97 petrol drops once more by 20 sen this week to RM3.35 per litre for the coming week, down from the RM3.55 per litre rate of last week.

As before, the retail price of RON 95 petrol remains unchanged at its ceiling price of RM2.05 per litre, as set by the Malaysian government in February last year. The same applies to diesel, where Euro 5 B10 and B20 blends continue to be priced at RM2.15 per litre, and the price of the Euro 5 B7 blend stays at RM2.35 per litre.

These fuel prices will take effect from midnight tonight until Wednesday, 28 December,

The newest Volkswagen Group brand in Australia, Cupra, is expected to sell more than 1000 cars in its first six months on sale.

The sporty Spanish offshoot of SEAT says it has taken more than 1500 orders since hitting Australia in May, and will deliver more than 1000 cars by the time 2022 draws to a close.

“The year has been a pretty wild ride for our customers and for us, but a tremendous success as well,” Cupra Australia brand director Ben Wilks told CarExpert.

“1500 plus orders, we’ll finally deliver more than 1000 cars. Of course we have had some cars that were slower to get here than we’d like, and that’s holding us up from a delivery point of view,” he said.

With 914 sales to date in 2022, Cupra is currently sitting near new electric brand BYD (845) on the sales charts, along with

Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook was on the prowl again following his random spot check recently of the LRT Kelana Jaya and MRT stations at peak hours. This time, the Seremban MP rode on the KTM Komuter train from KL Sentral to the Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS) in Bandar Tasik Selatan.

Once again, Loke went incognito with an unassuming appearance and was only accompanied by two assistants, without the presence of the media or management of the train operators, to observe the KTM Komuter services and the overall situation at TBS.

The spot check was prompted by comments on social media regarding KTM’s services and matters related to the issuing of bus passes at TBS. Like the previous spot check, Loke was pictured again with a non-functioning escalator – a seemingly common issue at train stations.

“I will be meeting the Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTMB) management at the soonest

An even higher-performance BMW M3 is reportedly in the works with more grunt from its twin-turbo inline six.

What appears to be an internal document detailing the BMW M3 CS has been published on Bimmerpost, outlining both left- and right-hand drive variants.

Production of both will reportedly start in March 2023, suggesting a reveal is imminent. Our photographers have already captured what appear to be M3 CS prototypes in testing.

The leaked document says the vehicle has all-wheel drive and produces 405kW of power from its S58T twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre inline-six, though doesn’t specify which transmission it uses.

BMW doesn’t currently offer a manual transmission with any of its all-wheel drive M3 and M4 models, suggesting an eight-speed automatic transmission is the likely choice.

That 405kW output is lineball with the rear-wheel drive M4 CSL, which also produces 650Nm of torque, though the M3 CS may be heavier as, even