Car Reviews

''Every journalist I meet tells me this transmission needs paddleshifters ... and every customer I meet tells me they don't care. So who am I supposed to listen to?''

Feral family wagons (RS4 and RS6); bonkers boulevarde cruiser (TT-RS): Yup, Audi has the ability to throw spinballs into the sporting sphere.

The mid-sized Cruze has been a quiet success story for Holden, selling strongly in both sedan and hatch guise as rising fuel prices force the once Commodore-centric company to look to new models.

The original RAV4 that came along in the mid-1990s headed into unexplored territory; the only other genuine rival of the day out of Japan was the Suzuki Vitara.

Station wagons occupy a small sector that becomes much teensier still if just premium models are considered, so seven editions of the new 3-Series Touring might seem excessive.

Spot a new-generation Mazda6 in the street and odds on it will be a 2.5-litre petrol GSX sedan; no less that 60% of the predicted 1350 sales for this year is expected to be accounted for by just this model.

If ever a car lived up to a name, perhaps it's the new Mirage - there's definitely an optical phenomenon going on here, in the sense that this is a car that cannot be judged on looks alone.

What's better than a Korean car that was designed and engineered in a German automotive design hub, Russelsheim, but assembled in South Korea?

A bolder new nose and changes to interior trims and standard equipment specifications have been provided as part of a gentle update of the Suzuki Splash.

Even great solutions sometimes deliver unexpected fresh challenges.

''We [Subaru] are the second cab off the rank. . .but it's also our car.''

Likely to encounter serious sludge on your school run? Perhaps a river crossing or mountain climb? Here's your vehicle - the newest of the ''old-school'' sports utilities available.

Each new version of the BMW 3-Series aspires to be nothing less than the best car in the medium-sized luxury class. David Thomson slips behind the wheel of the latest, sixth-generation model, to see if it delivers.

The higher they fly, the harder they fall - crushing depreciation is so often the elephant in the room in regard to extravagant cars; some really do take a heck of a pasting, often from the moment they leave the showroom.

Spot something familiar about the look of Great Wall's V200 ute, beyond the fact that - with more than 600 registrations so far this year - it is becoming an increasingly common sight on New Zealand roads?

The plan? Start off in the pre-facelift Sorento then swap to the much-enhanced replacement after lunch, to provide a full insight in the level of change.

As loath as I am to suggest the phrase ''One born every minute'' bears any accurate representation of a Corolla buyer, it does give an inkling of the incredible production rate of this Toyota mainstay.

Posh hatchbacks are all the rage in Europe at the moment, and Kiwis are picking up on the trend, with prestige European five-doors moving up the sales charts.

A few months back, Drivesouth enjoyed its first taste of Kia's ISG (Idle-Stop-Go) technology, behind the wheel of the company's Picanto supermini.

Toyota has moved with the times in giving its Avensis Tourer a midlife upgrade which, among other enhancements, shows off a new nose with design cues that will appear on other Toyota products and adds a user-friendly Bluetooth interface for phone and audio devices.