Ford Advice

New Ford Everest SUV uses historic Falcon rear suspension tech for all-round ability.

Look at least three ways when weighing up a regular family hauler.

There are no deals on the just released, all-new version of the market-leading Toyota HiLux ute but big discounts have emerged on rivals fighting over the scraps. Here are the best deals — down your tools and go and kick some tyres.Ford RangerDiscounts on the Ranger are extremely rare, so we had to double check this one wasn't a misprint. The workhorse XLS grade 4WD four-door ute may lack the bling of the XLT and Wildtrak but it has the same strong 3.2-litre five-cylinder diesel engine and all the other Ranger attributes (including 230V power adaptor). The price of $45,490 drive-away after a $500 bonus is super-sharp. The RRP is $48,090 plus on-roads, so this is a discount of nearly $5000. Auto adds $2200.Nissan Navara RX 2WDNissan has a headline price of $36,835 drive-away for the base model four-door ute but there are a few caveats. This price is for the 2WD, not the 4WD, the 1 per cent finance deal must be repaid over just three years — then there's the massive balloon payment of $19,795, more than half the purchase price. Best to arrange your own finance and haggle harder on the price.Mazda BT-50Need a workshop runabout? The Mazda BT-50 single cab with 2.2-litre turbo diesel and factory dropside tray can be had for $26,990 drive-away, or $1500 less than the Ford Ranger equivalent.Mitusbishi TritonThe new Triton was well priced at launch earlier this year but buyers have avoided it in droves, due to either its ungainly looks or its mainly carry-over chassis. So Mitsubishi has made the price even more compelling. The GLX 4WD four-door is $36,990 drive-away, including alloy wheels, reversing camera and five-year warranty (which the Colorado lacks). But the best buy is the $39,990 drive-away GLS with Super Select (4WD can be used on sealed roads), larger alloy wheels, rear-view camera in the central display screen, sports bar, hard tonneau cover ... the list goes on. If Mitsubishi fitted the new Pajero Sport nose to the Triton it would have a winner on its hands.Holden ColoradoThe Colorado — one of the first cars to suffer from General Motors cutbacks during its development in the global financial crisis — has been in permanent discount mode since it went on sale a couple of years ago. It is not rated as highly as newer utes. But the basic LS 4WD four-door (pictured, LS-X) at $35,990 drive-away (after a $1000 bonus) is sharp buying if you're on a budget. At that price, the equivalent Isuzu D-Max ute can't get close.Ford Falcon XR6 UteWant to buy one of the last homegrown utes? The XR6 ute limboes to a new low: $31,940 drive-away after a $500 discount. That's with six-speed automatic transmission, 18-inch alloy wheels, alloy sports bar and eight-inch colour touchscreen. This is about $5000 off the full RRP for the XR6 ute and about $10,000 less than the Commodore SV6 ute.

Last week's cover story comparing the three best utes on the market caused a bit of stir -- and not just among the hordes of Toyota HiLux evangelists who queried our call on deciding in favour of the new Ford Ranger. A number of readers contacted us to highlight just how little you can carry onboard most utes when

Your next Ford has just been taught how to speak "Australian".

Sounds like a trick question? You're right. Like everything else in the car world, the definition of "new" is negotiable.If you think "new" applies to the shiny four-wheeled object you're about to sign up for, that it just rolled off the production line, hasn't been driven, is packed with state of the art tech and won't be superseded for a few years, you're probably wrong. I'll explain …BirthdaysGet a car's birthday wrong and it can cost you serious money. When a car leaves the factory, it carries a build plate, which identifies the month and year it was manufactured.When an imported car arrives in Australia it is also fitted with a compliance plate, which identifies the month and year it landed and cleared customs with the relevant approvals according to the Australian Design Rules.When you buy, register and insure a new car, its model year is determined by the compliance plate date.It's often the case that an imported car is built in the year before it arrives in Australia, so the build plate will identify the car as being a year older than the compliance plate.If you're buying a new car, your friendly local dealer will point to the compliance plate as evidence of its birthday.However at trade-in time they will also have a look at the build plate, and if it's from a year earlier, that's the year they will use in valuing the car, because one year older means it's worth less.In the early months of a new year, most importers and dealers are still holding compliance-plated stock from the previous year. You'll often see it advertised in January with a discount, for the same reason — it's now one year old.Always check the compliance plate and build plate dates. If either or both are stamped with last year's date, your new car isn't really new any more, so factor this into the deal.RegistrationA similar trap applies here. In the car business, everybody from the global supremo to the sales junior at the smallest dealer has to meet targets. If they don't, they soon get to spend more time with the family.So importers and dealers will sometimes register new cars late in the year to get them included in annual sales numbers, even though the cars haven't actually been sold to real people. These cars will then be sold as demonstrators, usually with a few kilometres on the clock and often at an attractive price. That's fine but the factory warranty starts ticking as soon as the car is registered, so if a demonstrator was registered six months before you bought it, six months' warranty has already expired. It's offered to you with the balance of the warranty.Factor this into the price, or hit the dealer for the full warranty coverage, in writing.Everything old is new againIn automotive engineering terms, a brand new model usually only comes along every five to 10 years. Brand new in this context means a car with new drivetrains (engine/transmission/software) and/or the platform, the base structure of a car that determines its dimensions, configuration and other fundamentals.It may seem contradictory but styling is rarely an accurate indicator of newness.Sheetmetal is merely cosmetic, so if a manufacturer wants to recycle an old model as a new one, the oldest and cheapest trick in the book is a "facelift." This usually runs to a restyled front end, a little nip and tuck at the rear, new lights at each end, different looking wheels and extra colours on the palette. They simply change the box, not the chocolates.An exception is the Audi A4, which cloaks major technical advances in a body that looks much like its predecessors.The main factors driving new model development include ever-tightening emissions standards, fuel efficiency and such driver assistance/semi-autonomous vehicle safety tech as automatic emergency braking and smartphone integration.If you're looking at a new car to buy, do some research on CarsGuide to see how its credentials here stack up against the rest of the class.Japanese and Korean makers usually follow a relatively conservative, low-risk engineering path for their higher volume, lower priced cars, with less frequent changes and updates throughout a model's life.German makers, in contrast, tend to turn over models and introduce engineering innovation at a faster rate than the rest of the market, because (in common with Apple) they take a technology-driven approach and charge premium prices to affluent customers.The downside for those customers is that their new German car is often superseded shortly after they bought it.The latest is never the greatest for long in the car business.New is betterNot necessarily. The maxim "Never buy an early example of a new model" still holds true. A new-from-the-wheels-up car will often have a few problems, in some cases serious ones that soon cause their owners to wish they could make "that new car feeling" just go away.Examples include 2004 Ford Territory, Holden's 2006 VE Commodore and Cruze, several Benzes from the noughties, including the C, E and M-Class, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Peugeot's 2001 307 and several Audi and Volkswagen models, notably those with the DSG/S Tronic transmissions, including Q5, Polo and MkV-VI Golf.Engineering development on a new model doesn't stop when it goes into production. By the time a car has been in production for a couple of years, the manufacturer usually will have fixed most of the bugs and made other improvements in response to owner feedback and what the competition is offering.Run in to a runoutGiven makers' continuing improvements, the best time to buy a new car is just before it's about to be superseded. It's been around for a while (usually five to 10 years), it's thoroughly sorted and "in runout" — industry code for get rid of it before the new model arrives — so you'll pick up a good deal.Hyundai's current deal on the i30 is a prime example. The brand spanking 2016 model is imminent. I haven't yet driven it but I don't care how good it is, because the runout deal of $19,990 drive-away with the six-speed automatic is an absolute bargain and about $7000 off full freight.It's always worth checking where the new car you're thinking of buying is in its life cycle. If it will be superseded within a year or two, its trade-in value will take an extra hit and it's probably worth waiting until runout time, when the savings will compensate for this.If it's about to be superseded by a car that's demonstrably better in the important areas, it might be worth waiting for the new model. But bear in mind that the majority of new models aren't 100 per cent, or even 50 per cent, new at all.

Dealers are sharpening the pencils for the end of the year — and these are the best buys.December is a great time to buy a new car as dealers try to clear stock before 2016 arrives.Many buyers are away on holidays so the dealers sharpen their pencils to try to get people in the door and cars off the lot. This year is no exception.Before highlighting the best new-car deals, we should clarify what "2016 Model Year" means.That's the car industry's way of describing when the model is planned for sale, even though they're often released in the second half of the previous year.The contrived confusion is aimed at blunting the need for sharp discounting as the new year rolls around.But regardless of what you are told, the only date that matters is not the model year or the compliance date but the build date of the car.If your car is built in November 2015 but it is being marketed as a "2016 Model Year", it will be regarded as a 2015 model at trade-in time, even if it's at the very same dealer trying to convince you it's next year's model.Does it matter? Not really. But you should know. Besides, the discount you're getting now will likely be worth more than the slight dip in resale.One more caveat — be wary of some low interest rate finance deals.Nissan, for example, has 1 per cent finance on most of its model range. Its cheapest model, the Nissan Micra manual, is $49 a week or $15,850 drive-away. But in the fine print you'll find the repayments must be made within three years — and there is a whopping "balloon" payment of $8210 at the end, more than half the car's cost.On the other hand, Toyota's zero finance deal on certain models is spectacularly good. It is over four years, there is no balloon so, as we discovered, they're practically giving money away.Now, let's go shopping...Small CarsSharp deals are customarily hard to find here because the profit margins are so low — the cut to the dealer on one popular small car is $450.The Suzuki Celerio - is the cheapest mainstream model, still at its launch pricing of $13,990 drive- away with automatic transmission. Learn to drive a manual and pay $12,990.Slightly larger, the trusty Suzuki Swift is good buying at $16,490 drive-away with auto.Toyota's Yaris — with seven airbags and reverse camera — is back at $17,990 drive-away with auto and four years' roadside assistance.The Mazda2 initially looks good at $16,990 drive-away for the manual. Auto brings the price to $18,990 drive-away, which is not as sharp.Honda and Mazda say there are "free on-roads" for the Jazz and Mazda3 respectively, dealer delivery is still in the mix and the prices aren't that sharp.Kia's Cerato sedan and hatch are still at an incredible $19,990 drive-away for auto (metallic paint is expensive at $495). They have a seven-year warranty, front and rear parking sensors but no camera.The Hyundai i30 hatch auto is $21,990 drive-away and you can swap December's $1000 Eftpos voucher for $1000 off the car, so at $20,990 it's good buying. The Elantra stablemate is the same price but will be in run-out within a few months.Toyota's Corolla Ascent Sport hatch is fair buying at $23,990 drive-away with auto.For a little more bling and a good drive, the refreshed Ford Focus Trend is $25,490 drive-away after the $500 test drive discount. That includes auto, satnav, rear camera, alloy wheels, cruise control and a super efficient 1.5-litre turbo engine.Family carsThe most metal for the money at the moment, the just-released new Toyota Camry can be had for $28,990 drive-away at zero finance over four years. It has the cheapest servicing in the business and is economical to run and easy to drive. Standard fare includes seven airbags and rear-view camera.The stablemate Aurion V6 is just $1000 more at $29,990 drive-away, also with the same equipment and the same terms. Warning: this car has so much grunt it can lose traction when accelerating in the wet.The Holden Commodore SV6 "Storm" edition is $39,990 drive-away with auto but $2000 bonus from Holden trims the price to $37,990 drive-away. That's the cheapest VF II yet (though the VE II dropped to $34,990 and $35,990 a couple of years ago).SUVsThe city-sized Holden Trax LS is priced so sharply that dealers have almost run out. More stock is coming late this month and early January.The headline price says $22,990 drive-away with a free auto upgrade — for this month, take off a further $1000, bringing it to $21,990 drive-away or about $6000 off the original RRP.The Mitsubishi ASX LS manual is $25,000 drive-away but there is a free auto upgrade this month, about $5000 off. It has seven airbags, five-year warranty, 18-inch alloys, touchscreen, rear camera and sensors. Good deal.Need a seven-seater? The Mazda CX-9 Classic is still super sharp at $39,990 drive-away; the nine-year-old model will be superseded in February.Much newer but about the same price, the Toyota Kluger seven-seater can be had for $42,990 drive-away.Looking to buy a Holden Captiva 7? Be warned, a refreshed model with a new look and Apple CarPlay is just around the corner.Want to go bush? The Holden Colorado 7 LT will get you there and leave more money for camping gear: with $1000 factory bonus it comes down to $42,990 drive-away, or about $5000 off.Mitsubishi Pajero is also really good buying for the Big Trip. At $55,000 drive-away with auto and five-year warranty, it's a solid choice at a sharp price.

New car deals are not always as good as they seem | comment

We can't get enough of high-riding wagons that drive like cars — but for some there's no substitute for the tough off-roader.

While the automotive world is wrestling with the idea of cars that can drive themselves, there is some really cool technology that's just around the corner.