SUV Advice

If you're looking for something in the $60-100,000 bracket, 2017 promises a broad selection of new metal, from premium brands, to large SUVs, along with some genuinely fast machinery.

Medium SUVs are the most popular of their brethren in Australia, capturing the interest of those families who rate space, efficiency, seating flexibility and even all-wheel-drive capability. Last year SUVs racked up more sales than traditional passenger cars for the first time in Australia, with 2018 likely to see

The full run-down of Apple CarPlay and Android auto when it comes to Mazda's cars.

To modern Australian families, the SUV is what a Commodore or a Falcon used to be - the sensible, obvious and most common choice of family vehicle.

Small SUVs, luxury saloons, budget hatchbacks and more small SUVs make up our most popular videos.

The first thing we did when trying to figure out the meaning of the Sorento badge was to ask Kia Australia.“No idea” was the simple reply. Beyond, that is, the obvious connection with towns such as Sorrento in Victoria, Western Australia and, of course, Italy.Since the Sorrento on the Bay of Naples is the best known globally, and Kia is definitely a global company, it would stand to reason that it’s the Italian Sorrento that Kia was referencing.And there are plenty of precedents for car companies naming sometimes hum-drum cars after exotic resort locations: Ford Capri and Cortina; Chevrolet Malibu; Triumph Dolomite. So why not Kia Sorrento?That gains weight when you consider that – depending on who you talk to – the town of Sorrento was named after the Sirens that inhabited the area according to Greek mythology.And if the PR spin is to be believed, Kia picked up on the Sirens’ legendary powers of attraction to describe it’s alluring full-sized SUV.Even Tina Arena managed to get the spelling correct on her 1995 single 'Sorrento Moon'. Although, ironically, despite being born to Sicilian parents, Ms Arena was actually singing about the Victorian Sorrento in the song, and the film-clip was partly filmed at Sorrento back-beach, south of Melbourne.By spelling it with one 'r', Kia instantly put all those theories in doubt, because even the Australian Sorrentos are double 'r'.Maybe saving a few cents on each badge was a thing in South Korea back then. Rs don’t grow on trees you know.That’s a bit more interesting because even though it’s one of the shorter words on the planet, 'Kia' is actually a two-part word.The 'Ki' bit is a way of saying 'coming' or 'arising from' while 'a' is either 'the East' or 'Asia'.Which is a heck of a lot less esoteric than a mis-spelt Italian resort town.

We spend weeks comparing new car performance and prices... then fall for a shiny one.

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This buying guide aims to make your new car search easier.

Now look, obviously telling anyone that a particular second-hand car will have bulletproof reliable is a bit like telling them that skiing is a totally safe hobby, or advising them to invest in blue-chip stocks.Sometimes, things just don’t work out and if your friend ends up with a broken leg, an empty bank account or a total lemon of a car on their driveway - it can be embarrassing, or a friendship killer.So, we must proceed with caution, and caveats. We’re also trying to live in the real world here. I have good reason to believe, for example, that Porsches are hugely reliable. I once asked a Porsche engineer whether it was true that every single part of the company’s cars was over engineered by 200 per cent, and he looked truly offended and said “No! No, it’s more like 400 per cent.”This might explain, at least partly, why Porsches are so expensive, and why they remain pricey, even as second-hand cars. So, by all means, if you can afford a used 911, it’s probably a good investment, it’s just not one we can all make (more realistically, if you want a second-hand sports car, it’s hard to go past a Mazda MX-5, of any vintage, because they are fantastic to drive, reliable and relatively affordable).At the other end of the spectrum, we don’t want this list to be entirely dull. There’s an argument, particularly from people who only buy Toyotas and believe in them religiously, for suggesting that all of the 10 cars on this list should be Corollas, Camrys, Yarises, Priuses and so forth.Yes, Toyota is fairly famed for its unbreakable reliability, and Top Gear certainly did its best to help that reputation with its failed attempts to destroy a HiLux.But here’s an interesting wrinkle for you. When Australians were asked by Canstar, to rate their own cars for reliability, just last year, the results were telling, and fascinating.Coming in first, by a clear margin, as the most reliable brand, was Mitsubishi. Sure enough, Toyota came in second, followed by Kia, Mazda, Suzuki, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Hyundai, Honda and Volkswagen.The less-loved five, hanging behind the top 10, were Nissan, Holden, Audi and Ford. So you won’t see any of their cars on this list, although we’d still like to recommend used versions of the VF Commodore to those of you who don’t mind taking a slight reliability risk, just because they were such fantastic cars, and clearly the last big sedans that will ever have been built specifically for our conditions.And just one other personal caveat. Whenever people ask me what sort of second-hand car they should buy I give the same answer - “whichever Subaru you can afford, and in whatever shape suits your lifestyle”. I still stand by this, because in my experience the brand has rock-solid reliability, combined with excellent driving dynamics, all-wheel drive and tough, hardy interiors. It’s just a shame they mostly lack visual appeal.Here, then, in no particular order are our careful recommendations.