Family Reviews

Lexus launched its first fully-electric car in Australia back in 2023, but it’s fair to say the RZ has hardly made an impact on the electric car scene.Cursed at the time by high pricing, low driving range and a lack of features many EV adopters were looking for, the RZ seemed destined to sit at the bottom of the electric pecking order.Determined to turn its fortunes around, Lexus has refreshed the RZ for 2026 with drastically lower pricing and tweaked specs which it hopes will grant it a second look in the eyes of buyers.Does it have what it takes? I took a top-spec RZ 550e F-Sport for a week to find out.First things first, pricing. Lexus has slashed prices from the RZ range for its latest update to the point where this sporty top-spec one at $105,000, before on-road costs, is now more affordable than the base variant (which cost over $123,000!) when it first arrived in 2023.As a dedicated EV which shares its underpinnings with the Toyota bZ4X, the RZ’s closest rival is the Genesis GV60 from Korea, although comparisons are now difficult, because the GV60 in rear-drive form is $88,000. To get AWD like this RZ 550e you need to splash for the higher-performance GV60 Magma ($130,000).It also needs to face-off against the Audi Q4 e-tron (AWD from $99,818), BMW iX3 ($109,900 in AWD guise) and most problematically for Lexus, the smash-hit Zeekr 7X from China which costs from just $72,900 in Performance AWD trim.While the price-cut is welcome, and this top-spec car gets a bigger battery than before, it still feels like a let-down on range which remains a key consideration for many electric car buyers.Officially this higher-performance 550 e F-Sport version has 437km of driving range according to the WLTP measuring standard, on the back of an official 18.9kWh/100km energy consumption and a slightly larger 77kWh battery pack.My real-world test had the car’s computer reporting 410km of range, with the trip computer showing my most efficient trip being 18.8kWh/100km. It’s within a reasonable margin of error to the claim, but still disappointing in a market where many rival EVs will do 460km+ in the real world.There are other improvements. While the RZ maintains its somewhat middling 150kW DC charging capability for a half hour (10-80 per cent) charge on a compatible station, AC charging capacity has doubled from 11kW to 22kW.Power has also taken a jump, with total outputs now hovering at 300kW combined power for this 550e F-Sport. Unfortunately, though, all RZs are all-wheel drive, so range is a persistent issue no matter which variant you pick.On the styling front, the changes are also subtle, with this luxury mid-sizer maintaining a similar futuristic look to the pre-update version, complete with a grille-free face, and spiky aero coupe rear with twin protrusions on the roof and an interesting split spoiler atop the tailgate.The elephant in the interior is of course the 550 e F Sport’s yoke steering wheel. It’s strange to look at and bizarre to use.We’ll get to that in a moment, but the rest of the interior continues the futuristic theme with the asymmetrical stepped dash design, high beltline for the doors and weird little button door handles.The multimedia screen is a good size at 14 inches, and there’s a 7.0-inch digital instrument cluster sunken into the dash complemented by a holographic head-up display for the driver.Despite its tech overload in the interior one advantage this Lexus maintains is physical dials for the dual-zone climate control and even an audio volume dial, with a handful of shortcut buttons, too.The steering wheel also features an array of initially very confusing buttons and controls which you get used to.Software in the RZ is pretty basic. While it isn’t burdened by some of the gimmicks of Chinese rivals, it’s also a bit too simple for a modern EV, not featuring some of the genuinely useful innovations of some of its rivals like pet mode or detailed energy consumption data screens.The back seat, while offering plenty of space behind my own (182cm) driving position, feels devoid of specific luxuries. The dark trim makes it feel small, but there are air vents and USB ports on the back of the centre console along with rear seat heating.The boot is a decent but not stellar 522 litres and there’s no spare wheel. Nor is there a vehicle-to-load system.Where this 550e variant shines, though, is behind the wheel, but it will take some getting used to.The yoke steering can’t turn a full 360-degrees, so the steer-by-wire control makes the wheels turn to full lock after just half a rotation.This, combined with almost zero feedback from the front wheels, is a confusing feeling. Even after a week, I couldn’t get used to the steering ratio. I found myself constantly having to correct after steering too far or too little.Take it on a bendy back road though and you’re in for a treat. The all-wheel drive system and brilliant torque management on offer in the RZ give this swoopy EV cat-like reflexes, mind-bending amounts of grip and healthy dollops of power despite relatively modest on-paper figures.This car highlights where Japanese automakers still maintain an advantage over their Chinese rivals. It’s brilliant to drive in unexpected and delightful ways.Like other Lexus products, the supple suspension and gentle cabin ambiance makes for a serene place to be and the safety tech proved refreshingly non-invasive.An important consideration is the Lexus ownership piece which is pretty good.A five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty is middling these days, but Lexus’ Encore ownership club, which you get five years' membership to as part of your service also includes things like loan cars at service time, as well as invites to events and track days and a range of deals with partner organisations.Service for the RZ is required once a year or every 15,000km and for the first five years it's fixed at $395. This is good for any car, but great for a luxury brand.

It feels like everyone has a VW bus story. Someone’s sister converted their Multivan into a home-away-from-home, Uncle Ern had a pop-top kombi and Macca at the pub has had his since 1982.Which is no surprise because many peoples’ favourite VW has been around, in one form or another, for over 75 years. And this limited ‘Edition’ package has been applied to the most recent, seventh-generation version of the Multivan.Exactly 300 will be available, each costing $79,990, before on-road costs, or $82,990, drive-away as an introductory offer.That price puts it between the short- and long-wheelbase Multivan Life ($77,990 and $80,290 MSRP, respectively) and adds additional standard fruit including a black roof and gloss black 18-inch alloy wheels, LED matrix headlights (with dynamic cornering function), darkened (LED) tail-lights, dual-tone synthetic velour and synthetic leather seat trim, heated front seats and the Digital Cockpit Pro instrument display.There’s also puddle lamps, ‘easy open and close’ power sliding doors and tailgate, built-in nav, a 360-degree camera view and a sliding multi-function table.Put the Multivan Edition next to rivals like the Ford Tourneo Titanium ($74,590), Hyundai Staria HEV Lounge ($73,740), Kia Carnival GT-Line HEV ($76,840) and Mercedes-Benz Vito Tourer ($89,672), all before on-road costs, and the VW puts up a compelling value-for-money pitch.There are two colours, Pure Grey and Candy White, both with a Deep Black Pearlescent roof and door mirror combination and aside from Edition graphics this limited edition’s fundamental design is unchanged.It’s kind of like an expanded Golf with head- and tail-light treatments in particular clearly connecting it to the current VW family.The Multivan’s close to 5.0m length, near 2.0m width, 1.9 metre height and lengthy 3124mm wheelbase provide a comfortable interior for seven (an eight-seat Life is available). And while the interior has that typical VW look of teutonic efficiency it also feels welcoming thanks in no small part to the synthetic microfibre and synthetic leather seat trim. I’m guessing Shaquille O'Neal would have enough headroom in the Multivan, because at a lowly 183cm tall I had what felt like metres between my scone and the headliner.And it’s the interior layout’s incredible flexibility that makes this VW such a practical multi-passenger proposition.There’s a flat, walk-through floor and we’d need a separate website to detail all the available seating and storage combinations but suffice it to say rails running the length of the Multivan’s floor allow the seats to move easily so they can be adjusted to best accommodate the passengers onboard.With the driver’s and second-row captain’s chair seats set to my position I still have enough space in the third row, although toe room under the seat in front is a little tight. Up to teenage kids will be more than comfortable back there.Storage is everywhere including cupholders, bins and flip-up tray tables but the highlight in the Edition is its sliding multi-function table which can serve as a front centre console but has the ability to slip backwards, rise in height and sprout large tabletop surfaces for the second row. There’s Qi-compatible wireless phone charging up front as well as six USB-C ports and three 12-volt sockets spread across the interior and cargo area which is more than enough to keep everyone happy with fully charged devices. With all seats upright there’s 469 litres (VDA) of luggage space, expanding to 1316L with the third-row folded and a van-like 3672L with the second and third rows removed. The seats are lightweight and slide easily so removing them isn’t as hard as you might think. Maximum braked trailer towing capacity is a useful 2.0 tonnes.A 2.0-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine sends 110kW/310Nm to the front wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch auto transmission with the current Multivan riding on VW’s MQB Evo platform which also underpins the Golf and Tiguan.And the Edition feels far more car-like than any of its predecessors. Don’t get me wrong, this is a boxy bus but the way it drives, rides and steers is exceptional.The engine feels responsive and strong, picking up acceleration quickly without a hint of turbo hesitation and works hand-in-glove with the super-smooth auto. The front seats are comfy, ride quality is terrific for this class of car, freeway cruising is effortless and road feel from the steering is good. Even winding B-roads didn’t unduly upset the Multivan’s handling or stopping power.Unsurprisingly, wind noise starts to make its presence felt around the A-pillars and exterior mirrors at around 100km/h, but never to an alarming degree. The Multivan scores a maximum five-star ANCAP assessment to the latest protocols with seven airbags (including a front centre bag) and the Edition boasts a laundry list of ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) crash avoidance tech, the highlights being AEB (auto emergency braking) Park Assist (with front and rear proximity sensors), adaptive cruise, lane keeping, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert.There are child seat top tethers on the second row captain’s chairs and across the third row, with ISOFIX anchors on all of those except the centre rear position.  The official fuel economy figure for the Multivan on the combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle is 6.2L/100km which puts it ahead of all key competitors and translates to a theoretical range of around 1160km. On the roughly 350km launch drive program which took in urban, B-road and freeway running we saw an average of 7.3L/100km, which would translate to a real-world range of around 950km. Not too shabby for a roughly 2.0-tonne bus.The Multivan is covered by Volkswagen’s five year/unlimited kilometre warranty which is now being overshadowed in the mainstream market with many brands at seven-, eight- and 10-year terms. Roadside assist is included for the first year.Servicing is recommended every 15,000km or 12 months with fixed price and pay-as-you go plans available. You’re looking at an average of around $650 per workshop visit over the first five years. Not the cheapest but not outrageous.Volkswagen operates a network of around 180 dealers and service centres across the country.

To say Toyota’s first major mainstream EV, the bZ4X, arrived in Australia with an arm tied behind its back would be something of an understatement. It arrived with both arms removed entirely.It was expensive, didn’t travel as far on a charge as its major rivals and had some tech quirks – and omissions – in the cabin. The fact that Toyota itself had spent much of the 12 months preceding its launch talking down EVs as impractical and unsuitable for much of Australia probably didn’t help much, either.Sales trickled along in minuscule numbers, while brands like Tesla and, later, BYD stole the limelight and the customers.But this is the bZ4X take two. It’s significantly (like $10K) cheaper, will travel much further on a charge, and hosts a more modern-feeling tech package in its cabin. And so I’ll be living with the two-wheel drive variant for the next three months to see if Toyota has at last got an answer to the sales-storming Tesla Model Y, or the BYD Sealion 7, for that matter.First things first: the price. My car opens the range, and you can have it finished in the same Eclipse Black you see in these photos for $61,320, on the road. That’s now cheaper than the cheapest Tesla Model Y, the rear-wheel drive, which is $64,215, drive-away right now. The cheapest Sealion 7, though, is a smidge over $59K, on the road.The Toyota now also outperforms the cheapest Tesla in terms of range. Toyota says my car, with its 74.7kWh battery, will travel 591km on the WLTP combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle, compared with the Model Y RWD’s 466km. In fact, to get a circa-600km range from Tesla, you’ll be dropping almost $75K drive-away on the Long Range AWD. The Sealion 7 offers just 482km on the WLTP cycle.So the price is right, or at least much better and the range stacks up well, too.In terms of power, Toyota has regrettably positioned its single motor on the front axle for front-wheel drive, and it develops 167kW and around 269Nm. Now, this is around two tonnes of metal, and Toyota says it will clip 100km/h from standstill in around 7.5 seconds. In real terms, it feels sprightly enough, but definitely not sporty in the way it goes about it. There is enough torque on offer to break front-wheel traction occasionally, but it’s otherwise a pretty sedate way of getting around.Nuts and bolts aside, the real test for the Toyota will be how well it fits into our family life. We have a home charger, by the way (just a cheap 7.0kW wallbox), so that makes EV life much easier for us. If we couldn’t charge at home, I think a true BEV would be off the list for us.The bZ4X is so far proving big enough for our one-kid family. The back seat swallows the baby seat with no issue, and the boot takes our two-part pram with little fuss, as well. But be warned, that’s about all it takes. For such a big car — around 4.7m long – the boot is a little underwhelming, and it’s hard to fold the seats flat when you need the second row for baby seats and the like.Toyota says you can expect 452L of luggage space, which is down significantly on the 500L-plus offered in the RAV4 Hybrid, chipping away at this EV’s family credentials.Another perk for my wife and me is the familiarity of the Toyota's cabin. I know some might view this as a negative, but I think the fact there are physical buttons for most core functions – things like your drive modes, mirror adjustments and core climate settings – is a major win.Now, no matter how much range your EV offers, if you're anything like me, you will find yourself running on the battery equivalent of fumes at some point. For me, that came when I was leaving my parents' place for the 29.8km journey home. For reasons known only to Murphy and his infernal law, I was unable to plug in during my visit, so I was forced to rely on the remaining juice to get home.No problems there, with some 45km of range remaining. Now, as I discovered so you don't have to, that estimate is very much a glass-half-full situation and – to my increasing horror – would drop in chunks of 5.0km at a time, seemingly at random.After much holding of breath, we made it back to our charger with about three per cent battery remaining, and the power output automatically throttled back as the Toyota went into make-it-home-somehow mode.Fully topped up, my in-car reader was telling me I had more than the maximum range at my disposal, some six-hundred-and-something kays. So take those readouts as a guide, not as gospel.Acquired: June 2026Distance travelled this month: 427kmOdometer: 4667kmAverage energy consumption this month: 13.5kWh/100kmNote: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number of automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

You’ve no doubt heard the term ‘design by committee’, which is another way of describing what happens when too many people have too much input in a creative project, and so the end result has had any unique or interesting features beaten right out of it.Well, I have another term for your lexicon. And that is ‘design by France’. And that, it seems, is the complete opposite, where just one person says ‘I think our family focused electric SUV should look like a muscular hot hatch. Throw those 20-inch alloys on it, too. Oh, and I want so many stalks behind the steering wheel that it feels like the driver is lost in a corn field.”Case in point? The Renault Scenic E-Tech Esprit Alpine (even the name is faintly ridiculous). On paper, none of the above would make much sense. But in an electrified world awash with same-same design (take amorphous blob, apply wheels), the Renault is a breath of fresh air.The matt grey paint and black roof of our test car (+$1300) surely helps, but the Esprit Alpine looks good/different, and its tough, muscular design only further grew on me.Inside, the good/different continues with Renault making some clever material choices, including the couch-like fabric (which turned out to be kenaf, a plant fibre) stretching across the dashboard and up the A-pillars. It gives the cabin a warm, modern and more environmentally conscious feel than the usual slabs of black plastic or synthetic leather.Less immediately positive is the congregation of stalks behind the steering wheel, with the gear selector, windscreen wiper stalk and separate media-control unit all clustered together. Add to that one of the flappy paddles that controls the regen braking and it's a busy place behind the wheel.Truthfully, it’s fine and fairly intuitive once you know where everything is, but it is confusing at first.In more good news, Renault hasn’t buried everything behind the vertical 12.0-inch central screen and horizontal 12.3-inch digital driver display (all angled toward the driver), either. There are physical air-con controls, steering-wheel buttons and mercifully the ability to adjust your wing mirrors from the driver's window panel.The tech generally works well, too. Wireless Apple CarPlay was flawless on test, and there’s a wireless phone charger that holds your phone in place, which is rarer than you might think. There’s also a deep storage area under the centre console, more space under the armrest and twin USB-C ports up front, though the single cupholder reminds you this is still a fairly compact-feeling vehicle in places.The front of the cabin can feel a little tight in terms of width and not all of the materials are winners. Some of the door plastics feel cheap, and that is even more obvious in the back seat, where the door trims and some of the other plastics don't feel overly premium.But space in the back is impressive. Sitting behind my own 175cm driving position, I had enough knee room to properly stretch out and the flat floor means the middle-seat passenger isn’t forced to straddle a transmission tunnel.There are two ISOFIX points, rear air vents, twin USB-C ports and a very clever fold-down centre armrest with cupholders and some extra storage built in.The boot isn’t huge in length, but it is deep and tall, and will swallow a total of 545 litres with the rear seats in place, or 1670 with them folded flat. A bit like the rest of the 4470mm-long, 1864mm-wide and 1565mm-high Scenic, then, in that none of it feels massive, but it does feel cleverly packaged.The nuts and bolts are positive, too. While lesser Scenic models get 125kW and 280Nm, this flagship model ups that to 160kW and 300Nm, produced via a front-mounted electric motor that delivers a sprint to 100km/h in 7.9 seconds.It gets the biggest battery, too, an 87kWh lithium-ion unit that delivers an impressive WLTP range of 625km. Charging is 11kW AC, or 150kW DC, the latter below average in a world of faster-charging EVs.On the road, the Scenic is a more complicated thing. It has all the ingredients that should make it one of my favourite driving cars. The steering is quite natural feeling, there's a firmness to the suspension that doesn't disconnect you from the road below and the acceleration is perky enough without being brutal.But it's the way those ingredients are put together that takes more getting used to than I expected. It feels as though the sensitivity has been dialled right up to the point where it can feel overly reactive to inputs, and as the brake pedal doesn't always feel linear in its application, it can end up feeling a bit jerky on the road.It just takes some getting used to with your inputs to smooth out the drive experience, and I should point out that my test was exclusively in greater Sydney, and the Scenic feels like a car that would really shine on flowing roads out of town.Still, it feels a cut above plenty of newcomer EVs from behind the wheel. There is a connection to what's going on beneath the tyres that's missing from some newer brands and there's very little in the way of motion sickness-inducing body roll from the Scenic's chassis.And perhaps best of all, I covered plenty of kilometres and all sorts of road conditions, and the active safety systems remained mostly quiet, calm and blissfully quiet throughout.Downsides? The reversing camera is poor. It has a weird fisheye effect that makes judging your surroundings harder than it should be, to the point where you end up relying on mirrors and old-fashioned shoulder checks instead.At five years or 100,000km, the warranty is way off the pace, too.And it isn't challenger-brand cheap. My car is $65,990, before on road costs, and before you add the $1300 in paint and roof. That’s real money. The longer-range Tesla Model Y is $68,900 MSRP. But the mid-tier Kia EV5 Earth is $64,990, and adds a second motor and AWD. That said, though, there is a cheaper Renault, still with the long-range battery, that starts below $60k. Still, what price a little joie de vivre?

I’ve been driving the Geely Starray Inspire for the past three months, but in the past few weeks the Chinese brand has shown off its secret power.Geely launched the Starray in September last year, but it has already delivered a game-changing update to the range-topping Inspire grade. That’s record-breaking time for an update, which takes the big name brands four or more years.Geely has switched out the old test car I’ve been driving for the better part of the past three months for the new and improved version.The headline changes are a much bigger battery, with a 30kWh unit replacing the former 18kWh powerplant. This boosts electric-only driving range by 53km to 136km. That’s good enough to force a name change to Starray Inspire Extended Range.Max DC charging speed doubles to 60kW, which allows you to fill the battery from 30-80 per cent in 16 minutes. Claimed fuel use drops to 1.4L/100km from 2.4L/100km. There have been other minor upgrades to the car, such as massaging front seats and towing enhancements.Besides that everything covered in my previous two instalments remains the same.All that costs just an extra $1500, with the Starray Inspire Extended Range starting at $41,490 before on-road costs.Crucially the Starray is now a more relevant competitor to the BYD Sealion 6 Extended Range, which starts at $46,990 (before on-road costs) but the Inspire is more inline with the full-fruit $52,990 Premium grade.That’s a fair chunk of change left in your pocket if you are searching for a plug-in hybrid mid-size SUV.After three months, more than 1000km travelled, and more than 24 hours of total driving time the Starray shines bright against its competition.The power adjustable seats wrapped in synthetic leather have excellent adjustment, which paired with the adjustable steering wheel allows drivers of all shapes and sizes to find the ideal seating position.There is great vision out the front, with the driver able to see all angles. Throw in a birds-eye view camera, multiple parking sensors and it's a cinch to negotiate tight carparks and city streets.The hybrid tech works seamlessly blending electric and petrol power. You’ll barely hear the petrol engine unless in Power mode, which only uses the engine to drive the wheels.It is a refined experience with minimal road noise or tyre roar entering the cabin.The 1.5-litre four-cylinder non-turbo petrol engine and electric motor combo makes a decent 193kW.In the real world that’s plenty, with the Starray bounding up steep hills and overtaking on the motorway with ease.If you are in Power mode or the battery is depleted then it can feel breathless.The steering is well weighted and predictable, which inspires confidence on tight, twisting roads.It exerts decent body control with minimal lean through the corners.Geely’s active driver aids are the best of any of the Chinese brands I’ve tested. All the tech worked as advertised and ditched the overbearing annoying beeps and bongs of rival brands. This is a big step forward and a surefire way to keep customers.The only constant was the speed warning that goes off when you exceed the speed limit by 1km. This is fine, except the speed sign recognition tech needs a bit of work to make sure it is holding you to the right speed limit.It’s not all rosy for the Starray, however.The suspension is far too firm, especially at the rear where you’ll hear and feel it crash over speed bumps and splutter over potholes and lumps along the way. Not ideal with kids in the back seat and items in the boot will move around if not secured.It would benefit from a local suspension tune that tweaks the set-up to better suit our roads and driving conditions, rather than the billiard table-like streets of China and Europe.The Starray could do with an all-wheel-drive option, too. All that power through the front wheels is never a good idea, with the wheels spinning at the slightest hint of a heavy foot when trying to turn.All-paw grip is a better and safer solution in the wet, which is an important consideration when buying a family car.Geely’s fuel-use claim is a tough one. You’ll need to be super disciplined in keeping the battery topped up to have any shot at getting close to the 1.4L/100km mark.The best I saw was 2.6L/100km for a 50km stint, and the worst was above 6.0L/100km.But if you can travel most of the time in Pure mode (EV only), then you’ll be laughing. The new battery is much better at achieving the EV driving range claim of 136km, while the older version routinely fell short of its 83km claim.2026 Geely Starray EM-i InspireAcquired: March, 2026Distance travelled this month: 300kmOdometer: 470kmAverage fuel use this month: 3.4L/100km

In many ways, the Tiggo 9 Elite Super Hybrid is a massive deal.Priced from just $52,990 (before on-road costs), it seems like red-hot value, saving $7000 over the Ultimate flagship released last year.The Chery is also $4000 cheaper than the next cheapest plug-in hybrid (PHEV) seven-seater large SUV, the BYD Sealion 8 also from China, $14,000 below Korea’s Kia Sorento and almost $23K shy of Japan’s Mazda CX-80 full-sized alternatives.Equipment levels are also a knockout, with luxuries like powered and heated front seats offering driver's side massaging, 360-degree camera views, a panoramic sunroof, powered tailgate and 19-inch wheels.Plus, all of the essential advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) are present. Just note there is no airbag coverage for third-row occupants, nor any ANCAP crash-test rating. Pity.But there is decent ownership protection with a seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, as well as capped-price servicing covering that period.The Tiggo 9’s interior is equally generous.Large, spacious and pleasantly presented, the Chery offers sumptuous front seats, a fine driving position, heaps of storage, ample ventilation and impressive build quality.Little details add a lot, like Mercedes-mimicking door-mounted powered seat switches, a chilled/heated console box, a cooled phone-charger cradle, buttonless start/stop, and proximity key. All thoughtful inclusions.Chery has also tried to make the big 15.6-inch touchscreen less annoying, with clear markings, configurable onscreen short cuts and a slick operation.But no buttons mean the usual limitations stand. Menu searching is distracting and potentially dangerous. Often a second prod is required. The ‘Hello Chery’ interface is risibly useless. The climate control set-up is bafflingly fiddly. And there is no direct audio volume access.The 9’s joyously light-filled second row seems great initially, with a 60/40 bench that slides and reclines, ample space and more unexpected luxuries like separate climate controls and four air vents.But low seat cushions force an awkward knees-up posture for longer-legged passengers. And sliding both halves of the bench is tiringly heavy.Which leads to the Tiggo 9’s biggest red flag. Chery hasn’t bothered engineering the middle seats for right-hand drive (RHD) markets, meaning the only viable third-row access is via the road side. In the traffic.That’s where the smaller seat tips forward to allow easiest entry and egress. This could be dangerous as children are forced to clamber out onto the trafficked road side.What of third-row access via the left door? When folded, the bulkier backrest is too high for most people to traverse. And dragging the base forward to create a slim gap to squeeze past is a hefty workout.Once in the third row, there’s reasonable comfort for two adults if the middle-row seat is slid forward, aided by reclinable backrests, cupholders, ventilation, storage and lighting.Note, however, there are no provisions for child seats. Nor can the left passenger exit without assistance since only the right seat ahead has a release lever, again forcing people to alight into the traffic. Fail.Further back, as with most seven-seater SUVs, there isn’t much cargo capacity with all seats up (143 litres), rising to a very handy 819L and 2021L in five- and two-seater modes respectively.Frustratingly, the Chery also lacks a spare wheel, while a tyre repair kit is Velcroed to the carpet. There’s no storage for the luggage blind when the third row is occupied and nowhere for the charging cable either.Speaking of which, a 105kW/215Nm 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, mated to two front electric motors, delivers 225kW of power and 450Nm of torque to the front wheels. Down from the AWD’s 34kWh item, the Elite’s 19kWh battery allows for 90km of EV-only range, or 1250km all-up, though these use the less-accurate NEDC and not WLTP testing.Does the Tiggo 9 redeem itself on the road? Drive it sedately and most things are done impressively well. Slick, light, easy and comfortable, it’s actually quite sweet around town.In EV mode, acceleration is willing and smooth, with instantaneous response and strong all-round performance. In the hybrid setting, the transition to the internal combustion engine is not as seamless as hoped, with a slight delay and a faint hiccup under heavier throttle, but there’s still enough muscle for fast and spirited driving on the go.Beware that wet roads can result in scrappy wheel spin and front axle tramp.While artificial in feel, the steering is effortless and quick-witted, providing useful manoeuvrability around town. Ride comfort, too, is exceptional, due to cushy suspension that soaks up bumps with ease.But beyond 80km/h, the steering feels too sensitive, making it difficult to modulate smoothly as constant corrections are required to keep it straight. That the ADAS lane-keep tech randomly nudges the Chery into line doesn’t help, joined in by endless driver-fatigue warnings. Urrgh.This is heightened by the soft suspension that promotes excessive body movement and pitch, requiring further steering inputs and more over-correction… it’s an endless, fidgety drag that promotes motion sickness and driver fatigue.This isn’t good enough. Chery would benefit from proper Australian road tuning.On a more positive note, we managed about 50km of EV-only driving between petrol engine intervention, as well as 5.7 litres per 100km against the outrageous 1.5L/100km claim.That translates to a combined range figure of nearly 1230km, which is very close to the 1250km NEDC rating. Impressive.

Once a common sight on our roads, wagons have fallen out of favour somewhat as a result of the ever-growing popularity of SUVs and utes. But is a wagon a better and more family-friendly vehicle than a bigger, taller SUV or ute? And what if that vehicle has a mild-hybrid system onboard? That's where Skoda’s Octavia new mild hybrid comes in.

Ford’s Escape SUV has had a bit of a chequered past in terms of how it was marketed and what it represented. But, fundamentally, the version we saw launched here in 2020 as the fourth-gen Escape (the ZH model in Ford-speak) was more or less a third-generation Ford Kuga, engineered in Germany and built in Spain.Confused? Wait till you see the model line-up. Ford went against years of tradition by dumping established names such as Ambiente and Trend and kicked the new Escape off with the model simply badged FWD (front-wheel drive). From there, the range flowed through the ST-Line FWD and ST-Line AWD (all-wheel drive), then the rather grandly named Vignale (Ford picked up the Vignale badge as part of its buyout of De Tomaso in the 1970s) in both FWD and AWD forms.And shortly after the initial launch, Ford followed up with a model dubbed ST-Line PHEV which, as the name suggests, featured a plug-in hybrid driveline and was front-wheel drive.The vehicle itself was a five-seat mid-sized SUV that was actually pretty sporty to look at and, even in entry-level form, provided pretty stunning performance thanks to a racy driveline. All variants apart form the PHEV used a 2.0-litre petrol engine with a turbocharger for a rather stirring 183kW of power and lots of torque. Both FWD and AWD versions used the same eight-speed conventional automatic transmission.The PHEV was the odd-one-out, with its normally aspirated 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine and electric motor accounting for 167kW and driving through a continuously variable transmission (CVT).Far and away the biggest compliment the Escape gets is for its performance. That torquey turbo motor puts out plenty of power, meaning performance is pretty impressive as a result. So, if a mid-sized SUV with five seats and some decent straight-line stomp is what you’re after, then the Escape is indeed very possibly what you’re looking for.Beyond that, however, the Escape is a bit me-too and kind of disappeared into a sea of similarly sized, similarly priced SUVs from literally dozens of carmakers.The Escape doesn’t have a perfect reliability record, but it is better than the model it replaced. It’s still a pretty complex piece of machinery, though, so there are a few things to check before buying. A complete service record is also crucial to long-term reliability, as it is with any make or model.The news here is better than for previous Escapes, but still not perfect. That’s mainly because the old EcoBoost 2.0-litre engine was known for catastrophic failures and engine fires due to a flawed basic design. That engine had too little sealing surface area on the head gasket which meant that coolant could leak into the cylinders. When that happened, the engine could overheat to the point of causing a fire, or simply destroy itself in the process.But post-2020 versions of the engine used a more robust crankcase design that eliminated that problem.But the hybrid Escape wasn’t so lucky and has experienced problems with its high-voltage battery which could present a fire risk if it was one of the ones that had an inbuilt flaw in its construction. If you were unlucky enough to buy one of those (and there was no way to tell in the showroom) the flaw could have produced an internal short-circuit that may have caused a fire or complete battery failure down the track. The advice from Ford to owners of these cars was to not charge the battery beyond 80 per cent and to only drive in EV Auto mode until the car could be checked (see recalls section).Aside from that, the Escape has also been known to suffer cracked exhaust manifolds (which mounts the turbocharger) and premature fuel pump failures. Some owners have also experienced carbon build up in the engine’s valves. The Escape’s engine uses direct-injection so the valves are not `rinsed’ off by the fuel as it’s injected into the engine. A build up of carbon is often the result, but to be fair, this is not a Ford-specific thing and many other makes and models are similarly affected.Like a lot of complex vehicles, the Escape has had its share of safety recalls for owners to deal with. For the full story, you can check out https://www.vehiclerecalls.gov.au/ and search for this model, but in the meantime, here’s a thumbnail look at those recalls.The first was for early examples which may have had a fault in the engine-bay airflow management system. Shutters under the nose of the car that were designed to open and close as necessary may not have opened when they should have, and that posed a fire risk if there had been a fuel or oil spill at the same time.A batch of 2021-built cars were recalled to check the bonding of the glass panel of the panoramic sunroof which could detach at speed.PHEV Escapes built until 2024 were recalled to check for a manufacturing fault that could have led to a fire if the engine suddenly blew up (literally). Equally seriously, a batch of 2021 cars were recalled to check for excess play in the steering which could have led to steering failure if unchecked. The Escape was also recalled to check the reversing camera system which could glitch out and leave the screen blank when drivers most needed the system.Then there was the high-voltage battery problem we’ve already touched on. Apparently, a manufacturing flaw in the battery itself could lead to thermal runaway and an intense fire. It’s hard to imagine any Escape PHEV not having been checked for this problem by now, but it’s still worth making sure. You can do that at a Ford dealership.Like a lot of cars, Ford gradually worked the bugs out of the Escape, so the best one now (and the one least affected by recall notices) is a late-model example. The later the build date, the better, more bug-free the car is likely to be.You’ll see the odd Escape for sale with more than 160,000km, but that will definitely be in the minority. Most for sale now have travelled closer to 100,000km or even less, suggesting there’s plenty of life left in them. There are even a few for sale online that are showing super-low mileage, suggesting they may actually be leftover demonstrator models, even though the Escape officially left showrooms back at the end of 2024.As a car ages, the difference between the cheapest and most expensive variants when brand new starts to shrink dramatically. With that in mind, the Vignale is the one to look for now. Do you really need an all-wheel-drive Escape when a front drive will do the job? Not really, but the all-wheel-drive option helps tame that feisty little engine’s power delivery and gives a safety margin on most road surfaces, wet or dry.The one we’d avoid would be the PHEV. Aside from the longer list of potential faults, it just never seemed as resolved or sorted as a modern PHEV should have been. And you’ll be missing out on that ripper little turbo motor which is clearly the highlight of the entire car.Prices start at about $15,000 for cars in good condition and with relatively low kilometres showing. You’ll be buying a front-drive car for that sort of money, although you might get lucky and spot an all-wheel-drive version for under $20,000.A high-spec all-wheel-drive, late-model Escape is yours for about $30,000 or more, and should have fewer than 50,000km on its odometer. The best value is probably somewhere between those two extremes, and look for a car with some factory warranty remaining. That’s great peace of mind.Ford has one of the biggest dealer networks in Australia and, thanks to the long history of Ford vehicles in this country, many of those are situated in regional areas. As such, repair and service parts should never really be a problem, even though the Escape is something of an orphan in this market.Parts are readily available through traditional retailers and there’s good online support, too. Servicing can also be handled by any decent independent workshop which should also be able to stamp the service handbook to protect any remaining new-car warranty.The Escape was largely overlooked by buyers, mainly because the mid-sized SUV market was, and is, such a crowded space. Plenty of competition from other established badges such as Mazda, Toyota and Nissan, as well as the march of the Chinese brands, meant that the Escape was ignored by many.The result was that, even in its best year (2020) Ford sold just over 2000 Escapes; a long way short of the 35,000 sales recorded by the Toyota RAV 4 the same year. And that’s why even the big online sales sites now have less than 100 ZH Escapes for sale right now.

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