Articles by Byron Mathioudakis

Byron Mathioudakis

Contributing Journalist

Byron Mathioudakis connected with cars right from the start.

His earliest memory is a dream of him driving an Austin A30. Soon after, Byron fell in love with movies watching Duel (1971) where a Valiant sedan takes on a murderous Peterbilt truck. Meanwhile, at Tottenham Primary, teacher Mr Chitty prised opened his world with Wheels magazines, later leading him to perform a one-person musical about the then-new Ford XD Falcon. Everyone thought he was strange.

Eager to keep his car passion separate from work, he graduated from Advertising at RMIT, but wasn’t happy in that industry, so did the ‘90s Gen X thing of back-packing, with stints in hospitality, exploring his love of music working in a record store, tending bar, acting, dancing, modelling and even being a singing telegram, thankfully in faraway Canada.

His eventual YouTube debut happened as an extra in a Violetine video of that era, You Know.

Anyway, by 28, Byron realised he wanted to write about cars and nothing else, and on the eve of his 30th, landed a job at John Mellor’s Australian Automotive Business, a predecessor to GoAuto, where he still feels he belongs after four decades, breaking through with an unsolicited road test of his mother’s Peugeot 306.

Going freelance in 1999, he worked at the long-defunct eauto.com.au (it’s still on Wayback Machine), then picked up a gig at Wheels magazine, citing 11 years of Car of the Year judging as a life-changing employment experience. Among scores of amazing people, it was there he became great friends with Peter Robinson, the editor of that first car magazine he devoured back in ’77. Do meet your heroes.

In 2020, Byron started at CarsGuide, where he is a Contributing Journalist to this day. Other regular media outlets he writes for include the RAC WA and Australian Plumbing Industry Magazine.

Note: though Byron has many old cars he loves, he has never owned an Austin A30, Valiant, XD Falcon or Peugeot 306. To paraphrase Bjork, to do so may break the charm.

You can find Byron on LinkedIn.

Education

Associate Diploma in Advertising, RMIT | 1987-1990

Awards

2024 Newspress Australia Road Tester of the Year

Featured Publications

GoAuto | 1997-2022
Wheels | 2009-2021
CarsGuide | 2020-present
RAC WA
Australian Plumbing Industry Magazine

More used-car gems for canny new-car buyers

By Byron Mathioudakis · 11 Oct 2020

With see-sawing currencies and tumultuous global events pushing new-car prices ever-higher, spending up big may not be an option at all for many of us right now.Thankfully, there's always the used-car market, where hundreds of not-so-old pre-loved alterna

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Audi e-tron GT delayed for up to two years

By Byron Mathioudakis · 08 Oct 2020

Audi has confirmed that the e-tron GT all-electric sports sedan will be released globally later in the second half of next year, meaning that Australian sales – including that of the GT RS mooted back in January – are unlikely to commence before sometime in 2022

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Jaguar XE facelift confirmed for Australia

By Byron Mathioudakis · 08 Oct 2020

Jaguar has confirmed that it will release yet another XE facelift in Australia sometime early next year

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Skoda Octavia likely to drop DSG for base version

By Byron Mathioudakis · 08 Oct 2020

Skoda’s completely redesigned Octavia will launch early next year, and is expected to bring a more conventional automatic option that could be more in line with Australian family car drivers' tastes.

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2021 Skoda Superb pricing announced

By Byron Mathioudakis · 08 Oct 2020

Skoda has revealed pricing and specification information for the all-wheel-drive versions of its Superb large car range, with details of the front-wheel drive 162TSI models due sometime before April 2021 to help fill the void of the departed Holden Commod

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Jaguar XF facelift gains AWD, improved cabin

By Byron Mathioudakis · 06 Oct 2020

Jaguar’s struggling XF has been thoroughly facelifted for 2021, adding all-wheel drive, a new nose, a completely redesigned interior, upgraded safety and a dramatically improved multimedia system.

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Mercedes A-Class, CLA and B-Class cost more

By Byron Mathioudakis · 05 Oct 2020

Mercedes-Benz Australia has upped the price of its smaller passenger-car range by up to nearly $2000, including the best-selling A-Class and its sportier CLA coupe, making entry into the Three-Pointed-Star brand more expensive than before.Now kicking off

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Half-price heroes! Affordable used alternatives for the new cars you want: Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, Isuzu D-Max, Mazda 2 and Ford Focus ST

By Byron Mathioudakis · 04 Oct 2020

It might be a year most of us would rather forget, but 2020 is undeniably a bumper year for exciting new models, especially under lockdown where there’s not much to keep us occupied other than dreaming about your next purchase.The thing is, with fluctuation currencies pushing prices ever-upwards in such unpredictable times, spending up big may not be an option at all for many of us right now.Thankfully, there’s always the used market, where hundreds of not-so-old alternatives await fresh buyers to take them to new homes.Welcome, then, to our new regular feature, Preloved Gems. Or Used but Not Abused. Not So Shabby Chic. Or Get ‘Em While They’re Hot. Or whatever.The point is, there are not-so-pricey bargains out there.

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2021 Mercedes GLC and why you'll pay more

By Byron Mathioudakis · 02 Oct 2020

Mercedes-Benz Australia has upped prices for its popoular GLC mid-size luxury SUV by between $1565 and nearly $4000 for the 2021 model year, despite no major changes to the line-up's equipment or specification.

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2021 Mercedes C-Class prices up, diesel gone

By Byron Mathioudakis · 01 Oct 2020

Mercedes-Benz Australia has bumped up the prices and officially dropped the diesel versions of its popular C-Class sedan and wagon range in Australia

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