Articles by David Morley

It’s starting to look like rice and toilet paper aren’t the only things being hoarded right now. According to reports from the trade, the fact that the upcoming Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series won’t feature a V8 diesel option is driving a sales resurgence for the current 200 Series

Utes have already flexed their marketing muscles in Australia, but some product planners reckon we should get ready for the dual-cab ute to take over the world.Just as the soft-roader, or SUV, blurred the lines between off-road station-wagons and family c

Your next Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux or any other dual-cab ute will potentially have less ground clearance, may not be compatible with a bullbar or winch, be even harder to park, cost more and do more damage to the environment.And it's all down to new cras

Despite all the latest technology, the dual-cab utes that scored five safety stars late last year, might only be a three- or four-star performer if it was tested today.While new driver-assistance packages certainly make the vehicles safer than they were,

As much as we loved the brand and the vast majority of the cars it produced, like any carmaker, Holden was capable of getting it wrong.Hilariously wrong in some cases and hopelessly wrong in others.

With the impending implosion of the Holden brand, it’s worth having a look to see if any of the lion products will be worth hanging onto as investments in the longer term

It’s far from a done deal, but there are now hints that the Holden heritage collection of 70-odd cars will turn up as a permanent part of the National Motor Museum at Birdwood in South Australia.Paul Rees, director of the museum told CarsGuide that his preference would be for the collection to be publicly owned and that his museum was already in conversation with Holden over the future of the heritage collection.And while he would not reveal how those talks were progressing, he did claim that he believed his organisation was “in the best position to handle the collection going forward”.Mr Rees said he was pleased that Holden had publicly (as reported on CarsGuide earlier this week) said that the collection would remain in Australia.“Having the collection stay in Australia is good, but even better would be having it publicly owned,” (as it would be as part of a State or national museum’s inventory) he said.“Public ownership would allow the vehicles to be accessed by the general public.”The government, it seems, agrees with that view, with the federal minister for communications, cyber security and the arts Paul Fletcher suggesting that state and national museums would be an appropriate place for the collection to wind up.“The government expects to see a clear plan from GM about how this significant material is to be preserved and maintained in Australia – which could potentially include it being made available to institutions such as the National Museum of Australia, the National Library of Australia, state government museums or privately-owned museums,” Mr Fletcher said in a statement on Tuesday.In the past, the National Motor Museum – which forms part of the History Trust of South Australia – has hosted cars from the Holden collection, but only on a rotational basis (with other museums and exhibition spaces) and never as a single group of 70 cars.In fact, should the National Motor Museum be given the task of protecting and preserving the Holden collection, new infrastructure would be needed.“Seventy cars is not something that can just be dropped on any one museum,” Mr Rees admitted, “it would definitely mean new infrastructure and new investment in maintaining the collection into the future.“When somebody offers us (the museum) an object, we don’t just say `oh yes, we’ll have that’ because when it enters here, it’s forever. Museums do not deaccession (remove from their collection) items easily … it’s deliberately difficult to do so.“The important word for us is `significance’. That’s a scientific assessment of an object’s provenance and meaning. And we believe the Holden collection is, indeed, significant.”

Holden's Heritage car collection is safe and will continue to be enjoyed by Australians - it seems.Holden couldn't tell us exactly what would happen to the collection of concept and milestones vehicles in the longer term, but assured CarsGuide that the ca

The Holden-badged car is no more, with General Motors announcing it will ‘retire’ the brand after deciding to withdraw from all right-hand-drive markets including Australia.

At the risk of embarking on a hiding to nowhere, let's define that essential US automotive staple, the muscle car. As distinct from hot-rods, lead sleds, sports cars, GT cars, rat rods and anything else under the automotive sun, muscle cars became an important part of the motoring landscape in the 1960s and 70s, with the trend even spreading to Australia.