Articles by Ewan Kennedy

The Nissan V-Motion frontal style began in the SUV range a few years back. In its latest iteration it has been softened from its tough-SUV shape, but retains plenty of look-at-me cred that seems likely to lift Micra sales.Everything forward of the Micra’s windscreen is new – bonnet, guards, lights and bumper. The rear bumper and lights have also received a restyle, though the budget didn’t run to a different shape for the tailgate.Inside, the door and seat trims have been revised in style and use different fabrics. There’s also a new design of the instruments and centre cluster.To attract buyers in this hard fought market segment Nissan Australia has specified all Micras now have cruise control and power windows. As are USB input, Auxiliary port and Bluetooth phone system with audio streaming.The topline Micra Ti has 15-inch alloy wheels, a rear spoiler, foglights, LED taillights and automatic headlights. Inside there’s a 5.8-inch touchscreen, satellite navigation and premium cloth interior trim. There’s the added safety of a reversing camera.Relatively high fuel consumption could be a problemThe MY15 Nissan Micra has the same 1.2-litre, three-cylinder petrol engine as before. It produces 56 kW of power and 104 Nm of torque. Official fuel consumption is 5.9 litres per hundred kilometres for the manual transmission grades and 6.5 if the four-speed automatic transmission is installed.That relatively high fuel consumption could be a problem area for Nissan Australia because many competitors’ automatic transmissions use less fuel than manuals these days. Nissan is presumably working on the design of a replacement for the somewhat ancient four-speed auto.Micras sold in Australia are made in India to keep the price down. Build quality on the ones we saw at the media launch looked good.During a drive program organised by Nissan Australia out of Melbourne to introduce the revised Micra to the media, we found the little Micra to be easy to drive and travel in. It has good outward visibility, comfortable seats and noise levels are about average for this class. Meaning it can get a bit raucous if you drive it hard.It’s also inclined to get bumped about by backroads that have seen better days. As Micra’s a city car this shouldn't cause hassles for many owners. If you do like to go for weekend country drives it might we worth including those surfaces on our private road test before buying.The back seat is designed for children but adults can travel there in reasonable comfort if they do a deal with those sitting in front of them.Boot space suffers in all small cars but the Nissan’s works well enough and can carry normal shopping loads and the like.The Nissan Micra looks cheeky and seems sure to attract young driversEngine performance is good, though not what you would call sparkling. There is a sports mode in the automatic transmission that keep it in the lower gears a lot of the time. Which can be tiring for passengers with the noise created by the big revs - but that’s a situation to be sorted out by discussions with the driver!There’s something about the character of three-cylinder engines that really pleases we revheads. Probably the slightly uneven beat and the willingness to rev. Whatever, it adds a bit of personality to the baby Nissan.In its latest format the Nissan Micra looks cheeky and seems sure to attract young drivers, though oldies keen on reliving the days of their youth may well travel to the showrooms as well.

Ewan Kennedy reviews the first, second, third and fourth generation Renault Clio as a used buy.

Ewan Kennedy road tests and reviews the Lexus NX200t with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

When the Honda CR-V was first sold in Australia in October 1997 it was a considered to be a genuine 4WD, albeit one intended only for mild conditions. That was almost 20 years ago and the SUV situation has changed markedly in the meantime. Today so-called small SUVs are really station wagons, are frequently driven by

Ewan Kennedy road tests and reviews the Nissan Juke with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

Ewan Kennedy reviews the Audi RS3 at the Vallelunga race track in Rome, Italy.

BMW X6 is a fascinating cross between the BMW X5 station wagon and a five-door coupe. Performance is excellent if you buy one of the topline models like the BMW X6 50i in which we have just enjoyed an exciting week. Though the all-new X6 is bigger in most dimensions than the original model it's lighter, only by about

Later, the Mercedes C-Class was also in Lexus’s sights as Mercedes quietly moved it from the boring sedan into the sporty sedan segment.All Lexus are immaculately finished inside and out in a tradition that has been with the marque since day one in 1989.The quality of materials and workmanship not only makes the car a delight to look at and sit in, but also makes for high level reliability.Interior space is good for a rear-drive car, but the little Lexus has less room than a front-wheel-drive of this size would have.Try the back seat for size if adults will be frequently using it.The quality of materials and workmanship makes the car a delight to look at with high level reliability.In its earlier iterations, it’s possibly best to regard it as being a two-plus-two rather than a four-seater for adults.Later models are better but still nothing special.That’s for the sedans, the IS hardtop convertibles, launched in July 2009, are very tight in the back seat, as is generally the way in this class.The first Lexus IS generation used straight-six engines, for smoothness; and rear-wheel drive for precise handling balance.Later it changed to V6 powerplants to free up space at the front.Power for the IS200 originally came from an engine with a capacity of just 2.0 litres, hence the ‘200’.While many praised the car others said it didn’t have enough grunt to match the chassis so a 3.0-litre IS300 was introduced in 2001.Splitting the difference is the IS 250, (yes, 2.5 litres) which replaced both the 200 and 300 with the introduction of the second generation IS Series in 2005.The third generation Lexus IS retained the 2.5-litre V6 in uprated format and added a 3.5-litre V6, to the lineup.Lexus decided to tackle the German marque’s high-performance divisions with a hot model called Lexus F.Things became interesting in the powerplant field with the introduction of a hybrid powertrain, the Lexus IS300h, in the gen-three car in July 2013.This time around the engine is a four-cylinder petrol 2.5-litre assisted by an electric motor.The ‘300’ indicates the hybrid provides the sort of performance normally requiring a 3.0-litre unit.After years of competing only against the mainstream models of BMW and Merc, Lexus decided to tackle the German marque’s high-performance divisions with a hot model called Lexus F in October 2008.With a 5.0-litre V8 engine and semi-race suspension, steering, brakes and serious aerodynamic enhancements it’s something right out of the ordinary from a Lexus point of view; deliberately so, the Japanese marque really wants to make a statement.Note that the Lexus F shouldn't be confused with the Lexus F Sport, which is a far tamer model, sold from 2010, with the same engine output standard IS 250 or IS 350 on which it is based, but with uprated suspension, steering and brakes, as well as a sportier look in body details.Spare parts and servicing are reasonably priced for a car in this class.Lexus dealers are fairly limited in number, particularly in rural areas, though that situation has changed in recent years as major country cities are now being serviced.Some senior Toyota technicians are trained in most aspects of the car. Toyota is, of course, the parent company of Lexus.Insurance is generally moderate in price for a car in this price and social class and we haven't noticed any worthwhile variation between the major companies in normal premiums.Look for damage to the bodywork and the interior trim and remember the car should be close to immaculate in all areas.If not it may have been mistreated by an uncaring owner.During your test drive check for anything out of the ordinary in the way the car drives, sounds and feels.Look over the complete vehicle, preferably with the owner’s handbook in front of you, these are complex cars.At the very least, test each of the functions on the stereo, climate-control, windows and door locking.Make sure the engine starts virtually instantaneously, idles so smoothly that you can barely feel it and doesn't hesitate when accelerated.The automatic transmission should operate almost imperceptibly and not hold onto any gears unnecessarily.A manual gearbox should be smooth and light not baulk on any changes, no matter how fast you make them.Unless you’re very confident in your technical ability it’s silly not to call for a professional inspection.Don’t rush into specific details of a car when checking it out - rather do an overall walk around to get a big-picture of its condition.

“It feels very normal” I told Dr Friedrich G Wilhelm, one of the senior engineers on the Audi h-tron project, who was in the passenger seat. Then I realised, I had probably said the wrong thing when describing a futuristic Audi prototype crammed full of leading edge technolgy.It’s hard to get Germans, let alone German engineers, openly excited, but a big smile spread over his face and he replied in an excited voice, “Normal. That’s exactly how we want our A7 h-tron to feel.”Though Audi is at the forefront in high-tech automotive power it feels potential buyers could be put off if the car felt different to the norm. Hence, part of the design brief was to make it feel like any other quality, high-performance car.The ‘h’ in the Audi’s h-tron name refers to the element hydrogen, the most common element in the universe.Hydrogen is stored in four high-pressure cylinders under the rear of the A7.A device known as a fuel cell is fitted under the front bonnet and separates the protons and electrons in the hydrogen.The electrons provide electricity which is used to drive a motor to power the front wheels of the Audi.The A7 h-tron also has a conventional lithium-ion battery of the type seen in many electric cars and hybrids in the rear.This can be charged externally in normal plug-in fashion, and by regenerated energy during braking and downhill throttle-off running.It drives another electric motor connected to the back wheels.Audi A7 can run for as far as 50 kilometres in electric car mode.By far the biggest difference between the h-tron and other electric and hybrid cars is that hydrogen can fill the high pressure cylinders in about three minutes; then provides a range of up to 500 km.Add the 50 kilometres from the lithium-ion battery and this climbs to 550km.In other words, similar fill time and range as a petrol engine vehicle – a huge advantage over pure electric cars.The biggest problem is that refuelling stations are few and far between, even in Europe and the USA, where there are only a few dozen.Australia has just one.If hydrogen takes off as a vehicle fuel the number of refuelling outlets will increase.The trouble is that until vehicle sales increase there won’t be a sufficient number of refuelling points.The only answer to this catch-22 situation is government assistance. Given Australian governments’ embarrassing lack of assistance on clean vehicles to date we aren’t feeling positive.As the A7 h-tron is powered by all four wheels, it can be called a ‘quattro’ in Audi speak.However there’s no mechanical connection between the front and rear wheels.As emphasised in the opening to this story, Audi A7 h-tron is surprisingly normal in the way it feels.The only real difference is the instant throttle response that’s such a great feature of all vehicles with some form of electric power – we love them for that.There’s more noise from the powertrain than you get in a pure electric car or hybrid vehicle.Most of this comes from air being pumped under pressure into the fuel cell, as well as from the exhaust system – the exhaust in this case being water, there are absolutely no harmful exhaust emissions.These sounds will become muted as further work is done on the prototype.Performance is very good, with the h-tron going from rest to 100km/h in about 7.9 seconds, that’s due to the 170kW of power and 540Nm of torque produced. Handling feels fine despite the fact the h-tron weights about 300kg more than the standard car.We didn’t push the car hard in bends – a smart move when driving a prototype vehicle that cost millions of euros to build.Some 100 millimetres of depth is lost in the boot to provide space for the hydrogen tanks, battery and electric motor, but the boot of the standard Audi A7 is so large the loss of volume is barely noticed.When will the Audi A7 h-tron go into production? No date has been set, in fact it may never be made.The prototype vehicle we have just driven has been built by Audi to investigate ways of reducing costs, improving performance and minimising the size and weight of the components. The future certainly won’t take Audi by surprise. Though several major manufacturers are working on hydrogen power the biggest competitor is the pure electric car.The trouble with electric cars is extremely long charging times and limited range.Audi h-tron answers these questions, but the need for thousands of refuelling points to be provided globally is a huge stumbling block.It’s great to see that Audi is putting a major effort and a lot of money into improving the air which we all breathe. As well as hydrogen fuel cell cars the high-tech German maker is extremely experienced in diesel-electric racing cars, dominating the world’s toughest road race, the Le Mans 24-hour for over a decade. Will we see hydrogen winning Le Mans one day? Who knows.

Ewan Kennedy road tests and reviews the used 1994-2014 BMW 7 Series.