Articles by Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling drives the last Holden Commodore V8 -- the new VF Series II -- from its birthplace in Adelaide to its spiritual home, Bathurst.

VW is facing billions in fines from governments in Australia, the US and Europe. Now a law firm claims customers are entitled to compensation for buying a car with a dodgy diesel engine.

Australian customers are still yet to be contacted by Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda three weeks after the dodgy diesel scandal broke.It could take up to a year for more than 90,000 Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda diesel cars in Australia to be upgraded with software or expensive mechanical changes to ensure they don’t cheat emissions tests.Volkswagen in Germany says it is close to finalising the fix for 11 million cars sold globally from 2008 to 2015, but it is still too early to determine how performance and fuel economy will be affected on each model.A News Corp Australia investigation has found that while the troubled German car maker has finally published a list of the models affected locally, customers are yet to receive any formal notification and dealers say they only have the same information released to media.Furthermore, emissions targets set for state and federal government fleets over the past six years are likely to have been breached because certain Volkswagen diesel cars bought by government agencies or staff emit more pollution than claimed.“Government fleets around Australia will have purchased some of these vehicles as part of the push to lower the overall emissions of their fleets,” a senior government fleet manager told News Corp Australia on condition of anonymity.“The cars would have been selected based on the information on the (Green Vehicle Guide rating labels) and all the procurement decisions would have been made in good faith,” said the government fleet manager.The source said there would likely be no ramifications but, he added, “Volkswagen’s deliberate actions have let the states down and possibly caused them to fail to reduce vehicle emissions”.awyers weigh in on VW diesel scandal

Three weeks after the global scandal broke, Australian owners of VW diesel cars finally know if their car is affected or not.

It’s not quite like selling ice to eskimos, but it’s close. A little known company in Australia has taken on the global car industry with the most advanced wheels in the world.

Toyota's first mass produced hydrogen car has arrived in Australia, but don't rush to showrooms for a test drive just yet.

The VW diesel scandal has now reached Australian showrooms, with 10 models now banned from sale effectively immediately.

The threat of millions in fines isn't enough to get answers from Volkswagen about the cheating software in its diesel cars. So where to from here?

A little known section of Australian motor vehicle regulations reveals that companies can be fined $108,000 for each individual car on the road with false paperwork.