Articles by Karla Pincott

The price to get into a Ford may drop in the future, with the company saying it is considering a new budget model. Ford CEO Alan Mulally said yesterday the company would look at adding a cheaper subcompact car based on the Fiesta platform, according to a report in industry journal Automotive News Europe. "We are looking around the world at opportunities to offer a car priced below the Fiesta," Mulally is cited as saying in the report. He added that the  model -- with a working title of  'Value B' -- would not sacrifice any of the Fiesta's size, but would be declined to discuss where the car would be built and which particular markets it would target.  If offered in Australia it would  create a lower entry point to the  brand, which has opened here with the Fiesta for close to a decade since Ford dropped the Fiat 500-based Ka minicar -- which still sells in overseas markets. The base model Fiesta currently sells for around $15,000 drive-away, but a cheaper version would probably look to swipe sales from the bargain heroes like the Holden Barina Spark (currently $13,800 drive-away), Hyundai i20 ($13,500 drive-away) and Nissan Micra ($13,000 drive-away) and -- depending on price point -- perhaps even the Suzuki Alto ($11,000 drive-away). In a market segment where price is the main priority, offering a Blue Oval badge at a bargain price is bound to be attractive to buyers. Mulally reportedly pointed to a global platform and parts-sourcing as being key to keeping the cost of the proposed Value B model low -- and some Ford fans will be keen to speculate on whether that offers the possibility of the Model B being built here.  

In Australia we know drifting as a skilled motorsport with trained drivers on a race track. In Saudi Arabia, it seems to be a casual activity that often takes place on public roads -- sometimes with other traffic on them. Or, as in this extreme case, with a crowd of fans who look happy to have the ute drifting in among them. In Saudi Arabia this form of drifing is part of a craze called Hagwalah. Other practices include keeping a vehicle up on two side wheels for extended runs, and having people climb out on the side -- or even change tyres. Every Hagwalah video we've seen is a celebration of this dangerous -- and in this case, stupid -- bravado. And the practice is widespread, judging by the amount of footage that turns up on Youtube. Oddly, we rarely hear about the police there cracking down on Hagwalah. And this in a country that bans women from driving -- although some of them are possibly relieved not to be out there on Hagwalah streets.  

A Rotary Club in Brazil has taken pedestrian safety into its own hands -- literally.A group of the Rotary members performed a traffic 'intervention', lifting up an errant car and carrying it out of the way of people using the intersection on foot.It was a stunt to promote National Traffic Week in Brazil but has resulted in the group being christened Crosswalk Guardians after the video was posted on YouTube.The stunt was the brainchild of a marketing agency, but has caught the attention of Brazil, where 13 pedestrians have already been killed this year. 

Move over Transformers, Lego is muscling in on the mutating vehicle movie genre.

The toilet seat on this motorised trike is just for decoration, but the makers intend to leave you in no doubt about what's fuelling the Toilet Bike Neo.Developed by Toto, a Japanese company that manufactures toilets, the trike's engine run on excrement by-product.While the show 'throne' suggests the rider may be contributing to the fuel production along the way, the tank is actually filled with bio-gas produced with treated livestock manure.The bike is a one-off production, built as a promotion for Toto's environmental policy, which aims for a large reduction of C02 emissions by 2017. So don't hold your breath -- or perhaps your nose -- waiting for it to turn up on a showroom floor.The Toilet Bike Neo is currently on tour around Japan -- and its handlers might at least be thankful they won't be 'caught short' on the road. 

British luxury brand Bentley is known for expensive handmade cars just about large enough to sleep in. So it’s no stretch to see them teaming with New York’s landmark St Regis hotel for an ultra-prestige suite. The 108-year-old hotel built by John Jacob Astor IV – who went down with the Titanic – already has several special suites at the kind of eye-watering tariffs only shrugged off by royalty and A+ list celebrity. The Tiffany, Dior and Orient Suites will set you back just short of $10,000 per night, and join them this month will be the Bentley Suite, designed in collaboration with the British marque. The 158sq-metre suite – roughly three times the size of your average small flat – will “be outfitted in the defining accents of the luxury automotive brand” according to the Bentley announcement. That means the signature burled wood of the Bentley dashboard has been put to service for a king-sized sleigh bed, while the floors are covered in black leather tiles. The suite comes with a complimentary car: a $662,857 Bentley Mulsanne for your personal use, but only within a 10-block radius of the Manhattan hotel. That might sound a bit limited, but New York blocks are massive, and the hotel probably expects the Mulsanne to return from forays with its massive boot crammed with high-end shopping bags.

Scheduled to go on sale here towards the middle of 2013, the Ford Fiesta range will kick off with the tiny 1.0-litre turbocharged three-cylinder EcoBoost engine that claimed the World Engine of the Year award a few months ago. “We’ve confirmed the three-cylinder turbo for the Fiesta,” Ford spokesman Neil McDonald says. “Originally it was going to be the EcoSport SUV  but Fiesta will beat it to market by several months. The turbocharged engine is offered in two levels -- 74kW/170Nm and 92kW/200Nm – but there’s no indication yet of whether we will get both. “It’s a little bit early to talk what the engine line-up will be,” McDonald says, although agreeing there would have to be consideration of whether the local market would go for two 1.0-litre versions or would expect to see a larger unit in the upper spec cars. The leaked official images show the main styling changes are focused on the nose, which gets the Aston Martin-flavoured grille shape -- already worn by the overseas Ford Fusion (Mondeo) – set off with a new front bumper and headlight clusters featuring LED running lights. McDonald says it’s also too early to discuss whether price and specification levels will change markedly from the current range, which opens with the $16,990 CL and tops out at the $23,490 Zetec – or whether they will be joined by the Fiesta ST seen overseas. “There’s been a Fiesta ST concept vehicle shown in Europe but we haven’t confirmed it for here,” he says. “For the rest of the range, it’s too far out to talk about price, but we plan to remain competitive. The Fiesta has been doing quite well -- around the 700 per month. It’s been a pretty strong seller for us.” While the release of fresh metal can often mean extra demand that constrains supply of some imported cars, McDonald points out Asian production means it won’t be a problem for the Fiesta. “Our vehicles are built in Thailand so I don’t think supply is going to be an issue,” he says.  

There’s been a trickle-feed of information about the new Volkswagen Golf over the past few months, but the German carmaker has finally released official images ahead of its global unveiling at Paris motor show. As Carsguide reported in July, changes to the exterior styling are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The nose follows the current car’s split grille but gets new headlight clusters. It keeps the signature wide C-pillar, but adds a small triangular window on the front doors and a sharper line on the rear ones. Around the back there are new taillight clusters with LEDs on some variants. The cabin also carries on much of the present styling, with the main change being the centre console now angled towards the driver. Ergonomics experts have been through the interior, resulting in more steering column adjustment and changes to the placement of the driver’s seat, gear lever and pedals. There’s more to report under the skin, where the Mk 7 Golf rides on the new Volkswagen Group platform used by the latest-gen Audi A3 – and which we can also expect to see here underpinning a future Skoda.  As we detailed last week, the lighter platform and some revised production processes – coupled with more use of aluminium and even trimming strategies for components and wiring – mean the Golf 7 has also managed to shed around 100kg despite growing in size. Volkswagen says the Golf has increased 56mm in length and 28mm in width, but has shaved 28mm off the height. The cabin gets a space boost with more length, leg and shoulder room, while a  top-up of 30 litres luggage capacity to bring the boot area to 380 litres – now accessed through a wider opening. The 118TSI 1.4-litre engine is gone, with the two turbocharged petrols for launch being a 64kW 1.2-litre promising 4.9L/100km and a 103kW 1.4-litre that VW says will get 4.8L/100km with the help of cylinder deactivation that shuts down two cylinders between 1400-4000rpm. Other petrols are likely to join the range later, including different tunes of the 1.2 and 1.4, and possibly a larger capacity unit. On the oilburner side there’s a tweak of the current 77kW 1.6-litre turbodiesel which VW claims will return 3.8L/100km and a Bluemotion version which promises 3.2L/100km. A revised version of the current 2.0-litre oilburner – including changing its alignment to improve cooling – also raises it to 110kW and delivers 4.0L/100km, with a future 132kW version that will carry the GTD badge of the current 125kW car.  

A new study in the UK found that traditional family gatherings are falling victim to the cost of road travel. Most under threat is the traditional Sunday roast, with 6 in 10 families saying that they have missed attending the occasion.And it's parents who are losing out on family get-togethers the most — with 30 per cent of Brits saying they simply cannot afford to visit mum and dad. A fifth of the men surveyed admitted that they would be happy to give gatherings at their mother-in-law’s house the boot, while almost 1 in 5 families said they had cancelled visits to their grandparents.The Hyundai-sponsored study revealed that the average family now spends 756 pounds (A$1173) travelling 1719km to visit relatives every year. Petrol costs have soared a massive 53 per cent over the past five years from an average of 87.9p (A$1.37) a litre to 134.1p (A$2.08).These rising costs have led to two in five drivers saying they had ruled out any kind of trip to see relatives living more than 150 miles (241km) away. But Hyundai's research reveals the closest family member for one in ten respondents lives over 100 miles (161km) away.The study was conducted as part of Hyundai's research into the cost of motoring and its effects on driver habits. Feedback from drivers showed that families are losing out in other areas of their lives just to afford a visit. A sobering 35 per cent said that they cut back on family nights out to pay for fuel, while incredibly 14 per cent even admitted to cutting back on food to run their vehicle.Driving standards were also revealed to have been dramatically affected. 1 in 5 drivers said that they regularly turned their ignition off in traffic and 27 per cent of drivers even admitted to letting their car freewheel down hills to save on petrol, a practice that is both dangerous and illegal.Train travel was, perhaps surprisingly, the most popular alternative to car travel, with 43 per cent of respondents saying they would choose it over a road trip. 

The Peugeot 208 launches here this month, but its long-awaited arrival risks being upstaged Pippa Middleton style by its hotter sibling, the GTi, making a global entrance just behind it.Peugeot has released official images and confirmed details of the 208 GTi in the lead-up to its unveiling at the Paris motor show at the end of September. Looking close to the 208 GTi concept Peugeot rolled out at Geneva motor show a few months ago, the production GTi had a gloss black mesh grille with chrome accents.The accents are echoed at the rear with a black skirt and chrome trapezoid twin tips from a reworked exhaust system that Peugeot says will give an “appealing sound”. A chrome window sill strip and GTI logo tab on each C-pillar salutes the 205 GTi that started Peugeot’s hot hatch reputation – and which the French carmaker promises will be regenerated with the latest iteration.The cabin of the red example in the photos sports a matching theme with red saddle-stitching setting off the black leather and cloth upholstery, flat-bottomed steering wheel, gloss red door grabs and dash accents and red-lit instruments. Emphasising its performance intentions, it features sports seats, drilled aluminium pedals and aluminium gear knob.The production GTi sits on a wider track than the standard 208 – 10mm more at the front and 20mm more at the rear – with 17-in alloys wheels in the flared wheel arches sporting 302mm front and 249mm rear discs cooled by dynamic air intakes. The MacPherson strut front, torsion beam rear suspension has also been tuned and gets tweaked steering and revised suspension with recalibrated shock absorbers, stiffer springs and upgraded cross members.As Carsguide reported in April, the Peugeot 208 GTi will be powered by the 147kW/275Nm 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine from the Peugeot RCZ sports coupe (and the PSA cousin Citroen DS3) mated to a six-speed close-ratio manual transmission driving the front wheels. With just 1160kg to flick around, Peugeot says the 208 GTi will hit 100km/h in less than 7.0 seconds, but has not yet confirmed a top speed. Peugeot hasn’t released a fuel economy figure either, but the official CO2 of 145g/km signals somewhere around 6L/100km, and you can guess that’s premium petrol.The Volkswagen Polo GTi is the first rival people will picture against the Peugeot, but it will also face off against the RenaultSport Clio RS200 and Ford Fiesta ST – all three of which it trumps on power and torque. As far as handling goes – and on Australian roads -- we’ll probably have to wait about 12 months until it gets here to find out.