Articles by Kevin Hepworth

Amid the usual sea of hybrid, advanced diesel and fuel-cell technology that competed for attention under the looming threat of stringent carbon-dioxide limitation legislation there was a healthy swag of new production models to prove life goes on in the real world. A good deal of what was on show is Australia-bound in the next 12 months, much of it within months of going on sale in the European markets. Honda rolled out the second generation of its hugely successful Accord Euro, Ford put its baby Fiesta out for scrutiny and VW highlighted the stunning Scirocco Coupe. Skoda showed the new generation of the Superb (which has a date with Australia early next year), Peugeot unveiled the new 308 station wagon — seen first in Melbourne last week, Renault confirmed the Koleos compact SUV as a production vehicle, BMW took the covers off a pair of convertible heroes — the brutal M3 and its baby cousin the 1-Series — and Maybach stepped back in time with a nod to traditional open-top motoring in the Landaulet. Mazda took a pair of doors out of its Mazda2 to produce the stylish 3-door hatch, Mercedes-Benz unveiled its next generation of SL super sports and Dodge again thumbed its nose at sensitivity with the big and bold Journey. Honda should be the first cab off the rank with the new models, launching the Accord Euro in June into a market where the previous model was a watershed. “The original Euro was a real image builder — a hero car — for us,” Honda Australia's Mark Higgins says. “This new car is more of an evolution than a revolution, but when you have a car as definitive as the Euro, there is no real need to make major changes.” The 2008 Euro will arrive with a single 2.4-litre i-VTEC four-cylinder engine coupled with a five-speed automatic to compete head-to-head with the recently launched Mazda6 and Subaru's Liberty, as well as models such as the Toyota Camry and Hyundai Sonata. Higgins says there are no plans to add the hi-tech 2.2-litre i-DTEC diesel engine to the line-up. “We would love to have that engine but it is not available with an automatic and for our market that is a problem,” Higgins says. The story is much the same for the Tourer (station wagon) version. That is despite it being the most stylish of the range. Ford, desperate for a serious contender in the light-car market, has definite plans for the cute Fiesta but will not rush it to market. “I am not going to be specific about when the Fiesta will arrive but it will be within the next 12 months,” Ford Australia spokeswoman Sinead McAlary says. Ford Australia has also shown some interest in the Kuga crossover, but McAlary says a business plan for that car is still a work in progress. Also not confirmed but high on the desire list is VW's re-invention of the classic Scirocco sports coupe. VW Group Australia managing director Jutta Dierks says the Scirocco could be the car to give the brand in Australia the next big boost. “I love it,” Dierks said in Geneva. “It is exciting, it is practical and it will add so much to the brand. We are currently in negotiations with head office about the car.” Mercedes-Benz went at the high end of the market with the unveiling of the next generation of SL Roadsters and a stunning rendition of the old style of open-top motoring with its Landaulet. “It's amazing, but we are already getting inquires about that car,” Mercedes-Benz Australia's Peter Fedeyev says. The Landaulet is a convertible for the chauffeur-driven set, with only the rear-seat passenger segment of the roof folding away for the open air experience. But the SL Roadster is one for the driver and will top the Mercedes sportscar line here. At the other end of the cost scale, the Mazda2 3-door joins its 5-door sibling within months to provide an extra string to Mazda's light-car bow. Skoda's Superb allows the fledgling franchise in Australia a chance to compete on price against the Honda Accord Euro and the top end of the Mazda6 range.  

In Chrysler's case the sales success of the 300C sedan has overshadowed the rest of the range. It is easy to see why when you look at what makes up the Chrysler line-up these days. The PT Cruiser five-door, Crossfire two-seater and Voyager people mover are essentially niche players and at the end of their lives. The arrival of the Sebring last May bucked things up, but the mid-size sedan added only 199 sales to Chrysler's 3059 total for last year. Now Chrysler has expanded the Sebring line-up by delivering two cabrio versions. The four-seater cabrio comes as a Touring model with a fabric soft-top or Limited with a folding metal hardtop. Both have one-touch automatic controls for the roof on the console or key fob. The cloth roof takes 27 seconds to raise or lower. The hardtop takes three seconds more to do the same thing and both disappear into the boot, giving the car an uninterrupted silhouette. Because the car is based on the sedan, it is a roomy four-seater with plenty of space for luggage. With the roof up there is 356 litres of luggage space and with the roof down the boot holds 193 litres. Standard equipment includes electronic stability control, dual front and side airbags, 17-inch alloys, automatic climate control, six-speaker CD stereo, cruise control, automatic-dimming rear view mirror, electric driver's seat, alarm, six-speaker CD stereo, tyre-pressure monitoring and a leather-wrapped steering wheel. The Limited adds heated and cooled cupholders, 18-inch alloys, leather upholstery, heated front seats, premium Boston Acoustics six-speaker MyGig 20GB stereo and automatic headlight washers. The Sebring cabrio is the first Chrysler model locally to use the new six-speed automatic mated to the 2.7-litre V6, both of which will make their way into the Sebring sedan. The cabrio produces 137kW at 5500 revs and 256Nm at 4000 revs. Like its sibling, the cabrio shares the same Macpherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension, which gains extra cross bracing to add some torsional strength. The two-door is 80mm longer than the sedan, but 15mm lower thanks to a more steeply raked windscreen. Extra body strengthening contributes to a stronger body, but also increases body weight by 170kW in the hardtop and 130kg in the soft-top. Prices stary at $43,990 for the Touring and $51,490 for the Limited, bringing the car's entry price in under the Peugeot 307CC, Renault Megane convertible, Holden Astra Twintop and Ford Focus cabriolet.  

After months of speculation and secrecy, the VE-based Coupe Holden that rolled on to the stand is little more than an engineering tweak

Honda will offer a V6 engine that automatically cuts out two or three cylinders to save fuel when cruising, and a more economical four-cylinder engine in the same body.“There is definite opportunity for the new Accord in the large car market, ”Honda Australia senior director Lindsay Smalley says. “This is not as a fringe dweller but going head-to-head with the traditional (Holden, Ford, Toyota) core competitors in the segment. The numbers will not be huge — we are suggesting 800 a month from launch — but there will be no taxis and no government fleets. The customers who will shop for the Accord are user/choosers who are mature professional customers over 50 and young professional families in the 39-45 age bracket.”Smalley also says that by offering two engines, Honda will draw buyers. It's a strategy Toyota and Mitsubishi turned away from with their Aurion and 380 offerings and one Holden and Ford never offered, yet Honda has enjoyed reasonable success with its outgoing Accord, drawing 70 per cent of its buyers in the 4-cylinder market. The new one, sourced from Thailand, launches with two engine choices coupled to a single five-speed automatic with two trim levels.The 2.4-litre DOHC i-VTEC four-cylinder has been squeezed to produce and additional 8kW and 4Nm, lifting output to 133kW and 222Nm, while still drinking standard unleaded fuel at a claimed 8.8 litres per 100km. Honda has managed to keep the entry-level VTi under the critical $30,000 price point at $29,990 while adding to the size of the car, including significant space improvements in the cabin, adding a vehicle stability control as standard, new dual chamber front and side airbags and active front headrests and three standard rear head restraints. Other standard inclusions are 16-inch alloy wheels with full-size spare, dual-zone airconditioning, cruise control, ABS, emergency brake-force distribution, electronic brake assist, central locking, six-stacker CD sound system with six speakers and MP3 capability and speed-sensitive volume compensation.The VTi Luxury ($36,490) adds 17-inch alloys, automatic headlights, electric sunroof, front fog lights, power adjustment for driver's seat, heated front seats, leather trim and curtain airbags. The basic V6 starts at $38,490 and brings some serious improvements in power and torque from the new 3.5-litre SOHC unit. Power output is up 25kW to 202kW while torque has been improved to 339Nm. Trim level and equipment is similar to the 2.4-litre base car.However, the real story for the V6 cars is Honda's exclusive variable cylinder management (VCM) which can shut down two or three of the engine's six cylinders when the engine is not under load. The key benefits are claimed to be fuel saving and lower emissions with Honda saying American owners, where the car was launched last year, reporting four-cylinder like fuel economy. Honda Australia's official fuel figure is 10 litres per 100km on a combined cycle.Under the VCM, the engine runs on all six cylinders accelerating or under high load, switching to four or three cylinders for cruising or low-speed running. With three operating modes, the VCM system constantly tailors the working displacement of the engine to match the driving requirements with the driver made aware only by a green eco sign, which illuminates in the instrument panel. The VCM system monitors throttle position, vehicle speed, engine speed, automatic-transmission gear selection and other factors to determine the correct cylinder activation mode for the operating conditions.In addition, the system determines whether engine oil pressure is suitable for VCM switching and whether catalytic-converter temperature will remain in the proper range. To smooth the transition between activating or deactivating cylinders, the system adjusts ignition timing, drive-by-wire throttle position and turns the torque converter lock-up on and off.An engine running on three cylinders is not going to be as well balanced as one set up initially as a six, but Honda's engineers have worked to reduce any coarseness transmitting to the cabin with the use of sophisticated active control engine mounts, which have an actuator front and rear controlled by the ECU to cancel engine vibration.As a result, transition between three-, four-, and six-cylinder operation is seamless from the driver's point of view. At the top of the model range is the V6 Luxury ($46,990) which has full leather, automatic headlights, seat position memory, fuel consumption display, full leather, heated front seats, satellite navigation, reversing camera, curtain airbags and a premium audio system. The first thing you notice about the Accord on the road is just how much it has closed the gap on its Euro stablemate. Still a very different car than the sports model, the new Accord has found reasons to be loved for itself.Honda insists the car in its Luxury guise is a direct competitor for the Holden Calais, what will be the Falcon GE6 when it goes on sale in May, and the Toyota Aurion — and while it may struggle to stand that claim up against the segment leaders it will have a price advantage and what could be a fuel economy advantage.On the evidence of the relatively short launch drive it is difficult to say with any confidence just how effective the VCM management is.The only model to have a fuel-economy readout, the V6 Luxury, returned closer to 14 litres per 100km than the claimed 10 litres per 100km ... but that was in a car driven to assess dynamics rather than economy. What can be said is that both the V6 and four-cylinder cars are more lively and more stable than the outgoing models. And noticeably more spacious inside.  Snapshot Honda AccordPrice: from $29,990 to $46,990Engine: 2.4L/4-cylinder 133kW/222Nm; 3.5L/V6 202kW/339NMTransmission: 5-speed automaticEconomy: 8.8L/100km (4-cylinder); 10L/100km (V6) claimed 

“That is probably the most exciting thing about the Brooklands ... the fact it was almost an accidental program,” Stuart McCullough, board member for sales and marketing, said at the launch of the classic coupe in Tuscany.“When you finish major model programs, as we had with Continental and Arnage and Azure, sometimes the most difficult thing is keeping your creative designers and stylists occupied."“The idea of the Brooklands was borne out of a need to keep the designers busy; while it started purely as a styling exercise, it quickly became apparent that it was going somewhere.”Where the car went, driven by the design pen of Raul Pires and, despite best efforts of Bentley management to kill the project, was to be the latest in a long line of exclusive coupes to wear the flying B emblem.“This is a true Bentley coupe, influenced by the classic models of the past — the Blue Train from 1930, the Embericos Bentley of '39, the Continental Mulliner of 1959 and Continental T of 1997,” McCullough says. “Yet it is not a sports car; this is a true Grand Tourer.”In a world where research and development costs for a family car run into hundreds of millions of dollars (GM Holden spent more than a billion on the VE Commodore), the Brooklands program was completed on what the industry would consider pocket change.“Thirty-five million euro and even at that it was touch and go well into the program,” Peter Guest, head of department for body and trim, said.Overall, 60 per cent of what is on the Azure is on the Brooklands. The 40 per cent of the Brooklands that is unique to the coupe consists mainly of the roof and rear skin, rear underbody, suspension and damper tunes, a rework of the 6.75-litre V8 to boost power and torque, and extensive reworking of the rear seats to guarantee the most luxurious and spacious rear accommodation of any coupe.With a production run of only 550 spread over three years — a number predicated by how many cars the company can squeeze down an already full-capacity production line at Crewe — the opportunity to truly hand-build the cars in the traditional sense was too good to pass up.Each Brooklands is unique. Every one of the 500 orders taken so far — including six from Australia — will include a degree of Mulliner personalisation, whether something as simple as a special colour match or as complex as an interior trimmed in wood from a specific tree.Even before the bespoke Mulliner division gets involved, the Bentley Coupe is something special.Each car takes 600 hours to complete — an outrageous figure in a world where cost efficiency has seen other high-end makers popping cars off the line with increasing regularity.It takes a month for the wood trim for each car to be prepared and cured, with the 10sqm of chosen veneer set on a solid wood substrata. There are 6000 hand-done spot welds on each body. Fifteen metres of copper-braised seams are hand-ground to be invisible under the paint.Over 125 hours, the 16 hides in each full-leather interior are hand-stitched using 484.5m of thread and 43,507 stitches.Under the bonnet, the 6.75-litre V8 is Bentley in microcosm. With the core of the thumping great benteight approaching its 50th birthday, there is enormous pride in having a component that has been engineered to last. “We believe it may be the longest-serving engine in the industry,” says Bentley's powertrain main man, Brian Gush.The original 6.25-litre engine debuted in 1959 and, by 1962, had been bored to its current 6.75 litres. Since the original “sufficient” output (about 230bhp/160kW is as near as anyone will say) the engine has been tweaked, blown and modernised so that the current one claims 395kW (530bhp) and 1050Nm — something the firm is no longer shy about promoting.Yet, while power has soared, Gush is at pains to point out that NOx emissions are down by 99 per cent and efficiency is up 60 per cent over the original engine.On the road, the Brooklands delivers most of the things you expect from a Bentley — and more than a couple you don't.The interior is plush and lush — it could hardly be anything less given the time and materials lavished on it. Craftsmanship and old-world style dominate. Polished pull-knobs and switch gear punctuate the wooden dash treatment, the dials are creamy, rich and prominent, and the knurling on the gear shifter is a work of art.The first impression of the front of the cabin is that the floor is high — it is because of the straight chassis rails running beneath — and the seating fairly high.The seats themselves are large and comfortable but not particularly well bolstered — not an issue, you may reasonably think, in a luxury grand tourer. Not so, given the performance capability of this car.Rear seat space — in any limousine let alone a coupe — is expansive. The two rear seats are electronically adjustable, with leg and headroom difficult to fault. Entry and exit is not simple, even with the large front doors, as the low roofline demands a degree of dexterity.Punch the starter button and such issues fade into insignificance. The big V8 fires up quietly — unbelievably quietly for an engine of its size — but that can all change in an instant.Jumping on the accelerator is akin to poking a sleeping bear with a sharp stick. Instantly, there is a fierce rumbling and a sense of life, followed almost instantly by a ferocious release of energy.With the twin turbos forcing the engine to take deep breaths, the Bentley throws its 2.7 tonnes down the road at an alarming rate.A 5.3 second 0-100km/h sprint may not make a Porsche driver wince but from inside a behemoth like the Brooklands it is breathtaking.Yet, the car is far more than a rocket sled. There is an impressive stiffness to the chassis and a comforting degree of feedback from the huge bespoke 255/40 ZR 20-inch rubber developed for the Brooklands by Pirelli.The big car turns in progressively and tracks truly with a mechanical grip that beggars description. A dynamic stability program is standard on the car but, during the launch drive on winding Italian mountain roads, provoking it into action took more aggression than we were prepared to apply.The standard brake package is impressive enough — 348mm ventilated discs front and 345mm rear — but for the cost of a mid-sized family car ($25,000 or so) you can upgrade to monstrous 420mm carbon/silicon carbide cross-drilled discs on the front with eight-pot calipers. The rears are a not-inconsiderable 356mm with both front and rear discs guaranteed for the life of the car. 10 things you won't get in a commodore1 Almost 2.7 tonnes of hand-built bespoke metal2 A 6.75-litre twin turbo V8 hand-built and signed by the team leader3 Torque of 1050Nm to go with the 395kW of plush power4 103.5 billion standard colour and trim combinations5 A full leather interior hand-sewn using the hides of 16 cows6 Hand-polished stainless steel exterior brightwork7 The option to upgrade to 8-pot, 420mm carbon ceramic brakes that will stop an ocean liner for a trifling $25,000.8 No reach adjustment on the steering wheel9 Combined cycle fuel consumption of 19.5L/100km or an urban average of 28.8L/100km10 A sticker price of $693,000 plus on-road costs 

You have just paid something over $120,000 for your new toy and you are feeling like the cat's whiskers. It's big, it's luxurious and crammed under that stubby little bonnet is a big V8 that can launch you and your 2-tonne plus plaything from standstill to 100km/h in under six seconds.Do you care about the price of petrol? Do you give a passing thought to fuel economy? Do you need to be flung at the horizon at that sort of velocity? Not a chance — but this is still a free society and you do have the right to offend the sensibilities of a greenie at any turn of the road.And, if you choose to exercise your rights to conspicuous consumption there seems little reason to do so in anything but comfort.Well, do Mercedes-Benz have a car for you — the latest ML500. Large, luxurious, comfortable and powerful — the 5.5-litre V8 with 285kW and 530Nm guarantees that — the ML500 is everything that gets the hackles up on those who love to hate SUVs.From it's 2.2-tonne bulk — well disguised under a stylish (in that size 16 way) body — to its 19-inch wheels the ML is a poster child for urban assault vehicles. Mercedes boffins have worked diligently to make the big V8 as fuel efficient as possible.They should be commended on squeezing an additional 60kW and 60Nm over the outing 5.0-litre unit; while reducing fuel use to an ADR rated 13.4litresper 100km.Not that you are ever going to see that figure in the real world. Settle for around the 15-litre mark and don't be surprised when it gets a few points higher. This is, after all, an engine that demands enthusiastic application bolted to a very substantial vehicle with a permanent four-wheel-drive.The fact that the figures that can be achieved are achieved is a credit to the ML's no-nonsense seven-speed automatic. It is smooth and well sorted with enough of a ratio spread to deal with some low-gear crawling or highway cruising. Where the ML500 truly surprised was when it was out of what most would consider its comfort zone — real offroading.Most of the ML500s sold in Australia will never see anything more than a dusty road or a muddy polo field, yet, despite its luxury, the big Benz is a labourer at heart.Shod with low profile road tyres and without locking diffs or low range gearing (available as an option pack for those who really want to bash their luxury 4WD around) the ML was unfazed by some relatively serious free-ranging. Up and down steep loose-rock slopes, through moderately deep wading and across shifting surfaces the ML500 gave not a moment's cause for concern.The standard-fit air suspension helped with an elevated ride height at low speeds, defaulting back to the highway setting as the speed increased. The ML500 has the 4Matic all-wheel-drive electronic transfer system as standard, including traction and stability control.The package includes anti-lock brakes, eight airbags, active head restraints and the brand's award-winning Pre-Safe occupant protection system, which ABS and stability control sensors detect an imminent impact before it occurs.The car then prepares all of its passive safety features, primes the airbags and seat belts, and closes windows and the sunroof to maximise the level of occupant protection.It would be too kind to say that the big off-roader — it earned the right not to be lumped in with the soft-roader brigade — was an outstanding highway experience. Competent, certainly, but a little fidgety off freeway-smooth surfaces. While it soaks up the more undulating road imperfections, the active damping does struggle with sharper bumps such as corrugations and allows a fair degree of body roll through the twisty stuff.However, all of this can be tolerated while you are cocooned within the ML cabin. The seating position is excellent, the seats themselves trimmed in good leather and well styled for comfort and support.Throughout, the sense of space is never compromised, except maybe behind the passenger seats where the short rear styling of the rear does give the luggage area a truncated look.If you are not travelling with the full complement of souls then longer loads can be accommodated by folding the split rear seat.There are some special touches in the ML that don't always make their way into the top-end vehicles. Mercedes have taken the sensible — it should be compulsory — step of running a reversing camera through the dash-mounted satellite navigation and DVD screen. The cost is minimal and the safety benefits enormous.More on a feel-good level is the Harman Kardon Logic7 entertainment system. The 440W surround sound system runs 12 high-performance speakers (including a sub-woofer).Self-cleaning Bi-Xenon headlights with the ALS (active light system) cornering technology and dynamic range adjustment light up great swathes of the road ahead.Try as it might, the ML500 is never going to be invited to a Save the Planet rally. Its stablemate, the somewhat greener ML320CDi diesel may make the cut but not the Big Fella. Those that own it probably don't care. The bottom lineIt's everything you expect ... and a few things you don't.  Snapshot Mercedes-Benz ML500Price: $120,874Engine: 5.5L/V8; 285kw/530NmTransmission: 7-speed automatic, all-wheel driveEconomy: claimed 13.4L/100km; 14.9L/100km as tested The rivalsBMW X5 4.8iPrice: $118,300Engine: 4.8L/V8; 261kW/475NmTransmission: 6-speed auto, all wheel driveEconomy: claimed 12.5L/100km  Jeep Commander LimitedPrice: $71,990Engine: 5.7L/V8; 240kW/500NmTranmission: Multi-speed (CVT) automatic, all-wheel driveEconomy: claimed 15.5L/100km  Audi Q7 4.2 FSI QuattroPrice: $118,900Engine: 4.2L/V8; 257kW/440NmTransmission: 6-speed tiptronic; all-wheel driveEconomy: claimed 13.6L/100km 

Mitsubishi's vision for a hatch version of its new Lancer will gain substance with the unveiling of a production-ready prototype at the Geneva motor show in March.While the five-door Prototype-S is yet to be confirmed for production, markets around the world — including Australia — are gearing up for its arrival.“A hatch would be a fantastic addition to the Lancer range,” Mitsubishi Australia spokeswoman Lenore Fletcher says.“It is certainly something we are looking at very closely. Traditionally, when Mitsubishi shows a prototype after having shown an initial concept then you can guess it is pretty close to a production car.”Fletcher says the strength of the hatch market in Australia, and the paucity of such body styles in recent Lancer line-ups, makes the possibility of the new model especially exciting.“It is certainly something we could work with ... of course we have to go through the usual process of building a business case but it is something to anticipate,” she says.From the front, the Prototype-S sports the Mitsubishi design identity of inverted-slant nose with trapezoidal grille, while the sleek rear lines echo the 2005 Concept-Sportback show car.Much of the mechanical package is shared with the Ralliart Lancer unveiled at the recent Detroit show; with the turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder DOHC MIVEC 1 engine producing 177kW of power and 343Nm of torque.That drive is through Mitsubishi's new twin-clutch SST automated manual transmission and a full-time all-wheel-drive.The Prototype-S features the active centre differential (ACD) that uses an electronically controlled multi-plate hydraulic clutch to split torque between the front and rear wheels, delivering optimum balance and traction on changing surfaces.While there has been no word of an Evolution X version of the hatch, the mechanical specifications of the Prototype-S lend strength to speculation of a Ralliart version.

Four-wheel-drive vehicles have always been big business for Nissan in Australia. Think Patrol, Pathfinder, Navara workhorse and, more recently, X-Trail.Now there is the Dualis, a compact four-wheel-drive wagon, which is more than a Tiida and less than an X-Trail.It is heavily focused on breakthrough business in Europe, where it is sold as the Qashquai — named after a nomadic Iranian tribe — but it could also do well in Australia, being priced from $28,990.“We see the Dualis as a huge opportunity,” Nissan Australia CEO and managing director Shinya Hannya says.“It is the first true compact crossover with the attributes of a small hatch and a compact SUV. They are Australia's two top growth segments and in the Dualis we have combined them.”The only real decision concerned the name. Qashquai missed out, despite being used in Europe and New Zealand.“We played around with the Qashquai name for a long time, but it just didn't seem to work here,” Nissan Australia marketing boss Ross Booth says.“There were issues with pronunciation, with not understanding where it came from . . . in the end we thought the Dualis name better suited the car's dual-purpose personality.”Whatever the badge says, the Dualis is a marriage of segments previously kept separate, a sort of cross-species breeding program, if you like.Dualis lands in Australia with a 102kW, 198Nm and 2.0-litre petrol engine running through a standard six-speed manual or the optional ($2000) CVT automatic.The base ST model starts at $28,990 for the manual, but comes without stability control, side and curtain airbags or alloy rims, though an optional safety pack brings the missing ESC, airbags and alloys for $2000.Without the extra airbags, Nissan says the Dualis earns a four-star crash rating, which rises to five stars with the safety gear.At the top of the range the manual Ti is $33,990 and adds heated leather seats, leather-wrapped steering-wheel with controls for the audio, cruise control, Bluetooth phone compatibility and drive computer, aluminium trim highlights, a six-stacker CD player with six-speakers, rain-sensitive wipers, light-sensitive auto headlamps, sliding centre-console armrest and a pull-out storage tray under the front passenger seat.Both models are fitted with a simplified version of the 4x4 system from the X-Trail, which gives dial-from-the-dash settings ranging from 2WD through an active automatic 4x4 to the lockable 50:50 torque split that automatically disengages at 40km/h.Ironically, Dualis grew from a failed small hatchback development program in Japan.“That project was cancelled, but the group was unwilling to let go of some of the ideas hatched there,” Nissan vehicle manager Peter Brown says.Brown says the most difficult part of getting approval for the Dualis was explaining a concept that had no benchmark against which it could be measured.“There were no direct competitors — there are no direct competitors — and because of that we had to consider the two segments (hatch and compact crossover wagon) at once,” Brown says.“We wanted to create two cars in one with the best attributes and as few of the vices of each as possible. Selling that concept was not easy.”The Dualis team put a premium hatch driving experience and the command drive position of a crossover wagon high on the wishlist.They then went to the X-Trail mechanical package and changed little as they wrapped a less aggressive body around the underpinnings, managing a very respectable 0.34 drag coefficient.The cabin was styled to be as premium hatch as possible with little about the trim and instrumentation, other than the 4x4 selector, hinting at the car's dual personality.The Dualis development program worked. In Europe, 100,000 cars sold in the first nine months. Some markets faced order banks of up to a year.That sort of demand, coupled with Nissan Australia's perverse reluctance to embrace diesel for its passenger cars, means Australian buyers will not get the 112kW and 320Nm 2.0-litre diesel any time soon. In fact, getting 370 petrol Dualises a month out of the company's factory in Britain is a win.“Can we sell more than that? We certainly believe so,” Booth says.“Can we get more than that? Not at the moment . . . but we will keep trying.”But the Dualis is about to go into production in Japan, and that could mean extra supplies for Australia . . . but still without a diesel. The Dualis is a marriage of segments previously kept separateAt first the Dualis looks as if some sad soul has jacked up the family hatch.It is not big but sits a little higher and plants a slightly bigger footprint, yet cleverly avoids the threatening look in which many four-wheel-drives — even small ones — revel.It is welcoming inside but not exciting or ground-breaking. There is good space and it seems well assembled.The seats, redesigned late in the development to improve side bolstering after tests proved their inadequacy, work well, though the cut-away shoulders of the backrest could be an issue for the larger driver.Instrumentation is clear and well sited, the sound system is better than you might expect, and access and space for rear-seat passengers is good.Boot space behind the rear seats is slightly compromised by the height of the load floor — the price for having a full-sized spare.On the move, the Dualis is surprisingly quiet. Road noise is minimal and wind noise is at the better end of the scale.But the Dualis weighs a tick under 1.5 tonnes, so the engine finds it a touch difficult to muster anything but adequate performance.Unhurried cruising with the optional CVT is pleasant enough, but asked for an effort on the open road — particularly in the 80-120km/h zone — the car feels flat, if not downright breathless.The manual feels better, if only because of its ability to force some attitude from the engine.Still, the development team has kicked a goal with the suspension and drive dynamics, allowing fun and comfort to co-exist.Pushed along, the car sits flat and turns with a surety that would be the envy of most hatches and all but a special few crossovers.On flowing roads the Dualis is fun to drive. There is even better news when it comes to keeping the Dualis cruising. Not only is the recommended fuel 91 RON, but it is one of the few cars that gets close to the claimed fuel figures. An enthusiastic test drive at launch saw the manual return a credible 8.7 litres for 100km — only 30ml shy of its official economy.The car sits flat and turns with a surety that could be the envy of most hatches.Road noise is minimal and wind noise is at the better end of the scale. 

Yet there is still no clue to a release date.

Supplies of the Proton Jumbuck ute are starting to flow after months of tight supply that threatened to derail the little Malaysian ute's chances of success. The compact pickup looked like being a local hit until supplies dried up when component shortages limited production. But Proton is finally on top of the problem. And to celebrate, as well as boosting Australian sales, it is delivering every Jumbuck sold in January with a $2300 quad bike. The deal has a small hitch though, as buyers have to spend an extra $1000 on Proton accessories. Jumbuck prices start from $14,990 for the GLi model and $16,990 for the GLSi version. The 50cc ATV quad bike is a workhorse, not a play racer, and fits easily into the Jumbuck's ute tray. It was chosen because of the popularity of quads. Farmers are an important target for the Jumbuck. “It will appeal to a wide range of buyers, from security companies who could use the quad for patrolling ... to vineyard operators who can use the Jumbuck and its smaller mate to access the narrow vine rows,” Proton Cars Australia managing director John Startari says.