Articles by Laura Berry

Laura Berry
Senior Journalist

Laura Berry is a best-selling Australian author and journalist who has been reviewing cars for almost 20 years. 

Much more of a Hot Wheels girl than a Matchbox one, she grew up in a family that would spend every Friday night sitting on a hill at the Speedway watching Sprintcars slide in the mud. The best part of this was being given money to buy stickers. She loved stickers… which then turned into a love of tattoos.

Out of boredom, she learnt to drive at 14 on her parents’ bush property in what can only be described as a heavily modified Toyota LandCruiser.  

At the age of 17 she was told she couldn’t have a V8 Holden ute by her mother, which led to Laura and her father laying in the driveway for three months building a six-cylinder ute with more horsepower than a V8.  

Since then she’s only ever owned V8s, with a Ford Falcon XW and a Holden Monaro CV8 part of her collection over the years. 

Laura has authored two books and worked as a journalist writing about science, cars, music, TV, cars, art, food, cars, finance, architecture, theatre, cars, film and cars. But, mainly cars.  

A wife and parent, her current daily driver is a chopped 1951 Ford Tudor with a V8.

Nio's Firefly could bring hatchbacks back!
By Laura Berry · 17 Mar 2025
Could this be the ultimate compact car rival to the BYD Dolphin and GWM Ora?
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The brands that need the MG magic
By Laura Berry · 16 Mar 2025
MG recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, but the oh-so-British brand never would have made there if it hadn’t been saved and re-invented by Chinese auto supergiant SAIC Motor.
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MG ZS 2025 review: Essence petrol
By Laura Berry · 13 Mar 2025
The new-gen MG ZS petrol variant recently landed in Australia and we've tested it to find out what it does well and not-so-well
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Aussies fall out of love with utes
By Laura Berry · 10 Mar 2025
Utes have been up there with the most popular vehicles bought by Australians for years, but sales have dropped significantly in 2025 signalling a huge change in buyer behaviour.
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Top 10 best mid-sized SUVs ranked for resale
By Laura Berry · 08 Mar 2025
CarsGuide’s data analytics team has crunched the numbers to find out how well popular mid-sized SUVs hold their value. This insight means you can buy a new car now knowing it’ll likely be a resale winner when the time comes to sell it.
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Euro family SUV details revealed
By Laura Berry · 06 Mar 2025
Skoda’s second-generation Kodiaq mid-sized SUV is about to land in dealerships and the brand has just revealed details on the variants, standard specification and what’s new.
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1150km Leapmotor C10 REEV pricing announced
By Laura Berry · 06 Mar 2025
Leapmotor has announced Australian pricing and specifications for its C10 REEV — the hybrid version of its fully electric C10 midsized SUV — and at under $50K drive-away it has Toyota’s RAV4 and Mazda’s new CX-5 in its sights.
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Toyota is going hard on EVs
By Laura Berry · 26 Feb 2025
Toyota has announced it will reveal its next electric car on March 12 - an EV the company says will be “surprising”.A single image along with a 30-second video teased by Toyota yesterday of its upcoming eclectic vehicle don’t reveal much apart from a shadowy silhouetted form that looks to be the production version of the bZ Compact Crossover concept show in 2022.Information from Toyota was also very limited.“Toyota to reveal all-new exciting and surprising battery electric vehicle,” the company said in a press release.“Featuring a sleek and stylish coupe design combined with elevated driving dynamics and surprising space, comfort & versatility, this all-new battery electric model is inspired by Toyota’s heritage of creating products with strong emotional appeal that bring wider choice to customers.“Stay tuned for the reveal on March 12, 2025, 00:01am CET” (10:01am AEDT).While Toyota remains tight-lipped about what the EV will be, we know that a smaller electric SUV is coming and it will sit below the bZ4X medium-sized SUV. Toyota revealed the concept for the BZ Compact Crossover in 2022 and this EV is almost certainly the production version of this car.From what we can tell going by the shadowy silhouette in the teaser image and video, Toyota has stayed true to the sleek design of the original concept with the high placed taillights and sloped rear window, while the front of the car has the building wheel arches that push up onto the bonnet area. A four door small SUV, has a long wheelbase for its size this EV from Toyota will arrive to battle against the likes of the Zeekr X, Volvo EX30 and Geely G6.While Toyota hasn’t announced specifications for the new EV, Australians can expect the small SUV to be offered in similar grades and motor variants to the bZ4X. The bZ4X which competes with Tesla's Model Y has a 71.4kWh battery and comes in single motor or dual motor formats offering up to 436km and 411km of driving range respectively. This will be Toyota’s third electric vehicle after the bZ4X and Urban Cruiser small SUV to be launched globally. While the bZ4X arrived in Australia in 2024, the Urban Cruiser is currently only sold in Europe, the United Kingdom, and several other overseas markets.As for the price of the new Toyota EV, that hasn’t been announced but buyers can expect to it to be less than then $66,000 list price asked by the entry grade bZ4X.We'll be watching on March 12 at 10am AEDT when more on this EV is announced, so we can tell you what you need to know.
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XPeng offers decade-long warranty on G6
By Laura Berry · 25 Feb 2025
Chinese car maker XPeng has brought back a 10-year warranty on its G6 mid-sized electric SUV, making it one of very few brands offering such long coverage in Australia.
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Skoda Octavia puzzle finished
By Laura Berry · 21 Feb 2025
The final piece of Skoda’s updated Octavia model line-up has arrived in the form of the Sportline grade, which has taken its place between the entry level Select and sporty king of the range, the RS.
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