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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.

Kia Stinger is back! New-gen hi-po electric model in the works: Report
By Laura Berry · 30 Jan 2025
The Kia Stinger looks to be making a dramatic return with the company president admitting work has begun on a high-performance electric sedan to sit at the top of its global range.
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Iconic Italian carmaker's answer to the MG4, BYD Dolphin, GWM Ora and Hyundai Inster: Could 2025 Fiat Grande Panda electric car come to Australia as a cut-price practical SUV?
By Laura Berry · 29 Jan 2025
Fiat will bring its Grande Panda electric SUV to the United Kingdom in right-hand drive within weeks, potentially paving the way for the electric car to enter Australia and battle Chinese rivals.
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Meet the new tough-as-nails Toyota LandCruiser Prado AT37 by Arctic Trucks coming for the Ford Ranger Raptor, Nissan Patrol Warrior, Land Rover Defender Octa
By Laura Berry · 28 Jan 2025
The new-generation Toyota Landcruiser Prado only landed about two months ago and already the mad scientists at custom engineering firm Artic Trucks have worked their magic creating a super capable glorious beast.Icelandic company Arctic Trucks is famous for taking off-road vehicles to the next level and we’ve reported on its marvellous creations such as the Isuzu D-Max AT35 and the Toyota HiLux AT35 in the past. Now meet the Toyota Prado AT37.Developed between Arctic Trucks International along with the United Kingdom division and Toyota Africa’s distributor, the AT37 has been modified enormously while adhering to OEM and government fit and functionality standards.There’s an extensive list of mods: a 10-piece wide body package; 17 x 10-inch Arctic Trucks ‘Heritage’ dual-valve forged alloy wheels in satin black, 38-inch (37 x12.50 R17) BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO3 or Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 tyres; two-way adjustable suspension with longer travel front coil overs, rear dampers and springs with a lift of 40mm; wider and extended wheel base, aluminium side steps, discrete 2.0-inch rear multifunction reviver hitch and Arctic Trucks mud guards. Arctic Trucks UK Managing Director Peter Smith said the resulting monster Prado was more than just a combined group effort.  “This collaboration of teams across the Arctic Trucks group has resulted in a vehicle that is truly fit for use in any market. Combining our three decades of off-road expertise with technology and innovation from the UK supply chain has achieved outstanding results and reaffirms our ongoing commitment to delivering complete vehicle solutions for both work and play.”While Arctic Trucks hasn’t specified what will power the AT37 it’s likely that it will retain the stock 150kW/500Nm 2.8-litre four-cylinder diesel engine with high and low range four-wheel drive.Prices have also yet to be announced but don’t get your hopes up Aussies, the Prado AT37 will only be sold in Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East.That means it won't arrive to tangle with hardcore off-roaders such as the Nissan Patrol Warrior, Ford Ranger Raptor and Land Rover Defender Octa.
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Has Ford ditched electric cars to build the cars we really want? Is a Ford rival to the Toyota LandCruiser coming, or a new Ford Thunderbird or a V8 Raptor? Ford's doing what BYD and Tesla can't! | Opinion
By Laura Berry · 28 Jan 2025
What’s going on at Ford right now? Has the iconic motor company, the first in the world to bring cars to the masses, lost its way? Is it drowning in an incoming tide of Chinese electric vehicles it can’t compete against? Or does it know exactly what it’s doing and letting us live out our combustion engine dreams for now and giving us the car the electric brands can’t?In the past five years Ford has axed almost its entire line-up of vehicles in Australia. Those include the Puma and EcoSport small SUVs, the Escape mid-sized SUV, Focus and Fiesta hatches, Endura large SUV and Mondeo sedan. Today Ford’s range in Australia is tiny compared to most of its mainstream rivals such as Toyota and Kia. There’s the Ranger ute and its Everest SUV twin, the F-150 full-sized pick up truck, Mustang sportscar, electric Mustang Mach-E SUV and the Transit van and people movers.It was clear something was up at Ford about 10 years ago. In 2016 myself and several other motoring journalists were invited to Ford Australia’s head office in Broadmeadows Victoria for what was described as an informal chat. This meant leaving our phones in a plastic bucket at the door so we weren’t tempted to take photos of what was in the next room we were about to be led into. There was actually nothing in that next room apart some pastries, a coffee urn and waiting senior executives from the company, some of them from the United States. Actually there were more Ford people than journalists. They were very enthusiastic to tell us that there were lots of new Ford vehicles coming — especially SUVs."The days of having one SUV that is relevant to a whole bunch of people is over. It takes a proliferation of SUVs,” Ford Australia’s then Marketing Director Lew Echlin told me in that room.“The math is simple – the more SUVs that you have, the more customers that you have the opportunity to connect with… What we're attempting to get right now is shelf space. Edge we think will span several different consumer segments.”Edge was a large SUV about the same size as a Ford Territory and it was renamed the Endura for Australia. I went to the Endura’s launch in 2019, then the following year I covered it being axed from Australia. It was actually a really good SUV. But then so were many of the cars Ford axed — the Focus, the Fiesta, the Escape, the Mondeo, the Puma… but not the Ecosport.Ford would argue the reason was low sales and while that’s true it was because many of those models also being discontinued globally. Ford’s footprint was shrinking fast worldwide.The company’s global boss Jim Farley seemed to have a plan, actually he seemed to have many plans that he announced like New Year’s resolutions, only more frequently than just annually. “We aim to become the second biggest EV producer within the next couple of years,” Farley said on social media in 2021“... our ambition is for Ford to become the biggest EV maker in the world,” he continued.The tune had changed by 2024 when Farley told the Wall Street Journal that Chinese electric cars represented “an existential threat” and according to the same publication after he and Ford’s CFO John Lawler drove an electric vehicle in China, Lawler said “Jim this is nothing like before… these guys are ahead of us.” The latest Farley resolution came at the start of this year at the Detroit Motor show where he told industry website Automotive News that Ford was going to follow their own more exciting road.“Rule No.1 at Ford: no boring products,” Farley told Automotive News. “ We do not make shampoo.”It’s a bold statement, like they all were, but had Farley realised that Chinese EVs were too far ahead to catch right now and in the meantime the company would play to its strengths and make what it was good at like trucks and sportscars - the ones people actually bought?The Chinese aren’t making and selling V8 muscle cars or hardcore hi-performance off-road utes, and they weren't building anything that could threaten the F-Truck range.There would have been resistance from those high at Ford — the shelf-space executives — pointing out market share and losing a foothold. Ford lost A$2 billion in the first two months of 2024 trying to develop EVs through its electric Model E division without much success. Continuing down that road could just be an exercise in burning money.Ford’s presence in China is small. At the start of this year Farley announced the company earned A$958m in China 2024. This included exported vehicles.We’re also seeing Ford retract from the UK and European markets where strict emissions laws are putting pressure on the carmaker, which doesn’t have many vehicles that meet the tightening regulations.It appears then that Ford, while not completely walking away from EV development is putting most of its energy into models like the Mustang, Ranger and Everest, which last year accounted 90,552 sales between them in Australia. Just those three models puts Ford into the top 3 best selling brands in locally. There doesn’t seem to be a need for a Ford Focus or Mondeo, or even an electric car, not with numbers like this, not right now anyway.The same strategy appears to be used in the US where the line-up also includes the Bronco and Bronco Sport SUVs, along with the entire F-truck series, which has its high-performance models such as the F-150 Raptor R. The Mustang GTD is a racecar for-the-road version of the Mustang. The rest of the range is rounded out with the Explorer SUV and Edge with sporty ST variants. No sedans, not hatches and only three electric vehicles: the Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit van.Farley’s Ford appears to be doubling down on no-boring combustion cars and it could well work in Australia’s favour where given our love of Rangers, Ranger Raptors and Mustangs might lead to more of the kind of cars we want.If we’re going down this road what else could Ford do? Another new Ford GT to take on Chevrolet’s Corvette? A modern Thunderbird? A Ranger Raptor with a V8? A hardcore off-road SUV Toyota LandCruiser or Land Rover Defender rival?Speaking of off-road that reminds me. Farley also made another bold claim this year at the Detroit motor show to Automotive News.“Ford wants to be the No. 1 undisputed off-road brand in the world,” he told Automotive News. “We want to be the Porsche of off-road.”
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Toughened up hybrid family SUV revealed? New 2026 Subaru Forester Wilderness leaks online ahead of Australian release of Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5, Mitsubishi Outlander and Nissan X-Trail rival
By Laura Berry · 21 Jan 2025
The new Subaru Forester equipped with the tough-looking Wilderness pack was revealed in a video online, sending fans of the brand into a frenzy.
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'The number one undisputed off-road brand': Ford boss announces new direction, to overtake Toyota, Nissan, Jeep and others to become the 'Porsche' of off-roading: Report
By Laura Berry · 20 Jan 2025
If you’ve ever wondered what Ford wants to be then you’ll be happy to know the company’s global CEO and president Jim Farley has just told us — it’s Porsche.
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Used electric car prices in free fall : Exclusive report shows buyer's market as second hand Tesla Model 3, Tesla Model Y, BYD Atto 3 and MG ZS EV prices dive | Analysis
By Laura Berry · 19 Jan 2025
CarsGuide’s analytics team has unearthed exclusive data sourced from Gumtree, CarsGuide and Autotrader listings, which shows the second-hand electric vehicle market is primed for buyers with prices dropping significantly over two years.There’s a lot of talk about how cheap new electric cars are getting, and sure the prices are coming down, the BYD Dolphin Essential is the cheapest in Australia at $29,990 (before on-road costs). New electric cars are still on the pricey side, though, and you won’t find many new EVs under the $50,000 mark. Tesla is the most popular electric car brand in Australia, but entry into a new Model Y SUV costs $55,900 and a Model 3 starts at $54,900.  Hyundai’s Kona Electric Kona lists for $54,000 at its most affordable, the Zeekr X is $56,900 for the base car, while the cheapest Volvo EX30 is $59,990.But what about a second-hand Tesla or any used EV? And are there more used EVs available these days?We put the question to our analytics team: has the number of listings and the median price changed over the course of the past two years? We asked the team to concentrate on seven models: the BYD Atto 3, Hyundai Kona Electric, MG ZS EV, Nissan Leaf, and the Teslas — Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X.Those particular models were chosen not just for their popularity but also being established here for longer. The Nissan Leaf hatch has been on sale in Australia for 10 years, the Tesla Model S sedan first arrived in 2017 as did the Model X large SUV, while the Model 3 appeared in 2019 and went on to become not just the most popular EV, but one of the most bought cars in Australia. Hyundai’s Kona’s Electric small SUV quietly slipped into Australia in 2019, too. MG’s ZS EV SUV 2020 arrival signalled the start of the Chinese electric wave we’re currently riding. Tesla’s highly anticipated Model Y mid-sized SUV stole the EV show in 2022, followed by the BYD Atto 3 in 2023.The data revealed that the Tesla Model 3 is the most listed used electric car with a total of 7795 live listings over a reporting period starting on January 1 2023 and ending December 1, 2024. The Nissan Leaf is the second most listed used EV with a total of 5633 listed during those 24 months. Third place for listings was the MG ZS EV with 5352. The Hyundai Kona Electric was next with 3045, while there were 1937 listings for the Tesla Model Y.The number of live used listings increased for the Atto 3, Kona Electric, MG ZS EV, but stayed static for the Teslas. We could speculate that used Tesla Model 3s and Ys generally sell faster and therefore don’t accumulate to the degree the others, but further data analysis is needed.  Overall the number of used EVs listed fell from 1148 live listings on January 1 2023 to 746 in December 1, 2024, but during this time live listings rose and peaked at 1643 on March 1, 2024. That made the 12 months from January 2023 to January 2024 a time when the largest number of used EVs were consistently listed before falling to current levels of about 800 total live listings month in and out.The big takeaway is not just how many cars were listed but that the median listing price decreased for all models for the 24 months.The median listing price for the Tesla Model 3 in January 2023 was $65,990, but by December 2024 it was $46,705. Likewise for the Model Y the median listing price in January 2023 was $79,950 and by December 2024 it was $53,987.The BYD Atto 3 despite only being on the market since 2023 saw its median used car price fall dramatically, too, from $51,500 to $36,990 over the two-year reporting period. The MG ZS EV wasn’t immune to the median listing price fall either, starting at $48,071 in January 2023 and ending at $34,300 in December 2024. The most affordable used EV was the oldest — the Nissan Leaf — with a median price of $33,990 that fell to $22,990 over the two years.Only the Kona Electric, which started at $29,800, saw prices fall then increase to $37,300 off the back of the second generation model arriving in January 2024, then fall again to $34,490 by the end of that year.As for the Tesla Model S and X, both also started with higher median listing prices and fell over the 24 months. Both are older models and now available to buy new. Still, if you’re into this kind of thing the data is fascinating with the median listing price of the Model X being $129,990 and dropping to $75,800 after the two years. A bargain considering the Model X listed for $272K when it debuted here in 2017. But would you want an electric car that’s almost a decade old? Well, that’s another story and not the point of this report. Here we just wanted to present the real data from our own analytics team to help give you a better insight into both buying a second hand EV and maybe even help you manage your expectations when selling an EV.     
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Porsche wants petrol Macan back, said insiders as bosses change their mind about electric Macan: Report
By Laura Berry · 17 Jan 2025
Porsche appears to be reconsidering axing combustion engines from its Macan mid-sized SUV line-up, amid a slump in demand for electric vehicles and falling global sales.
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Has Leapmotor's boss come up with the perfect EV solution for Australia with the 1000km C10 REEV that could leave other electric cars like Tesla's Model Y stranded?? 
By Laura Berry · 16 Jan 2025
First it was hybrids that were going to replace combustion engine cars, then electric vehicles, and now we’re back to hybrids again it seems.
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Wait - how much torque? 2026 RAM 2500 and 3500 announced with more tech and collossal torque to take on Chevrolet Silverado and Toyota Tundra
By Laura Berry · 13 Jan 2025
RAM’s 2500 and 3500 Heavy Duty full-sized pick up trucks have been given an update, bringing more safety features, better in-car tech and an overhauled powerplant that now produces almost 1500Nm.
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