Articles by Malcolm Flynn

It’s no secret that platform sharing among the popular light-commercial ute market is only going to become more widespread, but the Mitsubishi Triton is set to be the first cab off the rank when the expanded Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance launches its next-generation workhorse.Since Mitsubishi was added to the mix in 2016, it’s been elementary that the next Triton will share its fundamental design with future versions of the Nissan Navara and Renault Alaskan, but Mitsubishi global Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta confirmed with Australian media this week that it will be the triple diamond-badged model we see first. “As of today, we are taking the lead,” he confirmed.Mr Gupta cited the Triton’s sole manufacturing source in Thailand as a key reason for it to lead its siblings to market, but would not confirm if it was also a result of the Triton development program having started earlier than the alliance expansion. “It all depends on each brand’s business decision when they launch,” he said. Mr Gupta explained that the Triton’s value in the equation was clear during what’s known as a “best practice exchange” with Nissan when analysing the current models. Mr Gupta would only speak on behalf of the Mitsubishi arm of the alliance, but recent reports out of Europe suggest the existing Mercedes X-Class offshoot is in danger of ending with this generation. The existing Triton is also sold across Europe, the Middle East and Africa wearing Fiat Fullback badges, but Mr Gupta suggested this arrangement was only locked in for the current generation. Other examples of future platform sharing include the next Mazda BT-50 which is being co-developed with Isuzu, along with the next-generation Volkswagen Amarok that will team with the future Ford Ranger.Mr Gupta explained that electrification is also being considered for the next-generation Triton, but it’s unclear at this stage if it will come in the form of pure electric, plug-in hybrid or series hybrid. It’s also unclear if a hybrid model would be paired with a petrol or diesel engine. Mr Gupta also reinforced the value of the Australian market to Mitsubishi’s global business, representing 10 per cent of activities, and including three out of the four models considered key for the brand’s core growth models. These models are Triton, Pajero Sport and Outlander, with the fourth being the Expander MPV sold in several developing Asian markets. He also reflected that Australian customers are not the same as other markets. “The aspirations the Australian customer has are pretty promising, and that brings us to put more and more effort into our products to meet our Australian customer aspirations.” Exact timing for the next Triton is still unclear, but given the freshness of the current model which only arrived in Australia in January 2019, we’d be surprised to see the next generation in showrooms before 2023. 

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You’ve got to try pretty hard to find proper icy driving conditions in Australia, but when you do, you want to have every option at your disposal to give you the best chance of avoiding a collision. Just look at the popularity of inherently all-wheel drive Subarus in the Snowy Mountains area or Tasmania. Audi is another brand synonymous with all-wheel drive, but parent brand Volkswagen is turning all four wheels by an increasing measure, with 44 per cent of passenger car and SUV sales now wearing 4Motion badges. The German brand claims this is double the industry average. It’s not just ice where all-wheel drive can come in handy either. Gravel, wet bitumen and mud are much easier to come by, and often when you’re not planning to. Australian roads are still 56 per cent unsealed according to Volkswagen.It’s easy to say that stability and traction control systems go a long way to playing the same role as all-wheel drive when it comes to accident avoidance, but it’s important to understand that all wheel drive as a proactive means of preserving traction, unlike traction and stability control which are reactive. If you can prevent a problem before it starts, surely that’s better, and the systems actually compliment each other when calibrated to work in harmony. Given the lack of ice in Australia, we’ve just travelled to New Zealand to experience Volkswagen’s 4Motion systems in the most trying of conditions, at work in everything from a small SUV, to a hot hatch, to a full-size commercial van. Volkswagen 4Motion all-wheel drive is currently available in two main types, Haldex and Torsen. The Haldex-type used in all 4Motion models aside from the Touareg and Amarok, and is a part-time system where fluid pressure controls a clutch pack to send power to the rear wheels as needed.The latest fifth generation Haldex-type system is integrated with a whole bunch of drivetrain sensors to help predict traction loss before it happens.The Touareg and automatic Amaroks use a full-time system with a Torsen, or torque sensing, mechanical centre diff that’s essentially reserved for their north-south engine layout. The Torsen system was made famous by various Audi Quattro models, and also sees duty aboard vehicles as diverse as the Toyota LandCruiser Prado.The third 4Motion type currently in use is only found aboard manual versions of the Amarok, and is essentially the traditional mechanical low-range transfer case. This version was not available to test in New Zealand. Volkswagen chose the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground in Cardrona to highlight 4Motion’s ice capabilities, which is the sort of James Bond mountain-top network of ice circuits you’ve probably dreamed about. It would be ideal to test the same cars back to back in two- and all-wheel drive, but given the ice was hard enough to walk on, two-wheel drive would have been next to useless. So the fact that the 4Motion cars were able to drive at all is amazing. They did have winter tyres fitted, but I really doubt they made any difference on the slick ice. The cars on hand represented a good spectrum of the VW 4Motion range, including the upcoming T-Roc small SUV in 140 TSI guise, the Golf R hot hatch, the Tiguan 162 TSI mid-size SUV, the Passat Alltrack 140 TDI wagon, the Arteon sedan, the new Touareg large SUV in NZ-spec 210 V6S guise, the Amarok Ultimate 580 and would you believe it, the big Crafter van in MWB TDI 410 spec. The two ice courses on offer proved a masterclass in weight transfer and how a bigger car is much harder to turn. And I’m not just talking about the Crafter either, the T-Roc may seem like just a Tiguan with the back of its roof chopped off, but it is so much more nimble than the Tiguan on the ice. The longer wheelbases of the Passat Alltrack and Arteon made them even more difficult to unsettle, but the lower ride height and roofline of the Arteon made it that much easier to change directions.The ice also highlights how each car is set up to suit its intended purpose. The Golf R will let you turn off all its stability control for proper Ken Block-style four-wheel drifting, while the cars aimed at more sedate driving, like the Touareg or professional use, like the Amarok and Crafter will keep some of the stability control on all the time in the interests of outright safety. This also highlights the role of stability control with all-wheel drive. Without stability control, it is a challenge to get a car sideways, and planting your right foot will quickly straighten everything out. But with stability control, it’s almost impossible to induce oversteer, and therefore pretty much idiot proof, so they work really well together.For this integration of systems to keep vehicles as large and rugged as the Amarok and Crafter stable in these conditions is simply amazing.  The benefits of all-wheel drive aren't so obvious on dry bitumen, which is indeed where most of us spend most of our time driving. But to demonstrate how broad the models’ range of capabilities are, Volkswagen gave us access to Highlands Motorsport Park race circuit to experience most of the same cars at the other end of their performance spectrum.We drove the Haldex-equipped Tiguan, Arteon, Golf R and Passat Alltrack back to back with the Torsen-equipped Touareg and Amarok, and couldn’t pick any difference in the systems on the dry bitumen surface. This is going to sound a bit like a VW ad, but our track time did highlight that both 4Motion all-wheel drive systems are beautifully integrated with the stability control, suspension and tyres, with no sense of tugging or unsettling emergency reaction when you reach the limits of adhesion.This includes the Amarok too, which is a big ladder chassis ute with a solid axle and leaf springs on the back, and it maintains stability and predictability. A dual cab ute! On a racetrack!

Mazda has no current plans to reincarnate a hot hatch performance version of the Mazda3, despite numerous senior executives demonstrating a desire to do so. The fastest Mazda3s we’ve seen since the 2014 demise of the MPS versions that spanned the first two generations of Mazda’s small hatch, have been the petrol SP25 models and the short-lived diesel XD Astina. These could be described as warm hatches at best, while traditional hot hatches like the Golf GTI have only been getting hotter alongside new entrants like the Hyundai i30 N. Reports from the Mazda3’s local launch in April suggested there was a plan for the return of a proper Mazda3 performance hatch. These were supported by a recent report from the UK where Mazda3 Program Manager Kota Beppu clearly stated his desire to see the return of such a model. This sentiment has also been echoed by senior Mazda Australia staff. There were also chuckles and wry smiles all round when Mazda global development and product planning boss Hiroyuki Matsumoto was asked about such a model at the international launch of the Mazda3 Skyactiv-X last week. But his body language changed altogether as he delivered his answer: “We are capable of creating engine to answer such demands for more power, but at the moment we have no plan to do it.”This comes just a fortnight after news suggesting Mazda is about to enter the 3 in the production-related TCR motorsport series, which would seem an ideal fit alongside a showroom hot hatch.   Perhaps such a model has been deemed a mere distraction, as the company prepares for the return of a rotary-engined sports car, which we hope will form a centrepiece of the brand’s 100th birthday celebrations in 2020.  Either way, you can stop holding your breath for a hot Mazda3.

When Mazda committed to resurrecting the rotary engine in late 2015, it was clearly on the basis of having overcome the Wankel engine’s intrinsic efficiency, emissions and reliability issues. But how? The then-rumoured and now production-ready Skyactiv-X compression ignition technology seemed like the only possible solution, but Mazda executives weren’t ready to discuss the still-industry leading technology at the time.  We had the chance to check in on the future rotary with Mazda’s global engine development boss Eiji Nakai at last week’s international launch of the Mazda3 Skyactiv-X in Germany. Asked whether the brand could make a new rotary work without Skyactiv-X, Nakai-san wouldn’t confirm that it was a dependency, but did admit its compatibility. “We have this technology to create air fuel mixture, controlling technologies for ignition, so these technologies are even applicable to rotary engine, so you can get the better efficiency.”This is elementary given that a rotary engine natively relies on high compression to work, while struggling for an efficient burn of the air/fuel mixture on each combustion cycle. The fact that spark plug location has always been a compromise with previous rotaries adds even more to this rationale, with the plug being forcibly located outside the combustion chamber to avoid interference with the passing rotor/s. Skyactiv-X offers a solution to both of these issues, with compression ignition ensuring a cleaner burn and only relying on a spark plug to trigger the ignition process.   Reliability is likely to have been sorted by Skyactiv-X’s advanced cylinder pressure sensors and computer power, along with advances in material technology since the most recent production rotary appeared with the RX-8 in 2002.Then-global R&D boss Kyoshi Fujiwara suggested to CarsGuide that a turbocharger is also likely for the rotary’s return at the Tokyo motor show in 2015, contrasting with what we now know of the supercharger used for the new Skyactiv-X piston engine.“Turbocharger is one of the big contributor for future rotary engines,” he said at the time. Aside from this theoretical sports car application, the use of a rotary engine as a range-extending generator in a plug-in hybrid application is now a firm part of Mazda’s future product plans. However, Fujiwara’s intentions as of 2015 were for the rotary to appear as a stand-alone performance engine first. “I want to introduce new rotary without electrification first. If I introduce with both, people will say electrification helped the rotary engine.”These intentions were supported by recent patent application images, which show a turbocharged, twin spark plug design for an upcoming rotary engine. It’s still our hope that a production version of the 2015 RX-Vision design concept will herald the return of the production rotary as the centrepiece of Mazda’s 100th birthday celebrations in 2020.

Despite Mazda’s world-leading Skyactiv-X technology doubling the complexity of the equivalent 2.0-litre petrol engine, it will cost no more or require any more frequent servicing, according to the brand’s global engine development boss. Speaking with CarsGuide at last week’s international launch of the Mazda3 Skyactiv-X in Germany, Eiji Nakai assured us that the engine won’t be accompanied by any ownership surprises.“No change to that, we make sure this engine can be used as per normal engines,” he explained.This follows the same pledge from SkyActiv-X technical research and control system boss Mitsuo Hitomi from the new tech’s preview event two years ago.  Hitomi-san also explained that the SkyActiv-X engine will use conventional spark plugs in lieu of expensive bespoke parts, and that the suggested oil will be no more exotic than that specified for conventional turbos, and the engine will continue to use a timing chain instead of a belt requiring regular replacement.This is despite the new engine being twice as complex as the existing 2.0-litre Skyactiv-G engine, with engineering parameters growing from 14-28. Incidentally, the existing Skyactiv-D diesel engines sit somewhere between the two for complexity.And while the Skyactiv-X engine may be more complicated, we understand much of this complexity lies within the sensors and computer power required to make it all work, rather than just mechanical elements. So when the new Mazda3 Skyactiv-X appears in local showrooms early next year, bank on the same 12 month/10,000km service intervals and circa-$1800 over five year servicing costs as the Mazda3’s conventional petrol engines, along with the recently implemented five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty.The only big question mark hanging over the Mazda3 Skyactiv-X is how much it will cost to buy in Australia.

Mazda isn’t just pushing upmarket with its ever more refined and luxurious new models, with the Japanese brand committed to retaining traditional buyers at the mainstream end of the market. Speaking with CarsGuide at the international launch of the new CX-30 small SUV last week, Mazda global development and product planning boss Hiroyuki Matsumoto spoke of the “volume zone” the brand is targeting.He explained via a hand-sketched graph that there is a significant chunk of the new car market further up the price scale that sits adjacent to Mazda’s typical buyer demographic territory, which the brand is now targeting. “Instead of moving upwards, we’d like to retain existing but expand our customer base,” he said. It all started with the surprisingly comfortable second-generation CX-9 three years ago, before the top-spec Mazda6 scored some of its fairy dust with one of its many updates in 2016.Fast forward to 2019 and the new-generation Mazda3 has taken big strides in terms of refinement and comfort, which has carried over to the new CX-30 that is set to appear in Australia in early 2020.Tellingly, the brand’s long-term Zoom Zoom driver-focused marketing catchcry wasn’t mentioned once at the CX-30 event or in any press materials.The Mazda3 team has previously confirmed that non-traditional benchmarks like the current Peugeot 308 had been used as a benchmark during its development, but Matsumoto-san shook his head when asked whether any particular premium products had also been included. “Our target is not to win over BMW and Audi as such. We do not aim to copy the German brands,” he said. “The German brands seem to be targeting mechanical advancement, we like to address for the customer what makes them happy - human centric.”“I like the customer to choose Mazda cars, not because it looks like BMW, but because it is a Mazda unique technology we offer.”Asked about whether there’s a degree of pride in achieving something like Skyactiv-X for production, where much bigger and well resourced companies like Mercedes-Benz couldn’t, Matsumoto-san explained: “I think this the essence of drive our engineers depended on.”“Our ultimate goal has not been to do something different, we’re just purely trying to find the right way to solve a problem or meet the target.”This aligns with the philosophy behind the brand’s new Skyactiv-X petrol drivetrain technology, which on the surface might appear a touch incremental in the face of the electric-focused race favoured by all other global brands.  “Our reason why we pursue the ideal combustion, instead of pursuing the use batteries or further electrification, we did that because that was the right thing to do,” he added.As the discussion for adequate infrastructure to enable mainstream electric vehicle use continues with no total solution in the foreseeable future, it’s hard to argue with Matsumoto-san. Mazda is indeed planning electrified and fuel cell drivetrains, but aims to bring such technology to market when it is more commercially realistic for the mainstream.