Articles by Matthew Vasilescu

What do you do when it's mere moments from the only hour of TV that you really need to watch every week and the power goes out?If an Audi A8 4.2-litre V8 TDI just happens to be parked in your driveway, you simply leave the sitting room and turn the massive diesel's power on.Not only is this A8 blessed with an earth-moving, twin-turbo monster under the bonnet, it also has a TV tuner.Crisis solved.If it looked a little odd — bathed in the glow of Top Gear while seated in a darkened street — it was certainly comfortable with the heater on.The only downer was being unable to toast my marshmallows, as seat heating is an option in a car that comes in at more than the double tonne in price and weight.Moving along, the A8's fun factor increases exponentially.The 246kW and 650Nm produced by its 4.2 V8 could put a smile on anyone's dial — and if our locally based manufacturers would explore diesels, maybe our government fleets could be run with less pain to the taxpayer.Having kicked around town for two days, it was off down the freeway just to see how the A8's quattro grip held on.On the open road at 110km/h, the big diesel barely gets above idling speed; this car could cruise at double that velocity and still have abundant overtaking power up its sleeve.Many times, while going around slower vehicles, the reins had to be well and truly tugged to get it back on the right side of the lane markers.Once the A8 has a sniff of an open throttle, holding it back is as much a job as keeping it at normal speeds.The latter task is best left to Audi's version of radar cruise control. Once set, it will keep the car travelling at your desired speed until other traffic is encountered and overtaken safely.I found it better than the version tried recently in BMW's 550i — designated 10km/h increments work better than guessing via gauges.Ride quality is, of course, excellent, with adaptive air-cushioned suspension constantly monitoring road conditions and driver inputs to deliver the optimum combination.It's so good that a few times I was caught out on corners that sharpened mid-apex — it could also have been due to the long drive after the working week and a slightly docile driver at the wheel.Audi cabin comfort gets top marks, as always.The front seats have more power than certain cheap cars, and with the vast amount of space in the rear you'd have to be running a multi-national media empire to need the even bigger A8L version.The power-operated boot (opening and closing) has enough room for your Sunday-morning golf clubs and luggage for the drive to your country house.Most impressive is that, even carrying this sort of weight, the V8 diesel ate up the kilometres effortlessly and achieved an amazing 900km from one tank of the smelly stuff.It was filled up above the reserve fuel level only to hose down my lovely wife's paranoia at the prospect of having to hitch a ride near the Belanglo State Forest.At least we could have watched telly while we waited.Almost worth $210,000, when you think about it ...

Customisers love adding to it with even bigger wheels and outrageous interiors. Chrysler's 300C travels on its own moving catwalk, always on display and admired by other road users.This is no getaway car, nor one to blend into beige or grey traffic in dull, peak-hour motion.The 300C's retro design, with its high waistline and low-profile roof, may make for restricted view from the glasshouse, but the only real cause for concern is when using the sun visors — if they're left in the halfway-down position, there's absolutely no view of the road ahead.Accommodation is very pleasant, with armchair-comfortable seating all round. The driver and front passenger get electric items (with memory on the driver's side) that can be set to move backwards on entry and exit.On long hauls, there's nothing to complain about. Once the the road begins to bend, though, there's only a slight curve in the cushion to prevent you slipping and sliding across the front pews.But this car isn't really made for sharp corners; it's meant to go hard in a straight line, using its 250kW and 525Nm of torque.The 5.7 Hemi heads for the hills as fast as the local heroes from Holden and Ford, although its growl was a little too muted for my liking.The soft-tone exhaust is balanced by a concert-hall-quality sound system from Boston Acoustics. This seven-speaker, 368-watt (including subwoofer) set-up puts you right back in gangsta mode.There's enough thump and rumble from inside the cabin to make you forget you're driving a V8 Hemi.MDS technology bought open-road fuel economy down to 11litres/100km from 16.1 in stop-start city driving. This was on a sustained Sunday run along freeways and coastal roads — not bad from a car lugging 1810kg around.Equipment levels are high in the 300C. As well as leather trim and the aforementioned sound system, you get some nice-looking woodgrain decoration on the wheel and console, rain-sensing wipers and rear parking sensors that ... um, made no sound.There's your regular host of aids and co-pilots, in the shape of ESP, brake assist with ABS, an automatic headlamp levelling system and "arriving lights" that switch on when the car is unlocked.Strangely, though, there are no automatic headlights — although they do apparently have a wash function that I was unable to locate.The smooth, five-speed auto gearbox has an old Mercedes-style sideways manual-shift mode. It was unnecessary, as you never felt it register until you pushed or toggled back to second gear.With its outre styling and quality Germanic interior, you could feel a little confused driving this car.Looking at the 300C's high waistline and stubby glasshouse reminded me of that '80s one-hit wonder Vanilla Ice, with his flat-top haircut and high pants pulled way up past his waist.Let's hope the 300C doesn't go the way Vanilla Ice's career did. It's way too individual for that.And don't we all try to be individuals? After all, who wants to be seen in just another car?