Articles by Paul Gover

Men are the target and Volkswagen is getting tough to win them to the second remake of the 60-year-old original.It has made the Beetle's body longer, lower and wider to make it more masculine, and also to answer criticisms of the girlie 1998 model - pinched back-seat space and an overly-small boot - which was always compromised by sitting over the top of a Golf.The latest Beetle has also got a much more mainstream cabin design - without a dash that tips a vase in tribute to the original - but looks better and holds onto the rounded shape while also including fake running boards down the side.It's already confirmed for Australia in 2012 and Volkswagen believes it will be more popular than the car that brought the charismatic Beetle back from the dead."2012, that’s decided, so in one year’s time probably," says the head of Volkswagen Group Australia, Anke Koeckler. She is a strong supporter of the new design and the changes made for men."Right now the designers tried to make it actually more masculine, and I think the job is done. We will have more men sitting in the car."The mechanical detail of the Beetle is being kept for later, but already it is confirmed with a range of petrol and diesel engines, both DSG and manual gearboxes, and - for the moment - front-wheel drive.In Australia, the runout of the existing Beetle has been going for some time and Koeckler says stock is very short."We don’t produce the Beetle’s for stock, we’re producing the Beetle for customers, and that means we don’t have a lot of Beetles left," she says.And she's looking forward to a car that, together with the sporty Scirocco coupe, has the potential to bring new customers to the German brand."This is a really good product to emotionalise our brand again. It’s such an iconic model for our brand right now to have the right solution. It took us a bit of time but right now I think the product is looking quite promising for us."

ANY time a car hits the road with more than 1000 new parts you know it's more than just an over-easy facelift job. Ford drilled that deeply for the creation of its vital new Territory, Holden has also dug deep for an impressive job on the comfort and control of its locally-made Cruze, and now we have an updated

The petrol-electric tease, which has little chance of going into production, is part of a Kizashi double-act that also unleashes a turbocharged Apex concept with 225 kiloWatts to feed its all-wheel drive system.Suzuki is keen to get more airplay for the Kizashi and the American concept cars are the latest effort, tapping opposite ends of the performance spectrum.The Hybrid uses an EcoCharge system with a smaller 2.0-litre engine and a 15-kiloWatt electric motor, with a lithium-ion battery to juice the system for extra acceleration. It's similar to the e-assist system used in the Buick LaCrosse and take an approach like the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic.There is also a stop-start system and Suzuki claims a 25 per cent fuel economy improvement, while the visual tweaking for New York includes blue-tinged white bodywork, lightweight alloy wheels, special headlamps, blue lighting on the number plate and LED foglamps.It's ironic that The EcoCharge Kizashi is unveiled as Suzuki is pursuing powerplant choices with its new minority partner, Volkswagen.But Suzuki plans real-world tests and is not ruling out a production version.The Apex turbo is a different deal and, like the Australian-made Kizashi Turbo shown at the Australian International Motor Show last year, is a headliner intended to prove the car can cope with far more than its standard 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine.It's the second time Suzuki has gone for a turbocharged concept car, but this time it is aiming to eliminate the shortcomings of the RRM package - also used on the Australian show car - with bodywork that's inspired by Suzuki's GSX-R racing motorcycles.

The good looking two-door, called the FT-86 as a Toyota concept, appears as the FR-S at the New York motor show. It also has a racy new paintjob - the colour is called Code Red - that gives it far more impact than the conservative bodywork chosen for displays of the FT-86. The FR-S is planned to put some punch into a Scion range that has struggled since its creation as Toyota's youth-focussed sub-brand in the USA. It's had a coupe in the past, but is better known for the boxy van sold in Australia as the Rukus. The Big Apple coming-out part for the FR-S includes more details on the upcoming coupe, from direct fuel-injection for its 2.0-litre engine - with a 2.5 also a future possibility - a limited-slip differential, and a choice of six-speed manual and automatic gearboxes. The Scion name is a simple reflection of the car's mechanical package - Front engine, Rear Drive, Sport. The FR-S is coming to Australia in July to star at the Australian International Motor Show in Melbourne, but it will be back to basics as the Toyota FT-86.

Subaru Australia has been worried that its rear-drive layout does not fit with its all-wheel drive showroom stand, but is likely to be over-ruled from the top in Japan. "I want to see this car in Australia," the global president of Subaru, Ikuo Mori, tells Carsguide. He is speaking at the New York motor show on the future of Subaru's go-fast cars, including the WRX and STI which are soon to be split away from the family-focussed Impreza. Mori says the sports car has enough Subaru character, including its set-back boxer engine, to justify its appearance in Australia. "Its engine is really rearward and this is a boxer engine feature. So maybe we can appeal to the whole world with this new rear-wheel drive sports car," Mori says. "So it's a distinctive Subaru car with special features." He admits that Subaru has settled on a name for its car - most likely a combination of letters and numbers, not a word - but refuses to give an early hint. "That's a secret. Please wait," Mori laughs. The sports car has only been shown as an engineering cutaway at the Geneva Motor Show in March, even though Toyota is on to the second development of its FT-86 - called the FRS for front-engine, rear-drive, sports car in New York - and is promising to have the car at the Australian International Motor Show in Melbourne in July. Mori will not be drawn on the on-sale date for the car in Australia, but does not expect the timing - most likely in the back end of 2012 or early in 2013 - to be affected by the recent earthquake disaster in Japan. "Talking about the Australian market, we have the same timing in our plan. We don't say when we will introduce our car in Australia, yet." Mori confirms plans for the standalone WRX and STI without giving much detail. "We separate the cars. Separate the character," he says. "We don't make a WRX on this (new Impreza) car. We have no plans. It is a separate car." He also denies any potential for a rear-wheel drive WRX, spinning-off from the work on the sports car. "Rear-wheel drive WRX? No. We have no plan," Mori says.

The Nissan Leaf has yaken the 2012 World Car of the Year award. The first battery-powered car to claim the top prize in motoring journalism, it is joined by the high-tech Chevrolet Volt, the world's first extended-range hybrid, on the list of winners alongside the Ferrari 458 and Aston Martin Rapide. The Leaf beat out 39 rivals including the Audi A8 and BMW 5 Series that made the final shootout. It eventually scored a convincing win thanks to votes from 66 journalists in 25 countries, including three from Australia.   "This is the way of the future. With the price of petrol skyrocketing, more and more people are going to be looking at cars like the Leaf and Volt," says World COTY co-chairman, Peter Lyon. "The awards reflect the way that motoring is heading. But it's also good to see there is still space for performance and passion, thanks to Ferrari and Aston."   The Volt is named as World Green Car, the Ferrari is World Performance Car, and the Aston is World Car Design winner. Previous World Car of the Year winners were the Volkswagen Polo in 2010, Volkswagen Golf in 2009, the Mazda2 in 2008, the Lexus LS460 in 2007, the BMW 3-Series in 2006, and the Audi A6 in 2005.                      

... but BMW is also deeply into development work on the car. So this F10 prototype in action in Scandinavia, and caught by Carparazzi, needs no disguise beyond BMW's famous psychedelic wrapping. Even a power bulge in the bonnet is exposed. Full details are coming soon and the new M5 will be on the road in Europe this year, with Australian deliveries in 2012.

Audi is readying a new RS4 for action against the Black Series Benzes. Carparazzi caught this Audi RS4 mule during tests at the Nurburgring and predicts a mechanical package similar to the RS5, including a 4.2-litre V8 tweaked for more than 330 kiloWatts.The most powerful A4 is easy to pick with its new front bumper and its huge air intakes, giant brake discs - with RS-badged calipers - and 21-  inch wheels. The widened arches on the test car, though, will be replaced with something more elegant before the car reaches showrooms in Europe later this year.

... it's time to go back to black at the AMG hotrod shop. Work is well underway in Germany on a C63 Black Series car intended to outrun the rival BMW M3 and Audi S4 later this year, with more than 420 kiloWatts to be fed through the same seven-speed dry-clutch automatic gearbox already in use at AMG.But Black cars are focussed on weight loss as much as power gains, which points to extensive use of carbon fibre and a more exotic treatment for the pumped-out body bits needed to cover the giant wheels on the go-faster Benz.Carparazzi caught the Black Series test car but no-one knows yet if the four-door sedan will make it to production, or if it's just serving as a test mule.  Every previous Black Series cars has been built up from a two-door body, starting with the compact CLK and including the flagship SL roadster, but... C63 AMG black series coupe Will the black beast be a sedan or a coupe? Perhaps both?AMG boss Ola Kallenius has hinted about two upcoming Black Series cars and Carparazzi has also caught the C63 upgrade as a two-door coupe. The Black test car is shown emerging from Mercedes-Benz's technical development centre during handling runs at the Nurburgring test course.Just like the four-door prototype, the latest C-Class coupe has been slapped with much wider wheel arches and also looks to be sitting a little closer to the ground with a four-pipe exhaust system.

The underachieving French brand is finally getting some traction with a new value-driven strategy and a giant marketing push Down Under, and now joins Kia, Hyundai, Nissan and Mitsubishi in the five-year support  team.The warranty includes five years of roadside assistance and is being backdated to April 1 as Renault works to give potential buyers the safety net they need to join the brand."This is something that's going to demonstrate great confidence in the brand and commitment to Australia. It also enhances our value-added proposition," says the managing director of Renault Australia, Justin Hocevar."This is a first for a European brand. It helps us demonstrate confidence. If we've got a bit of an edge, then that's a good thing."Renault is also opening its own finance division in partnership with its backroom partner in Australia, and the other half of its global alliance, Nissan."Renault just hasn't been on people's shopping list. That's really going to make it much easier to put an attractive proposition to customers," says Hocevar. "We're about bringing value to the brand, rather than discounting."He says sales this year have been promising after a major attack at the Australian Grand Prix, including the launch of a special-edition Megane RS 250. Sales of the Megane have also improved massively since a new model with better pricing, and now the arrival of the Latitude sedan to take over from the unloved Laguna at the top end."In March we had 259 sales versus 160 last year. Year-to-date we're up ... everything is at unprecedented levels. It's all going very well. We've got a long way to go, but we're moving in the right direction and doing the right things," says Hocevar.