Articles by Paul Gover

Williams is providing lightweight parts including a new exhaust and carbon-fibre panels, while Nismo is tweaking the twin-turbo V6.The Nismo GT-R is expected in showrooms next year, including Australia, as the flagship of a range that already includes the Micra, Juke and 370Z in Europe.

Force-feeding spreads rapidly through the AMG range, from the SL droptop down to next year's new pocket rocket.This 2014 C63 prototype is lapping the Nurburgring with a nose that's clearly drawing extra air - for the V8 intake and turbo cooling - as well as the giant tyres and brakes needed to cope with the extra torque that's unleashed from the twin-turbo 5.5-litre powerplant.

The tiddler i10 from Hyundai is looking more likely for Australia as the Korean brand launches a two-pronged attack with its new baby. The i10 was designed and developed in and for Europe, where it will be built at a factory at Izmit in Turkey, but it is also being primed for India. There are differences between the European and Indian cars, but the basic idea is the same and the target would be a sub-$12,000 pricetag in Australia. The i10 was originally dismissed by local Hyundai management, partly because it would be difficult to get the right price and partly because there were few cars in its size class. But sourcing from India, and the rise of cars such as the Suzuki Alto and Mitsubishi Mirage, have changed the landscape. "The business case for Australia is still being looked at," admits Hyundai spokesman, Bill Thomas. The big change is the arrival of the all-new i10, which was unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show. It is much more refined, is truly European, and can even be ordered with alloy wheels and LED daytime running lamps. Hyundai in Europe claims it brings "class leading space, levels of comfort and safety from the segment above, and sophisticaed exterior and interior design". The objective was to create a car people wanted to buy, not one that they had to buy. For Australia, the conflicting demands of European quality and price, and an unproven pipeline from India, are still creating questions. The obvious answer is to forge a solid link to India, but Thomas admits the i10 there is slightly different from the European model. "The Indian car has a longer wheelbase, has a slightly shorter nose, and the window line as the back is not as sleek. It looks a bit more upright and practical, it's not as sleek," he says. "It's less appealing for the Australian market. It's fair to say that our tastes are more European." But the i10 is regarded as more premium in India, where Hyundai will even run the newcomer side-by-side with the previous-generation i10. "It's called the Grand i10 in India. It's being sold alongside the existing car which is also built there," Thomas says. This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover  

Suzuki is finally getting into gear with some much-needed improvements to its product line-up for Australia. After more than two years with nothing beyond Sport models for the Swift and Kizashi, it's readying three all-new additions to the showroom line-up from the middle of next year until the start of 2015.The headliner is the iV-4 SUV concept just unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show but it will be book-ended by the compact S-Cross that takes over from the $18,990 SX4 and a renewal of the tiny $11,790 Alto.The iV-4 takes a totally new direction, as it was developed for Europe and will be built in a factory in Hungary. It's also a new look for a company that is notoriously conservative on the styling front. It can be seen as a re-invention of the Vitara in the Suzuki line, as its size - 4.2 metres long and 1.65 metres tall - drops it into the open space between the current Jimny and Grand Vitara.But don't expect the iV-4 badges -  to reflect individuality, vehicle and four-wheel drive at Frankfurt - to make it to the road. "We're expecting a different name for the production car," the spokesman for Suzuki Australia, Andrew Ellis, tells Carsguide. "The timing will be 2015 for Australia. At a stretch, it could just make it into the back end of next year."He confirms the position of the iV-4 and the re-working of the other models. "This is an addition to the range, not a replacment for anything we already have. The SX4 is getting replaced by S-Cross next year and we also have a replacement for the Alto."Ellis says Suzuki Australia is still waiting for a full product plan from Japan, as there is not even a confirmation of engines - beyond a claim for class leading CO2 emissions - from Frankfurt. "All they have said at the moment is that it will be produced for Europe in Hungary. We will be taking S-Cross from the factory at Maygar Suzuki, but we don't know yet about the production model of the iV-4."The change to the SX4 is a big one, as the S-Cross promises to be much more youthful. For people who cannot decide, there will be a choice for much of 2014. "The two models will run in parallel for a while next year, as we're expecting the S-Cross at the start of 2014 and the SX-4 will continue in production for a few months," says Ellis. "The S-Cross is aimed squarely at the Nissan Dualis. It's on a new platform."Looking to the iV-4, Ellis says Suzuki is expecting a genuine four-wheel drive that can trace its roots back to its original LJ off-roader in the 1970s, on through the SJ in the eighties, then the Vitara, Jimny and Grand Vitara. The company is also planning an extensive personalisation program, under the catchtag 'Grab your Field', extending beyond wheels and tyres to exterior parts, colours and even textures of some body panels.This reporter is on Twitter: @PaulWardGover 

The new-age work-and-play dual cabs have become family cars with benefits and that’s a big reason why the Toyota HiLux has been Australia’s favourite

A car crash is horrendous when you are less than five metres from the impact zone and holding the hand of your four-year-old son. The noise is fearsome, the scene is confusion, and the aftermath is ugly, angry and - for the youngster - more than enough to reduce you to tears. And there is always blame and retribution. "It was a green light. I'm sure it was a green light," says the car driver who is most in the wrong. "What happened? I had a green light," says the young motorcyclist who has just bounced up off the bitumen to survey the wreck that had been his Kawasaki pride and joy. This is the closest I have been as a witness to a real-world collision, although I've been up close to a whole range of motorsport impacts over the years and also watched in fear and amazement at a wide range of car company crash tests. The first time I see a barrier test, with Mazda in Japan in the 1980s, I am completely horrified. The car rolls down a set of tracks towards a solid brick wall with almost no noise, until the giant 'whump' as it is reduced to scrap in a couple of milliseconds. There is no braking, no attempt to swerve, none of the survival moves you expect from your experience on the road. But the worst, by far, is a car-to-car crash at Honda that shows what happens when two vehicles go head-to-head with losers on both sides. The violence is almost unbelievable and I wonder how anyone can survive this sort of impact. These are the sorts of collisions that form the bedrock of the Australasian New-Car Assessment Program, which awards safety stars based on a car's ability to protect its occupants - and, increasingly, pedestrians - in a crash. In future there will be more and more emphasis on technologies that allow a car to second-guess the driver in a potential emergency, even applying the brakes and priming the airbags when an impact is unavoidable, but right now it's mostly about the car's safety cell, impact barriers, force paths, seatbelts and airbags. There are no airbags in this week's impact, as the motorcycle fires straight into the side of the car that has suddenly appeared dead-ahead of the rider. The bike's front wheel and suspension become the crumple zone, the rider's helmet is the force path, and there is barely any impact damage on the car. Thankfully, no-one is injured, the pride of the two combatants is quickly restored, and the police, ambulance and tow truck arrive to mop up the mess. There will be insurance claims and time without vehicles, but that's in the future. Right now, I'm left wondering about the causes of what too many people describe as 'accidents'. This might have been 'an undesirable or unfortunate happening', as the Macquarie Dictionary describes an accident, but there are clear causes from the  red-light runner to a bike rider who was too keen to plug a gap in the traffic. I prefer words like crash, collision, impact and incident. Very little happens on the road that is truly accidental, as I remember learning from the late Peter Wherrett - a master communicator who polished that craft as he passed on the message as a safe driving instructor - the weekend after I qualified for my provisional license. I credit Wherrett with my survival through the dangerous early years of driving, as well as my safe-and-sensible approach to riding motorcycles, which continues to this day. As I soothe my son through the aftermath of his first truly nasty life experience, I'm promising myself - once again - that he's going to get the best survival training I can find, and he's going to get it well ahead of any coming-of-age birthday celebrations or license test. Then I lean down and whisper quietly to him, "Now do you understand why I don't want you to ride motorbikes?". He is just as quiet but just as serious when he replies "Yes daddy. Crashes are bad, I don't like them." This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover  

Particularly once a three-seater rear bench was added for countries including Australia.The next model is much sharper in the body and promises to be a lot more efficient, probably with a hybrid model in the range.

Volkswagen's next generation Golf will run on engines as small as one litre through a 10 speed automatic transmission and could use electric assistance technology to move them off the mark. Though Volkswagen's Mark 7 Golf is not yet a year old, work has begun on the 2020 model and the rest of range which that share its platform. Speaking to Carsguide on the eve of the  Frankfurt motor show, board member and powertrain chief  Dr Heinz-Jakob Neusser confirmed the VW's that are on the way will reflect that old sore that less can be more. That is they will use smaller engines to carry a bantam weight of less than 1200kg in return for bettering VW Group targeted fuel consumption of five litres per 100km - in diesel and petrol versions. "From Mark 6 Golf to Mark 7 there is at least 60kg in average and up to 100kg less weight per version," Neusser says. "There will be at least that reduction again for Golf 8. "That is absolutely important. How shall we do this? Possibly carbon fibre like the XL1 (VW's futuristic study car). We do a lot of steel improvement, warm manufactured steel. The net step for weight reduction is the use of aluminium inside the car but we don't need to have aluminium space frame." While carmakers appear to be engaged in a game of one up gearmanship - eight forward speeds is the benchmark with Mercedes-Benz and Lexus about to implement nine gear boxes - Neusser speaks of 10 coming in from mid-decade. But with a difference. "This is not a six speed transmission with additional gears. They are intermediate. The idea is to shift the gears into different ways of moving. We have very short ratios for the low gears, a broad spread for the six driving gears and two gears that are very long to bring the revs down as low as possible. Six driving gears is enough." And while doomsayers predict the end of diesel, Neusser says economy improvements will continue to see turbo diesels run leaner than petrol/electric hybrids such as the Prius. "We have the capability to achieve fuel economy improvements in both of around 15 per cent," he says. "We do a lot to bring  spark ignited (petrol) engines to this economy level. But you have 12 per cent more energy in diesel in any given amount. That's physics. "I would say that for a short term driver, five to 10 km, it is more enjoyable to drive spark ignition. But for long distance, motor ways, you can drive 1000km with a tank full of diesel." The mainstream Golf model uses 1.4 turbo petrol engines. It's 2004 equivalent used a 2.0-litre unit. Neusser says there is a "strong strategy to increase this downsizing effect in the next generation". "But you come to very significant barriers. Looks at, say, a Passat and take the 1.4 litre turbo charged petrol engine which has no significant turbo lag. And say you replace this with a 1.2 litre engine or a 1.0-litre engine with three cylinders which has the same torque at a lower level. You  will have the point if you decrease displacement behaviour gets worse and you will feel turbo lag. So we are working special charging supporting systems to close down this lag." An electric motor? "Well, you'll need to give us a few months to work out how we are doing it, but I want to announce this is well under way. The next generation cars in the middle of this decade, you  will see the first of them."  

The MLB platform sits under more than two dozen new models.The Vario is a five-door hatch that's a cross with a wagon, much like the ugly-but-effective new BMW 3 Series GT.

Here's a smooth newcomer with a spiky mission for Citroen. As the French maker uses a style-driven push in Australia with its DS line, its Cactus concept is unveiled this week to preview the thinking behind a revitalisation of its mainstream C-Line models.Citroen believes the design of the Cactus crossover is the look that will work for people who buy cars for transport, although it's not backing away from its aspiring-for-prestige position down under. It's not as outrageous as some recent sports car dream machines, but it's not just a boring box."The French are renowned for flair and cutting-edge design and that won't disappear. It's in the DNA," the head of Citroen Australia, John Startari, tells Carsguide. "The global strategy concentrates on product development and the C-Line range will be pitched as the more-affordable models."So Startari confirms that Citroen is working closely with Peugeot in Australia, dovetailing their lineups with the top end reserved for his DS models, as they work under the shared ownership of the Sime Darby group. "That's to stop cannibilisation in the PSA stable," he says.Looking closer at the Cactus, Startari sees potential for Australia even though the Frankfurt motor show car is revealed with left-hand drive. "Citroen has tended to go into production with the majority of its concepts, so . ," hints Startari."It's too early to determine if it will come to Australia. But we've a hot, dry country and there is a certain resonance." Among the design work on the Cactus is a 'driver's station' with controls in a fully-digital interface, sofa-style front seats, natural materials and what Citroen calls 'non-aggressive flowing surfaces' for the body.Technology work starts with lightweight body panels, 'airbumps' to protect the body, and a hybrid drivetrain - incorporating compressed air and hydraulics - that promises 2.5 litres/100km economy.This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover