Articles by Paul Gover

It gets a frontal update soon to reflect the styling of the all-new Mondeo.The Cabriolet is expected to follow in 2015, provided the economy picks up in Europe, with a full foldaway top and a sharper look than the previous Focus CC. 

The body will be pulled much tighter around a new V10 engine with more power and torque, while the cabin will get a much-needed update and the latest technology from Audi - which owns the Italian brand. We expect to see the real Cabrera previewed at the Geneva motor show early next year.

But, in case you have no idea, Dan is The Man for Australia in Formula One as Mark Webber heads for retirement and a pension plan with Porsche in sports cars at the end of the year. Ricciardo is a 24-year-old from Perth who has been fast-tracked to the best team in grand prix racing, where he will compete alongside triple champion - perhaps a four-time winner by the end of 2013? - Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull Racing.So he's basically taking Webber's place in a like-for-likely Aussie swap. That's great news for Ricciardo, and Australia's F1 fans, but there is much more to the story.Dashing Dan is proof that driver training works and also that there is still a place for old-fashioned values in the 21st century. The first time I met Ricciardo, he was what's called the 'Friday Driver' at the Toro Rosso team. So he got track time, engineering training time and experience against the aces on grand prix weekends, without actually racing.He was running on the equivalent of P plates after building up through the learning stages that begin in go karts, being coached and mentored through every step towards his F1 dream.Ricciardo's training is not so different from learning to win - some would say survive - on the road. He began by learning the basics of car control and etiquette in karts, stretching the envelope for each step higher up the motorsport ladder, just as a new driver on the road needs to learn to work the controls and control their car, before understanding the rules in traffic, the needs for long-distance driving and the challenges at night and in bad weather. Some people say that advanced driver training makes youngsters over-confident and encourages them to take risks on the road.My belief, and it's backed by plenty of others - not just racing drivers like Mark Skaife, although he is a safety champion - is that you can never had too much training or experience. If that was the case, pilots would only get minimal tuition and nothing in the way of cockpit upgrades or refreshers as they move up from single-engined trainers to an Airbus A380.Coming back to Ricciardo, he is also an absolute credit to his parents Joe and Grace. I've spoken to them both, once when Grace was in England helping set him up away from home in Perth, and they are straightforward, open and helpful. So is their son, and that's incredibly rare in motorsport.Ricciardo is a thorough gentleman, who makes time, returns calls and seems happy just to be a regular bloke who likes music and fun and fooling around as much as any 24-year-old. Despite his high-pressure job in the billion-dollar F1 fishbowl.He also understands there is more to life than F1, happily taking on braces at the start of his time with Toro Rosso and even knocking back a chance to drive a Porsche. "No, thanks. I don't think I can be trusted," he tells me when I offer him the keys to a 911 at the Australian grand prix."You drive. I'm happy. Besides, it might be too much temptation," he laughs. "Maybe when I can afford one myself." Well, right now Daniel Riccardo should have no trouble handling the fastest Porsche 911 turbo, or finding the cash to put one - like Webber - in his driveway.This reporter is on Twitter: @PaulWardGover

But the new model on the Golf 7 package provides more headroom and a high-rider seat position that could work with older people who are reluctant to go all the way into an SUV.Look for the Plus at the Frankfurt Show in just over a fortnight. 

It will come with a slightly modified grille, new lamps, more eco-friendly engines, improved infotainment package and the Flexsteer system already on the Cerato.It's being given hot-weather runs in the USA before the final sign-off for production.

The first one I tried, a Toyota Prius, could happily measure the gaps and reverse into place provided I took care of work on the brake and accelerator, and that's a familiar package now for a range of cars including the Ford Focus.But there are also cars that can parallel park, and even reverse safely out into traffic using a range of radar-style sensors. Some people say the rise of self-parking cars is all about our increasing laziness and the ability of technology to take over the menial, or annoying, tasks in our day-to-day lives.Others might, more controversially, draw a link between self parking cars and the inability of many women to do the job. Before you get too carried away, I should point out that this has now been scientifically proven by a study in the UK that I read about in a book called 'Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps'.The book is by Allan Pease - the body language man - and his wife Barbara, and includes the parking research in a section devoted to women's relative lack of 'spatial awareness'. This apparently affects their ability to read maps, and park, but is offset by greater peripheral vision that makes it easier for women to spot things in a fridge than men.But, moving along, I've also recently heard about a new incentive for self parking cars. It comes as Audi accelerates its work on cars that can valet park themselves, linking electronically to a system inside a carpark that identifies open slots and then guides the car into place. They can then be summoned out of hibernation as needed.There is currently only one self-parking garage in the world, not surprisingly at Audi's headquarters in Germany, although work is progressing at other sites and on other cars. But the idea is that cars which can park themselves will free up extra space for parking. After all, when you park - often with other people in the car - you need clearance to open the doors for access. It's the same for head space, as well as clearance to open a hatchback boot.But if the cars can park autonomously, think about all the extra space in the world. It's something that occurs to me nearly every week as I head to the airport or my local shopping centre and wonder where the space has gone. Cars are obviously getting larger, and SUVs are making an increasing land grab, but am I the only one who thinks that parking slots are being shrunken to get a bigger car - and cash - return on the available space?Then again, there are cars that cannot be helped. In Britain - where 1950s garages designed for tiny Austins now look ludicrous in the face of even a humble Ford Fiesta - I was once driving a long-wheelbase Rolls-Royce Phantom. When I drove into the supermarket to buy some fruit I was shocked to discover that the brutally brilliant limousine actually required four standard-sized parking spots, as it was both too long and too wide for anything less.This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover 

Small-car buyers have plenty of reasons to welcome the Nissan Pulsar back to their shopping lists. Around 18,990 of them, by our count.That's the driveaway price for the Pulsar sedan and hatch until the end of this month, and it's unlikely to go much higher in 2013 as boatloads of the born-again Japanese small car continue to dock in Australia. Nissan has set a year-end target for deliveries of its born-again baby and is now landing the cars needed to hit the bullseye, with big incentives on several fronts to ensure it happens.The current deal includes on-road costs and a $1000 bonus, labelled as the 'Switch' incentive, but if you drill a little deeper you discover the reality of Nissan's pricing push. It effectively means the Pulsar - if you allow $2000 for on-roads and then add the extra $1000 - is a $15,990 car in Australia at the moment. And that's unbeatable buying.The Pulsar is not the best car in the class, and we think it's a bit dowdy in some areas, but it does the job and a lot of people are coming back to the badge after the unfortunate experience - for Nissan and its customers - with the underdone Tiida. What the Pulsar really means is that any brand with a small car to shift needs to be setting the bar low enough to compete with the new Nissan, both sedan and hatch.We've seen it many times in recent years, back from the 1990s when Hyundai was the first to go big on driveaway pricing with its Excel tiddler and other rushed to join the feeding frenzy. It's been the same more recently with five-year warranties and capped-price servicing, which are both intended to give customers a benefit that doesn't affect the car's resale value while also giving them certainty on their purchase.Not long ago, baby cars like the Hyundai i20 were pegged at $15,000 and $19,990 became the default setting for small cars. Toyota admitted as much last year when it landed its all-new Corolla and priced it just below the psychological barrier at $20,000.But the Nissan push has driven down the transaction prices - the level at which cars are really sold, not advertised and definitely not the Recommended Retail Price - considerably below the $19,900 level before on-roads or the near-essential automatic gearbox that drives the deal closer to $25,000.If you scan the advertising over the past month it's easy to find driveaway rivals at $18,990, including the Ford Focus, with most small cars now pitched with an on-road price at $19,990. We've compiled our list of contenders using the RRP because there is always going to be some sort of sales incentive, so keep a sharp lookout and watch for the day when your first choice goes on sale.Best of all for buyers, the price genie is now out of the bottle and - as Nissan continues to push the Pulsar - there will be deals through to the end of 2013 and probably well into next year. And beyond.Holden Cruze Price: from $19,490 Output: 1.8-litre four, 104kW/176Nm; 5-spd manual/6-spd auto, front-wheel driveThirst: 7.0L/100kmThe surprise packet this year, as a seemingly-minor facelift makes the locally-made Cruze a better drive with more class. Now a car you definitely recommend to friends, especially with a tasty starting price.Hyundai i30Price: from $20,990Output: 1.8-litre petrol four, 110kW/178Nm; 6-spd manual and auto, front-wheel driveThirst: 6.5L/100kmAs good as the Toyota Corolla for comfort and class, but better as a value deal and definitely the one to benchmark in this class. The former Carsguide COTY winner has always been good buying, too.Ford FocusPrice: from $20,290 Output: 1.6-litre four, 92kW/159Nm; 5-spd manual/6-spd auto, front-wheel driveThirst: 6.2L/100kmThe best driving car in the class thanks to a tight chassis, although the 1.6-litre base engine is nothing special and nowhere near the fun factor providing by the turbo in the 2-litre ST. A sensible choice, although the dashboard is a confusing miss-match of switches.Nissan Pulsar Price: from $24,990 Output: 1.8-litre four, 96kW/174Nm; 6-spd manual, CVT auto, front-wheel driveThirst: 6.7L/100kmA lot of people have been waiting for the Pulsar to return and it's a solid contender, not an outright leader. Quiet and comfy, for sure, but not as good as some of its rivals. But Nissan has big ambitions for the Pulsar and it's the leader on dollar deals.BUYING SECONDHANDThere was a time, for a very long time, when a Toyota Corolla was the automatic choice for anyone looking to buy their first car. That drove up secondhand prices and helped provide plenty of willing buyers who graduated to a Corolla for their first new car. But not now.The first Japanese baby car to really hit the sweet spot in Australia has been overtaken by compact contenders from South Korea and the Hyundai i30 is the current Carsguide choice for savvy secondhand shopping. A Corolla might look good, and plenty of people still recommend them, but their prices are artificially inflated by their history in Australia.The i30 matches the Corolla in most areas including comfort and economy, and is bulletproof reliable. But it's smarter buying and you can get an equivalent car, or something newer or with fewer kilometres, than you would spend on an equivalent Corolla. What makes the i30 more enticing is the five-year warranty, which means buying near-new at around $15,000 can provide a car that still has the remainder of the manufacturer's cover.If you're spending more, or intent on a diesel engine for long-distance driving, the i30 ticks that box. And there is also an i30 wagon, in a class where SUVs have virtually exterminated the once-popular baby station wagon. 

We'll have to get used to it as the South Korean carmaker sharpens the edge on its new models

More than 60 car brands - one less without Opel - are now jockeying behind Toyota for their share of the Australian showroom pie. Each one is doing all it can to get things right, and nothing needs to be more right than the television advertising and the press preview. The Carsguide crew is reminded of this every week, either as we tune in to tune out or during the latest airport run for a flyaway preview. Car company crews go to extraordinary lengths to ensure the look, feel and price of their newcomer - from the cheapest new Chery to an exotic belter Bentley - is reflected in the press presentation. Volkswagen even themes its pens to match the the package. But things can, and do, go wrong. I remember the day when Bob Miller, the head of marketing at Toyota Australia at the time, responded to a question about the safety of a new-model Camry. It only had a single airbag, for the driver."If the car dies, the passenger dies too," Miller laughed, in an off-the-cuff comment that still rates as one of the most callous things I've heard in my career. Miller is usually remembered for his creation of the 'Camry Chicken', but he also helped drive Toyota to the Number One sport in Australia motoring despite the safety shortcomings of his signature car. And that gaffe.  Further back, when Holden introduced its vital new Camira, it went all-out with a drive route that included racetrack laps and then an outback run through the country outside Townsville. It was going well after day one despite the car's underwhelming 1.6-litre engine, but on day two the cars started to fall apart. A car I was driving snapped its gear linkage, and then the bonnet catch rattled loose, hardly a recommendation. There were others with flat tyres, broken body bits, and even one that went up-and-over on a gnarly corner. Honda once brought a fuel-miser new Civic to Australia and decided a country run would be best to show its economy. It might have worked if the drive route hadn't included a long uphill climb, at full throttle to avoid marauding trucks, on the road from Bathurst back to Sydney over the Blue Mountains. I am reminded of these mishaps as I battle a low-powered 1.6-litre turbo engine and an ancient four-speed automatic during the hilly preview drive of the good looking new Citroen DS3 Cabrio. It's nice to be bathed in sunshine in the middle of winter, but far less enjoyable to be battling to get any sort of drive out of the French baby. Luckily there is another car, with a six-speed manual and more power, for the second leg of the drive. But I won't be recommending the auto, especially not to anyone who must to battle hills and cut-throat commuter traffic in Sydney. This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover  

But work is already underway to keep sales ticking along, with a European facelift - headlined by a giant new grille - coming next year.It takes its lead from the new mid-sized Mondeo, but that's even further in the future as Ford switches production to Spain. Here in the second half of 2014 for about the same pricing as today.