Articles by Paul Gover

The Australian introduction of the i3 in 2014 is expected to mirror Europe, where BMW is pushing shoppers towards a lease deal that pegs the price at $415 per month in Britain including a home fast-charger that delivers a 7.4 kiloWatt kick and zero to 80 per cent of battery capacity within three hours.There is an outright purchase plan in Britain but, with very limited numbers and a low-key start-up in 2014, BMW Australia is playing a conservative game. "Our preference would be to do it through leasing, including the wall chargers, and then return the cars to us," the marketing chief of BMW Australia, Tom Noble, tells Carsguide. "There are a couple of things to manage. There is the resale value, but also the recyling. If it's a sustainable concept, let's make it truly sustainable."The first i3 deliveries in Australia will be in the third quarter of next year, with the baby city car landing at almost the same time as the high-performance i8 coupe. "We will have an i3 demonstrator coming this year, so we'll use that as a pace car for the Melbourne Marathon. We'll be showing it to governments and fleet companies. "Next year is when they start to arrive. They will be in Q3 next year."BMW will begin with just two i-line dealers, in Sydney and Melbourne, and both are factory-owned shops. "We thought it made sense to do it with two. If the interest levels are bigger, and we can get more products, we'll roll it out to more dealers," Noble says."We can control it nicely. There will be a lot of investment in training to sell the concept. So it's really a well-thought-out car, or future mobility." He says BMW Australia is only expecting a small number of cars in 2014 - without giving a final figure - but that supplies should grow rapidly in 2015."Numbers? To be honest, I don't know yet. We've asked for more than we can get. "We don't have a ton of cars next year to flop into the market, so we want to use the cars we get to build the demand leading into 2015. There is a minimum number of cars we'll get."Noble says the pricing, and even such things as an online purchase plan, are still a fair way from being settled. "It isn't just about a car. It's about a new way to build cars, but also to buy mobility. We haven't worked through it 100 per cent on the financing package."This reporter is on Twitter:  @PaulWardGover 

Aussie speed merchant Roscoe McGlashan has a clear shot at becoming the fastest man on the planet by 2015, says the man who currently holds the title. Andy Green, who was first to break the sound barrier and currently holds the Land Speed Record at 1223km/h in ThrustSSC, says he would like to see the Perth-based battler finish his new car, then get the financial and logistical support to claim the crown.He says McGlashan has two clear years before his next project, a British rocket-powered car called Bloodhound, is ready to fire up as teams from Australia, the UK and USA race to push past 1600km/h, or 1000mph on the old scale. "Roscoe has a two-year window to finish his development and get his car running. I would love to see him do that," Green tells Carsguide in Sydney. "He is now building another car. And, of all the competition out there, it is the most likely to set a record in the next two or three years."McGlashan's car is called Aussie Invader 5R and is scheduled to have 62,000 pounds of thrust - around 200,000 horsepower or 147,000kW - from a liquid-oxygen rocket motor. If things go to plan, the nine-tonne monster will be able to accelerate to 1609km/h in just 20 seconds.McGlashan broke the Australian speed record in 1995 in Aussie Invader II when he cracked 800km/h and he managed a one-way run at 1035km/h in 1996 in Aussie Invader III, although he did not complete the return run needed to verify a record."I've been to Perth to see Roscoe. He's a crazy man with a mission, and a track record of achieving things," Green says. "He came ever so close to setting the Land Speed Record back in 1996 or '97. The only reason he didn't get it late in '97 was because a Brit team had bumped it up from 1000km/h to 1200. So his timing was bad. "If he had been one year earlier, he would have been the fastest man on earth for that period."Green is a supporter of McGlashan and says there is a marked contrast with the car he is working on, compared with the British and American efforts. "There are lots of different technical solutions. The extreme technology and sophistication solutions of ThrustSSC and Bloodhound are very much the UK automotiive solution, at one end of the scale."The other end of the scale is the Americans, who have taken the F104 jet fighter out of the scrapyard and cut the wings off. A little bit unsophistcated in places, and that leaves them with big technical problems. "Somewhere in between the two, building a bespoke car but using some very simple technical solutions, is where Roscoe sits. I would love to see him running that car and getting a record."This reporter is on Twitter: @PaulWardGover 

I took a lovely ride in the German countryside the other day, enjoying the mid-summer sunshine and some beautiful scenery, with no-one at the wheel. The driving was all handled by the car. Not just that, but my BMW autopilot was safe, controlled and had a surprisingly light touch. It was even able to make a safe, gentle, 100km/h merge between two sections of freeway, blending easily into the fast-flowing traffic after selecting a gap and then accelerating into the space between two other cars. It felt like the future to me, although it's a very distant future based on the amount of equipment in the car and the need for super-detailed digital mapping data that's not coming to Australia any time soon. The 7 Series future car still needs to be closely monitored by a person in the driving seat, and it will take time to get it ready for full-scale production, but BMW believes it's more than just a lab-on-wheels. "Yes, it's a wonderful sience project, but with a realistic horizon," the head of driver assistance work at BMW, Dr Werner Huber, tells me in Munich. "We don't want to fly to the moon. So it's relatively easy. "What we do is highly-automated driving. The driver has the complete freedom to decide if they want to drive by themself or have the car drive them in a specific situation, and that is the motorway." Relatively easy for him looks super complicated for me, but Huber and his small team has done the heavy lifting and is now a question of time, money and lawyers. The time and money is needed to commercialise the system, while the lawyers will be essential to build a framework for blame. BMW is not the only company working on a self-driving car - or an autonomous auto, as they prefer - but it's far more convincing even than the latest S-Class. I have sampled the big Benz as it drives itself in a single motorway lane, but it's a long way from the package in the latest BMW test car. And it's a long way before a car will be able to respond to a voice command and drive you to work. Instead, BMW is focussing on a car that can take control in the hurly-burly of suburban traffic and the boring expanses of motorways, freeing you to do other things - like email and telephone calls - and preventing the fatigue that leads to crashes. Dr Huber is upbeat and enthusiastic but says BMW is not planning at total takeover on the roads, which would also require millions of cars with a huge range of all-round sensors, giant computer brains and special roads with hardware and assistance systems which have yet to be developed by governments. "I won't say this never will happen. it could happen. But when I have retired ….," he says. "At the first step we are trying to find the technology. But that is not the big picture. It is the driver in society. Do drivers and society accept the technology and how do we deal with this? "But for the first step we have to develop the technology to show it. And show the benefits." Based on my ride outside Munich, BMW is well down the road. It even has a car that will be popular with the police, since it cannot exceed the speed limit and never makes the sort of silly blunders that lead to so many crashes." This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover

The death of $1 million-and-more Maybach has opened the door for a wide range of new S-Class based luxury Benzes. The all-new S-Class that hits Australia late this year is now the starting point for everything from a new-style S-Class coupe to a fully-armoured flagship and a six-door Pullman model. Some of the cars have already been caught testing in Europe and will soon be put through a sign-off drive in the US led by the chairman of Damiler, Dr Dieter Zetsche, around the upscale Los Angles and Palm Springs regions. The first of the newcomers expected in showrooms is a very long-wheelbase S-Class that moves directly into Maybach territory, but likely with similar equipment and a pricetag less than half of the failed flagship. There were two Maybach models, the 57 and 62 named after their lengths in decimetres, but they failed to fire against the hulking Rolls-Royce Phantom and were also shunned by shoppers who also preferred the idea of a Pullman with a three-pointed star. “We are flat-out now working on the derivatives. We have a full order book for the next four years,” the head of overall S-Class testing, Uwe Hornig, tells Carsguide at the press preview of the S-Class in Canada. “Yes, there is a coupe and a Pullman.” The extra-long S-Class never really went away, but was put into the background begin the Maybach and mostly supplied with a full ‘armour’ protection package. A bulletproof S-Class is already ready for action as Benz begins a rollout that includes a range of hybrids and development on a self-driving car that uses sensors which already ensure the car will stay inside its lane on well-marked freeways. The flagship hybrid will be presented in September at the Frankfurt Motor Show, with a plug-in package that drops fuel consumption to little more than 3 litres/100km. “The S-Class… is also an important pacesetter on the road to local zero-emissions driving,” says Dr Uwe Ernstberger, vice-president of the S-Class development program. “The S500 plug-in hybrid will be the first luxury sedan in the world to emit less than 75 grams of CO2 per kilometre. Plus, we already have prototypes that can drive far more autonomously than is currently permitted on public roads.”  

The world's best car is new again for the first time in a decade. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class has just had a complete overhaul, from road to roof, incorporating breakthrough safety and comfort systems that will eventually be commonplace in lesser cars around the globe.At one end the new S-Class is easily capable of driving itself and at the other it provides five different cabin packages with sumptuous goose feather-filled rear headrests.The basic package for the car is still the same - it's a giant, cosseting lounge room on wheels - and it's not going to be any cheaper with starting prices on the far side of $200,000, but it shows what the world's oldest carmaker can do when it unleashes a super-skilled engineering group with a budget that probably tops $1.5 billion.The Benz flagship has been so comprehensively hyped and previewed that it's difficult to write something genuinely new, because we've seen the shape, been lectured on the technology, have trialed most of the safety systems, and are familiar with a range of short and long-wheelbase models that runs from the S 350 BlueTEC diesel up to the S 63 AMG V8 - with detours including an S 500 plug-in hybrid with claimed economy of just a tad over 3 litres/100km.So today, driving out of Toronto into the Canadian countryside, sampling the S 350 and S 500, it's all about the car and the star score for the latest S-Class. "We believe this new S-Class is the best car in the world. Promise delivered," the spokesman for Mercedes-Benz Australia, David McCarthy, tells Carsguide bluntly.There is no plan to change the starting price of $213,428 for the next S-Class. That's the showroom sticker for the current 3-litre BlueTEC diesel, and things ramp up sharply from there to just on $500,000.But there will be compensation when the first of the new cars arrive, in the final quarter of this year. "There will be more standard equipment," McCarthy says. He is not going into details but there is plenty to promise, especially on the safety front with so many active systems including a world-first stereo-camera system than can 'read' the road ahead and then set the suspension to defeat the sort of bumps and railway crossings that normally rattle cars and their occupsants.The range will start with both long and short-wheelbase cars, but the grand plan runs to petrol and diesel hybrids, a plug-in hybrid with fuel economy right down near 3 litres/100km, and then S-Class based coupes and even a six-door super-long Pullman limousine. The only definite non-starter for Australia is the twin-turbo V12-powered S65 from AMG.Where do I start and where do I finish? It would be easy to write a book on the S-Class, as Benz has done, and different people will score different things in different ways. The big emphasis is on safety technology, from that Magic Body Control system to active night vision that can pick people out of blackness - and then illuminate them with a spotlight strobe that knows not to disturb animals - and a range of anti-collision radars that cover the front, sides and even set the pre-safe safety systems for a rear impact. Back-seat passengers are also protected by inflatable airbag belts.There is also a pair of giant TFT display screens in the dashboard, all sorts of mood lighting, sound systems as good as anything you find in a home, and a lighting system - from the headlamps through the cabin to the brake lights - that is completely LED powered.The S-Class has the sort of chunky presence you expect of a high-end luxury car, but it's better resolved than the outgoing car. It's still chunky, and you won't mistake it for anything else, but it shows where Benz is going with its new family of cars and has a strong visual link down to the new A-Class.The nose is helped - ironically - by the latest pedestrian-protection rules, since the grille is now more prominent and more upright. It helps to cushion any impact but it also gives the car more impact.Inside, the design emphasis is on the sort of quality you expect - and deserve - when you pay S-Class money. The leather work is fantastic, the seat styles and shapes - from the basic bench through to the Business Class recliners - is sumptuous and everything you touch has a quality feel.The designers have also freed more space for every occupant, from front-seat head room through to back-seat knee room. And the boot is huge, unless you plan a hybrid with a big battery in the back.The new S-Class must be the world's safest car, and runs well ahead of any NCAP testing. There are airbags and ABS and ESP, of course, but it's all the active safety systems - including the amazing night vision - which make a critical difference. And which must, inevitably, migrate through the Benz family and then out to lesser brands. Mercedes-Benz wants us to call it Intelligent Drive and, for once, that's a fair concession.The new S-Class is very, very quiet. It's also cushy and comfortable. And the technology bends reality in a range of new directions. Both the S350 diesel and the V8-powered S500 get along nicely, with the bigger engine obviously giving a bigger whack away from the lights. And I know they are much more fuel efficient than ever before, rivalling cars at least two size classes smaller.A series of driving demonstrations shows how smart it is, from the anti-collision systems to the way it shines light after dark to the way it can crush a road with Active Body Control. It's absolutely brilliant to relax in the back like some sort of minor five-minute celebrity, too.And, when all the technology is working together, it's easy to see that the S-Class is very close to a car that can drive itself. It still needs line markings on either side, but it can already take the wheel for up to 10 seconds and hold its place in a lane, while keeping a radar-paced gap to the traffic and sitting ready for automatic braking in an emergency. For what it is, the S-Class is brilliant. But then there is the but.That's because it's still a giant dinosaur, even if its dimensions and derivation are cleverely disguised behind multiple layers of technology. It's an old-fashioned car that continues an old-fashioned idea of luxury motoring, and that means it cannot be best of the best.It is clearly better than anything from Audi, BMW or Jaguar, and a true rival for a Rolls-Royce at the top end of the luxury world, and it is going to be a success everywhere in the world. But, these days, we should expect more. Benz has played well, and played hard, but it has still played safe.

The big banger of the Benz family is soon to get a baby brother. The AMG hothouse outside Stuttgart is beavering on a compact performance coupe that will take the fight up to the Porsche 911 in coming years. And here it is - draped in black camo clothing but still clearly something special. The new car is called the SLC and it's not a throwback to the similarly-badged lardy S-Class coupe of the late 1970s, but a condensation of the current hero car called the SLS. It uses the basic SLS chassis with a shorter and lighter hatchback two-seater body and no sign of the Gullwing doors which are the trademark of the SLS coupe that sells from $468,320 in Australia. These Carparazzi pictures show work on the SLC is well advanced, but it is not expected to go official until the second half of next year, most likely as the three-pointed star's spotlight car at the 2014 Paris motor show. There has been talk of the SLC almost from the day the SLS was unveiled, as AMG was positioned as a genuine carmaker - and not just a tuning shop - by Mercedes-Benz. The SLC project was always planned as a way to offset the heavy spending on the SLS, which is now built as both a coupe and roadster but still a $500,000-plus proposition for most owners once they have dipped into the AMG optional equipment. The SLC is more aggressive than the Benz's mainstream SL droptop but not as extreme as the the Gullwing, which means it's expected to pick up the basic mechanical package from the SL instead of a downsized deal from the SLS. That means a twin-turbo 4-litre V8 tuned for more than 365 kiloWatts, sitting in the nose and turning the rear wheels but with a conventional automatic and not the costly and complicated transaxle used in the SLS. The SLC is the obvious target for a Black Series model at some time in 2015 or beyond, although even company insiders in Germany refuse to discuss rumours of a carbon fibre-lashed lightweight road rocket. Instead, speculation is currently focussed on the test and development work which is based around AMG's headquarters at Affalterbach and the Nurburging in Germany, as well as the car's likely rivals. European sources hint at a pricetag set around 100,000 Euros, which would mean somewhere in the $200,000 range in Australia and a position above Porsche's Cayman but below the 911. This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover  

As the facelifted Grand Cherokee hits Australian roads and trails, and the all-new Cherokee is readied for action in the USA, a smaller newcomer is more than just a pipe dream. The baby Jeep would sit below the existing Wrangler and Cherokee to provide a genuine alternative to baby SUVs including the upcoming youth-first Renault Captur and Subaru's city-centric XV."We want to continue to stretch the brand, and offer new models in markets where they are relevant. Like a smaller Jeep. People would always want a smaller Jeep," the head of international products and programs at Jeep, John Mrozowski reveals to Carsguide. He is in Australia for the local launch of the updated Grand Cherokee, and says that more urban Jeeps will join the range.The upcoming Cherokee will also come with a 4x2 model and it has even been developed, for the first time, with an East-West engine layout because it shares the basic mechanical package of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. "That's about being smart on how we evolve the product going forward. It (new Cherokee) is actually more capable, it's more fuel-effcient. The East-West layout allows more space for the passengers."Mrozowski admits that the Fiat-Chrysler alliance is driving a number of major changes at Jeep and hints that it would be easier to do a compact Jeep for Gen-Y buyers thanks to access to baby cars - perhaps the 500L - from the Fiat family. But he pulls up short of any detail. "Future speculation? We want to continue to expand the brand," is all he says. "Are we investing more in the brand? Yes. It really is across the board."But he stresses that future models need to stay true to Jeep's heritage while becoming more relevant in the 21st century. "We're not growing more dinosaurs. A smaller footprint is better from a carbon perspective, and also where the world is heading. "We have more people that believe in the brand now. We want to reinforce the signature of the brand and make sure we deliver. But we have to tread lightly as we go forward."Jeep is always testing the reaction to new developments with concept cars and recently previewed six, including an off-roader called Stitch with traditional Wrangler styling but a see-through plastic body. Mrozowski will not be drawn into specific speculation on future models, but is happy to emphasise the growth of Jeep models that are less extreme than the four-wheel drive workhorses developed to conquer the famous Rubicon Trail in the USA that has always been the focus of off-road development."There are people who want the Jeep image but don't need the capability," he says. "So we do see the brand evolving. But it's evolution versus revolution. It's the changes that match the needs of the customers."There are certain things that are Jeep. It is the jewel of the (Chrysler) company and something we have to protect. And be true to the brand and our customers. They know there is a variant that can do the Rubicon, or anything that's thrown at them off-road."This reporter is Twitter: @paulwardgover 

My first real job was working Saturday mornings for Big Bruno at the Caltex service station in Campbelltown, on the western outskirts of Sydney. Each week my shift began with cleaning the toilets, always a good way to ensure you don't get too uppity.But the reason I am reminded of those early days plying the pumps is the flood of recent emails from people who have oil trouble. Holden V6s apparently lose their lubricant on a regular basis, and a couple of Volkswagen owners report cars that have emptied their sumps.That's nasty stuff on both fronts, and we're trying to track back to the source of the Commodore complaints, but it gets me thinking. How can anyone let their oil drop to a critical level? Or rely entirely on a bright red warning light that only fires when the engine is heading to Defcon 4?It's because no-one does even the most basic mechanical checks these days. The vast majority of new-car owners believe a 15,000-kilometre service interval means they don't have to do anything between trips to the dealership. Fettling is all about mechanics and the workshop, not them and their local petrol station.Yet every year I read Goodyear safety statistics that say more than 70 per cent of the country's tyres are dangerously under-inflated, with more and more people also reporting their oily horror stories to Carsguide. Back in the day, a trip to the bowsers meant a trip to the service station.My job each Saturday was to clean the windscreens, check the radiators and windscreen-washer levels, dip the oil, pump the tyres and fill the tanks. There is no-one to do that at a 21st century Caltex, where price is far more important than service or a smile, so the jobs don't get done. And that's how oil - or no oil - becomes a problem. I'm not defending engines that need investigation, but everyone has some duty of care when it comes to their car.It's not hard to find the dipstick - these days most have a bright yellow handle - and pumping air into the tyres is easy. A drink of water for the washers means it's far easier to sweep bugs away instead of smearing them across the screen. We're only talking about five minutes, every couple of fills. It's not hard. I know, because I did it for years, and I still do it today.It can actually be a bit of fun, poking around to discover what's happening under the bonnet and how to ensure a car runs as well as it can. If you're reading this and wondering what the fuss is about, remember that even a low-maintenance modern car is still a complicated beast.We're well past the days when the safety net for every trip included a fan belt, spare fuses, a litre of Castrol's finest and some water, but no car can run forever without a bit of help. Remember the old line about “an apple a day”? Well, in the case of your car, it could be as simple as "a dip and a squirt" to keep the mechanic at bay.This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover 

Mazda has surfed the rising wave of small car sales as deftly as 11-time world champion surfer Kelly Slater. It built the right car for the right time, reinventing its successful 323 from the 1990s as a 21st-century compact hero.Two years as Australia's No.1 (and No.2 now in run-out) show its phenomenal attraction. The giant killer, having claimed the sales crown from the legendary Holden Commodore, has always looked good, been finished well and built well, and provided solid value in a class where the long-term winners have been more than just basic transport.It's more desirable than the world's small-car benchmark, Toyota's Corolla, because it's more than just a car and has almost always been bought by real people paying real money. It's not a stripped-down rental runabout or a vanilla fleet car.It has lost its gloss over the past year, as the all-new Hyundai i30 and Corolla have scored hits, helped by the $19,990 price point, but is certain to bounce back in 2014.Digging into the success of the Mazda3 uncovers the long-term strength of Mazda Australia, which has had local CEOs, managers and dealers over three decades. Only Subaru,  also massively over-represented in Australia, has done a similar job.Mazda has never had cheap cars yet the quality and secondhand strength has made them winners even through tough times, including fluctuating currency and a period under the ownership of Ford. The Mazda3 bottom line is simple: it's a car you'd happily recommend to your own family and your closest friends.This reporter is on Twitter: @PaulWardGover 

...which is expected to be come more of a family-friendly crossover in 2015. It's currently tied to the Nissan X-Trail but could become a Megane-based model with the upcoming change.