Articles by Stephen Corby

Stephen Corby
Contributing Journalist

Stephen Corby stumbled into writing about cars after being knocked off the motorcycle he’d been writing about by a mob of angry and malicious kangaroos. Or that’s what he says, anyway. Back in the early 1990s, Stephen was working at The Canberra Times, writing about everything from politics to exciting Canberra night life, but for fun he wrote about motorcycles.

After crashing a bike he’d borrowed, he made up a colourful series of excuses, which got the attention of the motoring editor, who went on to encourage him to write about cars instead. The rest, as they say, is his story.

Reviewing and occasionally poo-pooing cars has taken him around the world and into such unexpected jobs as editing TopGear Australia magazine and then the very venerable Wheels magazine, albeit briefly. When that mag moved to Melbourne and Stephen refused to leave Sydney he became a freelancer, and has stayed that way ever since, which allows him to contribute, happily, to CarsGuide.

Note: The author, Stephen Corby, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

When does your new car warranty actually start?
By Stephen Corby · 14 Oct 2019
You'll often hear the phrase "check the fine print" when it comes to buying a new car, but there are some things you would, quite wrongly as it turns out, assume you can take for granted.
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World's best looking cars: All-time Top 10
By Stephen Corby · 20 Sep 2019
Right off the top of your head, tell us, who is the most beautiful woman on the planet right now? We’ll give you five seconds.
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Toyota self-driving tech to retain fun factor
By Stephen Corby · 18 Sep 2019
Toyota's global president, Akio Toyoda, is a man of boundless confidence and infinite ambition - he humbly promises to "supply mobility to all the people on Earth" - but the latest goal he has set for his company is particularly bold, because he's promisi
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Lexus to build a plane to rival HondaJet
By Stephen Corby · 18 Sep 2019
Lexus is, quite literally, preparing for take-off.The Japanese carmaker is expanding its portfolio of products outside of four-wheeled machines as it launches a 65-foot luxury yacht in Miami this week, but Lexus is also eyeing off taking to the skies and
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Microalgae could be key for Mazda’s new fuels
By Stephen Corby · 04 Sep 2019
Mazda is working on a radical carbon-neutral approach to alternative fuels, joining forces with two Japanese universities to investigate the possibility of using biofuels grown from microalgae.
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Mazda’s Rotary Range Extender on track for 2021
By Stephen Corby · 04 Sep 2019
Mazda has finally given us a sneak peek of its exciting new rotary-powered range-extender EV, and confirmed that Australia is one of the key markets in its rollout.
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Mazda aims to retain fun in autonomous cars
By Stephen Corby · 04 Sep 2019
Mazda is set to take a completely different, and slightly radical, approach to autonomous driving when it rolls out its Co-pilot Concept technology, which it plans to make standard in all its new cars by 2025.
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Mazda MX-30 Electric 2021 review: EV preview drive
By Stephen Corby · 04 Sep 2019
Mazda has launched its first EV, but we can't tell you what it's called, or indeed what it looks like, although we can tell you what it's like to drive. We flew to Norway to drive a prototype version, hidden under the skin of a Mazda CX-30, of the new EV the company will unveil at the Tokyo Motor Show. This is a big moment for Mazda.
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BMW X4M 2020 review
By Stephen Corby · 30 Aug 2019
BMW seems to believe that there is simply no car that can't be improved with the addition of an M badge and some serious mumbo, and the mid-size SUV X4 is the latest to get the treatment. The company's sales figures show that Australians can't get enough of this approach, but is the X4 M Competition a giant leap too far?
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BMW X3M 2020 review
By Stephen Corby · 30 Aug 2019
How many things can you slap an expensive, storied, respected badge on before said badge starts to feel cheap, common and redundant?
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