Articles by Stephen Ottley

Mazda is standing by its small car duo - the Mazda2 and Mazda3 - despite both models being amongst the oldest in its range and the market shift towards SUVs.

The Mazda BT-50 is the under-rated star of the Japanese brand's line-up. Often overshadowed by its SUV siblings, the 'black sheep' of the Mazda family is actually one of its best-sellers.It has been updated for 2025, with a fresh look to try and attract more ute buyers who prefer a tough-looking truck. We put it through its paces on- and off-road to see how this new model stacks up.

Tesla has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons lately.

Australians could be the big winners of the car industry fight between the two biggest powerhouses, as the American and Chinese duke it out on electric vehicles and tariffs.

They don’t have enough range. They take too long to charge. There isn’t enough charging infrastructure. I’d kept hearing the same complaints over and over again, from both friends, random strangers on the internet and even car industry executives, for years now. So I decided to find out for myself what the reality of living with an electric vehicle (EV) in 2025 is actually like. 

Inflation is the economic effect of prices increasing over time, this impacts every item across society. But as I’m a motoring journalist and don’t have a PhD in economics (like my father did), so I’m going to stick to cars.

What is the best car for tall people in Australia?Even at my own relatively average height of 182cm, finding a comfortable fit can be a challenge, so we’ve looked at some of the most spacious cars available to make tall people’s lives easier.Serendipitously, as a teenager of the 1990s, I was distracted at the media launch of the Kia Tasman by the guest appearance of basketball legend Luc Longley.The Australian who played alongside Michael Jordan in the dominant Chicago Bulls is now a brand ambassador for Kia and was thus very complementary of the new ute.He was particularly impressed with was the size of the cabin, which is important to him given he stands 2.18m tall, making me feel like a hobbit in his presence.Longley lamented that for someone of his size finding the right car is difficult, even when you’ve got NBA career earnings to help you choose any car you find comfortable.So let's see if we can help Luc and other tall timber types.Well the silly answer would be a convertible with the roof down, but that’s not a solution unless you’re a cartoon character. Instead, for those over 2.0-metres tall, looking for a comfortable car is a challenge. That’s because those who aren’t vertically challenged often struggle in a few key areas. The most obvious problem is usually a lack of headroom, which can lead to the driver having to crane their neck forward to see more clearly.But there are other challenges, such as a lack of leg room and leg clearance, as taller folk often have long legs this can lead to a lack of clearance from the steering wheel or compromised seating positions that are uncomfortable.Therefore, the best car for tall people is typically one with plenty of headroom, good legroom and, just as importantly, good adjustment on the seat so you can find a comfortable and safe driving position.Obviously this will depend on just how tall you might be and what sort of car you’re trying to fit into, but as a general rule car companies try their best to accommodate everyone.Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone will fit comfortably, but most modern cars are bigger than 10-20 years ago and provide better seat position adjustment to make it easier for taller drivers.As mentioned above, the keys to finding a comfortable car for taller folks is space and adjustment. You should look for a vehicle with a lot of head clearance and, just as importantly, good leg clearance.The latter helps not only with comfort but also safety, as taller people’s knees and legs can get too close to the steering wheel and make it difficult to drive, or a lack of space can lead to discomfort behind the wheel.Now is a good time for taller drivers, as the current wave of SUVs and utes provide roomier cabins than traditional sedans and small cars.Your individual needs and budget will dictate what you can buy, but we’ve assembled a list of five best cars for tall people across the size and price spectrum, that have plenty of interior space and would suit taller drivers.There’s a lot of reasons why the Ranger is Australia’s most popular new vehicle, and its spacious cabin is certainly one of them. With 1041mm of headroom, there’s plenty of space for taller drivers to get comfortable. There’s also good adjustment for the driving position, with a reach and height adjustable steering column and powered seats in the higher grade models. However, while the cabin is tall, it’s not particularly long, so you may compromise rear seat space behind the driver to get in your best position up front.Hyundai veered away from the swooping roofline trend of recent years and adopted a straighter, boxier look for its latest generation Santa Fe - which is good news for tall people.And not just the driver, there’s a generous 1043mm of front row headroom but also 1031mm of headroom for those in the second row (thanks to that flat roofline).If you want something more luxurious, the Land Rover Defender is a luxury SUV with a roomy cabin; its headroom is measured at 1031mm.Just because you’re tall doesn’t mean you need or even want a big car. So, what are the alternatives? Subaru’s Forester has been praised online by taller buyers for its cabin space, so it makes a good alternative for someone looking for a smaller package.Officially the Forester has 1046mm of headroom, which is more than a Toyota LandCruiser (1016mm), so it has a ‘reverse Tardis’ effect going for it (with apologies to non-Doctor Who fans may need to google that reference).And just to prove that tall people don’t have to drive SUVs either, here’s a sedan/wagon combination for your consideration. The Czech four-door has a whopping 1049mm of headroom, which is more than many SUVs, proving you don’t need ‘high cars’ when you have internal room. It also has very good seat adjustment, which is critically important, as mentioned earlier. Notably it also has a generous amount of space in the back, so the compromise for rear seat passengers is lessened.For our final entry we’re giving you an electric option, for taller buyers who want to ditch internal combustion. The EV9 is a big SUV in every dimension, so unsurprisingly it has plenty of headroom, a healthy 1051mm (the most on this list).But the best part is, it has even more room in the back (or at least more headroom) with 1087mm claim on paper, which is a rare achievement. So, that means taller types don’t even have to drive to be comfortable in the EV9, they can jump in the back and be chauffeured.

Car companies are living on borrowed time.

Speed kills. It’s the message that we’ve had driven home for decades by law enforcement and the government. But it’s time to have a serious discussion about speed limits in Australia without the hysterics and put some cold, hard facts into the debate.I was inspired to write this column thanks to a few recent events, namely a trip up the highway from Sydney to Brisbane and two recent stories I’ve written for this website on speed limits in Australia and around the world. What these stories and my road trip rammed home to me is that Australia is not only behind the rest of the world but we’re living in the past.Have you ever asked why the speed limit is 110km/h on most freeways? Why isn’t it an even 100km/h or why not 115km/h or 120km/h? Well, you can thank the metric system because when Australia switched from imperial to metric the speed limits were changed in 1974 and were rounded to the nearest 10km/h increment. So, 60mph became 100km/h and the freeway limit of 70mph became 110km/h.Makes perfect sense in the context of the time. But does it still make sense now in 2025? Think about how far not only vehicle safety has come in the past 51 years but also the quality of our roads. The idea that we haven’t progressed our speed limits in half a century seems like madness to me, or at the very least laziness.I own a 1982 Alfa Romeo Alfasud and doing 110km/h in it feels very fast, actually doing 60km/h feels fast in it sometimes with its complete lack of any active or passive safety (save the seatbelts). The doors are so thin compared to even a modern hatchback equivalent and overall my old car just feels, well… old.Given that my 40+ year old Alfa Romeo is an outlier, with the average age of the Australian fleet believed to be roughly 10 years, that means the vast majority of vehicles on our roads are much safer than they were in 1974. A modern car has a suite of passive safety features to protect the occupants in an accident that we didn’t have 50 years ago, but back in ‘74 even basic cruise control was a luxury. In many of today’s cars they have adaptive cruise control, often paired with lane keeping assistance, blind spot monitoring and other measures to reduce the chances of you having an accident in the first place.On top of all this, modern cars are more capable of driving at higher speeds than those from 51 years ago. So, in short, modern cars are much safer to drive at 110km/h and have no trouble going faster — as demonstrated by the higher speed limits in other countries.A 2021 report by the World Health Organisation saw Australia rank higher on the list of road fatalities per 100,000 head of population than Germany, a country which famously has thousands of kilometres of highways with no speed limits. According to the report Australia had 4.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, while Germany had just 3.7, which undercuts the ‘speed kills’ message the government has pushed for so long.When I was younger I assumed Germany’s autobahns were some sort of special road, like a big, wide, smooth racetrack that made the higher speeds safer. But when I travelled there and drove on them I realised they were almost identical to Australian highways. The key difference, as far as I can tell, is all the unrestricted stretches of autobahn have some sort of guardrail or fencing on both sides of the road, whereas there are still large sections of Australian highways where there are none.But overall the standard of Australian freeways have improved enormously over the past 51 years. When I was a kid the M1 passed through dozens of small towns and had long stretches of two-lane blacktop. Nowadays it’s almost entirely dual-carriageway from Melbourne to Brisbane with almost every town except Albury and Coffs Harbour bypassed. The road is wider, smoother and safer than it has ever been and coupled with the safer cars, I believe it’s time to look at higher freeway speed limits, that would arguably make long distance travel in Australia safer.I’m not suggesting for a moment we follow Germany’s lead and go as fast as we want, I believe Germany has a unique cultural background that has allowed the unrestricted autobahns to survive and thrive. Namely, the Germans have excellent lane discipline, which is something we in Australia simply do not have — but that’s a column for another day.Instead, I believe Australian governments should seriously consider 130km/h freeway speed limits on sections they deem safe to do so. Frankly, between Sydney and Brisbane that’s the vast majority of the drive, but there are still some sections between Sydney and Melbourne that should probably stay 110km/h.A 130km/h would bring us into line with dozens of countries around the world. Much of Europe has a 130km/h cap on their freeways and France has the sensible idea of dropping the limit to 110km/h in the rain - which is an idea I'd 100 per cent support here.Increasing the limit to 130km/h gets you an extra 20km down the road each hour, so over the course of a trip between Sydney and Brisbane or Sydney and Melbourne you’d save over one hour of driving time. That may not sound like a lot, but cutting down these long drivers would help reduce driver fatigue and that would actually help make them safe.Of course, most road safety campaigners will say this is a dangerous suggestion and will lead to more deaths, but the statistics and my own experience of driving in other countries suggests that’s simply not the case. I don’t believe this is the work of a moment and there would need to be some robust public debate, but the time has come to accelerate out of our 1970s mindset and drive into a safer, faster future.

Does the world need yet another Porsche 911 variant? The new 911 S/T is the brand’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of its iconic sports car and takes it to its ultimate conclusion. Built to be the purest, most driver-focused version of the now 20-strong 911 range, this limited edition is a worthy addition to the fleet.