Articles by Stuart Martin

On the face of it, Audi’s S1 Sportback is yet another niche-within-niche model from a maker that can’t create enough of them.

f you think an Audi A3 convertible is a hairdresser's car, here's a version that makes a mess of any salon sculpture.

On sale next month, the City is the four-door sibling of the Jazz hatchback, another urban friendly car noted for its capaciousness. That’s due for replacement midyear.While Honda is coy about price tags, intense competition in the price-conscious end of the market demands that the City stays in the $16,000 realm for the entry VTi with upper specification VTi-L coming in under $20K.The exterior styling is beefed up, with a sharper, less-rounded nose and shoulder line following the cues of the recently-released Odyssey. The sedan sits on a new platform it will share with the Jazz and while it hasn’t grown in overall length, its wheelbase has -- and that means more cabin space.Never in a hurry to embrace new engine technology, Honda has retained the adequate 88kW 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, but mated it with a new continuously variable transmission. That helps the City to a fuel economy claim of 5.7 litres per 100km, almost a litre better than the outgoing automatic. But the entry model keeps the old five-speed manual.Honda director Stephen Collins can at least point to “loads of standard features such as Display Audio and reversing camera, it represents excellent value for money”. The City has top-of-the-class cargo capacity, boot space growing from 506 to 536 litres, which would be generous for a Commodore or Falcon sedan. Its features list is upgraded to include the brand’s new infotainment system that mimics smartphone functionality, offering satnav, iPhone Siri Eyes free function and selected third party apps as well as Bluetooth phone and music streaming.The City plays second-fiddle to the Jazz in the hatchback-centric light-car segment, this year selling 679 units to the Jazz’s 5726. By comparison Toyota’s Yaris sold 14,437 and the Mazda2 retailed 15,167. 

The Korean car maker boasts of testing the new sedan at the Nurburgring in Germany and the deserts of California, but anyone who’s been in Central Australia recently might have seen it undergoing dust and hot weather testing in the NT.The recently-unrestricted section of the Stuart Highway might also have had some attraction to the Hyundai engineers looking to put the car through some rigorous high-speed work in the heat as well. HMCA’s Bill Thomas says the parent company’s engineering team is covering more than 20,000km of outback "roads.""They’re doing final certification runs, for hot weather and durability testing, it’s mostly dirt road stuff but also combined with hot weather testing at this time of year, all over the NT for about 20,000km so they’re busy," he says. While the brand has been undertaking increasing amounts of local tuning for the chassis, Mr Thomas says the work in the NT is not related to local tuning."This Korean HMC work, we’re not due to tune that car locally for some months yet, we haven’t got our hands on a pre-production prototype yet," he says. "I don’t think that they’re measuring suspension response, it’s main durability and hot weather testing," he says.The Australian arm of the Korean brand will tune the suspension more toward local tastes later in the year prior to the third quarter launch, when it will slot back into the line-up alongside the i40 - coexistence is the plan for the medium-sized Korean cars."It depends on the breadth of spec that we choose for Sonata as to how we possibly modify the rest of the range, i40 is a similar sizes and target market... Sonata is more of a global car, it’s a bit of horses for courses for us, making sure we get the best mix of models," he says.The brand is also working towards the launch of the Genesis sedan halo car - "We’re trying to get through finalising pricing and final specification and some research, that’s third quarter for us," Thomas says - but it’s headed into a tough large-car market segment.Australians can expect V6 engines in the big RHD sedan, as the V8 has not been engineered for RHD, and anyone waiting for a production version of the HND-9 concept - minus the butterfly doors - coupe from last year's Seoul motor show will be waiting for at least two years.Hyundai head office in South Korea has released more details on the incoming all-new Sonata, prior to the world-premiere in Korea later this month. Improvements in safety and performance are high on the company’s list of targets, prompting the South Korean automotive giant to test the all-new medium sedan in a number of locations around the world - including the Northern Territory, apparently. 

A constellation of five stars has been bestowed on the new Toyota Corolla sedan, Subaru's new pocket-rocket WRX and Peugeot's 5008 people mover. The Australasian New Car Assessment Program ranking adds to a growing list of more than 250 five-star new-car choices.But the 5008 wears its cluster despite scoring a "marginal" pedestrian impact result. The seven-seat family wagon, released here late last year, was scored using Euro NCAP results. Last year, ANCAP's minimum pedestrian impact requirement for a five-star rank was "marginal"; it has since been increased to "good."The wagon scored an overall mark of 36.41/37 using 2013 European results, with a safety features list that includes dual front, front-side and curtain airbags (through all three rows), with anti-lock brakes, stability control among the features.The crash test report said the passenger compartment held its shape and all doors remained closed during the crash test but that "after the crash the driver's door could be opened with high manual effort".Following belatedly in the tracks of its hatchback sibling, the Corolla sedan scored 34.88 out of 37. ANCAP praises it for "good structural protection and offers a reversing camera as standard," as well as dual front, driver's knee, front-side and curtain airbags, anti-lock brakes and stability control.Whiplash protection was ranked good but pedestrian protection scored only an acceptable ranking during the tests, which showed "the passenger compartment held its shape well in the frontal offset test" and that "all doors remained closed during the crash and after the crash all doors could be opened with normal effort."Subaru kept its range's five-star status intact with its new WRX performance sedan, which trumped the Toyota with better pedestrian protection. The WRX is among only a handful of cars that rank as "good" for pedestrian protection (the 2014 minimum for a five-star result is "acceptable").Subaru has fitted the new WRX with dual front, front-side, curtain and driver's knee airbag, as well as anti-lock brakes and stability control - the sedan scored well during impact testing, retaining door function and passenger cell integrity for an overall score of 35.85 out of 37.ANCAP chairman Lauchlan McIntosh calls for yet higher levels of standard safety kit. "Unfortunately none of the models in today's release is equipped with autonomous emergency braking - an important safety feature that is now common on popular vehicles in Europe and the US," he says. 

Many still believe it's also the case with cars - drive from the rear and change direction through the front, weighed down by the power plant.

Mitsubishi has sent its Outlander to the plastic surgeon so its mug matches the hybrid version. With the world's first plug-in SUV due in a few weeks, the petrol and turbo diesel Outlanders are facelifted and generally enhanced.The Outlander is the brand's quiet achiever, tallying 9382 sales last year thanks to its versatile seven-seat interior, decent diesel - which gets a proper automatic - and modicum of off-road ability. The hybrid might help catch up with the compact SUV rivals - the all-conquering Mazda CX-5 (which last year outsold it two to one), Toyota's RAV4, Subaru Forester, Honda's CR-V and Nissan's X-Trail.Available now, the updated Outlander range gets a new twin-blade grille, pronounced front bumper and a beefed-up skid plate to give the snout an aggressive look, something the current ungainly model lacks.  The cabin gets a minor freshen up. Entry-level ES and LS models have new cloth and cloth-leather trim respectively.The petrol models have extra sound deadening to reduce cabin noise and, Mitsubishi says, upgraded CVTs deliver better all-round performance - these were key criticisms of the current model. The turbo diesels - easily the pick - drop fuel economy from a not-greedy 6.2L/100kn to 5.8L.Suspension upgrades are aimed at improving roll control for better handling and cornering stability but not - we hope - at the expense of ride quality, for which the current Outlander stands out.Under heavy braking , the hazard lights flash to advise other drivers of an emergency stop, a feature fast becoming standard fare for good reason. Safety highlights already include seven airbags, rear parking sensors and camera and stability control.Mitsubishi marketing executive director Tony Principe says the upgraded Outlander line-up is part of the brand's strategy to compete in the medium SUV segment. Pricing for the range starts at $27,740 for the ES 2.0-litre petrol front-wheel drive model, with five-speed manual gearbox - this is a $100 increase on the outgoing model. The ES with CVT is $29,990.Base models have five seats, seven airbags, cruise control, 18-inch alloys and fog lamps and camera, Bluetooth, 18-inch alloy wheels and foglights. Upgrading to the 4WD ES 2.4 means another $100 rise to $32,990. Prices for the mid-spec LS range has not changed - the 2.0-litre petrol front-driver remains at $33,490, the 2.4-litre CVT-equipped petrol 4WD model is $36,490 and the LS 2.2-litre turbo diesel six-speed auto 4WD is unchanged at $39,490.For the extra outlay there's a larger, colour touchscreen for the infotainment unit, which also gets satnav. There are dual-zone climate control, auto headlights and rain-sensing wipers, the option of seven seats and the 2.2-litre turbo diesel powerplant.The flagship Aspire 2.4-litre petrol 4WD has risen by $100 to $43,890 and the 2.2-litre turbo diesel equivalent has risen by the same amount to $46,890. Seven seats are standard fare, as are sunroof, keyless entry and ignition, leather trim, heated front seats with power adjustment for the driver, adaptive cruise control and forward collision warning systems, xenon headlights, LED tail- ights and powered tailgate. Metallic and pearlescent paint remain on the options list across the range and cost an extra $495. 

If driving a Range Rover or LandCruiser briskly through the bends is akin to pedalling a block of flats, then this is like steering a housing estate.

So-called Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) are a lot of things, but the sporty part of the title is not always an accurate adjective. Audi's looking to change that with the RS Q3.

There’s plenty of room for the brood in Volkswagen’s Golf wagon.