1982 Ford F250 Reviews

Kia has just made a surprise confirmation that its new Tasman ute is currently being evaluated by police forces around Australia, and that had us thinking: what police vehicles are out there that aren’t the usual suspects?That's right, we're not talking police versions of the Kia Sorento, nor the Hyundai Tucson, or the Volkswagen Passat and Tiguan. We mean the left-of-field police cars. The ones you really might not have known were out there on the roads.So, with a little bit of help from Australian Police Vehicles Facebook group, here are our top five favourite police cars you might not have seen coming. Hyundai’s big eight-seater SUV is doing some undercover work for Victoria Police. This one spotted recently by Issacc Brown from IB Emergency Photography in the regional Victorian town of Sale happens to be the Calligraphy Black Ink edition of the Palisade. Exclusive to the Calligraphy Black Ink edition are 20-inch black glossy alloy wheels, tough looking dark-tinted radiator grille and black suede seats inside. The Palisade comes with two drivetrains and all-wheel drive which is powered by a 2.2 liter 4 cylinder turbo diesel or a front-wheel drive variant which uses a 3.8-litre V6 petrol. Oooh! NSW Police has got themselves a Chevrolet Suburban RST and this one spotted and snapped by Clinton J Down Photography is serving with the Tactical Operations Unit TOU. The RST grade means the large SUV comes with a 5.3-litre petrol V8, air suspension, 22-inch alloy wheels and luxurious interior features.The TOU role is “the safe resolution of high risk situations without loss of life, injury to persons or damage to property.”While this unmarked SUV is doing its best not to be noticed it’s hard not to miss something so enormous and rare on our roads.The Northern Territory Police are using an unmarked Ford F-150 as seen here snapped by an anonymous poster to the Australian Police Vehicles Facebook.While this full-sized American pickup truck is so large it almost blocks out the sun, it’s looking pretty inconspicuous as a police vehicle. The giveaways that this F-150 is serving on the force are the tiny LED emergency lights integrated subtly into the grille. You’d never know… well, almost.From what we can see this looks like the XLT grade which comes with a 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo petrol engine and part-time four-wheel drive.Here’s one Kia kept quiet - Tasmania’s police has a Carnival people mover on its force as seen here in a photo taken by Taliesan Sharman.We’re big fans of the Carnival at CarsGuide with it not only being practical but great to drive making it the perfect big family car. This one seen here looks like just another suburban family hauler especially with the roof box and awning, but on closer inspection you’ll see emergency LED lights integrated into the grille and radio aerials.  There have been some tough looking police vehicles, but not many can claim to being as tough as a Police Rescue Squad Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series as snapped here by Fleet Street Photography.This is a 2019 70 Series, which sports a 4.5-litre diesel V8 and was only available with a five-speed manual gear box. While more uncomfortable to pilot than a camel, if you did happen to have got yourself into an accident somewhere incredibly remote the chances of one of these vehicles making it to you and getting you out of there is 100 per cent.

The long-awaited electrified Ford Ranger has arrived. The Blue Oval's plug-in joins a very short list of partly battery-powered rival utes, but Ford Australia says the Ranger hasn't been compromised for the sake of its new EV ability. We're here to find out if that's true.

Cars with a manual gearbox are becoming a rare breed on our roads as vehicles equipped with automatic transmissions now dominate the market. But, fear not my gearbox-loving friend, for there are still new cars with manual transmissions for sale in Australia.What is a manual car?Here's a super-simplified explanation. A manual car is a vehicle that has a manual gearbox, not an automatic transmission.A manual car has three pedals - from the driver’s point of view, left to right, a clutch, brake and accelerator.The clutch must be physically engaged/depressed by the driver (that is, left foot flat to the floor on the clutch pedal) before the gear stick can be moved in order to change gears and then the clutch must be disengaged/released in order for the car to then move forwards, via first, second, third gear etc, or backwards in reverse.A vehicle with an automatic transmission has two pedals. From the driver’s point of view, brake on the left, accelerator on the right.There is no clutch in a car with an automatic transmission because the auto does all of that aforementioned engaging/disengaging for the driver. However, the auto shifter needs to be moved to the ‘D’ (Drive), ’N’ (Neutral), ’R’ (Reverse), or ‘P’ (Park) position.Are they still popular in Australia? Yes, there are still new manual cars in Australia but they’re much less popular than in years gone by when manual cars dominated the roads, way back in those sweet pre-internet days…Are manual gearbox cars still being made? Yes, but there are fewer of them being made and cars with manual gearboxes are generally small, cheap cars or workhorse vans or high-performance sports cars.What has changed in the trends of manual car sales in recent years? When it comes time to decide manual or auto, people have increasingly favoured auto transmissions because these tech-advanced transmissions are generally smarter at selecting the correct gear ratios than the drivers themselves.What should you look for when buying a new manual car?Apart from any usual signs of misuse, damage or lack of maintenance of the vehicle itself, take the car for a test-drive and note any clunking or grinding noises emanating from the gearbox or if it slips out of gear, or if there are strong burning smells (transmission is overheating, low fluid level), obvious leaks (worn-out seals or gaskets) and/or the ‘check engine’ light comes on.Here are the top five manual cars available in Australia as new or, in the case of one particular vehicle listed here, near new.Read on.This all-wheel drive Rexxy has a 2.4-litre turbocharged, horizontally-opposed direct-injection 'boxer' four-cylinder, petrol engine (202kW at 5600rpm and 350Nm at 2000-5200rpm) and a six-speed manual gearbox.Punchy off the mark and gutsy on the move, this is a driver’s car, through and through, with the added bonus of Recaro front seats, Brembo brakes (with ventilated and drilled brake discs) and 19-inch matt-grey alloy wheels.The WRX made this list because what’s not to like about this Subie?Price: From $67,540 (MSRP)Small manual cars are still popular as they’re at the cheaper end of the market and so more budget-friendly than their automatic stablemates or rivals.This Hyundai has a punchy 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine (206kW and 392Nm) and six-speed manual. This neat all-rounder offers plenty of driver enjoyment in a modest package.This compact car made the list because of its bang-for-buck appeal.Price: From $50,000 (MSRP)This range of traditional workhorses retain its appeal – and its manual gearbox options across WorkMate, SR and SR5 variants.Manual utes are still popular in Australia, as is a manual 4x4 or manual 4WD or manual SUV. An SR5 with a six-speed manual gearbox and a 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine (150kW and 420Nm) is a solid mid-range choice in the HiLux line-up.This ute made the list because it’s a manual labour legend.Price: From $60,670 (MSRP)Manual hybrid cars offer a great compromise between driving an EV and driving an internal combustion engine vehicle; you get the self-satisfied smugness of knowing you’re helping to prevent the world from turning into even more of a natural disaster-riddled hothouse than it already is, and you can drive around without any EV-related range anxiety.The cheapest Suzuki Swift Hybrid variant is this one, with a 1.2-litre naturally aspirated three-cylinder petrol engine (with 12-volt mild-hybrid assistance; 60kW and 110Nm) and a five-speed manual gearbox.This Zook made the list because it’s an impressive little all-rounder in a hybrid package.Price: From $24,490, drive-awaySure, it was technically released last year, but how could we not include the Ford Mustang Dark Horse?This wild beast of a car is a driver’s dream; it’s like driving a go-kart which has ingested a heavy dose of some kind of illicit substance.With a 5.0-litre V8 petrol engine (345kW and 550Nm) and a super-slick six-speed manual gearbox, the Mustang in Dark Horse is a barrel of laughs to steer around.The Mustang made this list because it’s a shedload of fun.Price: $98,017 (MSRP)

Ute sales in Australia have been ballooning out for years now, but it seems the bubble for this has already popped following consecutive months of declining sales.In May 2025, sales of pick-up and cab-chassis 4x2, pick-up and cab-chassis 4x4, and even pick-up and cab-chassis over $100,000 were all down compared to the same month last year and year-on-year.This means not only sales for Thai-made utes like the Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max, among others, are down, but also larger, typically North American-made full-size pickups like the Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-150 are down.It’s the second month in a row where all the ute segments have experienced a drop in sales both year-on-year and compared to the same month last year.This follows a downward trend for overall new vehicle sales. It’s expected new car sales in 2025 won’t beat the record high of 2024.Utes that have experienced some of the sharpest downturns in sales year-to-date (YTD) include the Ford F-150 (534 sales, down 35.5 per cent), Ford Ranger 4x2 (1299 sales, down 47.3 per cent), KGM SsangYong Musso (882 sales, down 41.8 per cent), Nissan Navara 4x2 (162 sales, down 67.1 per cent), Ram 3500 (5 sales, down 81.5 per cent), and the Volkswagen Amarok (2434 sales, down 37.8 per cent).Sales of utes like the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux gained a considerable amount of popularity during COVID times and when the instant asset write-off scheme threshold was higher.Utes have historically always been popular in the business and fleet space in Australia, but over the last decade or so they’ve become more popular for private buyers.This is evidenced by the Ford Ranger, which is more popular with private buyers in 4x4 guise.The Ranger and HiLux have been tussling for the top position for the better side of a decade now, with the former claiming the podium for the last two years.As previously reported, Toyota Australia Vice President Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations, Sean Hanley, said the dominance of dual-cab utes will come to an end this year and an SUV could be the best-selling car for the first time ever.This SUV could be the Toyota RAV4.In May, a total of 4003 examples of the RAV4 were sold. Despite this being down 27.4 per cent on the same month last year, it was still the third best-selling car for the month, behind only the HiLux and Ranger.“We already know that the number of ute models available to Australian buyers will expand rapidly,” said Mr Hanley back in January.“They’ll be competing for an overall ute market that is likely to remain steady, which suggests that the average sales per model will come down as a result.”“It may be, and I stress maybe, that an SUV could rise to the top of the national sales charts in the next year or two, and just maybe that SUV will be a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid.”Toyota has since unveiled a new-generation version of the RAV4 which is set to arrive locally in the first half of 2026.At this stage it’s unclear whether this will impact the potential of the RAV4 achieving the sales title in Australia this year, though at some point production of the current model will wind down to make way for the new model.

Ford Australia has just launched the highly anticipated Ranger plug-in hybrid, with the Blue oval soon to boast two plug-in hybrid models in its commercial vehicle range.

The GMC Yukon Denali is the latest arrival in a continuing US vehicular invasion of Australia. Imported here as left-hand drive and then converted to a right-hander, the Denali is a big 4WD wagon with eight seats, a petrol V8 engine and a standard features list as long as LeBron James’s arm.Brought to our shores by General Motors Specialty Vehicles (GMSV), the Denali is a premium-style vehicle; massive, comfortable and, as an eight-seat 4WD wagon, it has few rivals in the Aussie market. But it lacks a competitive warranty, its price-tag puts it way out of reach of a lot of 4WD buyers, and for a few distinct reasons it is a sterling example why US wagons and utes don’t belong in Australia.It’s too big.It’s big. Even the signature Denali grille – with LED headlights and chrome accents – is the size of a tiny house. The 2025 Denali is 5337mm long (with a 3071mm wheelbase), 2378mm wide, 1943mm high, and it has a kerb weight of 2813kg.The interior is great because it is big, roomy and occupant friendly, but the Denali’s gargantuan exterior dimensions simply mean it’s a beast of burden in busy city or suburban streets, and even on bush tracks, which can be quite narrow.The Denali demands to be driven with supreme consideration – and even more patience, more skill, and more experience than smaller four-wheel drives require – in order to avoid city- or bush-related damage, incidental or otherwise.Also, worth remembering is that fact that no matter how good a driver you are, there’s always a shopping trolley, key-wielding person who hates big vehicles, or someone who only parks their car by ‘touching’ the vehicle nearest to them out there, waiting to ding/scratch/dent your US behemoth. You’ve been warned.It’s not built for Australian conditions.The Denali is imported to Australia as a left-hand drive vehicle and then Walkinshaw's subsidiary company Premoso remanufactures the US 4WD wagons to right-hand drive at their facility in Clayton, Victoria. But the problems aren’t with Premoso’s work – they’ve done an impressive job – the flaws are in the vehicle’s original design and build.For one, as mentioned, it’s big. If you aren't used to steering a tank-sized 4WD around town then driving the Denali is going to be a very steep – and possibly very expensive – learning curve.Two, it’s built for open-road cruising on US freeways; it’s not engineered to cope with our punishing dirt-road corrugations of Australia, or our extreme heat, or our poorly maintained backroads and bush tracks.Thirdly, the Denali lacks the prestige fit and finish and build quality usually showcased in something at this price-point. Instead, there is hard plastic throughout, storage receptacles with flimsy lids, and lacklustre fit and finish.Also, this Denali is on 24-inch rims and paper-thin Bridgestone all-season tyres (285/40R24), which is not a wheel-and-tyre package suited to anything other than driving on the blacktop. These tyres don’t offer the grip of a decent all-terrain tyre and you can’t drop air pressures because there isn’t enough tyre there.The Denali has a naturally-aspirated 6.2-litre V8 petrol engine – producing 313kW and 624Nm – and that’s matched to a 10-speed automatic transmission.This is a great vehicle to drive on-road for general day-to-day driving duties – settled and composed – and it’s close to flawless on the open road, smooth and refined, but that big V8 – as great as it sounds – has the potential to drink … a lot.The Denali’s air suspension – which aims to level out even major imperfections in the road or track surface – and its special dampers aren’t as effective or as seamless a system as the Patrol/Patrol Warrior’s Hydraulic Body Motion Control, which acts as a sway bar and sway bar disconnect equivalent and is very impressive. Official fuel consumption is listed as 12.8L/100km (on a combined cycle), but on my most recent test of it, I recorded 16.2L/100km. Not too bad, all things considered, but you have to remember that I didn’t have much weight onboard and I wasn’t towing anything.The Denali has a 91L fuel tank so, going by my on-test fuel-consumption figure, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 560km from a full tank. Once loaded up with real-world burdens (e.g kids, dogs, camping gear etc) then you’ll soon see the Denali’s fuel use climb.It’s expensive.The Denali has a price tag of $174,990 (excluding on-road costs), making it a lot more expensive than most vehicles that could be considered rivals in the Aussie market.Until now, if you’d been looking for an eight-seat 4WD wagon with a petrol V8 engine, you'd be limited to considering something like a Nissan Patrol or a Land Rover Defender 130, but at least the Patrol is almost half the price of a Denali.Another thing, as mentioned earlier, the Denali does not have the high quality of fit and finish and build quality usually associated with vehicles that cost this much – that’s disappointing.And maximum braked towing capacity in the Denali is listed as 3628kg (when it has a 70mm ball and weight-distribution hitch) – which isn’t that much more than other large 4WD wagons or utes in Australia offer (3500kg maximum braked towing capacity).US utes and wagons are big, bloated, overpriced and underdone – and they should go back from whence they came.Cue the hate mail...

Australian new-car sales were resilient in May despite economic headwinds.

It’s EOFY time again!

Australia and America used to be close allies on the automotive front, but it seems time is increasing the distance between the two countries.

In September 2022, Ford CEO told me directly that the Bronco would be coming to Australia. We, as a nation, have waited patiently, but the time is right for the brand’s most adventurous SUV to join the local line-up, complimenting the Ranger and Everest it’s so closely related to.And this isn’t just the pipe dream of one motoring journalist, there are several key events that appear to be lining up in favour of the Bronco making its way to Australia within the next few years. But first, a quick history lesson. I was fortunate enough to catch Farley directly at the reveal of the new-generation Mustang in Detroit and ask him directly about the chances of the Bronco and its Bronco Sport small SUV namesake making Australian showrooms. This is what he said.“We can do Bronco and Bronco Sport for the globe for sure,” Farley told me. “But we have, like, a year or two order bank so we have a lot of work to do on our capacity before we can even consider something like that.”He added: “Of course it can be engineered , just like Mustang, but you have to invest in the capacity and it’s like the first or second inning of building up the Bronco line-up. It’s a whole family, we’ve just come out with the Heritage, we’ve got Everglades, there’s going to be a lot of iterations so just give us some time.”That was nearly three years ago and in that time much of what he said has come to pass, unsurprisingly. Ford has continued to roll out special editions of the Bronco in the US market, the latest being the Stroppe and Free Wheeling versions. This has helped keep interest high in the US and therefore, as Farley referenced, it has meant international expansion is a lower priority.As we’ve previously reported, Ford opened a second Bronco production line in China last year, a joint-venture with Jangling Motors, which leaves the Michigan, USA plant free to focus on feeding the hungry American market. While Ford Australia has made no official comment on the Chinese factory being able to supply Bronco here, it does clear some notable hurdles. The biggest one is the cost of both production and shipping, with China being significantly cheaper than America in both aspects.There’s also the on-going trade war between China and the USA, which effectively rules out any chance the Chinese factory could supply Broncos back to America. This, theoretically, leaves the door open for Australia and its SUV-loving market to take pole position for a future Chinese-built, right-hand drive Bronco.Given the Bronco has been on sale in the US for more than five years, having been revealed in 2020, it is approaching a likely mid-life update. This would be the ideal opportunity for Ford to make good on Farley’s promise and introduce the Bronco to Australia.Given the success of the Ranger and Everest, which share the same underpinnings as the Bronco, it would likely be a welcome addition to Australian customers. Ford officials have previously indicated that the modest sales of the Jeep Wrangler (the closest direct rival to the Bronco) have been a cause of concern, but given the relative success of Ford’s Ranger ute to Jeep’s Gladiator, that is a spurious comparison.Should the Chinese plan get the green light, it’s likely the Bronco could be in Australian showrooms by 2027, given the time needed to finish development of the right-hand drive version and Ford Australia’s focus on launching the Ranger Super Duty in 2026.And while there’s no official comment from Ford to back any of this up, Farley’s commitment as the big boss says all signs point to the Bronco hitting Australian roads and trials eventually.