Luxury

Five-star safety rating. Airbags everywhere. Seat belts self tighten. Car will not drive with door accidently open, just drops back into N. Lane auto correction and vibration warning through steering. Brilliant brakes with never any hint of overheating. Top-class positive steering and handling. Comes with wonderful runflat tyres (more later). Harman Kardon sound system top class with six quality speakers. Easy pairing of phone and whatever you want. Will retain played CD in its memory of favorites if desired.All the controls for the driver are in easy reach, including dash-mounted (e.g. heating and air-con and sounds system). Steering wheel controls are easily operated and more than adequate. Steering column and steering wheel adjustments are electric. Boot space is quite adequate for most motoring, although the height is low at the rear, owing to the rear hatch sloping down. There is quite a useful cavity under the boot floor, where the spare wheel would be if one was included. You can leave the floor panel out of you wish for more room. If traveling a lot with children, you may find the space a bit restricted, but you would probably go for an X3, the X4's brother. You can purchase a spare wheel if desired. Of.course, the backs of the rear seats fold forward for much more space if needed, if no rear passengers are on-board.Absolutely perfect! Every part of the driving is what you would expect from a quality car. This the third BMW I have owned (previously X5 4.2L V8 and X3 M35i. I also own at present an X5 xDrive35d. The X4 is quieter, smoother and better drive then either of the other three. In all fairness, the X5 I also have now is a diesel, so it's a bit unfair to compare the two. The driving experience is unreal if you like a bit of boogy! At 385hp from a 3.0-litre engine, you would want no more. They have a governed top speed of 255km/h if you feel you need it? The exhaust noise on starting up is quite loud but soon quietens down to an acceptable level. Also, if you use Sports mode for driving, it has a very different tone. Not sure how all that works but the young guys love it. I can truthfully say out of many many cars I have owned and company cars I've had to drive, this X4 is by far the best. At 79 years of age now and starting driving at 15 years, there's been a lot. I drove Ford Escort RS1600 and RS1800 rally cars for 14 years and used to think how fast they were. This car would eat them!Fuel usage is very good for the performance available: 9.6L/100km often. Of course, if in a hurry, high 12s are usual. And if towing as I have done a 21ft caravan: 15L/100km. By the way, it runs on 91 octane fuel quite safely and well. With free servicing for three years, I have only paid for one fairly major service, which was near to $600. Since then it has had in my estimation an unnecessary brake fluid change at $130, but that was a serviced item. Something quite disturbing to me as a lifetime mechanic from new, the first service was due at a ridiculous 30,000k? I questioned this and was told that's what it is. When explaining my disapproval of this and offering to pay for a oil and filter change myself, it was refused. I changed the oil and filter myself. 4000km and again at approx 18,000km. I do notice now since the free services are over, the intervals have come down to 10,000? Funny? Insurance premiums are relativity more than acceptable for a $128,000 car and about $40 a month cheaper than our new $84,000 caravan? Both have a $400 excess.Very, very good. Only two warranty items have been needed doing in 4.5 years of the five-year period. A new coolant top up bottle leaked slightly and a lane change sensor and motor needed replacing. A bit disturbing was the wear rate of the huge 21-inch rear tyres. The center of the tread was unacceptable by our WOF standards here in NZ at 28,000km. These are not cheap at $830 for non-runflats each to $910 each for runflats. This was the only real disappointment of the whole car. And I did lower the recommended tyre pressures by 4lbs with little difference? 

Lexus has axed its cheapest and first electric vehicle (EV) in Australia, the UX300e crossover. “The UX 300e will no longer be available in Australia due to production restrictions on selected parts,” said a Lexus Australia spokesperson.

Apple is ready to take over your car.

Mercedes-Benz has moved to correct a major blunder on its new CLA EV that would have made its 800-volt architecture incompatible with 400-volt chargers.

The entire world might still be completely in love with SUVs and utes, but the traditional passenger car is far from over, be it sedans, wagons, coupes or convertibles. Here is a list of 2025's more-promising newcomers, and all without a hint of crossover or truck between them!

If you are in the market for a new SUV, you might want to wait a little bit to get a closer look at some of the new family- and urban-focused machines landing in 2025.

In the premium sedan market, the sleeker your style, the stronger your sales are. Redesigned for 2025, the BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe steps up with a new look, significantly more equipment and substantial chassis upgrades. Prices either slide a little or leap up, depending on grade, but the result is a compact four-door sports sedan with family friendly packaging as well as very on-brand performance.

As the first Mercedes-Benz in history to be launched with 800-volt ultra-fast charging architecture, the next-gen electric CLA promised big things when it was unveiled earlier this year.

Audi's best car you might never drive?

Mercedes-Benz has announced it will reintroduce plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models in Australia, starting with the new C 350e.