Opinion

Toyota and Ford dominate the Australian sales charts and are enjoying similar sales success around the world. So it should come as no surprise that both have a key trait in common, but what that trait is will shock you.I recently attended a motor race at California’s Laguna Seca Raceway, which was hosting the new Ford Mustang Challenge. This is a low-level, almost grassroots racing series designed to appeal to up and coming young racers looking to prove a point and older, gentleman drivers looking to indulge their passion for speed.It’s not a big time category, so much so the races were the first of the day, meaning an early start for all involved. So it shocked me when, as the cars rolled onto the track, I noticed one of the most powerful men in the automotive world smack bang in the middle of this amateur racing series.Jim Farley is the President and CEO of the Ford Motor Company Monday to Friday, but this weekend he was simply the driver of the #17 Ford Mustang. Meanwhile, over at Toyota, company Chairman Akio Toyoda is just as likely to be found behind the wheel of a race or rally car as he is behind a desk.He began racing alongside Toyota’s famous test driver, Hiromu Haruse, and established a skunk works within the massive company in 2007 to indulge in their passion for racing. Since then that project, Team Gazoo, has evolved into the Japanese company’s international performance brand - Gazoo Racing.Motor racing and performance cars are not everyone’s cup of tea, but as both companies have demonstrated, when the leader of a brand loves those things and is passionate about cars, as Farley and Toyoda clearly are, then it has a positive impact on the brand overall.Under Farley’s rule, Ford has implemented a ‘no boring cars’ philosophy and reinvested or revived iconic models like the Mustang and Bronco.It has expanded its electric vehicle range using its most famous nameplates, Mustang and F-150, too. And it has also pushed the limits of what it can do as a brand, with the supercar-rivalling Mustang GTD inspired directly from the brand’s racing car of the same name.Toyoda’s influence on the company his grandfather started is arguably even greater. During his time as President and CEO (positions he stepped down from in 2023), Toyoda oversaw a radical transformation of the company.In Toyota’s own words (via the story on Haruse’s influence on Toyoda) it’s strategy “was centred less on making good cars and more on making cars that sold well and were easy to manufacture”.Toyoda changed that, demanding that all Toyota vehicles be more exciting and engaging to drive, inspired by his own experiences racing for Team Gazoo under the pseudonym ‘Moziro’.This was a bold strategy, as it required major changes and big investment to improve what were already usually best-selling models, but the end result is Toyota has not only maintained its advantage in most areas but actually extended it.As many brands have found over the years, and not just in the automotive world, having a passionate and engaged leader is a big advantage. And while it’s not a negative that other car company CEOs may go off and play golf on their free weekends, it’s no coincidence that the brand’s led by the bosses that hit the racetrack instead are the ones leading the sales race.

Ford Australia has axed so many of its cars over the past two years that it almost has nothing left on sale. It’s just lucky that one of the few cars left that it does sell — the Ranger ute —  does so in enormous numbers. So what’s missing from Ford’s line-up? A lot. Here are the cars we think Ford really needs in Australia right now.Ford lacks a rival, to not just to hardcore four-wheel drives like the Toyota LandCruiser and Nissan Patrol, but to more domesticated Aussie family favourites such as the Toyota Kluger, Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe.Yes, the Ford Everest seats seven and can go off-road with the best of them, but a more plush and comfortable suburban cruiser would fit nicely in the line-up.Now this might hurt a little bit and I apologise in advance, but in South Africa you can buy a Ford Territory. I know, what the Ford!?So, the South African Ford Territory is made in China and sold in other countries but it’s made in right-hand drive, which means there’s no reason why we can’t have it here.This new Territory isn’t as big as the Santa Fe at 4.63m long so it’s not really a large SUV but still, what a shame.What Australia really needs is a Ford Explorer, as in the petrol-powered version form the United States, not the UK electric version. The US Explorer is a a five-metre long seven seater, while the UK version is 4.4m and smaller than an Escape.Nope, bigger is better in this case and while the Explorer is currently only made in left hand drive, there is a chance a right hand drive might get the green light for the next-gen model.Ford axing the Escape is the car company equivalent to throwing away your only pair of pants just because you don’t like the colour of them.OK, that’s a terrible analogy but the point is mid-sized SUVs are the bread and butter of car brands and they sell all year long in large numbers and they’re kind of an essential item to car manufacturers. Ford axed the Escape because it didn’t sell enough of them. But it could easily bring back the Escape because it’s sold in the right-hand drive in the UK.Ford should seriously consider it, the mid-sized SUV segment is increasing in size at 19.6 per cent market share and Ford’s not able to join in the spoils. Toyota has the RAV4, Kia has the Sportage, Nissan has the X-Trail and Ford has nothing. No pants to wear at all.If there’s something Australians love almost as much as mid-sized SUVs it’s a small SUV. We’re talking the likes of the Toyota Corolla Cross, Hyundai Kona and the MG ZS. And Ford did have the Puma, but axed it in 2024 just four years after it arrived.The Puma was a high-quality feeling and premium looking SUV, but it was overpriced compared to its rivals and so sales struggled. People want premium looking at budget prices apparently.The Puma is sold in the UK as a hybrid and a fully-electric vehicle, so bringing it to Australia wouldn’t require anything other than a trip on a boat from Romania where they’re made.So there you are, Ford has pretty much all the cars it needs in right-hand drive to take the fight to rivals such as the Toyota RAV4 and Corolla Cross, the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe.Will we see the Territory again? Will Aussies be OK with a Chinese made Territory? Given the the shift in attitudes and growing maturity towards Chinese brands and their rapid take-up there's no reason they wouldn't be.Sure bringing back the Territory nameplate, plus the Puma and Escape could be a risk for Ford, but would it be as big a risk as having all your eggs in the Ranger basket as it does now?

What is the best car to drive for a ride hailing service like Uber, Ola and Didi? Well, we thought we’d give you our two cents. Not only are we car experts and have driven thousands of new vehicles but we also spend a surprising amount of time sitting in the back of ride share cars talking to drivers. 

Does size matter? It’s an age-old question but when it comes to cars, it’s complicated.Most car reviews - rightly - will cover whether the model represents good value for money. That will usually include a focus on what is and isn’t included in the standard features list, the safety offering, quality of materials and more.Often this will include whether you get enough metal for your money. Is the car big enough for the price?My question is, should size factor into the value of a car? And how do you fairly determine value when each buyer has a different budget?I understand that everyone has different requirements when looking for a new car. A family of five will require more space than a family of two, or a single person, for example.But I would argue that size should not determine whether a car represents good or bad value for money.Again, I appreciate that many people will want as much car as they can get for their money, based on how they will use it. But surely things like overall vehicle quality, the drive experience and how the car makes you feel are just as important.Here’s an example. A Honda Civic e:HEV L costs $49,900 (drive-away). When compared with old foes like the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla, it is seen as being quite a lot of money for a small hatchback.For roughly the same price as the Civic, you could buy an entry grade large seven-seat SUV like a Kia Sorento, Hyundai Santa Fe, Isuzu MU-X, or a Toyota Kluger.But just because you can get a bigger car for the same price, should you?If you don’t need the space, then I say you shouldn’t. And not just for reasons like the environmental impact of large vehicles, or the sheer space it takes up on the road. Although those reasons are also valid.If a smaller car ticks other boxes including being fun to drive, that should be enough.Back to my example - the Honda Civic hybrid is an excellent car. I would argue it’s the best small passenger car (as in, not an SUV) on sale in Australia. It has excellent build quality, a solid standard features list, a handsome design, nicely executed interior and an exceptional and efficient powertrain.Something like that is a perfect car for me. And I don’t feel like I would be ripped off buying this instead of a larger car.Similarly, if someone has the means to buy a premium car instead of something from a mainstream brand, that’s fine. As Donna Meagle famously said in Parks and Recreation, “Treat yo’self!”Sure, a circa-$60,000 BMW 120 hatch may not have the same level of standard features as a higher grade Toyota Corolla or Mazda3 - which cost $20,000 less - but who cares?If you have your heart set on a premium car like a BMW and you’ve got the money for it, then it doesn’t matter if it’s missing a few features.Whether it’s the materials in the cabin, the way it drives or the feeling you get when driving a premium European car, a model like that often just feels more special.A couple of years back I lived with a Peugeot 308 Premium GT hatchback for four months. That specific grade at the time was priced at $48,990 before on-road costs. Again, there was a lot of commentary about that being a lot of money “for a small hatchback”.I am not suggesting it’s cheap - it clearly isn’t. But that is an excellent little car that made me smile every time I got behind the wheel. I would be happy - proud even - to own one.To reiterate, there is nothing wrong with trying to get as much car as possible for your budget. If you want as many standard features as you can possibly get for $40k, and you are less fussed about how the car drives or its perceived quality, terrific. And there’s no shortage of options, especially with the growing number of Chinese brands offering affordable models.But equally, no one should be shamed for spending big bucks on a car that isn’t the size of a boat, or if it doesn’t tick every single box on the standard features list.

As any brand not named Toyota will tell you, breaking into the upper echelon of Australia’s ute market is incredibly tough. Even the mighty Ford Motor Company, which invented the utility vehicle, took decades to crack the code and give the HiLux some serious competition.

You’ve seen them on the road, billowing black smoke and belching foul fumes - the old dungers and banged-up utes with their couldn’t care less drivers. At a time when driving an EV makes you a net-zero hero, the polluters driving those vehicles are the bargain-basement equivalent of flying by private jet, so why do we do so little to get them off the roads?In the US, they conduct “smog testing” on old vehicles and if they fail, they’re taken off the road. In Australia, we focus on setting emissions standards for new vehicles and turn a largely blind eye to high-emitting old ones. Currently, our “vehicle emissions intensity” remains notably higher than Europe (107g/km for them vs 150g/km for us) and “remains closer to – but still higher than – levels in the United States and Canada”, according to the National Transport Commission.So how much difference would it make if we got those polluting dirt boxes off the road? Prepare to have your mind blown. In one study, a group of Italian researchers calculated how much Rome’s air quality would improve if 10 per cent of its city’s many, many cars  became EVs overnight, and - spoiler alert - it was significant.But then they did a second calculation: what would happen if the city required just the top 1 per cent of polluters to go electric? Pollution would drop by the same amount as the 10 per cent shift.Now, let me introduce you to the work of genuine genius and inventor Donald Stedman (he died in 2016, but I learned of him thanks to Malcolm Gladwell’s brilliant new book, Revenge of the Tipping Point), who was a chemist at the University of Denver.Back in the 1990s, Stedman came up with a machine that used infrared light to instantly measure and analyse the emissions of cars driving past. Gladwell spent a day by the side of a highway in Denver watching the machine at work and quickly realised that very few vehicles set it off.Stedman explained that those few cars were the primary cause of the state’s air-pollution problem. A small number of vehicles were producing carbon-monoxide levels as much as 100 times higher than the average.Indeed, in 2006, Stedman discovered that just 5 per cent of the vehicles on the road were producing 55 per cent of automobile pollution. “Obviously, the older a car is, the more likely it is to become broken - it’s the same as human beings,” Stedman explained.“It’s not unusual that these failures result in higher emissions. We have at  least one vehicle in our database which was emitting 70 grams of hydrocarbon per mile, which means you could almost drive a Honda Civic on the exhaust fumes from that car.”Stedman’s seemingly intelligent suggestion was that someone should set up his devices on major roads around Denver, and police could then pull over and smog test anyone who failed. He predicted that just half a dozen of his roadside smog checkers could check 30,000 to 40,000 vehicles a day, resulting in a reduction of emissions for the state of 35 to 40 per cent.Gladwell reports that other studies around the world have found similar results: “somewhere around 10 per cent of vehicles are, at any given time, responsible for over half the automobile-based air pollution.”So how likely is it that the situation is the same in Australia? Well, remember what Stedman said about older cars and consider that the National Transport Commission says data from 2024 suggests the average age of cars in Australia is 11.2 years. “This figure is a significant factor in Australia's emissions intensity, with a large portion of the fleet having emissions above 250 g/km, a statistic that remains a concern,” the NTC’s report adds.Furthermore, seven years after local manufacturing ended, Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons are still in the top 10 of vehicle models on our roads. “These models, with a high average emissions intensity of around 260 g/km, are emblematic of a broader trend: 77 per cent of all vehicles on our roads today with an emissions intensity above 250 g/km first entered the fleet between 2003 and 2013.“By contrast, 93 per cent of registered vehicles with an emissions intensity of up to 120 g/km entered the fleet in the years since 2014.”And what do we do, in Australia, about getting the more broken, higher-emitting old cars off our roads? Well, in Queensland for example, there are no periodic emissions inspections once a vehicle is registered, but mobile road teams do conduct random emissions tests through a program called OVERT (On-Road Vehicle Emissions Random Testing), and drivers may be pulled over if their vehicles emit visible smoke.This sounds promising, as does the fact that OVERT uses “a four-gas analyser to measure carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon levels in the exhaust”. What is remarkable, however, is that even if your car fails utterly and is clearly a threat to public health, let alone the environment, “Regardless of the test result, no legal action is taken.”Instead, “vehicles graded ‘Fair' or ‘Poor' receive a recommendation to have the car serviced”.Smog checks in the US, by comparison, involve punishment for vehicles that fail: “You may lose your vehicle registration stickers and be unable to drive the vehicle legally. You will need to have the necessary repairs made and repeat the test.”But let’s not rush to give the US too many plaudits. Four decades after Donald Stedman invented his theoretically game-changing smog-detector, the state of Colorado is yet to enact his plan in Denver and the city’s air quality, which was apparently not so bad in the early 2000s, has gotten worse over the past decade. Here in Australia, though, it seems like a few small but seemingly obvious changes to our rules, and the way enforce them, could make a huge change to our emissions, and to the levels of harmful gases on our roadways. And most of us wouldn’t even be forced to buy an EV. So my question is, as yet another black-smoke-chugging old banger coughs past you on the road today, why isn’t anyone - not even the Greens - talking about this as an election issue?

In 2025 branding means way more than a hot iron mark scorched into a steer’s backside.It’s about a brand’s personality, reputation and your interactions with it. What it says about you. What it delivers. How it makes you feel. A visual identity, a design style… and a million other things.   And there are automotive brands in the Australian new-car market that have strategically built solid brand equity over many decades.Current market leader, Toyota began dipping its corporate toe into global export waters by shipping cars here in the late 1950s. And other Japanese makers like Honda, Mazda and Nissan followed it in conquering initial hesitancy by steadily investing in strong retail networks, pushing product improvement and focusing on a positive customer experience.Ford has built its global brand around everything from the Model T and its revolutionary assembly line to pumped up muscle cars and victory at Le Mans. While here it embedded itself in the local landscape via a manufacturing presence spanning close to a century and regular victory at Mount Panorama.And more recently, relative newcomers like Hyundai and Kia have moved rapidly from cheap and (mostly) cheerful to innovators that repositioned the concept of value and quality in the local market.All of which led to large pockets of ‘rusted on’ brand loyalty. The concept of ‘Ford and Holden families’ started to diminish from the moment the latter departed the scene in 2020 (if not before), but Toyota’s reputation for value, durability and affordable ownership has seen it maintain a legion of never-say-die fans.Same for Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi and others. But I'd argue a turning point was when, after an initial false start through a private importer in 2013, MG set up as a direct subsidiary in 2017.Great Wall had landed as the first Chinese car brand in the Aussie market in 2009, but MG 2.0 was different. Even if its ‘Since 1924’ positioning stretched credulity, its products were better than expected and pricing was ultra sharp.Sharp enough to encourage budget-focused new-car buyers, even used-car prospects, to give the brand a go.With the introduction of new-generation products in the early 2020s sales took off like a rocket, and it’s here that my ‘That’s a good idea’ theory kicks in.I reckon executives at rival Chinese car brands, keeping an eye on MG’s increasing success Down Under, all had the same ‘good idea’ at the same time. Namely, let’s get into Australia and grab a piece of that action. Hence the subsequent arrival of Chery in 2023, itself a factory-backed restart after an initial import-distribution arrangement broke down back in 2011. Followed by the flood gates opening, with BYD, Deepal, Geely, a ramped up GWM, JAC, LDV, Leapmotor, Smart, Jaecoo, XPeng and Zeekr all jumping in with Aion, Avatar, Jetour, Lynk & Co, Skyworth and others waiting in the wings.Doesn’t matter which category you’re talking about - white goods, sporting equipment, hi-fi - if one fresh competitor enters a mature market, it’s likely to be met with reluctance, even contempt by existing brand loyalists.But if near enough to 20 newcomers blaze into market at the same time, clearly something seismic is going on and it feels like you’d be missing a trick if you didn’t at least investigate the rapidly changing competitive landscape.Give them the benefit of 20/20 hindsight as well as a time machine and it’s not certain all the new brands above would currently be making an Aussie entrance.But multiple triggers have been pulled with retail network deals done, head office staff recruited, parts warehousing set up, service and sales training completed and marketing campaigns launched. So, in a mature market, early movers like MG, Chery and GWM have the advantage and more recent arrivals will need to find a way to win over buyers… fast. And it’s a fair bet the ever-impactful lever marked price will be pulled on a regular basis.Some of the newcomers as well as more than a few existing legacy brands will be forced into a price war. Like it or not, loyalty comes under pressure when the incentive is enticing enough and with a cut-price cage fight likely to take place sooner rather than later not everyone will leave the octagon alive.Stand by for new-car buyers tempted en masse into ‘unbeatable deals’ that mean brand loyalties will be stretched beyond breaking point. The shake out from this looming war of attrition will be huge. 

It’s started again - the talk about how autonomous cars are just around the corner.But are self-driving cars really going to be with us any time soon? Because it feels as though carmakers have been promising autonomous vehicles for a long time now, yet it seems like we’re still no closer to owning a vehicle that can drive us home or to work.Despite this, many car brands think autonomous vehicles are on our doorstep. Is that true? And if so, do we really want to let them in?Volkswagen’s global CEO of Commercial Vehicles Professor Dr Carsten Intra believes they are indeed imminent. “You think that going from combustion to electrification is a big change?” Dr Carsten asked Australia’s auto media last week at the Volkswagen Multivan launch. “And it is, but going autonomous will change our business. This is coming, it's in front of the door. Not just in 10 or 15 years, it will be sometime tomorrow. We are going through the world and testing our fleets in different cities.”Dr Carsten is referring to the fleet of self-driving ID. Buzz electric vans being tested by Volkswagen through its special autonomous company MOIA.Fitted with autonomous tech for full-self driving (but with a human babysitter on board) VW is testing the ID. Buzzes in the United States and Europe. The fleet has just been to Oslo, Norway for winter testing in snow and ice. The self-driving ID. Buzz has a high level of autonomous ability, level 4 actually, a level down from the fully autonomous Level 5 which doesn’t need a human chaperon. This is the level Volkswagen hopes to reach by 2030. These levels from 1 to 5 are just increasingly sophisticated forms of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Most new cars are at Level 2 and have systems that can take over steering, braking and acceleration.But Level 5, which can handle any situation without driver input, is much more complicated. While it may work in theory or on a closed circuit, what about on the Pacific Highway in Sydney at 8:30am on a Monday?So with 2030 less than five years away and as a journalist who has written story after story as car company after car company has made promise after promise of autonomous vehicles, I can tell you that the chances of fully autonomous cars driving on Australian roads by 2030 are close to zero.Forgive me for being jaded, but the autonomous car dream is and probably will always remain a dream. I wasn’t always so pessimistic about this. Back in 2016 I was very excited to write a story for CarsGuide about Ford’s bold claim that it was so far advanced into mastering autonomous tech that they’d have self-driving cars everywhere by 2021.“Ford will be mass producing vehicles with full autonomy within five years and that means there will be no steering wheels, no gas pedals and no brake pedals - a driver is not going to be required," Ford’s then global chief Mark Fields announced.Well it’s 2025 and these pedal-less, steering wheel-less driverless cars are nowhere to be seen.Ford isn’t the only one. Most car companies in the past 10 years have said they are on the cusp of autonomous breakthroughs from Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and Audi to Volvo and Hyundai.Well they used to say that and many companies made bold claims, just like Ford’s, that they, too, would have autonomous cars in just a matter of years. But most of the car manufacturers have gone quiet on the topic of self-driving cars. All except Tesla with its so-called full self-driving function which is very likely just advanced driver assistance and not full self-driving. Actually in recent weeks Tesla has had to re-think what it calls its driving system due to regulatory issues in China.Tesla’s claims of having full-self driving modes 10 years ago probably caused the rest of the industry to suddenly work harder and faster on their own autonomous projects only for all of us to reach this point where we’ve discovered that you can absolutely teach a car to drive, but setting it loose on public roads is going to create a multitude of problems from safety and legal to ethical dilemmas. Besides, Volkswagen isn't the first to have fleets testing in cities. Ride-hailing companies such as Waymo have been working on autonomous tech for years only to run into operational difficulties with cars getting lost or even attacked.Until recently Waymo's fleet of autonomous taxis has operated in just the United States with San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin being the main cities where the service can be found. Now Waymo is going further afield to Japan and is using Tokyo as its first location outsided the US to test the autonomous tech.Waymo will have been testing and operating its fleet of autonomous cars for 10 years in 2026. An achievement in itself and while the technology has come far it hasn't been without inicident. There have been cases where Waymo vehicles have malfunctioned or become confused. Two years ago in Phoenix 12 Waymos all turned up in the same street at the same time and caused a traffic jam, while last year in San Francisco a car park being used to hold dozens of Waymo vehicles erupted into chaos as the empty cars began honking at each other for no apparant reason.Hiccups aside it's truly amazing how well Waymo's fleet of electric Jaguar iPace SUVs can navigate through complicated terrain such as hilly San Francisco with its myriad of streets. Waymo has also recently signed a new deal with Chinese carmaker Zeekr to use its electric Mix people mover in 2025.Volkswagen's own testing with its ID. Buzz fleets will indeed add to the advancement of autonomous tech, too.Progress is slow, however, and for good reason - safety, regulations, ethics and the unpredicatability of other road users present huge challenges for a technology that's expected to be as good, if not better, than humans. Volvo is a safety tech pioneer in the auto industry and one of the first to start developing autonomous systems. But in 2023 Volvo Cars CEO and President Jim Rowan made a startling admission: self-driving cars won’t happen anytime soon.  "So first of all, this big myth that there's five different levels of autonomy is nonsense, in my opinion," he said. "You've got two levels of autonomy. One is your hands on the steering wheel. One is your hands off the steering wheel."Can we drive a car fully autonomous? Yes. Does regulation allow that? No. So I think regulation will be the barrier towards full adoption of full AD more than technology," he said.“Driving inside the city when there's schools and roadworks, and there's a lot of change every day, I think that's a long, long way off.”So if the boss of the company which was so far ahead in developing fully autonomous cars has declared the mission more or less over for now, what’s caused Volkswagen to make its autonomous claims? Well, we’ll have to wait and see but I think we’ll be waiting a lot longer before we start seeing.

I’m going to be totally honest with you, when news of the first Ford Ranger Raptor surfaced, I felt it was little more than an automotive curiosity.

At the start of this month Jeep’s parent company Stellantis announced the iconic Grand Cherokee large SUV would be discontinued in Australia.While axing the second best-selling model of a brand that was already struggling might seem like a good way to accelerate the demise of Jeep in Australia, it won’t. That’s because Jeep has something left that many brands have never had. Stellantis's Grand Cherokee announcement was both a shock and unsurprising at the same time. It was like hearing that your professional stunt actor friend had broken every bone in their body again, but they would probably be alright. It was coming and so was the Grand Cherokee’s axing.The surprising part of the Grand Cherokee's demise was that the new-generation version had only just arrived in Australia - well it was less than two years ago in 2023 with the 4xe plug-in hybrid variant following later in the year.What’s thrown most people is that the Grand Cherokee had a hugely successful past in Australia. In 2014 it was the best-selling large SUV under $70K, beating even Toyota’s Prado for the year with 16,582 sold.A big part of the previous-gen Grand Cherokee's allure was the price which, thanks to the strong Australian dollar, meant you could get into an entry grade Laredo for $47,000. Compared to the Japanese models which dominated the market at the time the Grand Cherokee felt like a lot of car for the money.Big, luxurious, comfortable and with a range of engines that stepped all the way up to a high-performance Hemi V8 in the SRT, many buyers found the Grand Cherokee more desirable than a Mazda CX-9 or Toyota Kluger and more affordable than SUVs with Mercedes-AMG, BMW M or Audi RS badges.That was it in a nut shell. Grand Cherokee was a flash in the pan for Australia that led to a surge in growth for Jeep, but there wasn't much to follow it up. Apart from a disastrous reliability record for the Grand Cherokee which saw recall after recall. Even after this new fifth-generation Grand Cherokee launched the 4xe was recalled in the United States due to 13 separate fires.If you’re superstitious then you’d believe the Grand Cherokee was cursed.Parent company Stellantis would not go into why the Grand Cherokee was pulled from sale in Australia other than to say it was looking for a more relevant model for the market.“As we look to right-size the Jeep product portfolio to match local market dynamics and customer preferences, we’ve made the difficult decision to pause availability of the current model Jeep Grand Cherokee  in Australia,” a Stellantis spokesperson said."While the Jeep Grand Cherokee will continue to be sold in many countries around the world, this decision allows us to focus our efforts on placing the right products in the right segments that can have the greatest relevance for our customers."Of course as any PR person would say Jeep remains committed to Australia, the spokesperson told us."The Jeep brand remains fully committed to the Australian market and Stellantis continues to invest heavily in its global product portfolio,” the brand’s spokesperson said.'Committed' as long as there’s a business case for staying is what this really means and there’s nothing wrong with that logic.Why Jeep will likely stay in Australia isn’t because a new model like the new electric Wagoneer S is just around the corner. It's because Jeep offers something many brands don't have - a lifestyle identity. Jeep’s Wrangler off-roader is central to this ethos and the connection the SUV has with cultural identity is important in its lineage back to the World War II Willys Jeep and forward to 21st century adventurers and the perceived freedom that goes with the lifestyle. The appeal is almost a rebellious one against the wrapped-in-cotton-wool safety standards of less adventurous SUVs that are seemingly secure so as to cut off all contact with the outside world. The Wrangler on the other hand has doors and a windscreen that can literally be removed. That emotional ingredient is a quality only some car brands have. Ford has its Mustang,  Toyota has the LandCruiser, Nissan the Patrol and even Subaru has the WRX . All offer more than just transport but membership to a club.Of course there needs to be regular buyers who give the brand huge spikes in sales, as was experienced by the Grand Cherokee.And while sales of Jeep's other models aren't outstanding among rival brands, they don't appear to be dangerously low either. Last year's total sales amounted to 2377 and that was 492 for Compass, 151 for the Gladiator, 646 for Grand Cherokee and 724 for the Wrangler.Citroen, which is also owned by Stellantis but imported through a different operator - Inchcape - was pulled out of Australia last year after selling just 147 vehicles.So we know where the line is and currently Jeep is not in danger of crossing it. Still, the brand needs another model to boost sales again and it's unlikely to be the just-arrived Avenger EV which will be up against more affordable small electric Chinese SUVs.So while Stellantis searches for another hit model, Jeep will be supported by the emotional engagement and identity it brings to those drawn to a life of adventure, even if their real life is mainly spent in an office or in traffic.