At CarExpert, we don’t just write car news and reviews.
We pride ourselves on bringing our readers well-researched feature articles. These include Derek Fung’s deep dives to Vivek Shah’s educational pieces on everything from suppliers to battery technology.
We’ve looked back at the past year’s worth of content to see which got the most eyeballs.
25 years of failures: The car brands that didn’t succeed in Australia, Part II
I already knew I had to do a third (and possibly fourth) instalment, and seeing how much you all enjoyed this has given me a prod.
In the second part of this series, I took you through five more brands that have exited the Australian market: Asia Motors, Dodge, Rover, Seat and Tata. While all of these brands have left Australia, they each left for a different reason or under markedly different circumstances.
The story of Seat is a cautionary tale for the Volkswagen Group as its readies the launch of its spinoff brand, Cupra, in 2022. Fortunately, it has a decidedly different strategy for this brand launch than it did for Seat, which didn’t seem to have much of a strategy at all!
Fuel ratings explained: 91, 95, 98 RON and E10
We know to stick the nozzle into our fuel tanks that has the same number as inside our fuel filler doors, but what’s the difference between each fuel type?
In this article, Vivek Shah explains what these different fuel names mean and why your car’s manufacturer advises you to use a particular fuel type when you go to the petrol station.
25 years of failures: The car brands that didn’t succeed in Australia, Part I
In the first instalment of this series, I told the story of a raft of brands that exited the Australian market in the past quarter-century, including Alpine, Chery, Eunos, Foton, Hummer, Proton and Smart.
Alpine was the most recent, a victim of a more stringent Australian Design Rule regarding side-impact performance. Eunos was Mazda’s failed attempt at a premium brand, which was timely to discuss as the Japanese brand readies a new premium push albeit under its existing nameplate.
The others live on in other markets, though things have changed: Hummer is now an all-electric sub-brand of GMC, Smart is shifting to SUVs, and Proton is now owned by Chinese giant Geely.
Australia’s dirty fuel – and when it’ll get cleaner
In this feature, I outline Australia’s current fuel standards and how they relate to other markets in the world. There’s also an overview of the coming changes to our fuel regulations, plus other aspects of an Australian Government package to support the dwindling number of oil refineries in Australia.
In short, we’ve fallen behind Europe in fuel quality, though we pay less for our fuel than in almost every other OECD country.
The best luxury cars nobody’s buying
Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz dominate the luxury car market in Australia, with Land Rover, Lexus and Volvo also putting up a good fight in the various luxury SUV segments.
But there’s a raft of luxury-brand models that have been on sale for a while now in Australia and have yet to reach those establishment rivals in the sales race. In this article, we look at a collection of vehicles from Alfa Romeo, Genesis, Jaguar and Volvo that deserve a look.
It’s a follow-up to an earlier article looking at compelling mainstream vehicles that aren’t selling.
