Ben’s Car Blog

At the Melbourne Motorshow Ford Australia are previewing a bunch of interesting cars, all of which are enough to make Joe from My Ford Dreams green with envy.

First we have the Turbo Territory. 245kw or 330-odd horsepower in a BMW X5 sized urban assault vehicle. Why Ford North America dropped the ball on the amazingly dull Freestyle I don’t know. I can’t really see myself in a Turbo Terror but the press here thinks a reguluar Territory is a better can than an X5 so here’s hoping they sell a stack of them.

Memo to Ford NA: you want need the Falcon and Territory. If Ford.au can build these cars for the tiny Australian market (and teensy-tiny exports to NZ and South Africa) and price them well and spec them well (electrically adjustable pedals anyone!) then even if Ford NA have to re-tool a bunch of factories I’ll bet they’ll sell more Falcons and Territories than 500s and Crown Vics put together. (PS: our Fairlane is three times the car the Crown Vic is.)

Moving into cars that I’m more interested in, there’s the Focus XR5. Now that’s what I’m talking about! Who needs a Golf GTi?

Bill Discher is doing his PhD on Car Blogs and Car Blogging. If you’re a car blogger, head over to his site and help him out or drop him a line.

Channel 10’s “creativity” knows no bounds. DriveTV is a pretty much direct rip-off of Top Gear, from the unseated audience to the mystery driver who posts times in hot cars for comparison. Sadly, on DriveTV they mystery driver’s name is “The Chip” which is much less enigmatic than TopGear’s “The Stig”.

Michael Stahl, one of my favourite motoring journos, is the main presenter. He’s no Clarkson but with only one episode under his belt he might loosen up in a while.

It’s on Saturdays @ 4pm. If you’ve never seen TopGear, DriveTV is probably a revalation. If you have, well, it’s almost there.

Photos from the recent, inagural, RX-8 Nationals are on-line and available for purchase.

I really like this one.

SBS has licenced two series of Top Gear from the BBC. Cool.

The Petrol summit won’t make petrol cheaper…

Mr Howard played down the possibility of significant price falls as more biofuels - including ethanol-petrol blends and biodiesel - were used.

“We’ve never represented this as being some kind of comprehensive answer to dearer petrol,” he said. “It can make some contribution over time, but it should not be seen as some magical answer.”

…but it will prop up the sugar-cane industry.

(Petrol summit to fix ethanol’s bad image)

Mazda’s MPS 6 is launched with a price of $48.600 for the basic spec car and $54,600 for the leather pack, undercutting the RX-8.

If I had that much cash, I’d be hard pressed to chose between the two.

(Mazda6 MPS launched Down Under)

Today is obviously the end of the embargo on the new Mitsubishi 380 so it’s all over the ‘net and the papers.

See it at:

• Carsguide
• Drive
• Extensive coverage at CarPoint courtesy of Wheels 1, 2, 3
• Fullboost (including the best shot of the dash on the ‘net)

On the whole impressions are positive. Here’s hoping that they sell a heap of them.

Swade at Trollhattan Saab might well be the most passionate and prolific single marque car blogger on the ‘net. Even if you aren’t in to Saabs, check out his site.

Interesting editorial over at The Truth About Cars on GM’s expansion into China. Short version: Robert Farago thinks it’s a bad idea.

GM Death Watch XXVIII: Distant Waters