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1 week ago | 
chasingcars.com.au | Tom Baker |Nathan Ponchard
It was the concession that had to happen – an admittance by Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg that its approach to slick cabin technology in the 2021 Mk8 Golf was deeply flawed. A convoluted multimedia screen with touch-sensitive temperature controls that were bafflingly unilluminated, plus haptic steering-wheel controls that were too easily bumped when driving made the Golf 8 somewhat frustrating when it came to ergonomic functionality.
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1 month ago | 
chasingcars.com.au | Tom Baker |Nathan Ponchard
Biding your time, waiting for the right moment to deploy something – be it a spicy email, a coming-out revelation, or a mid-sized electric SUV that needed some revision – definitely has its benefits. In the case of the Volkswagen ID.4, the four-and-a-half year delay following its September 2020 European arrival has enabled VW Australia to benefit from both an extensive mid-cycle update and a planets-aligning pricing strategy.
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Dec 19, 2024 | 
chasingcars.com.au | Nathan Ponchard
Let’s cut to the chase – the Cargo version of the new all-electric Volkswagen ID Buzz is, by a noticeable margin, the best version of the model to drive. And it all comes down to the depth of its tyre sidewalls.
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Dec 17, 2024 | 
chasingcars.com.au | Nathan Ponchard
There’s always a degree of danger when mining your storied past attempting to achieve an iconic present. And arguably no manufacturer knows that better than Volkswagen. The 1998 New Beetle became a poster child for the boom – and bust – of the ’90s retro fad, a style-driven car that categorically failed to achieve the usefulness of its air-cooled, rear-engined grandparent, as well as the Mk4 Golf that underpinned it.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
chasingcars.com.au | Nathan Ponchard
The Polestar EV family has expanded yet again – this time with what is perhaps the most important model in its line-up, a dedicated coupe-SUV called Polestar 4. Measuring 4840mm long, with $78,500 to $88,350 starting prices embedded directly in the thick of the flagship mainstream mid-size EV market, as well as the premium-brand alternatives.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
chasingcars.com.au | Nathan Ponchard
Regardless of what you think of its products, you have to admire the commitment and focus of the engineers, designers, marketers and product planners behind the contemporary MG Motor company. Without the Chinese stepping in to salvage the embattled MG Rover Group in 2005, this formerly British sporting marque would’ve undoubtedly followed Rover, Austin, Morris, Triumph, Wolseley, Riley and Standard, among others, to an inevitable demise.
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Oct 27, 2024 | 
chasingcars.com.au | Nathan Ponchard
Aussies have had plenty of affection for the Hyundai i30 hatch since the moment it launched in 2007. Over the past 17 years, it has regularly duked it out with the Toyota Corolla and Mazda 3 for the title of best-selling small car, and while the Hyundai has never managed a win, it has always featured strongly and consistently.
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
chasingcars.com.au | Nathan Ponchard
Expecting Kia’s all-new EV5 electric midsize SUV to be a condensed carbon copy of its rather brilliant EV9 sibling is perhaps a little unfair, though not without logic. The EV9 has proved such a game-changer for large electric SUVs, and such a breakthrough model for Kia, that any trickle-down effect must surely be desirable.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
whichcar.com.au | Nathan Ponchard
The forgotten blue-oval performance hero. 22 Oct 2024, 05:45 pm Gallery 19 What do you reckon is the most obscure Ford Laser ever made? The mind-your-heels Carla Zampatti editions? The long-lived but mostly ignored Laser wagon? Or the boosted, all-paw KE Laser poster child, fully imported directly from Mazda in Japan rather than assembled by Ford in Sydney?
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
chasingcars.com.au | Nathan Ponchard
If ‘all good things come to those who wait’ is an idiom worth repeating, then the Polestar 3 electric coupe-SUV should be borderline incredible. Unveiled in October 2022 and first revealed to the public at the Shanghai Auto Show in April ’23, the five-seat Polestar 3 (and its seven-seat Volvo EX90 sister vehicle) rivals an African elephant for gestation period, though its crowning moment is nigh.
