Country Car Reviews

Mitsubishi Triton GLX-R

You can tell the 3-Diamond brand has caught onto a good thing, with the front end styling pulled from the 2004-era Magna and Lancer. Its angular nose and slightly odd shaped headlights give it a menacing look.  An alloy nudge bar only enhances the anger, and of course being 4WD it stands quite tall.

I’ve spent some time this week with the GLX-R model, which has the 3.2L 4Cylinder Common Rail Turbo Diesel engine. Now, I’m no fan of diesels, mainly because they are a much rougher and louder ride then their petrol engine counterparts. In small car sizes they have the extra benefit of offering better than average fuel economy. In any case, at idle they sound and feel like a tractor, and at highway speeds they tend to be very loud in the cabin. In terms of pulling power though…the diesel engines have loads more torque, 343nm as compared to the 309nm produced by its Petrol brethren. It does sacrifice some power, 118kw down from 135kw, but it’s not noticeable, as it really boogeys once past 2000rpm.

The car drives very well around town, handling is good and the turning circle is impressive, at just .8m larger than a standard sedan. On the highway, the ride isn’t exactly smooth, though it’s not expected to be. 4WD’s are, in general, a little rough at cruising speeds. I did find the car decent enough through twisty bits, though there was a lot of body roll (again, expectedly). This is caused in part by the 20cm ground clearance, which is ample for light off-road activity. Unfortunately, it also causes the centre of gravity to be higher of the ground also, meaning handling performance is decreased.

When inside the Triton, you’ll find a very nice place to sit and go about your work/play. A carbon fiber look dash and aircon surround, along with a trip computer/radio control screen at the top of the console with Avg Speed, Avg Fuel, and a digital compass. Matching blue illuminated dials are easy to read and look great. The seats are quite comfortable, and rear leg room is average. The rear seats are very easy to get into though (which for the taller among us will be welcomed) thanks to a newly designed rear door shape.

All in all, it is a very good looking, very good performing dual-cab, with a starting price of just $25,990 for the 4x2 Petrol engine, though it lacks ABS and Electronic Brake-force Distribution, a standard feature on the higher models. As tested, the GLX-R starts at $44,990.

Go and test drive one today, you won’t be disappointed.

Holden Viva

I have noticed a change in the Australian small car market over the last few years…it’s growing. And I don’t just mean growing in numbers…although it is, which has obviously been caused by the ever increasing fuel prices. I also mean the cars themselves. Take the Holden Barina for example, once upon a time it looked like this tiny little thing, based on the old Suzuki Swift. The current model however, based on the Daewoo Kalos, looks more like a medium sized car, like a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. Well, its not, because the Viva is.

The Viva is a car adopted by Holden from fellow General Motors brand, Daewoo. But don’t let that worry you, the Daewoo’s today are much better than the Daewoo’s of old. They feel very well built, not at all plasticy or cheap, and are actually quite good to drive.

Two things set the Viva apart from its main competitors. Storage is amazine, there are little cubby holes all over the thing, and it has a very respectable boot size. The other thing is safety. It comes with standard driver, front passenger and front curtain airbags. ABS is also standard

It is a very easy drive in either Automatic or Manual guise, and the 1.8L engine is punchy enough for around town use, although I wouldn’t want to be racking up too many highway kilometers on it, its certainly much better buzzing around shopping center car parks.

With sedan, hatchback and wagon bodies available, this is the ideal first car. The safety features will be a favourite among parents im sure.

One thing bothers me though. For only $3-4000 more, you can have the European made Astra, which are a much nicer car in terms of quality. Astra’s of old have not been the nicest cars to drive, but they have been considerably improved. So if it were me, I would spring the extra and go with the Astra, as they will have a much better resale value at the end of it all, and comes with the standard safety features the Viva does. And, I reckon it’s a much better looking car too, which is going to be very important to younger buyers.

Ford Fairlane BF MkII

The Ford Fairlane has a long and distinguished history. It began as a luxury replacement to the Customline in 1959, and became Fords flagship model, in Australia, for the next 48 years.

Sadly, 2007 saw the end to the Fairlane name. Terrible sales figures have meant the Blue-Oval’s luxo-barge will no longer be sold here in Oz, with Holden’s Statesman now the leader in Aussie made long-wheelbase cars.

So with the BF model Fairlane the final flavor, I decided to check out what may have attributed to the plummeting sales.

The BF is actually a very nice drive. With comfy leather seats (although ford still think no-one is taller than 6-foot), dual-zone climate control and Premium 6-stack CD player, it’s certainly comes with plenty of kit. And the Fairlane also comes with the 6-Speed, German made ZF gearbox, which is a vast improvement over the 4-speed from the BA model.

There are three long-wheelbase flavors on offer. The Fairlane Ghia, which comes with the standard in-line 6-cylynder engine. The Fairlane G8, which holds the Barr 220 V8. And the LTD, which is all the bells and whistles, including GPS and DVD entertainment system.

As a town car, the Fairlane performs well, though it will suck back the juice rather quickly. As an open-road tourer though…it excels. The 6-spd means at highway cruising, it barely ticks over at 1800rpm. And, teamed with the V8 engine, it proves to be very effective at over-taking safely. With 220Kw on tap, it reacts very well to a stab with the right foot.

Ford is also on a bit of an environmental kick of late. With the new model due this year they are moving to an offshore produced V6 engine which is supposed to cut down on emissions. And they are focusing sales on the Ford Mondeo and Focus, both smaller cars than the Fairlane.

The biggest downfall the Fairlane has had in later years is how close the styling was to the standard Falcon, especially with the BA-F models. All they have done is grab both ends of a Fairmont (the next in line after the Fairlane) and pull. The interior is identical, cept for more rear leg room, and they’ve only made minor changes to the make-up on the outside. So save for the extra room inside, there is very little incentive to spend the extra over a Fairmont Ghia.

This is where Holden have scored big time, by making the Statesman look different enough to a Commodore, people actually want to buy one. And I must say, the new Caprice is a dream to drive, so it wins the Ford-Holden battle anyway.

I will be saddened to see the Fairlane go. But who knows, Holden brought the Monaro back from the dead, maybe it will be resurrected in the future.