Car Advice

The Easter long-weekend is upon us and while road trips can be fun they should also come with a fair share of admin. The JAX Tyres & Auto Road Safety Report 2021 conducted by YouGov reveals that only about half of the Australians – 54 per cent – say they always carry out specific vehicle checks before a long drive. Alarmingly, one third of Aussie drivers say an orange or red light on car dashboard would not stop them from going on a long road trip.

Safety in cars is an increasingly difficult area to adjudicate, with new technologies and model generations constantly emerging, meaning the goal posts seem to change daily. As such, it pays to get specific when choosing a 'safe' new car for your family.

If you're looking at environmentally-friendly through the lens of fuel consumption, then cars like the Volkswagen Polo (which uses 5.0 litres of fuel per 100km), Toyota Yaris (4.9L/100km) and Suzuki Swift (4.8L/100km) top the list. If you wanted something a little taller, it might be worth looking at a compact SUV, like a Volkswagen T-Cross (5.4L/100km) or Skoda Kamiq (5.0L/100km).

The Australian Tax Office has announced it will access vehicle purchasing data by state in an effort to potentially catch out tax-evading individuals and businesses. "The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will acquire motor vehicle registry data from state and territory motor vehicle registry authorities for 2019–20 through to 2021–22," the ATO said in a policy notice.

As we all settle in and open a new tab to watch ‘the race that stops a nation’, why not impress your friends with a little anecdote of how the measure of horsepower came to be? Sure, we refer to a car’s power output in thousands-of-watts (kW), but somehow the popular imperial measurement of horsepower just sounds so much cooler. Plus, it converts to bigger numbers, and when it comes to power, bigger is better.