Pricing revealed and pre-orders open for one of my most anticipated new vehicles - Australia’s new ugliest ute - the Kia Tasman. Move over Ssangong Musso; there’s a new monument to dual-cab ugliness in town...Hilarious developments back at headquarters: The penny has dropped, finally, that it looks hideous. They're doing what they can. They’re defending the design, but at the same time also striving to make it seem less crap, at minimal cost - overseas and here.And the price: It’s out of control, dude. Top-spec Tasman is $12k more than top-spec Triton (its closest competitor in the market, all things considered). And line-ball with a 3.0V6 diesel Ford Ranger Wildtrak.That's an intelligence test isn't it? The Wildtrak or the Tasman... How much thinking music do you really need?

The Ford Ranger Super Duty is currently a fairy tale. Ford’s PR team - doing what it does best: Selectively representing the truth about the Ranger Super Duty to the most domesticated car reviewers on the planet.The ones too timid, or otherwise incentivised not to ask any hard questions. Perhaps they just don’t know what to ask. In any case, the official Ford-sanctioned reports so far are just a suck.Ranger Super Duty is going to be OK - too expensive, but OK. Meaning, not nearly as good at towing or load carrying as you’ve been led to believe. At this point, that's pretty obvious.I'm going to break that down for you, in this video, using (you know) facts.If you’re thinking about buying a Super Duty Ranger, this report covers what you need to know. From someone who’s not afraid to do ghetto engineering and actual journalism.

Subaru used to be a great company in Australia, but unfortunately they've been sowing the seeds of their own downfall for well over a decade now ... and the harvest is imminent.

Increasing Toyota ownership of the company means more Toyota beancounters running the show, sucking the passion from the brand and removing - essentially - all the exciting variants from the range, especially in Australia.

Here I use one owner's interaction with them to illustrate this point, and lay out the broader reasons why this once great brand is over the hill.

This video isa a full review and road test of the Elecbrakes eb2 brake controller.

What makes the Elecbrakes eb2 so interesting and effective?

Here in Australia you need an electric brake controller to tow any trailer over two tonnes. The conventional approach involves hard-wiring a controller to every vehicle tasked with towing such a trailer. That gets kind of expensive. Especially if you’ve got one trailer - a boat, caravan, camper trailer, horse float, excavator, diesel generator, whatever, and multiple vehicles, potentially, that tow it.You could be up for several hard-wired brake controllers. And if you upgrade to a new vehicle, you instantly need another one, plus you need to pay for installation, again. There’s actually a much better way to do this.That 'better way' is the EB2 brake controller from Elecbrakes. Elecbrakes is an Aussie business on the NSW Central Coast. They’ve got integrated production, assembly and R&D, in-house. They’re legitimately an Aussie manufacturing innovator and success story. But until I got tipped off, I’d never actually heard of them.A simple black box is the brain. It stays on the trailer, and if it’s there, you DO NOT need a brake controller fitted to the tow vehicle. It’s simple but sophisticated - there’s even an accelerometer inside, which enables proportional braking, plus you get dynamic adaptation to hills built in.So: one trailer, one controller. And most handy dudes can install the EB2 easily. Four self-drilling screws is really all it takes. And they’re in the box. The braking response is very tunable. You can easily tweak it for your particular combination. Plus, there are five preset programs.

A battery recycling facility near Glasgow in Scotland has just blown up - for the second time in 12 months. Toxic, carcinogenic chemicals including hydrofluoric acid, hydrogen cyanide, heavy metal compounds including cobalt oxide, manganese oxide and nickel oxide, plus phosphorous oxyfluoride, formaldehyde and acrolein rained down over nearby houses, and the plume of contamination widens.Regulators and politicians at all levels are very disappointed. Lots of hand-wringing there. The company that owns the facility, Fenix, wants you to know it takes safety very seriously indeed. And of course the Easter bunny - he might be real.In other news: Thankfully, we’re still on track for ‘net zero’. Let’s not let any pesky details get in the way of that vital goal.

Two firefighters have died, one is seriously injured, and another thirteen were injured less seriously, when a Porsche Taycan electric sports car crashed and exploded around 4pm on Wednesday, in an underground car park in Madrid.

In other news, despite mounting evidence of the danger, there’s still no plan to mitigate the risk posed by EVs among us. If you think there’s any kind of risk management plan in place here in ‘Straya, I’ll be auctioning off the Harbour Bridge this weekend. This is your opportunity to score an historic piece of an internationally recognised ‘Strayan icon, dude.

What appears to have happened in this tragedy is:

"According to eyewitness accounts, the fire began when a resident, identified only as Javier, attempted to park his electric Porsche Taycan. Reports suggest that he may have confused the accelerator with the brake, crashing into the garage entrance and causing the vehicle to emit thick smoke and flames."

That’s from the Pinnacle Gazatte in Spain. “Confused the accelerator and the brake”: Yeah. Sounds like the the Porsche owner.

"Initial hypotheses suggest that the first of the deceased firefighters was caught in a blast that affected several parked cars. This large-scale explosion was allegedly caused by a fire in an electric car which had crashed when its owner was driving it into the garage. The second firefighter died from the inhalation of fumes while he was being transferred to the University Hospital of Getafe. All the injured and deceased were members of the Alcorcón fire brigade."

Lobby groups and other arsehole EV advocates will not allow any speed humps on the superhighway to Electric Utopia, with its tantalising pot of ‘net zero’ at the end of the rainbow. Speed humps such as reasonable safety measures.

Apparently, the safety of the public, and of firefighters, is not as important as looking good to other unhinged climate zealots who never studied.

Chrome-domed Pierre Potato-Trump making news , claiming by way of leak to The ‘Strayan newspaper … that the PM, Mr Albo-sneezy, has it wrong on new vehicle CO2 policy, which is apparently set to drive new car prices sky high without a good, old-fashioned Coalition watering-down.

Elmer Fudd giveth; and Spuman taketh away. Thus restoring harmony to the universe, which he was put here to do, obviously.

So, if you can believe anything in the ‘Strayan, Mr Potato-Trump, will retain Labor’s New Vehicle Efficiency scheme, but without the fines for carmakers which overstep mandated CO2 limits.

Those CO2 fines were supposed to kick in on July 1, but if Captain Potato-Trump moves into the lodge, we’ll just get Emissions Wank Lite, which is kinda like skim milk, or a dominatrix without a riding crop.

The core issue about Labor’s New Bullshit Emissions Wank Scheme is that Labor says it’ll drive down the cost of new cars, and the cost of operating them. And stop Australia being a dumping ground for filthy, polluting vehicles. Not that there’s any evidence that any of this this is the case.

If Chris Bowen says it, it’s good enough for me, obviously. 

But Fritte-man disagrees, and (oddly) I’m with him on this one.

It won’t do either of those things. The most popular cars in the country will increase in price. Because we love our utes. Because carmakers will be fined for selling them to us. Because they will breach ever-tightening CO2 standards. Because carmakers will pass those costs - the fines / stealth ute tax - on to you and me.

This is a fairly simple dot-joining sequence. Even an economist could do it.

Labor’s policy is nothing but a Greens-appeasing stealth tax on utes and 4x4s. Correction: another Greens-appeasing stealth tax. And also one of Labor’s favourite tricks - social engineering. Divisive bastards. 

Telling you what car to buy … without actually telling you. What they’re doing is making your dual-cab ute, or other 4x4 you want, more expensive, in the hope you’ll buy some piece of shit whitegoods on wheels instead, hopefully with a dirty big lithium battery inside, instead of an engine.

The new Jaecoo J7 SHS plug-in hybrid is under $50k, drive-away - and it's fully loaded.

For comparison:

• Kia SPortage hybrid GT-Line: $60k...
• * Equivalent-spec Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (Exceed Tourer): $80k.

The advent of Chinese automotive brands in Australia will invert the established market, and it's going to be a bloodbath.Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contactGet a great deal on home solar (or add a quality battery to your existing setup): https://autoexpert.com.au/solar

If you plan on buying a new car in coming months, it’s a perfect storm, right now. All the ducks are in a row. The market is commercially crap, dealers are ready to roll. Established brands are getting bent over by the upstart Chinese brands, money is tight. And now there’s an election in five weeks (on May 3). There really hasn’t been a better time in years to stride purposefully into a dealership and negotiate as hard as you can. Show no mercy.Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contactGet a great deal on home solar (or add a quality battery to your existing setup): https://autoexpert.com.au/solar

Chinese car brand GWM just installed a dude named Rob Trubiani as their head of engineering. He's the guy who spent 15 years making Holden's ride and handling so damn excellent. Oh, and he set the lap record for a commercial vehicle at the Nurburgring, in a VF SS-V Redline Commodore Ute. So there's that. His mission is A) fix the ride & handling, and B) fix the intrusive, ineffective ADAS. GWM is on a roll. This cannot possibly end badly.

Check out Brett Davis's channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@drivingenthusiastaustraliaSave thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contactGet a great deal on home solar (or add a quality battery to your existing setup): https://autoexpert.com.au/solar