Listen to this podcast before deluding yourself that Volvo is Scandinavian Mercedes-Benz (or that Land Rover is British Audi - etc.) 

Find out the real-world implications of buying a niche brand when you really need mainstream mobility and support.

Mitsubishi Motors has announced a 'desperation' business plan - which involves (in part) commencing to pull out of the UK and Europe, with immediate effect. Find out what this means for the brand in this report.

This report concerns the conduct of Mercedes-Benz in Australia, in respect of the retrospective deletion of features on one customer's C 200. It's fully supported by the documentation from both sides and provides a fascinating window into the difference in treatment between prospective customers and actual owners.

If I were a potential Mercedes-Benz buyer I would carefully consider the issues raised before parting with my cash.

Mercedes F1 cars - the legendary ‘silver arrows’ - are no longer silver. They’re painted black this year. A symbolic gesture of support for the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, at Mr Hamilton’s behest.

They will race for the very first time in this new, emblematic non-color this weekend. Mr Hamilton and his team-mate will race in corresponding black overalls this year, as well, and the ‘End Racism’ message will be displayed on both cars.

Mr Hamilton said: "It’s so important that we seize this moment and use it to educate ourselves whether you are an individual, brand or company to make real meaningful changes when it comes to ensuring equality and inclusivity."

Real and meaningful changes when it comes to ensuring equality and inclusivity. These buzzwords are straight from the social justice warrior handbook, I’m pretty sure. To which I would respectfully retort:

Equality and inclusivity are essential for any truly free and enlightened society. Ending racism is an admirable objective. But two black cars and matching jumpsuits, plus a slogan, does not constitute ‘meaningful change’ in this area. It just doesn’t. Or, if it does, I don’t see how. It does not even illuminate a path, in that broad direction, in my estimation.

This new non-colour scheme is hardly a turnaround for repressed groups anywhere. It’s just not. It’s a shallow, virtue-signalling token in my estimation - and you are of course free to make your own determination on this.

Certainly black lives matter. All lives matter. Ending racism is admirable. I got no problem with the theory here - just the execution in this case.

I say this because … well, let’s set the scene. I say it because Mercedes is owned by Daimler AG, in Chermany, which was founded 94 years ago. In 2019 Daimler enjoyed revenue of 173 billion Euros, it produced 3.3 million vehicles and it employed almost 300,000 people.

I find this whole ‘charge towards inclusivity … led by black race cars and matching jumpsuits’ … this F1 sideshow to be unbelievably shallow and incredibly tokenistic because … well, because that’s the board of management of Daimler. Out of 300,000 people on the payroll, these are the six dudes and duos dudettes who rose to the top.

I’m not a sociologist, or a genealogist, or a geneticist, or any other kind of expert on race, heritage or ethnicity, so I could be dead wrong, but as far as the superficial optics go … it seems fair to say that perhaps Daimler could try just a little bit harder to represent, on the ‘diversity’ front, in the boardroom. If they really do care about this issue.

Because they sure as shit seem to be cut from the same cultural cloth to me. Perhaps they are, in fact, the eight best people for the job. Perhaps there is a wide-ranging cultural diversity in the boardroom, which is less than apparent. And perhaps other non-ability-related criteria factored into their selection, because of a latent and less than enlightened defect in the selection process. I’ll leave that to you to debate.

Perhaps this is a challenge to be embraced by the Daimler AG board, once they get society more broadly back on track with those vital black race cars and matching driver jumpsuits. I wish them good luck with that, but i do fear it will be ineffective.

If one wanted to make real change here, vis-a-vis inclusivity, I’d suggest that boardrooms of this nature would not be a bad place to start. So long as the best-qualified people get the job, ultimately.

Left-foot braking: how not to do it, and what to do when it all goes totally ‘Skynet’ down there. I hate when that happens…

AutoExpert discount roadside assistance (Australia-only): https://247roadservices.com.au/autoex...

Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact

Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=ERSJ6t2Vu2Xckrq370DlnWHQ4jZ-gV5RPAbzm_-qoVhE90nEHeEUy5UgqnwiJULxmhjiEG&country.x=AU&locale.x=AU

Imagine you’re driving along and five years down the track some dodgy floor mat shifts forward unexpectedly and it wedges the accelerator flat down on the floor. It could be a drink bottle, or an adult toy, or your Louis Vuitton yachting moccasins - whatever, the point is, it gets stuck and jams the loud pedal down.

Or, hypothetically, you might have complete brain-fade during some critical driving incident, and you jam both pedals flat to the floor instead of just the brake (because high-level cognitive abilities are extremely degraded in a crisis).

Which is why you need advanced driver training if you want to swerve, avoid and (importantly) recover control in a driving crisis. Expecting to be Batman (or Lewis Hamilton) in this situation, without putting in the work, is nuts.

The point is: the throttle and the brake don’t go together. Because they do opposite things. And if you do call on them both contemporaneously, the car should identify that you are being something of a dick, and intervene.

In such a situation (I’m told) it does make sense to interlock the throttle against brake input. Most cars have throttle-by-wire, so it’s easy to kill the throttle via ECU intervention. It’s just a few lines of code.

Teaching your kids how to drive? Re-teaching yourself perhaps? Here’s my comprehensive advice on survival driving:

Safe Driving Part 1: Top 5 Rules >> and the all-important follow-through, Safe Driving Part 2: Skills vs Tactics >>

FREE BLIND-SPOT MONITORING UPGRADES: Any car, old or new, without spending a cent >>

There’s big money in dual-cab 4X4 pickups. In total, 170,000 4X4 pickups were sold here in Shitsville last year. I’ve got a ‘pop quiz’ for you in just a sec, to see how well you really understand the ute market. After that - at the end of this video I will share with you one vital (and potentially lifesaving) tip that a lot of ute buyers overlook - which is potentially a matter of life and death, and which the manufacturer will never tell you. Keep watching for that.

Pop quiz: Of the top 10 utes, I can only identify two with factory fitted transmission coolers. Can you tell me which ones they are? Try this: There are two utes that have 4WD in high range for use on a high-traction surface, with the centre diff unlocked - one is AWD and the other is selectable - you can also use 2WD in high range. Any ideas which two utes I’m talking about?

One ute in the top 10 does not come with low range. At all. One ute has wheel bolts - as opposed to studs - which is a bit of a bastard, trackside, I have to say. One ute is renowned for valve body failures in the transmission - actually, it’s two. Two utes have disc brakes all around. Any ideas?

Only one of the top 10 4X4 utes is actually made in Japan. Any clues? One of the top 10 has not been crash tested since 2011 - but still claims five stars.

The point I’m trying to make here is that there’s a lot of nuanced variation and certainly currently no perfect ute. Some utes are better at one thing and some are better at another, and some are decent all rounders that fail to shine at any one particular thing. (I’m looking at you, Hilux.)

If you want to cut to the chase - my strong recommendation - based on solid objective criteria and lengthy analysis - is the current Triton. Great powertrain. Terrific reliability. Advanced transfer case functionality. Rear diff locker. Unbeatable value, currently. Excellent comfort, good cabin layout and plenty of interior space…

But even here, Triton has an Achilles heel - and that’s all about fundamental load-carrying geometry in the tray. So even my best ute might not be the best ute for you if you’re a - literally - heavy user with big plans for a heavily loaded tray for work or long-haul touring or camping.

I’ve just broken down the top 10 utes in the market in ‘Straya - top 10 4X4 dual cabs by sales, so far this year - and identified every salient feature I know of, which might be a potential ‘don’t buy’ trigger mechanism for you - depending on how you want to use your ute.

My exclusive video and print report on the blog just there, includes around 30 minutes of deep-dive ute market dissection - totally ad-free, and unavailable anywhere else. If you don’t want a ute, that’s probably gunna be the miracle cure for insomnia, right there. But if you are thinking about spending the big bucks, this report could save you from making a $50,000 mistake - or more.

I sincerely hope you will join me over there.

I just wanted to make you aware of some upcoming imminent developments in some of my recommended new vehicles. That’s next.

I’m John Cadogan from AutoExpert.com.au … and I get new cars cheap for buyers here in ‘Straya. You can enquire here >> for that.

AutoExpert discount roadside assistance package: https://247roadservices.com.au/autoexpert/  

* Kia Sorento update: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/2021-kia-sorento-details-leaked-dealer  

* 4x4 ute developments: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/2020-ute-market-buyers-guide  

* New BT-50: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/2021-mazda-bt-50-is-it-really-worth-buying  

* Lewis Hamilton's incredible race with a statue: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/lewis-hamilton-loses-a-race-with-reality  

Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=DSL9A3MWEMNBW&source=url

I’ve worked quite hard to be the country’s most hated automotive journalist … and also the most biased new car reviewer on the planet. In this era of equality I remain so emphatically prejudiced against cars that are shit, and which you should not buy, and against carmakers who seem to think there’s no obligation to look after you if you have a genuine problem. I am a bastard like that.

People view bias like it’s a bad thing. Au contraire, I say.

Anyhoo - there’s movement at the station, etc., in respect of some of my most recommended cars. So I guess you need to stay informed, the better to decide whether to sit on your suitcase full of Shitsvillian micro-pesos, or strike while the iron is - kinda - warm in respect of a strong runout deal on the outgoing model.

Lewis Hamilton is - by any measure - a driving legend, blessed with incredible skill and on the cusp of F1 immortality in the manner of a Senna or Fangio. #Respect.

As a driver - Lewis Hamilton is awesome. I would love to hear him talk us all through a lap of Brands Hatch, or the Nurburgring. But - to be perfectly frank - I don’t actually give a shit what he thinks about anything else.

I understand, therefore, why an angry mob would vandalise the statue of a dude who’s (at best) an historical footnote, in Bristol, in the UK. They ripped it down after 125 years and threw it in the harbour, ignominiously. Just the other day.

Take that, Edward Colston, you bastard. You croaked at the age of 84, roughly 300 years ago, in 1721. And your effigy has been hurled to the bottom of the Avon river. (Although the council did soon thereafter resurrect you, not unlike Jesus…)

Mr Colston was a Tory MP, a merchant, and a philanthropist who built local schools, hospitals, and established charitable foundations in and around Bristol and London - many of which survive to this day. Institutions and buildings bear his name.

You can even chow down a nice, fruity Colston bun in Bristol - so I suppose that’s nice. All this is true and a matter of historical fact. So, why was the crowd so self-evidently pissed?

Colston was a senior executive in a company established by King Charles II - the Royal African Company - which traded gold, silver, ivory and - at this point you best remove the rose coloured tint of retrospectivity - because it also traded slaves, disgracefully. Legally, under the seal of the crown, but disgracefully nonetheless.

84,000 slaves - men, women and children, whose lives mattered to them just as much as yours does to you, and mine certainly does to me. Stolen and sent to the Americas, to work mainly on tobacco and cotton fields. 19,000 of them didn’t even make it. They died in transit. Seafaring was a much more high-risk endeavour back then, clearly. Except of course on the Ruby Princess...

And then, of course, Lewis Hamilton chimed in - when, in my view he should have shut his trap and concentrated on being a champion driver.

"That man's statue should stay in the river just like the 20 thousand African souls who died on the journey here and thrown into the sea, with no burial or memorial. He stole them from their families, country and he must not be celebrated! It should be replaced with a memorial for all those he sold, all those that lost their lives!"

Clearly, slavery and racism are an indelible scar on the human spirit and we need to eradicate them from the future. I’m talking about eliminating future crimes against humanity.

To me, that’s what’s important. And dudes like Lewis Hamilton simply are ill-equipped intellectually to help on this - in my view:

"I challenge government officials worldwide to make these changes and implement the peaceful removal of these racist symbols."

These racist symbols indeed. These close ties with slavery. Hear hear. Mr Hamilton is challenging lawmakers peacefully to remove racist symbols indelibly linked to slavery. It seems unequivocal.

And yet, also a poor idea to lob such a stone, no matter how well-intended, when your arse resides in such a seemingly glass house.

A couple of far more recent slavery-linked contenders come instantly to mind: Mercedes-Benz and Hugo Boss, coincidentally enough - because they are sponsors of Mr Hamilton, and their histories are indelibly linked to slavery. Play the episode to see just how deeply.

An extended conversation, down at the virtual pub, regarding the new BT-50 and what you thought of it.

ICYMI: My exclusive report: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/2021-mazda-bt-50-is-it-really-worth-buying

AutoExpert discount roadside assistance (Australia-only): https://247roadservices.com.au/autoex...

Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact

Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=ERSJ6t2Vu2Xckrq370DlnWHQ4jZ-gV5RPAbzm_-qoVhE90nEHeEUy5UgqnwiJULxmhjiEG&country.x=AU&locale.x=AU

All this gushing for the new Mazda BT-50 in the motoring media - it really needs to stop. Here's why...

My exclusive report: https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/2021-mazda-bt-50-is-it-really-worth-buying

AutoExpert discount roadside assistance (Australia-only): https://247roadservices.com.au/autoex...

Save thousands on any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact

Did you like this report? You can help support the channel, securely via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=ERSJ6t2Vu2Xckrq370DlnWHQ4jZ-gV5RPAbzm_-qoVhE90nEHeEUy5UgqnwiJULxmhjiEG&country.x=AU&locale.x=AU