Critical automotive industry update, ‘Straya. October 2020. Year of the Weasel. Details next.  

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Mazda has announced pricing for the new BT-50. BT-50 is of course the somewhat effeminate clone of the new Isuzu D-MAX. Built in the same factory, etc. BT-50 kicks off at $42,090 for the XT dual-cab chassis base-model and extends to $59,990 for the GT, which is about $3000 less than the top-spec D-MAX.  

Hyundai - industriously taking geologic time to launch the 8-speed dual clutch version of a car for which I have enduring mad love: The Golf GTI-killing i30 N. Total weapon. The Fastback - so sexy.  I30 N is seriously popular on this channel - 550,000 views across five videos, and counting. It’s one of the most popular performance car buying enquiries I get as well. And I can tell you the most popular impediment to buying one is - manual only.  Typically the prospective owner has a partner, and said partner either can’t or won’t drive a manual - so, game over. The dual-clutch is the solution - due for local launch (finally) in the first half of 2021 here in Shitsville.  Pro tip - have fun test driving this car, obviously, when you can. (Safely.) But don’t just test-drive it like you stole it. The DCT is gunna be awesome at that - it’s a done deal. DCTs are all excellent when you’re up them for the rent.   Do as much test-driving as possible at low speeds - three-point turns, reverse-parking off a hill-start. Stuff like that.  This is typically what DCTs are bad at. But if the new 8sp DCT in Sorento is anything to go by (and I don’t know how closely they are related, but probably quite a bit) you just might be pleasantly surprised.  They’re also talking up the new lightweight seats - but I’d suggest that’s BS. They’re only 2.2 kilos lighter, and it’s a reduction in the sprung mass. So there’s that...  The forged 19-inch alloys are probably more relevant - 14 kilos less in total, and all off the unsprung mass. Bigger brakes too. Not that it really needed that - they were already fairly death-proof. I did try to kill them, and I failed.