- 2 months ago
The BYD Shark 6 is one of the most talked about cars in Australia right now, but an oversight in the software may ruin it for anyone wanting to tow. Sean and James dive into what’s sure to upset some owners.
They also look at the recent cull of most of Mitsubishi’s product lineup in Australia and detail what they like (and don’t like) about the new Kia K4.
Welcome to the CarExpert Podcast – now in video! Host Sean Lander is joined by resident CarExpert James Wong to chat the latest in automotive news and reviews.
BYD Shark 6 towing issue: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/byd-shark-6-towing-upgrade-on-the-cards
Mitsubishi massacre: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/mitsubishi-massacre-brand-axes-multiple-long-running-models
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Shark 6 towing issue: 00:58
Shark 6 delivery issues: 03:07
Mitsubishi Massacre: 05:20
EVs are suddenly becoming hybrids: 11:30
Kia K4: 16:19
Kia hybrids inbound: 23:31
Coming up soon: 26:59
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
They also look at the recent cull of most of Mitsubishi’s product lineup in Australia and detail what they like (and don’t like) about the new Kia K4.
Welcome to the CarExpert Podcast – now in video! Host Sean Lander is joined by resident CarExpert James Wong to chat the latest in automotive news and reviews.
BYD Shark 6 towing issue: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/byd-shark-6-towing-upgrade-on-the-cards
Mitsubishi massacre: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/mitsubishi-massacre-brand-axes-multiple-long-running-models
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Shark 6 towing issue: 00:58
Shark 6 delivery issues: 03:07
Mitsubishi Massacre: 05:20
EVs are suddenly becoming hybrids: 11:30
Kia K4: 16:19
Kia hybrids inbound: 23:31
Coming up soon: 26:59
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00G'day and welcome back to the Car Expert podcast. My name is Sean, I'm your host and I'm joined as always by the lovely James Wong.
00:06How are you doing mate?
00:07Good, how are you?
00:07Good, how do you like our new set?
00:09I like it, I feel like I was part of the concept design so I feel like we've realised a dream and a vision so hopefully the audience likes it as well.
00:17So if you're not watching, we've currently got a screen and an iPad set up so if you are on YouTube you'll be able to see this.
00:23James' initial idea involved an 85 inch LED TV and I thought mate let's just pair it back.
00:28We'll start off with a little computer monitor and we'll work our way up to the 85 inch.
00:31Dream big, start small.
00:33Fair enough.
00:33Today we're going to talk about some issues with the Shark, that's why you can see it on the screen here.
00:37We're going to talk about the Mitsubishi Massacre which may be my favourite headline of this decade.
00:43It just rolls off the tongue, Mitsubishi Massacre.
00:45We're going to talk about how EVs seem to be turning back into hybrids and you've got an interesting story about visiting the Australian Open, haven't you?
00:53Yes and some very good Kia news or interesting Kia news off the back of that as well.
00:57So plenty to talk about.
00:58Plenty to talk about.
00:59Let's dive straight in with the Shark.
01:02There's no easy way to say this but I kind of feel like they botched it.
01:06Okay so let me clear this up.
01:08When we did the video, we did the towing video as part of it and we tried to set the cruise control and it wouldn't work.
01:15And we omitted it from the video because we went, you know what, it's probably just one of those pre-production gremlins because the car was a pre-production.
01:21So we thought, let's just leave it, it'll be fine on the regular car.
01:25Fast forward a few weeks, Shark owners start getting their hands on it and they try towing and they go, oh the cruise control doesn't work in my car.
01:31Long story short, when you have a trailer attached, it goes into trailering mode and you can't engage cruise control anymore in the Shark.
01:37Now James, how many other utes that you know of do that?
01:42None.
01:43As far as I'm aware.
01:44I mean that's got to be an oversight, right?
01:46Absolutely.
01:46It's kind of a weird thing.
01:47Well yeah and I guess what an oversight that, you know, a car that was benchmarked against, you know, Australian leaders in the space.
01:54You think your Rangers, your Hiluxes, all that kind of thing.
01:57All of which offer adaptive setups when trailer towing as well.
02:00It just seems like a really odd thing to miss that when a trailer is hooked up to the back of the Shark, you all have to deactivate the cruise control.
02:07Some trailer modes either deactivate blind spot monitoring, for example, to account for the fact you've got a much longer, you know, train or vehicle once you add the extra thing on the back.
02:17But to have no cruise control at all, especially when you're towing, you're often on the highway, that seems like a very strange thing to have missed.
02:25So yeah, I'm not sure if owners will be happy with that and I hope BYD is working on a very quick fix.
02:30I mean, one would argue this is a pretty easy software fix and they do over the air updates.
02:35I'll play the video in the background here for those watching on YouTube, but basically you'll be able to see here.
02:43So Paul's driving along, he goes to set the cruise control and it will come up with a warning saying that the cruise control can't be activated.
02:49There you go, it cannot be activated in current driving mode.
02:52Nice.
02:52Yeah, so it's quite an odd one and yeah, like we said, we thought it was a pre-production thing, turns out it's not.
02:58It's not the only problem Shark seems to be having at the moment lately though, because as we know, there was a lot of issues with vehicle deliveries in Australia due to dock worker strikes.
03:07Yes.
03:07But Shark owners have been particularly affected by a lot of them receiving emails saying, very sorry, you're going to have to come back into the dealership, sign a new contract because your bin has changed.
03:17What is that all about?
03:18I guess it's because they've had to reallocate new units coming in earlier that aren't subject to the dock strike.
03:23So I think there's been like a stoppage at the ports where some of the first cars have arrived and due to the staffing strikes, they're not able to get them off the ships and to dealers and all of the various processes involved with pre-delivery.
03:36And so people that have been the first buyers are getting emails saying, you need to sign new contracts because the bin is obviously attached to a different contract, which is, it's a bit of a, bit of a mess.
03:47And so, you know, it perhaps is because BYD has been a victim of its own success.
03:51Obviously, a lot of people have ordered these and it's become a more pronounced issue because there were what, three, 4,000 people that ordered them within the first two weeks of them being on sale.
03:59And so a lot of people have been eagerly awaiting their vehicles.
04:02You know, they have started delivering them.
04:04We managed to cover the first delivery in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago.
04:08And, you know, this is obviously a first generation vehicle from a company that doesn't typically do utes and heavy duty vehicles.
04:14So you're going to have some of these teething issues and most of these seem fairly solvable, but it's not something that you want to see happening regularly because, you know, some of the bigger brands have suffered from, you know, teething issues.
04:26Think of like Ford with the F-150, for example.
04:28It can just leave a really bad taste in people's mouths.
04:31And, you know, even though the Shark is cheap or attainable for a ute like this, it's still not a small amount of money to be paying to then have all of these issues at the beginning of your ownership.
04:42Yeah.
04:43Look, I should say, like, I think the Shark is great.
04:46It's actually a really nice car to drive.
04:48It does almost everything really well.
04:50But I think for BYD, it's going to be an uphill battle because I think it comes with a bit of that chip on the shoulder that Australian buyers have towards Chinese products and, I guess, new entrants to the market.
05:01They're not necessarily willing to dive right in, except for the 6,000-odd people that crashed the website when the orders went live.
05:07So, I guess we'll just have to see if you have bought a BYD or you have had any of these issues with delayed orders or attempting to tow.
05:15Leave a comment below or email us, podcast at carexpert.com.au and, yeah, let us know how it goes.
05:20All right.
05:21Big news that came out in the last week is Mitsubishi had to axe the bulk of their lineup, I think.
05:27It's pretty much it, isn't it?
05:28Pretty much, yeah.
05:29So, due to a new ADR rule that basically requires all new vehicles on sale to have an AEB system that's up to a certain standard.
05:38So, originally, I thought it was something to do with everything having pedestrian detection, but I think that's a later version of this ADR that's coming out in the next couple of years.
05:45The first one is that it has to be up to a certain standard around the speed intervals and the parameters in which it gives you warnings and reacts.
05:50And so, unfortunately, because a lot of Mitsubishi's existing range is quite old, to spend all the millions of dollars to develop and implement these changes at a factory level for one fairly small market, even though we are an important market for Mitsubishi, it clearly was too great of an expense.
06:08And so, the Eclipse Cross, the ASX and the Pajero Sport have all been culled from sale effective, I believe, March 1, at least for new cars coming in.
06:19So, they've had to stop production of cars coming into the country, and I think every car complied after March 1 needs to meet these new rules.
06:25And so, these ones, these last ones that they've got stock running through for the next few months, so you'll be able to still buy one for a period of time, but they'll probably be like November, December production and maybe complied in January, February.
06:37So, the only one that's actually been confirmed to have a replacement is the ASX.
06:42So, obviously, the ASX has been a hugely popular model for Mitsubishi over the last, I don't know, the same, the first generation car has been around since very early 2010s.
06:50The dawn of time, I think.
06:50Yeah, it's a very, very old vehicle, so, you know, props to it for doing so well over that time, and it continues to be a very solid seller.
06:57But, yes, so now we are confirmed to be getting this new ASX, which is, if you think it looks recognisable, it's actually a Renault Captor.
07:06I don't know whether that's necessarily a good thing for Mitsubishi buyers, because the thing, I think, that sold the ASX so well was that it was very cheap.
07:13Very cheap, and I think people associate Japanese build with reliability and quality.
07:18And that's not to say that the Captor's not a good car, because I actually really like the Captor.
07:21The Captor's a really good car.
07:22And to keep the ASX name strong in the European market, they, you know, launched this rebadged version, which also means that the ASX is available globally with mild hybrid, full hybrid, and plug-in hybrid drivetrains, depending on the market that you're looking at.
07:38But it's interesting, because at the moment, Mitsubishi doesn't really sell any cars in the UK.
07:43So, we're one of the first right-hand drive markets to get this car.
07:45We haven't got a lot of details, other than it's coming at some point this year, and we don't really know what the price point is going to be.
07:52And given, you know, the ASX really sold on value in its later years in life, and you could get one for, like, 25 grand drive away, and it was fairly cheap, even at the top end in the low 30s.
08:03I'd be interested to see what this European-made vehicle is going to cost, because that could be a real shot in the foot if they don't get the positioning right.
08:12And also the fact that it's subject to tariffs now, because it's built in, I believe, Spain.
08:19It's believed that Renault has the Captor factory and the ASX factory in Spain.
08:22Right.
08:23So, if we look at this new ASX, you can actually see there, there's a little EV sign on the side.
08:28It's a plug-in hybrid EV sign, yes.
08:29So, whether we're going to get that one or not, because I think that's one of the things that Mitsubishi does really, really well, is their plug-in hybrids.
08:35And if we look at the last ASX, they put stupid red bits on it and tried to sell more of them.
08:39So, I'm actually quite glad that this car is dead.
08:42The Pajero Sport, I'm a little bit sad to have lost, because I think it's actually, like, it's very old, but it's actually quite a good trooper.
08:48I'm going to call it a trooper.
08:49Yes.
08:49It just does the job really well, but I think, yeah, I feel like Mitsubishi may have fallen foul of themselves here and just not pulled their finger out and got a new one out in time.
08:58Yeah, and I guess that also is Mitsubishi falling victim to its sort of regional positioning.
09:05So, you know, in terms of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, and I know that that might be shifting.
09:09Which may not be anymore.
09:10Yeah, it's going to be shifting soon with a potential Honda merger as well.
09:12So, there will be still elements of the three companies working together.
09:15But Mitsubishi, in its more recent restructure a few years ago, was more in charge of, like, the Asia-Pacific and developing market region.
09:22So, obviously, it means that it focuses on markets that perhaps have more lenient safety regulations compared to Australia.
09:30And, you know, the tech doesn't have to be quite as strong as it is locally, because we sort of have European tastes on Southeast Asian budgets.
09:40So, you know, Mitsubishi has been able to get away with an older vehicle that's still sold in Japan, mind you.
09:44But, yeah, so this will be really interesting.
09:46I guess, given, you can sort of see it as the death of two different models, because the Eclipse Cross, while a separate model line, was very much just an updated ASX with a turbocharged engine.
09:55And the fact that that one offered a plug-in hybrid system, you can see how Mitsubishi can now cater for ASX and Eclipse Cross with that new European ASX.
10:03If they can offer all the different electrification options and sort of fill that void, because for the longest time, there was no, like, real electrification beyond those really expensive Eclipse Cross versions.
10:12But the Pajero Sport, like you say, is a very big hole in their lineup now.
10:15They're not meant to be revealing a new or a successor to that for at least another year or so.
10:19That's going to really hurt them, I think, because Triton has been a dud, let's be honest.
10:24It has not sold the way they hoped it would.
10:26And so really the only model that they sell well is the Outlander.
10:29Yeah, the Outlander has been a really great success for them.
10:32And so hopefully if they can get it right with the ASX and then progressively move back into the spaces that they've left with this most recent change,
10:39you can see how they might be able to claw back some ground.
10:41But, you know, Mitsubishi's MD or local boss recently was at the Triton launch last year.
10:46I was speaking to him and he was talking about how, you know, Mitsubishi really wants to cater for middle Australia,
10:51you know, the working class people that have local businesses, all that kind of thing.
10:54And, you know, that really value and budget oriented point of the market,
10:57which is something that they've played into for a really long time.
11:00It's very, very important that with these new vehicles coming in,
11:03especially if they're replacing them with vehicles sourced from more expensive factories and obviously more shipping costs involved in that,
11:09it's critical that they get it right because otherwise they're investing all this money in homologating a new vehicle to Australian standards
11:17and spending all this money to get it up and running.
11:19If it sort of falls in the water, it's got to be a really bad situation for them because they are currently fifth in the overall sales standings.
11:28They could drop off very quickly.
11:30Absolutely.
11:31All right.
11:31Well, I think we should move on to this EV trend that's been coming up.
11:35And the reason I put the Eclipse Cross plug-in hybrid on there is actually will become relevant in a second.
11:40Recently, we've seen Porsche go all-electric with the Macan.
11:43We've seen Volvo push for an all-electric lineup.
11:46We've seen Smart re-emerge, which is the former Mercedes brand.
11:50They made that Smart 4.2 thing that could park nose into a parallel car park.
11:55Yes, yes, yes.
11:55They've re-emerged as an all-electric lineup, but now all of them and more are walking back their all-EV claims and bringing out hybrid versions.
12:03So what's actually, what's going on in the EV world?
12:05Yeah, so this conversation was sort of sparked by the fact that the new Smart Hashtag 5, and I'm not even kidding, that's what it's called.
12:12It's their new sort of mid-sized SUV thing that was originally revealed as an electric vehicle.
12:17And all of Smart's existing lineup that's part of a Mercedes collaboration with Geely or Geely, however you say it, has been all-electric thus far.
12:26But they've confirmed that they are now doing a plug-in hybrid version of that Hashtag 5.
12:30And I imagine that the platform sharing and component sharing means that it's a possibility for their other cars in the lineup, which is a pretty big step back when you're launching as an all-EV brand and then, you know, potentially bringing out hybrids as things change.
12:43And we've seen that reflected across a number of the brands you've mentioned.
12:46Porsche is another one where, you know, the Macan was a big move to all-electric.
12:51And so...
12:51Some might say the wrong move, but...
12:53Well, yeah, it depends on how you look at it, but you can see that, you know, at a time when a lot of nations were talking about going EV only from a certain point,
13:02you can see why Porsche, as a sports car brand, would need to preserve its heritage a lot by offering its most popular model as an EV to offset the emissions of some of its other models,
13:12which are, you know, fairly popular still in their home nations.
13:15And so, you know, now there's a recent report where they've sort of hinted that the current Macan or there might be a new Macan that sits alongside this electric one that also is engineered to have combustion engines and hybrid powertrains.
13:30And so it was very, very vague in the comments.
13:32But what I think we sort of are speculating is that the same way that the original Macan was the same as the Q5 under the skin and this new Macan is the same as the Q6 e-tron,
13:45the hybrid and the combustion Macan could still be a Q5 twin and offer mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid and those powertrains.
13:53And that sits alongside the electric one.
13:54But the executive's comments sort of hinted that the electric one could be engineered for combustion hybrids.
14:02So it's really hard to tell.
14:03I mean, that's a problem because it's one thing to take out a petrol motor and put batteries and electric motor in.
14:07It's another thing to remove a vehicle that's been turned into, like, that's built on electric powertrain and put a petrol engine in there because there's just not necessarily room for it.
14:16So Porsche, we'll see what happens.
14:19Just on the smart, I find that really interesting because underneath that's a Volvo EX30, right?
14:24Something to that effect, yeah.
14:26Something similar.
14:26And it's interesting that Volvo are walking back their all EV claims and coming back to the hybrids and plug-in hybrid things.
14:31So do you think that's affecting what companies like Smart are doing because they're all platform sharing?
14:37Absolutely.
14:37And you can see how, you know, it's not a secret that a lot of brands are saying that EV demand is cooling.
14:42Even if it's, you know, year on year it's still increasing, they're seeing a much, like, a market decrease in inquiries and orders and things like that as things start to change.
14:52And so we're sort of seeing everything settle a little bit because there's this massive boom where all these companies were forced to really spend money to catch up to Tesla and some of the other leading names in the electrification space.
15:03And so now they're starting to see that pure EVs are no longer sort of like the thing that everyone's buying, everyone's asking about.
15:10And they're sort of having to offer multiple strategies or multiple powertrain types to cater for different regions or different types of customers.
15:17Because, you know, you think about Australia, for example, and, you know, EVs are great for people who just live in the city.
15:22But Australians also love to travel quite far and, you know, you can drive three hours in Victoria and still be in the same place.
15:28Whereas, you know, you go to Europe and drive three hours and you've crossed two borders.
15:31So it's sort of an interesting thing that manufacturers have to grapple with.
15:35And so I think at the moment, and I won't toot my own home too much, but I did say plug-in hybrids will become a thing at some point.
15:42And it seems like all brands now are moving to plug-in hybrids or extended range electric vehicles, which is basically a plug-in hybrid with a petrol engine that just powers the battery, sort of like Nissan e-Power, but extended.
15:52And so we're sort of starting to see that now because I think the range anxiety thing or the charging thing is still something that a lot of markets or governments are still trying to grapple with, making sure there's enough infrastructure for people to charge all their vehicles.
16:05Because when everyone buys all these cars overnight and they need someone to charge, you can't be lining up 20 vehicles waiting half an hour at a time to wait to charge their vehicle.
16:12Well, the one charger that works, yes.
16:14And that's probably why the Shark has been so popular.
16:16But look, I think it's time we move it on.
16:18We've got to talk about Kia.
16:19Kia.
16:20Kia.
16:21Let's talk about Kia.
16:22Well, let's start with your little trip to the Australian Open because it was just on here in Melbourne.
16:28Congrats to whoever won.
16:30I know nothing about that.
16:30Yeah, so Madison Keys won the women's singles title and Yannick Sinner won the men's singles.
16:34So Pat Raffer didn't win?
16:35No, but he did come and visit us.
16:37Anyway, that's not really relevant to everyone that's listening here.
16:41But so often, obviously, Kia has been a major sponsor and a major partner of the Australian Open now for 24 years.
16:46It's one of the longest running partnerships.
16:47Didn't make Kia a bit in Australia for 24 years.
16:49Yeah.
16:49There you go.
16:50So they took over the vehicle sponsorship from Ford 24 years ago.
16:54And so it's been a really great sort of launch pad for them to use as a marketing thing.
17:01And more recently, they're doing more media stuff around it.
17:04So even though I went to the Australian Open per se and it coincided with the event, they launched a new vehicle.
17:08And they've been doing that for the last couple of years.
17:10So this year, it was the K4, which is the car you can see on screen.
17:13And for those of you listening and not watching, basically, it's the new Serato.
17:17So the Serato name is being retired in Australia after 20 years and over 200,000 sales, something like that.
17:24Yeah.
17:24I remember working at a Kia dealership back in 2013, 2014.
17:28I was a service advisor.
17:29We used to have Seratos come through.
17:31And they were absolutely ripper little cars.
17:33And I think people were, at that point in time, moving away from Corollas because they were getting kind of expensive and getting into these Seratos.
17:39And every single person that would come through loved their little Kia Serato.
17:43It was an absolute banger of a car when it came out.
17:46And it was right up until the end, I think.
17:47Absolutely.
17:48And the Serato has been a massive spearhead for Kia in Australia in terms of establishing itself as a main brand.
17:56And a popular brand, not just because it's cheap or whatever.
17:59It was a part of that transition process from being like a cheap and cheerful company into the one that we know today.
18:03And the Serato, those 200,000 sales make up about one-fifth of all Kia sales in this country.
18:08So it's played a massive part for them.
18:11And even though some brands are moving away from passenger cars, particularly compact ones, the K4 and the Serato still play a major role for Kia in Australia.
18:19Last year, the Serato was their second bestseller.
18:21It sold about like 12,000 or 15,000 units, which is still a lot of volume.
18:25But we're seeing K4 as the new nameplate because Kia is now unifying its naming strategy across the world.
18:30So the K4, before you had Serato in Australia, K3, which was the same car in Korea.
18:35You had Forte in North America.
18:37And then in Europe, you have a different model based on the same platform called the Seed.
18:41And now the K4 will be the same car everywhere.
18:43Right.
18:44So because they've always had numbers.
18:45And I think that was the K8 back in the day had a big V8 that was only sold in Korea.
18:49It was a K9.
18:50And it was also known as the K900, depending on where you're looking as well.
18:53I want to talk quickly about the design of this, the K4 here, because I think from the front, it looks fantastic.
18:58You've got the DRLs there.
19:01And then there's this chroming strip that looks like the DRL goes all the way across.
19:04Thank goodness it's not a monobrow.
19:06Yeah.
19:06Yes.
19:07It does look quite good.
19:08From the back, though, I think it starts to fall apart a little bit.
19:11And this is actually not the best picture of it, but there is one here.
19:14If you look at the back, you can see it sort of just cuts down.
19:18And you know there's going to be no headroom in the back there.
19:21And there's probably a big boot, but it sort of like starts to look a little weird.
19:25And I think when you look at the hatchback version, that's when it all starts to make sense.
19:30And you go, that's why the car looks like that.
19:33And as a hatch, I think it looks a lot better than a sedan.
19:35Yeah.
19:35So I don't know if you noticed between these two side profiles, and sorry again for those
19:39listening at home, but basically the car is the same up until the C pillar, and then
19:42they have two different booties.
19:44And so the sedan has launched in North America more as like a fastback style thing.
19:49So think of it almost as like a budget Mercedes CLA.
19:52It's got Stinger vibes.
19:53And a bit of Stinger vibes, yeah.
19:54It's got Stinger vibes.
19:54So it's kind of like a baby Stinger look.
19:56And if you get it in the right color, it really does look quite nice.
19:58The press images have a lot of these blue cars.
20:01There's a new wave blue, which is a new color for this line.
20:04And there's a nice red.
20:05And this color that we saw.
20:06I saw a photo of a red, actually.
20:07It does actually look pretty good.
20:08It looks like a Stinger in the red.
20:10And this one's called Honeydew.
20:13Honeydew.
20:13This green color.
20:14It's like a minty green sort of tealy color.
20:16Yeah, almost pastel-y.
20:17Yeah, so there's a nice little change there.
20:19It really depends on how you spec it as well.
20:21So the low spec ones on small wheels sort of look a little bit more, a little buzz boxy
20:25sort of thing.
20:25Whereas the high spec ones in a nice color with the big wheels look quite nice.
20:30But yeah, I can see what you mean.
20:31It sort of can look a bit awkward from that rear three-quarter angle.
20:34Oh, rear quarter angle, sorry.
20:35Because of that uptick in the lower bumper.
20:38And then the sharply raked roof line.
20:40But it all sort of comes together.
20:41And I guess, you know, good on them for being bold and different.
20:43Absolutely.
20:44I think that's one thing that these Korean car companies with Kia and Hyundai do so well
20:49is making something that stands out in the crowd.
20:51And if, okay, to be fair, the top spec is like 43 grand.
20:54And that's probably a little bit too expensive.
20:56But if you get into one of the lower entry models and then you park that next to someone
21:00who's just bought their new Corolla, you know which one everyone's going to be looking at.
21:04It's not the Corolla.
21:05I can tell you that.
21:06So look, I think it looks really cool.
21:08The review comes out 9 a.m. Friday.
21:11Correct, yeah.
21:11Is your written.
21:12And we're going to have a video on YouTube as well coming out on Friday.
21:15So make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel for that.
21:17And you check out the carexpert.com.au website to read James' review.
21:21One of the things, I'm sure it's in this car.
21:23I have no doubt it will be.
21:24Kia have gone mad on the safety features, which everyone has to do.
21:28But it's the beeps and the bongs in the Kias that drive me nuts.
21:32Especially the speed monitoring, the speed limit sign recognition thing.
21:37Because it just doesn't work.
21:38And I know I've had a Kia down my street, which doesn't have any speed signs.
21:42And it just decides it's 10 kilometers an hour.
21:44And then just bong, bong, bong, bong.
21:46And I know they've implemented a mute button, but that doesn't necessarily fix it.
21:50I mean, is it just, why is it so hard for these companies to get these sort of things to just work properly?
21:55Yeah, so we've, while I can't really comment on the K4 just yet,
21:58I think what we found out from Hyundai, which basically is the same company,
22:03is that a lot of these things are down to manufacturers' interpretations of these laws.
22:07And so, you know, it's mandated in Europe that you need to have this audible speed limit thing.
22:12And so different brands go about it different ways.
22:14Hyundai and Kia have these really incessive beeps and bongs,
22:16which, you know, may work really well back home in Korea.
22:19And, you know, the Japanese love a very audible ding as well.
22:22But, you know, in other Western markets, it's not that favorable because it's just annoying.
22:27You drive maybe like a Land Rover, for example, and they have a similar thing,
22:30but it's almost like a xylophone and it's a little bit sweeter to the ear.
22:33Still a little bit annoying when it goes on and off all the time.
22:36And so a lot of brands now to get around that have allowed people to shortcut the mute buttons
22:41so that you can turn the audible stuff off to keep the systems online or turn them all off.
22:46It just depends on how they engineer all of that.
22:49So it's down to sort of interpretation and implementation,
22:51which, you know, to different brands in different countries with different ideas,
22:55it can all be very different.
22:56Well, it's interesting because the X-Trail I've currently got, it's the TIL ePower,
23:01I've got a long-term, has the speed limit displayed?
23:04Doesn't bong at me.
23:06And it's brilliant.
23:07I'm like, that's all I need.
23:07I just need to know, because sometimes you're driving along, you're driving down a motorway or road,
23:11and you're like, oh, God, what speed limit was it?
23:13Oh, there it is.
23:13It says it on my dash.
23:14It's Reddit.
23:15What do you guys think?
23:16Do beeps and bongs, do they drive you nuts in modern cars?
23:18Leave a comment.
23:19Let us know.
23:20There's some other Kia news.
23:21Before we wrap up the podcast, there is some other Kia news.
23:24One thing on this, and this leads us into the news,
23:27the K4 is only coming out as a petrol to start with.
23:30There's no hybrids or anything, which, come April, could be a bit of an issue for Kia.
23:35But there is some good news on the horizon for hybrid fans of Kias.
23:39Yeah, absolutely.
23:40So, you know, we have these new vehicle efficiency standards coming in.
23:45I always forget if it's efficiency or, yeah, NVS, basically.
23:48So the government is finally implementing emissions regulations in Australia.
23:52And so that's forcing a lot of companies to go back to their head offices
23:55and campaign for more electrified products,
23:57because basically passenger cars and four-wheel drives will have emissions cuts
24:02where manufacturers have to meet a fleet emissions average, basically.
24:06And I think for passenger vehicles, it's about 140 grams per kilometre,
24:10which in the big scheme of things isn't that strict.
24:13No, and it doesn't mean a lot to the average buyer either, to be honest.
24:15So 140 gram is probably like 7 litres per 100 k's, maybe.
24:21It's sort of tied in together.
24:23They're not directly correlated.
24:25And then bigger vehicles, like body-on-frame stuff,
24:27is subject to, I think, 160, 170, or maybe a bit more.
24:31Maybe it's 200, something like that.
24:32Basically, there's new emissions targets.
24:34And so because of that, Kia has been able to campaign with its head office
24:38because supply of their electrified products has been quite a difficulty for them in the past in Australia.
24:43And so what they've been able to announce so far is that you can expect more hybrids
24:48for all of its existing model lines with hybrid offerings.
24:50So think Sportage, Sorrento, Carnival.
24:53You know, a lot of these have, all of their hybrid models are sort of limited to higher grades
24:58and limited volume.
24:59So in the case of the Sorrento in particular, the Sorrento has a hybrid version and a plug-in hybrid version.
25:05And what we've heard officially is that the hybrid was capped at about 20 units per month
25:09and the plug-in hybrid was capped at 10.
25:13And so there were sort of sliding scales there depending on what they could get
25:16on any given month from the factory.
25:18But that's been a really big issue because, you know,
25:21if you want an alternative to a Toyota Kluger or something like that,
25:23or the plug-in hybrid is quite unique in market, a bit bigger than an Outlander,
25:26so you have a proper seven-seater, there's only 10 coming in a month.
25:29Like, you cannot get one.
25:30And so, you know, there's obviously been FBT exemptions
25:33and various things that have been in place as well.
25:35So there's been a lot of frustrated customers waiting.
25:37So they haven't been able to tell us whether it's going to be like open season
25:40and you can basically get one tomorrow or whatever.
25:42But I think the second quarter of this year, there's going to be a lot of new models
25:46coming from an EV standpoint.
25:48There's new Sportage is coming, a facelift, which will have a much greater range of hybrids.
25:52The Sorrento and Carnival are confirmed to do about the same.
25:55So come July 1, when these emission standards become punitive
25:59in that manufacturers will have to pay fines if they don't meet those averages,
26:03it means that Kia is better equipped to sort of offset its higher-emitting vehicles,
26:07like the incoming Tasman, which, as far as we know, doesn't have an electrified option.
26:11That's OK, because they're not going to sell many, so it's all right, I think.
26:13But, yeah, so that'll be something that they'll be able to do now
26:18where more customers will be able to get into hybrids.
26:20They'll probably be able to make the pricing really sharp
26:21so that you can incentivise people to spend the extra money to get one.
26:25And so it means that a lot of people that have been waiting for a while
26:28have perhaps held off ordering one because it's really hard to get,
26:31you'll be able to get one much sooner.
26:33Exciting news coming.
26:34Look, I, for one, hope that they improve the hybrid techs.
26:37I think last time I drove a hybrid Sorrento,
26:39it was a little bit underwhelming compared to a Kluger
26:41in terms of its hybrid capabilities.
26:42But I think there is good news on the horizon.
26:45I think the more that the manufacturers develop this tech,
26:47the better it will get.
26:48Yeah, that pretty much brings us to the end of the podcast this week.
26:51Now, before we wrap up, though,
26:53I think you should tell the ladies and gentlemen at home
26:55the exciting things you're up to over the next couple of weeks
26:57because I believe you're off on a few exciting launches.
27:00Yeah, I've got quite a busy couple of weeks of travel.
27:02So this week after the podcast airs,
27:05I'll be going to the launch of the updated Q7 and Q8 from Audi,
27:09which isn't a huge thing because it's more of like a second facelift.
27:13So I don't know whether they're trying to go like...
27:15The Q7's old now.
27:16It's been around for a while.
27:16Yeah, it's been around for a while and we've seen actually prototypes
27:18of the next generation testing.
27:20So this last facelift might only last two years.
27:23So I'll be going to that later this week.
27:25Shortly after coming back home,
27:27I'll be flying back up to New South Wales again
27:28to go to Bathurst and driving the new M5 sedan
27:31on Mount Panorama,
27:33which I'm very excited about.
27:35So stay tuned to our socials for that
27:36because I will be having my little,
27:38you know, little kid moment where I'm like,
27:40I'm driving on Mount Panorama.
27:41This isn't Gran Turismo.
27:42Also, I mean, I've got to say,
27:44okay, 60Ks an hour around Mount Panorama
27:46is plenty scary enough.
27:48You come through the dipper and it's like,
27:49damn, I'm going to slow down a bit more.
27:52Going around Mount Panorama,
27:54probably not flat out.
27:55Let's be honest.
27:55You're not going to give it everything.
27:56But in a car that weighs nearly three tons...
27:59And has a thousand something...
28:00Yeah, it makes like a million horsepower.
28:02Like, man, I'm jealous,
28:04but I also don't...
28:05I'm not.
28:06I feel like that might be quite scary.
28:08I should all be set up still for the...
28:11After the 12 hour
28:12because it's...
28:13We're only there 24 hours after the race finishes.
28:15So it'll be a really cool experience
28:16to sort of do one of those,
28:18you know,
28:18a bump out sort of gigs
28:20where you get to see things
28:21and be like one of the race drivers
28:23or whatever doing it your own way.
28:24So that'll be really cool.
28:25And then I'm also going to a viewing
28:27of the new Geely EX5,
28:29which is...
28:30So Geely obviously owns various brands
28:32like Volvo and...
28:34What are the other ones?
28:36Smart.
28:36Smart, Lotus.
28:37Polestar, yeah, yeah.
28:39But Geely also has its own brand called Geely,
28:42which has its own range of cars.
28:43And so they're launching the EX5,
28:45which will basically be a Model Y competitor
28:47as well as the other 50 million Chinese SUVs
28:51that are coming in in that same segment.
28:52So I'll get a first static look
28:54before one of the other guys
28:55gets to drive it later on in February.
28:57So quite a lot going on for me.
28:59I've got a very full schedule for the next week.
29:00I have a little bit of homework for you.
29:01When you go to Mount Panorama
29:02and you do drive the new M5,
29:03please, please, please get a photo
29:05with Valentino Rossi
29:06and bring it back for everyone to see on the podcast
29:09because hopefully he'll be there.
29:10He is the BMW guy these days.
29:12That pretty much brings us to the end this week.
29:14Thank you, everyone, for coming along.
29:15Thank you, James.
29:16Thank you for having me.
29:16For helping get through this.
29:18Did you like our new set?
29:19Leave a comment.
29:19Let us know.
29:20If you've got any questions, comments, feedback,
29:22write to us podcast at carexpert.com.au.
29:25If you haven't already, subscribe on YouTube
29:27or follow along on your favorite audio streaming platform
29:29and we will see you next time.
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