AutoExpert

• Kia Tasman is way too expensive, and far too ugly

  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?

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• The Ford Ranger Super Duty - over-hyped and too expensive

  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.

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• Self-destruct mode: How Subaru lost the plot

  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.

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• Elecbrakes eb2 electric bracke controller review and road test

  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.

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• Battery recycling plant explodes - twice. Major HAZMAT disaster.

  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.

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