The passenger version of the Colorado pickup truck, which is set to arrive in Australian dealerships mid-year, will be the first heavy-duty 4WD SUV to wear a Holden badge in almost a decade.
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The Australian government is also doing its part to keep GM's local subsidiary Holden in the country by promising a subsidy package worth more than AU$200 million (US$210 million) after the automaker threatened to shut down its operations if it did not get financial aid beyond 2015.
While Holden has yet to issue an official statement, Australian news daily, The Age, reported that the country's Prime Minister Julia Gillard, along with South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, Holden chairman Mike Devereux and vehicle union boss Ian Jones will be in Canberra today for the official announcement.
After securing the financial assistance, Holden is said to continue producing cars in the country until for at least another 10 years. According to sources, Holden has promised to invest some AU$750 million in its Australian operations during this period.
Interestingly, the newspaper said that Holden will "soon confirm an export deal to sell Commodores in the US, where the car will carry a Chevrolet badge."
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After airing the amateur footage of the traffic punch-up and seeing the response from viewers, the Nine Network's flagship program "A Current Affair" investigated further and found the "guy with tattoos" named Josh.
Josh told the news channel that the older man in the Mercedes SUV almost backed into his pregnant girlfriend's car. The young Aussie claims that he jumped out of the vehicle to approach him at the next set of lights and they exchanged words and one thing lead to another.
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Highlights included an aerial display from the PC9 aerobatics team known as “The Roulettes” and the third Australian V8 Supercars race of the weekend. For Ferrari enthusiasts, the day’s most eagerly anticipated track action, aside from the Formula 1, was a parade honoring Ferrari’s sixtieth anniversary in Australia.
At noon, sixty models from Maranello, one for every year that Ferrari has been in Australia, drove their way around Albert Park. The procession was led by the Ferrari 458 Spider, which made its Australian debut and is predicted to retail at around AU$590,000 when it goes on sale later this year.
Amongst the cars featured were fan favorites such as the 360 Challenge, the Ferrari California and the F40. The country’s very first Ferrari, the Ferrari 212 Export Coupe, hit Australian shores in Melbourne all the way back in 1952 and since then, Australia grew to become Ferrari’s tenth most important market in 2011.
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Despite FIA’s efforts to increase competition even more, F1 is far from becoming something akin to a one-make series. Some teams always make a better job than others do, but we have to wait until each year’s first race before drawing any conclusions.
At the 2012 Australian Grand Prix, the Saturday qualifying session showed us certain things like that the McLaren is currently the fastest car out there, while Red Bull Racing seems to have lost some of its pace due to the rule changes that affected the design of the RB8.
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Well, the qualifying race of the Australian Grand Prix that kicked off this year's F1 season certainly had all of the above. But not necessarily in the way most seasoned F1 fans might have expected.
Lewis Hamilton claimed the 20th pole position of his career and Jenson Button lined up right beside him, making it an all-McLaren front row. Not too surprising, as despite the fact that Sebastian Vettel took most pole positions last year, the McLarens had proved to be very fast during testing.
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But once in a blue moon you'll find an imported model from Down Under available for grabs in the classifieds like this 1974 Ford Falcon XB Ute.
The Ute is an Australian conception that dates back to 1934 with its creation credited to Ford engineer and designer Lew Bandt who came up with the idea of combining the front cabin of a sedan with the back of a small truck.
The most popular Utes in the country are made by local carmakers Holden and Ford. The one you see in these pictures is a 1974 model based on the third generation Falcon and it comes with a 302 cubic inch (4.9-liters) Cleveland V8 matched to a four-speed automatic transmission driving the rear wheels.
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In the second official test of the year, which was held at Barcelona, Fernando Alonso posted the second fastest time at the end of the final day. This bodes well for the brand-new F2012 and the Scuderia’s chances of attaining its goals, right?
Well, the answer is “no”, at least according to the team’s technical director Pat Fry: “We are disappointed with the performance level seen at these tests and I think we have a lot of work ahead of us”, he said.
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