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I’ve been reading Wheels for a while. I would religiously buy Wheels, Car Australia, Modern Motor, and Street Machine. The articles were informative, broad, and well written. Phil Scott had done wonders with Street Machine and then he moved to Wheels to do the same. After a while Car disappeared into the sunset, and Modern Motor became Motor. Street Machine lost its polish and Wheels… Well Wheels became a brochure. A two page article on a car is now a two page spread, with the top half and one side devoted to pictures, leaving four columns of text.
To put this change into words I tried writing partial reviews, both as I remember them, and as they are now.
1966 Whoorls
The windscreen wipers cleared a huge amount of the screen, as can be seen in the picture. They were also capable of clearing the screen of streaming water using the second of the two speeds on offer.
The unusual tyre size (235/40 R19) makes them smaller than those fitted to the home grown locals, yet more expensive. You might like to factor this into your purchase decision.
Night time testing of the headlights showed excellent penetration for both low and high beam, reaching a considerable distance both ahead of and to the left of the vehicle.
2016 Whoorls
The cafe was full of bustling coffee addicts pushing huge wheeled prams. In my day, the wheels on prams were only 12 or so inches but the ones I am seeing now must be 20 or more. I hope Junior appreciates the extra comfort that a larger wheel size brings. I can see the cafe owners needing to increase the space between tables to allow for the prams if they’d like to keep the bustling pram pushers happy.
The Superb didn’t really fit in to the vibe or the parking spots. But then that’s my personal biases toward my inner-city breeding and lack of parking ability. This car is almost as big as a Commodore and no one buys those so Skoda has a battle on it’s hands to sell them. Of course, stories such as this won’t help sales at all.
Some people stopped to admire the car and a few even asked me what it was. How they knew I was driving it is beyond me.
Whilst drinking my latte I flicked through the Media Briefing folder, boldly emblazoned with the Skoda logo. The media briefing mentioned 9 air bags as standard equipment so the safety aspect of the car rates highly. Mum’s car had only one airbag and grand-dad’s didn’t even have seatbelts!
Externally, the Superb is all creases and sharp lines. It’s very now and on trend but I can’t put my finger on why I want to disparage it. It looks like an Audi (and some people have asked if it is) but it’s not, so maybe that’s the problem?
The higher up the range, the larger the wheels. If you’re looking for comfort, stick to the smaller wheel sizes.
Moving to the interior there’s lots of room in the back seat area. The seats look quite comfortable because they are dished into the backrest. There is a large transmission tunnel so the middle seat occupant suffers.
The front seats aren’t Recaros. My iPhone plugged into the infotainment unit and extended my world to the interior of the car. Just seeing the green Messages icon on screen reduced my anxiety about missing a message. I can also colour match some parts of the interior lighting to my mood. Todays colour is self-absorbed.
Although the centre console has room for an iPad (only a Mini) there wasn’t one provided with the vehicle. That meant I had to use the Owners Manual to try and find information about the self-parking system. That was too hard so I gave up.
From memory there’s an umbrella in the rear door so that should be useful on wet days.
Harsh? A little. An indicator of how I interpret local motoring journalism? Spot on. Will I be continuing my subscription to Wheels come the end of October? No.
If I want pricing and figures I’ll get them from Redbook. If I want pictures there’s the web. If I want puff pieces and personal opinion I’ll look at Youtube. If I want poorly researched journalism I have Fairfax and News.
To put this change into words I tried writing partial reviews, both as I remember them, and as they are now.
1966 Whoorls
The windscreen wipers cleared a huge amount of the screen, as can be seen in the picture. They were also capable of clearing the screen of streaming water using the second of the two speeds on offer.
The unusual tyre size (235/40 R19) makes them smaller than those fitted to the home grown locals, yet more expensive. You might like to factor this into your purchase decision.
Night time testing of the headlights showed excellent penetration for both low and high beam, reaching a considerable distance both ahead of and to the left of the vehicle.
2016 Whoorls
The cafe was full of bustling coffee addicts pushing huge wheeled prams. In my day, the wheels on prams were only 12 or so inches but the ones I am seeing now must be 20 or more. I hope Junior appreciates the extra comfort that a larger wheel size brings. I can see the cafe owners needing to increase the space between tables to allow for the prams if they’d like to keep the bustling pram pushers happy.
The Superb didn’t really fit in to the vibe or the parking spots. But then that’s my personal biases toward my inner-city breeding and lack of parking ability. This car is almost as big as a Commodore and no one buys those so Skoda has a battle on it’s hands to sell them. Of course, stories such as this won’t help sales at all.
Some people stopped to admire the car and a few even asked me what it was. How they knew I was driving it is beyond me.
Whilst drinking my latte I flicked through the Media Briefing folder, boldly emblazoned with the Skoda logo. The media briefing mentioned 9 air bags as standard equipment so the safety aspect of the car rates highly. Mum’s car had only one airbag and grand-dad’s didn’t even have seatbelts!
Externally, the Superb is all creases and sharp lines. It’s very now and on trend but I can’t put my finger on why I want to disparage it. It looks like an Audi (and some people have asked if it is) but it’s not, so maybe that’s the problem?
The higher up the range, the larger the wheels. If you’re looking for comfort, stick to the smaller wheel sizes.
Moving to the interior there’s lots of room in the back seat area. The seats look quite comfortable because they are dished into the backrest. There is a large transmission tunnel so the middle seat occupant suffers.
The front seats aren’t Recaros. My iPhone plugged into the infotainment unit and extended my world to the interior of the car. Just seeing the green Messages icon on screen reduced my anxiety about missing a message. I can also colour match some parts of the interior lighting to my mood. Todays colour is self-absorbed.
Although the centre console has room for an iPad (only a Mini) there wasn’t one provided with the vehicle. That meant I had to use the Owners Manual to try and find information about the self-parking system. That was too hard so I gave up.
From memory there’s an umbrella in the rear door so that should be useful on wet days.
Harsh? A little. An indicator of how I interpret local motoring journalism? Spot on. Will I be continuing my subscription to Wheels come the end of October? No.
If I want pricing and figures I’ll get them from Redbook. If I want pictures there’s the web. If I want puff pieces and personal opinion I’ll look at Youtube. If I want poorly researched journalism I have Fairfax and News.
Yep I occasionally think about buying one to see if it might be worth getting a digital subscription and then your article above sums up my experience. My Dad still has the late 70s Wheels that had the review of the Renault wagon they bought then and it's exactly like you described.
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