thecountrydriver.com in Wodonga, Victoria | aircraft & boat

thecountrydriver.com

Locality: Wodonga, Victoria

Phone: +61 417 207 996

Address: 6 Chapman Street 3690 Wodonga, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.thecountrydriver.com

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• aircraft & boat

25.01.2022 IT is seven years since the Mitsubishi Express van disappeared from Australian showroom floors. Before that it had been selling in reasonable numbers since 1986 and before that, as the L300 Express, since 1980. This latest offering however is not a Mitsubishi, despite the badging saying otherwise. It is a rebadged third-generation Trafic, the Express the first offering for Mitsubishi buyers manufactured in France by Renault. How does it stack up? Read our review at thecountry...driver.com. Our road trip this week is along the Omeo Highway through the Mitta Valley to the village of Mitta. The drive is spectacular any time of the year, and there is plenty to see and do along the way. And Bill Buys says he is no fashion expert and his competition driving days are long gone, so when the new Hyundai i30 N Fastback came his way he called in the family experts. Son Rob, aka Dr Bobla, is a tarmac rally driver of repute, and daughter Janine is a Pilates instructor with a keen interest in fashion. What did the ‘Buys Trio’ think of the car? thecountrydriver.com has the answer. See more

25.01.2022 HOW is Kia going to improve its big-selling Carnival people-mover as this current generation is such a great vehicle. But Kia being Kia, you can bet that the fourth-generation Carnival due here sometime in 2021 will be better, but in the meantime, there is no shame in owning what is available now. The Country Driver took a 2.2 diesel Platinum variant for a drive around the Ovens Goldfields District region and we were impressed. Our thoughts on the vehicle, plus Bill Buys lists those drivers that didn’t make it to F1 that should have, at www.thecountrydriver.com

22.01.2022 SOME time back we had the thrill of putting a Honda Civic Type R hot hatch over our ‘little Nurburgring’, the Granya (Gap) Road, and still talk about the thrill of coming out the other side wearing an ear-to-ear grin. The 2-litre Type R costs $51,990 and is worth every fun cent of it, but for this ‘blast’ across the same road, it was in a Honda Civic RS hatch, a scaled back look-alike $19,700 cheaper and, on looks alone, at least promising as much fun. A rally sport/racing sp...ort hatch it is not, but for fun, practicality and packaging, the RS badging is not out of place. Our thoughts on the RS at thecountrydriver.com, plus Bill Buys tells us why the 2022 VW Amarok will be built on Ford Ranger underpinnings, plus we have some stunning Sunday drives lined up for you now that travel restrictions both sides of the border have been eased. All this and more at thecountrydriver.com See more

22.01.2022 THE Sound of Silence. So sang Simon and Garfunkel in 1965, and so writes Bill Buys who recently tested a Hyundai Ioniq Electric Elite and came away from the drive impressed. ‘There is no sound, instant power, and a decent driving range. To re-power, you can go to a dedicated charging station, or simply plug it into your home socket overnight’. Bill’s review at thecountrydriver.com, plus he has an interesting yarn about a Russian ‘influencer’ who was having problems with his M...ercedes-AMG GT 63 S 4Matic+. In 15,000km he had it back to the dealer’s workshop four times. Still not fixed. So, what did Mikhail Litvin do? Barbecued it. Yep. He burnt his AU$238,000 Benz to the ground. And with the NSW/Victoria border to open on November 23, we have put together a package of ‘back on the road again drives’ you might like to try. Check the first drive out at thecountrydriver.com See more

19.01.2022 AUSTRALIA is coming out of lockdown, all state borders should be open by spring and, for our little corner of the world, there will be a snow season. The population will again start to travel and while international journeys are still a no-no, the lifting of bans on intra and interstate travel means more people will be holidaying in their own back yard. And for those wanting to get out and see what rural Australia has to offer, Mitsubishi has landed just the vehicle for that ...next adventure, the updated Pajero Sport large SUV. It has all bases covered, no matter where you want to go or what you want to do. See our review at thecountrydriver.com. This week Bill Buys has a yarn on the 200,00th VW Polo to leave VW’s South African plant, plus we have added an Adventure, Food and Wine, and Fun page which will be expanded on over the coming weeks. We also have some additional drives coming. All this, plus our regular features at thecountrydriver.com See more

19.01.2022 SATURDAY night (or any other night) will never ‘be a sad and lonely night’ (so sang Gene Pitney) if you are cruisin’ the main drags in a Nissan Juke! The Juke is thecountrydriver.com review car this week and while we did not like the looks of the previous model, Nissan has done a great job on this one’s styling. We also like its new 1-litre, three-cylinder powerhouse. Bill Buys looks at what is going under the hammer at the Shannons Spring Online Auction from November 11-18. Some of Australia’s most desirable muscle cars and eight special edition Ducati motorcycles are expected to bring big dollars. This week’s road trip is the Olympic Highway, a great alternative for those driving from Albury-Wodonga to Sydney. We drive as far as the Riverina city of Wagga. All this, and more, at thecountrydriver.com

19.01.2022 THE current Stage 3 COVID-19 restrictions have kept us here at thecountrydriver.com a little closer to home, but that didn't stop regular contributor Bill Buys taking to the streets of his native Perth in a Kia Seltos Sport Plus which he found hard to fault. Bill also digs behind the scenes of why ‘Checo’ Perez has quit F1 and who will take his seat at the new Aston Martin team in 2021. And for when we come out of lockdown, we have a couple of interesting drives you might lik...e to take. These connectors, or link, roads are where you will discover the road trip you never knew you needed. They are those small, medium, and longer rural roads which connect two major roads, cutting through valleys, through forests, across mountain and open plains, and skirting our magnificent alpine regions. We have chosen these roads because of their fun factor, breathtaking scenery and landscapes, and a whole swag of things to see and do along the way. Getting to them is even an adventure, but once you have driven one or all of them, you will want to keep going back. Check it all out at thecountrydriver.com See more

17.01.2022 THE Kia Stinger GT Night Sky Edition is only available in nocturnal hues but, unlike our friend the owl, it has something up its sleeves that would well and truly wake the unsuspecting. What is it? Find out at thecountrydriver.com. This week’s drive you never thought you needed is ‘the GAR’, or that section of it from Wangaratta to Harrietville. The ‘GAR’ is the Great Alpine Road which connects North-East Victoria with Gippsland via Victoria's High Country. This is one road you must drive once in your lifetime. Bill Buys says Jaguar Land Rover is working with ECONYL nylon to develop high-quality interiors made from ocean and landfill waste. He says the interiors are just ‘rubbish’! All this and more at thecountrydriver.com

16.01.2022 LIKE many Victorian-based motoring media organisations, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected how thecountrydriver.com operates but, unlike our Melbourne colleagues, we are a regional business and not as restricted in our movements. This week we take you on close-to-home drive and one we hope you will be interested in when you can get back behind the wheel. It is a 150-kilometre loop from Albury-Wodonga (Wodonga in this case as we are based in the North-East Victorian border cit...y) to Beechworth, from Beechworth to Wangaratta, and from Wangaratta back to Wodonga, with a few short deviations along the way. Our drive is in a 2020 Kia Cerato GT hatch which we have on long-term loan (thank you Kia Australia) and is the perfect vehicle for this particular drive as it lends itself beautifully to the varied terrain and countryside the loop passes across. Hope you enjoy the drive. Bill Buys has a yarn for those of you into video games. Renault has announced it is about to release a Renault DP World F1 Team version of its Rotor Riot game controller, a globally available Lightning-connected controller for Apple iOS mobile devices. Read all about it, along with the latest new car releases at thecountrydriver.com See more

16.01.2022 THE manual transmission may have fallen out of favour, but it still has a place, with Kia one company still offering a manual transmission in several of its models. The Country Driver took a Cerato Sport manual sedan for a tour of the region's farmers' markets and found it to be a ‘real crisp apple’. Also this week, Small Torque (updated daily) introduces you to Audi’s latest A4 trio of sedan, Avant and allroad quattro, and Bill Buys has a happy tale about the good folk of the French alpine village of Appy where every adult citizen has been given a new car to drive for three years. Gratis! This and more at thecountrydriver.com

16.01.2022 EURO, OZ CLASSICS ONLINE AS coronavirus has temporarily put Europe out of travel reach, and most of Australia, Shannons is bringing some of the best European and Australian classic vehicles to your home with its 2020 Winter Timed Online Auction this coming Wednesday, August 26. Find out what is ‘going under the hammer’ at thecountrydriver.com

15.01.2022 WHERE better to enjoy the stunning scenery of the lush Kiewa Valley in North-East Victoria than through the panoramic windscreen and from the lounge chair comfort of a 10th generation Honda Accord. Available in two variants, VTi-LX petrol and VTi-LX Hybrid, the Accord competes in the slow-selling medium passenger segment and Honda expects to find new homes for less than 200 this year. But, like its competitors, it is in there fighting and offering buyers an alternative to the... all-consuming SUVs and light trucks. For us at thecountrydriver.com, it is a breath of fresh air to every so often be able to step out of one and into a proper sedan. Our review at thecountrydriver.com, plus this week Bill Buys looks at the Renault Koleos Black Edition and has discovered what Koleos means. You will be surprised. We have also added to our Sunday drives section The Connector Roads. Check it out. Until next week, safe and happy driving from the team at thecountrydriver.com See more

14.01.2022 WHILE it is nice to every so often step out of my comfort zone and take on the challenge of different and unfamiliar roads, it is nice to be able to put a similar car across roads I am more familiar with. My last drive of a current, or second-generation, Honda HR-V - in RS trim was in the south-east corner of Queensland. This time I took a top-spec HR-V VTi-LX, which has been ever-so-slightly updated for 2020, on a drive on ‘my’ roads. How did it perform? Read all about it ...at thecountrydriver.com. Bill Buys is a Willie Nelson fan but even he wasn’t aware of some of the 87-year-olds ‘on the road again’ exploits, and for those looking for somewhere to go for a Sunday drive, how about the Milawa Gourmet Region in North-East Victoria? It is a culinary adventure waiting to be discovered, either by car, by bike or on foot. Our report at thecountrydriver.com See more

14.01.2022 WHERE better to test the Nissan Navara N-Trek Warrior’s on-road handling than on the Merton to Euroa Road which runs along a valley floor of the picturesque Strathbogie Ranges. They are the mountains the murderous Kelly Gang hid during their bushranging days. Route C366 is a 34-kilometre connector road between the Hume Freeway in the north and the Maroondah Highway in the south. Tackling it from the Merton end, which we did, means dropping down from a plateau to the valley fl...oor via a narrow two lane road that offers plenty of twists and turns, blind bends and hairpins. Oh. And stunning scenery if you slow long enough to catch glimpses of it. Unfortunately, there are no places to pull over to take in the glorious mountain countryside. So, concentrate on the road and how the N-Trek Warrior was handling it was what we did. Check our review, and the drive, at thecountrydriver.com, along with Bill Buys’ look at the start of the 2020 F1 season, plus all our usual features. Safe driving from the team at thecountrydriver.com. See more

13.01.2022 REGULAR thecountrydriver.com contributor Bill Buys took a new Nissan Juke for a run around the streets of his native Perth and declares this latest outing a far cry from the original. Closer to home, we do some valley driving. North-East Victoria is blessed with five magnificent valleys, all of which are interconnected. This means the visitor does not have to return to the Hume Freeway or the Murray Valley Highway to access the next. Each valley is easily accessible, and each has its own uniqueness. Bill Buys tells us why VW dropped a Mexico City dealership, plus we have the low-down on some new model releases. All this and more at thecountrydriver.com

12.01.2022 APPROACHING Winton Motor Raceway from the west along the Winton-Glenrowan Road is a signpost pointing south - to Lurg. It is a name that most race fans venturing to the popular North-East Victoria race circuit from Melbourne and all points west are familiar with, but few will have ventured the 14-kilometres to satisfy their curiosity. Is Lurg a town? A village? A railway siding, perhaps? What is there? The Country Driver took a 2020 Honda Civic VTi-LX hatch (that is the Civic ‘with the lot’) to get some answers. Read what we found out, plus our review of the Civic hatch, and what Bill Buys has found out about a special Fiat that is for sale in The Netherlands, at thecountrydriver.com.

12.01.2022 DOES RS badging on the rump of a large seven-seat SUV make sense? In the case of the Kodiaq bi-turbo diesel RS, definitely. But it nearly didn't make it to our shores. Why? thecountrydriver.com has the answer. PICK a letter from the alphabet and you can bet there is a city, a town, a village, or a hamlet somewhere within our region starting with that letter. OK, we were stumped on a couple, but we managed to get around them. BILL Buys says China’s state-owned carmaker FAW Group is reviving its Hongqi, or Red Flag, as the nation’s premiere automotive brand in a bid to provide a home-grown alternative to foreign luxury brands. The latest model, just shown at the Auto China 2020 in Beijing, is an all-electric affair and built on its own chassis. All this, and more, at thecountrydriver.com

08.01.2022 OVER the years thecountrydriver.com has ticked off just about every freeway, highway, byway, laneway and track in North-East Victoria and the Southern Riverina, but for this drive/review we revisited one of our favourites, and along for the ride was a 2020 Audi Q3 35 TFSI. Our chosen road was the Granya (Gap) Road which ticks all the boxes for excitement and scenery. Oh. And fun! Our thoughts on vehicle and road at thecountrydriver.com, plus Bill Buys has the gos on why F1 team Williams has gone to the wall, and we have a wrap of the latest new vehicle launches and what is on its way. With travel restrictions in NSW and Victoria now lifted, we urge all motorists to take care on our roads. The only statistics we want to read about are visitor numbers. From the team at thecountrydriver.com

07.01.2022 THE Snowy Valleys Way is the road trip you never knew you needed. It is the perfect escape route and, if you have the time, a picturesque alternative to the dull and boring Hume Freeway/Hume Highway if you are travelling between Melbourne and Sydney or vice versa. It is a touring route that covers over 300-kilometres, from Gundagai to Wangaratta. We recently tackled it in a 2020 Mazda CX-30 G25 Astina 2.5- litre petrol variant. The CX-30 is Mazda’s newcomer to the Australian market, slotting between the light CX-3 and the medium CX-5. Bill Buys has something for all ye water-loving car enthusiasts, a 2794kW (yes, that is correct 2794kW) Lamborghini superyacht which costs a mere $AUS 4.85 million, plus our thoughts on the CX-30 and more at thecountrydriver.com

07.01.2022 WHAT does Mazda and Albury-Wodonga have in common? This week’s thecountrydriver review is the updated Mazda2 city car which felt right at home zipping around the twin cities. And for good reason. Albury-Wodonga’s association with Mazda is as long as Mazda’s association is with Australia. The region’s, and Australia’s, first taste of the Japanese brand was in 1964, the same year Smithenbecker Motors of Albury added the marque to its showroom floor alongside Studebaker and Peugeot. Also this week, Bill Buys looks at the new Aston Martin motorbike yes, that is correct an AMB (B for Brough) motorcycle, plus we have some great drives for those not in lockdown either side of the border! All this and more at thecountrydriver.com

07.01.2022 READERS of this column are probably aware that thecountrydriver.com is not a fan of the Hume Freeway. It is dull and boring, but to try and extract the best mileage we could from a 2020 Subaru XV Hybrid, we took it for a long-haul drive. Where? Along the M31 of course, better known as the Hume Highway/Hume Freeway - depending on what state you live in - then for a drive around the Ovens Goldfields District of North-East Victoria. How did we do? Find out at thecountrydriver.com, along with what new vehicles were launched here last week, and whether former two-times F1 world champion Fernando Alonso will make a return to the sport. Bill Buys may have the answer. This and more at thecountrydriver.com

05.01.2022 EVER wanted to try your hand at tarmac rallying? Here is your chance! Tarmac rallying may feel a little out of reach, but October's Great Tarmac Rally may be the answer with an inexpensive 'arrive and drive' program. Details at thecountrydriver.com

05.01.2022 ON more than one occasion we have been asked 'where do you road test your vehicles?' For most of the 52 weeks of the year we use a 153-kilometre loop that is not just a great drive for that particular purpose but takes in magnificent scenery like that pictured. Where does it go? Find out at thecountrydriver.com, plus check out Bill Buys’ yarn about a brand new Aston Martin DB5 which you can buy for $64,000. But there is a small catch. Bushranger Trail drives, the latest industry news, a road test and more at thecountrydriver.com

03.01.2022 THE 2021 Toyota HiLux has made its global debut, the updated Lexus LC Coupe has arrived, and Hyundai shows off its new Santa Fe. Check all the latest news at thecountrydriver.com

03.01.2022 ‘DISCOVER the car and road trip you never knew you needed’, is what thecountrydriver.com is all about. THIS WEEK: The Car - Google Millésime and three items pop up: A Renault Koleos, a hotshot amplifier, and a corkscrew. Bill Buys takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the first, the Koleos - in 2.5 Intens AWD trim. The Road Trip: Darryl and Julie Starr tour the picturesque King Valley, saying, 'The King Valley could now be described as a little part of Italy and you could be fo...rgiven for thinking you had been transported to the picturesque hills of Northern Italy as soon as you get there'. Bill Buys says another old-timer, one most people younger than about 70 might never had heard of, has done a phoenix, and is emerging from the proverbial ashes. It is Allard, the historic British brand of sports cars, which built its last model back in 1958. All this and more at thecountrydriver.com See more

01.01.2022 MY original drive of a 2020 Hyundai Veloster was to have been mid-March, but the pandemic got in the way. Sixteen weeks later, and with the pandemic still playing havoc with us Victorians, I was sitting in a second-generation Veloster 1.6 Coupe turbo Premium outside its Melbourne digs ready to return to Albury-Wodonga thinking, ‘I hope the wait is worth it’. Was it? Check out my thoughts at thecountrydriver.com, along with Bill Buys’ yarn about the current worth of pedal cars. All this and more at thecountrydriver.com

01.01.2022 DR Rob's daily drive is a Renault Megane R26 F1 Team. He has owned it for years and has never tired of its features. Now that a new Megane RS Trophy has come along, the obvious thing for him to do was a comparison. The good doctor’s review at thecountrydriver.com. This week Bill Buys has a yarn about the ‘Passion of a Lifetime’ auction, to be held at Hampton Court Palace on September 5. Taking centre stage will be not one, but three rare Bugattis which should send the heart rates of the brand’s followers into danger territory. The trio comprises a 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports, a 1937 Type 57S Atalante, and a 1928 Type 35C Grand Prix. And for when we can get back on the road again, we have a drive of The Bushranger Trail for you. Check it all out at thecountrydriver.com