Today we assess why Aussie Oscar is our next F1 campione del mondo and why you have a better chance of beating a Jeep in a foot race than extracting satisfactory repairs.

Stellantis, the car company with a name only slightly better than Urus, has been recalling cars faster than young Oscar at Baku, the city with a name only slightly worse than Mount Buggery, Victoria.

BMW Group was alerted to a braking system fault in 2022 that is now expected to cost the automaker nearly $2bn to fix and could affect up to 1.5 million vehicles.

And in a blockbuster announcement, Toyota will field a minimum of four Gen3 GR Supras in Supercars 2026 alongside those other Aussie favourites the Chev Camaro and the Ford Mustang.

First up, Oscar Piastri, 23, of Melbourne. He is a Richmond supporter which is a team in the AFL that is currently running 18th. Let's now cross to Crofty (David Croft, 54, of SDL). "He's exceptional in his maturity and his calmness. Did he sound like he had a stressful day at the end? No, not really. Sounded like Oscar Piastri, the guy next door that you can't help but like, and who I think one day will be a Formula One world champion, if the car is up to it."

Moving on to our role as the car consumer's friend, Stellantis is a global multinational conglomerate carmaker that turns out winners like Alfa Romeo, Ram trucks, Chrysler, Citroen and our favourite, Jeep.

Sports Illustrated says: "Just two weeks ago, Stellantis was forced to recall 1.2 million Ram vehicles due to faulty brake software – the second recall for Ram pick-ups this year. A June recall saw almost 158,000 Rams brought in for faulty electronic stability control modules. These high-profile reports came the same week as new sales figures were released showing that five of the top 10 slowest-selling cars in 2024 were Stellantis offerings."

So that brings us to Helen and Jerry Chaberka who bought a pre-owned Jeep Grand Cherokee Trail Hawk MY20 in March 2022. Just one month later, the engine failed in Wonthaggi at 10pm. The car was towed to the dealer, Berwick Jeep, and returned a month later. "This year during a road trip to WA, the car went into limp mode near Madura. After 6 hours of driving at 60km/h, we reached Norseman and waited two days for transport to Perth for repairs."

Now, since the Stellantis Group and brands don't have media contacts on their websites we wrote to customer service, who nicely told us: "Stellantis Australia understands your email and we apologise but we won't be able to provide any information on your inquiry."

jc@jcp.com.au