Independent consumer advocate and Dog & Lemon Guide editor Clive Matthew-Wilson says the collapse of TrueEV, the Australian distributor for Chinese EV brand XPeng, should be a warning for buyers dazzled by sharp pricing, long-range claims and giant touchscreens.
The real question is not just whether the car looks good on the showroom floor today, but whether anyone will still be standing behind it in five years' time when the battery throws a tantrum, the software goes haywire or a key part is stuck on a boat somewhere off Shanghai.
Buyers need to think beyond the badge and ask who is actually on the hook in Australia for warranty, servicing, spare parts and support.
Matthew-Wilson says that although Australian consumer law still offers protections against the local seller, those rights become a lot harder to enforce in practice if a distributor collapses or the business behind the badge disappears. That's the real lesson from the TrueEV mess.
His advice is simple: before signing, ask who carries the warranty locally, how long the distributor has been here, what guarantees exist around parts and software support, and what happens if the local operation folds.
In other words, in the EV gold rush, buyers should be checking the durability of the company as carefully as the durability of the battery. The Australian's technology editor, Jared Lynch, has the full story on the TrueEV-XPeng stoush.
Prestige motoring, now with extra fire
And there's plenty of theatre in real-car land. BMW still sells prestige by the truckload, but owners too often seem to get recalls, repair bills and a patient explanation of why their problem is somehow different from the one another dealer acknowledged.
It is an impressive business model really – charge luxury money, then act surprised when people expect luxury treatment.
In February, Reuters reported that BMW launched a global recall of 337,374 vehicles because of improperly installed cockpit wiring harnesses that could short-circuit and create a fire hazard. Earlier that month, Reuters also reported about another large BMW recall over a potential fire hazard, while in March, China announced a recall of 147,830 vehicles tied to the starter motor issue.
That gives owners every right to ask a very simple question: exactly how many different ways can an expensive BMW try to set itself on fire before somebody in Munich admits there is a pattern here?
A lot of prestige brands want buyers to believe they are purchasing superior engineering, fine materials and a little slice of European greatness. Too often what they seem to be buying is a handsome badge, a service invoice large enough to require family consultation, and a long conversation beginning with the words: "No, sir, this is unrelated."
Anto becomes The Man
There are some Formula 1 weekends when the result tells you almost nothing. Suzuka was not one of those weekends.
Japan gave us the reality. Kimi Antonelli, still only 19 and still young enough to look like he should be asking permission to stay out late, was the real thing. He didn't just win. He was the goods. Anto was in control from the start and left Suzuka looking less like a precocious kid on a hot streak and more like Formula 1's next serious problem for everyone else.
Suzuka was the weekend in which Antonelli became The Man. And once that happened, the whole Mercedes story changed.
We're now in the early stages of a proper title fight between teammates – Gorgeous George, the polished professional Brit, and Anto, the San Marino crowd favourite with impossible skills in one of the two fastest cars on the track.
What about Oscar? He drove really well, but he was never going to win. He just wasn't fast enough.
McLaren has pace. Ferrari has drama. Red Bull has Verstappen and a sort of permanent low-level electrical storm hanging over the place. But the best championship fights often start in the same garage. Prost and Senna; Hamilton and Rosberg. Calm experience versus hungry youth. Passive-aggressive body language.
If Mercedes has built a genuine title car, Antonelli versus Russell could become the sort of internal Drive to Survive cold war that carries the whole season.
The rules are still producing enough battery babysitting, harvesting weirdness and strategic nonsense to leave half the grid sounding like men trying to sprint while carrying a cordless vacuum. It resembles a very expensive contest of who can manage a failing phone battery most elegantly. Verstappen is over it. The pensioners in the Cadillac team – Mexico's Sergio "Checo" Perez and Valetteri Bottas from Finland – are getting more publicity for running last than Mercedes is for winning.
The Port Kembla Grand Prix
Now, in a world exclusive, we reveal the secret plans to have Formula 1 moved from St Kilda to Wollongong.
Yes, 20 readers, we're told FIA president Benny Sulayem has been in extensive talks with the 'Gong mayor and top-10 Tupperware salesperson Tania Brown. Here's the plan: start-finish at the Fo Guang Shan Nan Tien Temple, highlighting the region's and Australia's diversity to the world, then on to the M1, a sharp left at the B65, past the pits at the JAX Tyres and Auto garage at Warrawong Plaza, around the Port Kembla steelworks and back to the temple.
Corporate hospitality? Benny S has your client sucking-up fixed. Catering from Big Bowl Malatang at the Plaza, with premium booze from Liquorland. A super Dom Perignon vintage rose at $646 a bottle for six – cheaper than a tank of diesel – and, for the rest, Whispering Hope strawberry spumante at $5.95 and a two-litre cardboard cask of Lachlan Ridge pinot noir for $7.95. There's breakfast done.
And finally …
Forget EVs. You'd be better off buying the Tom Selleck, Rosso Corsa 1979 Ferrari 308 GTS Targa from the Magnum P.I. television show. Tom, 81, of Hidden Valley, California, would be better known to younger readers as Frank Reagan from Blue Bloods. Expect to pay $150k.
And the insurance companies' favourite driver, Eldrick Tont Woods, aka Tiger, has just rolled another car. Yep, last week Eldrick turned over a $300k 2026 Range Rover SV. His last roll was in a 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV and before that he found a fire hydrant in a Cadillac Escalade.
In good Easter/Passover/Vaisakhi/Mahavir Janma Kalyanak news, Florida police don't have blow-in-the-bag breath tests. It's the good old-fashioned walk a straight line.