OPINION: The car world is changing

Being one of only 16 people to have occupied the editor’s chair at Wheels magazine is an enormous privilege.

There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t remind myself of that fact. Yet there is one part of my job that fills me with dread. When I accepted the role, I asked to put my email address on subscriber renewal letters. If a subscriber was ever to stop subscribing, they could perhaps take a moment to drop me a note and let me know why.

These letters take three forms. Occasionally, somebody will let me know that a reader has passed away. Then there are those letters from obvious screwballs who think we’re pushing some sort of woke agenda because we had the audacity to mention tailpipe emissions.

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The vast majority are more considered. Forgive me for paraphrasing but they usually go something like this.

“My name is Reg and I’m 77 years old. I drive a Holden Statesman and I also have an LX Torana SL and a Ford Focus ST. In the past I’ve owned an HT Monaro GTS (I wish I hadn’t let that go). While I still find Wheels well written and entertaining, I have to admit that the content no longer interests me.

"I’m never going to buy an SUV or an electric vehicle, and my Statesman will last me until I pop my clogs. Why you devote so much space in your magazine to electric cars when they account for seven percent of sales in Australia is beyond me. Thanks for all the great work down the years. I really loved Peter Robinson’s stuff. Yours, Reg.”

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As an editor, I’m hardwired to hate losing readers. I’ll drive home and think of Reg chuckling to himself as he drives past Tesla owners queuing at a Supercharger.

I’ll be watching the box in the evening and I’ll start idly musing why a Holden man bought a Ford Focus. Was the Astra VXR that bad? These letters sit with me.

Wheels has always been a magazine that reports on the new car market. Until fairly recently, that has been a comparatively gentle meander. But the loss of local manufacturing, the rise of the SUV, the influx of new brands, and the push to electrification has made the last decade one of enormous and, in some cases, disorienting disruption.

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Some will find this exciting while others will draw solace from the familiar.

When I drew up a chair at Wheels around a decade ago, you’d search in vain for the likes of BYD, Cupra, Genesis, Ineos, LDV, Mahindra, MG, Polestar, Ram or Tesla. Of course, we’ve seen brands like Holden, Proton, Smart, Dodge, Chrysler and Infiniti depart in that timeframe. Some we’ll miss more than others.

More importantly, the make up of what’s in the product pipeline is changing, and fast. Yes, electric cars make up a small proportion of Australia’s car sales right now, but they comprise an enormous percentage of the contents of our new-car launch list.

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Although some do their best to deny the facts, many large manufacturers have cut internal combustion engine research and development budgets enormously and, in some cases, to zero.

The car world is changing. I have every sympathy for readers like Reg who perhaps quite liked it the way it was. Current subscribers can bathe all they like in nostalgia with their complimentary online access to the entire Wheels archive dating back to 1953.

It’s an absolutely incredible resource and a document like no other, charting the unique and uniquely fascinating culture of Australian motoring across more than seven decades.

For the rest of you, all I ask is for you to be open-minded and retain your level of wonder because the next few years are going to be like nothing we’ve ever seen. As much as it’s a privilege to sit in charge of this storied magazine, it’s a greater one for me to witness the most exciting time to ever be a car enthusiast. Stick with us. After all, it’s said the curious mind never gets old.