BANG Is Back!

PREVIEW: 16 cars to wrestle for Oz’s fast car value gong

- Scott Newman

AS THE temperature drops in concert with the leaves from the trees, it means only one thing in MOTOR land – Bang For Your Bucks is here. Once again we embark on our annual quest to find the best value performance car on-sale in Australia, leaving no stone unturned, no tyre unscuffed and no brake pad unburnt in an effort to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

Sixteen vehicles scored an invite in 2017, split evenly between the $0-$50K and $50K-$100K groups. Leading the charge alphabetically is the Mazda MX-5’s boosted Italian cousin, the Abarth 124 Spider, while also from Italy is the Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce, both packing turbocharged four cylinder engines and the promise of balanced, rear-drive handling.

Next up is the Audi S4, which at $99,900 squeaks under our $100,000 limit by the barest of margins. It’ll have to be extremely fast to compensate, especially with the likes of its fellow German, the BMW M140i, in the mix. Its predecessor, the M135i, was a $50K-$100K class champion in 2015 and the M140i now has an even bigger punch courtesy of its grunty new engine.