There have been plenty of milestone days through my career in cars.
There was the time I test drove the world’s original automobile – Karl Benz’s Benz Patent Motorwagen from 1886. It wasn’t quite the real deal, just one of the identical replicas built by Benz apprentices in Germany to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the world’s first motor maker, but what a car. It was awful. And scary. And we had to jump off and push it up a slight slope during a short test drive in a tiny park in Canberra. Still, it was something special. And now I’m thinking of many other special days.
There was the first time I drove a Rolls-Royce, when I was so nervous that my sweating palms were having trouble getting any sort of grip on the Bakelite steering wheel that could have been stolen from the 1950s.
Then there was the day I drove a Bugatti Veyron at the Sandown racetrack and rocketed up the back straight much faster than I had done while racing a V8 Supercars Commodore in the Sandown 500.
My first trip to Japan to drive the original front-wheel drive Mazda 626 and my first visit to Europe, as a guest of Alfa Romeo on a trip which taught me as much about Italy and Italians as the new Alfasud funster we were driving, were both hugely memorable.
So, too, was riding with Peter Brock and Dick Johnson, interviewing Carlos Ghosn and Mark Reuss, diving into the design studios at Ford and Holden for the first time, witnessing a live crash test at Mercedes-Benz, and riding along in an autonomous BMW 7-Series prototype…
Now there is a new milestone. It happened on Thursday, November 13, 2025. That’s the day when China lobbed a sub-$25,000 electric car into Australia.
Why was it a milestone? Because it provided the indisputable proof that affordable EVs are real, and that China has beaten the rest of the world to get them onto local roads.
The car in question is the BYD Atto 1 and it doesn’t matter if it is good, bad, indifferent or – like so many new cars in 2025 – just plain ordinary. It’s all about the price point. And the value.
The starting price for the Atto 1 is $23,990, before on-road costs. So, in reality it’s going to be somewhere a little north of $25,000 as the new owner drives away from the showroom, but it’s the $23,990 headline which is attracting the interest and triggering BYD’s rivals.
The Atto 1 is an ideal ‘first and last’ car for city living. These F&Ls are people buying a first car, usually as freshly-minted P-platers, or the old(er) timers looking for their retirement wheels.
They don’t want a sports car, don’t need a family SUV, and are definitely not planning to hook a giant caravan to the back of a pick-up to set off on ‘the lap’ of Australia. They want something simple, easy and affordable.
Increasingly, they are also looking at electric cars. As time moves forward, their numbers will grow. Potentially, at least, quite rapidly. How do I know? Because I remember another milestone event, back in the ’90s.
At that time, I was an eyewitness to the phenomenal growth triggered by something relatively simple – drive-away pricing.
It was a bright idea from a mercurial sales chief, Simon Pinnock, who liked golf as much as selling cars with Hyundai in NSW. He realised there was considerable pushback against newbie Korean cars because they were unproven in Australia. He was looking for the vital ‘permission to buy’ which has triggered the latest move into 10-year warranty packages, even by solid brands including Nissan and Mitsubishi.
His gimmick was a $13,990 deal for the Hyundai Excel (above), as the ‘drive away, no more to pay’ solution eliminated the need to haggle with a dealer or worry about added extras. It effectively covered the $1500 of government charges and pre-delivery costs, creating a no-fuss transaction.
And it worked. Like a champion.
Driveaway deals are commonplace in 2025, especially among the budget brands and the latest newbie challengers from China, because they simplify car buying and provide a deal that is easy to understand. It will be the same soon on the EV front, but there is another question still to be answered.
How long before there is a baby EV with a sub-$20,000 bottom line?
Opinion
Wheels columnist Paul Gover reckons It’s time to ask some questions about the cherished ANCAP 5-star safety rating.
This article first appeared in the January 2026 issue of Wheels. Subscribe here and gain access to 12 issues for $109 plus online access to every Wheels issue since 1953.
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