Marie Claire Australia September 2017

210 marieclaire.com.au

*“THE DRUG AND ALCOHOL CRASH RISK”, NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY GETTY IMAGES; COURTESY OF GM MOTORS. TEXT BY STEPHEN CORBY

on the road

OF THE

BEST

3

$44.99,

H&M,

hm.com/au

$57,

Next,

next.com.au

$69.95,

Novo,

novoshoes.com.au

1 3

2

PINK

SATIN

SNEAKERS

CAR: MG GS

ROUTE: Hawkesbury River, NSW

REVIEW: The tiny town of Brooklyn,

nestled between Sydney and the Central

Coast, couldn’t be more different from

its New York-borough namesake. For

most of the 750-strong population,

conversation is less hip-hop and more

hip replacements, but this town on the

banks of the Hawkesbury River is one

of the state’s hidden gems.

It is also home to what might be

Australia’s finest fish and chips, with

Lifeboat Seafoods offering up perfectly

grilled fillets that have been luring

travellers off the neighbouring

freeway for a generation.

And what better way to get there

than in an MG GS (from $23,990), the

now Chinese-owned brand’s first-ever

SUV. A sports car this ain’t, but this is

the kind of journey – a northbound day

trip only 52km from the CBD – that

you don’t want to rush, and the GS

is perfect for cruising. It also comes

equipped with some clever tech, like the

Bluetooth touchscreen that will pump

your playlist to the six-speaker stereo.

From the twists and turns of the

Old Pacific Highway, the turn-off for

Brooklyn is located just before the

Mooney Mooney Bridge. From there,

the trees hang low over the road

as you wind your way to the water’s

edge, and to grilled-fish nirvana.

With cannabis now legal or

medicinally available in 29 US

states, a study found that drivers

who’d smoked marijuana were

at a far lower risk of getting

into a car accident than drivers

who’d consumed alcohol.* Not

that we’re condoning getting

behind the wheel on weed –

perhaps the smokers were just

driving very, very slowly.

ANTIQUATED AUTOS

Can you tell how affluent a country is by how many wheezy, old vehicles are

on the roads? The average age of cars across the globe may suprise you

THE HIGH WAY

The average age of the

Australian car is 10.1

years, which means

there are a lot of older

vehicles on our roads.

You’re most likely to

see a small hatch, like

the Toyota Corolla,

our old favourite before

SUVs took over.

In Japan, where

everything is clean

and green-friendly,

the most popular car

is, and has long been,

the hybrid Toyota Prius

(running on petrol and

electricity), and people

turn over their cars

every 6.9 years.

GO THE DISTANCE WITH OUR COOL-GIRL CAR GUIDE

AUSTRALIA

Despite both cars and

fuel being almost as

cheap as French fries,

the average American

vehicle is slightly older

than ours, at 11.5 years.

Their bestseller is,

unsurprisingly, a pick-up

truck – the vast and

AMERICAugly Ford F-150.

Thanks to a system

that charges you based

on how much CO 2

your car pumps out,

people in the UK

drive much newer

vehicles, just 7.8 years

old on average. Their

favourite is the tiny

UNITED KINGDOMFord Fiesta hatchback. JAPAN

RO

ADT

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IP

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