diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index eb5ad1c9..6926b2cf 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ Colima can also be utilised solely as a headless virtual machine manager by spec
 
 ### Customizing the VM
 
-The default VM created by Colima has 2 CPUs, 2GiB memory and 60GiB storage.
+The default VM created by Colima has 2 CPUs, 2GiB memory and 100GiB storage.
 
 The VM can be customized either by passing additional flags to `colima start`.
 e.g. `--cpu`, `--memory`, `--disk`, `--runtime`.
diff --git a/cmd/start.go b/cmd/start.go
index d9b55c74..0f2a6de9 100644
--- a/cmd/start.go
+++ b/cmd/start.go
@@ -110,16 +110,18 @@ Run 'colima template' to set the default configurations or 'colima start --edit'
 const (
 	defaultCPU               = 2
 	defaultMemory            = 2
-	defaultDisk              = 60
+	defaultDisk              = 100
 	defaultKubernetesVersion = kubernetes.DefaultVersion
 
-	defaultVMType        = "qemu"
 	defaultMountTypeQEMU = "sshfs"
 	defaultMountTypeVZ   = "virtiofs"
 )
 
-var defaultK3sArgs = []string{"--disable=traefik"}
-var envSaveConfig = osutil.EnvVar("COLIMA_SAVE_CONFIG")
+var (
+	defaultVMType  = "qemu"
+	defaultK3sArgs = []string{"--disable=traefik"}
+	envSaveConfig  = osutil.EnvVar("COLIMA_SAVE_CONFIG")
+)
 
 var startCmdArgs struct {
 	config.Config
@@ -140,6 +142,7 @@ var startCmdArgs struct {
 func init() {
 	runtimes := strings.Join(environment.ContainerRuntimes(), ", ")
 	defaultArch := string(environment.HostArch())
+	defaultVMType = environment.DefaultVMType()
 
 	mounts := strings.Join([]string{defaultMountTypeQEMU, "9p", "virtiofs"}, ", ")
 	types := strings.Join([]string{defaultVMType, "vz"}, ", ")
@@ -178,7 +181,6 @@ func init() {
 		// nested virtualization
 		if util.MacOSNestedVirtualizationSupported() {
 			startCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&startCmdArgs.NestedVirtualization, "nested-virtualization", "z", false, "enable nested virtualization")
-			startCmd.Flag("nested-virtualization").Hidden = true
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -290,6 +292,10 @@ func setConfigDefaults(conf *config.Config) {
 	// handle macOS virtualization.framework transition
 	if conf.VMType == "" {
 		conf.VMType = defaultVMType
+		// if on macOS with no qemu, use vz
+		if err := util.AssertQemuImg(); err != nil && util.MacOS13OrNewer() {
+			conf.VMType = "vz"
+		}
 	}
 
 	if conf.MountType == "" {
diff --git a/config/configmanager/configmanager.go b/config/configmanager/configmanager.go
index 02edccbc..adc5c41f 100644
--- a/config/configmanager/configmanager.go
+++ b/config/configmanager/configmanager.go
@@ -71,6 +71,11 @@ func ValidateConfig(c config.Config) error {
 	if _, ok := validVMTypes[c.VMType]; !ok {
 		return fmt.Errorf("invalid vmType: '%s'", c.VMType)
 	}
+	if c.VMType == "qemu" {
+		if err := util.AssertQemuImg(); err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("cannot use vmType: '%s', error: %w", c.VMType, err)
+		}
+	}
 
 	return nil
 }
diff --git a/embedded/defaults/colima.yaml b/embedded/defaults/colima.yaml
index 4b9db906..fec14980 100644
--- a/embedded/defaults/colima.yaml
+++ b/embedded/defaults/colima.yaml
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@ cpu: 2
 # Size of the disk in GiB to be allocated to the virtual machine.
 # NOTE: value can only be increased after virtual machine has been created.
 #
-# Default: 60
-disk: 60
+# Default: 100
+disk: 100
 
 # Size of the memory in GiB to be allocated to the virtual machine.
 # Default: 2
diff --git a/environment/vm.go b/environment/vm.go
index 1fccffff..73492209 100644
--- a/environment/vm.go
+++ b/environment/vm.go
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ package environment
 import (
 	"context"
 	"runtime"
+
+	"github.com/abiosoft/colima/util"
 )
 
 // VM is virtual machine.
@@ -58,3 +60,13 @@ func (a Arch) Value() Arch {
 
 	return Arch(runtime.GOARCH).Value()
 }
+
+// DefaultVMType returns the default virtual machine type based on the operation
+// system and availability of Qemu.
+func DefaultVMType() string {
+	if util.AssertQemuImg() != nil && util.MacOS13OrNewer() {
+		return "vz"
+	}
+
+	return "qemu"
+}
diff --git a/environment/vm/lima/lima.go b/environment/vm/lima/lima.go
index ab982321..645113e5 100644
--- a/environment/vm/lima/lima.go
+++ b/environment/vm/lima/lima.go
@@ -95,6 +95,8 @@ func (l *limaVM) Start(ctx context.Context, conf config.Config) error {
 		return err
 	})
 
+	a.Add(l.assertQemu)
+
 	a.Add(func() error {
 		return l.downloadDiskImage(ctx, conf)
 	})
@@ -144,6 +146,8 @@ func (l *limaVM) resume(ctx context.Context, conf config.Config) error {
 		return err
 	})
 
+	a.Add(l.assertQemu)
+
 	a.Add(l.setDiskImage)
 
 	a.Add(func() error {
@@ -319,6 +323,11 @@ func (l *limaVM) syncDiskSize(ctx context.Context, conf config.Config) config.Co
 			return false
 		}
 
+		if err := util.AssertQemuImg(); err != nil {
+			log.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("unable to resize disk: %w", err))
+			return false
+		}
+
 		sizeStr := fmt.Sprintf("%dG", conf.Disk)
 		args := []string{"qemu-img", "resize"}
 		disk := limautil.ColimaDiffDisk(config.CurrentProfile().ID)
@@ -393,3 +402,15 @@ func (l *limaVM) addPostStartActions(a *cli.ActiveCommandChain, conf config.Conf
 		return nil
 	})
 }
+
+func (l *limaVM) assertQemu() error {
+	// assert qemu requirement
+	sameArchitecture := environment.HostArch() == l.limaConf.Arch
+	if err := util.AssertQemuImg(); err != nil && l.limaConf.VMType == limaconfig.QEMU {
+		if !sameArchitecture {
+			return fmt.Errorf("qemu is required to emulate %s: %w", l.limaConf.Arch, err)
+		}
+		return err
+	}
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/environment/vm/lima/limautil/image.go b/environment/vm/lima/limautil/image.go
index 3c6dedb8..a877073f 100644
--- a/environment/vm/lima/limautil/image.go
+++ b/environment/vm/lima/limautil/image.go
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/abiosoft/colima/environment"
 	"github.com/abiosoft/colima/environment/host"
 	"github.com/abiosoft/colima/environment/vm/lima/limaconfig"
+	"github.com/abiosoft/colima/util"
 	"github.com/abiosoft/colima/util/downloader"
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 )
@@ -32,7 +33,7 @@ func ImageCached(arch environment.Arch, runtime string) (limaconfig.File, bool)
 
 	image := diskImageFile(downloader.CacheFilename(img.Location))
 
-	img.Location = image.Raw()
+	img.Location = image.Location()
 	img.Digest = ""
 
 	return img, image.Generated()
@@ -65,8 +66,18 @@ func DownloadImage(arch environment.Arch, runtime string) (f limaconfig.File, er
 	if err != nil {
 		return f, err
 	}
+
+	diskImage := diskImageFile(qcow2)
+
+	// if qemu-img is missing, ignore raw conversion
+	if err := util.AssertQemuImg(); err != nil {
+		img.Location = diskImage.String()
+		img.Digest = "" // remove digest
+		return img, nil
+	}
+
 	// convert from qcow2 to raw
-	raw, err := qcow2ToRaw(host, diskImageFile(qcow2))
+	raw, err := qcow2ToRaw(host, diskImage)
 	if err != nil {
 		return f, err
 	}
@@ -160,6 +171,14 @@ type diskImageFile string
 func (d diskImageFile) String() string { return strings.TrimSuffix(string(d), ".raw") }
 func (d diskImageFile) Raw() string    { return d.String() + ".raw" }
 func (d diskImageFile) Generated() bool {
-	stat, err := os.Stat(d.Raw())
+	stat, err := os.Stat(d.Location())
 	return err == nil && !stat.IsDir()
 }
+
+// Location returns the expected location of the image based on availability of qemu.
+func (d diskImageFile) Location() string {
+	if err := util.AssertQemuImg(); err == nil {
+		return d.Raw()
+	}
+	return d.String()
+}
diff --git a/util/qemu.go b/util/qemu.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1669bc89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/qemu.go
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+package util
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os/exec"
+)
+
+// AssertQemuImg checks if qemu-img is available.
+func AssertQemuImg() error {
+	cmd := "qemu-img"
+	if _, err := exec.LookPath(cmd); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("%s not found, run 'brew install %s' to install", cmd, "qemu")
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}