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Latest News

Hot new looks - spy videos » View All

Highlights » View All

• Cherokee Indian nation wants Jeep to drop ‘Cherokee’ name
• EVs are on the move, but where are their...
• Tesla fans and foes spar over new-look steering wheel
• Apple EV project sparks talk of manufacturing deal with...
• Aston Martin at centre of rubbish report about emissions...
• New fuel for jet engines comes from the air...
• VW-owned outfit develops solid-state EV battery first
• Skoda Superb police vehicles run Volkswagen Golf GTi engines

Cherokee Indian nation wants Jeep to drop ‘Cherokee’ name

February 27, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The chief of the Cherokee Nation in the USA wants Jeep to stop using the tribe’s name on its vehicles. “I’m sure this comes from a place that is well-intended, but it does not honor us by having our name plastered on the side of a car,” Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee [&hellip...

EVs are on the move, but where are their batteries going?

February 23, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The car, over the next 10 years or so, will become a consumer electronics product full of micro-processors. “It will have 80 to 100 software controllers – in the end it will work like a smartphone,” Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess has said. But the switch to battery-electric propulsion from the internal combustion engine will...

Tesla fans and foes spar over new-look steering wheel

January 29, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Fans and foes of electric vehicle maker Tesla are bombarding online sites with opinions on what’s right or wrong about its new steering wheel, a ‘yoke’ design for refreshed versions of the Model S sedan and Model X SUV. Some claimed the aviation-type helm was a masterful design; others said it was too futuristic. Tesla’s [&hellip...

Apple EV project sparks talk of manufacturing deal with Ford

January 11, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The ‘Project Titan’ electric car (EV) tech giant Apple reportedly shelved after a couple of years of research and development is believed to be up and running again on the strength of a next-generation battery. News agency Reuters and dedicated US website MacRumors report Apple has built a new battery packed with more energy-dense...

Aston Martin at centre of rubbish report about emissions from EVs

January 10, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

A report endorsed by Aston Martin questioning the green credentials of electric cars (EVs) has been widely discredited after it emerged it was based on doctored data and written by a public relations company set up by the wife of an Aston Martin executive. Aston Martin’s new chief executive, Tobias Moers, said before the Christmas...

New fuel for jet engines comes from the air we breathe

January 4, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Oxford University researchers plan within the next few years to have a commercial jet aircraft fly from England to the United States on fuel made from natural greenhouse gas. The team says its study of a reverse-engineering process could transform carbon dioxide in the air into fuel for jet engines and, if successful, result in [&hellip...

VW-owned outfit develops solid-state EV battery first

December 9, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

US start-up QuantumScape (its largest shareholder is Volkswagen) has said it’s developed a solid-state battery based on a deceptively simple idea. Instead of a conventional liquid electrolyte – the stuff that ferries lithium ions between electrodes – it uses a solid eloctrolyte. Also, the battery’s negative terminal, called its...

Skoda Superb police vehicles run Volkswagen Golf GTi engines

November 26, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Skoda NZ general manager Rodney Gillard will next week meet with senior police officials over the choice of the Superb station wagon as the force’s main patrol vehicle. “They haven’t told me exactly what the meeting is about, only that they want to get together,” said Gillard. The Superb, the Czech carmaker’s premium model,...

Latest car reviews » View All

• Ultimate boys’ toy – submarine about as big as...
• Car of the year? Has to be the Toyota...
• Numbers game: the real story behind record 2017 sales...
• HSV lines up flash Colorado ute, Chev Camaro, Silverado...
• Land Rover responds to clean air critic that ‘diesel...
• Kia and Isuzu the go-getters in 2013-2017 sales figures
• At the wheel: an open and shut case in...
• Holden Astra – European flavour blended with a ‘taste...

Ultimate boys’ toy – submarine about as big as two jet skis

April 23, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The jet ski might indeed be one of the best watersport toys going round, but it has nothing on the lightweight Nemo submersible from U-Boat Worx, a specialist company in The Netherlands. Both craft do have one thing in common, however – they can be towed by the family station wagon or SUV, although Nemo [&hellip...

Car of the year? Has to be the Toyota ZR Hybrid Corolla

January 2, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The new Toyota Corolla didn’t make the cut in mainstream 2018 car of the year awards in New Zealand, mainly because it arrived late in the year and didn’t meet judging deadlines. But I spent enough time behind the wheel of both the 2.0-litre petrol and 1.8-litre petrol-electric Corollas to choose the ZR Hybrid Corolla [&hellip...

Numbers game: the real story behind record 2017 sales year

January 18, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

If you believe the public relations guff, every distributor in New Zealand last year sold record numbers of new vehicles. But that wasn’t the case. Okay, it was an overall record year, with 159,871 new vehicle registrations. But quite a few brands didn’t do as well as the PR people claim. Press releases saying this [&hellip...

HSV lines up flash Colorado ute, Chev Camaro, Silverado truck

December 8, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The Chevrolet badge returns to New Zealand next year on the bonnet of the all-American Camaro sports car and Silverado pick-up truck. Both vehicles will be converted to right-hand drive by Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) at its new 28,000 square-metre plant in Melbourne. It’s where HSV will also prepare two versions of the Holden...

Land Rover responds to clean air critic that ‘diesel is the devil’

September 13, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Jaguar Land Rover has defended its diesel engine technology after criticism of the fuel from the founder and director of Clean Air London, Simon Birkett. “Diesel is the devil, and we do need to ban it,” Birkett told a panel of automotive experts at the inaugural Jaguar Land Rover Tech Fest, a three-day event in [&hellip...

Kia and Isuzu the go-getters in 2013-2017 sales figures

September 6, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Registrations of traditional passenger sedans and hatchbacks have tumbled over the past five years, as New Zealanders move towards SUVs and utes. In August 2013, for instance, the Holden Commodore sat at No. 5 on the top 15 list. Last month it was No. 10. A month earlier it was No. 11. Five years ago [&hellip...

At the wheel: an open and shut case in top-down Merc

May 29, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Hard-charging Kiwi motorcycle great Graeme Crosby tells the story of racing in the Isle of Man TT for the first time in 1979. He sort of ‘smelled’ his way round the 48km circuit. “It’s such a long way that it’s hard sometimes to remember exactly where your are,” he once told me. “There is one [&hellip...

Holden Astra – European flavour blended with a ‘taste of Kiwi’

March 3, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Holden has tasked its award-winning advertising agency, Special Group, to change how Holden is perceived in New Zealand. It wants the agency to help transform the brand, give it a taste of Kiwi, point it more towards premium space. It’s not that Holden has gone away; just that, over time, the brand has lost its [&hellip...

Tips and advice View All

September 26, 2015 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Drive safe – ‘Turn on the bubble machine’ when you start car

There is a statistic from the road toll that the Government needs to take into account as it considers raising the maximum speed limit on some roads...

‘Huge market’ in NZ for Aussie insurance write-offs, says transport official

April 22 | Comments Off

It’s a Breeze – a breathalyser that tells your cellphone when you are...

January 5 | Comments Off

‘Bucket list’: Taking on the best gravel roads in New Zealand

April 30 | Comments Off

SUVs gain greater share of the 2014 sales race

March 9 | Comments Off

Shapely figure causes male drivers to lose the plot

February 26 | Comments Off

Industry news View All

February 27, 2021 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Cherokee Indian nation wants Jeep to drop ‘Cherokee’ name

The chief of the Cherokee Nation in the USA wants Jeep to stop using the tribe’s name on its vehicles. “I’m sure this comes from a...

EVs are on the move, but where are their batteries going?

February 23 | Comments Off

Tesla fans and foes spar over new-look steering wheel

January 29 | Comments Off

Apple EV project sparks talk of manufacturing deal with Ford

January 11 | Comments Off

Aston Martin at centre of rubbish report about emissions from EVs

January 10 | Comments Off

New fuel for jet engines comes from the air we breathe

January 4 | Comments Off

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  Cherokee Indian nation wants Jeep to drop ‘Cherokee’ name

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