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Latest News

Hot new looks - spy videos » View All

Highlights » View All

• What happened to 32,000 vehicles registered to car firms...
• New Land Rover Defender trials mix of boosted 2.0-litre...
• 1952 Jeep kitted out for combat is among US...
• Car of the year? Has to be the Toyota...
• Range Rover and Zenith launch watch to wear with...
• Chrysler Neon, the worst new car in NZ in...
• Prototype Porsche 911 RS likely to sell at auction...
• Kiwi-built caravan opens door to new lifestyle on the...

What happened to 32,000 vehicles registered to car firms in 2018?

January 22, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Motor Industry Association (MIA) figures show that 161,510 new passenger cars and commercials were registered in New Zealand in 2018, but an estimated 32,000 of those were registered before being offered for sale – and there is nothing on record to show that they actually ended up being sold to an end-user. According to confidential...

New Land Rover Defender trials mix of boosted 2.0-litre engines

January 8, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

• See accompanying video  Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) says its new-generation Defender will need a “balanced engine portfolio” in order to succeed in all global markets – that’s why prototypes are using cleaner-burning turbocharged 2.0-litre engines from the company’s Ingenium range of five four-cylinder units. Defenders...

1952 Jeep kitted out for combat is among US auction gems

January 3, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Car collectors and enthusiasts imported more than 1000 used American vehicles into New Zealand last year, records show. Whether they were bought privately or publicly is a step too far for this story, but feedback indicates that Kiwis are keeping an eye on what’s for sale at the big auction houses, like RM Sothebys. Among [&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...

Range Rover and Zenith launch watch to wear with new Evoque

December 2, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Swiss watchmaker Zenith launched its groundbreaking El Primero chronograph watch in 1969, the same year that Land Rover rolled out the two-door Range Rover, now known as the Classic. It was a coincidence that became a partnership 49 years later, in 2016, when the two marques kicked off a deal that has resulted in several [&hellip...

Chrysler Neon, the worst new car in NZ in past 25 years

November 27, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

News that Chrysler and Dodge models will no longer be available in New Zealand brings to mind the small Neon sedan Chrysler launched here in the late 1990s. It will forever be remembered as the worst new car to land in this country in the past 25 years. It was awful. Chrysler NZ sold most [&hellip...

Prototype Porsche 911 RS likely to sell at auction for $NZ2.5m

October 10, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

It’s often referred to as the most dynamically rewarding Porsche 911 of all, the lightweight 2.7-litre Renne Sport (RS) of 1973 – and the early example pictured here is expected to fetch around NZ$2.5m when it goes under the hammer on October 27. Auction house RM Sothebys says it is the second of nine prototype [&hellip...

Kiwi-built caravan opens door to new lifestyle on the road

September 29, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

A Christchurch company’s innovative design for a revolutionary caravan received scant media coverage in New Zealand when the concept was unveiled in 2012 – but now the world wants to know about it. Lifestyle websites in Britain, Germany and the USA are calling the ‘Romotow’ the first real reinvention of the caravan in more than...

Latest car reviews » View All

• 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...
• Kia, Suzuki big improvers in January sales sleight-of-hand

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...

Kia, Suzuki big improvers in January sales sleight-of-hand

February 5, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Record January registrations in New Zealand point to the usual end-of-year sleight of hand, where many vehicles sold in the last month of the year aren’t registered until the first month of the next year. That way an unregistered 2016-year vehicle bought in December, for example, appears on the NZ Transport Agency books as first...

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

January 22, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

What happened to 32,000 vehicles registered to car firms in 2018?

Motor Industry Association (MIA) figures show that 161,510 new passenger cars and commercials were registered in New Zealand in 2018, but an...

New Land Rover Defender trials mix of boosted 2.0-litre engines

January 8 | Comments Off

1952 Jeep kitted out for combat is among US auction gems

January 3 | Comments Off

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

January 2 | Comments Off

Jeep Gladiator pick-up has two engine options for NZ market

December 2 | Comments Off

Range Rover and Zenith launch watch to wear with new Evoque

December 2 | Comments Off

We are the World

• Reinventing ‘Good Oil’ column

  September 29, 2016 | Comments Off

New car gadgets

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  Mercedes-AMG delivers its fastest four-door sedan

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Industry news

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  What happened to 32,000 vehicles registered to car firms in 2018?

  Jan 22 | Comments Off

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  New Land Rover Defender trials mix of boosted 2.0-litre engines

  Jan 8 | Comments Off

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