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Latest News

Hot new looks - spy videos » View All

Highlights » View All

• Electric car ‘Luca’ is made from recycled ocean plastic
• It’s feeding frenzy – three out of four new...
• The ballad of Hilux and Ranger – new models...
• Volkswagen rolls out the ‘Grand’ version of California campervan
• Aston Martin design moves up a gear into luxury...
• Skyactiv-X: 16 years on, Mazda paints another picture of...
• Kia lines up seven new EVs as global battery...
• 2021 Toyota Yaris hits high point with safety firsts

Electric car ‘Luca’ is made from recycled ocean plastic

October 20, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Meet Luca, an electric car build almost entirely from recycled trash by students at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. The project took around 18 months to complete, said group spokesman Matthijs Van Wijk. The chassis itself was made from ocean plastic. “I’m so proud that we could make the chassis with ocean...

It’s feeding frenzy – three out of four new cars are SUVs

October 19, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The growth of SUVs in New Zealand goes a long way to explaining the old maxim that car ownership is not about what we truly need, but more a combination of what we want and what we think we need. The traditional car – sedan, station wagon, hatchback – has been shunted aside over the [&hellip...

The ballad of Hilux and Ranger – new models add to rivalry

October 18, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Ute sales in the first four months of 2014 pointed to the Ford Ranger doing the unthinkable – overtaking the Toyota Hilux as New Zealand’s No. 1 workhorse. Won’t happen, said the industry pundits. You watch, they said, Hilux will still be No.1 at the end of the year. But Ranger’s odds of an upset [&hellip...

Volkswagen rolls out the ‘Grand’ version of California campervan

October 12, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

If ever there was a perfect time to launch a new range of campervans this is it, says Kevin Richards, the manager of the commercial arm of Volkswagen NZ. Why? Because New Zealanders are being encouraged to shake off the cobwebs of covid-19 confinement and hit the road to help the economy get going again. [&hellip...

Aston Martin design moves up a gear into luxury houses

October 5, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Aston Martin might be best known for its luxury sports cars, but, like many of its rival automotive companies, it routinely takes part in third-party projects. Examples are the chronograph watch (pictured) it did with Swiss company TAG Heuer, the ACH130 helicopter with Airbus, the Brough Superior motorcycle, and the single malt whisky...

Skyactiv-X: 16 years on, Mazda paints another picture of itself

October 1, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

In February 2004 I wrote this in the NZ Herald: ‘In the 1980s and 90s, Mazda pretty much went from one conservative passenger car to another, with the exception of the brilliant MX-5 sports car. ‘Its mainstream models were well built but largely lifeless. An outsider could be forgiven for thinking that Mazda executives wore [&hellip...

Kia lines up seven new EVs as global battery market powers up

September 25, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The global battery market to power EVs and consumer electronics and to store renewable energy on power grids will be worth about $NZ175 billion a year by 2030, up from around $NZ42 billion now, according to Bloomberg research. South Korea is one of the countries leading the way in developing the technology for the EV [&hellip...

2021 Toyota Yaris hits high point with safety firsts

September 21, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Toyota NZ has equipped its 2021 Yaris with significant safety firsts in a bid to inject renewed interest in the small car. Yaris, like the rest of its five-door, town-and-around hatchback rivals, has been pushed aside in the last decade by the growth of compact SUVs. In 2013, for example, small cars (21,511) accounted for [&hellip...

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

October 20, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Electric car ‘Luca’ is made from recycled ocean plastic

Meet Luca, an electric car build almost entirely from recycled trash by students at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. The...

It’s feeding frenzy – three out of four new cars are SUVs

October 19 | Comments Off

The ballad of Hilux and Ranger – new models add to rivalry

October 18 | Comments Off

Volkswagen rolls out the ‘Grand’ version of California campervan

October 12 | Comments Off

Aston Martin design moves up a gear into luxury houses

October 5 | Comments Off

Skyactiv-X: 16 years on, Mazda paints another picture of itself

October 1 | Comments Off

We are the World

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Industry news

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  Electric car ‘Luca’ is made from recycled ocean plastic

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  It’s feeding frenzy – three out of four new cars are SUVs

  Oct 19 | Comments Off

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