Automotive News NZ

Sacked Ghosn: How Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance plays out in NZ

November 20 | Comments Off
World first: 3D-printed wheel from titanium powder

November 18 | Comments Off
Airbus plans sleeping ‘pods’ in cargo holds on long-haul flights

November 10 | Comments Off
Toyota sales slump in wake of ‘Drive Happy’ price policy

November 8 | Comments Off
Holden Acadia: how new SUV fits into autonomous future

November 4 | Comments Off
Prototype Porsche 911 RS likely to sell at auction for $NZ2.5m

October 10 | Comments Off
Kiwi-built caravan opens door to new lifestyle on the road

September 29 | Comments Off
Colorado ute toughened up by US off-road specialist AEV

September 12 | Comments Off
British watchmaker salutes pioneering speed heroes

September 11 | Comments Off
Woman steering the growth of EVs in Norway keeps eye on NZ

August 30 | Comments Off

Personal jet suit: how it all worked out
3D-printed wheel from titanium powder
Mustang Bullitt hits road on Isle of Man
First look at 400km/h Tesla Roadster …
1966 Lotus Cortina comes back to life …
Zooming in on the DeLorean time machine …
Race greats shoot the breeze in a McLaren P1
Holden designer joins Leno in famous GM concept …

Personal jet suit: how it all worked out

November 20, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Englishman Richard Browning and his company Gravity built the world’s fastest personal jet suit. Here he talks to Wired magazine about the processes he went through to design and engineer this radical new form of transportation. ...

3D-printed wheel from titanium powder

November 18, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

A California company mostly known in the automotive industry for its custom monoblock alloy wheels has teamed with a division of General Electric to produce a world-first 3D-printed wheel from titanium powder. HRE Wheels and GE Additive used Electron Beam Melting (EBM) to create the lightweight prototype wheel, pictured above on a...

Mustang Bullitt hits road on Isle of Man

November 7, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The Isle of Man TT is among the most famous motorsport festivals in the world. Every year, over two weeks, 30 million fans tune in to see top motorcyclists test their talent on the incredible “Mountain Course”. But you don’t have to be on two wheels to get the best out of the course. British [&hellip...

First look at 400km/h Tesla Roadster …

September 11, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Jay Leno, host of US television show Jay Leno’s Garage, takes a spin in what will be the fastest production car ever made – that’s if it gets off the ground. It’s the new-generation Tesla Roadster. The prototype has three electric motors developing 10,000Nm of torque and a claimed top speed of more than 400km/h. [&hellip...

1966 Lotus Cortina comes back to life …

August 5, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

American car restorer Jim Hall’s most recent project is a 1966 Lotus Cortina, one of the few left-hand-drive examples imported into North America from the Lotus plant in England. In this episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, Hall and Leno talk about the restoration and take the car for a spin...

Zooming in on the DeLorean time machine …

July 2, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

US television host and car nut Jay Leno joins ‘Back to the Future’ creator Bob Gale and restorers Terry Matalas and Joe Walser with a recreation of one of the most iconic movie cars of all time – the DeLorean time machine...

Race greats shoot the breeze in a McLaren P1

May 2, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

German driver Nico Rosberg promptly retired after winning the 2016 Formula One World Championship. These days he is a television commentator and consultant. In this video he jumps into the McLaren P1 for a spin on roads in and around Monaco with another former race ace, 1998-99 Formula One world champion, Mika Hakkinen. Both men [&hellip...

Holden designer joins Leno in famous GM concept …

April 2, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Holden designer Michael Simcoe has pretty much penned every Commodore since the 1980s. He also designed the modern Monaro. These days the 60-year-old Melbourne native is the global design chief for General Motors, only the seventh person in company history to hold the position. In this episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, Simcoe lets Leno...

Prototype Porsche 911 RS likely to sell at auction...
Kiwi-built caravan opens door to new lifestyle on the...
Feel-good simplicity of EVs: Hyundai Ioniq is Car of...
Ford delivers ‘Bullitt’ Mustang for classic film’s 50th birthday
Quirky design elements that make some cars stand out...
Jaguar D-Type that set speed record at Le Mans...
General Motors Holden registers Camaro trademark for Aussie
Jeep USA tests new Wranglers in rugged Kiwi country

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...

Feel-good simplicity of EVs: Hyundai Ioniq is Car of Year

January 8, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

It’s impossible to ignore the advantages of cars that run on batteries alone, especially in a country like New Zealand with its renewable supply of comparatively cheap hydro-electric power. One advantage is that average urban daily commutes are well within the range of every plug-in battery-electric car (BEV) on the NZ market. Another...

Ford delivers ‘Bullitt’ Mustang for classic film’s 50th birthday

December 15, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The first clue that Ford would deliver a special Mustang to mark the 50th anniversary of the movie Bullitt came when it withdrew the colour Guard from its inventory. Guard is a dark green similar to the signature Dark Highland Green of the Mustang GT Fastback driven by Hollywood star Steve McQueen (above) in the classic [&hellip...

Quirky design elements that make some cars stand out …

December 10, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Gear Patrol’s Bryan Campbell lists his favourite car design elements … When automotive designers and engineers get together and put forward the best they have to offer, cult followings and icon status just come naturally. For era-defining cars, influences from highway safety rules and crash protection regulations play just as big of...

Jaguar D-Type that set speed record at Le Mans up for sale

December 7, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The Jaguar D-Type OKV 2 might be considered more of a legend than a collector’s car – but now it’s up for sale again. Sothebys will auction the car at the Arizona Concours in January, where it is expected to fetch US$15 million. OKV 2 was the second D-Type iteration from the Jaguar factory back [&hellip...

General Motors Holden registers Camaro trademark for Aussie

November 28, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The story six weeks ago on this website that the all-American Chevrolet badge is almost certain to return to New Zealand on the 2020 Camaro sports car has gained further traction – General Motors Holden (GMH) has just registered the Camaro trademark for Australia. But it hasn’t just filed protection of the car’s name – it taken...

Jeep USA tests new Wranglers in rugged Kiwi country

November 16, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The new Wrangler JL won’t be seen in New Zealand until next year – but Jeep USA has been testing four North American-market prototypes over rugged country around Wanaka and Queenstown. Jeep has already revealed static official pictures of the next-generation two-door and four-door Wrangler, but this is the first time either variant...

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
Hayden Paddon on crash death: ‘Please don’t speculate’

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 New Zealand - Astra RSV 2017, 15 February 2017

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...

Hayden Paddon on crash death: ‘Please don’t speculate’

January 21, 2017 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

New Zealand rally star Hayden Paddon wrote this after he crashed during the first stage of the Monte Carlo rally. A spectator near the crash site died. This is Paddon’s unedited statement. Hi everyone, Upon reflection, I wanted to issue a statement about yesterday’s events. Firstly, our thoughts are with the family and friends...

September 26, 2015 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

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