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Latest News

Hot new looks - spy videos » View All

Highlights » View All

• Ex-Recaro agent builds patent-pending sports seats for Holden concept
• Carmakers finding solutions to problems that don’t exist?
• Nurburgring lap record Renault Megane Trophy-R in NZ next...
• Going camping in trailer made out of composite of...
• ‘Seamless’ wheels on Citroen EV concept marry rims and...
• Audi previews all-electric e-tron SUV with left-hook NZ road...
• Ford-Rivian link: next stop NZ for all-electric lifestyle vehicles?
• 2020 Subaru Outback: boosted flat-four replaces 3.6-litre unit

Ex-Recaro agent builds patent-pending sports seats for Holden concept

June 8, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

It’s 200mm higher and 150mm wider than a regular Holden Colorado ute, rides on 35-inch all-terrain wheels, has bespoke steel bumpers front and rear, a scooped carbon-fibre bonnet that weighs 7kg, patent-pending sports seats designed in New Zealand … and it’s on show at Fieldays next week. But that’s all it is – a concept...

Carmakers finding solutions to problems that don’t exist?

June 3, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Where is the automotive industry going next with the development of so-called smart devices? Is it nearing information overload? Findings solutions to problems that don’t exist? Take, for example, inventions from American start-up Byton and Britain’s venerable Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Byton not long ago revealed its production-ready...

Nurburgring lap record Renault Megane Trophy-R in NZ next year

May 23, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The Renault Megane RS Trophy-R, the front-drive performance hatchback that has just set the lap record (see video below) for its class around Germany’s Nurburgring circuit, will go on sale in New Zealand early next year. “We haven’t got any exact dates yet but the Trophy-R will be here in the New Year,” said Renault [&hellip...

Going camping in trailer made out of composite of chicken feathers

May 22, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Teardrop camping trailers are nothing new – but one made largely by hand out of a composite of chicken feathers certainly is. It’s called the Earth Traveler T250LX, a single-axle trailer weighing just 135kg and built by the Earth Traveler company in the US state of New Mexico. The adaptable four-person living shelter has strength...

‘Seamless’ wheels on Citroen EV concept marry rims and rubber

May 16, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Citroen challenged tyre giant Goodyear to come up with tall and narrow wheels for the Citroen 19_19, an all-electric SUV concept designed to celebrate the French carmaker’s 100th birthday and showcase styling and technology that could underpin its future. It wanted the end result to appear as though the wheels were independent from the...

Audi previews all-electric e-tron SUV with left-hook NZ road show

May 8, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Audi is preparing another road show for its stakeholders in New Zealand, this time with four left-hand drive examples of the e-tron, Audi’s first all-electric SUV. The EV cars are due to land in Auckland in the next few days, before being made ready for their public appearances from June 6 as a prelude to [&hellip...

Ford-Rivian link: next stop NZ for all-electric lifestyle vehicles?

May 5, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Will American start-up company Rivian Automotive sell its battery-electric SUVs and utes in New Zealand now that it has confirmed production for Australia? If so, will they be sold through an independent Rivian outlet? Or will they, now that Ford HQ in Detroit has taken a US$500 million stake in Rivian, be sold as premium [&hellip...

2020 Subaru Outback: boosted flat-four replaces 3.6-litre unit

April 20, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Japanese all-wheel-drive specialist Subaru has ditched its 3.6-litre flat-six engine in favour of a more powerful and thriftier turbocharged 2.4-litre flat-four for its premium sixth-generation Outback SUV, which is expected to go on sale in New Zealand later next year. The big difference between the two engines is not so much in terms...

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

June 8, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Ex-Recaro agent builds patent-pending sports seats for Holden concept

It’s 200mm higher and 150mm wider than a regular Holden Colorado ute, rides on 35-inch all-terrain wheels, has bespoke steel bumpers front and...

Carmakers finding solutions to problems that don’t exist?

June 3 | Comments Off

Nurburgring lap record Renault Megane Trophy-R in NZ next year

May 23 | Comments Off

Going camping in trailer made out of composite of chicken feathers

May 22 | Comments Off

‘Seamless’ wheels on Citroen EV concept marry rims and rubber

May 16 | Comments Off

Audi previews all-electric e-tron SUV with left-hook NZ road show

May 8 | Comments Off

We are the World

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  September 29, 2016 | Comments Off

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Industry news

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  Ex-Recaro agent builds patent-pending sports seats for Holden concept

  Jun 8 | Comments Off

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  Carmakers finding solutions to problems that don’t exist?

  Jun 3 | Comments Off

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