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Latest News

Hot new looks - spy videos » View All

Highlights » View All

• Turning Toyota Tundras into RHD workhorses in Queenstown
• Mitsubishi up but Toyota and BMW January registrations...
• Self-levelling trailer just ticket for off-road adventurers
• Porsche that Seinfeld sold for $US1.54m is fake, says...
• Skyrunner flies high among the best of boys’ toys...
• Ssangyong aids rhino campaigner – now for medical-grade honey
• What happened to 32,000 vehicles registered to car firms...
• New Land Rover Defender trials mix of boosted 2.0-litre...

Turning Toyota Tundras into RHD workhorses in Queenstown

February 15, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

What began as an idea in Canada’s north-west has become a passion at a workshop in Queenstown, where New Zealander Malcolm King is converting North America’s Toyota Tundra pick-up trucks to right-hand drive. Not just any Tundra, but the top spec Crewmax Platinum. Because the big part-time four-wheel-drive critter comes equipped from...

Mitsubishi up but Toyota and BMW January registrations plummet

February 9, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

New vehicle registrations for January show mixed results, the first sign that carmakers have reason to pause after years of year-on-year record numbers. Overall registrations of 13,938 units were short around 900 vehicles compared with a January 2018. Passenger cars and SUVs were down almost 8.0 per cent and commercials 1.0 per cent ....

Self-levelling trailer just ticket for off-road adventurers

February 7, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The team at Australian outdoor company Bruder has introduced the EXP-4 performance trailer, a towable carry-all that adds another dimension to off-road adventures. See the video. The EXP-4 is a smaller version of Bruder’s recent EXP-6, a 6.7m-long, self-contained trailer described as being ‘built for the Apocalypse.’ EXP-6 can...

Porsche that Seinfeld sold for $US1.54m is fake, says lawsuit

February 5, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

A lawsuit lodged in New York claims a rare Porsche that comedian and car collector Jerry Seinfeld sold at a Gooding & Company auction in Florida is a fake. The restored 1958 Porsche 356A 1500 GS/GT Carrera Speedster was bought for US$1.54 million by Fica Frio Ltd, a company registered in Jersey, Channel Islands. It [&hellip...

Skyrunner flies high among the best of boys’ toys …

January 31, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

A boat that crawls up the beach crab-like to become a landing craft; a jet-ski that literally zooms about on skis; and an ATV (above) that can fly … they’re just a few of the boys’ toys from YouTube’s Freeze Lists. See video  &#...

Ssangyong aids rhino campaigner – now for medical-grade honey

January 28, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

‘Saving the Wild’ campaigner and Ssangyong ambassador Jamie Joseph was watching a South African veterinarin treat the wounds of a female black rhino, shot in the foot by poachers in Kruger National Park. “I noticed the vet applying medical-grade Manuka honey to the wound and later found out they are desparate for more honey,” she...

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...

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

February 15, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Turning Toyota Tundras into RHD workhorses in Queenstown

What began as an idea in Canada’s north-west has become a passion at a workshop in Queenstown, where New Zealander Malcolm King is converting North...

Mitsubishi up but Toyota and BMW January registrations plummet

February 9 | Comments Off

Self-levelling trailer just ticket for off-road adventurers

February 7 | Comments Off

Porsche that Seinfeld sold for $US1.54m is fake, says lawsuit

February 5 | Comments Off

Ssangyong aids rhino campaigner – now for medical-grade honey

January 28 | Comments Off

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

January 22 | Comments Off

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  Turning Toyota Tundras into RHD workhorses in Queenstown

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  Mitsubishi up but Toyota and BMW January registrations plummet

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