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Latest News

Hot new looks - spy videos » View All

Highlights » View All

• 2020 Subaru Outback: boosted flat-four replaces 3.6-litre unit
• New Jeep Wrangler: the price disparity between NZ and...
• Kiwis miss out on special 70th birthday Land Rover
• Commodore Greg Murphy and the ZB affair on Pukekohe...
• Renault Megane RS has goods to be leader of...
• ‘Lightning McQueen’ Porsche 356 comes to life … sort...
• Turning Toyota Tundras into RHD workhorses in Queenstown
• Mitsubishi up but Toyota and BMW January registrations...

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...

New Jeep Wrangler: the price disparity between NZ and Oz

April 11, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Why are Jeep importers Fiat Chrysler New Zealand (FCNZ) asking between NZ$16,000 and NZ$25,000 more than the Australians for the new Wrangler JL, a vehicle that is essentially an update of the outgoing JK model,  albeit with more high-tech stuff? FCNZ has priced the premium Wrangler JL, the four-door Unlimited Rubicon, at NZ$92,990 –...

Kiwis miss out on special 70th birthday Land Rover

April 4, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

This is the Land Rover that a handful of New Zealanders wanted but missed out on, because all 150 special editions celebrating the company’s 70th anniversary were snapped up, many by international investors. Investors? The rough and tumble Defender is not exactly blue-chip stock. But here’s the thing: the price for either the...

Commodore Greg Murphy and the ZB affair on Pukekohe track

March 20, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Me and Greg Murphy were talking about nothing in particular at a Holden event late last year. “Driven the two-litre Commodore yet?” he said. I hadn’t. I had had a drive of the all-wheel-drive V6 but not the front-drive 2.0-litre. “You’ll have difficulty telling whether it’s front or rear drive,” he said. “It shows nothing...

Renault Megane RS has goods to be leader of hot hatch class

March 10, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

One of the automotive breakthroughs often lost amid the dizzying development of digital technology is that made in 2001 by French company Renault: it was the first carmaker to get a five-star crash rating for occupant protection. Beat Europe’s other big names, it did: Benz, Audi, BMW, Volvo, Saab, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Citroen. Modest...

‘Lightning McQueen’ Porsche 356 comes to life … sort of

February 26, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

It’s been said that the front of this 356 Porsche hints at the Lightning McQueen car from the animated movie series ‘Cars’ – but there’s nothing to suggest that the fellow who commissioned the car was into mimicry. All that is known about him is that he’s from America’s upper east coast and that he [&hellip...

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 ....

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

April 20, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

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

Japanese all-wheel-drive specialist Subaru has ditched its 3.6-litre flat-six engine in favour of a more powerful and thriftier turbocharged...

New Jeep Wrangler: the price disparity between NZ and Oz

April 11 | Comments Off

Kiwis miss out on special 70th birthday Land Rover

April 4 | Comments Off

Commodore Greg Murphy and the ZB affair on Pukekohe track

March 20 | Comments Off

Renault Megane RS has goods to be leader of hot hatch class

March 10 | Comments Off

Car industry last year registered 607 vehicles to itself each week

February 27 | 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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  2020 Subaru Outback: boosted flat-four replaces 3.6-litre unit

  Apr 20 | Comments Off

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  New Jeep Wrangler: the price disparity between NZ and Oz

  Apr 11 | Comments Off

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