Automotive News NZ

Subaru: no measuring stick for combining petrol-electric power

May 29 | Comments Off
Jaguar Land Rover seeks $2 billion in British gov’t bailout

May 26 | Comments Off
Hyundai Santa Cruz ute built around car-like architecture

May 23 | Comments Off
This car can refuel itself – once it’s parked in the sun

May 20 | Comments Off
Diesel dilemma: appeal of LPG Ram truck and Ssangyong petrol ute

May 14 | Comments Off
Following route the house of Jack built for businesses

May 11 | Comments Off
Thinking differently: which way do the hands of a clock turn?

May 1 | Comments Off
Ultimate boys’ toy – submarine about as big as two jet skis

April 23 | Comments Off
Ford and Samsung get together to help workers stay apart

April 18 | Comments Off
1932 – the invention of the Ford V8 engine

April 16 | Comments Off

The story of performance house RUF …
1932 – the invention of the Ford V8 engine
Giving new Land Rover Defender the once-over
Why the Chevvy Corvette is such a fast sprinter...
GM chief talks to Bloomberg about Corvette …
Mazda rotary runs at its most efficient on hydrogen...
How Koenigsegg does its ‘crash’ tests …
Renault Megane RS Trophy-R sets lap record

The story of performance house RUF …

May 1, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

This film tells the story of performance house RUF, how, over the past 80-odd years, it’s gone from a small local repair shop in Pfaffenhausen, Germany, to continued building cars for one sole purpose – the love of the automobile...

1932 – the invention of the Ford V8 engine

April 16, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

This video deals with the development of Ford’s early line of V8 engines...

Giving new Land Rover Defender the once-over

September 11, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The 2020 Land Rover Defender has been unveiled and British motoring writer Paul Hudson takes us through a first look at the new 4&#...

Why the Chevvy Corvette is such a fast sprinter …

July 25, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette, the first factory-backed right-hooker and the first mid-engine model, will join Holden’s line-up in Australia and New Zealand. This video deals with how the layout of the 6.2-litre V8 engine helps the C8 Corvette achieve its claimed 0-100km/h time of under 3 seconds...

GM chief talks to Bloomberg about Corvette …

July 20, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

GM president Mark Reuss talks about the new mid-engine C8 Corvette, driver assistance systems, and workforce relations with Bloomberg’s David Westin on “Bloomberg Markets.&#...

Mazda rotary runs at its most efficient on hydrogen …

July 18, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

American engineer Jason Fenske, of Engineering Explained, describes exactly what happens inside a Mazda rotary engine running on hydrogen. It turns out the design of the engine is pretty much ideal for burning hydrogen. ...

How Koenigsegg does its ‘crash’ tests …

May 28, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Mainstream carmakers might crash-test hundreds of vehicles in order to meet safety standards. But it’s a different story for Swedish supercar company Koenigsegg, which might only turn out 12 to 15 cars a year. Each one can cost many millions of dollars, so crashing and trashing even one would be absurdly expensive. This video, from...

Renault Megane RS Trophy-R sets lap record

May 23, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The Megane RS Trophy-R, driven by Renault Formula One team pilot Nico Hulkenberg, completed an official full lap of the Nurburgring in 7 minutes 40.1 seconds, three seconds quicker than the Honda Civic Type R’s 7 minutes 43.8 seconds...

Subaru: no measuring stick for combining petrol-electric power
Jaguar Land Rover seeks $2 billion in British gov’t...
Hyundai Santa Cruz ute built around car-like architecture
This car can refuel itself – once it’s parked...
Diesel dilemma: appeal of LPG Ram truck and Ssangyong...
Following route the house of Jack built for businesses
Thinking differently: which way do the hands of a...
Ultimate boys’ toy – submarine about as big as...

Subaru Hybrid XV and Forester range shot beach 1-2

Subaru: no measuring stick for combining petrol-electric power

May 29, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Pretty much every maker of fuel-saving hybrid vehicles combines, on paper at least, the power and torque of both the petrol engine and electric motor for overall output. Even Ferrari does. Its hybrid hypercar LaFerrari, it says, generates 708kW – 588kW from its V12 petrol engine and 120kW from an electric motor. Toyota does too....

Jaguar Land Rover seeks $2 billion in British gov’t bailout

May 26, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) says reports that it is seeking a NZ$4 billion bailout from the British Government are “inaccurate and speculative”– but it is in talks for help as it battles a steep fall in global sales as a result of the coronavirus lockdown. “We are in regular discussion with government on a whole [&hellip...

Hyundai Santa Cruz ute built around car-like architecture

May 23, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Spy pictures of Hyundai’s Santa Cruz ute have been floating about for some time, but this first picture of the actual bodyshell shows how the four-door production version has grown from the two-door concept shown below. It is a logical step, seeing as four-door variants make up the lion’s share of ute sales. But Hyundai [&hellip...

This car can refuel itself – once it’s parked in the sun

May 20, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Under the skin of this ordinary looking people-mover is what its developers label as extraordinary – 248 solar cells that can fully recharge its lithium-ion battery pack or, in other words, effectively refuel itself. That is as long as it’s parked under the sun. It’s the Sion, a five-seat, 4900mm-long, battery-electric MPV built by...

Diesel dilemma: appeal of LPG Ram truck and Ssangyong petrol ute

May 14, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

A builder in Auckland has run into the same problem owners of diesel vehicles, especially utes, have: exhaust filters so clogged with soot that they can send the vehicle into limp-home mode. So he got out of his 3.0-litre diesel Volkswagen V6 Amarok and into an all-American Ram 1500 – and promptly installed a dual-fuel [&hellip...

Following route the house of Jack built for businesses

May 11, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The senior executive of a top 10 motoring nameplate in New Zealand is planning to exit the coronavirus lockdown with the words of hard-charging American business leader Jack Welch as a guiding light: “Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.” The reality the motoring industry faces [&hellip...

Thinking differently: which way do the hands of a clock turn?

May 1, 2020 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Code-breakers at Bletchley Park, the British World War II facility tasked with cracking Nazi Germany’s Enigma system, encouraged new recruits to think differently. One senior man always asked the question: ‘Which way do the hands of a clock turn?’ The answers always came back ‘clockwise’ or ‘right to left.’ The instructor...

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...

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

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 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...

September 26, 2015 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

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