Automotive News NZ

New Land Rover Defender trials mix of boosted 2.0-litre engines

January 8 | Comments Off
1952 Jeep kitted out for combat is among US auction gems

January 3 | Comments Off
Car of the year? Has to be the Toyota ZR Hybrid Corolla

January 2 | Comments Off
Jeep Gladiator pick-up has two engine options for NZ market

December 2 | Comments Off
Range Rover and Zenith launch watch to wear with new Evoque

December 2 | Comments Off
Chrysler Neon, the worst new car in NZ in past 25 years

November 27 | Comments Off
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

First video of new Land Rover Defender on the...
Jeep Gladiator designer tells of its development …
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 …

First video of new Land Rover Defender on the move …

January 8, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

New-generation Land Rover Defenders undergoing tests in Britain, Europe, and the United States are trialing 2.0-litre petrol and diesel Ingenium engines, although JLR won’t confirm the identity of the powertrains &#...

Jeep Gladiator designer tells of its development …

December 2, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

The Jeep Gladiator pick-up has finally broken cover. It goes into production next year and is expected to go on sale in New Zealand in 2020. In this video, a team from Fast Lane Trucks was at the Gladiator unveiling at the Los Angeles motor show ...

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...

New Land Rover Defender trials mix of boosted 2.0-litre...
1952 Jeep kitted out for combat is among US...
Car of the year? Has to be the Toyota...
Range Rover and Zenith launch watch to wear with...
Chrysler Neon, the worst new car in NZ in...
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...

LR-Defender-2020-gear-patrol-slide-5-1940x1300

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...

1952 Jeep kitted out for combat is among US auction gems

January 3, 2019 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Car collectors and enthusiasts imported more than 1000 used American vehicles into New Zealand last year, records show. Whether they were bought privately or publicly is a step too far for this story, but feedback indicates that Kiwis are keeping an eye on what’s for sale at the big auction houses, like RM Sothebys. Among [&hellip...

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...

Zenith_Defy_Classic_RangeRover_wrist_1000

Range Rover and Zenith launch watch to wear with new Evoque

December 2, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

Swiss watchmaker Zenith launched its groundbreaking El Primero chronograph watch in 1969, the same year that Land Rover rolled out the two-door Range Rover, now known as the Classic. It was a coincidence that became a partnership 49 years later, in 2016, when the two marques kicked off a deal that has resulted in several [&hellip...

Chrysler Neon, the worst new car in NZ in past 25 years

November 27, 2018 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

News that Chrysler and Dodge models will no longer be available in New Zealand brings to mind the small Neon sedan Chrysler launched here in the late 1990s. It will forever be remembered as the worst new car to land in this country in the past 25 years. It was awful. Chrysler NZ sold most [&hellip...

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...

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

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...

September 26, 2015 | Alastair Sloane | Comments Off

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