New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Mercedes-Benz CLA 45 AMG Shooting Brake

Quite how AMG manages to get a blistering 265kW out of a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine without it exploding into shrapnel after about ten minutes is staggering. How the also get it to be not only useable, but also relatively docile and tractable around town has, quite frankly, got us buggered. Needless to say, however, […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: BMW 125i

The BMW 1 Series has always been a fantastic little car. Okay, so the first generation was a bit crook looking, but facelifts (or “Life Cycle Impulses” in BMW-speak) and an all-new second generation car have taken care of the worst visual offences. But if you want a small five-door hatch with fantastic RWD handling characteristics, […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Skoda Fabia

The new Skoda Fabia landed in New Zealand a month or so back and instantly impressed us with its looks, quality and eager engines. Now we get to spend a week in the top-of-the-range 81kW DSG car. At $24,990 the top Fabia gets uncomfortably close to the VW Polo (the GTi variant we had justlast week…), […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: VW Polo GTi

Anyone who truly loves driving can appreciate a good Hot Hatch – a small car with big power (relatively speaking, of course) that is built with “enjoyment” being its sole purpose in life. So, of course, we here at OVERSTEER love them… While the current breed of traditional Hot Hatches have all grown in size, […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Subaru Forester 2.0 TD

The current generation of Subaru Forester has become a familiar sight on New Zealand roads, but the one thing that was missing from it was a diesel-powered automatic option. But now that has changed with the release of a diesel-powered automatic option! Powered by Subaru’s brilliant 108kW/350Nm 2.0-litre horizontally opposed 4-cylinder engine, the Forester diesel […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Mazda CX-3 GSX

The recent explosion in popularity of the baby SUV has seen a number of manufacturers caught short and now lacking what has quickly become an important part of the range. But not Mazda. The Japanese manufacturer has been on a blinding roll recently, with remarkably good product pouring from its factories; the Mazda6, Mazda3 and […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Citroen C4

The Citroen C4 has struggled for sales a bit as of late, despite the local distributor managing to get a some remarkably good pricing across the range. So now, for the facelifted C4, they are trying the opposite approach and the C4 range now consists of one very well stocked model. The new C4 now gets […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Lexus RC-F

The Lexus RC F takes over from the IS F as the performance flagship in the Lexus line up (not counting the limited LF A, that is) and as such packs a revised version of the 5.0-litre naturally aspirated V8 that featured in the IS, but in an all-new two door coupe body that takes the Japanese […]

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New Cars Road Tests

PHOTO GALLERY ROAD TEST: Subaru WRX STi

Okay, here it is – our latest Photo Gallery Road Test, this time of the Subaru WRX STi! Which may be slightly confusing because our last one was of a Subaru WRX… Actually, this one is of the hotter, nastier (in a good way) WRX STi, but there is still room for confusion. So why have […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: HSV Senator Signature

Car names. It is a tricky art getting it just right. Coming up with a name that invokes the spirit of the car is a very hard thing to do – the Ford Probe, for example, failed quite badly at that when, instead of invoking images of a cutting-edge machine used for space exploration, it […]

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