First Drives New Cars

FIRST DRIVE: A pair of Land Rovers

New engines, improved interiors and a transmission we have been waiting for (in a Land Rover, at least) were the big news from a low-key Land Rover launch today. The Freelander gets a brilliant petrol engine that will seem strangely familiar and the Discovery gets a brilliant 8-speed auto transmission. We spent a day sampling […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Volkswagen Beetle

OVERSTEER ROAD TEST: Volkswagen Beetle The second incarnation of the new version of a car originally conceived by a genocidal maniac and “designed” by a bloke who actually nicked the design off a another company is finally here. That’s right – the original Nazi fun-wagon is back! We take a Beetle for a blast! While […]

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First Drives New Cars

FIRST DRIVE: Subaru Forester

“Smarter, Safer, Further” is the way Subaru NZ are describing the new Forester in their marketing, even going as far to say “It can if you can”. We travel to a summery (but still rather breezy) Queenstown to see if it can… What is it? An SUV, okay? It’s DEFINITELY an SUV and if you […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: BMW M6

OVERSTEER ROAD TEST: BMW M6 BMW’s M cars are, as a rule, rather special. Despite the company’s slightly confused attempt to add SUVs to the M line up, the ‘proper’ M cars (the ones with a single number after the M… or in the case of the 1M, before…) are still very much the heroes […]

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Classic

Blast From The Past: Subaru SVX

OVERSTEER ROAD TEST: Subaru SVX It’s always quite interesting when established car makers go out on a branch and try to penetrate niche market segments. So when a popular Japanese manufacturer with a rally history unveiled a prototype luxury sporting GT at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show, more than a few eyebrows were raised. The […]

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New Cars Quick Drives

QUICK DRIVE: Mercedes-Benz B250

OVERSTEER ROAD TEST: Mercedes-Benz B250 The Mercedes-Benz B250 is a hard car to get your head around. On one hand you have the upright, mini-people mover body and slightly, well, grandmotherly styling. But on the other hand you have the noticeably lower ride height, big wheels and the quite frankly silly 155kW/350Nm engine lurking under […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Aston Martin V8 Vantage

OVERSTEER ROAD TEST: Aston Martin V8 Vantage While Bond is back in his DB5 for Skyfall, we got to experience the new look 2012 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Sportshift. Given we here at OVERSTEER are car obsessed James Bond fans, you could say we enjoyed that… While the Vantage hasn’t exactly had any real James […]

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Classic

BLAST FROM THE PAST: Chevrolet Impala

OVERSTEER ROAD TEST: Chevrolet Impala I wonder just how many times I have seen the Chevrolet Impala in Hip Hop and Rap music videos. They are usually painted in a nice shade of psychedelic purple, or maybe lime green with gold rims, and the compulsory hydraulic suspension, for when these “Playas” want to raise the […]

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New Cars

ROAD TRIP: BMW M6

Recently we were lucky enough to spend four days with the mighty BMW M6 down in the South Island. This wasn’t a true road test – that will come later – what we were doing was taking it on a road trip from Christchurch to Dunedin, with a bypass on the way to check out […]

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New Cars Quick Drives

QUICK DRIVE: Bentley Continental GT

OVERSTEER ROAD TEST: Bentley Continental GT It isn’t every day that someone hands you the key to a $325,000 Bentley just after lunch and says “Go where you like, dinner is at 7.30”. It is even less frequent that this happens within an hour’s drive of one of the greatest motor racing circuits in the […]

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