New Cars Road Tests

Holden Volt: the final update

We have now finished our time with the Holden Volt, so it is time for a wrap up of our final thoughts on it. The first thing you notice when you hop back into an “ordinary” car after just driving a Volt for almost a month is how smooth the Volt actually is. With no […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD Limited

The Grand Cherokee has always been one of those vehicles that was just plain likeable, even when it was a poorly built, soggy, big American cruiser. Now it is much more than that. Much, much more. One of our favourites – aside from the monstrous SRT8 version – has always been the brawny diesel-engined variants. […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Lexus ES350 Limited

With the new IS going all wild and aggressive, Lexus needed something that would still appeal to the, erm, more conservative buyer in that particular price range. Enter the ES. Or rather, re-enter the ES. The ES has been here before, but was largely squeezed out of this market by the increasing size of the […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Chrysler 300C SRT8 Core

When Chrysler first launched the 300C in New Zealand, they said they were only bringing in 26 SRT8s. And they were all sold. A change of local distributor saw a change of mind and we now have not one, but two SRT8 models to choose from: the full-fat, luxury-packed model and a new, stripped-out model […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Volkswagen Tiguan 2WD

While the Tiguan is starting to get on a bit, Volkswagen NZ has just decided to release the FWD version of its successful small SUV into the local market, in turn reducing the entry price point to $39,990 and remaining remarkably competitive in the process. But does the Tiguan lose anything (other than drive to […]

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New Cars

Holden Volt: after the road trip

Well, we have just completed a 400km+ round Christmas trip in the Volt and it continues to impress. Although possibly not in the way you might initially expect. Where it can potentially use literally no petrol around town – as long as you do under 60km – it will inevitably use petrol on a long […]

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New Cars

Holden Volt: The Christmas Day Update!

After a few days pottering around town in the Volt we headed down south to Otorohanga for a family Christmas. The first open road trip in the Volt was a rather uneventful and rather disappointingly ordinary experience, driving home the fact that the Volt is very much like an ordinary car to drive. Apart from […]

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New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Kia Cerato hatch

Competing in the small car segment has always been a tough game to play in, but these days it just keeps getting tougher. Just like trying to choose which car to buy in the segment… Kia haven’t made it any easier by releasing the rather good and extremely good-looking hatch version of the Cerato, either. […]

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New Cars Road Tests

A Volt for Christmas!

For the next few weeks, over the Christmas/New Year break, we have a Holden Volt to run around in. So we thought we would let you know exactly what it was like to actually live with Holden’s range extender electric car on a daily basis! We will be posting regular updates on our daily life […]

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