New Cars Road Tests

ROAD TEST: Mazda MX-5

Colin Chapman is famous for a number of things. There’s the Lotus marque, and the spinoff Formula One team that won seven drivers’ championships and six constructors’ championships. On the downside, though he may have been an engineering genius, he was not the best businessman. Remember the tie-up with John Z. DeLorean that cost the […]

Continue Reading...

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, […]

Continue Reading...

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, […]

Continue Reading...

New Cars

ROAD TEST: Mazda6 Limited

The Mazda6 is one damn fine looking automobile. That is a fact It has always been a good-looking car, but just lately it had started to look a bit dated – not on the outside, mind you, but on the inside, where its interior didn’t quite stand up to the new generation of Mazda’s like […]

Continue Reading...

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…), […]

Continue Reading...

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, […]

Continue Reading...

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 […]

Continue Reading...

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 […]

Continue Reading...