Why the long face – Ford Mustang Mach-E review
I know it’s an oldie but ‘why the long face?’ seemed like a fitting joke as I slipped past the line of vehicles queuing to refill their fossil fuelled cars at the petrol station while I was behind the wheel of a Mustang, an EV Mustang Mach-E to be more specific – well I found […]
GR Lite: 2021 Toyota C-HR GR Sport Review
First there was the GR Supra, and it was good. Then came the GR Yaris, and it blew us away. Now, a third member of Toyota’s line-up has received the handiwork of Toyota Gazoo Racing. What you see here look all rakish and aggressive is the Toyota C-HR GR Sport which sits atop the C-HR […]
Fortuner Major: Toyota Fortuner Limited Review
The Toyota Fortuner always makes me think of Harry Potter. No, really. I think the fact it shares the same nameplate one of the ever-changing passwords of the Gryffindor common room, “Fortuna Major.” Anyway, nerd chat aside, back to a Fortuner that actually exists. The Toyota Fortuner makes no bones about being a seven-seater off […]
Nip and Tuck: Volkswagen Tiguan R-Line Review
When it comes to a mid-sized SUV with a premium feel, the Volkswagen Tiguan has been a crowd favourite. Peel back the pages of Tiguan history to as far as 2007, and you will find that pretty much every generation of this car has been lapped up by the punters. In fact, it wasn’t until […]
Pushing To D-Max: Isuzu D-Max X-Terrain Review
Despite being attacked from all sides by the likes of Ford’s Ranger and the Toyota Hilux, the Isuzu D-Max has still managed to gain a firm foothold in the uber competitive Kiwi Ute segment. In fact, the previous generation D-Max went on to become a firm favourite with buyers due to its ‘Bang for your […]
Why the 2021 BMW M3 Competition is ‘Essential’
The world is a funny place at the moment, full of uncertainty and direction, so it was a nice respite when BMW New Zealand offered us the latest iteration of their sporty staple the M3 Competition to review – and then NZ immediately went into level 4 lockdown. Born out of the desire to enter […]
Luxury Master Class: Mercedes-Benz S450 4MATIC Review
For a long time, if you wanted to have an insight into what kind of technology would be common place on the average car within the next decade, you would look to the Mercedes S-Class. Why? Because throughout its lifetime, variations of Mercedes’ flagship luxury saloon have packed a sterling CV of technological firsts which […]
Sorento Perfecto: Kia Sorento Premium AWD PHEV Review
The current Kia Sorento is leaps and bounds ahead of the previous generation. For the first time, the term ‘Premium’ could be mentioned in the same sentence as Sorento. That’s not saying the previous car wasn’t much chop, it just couldn’t really fly that premium flag despite Kia’s best efforts. Today, things couldn’t be more […]
Roarsome – 2021 Cupra Leon VZ Hatch review
A few weeks ago we attended the New Zealand launch of the all-new SEAT/Cupra Leon (wow a lot has happened since then). Anyway, there we discovered that the 4th generation Cupra Leon is more powerful, better equipped and smarter than ever, however, just to be sure, Cupra NZ let us play with the ‘hot hatch’ […]
Escape From Lockdown: Ford Escape ST Line X PHEV Review
It was a Tuesday. I had just picked up the Ford Escape ST-Line X PHEV from the team at Team Hutchinson Ford in Christchurch. The plan was to test Ford’s new Plug In Hybrid version of the Escape over a few days, however once day turned into night, it was clear this was not to […]