If you drive a small car, or are thinking about downsizing to a lower fuel use, more efficient smaller car for around town use, then you need to see the Hyundai Accent. This zippy little hot hatch has it all! Small on size but massive on features across the model range. We have a wide range of quality used vehicles like this one in our central Nelson Yard. Click here to find out more.
The second leg of the Prius Challenge has well and truly begun in sunny Motueka with our new salesman Michiel Overweel over seeing the whole thing very well (see what we did there.....)
The Motueka stage of the Prius Challenge will take place over June with the winner announced on our Facebook page 9am July 2nd. Remember what is up for grabs here - the winner of this stage of the Prius Challenge will win the Prius C fully fuelled up, their's for a week to go where ever they wish.
Michiel has just moved here with his wife and daughter from Amsterdam in The Netherlands, and is keen to meet as many locals as he can. Coming from central Europe where hybrid cars are a hot topic and everyone is getting in on the act, Michiel is as keen as mustard to jump into the Prius Challenge and find out just who is Motueka's greenest driver.
We have set a new course for the challenge and have already done a couple of laps to set some benchmark times. We think that it will be very achievable to post a sub 3.0L/100Km fuel consumption rating over the 12.5km course, but time will tell.
On Sunday we took the winners from our Westport Challenge Video Showcase evening over to Mt Riley in Marlborough for some real off road experience courtesy of the Bowater Toyota Extreme Off Road Team.
The day dawned another perfect Nelson winters stunner, with a blue sky beckoning. We headed off to Havelock and The Slip Inn for brunch then over to the extensive 4X4 Tracks on Mike Holme's Mt Riley property.
The whole day was an amazing adventure for us all, with the intense video footage still to come!
The first five-door Civic available on the New Zealand market since the demise of the remarkably spacious 2001-2006 model is to enter showrooms in July.
This is good news, as although we're very much a hatch-oriented market, Honda's recent reliance on Asian sourcing for Civics meant that all we could get were sedans for some years, and when you look at the dwindling numbers in terms of four-door sales in the C-segment, Honda will be celebrating the Euro Civic five-door's arrival too.
New Zealand has missed out on a full generation of five-door Civics, although across the Tasman a limited number were made available from the source in Swindon, England.
The all-new ninth-generation Civic five-door reached European showrooms in late 2011 and it too is sourced from Swindon, where the line-up consists of 1.4 and 1.8 i-VTEC petrol-powered models and a 2.2 i-DTEC diesel, with an all-new 1.6-litre i-DTEC diesel entering the European market by the end of the year.
For the Australian and New Zealand markets, the new Euro Honda five-door will have VTi and VTi-L levels of specification, with both cars using the 1.8 i-VTEC petrol power unit, which delivers maximum power of 104kW at 6500rpm and 174Nm of torque at 4300rpm. It will drive through a six-speed manual or five-speed automatic transmission choice.
Photo: MARTIN DE RUYTER/FAIRFAX NZ: David Eagle of the Bowater Motor Group drives a 2012 Toyota Prius Hybrid car that is being used in the Prius Challenge in Nelson and Motueka.
Article from The Nelson Mail 06/06/12.
That's the mistake Nelson Mail chief photographer Martin de Ruyter made while taking the Prius Challenge in Nelson.
This week the challenge course is in Motueka and next month it will be back in Nelson for a corporate challenge for companies to vie to be the greenest business.
Nelson eco-builder Nick Marer, from the Little Pig Building Company, won the Nelson challenge, topping 50 other drivers with his eco-score of 2.5 litres per 100km fuel economy over the 7.5km course which takes in the hill up and over Russell St, the highway along Queen Elizabeth Drive and back through town.
