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Shaken, stirred — and crashed
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SUVs dominate shortlist of NZ Car of the Year
SUVs are cementing their place as a Kiwi favourite, and also dominate the shortlist for this year’s AA/New Zealand Motoring Writers Guild Car of the Year Awards. Of the 10 shortlisted, six are SUVs of varying sizes: the Mazda CX-3, Hyundai Tucson, Subaru Legacy, Land Rover Discovery Sport, Audi Q7 and Volvo XC90. The list also includes a plug-in vehicle, the BMW i3, with two other Mazdas (the Mazda 3 and MX5) and the Ford Mondeo rounding out the top 10.
Awards will be given in the categories of small, compact, medium and large car, as well as small/medium and large SUV, utility, sports/performance, luxury vehicle and a safety award, for the vehicle which scores the highest overall ANCAP score during the year.
The shortlist has been selected by a panel of experts, but all Motoring Guild members get to vote for the winner. Vehicles are awarded points based on styling, economy, comfort, interior design, build quality and finish, practicality, value for money and ‘X-factor’.
Voting in the ‘people’s choice’ category will open in November, and the winners will be announced on December 9. Last year’s winner was the Mazda 3, out of a shortlist also dominated by SUVs.
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New Auckland city bus lanes 24/7
Auckland drivers will have to be even more vigilant around designated bus-only lanes, with Auckland Transport installing new 24/7 lanes to ease congestion in the central city. Bus stops and routes are being shifted to accommodate the construction of the new underground City Rail Link and improve the city’s public transport network.
Much of the initial construction, in October and November this year, will centre around Albert St, but new 24/7 lanes will be added to Fanshawe Street, Halsey Street, Victoria Street West, Wellesley Street West, Mayoral Drive and Hobson Street. These areas will also lose parking spaces and loading zones.
Phase two of the project, starting from April 2016, will involve significant changes to Albert Street and the Britomart area. There will be partial road closures, relocation of parking, taxi stands and loading zones, and new bus lanes and bus stops.
Auckland Transport says the new bus lanes can be identified by the green-coloured section at the beginning and end (and sometimes sections in between) of the lane. Lanes are also marked with roadside signage identifying it as a bus lane and outlining the hours the lane operates. If no times are advertised on the signage, it means the lane operates 24 hours a day.
Other vehicles must not stop or park in any bus lane, and cannot legally enter the lane to make a left turn until 50 metres before the intersection. Drivers breaking the rules can be fined $150.
Click here for more information >
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Money — and cars — no object in new Bond film
When it comes to James Bond movies, the biggest casualties are normally not the baddies — it’s the cars used in the movies’ ever-more outrageous and eye-catching stunts. For this year’s new Bond flick, Spectre, due for release in New Zealand on November 12, an estimated NZ$56 million worth of luxury cars, including seven Aston Martin DB10s, were sacrificed in the name of entertainment.
Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper reported that millions of dollars worth of cars were written off following the filming of just one of the film’s heart-pounding car chase scenes, in which Bond’s Aston Martin is pursued at high speed by a villain in a Jaguar C-X75 through the streets of Rome, past the Vatican, the Colosseum and along the River Tiber. Bond, of course, escapes unscathed.
Ten custom Aston Martins were built for the film, the most expensive Bond movie ever made, costing an eye-watering NZ$467 million. The previous Bond film, Skyfall, released in 2012, earned NZ$1.7 billion worldwide.
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LeasePlan clients honoured at Brake Fleet Safety Awards
Three LeasePlan clients were among the companies being honoured for working hard to reduce road crashes involving at-work drivers at the inaugural Australasian Fleet Safety Awards, organised by road safety charity Brake.
The awards, sponsored by SurePlan, Suzuki and Telogis, and held in Auckland on October 1, were set up to recognise companies and individuals who have implemented successful initiatives, products or services to tackle fleet safety.
There were five categories of awards, including two individual awards. The Road Risk Manager Award went to Jenny Seddon, Business Services Manager at Plunket, a LeasePlan client, while the prestigious Outstanding Commitment to Road Safety Award went to another LeasePlan client, Jim Wiles of NZI Lumley. LeasePlan client Vector also won the Safe Vehicles Award.
Wiles started out his career as a traffic officer for the Ministry of Transport, then became managing director of a driver-training organisation before moving into fleet risk-management with Lumley. He developed the training programme for civilian driver licence examiners and driver testing in New Zealand, and he is also involved in a number of transport industry associations including the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and the Road Transport Association.
‘We are delighted to celebrate the great achievements of companies and individuals who are striving to make a real difference in the world of fleet safety,’ said Caroline Perry, Brake’s NZ Director.
Brake is an international road safety charity. Its New Zealand division promotes road safety and campaigns against the carnage on New Zealand roads, and fundraises to improve support for families bereaved and injured in road crashes.
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