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Subaru has opened up a niche market for New Zealand's used car importers by equipping its new Impreza STI with two different engines, one for the Japanese domestic market and one for export. The STI Subaru NZ will launch here early next year, comes with a 2.5-litre flat-four engine with single-scroll turbocharger producing an unofficial 224kw (300bhp) and 407nm of torque. The Japanese-market STI has a higher-revving 2-litre flat-four engine with twin-scroll turbocharger putting out 227kw (305bhp) at 6400rpm and 422nm at 4400rpm. Subaru is yet to confirm official go-fast figures for the export model.
Renault joins British stable
The company that distributes British nameplates Jaguar and Land Rover and Sweden's Volvo in New Zealand, Motorcorp Distributors, this week took over operation of France's Renault franchise. Motorcorp managing director Wallis Dumper leads the brand management team and former Renault general manager Robert Nash is now in charge of the Archibald and Shorter retail operation in Auckland. All other Renault staff move across to Motorcorp Distributors. Renault trails its French rivals considerably in the NZ market.
Similarities are striking
Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn met in August with computer company Apple's boss Steve Jobs to discuss "co-operation". VW confirmed the meeting in Los Angeles but would not discuss details. The first hint that something was up came at the Frankfurt motor show, where Apple products were everywhere. Even the colour of VW's new people's car, the concept UP!, was similar to the Apple white. A further variant of the UP! will be unveiled at the Los Angeles motor show this month. The cockpit has an 18cm touch-screen monitor to control all vehicle functions with menu icons that rotate in a carousel fashion similar to the controls on the new Apple iPhone.
Currency squeezes Toyota
Australia's main automotive body, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, has called for the country's carmakers to be compensated for the soaring Aussie dollar. This follows a warning from Toyota that crippling exchange rates and future import tariff reductions could put the future of its Australian manufacturing operations in doubt. Senior executives described the sustained double whammy of the Aussie dollar trading at a 23-year high and the scheduled reduction in 2010 of the new-car import duty from 10 per cent to 5 per cent as a "very serious problem". The FCAI will ask whichever party is in government beyond this month's election to support the industry via a tariff freeze if the Aussie dollar continues towards parity with the US dollar.
We are the world
The British Government has extended an energy saving scheme aimed at getting commercial van drivers to go easy on the accelerator. Nearly 8000 graduates of the scheme improved their fuel consumption by 16 per cent. The government body says the saving equates to 9350 fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide being released.
