Enhanced Hilux hits the spot
The war for supremacy in the ute market is still being waged by market leaders Toyota and Ford, with the Hilux and Ranger.
Toyota NZ has unwrapped the 2019 RAV 4, the SUV first seen in boxy guise 30 years ago at the Tokyo Motor Show.
Now it’s in its fifth generation, and the designers and engineers have been busy: there’s a new 2.0L petrol, a new 2.5L four-pot delivering 152kW, and a first for the RAV 4 -- a 155kW 2.5L petrol/hybrid mated to a CVT powertrain. This latter option underscores Toyota’s stated aimof electric in all its ranges by about 2025.
All new for the RAV is an all-wheel drive system that sends 50% of available torque to the rear axle, from where the differential distributes varying amounts to individual wheels as required.
For urban warriors, the company will also offer a 2WD-only range of three specifications, fitted with the 127kW, 2.0L petrol engine.
All models in all specifications will have Toyota’s Safety Sense driving aids with dynamic radar cruise control, a pre-collision system with autonomous emergency braking (including pedestrian and cyclist detection), road sign assist, lane tracing assist and automated high-beam switching.
Other clever features include blind-spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors and seven airbags.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…