If corporate America says it, it’s probably untrue

Le dernier.   I see the Le Snak range has now left us, after its US owner PepsiCo cited a lack of demand. I call bullshit, since during 2021 it was becoming increasingly difficult to find them on the shelves. Throttling distribution is not the same as a lack of demand, something you see time […]

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Most of our top 10 sellers reflect our ignorance

The Suzuki Swift: one of the saving graces on New Zealand’s top 10 list.   At the Opel relaunch briefing yesterday, I was shocked to find that these were New Zealand’s top selling vehicles for 2021. I knew about the first two, but had always assumed a Toyota Corolla would follow, plus some regular cars. […]

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GM and Ford keep falling down the top 10 table

  It’s bittersweet to get news of the Chevrolet Corvette from what’s left of GM here in New Zealand, now a specialist importer of cars that are unlikely to sell in any great number. And we’re not unique, as the Sino-American firm pulls out of entire regions, and manufactures basically in China, North America, and […]

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Have you driven a Ford … lately? Probably not

Ford’s Brazilian line-up, 2021. Once upon a time, there were locally developed Corcels and Mavericks; even the EcoSport was a Brazilian development. Today, it’s Mustang, a couple of trucks, and a rebadged Chinese crossover.   We heard a lot about the demise of Holden as GM retreats from continents at a time, seemingly in a […]

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Brand, sub-brand or model? China’s getting into a confusing phase

The Dongfeng Aeolus AX7. But just where does Aeolus sit when it comes to indexing in Autocade? This is something that might have to come out in the wash, and it might take years.    I think we can all agree that Ssangyong is a marque or a make, and Korando is a model. Never […]

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How Jaguar Land Rover can still win its Land Rover Defender IP case against Ineos

I haven’t read the full judgement of the Land Rover Defender case, where Jaguar Land Rover sought to protect the shape of the original Defender under trade mark law, to prevent Ineos from proceeding with the Grenadier.    According to Bloomberg, as reported in Automotive News, ‘The judge upheld the findings by the IP Office […]

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Autocade reaches 20 million page views

Above: The 4,243th model entered into Autocade, now on 20,008,500 page views: the Maxus G50. Autocade’s passed the 20,000,000 page-view mark, sitting on just over 20,008,000 at the time of writing, on 4,243 models entered (the Maxus G50 is the newest), an increase of 101 models over the last million views.    As it’s the […]

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May is always quieter for blogging—and we get to 4,200 models on Autocade

Again, proof that each 100th vehicle on Autocade isn’t planned: the 4,200th is the second-generation Mazda Premacy, or Mazda 5 in some markets, a compact MPV that débuted 15 years ago. If it were planned, something more significant would have appeared.    I know MPVs aren’t sexy but they remain one of the most practical […]

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Z cars

I did say I’d blog when Autocade hit 4,100 models, which it did yesterday. Proof that the hundredth milestones aren’t planned: the model was the Changan Zhixiang (長安志翔 or 长安志翔, depending on which script system you prefer) of 2008, a.k.a. Changan Z-Shine. A less than stellar car with a disappointingly assembled interior, but it did […]

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Autocade turns 12

Autocade turns 12 today, as it’s now March 8 here in New Zealand. From zero models to 4,093 (the Hyundai Avante XD is the latest); and as I write this sentence, it’s netted 18,683,611 page views. Just four years ago this month, it had only managed eight million.    Just this week, I added two […]

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