Stuff Top Cars: Ford and Honda grab awards
Our Top Family Cars and Top Light Commercial Vehicle are chosen. Will one win the overall Top Cars prize?
Stuff, in conjunction with Vermeulen Officer Media, is proud to confirm its first three award-winning cars from a gruelling Top Cars campaign. Our first three winners span three of the most important vehicle segments for any new-car buyer right now: a fully electric SUV with performance credentials, a family favourite, and New Zealand’s best-selling vehicle all star.
Top Light Commercial Vehicle: Ford Ranger
No matter where you look, it’s difficult to lose with the Ford Ranger – this year’s big winner in our ute and van category. The smooth and laidback 2.0-litre biturbo diesel has been refined once again for the new model, making a healthy 154kW/500Nm and able to tow 3500kg. And now there’s an even stronger, unstressed and unflustered 184kW/600Nm 3.0-litre twin-turbo diesel V6 in the picture, plucked from the North American Ford F-150.
The Ranger also truly rides and feels like a car to drive. The chassis has been comprehensively reworked, reducing road noise and vastly improving comfort levels by ironing out smaller bumps in the road. It also features some of the best interior door handles we’ve ever used. We’re not kidding.
Of course, these powertrains are all available with the Volkswagen Amarok (the Ranger’s lead rival for the award). The Amarok is a brilliant alternative to the Ranger, make no mistake. But Ford’s ute has one big trump card over its German sibling; the stonkingly good Raptor ... hands down the best ute for sheer fun. It’s fast, sounds amazing, does epic jumps and can still do Ranger stuff on the day to day.
The Ranger takes the ute segment to new heights for myriad reasons. Its blend of refinement, rugged looks, technology and a hugely wellthought-out cabin will likely ensure that the Ranger will
remain the country’s best-selling pick-up for years to come. – Nile Bijoux
Top Family Car, under $60,000: Honda CR-V
There’s no arguing with Honda’s CR-V. Globally, it’s a titan, holding something akin to a nightclub residency at the top of the sales charts in countries all over the world. It has been a mainstay of the Kiwi market too.
Six generations on and we have the latest CR-V. There are three models in the lineup, with the CR-V Sport AWD and CR-V Sport 7 both featuring V-TEC turbo power and the RS e:HEV gaining a competitive 2.0-litre hybrid. It was the valuepacked and hugely practical Sport 7, with its three rows of seats and sub-$60k price tag, that we zeroed in on for our Top Cars considerations.
Out on the open road, the SUV doesn’t feel particularly huge – in a good way. It’s nimble and, regardless of powertrain, feels sprightly and responsive once off the motorway and on back roads or suburban byways.
It’s designed to be loaded to the door sills with all the detritus of family life, but Honda appears to have been at pains to not let the CR-V’s raison d’etre erode the actual enjoyment of getting from errand point A to errand point B.
The CR-V just does everything very, very well. Taken together, it offers what the model always has done for Kiwi families: solid build quality, reliability, the latest technology and oodles of practical space. Coupled with an attractive makeover and the addition of fuel-saving hybrid tech, it remains a byword for the all-rounder SUV.
There was some tough competition for the most budget-friendly all-rounder family SUV this year, led by the Kia Niro and Suzuki S-Cross Hybrid.
The Niro range represents a chocolate-box assortment of options for buyers. From its funky exterior design to its spacious cabin, it brings a confident mix of technology and practicality to the plate.
Suzuki’s BoosterJet hybrid-assisted S-Cross was a genuine surprise: roomy, solidly built, frugal on-road manners and – in $42,990 Hybrid JLX 2WD guise, as tested for Stuff Top Cars – full of features for the money. – Cameron Officer
Top Family Car, over $60,000: Ford Mustang Mach-E
Pinning the Mustang nameplate on the front of what we now know as the Mustang Mach-E was an undeniably audacious move. An iconic brand synonymous with the very foundation stones of all-American muscle, grafted on to a purely electric car – with the silhouette of a compact SUV at that.
Had FoMoCo’s water supply been spiked? But, in execution, the Mach-E has proven a brilliant addition to the Blue Oval’s growing lineup of electrified offerings.
It’s different, it’s clever and – here’s the bit that’ll have purists scoffing, but it’s true – the Mach-E really does feel performance driven and fun to drive.
From looks, to packaging, to power, the Mach-E stands on its own as a superb family-sized SUV, before you even take into account all the benefits of a pure electric powertrain underneath that taut metalwork.
The interior is a fabulous place to be in all three Mach-E grades.
Rather than the cookie-cutter approach oft seen in recent electric competitors (Germany, we’re looking in your direction), it really does feel like plenty of thought and individuality has been woven into the design of the Mach-E cabin.
The Mach-E delivers meaningful performance too. No, there’s no burbling V8 soundtrack, but some of the numbers associated with it are firecracker fierce regardless.
The all-wheel drive Mustang Mach-E GT has more torque on tap – a colossal 860Nm.
The GT can sprint from 0–100kph in 3.7 seconds, making it Ford’s fastest accelerating fiveseater in the Kiwi market.
In the way the car’s steering is weighted, the way it turns in, and in the way it accelerates, the Mustang Mach-E is one of the most engaging EV platforms money can buy.
It’s practically proportioned and brilliantly executed. It’s a Mustang, make no mistake.
Underpinned by an all-new platform, the electrified Mazda CX-60 runner-up sees Mazda building on impressive gains the company has made in terms of styling, premium fit and finish in recent years, boasting an interior that’s among the most intricate and impressive you’ll find for a sub- six-figure price tag.
Larger than almost every other premium SUV, the Kia EV9 features plenty of good stuff within its XXL footprint.
Naturally it boasts acres of space, along with the latest in widescreen infotainment, VehicleTo-Load reverse energy sourcing from the Korean powerhouse, benefiting up to seven occupants on the road. – Cameron Officer
Keep an eye out next week, as Stuff Top Cars reveals its other three award-winning vehicles.