Editor’s desk

Well, of course I have been putting together one of our sister publications at the same time as this one, so I guess this is my third edition, technically speaking. Still, it seems a long time has passed between the pages written in the August/september issue and this one. Nor does it seem I have spent a lot of time in the office over the past few weeks. Of course, its traditionally the time of year for big changes in the automotive world – new vehicles are released, some refreshes and the run up to the start of the industry awards. There’s a great deal of preparation that goes into any car of the year awards since the number of vehicles driven between the calendar year of 2017 to 2018 is quite large and the number of awards seems to get larger every year. And with that being said, now that this edition of NZ Company Vehicle magazine is in your hands, I have a few short weeks to determine our winners from the shortlists. But on the subject of new releases, this might explain the nature of this month’s cover story. The Ford Ranger Raptor is clearly the hero of the Ranger line – and it is arguably the most impressive from a photographic perspective. It is the XL and XLT models which have built the Ranger to the heady heights of the top selling vehicle in the country, however, and for that reason, our focus is more on them. The new Ranger’s launch took place in Australia, as did the very first one, where the Ranger’s incredible abilities off road where so ably demonstrated in the Flinders Range. It seems appropriate to relaunch the new model in the same country. Hyundai did the same thing with the recent relaunch of the Santa Fe in the Hokianga, the location of at least one previous model release. Unfortunately, the timing was too close to cover the event in this edition, but we will be looking at this model soon enough. Then there is the official New Zealand launch of the Holden Acadia and the Toyota Corolla, while Nissan pushed the boat out to introduce a limited edition version of the Navara in Perth. As to the rest, well, you’ll find it all and a raft of reviews, as well as our commercial buyers guide and a couple of feature articles with a little bit of wisdom for those interested in saving a few dollars off their fleet’s bottom line. While the industry figures typically run behind magazine deadlines, because we have delayed our release date, we can comment on the September registration tables which have just come to light. There was a bit of a shock to the system this month – Toyota reclaimed the top spot from Ford, which dropped to second place. Who was third then? Holden? Mazda? It was Mazda at this time last year, and the brand has just released the Cx-8, revamped the Mazda6 and upgraded the Cx-5. Actually, it wasn’t either Mazda or Holden – Mitsubishi took number three, 200-odd units clear of Mazda and only 150 units shy of Ford. Brigitte Bardot is famous for saying success is unpredictable and fragile. Given September’s registration figures, she might have been commenting on the New Zealand automotive industry. Until the awards edition, travel safe, travel smart.