These are not car of the year choices, simply those vehicles — three from each of us — which for various reasons left a lasting impression.
It’s been a fun exercise reviewing all the new vehicles we drove in 2025 and coming up with a "top three" each.
Considering the New Zealand motor industry more generally, 2025 has been a year of cautious recovery from a dismal 2024.
Improved new vehicle sales were a feature of the latter half of the year and have included a recovery in EV sales.
I’ll comment more on new vehicle sales in a future Drivesouth once the fully final 2025 figures are available.
There’s been good news in terms of road safety too, for despite the doom-and-gloom predictions that followed the reversing of several previous speed limit reductions, the 2025 road toll is well down on that for 2024, which itself was an improvement on previous years.
The provisional total of 272 fatalities last year compared with 292 in 2024, 341 in 2023 and 371 in 2022.
New year’s attention, right now, is focused on motorsport, though its still some time before the 2025 Formula One season gets under way.
It would be remiss of me not acknowledge Scott Dixon’s knighthood, announced in the New Years honours lists.
Dixon is the first New Zealand racing driver to be knighted for his achievements and globally is the only racing driver since the 1930s to receive the honour for efforts outside of F1.
Internationally, there’s already been New Zealand racing success this year, with Nick Cassidy winning the Mexico City round of the Formula E world championship.
The win, which has propelled Cassidy into the 2025/2026 Formula E championship lead, was the first for his new Citroen team and scored in what was the 150th race for the all-electric single-seater category.
While Cassidy has been celebrating his success, Hayden Paddon and John Kennard are busy preparing for their long-overdue return to the sharp end of the world rally championship with the Hyundai factory team.
Their first event is the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally, which commences at the end of this next week.
Here in New Zealand, the 2025 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship is under way, with round two at Taupo this weekend.
This year’s field, for what is New Zealand’s premier international motor racing series, is a quality one including a good number of drivers who have already achieved significant success in other categories.
It’s hard picking who has the best form after only one round, but at this point New Yorker Ugo Ugochukwu has made his mark as the one to beat.
Japanese drivers Jin Nakamura and Kanato Le also look strong, as do New Zealanders Louis Sharp and Ryan Wood.
It's worth noting that the F1 grid this year will feature no fewer than five graduates of the New Zealand series, comprising reigning world champion Llando Norris, Liam Lawson and his new Racing Bulls team-mate Arvid Landblad, Lance Stroll and Franco Colapinto.
After this weekend the series heads south, for the final two rounds at Invercargill’s Teretonga Park (January 23-25) and then the NZ Grand Prix meet at Highlands Motor Sport Park in Cromwell (Jan 30-February 1).
