Media Releases

The Dog & Lemon Guide, Plunket Society and Consumer New Zealand are calling for the wider use of reversing cameras as a means of reducing driveway deaths. Reversing cameras, which show the driver what's behind the vehicle using a small video screen on the car's dashboard, are an expensive option on many new vehicles but are widely available as accessories for between $130 and $700.

Adults who knowingly supply alcohol to underage drinkers should be heavily penalised if those underage drinkers cause serious harm while drunk, according to a leading road safety campaigner.

Clive Matthew-Wilson, editor of the car buyers’ Dog & Lemon Guide, was commenting after the government announced that it is considering making it unlawful for adults to give alcohol to young people at private functions without their parents' consent.

Matthew-Wilson says:

Industry Minister Kim Carr is deluding both himself and his voters over the future of Holden, says the car buyers’ Dog & Lemon Guide.

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson says: “Senator Carr has expressed confidence that Holden’s Australian assembly operations will continue, without really explaining how.”

“To build cars profitably in the 21st century, you need to have a very large local market and/or a very large export market and/or very low costs. Holden has none of these.”

Despite their ‘green’ image, electric cars are often less efficient and more polluting than the petrol cars they replace, according to a major report released today.The 168-page report, titled The Emperor’s New Car, is described as a ‘long-overdue reality check’ by its author, car expert Clive Matthew-Wilson. The report was prepared in consultation with several internationally-recognised energy experts.Matthew-Wilson, who edits the car buyers’ Dog & Lemon Guide, says: