Car news for New Zealand and Australian buyers

Petrol tax is going, and it changes which used car is cheap to run

Cabinet has signed off the law changes that move all 3.5 million light vehicles off petrol tax and onto distance-based charging. Here is what is settled, what is not, and why it quietly changes the case for a fuel-efficient used car.

The clean car standard is staying, what that means for a used buyer

The Government has kept the emissions standard on imported vehicles and set separate, softer targets for used imports from 2028. Here is what that does to what lands on NZ forecourts, and to what you pay.

Half of Australia's used sellers cut their price before the car soldAustralia

Australians bought 1,300,018 used vehicles in the first half of 2026, and by June more than half of all one-to-five-year-old cars sold for less than the sticker on the windscreen. The leverage has moved to the buyer. Here is how to spend it.

Australia's emissions rules are reshaping the used marketAustralia

The NVES target tightened from 141g/km to 117g/km this year, and manufacturers are feeling it for the first time. Here is which used cars that helps, which it hurts, and what to do about it.