bay driver 22 april 2016

Friday 22 April 2016 Friday 22 April 2016Friday 22 April 2016

Crossover luxuryMercedes Benz GLC, page 4-5

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The Weekend Sun Bay Driver Friday 22 April 2016 Friday 22 April 2016Friday 22 April 2016

Weekend Wheels

April 23: Baypark Speedway’s Fireworks Extravaganza & Harry Fredrickson Stock Car Gold Cup

Baypark Family Speedway’s Closing Night Fireworks Extrava-ganza with $20,000 of fi reworks lighting up the sky at the end of a great night’s racing which includes The Harry Fredrickson Stock Car Gold Cup.

Other classes racing are Sprint Cars, Super Saloons, Saloons, Stock Cars and Mini Stocks. The event starts 6.30pm at Baypark, 81 Truman Lane, Mount Maunganui. Gates open 5pm. Details: www.bayparkspeedway.co.nz/eventsApril 23: MBOP Tauranga Hire Day/Night Challenge Series Rnd 2, TECT All Terrain Park

The day/night gravel sprint races through 4km of great forest road at Te Matai Mot-orsport in the TECT All Terrain Park. Gravel tyres are okay, with recce and three runs in daylight, then two runs at night.

Doco/scrutineering from 12.30pm -1.30pm, drivers’ briefi ng at 1.45pm, daylight runs from 2.30pm-5.30pm followed by barbecue dinner then night runs 6.30pm onwards.

Registrations and entry forms at www.mbop.org.nzMay 8: Oropi Gorge Road Sprint

Hosted by Motorsport BOP from 8am-5pm on May 8. The Tarmac 1.5km sprint sees the fastest run win, by class and overall. Classes are 0-1600cc, 1601-2000cc, 2001-3500cc, Over 3500cc and 4WD.

Event is at Oropi Gorge Rd, starting at the junction with Oropi Rd. Parking and pits is at community hall just prior to junction on Oropi Rd. To enter, see www.mbop.org.nz/events/oropi-gorge-road-sprint/May 14-15: Targa Rotorua

Targa Rotorua returns to its traditional two-day format on May 14-15 from 8am–4.50pm on the Saturday and 8.15am–3.45pm on the Sunday, based in and around Rotorua .The Central North Island offers ease of activation and the abundant variety of fabu-lous roads to select from means there is a stage in this event for everyone.

Admission is free. Details: http://targa.co.nz

SINCE 1978


In my line of work I get to drive some pretty amazing cars so it’s easy to become a little blasé.

But every once in a while something special comes my way and the Mercedes-Benz GLC certainly

is something special.Referred to as a mid-sized SUV, although I’m not sure by

whose measure – it is roomier than most Japanese SUVs I’ve driven, however compared to its big brothers the GLE and GLS I suppose it could be considered mid-sized.

“Prior to this release, Mercedes-Benz didn’t really compete in this segment,” Ingham-Sears’ dealer principal Euan Sears tells us. “However, the GLC changes all that with a vehicle promising to take everything good about our top-selling C-Class and wrap it up in a high-riding SUV.”

So many options…as standardOn Friday afternoon we picked up the GLC 250 with a

two-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine connected to a nine-speed automatic transmission. Yes, I did say ‘nine’.

A milestone in transmission technology that facilitates virtually indiscernible gear changes, the feature cuts the noise level and raises ride comfort.

The petrol option represents the mid-point of the GLC

range and sits in between two diesels variants. All are pretty generously spec’d as standard (see ‘Highlighted Specs as standard’), but the highlight for me was the 360-degree camera view accessed through the dash-mounted screen. This feature is amazing! It actually feels like you’re being watched from the heavens, providing a bird’s-eye view of the vehicle and its surroundings including obstacles that are below the window line such as kerbs – so no more gutter rash, like what is currently displayed on my own car, with this technology.

Euan kindly loaned us the GLC 250 for an entire weekend – a real treat – so I decided to make the most of it. Saturday morning I packed up the family for a road trip to Ohope Beach where my nephew was competing in a surf carnival. The open road gave me a chance to put the 250’s Driver Assistance Plus pack to the test. While Euan had given me a quick overview of the safety equipment when I collected the car, in true Kiwi bloke fashion I nodded politely while not listening as intently as I could have.

Features including active blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffi c alert, adaptive cruise control, autonomous braking and lane-keep assistance – which can provide short periods of hands-free driving – all sounded complicated but were so intuitive and easy to use I didn’t even need to consult the handbook.

Multiple Personality DisorderThe Matata Straights presented a fantastic opportunity to

try out the fi ve driving programmes the GLC offers including Eco, Comfort, Sport, Sport+ and a customisable Individual setting. Each offered unique computer-controlled adjustment of steering, suspension, brakes and engine performance.

Far from a gimmick, this feature seriously changed the entire personality of the car fi ve times over. New mode – new car!

Our test car was also optioned with the Vision Pack which includes a head-up display, panoramic sunroof and upgraded navigation plus the Comand Pack that ups the infotainment screen to 8.4 inches, adds hard-drive-based sat-nav, plus 10GB of digital music storage, a DVD player, additional Bluetooth and voice recognition functions, on-board internet access and a 13-speaker, 590W Burmester surround-sound audio system.

Sunday driversDay two of our test drive involved something drastically

different to my family drive to the beach. I’d been invited to

a pre-duck season clay target shoot at the Bay of Plenty Clay Target Association by vice president and Broncos Outdoors managing director Ben Tuck.

Nestled in the pine forests surrounding TECT All Terrain Park, the driveway up to the clubhouse provided the perfect backdrop for our photo shoot.

And while I reacquainted myself with a shotgun after 10 years overseas, Ben acquainted himself with some all-wheel-drive German performance on the combination of sealed and gravel roads around TECT Park.

Taking a break from his daily drive, a spec’d up Maloo Ute – this self-confessed petrolhead actually seemed quite excited about getting behind the wheel of a vehicle that in my opin-ion was more fi tting of his vintage and social standing in the community.

However, little did I know that he was about to give the GLC a little more of a test drive than our local Mercedes-Benz dealership had in mind – or for that matter would approve of.

With comments like these supplied by Ben post test-drive, I think it’s fair to say it will be the last time he gets left unat-tended in a borrowed car again.

“It really ate the gravel up, it handled the corners on the metal road with superb control thanks to the all-wheel-drive, even at speed and in the wet it felt extremely safe.”

And: “If it had mud grip tyres I would have taken it hunting”.

Thanks Ben, I’m not sure what I’m more relieved about – the fact that I wasn’t in the passenger seat or that I was able to drop Euan’s car back in one piece, albeit dirtier.

With a boot that feels smaller than its 550 litres would suggest, there is plenty of storage space aboard the GLC so it certainly could make for an adequate hunting truck. Although I’m not sure this is what Mercedes-Benz had in mind. It is also worth noting there are so many highly effective options for keeping drink vessels upright that we can’t list them all, suffi ce to say if you are a thirsty traveller – buy a GLC.

VerdictThe GLC has the ability to do everything well. Great in

town and on the open road while being surprisingly capa-ble on a twisty gravel road, the GLC is a seriously complete package. This aggressively-positioned premium SUV feels more luxurious than its price-tag would suggest and felt more special than some cars costing far more.

The petrol option represents the mid-point of the GLC

SPECS

2 litre turbo petrol engine providing

155kWatts

Power tailgate

Active parking assist

Collision prevention assistance & blind spot

monitoring

Rain-sensing wipers

20 inch wheels

Mercedes-Benz GLC range starting from

$89,990 (RRP) +ORC

Ingham-Sears Mercedes Benz 55 Totara St,

Mount Maunganui. Ph: 07 572 8260.

Matt Batchelor

just another day in the office

Not

HIGHLIGHTED FEATURES

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It sounds like a bad joke – but there may be some luck in giving in to

your partner’s nagging when they’re trying to get you along to a car

roadshow while they are on crutches.So what happened to 26-year-old Tauranga

woman Dawne Quaife last August?“Yeah, it’s quite an interesting story,”

says Dawne. “My partner Dan Griffin had injured his leg playing indoor soccer and ended up having reconstructive surgery on his knee and I’d had to take a week off work to look after him.

Dawne says Dan’s a huge Ford fan – want-ing every classic car there is – and he’d obviously seen this Ford Blue Oval Road-show for 2015 coming to Tauranga.

Kept nagging“So he kept nagging me saying: ‘Let’s go

and do the test-drive’. And I’m like: ‘No, no, no. I’m not keen to do it. I’m not going to test-drive a car for you’.

“He was stuck at home on crutches and in a brace so he was keen to go see this road-show.

“And I was like ‘I’m not going to see some roadshow with you on crutches and in a brace – and put you in the back of car so I can test-drive it’.”

“But basically he got his own way,” laughs Dawne. “So bound him up and drove him down to Turners auctions at Mount Maun-ganui and got him out of the car – and we kind of hobbled around.

“He asked which one I wanted to test-drive and I said I’d like to try one of the Ford Focus range. So Frosty – Chris Frost from Ford – came over and asked if we wanted a test-drive,” says Dawne. “I said ‘Okaaay’. I

put my Dan in the back and did this silly test-drive thing.’ “Then Frosty said to pop my name in the box to win the car since I’d done the test-drive.”

A few months later Dawne and Dan were driving in her Mazda 3 saying: ‘I wonder who won that car’ and I thought ‘Oh, some lucky person’.

Missed callsA few days later, a week before

Christmas, Dawne had a few missed calls on her phone. “I rang the number back and it was the lady from Ford saying I’d won!”

Jumping up and down screaming in the work lunchroom, Dawne was “over the moon” she’d won a Ford. Asked if she’s giving in to a bit more of Dan’s nagging

these days, Dawne says he keeps reminding her of the luck of his injured leg.

Now she’s switched her Mazda 3 for the new Ford Focus Sport 2016, after being handed the keys late last month. “I’m driving the car. Dan’s got a work car.” So does Dawne like it? “It’s so nice. It’s a

turbo so it’s super-fast compared to my Mazda 3 and it’s a really, really nice car.”

Bells and whistlesAnd it’s got all of the bells and whistles,

says Dawne. “It has Siri so you can talk to the car if you want to change radio stations or change the temperature setting on the air conditioner.

“You can basically tell it what to do and it does it.” Dawne says it also “really good on fuel”.

Test-drive of relationship wins Dawne a Ford

Ultimate Motor Group’s Ford sales manager Chris ‘Frosty’ Frost ready to hand over the keys to

Dawne Quaife and partner Dan Griffin.

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bay driver 22 april 2016

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