KIA SPORTAGE: essential tool for family life

KIA shed their bargain basement tag many years ago now, but a good value package is still very much what motorists are buying into.

‘Sportage’ is a bit of a misnomer as it’s not really that sporty, but it’s a car that very adequately does all the boring bits of daily life – weekly shopping, the school run, commuting – and does it with a bit of style. Continue reading

AUDI Q6 S line e-tron quattro: bristling with class leading technology

 

IF you want to stand out in a crowded car park pick a big Audi. If you want to stand out on a satellite picture from outer space pick one in Soneira red metallic.

It’s certainly the most eye catching colour that has graced a test car in our hands for many a month. Years even. Continue reading

TOYOTA COROLLA GR SPORT HATCHBACK: worldwide favourite improves with age

AS one of the world’s best selling cars, Toyota’s Corolla and been around a while and seen quite a few changes over the years.

And the latest incarnation is a far cry from my first acquaintance with this Japanese legend in the depths of Norway over 40 years ago. Continue reading

KGM TORRES EVX: it’s the same, but a bit different…

DIFFERENT week, same car. Well, not exactly, as we’re now fully electric as opposed to the petrol power of last week’s KGM Torres.

In reality, pretty well exactly the same as the petrol version sampled earlier – all that differs is what’s under the bonnet and the price. In this guise, the K40 EVX costs £47,495, so around 10k more than the similarly specced petrol variant. Continue reading

KGM TORRES ICE: an SUV to get people talking

IT might spark a bit of a love-hate ‘marmite’ moment, but there’s no denying the KGM Torres gets people talking.

Park it in the golf club car park and pretty soon you can see the surreptitious glances and before long there are people sidling up to take a closer look. Continue reading

SEAT Arona FR Limited Edition: a grey-t little SUV

SOMETHING that’s a smaller version of SEAT’s pretty decent Ateca is a car that’s heading in the right direction – onto a lot of driveways.

Since it arrived on sale in the UK, the Arona has been one of the Spanish firm’s best sellers, selling in even greater numbers than the Ibiza, on which it’s based. Continue reading

VW TIGUAN LIFE eTSI 150: best seller now a bigger proposition

THERE was no real compelling reason for Volkswagen to make wholesale changes to their popular Tiguan SUV – but that hasn’t stopped them.

Not content with over 7.5 million sales worldwide since it hit the streets, the new third generation version has been extensively revised both inside and out to make it an even better proposition for the family SUV buyer. Continue reading

KIA EV9 GT-Line: Boxing clever with latest flagship model

IN the market for a big seven seat electric car? Well, they don’t come much bigger than this.

Bigger than your average parking space (though having said that, what car isn’t these days?) Kia’s gargantuan EV9 evokes memories of the box-on-wheels Land Rover Discovery, and makes a compelling case for itself with its impressive list of standard kit and its high end electric vehicle technology. Continue reading