Author Archives: Rob Auchterlonie

SKODA SCALA: classy car that banishes badge snobbery

1713658_SCALA_1_006RHDYOU wouldn’t realistically expect the interior of a Skoda to have the same sort of classy premium interior you’ll find on other VW Group products. But the new Scala has.

Skoda‘s latest model to hit UK shores quite adequately sums up the Czech firm’s progress over the past few years – impressive.

The Scala is Skoda’s model to plug the gap between Fabia (small hatch) and Octavia (big hatch/saloon/estate).

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LOTUS EVORA GT410 SPORT: a car with a real motorsport pedigree

751A3892SOMEONE, somewhere is going to be the lucky owner of a very exclusive car this summer.

What is officially the 100,000th Lotus car to be produced has a very special link with the late, great Jim Clark, the Scottish farmer who took the Formula One world by storm in the 1960s.

The trust that runs the museum that bears his name in the sleepy Scottish border town of Duns has been given a Lotus Evora GT410 Sport in ‘Clark’ colours – red with a silver roof and tartan seats to match the Elan he drove in the 60s – to help fund the new museum that was due to open in July. And it’s been signed by all 20 F1 drivers from this season.

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TOYOTA COROLLA HYBRID TOURING SPORTS: a model of efficiency

COROLLA_TS_front_34_2_V05_LR_RGB.EVER wondered why our taxi driving brethren have a penchant for hybrid Toyotas?

It’s a question to which there is a fairly simple and logical answer – and that is because they’re efficient.

Their full hybrids are engineered to run on both their petrol engine and electic motor but will run as often as is possible on electric power alone.

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AUDI A1 SPORTBACK: the posh small car

1575658_A186765_largeIT’S a main road, a dictionary description of excellence, a naff teeny boy band from the past – and the smallest Audi of the modern era.

Now revisited, reworked and relaunched, the latest Audi A1 Sportback proves that few technologies are made worse by being smaller, as this still manages to hang on to that prestige feel even though it’s been extensively remodelled.

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Not so tyre-ing from Bridgestone

mailBRIDGESTONE has announced the launch of Enliten, a new lightweight tyre technology that represents an unmatchable reduction in material and rolling resistance performance to contribute to the reduction of a vehicle’s CO2 emissions.

And yet it still provides the same wear life as a standard original equipment tyre. Enliten technology is also claimed to improve the vehicle’s handling and stability to increase driving pleasure.

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SUZUKI JIMNY: a car with absolutely no peers

Suzuki Jimny 001REMEMBER that classic scene from Only Fools and Horses where Del and Rodney realise their dream of becoming millionaires, and the Reliant Robin starts rocking?

Well, the all new Suzuki Jimny rocks too, both in the side to side sense on its soft springs and by virtue of the fact it’s a fairly unique piece of motoring architecture.

Don’t reach for the phonebook to find your nearest dealer though, as this year’s UK allocation is long sold out, such is the clamour to own one.

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