Author Archives: Rob Auchterlonie

TYRE-D OF GETTING DIRTY FINGERS? THEN READ ON…..

AN easier, quicker and cleaner way to check your tyre pressures? What’s not to like!

Here’s a handy little gadget that allows you to just that, accurately and in double quick time.

Michelin”s Pressure Checker can be used on everything from bicycles, mopeds, scooters, motorbikes, cars, 4x4s, vans, minibuses, motorcaravans and light-duty trailers – and that includes caravans and horse box trailers.

It allows you to check all four pressures accurately and without the need to connect a pressure gauge to the valve, which is unhygienic and removes air from the tyre.

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TOYOTA C-HR HYBRID: Japanese giant’s 21st century Transformer

THERE’S very little chance of Toyota’s reputation for building decent hybrid powered cars getting a kicking with the latest C-HR.

They just seem to get better with each update and upgrade and from a drivers point of view the process is simplicity itself.

Toyota’s full hybrids are engineered to run on power from their petrol engine and their electric motor but they’re also capable of running on electric impetus alone – which is what makes a full hybrid different from other mild versions.

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SUZUKI SWIFT SPORT HYBRID: form an orderly queue…..

ADDING a lithium-ion battery and a Hybrid badge to Suzuki’s Swift Sport might have helped add a modest bit of excess weight – but it hasn’t made it any less enjoyable to drive.

It’s still what we refer to hereabouts as the Japanese Mini Cooper. It’s got the same compact dimensions, it comes as standard with the sort of agile handling that has had MINI owners dribbling for years, and it’s got a sweet high revving engine.

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KIA CEED SPORTSWAGON PHEV: Korean estate joins the charge….


THE car is viewed as one of the biggest technical improvements in our lives in a million years of evolution.

By replacing the four hooves of a horse with four rubber clad wheels, the world – and all the socio economic groups in it – suddenly had a high degree of freedom.

Now we’re embarking on a search to find a better and more planet friendly way of moving us all around.

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MAZDA CX-30 GT Sport Tech: similar but different at the same time

AS an understudy to Mazda’s CX-5, their new CX-30 fits nicely into the range line-up – but it’s got some tough competition in the family SUV category.

Based on the Mazda 3 hatchback, CX-30 is compact enough in its dimensions to feel easily at home around town and drawing as it does on the neat styling of the 3, it certainly catches the eye. Similar, but ultimately very different. Continue reading →

RENAULT CLIO R.S Line: improvements all round for French favourite

YOU could forgive the French for having a little touch of German fever.

They probably caught it back in 1939 when there was a knock at the door and outside were the seried ranks of the Wermacht and the SS, intent on dominating western Europe and anyone else who got in the way.

It’s taken a while but you can’t say they’re not showing the symptoms of wanting to dominate the European small car market.

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