IN a motoring world dominated by the letter E – Efficiency, Environment, Economy – Kia have added another one to the pile: E for Excellence.
And very possibly Envy. Few cars that have arrived for appraisal in recent months have attracted anything like the open-mouthed admiration that has been the lot of Kia’s first rear wheel drive grand tourer to hit the UK roads, and indeed the rest of Europe.
SOMEONE at SEAT must have bought a blooming big bag of ‘A’ letters at a Spanish car boot sale a while ago.
We’ve had a succession of models with names beginning and ending in that letter: Arosa, Alhambra, Altea, Ateca and now comes the Arona – the latest in a line of cars that have progressively built up the profile of the VW Group owned brand to a level where their popularity is considerably higher than in the past.
SEAT are going places – just like the customers who are finding the sporty aspirations of the latest models to their liking.
SORENTO is the car that Kia acknowledge changed the way the world viewed the brand back in 2002, and the latest offering has what’s dubbed executive-class space – you and I might prefer to refer to it as vast.
Everyone certainly gets plenty of room, so much so that you’re constantly aware of the size of the cabin – and that you’re not occupying very much of it on your own.
Even the third row of seats in this seven seater has decent enough space.
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, and the impact of the motor car has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Motoring snobbery has been with us from day one, but one thing remains constant. We all love our cars, big or small, fast or slow, luxurious or downright utilitarian (for those Trabant lovers out there).
Not that there’s anything utilitarian about the latest Volkswagen Polo, a car which is conservatively estimated to have sold over 1.4 million units in the UK since its 1975 debut.
A PUMPED up Clio doesn’t necessarily have to be one with a breathed-on engine under the bonnet.
Renault’s Captur is built on the same platform but employs jacked up suspension and a higher driving position to turn it into a small SUV that has proved a very popular addition to the range – a car for those who find the Clio too cramped but don’t fancy a Megane or Kadjar.
A NOSTALGIC moment the other week as the all-new Skoda Karoq had me wistfully recalling my late father-in-law’s Mk1 Escort 1100.
Not by any way, shape or form for comparison purposes obviously, both being as far apart as our friend in North Korea is from reality, but merely because Skoda have brought back to mainstream car production a colour I last saw on said Ford in the last century.
RS. Two letters that sum up the importance to Audi of having products that are the pinnacle of their product range.
Premium brand products account for over 30 per cent of total UK car sales, mainly because they keep their residual values better than others.
But it’s also an aspirational thing for the buyer, and sticking an RS in front of the model number can make it a bit of a lifechanger.
YOU can forgive the Toyota RAV 4 for being slightly off radar when you sweep what’s available in the SUV stakes.
It’s a car that was one of the SUV trendsetters many moons before cars like the Nissan Qashqai came along and stole the limelight, but while it was in at the start of the stampede to own a crossover, it’s never really had the wow factor over its contemporaries. Unless you’re a loyal Toyota driver who basks in their ‘does what it says on the tin’ legacy of good, honest, reliable motoring.
QASHQAI is a credit to Nissan’s Britishness. Designed in London, developed down the road at Cranfield and is built in Sunderland. A British Japanese car that’s been an undoubted success.
The only thing distinctly un-British is the name, which comes from a desert dwelling nomadic tribe from South West Iran.
And it has been synonymous in racking sales success Nissan had previously only dreamed off.
YOU just can’t make jokes about Skodas any more – they’re too good for that.
Apart from this one. ‘What did the Skoda driver say to the rest of the traffic?’ See ya!
Particularly if the driver in question is piloting the current vRS hatch, a car that adequately shows how far the marque has come in the past quarter of a century of so under VW stewardship.