AS motoring icons go, Ford’s Fiesta – Britain’s best selling car – is right up there with the best, and has been for a long, long time.
In these austere times – with P45s, reduced hours and a dole queue longer than Casanova’s contact book – people are more and more turning towards smaller cars that offer good levels of comfort, good economy and low cost of ownership, high levels of safety and smart looks – cars to put a smile on your face.
WITH the rest of the Volkswagen Group brands on lap two, Volkswagen themselves have just laced up their trainers and headed for the starting line.
Only now are customers being offered a compact VW SUV in the shape of the T-Roc, to compete for sales against the SEAT Ateca, Skoda Karoq and Audi Q2.
The latest VW challenger sits below the Tiguan in the range, their only other current SUV being the rather larger Touareg. But it’s the start of a major push by the German brand with the Tiguan Allspace due next year, followed by the T-Cross Polo sized crossover.
THERE’S chunky, and then there’s chunkier – and hot on the heels of that comes the Citroen C3 Aircross.
Paying more than a passing homage to the blatant abuse of steroids, the French marque’s compact SUV hits the market with an almost brutal, bulbous frontal profile – and an interior that is all soft and squashy, with light-in-use controls that turn what is on the face of it a bit of a bruiser into the motoring equivalent of Georgia Toffolo.
SUV buyers are the kind of people who want a car that combines space, practicality, dependability and safety – and here’s a car that’s been doing since it took its initial bow.
The Mazda CX-5 goes down in their history as a landmark car, being the one that introduced SKYACTIV technology and KODO:Soul of Motion design to the motoring public.
And they obviously like it – it’s been a popular seller for the Japanese marque, proving they could make an SUV that was stylish, great to drive, and also capable of luring customers away from premium badged rivals.
SAYING Audi’s A4 range has been part of a German blitzkrieg of the UK premium sector would be something of an under-statement.
The big three Hermanns (Audi/BMW/Mercedes Benz) account for a whoppingly large portion of the classy sector of the market, so when one makes a move the others take note.
And rightly so because the all new A4 – with its focus set on comfort and technology in equal measure – is a car to seriously consider if you’re in the £30,000 plus buying bracket.
HERE’S a new car from SEAT that looks a lot like a scaled-down Leon – and why not?
It’s big brother has been doing the business for the Spanish manufacturer for a few years now so no one should feel in the slightest way guilty if some of the styling cues that made Leon such a hit were borrowed for the latest Ibiza.
In a world where the Fiesta has been the undoubted king for decades, the Spanish upstart throws down the gauntlet and gives a very strong hint that the family favourite Ford might not have it all its own way for much longer.
SYNCHRONICITY. Some of you out there will remember that great album from Police back in 1983. And there’s a ‘Sting’ here too….
I’ve got the album in our vinyl collection but I can confirm that the Alfa Romeo Giulia is sadly lacking in it. Synchronicity, as we know it in motoring parlance, that is.
You might be able to find it somewhere in the depths of the impressive entertainment system on board, but if you’re a believer in the adage that you never get a second chance to make a first impression then this conceivably might not be the car for you.
PEUGEOT’S 3008 doubled its desirability when it was given a fresh new look earlier this year – so expect the new 5008 to do much the same.
It’s a big step forward from the first generation model – almost unrecognisable from the version launched in 2009 as an MPV, and has now morphed into a C sector seven seat SUV.
THEY say you’re safer in a modern day Volvo than going for a walk with the Green Cross Code man.
In fact the only injury you could conceivably incur is banging your head on the rear opening tailgate of the latest XC60 – but you’d have to be the world’s tallest man because it opens high and well out of the way of normal mortals.
KIA have pulled off something of a coup with their new small SUV – they’ve designed it in Europe for sale here, but it’s gone down so well back home the Koreans are getting it too.
And while they’re not expecting super-Stonic sales, as this is a rapidly growing and well contested sector of the market, they expect to sell up to 15,000 here in the UK.
Given the way people have been queueing for the bigger Sportage at dealerships, that could turn out to be an under-estimation.