PEUGEOT pandered in the past to the French obsession with creating MPVs – cars that could transport Rene and his growing family around in a spacious and safe motorised environment.

But times change – and so have Peugeot. Now 3008 stands very much for a car of the 21st century that is much more SUV than MPV in looks and all round ability.

What we have here is a chunky looking crossover that has its own distinct stand-out look to set it apart from the mass market medium-sized SUVs that just about every other manufacturer has in its brochure. This one has a muscular presence that you’ll have to look long and hard to find in any other showroom and its high sides and smallish window area give it a sporty hint too.

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FOR a car so small, it’s perhaps surprising that Suzuki’s IGNIS is catching so many eyes.

It’s dimensions are so compact you could easily miss it in a queue of traffic – except for the fact that it has a highly distinctive look and cheeky appeal.

A scaled down Tonka toy off roader look in a car that will earn its crust plying the Queen’s highways and byeways with a full complement of adults and offspring aboard.

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LOOKS like Nicole has definitely got her bus pass – ZOE is set to be the Renault name on the lips of motorists in the future.

That’s because Papa – and you too – now has a car that goes a long way (!) to dispel the ‘range anxiety’ worries of earlier fully electric vehicles.

Zoe has upped the stakes.

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ONE week it’s driving a five litre V8, the next a three pot 12 valve one litre under the bonnet – but in reality, Hyundai’s one cylinder short of a full stack engine isn’t the anti climax you might anticipate.

There’s a distinctly more sporty design to the i20 Coupe when you line it up alongside the more staid five door model.

There’s a more distinctive, sporty look to the Coupe, highlighted by the front grille and its sloping roofline at the rear, which has a slimmed down black C pillar to emphasise the difference between 3 and 5 door i20s.

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THE Lexus RC F has got more letters after its name than General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett and has about the same level of sanity…..

Here is a car that demands full on foot down bravado to extract the very best from it, a car that demands ultra high levels of concentration to ensure you always stay in control.

And while there’s an eco light on the dashboard, and you can in fact select eco mode, something with a naturally aspirated five litre V8 engine shoehorned in under the bonnet is hardly going to be sipping its way through the tanker sized fuel tank. Not with a 4.5 second hurtle to 62mph and an electronically limited top speed of 168mph available to your right boot.

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IT’S getting tougher out there for manufacturers, as various sectors of the market see more and more new, interesting or revamped models vying for your cash.

And probably none more so than in the MPV market, where families with more than your average 2.4 children are scouting round for the best – and safest – way to transport the anklebiters.

Vauxhall launched its Zafira people carrier back in 1999 and its latest incarnation, called the Tourer, has become even more of an up market family mover in terms of the space it offers and the quality of the interior. A much needed and welcome improvement over the original.

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IT’S a bit like Transformers meets 21st century traffic….

The all new Toyota C-HR could turn the compact crossover market on its head, simply because it doesn’t really look like one.

While Nissan’s Juke is to my mind just plain ugly, Toyota’s pensmiths have followed similar lines but have created something that actually has a purpose about it, a sense of having a reason to be on the road and not just a piece of bulbous metal, the motoring equivalent of the Elephant Man.

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IT says Fiat on the boot and bonnet, and 124 Spider on the bootlid, so yes, you do have a two seater Italian sport car on your drive.

A car with a lusty little 1.4 litre turbocharged Italian engine under the bonnet, some Latin styling cues in the shape of the twin power bulges in the bonnet – and underneath, some good old fashioned Japanese DNA.

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IF we were handing out commendations, then the Suzuki SX4 S-Cross would be driving off stage with quite a few.

A car that effectively took the compact crossover battle head on with the then class leading Nissan Qashqai has had a major facelift – and it’s made it an altogether more purposeful looking piece of kit than before.

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