HOLIDAY trippers will be more used to the name Dacia than car buyers in the UK – but that’s a situation that is changing by the day.
We hired a Dacia Logan earlier this year on a jaunt to Tenerife and despite the fact that in true rental car trim it had almost bald tyres and a dent or scrape on every panel, it did its job well conveying us round the island’s holiday hotspots.
THERE’S wacky and there’s wacky. And then there’s the Renault Captur – their seemingly off the wall slant on the current fad for producing supermini crossovers.
Talk about polarising opinion. I’ve yet to see one that wasn’t resplendent in a combination of colours and our test mule this week is no exception – oyster grey in the main, but with a metallic orangey bronze roof and exterior trim detailing that makes it stand out in any car park.
WITH downsizing the buzz word and costs escalating Honda’s Jazz is well placed the meet the needs of an ever more demanding motoring public.
And really, you can’t argue with its credentials – it’s won eight JD Power Customer Satisfaction awards on the trot, so they must be doing something right for their buyers.
YOU’VE got to feel a bit sorry for the Spanish at the moment, because yet again their top sporting hero has been blown into the gravel traps by a precociously talented blond haired German in a car built in a factory in Milton Keynes.
Fernando’s not been hearing the drums (or the national anthem) of late, so thank goodness for SEAT, who of course are a Spanish firm (owned by the Germans) who are starting to put together a decent portfolio of motor cars for us to buy.
ONE of the big box tickers about motoring journalism is getting the chance to try out a car long before anyone who might be in the market to buy one actually gets their bum in the drivers seat.
A privilege indeed, all the more so when the car park in front of you contains upward of a million quids worth of hot new talent.
IT’S just been driven off up the road, and as the highly distinctive burble from the twin exhausts gradually fades I’m genuinely sorry – really genuinely sorry – to see it go.
Porsche’s new Cayman created a lasting impression of a car that’s grown out of its shorts and is now ready to go toe to toe with its 911 big brother in long trousers.
THIS week I have mostly been driving a very quick Kia – a car that always gives you a good welcome when you slip behind the wheel and turn the key.
The pro_cee’d GT is the most eagerly anticipated new model in Kia’s history, their first real high performance offering – and while only 50 of the GT 1st Edition will be available for sale here in the UK, the good news is there are actually other variants that might cause you the odd laundry problem.
WHY did Vauxhall build the Ampera? Because they could. And at a stroke they banished the anxiety most of us feel over electric cars – their limited range.
Ampera combines an eco-friendly electric motor with a range-extending petrol-powered generator. It rivals hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius, electric cars like the Nissan Leaf and some of the more efficient diesel saloons on the market.
RATHER large estate cars aren’t really meant to be fun to drive but this modestly engine Mercedes-Benz diesel shoots the theory down in flames.
It’s a car with an awful lot of credentials under the bonnet, developing some 500Nm of torque from its 2.1 litre diesel engine.
IS it at all possible in this day and age to slip an engine the size of an overgrown lawnmower under the bonnet of a quality car and – let’s put it this way – still get away with it?
Those of us who remember the days when a 1.2 engined car could barely struggle to the top of a hill under its own power would probably say no.
But those people at Volkswagen have proved us wrong. For the Golf range (and others in the VW stable, it has to be said) now offers the option of a modest 1197cc unit. And to be honest, it’s an eyebrow raiser.