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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
VOLVO’S growing reputation for buliding fine cars means that radar screens in all sectors are lighting up to their presence.
And none more so than in the big executive saloon class, where their latest S90 lays its cards firmly on the boardroom table as a viable alternative to the BMWs, Audis and Mercs that have occupied the prima parking spaces in the corporate car park for quite some time.
S90 is a replacement for the ageing S80, but there are few similarities, the newcomer being a very significant leap forward in terms of quality.
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.
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.
HATS off to Kia – they’ve taken a long hard look at what fits the bill over here, gone away and, like the Koreans have done with the mobile phone industry, cloned the best.
So now, as well as a pretty decent all round range of cars, they’ve added a newie to the list – their first estate version.
PICASSO: a name that conjures up on the one hand some surreal and memorable paintings – and on the other a car that fell from the top of the ugly tree and got a damn hard slap from every branch on the way down.
The latter is not something you’re going to get all dewey-eyed and nostalgic about, but in years to come the latest Citroen Grand C4 Picasso might leave more of a lasting and appreciative impression on motoring history.