REFLECTIONS: always has been and always will be one of my all-time favourite Motown classics.But it’s also a word that heralds a bad start for the subject of this week’s words.
For while I like the musical reflections, I have a pathological dislike for in-car reflections. You know, the ones that are annoying/distracting/infuriating (delete as necessary) and the sort of thing that you don’t notice on a brief road test in broad daylight.
THERE are plenty cars that you don’t mind seeing the back of as they speed past you into the distance.
A Porsche 911 would be one. Definitely an Audi R8. But a Skoda Octavia?
Well, it’s a case of having to get used to it because Czechoslovakia’s finest has proved particularly adept at showing a clean pair of wheels to a lot of its motoring opposition.
THERE’S no simple recipe for making a good car better – but Suzuki seem to have come up with a vital ingredient.
Their all new Vitara has been a hit for the Japanese manufacturer since its launch last year.
Now it’s been given a vital spark – or more accurately, a boost – in the pleasing shape of the Vitara S and its new 1.4 litre direct injection turbocharged petrol engine. Quite simply, it’s a little cracker.
CAST your mind back to 1989 – a year when the Chinese squared up to the authorities in Tiananmen Square, Sky TV hit the screens and Eternal Flame by the Bangles flickered into life.
So did the original Mazda MX-5, and while the Bangles hit still gets played a bit, the instant love affair that developed between the motoring public and the MX-5 shows no sign of abating.
NISSAN have banished the box and taken the stylish route with their replacement for the squarer than square X Trail.
Sacked is the six-year-old who obviously styled the last version with a ruler and pencil and is his place has come someone who knows a bit about how to make a car a bit curvy and sexy.
Even something with the on road footprint of the new X-Trail, which by anyone’s standards is a big piece of kit.
SO, it’s not just Red Bull. Honda gives you wings too, in the shape of the over large attachment on the bootlid of the latest Civic Type R.
I’ve always felt there’s something distinctly sobering about knocking along at the legal limit and realising the car you’re in will do twice that speed. And then some.
And it’s a bit of a ‘splash some water in your face’ moment when you peruse the statistics and take in the fact it’s ‘just’ a 2.0 litre engine powering things.
‘WE’LL have some of that’ could have been the thinking at Mazda Towers when everyone started to switch their attention to buying compact crossovers.
There are plenty to choose from, it has to be said, and with the opposition soaking up sales, the decision to model their CX-3 on its bigger CX-5 stablemate was seemingly a wise one.
In essence it’s a taller and chunkier version of the Mazda2 with which it shares the same basic mechanical package.
CAR manufacturers seem hell bent these days on turning us into a nation of budding racing drivers.
Just look at the number of buttons on your average steering wheel – not quite as many as Red Bull’s star man Daniel Ricciardo has to contend with admittedly – but it’s a growing trend to put as much control at your fingers tips as is possible.
And it’s not just your sporty models that are guilty. Cars like the new Hyundai Tucson are having a stab at it as well.
VOLKSWAGEN’S Sharan is a car you’ll consider if you’re a parent about town. Even more so if you’re a parent with a growing band of ankle biters in tow.
Safety is obviously very much in the mind of the designer and the buyer, so the big sliding doors each side allow safe access and exit, and for junior junior you can even have a built in booster seat with its own removeable head bolster to cut down the risk of injury in a collision.
But while Sharan, as a full size MPV, may have the attraction of a van to some, there are very many more creature comforts on board.
HOW many cars have you driven that come with an Orrefors crystal gearshift lever as standard?
South of zero, I’d guess, but it’s one of the classy little touches you’ll find in Volvo’s latest range topper, its twin engined XC90 T8.
With its twin engine set up, it showcases the future for Volvo, one of the features of which will be the distinctive Thor hammer headlights you’ll also find here lighting the way.