Category Archives: Road Tests

VW GOLF GTE: So capable, so well built, so ‘of the moment….’.

GTE 5IS there really any car that can be the master of all normal roadgoing situations?

One that can close the gap between performance and caring for the environment at the same time? Be fun to drive but leave you with a big smug grin on your chops because you’re also doing your bit for the general wellbeing of the planet?

Here’s one. It might look like any other Volkswagen Golf at a quick glance, and it’s as smart inside as any Golf has been in the past. Only it’s a bit different when you lift the bonnet.

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VAUXHALL CORSA: there’s been a hallelujah moment….

Vauxhall Corsa 3 DoorIT’S been one of Britain’s best selling cars for yonks and quite how it’s managed it is beyond me.

Cutesy looks are fine but when the engine under the bonnet is wheezier than a fat lad on a school cross country run you begin to question the wisdom of those buying it.

But now, thankfully, there’s been a ‘hallelujah’ moment at Vauxhall and the Corsa now has a small engine that does the business.

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CITROEN C4 CACTUS: nothing run-of-the-mill here…

cactus 5WHEN they set out to do something a bit different you can’t say Citroen don’t come up trumps.

The Picasso was a case in point. Probably the most aesthetically challenged MPV to hit the roads, it became an undoubted hit for Pierre and his pals.

Daring to be different, they seem to have another winner with their C4 Cactus – the wacky offspring of a design team that put pencil to paper only AFTER a long liquid French lunch.
How else would you end up with a car that gives you the option of washing it or dry cleaning it.

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KIA OPTIMA: classy touches in a classy saloon

optima4FACED with a choice of either Kia’s successful Optima saloon or a VW Passat, a friend of a relative tossed a coin and took the keys to the German.

He was allegedly swayed by the greater engine choice available with the VW – a point hard to overlook when the Kia has but one on offer – but dismissing the Korean out of hand is a mistake.

It’s a car configured to catch the eye of the UK business driver, and while you can only have that 1.7 litre 134bhp version, it comes with an awful lot of equipment to make the buying decision that much harder.

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SEAT LEON CUPRA 280: mixing Spanish flair with German quality

8143393295388aaee0d69dA FEW damp laps round a racetrack can do little else than whet the appetite for a car that has undoubted performance on tap – but what’s it like to live with one for a week?

SEAT’s latest Cupra model, crafted into the three door Leon SC bodyshell, wears the badge of being the fastest and most powerful car the Spanish manufacturer has ever built – but while its get-up-and-go credentials are unquestionable, so is it’s ability to behave as sensibly and sedately as any of the other offerings in the Leon range. You just don’t want it to.

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PORSCHE MACAN: so smooth you’ll forget it’s a diesel

MacanWE start with a special plea – but it’s not one the total git who keyed the Porsche Macan in our care is going to want to hear.

Quid pro quo in this instance for this particular Bletchley lowlife will be a puncture in the outside lane of the M25, at a particularly inconvenient time. Let’s say 8.14am on a Monday morning.

It can only be a particularly green eye that prompted the initial deed, but while there’s no excuse for the reaction, you can retrospectively see why.

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INFINITI Q50 2.0: it’s posh, but is it posh enough?

infiniti 5FORGET any thoughts of limitless broadband – here’s an Infiniti that communicates on an all-together different plane.

It can’t do anything but with its two big touch screens dominating the central dash area.
A wide gamut of information is but a touch away in this 2.0 version of the Q50 saloon – a car they hope will help them turn passing interest into concrete sales.

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