BACK in the mists of time, I can recall sampling what was then the latest Volkswagen Passat – and getting the fright of my life.

Moving the seat back to get a more comfortable position behind the wheel, I was suddenly aware that I was rapidly getting closer to the boot than the dashboard. ‘Dear God’, I thought (or something like that….) they’ve forgotten to put stoppers on the end of the seat runners.

But of course they hadn’t. It was just that the Passat was the exception to the rule in that it offered an exceptional amount of interior space for a family car.

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TO win awards you have to impress the judges – and Mitsubishi‘s Outlander PHEV certainly did that.

It’s green credentials caught the eye of those picking the winners in the Green Apple awards for cars that are a bit more Eco friendly than the rest. Those judges were my colleagues in the Midland Group of Motoring Writers who made it a class winner and the top performer overall.

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WHO would ever have thought that naming a car after a desert dwelling nomadic tribe from South West Iran would bring Nissan sales success they had probably hitherto only dreamed of.

But the Qashqai did just that.

it brings together in one package the best of all worlds: the fun-to-drive dynamic abilities more usually associated with conventional passenger cars as well as the tough stance, excellent interior packaging and commanding seating position of an SUV.

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A FEW years back Honda were pushing the point that their new Civic was a car for the Playstation generation.

So that would make Toyota’s new Aygo one for the X Box generation, right?

It must be. Just take a look at the front with its distinctive Toyota family face and you’ll get the link.

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‘ARE you sure that’s a Golf?’ mused one weekend visitor.

He had a point but as it says Golf on the hatch lid then we must treat it as one, even though after that comment I began briefly to look on it as a shrunken Touran.

Based on the standard Golf hatchback, it gives you more space and a bit more versatility.

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176mpg and just 37g/km of co2 emissions – you can’t really argue against figures like that.

Audi‘s A3 Sportback e-tron is a new plug in hybrid that successfully dispels the ‘range anxiety’ fears that might otherwise put you off.

The range on pure electric power from the 75kW motor is just 31 miles but coupled with the thriftiness of the excellent 1.4TFSi petrol engine it’s got a range of a claimed 580 miles.

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TOYOTA’S little favourite has seen a lot of changes and upgrades over the years but the good news is that still got its full quota of Yarisness.

It remains one of the most compact cars in its class but at the same time manages to give you commendable load space and a decent amount of room for passengers.

They’ve maximised that interior space, which is very good indeed for a car with such a compact footprint on the road, and given it a bolder Toyota family look at the same time.

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IF you’ve been around a bit and I’ll hold my hand up to that then you’ll remember the Polo being the small entry level model into the burgeoning VW range.

Not any more. Well, not small anyway. Today’s Polo has an equivalent size to the Golf as it used to be.
It’s grown into a decent sized family offering, the five door model sampled here offering decent space for the modern man about town and his growing clan.

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ENGINE in the back, rear wheel drive – sounds like a recipe for something a bit different.

But if you’re thinking along Porsche lines here, forget it. For this is the set up of the new Renault Twingo. And a Porsche pounder it ain’t.

What it does do, though, is up the stakes in the city car class, and it has a large dose of undoubted chic to woo buyers with.

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NOISE. The defining attribute of a true sports car. And there’s no getting away from the fact that you can’t have one without the other.

So if you like your cars to purr like a pussy then you won’t be in any way interested in the new Jaguar F-TYPE.

If, on the other hand, you relish the prospect of your ears being assaulted by the sort of noise that shouts performance – lots of it – at you, read on.

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