BEAUTY is in the eye of the beholder, and to that oft used question ‘Would you?’ I’d reply ‘Yes, I probably would’.
Before eyebrows start raising, I should point out we’re talking about a car here, and not one you might have given much of a second glance to before.
VOLVO XC40: premium SUV appeal in a smaller package
THEY say you’re safer in a modern day Volvo than going for a walk with the Green Cross Code man.
Very reassuring when the standard of everyday driving seems to be on the wane. And more so when the car you’re sampling is Volvo’s new XC40.
DS 3 CROSSBACK: luxury compact SUV with a different accent
LOOKS like our chums across the channel have had another one of those extended lunches swilling Ricard and smoking some exotic substances.
How else would they come up with something as wayward on the inside as the DS3 Crosshatch, something so completely opposite to the more restful and sometimes staid interiors we enjoy on a majority of cars these days.
Over the decades the French have been noted for coming up with some leftfield ideas and designs, and this one is no different.
RANGE ROVER EVOQUE: upgrade for the real deal style icon
IN profile it might look as if someone big and heavy has sat on the rear of the roof but the Range Rover Evoque is a real deal style icon.
Its falling roofline and rising beltline gives it an aggressive, almost-coupe like appearance but it’s unmistakably a Range Rover. There are Velar touches to the latest variant – the slimmer front lights and the flush fitting door handles, and the odd bit of contrasting rose gold trim front and rear.
SKODA SCALA: classy car that banishes badge snobbery
YOU wouldn’t realistically expect the interior of a Skoda to have the same sort of classy premium interior you’ll find on other VW Group products. But the new Scala has.
Skoda‘s latest model to hit UK shores quite adequately sums up the Czech firm’s progress over the past few years – impressive.
The Scala is Skoda’s model to plug the gap between Fabia (small hatch) and Octavia (big hatch/saloon/estate).
LOTUS EVORA GT410 SPORT: a car with a real motorsport pedigree
SOMEONE, somewhere is going to be the lucky owner of a very exclusive car this summer.
What is officially the 100,000th Lotus car to be produced has a very special link with the late, great Jim Clark, the Scottish farmer who took the Formula One world by storm in the 1960s.
The trust that runs the museum that bears his name in the sleepy Scottish border town of Duns has been given a Lotus Evora GT410 Sport in ‘Clark’ colours – red with a silver roof and tartan seats to match the Elan he drove in the 60s – to help fund the new museum that was due to open in July. And it’s been signed by all 20 F1 drivers from this season.
VOLKSWAGEN T-CROSS: an indicator of the way things are going
THEY say the most under employed man in the motor industry is the one who puts the indicator stalks on BMWs.
Well, they’re not things that get used a great deal here in Milton Keynes either, where guessing what people are going to do on the many roundabouts and dual carriageways is one of the most popular pastimes.
TOYOTA COROLLA HYBRID TOURING SPORTS: a model of efficiency
EVER wondered why our taxi driving brethren have a penchant for hybrid Toyotas?
It’s a question to which there is a fairly simple and logical answer – and that is because they’re efficient.
Their full hybrids are engineered to run on both their petrol engine and electic motor but will run as often as is possible on electric power alone.
AUDI A1 SPORTBACK: the posh small car
IT’S a main road, a dictionary description of excellence, a naff teeny boy band from the past – and the smallest Audi of the modern era.
Now revisited, reworked and relaunched, the latest Audi A1 Sportback proves that few technologies are made worse by being smaller, as this still manages to hang on to that prestige feel even though it’s been extensively remodelled.
Not so tyre-ing from Bridgestone
BRIDGESTONE has announced the launch of Enliten, a new lightweight tyre technology that represents an unmatchable reduction in material and rolling resistance performance to contribute to the reduction of a vehicle’s CO2 emissions.
And yet it still provides the same wear life as a standard original equipment tyre. Enliten technology is also claimed to improve the vehicle’s handling and stability to increase driving pleasure.