Well, how about this!? – A sizeable and very sporting family saloon that’s £10k cheaper than all those ‘premium’ marques Although the Insignia does not feel exactly quite as ‘tight’ as some of those, it has everything available in all other respects from the engineering point-of-view, including a wizard, 9-speed automatic gearbox. The test car’s 2-litre engine produces 197bhp and …
The Lexus RX 450h F Sport | Reviewed
What a comfortable week, driving the Lexus RX 450h F Sport The F Sport’s Active Stabiliser works well, giving a nice ride. However, let’s begin with the Lexus’ Atkinson Cycle, lovely 6-cylinder, 3456 cc petrol engine. This is, for anyone who has not studied the history of the ICE (internal combustion engine, as opposed to the new-fangled electric device), a nearly-140-years-old …
The Polestar 2 EV, silent and swift
Polestar 2 – A New Swedish EV..the initials are the acronym for an electric vehicle. How long before everyone knows this? Electricity…me: no idea how it works. Faraday was of course a genius. So was Tesla. I hope that Mister Geely (Polestar’s Chinese owner) doesn’t mind me mentioning Tesla, but then billionaires are, we hope, in the end, magnanimous by …
MINI what’s new for 2021
Shiny chrome is out. For Mini in 2021, it’s Piano Black! There’s now the gaping front black grille seemingly about to swallow the number plate. The headlamps are like black eyes, too. At the back, more black, with both front and rear of the car thus looking more aggressive, even more so with the Sport versions. And there’s more inside, …
Toyota Corolla Touring Sports Reviewed
The Toyota Corolla: a car designed at Toyota’s Belgian HQ, built in Derbyshire and powered by engines assembled in north Wales This last comment is in no way decrying the Corolla, which offers, for £27,890 in the test car’s case, serious competition to its rivals in this price bracket. Compared with the previous generation Corolla, this one is 60% more …
Reviewed | the Mazda CX-5 Kuro Edition
The Mazda CX-5 Kuro SUV is one of those ‘special editions’. How special is it? In this case, with the CX-5 Kuro Edition; just 750 owners should be happy with their unique Soul Red Crystal Metallic or Polymetal Grey Metallic SUV, with contrasting 19-inch black wheels and black mirror caps. The black theme continues inside with a black dash and …
Cupra Formentor V1 150PS, a sporty SUV
Shut up! Please don’t say it! The Cupra Formentor is not a SEAT! So, actually, not a coincidence, just the fact that the Formentor (the start-off car in the Cupra story) is a Cupra, not a sporty SUV by SEAT. As it happens, the Cupra Formentor is not un-sporty. To drive, it is on a par with anything in its …
Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce, true love
URGENT MESSAGE! If you haven’t driven an Alfa Romeo before, read on… The Veloce, visually-distinguished from other Giulias by its black badging and window-surrounds, is the most exotic (the Giulia QV and GTA are different kettles of fish). After all, – a) it’s Italian and b) compared to the competition, few are sold. That means a lot of drivers are …
Welcome to the Mazda MX-30, our first impressions of the electric SUV
SUVs are the way ahead and have been for some time; similarly, EVs are powering forward and will become more and more available over the coming years. So called ‘range anxiety’, when the driver is worried whether or not the car can be re-charged before the journey comes to an untimely end, is what the industry is grappling with. The …
The latest Volkswagen Golf eTSI 150 PS DSG Style
There’s a vast Gulf (German for Golf) between the VW Golf Mark 1 and the current Golf (number eight and now 47 years later). This is noted because it can be said that the more new technical stuff you buy into, the more there is to go wrong. More of that later. It must be challenging for car designers to …