So, farewell, then, Mazda CX-80; it has, largely, been a slice. Flouncing about a in car powered by a 3.3 litre straight-six diesel engine might not exactly seem the most eco-weeny way forward at the moment. But, put in the context of Mazda’s ‘multi-solution approach’ to sustainable mobility – the right solution at the right …
Well, here’s one I’ve never experienced before; the steering’s gone all sticky… By which I mean that every time I try and introduce one of those minute adjustments to the helm to cater for a straight that isn’t quite straight or an almost imperceptibly tightening radius on a bend, the wheel displays an initial resistance …
For such a large, slab-sided machine that weighs just a whisker short of two tonnes, the CX-60 handles far more tidily than it has a right to, to the extent that there’s a surprising amount of pleasure to be found in flinging it down a twisting A road. It must be said, however, that a …
On the road, you might almost describe the CX-60 as offering a somewhat old-fashioned driving experience. But I mean that as a compliment… Quite rightly recognising that the current fad for downsizing engines to a three- or four-cylinder turbocharged unit with a cubic capacity around the one litre mark is all every well in the …
The Evil-Smelling Dog Mk2 is, at this stage, not so much a puppy as a giant termite. Though her predecessor was prone to raiding the recycling bin for the occasional still-a-micron-or-two-in-there cream carton snack, she would sleep quite happily in the Doggery alongside a shoe rack crammed with delectably whiffy chewables and never touch a …
Mazda has always marched to the beat of a different drummer. It launched, for instance, the evergreen MX-5 at a time when roadsters were considered dead in the water, perfected the rotary engine to the point of creating the glorious sounding 1991 Le Mans winning 787B, and today remains pretty much alone in its belief …
This is only the fifth generation Range Rover to have surfaced in just over 50 years. And that -given that most cars are (at the very least) face-lifted every two to three years these days and that we’re relentlessly induced to junk and replace them with a frequency more usually associated with white goods- is …
Some years ago now, attending an Alfa Romeo launch far to the north of Hadrian’s Wall, I shared the day’s driving with a grizzled veteran of the motoring correspondent cadre. Nature being something of a show-off in that part of the world, I was moved to ask my companion what he thought of Scotland. His …
Typical. No sooner has the 718 GTS 4.0 deployed all its considerable, ruthless charm to utterly vindicated my preference for a Cayman over a 911, than along comes this machine to throw the whole debate wide open once more. Having at least a modicum of respect for the laws of physics, I confess to a …
Can’t tell you how disappointed I was when – rather than sporting the properly iconic (at last; an excuse to use the word as intended…) two-tone paintwork of Surf’s Up who-needs-a-khazi-anyway Microbus fame – the new ID. Buzz turned up swathed from head to toe in metallic dark blue paint. Thing is, this is so …
How times have moved on… So absolutely had the company hung its hat on the environmentally-conscientious peg of hybrid drive technology that, until the arrival of the recently retired GT86, the fastest accelerating production Toyota was… Ta…daaah; the Land Cruiser V8. The GT86 changed all that. But only just… Because, drawing on a long heritage …
Nissan’s X-Trail has always suffered something of an identity crisis. It arrived in the UK in 2001 as a tall, gently rufty-tufty estate car with extra ground clearance, all-wheel drive and hoary-handed-son-of-the-soil aspirations. Trouble is, Subaru’s spunky, 60mph-over-stubble-fields-with-a-smile-on-your-fizzog Forester 2.0 litre Turbo had already had its towel on that sun-lounger since 1998, proved a big …
That relentless irritant Chris Evans paints all his Ferraris white. Well, he doesn’t do it himself, obviously; I expect he gets a man in. Either way, I’ve always thought that’s a pretty terrible thing to do to a Ferrari. And then along comes a hen’s teeth-rare opportunity to get behind the wheel of a Roma, …
It took eight generations of Civic for Honda to make the car look great -part pyramid, part jet fighter, with a trophy cabinet glittered full width across the nose- and, as is so often the case with automotive design, just two to ruin it again. Nothing demonstrates the hopelessness of the if-it-works-fix-it mentality more completely …
Confession time: I’m still gently smitten by the very first, 2007 R8. Built to standards so high it made other supercars of the time appear victims of such dubious construction techniques as Birmingham nailing, it looked, and felt, engagingly compact, was elegant enough -with flair aplenty in such delicious touches as the carbon fibre ‘blade’ …
Heard an interesting take on the electric car driving experience the other day from one professor Gordon Murray; he of the extraordinary McLaren F1 (which I never got to drive because I was working for Top Gear magazine at the time and one Jeremy Clarkson wrote a derogatory column about everything else you could buy …
The worm, it seems, has turned. Once upon a time it took a distressingly scant number of miles for me to weary sufficiently of the Focus ST’s penchant for torque steer writhings on a par with the python caught bathing in Tarzan’s favourite pool that I found myself wishing for the company of a similarly …
Given that, historically, subsequent failure seems far more likely than success, I’m not quite sure what it is that still encourages manufacturers of the fundamentally hum-drum to suddenly play the premium card. To date, from memory, only Toyota -with Lexus- has made a decent fist of it. And that’s for two reasons: firstly, Mr Toyoda …
Well here’s something pretty interesting to play with whilst we wait for the new, full-bore M2 to yell off the launch pad. In an age in which M badging has come to be far more synonymous with specification than something superlative in the engine room, can this 2 Series coupe actually pass muster with a …
Once upon a time, at the launch of its Sportage Mk.IV somewhere warm and expensive in Europe, Kia made the mistake of lining up all four generations of the model in order of appearance. Huge mistake, because anyone who walks without a white stick could see, at a glance, that, in terms of couture, the …
Not that it doesn’t still look good in ‘Modern Steel Metallic’, but I must confess to a frisson of disappointment that Honda’s e didn’t turn up in its Horse Pee Yellow or Blended Kermit grabber-colour couture, one glimpse at which makes me think ‘blowtorched Golf Mk1’ every time. And that’s a Good Thing. Then again, …
A deal of the Macan’s ongoing success as the most popular Porsche in the UK must, surely, be attributed to the fact that the company has had plenty of time to hone the handling of a fundamentally practical SUV since the arrival of the then plug-ugly Cayenne in 2003. And, that’s undoubtedly the reason why, …
Inevitably, the original Mini still consistently tops the polls as the nation’s best loved car, a position which BMW’s capital-lettered replacement has exploited with ruthless efficiency. But two years before the first Mini rolled off the production line in 1959, the rest of Europe had already begun a long-term affair with Dante Giacosta’s remarkable automotive …
‘Walk past a Ferrari, and there’s always a little corner of your mind that mutters “Wanker”’ the entirely delectable Rowan Pelling admitted to me a few years ago. ‘The great thing about an Aston, though’ she added as we drank in Ian Callum’s wonderfully muscular Aston Martin Vanquish, ‘is that it carries no baggage; it …
A scant handful of automotive marques are readily identifiable by one, possibly two, styling signatures that have, over time, become embedded in their design DNA. Aston Martin, for instance, has both the famous David Brown front grille shape (though recent efforts have somewhat eroded the elegance of the original form) and the straked engine bay …
My first experience of the ever burgeoning relationship between Ingolstadt and Stuttgart was the Porsche tweaked Audi RS2 which I had the joy of flinging down the standing quarter mile strip laid out on Madeira Drive at the 1994 Brighton Speed trials. And I’m not sure which gave me greater pleasure: ripping off Ford GT40s …
Anyone who’s ever spent any time in what novelist Wilbur Smith was wont to call ‘the vast heat that is Africa’ will undoubtedly tell you that there’s something unique about the Dark Continent’s ability to imbue you with the most improbably vivid, life-long memories. Indeed, my recollections of a precious clutch of childhood years spent …
It nearly came to fisticuffs at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show when I told the nice man from Renault that I didn’t fancy the look of the new Alpine A110 as much as he clearly believed I should… Thing is, the Alpine that really sticks in my memory is the sharp-suited, droop-snooted V6 turbo-powered GTA …
With mostly unmemorable small crossovers now thicker on the ground than ticks on a sheepdog – Nissan Juke, Hyundai Kona, Peugeot 2008, Kia Stonic, Vauxhall Mokka, Renault Captur, Citroen C3 Aircross, Skoda Kamiq, VW T-Cross and Ford Puma straight off the top of the head, there’s a strong argument for simply choosing the one you …
One quick glance at Volvo’s artfully pretty V60 parked alongside an XC60 is all it takes to highlight the difficulties of giving a true sense of svelte to anything on stilts. Actually, when it comes to the simultaneous beautification and gentrification of the SUV, Volvo has a pretty good track record; high standards first set …
So much about this fabulous machine is guaranteed to elicit the furious smacking of gobs that it’s hard to know where to start. However, given that an esteemed colleague recently branded Ferrari’s F8 Tributo ‘too fast for the road’, speed seems as good a place as any… Bald statistics rarely paint a particularly well-rounded picture, …
However much all-electric motoring threatens dire deprivation for most of the traditional motoring senses, I‘d always held out a somewhat vainglorious hope that a commensurate relaxation of engineering hard points might simultaneously elicit a deal of newfound stylistic bombast. On current showing, however, Fat Chance. But why? Why must an electric car so studiously ape …
Three significant things separate the Mazda3 from the humdrum chaff of everyday hatchbackery. Firstly, It’s exceptionally good looking. Secondly, it has a gently remarkable engine under the bonnet. And, thirdly, it’s really engaging to drive. In a styling age wherein it’s almost unheard of to come across any single body panel that hasn’t been ruthlessly …
It’s a rare occasion indeed when a first confrontation with a car makes one doubt one’s sanity, but that’s exactly the effect Mercedes’ new S-Class had on me. Whiling away the wait for a chance to drive the seventh iteration of ‘The Best Car in the World’, I read diverse samples of that which the …
Given that every electric car of the small crossover ilk drives as if the engine room is full of rubber bands and the steering rack is made from them, our decision as to which to plump for largely comes down to subjective issues such as exterior and interior design, and objective ones such as toys, …
We all remember the cringe-worthy, fly-on-the-cheese and pineapple cocktail stick television associated with the struggles BMW had in deciding what to do with Rover; ‘The English Patient’ as the Bavarian doctors quickly christened it. But what, I wonder, would the haunted goldfish tank have made of the longer-term shenanigans associated with VAG group’s Spanish acquisition, …
The day the rot set in was the day that BMW launched an M5 equipped with a button on the dashboard you had to press in order to unleash the full 500 bhp potential of the massive powerplant under the bonnet. Until you did so, only a paltry four fifths of the full George was …
If ever a machine only made sense when you’re completely on it, this is it. Just 300 examples of the Edition, the priciest ST you can buy, will make it to our shores, bringing with them a three-door only bodystyle, suspension upgrades and bespoke styling tweaks which set them apart from the regular car. So, …
Time was when Citroen’s unique synergy of design and engineering produced some great cars that, coincidentally, might genuinely be described as quirky. Trouble is, these days all that appears to have survived is the word itself. And in an effort to make its C3 Aircross stand out in the savagely competitive small SUV market, Citroen …
Despite looking like a bucket of smashed crabs, the first, 2006 iteration of the Qashqai -billed as the first ‘crossover’ (if you ignore the Matra Rancho. Which is easily done)- quickly came to litter our roads more profusely than boils on a swineherd’s backside. Well I’m sorry, but I just didn’t get it. Then I …
Proof, if proof were needed, that the size of a standard British parking space hasn’t increased one iota since the Austin 7 was the country’s best-selling biffabout comes in no more assertive form than that of Ford’s Ranger Raptor. Though still relatively modest by American pick-up standards, seen out and about amidst Mudfordshire’s burgeoning fleet …
My long-standing bromance with fast Audi estates was kick-started in 1994, when Porsche indulged in some highly advanced fettling with an already rapid 2.2 litre, five-cylinder, 230 bhp Audi 80 Estate S2 and duly hatched the RS2. Armed with 315 bhp and 302 lb ft of torque, this monsterpiece arrived at 62 mph from a …
The first car in which I travelled at 100mph was driven down the A1 outside RAF Wittering by a daredevil chum of my mum who had an entirely infectious smoker’s laugh and a Mini Cooper with an engagingly farty exhaust note. I have no idea how old she was, but I believe I was nine, …
Another day, another lightning-quick McLaren built around the company’s featherweight (just 75kg) ultra-stiff carbon fibre ‘MonoCell II’ tub and mid-mounted 4.0 litre twin-turbo V8. Woking does seem to be able to turn out new variants with mercurial adroitness. However, shunning the company’s numerical nomenclature norm, this machine is simply dubbed GT; a grand tourer, a …
Having cut my Lexus teeth on a succession of effortlessly effective LS saloons -smearing blithely o’er hill and dale with the editor of the Telegraph motoring section as a combination of Frank Zappa and a sublime Mark Levinson sound system socked the very wax from our ears- I cannot begin to describe the depths of …
A recent news item on BBC Northern Ireland revealed that some 58% of current EV owners would consider going back to petrol or diesel due to the dearth of recharging facilities in the area. Exactly the same accusations of public plug paucity may be levelled at Mudfordshire, my local slice of the rural idyll, which …
This is the M Sport Pro Edition of BMW’s 4 Series coupe, badge fans. Which, given the presence of nothing more exhilarating than a 188 bhp 2.0 litre turbodiesel under the bonnet, all sounds a tad too Gareth Cheeseman for my liking. I can’t remember exactly when the M moniker was relegated predominantly to the …
Back when Volkswagen introduced the Mk6 GTi to the fraternity of automotive scribblers, they provided us with a small but perfectly formed shoal of Mk.1 cars to sample. However, initial glee at first glimpse of a taut, pugnacious form that hasn’t been bettered in any subsequent iteration rapidly turned to horror after just 30 seconds …
The arrival of this new Defender will doubtless provoke the full panoply of emotions amongst those who have lived with, or still use, the original. Because I can’t think of any other basic, bolt-together workhorse that has either survived for so long or elicited such extraordinarily powerful affection amongst its owners. Confession: our divorce enforced …
‘Avoid Excessive Acceleration Due to Temperature’ flashes a message from the instrument binnacle of the GR Yaris when you grumble its decidedly spunky little 1.6 litre turbo into life. Hardly surprising, a first reaction, to receive a warning from the average Toyota not to drive fast if you’re feeling poorly… However, this is anything but …