Land Rover Discovery 4
Land Rover’s large cars have all received makeovers for 2010. Range Rover was first in July with a supercharged 5.0 litre replacement for the 4.2 V8 petrol unit from Ford’s South Wales engine plant.

For September, the Range Rover Sport inherits the same Jaguar Land Rover 5.0-litre and similar interior and technology refinements. For the Discovery things go further and ‘3’ has become ‘4’.

Three key aspects, according to Land Rover, justify the new ‘name’: a TDV6 3.0 litre twin turbo diesel engine; improved on-road behaviour; fresh design features – inside and out.
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Upper-medium ‘volume’ cars are under siege. Many buyers are downsizing to the lower-medium sector (Golf, Focus and Toyota’s own Auris, etc.) and the rest are attracted by once exclusive ‘premium badges’ such as BMW and Mercedes.

Determined to hang on to a chunk of what remains a big sector, volume makers have responded with a big 'quality offensive' and loading up the kit. Known in a previous life as ‘Carina’, the first Avensis came in 1997 and this is the third.
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Suzuki Alto 04/08/2009
 
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Suzuki’s 2009 Alto arrived in March boasting among the lowest CO2 tailpipe ticket of any five door car to date: 103g/km (road tax band ‘B’ at £35 a year). A look at the more obvious competition – Hyundai i10; Toyota-Peugeot-Citroen Aygo/107/C1; FIAT Panda and Ford KA – tends to support that.

Another significant thing about the Alto is that it’s built in India – and it’s a car a Japanese company is happy to send to Europe under its own name. Maruti-Suzuki builds it at its New Delhi plant. For 25 years that joint venture has built the country’s best selling car. Tata’s (even cheaper) Nano is the first serious challenge to it.
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