Some say you can’t be a petrolhead until you’ve driven an Alfa Romeo. Trawl the company’s history and it’s easy to see why: Ascari, Nuvolari, Mezzario and Fangio have all steered them to victory; Zagato, Bertone, Giugiaro, and Scaglietti have all styled them.
The cars have won more Targa Florios - considered by many to be the greatest of all road races – than any other manufacturer and a man called Enzo Ferrari managed its Formula One team before moving to Maranello to dabble in car manufacturing himself.
Volkswagen’s first Touareg launched towards the end of 2002 was a respected on/off-road 4x4 ‘premium’ SUV. A revamp in 2007 reaffirmed its position. Late last year ‘Touareg II’ arrived for 2011 model year. It’s new from the ground up.
Again for the second generation, Porsche Cayenne is twinned to the Touareg – it has its own petrol engines and distinct chassis dynamics but the Diesel is from VW. The partnership has worked well for both, VW sold half a million of the old Touareg world-wide and the Cayenne has consistently outsold Porsche’s own sports cars.
When Alec Issigonis sketched his idea for a economical small four seater car with a wheel in each corner, seating for four, and a transversally mounted engine driving the front wheels, on a table cloth in the early 1950’s it’s unlikely that he could of predicted just how influential his mid dinner doodle was to become.
Trying to come up with a solution to steal sales from European bubble car manufacturers Issigonis had just drawn what was to become the blueprint for nearly all future small cars: Issigonis had designed the Mini.
Step forward more than half a century and BMW – makers of the Isetta - and one of the European manufacturers Alec was trying to beat- now make the Mini including both the Clubman, and Cooper. All BMW Minis owe their names to versions of the original Issigonis designed BMC car, including this one, the new Mini Countryman.
After spending the weekend with the Aston Martin Rapide I can safely say that nearly everybody who either looked at it or rode in it summed it up in one word: amazing.
From the boy in the service station who wouldn’t move until I started it up, to my neighbour who went a little bit quiet as the Rapide made a familiar piece of road suddenly seem much shorter, to my niece who actually took it one stage further by proclaiming it, as only girls of a certain age can, as “ay-may-zen”, the Aston Martin Rapide appears to have more than its share of admirers.
The new Audi A6 saloon is lighter, greener and more tech-heavy than ever.
The mini-A8 styling is more evolutionary than revolutionary, but underneath the skin are some key changes.
Initially the A6 comes with a choice of four engines: a range-topping 3.0-litre petrol lump and three TDI units.
And because all new A6 engines are linked to efficiency-enhancing systems like start-stop and energy recovery the average consumption across the range has been dropped by 13 per cent. Importantly the A6 has also undergone a serious weight loss programme by adopting a composite steel-aluminium construction.
With the catnip figure of 94g/km CO2 expect company car buyers to cock a snook at the mainstream market and plunge for the new premium compact from Lexus, but can the CT200h take on the BMW 118d and Audi A3 diesel?
Never before has the luxury arm of Toyota launched a car so small and so un-Lexus-like, but perhaps never before has it launched a car quite as important as the CT200h, for the hybrid hatchback has the potential to expand the brand to a whole new group of people.
Every 12 months the Toyota group loses 10 per cent of its customers to a premium brand, but only 10 per cent buy a Lexus. However, more than a third of those same people buy a car the size of a CT200h - in other words, a BMW 1-Series or an Audi A3.
It must be that time of year when every energy company known to man sends an 18-year-old in a suit around to my house in a desperate attempt to make me switch suppliers. One company even offered me a free football shirt for my trouble.
Goodness me those lads - who've obviously been sent on 'Close that Deal' selling courses by Americans in white suits - must live a lonely existence if, as I suspect, everyone is like me and slams the door shut in their face and says "no thanks".
The job must be hell. We all know the biggest problem with asking a girl out is that she might say no. Well, that is how I imagine it must be like being a door-to-door a salesman, being rejected 30 or 40 times every single day.
I have been driving the great Renaultsport Clio 200 complete with a genuine designer label attached.
The question is, does this already brilliant little hot hatch really need the Gordini treatment (and the inevitable higher price tag)?
Walk into any Renault dealer with £16,810 in your pocket and you will leave a very happy person should you opt for a Clio 200 Cup.
Deliriously happy in fact because the Renaultsport Clio 200 is a fabulous car that offers endless amounts of grip, no torque steer and sack loads of fun. But to have this same car with the Gordini styling will cost you an extra £2,940
Until recently the most popular car in the UK, the Ford Focus is about to become a truly global car.
The latest model due in showrooms in March will share up to 80% of its components with Focus models in all 120 markets it will be sold in globally, and it will be built in six factories.
Its platform will eventually be used for 10 different products, with the Ford C-Max and Grand C-Max already on sale. This leads to useful economies of scale, so the Focus arrives better equipped than before and with a huge range of new technology available.
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