Fiat 500 TwinAir 26/10/2010
 
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A trip all the way to Reading in the over-congested south-east, merely to drive not a new car but a new engine in a familiar car, is not something guaranteed to excite me.

But having returned from the launch of the Fiat 500 TwinAir, I think I might just have been in on something a little bit historic.

The TwinAir is not merely some marketing-led twist on the Multijet/Multiair call-it-what-you-will names that Fiat plasters on its engines these days.
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Suzuki Swift 01/10/2010
 
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Evolution not revolution, that is how Suzuki describes its latest generation Swift.

And why should it drastically change a winning formula? 1.65 million people have found homes for a Swift since it was first launched in 2005.

After all Russell Hobbs has made a fortune out of selling toasters over the years, yet the toaster simply evolves into a better version of its predecessor, it doesn't all of a sudden require to be hung from a ceiling, or float in water.
 
Peugeot 3008 01/10/2010
 
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The Peugeot 3008 is full of surprises.

Firstly I didn't expect a lifestyle vehicle to drive and handle as well as this one does and secondly it has more space inside it than I ever imagined.

In fact it was the reason the Peugeot 3008 Sport HDi 150 handled so well that I discovered how much leg room there was behind the drivers seat - I got a little excited on the mountain roads of Snowdonia and my mobile phone slipped out of my pocket and ended up underneath my seat. Don't you just hate it when that happens?
 
Alfa Romeo Mito 04/10/2009
 
Alfa Romeo Mito
The Mito couldn’t have arrived at a better time for Alfa Romeo, as buyers seem to be gravitating towards smaller cars in greater numbers.

Some of its greasy bits are shared with Fiat’s Grande Punto, but the Mito has more exotic looks with a front end inspired by Alfa’s exclusive 8C supercar.

The Mito has a range of feisty petrol and diesel engines, but there is a 'tame' engine kicking off the range. The Mito Junior comes with a 78bhp 1.4-litre engine that perhaps doesn't fit in so well with the car's racy looks.
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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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A major player on the small car scene, Renault has a track record on larger cars too. It was first to market with a mid-range front wheel drive hatchback, for example. The Renault 16 of 1960s was a radical design and so, to an extent, were the even larger 20 and 30 models afterwards. With the launch of the first Megane in 1995 it came up again with a competitive lower medium “Euro-Hatch”.

Apart from getting in early on the trend to differentiate between 'sporty' three- and 'family' five-door variants, saloon, estate and folding hard-top coupe-cabriolet models came too. The real innovation here, however, was the first Scenic in 1996. By offering a down-sized Espace concept the Megane ushered in the first Compact MPV – and shook up the whole lower-medium sector.
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