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.
 
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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