Roadtests

Weekend Roadtest: Tesla Model S P85D

30 May 2015

The Tesla Model S P85D has to be the ultimate veggie option, a super-car you can order without any animal components. While most supercar dealers want to upsell leather and natural fibres for trim and upholstery, Tesla allows the greenest drivers of all to de-select them. Instead you can have synthetics or materials not derived from animals but plants … [Read more...]

Sunday drive: Audi A3 Sportback e-tron

24 May 2015

I have just had a longer driving spell with Audi’s first PHEV plug-in hybrid, the A3 Sportback e-tron. The A3 is Audi’s best selling model range with 45,581 sales last year putting it into the UK’s top ten sales chart for the first time. It finished the year in eighth position. The A3 range comprises of three door hatchbacks, the five door … [Read more...]

Weekend roadtest: Mazda2 1.5 115ps SportNav

23 May 2015

Mazda is breaking new ground with the latest city car. It has based the fourth generation new Mazda2 on the larger CX5 stablemate after its joint venture which produced the Ford Ka came to an end. The result is a larger Mazda2 than before which not only creates more room that makes it ride and handle better than before but it has also allowed Mazda to … [Read more...]

Sunday drive: Skoda Fabia Estate 1.4TDI

17 May 2015

The ‘supermini B-segment sized Skoda Fabia five door hatchback range was launched in January this year with prices from £10,600 and immediately was voted What Car? magazines Car of the Year and other awards have followed. Now the five door Fabia Estate range has joined the line-up priced from £12,460. With the same specification level options and a … [Read more...]

Weekend roadtest: SEAT Leon X-Perience 2.0TDI 150

16 May 2015

SEAT hopes its newest estate will have the X-factor to win over thousands of UK buyers. A natural successor to the Ibiza, Exeo and Cordoba sports tourers, the newest addition to the Leon line-up offers a useful 587 to 1470 litres loadspace and room for up to five. There are SE and SE Technology trim levels with the emphasis on more sophisticated sound … [Read more...]

Sunday drive: Suzuki Jimney is big on character & small on price

10 May 2015

This year is the 45th anniversary of Suzuki’s first compact SUV and their Jimny is their current version which went on sale in 1998. Suzuki’s tiny SUVs have amassed sales close to eight million sold into 188 global markets. Today’s Jimny is priced from just £12,195 for the SZ3 version and £13,645 for the higher specification SZ4 or £14,545 for the SZ4 … [Read more...]

Weekend Roadtest: DS3 DSport Plus 165

9 May 2015

There are many hot-hatches, but only one DS series which stands out from the crowd. DS models were launched by Citroen in 2009 and became the sporting range, but at the Geneva show in 2015 it was announced the DS would become an individual brand within the PSA Peugeot Citroen family. That’s 50 years after the famous and large Citroen DS series was … [Read more...]

Sunday drive: Ford Ranger

3 May 2015

With the recessions of the late 1990s and 2000s seemingly over it is reported that we are now more affluent with more disposable income to spend. Previously very popular recreational and workhorse pick-ups, picked-up their UK sales last year with a 15%% increase over 2013 with 33,843 registrations. So far this year they are up again by 22.8%.units over … [Read more...]

Sunday Drive: Ford Ranger

3 May 2015

Weekend Roadtest: Nissan Qashqai 1.5dCi n-tec+

2 May 2015

The Nissan Qashqai is a very unusual vehicle, but not for the reason you may think. It created the modern crossover sector when it was launched in 2007, but that’s not what I mean by unusual. It is UK designed and produced in several places around the world, that’s not unusual either, and one of those is Sunderland. Even that fact is not to be … [Read more...]