From Peasants And Potatoes To The City PARIS – The Citroen 2CV, celebrating its 60th anniversary at the Paris Car Show, was designed to carry 4 farmers and 50 kilos of potatoes over unmade roads at up to 60 km/h, but ended up as a fashion icon notching up sales of over 5 million. Citroen showed […]
Huge, Handsome, High Quality. Czech Branch Of VW’s Big Family Saloon Will Phase Passat, For One. Gizmo Changes Saloon Into Hatchback At Touch Of A Button. Time To Dump That Silly Name Though. **** out of 5 “While Skoda agonises about the new name, the country should join in and decide whether it wants to […]
Anachronistic Gas Guzzler. Fantastic Performance, Equipment, Handling, Quality, Looks, Price. Great Qualities Doomed By Fuel Extravagance. Is Mazda Keeping Rotary Credentials Warm For Hydrogen Age? *** out of 5 You have to admire Mazda’s persistence, its sheer determination not to give up on its rotary engine investment. It has just face-lifted the Mazda RX-8 with […]
Practical And Pretty, A Fantastic Little Car. High Quality, Drives Well; But About 15 Competitors Do Too. As Buyers Downsize, Small Cars Now Loaded With Kit. Will New Honda Jazz Stay At The Top Of The Small Car Pile? **** out of 5 SIENNA, Italy – Ford’s new little Fiesta looks terrific, is beautifully put […]
Ferrari’s California Dream Car Makes Its Debut At Paris Show PARIS: Most manufacturers at the Paris Car Show were either wringing their hands about economic prospects, or bragging about the environmental friendliness of their engines; but not Italian luxury sports car maker Ferrari. Mass car manufacturers are battening down the hatches to ride out the storm […]
Tough, Go-Anywhere SUV Is Priced To Go. Gruff Engine, Jiggly Suspension Don’t Help The Cause. Interior Improvement, Cascade Of Extras Sweeten The Deal. Better Hurry Before SUVs Go The Way Of The Dodo. **** out of 5 “As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, […]
Pretty, Drives Well, Quality Interior, Neat Ideas. You Can Plug In Your Tom-Tom When It’s In Hill-Hold Mode. New Jazz Likely To Retain Lead As Number 1 Supermini. **** out of 5 Volkswagen has transformed Skoda, its Czech brand whose claim to fame used to be for staffing its factories with political prisoners, into a […]
Demands To Be Seen, Will Be Heard. Aston Martin sports cars, despite starring in over-the-top James Bond movies, have always retained a sense of dignity, tradition and restraint. Until now, that is; introducing the new flagship DBS supercar, the first Aston Martin to embrace bling. When you turn on the DBS’s ignition, the words “Power, […]
Battery Power For Early Adopters. Keeps Up With Traffic, Just; Wait For Next Technology Advance. Pricey To Buy/Cheap To Run, Questionable Safety, Inadequate Poke. Guaranteed To Make You Fell Smugger Than A Prius Driver. ** out of 5 I’ve been driving the future, and it needs work. With all the talk about electric cars replacing […]
Frugal Version Maximises Economy. Sips Fuel, But Faster Than Claimed By Skoda. Penalty Is Unacceptable Engine Noise. *** out of 5 The big car manufacturers are falling over themselves trying to come up with interim attempts to provide fuel sippers as the price at the pump soars, and the Skoda Fabia Greenline is the latest […]
Rugged, No-Nonsense Load Lugger. Low Profile Country Types Love This Capable Work-Horse. New Boxer Diesel Gives Terrific Performance, Questionable Economy. **** out of 5 “nobody ever bought a Subaru to make a fashion statement or raise their profile” Subaru has finally added a diesel engine to its Outback permanent four-wheel drive estate car range, and […]
Pretty, Practical, Worthy Little All-Rounder. Smart New Looks, Better Interior, More Economical Engines. Daewoo Reincarnation On Europe Charge; Watch Out Opel, Vauxhall. **** out of 5 WROCLAW, Poland – Chevrolet has redesigned the body of its little Aveo, smartened up the interior, and modernised the engines. You may have grown used to negative news about General Motors and […]
Cute, Useful, An Unusual Combination. Skoda Says This Is An MPV As Well As A Car. Looks Good, Drivers Well, Lugs Lots Of Things; Pricey Too. **** out of 5 You would think that a car with a less than poetic name like the Skoda Roomster and which was in fact a thinly disguised Volkswagen […]
