There was a time (and you may find this hard to believe, kids) when the SUV didn’t exist. It was estate cars that did all the hard work back then. My childhood was full of Cortinas and Mini Travellers doing school runs and shopping, Volvos being very sensible and, bizarrely,…
He was a prolific writer, the first Briton to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, who nonetheless declined the appointment as Poet Laureate and turned down a knighthood. Rudyard Kipling was feted in his day for his portrayal of stiff-upper-lip Englishness – even though his traditional values and literary…
At first glance the new Honda HR-V could be mistaken for being rather dull. It didn’t help that my test car arrived in Abigail’s Party beige (Honda bravely calls it ‘sand khaki pearl’) but the exterior comes with a refreshing lack of ‘spoilers and slash’ styling. Yet it’s a look…
I had a soft spot for the original Nissan Juke. It seemed halfway between ‘funky’ and ‘barking mad’, with its unconventional styling and weird little touches; check out those dinner plate headlights, which might not actually be in the right place to be headlights, those bulging rear wheel arches, the…
THE email from the Mazda press office was only slightly apologetic: “We had originally allocated you the CX-5 2.2 diesel 184ps GT Sport AWD. However, on inspection, it was flagged there was significant damage which couldn’t be repaired in time.” What I would get instead was a lower-powered two-wheel-drive version.…
Having first bought a Morgan in 1971, Mike Yardley extols the virtues of this quirky – and quintessentially British – sports car. Rail travel made Scotland a major sporting destination, with guns, rods and hounds heading north, and salmon, grouse and memories returning south, says Serena Cross. If you want…
Charlie Flindt was invited to test the new Range Rover released this year along with an eclectic mix of guests. Find out how he rates the latest high-end off-roader to hit the market. All you need to know about the latest Range Rover These are busy days at Land Rover…
It’s less ‘preloved’ than ‘reloved’, finds Charlie Flindt, with long waiting lists for new cars making second-hand vehicles look a whole lot more attractive in buyers’ eyes. THE RESURGENCE OF SECOND-HAND VEHICLES My New Year’s resolution was to set about my late mother’s aged and mouldy yellow Lupo with a…
After a run of headline-grabbing, eyebrow-raising, tyre-smoking Toyotas (Supra, GR Yaris), it’s time to look at something a little more sensible: the new Highlander. I say ‘new’, but it has been proving popular in other parts of the world for more than two decades. Only now has Toyota decided to…
The Subaru XV has always suffered from an identity crisis, says Charlie Flindt, who finds the latest model nicely old fashioned and even prompting a grin on Hampshire clay. For more from Subaru, read our review of the Subaru Forester 2.0D XC. SUBARU XV Subaru’s XV has always seemed to…
