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Friday 27 February 2015

Prices for new Suzuki Vitara announced


PRICES for Suzuki’s new Vitara – being introduced 25 years after the original went on sale – will start at £13,999 when it goes on sale in April.

The small off-roader will be offered with a 1.6 litre petrol or 1.6 litre turbodiesel engine, and the option of the Japanese manufacturer’s four-wheel-drive system, called ALLGRIP.

The range-topping versions cost around £22,000, but all models will have seven airbags, plus a Bluetooth-enabled DAB digital radio, fitted as standard.

Thursday 26 February 2015

Updated Citroen C4 set for April arrival

AN UPDATED version of Citroën’s new C4 is available to order now, with the first cars arriving across the North West in April.

The French firm’s five-door family hatchback comes in three different trim levels. Prices start at £14,645 for the entry-level Puretech 110 version, which is powered by a 1.2 litre petrol engine, and rise to £20,045 for the range-topping diesel models.

Go to the manufacturer's website or pop into your nearest dealer to find out more.

Wednesday 25 February 2015

New Volkswagen Sharan gets cleaner engines


VOLKSWAGEN has treated its Sharan to new, more fuel-efficient engines as part of a series of updates. 

The seven-seater people carrier will be given a range of VW’s new TSI petrol and TDI diesel powerplants, all of which are 15% more fuel efficient. The interior’s also been updated, and has a new centre console which has been designed to work with the latest smartphones.

It will be available to order from this April, with the first models due to appear here later this summer.

Tuesday 24 February 2015

A Mercedes-Maybach we can ALL afford


IT MUST be hard being a member of the one per cent.

Not only do you and your colleagues get to chat about Davos every year about how much more money you have than the rest of the globe, but you’ve got car makers catering for your every whim and desire.

Just last week, for instance, one of the world’s biggest car makers launched a limousine perfect for you to stretch your legs while plotting world domination. In the back, there’s 157mm of legroom – more than twice the amount any of its rivals offer – and it’s got more room for your head and elbows too.

The air conditioning system is split into three different zones across the car, and if that’s not enough you can get an electrically-operated, tilting panoramic sunroof as an optional extra. If it gets cold, the windscreen AND the windscreen washer jets are heated to make sure your chauffeur never gets a frosty reception, and he’ll never need fidget with a bootlid because that’s electrically operated too.

You’ll have to agree this is a fine compliment of luxuries, and that’s before I introduce you to the little umbrellas hidden in each of the rear doors so you never get wet when you go shopping. The Mercedes-Maybach 600 Pullman will cost an jaw-dropping £165,000 when it goes on sale this summer. Which is why it’s a mighty good thing you can have all of the little luxuries I’ve just run past you on Skoda’s newest model instead.

The new Skoda Superb is one of the quiet heroes of the motoring world because it’s a luxury car the 99 per cent can enjoy owning. Unlike the Hyundai Genesis I mentioned the other week, it’s not attempting to march in on BMW and Mercedes territory with a similarly-priced offering. Nope, the Superb’s party trick is giving you all the important things you’d want in a luxury car – first class legroom and some gadgets to play with – for a fraction of the price.

It’s a pity its astonishing amounts of legroom, boot space and value for money – expect it to cost between £20,000 and £35,000 – means you’re most likely to experience the Superb when a) your fleet manager assigns you one or b) you get a ride home with your mates in one on a Friday night. It’s also got the words ‘SKODA’ and ‘SUPERB’ on the boot, which means you’ll have to endure lazy journalists digging out The Big Book of Motoring Clichés so they can tell you – just as they did with its two predecessors – about the new Skoda being a ‘superb’ car and how you’ll have to write ‘a cheque to the Czechs’ to get one.

 Forget the jokes, however, because the Superb is offering up a lot of motor for the money. It’s Learjet luxury for EasyJet earnings.

Wednesday 18 February 2015

The Classic Car Show is no Top Gear, but that doesn't stop me liking it


TOP GEAR is back on form. It seems that no matter how much the tabloids knock its presenters for offending everyone from here to Argentina, the show keeps gorging itself on spinach and coming back even stronger.

Even though it’s been years since it’s done a properly down-to-Earth, sensible set of wheels you really can’t fault it for entertaining motoring telly. I laughed like a drain when Richard Hammond’s ambulance used a pressurised gas cannon to fire a patient through the window of a makeshift hospital, and the race across St Petersburg between a Renault Twizy, a bike, a hovercraft and a Stig was genuinely exciting stuff.

But Top Gear keeping on the edge of your sofa in an occasionally offensively entertaining way is nothing new. All anyone has wanted to ask me this week is what I think of The Classic Car Show.

Chances are – if the petrolhead consensus I’ve been following is anything to go by – you’ll have reached one of two conclusions having watched the opening episode. Either you’ll have been switched off entirely by its unashamedly upmarket, glossy take on the world of old cars and vowed never to watch it again. Or you’ve already committed to watching all 13 episodes because a) it’s motoring telly and you’d rather watch it than Emmerdale, and more importantly b) because it has its moments of brilliance. I’m in the latter camp.

There have been things about The Classic Car Show that made my mind melt slightly – there will, for instance, be a special place reserved at the back of my mind alongside Katie Hopkins and failed 2006 rom-com You, Me and Dupree for the vapid awfulness of the piece which asked Tinie Tempah for his opinion on the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing. Quentin Willson, however, tackled the Mustang’s 50th anniversary with genuine clout and authority, and the pieces on the £5000 classic cars – TR7, XJ-S and so on – have been packed with warmth and nostalgia.

In fact, I actually admire The Classic Car Show for daring to do something different. Unless you want Top Gear or a show about two blokes buying an old car, restoring it and flogging it on – and after the success of Wheeler Dealers, they’re ten a penny – there hasn’t really been much for people into cars to choose from.

Regular readers will know I've pleaded with TV’s powers that be for a proper, magazine-format show about cars which is filled with fun and facts in roughly equal measure – the sort of thing Top Gear and Driven used to do when they had to make reviewing the Vauxhall Vectra look interesting. This isn't it, but I like it because it's a fresh take on a subject car nuts love.

The Classic Car Show isn't perfect, but it’s won a slot in my Thursday evenings.

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Why the Hyundai Genesis is like Sheffield

BARCELONA’S balmy sunshine, the majestic landscapes of the Scottish Highlands and the fine food of just about anywhere in Northern Italy are all front-runners in the contest to win over my carefully-earned cash.

As summer getaway options go they couldn’t be more different if I tried, but they do all share one thing in common. I’d rather enjoy a fortnight in any of these places then spend my summer holiday in Sheffield.
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Sheffield – it’s a fine city that has made many fine contributions to the world, from steel and coal to The Human League and actors notorious for getting killed in every movie role they land. Sheffield is great for all sorts of reasons, but it’s just not somewhere where I’d go looking for a memorable holiday getaway.

Equally, if I got given £47,995 to spend on a luxury car I wouldn’t blow it on a Hyundai. Yet that’s exactly how much the Genesis, the manufacturer’s largest offering ever in the UK, is going to cost.

Let’s get one thing clear; Hyundai makes some great cars. It’s gone from being the makers of the Pony to one of the UK car market’s real success stories, with accomplished players like the i30 family hatchback helping to eat into an increasingly healthy share of the market. It’s a success story, however, founded on value for money. Hyundai is all about price, not prestige.

That’s why offering an executive express with a 3.8 litre V6 driving the rear wheels is either incredibly brave or monumentally misguided. Why, when you can have a BMW or a Mercedes or a Jaguar or an Audi or even – whisper it softly – a Lexus for the same sort of money, would you want to spend nearly fifty grand on a Hyundai?

Countless other car makers have tried – and failed – to crack this nut. Remember the Peugeot 607? Or the Vauxhall Omega, Ford Scorpio, Renault Vel Satis, Honda Legend and Rover 800, for that matter? They were all mass market attempts to break into the luxury motoring stratosphere, and all were defeated by people who want the pub brag factor of a three-pointed star or a leaping cat instead. We Brits are the worst for it – it’s not for nothing the nation that gave the world Keeping Up Appearances and Absolutely Fabulous is the single biggest Audi TT market on the planet.

I would love it if the Hyundai Genesis were so mind-blowingly brilliant it pulled off a Rocky-style underdog victory and gave the German luxury establishment a bloody nose, but I suspect we snobbish Brits will dismiss it simply because it’s an Aldi car with Audi pretentions.

Are you going on holiday to Sheffield this year? I rest my case.

Friday 6 February 2015

The new Ford Focus RS might not win any beauty contests, but I still want one

FORD’S new Focus RS will use a four-wheel-drive system to deliver its power more effectively – exactly the same trick the legendary Escort RS Cosworth did back in the early 1990s.

The third generation of the family-sized hot hatch will use a turbcharged 2.3 litre version of the company’s EcoBoost engine to churn out 320bhp, and should be available towards the end of the year. The shape might not win as many beauty awards as its more conventional-looking predecessor, but it's designed with one thing in mind; to keep the engine, closely related to the one also being used in the new Ford Mustang, as cool as possible during hard driving.

It’s the 30th Ford to wear the company’s RS badge, following in the footsteps of the Sierra RS Cosworth and the Escort RS2000. Just like these classic fast Fords, the new Focus RS has an instant want-one factor.


Thursday 5 February 2015

Volkswagen launches its diesel hot hatch... as an estate

VOLKSWAGEN’S Golf GTD – essentially a diesel-powered version of the GTI hot hatchback – is being sold as an estate for the first time.

Yes, on the face of it it's not exactly the raciest of prospects - a diesel estate car - but it does combine two ideas I've already expressed an admiration for; the idea of a diesel-hauled Golf GTI, and the performance load-lugger. It looks great too, so hopefully it'll be as much fun to drive as its eco-mentalist moniker suggests.

Prices have yet to be announced, but expect it to be slightly more than the £25,285 the smaller Golf GTD hatchback costs.

It’ll be available to order from April, with the first cars arriving here in June.

Tuesday 3 February 2015

Jeep launches its fastest Grand Cherokee yet

JEEP has turned up the wick on its biggest off-roader by introducing a performance model.

The SRT Red Vapor version of the Grand Cherokee uses a 6.4 litre V8 to get to 60mph in five seconds, before going on to a top speed of 160mph.

The 461bhp 4x4 is available to order now, and will set you back £64,995. Find out more by going to www.jeep.co.uk.