Road tests

For the past two years, Kia has been telling us not to treat it as a budget manufacturer, and instead to line its models up against the mainstream cla…

Smart, fast and frugal - by offering all three attributes, today's best superminis are minor miracles. And there's such stiff competition that no make…

Pride is at stake at Peugeot. Dealers are having a hard time trying to shift the 107 city car and unconventional 1007 supermini-MPV, so the French fir…

There's no stopping the VW Group. It has set new standards in the supercar class with the Bugatti Veyron, driven in issue 876, and now it's doing the …

Seven seats and unstoppable off-road performance courtesy of a specially tuned Nissan 350Z engine... Whatever you are looking for in a new car, the 4.…

With its wide wheel-arches and huge spoilers, Subaru's rally-bred Impreza demands plenty of attention. The Legacy, on the other hand, is altogether mo…

Compared with the three-door Clio we drove last week, Renault expects the new five-door to be a rare sight

If you think BMWs are boring and all Mercedes look the same, what sort of machine should you buy when you are looking for a big, executive car that is…

We'll let you in on a little secret. Mitsubishi has been trying to build an estate from its rally-inspired Lancer Evolution for the past four years.

Hot diesels are all the rage, and Fiat clearly doesn't want to be left behind with its new Grande Punto

Things are going well for Mazda at the moment. Sales are up, and showrooms are bursting with exciting new cars. Now there's more good news for buyers:…

As if developing one of the world's best luxury saloons hasn't kept Mercedes busy enough, the maker has also been putting the finishing touches to its…

Replacing popular cars is a tough task at the best of times, but when it comes to legendary saloons such as Mercedes' S-Class - universally acclaimed …

In two generations, the car has established itself as one of the UK's favourites, lining up with the Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa at the top of the …

As Mercedes rolls out new engines across its entire range, it was only a matter of time before the SLK was offered with a new and updated powerplant.

With diesel prices averaging nearly £1 a litre, and hi-tech petrol cars proving almost as frugal as oil-burners, the argument for filling up from the …

Together with bumper-mounted machine guns and ejector seats, the idea of a supercharged and turbocharged engine sounds like something James Bond's 'Q'…

Times aren't good for Saab. The Swedish firm has struggled to turn a profit over the past few years, and its fortunes have floundered under the owners…

At last! Honda's charge for honours in the family car market has begun. The new Civic hits the road this week, spearheaded by an innovative hybrid - a…

As tough jobs go, the new Fiat Grande Punto has its work cut out! Not only is it expected to top the supermini class, but it has also been tasked with…

High performance plus family-friendly practicality. With such a mix of abilities, the popularity of fast estates is no surprise - so why haven't high-…

The cute Swift supermini may well be making inroads into the supermini market, but for Suzuki there's one new car which is even more vital - the Grand…

With small engines and a sharp body, the 1-Series was supposed to provide basic entry to BMW ownership - but the engineers simply couldn't stick to th…

You simply can't underestimate the importance of the Vectra to Vauxhall. After all, the firm hopes to sell nearly 50,000 of them in the UK alone this …

The DTM German touring car championship is spectacular stuff. With grids full of 450bhp, slick-shod super-saloons driven by ex-grand prix stars such a…

Diesel is the fuel of choice for today's executive car drivers, thanks to a blend of economy & ever-improving performance.

Say hello to the new Mitsubishi Eclipse, an American coup� aiming for a bigger slice of the sports car sector. Launched this week in the States, it is…

It is not only sports cars and coup�s that are turning on the style these days. Family hatches are discovering fashion, too! First there was the dynam…

There's no doubt the S60 is one of Volvo's landmark models, after it banished the Swede's boxy styling to history in 2000.

In terms of showroom success, Jeep's Commander is unlikely to register much of a blip on arch rival Land Rover's radar when it arrives here in the spr…

There is no doubting the popularity of VW's Golf - the latest MkV model is one of the best-selling hatchbacks in the UK. But in a measure of how fussy…

In decades gone by, open-top two-seaters such as the MG Midget gave drivers big thrills at small prices. These days, only Smart is staying close to th…

Smart has taken action, and launched a new version of its ForFour with the focus on value for money.

For an indication of how much Volvo's customer base has changed, check out this fact: last year the XC90 off-roader was the company's best-selling veh…

When Porsche created the original Boxster, the development cost was £350million in all. That was enough to produce what is generally regarded as one o…

As the maker of some of the fastest small cars of the decade, Renault is the king of the high-performance supermini. However, the company is about to …