First Drives

There’s not many marques that survive 30 years in the original mold any more. Even some of the most venerable badges have either had breaks in production, or have switched things up a bit to pander to market tastes.

Which is better: a good family estate car with normal car manners and space in length; or a crossover SUV with high driving position, oodles of headroom and at least a fighting chance of off-road progress?

The Suzuki Jimny has always been one of those cars. It’s the kind of car that those in the know love, despite many glaring flaws that put off regular folk – like Land Rover’s venerable Defender, or the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. In fact it’s a lot like the Defender and G-Class in many ways, only at one-third scale…

There’s a distinct lack of something during this press briefing. It’s not turbo power — ubiquitous in this day and age, especially in the hot hatch segment — nor is it a lack of enthusiasm about a product a team is clearly proud of.

Twenty three. The car you see above, the 2018 911 Carrera T, bumped the model count for Porsche’s quintessential sports car to just shy of two dozen — the ‘Ring-blazing GT3 RS has since hit that mark.

When we reviewed the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross a few weeks back, we felt it was a nice step forward for a brand that has been in the doldrums.

I learned to drive in a Hyundai.

There’s so many vehicles and brands that have emerged from the need for military transport. Just look at our road test last week, of the Mercedes G-Class. Or Land Rover, which started off as British oneupmanship with the Jeep.

It’s hard to imagine a brand that has enjoyed such a renaissance and undergone such a change, while seemingly remaining the same, as MINI.

Ask the man in the street who the king of hot hatches is and chances are you’ll get a whole different bunch of answers. One name that will come up time and again though is Renault.

There’s few model nameplates quite as enduring as the Honda Civic. In fact the first car ever made was a Honda Civic.

The global financial crisis in 2008 focused many people’s minds on value for money and no-frills products. But can no-frills motoring be a thing? We’ve been out and about in Europe’s cheapest new car to find out.

After a tricky start to life in Europe, Infiniti has been coming on leaps and bounds lately. The Q30 hatch and QX30 crossover have given it some mass market appeal, but we’ve been looking at the opposite end of its product range.

With a million sold, Mazda’s MX-5 is the world’s most popular two seat sports car. There’s a new version in the showrooms now though that aims to bring something a little bit different to the table. We’ve been to find out all about it.