CAR Reviews

Skoda Octavia Scout: sounds a bit Dib Dib Dib? It’s Skoda’s way of describing mildly tweaked ‘off-road’ versions of its cars. With this model, it’s taken the Octavia 4x4 estate and made it longer,...

Doesn't look too bad. Someone said Hyundai Coupe facelift and all I could think of was that mess they made of the original Coupe seven years ago... We're equally relieved. This Coupe still looks...

What’s this – more power for the plutocrats? In a word, yes. The £341,585 Maybach 62S - the S stands for Special, should you be wondering – gets the same mighty 6.0-litre twin turbo V12 as last year’s...

Another week, another new Mazda concept car… I know what you mean. This is the Hakaze – that’s Japanese for leaf being blown in the wind – and it follows on from the Nagare shown at Los Angeles and...

The Peugeot 207 looks the same as the 206 CC. A bit unimaginative, isn’t it? Peugeot thinks style is a major selling factor, so the genes of the earlier 206 are obvious. The company could be accused...

Looks like the new Roomster, but without the cut-and-shut treatment That’s because the Fabia and Roomster are the only Skodas so far to wear the new corporate nose. The Czech firm wants to move away...

Are you telling me this beast has 722bhp under the bonnet? Not quite. The 722 – or the Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR 722 Edition to quote its full name – is a limited run of tweaked SLRs, named after the...

A new Fiat Bravo! It replaces the Stilo but, given how unpopular the Stilo was, should anyone care? Yes, the old Stilo was one of those yawningly average cars that rather summed up Fiat’s problems.

So it's a Kia. And an MPV Okay, so it's not exactly high on your lottery win wish list but Kia is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with in car circles thanks to cars like the Picanto and its...

A G35S what? Infiniti. This halo brand is to Nissan what Lexus is to Toyota – a premium range to take on the might of the upper-crust European competition. Europe will get the Infiniti range in 2008 –...

New Porsche Cayenne: the lowdown Love it or loathe it, the Cayenne has done wonders for Porsche's profitability. Purists can argue all day long that it diluted the brand DNA with all those common VW...

Ah, the Escalade. Is this American bruiser about to give Euro rivals like the Range Rover Sport, X5, M-class and Q7 a bit of a hiding? In a word, no. Or more accurately, it doesn’t have a snowball’s...

That can’t be a coupe-cabrio! Where’s the huge backside, the stupid wedgy profile and enormously overlong windscreen? It certainly is a CC - BMW’s first ever in fact – although you’re right, it...

Nothing looks particularly different here. Where’s the change? This year heralds the 50th anniversary of the Seven. Besides making a cluster of special edition livery paint-schemed cars, the...

Finally, a Hummer for the UK – was it worth the wait? Yes, the Hummer H3 is finally here, and depending on your sense of taste, you’ll either be rejoicing or rolling in the aisles. The H3 is the...

An auto box in a big luxury saloon? That’s hardly news… It is for Maserati. To mark the Quattroporte out as a very different, more sporting proposition to its mainly German rivals, it has only been...

A mid-engined supercar from Audi – how extraordinary... Make no mistake, this is a seminal motoring moment. The R8 is Audi’s first mid-engined supercar, designed to prove that Ingolstadt can mix it...

The Toyota What? I thought you said this was the new Corolla It is! Toyota openly acknowledges the Corolla has become a bit, well, dull and is plotting a stepchange with this important new small...

Hasn’t the 612 Scaglietti been around for a while? Yes it has. It was launched in 2004, but Ferrari has just revealed a special HGT-S pack for it. It costs a steep £7420, but that’s fairly...

Has it really been 30 years since the original hot Golf first arrived? Actually the first 1.6-litre four-speed GTi went on sale in Germany in 1976 so the German market got its hands on this...