vicente
First Drive: Volvo V40 D4
Sector: Lower Medium Price: £24,570–£28,220 Fuel: 74.3mpg CO2: 99g/km Let’s forget about any preamble and cut straight to the chase; the D4 is the engine the … Read More »
Road Test: Audi A6 2.0 TDI ultra
Sector: Large Executive Price: £31,955–£35,485 Fuel: 67.3mpg CO2: 109g/km After three years and more than 500,000 sales, Audi has decided the time has come to give … Read More »
First Drive: Volkswagen Passat
Sector: Upper Medium Price: £22,215–£37,035 Fuel: 52.3–68.9mpg CO2: 103–140g/km Step out of the new Passat after a few hours behind the wheel and you’re left with … Read More »
First Drive: Ford Mondeo
Sector: Upper Medium Price: £20,795–£27,550 Fuel: 38.7–78.5mpg CO2: 94–169g/km Most carmakers claim their latest model is eagerly awaited. Ford, however, can make a claim more credible … Read More »
First Drive: Volvo V40 T5 Drive-E
Sector: Lower Medium Price: £31,900 Fuel: 47.9mpg CO2: 137g/km Fitted with the all-new eight-speed automatic gearbox as standard, the V40 T5 becomes the latest member of … Read More »
On the road: A bumpy ride
Which particular aspect of the UK's crumbling road infrastructure are you currently least gruntled with? Endless potholes? Incessant roadworks? Inadequate gritting in winter? Country lane surfaces knobblier … Read More »
Road Test: Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet 2.0 TDI 140 GT
Sector: Lower-medium Price: £28,910 Fuel: 62.8 CO2: 119g/km Sitting on my driveway with the sun beating down on its glistening metallic purple paintwork, the Golf Cabriolet … Read More »
Road Test: Volkswagen CC 2.0 TDI 177 R-Line DSG
Sector: Upper-medium Price: £31,685 Fuel: 54.3mpg CO2: 137g/km Aside from the Touareg and the Phaeton (yes, they do still make it), this CC is one of the … Read More »
A touch of class
From the second quarter of 2015 Ford is launching its up-market Vignale sub-brand and the first model to wear the badge is the new generation Mondeo. … Read More »
What I've Learnt: TMC's Paul Jackson
That people are “lazy” Everyone has times when they know they could make a change for the better but they end up giving into the temptation … Read More »
First Drive: Volkswagen Touareg
Sector: Large SUV Price: £43,000–£47,500 Fuel: 40.9mpg–42.8mpg CO2: 173–180g/km You might be amazed to learn that the fleet market gobbles up 77% of all the Touaregs … Read More »
On the road: Creature comforts
For most of my childhood, my grandmother lived in a quayside cottage overlooking a muddy creek on the Fal estuary. Every day at 6.00pm, her … Read More »
First Drive: Lexus NX 300h
Sector: Compact premium SUV Price: £29,495-£42,995 Fuel: 54.3-56.5mpg CO2: 116–123g/km With hybrid versions of its existing five models representing 95% of UK sales, it’s hardly surprising the first … Read More »
Road Test: Volkswagen Golf Estate 1.4 TSI 122 SE
Sector: Lower-medium Price: £21,030 Fuel: 53.3 CO2: 124g/km The Golf estate is one of those cars that easily slips under the radar – sandwiched between the … Read More »
Road Test: Volkswagen Golf GTD
Sector: Lower-medium Price: £26,420 Fuel: 67.3mpg CO2: 109g/km If you offer your drivers an open company car choice list, you can guarantee that a sporty Golf … Read More »
Road Test: Audi A3 Saloon 1.4 TFSI CoD Sport S tronic
Sector: Lower-medium Price: £24,305 Fuel: 60.1 CO2: 109g/km Possibly the biggest compliment I can give to the A3 saloon fitted with Audi’s Cylinder on Demand (CoD) … Read More »
Road Test: Audi A1 Sportback 1.6 TDI S line
Sector: Small car Price: £19,180 Fuel: 74.3mpg CO2: 99g/km As Audi has inexorably expanded its line-up, it has ensured there are cars covering virtually every niche possible. … Read More »
Road Test: Vauxhall Insignia 2.0 CDTi 140 SRi Sports Tourer
Sector: Upper-medium Price: £23,284 Fuel: 72.4mpg CO2: 104g/km Take a look again at the figures in the banner above… 104g/km of CO2 and 72.4 mpg in … Read More »
Q&A: Tom Gardiner of Aviva
How serious is the crash for cash problem? Fraudulent “slam-ons” – road traffic accidents deliberately caused in order to claim for whiplash compensation – increased by … Read More »
One year on
How time flies, whether or not you are having fun. It’s almost a year since we instigated our fleet’s mileage capture scheme and as HMRC mileage … Read More »
On the road: Switching off
Remember that delicious spat, almost a decade ago now, between Bill Gates and General Motors, in which the former suggested that ‘If GM kept up with … Read More »
Clamping down on "crash for cash"
The rate of reported fatal road accidents in the UK has dropped by 40% in the last fifty years; thankfully our roads continue to become safer … Read More »
First Drive: BMW 2 Series Active Tourer
Sector: MPV Price: £22,125–£28,755 Fuel: 53.4–68.9mpg CO2: 109–124g/km Two kids under two and a half. That’s my reality, and that of many others. It has quite … Read More »
Driver power
Everyone who has stepped inside a car showroom has a view on car dealers. Most people will also have a story to tell, chances are it … Read More »
First Drive: Audi A3 e-tron
Sector: Lower medium Price: £29,950 (after £5,000 Plug-in Car Grant) Fuel: 176.6mpg CO2: 37g/km Much like the video market of the early 1980s, where VHS and Betamax jostled for public acceptance (and let’s … Read More »
Pod life
I’m hearing a lot about autonomous driving at the moment. We already have cars which will brake if we don’t, keep us a safe distance … Read More »
Look at the small picture
With the UK economy finally back to pre-recessionary levels, there's some unexpected dynamics developing in the new car market. Private demand for new cars is … Read More »
Getting the (Ad)Blues
I have come to the conclusion that working in the product development department of the AA or RAC must be a brilliant job – looking … Read More »
What SMEs want
The new car market in the UK continues to defy all expectations with May heralding the longest period of sustained growth since the 1980s as businesses … Read More »
The Insider: ESOS fables
By now I’m guessing you will have heard about ESOS. My first thought was “more work” followed by “jobs for the boys” but given that sometimes … Read More »