Author: Robin Roberts

BMW, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Audi all out performed the rest and left Ford and Vauxhall, traditional leaders, trailing behind. Regionally, Wales bucked the trend and grew new car sales last month, the only part of the UK market to do so. In Wales, 3,946 new cars were registered last month an improvement of 7.32% over the same last year. It has also cut back on the losses throughout 2021 and reduced the downturn to minus 2.69% with registrations in ten months now standing at 49,253 new models. The big winners were electric cars and in particular Kia EV6 arrival boosted…

It’s the original Toyota SUV and the latest RAV4 is still one of the best you can buy in this booming sector. The Recreational Activity Vehicle 4 was launched in the mid-1990s as Toyota’s first SUV intended to offer more space and luggage room for families who liked an out-door lifestyle. It was available with a 2.0 petrol engine and choice of front or all-wheel-drive in three or five-door body styles and in recent years it was badge engineered as theSuzuki Across. Today’s RAV4 range has six trim levels over a dozen models, still offering 2WD or 4WD, with a…

As the UK Government maps out a motoring future of only electric cars on our roads, the Citroen AMI will be coming to a kerb near you in 2022. AMI is the product of Citroen’s advanced design studio, engineered by Altran Technologies and is assembled in Morocco. Whatever your opinion of this quadricycle city-car it has attracted 14,000 UK drivers who have registered an interest and some 1,400 slipped down £250 refundable reservation fees. It has been built only in left-hand-drive for the purpose of being an inexpensive city car and in France it retails for under €7,000 which gets…

Britain’s car-makers and component suppliers have new opportunities as the race speeds up towards a future of pure electric vehicles, delegates to the annual Autolink Conference in Cardiff were told. On the day that the UK Government announced a £620 Million grant to boost ev-sales, extend the national recharging network on-street and in homes, as well as introduce a compulsory mandate for building more pure electric cars from 2024, Prof Ian Henry of Birmingham City University said the country simply doesn’t have enough traction-battery manufacturing capacity while demand is uncertain. He told the conference that components for new models already…

After 15 years out of the UK market, the new generation Toyota Camry is turning heads with its striking saloon shape. While hatchbacks and SUVs have come to dominate registrations and estate cars are few and far between, the once highly popular saloon stands out as a distinctive offering. But beauty is more than skin-deep in the Toyota Camry as it uses the Toyota New Global Architecture closely blending styling with engineering and I think it’s a real challenger to the best that European rivals can put up against it. The advanced petrol-electric self-charging hybrid powertrain is exceptionally good and…

The arrival of the Genesis brand marks a new beginning for the motor trade but with the old fashioned value of personal service behind it. Head of Genesis UK sales Jonny Miller said the brand’s philosophy is built around the customer and giving them a buying experience which exceeds expectations and creating a long term relationship. Genesis is the luxury division of Hyundai and after being born in Korea in the early years of this century it really took off in America where established independent assessors ranked it top for quality in 2018. The Genesis board is sprinkled with highly…

Volkswagen’s ID.3 is their first purpose-built electric car and it’s good. About the same size as a Golf, the new modular electric drive matrix powertrain and floorpan gives it the interior space of the larger Passat. The flexibility of the floorpan is mirrored by the range of batteries and motors that can be chosen to power it in a handful of specifications, Pure 45kWh, Pro 58kWh and Pro S 77kWh. There at Life, Style, Family, Tech, Max and single Tour trims, and others will follow as VW wants to boost take-up. Some models come in below the UK Government’s PiVG…

Small Italian cars are always exciting, but sixty years after Carlo Abarth created his iconic pocket rocket the latest 595 Competizione version from Fiat lifts that to a new level. When he started tinkering with the diminutive baby Fiat a pint of beer in Britain cost the equivalent of 8½p, petrol was 5p a litre and the Beatles launched themselves at The Cavern Club, Liverpool. The rest, as we say, is history and while prices have changed some popular things endure, including the Abarth brand owned by Fiat. As the sporting brand of Fiat, the Abarth name and its famous…

Executive cars behind their familiar badges and dark windows can be anonymous but that is never the case with the Alfa Romeo Giulia. Launched in 2016 as the latest four-door saloon from the AR stable it has won numerous European styling and performance awards and it led to the development of the Stelvio SUV as well. The Giulia range in the UK is fairly small but significant with rear wheel drive and four-wheel-drive models for everyday and enthusiastic owners. Our mid-range Giulia benefitted from the recent upgrade to an 8.8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, full wi-fi function with remote phone charging…

The gradual return to city living and commuting will give a boost to the new generation of environmentally friendly small cars, and few makers have as much experience as Fiat. The Italian brand built its reputation on baby cars, particularly in the second half of the 20th century, and it’s looking towards the future with the latest electric versions of its best selling 500 series, itself a successor to the famous Topolino baby car. Fiat 500 models have been evolving for over three decades and today’s electric models resemble the familiar rounded body-style but underneath it has a pure-electric powertrain.…