Author: Robin Roberts

One of Britain’s most eagerly awaited new models hits showrooms on Monday and it’s almost certainly going to lead to a “brown market” price war. The Suzuki Jimny LCV will be limited to about 400 sales this year and they are expected to be snapped up even more quickly than the Jimny lightweight 4×4 SUV two years ago. Priced from about £16,700 before VAT as a commercial vehicle the Jimny LCV will retail at just over £20,000 but expect to pay more unless you’ve already got an order in. Thousands of Jimny lovers were frustrated when Suzuki had to cut…

Headturning, big, quick and possessing some of the most wonderful exhaust notes you can hear on the road, it’s very imposing. It’s a very big step up from the ultra low sports cars usually associated with the brand and an even bigger jump from the agricultural vehicles which Lamborghini started making in 1948 before switching to sports cars to rival Ferrari in the mid-1960s. Ironically, Ferrari is now developing its own SUV. The subject of this roadtest, the Lamborghini Urus is named after the enormous cattle which roamed across Europe thousands of years ago and which happens to perfectly fit…

GT is a very overused abbreviation but fully justified as a suffix to the Bentley Continental, writes Robin Roberts. This 191-inch long two-door coupe oozes ability to cover immense distances without complaint and cocooned in complete luxury; the original Grand Tourer for the wealthiest of owners. Of course, such excellence does not come cheap and today’s Bentley Continental GT maintains an air of aristocracy with its ability and a price to match. The Continental series accounts for 40% of Bentley sales, 60% of them are the V8 and just under a third go to America, the company’s biggest market for…

Style and sophistication are embodied in the practical and purposeful Jaguar XF Sportbrake and a serious alternative to SUVs. Introduced in 2017 to widen the appeal of the medium sized XF saloon it sits alongside the now expanding range of Jaguar SUVs and offers a different driving proposition for those who want room but also require a more compact car. The XF series is a huge range based on saloon or estate body-styles and six trim levels available with rear wheel or all wheel drive transmissions. Engines come as 250 and 300ps petrol or 200ps diesel units and prices range…

With an electric motor assisting to provide added smoothness and boost, the powertrain is surprisingly strong for an engine of fractionally under 2.0 litres. The Jaguar XE series was introduced in 2015 to replace the X-Type and has been refreshed over six years so it now comprises more than a dozen models using the same four-door saloon body with petrol or diesel engines in rear or all-wheel-drive and five trim levels from standard to highly sporting as befits Jaguar’s heritage. It still makes sense if you drive a lot of miles to choose a turbo-diesel and the Ingenium unit made…

We are increasingly being implored to get out into the fresh air to reduce the chance of catching Coronavirus but there are few true family four-seater convertibles on the market at this price. You don’t want to be cooped up in a tin-top on a hot day, or any day for that matter, and a the very modern T-Roc Cabriolet blends the best of both worlds with its snug-fitting electrically powered multi-layered fabric roof and unrestricted open roof revealed in approximately nine-seconds. The T-Roc Cabriolet is Volkswagen’s first foray into this sub-compact sector of open-air living and heavily draws on…

The Kia Sorento 4 is full of surprises in a market which often delivers nothing out of the ordinary, writes Robin Roberts. I mean; what car comes with an beach, a wood-burner, a café or its own forest? They are part of the “nat sounds” available in the highly sophisticated infotainment system and are a calming or relaxing influence in a car which is already in the lowest stress sector of driving. The Sorento 4 tested is the top of the three trim levels in this large seven-seat SUV launched last year with petrol or diesel engines and self-charging battery…

As many manufacturers fall over themselves to produce what are essentially the same pure electric cars in hatchbacks or saloon styles, the MG5 stands out from a crowd of challengers because it has none, at least no pure electric estate cars in this price bracket. The MG5 estate sounds unremarkable but that really shouts out about its ability to be a very roomy, easy to drive and practical car for families or business users. Using its stablemate SUV MGZS EV as a starting point, the MG engineers have produced a more nimble and enhanced model which will find greater favour…

The VW Golf has often been held up as the benchmark for family hatchbacks and is frequently the best selling car in Europe, although not always in Britain. After the Beetle which rebuilt VW’s brand and fortune following WW2, the Golf was really the model that put the German company on the road to success in the 1970s and provided the funds for its massive range expansion into all sectors. VW has never forgotten the importance of the Golf and it’s gone through a few generations, embellishing each and emerging as a serious player at the cutting edge of the…

Global leading Welsh automotive engineer Prof Richard Parry-Jones CBE has died following an accident at his home on Friday morning. The current chairman of the Welsh Automotive Forum was born in 1951 in Bangor and rose to become Group Vice-President-Global Product Development, Chief Technical Officer and Head of Global R&D Operations at Ford Motor Company with 30,000 engineers and technical staff working to his directions. During his career over 30 years with Ford, Parry-Jones influenced the Escort, Sierra, Ka, Fiesta, Puma, Cougar and Galaxy and particularly the Mondeo and Focus as well as several American models for Lincoln. As Ford…