Author: Robin Roberts

When it comes to choosing your new car it’s not always obvious that the better choice is not your first choice. Buyers who pour over print or on-line reviews can become numbed to the choices and models laid out before their eyes. Badge envy may blur vision and the surreal experience is sometimes far from reality. You have to physically get into a car and experience it to fully appreciate it and anyone who tells you different either does not want to sell you the car or is secretly worried its shortcomings may show up and you’ll shove off to…

The sporting Mustang name has been cloned from the muscle car launched in the mid-60s and its seventh generation becomes the brand’s longest-lived nameplate. The Mustang Mach-E is a family SUV and therefore vitally important to Ford with a choice of models based on standard or extended range batteries, rear or all-wheel-drive and software tweaked to give economy or exciting performance. Some equipment and styling changes distinguish the models to the users and viewers’ eyes and reflect in the prices from about £42,530 to £66,280 and at the upper end the Mustang Mach-E becomes the highest priced model ever sold…

The five-seat pure-electric Skoda Enyaq sits at the top of their range and takes them into a new sector populated by premium brands which command very high prices and can mask the cost of their pure-battery technology. In that comparison, the Enyaq is not that expensive but to anyone who remembers the bargain small cars Skoda formerly made it’s in another league. It’s really a very big step up in terms of sophistication and comfort, and comes with a choice of 179ps 62kW or 204ps 82kW battery that can be nearly fully charged in under 40 minutes at best or…

Audi has been one of the most successful brands in modern times as it aims squarely at making the cars people want to buy like their Q3. Initially launched in 2011 with a mid-life facelift afterwards, the larger second generation hit the road in 2018 sitting on the latest versatile MQB platform from the Volkswagen Group and offers for the first time a plug-in hybrid powertrain in the massive 40-strong range alongside pure petrol or diesel engines. Today there are tall SUV or lower Sportback body styles, five-trim levels and a big engine range, choice of front or four-wheel-drive and…

SEAT broke new ground for itself when launching the Arona subcompact crossover in 2017 slotting beneath the slightly larger Ateca and it’s strengthened itself with a completely new look outside and in together with a host of technical upgrades The industry has been falling over itself to bring in crossover models between MPVs and hatchbacks due to their wider practicality and versatility, and SEAT couldn’t be left out of this ever widening sector so came up with this Ibiza-derived five-door, five-seater. Other manufacturers have done the same but the Arona is definitely one of the best, thanks to its excellent…

The arrival of the Genesis GV80 this autumn will give those who want to be different, to make an automotive statement, a new way to express themselves. Genesis chief creative officer is Peruvian-born Belgian Luc Donckerwolke, who before joining the Korean company in 2015 headed up design in Volkswagen’s Bentley and Lamborghini divisions, knows his way around big stylish SUVs and it shows in the GV80. Some have termed the GV80 a bargain Bentayga and its upright profile, matrix-nose and substantial tail certainly turn heads in the way the Crewe SUV does. What’s more, slip inside and the rich leatherwork…

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…