Author: Robin Roberts

Fiat know a lot about turning the ordinary into the extra-ordinary, like they have with the hotter version of the very popular 500 series. Their best selling city car for some 60 years, the Fiat 500 has been boosted by the X Sport, given a beefier 150bhp 1.3 litre four-cylinder engine in the top model we tested and married to a silky six-speed automatic transmission with paddle changes on the column. If you’ve had a good breakfast you can zip along and make your own gearchanges, but after a leisurely Italian-style lunch the Fiat 500X autobox can do the work…

The Citroen C5 Aircross has been a winner for the French marque from its 2017 launch and it’s about to take them into a new era. Within six months of going on sale, over 50,000 models had been delivered and it’s updates include a Plug-in Hybrid Electric version. That brings a big saving if you only do a 15-miles commute each way and have access to a 7kW quick charger so you don’t have to use the petrol engine. At that output the car is fully charged in about two hours. However, if you do run out of charge the…

Aston Martin St Athan plant will play a crucial role in the company’s recovery and future plans. The luxury car maker will almost double production at St Athan and its Garden, Warwickshire sites this year after working through stock it’s held and which has plagued them since its 2018 shares floatation. The British company plans to make 6,000 vehicles this year compared to 3,394 last year, according to a statement on Thursday. It’s last quarter revenue and adjusted earnings beat estimates thanks to extremely strong demand for the DBX SUV it started building in Wales just over a year ago…

The 500 put Fiat back on the road after WW2 as the Cinquecento and it saved the company again with a comprehensive make-over in 2007, since when three-million have been sold. A new refreshed line-up is going on sale Spring 2021, but we wanted to catch up with the outgoing series to see just what is the attraction. And it’s easy to understand. While the most modern city cars are growing in size, the Fiat 500 bucks this trend and instead is a compact but capable city car as a hatch or convertible. Ok, it is a compromise between size…

Jeep’s landmark position in the off-road sector is now joined by the Renegade’s claim to fame as the first of the brand’s electric models. The Renegade was a defining vehicle for the brand being the first Jeep model to be made outside the US as it’s assembled in Italy, Brazil and China from 2015. Now it’s reached another high point and more Jeep models will become hybrids over successive years. Although based on the platform under the Fiat 500X and 500L models, which are also part of the Stellantis parent company, it has been developed in true Jeep fashion and…

One of the world’s leading technology companies has stepped in to boost plans to build hydrogen vehicles in Wales for global sale. Siemens UK has signed a memorandum of understanding with Riversimple, of Llandrindod Wells to make their Rasa car and a local delivery van. The car is already being prepared for trials with 12 drivers living in Abergavenny and the Welsh company installed a hydrogen filling station for them to use free of charge. Riversimple is in the process of raising £150M over the next three years to go into mass production with the car appearing in two years…

Pressure is mounting for new car prices to be slashed after sales plunged to their lowest for 50 years in January. Buyers who cannot visit showrooms during lockdown and who are concerned about jobs and income have put the brakes on business and now manufactuers face fines if they cannot reduce their fleet average this autumn. More sales have moved on-line and the industry and trade expect this to continue even when lockdown ends, possibly before March, but it will come too late to help the traditionally highest selling month when the new 21-number plate is released. Dealers offering the…

Welsh motorists are still getting some of the cheapest fuel in Britain. The average price of petrol shot up by 3.5p to 120p a litre in January – a price last seen the day before the first Covid-19 lockdown on 22 March 2020 and the third consecutive monthly increase, said RAC Fuel Watch. Diesel also went up by more than 3p a litre from 120.05p to 123.43p (3.38p), making for the second rise in as many months. Both fuels, however, are still around 7p a litre cheaper than they were a year ago. At these prices a full 55-litre tank…

There’re new supercars coming out of Wales with familiar faces, writes Robin Roberts. After the launch of the Aston Martin DBX from its new state of the art St Athan factory in South Wales last year, altogether different cars are being built in a small industrial unit in North Wales. While the luxurious £158,000 SUV is wowing the world’s richest owners, the buyers of the latest Welsh supercars are even more discerning but must also be wealthy. MST Cars, Pwllheli has recreated the famous 1970s’ Ford Escorts Mk1 and Mk2 models. The business was founded over 100 years ago in…

The Nissan X-Trail has been a long-lived and much loved member of the Japanese family, sitting above the smaller Qashqai SUV with which it shares many components and technology. Launched in 2001 as a tough dual purpose 4×4 alternative to the bigger and heavier Patrol 4×4, the X-Trail has gone through three generations and it cannot be too long before it is again revised or replaced, possibly with a platform from the sister company Renault or as a new model for both brands. Nissan has a lot of faith in its X-Trail series and as if to underline that belief…