Author: Robin Roberts

The world’s best selling car and most successful British-built, the Toyota Corolla, goes from strength to strength. Toyota has been building cars in Britain since 1992 when the Burnaston, Derby factory came on stream as Toyota’s first manufacturing centre in Europe. In June it assembled its 4.5M model, a Corolla Hatchback to add to the over 46M Corolla models built worldwide since 1966, including 850,000 built in Britain over three decades. The Corolla name returned to the Toyota lineup for the 12th generation and replaced the Auris. Toyota’s world leading production system is held up as an example throughout all…

Car enthusiasts are getting a once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy a unique one-off four-year-old British sports car, and it could cost them hundreds of thousands of pounds. The Bristol Bullet roadster is among items being disposed of by joint liquidators of Bristol Cars, which folded earlier this year. Bristol Cars was formed in 1945 as an offshoot of the Bristol Aeroplane Company with a sole showroom in London close to Olympia Hall. A low volume car maker for enthusiasts, just 22 staff were employed and recorded on its books at Filton, Bristol when it suspended production in March 2011. It was…

Just 100 versions of the £2.36 Million ex-works three-seater with gull-wing doors will be available from January 2022 and they are expected to be snapped up by owners who will have the cockpit made to measure for them. The model celebrates Gordon Murray’s 50 years in the motor sport and road car design and engineering business which has seen him working at the sharp end of F1 and then use his advanced aerodynamics knowledge in creating the McLaren F1 Road car, styled by Peter Stevens from 1992 and which ran to106 cars before ceasing in 1998. That has been his…

Suzuki stand out among car-makers because they have some unusual and often trendsetting models which over the years have seen them punching above their weight in the showrooms, on the road and in the rough stuff. Now the new Suzuki Vitara 4×4 with latest hybrid technology is a sign of things to come. It learned a lot when launching the first hybrid technology in 2016 and building on that with the added benefit of its strong and impressive all-wheel-drive experience which is available throughout the Suzuki range of cars means that the latest Vitara is a very strong offering in…

A keen motorcyclist has turned her love of Wales into a new business and is ready to open the throttle after lockdown. Born and brought up in Yugoslavia, Maja Kenny has always loved travelling and after hitching and cycling across much of Western Europe she came to Britain and set up an office administration services business in Wales. In 2016 Maja bought her first motorcycle, passed her test and used that Suzuki SV650 to extend her travelling and touring experiences. Two years later she joined Blood Bikes Wales and was the first female ride in the Wrexham area and volunteers…

Aston Martin production of their luxury £154,000 DBX SUV started today in Wales. The big four-door model was announced for St Athan, some 20 miles west of Cardiff, in 2016 and over the last four years the company has been converting three massive superhangers into the company’s latest production centre at the former RAF base. It has gradually taken on over 600 employees to make the bespoke models at a rate of up to 4,0000 cars annually and eventually is planning to have 750 jobs when additional models are added as part of the multi-million-pound investment by the car maker.…

In a blow to Welsh automotive manufacturing which promised up to 500 jobs it said today, “INEOS Automotive can confirm that it is reviewing its manufacturing strategy for the new Grenadier in light of the COVID-19 pandemic – which has led to some delays in our development plans, but has also presented some new opportunities in terms of existing manufacturing capacity that were not previously available to us. “Specifically, INEOS Automotive has entered detailed discussions with Mercedes-Benz on the acquisition of its Hambach site in Moselle, France. “We have therefore suspended the post-lockdown resumption of work at our sites in…

The British-designed, German engineered and powered heavy duty 4×4 will go into production in Wales at the end of 2021 as part of a £600 Million investment directed by one of the richest men in Britain, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Heavily influenced by the previous Land Rover Defender loved by INEOS Group boss Sir Jim, it will be built in a new factory at Brocastle Industrial Estate, Bridgend and roll off production lines there towards the end of 2021, creating 200 jobs in the factory next to the Ford Bridgend engine plant which closes this year. If demand for the BMW-powered…

Lockdown has been a learning experience for everyone, including the policeman who pulled me over for a routine check. Now I have spent over three months behind the wheel, some of the time, in the newest Peugeot 2008 and that’s a long time when we normally have to experience a test car in a matter of hours during a new model launch or in a week of extended test driving. So the lockdown rules have curtailed our normal driving evaluations as launches have been cancelled and the usual rota of new model test drives has been suspended, although there are…

First Minister Mark Drakeford will this morning announce non-essential retail businesses in Wales will be able to open from monday if they can take all reasonable measures to comply with the 2 metre physical distancing duty in Welsh law. The change is at the heart of a comprehensive package of measures to further unlock the coronavirus restrictions and move many aspects of daily life into the amber zone on the Welsh Government’s traffic light system. The First Minister will also announce the outcome of the three-week statutory review of the regulations in Wales and intends to review the requirement to…