Blogs

  • Looking over Britain's £6k supermini

    </p> Walking past the Dacia stand, my gaze fell on the just-unveiled Sandero hatchback – the £6k supermini made by Renault, and headed for a showroom near you in early 2009. Now, this probably isn’t the type of car you’d put on your list of must-sees at any motor show; it’s the type of car you wander past on route to somewhere else. And then curiosity takes hold.<a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/LookingoverBritains6ksupermini_B290/Dacia%20Sandero%5B2%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="180" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/LookingoverBritains6ksupermini_B290/Dacia%20Sandero_thumb.jpg" width="240" align="right" border="0"></a> That’s exactly what happened with me. The chance to check out what kind of car this is proved too much to resist: can Renault really make a properly-screwed together B-segment entrant, made from materials other than second-hand UHU glue and sandpaper, for less than the price of a Citroen C1?

    5 March 2008
    Motor shows

  • This 500's no 'mini

    </p> The thickness and heft of the options catalogue for the new Fiat 500 has (excuse the awful pun) been well documented. As anyone who’s seriously considered or<a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/This500snomini_A7BA/Fiat%20500%20house%5B2%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="180" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/This500snomini_A7BA/Fiat%20500%20house_thumb.jpg" width="240" align="left" border="0"></a>dering one of these fashionable little cars will know, you can have one in any colour combination you like, with one of several interior colour and trim themes, and that’s before you’ve started with the accessories. But at Geneva this year, there’s one that comes with its own lift and espresso bar.&nbsp; </p> You couldn’t miss Fiat’s gigantic tribute to its hugely successful supermini at this year’s show. It’s literally the size of a house; you walk in via the wheelarches. Inside it there are interactive video displays on which you can view the 500 in all its guises and permutations. There’s a lift where the back seats should be, taking you up to the mezzanine level, where you can look at video screens positioned where the windows would be.

    5 March 2008
    Motor shows

  • Geneva - baby Suzuki will be big

    &nbsp;<a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/GenevababySuzukiwillbebig_9F52/suzuki_2.jpg" mce_href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/GenevababySuzukiwillbebig_9F52/suzuki_2.jpg"><img src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/GenevababySuzukiwillbebig_9F52/suzuki_thumb.jpg" style="border: 0px none ;" alt="suzuki" mce_src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/GenevababySuzukiwillbebig_9F52/suzuki_thumb.jpg" border="0" height="163" width="244"></a> </p> It's always the way at big motor shows - sometimes you find yourself stumbling across cool stuff almost by accident.</p> In this case, the Suzuki A-Star - a handsome little concept that hints in very broad terms at Suzuki's new city car, developed in conjunction with Maruti Suzuki in India and coming later this year. The concept was originally shown at the Delhi show in India, perhaps explaining the lack of hoopla made over it here. But I thought it was a thoroughly handsome little thing, looking like an upmarket Aygo, even beneath the show bling.

    5 March 2008
    Motor shows

  • VW Scirocco - new nose but no news

    <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/VWScirocconewnosebutnonews_93FE/front_2.jpg"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="163" alt="front" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/VWScirocconewnosebutnonews_93FE/front_thumb.jpg" width="244" border="0" /></a> <br />Not much new to discover about the new VW Scirocco coupe &#8212; we&#8217;ve already published our own pics &#8212; except whether the unpromising-looking new VW corporate nose looks better in the flesh. This new model appeared first as the Iroc concept in 2006 pretty much as it is now, except that its eye-catching &#8216;mouth&#8217; grille has given way to a treatment consisting of a conventional under-bumper airscoop with a few lateral flutes above.

    5 March 2008
    Motor shows

  • Fisker Karma - the hybrid supercar

    </p> <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/FiskerKarmathehybridsupercar_FA3E/fisker_2.jpg"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="163" alt="fisker" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/FiskerKarmathehybridsupercar_FA3E/fisker_thumb.jpg" width="244" border="0" /></a> <br />Fisker continues to take a steady stream of orders for the Karma, its hybrid four-seat supercar. In addition to the first 100, sold for &#163;55,000 each, the company has more than 50 more orders with deposits.</p> The Karma goes into production in 2009, and company boss Henrik Fisker will be having meetings with two major car companies - at least one of them German - about partnering on the project immediately after the Geneva show. Fisker also needs to have selected the range-extending petrol engine that it will use in conjunction with the car&#8217;s electric drive. The Karma uses technology similar to that in the Chevrolet Volt, and if Fisker hits his on-sale target of 2009 he will beat mighty GM to market, albeit with a lower volume car.

    4 March 2008
    Motor shows

  • Scirocco: Not so dull after all

    </p> I’ve just been to the Volkswagen stand to see the new Scirocco in the flesh and, to my surprise, found I rather liked it. So surprised, in fact, that I had to go back five minutes later and check again. And I still like it.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/SciroccoNotsodullafterall_D2C9/Geneva%20Show%2033%5B3%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 5px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="160" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/SciroccoNotsodullafterall_D2C9/Geneva%20Show%2033_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg" width="240" align="right" border="0"></a> Like most bods in the Autocar office and most other industry types I’ve spoken to about it, that’s more than I’d have thought last week. I thought VW had ruined the IROC concept and turned it into the dullest coupe of the year. But in the metal, and in a rather better colour than white-on-white-background of the first studio shots, it looks rakish, nicely proportioned, even mildly aggressive.

    4 March 2008
    Motor shows

  • Tata takes Geneva by storm

    &#160;</p> <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/TatatakesGenevabystorm_D1EB/nano%20on%20stand_2.jpg"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="163" alt="nano on stand" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/TatatakesGenevabystorm_D1EB/nano%20on%20stand_thumb.jpg" width="244" border="0" /></a> <br />Tata first came to Geneva 11 years ago. I was at the press conference - with about four other people. And, to be honest, in subsequent years there&#8217;s been a similar lack of interest. In fact, it was only recently that Ratan Tata himself was personally calling an Autocar reporter in an attempt to drum up some interest.

    4 March 2008
    Motor shows

  • Twingo Renault Sport – a fruity exhaust

    This bunch of bananas is the exhaust on Renault's forthcoming Twingo Renault Sport, brought to you by the same bunch of engineers who developed the Renault Sport Clios and Meganes.

    4 March 2008
    Motor shows

  • Chinese cars – the real fakes

    </p> <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/Chinesecarstherealfakes_B703/chinese-car_2.jpg"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="163" alt="chinese-car" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarlive/WindowsLiveWriter/Chinesecarstherealfakes_B703/chinese-car_thumb.jpg" width="244" border="0" /></a> <br />Copying things has worked very well for the Chinese, but it&#8217;s not going to work when it comes to cars.</p> Take the BYD F1 and F6, both on show here in Geneva. The F1 looks so much like a Toyota Aygo that I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised to find that Toyota&#8217;s lawyers are already drafting a letter &#8211; it even has a three-cylinder engine &#8211; while the plain F6 uses an interior based on the last generation Honda Accord, including very similar switches, equally peculiar wood and the awful cranked handbrake.

    4 March 2008
    Motor shows

  • Toyota iQ at Geneva – a car with brains

    If you ever doubted Toyota's recent ability to think out of the box, the production version of the iQ city car will convince you otherwise.

    Hilton Holloway
    4 March 2008
    Motor shows

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