A FEW versions of Ford’s compact but high-riding SUV have passed through my hands over the years, so I’ll spare you my usual verbosity and present you with a condensed report that concentrates on what’s new in this Ambiente-badged derivative that entered service in Mzansi during 2020. (more…)

THE automotive world is littered with car models that adhere to the conventional because their makers are too timid to veer off the beaten track. And maybe their reluctance to do things differently is justified in terms of sales as it’s conservatism, most especially in design rather than…

FOLLOWERS of motorsport and performance cars in general will be more than aware of Audi’s credentials when it comes to setting pulses racing. In the whole history of international rallying, it’s the SWB Group B Audi quattro that stands out like no other before or since which accounts…

IN this era of slick-shifting dual clutch “auto” boxes or ever more responsive torque converter self-shifters, the continued use by the Japanese in particular of sleepy CVT transmissions is all the more mystifying. (more…)

THERE are so few new saloon cars around these days that if you want to remain anonymous, it’s not the type of car you need as the genre, despite its rarity, now stands out like a sore thumb among a sea of SUVs and bakkies. (more…)

IT seems a tad ironic that my headline should refer to an indifferent propulsion unit in a vehicle carrying a Honda badge. After all, this is a company that established a reputation for making some of the best - and most astonishing - fossil-fuelled engines in the business.…

ANYONE familiar with the Suzuki Vitara may well be surprised by the compact dimensions of the newly introduced Brezza model. The reality is that Suzuki is trading on the brand cachet of the Vitara name as the Brezza is not strictly a Vitara at all, being based on…

  THOSE who can muster the energy to read my missives will know that I am not fully in love with the headlong rush into electric cars. My reticence is founded on a number of issues, not least that politicians have found a new punching bag to promote…

THERE can hardly be a soul around who doesn’t associate the word Kombi (abbreviated Germqn for ‘çombination vehicle’) with Volkswagen but maybe it’s only the more elderly among us who associate the Caravelle moniker with passenger or camper-orientated Kombi derivatives. (more…)