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  The idea is a simple one: make a more premium and desirable coupé body shape out of a hatchback. That’s what   Hyundai   set out to achieve in 2018 with the launch of the   i30 Fastback , a sleeker five-door liftback version of the   i30   hatchback that tried to replicate the success Mercedes-Benz has had in morphing an A-Class into a CLA. However sleek it might look and interesting the proposition might be, the idea hasn’t really set the world alight or prompted a whole raft of imitations from rival firms (when they all start making their own, you know you’re really onto something…). Yet it remains a stylish option and a welcome niche in a sea of family similar hatchbacks. The i30 Fastback was refreshed just over a year ago and the range simplified at the same time. The car is available in the sporty N Line trim only and with a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine available with either a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox...

  It’s been an eventful time for Yorkshire-based Land Rover Defender modifier Twisted Automotive. When last we checked in on them, in 2018, they’d not long launched their first Chevy-powered   Twisted V8   model. They have since been   sued by Land Rover   - twice - over trademark infringement, and won both times. But neither that nor the wider business challenges of the past few years has held up the firm’s expansion much. There are now Twisted-modified Defenders being sold under licence in the UAE and the US, and the firm has new UK dealerships in Kensington, west London, and Salcombe, Devon, to go with its headquarters in Thirsk. Of the 240 last-off-the-line Defender Commercials that Twisted founder Charles Fawcett bought up back in 2016 (and if LR had a problem with his business model, which was already well established by that time, you might wonder why it sold them to him), apparently only 40 ‘new’ chassis remain as a departure point for anyone w...

  A chance to get the Puma together with our now-departed Peugeot 508 PSE made me wonder which would appeal more to the fun-loving family driver. Set aside the £20k and 160bhp chasm between them and I reckon the ST just edges it for whimsy and poise. Even with lurid green accents and sports wheels, the 508 looks more executive than extrovert. Call it an inconvenient truth, but the way of the world dictates that even diehard driving enthusiasts will generally cover a good many more miles on Britain’s monochrome motorway network than they will on a race track or demanding B-road. Thus modern sports cars (of all shapes and sizes) must be ready at will to set aside their prevailing traits of dynamism and pep for a slightly more cosseting, frugal and laid-back approach to long-distance driving. That duality is evident in some of the fiercest performance weapons on sale, like the BMW M4 Competition and Porsche 911 Turbo, but needs to shine through even more tangibly in those more afforda...

  The price is rather startling, but in   Mazda ’s defence, this is a top-spec 2.0-litre GT Sport Tech, and you can have a 1.5-litre car for ‘just’ £24,775. It’s a mark more of how bonkers car prices have got in general than of any particular greediness on Mazda’s part. The MX-5 is still a unique offering in the new car market: a sensibly sized, two-seat sports car with a naturally aspirated engine, a manual gearbox, a limited-slip differential and rear-wheel drive that’s vaguely affordable. The  Toyota GR86  should do the same when it arrives later this year, but you can’t take the roof off that one. The reason we’re driving an MX-5 again, other than to remind ourselves that it’s brilliant (spoiler alert), is that Mazda tends to do model-year updates in addition to the occasional sweeping facelift. New for 2022 is Platinum Quartz Metallic paint, a sort of metallic champagne. Helpfully, Mazda sent us a Polymetal Grey one. ...

  It’s no revelation to say that even this ‘baby’ Defender is a big car. It’s 4.3 metres long (before you factor in the spare wheel), 2.1 metres wide (mirrors out) and, give or take, two metres tall – enough to be at risk of a serious clonk in restricted car parks. What has taken me by surprise, though, is how quickly you get used to those dimensions. Every time I clap eyes on it, I think again how absurd such a large car is for outer-London life; yet bum on seat and threading around even the most congested spots, I’ve rarely had to give a second thought to any compromises on where I can go or what I can do. I’ve found the same phenomenon with other large Land Rovers. It takes about a week to adjust and then instinctively you start to know where the corners are, adjust to the steering and slightly laggy throttle and make use of what must be some of the best- adjusted brakes in the business – all from an imperious seating position just a bit higher than that of almost anything else ...

  Mercedes-Benz means business with the new little brother of the   Mercedes EQS   luxury saloon: a super-slippery travel soap of an executive EV, rather than a full-size bar.  Specifically, the EQE means global fleet business. Unlike the bigger EQS, this new all-electric saloon will be built in Beijing as well as in Bremen. And eventually coming down to an equivalent sub-£70,000 entry price, it should hit significantly greater sales volumes than its longer and pricier relation. This is every inch the downsized EQS, for better and worse, from its teardrop-shape outline to its almost seamlessly smooth surfaces and its ever so gently arcing ‘one bow’ silhouette. Being a bit shorter in the hind quarters might better balance its looks, I suppose, but honestly, Mercedes can put down my name in the ‘unconvinced’ column on the design-feedback spreadsheet. I just hate to see one of the originators of luxury car design abandon so many of its...

  So quickly has the world of electric cars moved on that you’d be forgiven for thinking the   Hyundai Kona Electric   was one of the elder statesmen of the class. Yet it’s little over four years since it arrived as a pioneer with 300 miles of range and a compelling price to match. Good to drive, too. The electric car market has boomed since and we’ve had arrivals like the  Hyundai Ioniq 5  even within the firm's own stable showing the exciting next evolution of the electric car. Yet the Kona Electric remains a very strong contender in the class and was recently given a raft of updates in order to keep pace with the fast-improving field. Two versions continue in the line-up: an entry-level 134bhp version with a 39.2kWh battery giving 189 miles of range, as tested here, and a more powerful, 201bhp version with the 64kWh battery that’s good for 300 miles of range.  The changes are minor to the Kona Electric we first got to know and mainly focus on t...

  The idea is a simple one: make a more premium and desirable coupé body shape out of a hatchback. That’s what   Hyundai   set out to achieve in 2018 with the launch of the   i30 Fastback , a sleeker five-door liftback version of the   i30   hatchback that tried to replicate the success Mercedes-Benz has had in morphing an A-Class into a CLA. However sleek it might look and interesting the proposition might be, the idea hasn’t really set the world alight or prompted a whole raft of imitations from rival firms (when they all start making their own, you know you’re really onto something…). Yet it remains a stylish option and a welcome niche in a sea of family similar hatchbacks. The i30 Fastback was refreshed just over a year ago and the range simplified at the same time. The car is available in the sporty N Line trim only and with a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine available with either a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox...

  The idea is a simple one: make a more premium and desirable coupé body shape out of a hatchback. That’s what   Hyundai   set out to achieve in 2018 with the launch of the   i30 Fastback , a sleeker five-door liftback version of the   i30   hatchback that tried to replicate the success Mercedes-Benz has had in morphing an A-Class into a CLA. However sleek it might look and interesting the proposition might be, the idea hasn’t really set the world alight or prompted a whole raft of imitations from rival firms (when they all start making their own, you know you’re really onto something…). Yet it remains a stylish option and a welcome niche in a sea of family similar hatchbacks. The i30 Fastback was refreshed just over a year ago and the range simplified at the same time. The car is available in the sporty N Line trim only and with a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine available with either a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox...

  Welcome, then, to the return of the self-styled ‘best car in the world’, this time for the seventh occasion since 1972, when   Mercedes-Benz   first used the S-Class name. Naturally, like every new S-Class, this is the most advanced car Mercedes has made. Or is it? Because for the first time, the top-billing limousine in the line-up at Stuttgart has some internal competition, in the form of the  Mercedes-Benz EQS , which aims to do everything the S-Class can do, only against the backdrop of all-electric power. Does this moment represent a changing of the guard? Perhaps, and that’s a matter worthy of its own dedicated story in these pages. In the meantime, the car for which “in investment terms, no other model comes close”, according to head of development Jürgen Weissinger, returns with a new remit. Luxury and isolation still in theory lead the order of priorities, but digitisation and connectivity are if not quite on a par then a very close sec...

  “The first car I was driven in, as a baby in 1966, was an   Alfa Romeo Giulia ,” declared   Alfa Romeo   boss Jean-Philippe Imparato at the recent unveiling of the   Tonale   crossover. His Alfista father followed that with an Alfetta in 1972, then a 2.0 GTV and a V6 GTV. If that upbringing wasn’t enough to qualify Imparato for the job of leading Alfa Romeo into a new era under Stellantis, his proven track record at  Peugeot  certainly is. Before being appointed Alfa Romeo boss in January 2021, Imparato had run Peugeot for five years. It is now the second-biggest-selling brand in Europe, with some of the healthiest profit margins in the business. It is no surprise, then, that Stellantis overlord Carlos Tavares put Imparato in charge of the ailing Italian marque, which has so much heritage and soul yet so much to prove. One year on, despite low sales volumes, Alfa Romeo is now profitable once again – certainly a greater measure of success in Tava...

  It’s a balmy Monday morning on Brighton’s pebbly seafront. The walkers, cyclists and desperado electric scooterists are out in force, soaking up some unexpected February vitamin D. The cafe proprietors are sweeping floors, laying tables and getting ready for a brisk lunchtime trade. The weather is ideal – except if you were hoping for the sort of cold, wet, foreboding environment to set a tough challenge for an electric car on a long drive. Thankfully, where we’re heading, we’re almost guaranteed some wintry smirr. It’s somewhere between 450 and 500 miles north from here to Glasgow, depending which way you go – and today we’re going in a  Kia EV6 , mostly just to find out how long it takes to cover that kind of distance on the UK road network in an EV in 2022. This will be a bit of a race between tortoise and hare, except I’m very much hoping our hare doesn’t fall asleep under a tree. Photographer Max Edleston will be driving the trip in a  Kia Proceed GT , which, with ...

  It’s no revelation to say that even this ‘baby’ Defender is a big car. It’s 4.3 metres long (before you factor in the spare wheel), 2.1 metres wide (mirrors out) and, give or take, two metres tall – enough to be at risk of a serious clonk in restricted car parks. What has taken me by surprise, though, is how quickly you get used to those dimensions. Every time I clap eyes on it, I think again how absurd such a large car is for outer-London life; yet bum on seat and threading around even the most congested spots, I’ve rarely had to give a second thought to any compromises on where I can go or what I can do. I’ve found the same phenomenon with other large Land Rovers. It takes about a week to adjust and then instinctively you start to know where the corners are, adjust to the steering and slightly laggy throttle and make use of what must be some of the best- adjusted brakes in the business – all from an imperious seating position just a bit higher than that of almost anything else ...