Mazda 6 2.2 Diesel Road Test

The latest incarnation of the Mazda 6 has always been an impressive car. Very handsome, and easily confused in the mind, with the Honda Accord. You have to look twice to be sure which is which. And the Mazda 6 station wagon probably has the most graceful rear end of any station wagon anywhere in t...

SEAT Ibiza IV 2009

Good news, everybody. VAG has finally come up with a new floorpan that’s the equal of the class-leading Toyota Yaris. And the first car you’ll find on top of it is the very pretty, spacious and comfortable new SEAT Ibiza. It’s the first car styled under the leadership of Luc Donckerwolke, who t...

Toyota Yaris 1.3TR Mini Test

This is a return test of one of my favourite small cars, in special high value trim. In my view the Yaris is up there with the Jazz and the new Mazda 2 and basically does everything a small car should do, without any vices or irritations. This tests the 1.3 petrol TR. Full test of the 1.4 D-4D at www.hone...

Opinion: Mazda 6 2008 Wagon Road Test

“On the wagon” aptly sums up this review. Because that’s what Mazda calls what other manufacturers variously describe as an estate car or a station wagon or, less descriptively, a Tourer, a Touring or an Avant Please read in conjunction with the original test of the 2008 Mazda 6 saloon at ww...

Mazda 5 Facelift

There wasn’t much wrong with the original 2005 Mazda 5: Sliding side doors, decent diesels, six-and-a-half seats with a sliding centre row so legroom can be shared, foldaway centre half seats, rearmost seats commit ‘karakuri’ and fold away at the pull of a tab, a fine handling focus-bas...

Mazda 2 2008 model

You’ve been able to buy the new Mazda 2 in the UK since 8th September. The launch was brought forward for 57 reg and because there was plenty of RHD production available from Japan. But LHD Europe won’t get it until November, so though the UK TV campaign started on 8th September, and though orde...

Mazda CX-7

Did you know that half of the new cars sold in the USA are ‘Sports Utility Vehicles’ (what Ken Livingstone calls “4x4s”, and brands the owners “idiots”). In Europe, sales have doubled from 280,000 in 2001 to 560,000 in 2006. There will soon be no less than 62 different SUVs on sale in the UK. Not q...

Mazda 3 MPS

Thursday 12th October 2006, updated 4th December 2006, updated again 12th April 2007. Over the last three years Mazda has made a million Mazda 3s. It’s the company’s best selling model ever. So now’s the time for a high performance version. However, not just a warmed over Mazda 3. This hatchbac...

Ford Focus CC

Tuesday 20th March 2007 As you can see, it’s a good-looking car. A bit colour sensitive. It’s a matter of “does my bum look big in this colour.” It doesn’t in Acqua Blue. But it can do in ‘Iris’ or ‘Luna’. And, like the 207CC, tan leather suits its Italian styling very nicely. It’s listed cheaper than...

Mazda MX5 Roadster Coupe

Mazda 3 2006 Facelift

Thursday 6th July 2006 The Mazda 3 has been given a discreet facelift and a general tweaking. Nothing hugely significant. Merely a good car made better using lessons learned on the Volvo S40/V40 and Ford Focus with which it shares its floorpan, suspension and drivetrain. The Mazda 3 was the s...

Honda Civic 2006

Car manufacturers can go three ways with a new car. They can take the ‘safe’ route of making it as much as possible like the old one, yet still updated, safer and more refined. The Golf V and the Focus II are prime examples. Or they can take a few risks and go a bit radical as GM and Citroen did with the...

Mazda MX5 Mk III

Lots of people claim to be father of the Mazda MX5. The story I like most came from Shigharu Hiraiwa, original project leader. The task fell to him to sell the MX5 concept to the then formidable three-man Mazda main board. He simply said, “would you like to build a car for one third less than a Mazd...

Mazda 5 + Diesel

Originally 1-6-05. Updated 6-9-05. Update child booster seats 18-10-2006. The Mazda 6 seats five. The Mazda 5 seats seven. Once you’ve got your head around that we can talk about what ‘project manager’ Kenichi Fukanaga calls a “6 + 1”. It’s built on basically the same platform as a five seater Ma...

Mitsubishi Grandis DI-D

It’s longer than a Galaxy, but shorter than a Mondeo estate. So this is a big MPV, a class above the excellent Mazda 5 and head to head against the Toyota Avensis Verso rather then the Corolla Verso. It looks really good. Long and sleek, rather than tall and boxy. One of the few MPVs you might consid...

Mazda 6 Facelift

There are 785 engineering changes to the facelifted Mazda 6. But most of them are hidden from sight. Thankfully Mazda hasn’t messed around with its dramatic looks. Just a few small improvements there. Instead, Seichi Omoto’s team has concentrated on the really important bits. So we get more p...

VW Golf Plus

Renault has to be congratulated for changing the way people think about cars. Renault invented ‘Multi Purpose Vehicle’ with its 7-seater Espace. And followed up with the similarly versatile 5-seater Scenic. Now, if a manufacturer wants to sell a lot of cars it has to offer more than just a st...

Honda CR-V 2.2i CDTI

The RAV-4 started the UK Sports Utility Vehicle thing back in June 1994. Then sprouted an extra pair of doors making it even more practical in June 1995. But the Honda CRV was an honourable second onto the scene, beating the LandRover Freelander to the market by 6 months in June 1997, and comin...

Citroen C5 2005 facelift

If ever there was a case for plastic surgery, it had to be the 2001 model Subaru Impreza. Closely followed by the Citroen C5 hatchback. The C5 estate always had eye appeal. But the hatchback looked like two entirely different cars that had been cut and shut together. Citroen was so self-conscio...

Ford C-Max 1.8 Zetec

“Surprise and delight” was an old marketing term for showroom appeal. The last thing I expected was to be surprised and delighted by the handling of an MPV. I suppose I should have paid a bit more attention to what everyone else has been writing about the C-Max. This is the first launched but act...

Volvo S40 2004 model

Wow! It’s not often I get to test a new car and it turns out to exceed all expectations. Okay, just about anything would have been better than the old Mitsubishi Carisma based S40. And the Mazda 3 had already given a foretaste of what to expect in the chassis department. If the new S40 had been just...

Honda Accord Diesel

You’ll find a test of rest of the Honda Accord range of saloons and Tourer estates elsewhere on this site. These are cars that bridge the gap between Vectras, Mondeos, Avenses and Mazda 6s and the high profit status duo of BMW 3 Series and Mercedes C Class. You actually get a bigger car, more lik...

Mazda 3

Mazda is good at good looking cars: MX5, MX6, Xedos 6, RX7, 323 F-Type, Xedos 9, Mazda 6, RX8. They get it right, instead of the weird, lumpy cobbled-together looks we sometimes see from other Japanese car makers. Which makes it very frustrating that the new Mazda 3 is so hard to photograph. It’...

Mazda 3 Pre-Test

In about three week’s time, after I’ve actually driven the car, this is going to turn into a road test of the new Mazda 3. Meanwhile, here’s a pre-brief with as many technical details as have been released. Apologies if what follows reads like a précis of a verbose tome groaning with overblown...

Mazda 2

Is it a Fiesta? Is it a Fusion? Confusion, it’s a Mazda 2. Instead of offering two variations of the new Valencia Ford Fiesta, Ford offers three and calls one of them a Mazda. But unlike the old Mazda 121, which was no more than a badge-engineered Dagenham Fiesta, the Mazda 2 has been completely...

Mazda RX8

The Zoom Zoom people call it “a sports car like no other”. They aren’t kidding. No other sports car has a rotary engine. And no other sports car has four doors. Performance is up there with the best. Handling is in the top rank. Comfort, ride quality, safety and equipment are all there too. Stacks of r...

Honda Accord and Tourer 2003

These days, if you make a mass-market ‘family car’ you’re in trouble. Because the mass is moving out of this market. No one spending their own money wants to be seen in a rep’s special any more. Unless, of course, they’re buying it at such a knockdown price they can’t help themselves. They’d far r...

Honda CR-V 2002

The British public took to the original Honda CRV like they did to curry and chips. When it arrived, in June 1997, it was four-speed automatic only. But it was ahead of the Freelander, and you could have one NOW rather than wait for it. The manual CRV also beat the Freelander to the post, cost £2,0...

Mazda 6 Estate and Sport AWD

Well just look at it, will you? Walk round it and let your eyes linger on its form, and especially on its lights. When did you ever see a more stunningly dramatic car the same size and price as a Ford Mondeo? In fact, list kicks off at a very fair £14,495 for the 2.0S Estate, against £15,965 for the c...