Sales of the Honda Civic Type R will end this October, as the car’s 2.0-litre engine does not comply with forthcoming Euro V emissions regulations. However, to celebrate sales of over 12,000 units of the hot hatch, Honda is bringing together fans of its high performance Type R cars at a special event at Silverstone this month (22 August). Over 12,000 of this generation of Civic Type R have been sold in the UK since its introduction in January 2007. Production of the 3-door Civic Type R will continue at Honda’s factory in Swindon, to supply other markets further afield, such as Australia and South Africa. With the end of this generation of Type R in sight, Honda is using the Silverstone event to launch a new offer for all new Civic Type R customers. Buyers of the high-revving hot hatch can now benefit from significantly lower OTR prices and a competitive finance deal to make paying monthly easier. The Type R GT is now available at £19,495 – that’s a sizeable customer saving of £2,230. And the new PCP finance offer of 5.9% (over 43 months) means a Type R could cost as little as £235 a month, with a 30% deposit. The offer covers the Type R GT, Type R LSD and Type R MUGEN 200 models, and runs from now until 29 September, 2010.
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The new Citroen DS4, available with a choice of two diesel and three petrol engines, will be officially unveiled at the Paris Motor Show before going on sale later in 2011
The Lexus IS range has been revised, with a new 148bhp 2.2-litre diesel engine for the IS 200d, and improved fuel economy and reduced emissions for the IS 250 models
The Ford Mondeo will receive a restyled exterior, enhanced interior, plus new high-efficiency Ford EcoBoost petrol and TDCi diesel powertrains for the 2011 model year
Featuring the practicality and flexibility of the current Jazz, but with reduced CO2 emissions and improvements to fuel economy, the hybrid Honda Jazz will go on sale in the UK in early 2011
The Chevrolet Orlando will makes it public debut at the Paris motor show on September 30, ahead of its European launch early in 2011
Citroën has released full details and pricing for the hotly anticipated DS3 Racing, and has announced that customer orders can be placed from 1st September, 2010
The new Mercedes-Benz CLS will make its debut at the Paris Motor Show in October, and the company has released the first official photos plus a taster of what will be available when the model finally goes on sale
The Peugeot 3008 HYbrid4, powered by a 2.0 litre 163 bhp HDi diesel engine and a 37bhp electric motor and capable of 74.4mpg, with 99g/km of CO2, is the first diesel ‘Full Hybrid’ production car
Camouflage and disguise are crucial when new model prototypes first leave the well-protected confines of the design studio or workshop and head out onto the test track or open road. We spend some time with the team responsible for disguising the new Vauxhall Insignia ahead of its debut at the British Motor Show on July 22nd, as they prepare for the new model’s road test programme
As 2007 staggers into the Gents to vomit itself quietly into oblivion, we take a look back at the cars that have defined the year for us. As with last year, we’ve highlighted not just the models that impressed us the most, but also our biggest disappointments – and this year, there were quite a few. Let’s get to it
Now we’ve made it past the turkey and the family feuds, it’s time for us to take a look back at our favourite cars of 2006. It’s been an interesting year for us: while many of our categories have clear winners, there have been some real disappointments this year. Where we feel these losers deserve a special mention, we’ve included them here
As 2005 draws to a close, we take a look back at the best cars of the last twelve months. There have been plenty to choose from, too, with a bumper year of new models released into the market, as a result of consumers demanding more and more from their everyday transport. However, what has proved surprising is that some of last year’s models still rank so highly in comparison to the newcomers in their respective categories. We’ve picked winners and runners up in nine categories – supermini, family car, estate car, MPV, 4×4, executive car, sports car, luxury car and supercar – in a selection that ranges in price from a lowly £6,745 to a stratospheric £810,345. Thankfully, we’ve got plenty to choose from in-between
It’s fair to say we took something of a shine to the previous generation Honda Accord Tourer. It made a regular appearance in our Estate Car of the Year awards category, and everyone else’s it seems, and in its final year of production it sold more than ever. With the arrival of the new Honda Accord, just five short years later, we had been expecting great things. We expected all the strengths of the old Accord to remain, and a few new ones to be added. Unfortunately, we can’t help feeling disappointed. Let’s start off with the positives – the new Accord looks great. The old model, while taught and aggressive at the front, did have a rather awkward rear overhang. The new Accord has a much more unified design, with a pert rear and bold flared wheel-arches. Inside, there’s more occupant space, particularly for taller drivers, and the cabin’s wider, too. The seats are just as comfortable and supportive as before, but it’s while you’re sitting in them, looking around the interior, that the first doubts begin to seed themselves.
For 2008, the Abarth name is back – and in some style. Fiat has pumped a considerable sum of money into re-launching Abarth as a stand-alone brand, and that includes the construction of a new, purpose-built, Abarth HQ with its own sales, marketing, design and engineering facilities. The cars themselves will be sold through a dedicated dealer network, with their own brand identity. The Abarth Grande Punto is the first of those cars to arrive in the UK, with the Abarth 500 due next year. Although based on the standard Grande Punto, the Abarth features a series of modifications that improve the looks, handling and power delivery of the car, which now boasts 155bhp and an 8.2 second 0-62mph time. That said, the Abarth Grande Punto is still somehow greater than the sum of its parts. We set out to discover why.
In the face of rocketing insurance claims, local authorities across the land have re-defined what constitutes a pot-hole. What you and I would consider to be a wheel-buckling crater is now simply a surface feature. Before a man with a tin of spray-paint will even consider marking out a pond in the middle of the A31, it must be allowed to grow large enough to accommodate several outdoors-types equipped with head-torches and a stripy rope. In any other culture, you could be forgiven for contemplating buying a vehicle designed to cope with the Third World-nature of our transport infrastructure. But in these times of knee-jerk environmentalism, SUVs have been all but outlawed. Luckily, there is still one option left, and it comes from the maker of heavy plant machinery – the Subaru Legacy Boxer Diesel
The arrival of the Porsche Cayman S confused many people. Porsche believed they had identified a niche between the Boxster and the 911, whereas logic dictates that the soft-top version should be the more expensive. When the Cayman S first arrived in late 2005, it debuted the company’s new 295bhp 3.4-litre flat-six and, at this point, we thought we understood what Porsche were trying to do. The Cayman, then, was a harder, more powerful, tighter-focused version of the Boxster, and that performance benefit justified the increased price. Our reasoning fell apart, however, when Porsche replaced the Boxster S 3.2-litre engine with the Cayman S’s 3.4. And introduced a non-S Cayman 2.7. With identical power and performance figures, what exactly do you get for £4,000 extra?
