Author: Robin Roberts

As motoring costs escalate one brand which has widened its appeal is Skoda. From being the one time cheap if not cheerful car range, Skoda can now add a smile to choice, particularly for families who appreciate value for money. With SUVs the mainstay of sales in Britain and Europe thanks to their versatility, the very capable Skoda Kodiaq does a fine job for a number of reasons and has won a number of awards. There are five versions and nearly 20 models in the company’s biggest model series, up to seven seats, and vary only in trim and choice…

As day follows night it was inevitable that Skoda would not only enter the burgeoning electric vehicle market but would bring to it something a bit different, a bit sporty. It has an impressive record among rallying and racing drivers and enthusiasts and any Skoda carrying the vRS badge is always a bit special. Enter the Enyaq vRS Coupe. The Enyaq EV first appeared as an SUV in 2020 but Skoda added the vRS Coupe derivative to link with its sporting history at the end of 2022. Our hyper green test car was equipped with £2,700 of extras including electric…

In a year which has seen Britain’s new car market bump along and end up way below expectations, Genesis has provided a head-turning performance building on exclusivity and service which most manufacturers cannot match. Genesis is the premium brand of Hyundai, which includes KIA, and has been on USA sale for a decade so they are not newcomers to the market but comparatively recent additions to the UK. The Genesis range comprises compact hatchbacks, medium-sized semi-estates, saloons and SUVs and the majority of sales so far have been SUVs among the 1,000 models sold by the brand in Britain in…

To some observers it’s a Bentley, to others an Aston Martin, and some will simply ask what is it as they have never seen a Genesis on the road. Those questions are testament to the design and rarity of the Genesis GV60 pure battery SUV and they are all good points about this premium sector model from the Hyundai Motor Group. Not only does it look very up market, exclusive and sophisticated, but it is. There are three versions of the GV60; the 168kW  RWD Premium, 234kW Sport AWD and the model we evaluated, the 360kW Sport Plus dual motor…

The feathers are about to fly in Britain’s all-electric car market after the entry of a new Chinese brand this spring. The GWM ORA Funky Cat First Edition is being imported from £31,995 by a part of the IM Group, which is already well known through its Subaru and Isuzu distribution and its supply of assured parts for the Mitsubishi marque, which pulled out of direct UK sales three years ago. The new brand is available on line or through a handful of dealers in Bristol, Braintree, Wolverhampton and Glasgow, but more will be added in coming months as retail…

KIA has risen to become one of Britain’s most popular range of models and the family-friendly Ceed has a lot to do with that, last year helping them pass 100,000 UK registrations over three decades. After the Sportage and Niro the Ceed is their most popular model and takes about 10% of sales as a coupe ProCeed, Sportwagen semi-estate, hatchback or the SUV XCeed we tested and facelifted for 2023. Essentially there are four models, each in standard or premium trim, from about £23,400 to £31,000, fitted with the same petrol engine and transmission in grades 2,3, GT-Line and GT-Line S.…

New car registrations continued to improve in December and the market in Britain reached 1.61M, but still the lowest in three decades. The UK new car market recorded its fifth consecutive month of growth in December, with an 18.3% increase to reach 128,462 new registrations, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Hidden in the figures was the fact that evs outsold diesel cars for the first time. Volkswagen repeated its success of 2021 and was the top performing marque, ahead again of Ford with 8.17% share over Ford with 7.86%, while Audi…

For many pure petrol-heads, Porsche is the pinnacle of performance and a brand which has dominated endurance racing for decades. So the challenge of defending that reputation while moving into the new era of electrification means they have to come up with something special and they have. The Porsche Taycan 4S is a thoroughly modern and environmental expression of the company’s awesome mechanical engineering abilities. It has been out for a couple of years yet the range is compact, beginning with the Taycan 4S but then stretching minds and money to slightly more powerful and expensive derivatives, but the standard…

Quintessentially British Aston Martin has never shirked showing us something different and making heads turn and that’s very much the philosophy behind the flagship DBX707 SUV. Launching the marque’s new dedicated £250M factory at St Athan, 18 miles west of Cardiff, the DBX was the first SUV from this exclusive brand in 2020. It sought to redefine the rich-family friendly SUV sector delivering a strong dose of sporting musk to the market, and it has become the brand’s best selling model series. Now it has gone one better and added the more potent 707ps DBX to the line-up and seems…