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There's no doubt that, if fuel economy is your top priority and you're a high-mileage driver, then the BlueMotion version of the Golf is the car for you. The official combined consumption figure is 3.8 litres/100km (74.3mpg) and it gets pretty close to that. We're consistently amazed by its ability to avoid fill-ups, even when confined to the environs of Dublin. On the motorway it's peerless.
Though it's not quite peerless, as Volkswagen offers the same 1.6-litre TDI engine in the rest of the Golf range. Sure, you do without a list of further…
We got the new Ford Focus together with its arch rival, the Volkswagen Golf for a brief twin test. In summary, the Focus is more daring in terms of styling inside and out and it's marginally better to drive. That latter point really depends on what version you're looking at though, as the Zetec models feature sportier suspension settings than the rest of the line-up.
The Focus' interior has moved on a lot in terms of quality, though it's a little overstyled in my opinion. The Golf's is simpler and some might say boring,…
Car designers need thick skins - more so than an engineer, company executive or even humble hack merrily pushing opinion across the airwaves, information super highway or ink-laden page. With every new car revealed - concept or production - you're invited to look through a window into the designer's mind - showcasing personal taste, thought process and even lifestyle choice. This is their creation, the equivalent of offspring; their baby.
There's no middle ground. Design is so subjective that as soon as you lay eyes on a new car your opinion will be formed.…
Alright, I admit that winter tyres may not have been necessary as yet, though I did feel vilified in having them fitted to our long term test Golf when the temperature plummeted to zero in the middle of December. Then it decided to come back up to a balmier 14 degrees around Christmas Day...
Still, it's only the first week of January and many are predicting cold weather and snow for later this month.
However, I'm not as ready as I was, as one of the tyres suffered a puncture before the holidays. Annoyingly,…
It comes as no surprise that this year's Continental Irish Car of the Year was a hotly coveted honour. It is being contested against the backdrop of an entirely fragmented market. With January looming and the peak of new car sales on the horizon, nabbing Ireland's prestigious award will undoubtedly provide the winner with an invaluable amount of exposure. However, it is not a simple case of the winner takes all. The very fact that some models have made the short list should serve to boost national appeal and manufacturers with a model listed in the top ten should take…
Acura/Honda
One of the most talked about cars of the show was the Acura NSX concept. Acura is Honda's North American luxury/sports division and so it got to show off the new car on its stand. Fear not, it'll be sold as the Honda NSX when it eventually reaches the showroom - by 2014 we reckon. Looks like it'll have about 400hp from its hybrid powertrain and four-wheel drive. The Acura RDX SUV and ILX saloon also on the stand were all but ignored.
It is said that revenge is a dish best served cold and after a twenty five year wait it couldn't really be any colder.
In 1986, Auto, Mund und Sport (the German equivalent of Autocar) tested the technological tour-de-force that was the Porsche 959 and achieved a top speed of 197mph, making the 959 the fastest street-legal production car in the world. Posters were plastered all over bedroom walls and a young Boris Becker rushed out to purchase one of the 200 road-going versions of the car that was primarily built for Group B racing.
It has gone suspiciously quiet this week. No doubt all the press offices are waiting for the perfect moment to announce their Geneva Motor Show plans. Opel has already confirmed its line-up, which will include a 280hp OPC version of the new Astra GTC. Alongside will sit a 195hp BiTurbo Insignia, which is the most powerful diesel car yet made by the company. It promises to be clean as well so don't rule it out for the Irish market.
 
We've already looked at the Mokka crossover, which will be sold here, while we'll not…
Although the Abarth brand has not officially been launched in Ireland, we've been lucky enough to get our hands on several scorpion-badged models to try out. Despite the state of the country's economy, we reckon there's a place here for efficient, reasonably priced small performance cars. The 500C esseesse embodies the Abarth spirit completely.
The two-tone bodywork has had a few shots of adrenaline and the wheels look truly exotic. This car turned as many heads as any supercar we've driven. Inside, the specification of our test car…
Having spent several months at the wheel of the Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion, and then with the Golf Edition-R, it's time to move on. Our next long term test car will be a SEAT Exeo, but before that arrives we have the recently updated Volkswagen Touran for a few weeks. You can read our full road test of the Touran here, and we're going to take this opportunity to compare it to living with a Golf. We suspect that's a decision some growing families will have to make.
First up, and despite cosmetic revisions at…
It's the sort of make-believe technology Q would throw James Bond's way, but BMW is turning dreams into reality with a showcase of future features for its cars. Laser headlights; night vision; augmented reality driver assistance; driver gesture recognition: it's all impressive stuff, and not far from becoming commonplace in the firm's model range it seems.
We were given an insight into what to expect in BMWs of the near future at its Research and Innovations Centre in Munich, where 9,000 employees work to enhance convenience, infotainment and increase safety in vehicles.
When: October 2011
Where: Weissach, Germany
What: 2012 Porsche 911
Occasion: Passenger ride
Overall rating: 5/5
The launch of a new Porsche 911 model is always a significant event, but the eagerly-awaited 991 variant is particularly momentous. The new 911 is faster, lighter, longer and more economical than the outgoing 997, and features a raft of technological advances that have contributed to the Carrera S bettering its predecessor around the Nürburgring by an almighty 14 seconds. We hitched a ride around Porsche's Weissach test track in one of the 400hp 3.8-litre S offerings.
The Cobo Center opens its doors wide to the media on January 9 for the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. Here's a preview:
Acura
Honda's luxury US division will use the North American International Auto Show to debut a new ILX concept saloon. The Honda Civic-based four-door saloon will be available with either a 2.0- or 2.4-litre four pot or the Civic Hybrid's powertrain (in America only).
A near-production ready second-generation RDX crossover will also be displayed that noticeably, in an automotive world dominated by downsizing, will swap the turbocharged four-cylinder engine of old for a more fuel efficient V6.
The…