My memories of the previous model Suzuki Swift aren’t great. A friend owned one back in my college days, and to say that it was cheap and nasty would be an improvement to its image. The doors shut with a harsh clang, the interior was made of the thinnest and hardest plastic I’d seen in a...

Ever tried inflating a completely flat car tyre using a traditional barrel pump? It’s hard work, and can take a good few minutes of frantic leg pumping to get enough pressure in there. So you might be interested in Halford’s new range of tyre inflators, a couple of which can inflate a ty...

If the official pictures are anything to go by, fans of little hot hatches should get very excited at the prospect of the upcoming Abarth 500. Following in the footsteps of the Abarth Grande Punto, the Abarth 500 is a substantially tuned version of the Fiat 500. Taking the standard 500 as a startin...

Despite only being in production since 2003, the Volkswagen DSG gearbox has now been installed in one million vehicles. There were 400,000 units built in the last year alone, and with production now running at 1,750 per day at the Kassel plant in Germany, it will take only take 18 months for anothe...

Don’t know your Gatso from your Truvelo? Ever wondered what those funny yellow boxes are at the side of the road? Check out the following article at Autotrader, it may help you save your license!  ...

So Ford have officially unveiled the look of the new Ford Fiesta, due for release later in the year, and I have to say its a big improvement on the outgoing model. The current Fiesta is a safe design, almost as if Ford were afraid to offend the traditional core of buyers, and as such has never real...

The Ford Fiesta Zetec S TDCi has received a makeover from M-Sport, the team responsible for running Ford’s WRC rally cars. They’ve teamed up with Cumbrian dealership Stan Palmer Ford to bring a limited run of 50 M-Sport Fiestas. On the outside the modified Fiesta includes 17″ Oz r...

Now this might seem like heresy to keen drivers and petrolheads, but the future of performance cars is diesel.  Yes, the black, smelly stuff that goes into low-revving engines with no power that kick out choking clouds of soot.  Well, at least that used to be the case. I used to drive arou...

The Renaultsport Clio 197 has been around for a couple of years now and it’s still widely regarded as one of the best small hatches available, despite putting on a few pounds over the old Clio 182. However, the Renaultsport team haven’t been resting on their laurels and have been hard at...

SPECIFICATIONS Engine: 4-cyl, turbo, 1984cc Max Power: 252bhp@5600rpm Max Torque: 269lb ft@2800rpm Top Speed: 155mph (est) 0-60mph: 6.0 seconds (est) The bog-standard Volkswagen Golf GTI (Mk5) has become something of a celebrity in the hot hatch world. Praised by just about all of...