When the Fortuner was first launched here eleven years ago, there was the general question of “why?” But eleven years on, the new Fortuner soldiers on. Like the original car, a 2.7 litre normally aspirated engine sits in the engine bay, but now with an improved Dual-VVTi head.

The Honda Civic is a nameplate that has legendary standing in the automotive world. Known for its ground-breaking innovation and performance prowess, often on a relative budget, most enthusiasts would have owned, or at least had a memorable encounter with, a Civic at some point in their lives.

Coasting along in a cushy cloud, lined with open pore wooden surfaces and comfortable Nappa leather seats, one could assume a ride in some hyper rich limo. My experience with the Volvo S90 T6 Inscription, revealed plenty about how the Swedes have spent sleepless hours, building a car which would deservingly be on par with their German counterparts in the Executive Sedan segment.

The times we live in, things have changed. As the prices of cars soar, more people are looking for cars that can meet their needs, yet satisfy their wants. There are now station wagons like the Audi RS6 Avant, which we tested a while ago, which changes the supercar game, and then there are coupes with four doors. The Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 is one of these. To most, we’d simply identify it as a small compact sedan. Right maybe, but our drive in one tells of another story.

A full sized MPV simply means more space. But there is more to the equation. A little late to reach our shores, but there is an ace up SEAT’s sleeve with this one.

Value has plenty of interpretations. In this case, the Volkswagen Passat Variant brings it to you by way of more utility space. Fact is, we found that the more upmarket Audi A6 Avant cousin offers quite a bit less than the Passat. We tested the eighth-generation Passat Sedan recently and there was so much praise about how it looked and its poise and road manners.

Young, carefree, alive, sexy. That’s referring to the girls at an Ibiza party. Sorry guys, we are serious about our cars here. We got to test the SEAT Ibiza 1.0TSI, and it felt, young, carefree, alive, sexy…

You might just miss it on the road. There is some S Class and there is some C Class in the new car. The Mercedes-Benz E class is the benchmark for most auto makers, who want to produce an Executive full-sized sedan. Going back to the days when the pre-E Class models, the W123 and W124 models plied our roads, and behind the wheel, you could find either a “towkay” or a higher-up executive, the E Class simply appealed to so many. 

There she came into my possession. Gentle, graceful lines flowed across her body…

There is the ongoing trend of dropping light pressured turbo charges into cars with smaller engines, for benefits of fuel savings and near immediate engine response. The Hyundai Tucson, originally in a naturally aspirated 2.0 guise was not spared the treatment. 

I remembered in my youth, that there was the 2.0GT, which housed a single overhead cam 2.0 with a rather soggy 115bhp on tap. Boot space was ginormous back then, but the car suffered heavily from the lack of rear legroom. Today’s Toledo is quite the different animal. The car seems a little more nimble, with quite a bit of body sculpting and pinching of sheet metal.

There is often the debate if the car should have enough space to bring the grandparents around. And then there is the other thing about how much a car would cost doing just that. Toyota, the makers of sensible cars may have a solution for that. The Sienta is Toyota’s answer to the entry-level MPV. For young families who want a car that can do more.

SEAT has made a comeback to our shores. The Volkswagen-managed Spanish company brought us the likes of the Cordoba and Ibiza more than ten years ago. We tried out the LEON recently, and found that after all these years, the Spaniards have not lost their flair.

No longer a sleeper, those blistered wheel arches, the crazy over-the-top 285/30 ZR 21s… they shout to something different.

When we were kids, there were Mini Coopers, the odd Clubman van/stationwagon thing, and that was about it. All of them were tiny and twitchy handling-wise, but were heaps of fun to drive. Like the Beetle, there were so many around that they almost formed part of our landscape.

BMW, like some other manufacturers have recently been blurring the lines between SUVs, Coupes and even sedans, to appeal to a wider audience. The 440i Gran Coupe is the product of one of these.

The Jeep brand is rather the American oddball here. There are more compact-sized options for us to choose from, from the viewpoints of price, what practical and useful bits that matter in the vehicle, to just general size constraints. Then there are some who see the need for size.

Why yes, it has van roots, but this Caddy is no gopher of a vehicle. It has the same 1.4 TSI that powers our recently tested Golf Variant, and the same quick-shifting DSG transmission powering its wheels. In the past, Volkswagen Caddys were a little noisy, a little chatty with the older 1.9 turbo diesel, or even a little soggy with the old petrol 1.6 unit. Its replacement was quite a different car, with more space and more power. While it may be a name quite familiar to us, this time round, the Caddy is being sold with private plates, with a cat A COE, instead of the goods vehicle plate which the old ones were registered with.

The Volkswagen Golf has been on the road for many decades now, and is still the benchmark for the medium hatch class. Despite recent bad press about fuel consumption figures, the Golf continues to seduce buyers with its combination of style, practicality, value and performance. One thing that has always been a Golf trait is its ability to look bigger inside than its compact exterior, but there are occasions when you yearn for just a smidgeon more carry space. 

Astra Famigliare Sportivo, would have been a nice name to have spanning across the rear of the car. At first glance, one could assume that it’s Italian designed. Only that the Astra is German. We tested the 1.0 hatch a while back, and there was so much praise about the looks and handling of the car. 

Some of you may remember when Korean cars first reached our shores. They were purpose-built machines for getting people from point A to point B, without the fuss. Never mind the falling bits of brittle plastics, the funny driving positions, no rear legroom and…. well the list goes on. They were cheap like tofu, and sure handled like tofu. The Italian styling of some of them did little to save their reputation.

Funny title, and why would I say that? The compact MPV is really the car that the man-in-the-street  looks for when he wants to haul the family plus the in-laws. Smaller than the full-sized MPV, they are usually about the same in size as compact class cars that the manufacturer has available.

We tested the 3.0 Q7 a few months ago. The massive 3.0 supercharged Q7 churned 333bhp and a massive 440Nm of torque. It was, for a lack of a better word… massive. Depending on who’s looking, styling could be a hit or a miss, but we simply loved how the big broad shoulders carry the car, the massive front grill with the Matrix LED headlamps, and how the whole thing never looks overly sculpted.

There is a lot of car physically when you look at the Kia Sportage.  From an enormous boot that swallows everything but the kitchen sink, to the larger than life nose that is just a joy to look at, and even the shaped upper part of the windshield. It is a very good looking.