Tag Archives: review

It’s the end of the road for our long term Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer after three busy months on the Motor Trader fleet. The second generation model only entered showrooms in July, giving Vauxhall dealers a welcome additional opportunity to sell something new into local businesses as well as private buyers requiring an executive car with load lugging capability. These ...

MG dealers now have a third model to sell as the brand grows its line-up and revives the ZS badge. The ZS takes MG into the currently mushrooming compact or B-SUV market, a sector predicted to double in size by 2020. MG management expect the car to help double the brand’s UK sales by the end of next year, from ...

Another month and another new supermini-sized SUV enters the market. What can Hyundai’s Kona add? When the small B-segment SUV sector is set to double by 2020 to reach 2.2m units across Europe, it’s logical for any carmaker to get involved. Hyundai is incredibly late to the party – by conservative estimates there are another 18 or so already launched ...

Two months into our long term test and Vauxhall’s latest generation Insignia Sports Tourer is shaping up nicely with over 4,000 miles on the clock and not too many fuel stops along the way. The 1.6-litre turbo diesel engine continues to punch above its weight. It’s a an impressive unit which makes sense of the wider trend of equipping large ...

Vauxhall dealers started selling the new Insignia Sports Tourer in July with high expectations for the revitalised workhorse beloved by company car user-choosers and retail buyers in need of serious load-lugging capacity. The fact that the new styling is attractive and the load capacity has been significantly increased makes this a car to be reckoned with. The second generation model ...

People who have driven an electric car will talk about three things in particular. They generally marvel at the instant delivery of torque and eerie quietness whilst voicing concerns about range. The number of EVs on the market has increased dramatically in recent years, as have their real world ranges which typically fall somewhere between 100 and 200 miles. So, ...

The heady days of 80,000 sales in the UK, in the late-1980s with cars like the 340 hatch, might be gone, but in 2017 Volvo is arguably moving towards a more sustainable place with vastly improved product. The first of the new breed was the mk2 XC90 – winner of Motor Trader’s 2016 New Car of the Year Award – ...

Few cars play such a significant role in dealer volumes as the Ford Fiesta with the outgoing model being the best-selling car in the UK for all of eight years it was on sale. Indeed, since launch in 1976 4.4 million Fiestas have been sold in the UK, 1 million being for the outgoing model which even in its last ...

With the knives out for diesels and continued range anxiety issues over EVs, hybrid remains the most popular alternative fuel option amongst new car buyers. Therefore the timing of last year’s debut of a plug-in hybrid version of Kia’s flagship Optima model seems prescient especially for dealer sales teams keen to tap into the environmental zeitgeist. Certainly with its low ...

Our long term Kia Optima PHEV has been busy over the last month. It has completed a 560 mile round trip to Manchester and Leeds which tested its motorway and city driving ability and, of course, the unforgiving daily commute across south London to see if the car delivers on its fuel economy promise. A month on and the unforeseen ...