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Newswheel staff :: 12 December 2007 :: Filed under Hatchback, Vauxhall, Vauxhall Astra, Europe & UK
There’s nothing quite like being
sequestered for a special edition from a mainstream manufacturer to
turn a cult following into mass market mediocrity. The latest victim
is the hallowed tarmac of the Nurburgring circuit in Germany,
leveraged by Vauxhall for the new Astra VXR Nurburgring Edition.
Described by Vauxhall as “mechanically similar” to the
boggo VXR, we can forgive the 'Ring Edition’s lack of engine mods,
but surely some chassis tuning isn’t too much too ask for?
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Newswheel staff :: 07 August 2007 :: Filed under Hatchback, Mid / rear engine sportscar, Volkswagen, Volkswagen Golf
What with the likes of the Lambo Murcielago LP640, the Bugatti Veyron and Bentley Conti GT, you might think the VW group has enough 600bhp+ monsters on offer already. Apparently not, according to a VW engineer who worked on the recent Golf GTI W12-650 concept. If the company receives enough positive feedback, it may yet build this insane 12-cylinder, 650-pony hatchback…
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Newswheel staff :: 02 August 2007 :: Filed under Hatchback, Volkswagen, Volkswagen New Beetle
Making fun of Golf-based VW’s retro-pastiche New Beetle has been pretty reliable sport in recent years. But perhaps we’ll all be eating those uncharitable jibes after VW wheels out a new rear-engine prototype at the Frankfurt show next month…
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Newswheel staff :: 31 July 2007 :: Filed under Estate/Wagon, Hatchback, Mini, Europe & UK
It may be a classic British icon. But the modern Mini is firmly in German hands. No use sulking, therefore, about the fact that BMW decided not to bother engineering the new Mini Clubman to suit our crazy right-hand drive needs. For the record, the Clubman is essentially a stretched Mini with increased luggage and passenger space. And it has a funky asymmetric suicide-door layout that ain’t exactly optimal for right-hand drive markets…
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Newswheel staff :: 26 July 2007 :: Filed under Hatchback, Mini MPV / People carrier, Ford, Ford Focus
Ford’s really rather excellent C1 chassis underpins several winning products including the second generation Focus and C-Max compact MPV. So, it’s more than a little odd that the ailing US auto giant has so far declined to offer any C1-based models to US customers. However, reports now suggest that former England cricketer Ford’s incumbent bigwig Alan Mulally has had a change of heart. Both the 2nd gen Focus and the C-Max will be in US showrooms no later than 2011…
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Newswheel staff :: 15 May 2007 :: Filed under Cabriolet, Coupe, Hatchback, Audi, Audi A5, Europe & UK, US
The A5 and S5 coupes were just the beginning, folks. According to reports, Audi is tooling up to release a wide range of variants based on its new coupe, including an inevitable uber-hot RS5, a cabriolet and an intriguing shooting brake concoction…
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Newswheel staff :: 10 May 2007 :: Filed under Hatchback, Volkswagen
File this one under long-term rumours, but VW could be preparing a return to its people’s car roots courtesy of a bargain basement rear-engine model. The basic idea is an honest reinterpretation of the original Beetle for the third millennium. The compact, lightweight car would have an efficient water-cooled engine mounted aft and a radiator up front…
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Newswheel staff :: 10 May 2007 :: Filed under Crossover, Hatchback, Opel, Vauxhall, Vauxhall Signum
If you’re wondering why most car companies are so damn conservative, look no further than the Vauxhall / Opel Signum. GM’s Euro subsidiary was happily cranking out the usual conventional and anonymous fare when some bright spark had the great idea to build a cheap executive car that was built for passenger comfort, not street cruising cred. Well, it didn’t work – the Signum hasn’t sold well and it dies next year…
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Newswheel staff :: 21 March 2007 :: Filed under Hatchback, Fiat, Europe & UK
When Fiat wheeled out the petite but perfect Trepiùno concept back in 2004, it looked like a no brainer for the transition to full production. This, surely, was exactly the type of chic and sophisticated city car the Italian firm did better than everyone else. And precisely the sort of car Fiat needed to be making to secure the company’s long term future and resuscitate its flat-lining brand. Three years of umming and ahhing later, Fiat has done the decent thing and revealed the final production version of the new 500, due out later this year…
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Newswheel staff :: 05 January 2007 :: Filed under Hatchback, Opel / Vauxhall, Opel / Vauxhall Corsa, Vauxhall, Europe & UK
Vauxhall extended its high performance brand to its entry level model this week with the launch of the Corsa VXR. Power comes courtesy of a blown 1.6-litre four-pot mill pumping out 189bhp and capable of pushing this compact hatch to 140mph…
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Newswheel staff :: 11 December 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Skoda Fabia, Europe & UK
Due to make its official debut at the Geneva Motorshow in March, this is the Skoda’s latest Fabia hatchback. The new entry level model picks up where the Skoda Roomster left off, stylistically, and will be offered with a range of seven familiar VW group engines, initially maxxing out at around 105bhp…
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Tom Stewart :: 23 November 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Peugeot, Peugeot 207, Europe & UK
The original eighties Golf GTi spawned the cult of the hot hatch. On that we can surely all agree. But it was Peugeot’s 1.6 and 1.9 205 GTIs which came to define the genre. Cat-flap-in-a-tornado build quality aside, the 205 GTI remains one of the great drives. Not something you can say about the manifestly mundane 206, a car which tore up the rally scene but never came close to the impact or status of its 205 predecessor on Real Street. What hope, therefore for the 207? Well, the hottest 207 has yet to be released. But warmed-over new 207 GT has arrived…
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Tom Stewart :: 07 November 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Mini, Europe & UK,
Do not adjust your browser. This really is the new MINI Cooper S v.2. As we discovered at the Paris motor show in September, every exterior panel along with the entire interior is new, despite the deeply familiar overall vibe. Likewise, there’s an all-new engine, much more sophisticated than the Chrysler-sourced lump of old, punchier to the tune of 5bhp and (more for reasons of fuel frugality than power) fed by turbocharger rather than supercharger forced induction…
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Newswheel staff :: 31 October 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Fiat Bravo, Europe & UK
A class-leading crowd pleaser Fiat’s soon-to-be-defunct Stilo hatchback most definitely was not. What chance therefore for the new Bravo, unveiled this week and due out early next year, of laying waste to the competition in the fiercely competitive mid-sized Euro hatchback sector? If history serves, the most likely answers all begin with ‘z’ and end ‘ip’, ‘iltch’ and ‘ero’. And yet we can’t help hoping Fiat might finally have a winner with this latest Bravo…
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Newswheel staff :: 27 October 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Volkswagen, Volkswagen Golf, Europe & UK
Nineteen hundred and seventy-seven. The year the first fibre-optic cable was used for telephone communications, the Centenary Test twixt Aus and England was held at Melbourne Cricket Ground and France performed its final execution by guillotine… Oh, and the year the VW Golf GTI was first offered in Blighty. With the GTI’s 30th anniversary arriving shortly, what better excuse to wheel out a special edition Golf to cash in on all that nostalgic brand equity. Enter the Golf GTI Edition 30, complete with a 227bhp power upgrade, big rims and all that jazz…
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Newswheel staff :: 04 October 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Honda, Honda Civic, Renault, Volkswagen, Volvo, Europe & UK, Trade shows
Crusty old form factors like C-segment saloons may be dying a slow, undignified death at the hands of MPV and crossover upstarts. But the hatchback is alive and kicking in 2006. VW, Honda, Renault and Volvo are all keeping the hot hatch real at the Paris show…
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Newswheel staff :: 02 October 2006 :: Filed under Coupe, Estate/Wagon, Hatchback, Saloon, SUV, BMW, BMW 3 Series, Ford, Ford Mondeo, Mini, Europe & UK, Trade shows, US
How well does Ford’s Kinetic Design hang together on the new Mondeo? Is BMW’s 3 Series coupe individual enough? And how the hell do you identify the latest BMW Mini? Answers to these questions and more within…
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Neville Contractor :: 20 September 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Mini MPV / People carrier, Suzuki, Suzuki Swift, Europe & UK
Another day, another concept to wow les car enthusiasts at the upcoming Paris motor show. The Suzuki Splash (geddit? It’ll make a spl…oh, the pathos) is a knowing wink in the direction of the Japanese outfit’s forthcoming effort for the mini people carrier segment, currently populated by the Hondauxhall Jaziva or, er, whatever…
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Newswheel staff :: 14 September 2006 :: Filed under Hatchback, Honda, Honda Civic, Europe & UK
More refined but no quicker than the outgoing model. And available with dual-zone air con and cruise control. Not quite the road-racing repertoire you might expect from a new ricer-ready Type-R model from Honda (that’s enough r’s, Ed)…
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Newswheel staff :: 07 September 2006 :: Filed under Crossover, Hatchback, SUV, Nissan, Nissan Qashqai, Europe & UK
“There’s change in the air. As consumers, we are no longer prepared to put up with the dull or the conventional. We want something new, something different…thanks to the Nissan QASHQAI something different has arrived. You need never drive a boring car again.” So, says Nissan about its new compact crossover, designed and built in the UK. Uh huh…
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