BMW USED CARS

When you're starting with something as fantastic as
a RenaultSport Clio 197, it's a painstaking job to make sure you improve the
next model enough to make it appealing to owners of the current car, without
losing a shred of its brilliance. Renault seems to have succeeded with this new
RS Clio 200. We're breathing a collective sigh of relief around the office -
this little Clio is one of our very favourite cars.

AMGs in recent times used
to be simple engine upgrades. Enormous power, but little else was done to the
car. The C63 AMG changed that, and this new Mercedes E63 AMG continues the theme.

So the stock E-Class front air suspension is binned for springs and dampers, the gearbox is an AMG-automated
manual and the front track has been widened. The suspension is still adaptable,
though - there are two settings, Sport and Sport Plus, which match the four
settings on the gearbox, Comfort, Sport, Sport, Plus and Manual.

All of which means the

Right.
That's the end of the idea of TT as hairdresser's car. It might have started
life all those years ago as a gorgeous looking but more-than slightly soggy
Golf in a spangly shirt. But no more.

The gen-2
car has a highly developed largely aluminium bodyshell, and this new RS version
has a 340bhp turbo TFSI engine. Three hundred and forty horsepower.

And just

Right.
That's the end of the idea of TT as hairdresser's car. It might have started
life all those years ago as a gorgeous looking but more-than slightly soggy
Golf in a spangly shirt. But no more.

The gen-2
car has a highly developed largely aluminium bodyshell, and this new RS version
has a 340bhp turbo TFSI engine. Three hundred and forty horsepower.

This is the new S-Class. If you're squinting at it to work out
what's changed, we don't blame you. And we don't blame Mercedes for such a gentle
facelift, either - the S has a reputation for pioneering new tech with every
major development of the car and this one, now four years in production, needed
only a tickle to stay ahead of the game.

You know
how the numbers game works. If your car puts out 120g/km of CO2, your road tax costs £120 per year. One measly gram
less and you'll save £85. If you're driving, say, a sensible diesel Korean
hatchback and you're gentle with your right hoof, that's about 1,000 miles of
free driving.

The Volkswagen Polo was always
the car you wanted if you found all the other superminis a bit too interesting.
It was about the most coldly rational product out there. The Germans loved it.
But in Britain we like a bit more fizz to our small cars, so we've been buying
Fiestas and Clios and 207s. But even though the Polo is a bit of a stiff here,
the Golf flies off the shelves. VW people have an interesting analysis of this.
The way they see it, in the mid-size hatch market, rationality plays a bigger
part: Golf buyers have families and mortgages. Supermini buyers haven't got to
that stage, or they've passed it and want to forget its privations. A supermini
is all about me.