This is our first visit to an SMMT test day, and an early start sees us heading three hours down the road to the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedford in the Chevrolet Cruze VDCi LTZ we have on test, for the main test day of the year. We pull up to a security guard in the car, and are directed to park on the Mile Straight. A tingle of excitement hits us as we round the banked bend and see the straight open up in front of us.

It’s sooo tempting to floor that accelerator, as the petrol flowing in our veins is suddenly given an injection of mental nitrous stimulus. Must. Resist. Common sense dictates that 1. the marshals would not be happy with us flying up to the parked cars at 100 mph, and 2. We actually want to attend the day, not be sent home before we even start.

As a few of the later-arriving journ’s (like us) pile onto a minibus to ferry us to the event, the radio of the driver crackles into life with a marshal-to-marshal conversation; ‘Can you point your yellow flag at someone please. A guy has just come round the corner on two wheels. Point it right at him so he knows!’. The bus breaks into laughter, and the banter begins. The day just got off to a great start.

After a brief induction, we’re outside into glorious sunshine and scorching heat. Blue skies with the occasional fluffy cloud intervening mean we’re in for a good one. If you viewed the event from high up, the manufacturers areas are laid out in a lightbulb shape, with and outer ring and an inner ‘element’ and screw section.

We’re here mainly to chat with the various PR guys we’ve either already met, or been in contact with already and to meet some for the first time. It’s all about the contacts in this line of work, and it’s great to get insight into each of the manufacturers future plans and current range highlights. But hey, it would be an absolute crime not to drive at least a few models, especially when the PR personnel are pressing the keys into your palm.

Millbrook is essentially a huge area dedicated to the testing of cars in various ways, from handling and suspension to tyres, fuel economy and more. There’s also filming done here too with programmes such Top Gear and Fifth Gear using the site, and even cooler, the famous Aston Martin crash in James Bond; Casino Royale was filmed at Millbrook.

Routes we’d be able to take the cars on would be the off-road sections, high speed circuit, hill route and city course. We missed out playing on the off-road routes due to time constraints – there’s always next time though.

There’s not a chance we’re going to do full reviews of the cars after just a 15 minute drive. It’s a quick taster for us, so we’ll give you the same, dear readers. First off, we hopped in a new Honda Jazz. There was one of my car hero’s there  - the Honda NSX – but pah, who needs that when you’ve got a 1.4 VTEC Jazz sat waiting. A few I know own the previous model of Jazz, and they genuinely are a good little car. Stacks of leg and head room in the front and back, and a ridiculous amount of loading space due to the rear ‘magic seats’. A true ‘Tardis’ car if ever there was one.

The majority of buyers of the Jazz, are erm… the older generation, let’s be honest. But, for those in the know these are a great buy if you want room, fuel economy and an engine as reliable as the sun. Honda must know their buyers age, as plainly the interior has been designed around that fact. The centre console has huge buttons and dials, and everything is easy to use and see.

Driving, the little 1.4 VTEC is sweet and nippy enough. We took it on the city course, which consists of dozens of tight turns and short straights and the steering was actually heavier than I thought it would be, and I’d have preferred it a little lighter. The suspension and chassis is decent enough and the car has tight enough handling to have a bit of fun.

Next it was onto Nissan’s stand, and I’d already spotted something I’d wanted to go in for a while. The Nissan Juke Nismo. In case you’ve never played Gran Turismo here’s a bit of information about Nismo. In summary they are a specialist Japanese motorsport and tuning company, who’ve worked closely with Nissan for years – most memorably for GT gamers, on the previous generations of Skyline’s.

The Juke Nismo in question was painted white pearl, with a few red lines integrated into back trim here and there, plus a set of black and silver 18″ rims. The Nismo aero package which includes flared arches, splayed sills and a roof spoiler amongst other modifications is not some silly kit to make the Juke look beefier – this is all real stuff designed by the aerodynamic team at Nismo. It also gives the car a real sporty edge – a definite Japanese racer in the making.

The interior is a good place to be. Highlights are the Nismo suede bucket seats which are comfortable and look the part, while the thick, chunky alcantara steering wheel is grippy and nice to hold. Onto the track, and we chose the high speed circuit. As journo’s, we were only allowed to get up to 100 mph, so we obliged and did exactly that. The Juke Nismo got up to the ton surprisingly quickly, turbo whistle getting stronger while the centre console’s digital boost gauge flared brightly. We’d jumped into the Juke without any details, and found out after we got back that the engine is only a 1.6 litre. It’s obviously been fettled with by the guys at Nismo, and the turbo’d unit produces 200 hp and 250 Nm (184 lb ft) of torque. Still. All that from a 1.6! Amazing.

The steering is sharp and precise, and the suspension is taught. As we only took the Juke on the banked oval, so we can’t comment overly much on how the suspension feels in normal conditions. We’ll report on that if Nissan loan us the car in future…

A quick chat with the Seat PR team led to us getting the Seat Leon FR 2.0 TDI 150 PS.  A few years ago, the Leon Cupra – now FR – quickly established itself as a decent handling, quick front-wheel-drive car at a lower price than its VW and Audi counterparts, and there’s now a ton of modified versions on the road.

A quick glance over the exterior of the 2013 FR shows a sharp, modern design with simplicity at its core. It’s not showy or overblown, but has an air of class about it too. The interior could be described in much the same way as it too, as it is unpretentiously laid-out – but definitely not in a bad way – whilst it is also driver-orientated, as any controls are easy to use and spot while driving. The alcantara seats are deep and pleasant to sit in, while the thick bolsters hold you in place well.

The Leon FR’s 2.0 diesel TDi puts out 150 PS (147 hp) and 236 lb ft (320 Nm) of torque, so it’s no slow-poke. 0 – 60 mph comes up in a respectable-enough 8.4 seconds for both the manual and DSG ‘box’s.  We again opted for the high speed circuit, and pulling off the slip road onto the main banked section, I gave the Leon FR’s accelerator the boot. It obliged with a good turn of speed, a strong wave of torque taking us up to the one hundred miles-per-hour mark quickly, and smoothly. From what I could gather from the quick drive, the handling and steering felt tight and precise. Overall, a nice car.

A break for lunch – and from the intense sun and heat – saw us refreshed and ready for more test drives. Heading over to Jaguar’s stand, we opted for a go in the 2013 Jaguar XJ. Presented with a choice of the 3.0 litre V6 supercharged or the 3.0 litre V6 turbo diesel, we went for the diesel. I know you’re talking to the device you’re reading this on and asking ‘why would you go for that over the petrol you weirdo‘, but it’s simply because we’ve already tested the Jaguar XF with the V6 S/C petrol engine, and wanted something different.

Y’know what, I’m glad we went for it, as it’s an absolute beaut of a powerplant. Before we set off though, we had a good look around the XJ’s interior. The XF Portfolio we tested was highly luxurious, but the XJ somehow manages to be even nicer. It class-on-class right the way through the cabin, with sumptuous leather seats in the front and rear, and in this model they were pmulti-way powered in the back too. The centre console is beautiful too, with gloss black and hints of thick chrome in absolute keeping with the air of the XJ as a car. I could go on for ages about the interior, but as we’re getting one to test we’ll keep this as an overview.

Pressing the starter button, the phosphor blue virtual dials flick into life instantly, just before the diesel engine fires into life. The opposite of a piece of farmyard equipment, the XJ’s three-litre  turbo-diesel is quiet, and ultra-refined. Setting off, there’s very obviously a huge amount of torque on tap. A mere smidgen of foot movement sees another 10 mph added to whatever speed we were already doing – this thing is rapid. A drive around tight, twisting the hill route shows that although the XJ is a big car, it handles beautifully too, and it coped very well with the twisties.

On any straight section, a new BMW Z4 sDrive 18i – which was tailing us closely – was absolutely left for dead when one applied ones foot hard to the XJ’s go pedal, and a massive 600 Nm (433 lb ft) of torque kicked in. Power delivery is smooth yet a force to be reckoned with. Do not think that because this is a diesel it’s slow to accelerate away from the lights either. With a 0 -60 mph time of just 6 seconds, it’ll embarrass the majority of hot hatches and sporty cars, and leave their driver red-faced as your tail-lights disappear into the distance. The XJ in diesel form is an iron fist in a velvet glove, and I can’t wait to test it properly

Hopping over to the Hyundai line-up, a car in matte grey caught our attention, and apparently a lot of other people’s too, observing the amount of people’s heads whipping round as they walked past. It was the Veloster Turbo SE. Every person I’ve since showed photographs of this car to, agree it’s cool-looking. There are definite hints of Nissan GT-R and 370Z styling in the rear quarter panel and glass, while massively flared arches all-round, alongside jagged, overemphasised styling lines at the front and rear give the Veloster a muscular appearance.

Another point that makes it individual is that it has three doors. Nothing unusual there, you say. No, I mean three doors on the sides, not altogether. There are two doors on the passenger side and one on the driver’s. I actually missed that feature on the SMMT test day, as it really isn’t noticeable until you are told it’s there. I like that, as it means you’ve still got looks of a two-door coupé but with more practicality.

It’s certainly very different-looking to most cars on the road, and if you’re after unique styling then the Veloster Turbo SE is well worth a look. Inside, the Veloster does not disappoint, blending cool with a modern, sporty feel and as it’s part Kia, there’s loads of tech on the entertainment system too. The centre of the dash looks like a Transformer’s head – this is a good thing.

The seats in the front are comfortable while supportive on the sides for when you decide to give it the beans around some winding country lanes, while there are only two seats in the rear which are angled for comfort. Overall it’s a great interior.

It has a 1.6 litre petrol turbo engine, with 186 PS (183 hp) and 195 lb ft (265 Nm) of torque, so there’s fun to be had. It’s front-wheel-drive, but as there’s a good balance of power to take out a lot of the torque steer present in more powerful front-driven cars. Taking the Veloster Turbo on the city circuit, it wound around the super-tight corners with good precision and little body roll. A quick ten-minute drive will give you little to go by, but this is what we gleaned from it. We have the car coming for a test period later so you can see how it does there. Whatever the case, it looks great both outside and in.

Mid-afternoon, and the unseasonably hot day was taking it’s toll on us just coming through a drawn-out winter down of long, overcast and cold days. Citroën had hired a mobile crêpe van, so naturally we wandered over to their stand, casting a brief eye over the model line-up with more intention of downing delicious crêpe’s and refreshing drinks than testing a car right then. A quick conversation with the owners of the utterly pristine 1969 Citroën HY van serving the food about their beloved HY later, plus the aforementioned grub, and we were ready to get driving again.

Previously, I’ll admit I was not a great fan of French cars in general. My memories across the board are of hopeless build quality, bad reliability and poor interior finish. The Citroën DS3 Cabrio may have just made me do a U-turn on all that. A funky little car, I’ve liked the styling of the DS3 Cabrio since I first saw an ad for it. The styling is superb – a very desirable car to most people. Even in cabriolet form, the DS3 has a strong-enough design to avoid it being a girly car. Its taut lines and compact shape make for a good package, and it looks ready for a fun drive.

The soft roof folds all the way to the top of the boot lid in a magnificent design feature, by lowing the rear window in the body of the car. The way the soft top sits is highly akin to the new Fiat 500C‘s actually, so it’s automatically cool. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the interior is nicely designed too. The front seats are huge, comfortable and are deeply bolstered for both the legs and side, wrapping around you snugly.

There are three rear seats, but leg and elbow room would be an issue if you wanted to transport five adults around. The trim in the centre console looks cool and funky, and will definitely appeal to a younger market, but we’ll have to wait and see about build quality when we test the DS3 Cabrio in a proper test period (which is soon).

Fire the Citroën DS3 Cabrio into life, and you’re provided with power from a 1.6 litre four-cylinder turbo-charged petrol unit. This is yet another example of manufacturers moving towards more power from smaller engines, as the 1.6 petrol puts out 155 hp and 177 lb ft (240 Nm) of torque. Roof down, and pulling out of the main SMMT section at Millbrook, we headed for the high speed ring. Accelerating down the slip-road onto the circuit, the DS3 Cabrio responded really well. The engine is reacts nicely to your input on the accelerator, and  it’s quick – more than you’ll think until you drive one actually. 0 – 60 comes up in a respectable 8.2 seconds!

Foot planted and going through the 6-speed gearbox, the little Citroën hit 80 mph with no problems. Photographer Jason decided – unwisely – to stick his arms above the windscreen line to take a shot, and nearly had his camera ripped from his hands. Clearly, we now know the wind-buffeting is kept well down inside the DS3 Cabrio, thanks to Jason’s willingness to see how well his camera would do hitting concrete at eighty. Only travelling on high the speed circuit meant I didn’t find much out about the handling, but it felt planted with little lean. I’m looking forward to testing the Citroën DS3 Cabrio in the near future, so we’ll see then how it does out in the real world, eh.

Time was a-pressin’ by now, and with a stack more manufacturers to schmooze with and only time for one more test drive, we chose a bread van. Kind of. Actually, it was the new Mini Cooper D Clubvan with faux baker signage on the sides. It looks really cool in this form, and if you owned a little patisserie or some other similar shop with a delivery service, this’d be a superb van to do the job as it’s way neater and more stylish than a conventional van, even if it can carry way less than bigger ones.

Inside, the load area isn’t massive at 860 litres, but you’re getting the same quality interior and switchgear as the normal Mini, which is comfortable and well laid-out, with a smattering of attractive toggle switches, plus the worlds biggest-ever speedometer dominating the centre of the dash in a very unconventional way indeed. We liked.

Taking it onto, yet again, the high speed circuit, the Clubvan’s 1.6 litre turbo-diesel engine performed smoothly and efficiently. 100 mph was no problem and it got there with no drama or hardship. Reading the blurb on the spec sheet later, the Clubvan’s engine is low on emissions at 103 g/km but good on fuel with a 65 – 78 mpg return if you drive it gently. We didn’t.

Another quick positive note was that the Clubvan is really quiet on the road, even at high speed. We guessed that Mini had left all the soundproofing in from the normal car to keep more refined than a usual van, and we were right according to Mini’s PR guys. Essentially, this is a Clubman with metal where where the rear side windows would normally be, and the back seats replaced with a load liner. A good little car/van, and that fuel economy and low CO2 emissions would be highly attractive to a shop owner.

We absolutely wish the SMMT Test Day was over the course of a couple of days. There are so many manufacturers to talk to and cars to test that you can’t fit it all into just one day. There were luxury cars we simply (and unfortunately) didn’t have time to test, like the beautiful ones on the Bentley and Rolls-Royce stands, then there were the super-quick monsters like the Audi R8 V10, McLaren MP5-12C and the Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG estate, a bright-yellow beast of a Unimog U300 (or 400/500) you could take off-road and then everything else such as pick-up’s, 4×4′s and SUV’s, electric, hybrid, sports-cars, compact cars and so many more types.

All-in-all, a wholly superb day made possible by the guys at the SMMT, and the outstanding co-operation of around 33 of the world’s car manufacturers. The national SMMT Test Day at Millbrook gives journalists both fresh to the industry and established the chance to chat to PR guys and drives vehicles in the ultimate test setting.

What car would you have liked to test on the day? Let us know by using the comments box below!

Words: Chris Davies | Road Testers: Chris Davies, Jason Fanthorpe | Photography: Jason Fanthorpe, Matthew Davies

Touted as their ‘supermini’, the new 2012 Kia Rio is aimed at pushing the boundaries for the small car sector. They boast high quality at a low cost. A great exterior design with a good level of interior build and material quality, plus one of their main selling points – superb fuel economy.

With people now expecting more bang-for-buck when it comes to small cars, and supermini’s raising the bar in all these sectors in last couple of years, the Rio’s competition with cars like the Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 208, VW Polo, Renault Clio and Vauxhall Corsa are all elbowing and jostling for your attention. Kia Rio, it’s your turn to prove your worth.

Exterior. Butt ugly or beauty?

Since Kia hired Peter Schreyer as Chief Designer in 2006, their turnaround from producing boring, nondescript – even ugly – cars to desirable ones is surely one of the car industries biggest success stories in recent history. Their line-up has the ‘tiger nose’ grille running through the range, and it’s a prominent feature on the front of the Rio.

The front end of the car has big, honeycomb grilles fully across a wide, jutted chin, giving it a muscular, taught appearance. Above that is the ‘tiger nose’, and each side are big swooping light pods that end sharply – giving them an angry mien. The bonnet sits really high up too, with a couple of jutted swage each side of the centre lines, adding further to the impression of being larger than it really is.

Available in 3 or 5-door guise, I was sent the three-door version. Personally, I prefer it over the five as it’s less fussy down the side. The Rio is actually a nice-looking car from any angle, even the side, where cars sometimes lack design or flair. There are deep, bold lines that add character, making the body flow from front to back. The front door of the 3-door model is really very long, and although the shoulder-line is high, that’s still a fair ol’ chunk of glass right there.

Around to the rear of the Rio and again, it’s still sweet, with enough going on to keep you happy without being too overdone. Actually, there’s a lot of a circa 2001 Seat Ibiza about the back end. Not a bad thing though, as it was a nice design, that Ibiza.

The only thing myself and a couple of other testers didn’t like were the 16″ wheels that come with the ’2′. They look like wheel trims too much, and in fact a couple of people actually thought they were. The 17″ alloys that comes on the ’3′ , and are also optional, are a much better design, and actually look very cool, filling the wheel wells perfectly. They’ll effect mpg slightly, but not enough to worry about.

Th Rio is smart-looking supermini. It’s chunky, cool, modern and easily stands up against its rivals if you were looking at buying into this sector of the market. I also think the design will stand the test of time superbly.

Interior. Neat or nothing special?

If you’re going to compete with today’s supermini’s, best be prepared to sell one with a quality interior with plenty of gadgets. Buyers won’t stand for crap build or materials anymore, especially when money is tight and there’s a whole bunch of cars offering quality at a low price now.

Just a few years ago, you’d have laughed off looking at a small Kia for quality as a joke. You’re going to want to take a good look now though. Since the last Rio, Kia have added room in the cabin with a longer wheelbase, a higher roof and a slightly wider cabin, as well as making the boot area nearly four inches wider.

As with a lot of small cars now, the Rio is one of those deceptively-small-outside-big-inside vehicles. When the Rio arrived, I’d not researched it hugely deliberately to get my own first impression. Inside, the Rio feels much more grown-up than you would have thought and it has the type of layout and design you’d expect to find on something like a more expensive mid-sized saloon.

For sure though, it’s aimed at the younger market. Kia say although there are three trim grades, the overall quality remains high no matter what level you spec. That’ll be true. It’s good feature that I really like about Kia’s actually. Firstly, choosing your trim level is really simple; just choose engine preference and then one of three trim grades without having to wade though a zillion options, all the time agonising about how much it’s going to hurt your bank balance by the time you’ve finished ticking boxes.

Also, you don’t have to worry that because you’re buying lowest-spec of car, it’ll be as bog-standard as an Ryanair flight. Depending on what engine you chose the spec level does vary slightly, but you’re still getting useful stuff such as USB and auxiliary ports for your music on any of the Rio’s, and daytime running lights on the exterior. If you want to see each spec in detail, go to Kia’s website.

Points that stood out to me about the Rio’s interior were that the frontal section of the dash was soft-touch and textured instead of being hard, flat sections of dullness. The parts where you rest your arms on the doors, around where the power window switches are, is rubberised – again making it feel just that wee bit better than a hard plastic. Every single button you press, or dial you turn in the Rio is silent, instead of clicking or clacking loudly, and there’s just enough shiny (faux) chrome to liven-up the interior without it becoming tacky.

As standard, there are two 12-volt ports in the front. That’s properly handy if there’s two or three of you travelling and you all have battery-sucking smart phones. Another standard on all models are front electric windows (why cars still have wind-y glass I cannot fathom), and a decent set of speakers too.

The Rio sent to us to test was the 1.1 CRDi ’2′ three-door. Good, cool and useful stuff I liked included the level ’2′ having an arm-rest which adjusts forward for the driver/passenger (why aren’t they always adjustable?) with a huge chasm-like storage area beneath. It also has an air-con-cooled glovebox to keep your Curly Wurly and Um Bongo cold, plus heated, electric wing mirrors and Bluetooth for your phone-calls and tunes.

Another upgrade for the ’2′ and ’3′ models is the premium black cloth upholstery, which just a little more plusher than the standard ones. On that, the front seats are comfortable, although I’d like the driver’s to feature adjustable lumbar support as it’s not quite supportive enough. The rear seating on the 3-door are reclined at a nice, relaxed angle and are shaped to hold you a little more than a bench seat – a comfy place to sit really.

Interior safety tech on any of the Kia Rio’s includes frontal, side and curtain airbags as well as ISOFIX points in the front and rear. All-in-all, the Rio’s interior is well-equipped with a good layout (if a little dull), comfortable and safe, and when you look at the trim level of the 1.1 CRDI ’2′ that I tested compared with it’s rivals, the price bracket is highly competitive, falling below the similarly-specced VW Polo and Vauxhall Corsa by around £1,500 – £1,700, while the 208, Clio and Fiesta are priced around the same price give or take a few hundred pounds.

Engine and gearbox

Back in the bad old days, having a one-litre engine in meant your car would puff and wheeze its way up hilly countryside roads, and dropping down through the gears until you eventually ended up crawling in first or second, engine roaring in protest, was the norm. The Rio ’2′ 1.1 CRDI EcoDynamics with ISG (Intelligent Stop & Go) sounds like it’ll be the same – an easy target for criticism. However, you would be wrong to assume that.

The 1.1 litre three-cylinder diesel with variable-geometry turbo has 74 hp and 125 lbs ft (170 Nm) of torque, the latter coming in at just 1,500 rpm, so easily enough pull when you’re weaving through town traffic. If, like me, you’ve got a few hilly sections to climb in your area, you’ll find the maximum horsepower high in the rev range at 4,000 rpm comes as an added little boost just when you think you’re going to run out of power, pulling you early up the steeper sections before you change up a gear and get the benefit of the torque again. It actually comes as a bit of a wave when you get near to 3,500 rpm up to the redline at 4,500, and it pulls surprisingly well for such a little engine.

Regarding noise, you’d think as it’s a 3-cylinder unit that you’d notice but truth be told, if you weren’t told it wasn’t a four-cylinder engine, you wouldn’t know, and even when you do I think there’s little, if any, difference in sound.

15.5 seconds. That’s how long it takes the 1.1 CRDI to sixty miles-per-hour. So, it is not the fastest car in that category, by any standard. However, let’s out that aside and realise that 1. the Rio 1.1 diesel is not about drag racing and burnouts, but 2. it’s all about the fuel economy. Still, that 0 – 60 time could put potential buyers off, making them think this is a slow car with as much go as an arthritic snail. Don’t be.

Once you’re moving, the 1.1 CRDI in Rio makes it nippy enough in the city to keep you smiling, and that power is not a problem at all on motorway runs, as it’ll get up to speed coming into the flow of traffic with enough vigour to make you think you’re driving a car with a bigger engine. Overtaking simply means dropping it a cog from 6th to 5th and the power is there to take you from sixty to eighty mph if needed.

Fuel economy, is, as mentioned, one of the main selling points of the 1.1 CRDI. Kia boast that this engine has ‘lower consumption… than any other non electric car on sale in the world, including hybrids and eco specials from rival companies‘ (2012 figures). That is quite a claim. Here’s t’thing though, there are different CO2 emissions and mpg figures for the same 1.1 CRDI engine, depending on what model you go for.

In brief, buy the lowest spec Rio ’1′ with the 1.1 diesel engine and you’ll get up to a whopping 94 mpg Extra Urban with 85 g/km CO2. Purchase the ’1 Air’, and it’ll be 85.6 mpg and CO2 emissions of 94 g/km, while the ’2′ that we had on trial gives 72.4 mpg urban, 80.7 extra urban and 74.3 combined, with 99 g/km CO2. It’s apparently down to the wheel and tyre package that each car has, plus a few other factors that I’m not 100% up on.

The 6-speed manual ‘box is really very good. The ratio’s are well set-up for both urban and motorway driving, while the physical change itself is positive, making selecting the gear you want easy and accurate. I’ve driven way more expensive cars with manual gear boxes that aren’t as good as the Rio’s.

Ready to roll? Let’s drive!

The Kia Rio is an enjoyable car to drive around town. Okay, the 1.1 CRDI isn’t what you’d call quick, but the Rio responds nicely to your input from your right foot (if you’re in the right gear), and from the steering wheel too. The Rio nips around bends and into gaps in the traffic in an agile manner that’ll bring a smile to your work-stressed face.

The electronically-assisted steering adjusts its weightiness depending on the speed of the car, and I found city driving and parking a breeze due to the light feel, and once you’re moving, the ‘wheel is weightier and gave good response to my input, making driving down flowing or tight country lanes a pleasure.

The Rio’s suspension is good enough for a non-sports-orientated small car. I was surprised that it only has independent suspension on the front, rather than all-round. The rear is made up of a coupled torsion-beam axle-type, but Kia have apparently improved the stiffness and strength over the last Rio to reduce understeer and give better stability at speed. Whatever though, those are just words – how does it do overall in the real world?

I found it fine. Yes, when the wheels hit a bad patch of pot-holed road, the car banged rather than flowed, but then again a lot of cars would do much the same. Speed bumps are taken well, with the Rio coping well with even the behemoth versions of these evil things. In honesty, the Rio did much better over a lot of the bad road surfaces than I expected it would, and passengers were happy with the ride too.

Roll one bends isn’t massively noticeable or something that’ll curb an enthusiastic drive, even though the car is obviously not set up in a sporty manner, and I found the chassis and suspension a good all-round set-up for town, country and motorway driving. A point to remember is that the Rio rides more like bigger family saloon than a small car, as in it’s more refined than the price suggests.

The brakes are also impressive on the Rio. All-round discs provide plenty of bite, with good feel and a positivity that’ll surprise. Jam them on, and some electronic wizardry you’d only expect on more expensive cars. These include the normal ABS, but then there’s electronic brake force distribution (EBD) and emergency brake assist, which’ll jam on the brakes 100% if the car feels like you’re braking hard to avoid an accident.

That, and the fact it’ll flash the rear high brake-light repeatedly under hard braking to warn drivers behind makes the Rio a very safe car. Very clever, and after testing this, I’m reporting the system works really well indeed. Oh, to add to that list of safety gizmo’s is electronic stability control (ESC), which’ll apply the brakes at the necessary corner should the car start to go out of control. That’s a lot of safety stuff simply not available to smaller cars even 5 years ago.

Regarding how the car performs, I covered a lot of that in the Engine & Gearbox section, but suffice to say I loved just how well the 1.1 CRDI goes. It is easily sufficient for both urban and long-distance driving. A couple of motorway runs saw myself and another tester impressed with its ability to not feel like it has a 1.1 litre engine, or that it’s a small car, in fact. Road and wind noise levels are low enough to be happy with, and apart from the occasional rough section of motorway intruding sound into the cabin more than I liked, the Rio is a quiet car to be in.

Back on the topic of fuel economy, and in real-world driving conditions – plus the fact that most of us won’t drive anywhere near as sedately as the manufacturers mpg ‘testers’ will – could you achieve the sort of figures Kia say? I believe you can get close. I regularly drive a 7-mile route which includes sections of 30 mph road with lots of other traffic, then a straight uphill/downhill 60 mph section for a couple of miles, and then a hilly country road section with another sixty miles-per-hour limit. On that, I drove quick enough to keep up with the traffic, and accelerated and changed gear ‘sensibly’, and when the gear shift indicator told me too, and overall I managed nigh-on 65 miles-per-gallon.

The rest of the time, I mostly drove the Rio as I usually do test cars, and deliberately ignored the shift indicator to see how it did. The economy still didn’t suffer too much, and I got over 250 miles from just three-quaters of its tiny 43-litre fuel tank. Good-o!

The ISG (Intelligent Stop & Go) works well on the Rio, and is simple to use. It’s not slow to re-start once you want to set off, and it makes absolute sense to have it on. I’d say it even makes things a little more relaxed, with any stops for longer periods (railway crossings etc) made obviously quieter by the lack of noise.

Price

With the Rio interior using nice materials with a neat design regardless of the spec level, you’re getting a car from a company well-renowned for setting the bar on good quality at low cost. I’ll repeat what I wrote earlier, in that the price of the Rio ’2′ 1.1 CRDI manual ISG is highly competitive, falling below the similarly-specced VW Polo and Vauxhall Corsa by around £1,500 – £1,700, while the 208, Clio and Fiesta are priced around the same price give or take a few hundred pounds.

Kia, at least in the U.K., are currently doing a great offer until June 30th (2013), with £1,400 off any ’2′ grade Rio, and £750 off ’1′ and ’3′ spec cars. That fourteen-hundred pounds is a rather large chunk of money off a car already this well-priced.

Kia Rio 1.1 CRDI ’2′ Manual verdict & score

You’re probably catching my drift by now. The Rio drives, and has the interior quality and comfort, of a car bigger car and more expensive than it is. The 1.1 CRDI engine is great, super-economical and provides easily enough power for both the city or long drives.

While it’s cool enough to appeal to the younger market, it will also absolutely be attractive to others, such as small families. The super-mini car segment is highly competitive now, with manufacturers offering more bangs-for-bucks than ever before, and the Kia Rio is holding its own very well in the present company. I’m impressed, and so was anyone else that drove, or were driven, in it.

Do you own a Kia Rio? What’s your views on it, and what are the best and worst points? Share your thoughts and leave a comment below if you’ve got a minute.

  Specs

Check out our other car reviews here

Words: Chris Davies | Tested by: Chris Davies| Photography: Jason Fanthorpe, Chris Davies, Matthew Davies

Super-luxury, well-priced, superlative off-road ability

Auto ‘box not as good as it should be at low speeds

Range Rover Evoque?

Since its launch in 2011, the Range Rover Evoque has been a hit for Land Rover. Starting at just over £29,000 for the two-wheel-drive version, it gave people the opportunity to enter a vehicle with the prestigious Range Rover badging at considerably lower cost than the previously less expensive option to the big daddy Rangie – the RR Sport.

With the Evoque’s size and mid-high price bracket falling into BMW X3, Audi Q5 and Volvo XC60 territory, it has some established competition to fight. Does it live up to the Range Rover prestige, and can it justify the mid-forty-thousand-pound pricing for the top models? Let’s scrutinise the Evoque closely to find out.

Exterior. Butt ugly or beauty?

The Evoque is most definitely the best-looking SUV currently gracing our roads. It’s a thing of beauty. Consider at the competition; Q5? Classy, but overly simplistic perhaps. X3? Too much goin’ on. XC60? Rear lets it down.

Whatever angle you choose for the Evoque, it exudes style, class and physically looks expensive. The heavy-set, muscular front features narrow, angry-looking headlamps reminiscent of an eagles eyes, while a bulging bonnet flows beautifully over the front wings, a thick line running from the headlights to the gloss black trim piece which runs between wing and front door.

Down the side, heavy swage lines bulge out, while the roof line and waist line angle sharply towards the rear, pinching in giving the Evoque a sporty look. Around to the rear and first off you’ll probably notice the rear window. I say window, but it’s more  the size of a letterbox slot you’d find on a tank, with a piece of glass in. Looks cool, but pretty darn impractical. Option the reverse camera and sensors is my advice. The rear carries on the muscular, beefy tone, and the lights have that same narrowed stare as the fronts.

Configuring your new Evoque would not be an easy thing, I think, as there’s a stack of options for the exterior of the Range Rover, before you even move onto choosing your interior. Land Rover sent us the Evoque in top spec – the Dynamic SD4 with the massive panoramic roof and 20″ polished alloy rims, which were a talking point for sure. Some liked, some disliked.

In both three and five-door guise, the Evoque looks excellent. I may be about to get shot down in flames, but I actually prefer the five-door version over the Coupé. Moan, boo and throw popcorn at this comment all you like, but take a look at the Images page first and you may change your mind.

Overall, the Evoque is a powerful-looking SUV with a stunning design – one which will no doubt age very well. It looks way more expensive than the £29K the lowest model costs, and in one of the more noticeable colours (Mauritius Blue, Firenze Red or Colima Lime, for example) you will certainly get heads turning.

Interior. Neat or nothing special?

The Evoque is badged as a Range Rover, obviously, so it’s got a lot to live up to when it comes to interior design. Ever since the RR Classic came out in 1969, it was always built with luxury in mind, and time and time again with every model the big Rangie’s interior just gets better.

So, no pressure then. Our Evoque was sent in Dynamic spec, which Land Rover say is ‘the boldest expression of Range Rover Evoque with sports interior themes‘. That was certainly the case with the one we tested. The colours are officially known as ‘Verve – Ebony/Pimento perforated leather’ – or deep red and black to you and me. Hmm. Not entirely convinced over the colours choice, and I never fully got used to them in all honesty. Too much like a dodgy dungeon. A couple of people I talked to liked it, but personally it was a little too much. I prefer cars like this to have a classy interior, and if it was my choice I’d go for the ‘Tan/Ivory/Espresso Oxford leather’ option (not available on the ‘Dynamic’ range though).

Even the cheapest two-wheel-drive Evoque ‘Pure’ comes with full leather seating as standard, although the front seats won’t be electric and the price will soon push up once you start specc’ing things like the electric seats and a navigation system. Still, the case is that aside from selecting wood and gloss blacks trims pieces, no matter the model the Evoque is very nicely designed inside with soft finishes on the dash, doors and more, plus real brushed aluminium here and there. All the interior trim is so well put together and solidly-built that you can’t help but be impressed. So, it’s living up to the Range Rover’s renowned luxury already.

The front seats in the Dynamic were electrically adjustable, but as in the Jaguar XF we tested, I really don’t like the finish of the controls on the seats. They look cheap and out-of-place in the Evoque. There should at least be an option to have ones similar to the gloss black & chrome ones that Jaguar have on their XJ (Jaguar-Land Rover part-share so it shouldn’t be a problem). Sounds fussy, but when you see them every time you open a front door, it’s very noticeable.

The front seats themselves are comfortable and roomy. If anything, they need to be more bolstered on the sides as the Evoque whips round corners quickly enough to shift you around in your seats, so more support would be welcome. The rear seating is not so comfortable. They’re too upright and are not angle-adjustable, plus they are too short for the legs meaning even if you’re on the shorter side, your legs will overhang uncomfortably.

They wouldn’t be as bad if you could stretch out a little more, but for some reason the floor under the seats in front is at an angle, meaning your feet are too, and that is not a comfortable position. Also, the fronts seat’s floor rails narrow the little space you had. As one of my passengers noted, the lack of space to stretch out or sideways overall make your legs and feet tired and cramped after even only an hour or so. The middle seat is not really worth sitting on, as it’s super-hard even for short journeys. Definitely a four-seater really.

The design of the centre console between the driver and passenger is really very cool. Either side of it are two thick, chunky brushed aluminium pieces, with a sliding gloss-black cover hiding cup holders. Forward from that is the gear selector, which rises up when the engine is started. The controls are easy to use and read, and anything important like the traction control and downhill decent control buttons are large and obvious. The rest, of the heating controls are well laid-out and not complex or overbearing. At night, adjustable red, white or blue ‘mood lighting’ sets the tone, and gives the interior a cool vibe. Kind of apt for such a modern and young SUV.

The steering wheel is thickset and comfortable and while there are a lot of buttons on it, again they are big and simple enough to understand and use without getting distracted from driving. There’s a colour display between the two main dials which shows information such as fuel level, Co2 emissions when you set the cruise control, music or radio station you’re listening to and more.

The Evoque’s eight-inch touch screen in the centre is the same as in the Jaguar’s. It’s possibly the most elegant screen in both layout and usage terms. Even first-time users can get around and find what they need quickly and easily. If my Dad can, then anyone can. The Dynamic model we had had the ‘Lux Pack’ option, which costs a whopping £4,425 (my last car cost half that amount) but includes surround camera’s, the utterly sublime 825w Meridian Surround Sound system and dual-view analogue/digital T.V. amongst many other features.

The boot space on the Evoque is not fantastic, with 550 litres seats up and 1,350 seats down. That equates to around three large suitcases plus some hand-luggage. Add another 15 – 20 litres on for the Coupé. The BMW X3 is the same seats up, but beats it massively with 1,600 seats folded. The Volvo XC60 is beaten by the Evoque seats down by 55 litres (not stats for down).

Is there anything I don’t like, apart from the rear seat room? Yes. The gloss black plastic on the sliding cover for the cup holders scratches way too easily, the buttons on the steering wheel click noisily instead of silently, the grey plastic in the centre console could be improved to look better with a different finish, and the speed and rpm dials are overly simplistic and look almost bare. I like minimal to an extent, but they are perhaps too rudimentary.

The best part of the Evoque interior? The panoramic glass roof. It is absolutely huge – truly panoramic, and not some half-glassed attempt at it. It’s a £790.00 option worth every single pound. Plus it looks great from the exterior too.

To sum up though, I love the interior of the Range Rover Evoque. It is a wonderful design, minimal in a way while retaining class, and feels well build and expensive. There’s a few things that could be improved but overall it’s extremely good.Would previous generations of Range Rover’s approve? I have an inkling they would.

Engine and gearbox

A choice of one diesel engine (with two different power outputs), one petrol engine and two transmissions make choosing this the easiest part of specifying the Evoque. There’s the front-wheel-drive’s eD4 2.2 diesel with 150hp and 380 Nm (280 lb ft) (manual ‘box only), then the more powerful four-wheel-drive SD4 2.2 litre turbo-diesel with 190 hp and 420 Nm (310 lb ft) available in manual or auto, and finally the Si4 2.0 litre turbo’d petrol unit with 190 hp and 340 Nm (251 lb ft), with an auto ‘box only. The petrol is only available on the Dynamic spec Evoque. Both the manual and auto ‘boxes are six-speed.

Surprisingly, the turbo-charged two-litre petrol does the 0 – 60 run in just over seven seconds, which is mighty quick considering it weighs 2.3 tons with a nearly-full tank and a driver. That’s very impressive! Gone are the days of people thinking auto’s were slower. The zero-to-sixty time in the SD4 auto is a nippy 8.0 seconds while the manual trails behind a whole 1.5 seconds later. Now go back to the pub and tell every mate that you insisted wrongly on manual’s being faster.

Fuel economy for the SD4 automatic ranges from 36 mpg to 49 mpg with the middling at 44. You may have to drive it like an old grandpa though to get those sort of figures though, as it averaged around 33 mpg in the time I had it. That’s a mixture of urban, motorway and country roads driven in a mix of relaxed-to-spirited way. Occasionally I touched just over forty miles-per-gallon when on an open road at around 45 mph. The manual is better on fuel, especially the eD4.

The gearbox on the Evoque isn’t as smooth as I expected. Fair enough, when accelerating and at higher speeds it’s fine and changes gear quickly and almost unnoticeably. However, at lower speeds – say, around town under 35 mph – the automatic transmission is not so polished, and it seems to hesitate overly much, like it was trying to decide whether to change or not. It’s noticeable for sure. Setting off from junctions, you can put your foot down and there’s a distinct pause between you pushing the pedal and the Evoque physically responding, which can get irritating if you’re doing a lot of stop-start driving. It’s not a bad gearbox overall per se, but there’s certainly room for improvement.

Ready to roll? Let’s drive!

The Range Rover Evoque drives as good as it looks. That’s all. Oh go on then, I’ll write some more stuff about it. The Evoque SD4 rides beautifully, mainly down to the ingenious MagneRide suspension system it uses, which makes instant changes for every road condition your wheels drive across.

Having MagneRide, the Evoque has smooth, comfortable drivability on normal road surfaces, even if it’s a bad one, and the Adaptive Dynamics option (£1,150) – which is only available with the Dynamic and Prestige SD4 models – means being able to stiffen the ride using ‘Dynamic Mode’ on the Terrain Response pad. It works well too, and sharpens the handling, making throwing the Evoque around corners great fun. As I mentioned earlier, the Evoque could do with deeper seat bolsters to hold you in place as the seats can’t keep up with the handling.

A quick note on the optioned Park Assist the Dynamic had. It’s accurate, and parked within a few inches of the kerb each time, but it’s also more fussy than the Kia system I’ve used on their different models. As you pull to a stop when it tells you, it asks you to pull forward again. If you go even slightly further than the car wants – which is easy to do even when inching forward using only the brake pedal – it’ll reset and start searching for another space. This is annoying and slows the whole process right down to the point where it’d only be good to use on a quiet street. Woe betide you if you tried that on a busy road in London packed with irate road users.

Pushing harder than normal around corners, the Evoque surprised me by being nimbler than its weight belies. It’s not like a sports car in its turn-in, as there’s still enough lean to remind this is an SUV and it’s not lightweight either, but I had fun finding out what it could do and the Evoque gave good responses to my persistent prodding of the go pedal. This is also probably helped by a low(ish) centre of gravity mated with a wide track and each wheel placed within just a few inches of each end of the car.

In the wet though, the Range Rover Evoque is outstanding. Not a word I’m using in some throw-away manner, but it really is. The heavier the rain and the more drenched the road, the more the Evoque loves it. Navigating a tight roundabout in a downpour, the surface greasy and slippery, the baby Rangie griped like a climber who’s rope has just comes off a 1,000 feet up. It’s all very easily controllable, and inspired absolute confidence when the weather turned nasty.

The fine handling is complimented by the SD4′s fabulous 2.2 litre four cylinder turbo-diesel engine. The engine isn’t as smooth as the SDV6 in the Discovery or the big Range Rover’s, but it absolutely packs a punch. Acceleration is pleasantly and impressively quick, and when you want to give that accelerator a good poke for whatever reason, it responds by surging forward in a manner that makes passengers ask what size the engine is. Their response is usually surprise that it’s not a bigger one.

The 420 Nm (310 lb ft) of torque peaks at just 1,750 rpm, so there’s a lot of low-down pulling power to play with. The SD4 auto slides up to speeds of sixty or seventy miles per hour with an ease, deftness and unruffled way that’ll take both the driver and passengers by surprise. It’s not in a harsh manner that’ll spill your motorway-services cappuccino, but more a wave of torque sliding you into – and past – the flows of traffic with zero drama.

When overtaking is a necessity, the 190 hp diesel is plenty enough to throw you past the country road slow-pokes and scenery-starers, and the Evoque will comfortably ride at over 100 mph without breaking a sweat, should you want to rush between German cities on the Autobahn.

The Evoque has a great chassis, good handling and ride quality thanks to the trick MagneRide suspension, and the 190 hp version of the 2.2 turbo-diesel is easily enough power to keep you from being bored plus its 4×4 system inspires confidence on roads that have turned into rivers. As I said earlier, the Range Rover Evoque drives as good as it looks.

AWD and off-road. Stuck or superb?

Okay, so while I say with absolute confidence that 90% of Evoque owners will not take their shiny SUV off-road, you want to know it works well should you ever find yourself in a particularly-boggy VIP-parking field after a rained-on Glastonbury, right? There’s winter driving too, I suppose, when you can redeem your not-using-my-4×4-fully ways by being a hero, and taking your kids and their sledges further up the snowy hill than everyone else.

Firstly, the Evoque’s Terrain Response system is ultra-easy to use, and less ‘complex’ than both the big Rangie’s or the Discovery’s. There’s no button to raise the suspension, and simply two arrow controls to select which setting you want from either General Driving (on road/light off-roading), Grass/Gravel/Snow, Mud and Ruts, and Sand. If you’ve optioned the Adaptive Dynamics, that’s on there too.

If you’re interested in how each setting actually works, there’s a very interesting post about Terrain Response on OverlandExpo.com, where someone had the correct information directly from Land Rover’s lead driving instructor. It’s much better than me trying to explain in a baffling barrage of words that barely make sense to even myself. So, check out that link.

Physically though, I had chance to test the off-road-worthyness of the Evoque at a quarry. A quarry full of boggy sand sucking at the tyres meant selecting the cactus & car symbol (Sand) for the correct mode. Turning around in a tight spot on one quarry road, the Evoque suddenly and unexpectedly bogged-down, the wheels sinking into the soft ground and spinning frantically. That’s it? Stuck already? I was disappointed! Where was the now-legendary Terrain Response’s… response, when we needed it?

The doubt was quickly removed when suddenly the engine rev’s slowed (even though my foot was hard on the accelerator), and I felt each wheel individually pulling and grappling for grip, heaving itself out of the sand with very little drama. Heck, I even relaxed enough to switch on the air conditioning while it doggedly pulled itself clear. This was all the more impressive as it was on road tyres offering very little off-road grip.

One of the other testers wisely decided to push the Evoque into a deep sand drift, and while I watched from a distance, ready to phone for a tow, the Evoque yet again clawed its way out, to my utter surprise. One more example of how good the Evoque is. A Land Rover Discovery 4 driver decided to tackle a absurdly steep bank, and got stuck – the Disco sat on its belly, wheels hanging virtually at the limit of suspension travel. The Evoque was called into action for a tow. Again, we were all hugely impressed at the Evoque’s ability.

We were pulling almost the full 3,200 kg (7,000 lb) weight of the Discovery against the weight of the sand bogging it down. That equals a lot of tonnage. Instead of digging itself four mini crevices at each wheel though, the Evoque calmly went about getting power to each wheel with the best grip until it pulled and yanked the Discovery free. Smiles and high-fives ensued.

Going downhill, the Downhill Descent worked excellently, slowing us down quickly, yet smoothly, with zero input from myself on the brakes. Setting back off up the same steep slope, the Hill Start Assist stopped any rolling backwards for a few seconds, allowing me to get back on the gas and power up the hill with zero drama. The Surround Camera System also worked really well by letting us see the ground next to both front wheels, and the fronts allow vision lower down, so boulders etc that you can’t see normally are visible on the screen. Very handy – until they get muddy. They should have mini washer-jets on them to keep them clear.

The Range Rover Evoque is quite brilliant off road, and if it had more ground clearance, or a means of raising the suspension like its bigger brothers, then it’d be sublime. As I love old-school off-roaders (and have one myself), it took the RR Evoque to convince me that a modern system relying on electronics was better than the old method of locking differentials using a big lever between the seats. Now someone will have to convince me of the opposite…

Price

It’s a thought-provoker, this one. A ‘standard’ Evoque Pure SD4 costs around £31,000 – add £1,700 for the automatic version – but you’re still getting tantamount to the same interior as the more expensive models, save for some of the really luxurious options. The Dynamic-spec Evoque I tested cost just over £47,000, but had almost every extra on it. That’s a whole fifteen-thousand pounds difference. Eeek! For myself, I’d buy the Pure and option the Panoramic roof, 825w Meridian System and the Pure Style Pack, taking it to £36K.

The pricing is in-line with the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Volvo XC60, as once you start specc’ing those out the price skyrockets too. For a buy-in to the Range Rover marque though, the Evoque is an excellent starting point at a reasonable price.

Range Rover Evoque SD4 Automatic verdict & score

Land Rover were entirely right to brand the Evoque as a Range Rover. Its strong design is mated with luxury both in the form of the interior finish and ride quality. The powerful SD4 diesel engine is refined, and alongside the superb Terrain Response, the Evoque is more than adequately equipped to deal with most weather conditions and terrain – all while looking exceptionally cool.

Do you own a Range Rover Evoque? What’s your views on it, and what are the best and worst points? Share your thoughts and leave a comment below!

  Specs

Check out our other car reviews here

Words: Chris Davies | Tested by: Chris Davies, Nathan Fielder| Photography: Jason Fanthorpe, Chris Davies, Matthew Davies

Well priced, good all-rounder, great boot space, well-designed cabin

Not an exciting drive, rear seats hard and too upright

 Chevrolet Cruze?

GM released their designs for the Chevrolet Cruze saloon in 2008, with the hatchback arriving on the scene in Europe in 2011. With the hatchback market swarming with fierce competition, and the stakes going up all the time now buyers expect good quality for their money, have they done enough to make sure the Cruze get noticed by potential punters? Let’s have a drive in the 2013 Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback LTZ and see.

Exterior. Butt ugly or beauty?

The Cruze comes in three designs; saloon, hatchback and station wagon. We think the hatchback is the best-looking out of the three, which is why we got it to review.

The front end is the best part of the exterior, with a big ol’ American-style grille, a large ‘golden bowtie’ badge in the centre so you’ll know for sure what make it is. There’s a fair amount going on up front, with sharp lines dominating the overall look. The long, swept-back lights which go to a point have lines on the bonnet and wing following their shape, the bonnet ones protruding out, giving it a muscular look – much like the 2011 Captiva we tested. It’s actually quite a bulky front, and makes the car look like a much bigger car than it actually is.

The rear of the Chevrolet Cruze has a high bootline with a jutted rear bumper… and that’s about it. Nothing much to talk about really, apart from the huge rear light clusters, which look great when you stare into them, and Chevrolet’s designers have at least spent some time getting them looking decent.

In the LTZ-spec we were sent, the Cruze has a set of 17″ alloy wheels. Whatever you do though, don’t go for the £300-extra black wheels option. They don’t suit the look of the Cruze at all, make it look like you’re trying to make it sportier than it actually is.

It’s a mind-changer, the Cruze. When I first saw it, I wasn’t overly fussed and a few of the other people I asked had the same opinion. The more time went by though, the more I liked it, and it was the same with the others I’d talked to as well.

Certainly, the Cruze hatchback is individual enough in its design if you’re in the market for something a little different.

Interior. Neat or nothing special?

We said in our review of the Chevrolet Captiva that the interior wasn’t up to par with other European and Korean competitors, so how does the Cruze do?

We got sent the highest LTZ spec, which means over the LS and LT you’re getting half leather(ette) seats, six speakers (instead of 4), plus a sat-nav system with bluetooth for your phonecalls, auxiliary and USB ports and steering-wheel controls for the stereo too. There’s a few other differences, but take a look here to compare specs.

The sat nav is an improvement over the last Chevrolet system we used (in the Captiva). It’s a more modern display, and looking up places of interest and other options is easier and more accessible than previously. The directions are super-clear and it has some neat features such as a night scene at the end of the ‘road’ for night driving. Bit tacky maybe, but hey, it’s different at least. The only gripe I really had is that it’s a little slow to catch up when negotiating roundabouts – which can be irritating when you’re trying to work out whether you’ve come off at the correct exit or not.

The Cruze that came was a brand-spanking new 2013 version, and talking to one of Chevrolet’s PR people at a recent SMMT show, they stated that Chevrolet have been listening to people and actually acting on feedback, so I was curious to see if they’d made the needed improvements.

On opening the doors, immediately it was obvious they have upped their game. While the interior is not some stupendously luxurious place, I think Chevrolet have got it right for the price. You’re paying a snip over £19,000 for the Cruze in LTZ spec (with 1.7 VCDi engine), and it feels like that. Not cheap, and not sumptuous – a good middle-of-the-road balance in fact.

Whereas we’d seen too many cheap-looking and feeling plastics used in the 2011 Captiva, the Cruze has raised the bar considerably with a nicely-styled interior that isn’t dull or boring. Rubberised trim on the dash and door card tops make the plastics feel higher quality while thick mesh material on the doors and the passenger side of the dashboard make the interior a little more idiosyncratic than usual.

Splashes of gloss black trim are here and there, adding a little class to the Cruze, while angular pieces of faux brushed aluminium – which actually look rather nice – around the stereo controls and surrounding the gearstick make the inside appear more upmarket than its price suggests. All the buttons and dials have a nice precise movement when they’re twisted or pushed too – much better than the old ‘clicky’ stuff Chevrolet used to use.

The front seats, although only 4-way manually adjustable, are comfortable enough and we did a couple of three-hour journeys in them with no real issues. Thy could maybe do with being a little deeper for comfort for your legs and bum, and they would benefit from more lumbar support, but overall they were good enough. The rear seats felt a little too hard in all honesty, and you are sat at too much of an upright angle to get really comfortable in them – they need to be softer and slightly more shaped. Front and rear leg room is decent, and even taller people should find the room adequate enough.

Boot space with the seats up is very good on the Cruze due to its sheer depth. You’ve got 413 litres to fill (big enough for 4 big suitcases) compared with the VW Golf’s 380L, BMW’s 1 Series with 360L, and the Kia Cee’d's 380L. With the rear seats folded down the Golf will beat it by miles though, for whereas the Cruze has 883 litres, the Golf’s seats fold completely flat giving a massive 1270 litres.

The drivers console has non-fussy easy-to-read dials, and the pods surrounding them have a cool design too. I actually really liked all the fuel consumption stats in the display between the dials too (more on that later).

All told, the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback has an interior worthy of the price.While not pretentious, it impressed me with quality and comfort levels, while the materials have been carefully chosen as well. Chevrolet have obviously taken on board criticism about previous-gen cars, and kudos to them for doing something about it on the Cruze.

Engine and gearbox

The Cruze has the option of two petrol engines – a 1.6 and a 1.8 – and one turbo diesel unit in 1.7 litre capacity. In LTZ form you can have either the 1.8 petrol or 1.7 VCDi, and they’re all front wheel drive.

We opted for the diesel, and it arrived with just 219 miles done. Better not give it the beans too much then! The engine is a GM unit, and is the same one as the Vauxhall Astra. First thoughts are that it’s a little noisy – not anything like old-school diesels of course, and probably more on-par with something like the Kia Cee’d 1.6 noise-wise. It’s not irritatingly rackety, but it is noticeably diesel-y at low speed or at a standstill.

The 1.7 VCDi puts out just under 130 horsepower, while torque is suitable enough at 221 lb ft (300 Nm). It’s not hugely quick to sixty, achieving that in 9.8 seconds, but then this isn’t meant to be a speedmobile is it. It’s made for comfortably running at town and motorway speeds with enough punch to overtake fast enough and cruise well. More on that later.

Like most manufacturers now, Chevrolet touts the diesel engine for its fuel efficiency and on paper they are certainly impressive. 51.3 urban, 72.4 extra-urban, 62.7 combined. The digital readout between the dials I mentioned earlier come into play with the fuel economy. They give the usual average and live consumption readings, but then you’ve got extra readouts for how much additional fuel the fan or air conditioning etc is using per hour, and also an ‘economy trend’ graph for the average over X amount of miles. It’s not overly unnecessary stuff, and it’s useful info for real-world driving.

Our real journey of a few hundred miles of flowing motorway driving plus the rest in either traffic or country roads produced an average reading on the digital clock of 48 mpg.

However, if you go by the 530 miles we got from the 60 litre fuel tank that gives a realistic figure of just 40 mpg. We’ve got to take three things into consideration here though, to be fair to the Cruze; 1. The engine wasn’t run in, so it’s still tight. Put a few thousand miles on and it’ll have slackened nicely and you’ll get much better economy. 2. Our motorway run was done at slightly over 70 mph for the majority, and apparently this means 25% less economy than at 70 mph. 3. I chickened out 20 miles after the fuel light went from solid to flashing, so the tank could have had more miles left in than I estimated.

Going on to the gearbox, and the diesel Cruze is only available in six-speed manual. It’s quite a nice ‘box actually, and the ratio’s are well set-up. The gearstick has a fairly short throw, and it’s nice and solid. Easy to get into gear, but positive at the same time. Much better than I thought it would be.

Overall, the 1.7 VCDi is a good engine producing the power you’ll need for the average drive, and it’s mated to a decent manual gearbox.

Ready to roll? Let’s drive!

The Cruze drove and rode better than I envisioned. That’s not derogatory towards Chevrolet, but come on, the Lacetti of even only a few years ago wasn’t brilliant, so maybe I had that at the back of my mind beforehand.

There’s nothing outstandingly brilliant about the way the Cruze VCDi drives, but then there’s nothing bad about it either. It’s a good all-rounder. It sounds like I’m summing it up a bit too easily, but drive one and you’ll see what I mean. It drives positively enough both around town and takes long journeys in its stride while still returning decent fuel economy. That’s all you need if you’re in the market for a low-t0-middle of the price range hatchback.

The 1.7 turbo diesel pulls along happily enough, and you’ll find enough power there to overtake some slow-poke on a country road, or accelerate quickly into the flow of traffic on a motorway. The torque peaks at 2,000 – 2,500 rpm, which is a very narrow band, but it’s enough, and as power peaks at 4,000 rpm you’ve got the horses you need for most normal driving scenarios.

City driving is easy thanks to a light clutch, and the fuel-saving stop-start system worked good enough and without irritation. Into neutral at lights or wherever and the engine will stop. A push on the clutch will start it again. Press the Eco button next to the gearstick if you want to disable that function. Any drawbacks? Two. It cuts the engine if you coast to a stop, and a few times has cut out before I’ve had chance to get it into reverse gear when I’ve pulled up to parallel park. Also, as soon as you come to a stop after a long motorway journey, it immediately stops the engine. I thought it’s best to cool the turbo for 30 seconds or so before switching the engine off after a run? Apart from those it’s not a bad system.

Mentioning reversing, the reversing camera is good and includes guide lines which move left or right as you turn the wheel, showing where your wheels will end up. The only problem is that there’s a vacuous big warning sign slapped across the top of the screen when the camera comes on, obstructing your view of anything higher up. For example; the spare wheel on the back of a 4×4 cannot be seen because of the ridiculous alert, so it kind of defeats the purpose! Take heed Chevrolet, and change it for next time.

The suspension set-up on the Cruze hatchback is commendable. It rides smoothly over the typical huge pothole or towering speed bump you’ll find on U.K. roads, so you’re guaranteed of a nice ride on the better European tarmac. On the twisties, the Cruze does the job of holding the road well, and there’s no real roll to talk of – not in a sports-car way, but it’s good for a large hatchback. The steering has good response and conveys feedback well enough through the ‘wheel.

On a long run the Cruze is notably quiet and refined, with surprisingly low wind, engine and tyre noise. The 1.7 diesel will sit happily at motorway speeds, and the engine isn’t screaming or being strained at all. At 80 mph it’ll be turning over at 2,500 rpm, and while a changed ratio to lower revs slightly would give even better economy, it’s still sufficient for long distances.

The braking system is more than adequate, and they respond well. They aren’t so sharp that they’ll throw you through the windscreen, but they give confidence when you need them. I had a guy pull out of junction without look while I was doing around 35 mpg, and had to haul on the Cruze’s all-round discs. The Chevrolet stopped super-sharply - unexpectedly so, in fact.

Talking of stoppin’ ‘n drivin’ safety equipment, the Cruze is well specc’d. It has the standard ABS and traction control, but then there’s electronic brake-force distribution (EBD) and stability control (ESC). Although there’s no Euro NCAP rating as yet, the last Cruze got 5 stars, so this should get the same.

To sum up, the 2013 Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback in 1.7 VCDi guise is smooth to drive, possesses enough power to keep you happy and will cruise well enough to do long journeys in comfort. With the engine run in, you’re likely to achieve well over 50 mpg on an average drive too.

Price

The range-topping Cruze LTZ  1.7 VCDi costs £19,420. Similarly spec a Volkswagen Golf SE BlueMotion manual 1.6 TDI 105 PS to the same standard as the LTZ and the price comes out at just over £23,000, the BMW 1 Series 116d ES 5-dr Sports Hatch manual (116hp) comes in at nearly £24,500 while the Kia Cee’d ’3′ 1.6 CRDi manual (126 hp) is a snip above £20K, albeit sporting slightly more tech than the Cruze LTZ.

So, the LTZ is well priced and has good safety stuff as standard, but if you’re willing to sacrifice a few options such as sat-nav and bluetooth, go with the LT spec (has same safety gear as the LTZ) and you can save around £1,500.

Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback LTZ 1.7 VCDi verdict & score

With the 2013 Cruze, Chevrolet have jumped a good few echelons forward from their older models with the Cruze Hatchback. I complained about them not being up to European standards, but now… yes, I think they’ve come on track. They’ve upped their game considerably, and with a lower price than its rivals, I now genuinely think people will be far more taken with the Cruze Hatchback. Can it run with strong Euro, Jap and Korean competition? I’d say so.

The Cruze Hatchback has a good interior space and design, a decent diesel engine, great safety measures and it feels planted yet comfortable on rough roads. Overall, an unpretentious hatchback which delivers on value for its price.

Do you own a Chevrolet Cruze? What’s your thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the article

Specs

Check out our other car reviews

Words: Chris Davies | Tested by: Chris Davies | Photography: Jason Fanthorpe, Chris Davies, Matthew Davies

Insanely fast, purposeful design, ‘go-kart’ handling, great price

Interior barely changed since mid-ninties, useless bluetooth

Subaru WRX STi 340R?

Any self-professed petrolhead knows of the Subaru Impreza. A car coming from humble beginnings in the early nineties, the Impreza quickly got a reputation as a fast car, and once it appeared on T.V. on the brutal World Rally Championship, mainly sideways and driven by the greats including Colin McRae and later on Richard Burns and Petter Solberg, it grew to be  a household name.

The Impreza rapidly grew a large fan-base who bayed for faster models, and Subaru answered them with versions like the WRX STi, upping power and torque to crazy levels. It’s a sad, sad day though, as Subaru U.K. announce they won’t be selling the WRX STi in the U.K. for at least a couple of years, so 2015 might be the next time you can buy one new.

Subau U.K. though, have graced us with one final car – the rather insane WRX STi 340R.

Exterior. Butt ugly or beauty?

In 2007, Subaru made a rather humongous gaff. They released a hatchback version of the Impreza. It was not exactly warmly greeted amongst the hardcore base of Impreza owners and was deemed ugly and boring by the majority of fans. Why Subaru thought this was a good idea, we don’t know. Thankfully, they saw sense and re-released the saloon version in 2011, and did a pretty good job of updating it too.

The WRX STi 340R I had sent was in bright red. This car is not subtle by any standard, and the red made it stick out like a sore thumb. I’d seen the 340R in photographs, but seeing one in the flesh made me gasp a little. This thing looks truly monstrous. The wheel arches caught my eye first, especially the front ones. They are wide and angular, and the fonts have black mesh in them, looking like vents for the heat off the brakes.

The eighteen-inch 14-spoke Prodrive wheels are an excellent choice, and suit the 340R perfectly in both terms of looks and fitment, giving little gap between the Dunlop tyres and the arches.

Move your eye forwards and you’ll see more large vents in the front bumper, and a huge, gaping mouth in the centre to push air into the radiator. The immediately obvious sign of any turbo’d Impreza was the bonnet air scoop, and the 340R has an enormous one which also features thick, black mesh – this is likely a safety measure to stop children, wildlife and foliage from being sucked into the engine bay.

Around the rear of the WRX STi and the angular look continues, with sharp edges. The 340R comes with the obligatory boot spoiler of course, but the one we had was positively subtle compared to the larger versions you can get! It’s certainly a purposeful-looking car, there’s no denying that. A favourite part of ours are the uprated, large ‘PRO R’ stainless-steel quad-exhausts at the rear. The only trouble with these is the gap between the two exhausts each side is just the right size for flicked-up stones to jam in between.

Overall, a the WRX STi 340R looks a brute, and both driving and at a standstill draws as much attention as King Kong wearing a lederhosen would.

Interior. Neat or nothing special?

Let me start by saying this. The 2012 WRX STi interior has changed little from when I owned a 1995 Impreza Turbo 2000. That’s seventeen years gone by right there. The door cards are much the same, thin and very plasticy, as is the switchgear such as the power window buttons and door locks. There’s even the little flaps in the handles that hide screws which always came loose or broke in the old Impreza’s – and here they are still, making me all sentimental by flapping away loosely as merrily as a seagull.

The centre console differs with new shiny dials, but again these aren’t of the highest quality either. There’s contrast-stiched leather in a few places, such as the door panels and arm rest but that’s about it for ‘luxury’. A hugely annoying and maddening thing was the stereo in the 340R. It’s not a completely basic system, as you can plug in a USB and it has an auxiliary port – both situated under the armrest – and apparently it has bluetooth. I say apparently, because it was the single most awful system known to man. It would disconnect from my iPhone for no apparently reason, cutting out music and phonecalls, and the ridiculous thing is that you cannot re-connect the bluetooth on the move ‘for safety’, even though all it requires is pushing a ‘menu’ button a couple of times – the same as you would to change a radio station.

The boot on the WRX STi saloon is not huge either, although fitting a couple of suitcases in wouldn’t be a problem, and there’s more room if you drop the seats too. But then again this isn’t some flippin’ airport taxi y’know. Hire a man smelling of cigarettes who talks non-stop rubbish, and who drives an old Skoda Octavia with a zillion miles on if you want that.

Positives about the interior include, the super-comfortable and deep Recaro bucket seats. These are German-made and designed specifically for the WRX STi. Half-leather and half-Alcantara, they are truly comfortable, and anyone sitting in the front seats commented just how good they were. They wrap around the occupant beautifully and although there’s only basic adjustment on the seats – which includes height-adjust for only the driver – the seats are designed for comfort as well as for golding you firmly in place, and the well-positioned lumbar support was especially decent. I was never uncomfortable in the 340R, and you’d have to be built like a massive Rugby player for the seats not to fit well.

The rear seating is also good enough, at least on the sides – the middle isn’t overly pleasant. The rear leg-space isn’t massive either, but it’ll seat four adults no problem.

The drivers console is clearly designed to be as simple and easy to read as possible. The dials glow super-bright in red, and overall it adds to the speed-orientated feel. I loved that the rev counter is sat bang in the middle of the console, and the speedometer is to one side. You soon find out why…

In summary, the WRX STi interior is basic but comfortable and all told, you are clearly paying out mainly for performance and handling over a plush insides.

Engine and gearbox

The WRX STi 340R is a performance upgrade available only in the U.K. As these are going to be the last new WRX’s sold in the Britain for a while, you’d best be quick if you want this upgrade. At £1,599 over the standard price, it’s an absolute bargain especially as it won’t effect your warranty. Over the standard STi, you’re getting nigh-on 40 horsepower more and over 60 lb ft (83 Nm) of torque to boot, bringing stats to a 340 PS (335 hp) and 361 lb ft (490 Nm).

The 2.5 turbo’d Boxer-configaratuion engine is spectacular, and a triumph in Japanese engineering that this much power can be extracted from the ‘standard’ unit. Of course, the 340R has a couple of uprated parts to push up the power, and they include a re-mapped ECU and an totally new exhaust system for better airflow.

The sound from those exhausts will give any Scooby fan goosebumps. It’s the familiar burble that any petrolhead will know instantly from miles away, and although the new exhausts have a nice tone to them and are definitely way more audible than the standard WRx STi, they aren’t overly loud or so obnoxious that you’ll have your neighbours shouting at you every time you leave early or come home late.

The gearbox is a 6-speed manual, and a joy to use. The throw between gear selections is short, precise and tight, and meant hitting each gear in rapid success when accelerating hard (which owners of the 340R will do a lot) was a guarantee. The gearbox really made driving the 340R a pleasure, and in a world where ‘flappy paddle’ ‘boxes and auto’s are becoming the norm on sports cars, the Subaru remains an unadulterated drivers car.

It’s also got a nice long sixth gear, meaning long distance driving is relaxing and the engine is under very little stress, and also that the fuel economy won’t make your wallet sob. At eighty miles-per-hour the needle on the rev counter hovers around 3,000 rpm, and the car runs quiet enough that you can have a conversation without shouting loudly at your passengers.

Talking of fuel ‘economy’, a 2.5 Boxer with a whopping turbo and 335 hp was never going to be awesome on fuel let’s face it, and so you’re looking at around 26 mpg combined, and about 20 mpg urban. Hammer it and I’m taking an educated guess that you’ll be getting around fourteen miles-per-gallon. You’ll also be getting stung on car tax, as with 243 g/km CO2 emissions you’ll be paying a hefty £465.oo per year! Gulp. Still, who gives a crap when a car is this fast.

Ready to roll? Let’s drive!

The Subaru WRX STi 340R is delivered by a nice chap, who immediately informs me “you’ve got a bit of a monster there”, before passing me the keys. I’ve just had a Jaguar XF 3.0L S/C for a week on test, and that packed a punch, so this will be interesting. I wave goodbye as the guy and that beautiful XF drive away, and I’m left a little sad by its departure. My head turns to the right as the Jag rounds the bend, and I catch sight of the bright red 340R. Instantly, a mental switch flicks and my sadness flips to excitement in a flash.

I’m walking over the the 340R, and as I get closer the excitement builds – it’s been a while since I was in a WRX STi but the memory from last time is still strong. I open the door and slide into the driver’s Recaro seat, and my heart rate quickens a little further. I see the Start/Stop button, push the clutch down and press the starter.

In a heartbeat the street is filled with the rich burble from the 340R’s quad exhausts, and I’m grinning from ear to ear. I blip the throttle and a laugh escapes me. I’ve been a fan of fast Subaru’s for a long time, and that Boxer growl is something I love. I did not expect this one to be so mean-sounding, but it is, and so it should be!

Sat writing this article, simply the memory alone of driving the 340R is a thrilling thing. It will be seared on the part of my brain marked ‘exhilarating moments’ forever. I select first gear, and pull off down the street, the noise of the WRX STi reverberating off the buildings around me. It’s not ridiculously loud, but you cannot ignore it either.

I find a national speed limit after a few minutes and out my foot down, and… I’m not that impressed. Sure, it’s quick but not massively so. I glance down to near the gear stick, and spot a silver dial with ‘Sports’ and Sports Sharp’ on either side. I’ve literally jumped in the car and had no time to look through the manual, so I’m using an educated guess that the dial may do something.

I set off again, and pull the lever into second gear, turn the dial to the Sport Sharp setting and give the 340R a boot to the go pedal. Things are a bit hazy after that but my memory goes something like this; everything gets very blurry outside of the car, my heart rate skyrockets and I get an adrenaline shot similar to bungee-jumping off Mount Everest. Before I can do anything, the rev limiter beeps a warning as it flies passed the 6,300 rpm mark. I glance at the speedo at the same time and realise I’ve passed the national speed limit too.

I back off and regain composure, dropping the Subaru into fifth gear to let it cruise. That. Was. Insane. My heart is still racing as I slow down. Let’s do that again. At 40 mph, I put the Subaru into 2nd and floor the accelerator. Within a couple of seconds I’ve reached 60 mph, and again I get an adrenaline spike.

The 0 – 60 mph time by the way, is decent 4.7 seconds. That’s faster than a Porsche Cayman S and Boxster S, Nissan 370Z, Mitsubishi Evolution X FQ330 and on a par with the Audi RS 4. I’d love put it up against the Porsche’s past sixty miles-per-hour, just to see what the Porsche’s £22,000+ extra really buys you in terms of performance.

Having a read through the WRX STi’s instruction manual, that ‘silver dial’ turns out to be the SI-DRIVE (Subaru Intelligent Drive). Push it down and ‘I’ (Intelligent) will appear on the dash, and gives ‘well-balanced performance… power delivery is moderate… for maximum fuel efficiency‘. That’s what I had it in when I was unimpressed. Turn the dial to the left into ‘S’ (Sports), and you’ll get quicker acceleration. Turn that dial to the right to select Sport-Sharp (‘S#’). Subaru put it politely – ‘Sport Sharp… [makes] the throttle become more responsive regardless of engine speed… ideal for twisting roads, merging and overtaking‘. My take on it is this; it’s like poking a Tiger with a sharp bamboo stick. The reaction on your mental and physical state is swift, vicious and unrelenting. My SI-DRIVE alternative tags are ‘I’ for calm, ‘S’ excited, and ‘S#’ wild, angry behemoth.

The 340R is beyond exciting to drive – it’s monumentally fast. It will bounce off the adjustable rev-warning in first to forth gear without even trying, and in fifth and sixth the 340R will keep pulling as strongly as a locomotive.

The last car to give me that high and make things go all burry was the awesome Jaguar XKR. During the week I had with the 340R, the reaction from every single person I take out in the Subaru is one of disbelief at how insanely quick it is. As the WRX STi passes 3,500 rpm and turbo starts to spin up, the wave of torque builds from stream to raging river – that’s when the fun begins. Reaction highlights included a half excited/mainly scared ‘woooooOOOOOOOOW‘ from people as the Subaru surged forward, and a variety of loud expletives I can’t type from a couple of petrolheads who probably won’t forget their 340R experience in a hurry.

Once the initial playing is out of the way, and you settle the Subaru down clicking in ‘I’ mode , it’s actually quite a subdued drive. It doesn’t jump or pounce its way through traffic and the clutch is very workable too. No need to give it a stack of revs to pull away either, as the torque is low enough to start you off without a problem. On the motorway, the exhaust noise isn’t invasive or overly-loud and it will settle down nicely at 70 – 80 mph, the long sixth-gear allowing it low-enough revs to be relaxing.

The suspension and chassis are are excellently set-up too. On the streets, I thought the 340R would crash and bang over and into bumps and that I’d be visiting the chiropractor after a few days, but it doesn’t. It rides the roads well, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how well it deals with bad surfaces. Get onto a windy bit of road, put the car into Sport Sharp to get the best of the power, and the Subaru will reward with a seriously thrilling drive.

A couple of the drivers likened the feel to driving a go-kart. The steering is ultra precise, and the handling as sharp as a razor-blade. Head into a corner at and haul on the huge PRO-R brake discs – which bite nicely but aren’t too severe – and then let the WRX STi clip nearly around the bend, the wonderfully sticky Dunlop SP Sport 600′s gripping with gusto, before getting back on the accelerator and blasting out the other side of the turn is a rush you’ll want again and again.

The 340R is obviously permanent all-wheel-drive (AWD), but Subaru have included a Driver’s Control Centre Differential (C.DIFF). It’s easier to let the drivers manual tell you how this works, so here goes; ‘The C.DIFF allows you to freely change the degree of limitation the differential action (LSD torque) of your vehicle’s centre differential.‘ The C.DIFF has a manual and auto mode, although unless you’re planning on getting every ounce out of your WRX STi, it’s best to simply use the  + and – settings in auto mode. + will give you maximum traction and would be perfect for a rain-drenched or snowy road, while – gives ‘quick response from the steering wheel…for smooth driving’. Auto with out selecting either of the above just does everything for you, using sensors placed on mechanical bits around the car to work out your driving style.

Other features for safety on the WRX STi include the usual traction control (TCS) and ABS, plus vehicle dynamics control (VDC) and hill-start assist control – a feature I particularly like.

A regret I have is that I didn’t get the chance to take the Subaru on a race track. Out here in the real world, the Subaru’s power and handling feel like a waste. There’s so much potential that there’s simply no way to fully exploit it without being a danger to other road users or yourself. A track with the room and plenty of time to correct overcooked the Scooby would be the place to really test the 340R. Shame really.

Price

If you can still find a brand-new Subaru WRX STi 340R for sale in the U.K., they can be bought at around £28 – £29,000 including the 340R upgrade. That is a very tempting price considering the performance and drivability of the Subaru. It beats its rivals easily in terms of price when you consider the Mitsubishi EVO X FQ330 is £36,000, the Porsche Cayman S and Boxster S £48K and £46K (before you start to spec them out), the Audi RS 4 Avant £55K (plus options) and the Nissan 370Z at £30,000.

Subaru WRX STi 340R verdict & score

The 2012 Subaru WRX STi 340R is a pure-blooded sports car through and through. It’s relatively inexpensive, incredibly quick and handles superbly. This is a car to be respected, admired and feared if you pull up next to it at the lights. It’ll embarrass fast cars worth much more in the zero-to-sixty run and upwards, and leave them floundering in a wake of exhaust noise and dust on twisty sections. Yes the interior is outdated and even poor in places, but you’re buying the 340R for it’s intense power and handling – not for luxury.

Do you own a WRX STi 340R or similar-spec Subaru? What are you thoughts? Comment below!

Specs

Check out our other car reviews

Words: Chris Davies | Tested by: Chris Davies | Photography: Jason Fanthorpe, Chris Davies, Matthew Davies

Beautiful design in and out, new S/C V6 engine powerful and smooth, superb ride, competitive price

A couple (literally) of interior parts look cheap, 8-speed ‘box can be jolty at low speeds

Jaguar XF?

The 2013 Jaguar XF 3.0L Petrol S/C Portfolio has just been delivered for review. I walk outside to take a look around the XF, and instantly I’m in love with its design. With powerful, handsome looks, this new supercharged XF is going to catch a lot of attention. Let’s have a look how it started out first. Arriving in 2007 in concept form, the Jaguar XF instantly appealed to a new audience. The previous X-Type  and S-Type were just not ‘Jaguar’ enough for most, and from the exterior styling to the interior (many Ford parts being used), there was a definite lack of flair about them. With the arrival of the new range of Jaguar’s including the XF, Jag has returned to the days of great styling and classy interiors – thank goodness for that!

Exterior. Butt ugly or beauty?

2013 saw a facelift on the XF, with an even further streamlined look and more aggressive front headlights. We were sent the XF 3.0L V6 S/C (supercharged) in Portfolio spec, which has 20″ alloy wheels and ‘rubber band’ low-profile tyres, which fill the arches nicely.

Let’s get one thing said immediately – this is a beautiful car. It’s a wonderful mix of sporty while retaining an air of class. The XF 3.0L S/C is a powerful-looking beast too, and turned heads every time I drove it. The bonnet has heavy lines that ripple and bulge like a body-builder’s muscles, and while the front headlights stare aggressively, the ‘blades’ that sit within the low air intakes look like the pointed sideways teeth of some fictional monster.

Our car was finished in Polaris White – a colour so clean and bright that I had to wear sunglasses when cleaning it – and this only attracts more attention. When out driving, I found people stop what they’re doing to look at the XF, twisting around to see it drive off when they hear the low, smooth growl of that supercharged V6. Parked up, people of all ages stare – not just glance – admiringly at the Jaguar, and its handsome appearance attracts comments from both genders equally – something that normally only blokes do, boring their dis-interested partners in the process (’tis a fact).

A low roof and narrow side windows also add to the aerodynamic, sleek appearance of the XF, and it looks distinctly coupé-like because of those. The twenty-inch 10-spoke ‘Hydra’ design alloy wheels are beautiful too, although to give the XF 3.0L S/C an even more assertive look we’d either have the Hydra wheels repainted in black, or spec the 20″ Kalimnos Gloss Black wheels instead.

The rear light clusters have to be mentioned too, as their design is superb. They are contemporary and won’t date easily, and a feature I absolutely loved and one not immediately obvious, is the tiny Jaguar emblem within the sides of the clusters. Have a look the next time you’re near one.

An overview of the exterior design of the XF 3.0 S/C Portfolio is that it’s a handsome, powerful-looking machine that maintains a sophisticated look, attracting much-deserved attention wherever you drive it.

Interior. Neat or nothing special?

Slipping inside the XF in Portfolio spec makes you instantly feel like you’ve entered a special place. Pull the heavy door shut and it clunks into place with a quality feel. Suddenly it’s serene and peaceful – much like putting on a set of those cool noise-cancelling headphones on a plane journey. Ahhhhh. Annnnd relax. I reported in a test on the Subaru Outback about it being quiet inside, and the Jaguar is similar, only it’s even more hushed a place – a cocoon of silence.

Touch and feel the interior, and it is immediately obvious that nearly every single piece and part is high grade and built to a high standard too. It is, in fact, sumptuous. Cast your eyes top-to-bottom of the Portfolio spec’d XF, and you’ll first notice the soft, dark ‘Suedecloth’ headlining, then see stitched leather lining on the dash and doors, meeting modern-design aluminium pieces, and in turn piano-black trim so luscious and deep that it in itself is a feature which captures the eye of everyone entering the XF.

Any plastics that are used on buttons are, for the majority, either rubberised or have a quality feel to them. Trim pieces I thought needed definite improvement were the controls for the electric seats, which looked cheap and out of place in this spec of XF, and also the plastic paddle shifters behind the steering wheel felt inexpensive too.

Talking of the electric seats, the XF’s are ridiculously comfortable, with eighteen way adjustment which includes being able to move the base of the seat to suit your leg-length, and inflate the sides of the backrest to hold you in place for more spirited driving. They’re also three-stage heated and cooled. Since the Sun finally decided to show its lazy ass here in the U.K, the cooled seats were used a few times, and being able to choose the cooling in either the seat or backrest or both mean they are excellent. It’s surprising how much more relaxed it makes you when the sun is blazing in through the windows.

The rear is certainly comfortable too, at least on the side seats, and they are raked at the perfect angle. Sat in the back, you feel very much like you’re getting the V.I.P treatment, and there’s leg-room to match too. There are vents in the rear, but only to control airflow, not heat settings.

All the Jaguar XF’s controls are laid out very well, and it’s certainly easy for the driver to find whatever they need, even when driving hard. I have a suspicion that Jaguar’s interior designers have been taking notes from James Bond’s ingenious inventor ‘Q’. Here’s why; hold the small start/stop button down for a couple of seconds to fire that smooth V6 into life, and not only does the gear selector rise from the centre console gracefully, but the aluminium-fronted air vents also roll over to reveal the vent slats. I will never, ever get tired of those features. Ever.

At night, the XF has soft blue lighting emitting from around the driver and front passengers inside door handles, and surrounding the gear selector, heating and stereo controls are lines lit in neon blue which appear as chrome in the daytime. It’s very clever, super-cool and have Jag’s designer’s stolen idea’s from the Batmobile? Quite possibly.

Turn on the multimedia system in the XF S/C Portfolio, select your favourite driving music and you’ll be rewarded with a sound that is rich, one that immerses you and makes you feel immersed in the music. This comes from the 825W Meridian surround sound system, which packs in seventeen speakers throughout the car. Ten more than the standard XF set-up!  A feature of the system I liked was the ultra-simplistic way to set up the sound you want, which meant selecting Bass, Treble, Sub(woofer) and 4 surround-type options. No need for complexities, and the sound is still amazing.

The touchscreen multimedia system also incorporates the rearview camera plus the settings for the heated and cooled seats, heated steering wheel, satellite navigation (which is good, by the way), phone, bluetooth, DAB radio and voice controls, amongst other things. It’s an easy system to navigate through, and overall I enjoyed using it.

At 500 litres (with space-saver spare wheel), the XF saloon’s boot space is adequate enough for a few big bags or a couple of large suitcases, and I was surprised to find that the seats folded down 60/40, giving a decent 923 litres of room. The XF I tested came with the £260 ski-hatch option, which I can see being very handy if you’re into that.With the armrest down, a small compartment opens and a fold out bag made of durable material pulls out and will fit your ski’s inside, stopping dirt and water ruining the leather seats.

Overall, I conclude that the Jaguar XF 3.0L V6 S/C Portfolio has an interior that you cannot fail to love. It is classy, modern and built to a standard that way surpassed my expectations. I may be gushing about the Jag’s interior, but I have absolute reason for this. Go and sit in an XF for yourself, and you’ll see why.

Engine and gearbox

And now to talk about the powerplant of this XF – the 3.0 litre V6 supercharged engine. New for 2013, it replaces the last naturally-aspirated V8. Actually, it’s essentially the same unit as the V8 supercharged with two less cylinders and around 165 hp less. No matter, this 24-valve V6 using a Roots twin-vortex supercharger is an excellent engine and has power adequate enough, dear potential purchaser. With 335 hp and 450 Nm (332 ft lbs) of torque, the XF will make any drive a pleasant one.

Jaguar’s supercharged V6 is a beautifully-engineered engine, and one that is a pleasure to even start up. The low, smooth hum from both the exhausts and engine is pleasant and sophisticated – the type of noise you only get from an expensive car.

Fuel economy can be good, if you drive the XF in a relaxed manner. Jaguar claim 20 mpg urban, 29 combined and around 40 combined. That’s some astounding figures for such an engine, and they’re down to Jag’s engineering wizardry plus the featured Intelligent Start/Stop, but also that 8-speed automatic gearbox which allows low rpm at even motorway speeds – I’ll talk about in the drive section. Drive it quickly though, and it’ll be meaner to your wallet than a school bully.

If there’s even a single person sat reading this thinking ‘Hmm, if I drive carefully carefully, I can still get good milage in this‘, then my advice to you is don’t buy it. There is no point buying a car with such an excellent engine to potter about like you’re drivin’ Miss Daisy – it’s a misuse, and people will physically boo you for wasting its potential. I would. Also, Jaguar do range of frugal diesel’s, so go look at those instead.

An automatic sequential eight-speed transmission is now standard on all the XF’s, and overall it’s a nice gearbox. It’s super-fast at changing, especially if you’re using the ‘manual mode’ paddles on the steering wheel. It goes through the gears smoothly when accelerating hard too. A quibble I have however is that at low town speeds all those gears mean it’s changing up and down a lot, and it can be little jerky or jolt obviously when changing. Not in a harsh manner, but the movement is still there.

In summary, I rate the XF’s 3.0L V6 supercharged engine and gearbox highly. The engine is silky-smooth, powerful and sounds magnificent, while the 8-speed gearbox allows low rpm and decent fuel economy while my only gripe is the slight jolts at low-speed driving.

Ready to roll? Let’s drive!

Sat in the Jaguar, you settle quickly into the comfort that surrounds you. The low, dark headlining gives a distinct air of sports car and sets the mood nicely. Foot on the brake pedal, you hold down the starter button for a couple of seconds before being greeted with the super-smooth purr of that V6 firing into life. The Jaguar gives an automatic quick blip of the throttle as it starts, before settling down to idle. The exhaust note is throaty, but not intrusive. Even sat inside the car with the door open, the sound deadening in the XF is so effective that most of the noise is blocked out. Want the full benefit? Then stand outside to get the full effect of those pipes.

Give the throttle a few quick pushes and the twin exhausts suddenly come alive. Low down, they give a meaty growl, but reach the 4,000 rpm mark – limited while the car is stationary – and that growl become a howl which crackles, barks and snarls angrily at being leashed back.

Select ‘D’ on the beautifully-crafted dial, and set off. The XF pulls forward in near-silence, and glides along in a manner more befitting big luxury cars than a sports saloon. It is something most passengers commented on almost as soon as the Jaguar moved off, and it’s more obvious still when you’re the driver. My old mid-nineties Mercedes-Benz 280E automatic gave that same feeling, and it’s something I’ve looked for since in other ‘normal’ cars, but never found. It’s the sign you’re driving something well-engineered and well-built.

Drive in a calm manner, and the XF 3.0L S/C rewards with an utterly serene ride that will surprise you at first. It’s the kind of car you’d want waiting at the airport after a long-haul flight. The XJ would be even more tranquil possibly, but we’ll report on that when we get one to test. The XF also rode really satisfactorily over harsh city surfaces, and across even those evil ‘speed humps’ the Jaguar XF was unperturbed, flowing rather than bouncing.

With a three-litre supercharged engine, no-one can hold it against the driver wanting to give it the beans once in a while. In fact, if you buy one and don’t it would absolutely be a crime. This is a car that wills you to drive it in a spirited way. The 30 mph mark on the 3.0L S/C is so low down on the dial that you have to be wary. It does not like going at under forty miles-per-hour, in fact. It reminds me of my dog; he’ll walk sedately to a point, but there’s always a slight straining at the leash and as soon as I unclip that leash, he’s sprinted off into the distance joyously.

The Jaguar does the same, and once you round that bend and see a long, wide stretch of tarmac ahead, here’s a perfect chance to let the XF stretch its legs. With the sprint to 60 mph taking 5.7, this is not slow off the mark, but we’re driving a car whose acceleration impresses far more on the move. Turn the dial to ‘S’ for sports mode, and plant that accelerator and the big cat bounds forward with a strong turn of speed. It’s not a vicious attack that leaves you scared and your neck hurting, it more akin to a huge wave pushing you forward powerfully. The speedometer climbs quickly, the V6 supercharged engine propelling the XF onward at a good rate of knots. The needle swings past sixty miles-per-hour without even a hint of trying, and 70 to 100 mph is like a stroll in park for the Jaguar. Into triple figures and the XF 3.0L V6 S/C bounds on to either a (limited) 155 mph, or until you decide to back off that go pedal.

The lovely thing about this Jag is that you can give it a damn good caning whenever you wish and the car will respond willingly, but as soon as you want it to be sedate, it’s back to an easy cruiser. Talking of cruising, because of that 8-speed transmission, the XF does very low revs when at seventy or eighty miles per hour. On a flat road, we clocked the Jaguar at just 1,400 rpm at 70 mph. Slowing down for country roads, at forty mph, we had it at almost tick-over at just 1,100 rpm! The fact that the XF did this without the engine struggling or choking at such low rpm was astounding and I can absolutely believe that you would be achieving excellent fuel economy like that.

Back onto twisting sections of tarmac, and although the XF 3.0L supercharged is composed and you can push on, you definitely know that this not a lightweight car at 1,770 kilograms (3,902 lbs). It’s certainly not ungainly, but is graceful through the turns rather than feeling agile. The XF features ‘Adaptive Dynamics’ which – according Jaguar’s website - ‘monitors and analyses speed, steering and body movement 500 times a second [and]… electronic dampers constantly adjust to give you optimum suspension under any conditions’.

Of course, as with most modern cars the XF has Dynamic Stability Control too, and this can be turned off totally by holding down the traction control button. However, do that at your own peril, because unless you have access to a track with wide tarmac and no barriers at the sides you will most certainly end up spinning out quickly and messily, especially if it’s wet. Once the XF three-litre S/C goes, it goes big time. If you want more fun with less danger than switching off the DSC system off altogether, push the button with the little flag on it and you’ll activate Dynamic Mode. This will turn on TracDSC which allows for more slip than full DSC, and in turn makes driving more involved (more fun, in other words) for whoever’s behind the wheel.

One more cool point to mention about the XF, and that is the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) – an option costing £1,275. This is a truly superb feature and would be absolutely great if you want to do a long trip. ACC uses the normal cruise control, except when you set it the XF will slow down when it comes up to another car driving below your set speed, and then get back up to your setting once the vehicle in front moves or speeds up. I like the fact that you can set the distance between your Jag and the car in front too. The ACC is so effective that even when I slowed from sixty to around twenty miles-per-hour at  roundabout, the ACC stayed on and the XF sped back up once we’d cleared that. Very, very neat.

The Jaguar XF 3.0L V6 S/C is a great drive. Sporty enough to have fun in, and with easily enough power to embarrass everyday saloons should they try it on. The XF is a superb car to drive, and a great ‘compromise’ to paying around £13,000 for the 5.0 V8 XFR.

Price

Including optional extra’s, our test Jaguar XF 3.0L V6 S/C Portfolio came out at just over £53,000. To a lot, it may seem like a fair chunk to pay for a car but the Jaguar feels like it is worth every penny, such is the quality of the overall package. Challengers to this XF three-litre supercharged (in similar spec) would be the Infiniti M37 S Premium which comes in at around £46K, the BMW 530i M Sport Saloon at around £55,500 and the Mercedes-Benz CLS 350 AMG Sport at £55,000 (configurator  not working so could be more).

Jaguar XF 3.0L V6 S/C Portfolio verdict & score

Jaguar has some stiff competition in the upscale car market, but the XF three-litre supercharged Portfolio has a well… Jaguar feel. Buyers will perhaps purchase an XF for its very British character and soul. It exudes class with a stunningly handsome exterior, while the interior design mixes absolute style and refinement, the drive can deliver serenity and enjoyment plus that new-for-2013 3.0 litre V6 supercharged engine is thoroughly superb too.

Specs

Check out our other car reviews

Words: Chris Davies | Tested by: Chris Davies | Photography: Jason Fanthorpe, Chris Davies, Matthew Davies

Good quality, keeps you toasty-warm, cool wear-anywhere design

Zipper jammed regularly, jacket can be pricey depending on package bought

Milwaukee?

Milwaukee is well known for their tough, great quality power tools and we wanted to test their latest product – the Milwaukee M12 HJ Cordless Heated Jacket. This is one cool (no pun intended) piece of clothing, and whether you work outdoors a lot, watch a lot of motor sports, need one because the heater is broke on your 20-year-old pick-up truck and you want warmth badly, or simply to show off to your mates, the Milwaukee M12 is neat jacket to have and it’s even pretty stylish too. Let’s give it a proper test then…

Design and quality

As mentioned, Milwaukee is famous for its high quality tools, and this jacket is no exception. The fit and finish is very good, and even the control panel has a quality feel to it. Except for the zip not working properly (which I’ll talk about later), it is overall a  very nice jacket.

The design of it is excellent and our favourite feature is the heating panel on the chest, which glows brightly in three different colours on each side of the panel, depending on the heat setting and whether you want the heat on the body, in the pockets or both. It glows red for hot, white for medium and blue for the lowest setting. Very, very awesome.

Test time…

First off the important thing; What is the heating like? Using tough carbon-fibre heating elements, the M12 jacket gives three heat levels shown by three colours on the control panel, the lowest being quite subtle. The battery will last around five hours on that setting whereas the highest gives a good amount of heat to the upper back and chest but you’ll only get around one hour and forty-five minutes of heat on that setting. There is also a medium setting too. Another function of the jacket is that the pockets heat too! Great for if you’re stood in freezing weather watching a WRC or motor-X race. This does reduce the battery life further though.

Our M12 HJ heated jacket came supplied with a Milwaukee charger and a single 12 volt Lithium Ion battery, which appears to be straight from a 12V drill. It takes around half-an-hour to charge, but being only 1.5Ah the battery life is not great. If you already own Milwaukee power tools, any 12V battery will fit into the jacket, even up to 4Ah giving much longer run times.

The battery sits neatly in a pocket on the hip, which most of the time goes unnoticed, though if you’re jumping in and out of a vehicle it can be uncomfortable against the seat (note to Land Rover; please design the new Defender seating with enough width for humans!).

Purchasing the correct size is vital. My wife stole my ‘large’ size jacket one cold afternoon and complained of “not feeling any heat”, so it definitely needs to fit closely to get the full benefit of the heat. Also, wearing anything more than a thin shirt or T-shirt underneath the Milwaukee M12 jacket limits how much heat you feel from the elements. It’s much better to wear any extra insulation on top of it, and use it more like a sweater than a jacket.

Without the heat turned on, the M12 is still a nice warm jacket for bad weather. It’s got a fleece lining and being ‘soft-shell’ (i.e. some variation of a breathable membrane glued between the inside and outer material), it keeps out the wind and even a good amount of rain too. When you’re working hard though, it’s easy to overheat and can get clammy quickly, though this is not uncommon in soft-shell-type jackets.

Overall the Milwaukee M12 is an excellent jacket which will make your mates or work colleagues jealous as they freeze in their old-school fleeces. It works well, and it absolutely ideal for working or playing outdoors, especially in those first few hours before the sun comes up.

The only real snag is with our test jacket was with the zip which… snagged actually. As hard as I tried it would never start off smoothly and in fact was a real pain to do up at times. Not what you want when you;re in a rush! Whether this is a common problem or just with our tester I don’t know. Feel free to leave comment below if you have the same problem.

An option we’d definitely buy is the M12 12V DC Plus car adapter with 7-foot breakaway lead. It means you can run the jacket hot the whole time without using the battery. If you’re driving say, a digger without heating, this would be an absolutely excellent thing to have. Some other useful features of the Milwaukee M12 HJ Cordless Heated Jacket we really like included;

• A USB port on the battery for charging things like MP3 players and phones on the go. Really well thought-out that!
• Channels on the inside to route cables through for earphones or a cable-attached hands-free earpiece
• Useful gauge on the battery to show the remaining charge

Price and overall thoughts

We found the Milwaukee M12 Premium Heated Jacket online for  around £140.00 up to £260.00 depending on the ‘bundle’ you choose. Buy the jacket with no battery included and the price is okay, but it can get very pricey if you include a battery and charger. Overall though, the jacket that is well-made, looks great and works well too.

Own a Milwaukee heated jacket? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts!

Specs

Words: Nath Fielder | Photography: Chris Davies, Matthew Davies | Editing: Chris Davies

Superb AWD, tough looks, torquey diesel engine, comfortable ride and seats, roomy

High price for XS NavPlus spec, spec not on par with similar-priced SUV’s, hard & cheap-looking plastics on interior

Subaru Forester?

First available in 1997, the Subaru Forester was based on the Impreza platform. Subaru slotted the car in between the Impreza Wagon and the Legacy, giving people the chance to own an SUV that was compact, practical and capable. Subaru’s original slogan for the Forester was ‘SUV Tough, Car Easy‘, pointing out the high. boxy rear and the large amount of space it provided.

In the U.K., farmers loved the Forester for its great ground clearance, big boot and superb AWD system capable of tackling terrain from rough country road to fields. It’s grown considerably since the original model, and has gone from compact SUV to a mid-size SUV. Subaru state that the buyers of the Forester are often based in the country and do use their cars off-road, so this 2011 – 2012 2.0D XS NavPlus competes with the more ‘rugged’ SUV’s such as the Nissan X-Trail and Mitsubishi Outlander. Let’s see how it gets on…

Exterior. Butt ugly or beauty?

Given that Subaru’s aren’t known for their beauty, we’re going to put that aside right away. The Subaru Forester isn’t beautiful, nor a design icon. But then it’s not meant to be. This is a car designed with purpose in mind. The purpose of toughing it out down roads that are effectively tracks, with the occasional pot hole deep enough to hide a supermini, and to brave weather serious enough make to the average car driver take one look outside, ring work to tell them he can’t make it and then enjoy a day of crap telly and mugs of cocoa.

As mentioned, the Forester has grown in size since the original and at 1,700 millimetres (67″) tall, height-wise it’ll now dwarf the average estate car. A couple of examples are the Honda Accord Tourer at 1470mm (58″) or Audi A4 Allroad at 1,495 mm (59″).  It’s actually a shorter car than these though by around eight inches, so is a little easier to park.

I actually the design of the Forester. Bulky and muscular, the Forester flexes flared wheel arches, a jutted and angular rear and a front that looks set to head-butt you should you look at it the wrong way. The diesel has the instantly-recognisable large air intake on the bonnet – a beast of thing that only adds to the tough demeanour.

The XS NavPlus is fitted with five-spoke 17″ alloy wheels as standard, and in line with the rest of the exterior these are chunky and purposeful. Personally, I’d have all the rear windows tinted for even meaner looks and to lessen the ‘goldfish bowl’ effect.

Overall, a design which states determination and resilience. I like that.

Interior. Neat or nothing special?

This 2011/2012 is soon to be updated in 2013, but in the meanwhile let’s take a look around the range-topping Forester 2.0D XS NavPlus interior. First impressions? This is a £31,000 car, but sat inside it unfortunately does not feel like it. I’d go as far as to say I’d be disappointed if I’d have paid cash money for one. I’m not one to really rip into a car, or to be unnecessarily harsh or overly critical, but I am realistic and the 2011/2012 Forester’s interior just is not up to par.

Let’s look at the positives firstly though. The deep leather seats in both the front and rear are very comfortable and make any journey – long or short – a pleasant place for your derrière. Passengers in the rear enjoyed the excellent legroom and reclining seats plus handy fold-out tray and cup holder built into the centre of the rear bench. The cabin is spacious and airy, made more so by the large sunroof. The XS includes keyless entry and locking too, which is superb for when your hands are full and you can only get your pinkie around the door handle to open the car.

Unlike the Outback we tested, there’s not a million buttons everywhere which made even finding heating controls distracting while driving. Instead the Forester XS NavPlus has an easier layout to deal with, and far more ergonomic for the driver. Being the XS NavPlus, it’s at least got a decent amount of goodies thrown in, such as dual climate control, heated seats up front with 8-way power on the driver side, built-in satellite navigation/entertainment/information system with DVD player, reverse camera and other stuff. A neat feature I do like is that the front armrest slides forwards so you can get super-comfortable on long hauls.

The sound system – which is 180-watts and has 7-speakers including a sub-woofer and an amplifier - is also a good one, and although the equaliser is unnecessarily complex (as I talked about in our Outback review), you do get an excellent sound out of the speakers. A neat feature to quickly mention is the front heated section under the wipers, which de-ices them.

The load area in the boot is a good size considering this is a medium, and not full-size, SUV. With 450 litres seats up (to window line) and 1,660 litres seats down (to roof) it’s less than a Nissan X-Trail - but I’d class that as a large SUV anyway – but overall has around the same space as a Mitsubishi Outlander (1,691 litres). There’s also a button each side of the boot that fold the 60/40 seats in one push, which is a really handy feature.

Now for the bad points. For nigh-on thirty one grand the XS NavPlus is too minimal, lacks much the high-end gear and tech that now seems to come on a lot of SUV’s – just look at the sort of tech you get on a £27K Kia Sportage for instance – and the interior materials and build are simply not good enough. Hard plastics cover the dash, door cards, centre console and other areas. The central storage area between the driver and passenger seats is plain and looks and feels substandard quality compared with the majority of cars made today. The equipment level for a range-topping car isn’t massive, and things like power windows, mirrors, sunroof and heated seats is now either standard or included on lower models now.

Yet something else that Subaru haven’t thought through properly; on the lower models without the sat nav system, there are auxiliary and USB ports so you can use your MP3 player. On the NavPlus, there are no ports and you can only link the bluetooth on your device up for phone calls but not music. Believe me, I looked right through all the Forester’s manuals in case I was mistaken, but nope. you can only use MP3/WMA CD’s.

All the buttons to operate the previously mentioned power windows etc, again, feel cheap and even down to points like Subaru just adding a blanking plate on the steering column for where the ignition was (XS NavPlus includes push-button start), smacks of unnecessary shoddiness and penny-pinching.

To sum up, the Forester XS NavPlus’ interior is comfortable, ergonomic for the driver and isn’t designed too badly, but it’s outmoded, cheaply-made and in severe need of an update. Subaru say a lot of Forester buyers live in the country, and maybe that plastic interior is good for wiping down after a day out on a rainy walk, or a pheasant shoot, so I can see it being appealing there, but if they want to reach a wider audience they’ll have to improve their 2013 Forester.

Engine and gearbox

I’m sent the 2.0 diesel version of the Forester. For all the interior’s cheap-ness, the Boxer diesel might just have redeemed much of that. This is a superb unit, and has to be one of the best smaller diesel engines available today. I previously reviewed the Subaru XV with the same unit, and it was one of the defining features on that car, and it’s the same case here.

The engine is a two-litre, 16 valve, double-overhead cam with direct injection. The tried-and-tested Boxer (flat-four) formation means it’s smooth and has Subaru’s legendary reliability, while a variable geometry turbo (VGT) bolted on gives good power (145 hp) and big torque (258 lb.ft/350 Nm). Subaru have done a proper job right here. If you ever get chance to try a Scooby Boxer diesel (you guys State-side need them there asap), it will go into the battle in your mind, mercilessly slaying old memories of underpowered, smokey, farm-quality diesels with a lust quenched only by a thoroughly good road-test.

There’s the matter of fuel economy though. My driving was a mix of motorway and town driving with a modest mix of light foot and heavy foot. The official MPG stats read: Urban: 39.2, Extra Urban: 53.3, Combined: 47.1. If I’d taken the average 43 mpg reading from the Nav system screen as good, I’d have been happy with those results. However, either the average readout is wrong, or the ‘fuel remaining’ figure is way out. Bare with me here. With a 64 litre (UK) tank, I got to 430 miles and the ‘fuel low’ warning popped up, stating I had 70 miles remaining. That’s 500 miles. Any fuel calculator will tell you this is an average of 35.5 mpg. The tank was reading full when it arrived, and to get 45 mpg I’d have had to use only fifty litres of fuel. Something’s very wrong there. Maybe next time I’ll run it totally dry, put 10 litres in and run it totally dry again to get a 100% accurate figure.

The six-speed manual gearbox is a little too heavy and cumbersome, and at times there was grinding involved. Both my teeth and the ‘box that is. Press loan cars are never going to get an easy life though, and this one had 20,000 hard miles under it’s belt, so a less tortured model may be easier to use. I’ll talk about the ratio’s in the next section.

Engine and gearbox summary then; the two-litre diesel Boxer is smooth, strong and pushes wads of torque out that’ll get you grinning in no time. The fuel economy figures are questionable though, and either the average or ‘remainder’ figures are wrong. The six-speed manual is a overly heavy and not fluid enough – at least on our press loan.

Ready to roll? Let’s drive!

Drive any of the AWD Subaru’s, and you instantly get a sense that it’s grounded (no, not on a rock). They are overall a reassuring car to drive. I’ve owned a classic Impreza Turbo from the mid-nineties, driven an original Outback, the new Outback, the XV and now this Forester and that blue-blood AWD-plantedness has run through them all. In fact, it’s only got better as electronic systems advance.

Push the clutch to the floor, press the Start button and the Forester’s diesel engine fires strongly into life. Setting off, first gear is noticeably short and you’re having to change up quickly to avoid topping the rev-range. It’s a nice gear for off-roading though, as you want that for getting out of sticky situations. Through the rest of the gears, there’s enough low-down torque to be lazy and change up early at low speed cruising.

Through city traffic the Forester rides well over bad road surfaces, taking even bad potholes in its stride. It’ll carve through traffic nicely too, partly thanks to the electric power steering, and although it’s not a light car at 1,540 kg (min. kerb weight), it’s still sprightly enough not to feel cumbersome or overweight and podgy. That said, once you’re out onto winding country roads you soon notice the soft suspension wallowing when pushing on. It’s not the unnerving feel one might get when forcing an ancient Land Rover over 50mph on a long bend, but it’s still rolls conspicuously. On the plus side, the suspension will be great if you need to traverse a ploughed field!

The brakes need improvement too. Although they do the job at hand, they feel spongey, not modern-car sharp or precise. If you’re thinking of towing, the Subaru has clever self-levelling rear suspension, and will tow an impressive 2,000 kg’s if it has its own braking system.

Long-distance travel is pleasure in the Forester 2.0D, because as well as a high comfort level that smooth and torquey Boxer pulls the Scooby around with ease, and it’ll munch through the miles as easily as a dog goes through a packet of unattended biscuits.

On an airport run the good ol’ British springtime had, only a few days beforehand, decided to grace us with more snow than we’d had all winter. My drive would include roads that went high up into the Pennines in England, and the highest section of motorway in the U.K. The views are stunningly beautiful, and it’s a fantastic drive, except that is when there’s already a foot of snow all around, the temperature is into minus figures and the clouds are threatening to dump huge amounts more of the slippery white stuff. As I climb higher, it gets dark and the temperature drops quickly. I flick on my heated seat and turn the heating control up a few notches. The lights of a passing car catch the Subaru emblem on the steering wheel, and I give a little grin. Of all the cars on the road, this is one of the top vehicles I’d want should the weather turn nasty. All is okay. That’s the Subaru feeling described perfectly I reckon.

Of anything bad to say regarding driving at motorway speeds, it’s a little noisy. A noticeable amount of wind and tyre noise comes into the cabin, and it’s especially noisy at the back end due to that large boot area. Apart from that though, it’s a nice cruiser with plenty of power for overtaking.

AWD and off-road. Stuck or superb?

Not getting chance to test the Forester off-road this time is no biggie. I can say with confidence that it’ll be excellent. I know this because it uses the same symmetrical all-wheel-drive system as the Outback – albeit with viscous centre differential AWD - and we tested that good ‘n proper in the snow. Actually though, the Forester has a slight advantage over the Outback as it has 215 mm of ground clearance over the Outback’s two hundred millimetres. This is slightly more than the Mitsubishi Outlander but less than the Land Rover Freelander 2.

The AWD system also uses Subaru Vehicle Dynamics Control which detects slip or understeer and oversteer and corrects it appropriately by braking individual wheels and slowing down the engine rpm. All very clever and very effective. We tried several times to make the Forester get squirly under pressure from much hooning and silliness, and it just wouldn’t let us. Even with the traction control off the Subaru is still very planted.

Price

The Forester 2.0D XS NavPlus is not a cheap car. At £30,820 it’s pricey when you look at what the competition offer in terms of interior quality and tech on their cars. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Subaru state most buyers will live in the country and actually use their car off-road, so some competitors we think would be used ‘properly’ are (in similar spec): Land Rover Freelander 2 XS 2.2 TD4 Manual £32,580, Mitsubishi Outlander GX4 2.2 DI-D manual £29,999, Nissan X-Trail TEKNA 2.0 dCi manual £32,200.

Positives for the Forester is the included 5-year warranty, which beats the others by two years plus Subaru usually have some superb offers on their website. If you are going to be using a Forester for country-ish stuff regularly but have a lower budget, maybe look at a lower spec model (X/XC) for around £24 – £26K to save some cash and still have that superb AWD system.

Subaru Forester 2.0D XS NavPlus verdict & score

The 2011/2012 Forester we tested is a solidly build car with a proven track record. It’s AWD system is one of the best out there and their engines are as reliable as the Sun. However, the interior lacks in material quality and tech compared with its competitors. Subaru say their owners buy them to be different, not mass-market, and they’re probably right. I constantly see X-Trail’s and Freelander 2′s on the road. In the past two weeks I’ve only spotted to three other Forester’s. Update that interior, start including some of the gadgets other manufacturers do and we’ll see more on the roads. P.S. Put your money away! The New Forester comes out in May this year, so wait until we’ve had a look at that first.

Do you own a 2011/2012 Forester? What’s your views on it? Share your thoughts and leave a comment below!

  Specs

Check out our Subaru XV and Subaru Outback reviews

Words: Chris Davies | Tested by: Chris Davies, Nathan Fielder| Photography: Jason Fanthorpe, Chris Davies, Matthew Davies

Massive tech, luxurious interior, fun handling, outstanding mpg, great price

Exterior side/rear lacks character, heated seats slow to warm

Kia Cee’d Sportswagon?

We could have had the normal Cee’d hatchback for testing, but we’ve mentioned before that we like a good estate, so the Sportswagon it was. The Cee’d has had a massive amount of positive feedback from both the press and media and buyers too. It’s mid-sized car that packs an economical engine, a huge 7-year warranty, great quality build and so much tech at a low price, you’ll wonder why all cars don’t come with the same stuff. So, what’s all the hype about then? We had it for a full week to find out…

Exterior. Butt ugly or beauty?

The front is nice. Good looking, classy maybe. Kia’s trademark ‘tiger nose’ design in the grille, which runs through the range, is always a good thing. The front lights are long slashes, stretching from the grille to halfway over the wheels. I’d hate to have to pay to replace one though. On the ’4 Tech’ model we had, these are Xenon with automatic levelling, cornering ability and LED running lights all built in. Gulp. The sharp angles continue with the front fog lights too. Don’t think I can fault the front though.

From the side, it all gets a little uninteresting. There’s nothing to shout about, and in fact it reminds me much of the 2007 – ’09 Volkswagen Golf Estate (albeit lower-slung). The rear of the car gets slightly better, with LED’s replacing the normal bulbs in the rear clusters. Lift up the boot lid, and a large section of the roof comes up too. A good idea, as this allows a larger boot mouth so you can fit more in.

The colour we had it in – Dark Gun Metal Metallic – didn’t do anything to excite the design. It looked too salesman-motorway-mucher-like. If you want cooler looks, maybe go for it in Arctic White, blacked-out rear windows, and the 17″ wheels in the dark pewter-like colour. Another nicer colour option than the grey is the Infra Red.

The Sportswagon’s design gives the impression that it has been partly designed using a stack of wind tunnel data. There’s the sharp lines of the bonnet, the windscreen is raked at an acute angle – which is highly noticeable once you step inside the Cee’d – and the ultra-cool wing mirrors also scream aerodynamic. They are actually one of my favourite exterior design features of the Sportswagon.

Overall, not a bad design per se. A little dull maybe, and the front is the Cee’d Sportswagon’s best angle.

Interior. Neat or nothing special?

I’d only seen the exterior of the Cee’d Sportswagon for a few minutes and I admit I was a little disappointed with slightly lacklustre design, the gunmetal grey colour not helping that a whole lot. When finally got to step into the Kia’s interior though, it’s safe to say I was hugely flabbergasted. Forgive me please, for I am about go into raptures over this.

The 4 Tech model is the top of the range for the Sportswagon, and comes in at nearly £25,000. For that, you’re getting ‘the works’, including panoramic glass roof with automatic full-roof sunblind, leather seats, leather (faux) inserts on the doors, super-soft dashboard and centre console surround, 10-way adjustable electric driver seat with 2 memory settings (electric lumbar for the front passenger), dual climate control, 3-stage heated front seats, fully-automatic power windows all-round, 7″ touchscreen with sat nav which covers all of Europe, bluetooth for music and phone contact download and a reverse camera, oh and a couple of 12-volt points in the front (and one in the boot). Phew. That’s just the interior tech too. The stuff related to driving comes later.

In all honesty, I have no idea how you would go another level higher than this even, for the amount of tech put into this Kia is staggering. It is absolutely not just about how many gadgets you can cram into a car though, it’s also about how the interior is finished. With the Sportswagon 4 Tech, it is absolutely top-notch. Every single person that got into the Cee’d was instantly full of compliments on just how luxurious it felt.

I mean ‘felt’ too, as well as ‘looks’. Virtually every part of the Cee’d 4 Tech feels high-quality, well made and wonderfully put together. It is superbly well finished, and gives the distinct impression that you are in a car far more expensive than you actually are. Everything just feels, and looks, nice. 

The leather seats in the front and rear are getting on for sumptuous, while heavy chrome door openers and gloss black trim on the dash, steering wheel, centre console and door handles all adds to the effect. Every button and switch in the Sportswagon 4 Tech is soft-touch, or silent when you use them. Many feel rubberised instead of hard plastic, and the ones that are made of harder materials still push silently into place, with no clacking or clicking noise at all. It’s all very solidly put together too, and seems like it will wear well over time.

One of the coolest features of the 4 Tech has got to be the panoramic roof. What looks like a normal section of the rooflining parts in the centre at one push of a button. Sliding all the bay apart, they reveal the two huge sections of glass. Another push of a button and the front section of glass slides all the way back, like a giant sunroof. You can do all the above with one press on a single switch too. You’re already pretty much blown away by the interior, but revealing the panoramic roof makes it a metaphorical ten degrees cooler – we’re talking below zero.

Opening the Sportswagon’s tailgate, you’re greeted with a pretty smart layout, and plenty of space. Straight away, there’s a feature which is fairly insignificant, but useful – the roll-away separator, which usually just flaps about annoyingly until you get it in place, is in grooves making it quick and easy to use. Slightly boring fact, but you’ll appreciate it once you use it. The ’4′ and ’4 Tech’ models come with a Luggage Area Rail & Partition System. The bar and rail is a great feature, and can be slid back and forth to hold your gear in place, while the rubbery net partition (for dogs and luggage), can be used in either the boot area or clipped in place further into the car once the rear seats are folded. Very handy, and a nice that it’s standard on these models.

The only negative I could really find was that the three-stage heated seats were really slow to heat up and even at maximum temperature just didn’t feel warm enough. The other drivers and a few different passengers noticed this too, so it’s not just me being picky here.

The Sportswagon’s rear capacity is excellent at 528 litres standard, and 1,642 with the rear seats folded. That’s quite a bit more than the Ford Focus Estate (406 – 1,502 L), Volkswagen Golf Estate (505 – 1,495 L) and the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer (1,550 L). The Kia has the same space as the Hyundai i30 Tourer as they are shared-parts-companies.

I’ll talk about how the interior is when it comes to driving the Kia later on. It’s got to be said though, if I was looking around at top-range mid-sized cars, at this point that plush interior is seriously winning the Sportswagon over for me.

Engine and gearbox

The Cee’d Sportwagon has just two engine options; a 1.4 litre turbo diesel or a 1.6 diesel with variable geometry turbo. Actually though, the 1.4 is only available on the lowest-spec ’1′ C’eed – while the others, including our ’4 Tech’, come with the one point six. It has to be said, Kia have done exceptional things with this engine.

No matter where I used the car, from motorway runs to city driving to winding, hilly country roads, the sixteen-hundred was absolutely suitable. It is smooth, quiet and easily powerful enough to keep you happy. With 126 bhp at 4,000 rpm I found the high power band (for an oil-burner) fun to play with on winding lanes, and the 192 lbs/ft (260 Nm) torque from just 1,900 rpm means plenty of get-go in urban surroundings.

A respectable of power from such a small unit there may be, but what’s the fuel economy like though? I had someone the other day tell me they were looking at getting a one litre small car next, simply because it was good on fuel. No need for that, I remarked, as the Cee’d proves larger engines can be almost as good on fuel as a small car, plus you’re not having to thrash it on a longer run to keep up with the traffic.

Our test car was, as mentioned, the 1.6 CRDi in six-speed manual, and the miles-per-gallon stats for it are about to blow your mind people. 53 mpg urban, 64 combined and over 70 extra urban. Yep, you read that correctly and you do not need to visit the opticians. I’ll put it into words just in case eh; Seventy miles per gallon. ‘Pah’, you may scoff, ‘manufacturer economy figures are usually optimistic to say the least, that won’t be correct’. Well, I’d agree with y’all too about that normally, except here Kia were by all accounts correct.

After a proper hammering of the Sportswagon around some steep, twisting roads in Yorkshire, I couldn’t get the average below 40 mpg. On any kind of stretch of road where  I relax and select as higher gear as possible, the ‘live’ digital readout bar – which topped out at 60 mpg – will often read mid-fifties to past sixty. City driving would return late forties, even if I was driving in impatient mode. Brilliant economy you’ll agree, and the engine is a lovely piece of engineering.

A quick word on the manual 6 ‘box. Favourable stuff includes a fairly short-throw between gears, a nice positive clacky-ness (technical term there) when selecting any gear, and a long sixth for good economy at speed. No negatives of note either.

Ready to roll? Let’s drive!

The Kia feels way more refined to drive than it… should. Since when did mid-sized cars offer such a complete handling package as this? Since now I guess. The chassis and suspension system on the Cee’d Sportswagon is superb. Kia really are pushing to make some of the most desirable cars in their categories right now, and the Sportswagon’s handling is just another way for Kia to back that up

This new Sportswagon has a 51% stiffer chassis than the old Cee’d, plus fully independent suspension all-round. From the blurb in the press-pack, Kia state that they ‘demanded… all-European models should not only look and feel European but should behave European too’, and they’ve achieved that in spades it would seem. They apparently took into account the massive mix of roads we have to deal with here, the road surface’s – mostly terrible if you happen to live in Britain – and the sportier feel we’re used to by having lower spring rates but a softer damper setting, giving the best of both worlds – sporty but comfortable.

Written word and the real world are two very different things, and as always we test the caliber of their press-pack wording. Y’know what though, they’re actually talking the talk and walking (or driving) the walk. The Sportswagon holds the road well when pushing through bends in a spirited way, and it’ll make you smile when you get just the right gear, a wave of torque sweeping you around that sharp, steep left-hander, the Cee’d's sporty suspension and low-profile tyres keeping you confident.

If you’re a being a total plank and push a too much, the electronic safety stuff such as  stability control (ESC) and brake-force distribution (EBD) will kick in enough to save you from much embarrassment. As always, the ESC and EBD aren’t some magical tool that’ll save you, so if you do decide to drive like a brain-dead prat don’t be surprised if you awaken upside down in a ditch.

I’ve got to mention the brakes at this point – they are excellent. A lot of cars now come with a brake assist system (BAS), which the Sportswagon has too. The car will monitor how hard you’re pushing that brake pedal at what speed, and once it reaches a certain point the Kia will haul on the brakes as hard as possible. I actually needed this at one point as I came up to set of traffic lights at around fifty miles per hour and they unexpectedly changed to red. Jamming hard on the brakes, the Kia got just a tiny bit squirmy at the rear before the EBD righted things, but there was zero slipping and it stopped unbelievably quickly for a ‘normal’ car. Was I impressed? Yup.

This engine pulls so well I couldn’t quite take it in at first. Instead of the power waning or slowing at motorway limits, the C’eed’s 1.6 just keeps going and going. Reaching 100 mph is an absolute breeze, and should you be in a legal position to do that kind of speed (Autobahn run anyone?), it’d sit very comfortably and quietly there all day – a surprisingly good cruiser in fact.

The fact there’s cruise control is no biggie of course as most cars have it now, but there’s a Speed Limiter too. Just get up to speed and set it, and it’ll show up as a yellow line. The limiter in fact works well, and will keep you from straying over in those evil ‘safety’ camera zones . If you’re childish and bored too, try getting up to speed as fast as possible in any gear and see how quickly the limiter will kick in. Fun times.

Town and city driving is a breeze too, as the Kia’s trick Flex Steer System lets you select the ultra-light ‘Comfort’ setting, meaning the steering weight is set to ‘little finger’ mode where you can park and steer around obstacles with absolute ease. The Sport setting gives a way more weighted feel for fast straight runs, while Normal is for your average stuff.

The Sportswagon’s suspension soaks up the awful surfaces found on any average U.K. road nicely, and pot holes or those senseless speed bumps are coped with better than I expected. That’s not to say it’s Bentley Mulsanne comfortable, but If I’d bought the Sportswagon expecting a good degree of sports and comfort, I’d be happy enough. With regards to layout, the Kia is very ergonomically designed for the driver and everything is easy to see, reach and use.

The 4 Tech has Kia’s Parallel Park Assist System (PPAS) system too. It’s completely easy to use (you control just the clutch and brake) and works superbly, usually parking within only a few inches of the kerb and gets into spaces you think it won’t. There should be a warning attached though; ‘Warning, PPAS will turn you into a lazy driver’.

Another tech features is Kia’s Intelligent Stop & Go (ISG), which cuts the engine when you slow to a stop and have it in neutral. Pressing the clutch or the brake a few times re-starts the engine. It’s a smooth-enough system and doesn’t hinder progress, but if it isn’t something you like using, you can always simply press a switch to turn it off. The ‘Intelligent’ part comes into play to stop the ISG working if the it detects engine temperature isn’t warm enough or the air conditioning is on, and if you’re using a lot of power (music on loud and heating on full etc) it’ll re-start the car automatically itself.

Price

The top of the range Kia Sportwagon 4 Tech manual we tested is priced at £25,260. Configuring other estates as closely as possible to the 4 Tech, the results were that the VW Golf Estate Sportline BlueMotion 1.6 TDI 105PS manual came out at just over £29,000, the Hyundai i30 Tourer Premium 1.6 CRDi manual was £24,490 (but without a self-park feature), and the Ford Focus Estate Titanium X 1.6 TDCi 115PS £26,870. So, it’s absolutely a heavyweight contender for close rivals, both in terms of tech spec and certainly, price. The Sportswagon feels it’s worth every penny, and Kia have obviously gone to great lengths to insure a low price without quality compromise.

Kia Sportswagon 4 Tech verdict & score

There are very, very few things I can find fault with on the Kia Sportswagon 4 tech, aside from a slightly characterless exterior and heated seats that don’t get very warm. Its well-designed, superbly quality interior and high-end technology makes you feel you’re in a car worth much more, it’s a real pleasure to drive with a good handling set-up, alongside that torquey 1.6 CRDi unit, and the fuel economy is outstanding. Overall an impressive – even exceptional – car.

Do you own a Cee’d, or any other Kia? What do you like about yours? Drop us a comment!

Stats ‘n stuff

Read more KIA reviews here

Words: Chris Davies | Tested by: Chris Davies | Photography: Jason Fanthorpe, Chris Davies, Matthew Davies

Competitive price for spec, tough looks, nice drive, comfortable, decent AWD

Interior finish still below rivals, auto gearbox sluggish

Chevrolet Captiva?

There’s stiff competition overall when it comes to SUV’s, and with manufactures like KIA churning out well-built, desirable versions at attractive prices, manufacturers across the board are now having to up their game quickly, or be left behind in sales. This is great for consumers, as it’s physically forcing manufacturers to make their cars better, and at a lower price to us.

America is still playing catch-up with Europe in terms of interior build quality on vehicles, and customers here have high expectations. Chevrolet has leapt into the European SUV fray with their competitively-priced Captiva, but can it cut the mustard amongst strong rivals? We review the Chevrolet Captiva LTZ to find out…

Exterior. Butt ugly or beauty?

In 2011, Chevrolet updated the looks of the Captiva. It was a literal facelift rather than an overhaul, and this new 2013 version definitely benefits from the massive two-section honeycomb front grille, angular fog lamps and muscular bonnet.

It’s actually not a bad-looking vehicle, and on the two-week test we had many positive comments. One thing American’s can do right is give an SUV a muscular design, and it certainly sets the Captiva apart from the competition. Rather than the sleek, angular look that seems to be trending right now, the Captiva is bold, brash and in-your-face. Parked in a lit-up multi-story car park at night, the Chevrolet looks mean, even brutish.

It’s not a huge beast, but is a similar size to offerings from Kia and Hyundai, but that big front end fills an average saloon car’s rear-view mirror nicely – enough to make them move over pronto when you’re barrelling up behind them in the outside lane of a motorway.

The 19″ five-spoke alloy wheels on the LTZ look the part too, and are just right for the arches. Around the back, and especially from a 3/4 view, the Captiva continues to strike a decent pose, a ridged swage line slashes from front arch to rear light cluster adding to the beefy design. An oval chrome exhaust tip each side of the car add to the overall brawniness, and finish the rear off nicely.

In the Ice Silver colour our tester came in the Captiva looks expensive, and most people were not surprised by the price. Of everything about the Captiva, I really liked its exterior deign the most, and it’d be the main thing attracting me to it should I be eyeing up the current SUV market in Europe.

Interior. Neat or nothing special?

As I mentioned at the top of the review, as a general rule of thumb Yank cars haven’t exactly been known for good fit ‘n finish interiors. Oh sure, there’s a stack of standard gadgets and goodies thrown in usually, but the build quality lacks… quality. One example; when Infiniti came over to Europe the interior on their EX had to have a redesign, simply to satisfy the high expectations of customers here.

With Chevrolet fighting to keep its corner of the SUV market here, they seem to be on the right track with the Captiva though. After first stepping in, I was non-plussed, disappointed even. This  LTZ is the very top of the range, and yet I didn’t feel like it was worth the £33,000 it costs.

The longer I spent in the car though, the more I noticed that they are catching up and trying harder. The dash and door panels are soft-touch and not hard, and stuff looks and feels bolted together decently, save for the drivers armrest which rattled annoyingly for the whole test time, a plastic on plastic rattle that’d only stop if you lifted the lid on it. The controls for the heating, radio, downhill decent and traction control etc push softly into place, and don’t click, and the gear lever on the automatic version we had pulls nicely through ‘P, R, N’ and into ‘D’, rather than clacking its way down.

There are bit and pieces that need improving though, and parts that still feels overly cheap include the gear surround where the Eco button sits (see photo), the steering wheel controls which don’t light up, the plastic front to the digital clock, the controls for the electric wing mirrors and dash illumination adjuster, and the cup holders in the front which slide back to reveal a storage box all just feel dissatisfactory whenever you use them.

The entertainment system on the LTZ includes a 7″ touchscreen unit, and you can flick through screens which have information on fuel consumption, heating, music and films and satellite navigation. Although the sat nav did its job and got us where we needed to go pretty well, compared with a TomTom or nav app it definitely felt outdated, a little slow and the some of graphics old.

On longer journeys, the wide leather seats in the front gave excellent comfort and it was easy to relax for both the driver and passenger. After a six-hour round-trip, we concluded the Captiva would be a great cruiser should you want to do good distances. The reclining rear seating was given the thumbs-up from passengers too, and we can’t fault it on that. The Captiva’s party-piece is that there are two more fold-up seats in the boot area.

They are super-easy to use (one pull on a handle does it), and access is excellent due to the quick-folding middle set of seats. Comfort in the third-row seats will not suit an adult over a long journey though, and they’re not going to be happy after even an hour of travel, as you sit almost bolt upright in them and leg room is an issue too.

With these two seats folded flat, the boot space is large at almost 770 litres and it’ll swallow a few large suitcases with ease. Middle seats down will give you 1,577 litres, which equates to a a small flat in London. Access to the boot area can be got to though the flip-up glass window at the rear, which opens separately to the tailgate. Personally, I can’t see this feature being used much, as it’s as easy to open the tailgate. If you’ve already filled the back with suitcases though, it might be handy if you just want to drop in another small bag.

To sum up, the interior on the Captiva LTZ is comfortable and has a decent amount of gadgets, but lacks in the design department and there’s still a cheap feel on too many parts. Although it’s a little less expensive than similarly-specced rivals, the overall interior design and finish on SUV’s such as the Honda CR-V, Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento just beat the Captiva fair and square.

Engine and gearbox

The Captiva LTZ comes with only one engine (at least here in the U.K.) – a diesel 2.2 litre four cylinder with 184 PS (181 bhp) and 400 Nm (295 lb ft) of torque. The engine is a GM unit, shared with Vauxhall on their Antara and has exactly the same power and torque.

With a kerb weight of just over 1,900 kg (4,189 lbs), this is not a light vehicle. Credit where credit is due though, the Captiva in 184 PS form is no slouch, and you’ll find you can get up to speed at a decent pace. Honda’s CR-V with the 2.2 i-DTEC has 50 bhp and around 35 lbs ft less than the Captiva, while the Hyndai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento (which share the same 2.2 diesel engine) out-power the Chevrolet by 20 lbs ft torque and 15 bhp. It’s around the same time sixty miles-per-hour as the Hyundai and Kia, but thrashes the Honda there by over 2.5 seconds. However, light to light racing in one of these would be as silly as hippopotamus sprint trials, so it’s pretty irrelevant.

We specced the LTZ with the 6-speed auto ‘box, and over the manual the fuel economy does suffer. The auto gets around 9 miles per gallon less than the manual around town and on ‘combined’ routes, and around 5 mpg less on ‘extra urban’ runs, according to Chevrolet’s figures.

Permit me to be boring for a second, but while we’re on the fuel figures we may as well be. Our auto has stats of (mpg): 27 urban, 44 extra urban, 35.7 combined. According to the Captiva’s computer, we averaged 31 mpg over 213 miles at 62 mph average speed, so that’s not far off the ‘combined’ stats. Still, that’s pretty depressing when diesel is currently around £1.44 per litre. If you want to spend less on fuel, option the manual for sure.

The Captiva’s auto gearbox is decent enough, and changes are smooth but it’s not the fastest ‘box, and it’s a little too hesitant when accelerating hard. Even in ‘manual’ mode, the time between gear changes feels just too syrupy and slow. Compared to the almost-instant changes that Volkswagen’s DSG or Subaru’s Lineartronic give, it seems almost leisurely. It’s not a bad automatic system per se, but it’s also not outstanding and definitely won’t excite you either.

Ready to roll? Let’s drive this thing!

A six-hour, 315 mile round-trip lay ahead of us. An invite to the Jaguar Land Rover Experience Day at Gaydon gave us the chance to let the Captiva stretch it legs. The boot swallowed all our gear like we’d chucked a stone into a cave, we filled the many storage places in the car with water bottles and the healthy food choice of drivers (crisps, pies and a Baby Ruth), adjusted the mightily comfortable seats into lounge mode and set off.

After a short stint down town roads, we came to the slip road onto the the motorway. Foot to the floor, we accelerate hard to slip into flow of traffic safely. The Chevrolet rewards a heavy right foot with a strong flow of power, all 400 Nm of torque pushing the Captiva forward, and we’re soon overtaking the dawdlers who appear to believe motorway driving is a time to take in the scenery and eat a cucumber sandwich.

Up to speed, and the Captiva cruises with ease. Sixth gear is long, and allows the engine to relax at around 2,000 rpm at 70 mph. It’s a quiet ride too. There’s very little noise from the diesel engine, and even tyre noise is kept fairly minimal. The suspension is set up well actually, and the Chevrolet flows over the bumps and joins in the road surface. Our six hour drive on motorways was covered comfortably, and having built-in sat nav, a decent sound system and bluetooth connectivity for my phone and music meant it was a case of sit back, relax and enjoy the drive.

City driving is much the same. The Captiva LTZ is a nice place to be when traffic chaos reigns all around, the weather tries its best to hammer through your windows, and drivers honk and yell behind their steel cages. Yawn. Click your heated seat on, – which gets brilliantly toasty warm in about three seconds flat – choose some chillin’ tunes and let it all pass by, the Captiva’s a slice of calm in rush-hour commotion.

Pushing the ECO button, located next to the gearstick, will mean less hard acceleration. It feels like a giant hand holding the Captiva, keeping you from hooning about constantly. It’s a useful thing actually, and I used it almost all the time in any city driving, or on a long run. It’ll save you fuel, and if you do suddenly need that power back quickly, another push of the button instantly gives you what you need.

Taking that into consideration, the 2.2-litre diesel in the Captiva is very, very quiet – at least with the bonnet down that is. The lack of noise may be something to with the fact that the 2.2 is tucked deep down in the engine bay, twenty miles of sound-deadening between you and it. I think it may be quieter than the Kia Sportage diesel we tested, and there’s no denying it’s a solid positive point of owning one. Another reason is that this newer model has improved insulation on the windscreen, doors and headlining.

Onto winding country roads and the Chevrolet handles pretty well for a big two-ton beastie. Surprisingly so in fact. Okay so it’s no Lotus Elise, but the chassis and suspension allow for some playing about should the mood take you. Instead of leaning heavily on long, fast corners, the Captiva stays unexpectedly stable. The electronic stability control (ESC) and all-wheel-drive keep you in check should things get a little lairy or you get overly cocky too, but don’t go thinking that’ll save you if you go hooning into a sharp bend at 60 mph, they’re safety features not safety saviours.

On the whole, the Captiva is a decent drive. It’s a comfortable, relaxing SUV, and whether you’re on a short hop or a long jaunt on a variety of road surfaces, you’ll find it wholly acceptable to travel in.

AWD and off-road. Stuck or superb?

While the lowest-spec LS model comes in two-wheel-drive (front), the LT and LTZ both have ‘automatic’ 4×4 systems. There’s no button to press to engage the AWD system, and it will drive the front wheels only normally, saving fuel in the process. Should the electronic wizardry detect slip or any need to engage the ITCC (Intelligent Torque Controlled Coupling) AWD, it will send torque – within 100 milliseconds, way faster than we normally physically blink – to the whichever axle it needs to.

The system monitors information like the speed each wheel is rotating, the steering angle and the accelerator position, so it’ll know when to fire off the power to the axles. I’m not really a nuts ‘n bolts chap and most of the tech description flies by me, but the Captiva’s AWD system is very obviously clever, and probably highly reliable as it’s Japanese-built.

Let’s face it, how many people are really, truly going to off-road the Captiva SUV properly? Not many. I wouldn’t like to use it for that either, as the ground clearance isn’t huge, and pieces like the front plastic trim or rear twin exhaust back boxes are likely to suffer badly if you push things too far. You’ll be wanting the next stage up, a full-on 4×4 for that, like the Land Rover Discovery, Mitsubishi Shogun etc.

For most, the AWD system will come into full use driving across a boggy field towing a caravan, or traversing snowy passes up to a ski resort. Thank to my co-photographer’s many contacts, we got permission to use acres of hilly grass-covered meadows to play about in with the Captiva. The scale and angle of any slope is always a pain to put into perspective in photography, and especially film. What you see on camera differs by miles as to what you as a driver feel when off-roading.

In the Chevrolet’s case, we took it up slopes steep enough so that exiting the Captiva meant a ninja-like dive, tuck and roll away, as the door slammed shut millimetres behind the soft tissue of our legs. Should ninja training not be up to par in situations like this, prepare for bruised legs and ego’s. The Captiva’s AWD system gave a nice surprise, in that as the bonnet rose at an angle steep enough so that only sky could be seen, it just kept going with no slippage.

Stopping on the slopes for photographs meant we had to set off going again, off course. The Hill Start Assist system (HSA), which kicks in automatically on 3%+ gradients, is a great feature and holds the car in place for 1.5 seconds, giving easily enough time to take your foot off the brake and onto the accelerator. Fully expecting the Captiva to sit in place, wheels spinning fruitlessly, I was slightly taken aback when, aside from a couple of wheels scrabbling for grip for a second, it just took off without a problem. To see how effective the AWD really was, I turned off the traction control and accelerated, and went exactly… nowhere. All four wheels span, losing any grip immediately. Clicking the traction back on, the SUV set off without a problem. Point proven.

Heading back down the steep incline of the hills, it was a good opportunity to test the Descent Control System (DCS). On a gradient steep enough to have me leaning onto my seatbelt, I took my foot off the brake pedal, trusting (and hoping) the DCS would do its job. It did. As the Captiva rolled forward, you can physically hear the brakes firing on at each wheel, slowing the car down quickly and with no slip. The steeper the section, the more the car slowed, giving me confidence in the system. Impressive stuff, and a feature I like particularly.

Price

The Chevrolet Captiva LTZ 2.2 auto we tested was just over £33,000. At that price, it has a respectable trim level for the sector of the market, but also some rather competitive rivals too. In similar trim spec (give or take a different option or two or any of the models) the New Kia Sorento 7-seat KX-2 Sat Nav 2.2 auto was around £1,500 cheaper, the Hyundai Santa Fe 7-Seat Premium 2.2 auto came out around the same £33k price mark, while the Honda CR-V SR 2.2 auto (5-seat) was approximately £2,200 more expensive. All three rivals produce less CO2 emissions with their respective 2.2 diesel engines.

Chevrolet Captiva LTZ verdict & score

The SUV market is tight, and growing quickly. Buyers now expect good build quality and a stack of gadgets and goodies at a low price. The Captiva offers good looks, a powerful, smooth engine and a refined ride, and in LTZ trim it brings a high interior spec to the table too. The AWD system is good enough, and it has an excellent 5-Star Euro NCAP rating too. However, the interior fit and finish is still not as good as close rivals like the Kia and Hyundai, and Chevrolet certainly needs to improve on this even further if they want a bigger slice of the SUV pie.

.

Stats ‘n stuff

Check out our Kia Sportage KX-4 SUV review here

Words: Chris Davies | Tested by: Chris Davies | Photography: Jason Fanthorpe, Chris Davies, Matthew Davies