A BBC radio journalist contacted us recently to ask for our opinion following a complaint from the owner of a Fiat 500 TwinAir. They told us that their listener had recently changed his job to one that necessitated a long commute and he had visited his local Fiat dealer and to ask them for advice. He explaining that his old car returned 40mpg and he wanted to buy a car…

This video shows, probably for the first time, the view that a Formula One driver has at speed on a race circuit. To get this amazing footage Lucas di Grassi drove Pirelli’s tyre testing Toyota F1 car around the Barcelona circuit with a camera strapped to his helmet. To get the perspective right it was positioned at eye level, which meant that he could only see out of the other…

This one came via our friends at smoked out; a Subaru being washed by half-naked attendants. It’s a great video featuring a great car, put out by a manufacturer who is confident enough about their product that they don’t have to take themselves too seriously… Definitely Blu-ray.

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X FQ-300 GSR SST (or ‘Evo’) is a car that troubled me more than anything I’ve driven this year. Not, I hasten to add, because it is a bad car, because it isn’t. In fact, I was troubled precisely because it’s such a very good car in so many ways. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The first Evo, built way back in 1992, boasted ‘only’…

My week with Peugeot’s RCZ didn’t start well. Unusually it came with no paperwork, no spec sheet and no exterior badging, so when it felt a bit sluggish I assumed that the THP200 was just slower than I would have expected. On further checking it turned out that the THP200 that I’d ordered (well, you would, given the choice, wouldn’t you?) was actually a THP156, its slower, smaller brother. Hmm….

If you’re Nouveau Riche then buying a car is easy. Just think about the cars that Old Money bought 20 years ago and buy the new version. Bentley, Aston Martin, and Range Rover depending on whether you want a car that demonstrates your vulgarity, your fondness of nightclubs, or suggests that you own a house in the country. Just whip out the cheque book and you can be assured that…

The BBC are reporting the first snow falls of the season in Scotland today, so it’s probably a good time to talk about winter tyres. By now you’ll be fed up of hearing how well they grip in the ice and the snow, but do you know how they do this? It’s done in two ways; the first is that they are made using a special rubber compound that maintains…

The Lancia Beta Volumex was a rusty son-of-a-bitch. It wasn’t unusual for owners to have to scrap them when they went for their first MOT at three years old, generally because the engine mounting subframe was rotten. Despite that we love ‘em here at Motoring Journo – we just never see them on the street. The Beta was well-received by the motoring press who appreciated its fine handling and decent…