While revolutionary in many respects, the original Mercedes-Benz A-Class of 1997 was not a car that was about to draw younger buyers towards the German marque. Indeed, it wasn’t until the introduction of the third-generation A-Class in 2012 that sales figures really began to soar thanks to a combination of that car’s more conventional design appealing to a wider audience, and the increasing popularity of affordable finance deals.
Everybody loves an underdog, yet when it comes to cars there are still certain models that are all too easy to overlook. Below we’ve picked out five such examples, and explained why they might just deserve to make the shortlist when it comes to searching for your next car.
If you want your used car search to be as painless as possible there’s something to be said for opting for one of the most popular models. After all, popular is bound to mean plentiful, so you’re almost guaranteed to have lots of choice without having to travel far from home, plus there will be a wide range of trim levels, fuel types and engine sizes to suit different tastes and budgets.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of the original Ford Focus. For starters it replaced the Escort, which although somewhat stale by the late 1990s, was still one of the most recognisable cars on the road. Not only that, but the Focus was Ford’s entry into the hugely popular family car segment, a true bread and butter model that it simply had to get right. Continue reading >>>
Learning to drive these days must be so easy. Sure, the roads are more congested than ever and, yeah OK, the test itself is considerably tougher. But in modern cars almost everything is power assisted or automated or connected or, you know, reliable, which in turn removes much of the challenge. Continue reading >>>
The Skoda Octavia vRS is fairly unusual in the world of hot hatches in that it is available in several configurations. You can, for example, have front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, petrol or diesel, manual or automatic, and even hatchback or estate.
As somebody whose first car cost a mere £450, it seems amazing to fathom that new drivers today fork out an average of £4,627 on their entry into the world of automobile ownership. That, however, is the figure uncovered in our latest research, which sought to find out how the amount drivers spend on their first cars has varied over the past 70 years.
It goes without saying that a car costing £1000 is not going to be as good as one worth ten times that price. Whether or not it is 10 times worse, however, is another matter.
When talk turns to investing in cars one tends to think of barn find Jaguars or Ferraris polished to within an inch of their life. However, it is perfectly possible to buy a car that has a chance of increasing in value without needing a huge stack of bank notes to start with.
That’s where today’s five contenders come in, each of which we believe is in with a solid chance of earning you a bit of money over the next decade. Continue reading >>>
The idea behind this new weekly feature is hopefully self-explanatory, but if you’re yet to have your morning coffee and need a helping hand, we’ll be scouring the CarGurus classified listings to find examples of hot hatches that can now be bought for a bargainous 50% of their original price. This week we look at the brilliant Mk6 VW Golf GTI. Continue reading >>>