I’ve been driving vans since my teenage years. Memories loom large of heavy steering, obstructive gearboxes and most of all, that familiar diesel clatter. I own a 16-year-old panel van, and though far more sophisticated and therefore easier to drive with power-assisted steering and a turbo boosting the power, that unmistakable background drone from the motor is still ever present.

The new Kia PV7 will arrive in showrooms in the second half of 2027. It's bigger and more versatile than its little brother, the PV5 - a full 300mm longer than the long-wheelbase Volkswagen ID.Buzz. Kia says its passenger model will be able to seat up to nine occupants in four rows.

Having attended the Scottish launch of Mazda’s new CX-5, I was keen to try in on my home patch. I didn’t manage to drive an all-wheel-drive version, so the press office kindly sent one north for me to try over an extended period.

A warm and sultry night in old London town was the location for the formal brand launch for Lepas in the UK. Regular readers will already have seen my review of the Chinese manufacturer’s first car, the L8, Lepas-L8-Launch-Review However, this was a chance to meet the full team and find out what the future plans are.

For those that don’t already know, Cupra is the high-performance arm of Spanish car manufacturer SEAT. In 2018, Cupra was spun off to become its own sub-brand, with all future models from the marque wearing Cupra’s arrow-shaped emblem. The company’s first standalone model was the Formentor, a car that put the Cupra brand firmly on the map.

Rewind a couple of years, and most UK car buyers had never heard of the Chinese car giant Chery. They certainly do now with the company storming the UK sales charts with its Omoda and Jaecoo brands. Just last month, the Jaecoo 7 and 5 models were in fourth and seventh positions, respectively, in the chart of UK registration figures.

Isuzu first showed us its D-Max EV at the Commercial Vehicle Show earlier this year. It made the headlines, being the first fully electric pickup in the UK to provide over 1-tonne payload, 3.5-tonne towing capacity and permanent four-wheel drive.

Let’s start by saying I’m a big fan of pickups. In my rural neck of the woods, they are popular with both working owners and those who use them for leisure purposes. With the recent tax changes, their popularity is in decline as double-cab models are now classified as cars for benefit in kind.

The motoring press has been most impressed with the new Renault 5. Praise has been heaped on it from all quarters and it’s easy to see why. However, lurking quietly in the shadows is another new and equally exciting EV from the French manufacturer, namely the Renault 4.

Mitsubishi stopped selling its range of vehicles in the UK in 2021, but now the Japanese company is back with two new vehicles. At the recent launch event, I got to sample both the L200 pickup and the Outlander PHEV. The latter is a story for another day. This is the seventh generation of the L200 and it has been on sale in other markets for quite some time.

I attended the launch of Kia’s PV5 van just before Christmas, and I was able to try it in both commercial and passenger guises. I came away impressed, not just by the way it drove, but also by the affordable pricing for a fully electric van. Keen to try one for an extended period, I have just enjoyed a week behind the wheel of a top-spec passenger PV5 Plus and can now report further.

The new Volkswagen ID. Polo is undoubtedly one of the most important small EVs for the UK, because it takes a familiar badge and turns it into an affordable electric hatchback aimed squarely at mainstream buyers.

Eager to get behind the wheel of Mazda’s all-new CX-5, a quick trip to Scotland gave me the opportunity to put the car through a thorough test on challenging and mostly traffic-free roads.

Proud Yorkshiremen and women have often called our county ‘God’s Own Country’ Inspired by this description a small group of local business leaders including the Chair of the Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust Ed Anderson, the former Chair Tom Ramsden and two prominent Yorkshire businessmen Jonathan Turner and Jonathan Sands OBE have come together to showcase our County with a Classic Car Rally w…