Road Test: Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works GP

Price as tested: €47,640

+ Handling, performance, styling, seats, noise, fun
– Hard ride, impractical
= Small car, massive fun

Road Test: Opel Mokka 1.7 CDTI SE

Price as tested: €26,495

+ Styling, handling, quality
– Noisy & outdated engine, tight rear seats and boot
= Firmly underscores Opel's premium ambitions

Road Test: Ford B-Max 1.0 EcoBoost Titanium

Price as tested: €23,170

+ Doors, comfort, engine, chassis, quality
– 1.0 not economical enough, needs more space in the back
= Better than the diesel version but still flawed

News: Renault ditches Scenic, launches XMOD

Renault has decided to stop making the Scenic. That might sound like a bit of a shock, but hang on, the devil is in the detail. The seven-seat Grand Scenic will continue on as one of Europe's best-selling medium-sized MPVs, but the five-seat Scenic is now going to be dropped, and replaced by a new model called the Scenic XMOD. 

News: Car sales off to sluggish start in January

It hasn't been a good start to the year for car sales in 2013, as figures released by the Society Of The Irish Motor Industry show. Volkswagen sit atop the sales pile, following on from its best-selling performance last year, while Ford occupies second place in the charts with Toyota in third. 

News: Irish car fleet ageing at a dangerous rate

Vehicle data expert Cartell.ie reports today that vehicles in counties Leitrim, Longford, Carlow, Mayo and Kerry are, on average, over 9 years old and vehicle owners are holding their cars longer in those counties. The findings are contained in new research, compiled for the first time, which gives an accurate county specific breakdown of the age of the fleet in Ireland.

News: Updated Kia Sorento goes on sale

The new 2013 Kia Sorento goes on sale in Ireland this  week .Powered by an improved and more economical 2.2 197bhp diesel engine both trim levels available Ireland will be fitted with All Wheel Drive as standard. The Sorento is a 7-seater with the  EX model  priced at €37,990 and the Platinum model at € 41,790. Astonishingly, given the similar looks to the model that came out in 2010, it's all-new from the ground up.

News: Rugby + Land Rover = Irish victory?

Hmmm. Last week, we published a little piece on Irish rugby captain Jamie Heaslip picking up his shiny new Land Rover Discovery. And then, Ireland went out and utterly thrashed Wales in the opening game of the RBS 6 Nations. Coincidence? We think not! So here's a photo of the lovely Amy Huberman picking up her new Range Rover Evoque...
Amy, who's not just Brian O'Driscoll's wife but also a fine actress in her own right and a Land Rover Brand Ambassador, has taken delivery of her new Evoque.

News: Opel has 20,000 orders for Adam

Now, we all know that Opel was taking a massive risk by launching the new Adam. A rival to the likes of the Fiat 500, Mini and Citroen DS3, it tries to take Opel into a funky premium hatchback market that's a tough nut to crack. Tougher still when you're set to lose $1.5-billion in Europe in 2012 and you need a big hit to drag up both your image and your bottom line.

News: Is Kia going to do a Range Rover rival?

Kia could be about to launch a new range-topping 4x4 that would rival the likes of the VW Touareg, Land Rover Discovery and even the mighty Range Rover. The Cross GT (pictured above) is a concept car for the moment, but it will be shown at the Chicago Motor Show and Kia has a habit of putting its concept cars into production.

News: Dublin taxi driver saves €6,500 by going electric

Using an electric taxi has saved taxi driver, Padraig Daly, approximately €6,500 over the last 18 months. The 100% electric Nissan LEAF which has been part of a trial between ESB ecars and National Radio Cabs (NRC) and has clocked up over 55,000km. The trial, to evaluate electric vehicles as part of the taxi industry, has been deemed so successful that it will be extended for another year.

News: Alfa Romeo to get Ferrari engines?

Well, not exactly. But kinda. You see, it was announced today that "Ferrari will take a more active role in engine development for Alfa, similar to what Ferrari already did for Maserati." Those the words of Fiat-Alfa-Chrysler (and therefore, Ferrari-Maserati too) boss Sergio Marchionne. 

News: McLaren's P1 supercar upstages its new F1 racer

We are, let's face it, absolutely nuts about Formula One here at eDrive Towers, so the unveiling today of McLaren's 2013 challenger, the MP4-28, was getting us up to boiling point pretty easily. But then, just as the presentation was getting going, all thoughts of F1 and the new racer went, pfffft, out of our brains as Jenson Button pulled up in the stunning new P1 supercar.

News: Citroen C3 Picasso gets updated

One of our favourite cars, the Citroen CS Picasso (check out our recent long term test HERE) is getting an update and freshen up for 2013, but sad to say, there's a small note of disappointment in the news.

News: Classics expecting record RDS turnout

Modern cars are all well and good (reliable, smooth, economical, usually not rusty) but if you want to have some serious fun with motoring, you have to delve into the world of classic cars.

News: Ireland's first Toyota dealership hits 75

  

It seems to be that businesses are falling by the wayside every few minutes in these dark times of austerity, but there are a few, a select few, that have true longevity. How about one that began life as the dark clouds of war gathered over Europe, and has traded, survived and prospered through Cold War, moon landing, Haughey, Jack Charlton and Bertie? Well done Linders of Chapelizod, for hitting your 75th birthday.

News: Jamie Heaslip tackles a new Discovery

You may have noticed some excitement amongst rugby-loving friends this week as anticipation mounts ahead of the opening games of the RBS 6 Nations championship, starting on Saturday with Ireland v Wales. Frankly, we know as much about rugby as the back side of the moon, but hey, here's Ireland captain Jamie Heaslip picking up his shiny new Land Rover Discovery this morning! A band-wagon-jumping we will go...

A self-proclaimed Land Rover enthusiast, Jamie Heaslip was delighted to take delivery of his new Discovery 4: “I’ve been driving the Discovery for almost two years now and it is the perfect vehicle for my lifestyle.  It really is in a class of its own and I’m thrilled to continue driving it this year”.

Land Rover Ireland General Manager, Eddie Kavanagh said: “Land Rover has a well-established relationship with Rugby and as well as supporting Rugby World Cup 2015 in England, the company are also Global Sponsors of The British & Irish Lions for their Tour to Australia 2013.

"Jamie is an excellent brand ambassador for Land Rover in Ireland and I would like to wish him and all his teammates continued success and the very best of luck this Saturday.

"Now in its fourth iteration, the Discovery is an unparalleled vehicle with class-defining versatility and all-round capability.  It can seat seven passengers, can tackle the most challenging off-road conditions and delivers superb on-road refinement.  Featuring a powerful and highly efficient TDV6 3.0 litre diesel engine, fresh exterior and premium cabin, it is the ultimate all-purpose vehicle.

"Prices in Ireland start from €52,925. For more information or to arrange a test drive log onto www.landrover.ie or visit your local Land Rover dealership."

News: Dublin gets free wifi

I know we're a car website, but hey, we love our technology too and with the 3G signal around the nation being as flakey as a box of Cadbury's, here's some welcome news for those of us trying to access our emails when out and about.


The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Naoise Ó Muirí today launched Dublin Free WiFi at Barnardo’s Square, Dublin 2 (beside City Hall Dame Street). This new service will offer both Dubliners and visitors to the city access to free WiFi, 24/7, at key locations around the city. The rollout of free public WiFi contributes to the Digital infrastructure in the city.

Uniquely the WiFi hotspots will be identified by wall mosaics which will feature “digidub” characters, modern and historical. Fourteen different characters will be rolled out , with a Viking (above), a street cleaner, a tourist, a rockabilly girl and pyjama girl being visible on 31st January. Dubliners will be invited to suggest additional characters (come on; surely the cast of The Snapper are shoe-ins?)

“Our future economic success, our ability to attract talent and investment and our competitive branding internationally means we have to use and apply digital technologies now.  I am delighted to be here today to launch Dublin Free WiFi. This project is one of the milestones that will deliver on our Digital Dublin Initiative. By June of this year Dublin will have a Digital Masterplan.  The aim of the plan is to develop Dublin as a world centre of digital excellence” said the Lord Mayor of Dublin.                                                

In launching Dublin Free WiFi the Lord Mayor has thrown down a challenge. “I am asking Dubliners to identify and suggest different uses which can be made of the availability of free wifi in terms of developing services, encouraging people connecting, and making the city more attractive.”

To mark the launch the public is invited to take part in Dublin Free WiFi Day from 11am to 5pm, at Barnardo’s Square.

Free WiFi is an initiative of Dublin City Council. It is provided, at no cost to the Council , by  GOWEX, a Spanish company that has provided similar services globally. The service is free and provides a download speed of 512Kbps and an upload speed of 128Kbps. Users also have the option to purchase a higher download speed of up to 6 Mbps if required. Once registered the user will have access to all Dublin city hotspots and other GOWEX networks in cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Malaga, Paris,  and Buenos Aires. To celebrate the launch of this initiative, Dublin Free WiFi will be upgraded from 512Kbps to 1Mbps for 2 months from today.

“We are very proud to be working in Dublin alongside the City Council to offer free WiFi to all Dubliners and to all visitors. We think that Dublin is the European technological capital and having free WiFi in its streets will be a new attractive aspect for the City” said Jenaro García, CEO at GOWEX. Thanks to this WiFi service, Dublin City Council is laying the foundations for the deployment of a Wireless Smart City, providing infrastructure for the future delivery of smart municipal services.

From Thursday the service will be available at the Civic Offices Amphitheatre, Wood Quay, St Patrick’s Park and Barnardo’s Square. The service will be rolled out over the coming weeks to other key city centre locations including Smithfield Square, Grafton Street, Henry Street, O’Connell Street and Temple Bar Square.

You can view the full set of “digidub” characters and find out where you can go digital at www.dublingowexfreewifi.ie

News: Sheehy Motors wins VW service award

Sheehy Motors Carlow has been officially presented with the 2012 Volkswagen Service Quality award. This is a prestigious award that has an entry list of 6,300 Volkswagen Retail business partners from 27 countries. Whilst PJ O’Neill, Service Manager at Sheehy Motors attended the 2012 Gala Awards Event in Dresden, Germany in September 2012, January 14th saw the official handing over the actual award and certificate to the staff at Sheehy Motors, Carlow.

Alan Bateson, Volkswagen Head of Aftersales commented, “The name of Volkswagen must not only be synonymous with outstanding vehicles, but also with top all-round service. Shawn, PJ and the team at Sheehy Motors Carlow work tirelessly to ensure all Customers are completely satisfied each and every time they visit their business. This is further displayed by their standing in the 2013 Volkswagen Service Quality Awards Table where they have occupied a top 3 position throughout the qualification period. Final results for the 2013 Awards will be known by March this year.”

Shawn Carson, Dealer Principal at Sheehy Motors Carlow said, “We are very honoured to receive such a prestigious award.Shawn paid tribute to the loyal and dedicated staff who consistently delivers exceptional levels of customer care and satisfaction.

“We would like to thank all our customers both past and present for their loyalty and support over the years. We believe if we continue to provide value for money and excellent customer service the Volkswagen brand will grow even further.”

Road Test: Skoda Rapid 1.6 TDI Elegance

Price as tested: €24,265

+ Simplicity, quality, reliability, space, practicality, price, styling, comfort
– A few rough edges showing through to go with that price tag, indifferent handling
= As practical and sensible as they come but we'd save up the extra for the new Octavia

If I were to say that the new Skoda Rapid is both and at once a return to classic form for Skoda and something of an unfortunate step backwards, would that be too confusing? Possibly, so let me explain.

Pre-1998, Skoda was to most people a joke and not an especially funny one. Decades of decrepitude under communist rule meant that Skoda had been starved of development funding and any reason to produce competitive, interesting cars. That changed, dramatically, with the launch of the original Octavia, funded and developed by Skoda's new owner, Volkswagen. At once, the yoke of communism was thrown off, and Skoda marched happily forwards into a new capitalist reality. Successive models, from the Fabia to the second generation Octavia to the Superb to the utterly brilliant Yeti underpinned that reality with success, both critical and financial. And with sophistication. In fact, sit into a Yeti or a Superb today and you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between affordable Skoda and aspirational Audi. They are that good.

But there is now an increasing trend in the motor industry towards making cheaper cars, something that the car buying public is lapping up, as the success of Dacia shows. Make something simple and affordable, and you will capture the wallets, if not the hearts, of many. So it is with the Rapid. Skoda has taken a step back from its shiny, sophisticated recent past and looked further back, to the eighties and beyond, when it made simple, affordable, useful cars. (Never mind the inept comedians of the eighties who castigated Skoda – its cars even then were better by far than their reputation would have you believe.)

The Rapid is a family-sized hatchback that occupies an unusual middle ground between the likes of the Polo and Fiesta on one side and the Golf and Focus on the other. It's narrower by far than a Focus, but also much longer, the upside of which is a cabin that, while not very broad, has lots of leg and head-room for tall passengers in both front and rear, and a massive 550-litre boot that makes the trunks of even cars like a Mondeo or Passat look underfed.

So, it pushes all the practical buttons and it's not short of sophistication either. The engine in our test car was the cutting-edge VW Group 1.6 TDI diesel, and with 105bhp and 250Nm of torque, it's both swift and economical. Skoda claims 4.4-litres per 100km fuel consumption (64mpg) and if we didn't quite manage that, we easily broke the 50mpg barrier. 114g/km Co2 emissions is a touch high though, especially when you consider that a VW Golf with essentially the same engine gets closer to 100g/km, and that means your annual tax bill will be €200. It's here that you'll find the first chink in the Rapid's armour though. The engine (or possibly its installation) is fine, but nothing more. Acceleration feels noticeably slow-witted unless you push the oddly-weighted throttle pedal all the way to its stop, and refinement isn't terrific until you settle down at a chosen cruising speed.

Inside, Skoda has made great efforts to make the cabin look and feel as sophisticated as its bigger brothers, while still costing less. It's a neat trick, and Skoda almost pulls it off. The dials are clear and look like expensive watch faces. The steering wheel feels pleasant to hold and the driving position is both comfortable and well sited. But you'll notice that there's no switches in the front to control the rear windows, the grab handles in the roof clang back into position without a nice, soft motion and the plastics on the doors and dash-top, while still of good quality, don't have that nice touchy-softy-squishy feeling.

Because of all that, the Rapid feels a distinct degree less sophisticated than its Skoda cousins. Now, that's fine in the sense that it's also much cheaper. Prices start at just €16,515 (for the 1.2 MPI petrol; an engine best avoided if you want to (a) accelerate or (b) save fuel) and the pick of the range, the 1.2 TSI turbo petrol in Ambition spec, is just €19,550, with almost identical Co2 emissions to the diesel. All well and good, and those prices include standard electronic stability control – a significant benefit.

But it just doesn't feel as good to drive as it either should or could have. The rear suspension has been done on the cheap, relatively speaking, and uses simple torsion bars instead of the more modern multi-link setup as found on most Octavias. That means the boot is massive, but the Rapid does tend to clatter over bumps, and it never feels very well sorted at the front, either. Cornering is a somewhat lazy, imprecise process with vague steering and a sense of detachment. It's a good motorway cruiser, mind, with well suppressed engine noise and only a small amount of road and tyre noise.

I guess it depends what you want from a car. The Rapid is keenly priced, practical, spacious, ruggedly built, should prove reliable and hits its marks in terms of economy and emissions. It even looks quite nice. But I reckon Skoda buyers, by and large, have moved on recently and are enjoying the sheen of quiet luxury on recent models. So, perhaps it would be best to hold off buying, save up a little more, and get your hands on the impressive new Octavia that arrives in March. The Rapid's backward glance to a simpler, more practical time is appealing in many ways, but we all want to feel a little more sophisticated these days, don't we?


Facts & Figures
Skoda Octavia 1.6 TDI 105bhp Elegance
Price as tested: €24,265
Range price: €16,515 to €24,265
Capacity: 1,598cc


Power: 105bhp


Torque: 250Nm 


Top speed: 190kmh 


0-100kmh: 10.4sec


Economy: 4.4l-100km (64mpg) 


CO2 emissions: 114g/km
 VRT Band: A4. €200 road tax


Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 94% adult, 80% child, 69% pedestrian, 71% safety assist