Road Test: Honda Civic 1.6 I-DTEC SE

Price as tested: €23,795

+ Terrific engine, quality, space, practicality
- Dynamically not as sharp as it should be
= Lovely engine but doubters will still need convincing




Just over a decade ago, Honda didn't make Diesel engines. In spite of the great advances that, even that long ago, had been made in making diesels smoother, gruntier and more refined, Honda regarded them as anathema. Too noisy, too smelly and just not us, old boy. We'll stick to high-revving, lightweight VTEC petrol screamers, thanks.

Given that, it was a pleasant surprise that the original 2.2-litre i-DTCi engine was, and remains, so good. And if it has taken this long to get a second, more compact, Honda diesel to the market then at least, as with John Mills' pint at the conclusion of Ice Cold In Alex, it was worth waiting for.

Honda's new 1.6-litre i-DTEC engine makes its debut in the Civic, a car which pushed Honda Ireland's sales up by a healthy 12% last year, against the background of a stagnant market. And given that the Civic's lonely 2.2-litre diesel, even with its Band A emissions, excluded Honda from the bulk of the c-segment market, its expectations for the new engine are commensurately high. It's expected not just to expand overall Civic sales, but to do so while simultaneously taking over most of the 2.2-litre's sales.

Just as well then that Honda's engineers haven't simply sleeved-down the old 2.2 to make a 1.6. The engine is new from the sump up and Honda claims that it's the lightest engine in its class. So sylph like is its weight that Honda has retuned the Civic's front suspension and steering to take advantage, with claims for improved feel and agility being made.

Honda makes great claims for its refinement, even fitting an active acoustic damping system in the cabin, and the result is indeed hushed; you only get a distinct diesel clatter when you venture beyond 2,500rpm. Better again is the performance. The 120bhp Honda gets from its 1.6 makes mincemeat of the similarly sized engines in the rival Ford Focus and VW Golf (95 or 115bhp and 105bhp respectively) and the i-DTEC engine makes a decent fist of convincing you that it's much larger in capacity,thanks to largely lag-free delivery and solid mid-range punch.

We doubt you'll ever match the claimed fuel consumption of 3.6-litres per 100km (78mpg) in real world driving, but on our brief test drive, we got 4.6l/100km (61mpg) so it's not what you'd call thirsty. 94g/km bests the standard Golf (albeit not the BlueMotion model) and Focus and means you can tax your Civic for €180 a year.

So, with the engine now bang-on the par for the class in terms of size, and potentially even class-leading in terms of its overall performance, can the Civic now meet the mighty Golf and Focus head-on?

Well, not quite but it's closer than it was before. The current Civic, when launched, seemed too detached in its driving style and too crude in its ride quality. Honda's decision to continue with a simple torsion bar rear suspension brings boons in weight, affordability and space efficiency, but it's simply not at the races when compared to Ford and VW's more complex multi-link rear ends.

So what happens is; you barrel happily into a corner in your shiny new Civic, enjoying the recalibrated steering which, while still a touch too light, feeds back a little better than before. You also notice, and enjoy, the fact that the lightweight engine means the front end is more eager to sniff out the apex. The Civic lacks the outright driver involvement of some rivals, but it's still a fun drive.

And then you hit a mid corner bump and feel the rear end bang, hop and skip. It's not as bad as the reaction you'd get from the VW Beetle (which we tested this week also and which has a similar rear suspension arrangement) but it still feels unacceptably crude compared to the best of the competition.

Which is a shame, as the rest of the Civic feels so sophisticated. I've heard some colleagues complain that the cabin feels 'too Japanese', and I can kind of see the point. The multi-level displays, a mix of analogue and digital, won't be to all tastes and yes, the surfaces and materials don't have that final Volkswagen-esque sheen of touchy-feely niceness. But the sense of sheer quality in the assembly is easily noticed. Honda has better chops when it comes to bolting together cars that last than most (even the vaunted Germans, and notwithstanding the 2.2 diesel's habit of having an expensive flywheel-related off-day) and you can feel that sense of quality in the cabin. It's very much a love/hate thing (as is the exterior styling) but for what it's worth, I like both. It's more distinctive by far than either a Toyota Auris or Mazda 3 and feels more special than a Focus or Golf. It's also more versatile, with a big cabin and those clever back seats that either fold flat horizontally or flip up vertically, like cinema seats. The payload options are almost infinite and it's the only mid-size hatch with which you'll feel truly smug in the IKEA car park...

Prices start from €23,975 for the SE model; a touch more than a Focus or Golf but it is better equipped, including climate control, stop-start and alloys as standard. If you buy into its quirkiness, or Honda's engineering-led image, then it's a more interesting alternative to the mainstream masses, and one with a deeply impressive new engine. John Mills was right, all those years ago...

Facts & Figures
Honda Civic 1.6 i-DTEC SE

Price as tested: €23,975
Range price: €21,895 to €30,395
Capacity: 1,598cc


Power: 120bhp


Torque: 300Nm


Top speed: 207kmh


0-100kmh: 10.5sec


Economy: 3.6l-100km (78mpg)


CO2 emissions: 94g/km

VRT Band: A2. €180 road tax


Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 94% adult, 83% child, 69% pedestrian, 86% safety assist

Road Test: Hyundai i30 1.6 Diesel Elite Plus

Price as tested: €22,295

+ Sharp styling, exceptional quality, refinement, comfort, equipment
– Not the cheap option anymore, engine needs more oomph
= Right up with the Focus and Golf at the top of the class

You know it’s been an interesting week, road-test-wise, when you hop straight from a €170,000 Mercedes SL and into a €22k Hyundai hatchback. Even more so, you know you are living in interesting times when the Hyundai doesn’t feel like a disappointment after the Merc...

It’s become such a cliché to point out “just how far Hyundai has come in a few short years” that I think we can officially stop doing so. The simple fact is that now, there is not a single model Hyundai builds that is not entirely competitive with its rivals from Europe and Japan. So I think we can dispense with the derisory “haven’t they done well, for Koreans?”

The first-gen Hyundai i30, which was only launched in 2007, was a very decent car that rather hid its light under a bushel of very quiet, even bland, styling. Well, the new one does away with that, taking the striking grille and lights more or less straight from the handsome i40 saloon and plonking them on the front of a neat, crisp five-door hatchback design. It looks good, very good in fact and certainly more distinctive than its main potential rival, the Toyota Auris.

Inside, the niceness continues with a chunky and good-to-hold four-spoke steering wheel, handsome, clear instruments and a level of touchy-feely quality that outstrips the likes of the Focus and Mazda 3 and only falls very slightly short of the benchmark VW Golf. The seats are comfy, the driving position sound and the space in the back on the money for the class.

Standard equipment is very good, including Bluetooth phone and media player, aircon, ESP, adjustable steering, cruise control with speed limiter, voice control for the audio system and LED daytime running lights. Mind you, equipment would want to be good, as Hyundai has taken the decision that it’s no longer going to offer its cars at bargain bucket prices. True, you can get a 1.4 petrol i30 for just €17,995 but this diesel model is right on the class average for price; a signal that Hyundai is selling on its own merits, not just price anymore.

To drive, it’s also right on the class average, which is to say that it lacks the outright sharpness of a Focus, or the beautiful fluidity of a Golf, but feels more positive to drive than an Auris, Citroen C4 or Renault Megane. It’s not really a drivers’ car, but there is a very pleasing sense of decorum in the way it rides, the way it controls its body during cornering and the obvious levels of inherent grip and stability. The adjustable steering, which lets you toggle the weight of the steering between Sport, Comfort and Normal modes is a bit of a gimmick, and doesn’t turn the i30 into a GTI when you hit Sport, but the essentials of the steering’s accuracy and feel are pretty good to begin with.

A shame that the 1.6 diesel engine never quite feels like it’s giving of its all. The on-paper figures of 110bhp, 260Nm and 0-100kmh in 11.5secs are all par for the class, but on the road, it just never feels like it’s puffing quite as hard as it should be. It’s not actively slow, but neither is there a nice, low-down hit of torque. Still, 109g/km Co2 emissions and combined fuel consumption of 4.1-litres per 100km (we managed a creditable 5.9l/100km average) are some compensation for that, as are the very good refinement levels. Not to mention the five-year warranty.

We’ve become accustomed now to Hyundai making cars that are at least class competitive and usually better again than that. That the i30 proves to be at least as good, overall, as the class leaders should therefore come as no surprise, but it’s pleasing all the same.



Facts & Figures

Hyundai i30 1.6 Diesel Elite Plus
Price: €22,295
Range price: €17,995 to €25,495
Capacity: 1,582cc
Power: 110bhp
Torque: 260Nm
Top speed: 185kmh
0-100kmh: 11.5sec
Economy: 4.1-100km (64mpg)
CO2 emissions: 109g/km
Tax Band: A. €160 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested

Road Test: BMW 520d EfficientDynamics

Price as tested: €43,985

+ Startling economy, refinement, comfort, deportment
– Occasionally jiggly ride, feels a bit too big
= Astonishingly, one of the most economical all-round cars we have ever tested

I know I should be getting used to it by now. I know that BMW has been pulling economical and emissions rabbits out of hats since its Efficient Dynamics programme was introduced back in 2007. But the overall economy of this 520d ED simply startled me. It is staggering to think that this large, comfortable, luxurious saloon should be able to average better than 50mpg. But it can. Far better under certain circumstances.

We’re used, on these pages, to pillorying car makers for not being able to produce vehicles that an reproduce their claimed fuel consumption figures in the real world. The fact that cars can achieve such figures, under rigorous laboratory conditions is admirable. And it is only because the EU tests cars under those stringent laboratory conditions that we can make a properly scientific comparison between the performance of different cars. The figures are all recorded under identical conditions, so they are comparable. By contrast, comparing the figures we achieve under normal user conditions is the scientific equivalent of sticking a finger in the air to gauge wind speed. Yes, the cars we test on these pages are driven, generally, over the same network of road, but the conditions for each test can be wildly different. Wind, ambient temperature, traffic and a thousand other factors all come into play, so take both official and observed figures with a pinch of salt.

However, and having said all that, the 520d ED is only the second car (the first was a VW Golf BlueMotion) that actually matched its claimed economy figure. Not over my whole week with the car (that figure worked out at 5.4-litres per 100km, or 52mpg) but on one long journey, between Schull in West Cork and Cork city, the 520d averaged exactly 4.5-litres per 100km, or 62.7mpg. Precisely the figure that BMW quotes for it.

That was not achieved after stripping the car of excess weight and driving like a nun on her way to confession. The car was full of both people and luggage, and while I was observing the posted speed limit, neither was I exactly hanging around.

This, I remind you, is in a large, executive saloon with comfortable space for four adults, leather, aircon, sundry electronic gadgets and an all-up weight of 1,695kg. It has 184bhp for heaven’s sake, and sprints from 0-100kmh in a GTI-like 8.1secs. Yet its Co2 emissions rating is just 119g/km, thwarting the Government’s plan to punitively tax such tax-band-busting executive cars. Quite why Phil Hogan and Michael Noonan want to tax people out of such astonishingly efficient vehicles at a time when it costs more than €100 to brim their fuel tanks is possibly one for the conspiracy theorists...

As for the rest of the car, it’s standard 5 Series fare; subtly handsome body, deftly balanced chassis, ideally weighted (if less than perfectly communicative steering) and a handsome, beautifully made cabin. Its only flaw is its size, which seemed unremarkable when first we drove the current 5, but since testing the brilliant new 3 Series, it seems suddenly too broad, too big for Irish roads. Odd that, but it just goes to prove that the 3, as it always has been, is the natural gravitational centre of the BMW range.

But when you see a 520d ED pass by, don’t be tempted down the Government’s daisy path of assuming the owner to be a jammy bastard who should be compelled to pay through the nose for his or her road tax. Instead, appreciate the simple, yet effective engineering (weight reduction, active electronics to control the radiator grille, the brake energy recovery, the stop-start etc) that has gone in to trimming its consumption and emissions, and be thankful that such technology, so much more useful in daily driving than expensive, heavy hybrid tech, is already trickling through to more mundane, more affordable cars.

Despite its plutocratic nature, the 520d has already started a revolution against the rising cost of fuel. Arise, brothers and sisters...

Facts & Figures

BMW 520d EfficientDynamics
Price as tested: €43,985
Range price: €43,530 to €134,430
Capacity: 1,995cc
Power: 184bhp
Torque: 380Nm
Top speed: 226kmh
0-100kmh: 8.1sec
Economy: 4.5-100km (62.7mpg)
CO2 emissions: 119g/km
Tax Band: A. €160 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-stars; 95% adult, 83% child, 78% pedestrian, 100% safety assist

Road Test: Mazda 3 1.6 Diesel Sport SE

Price as tested: €23,645

+ Handsome, quality, handling, space
– Still too noisy, poor economy
= Decent family hatch that will likely outlive you. And your grandkids.


Spotting the changes on the new Mazda 3 takes the anorak-y knowledge of a true car nut, and possibly a magnifying glass or two. Let me give you the briefest of run-throughs to save you the bother, and then we can get on with what the car is actually like.

So, the new 3 gets new bumpers and grille, new wheels and an updated cabin that’s supposed to be better in terms of both quality and noise suppression. The bigger changes have gone on underneath, where the suspension and steering have been tweaked to improve both ride and handling, and steering feel. A car company actually listing improved steering feel as an update feature? Sounds like my kind of thing...

And while you would be hard pressed to tell a 2012 3 from a 2011 3 on the outside, there’s no denying that it’s a good looking car. That gaping grille and those staring lights make it look more agressive than the family hatch norm and even in the plain metallic grey of our test car, it looked distinctive and handsome.

A shame then that the update to the cabin doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference. Yes, it’s all very well built and will doubtless be in perfect working order when you pass it on to your kids, or even their kids, but the changes have been too subtle and the 3 still feels behind the curve compared to the VW Golf when it comes to touchy-feely surfaces. There is compensation in the form of lots and lots of cabin space and a bucket of equipment on our reasonably priced Sport SE version that included auto aircon, Bluetooth phone and audio streaming, heated seats, trip computer, cruise control and very comfy sports seats. Essential items like a spot-on driving position and clear, simple ergonomics are also high points.

Under that striking bonnet is the familiar 1.6-litre 115bhp turbo diesel that Mazda shares with Ford, Peugeot, Citroen and Volvo. It’s not an exceptional unit, by any means, but it has refinement and a solid 270Nm of torque which can kick you neatly from 0-100kmh in a reasonably brisk 11.0secs. With the slick, MX-5-like six speed gearshift on the stir, the 3 feels nicely quick, if hardly a hot hatch. There is a question mark over fuel economy though. Mazda claims combined consumption of 4.3-litres per 100km, which would be good enough to give the mighty Golf Bluemotion a headache. But the best I could get out of it was an average of 6.5-l/100km. Now, our test car was brand new and barely run-in, which could account for some of the discrepancy, but clearly, Mazda has come catching up to do in the economy stakes. At least the 115g/km Co2 emissions figure means you’ll only have to shell out €160 a year in road tax.

But if the economy isn’t what you expect, then the ride and handling certainly are. Mazda is pretty much unique in being able to combine that traditional Japanese fluid and light feel to its controls with a sensation of still being connected to the road surface by something more than just luck. The steering, despite feeling light and almost delicate, does feed back to you, tells you whats going on underneath and generally feels lovely. The suspension is supple and flexible at pretty much all times and only seems to thump or crash when presented with an especially vicious speed ramp. It is, in other words, a delight to drive. It is not, sadly, up to the mark in terms of refinement. Whatever Mazda has tried to do to improve noise suppression, it hasn’t worked and a Focus or Golf remain much quieter companions on long runs.

The 3 does have one final trump card to play, though. In the 2011 survey of vehicle reliability by the influential JD Power group, three brands came out on top. Acura, which is of course Honda’s expensive luxury car unit. Lexus, which is of course Toyota’s expensive luxury car unit. And Mazda, which makes this affordable, useable €23k hatchback. In an Ireland where spending money mending or fixing your car simply isn’t an option for many hard-pressed motorists, it’s that kind of reliability and longevity that could make the difference come purchase time.


Facts & Figures

Mazda 3 1.6 Diesel Sport SE
Price: €23,645
Range price: €19,795 to €23,895
Capacity: 1,560cc
Power: 115bhp
Torque: 270Nm
Top speed: 188kmh
0-100kmh: 11.0sec
Economy: 4.3-100km (64mpg)
CO2 emissions: 115g/km
Tax Band: A. €160 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star: 86% adult, 84% child, 51% pedestrian, 71% safety assist

Road Test: Toyota Avensis 2.0 D4D Luna

Price as tested: €30,595

+ Quality, space, comfort, reliability
– Mushy steering, plain cabin
= Better than most motoring writers will admit




The Toyota Avensis gets a bit of a kicking in the popular press, with the word beige, dull and bland generally being hung around its neck like a bunch of grey garlands. And yet, hundreds, thousands of you go out every year and buy one, making it one of the best selling cars in class and country. Where’s the disconnect? Are motoring journalists just priggish snobs who refuse to like a car unless it can be teased into a tyre smoking drift (probably) or are Irish car buyers just blindfolded sheep who decide they like something and won’t be swerved no matter the evidence presented before them (possibly)?

Actually, the answer is a bit of both plus a major dose of an easy temptation to label cars with simplistic tags. Thus, the Ford Mondeo is the handling champ, the VW Passat is the classy one, the Opel Insigina the pretty one and the Peugeot 508 the French one. Which leaves the Avensis very little other to be than the dull one.

But just as Bill Gates rose from being a maths nerd to Richest Nerd Of Them All, so the Avensis has more than a few talents, which are not exactly hidden but certainly obscured a bit.

So, to hammer home the point, Toyota has just updated the Avensis, with new or at least revised styling inside and out, and for the first time a diesel engine that’s in Band A for tax.

The styling job is actually pretty good. The Avensis was always one of the better and more distinctive looking cars in the class (yes, I just said that) and the facelift makes it look similar to before, but just a touch sharper.

Inside, the work has been less successful. One of the very valid criticisms of the Avensis in its current incarnation has been its interior, which has always looked and felt at least a generation behind the opposition. Old-fashioned dials, coal-black colour schemes and a feeling that, while the actual quality of construction was very good, the touchy-feely stuff had been left out. Things are a little better now. The surfaces are more soft touch and our highly specced test car came with gorgeous and very comfortable biscuit leather-and-suede seats, which lifted the interior ambience no end. The full screen colour sat nav (a snip at €655 as an option) didn’t do any harm either, but seeing as few if any actual bought-and-paid for Avensis’ are going to be specced like this, we’ll reserve judgement on the cabin update until we’ve had a chance to sample one with a more basic spec. The basics of comfort and space are and always have been spot on though.

Behind the beaky new nose likes an updated 2.0-litre 125bhp D4D diesel four cylinder engine which, at last, now qualifies for Band A tax thanks to Co2 emissions of 120g/km. Its claimed consumption of 4.6-litres per 100km should keep you away from the pumps too, but sadly, we could only get it to do low-sixes in fuel economy terms, giving a touring range of just under the magic 1,000km on a full tank.

It’s a reasonably refined engine too, once it’s warmed up and pulls strongly in each of the gears in the sweet-shifting six-speed manual gearbox.

Dynamically, the Avensis has always been a mixed bag and sadly, that hasn’t changed. You get the sensation that there is a really good, sharp chassis in there, trying to get out, but mushy, oddly-weighted steering just leaves you groping in the dark for messages about what’s happening at the contact patch. We know that Toyota can do near-perfect steering; the old Celica and the new GT86 are proof, but the Avensis needs to go to the same finishing school as its coupe sisters.

That should mean that it’s biased towards comfort and by and large, that’s true. But our car (and this may have been down to the specific wheel and tyre combination) exhibited an odd trick of bouncing and bucking when confronted with a bump that affected one side of the car. The rest of the time, the ride felt nicely firm and well damped, but this odd little sensation kept re-occurring. Not sure why. There’s also the issue of arriving at a corner and not being able to accurately judge the correct entry speed and line because the steering is so mushy. That sounds like the complaint of an uber-enthusiast, and it is, but the fact is that the Avensis’ competitors do it better and it’s a shame that the essentially sure-footed chassis has lost its main line of communication to the driver.

Still, there is excellent quality to be had here. For a basic €24,495, you get aircon, remote stereo controls, an electronic parking brake, lots of safety gizmos including active anti-whiplash headrests and a drivers’ knee bag (the Avensis has one of the highest-ever safety ratings from EuroNCAP), daytime running lights, iPod connectivity and more. And at last, Toyota has ditched the cheap-looking old fixed ignition key and given us a proper modern folding one. In fact, our test Luna spec car actually had a nice keyless entry and ignition system.

So, while things aren’t perfect, there is still much to admire about the updated Avensis. It’s still spacious, comfortable and quiet, still looks good (especially the very handsome estate version) and of course still has that benchmark Toyota quality and reliability. If only they’d let the chassis guys who did the GT86 get their hands on it for a day or two, we might have an out and out class champ. Until then, it’s better than most of us car critics allow it to be, but just not as good as we know it could be.

Facts & Figures

Toyota Avensis 2.0 D4D 125 Luna Saloon
Price: €30,595
Range price: €24,995 to €38,165
Capacity: 1,998cc
Power: 124bhp
Torque: 310Nm
Top speed: n/a
0-100kmh: 9.7sec
Economy: 4.6l-100km (61.4mpg)
CO2 emissions: 120g/km
Tax Band: A. €160 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star: 90% adult, 86% child, 53% pedestrian, 86% safety assist

Road Test: Ford Focus 1.0 Ecoboost

Price as tested: €21,485

+ Amazing flexibility for such a small engine, usual Focus chassis, quality
– Long range economy remains unproven
= No replacement for displacement? Think again...


A sheet of A4 paper is 297mm x 210mm, or in other words just under a foot tall and eight inches wide. And the new Ford three-cylinder 1.0 Ecoboost turbo engine’s cylinder block will fit, just about, on that sheet of A4 paper. It’s an astonishingly small, light engine, weighing in at just 97kg, 30kg less than the old naturally aspirated 1.6 petrol that it replaces in the Focus range, and an order of magnitude less than its 1.6 diesel stablemate.

And yet, for all that smallness, a combination of low-inertia turbocharger and some impressive low-friction engineering ensures that this dinky little engine can produce either 99bhp (a round 100ps) with 170Nm of torque (or, in the higher spec version, an astonishing 123bhp with up to 200Nm on overboost), returns a claimed 4.8-litres per 100km on the combined cycle (58mpg, 10mpg better than the old 1.6) and emits just 109g/km. And, we would remind you, it’s petrol, not diesel.

But can a 1.0-litre engine be seriously considered in a large-ish family hatch, a car that weighs 1,200kg and needs to be able to lug around shopping, luggage, baby buggies and the rest of the detritus of family life?

Yes, it can, and as with so many cutting edge innovations, the remarkable thing is that in everyday use it feels entirely unremarkable. Fire up the Ecoboost engine and, instead of the expected unsteady buzzsaw noise common to most three-cylinder engines, there is silence, almost Lexus-like silence. Pull away and, yes, you can occasionally hear a faint rumbly three-pot noise at the edge of the engine’s vocal range, but it’s remarkably refined for such a small engine.

The most important question though is; can it lug the Focus around with any conviction? Yup, no problem there. In terms of overall performance, it’s a few tenths quicker than the old 1.6 in most metrics and it feels pretty much analogous to that engine. It’s better though, because thanks to the turbo, there’s just a bit more low-down oomph, a sense that (and this is the remarkable bit) you need to work the engine a little less hard to get where you want to. The 0-100kmh sprint is done in 12.5secs and it has a maximum speed of 185kmh.

Any problems? Well, no not really except a possible wrinkle in the form of fuel consumption. Now, we haven’t had a proper chance to put that 58mpg claim to the test on a long run, and on our brief test drive, the Focus we were driving was displaying an average fuel economy reading of 8.5-litres per 100km, or a disappointing 33mpg. The again, this was a car doing short urban and motorway loops in the hands of lead-footed motoring journalists, so perhaps a certain amount of benefit of the doubt can be given.

If mainly motorway miles is your daily driving dose, then it might be worth upgrading to the €24,235 125ps (123bhp) Zetec model. There’s not a massive difference in the feel of the performance, but it does seem to punch with a bit more conviction and the fact that the more powerful engine comes with a six-speed gearbox rather than the 100ps model’s five-speeder means it’s more suited to outside-lane bashing. Claimed economy barely suffers (56mpg) and emissions at 114g/km are only fractionally higher and you stay in the all-important Band A for road tax.

As for the rest of the car, it’s the same hugely impressive Focus that we know and love. The cabin is spacious (albeit less spacious than that of the old Focus), comfy  and nicely laid out. The chassis is pretty close to peerless, combining firm damping with a comfy ride quality and remarkably sharp steering. In fact, if anything, the Focus’ dynamic repertoire seems even better here, unencumbered by the dumbell weight of a diesel in the nose. If you’re truly keen on driving, this is still the pick of the family hatches.

And yes, a tiny, dinky, pint-sized, sheet-of-A4 engine really can, convincingly, haul and lug the Focus around, provide remarkable refinement and more than adequate performance. Net of the fuel consumption claims being put properly to the test, it is a truly astonishing combination of car and engine and, we’d have to say, the outright pick of the current Focus range.


Facts & Figures

Ford Focus 1.0 Ecoboost 100ps
Price as tested:€21,485
Range price: €19,465 to €30,595
Cubic capacity: 999cc
Power: 99bhp
Torque: 170Nm
Maximum speed: 185kmh
0-100kmh: 12.5secs
Fuel consumption: 4.8l/100km (58.8mpg)
Co2 emissions: 109g/km
Tax band: A (€160)
EuroNCAP rating: 5-star; 92% adult, 82% child, 72% pedestrian, 71% safety assist

Road Test: Kia Optima 1.7 CRDI 136bhp

Price as tested: €27,595

Fab styling, drives nicely, high quality, spacious cabin
– Ride and refinement need polishing
= Another slick, well-judged product from Kia

I can pretty much guarantee that, if you buy a Kia Optima, at some point in the first few weeks of ownership, someone is going to accost you in a supermarket car park and ask “Wow, what is that?”

Their response to your answer may well depend on just how clued up they are about modern cars and the technology behind them. It could well waver between “Aaah, a Kia...” and “Ugh, a Kia?” simply because not everyone has heard about the rise and rise of Korea’s fastest performing automotive star.

In fact, since 2006, in the face of Lehman Brothers, the credit crunch, the Euro Crisis and Merkosy-nomics, Kia has managed to double its worldwide sales and dramatically increase its European market share. And now, for the first time with a truly competitive vehicle, it’s entering the closely fought D-segment of family saloon cars.

There is no question but that the Optima is striking. And it’s far better looking, and more coherent in the flesh (so to speak) than it is in photographs. In fact, to these eyes, it has more than a hint of the current Jaguar XJ about it. Not in the details, but in the overall stance and body language. And that truly sets it apart from the class norm. The Optima’s rivals, the likes of the Ford Mondeo, Toyota Avensis, VW Passat and Peugeot 508, all play relatively safe, even staid, styling cards. The Optima is rakishly upping the ante though, and it may well scoop sales on the basis of its looks alone.

Inside, it’s got the best interior that Kia has done yet. There are a lot of buttons, depending on the spec though. In fact, we counted more than thirty between the door panel and the edge of the steering wheel alone, so expect to spend some time scouring the owners’ manual for answers. The cabin designers have obviously been boning up on eighties BMWs too, as the centre console, with its optional touch screen, is angled sharply towards the driver in the manner of an old E30 3 Series. Space is excellent, with stretching room in the back for adults (helped by a class-leading 2.8-metre wheelbase) and quality levels are most certainly on the high side of good. It looks good in there too, with sharp instruments and eye-catching design flourishes.

Engine-wise, the Optima sticks to the same script as its close cousin, the Hyundai i40. The primary engine for Ireland will be the 236bhp 1.7-litre CRDI diesel, which emits 128g/km of Co2 and returns, claims Kia, 4.9-litres per 100km on the combined fuel economy cycle (as long as it’s fitted with Kia’s ISG stop-start, which isn’t standard on all models). Our test car was the more profligate 155g/km, 6.0-litres per 100km automatic, but those are still reasonable figures for an old-school torque convertor gearbox. Oddly, Kia Ireland hasn’t yet confirmed that it will be bringing in Optimas fitted with the lower-emissions (113g/km) 116bhp version of the same 1.7 diesel engine, as fitted to the i40. Only the 129g/km (or 133g/km if you don’t spec it with ISG stop-start) 136bhp engine is available for the moment.

Definitely don’t spec the automatic gearbox though; it just doesn’t suit the engine. Refinement is an issue, even on the manual gearbox models, but the auto’s habit of holding onto a ratio for longer than is ideal allows the engine to growl, grumble and moo far too much for our liking. Certainly, rivals from Ford, VW and Peugeot have the legs on the Optima for quietness, and by a surprisingly broad margin.

The ride quality may be an issue too. Now, these are conclusions drawn from a drive on unfamiliar French tarmac in cars fitted with large (and drop-dead-gorgeous) 18” alloy wheels, so hold your breath for a full drive in Irish conditions for a definitive verdict but... it jiggles.

Large obstacles are brushed off with a nicely damped shrug of the body, but smaller, sharper bumps (of the type that Irish tarmac specialises in) make themselves both felt and heard with too much abruptness. Would smaller wheels help? Possibly, but a damper or spring tweak would probably also help.

Other than that, the Optima’s dynamic performance is pretty good. The steering is light, but pleasantly so and while you cannot feel anything of the front tyres through the rim, after a while, you realise that the Optima will go where you want it, if you show just a little faith. Grip is plentiful and body control good, so you won’t be upsetting your passengers with lurching direction changes.

All that remains to settle are price and equipment levels. Kia Ireland is still deciding exactly how to pitch the Optima, but it seems safe to bet that it will meet the likes of Mondeo and Avensis head on in price terms, but out-do them with extra equipment and Kia’s lengthy seven year warranty. Kia Europe is talking of items like heated seats, self-parking and more as standard, which seems like a lot, but we’ll certainly get daytime LED lights, electronic parking brake and six airbags as standards at a minimum.

A little more dynamic polish would make the Optima a very serious player, but even without the fluidity of the likes of the Peugeot 508, it’s already looking like a very tempting prospect. With a circa €25k price tag, lots of standard kit, that warranty and those looks, it should provoke a lot more Ahhhs than Ughs.



Facts & Figures

Kia Optima 1.7 CRDI 136bhp
Price as tested: €25,900 (approx)
Range price: €TBC
Capacity: 1,685cc
Power: 136bhp
Torque: 325Nm
Top speed: TBA kmh
0-100kmh: TBA sec
Economy: 4.9l-100km (57.6mpg)
CO2 emissions: 128g/km
VRT Band: B. €225 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested

Road Test: Citroen DS4 DStyle 1.6 eHDI EGS Airdream

Price as tested: €27,595

+ Great looking, fabulous seats, relaxing, properly luxurious
– Hard ride, awful gearbox, poor space in the back, price
= Two out of three DS models are hits, this one’s a miss

It’s funny how car launches can so often follow the same trajectory of success-decline-consolidation as that of rock groups. The first album is always bristling with raw, new talent, expertly produced tunes and wonderfully untapped potential. That was the DS3; sparky, agile, properly fun to drive and in no way exactly what you’d expect either from Citroen or from a car with a DS badge. The DS5, which goes on sale in February, is the third album, settling nicely into a groove, playing with the ideas a little but doing nothing to upset the fans.

But it’s always the difficult second album, the sophomore effort, that creates problems. Stick too close to the original and you’d be pilloried for not having any new ideas. Go too far, and you’ll alienate the fans. And all to often, the result is an uncomfortable straddling of the middle ground, pleasing no-one but offending few.

Which brings us to the Citroen DS4 and a car that was always going to be a tricky one. To be honest, I was expecting way, way more than what the DS4 actually turned out to be. The DS3 is, some cabin bits apart, almost nothing like the more mundane C3 to look at or to drive. Likewise, the DS5 is utterly, utterly different to the C5 with which it shares a certain amount of space. But the DS4’s biggest problem is that it cleaves far to close to the existing C4. Now, the C4 isn’t exactly at the pinnacle of the current family hatch tree, but it’s a very pleasant car, looks more premium in its styling than many of its opposition and its spectacularly comfortable to sit in. It’s also well made and economical.

Which leaves the DS4 with what, exactly? It can either be stunningly more attractive than its more humble brother (as are the DS3 and DS5 compared to the C3 and, to a lesser extent, the C5) or be electrifyingly better to drive (DS3 > C3). The problem is, it’s neither.

The DS4 is, mechanically speaking, a C4 with a higher ride height and a slightly swoopier body on the top. There is no dramatic difference in the styling. It’s a good looking car, striking even, but hardly a quantum leap forward over the already attractive C4. In handling terms, it corners with more precision and much less understeer than the C4 but there is none of the DS3’s crisp steering or out and out agility. But with that quasi-SUV ride height, it must surely have the comfiest ride this side of a Rolls Phantom, no?

No. For some utterly unknown reason, Citroen decided that the DS4 should be both jacked-up and firm riding. The final chassis setting is, frankly, dreadful. yes, body roll has been kept well in check, and on smooth roads, it corners with reasonable aplomb, but on anything less than virgin, fresh-rolled tarmac, the ride is just awful, crashing and bumping when it should cosset and comfort. A regular, unadorned VW Golf has one of the best ride qualities you will find in any car, at any price, so why Citroen cannot achieve the same with the DS4 is just beyond me.

There is some compensation in the cabin. Yes, rear seat space is just slightly too tight and I cannot understand the decision to sacrifice winding rear windows to the rear door design. But the instruments are clear, attractive and distinctive, the stubby EGS gearbox selector is a joy to use and the seats, upgraded to leather on our test car, with that wonderful watch-strap embossed pattern, are nothing short of wonderful; supportive, but with just the right amount of squidge.

To the drivetrain. The DS4 is one of the first Citroens to get the new eHDI package which combines the already-frugal 1.6 HDI diesel engine, with 110bhp and 270Nm of torque, with a reversible alternator that can scavenge power for the electrical system from braking and a stop-start that cuts the engine at lights, and restarts it with remarkable alacrity.

The engine is familiar, and as good as ever; refined, torquey and very pleasant to drive, considering that it’s actually a pretty humble diesel four-banger.

But the EGS gearbox is a serious hinderance to smooth progress. Leave it in the auto setting (which surely, for a car that aspires to luxury, is the default setting) and you will be seen to be agreeing vigorously with the radio every time there’s an upchange. Lurch. Nod. Lurch. Nod. Lurch. Nod. Downchanges are fine, crisp and with an occasional burst of heel-and-toe revs, but the only way to get the damn thing to drive smoothly is to take manual control with the paddle shifters. And even then, you have to learn the technique of lifting off the throttle just enough to get the change right. And, as I said, in a luxurious car, auto should be the default. Citroen (and it’s not alone among car makers in this respect) should just swallow its pride and buy a job lot of DSG gearboxes from Volkswagen.

There doesn’t even seem to be a terrific benefit in terms of fuel consumption. Citroen claims 4.4-litres per 100km on the combined cycle. We got 6.5l/100km overall, a figure we’ve beaten with the likes of the much bigger, heavier Ford Mondeo, using the same engine. Perhaps it would have been better with the manual.

If it sounds like I’m down on the DS4, well, I am. Having sampled and loved (DS3) and liked (DS5) the DS range, and being a bit of a closet Citroenista, I really wanted the DS4 to be good. To be impressive. But by being too close in concept to the regular C4, by having such a poor ride quality (no French car should have a harsh ride) and by having that awful gearbox, it just failed to live up to even my mildest expectations. Do yourself a favour; if you crave a quirky French hatchback with a modicum of luxury and practicality, buy a regular C4 instead.



Facts & Figures

Citroen DS4 1.6 eHDI EGS Airdream
Price as tested: €27,595
Range price: €23,995 to €29,895
Capacity: 1,560cc
Power: 110bhp
Torque: 270Nm
Top speed: 189kmh
0-100kmh: 12.4sec
Economy: 4.4l-100km (64.2mpg)
CO2 emissions: 114g/km
VRT Band: A. €104 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 90% adult, 80% child, 43% pedestrian, 97% safety assist.