#BrownCarGuy – News, Views & Reviews!
I first drove the MG Cyberster earlier last year on a brief test at Millbrook Proving Ground. Enough to intrigue, enough to raise eyebrows, but not enough to truly understand it. This time, MG handed me the keys for a week. Living with a car exposes its truths. Its cleverness. Its quirks. Its brilliance. And occasionally, its foibles.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Toyota C-HR. When the original arrived, it felt like a small act of rebellion from a brand better known for playing things safe. It was sharp, angular, unapologetically different, and crucially, it didn’t try to hide its personality. Better still, in its early years you could even buy one with a petrol engine and a manual gearbox, complete with rev-matching. A crossover that actually wanted to be driven. That alone made it stand out.
Remember the 1980s? When the world ran on optimism, synth-pop and questionable fashion choices? I mean, I personally sported a pastel green blazer in crinkled material with roll-up sleeves and shoulder pads large enough to land Airwolf on. But you know what? Best decade ever in my not-so-humble opinion. Especially for music, movies and motors.
So imagine my delight when Toyota handed me the keys to something straight out of that era: their own 1986 Toyota Corolla GT Coupé, better known to you, me and every manga-obsessed drift fan on earth as the AE86 Hachi-Roku.
The 2026 MG S6 EV arrives without theatrics, yet the moment you walk around it, sit in it and drive it, you realise MG has shifted up a gear. This is the brand’s new family-sized electric SUV, the one many households have been waiting for. It sits on the same modular platform as the MG S5 EV but stretches everything further. A 77 kWh battery, rear-wheel-drive or dual-motor all-wheel drive, up to 329 miles of official WLTP range, and prices sitting roughly between forty-one and forty-four thousand pounds. MG is not pretending this is “budget” anymore. It is aiming for the mainstream.
Japanese car companies have always been on the leading edge of engineering. Innovating, developing, breaking new ground – surging ahead of the crowd in surprising new ways. And Suzuki’s latest new car… doesn’t conform to any of that. Well, apart from the ‘surprising’ bit.
Because the new E Vitara isn’t truly Japanese at all. It’s more like a takeaway tikka delivered by a samurai. And given how much Brits love a good curry, Suzuki’s first fully electric car – designed and built by Maruti Suzuki in Gujarat, India – rolling off the boats onto our roads at barely believable prices, is surely going to go down a treat. You won’t even need the Alka-Seltzer for this one.
Mazda’s flirted with electrification before – remember the MX-30? Stylish, well-built, and charmingly unconventional, but with a range so short you’d start worrying halfway to the shops. Even Mazda later admitted it needed work, adding a rotary range-extender to make it more usable.
I get a truck and I’m a kid with a Tonka Toy again. Okay, I won’t bash it into the table leg or drop it from the kitchen counter, but I still want to drive it with a big grin on my face. So when Isuzu asks if I would like to review the 2025 Isuzu D-Max V-Cross, despite the fact that I reviewed this generation of the pickup twice just a few years ago… I found myself struggling to decline.
Full transparency, I didn’t so much want to review it, as I just wanted to rock around in it! And when it turned up, I wasn’t disappointed, because they sent their Instagram special. A D-Max that had driven into the accessories warehouse and come out wearing EVERYTHING! More on that in a bit.
Sometimes, car manufacturers end up with a ‘safe bet’ seller. Occasionally by design, but usually by chance. You may think that’s a golden egg for any car maker, but it can also be a poisoned chalice. It becomes so invaluable that the company simply can’t afford to get it wrong.
For Kia, that car is the Sportage – its best-selling SUV, the top performer across Europe, and, rather astonishingly, its global bestseller too. So when the Koreans tweak the formula, it’s a big deal.
The new 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser J250 has arrived – and if you’re in the UK, this is your Land Cruiser. While much of the world gets the full-sized 300-series Big Daddy Land Cruiser, we get this slightly smaller, slightly leaner sibling, also known globally as the Land Cruiser Prado, or simply the Prado. But don’t dismiss it as the runner-up – because, frankly, by our standards, it really ain’t small, plus this might just be the best-looking Land Cruiser of the modern era.
It’s been a long time coming, but I finally got my hands on the all-new MG Cyberster GT – and yes, it was worth the wait. I missed the launch, missed the press events, nearly missed this drive too, thanks to a temporarily closed track at Millbrook. But I’m stubborn (or mildly obsessive), and I wasn’t going to leave until I got my go behind the wheel of what is arguably the most important sports car of recent times!
