#BrownCarGuy – News, Views & Reviews!
Before we get into all the details of the Polestar 4, let’s answer a question that might be preying on the mind of the uninitiated – what exactly is Polestar? Well, it used to be the performance and motor-racing arm of Volvo. After Chinese giant Geely took over Volvo, Polestar was separated into a standalone brand in 2017 to focus on producing only electric cars.
Some cars are more than the sum of their spec sheets. Some cars are hidden gems. Some cars are unexpected delights. Some cars actually make sense on multiple levels. Some cars are the new, £22k, 2025 Suzuki Swift AllGrip Ultra Hybrid tested here.
If you like eager little hatchbacks that will dart in and out of city gaps, provide usable passenger and boot space, engage you with heel-and-toe downshifts and cheeky handbrake turns, sip fuel while being refined at motorway momentum, and even scrabble over churned-up gravel while wading through rain pools. Then you’ve landed on the right road (off-road) test!
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!
There are many questions in life for which we have thus far failed to find a satisfactory answer. For example: why does toast always land butter-side down? Or what precisely is the purpose of a rubber chicken? And most pertinently on this occasion, what happens when you take a classic Fiat 500 – a car only marginally larger than a ripe melon – and stuff it full of EV batteries and magnets instead of a noisy two-pot and Italian expletives?
This compact 2025 BMW M235i xDrive Gran Coupe has more horsepower than the 1992 E36 BMW M3. So does that make it a bona fide junior ‘M’ car? With the keys to the turbocharged four-door in my hands and the Hill Route at the Millbrook Proving Ground beckoning, there is only one way to find out!
Sometimes a car doesn’t need to scream to make a statement. It just needs to show up with a cheeky grin, a bit of charm, and enough clever thinking to stand out in a sea of lookalike electric boxes.
I don’t often say this about electric cars, but I’ve been waiting to try this one for a while. Ever since Renault first dropped images of a retro-fabulous concept that looked like it’d teleported straight from a 1970s disco into a new Star Trek movie (The Roads of Khan!), I’ve been itching to tickle its torque and see if the drive matches the desire.
A new affordable electric SUV that’s more refined and packed with greater tech than its predecessor, the all-new MG S5 EV is essentially the replacement for the best-selling MG ZS EV. The S5 EV steps up the game in terms of style, performance, and practicality – while still offering astonishing value – so should it be on your shortlist?
Mazda want to do it all. They want a big new flagship luxury SUV. That’s also hugely practical and a versatile seven-seater. Plus, thrifty economy and the ability to emit slightly tanked-up butterflies at most. It also needs to be relatively punchy when it comes to performance and can prove a tasty steer despite it breadth and width. Meet the new 2025 Mazda CX-80, the brand’s new top dog three-row SUV for Europe. This isn’t just Mazda’s largest and most spacious SUV – it’s a bold statement aimed at premium rivals like the BMW X5, Audi Q7 and Land Rover Discovery. But does it have what it takes to challenge the establishment?
If you’re looking for a crisp and smart-looking hybrid SUV packed with clever tech and features, I might have just the thing for you. Meet the Renault Symbioz E-Tech Hybrid – the name “Symbioz” is taken from the Greek word Symbiosis, meaning ‘living together’. You can’t quite live in this thing, despite its spacious interior. Still, it’s an interesting name and put me in mind of the word Symbiont, which reminded me of Jadzia Dax, the Trill Symbiont on Star Trek Deep Space 9, which was a gratifying thought, so the price of entry is worth it for that alone. We’re talking from £29,295 for the base spec, to £31,295 for the Esprit Alpine trim, and £33,295 for the range-topping Iconic Esprit Alpine edition as tested here (plus another £650 for the Oyster Grey finish on this car).