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When the 205 was launched in 1983, it caught everyone’s attention as the very model of a modern supermini. It was compact, but decently roomy inside, and had a good sized boot. Sensible in practical areas, the 205 was also exceptionally pretty. Over the car’s lengthy production run, more than 14 years, as the new [...]

Family load carriers didn’t come more practical or spacious than Peugeot’s big 504 Estate. It came in two versions, a five seater with a fold down rear seats and the seven seat Family Estate with an extra row of seats which came at the expense of a much smaller luggage area. Both had a longer [...]

After some fine coupe launches in the lower reaches of the market (the GT Manta0, Opel decided to go right upmarket with the Monza. Based on the Senator executive saloon, the Monza was a large car, spacious enough for four adults and benefiting from a huge boot, which was hidden away under a massive tailgate. [...]

In 1970 Opel launched the Ascona to replace the prosaic Olympia. Preceding it into the market by a matter of weeks was a stylish coupe version, the Manta, which would prove a strong rival to the Ford Capri. Sharing the Ascona’s floor pan, with the springs and a rigid rear axle, the Manta was larger [...]

Like its contemporaries, the Ford Escort Cosworth and Lancia Delta Integrale, the Sunny GTi-R was a road going version of a serious rally machine. Despite this it is important to remember it was essentially based on a humble family car. Given the Japanese love of high technology, It was also a very reasonable commercial bet [...]

By the time the Issigonis designed Morris 1100/ 1300 was replaced by the Allegro in the 1973, over two million examples had been sold. In fact, it was consistently Britain’s best selling car, beating even the ever popular Ford Cortina to the top spot throughout the 1960s. Following the acclaim the Mini received, the British [...]

The oceans nibbles at established cliffs, but the landslide can be a long time coming, was low lan Fraser (then editor of CAR magazine) summed up his report on the Ital Design Megagamma. It was an amazingly prescient comment, as the Megagamma could probably be regarded as the original people carrier. It wasn’t until the [...]

The MGA is probably the best looking MG of them all. Its pretty, pinched waist body was derived from a special TD raced at Le Mans, and was based on an enormously strong box section chassis. The A was the first truly modern post war MG, and, as, the first new MG produced after the [...]

The high performance family car frenzy of the early 1990s was so pronounced that Britain’s CAR magazine followed report on its first drive of the 377 bhp Lotus Carlton with two pages on the Mercedes equivalent, the 326 bhp V8 engined E class saloon. Like the Lotus Carlton, the 500 E required some serious surgery [...]

As old as it seems now, the Mercedes 190 was seen as a huge risk for the company because it had forged its reputation on building high end, high quality limos and sports cars. Mercedes engineers thought first turned to a smaller car in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, which severely restricted supply [...]