I'm Liam Bird, a freelance Motoring Writer based in the South Shropshire Marches. I currently write car reviews and road tests for a number of regional lifestyle magazines and newspapers which are distributed throughout Cheshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, most of Wales and beyond.
As a member of the Welsh Group of Motoring Writers I'm as happy behind the wheel of a super-mini as I am in the latest super-car. I have press accreditation with most of the major motor manufacturers, meaning that as well as always being on the look out for further commissions, I always have a number of cars arriving each month ready to review.
You may perhaps not even have seen one yet, but already Volvo’s new XC40, has been winning awards. Not only did it recently win both the Car of the Year and Best Medium SUV titles in the recent DieselCar and EcoCar Top 50 awards 2018, it also scooped the coveted European Car of the Year award prior to its unveiling at this year’s Geneva Motorshow in March. What Car? Named it their...
Think Alfa Romeo and if you’re anything like me you’ll probably think of delicate sports cars, pretty little saloons, racing red cigar-shaped single seaters, and legendary drivers such as Fangio and Farina. What you probably won’t envisage is four-wheel drive, suburban school-run mums - no doubt from the pricier parts of town – and, SUVs. However…
Alfa Romeo are under no...
Another week, another SUV. Honestly, that’s how it’s beginning to feel. Crossovers, soft-roaders, Sports Utility Vehicles, call then what you will, they’re the current automotive equivalent of the proverbial hot cake; they’re selling like them too. However, they don’t always prove that tasty to drive. They’re practical, yes, and undoubtedly so in some cases, but exciting? Not really. Well,...
If you’ve set you heart on a mid-size SUV as your next set of wheels you probably don’t need me to tell you your choice is seemingly endless. And with the SUV market predicted to expand by another 20% over the next five years you can safely bet it’s going to get even bigger still.
This is latest offering for those after the ruggedly handsome, looks-like-it-will-go-...
Park Hyundai’s i30N next to a VW Golf GTi and it’s easy to see where the Koreans have firmly set their sights. The Golf of course has long been the go-to hatchback bench-mark, and it’s not stretching the imagination too far to say that, even in their respective milder forms, both the i30 and the definitive people’s car share certain similarities: Size for starters, plus the...
The Ford Fiesta first hit the tarmac here in Blighty in 1976 and ever since then it’s been instantly familiar. It was the car that many moons ago I passed my test in, and in XR2 guise was the first proper hot-hatch I ever drove. (I “borrowed” my cousin’s C-reg example one evening). I’ve even raced one, albeit briefly and against the clock; a red ST at the now defunct Cholmondeley Pageant of...
The arrival of Suzuki’s new Swift complete with Boosterjet engine and in SZ5 spec I might add, here at Chez Bird also coincided with a Ferrari GTC4Lusso being here too. I know, go on… say it: how I suffer for my art. And it’s at this point that you’re probably thinking “I bet that Suzuki didn’t get much use then did it?” Well, you’d be wrong.
You see, both the Swift, and, err…...
Figures were never really my strong-point, so let’s get them out of the way first shall we?
Ferrari’s GTC4Lusso is a 680bhp, 12 cylinder, 4 seater, 4 wheel-drive, 4 wheel-steer, 0-62 in 3.4 seconds, 0-125 mph in 10.5 seconds, 208 mph all-out super-coupe. It weighs 1,920kg, has a 7 speed dual-clutch gearbox (in fact it has 2 gearboxes, we’ll get to that later), and is...
From January onwards you’ll no longer be able to walk into your local Volkswagen dealer and order a 3-door Polo, they’re not going to make them anymore. You can’t buy a 3-door version of the new SEAT Ibiza either, or the Skoda Fabia for that matter either. As people downsize (and ironically cars get bigger) the people in (the predominately German) suits have declared that there’s no...
Quite where the line is drawn between what makes an SUV an SUV, and what constitutes a crossover these days is hard to determine, but what can’t be argued is the fact that we car-buyers love ‘em – and especially so if they’re considered “premium”.
At the time a writing, and just a couple of weeks after their glitzy unveilings at The Frankfurt Motorshow, I can name at least another...
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