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.
One of the oldest motorsport venues in the world is not perhaps the first place you’d think of when it comes to testing an all-new 5-door B-segment supermini from a mainstream manufacturer. Nevertheless, it was close by…
After the dash-mounted sat-nav in Citroen’s latest, and the 3rd generation of their best-seller, the C3 instructed my co-driver Wayne Gorrett and I...
Funny, isn’t it, how certain cars just feel so instantly comfortable?
My first encounter with Volvo’s latest S90 was on very dark, very wet evening. After fumbling a little trying to find the correct but frustratingly small button on the S90’s key – strangely for car so determinedly designed to steal sales from the German executive crowd, there was no keyless entry on the...
A glance Google Maps earlier in the week followed by a sharp right just a few minutes ago and I’m on what the map promised to be a gloriously sinuous Welsh B-road up and over Hergest Ridge, the place Mike Oldfield escaped to the avoid all the attention after recording Tubular Bells - easy to see why, even on a Saturday night there’s nobody here. I’m pretty sure I’ve driven this...
Practicality must have been high on Honda’s agenda when it came to designing the latest incarnation of their HR-V. Small and far more rounded externally than the original HR-V of 1999 it may be, but the latest entry into the ever growing compact crossover market is (Cliché coming up) positively Tardis-like on the inside. Families take note.
The HR-V – that stands for High Rider...
Saturday 22nd October: Gwyndaf Evans Motors, Dolgellau and The Quay Hotel & Spa, Deganwy were the venues this year for WMW’s Annual Awards and Dinner. Awards were presented by H.M. Lord-Lieutenant for Gwynedd, Edmund S Bailey.
The Tom Pryce Memorial Trophy recognises the achievements of Rally Driver Elfyn Evans who won this year’s British Rally Championship title. His father Gwyndaf...
I missed out last year out on the chance to join my fellow motor-noters in Montenegro for the launch of Jaguar’s all-new F-pace, my invitation seemingly “lost in the post”. Since then too, the chance to drive the F-Pace has eluded me. The coastal roads and forests near the Adriatic would’ve no-doubt proved to be the perfect playground in which to sample the all-wheel drive capabilities of...
The top step of the Monte Carlo Rally winner’s podium may have thus-far proved elusive for Skoda, despite many a valiant effort, but nevertheless numerous class wins in other equally arduous events - reliability meant that long before the Czech manufacturer became part of the VW group they took the under-1300cc trophy for seventeen years running in what was once known as the...
It’s been far too long since I sampled something from the Mercedes Benz press fleet, so when the always lovely PR lady emailed offering me the opportunity to try their latest Tourer I jumped at the chance. Mercedes Benz are after all going to great lengths to appeal to a younger audience (that’s why their spending so much on Formula 1), so surely then this new Tourer was aimed directly at...
Sightings of Subarus out in here in the sticks are pretty regular. The farming fraternity, the horsey types, and the catch it, kill it and (not necessarily always) eat it brigade seem to love them, drawn in perhaps by the Japanese manufacturer’s enviable reputation for reliability, near legendary ruggedness, and of course the all-important four wheel-drive. An aged Subaru Legacy,...
You may, like me, not have noticed the subtle face-lift Fiat gave their loveable little 500 last year. After 8 years of production and over 1.5 million sales, Centro Stile FIAT decided it was time to refresh both the 500’s exterior and interior, whilst retaining the unmistakable looks - that were so obviously inspired by the genius of what was the original Dante Giacosa rear-...
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