Sign of the times

New cars: what the critics say Dacia ...

Despite a pre-dawn flight to the UK, Laurens van den Acker, the hugely accomplished Renault Group design director, bounds out of the Rafale with enthusiasm. “This is like Christmas for me,” he beams.

THERE’S a rule in the Pringle Book of Car Testing that says if you want to really put a car through its paces, take it out of its comfort zone. And that’s just what we did with the Duster on a long we

Bright idea, because I’m on holiday: I reckon I’ll take our four-year-old Dacia Duster, grime-stained from cathartic trips to the dump, for a professional wash and polish. I head to my usual place and

What have I done? I have just spent about six times that which I’ve yet previously spent on a car, on a vehicle that has twice as many cylinders as I’m used to, will consume about double the amount of

AFTER SIX MONTHS AND MORE THAN 9000 MILES, my time with the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio has come to an end. And what a journey it’s been. From motorway marathons and hectic week-long photoshoots,