The original A-Class was unfortunately known as much for turning turtle in an early Swedish road test as it was for its quirky styling and clever packaging, but now in its third generation, the A-Class is a much more conventional affair.

Does the new car, aimed squarely at the Audi A3 Sportback and BMW 1-Series, have what it takes? We spent a week with an A200 CDI to find out for ourselves.

Based on the Corsa, the Adam is saddled with a daft name. And uninteresting looks. And rubbish engines. And cramped rear seats. And a tiny boot. As a consequence, it gets a carwow score of just 5.8, which is abysmal.

But it’s a brand new car from one of the world’s largest car manufacturers, so it can’t be that bad, can it? There is only one way to find out… 

The Land Rover PR department has the easiest job in the world. The Range Rover is the best in its class, as are the Discovery, Range Rover Sport, and Evoque. Even the crumbling anachronism that is the Defender is excused just about every one of its many faults foibles because of its immense ‘character’ and ‘charm’.

Which just leaves the Land Rover Freelander 2. it's getting old, but people still love ‘em. And why do they still love ‘em? Read on…

The Nissan LEAF is the world’s best selling electric vehicle with almost 60,000 sold since its launch.

It's been revised for 2013 and Nissan is even building them in the UK, rather than all the way out in Japan. carwow was invited to Oslo in Norway to check it out.

Some of the latest diesel vehicles offer truly staggering on-paper economy, with miles per gallon figures in the eighties range not uncommon these days.

Invariably though, real-world driving often returns the same mid-50s figure that diesels have been capable of for years. Imagine our surprise then, when after a week with the Honda Civic you see here our real-world economy was knocking on the door of 70 mpg.

We think we've found the Civic 1.6 i-DTEC's raison d'être then, but how does the rest of the car stack up?

carwow was invited to Austria to try out the facelifted Skoda Superb Estate. 

At thirty grand in Laurin & Klement specification, the Superb has plenty to prove - but few cars offer quite as much for the money.

How do you define luxury? Space? Quality materials? Comfort?

The question comes immediately to mind when handed the keys to the Skoda Superb, now granted a facelift to bring it in line with the rest of Skoda's range.

The dilemma is whether a car carrying the Skoda badge - now respected, if not yet revered - can truly carry off a luxury car tag. Going by senses alone, it's hard not to argue that it can.

If someone had told you, around the late eighties or early 90s, that people would happily trade five-figure sums in 2013 for a Toyota Corolla, you'd probably have thought their shell suit was cutting off the oxygen to their brain.

Yet here we are, a quarter-century wiser, and some Corollas really do go for that sort of money. But how is Toyota's old 'Hachi-Roku' AE86 to drive?