Cheap cars do not automatically have to mean bad cars. At the bottom end of the used market, £1,500 will inevitably involve compromises — higher mileage, older interiors and the odd cosmetic scar — but there are still plenty of genuinely useful, dependable cars available for the money. The trick is looking…

Mazda has already taken one shot at the compact electric car. The MX-30 brought distinctive styling and some genuinely interesting ideas, but its limited electric range and unconventional packaging left it struggling to compete as the EV market rapidly moved forward. That increasingly left Mazda in a difficult position. Its continued reliance…

Volvo has changed dramatically under Geely ownership. What was already a respected premium brand has gained the investment, technology and global scale needed to compete far more directly with the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz. That is a significant shift from the Ford era, when Volvo produced some excellent cars but often…

Audi wants to move upmarket, but its product strategy is starting to pull in two very different directions. In China, the new E5 Sportback shows just how far the brand can go, combining 800V charging, advanced software and a new generation of digital architecture developed with SAIC. In Europe, meanwhile, Audi is…

Lucid is in an unusual position. The American EV maker regularly attracts headlines about losses, cash burn and funding requirements, yet at the same time it is expanding its manufacturing footprint, attracting major strategic partners and preparing an entirely new lower-cost vehicle family for markets including Britain. Its current cars already demonstrate…

MAXUS has become one of the more interesting value brands in the UK commercial vehicle market, with a range that now stretches from diesel and electric vans to pickups and large MPVs. Backed by SAIC Motor, it has steadily built its case around equipment, electrification and aggressive pricing. That value argument becomes…

Stellantis’ Chinese story is increasingly dominated by Leapmotor, but another partnership is quietly becoming important again. Dongfeng has worked with Peugeot and Citroën in China for more than three decades, yet that relationship is often overlooked in today’s Stellantis narrative. Now that partnership has produced two particularly significant Peugeot concepts. Concept 6…

When the Nissan Pixo arrived in the UK in 2009, it quickly established itself at the very bottom of Britain's new-car market. For the majority of its short life, it was Britain's cheapest new car — a position that became an important part of the little Nissan's identity. Then, in 2013, Dacia…