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EVERYONE loves a used car bargain, and this week we honour the models we think make the best second-hand choices of all. Our Used Car Awards showcase some great buys from only £3,000. Without giving the results away, one brand that has fared pretty well is Kia. And a big part of that is down to its warranty. Buy approved used and you get seven years and 100,000 miles of cover. Buy elsewhere and you’ll get what’s left of the car’s original seven-year warranty. Pretty impressive, eh? It’s clear it’s helped underpin the brand’s rise to prominence in recent years, a fact acknowledged by Kia Europe COO Michael Cole when I met him this week. Cole was MD of Kia UK when the cover was introduced in 2010 and admits…

“Despite the lower roofline, Honda claims there is more room inside the new Civic than before” Richard_Ingram@dennis.co.uk @rsp_ingram FOLLOWING months of teaser images, concept cars and spy shots, the allnew 10th-generation Honda Civic has finally been revealed. The five-door hatchback goes on sale in the US this week, before UK sales start in early 2017. It will make its world debut at next week’s Paris Motor Show. Honda claims the all-new Civic represents a significant step forward for the brand, with the new car benefiting from the largest single model development programme in the company’s history. At launch, the Ford Focus rival will be offered with a choice of two all-new turbocharged petrol engines, although initially there’s no diesel. Honda predicts the best seller will be the 127bhp 1.0-litre three-cylinder…

Lawrence_Allan@dennis.co.uk @LobAllan “Unlike the coupés, both Roadster models adopt tech from trackfocused AMG GT R” A DROP-top version of Mercedes-AMG’s flagship sports car was inevitable, as a direct rival for the Porsche 911 – and here it is. The AMG GT Roader will take centre stage at the Paris Motor Show next week. Available in GT and GT C guises, the newcomer takes the AMG GT family up to five models. The car packs more power and torque than the equivalent hard-top, while using chassis tech from the hardcore GT R. The entry AMG GT Roadster develops 469bhp and 630Nm of torque from its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, which is 13bhp and 30Nm more than the coupé. Above that the AMG GT C Roadster’s 549bhp and 680Nm put it between the…

THE AMG GT R is crammed with racing technology. In fact, Mercedes-AMG promises that it has never packed so much motorsport expertise into a car before. To see exactly what the engineers from Affalterbach have come up with, we’ve travelled to Germany’s legendary Nürburgring to sample AMG’s wildest sports car from the passenger seat. Our driver for the day is Thomas Jäger, who’s spent a lot of time at the circuit developing this car, and whose CV is littered with 24-hour and endurance race wins. As qualifications for creating AMG’s most hardcore offering go, his are pretty convincing. Visually, the newcomer is quite distinct from its Mercedes-AMG GT S cousin, thanks to aerodynamic revisions and the need to cover a wider track. The front wings are made from carbon fibre,…

John_McIlroy@dennis.co.uk @johnmcilroy “It’s already planning a successor to the Leaf that’ll stay close to its fivedoor family hatch layout” NISSAN is weighing up its options as to how it will expand its range of pure electric vehicles, with a Ford Fiestasized model lined up to join the Leaf, according to a senior company source. The manufacturer has sold more than 200,000 examples of the Leaf since the car’s launch in 2010. It’s already planning a successor to the model that’ll stay close to its five-door family hatchback layout. The recent appearance of a working prototype of the Bladeglider sports car has prompted speculation that the next step in Nissan’s publicly stated goal to spread pureelectric tech throughout its line-up could be a niche model for driving enthusiasts. However, Gareth Dunsmore,…

MITSUBISHI has revealed a brand new plug-in hybrid SUV concept, which will take pride of place on its Paris Motor Show stand next week. Called the GT-PHEV, which stands for Ground Tourer, it’s described as the “latest expression” of the brand’s design direction. The steeply raked windscreen and narrow glasshouse in these first pictures show a far more outlandish design approach than is currently seen on Mitsubishi’s production models. Key styling details such as the vertical lamp cluster and heavily chiselled side panels give the newcomer a very distinctive appearance. The front end also shares design cues with the XR PHEV II concept seen at the Geneva Motor Show in 2015. There are no cabin pictures yet, but Mitsubishi says the GT-PHEV Concept gets a “horizontal dashboard”, with a high…