BMW USED CARS

It's a sweet little car, the Mazda2. Not sweet in a cute way, but sweet in a crisp
and sharp way. Our only problem with it so far has been with the 1.4 diesel
engine, which is unrefined and doesn't suit the car's zingy nature.

So will this new 1.6-litre diesel solve the problem?
In short, yes. It might only be a few cubic centimetres bigger than the 1.4 -
which you can still buy - but it has a far more useful 88bhp and 158lb ft,
that's a third more than in the smaller engine, making it less thrashy and more
effortless. CO2 output is 112g/km, just 5g
more than the 1.4's figure.

What a great little car. Not a contender in our
mind-blowing performance car shoot-out this month (TG 195), admittedly, but no less brilliant for it, this
facelifted Clio remains at the top of its class. And after driving it for a
couple of days, I was as impressed with it as with any of the mega-cars you'll
find in later pages. Building a small car this good is no easy task.

The car tested
is a Sport Tourer, in Dynamique trim, with the 1.5 dCi diesel engine. If you
need an efficient, clean, small runabout, this is it. At £14,770 (£13,220 for
the Expression base model) it's not particularly cheap, but a determination to
avoid the bargain basement Koreans is probably wise in this category.

This new 116d is the cheapest BMW diesel, the lowest-polluting and the most economical model
in the BMW range... it's also one of the best. In fact, it's one of the most
sorted hatches you can buy, full stop.

The 116 badge is the lowest of
all BMW monikers, but 116d does not mean 1.6 litres - this is the same
2.0-litre diesel lump that appears in the 118d, 120d and 123d, but here it
produces 116bhp and 140lb ft. That's down from 176bhp and 258lb ft in the 120d,
but the lower boost levels, coupled with the clever start-stop tech that's been
on BMWs for a while now, means that the fuel economy rises to 64.2mpg and CO2 falls to 118g/km.

Another month, another Audi. The Ingolstadt factory
is busier than ever right now, belching out new models as fast as its conveyor
belts can carry them. Audi sold over a million cars last year, and this A5
Sportback is the 33rd car to join the company's line-up. It's also the sixth to
share the A4/A5 platform.

So what is the A5 Sportback,
exactly? We will attempt to answer that as briefly as possible, but because
it's complicated, it might take nearly a billion words.

Curious car, this one. Despite a massive
temptation to ask just how such a thing ever made it past the idea stage, car
companies, particularly German ones, don't tend to make things that they
haven't already established someone will probably buy. Which means that, when
asked by the researcher with the clipboard and fixed smile, more than one
person must have said "Yes, actually, there is an X6 M shaped hole in my life".
Who these people are and what sort of lives they lead is anyone's guess but,
having driven the X6 M, I can only suggest that they are conflicted. Very
conflicted.