It's not just about new cars...

No manufacturer-supplied test car for the last week, so have been driving around in the family Ford Focus estate. I generally only do local mileage in it and don’t go any distance that often. When I do, it always reminds me what an excellent car it is. It’s still a surprisingly good performer, despite being a 55-plater with 70k on the clock. I wish I could get better than 38mpg from the 1.6-litre petrol engine, but it seems impossible. Also been using the ageing Jeep Wrangler, which spends most of its time sitting in the garage on a trickle-charger. It’s still an unsurprisingly appalling performer, with attrocious body roll through corners and fuel economy of around 18mpg from the 4.0-litre petrol engine. Thing is, it puts a smile on my face everytime I take it out. And you can’t put a price on that. Can't wait for some warmer weather so I can get the roof off.

It appears tax does need to be taxing...

I realise company car tax isn’t the most sparkling subject, but I would imagine knowing how much HMRC is going to take out of your wages every month is pretty important. I don’t know, being freelance it doesn’t happen to me. I have to write a large cheque once a year. Anyway, I’ve spent a chunk of this week writing an article for Auto Express magazine looking at how the company car tax Benefit In Kind (BIK) bandings – based on CO2 emissions – are going to change after 5 April this year. That’s about six weeks away. How much information is there online? Next to nothing. Even the HMRC website has only basic details in an obvious place. The rest was so hidden I couldn’t actually find it and had to ask. When I did, I was supplied with links to pdf documents that sent me round in circles. Even the HMRC man agreed it wasn’t very clear. In the end, I sent him the blank table I was trying to fill in, so they could understand what info I wanted. Even then, they told me what to do and I had to fill it in manually myself. It seems no official table comparing the current rates with what they will after 5 April actually exists. Genius.

Rome: a driver's nightmare

So back from Rome and still in shock about the standards of driving and road safety generally. In short, it’s as bad as I’ve seen anywhere. I’m not sure about the rest of Italy, but the capital is a nightmare as a motorist or a pedestrian. I asked our cabbie how long the ride from airport to hotel was going to take. He answered 30 minutes. He was right, but it should have taken 45. It was only half an hour because he drove like a complete twat. Far too fast on every type of road, weaving all over the place, jumping red lights, pulling in and out inches from other traffic – a full tick-list of idiocy. If the skill of a driver is judged by the way he or she makes their passengers feel, he was off the scale. I had nail marks on the back of my hand where my wife had dug in for survival. Consequently life as a pedestrian can be challenging. Zebra crossings are meaningless – don’t expect anyone to stop for you – and the little green man at traffic lights doesn’t mean cars will actually give way to you. You are literally taking your life in your hands. Apart from that we had a great time. Amazing city.

Being picky about BMW

Smugly just spent a couple of days in southern Spain where it was hot enough to sit outside and drink cold beer. The reason was the media launch of the all-new BMW 3-Series, thrown around the twisty mountain roads behind Marbella to the point where this passenger was starting to feel queasy. It’s no criticism of the car – now in its sixth generation – or my co-driver. Rather it’s praise for a saloon which has so much grip and poise through the corners that it will take all you can throw at it and more. When a car is this refined you start nit-picking about things most people would be happy to have in their car. Though perhaps even Joe Public would turn his nose up at the truly hideous wood interior detailing that’s part of the newly launched Modern trim level. It looked like a chocolate yule log, bought from a cheap supermarket in early December and rediscovered at the back of the cupboard in mid-February. It’s so ugly there aren’t even any photos of it.

By the way, there will be no posting on Thursday because I shall be in Rome (expected to be a damn sight chillier than Spain) with my beautiful wife to celebrate her birthday. If I crack out the laptop and start blogging I’ll be shot.

Mazda's mistake

A facelifted Mazda3 arrived at my house this week but the snow meant it didn’t venture out for a couple of days. Its first trip was a late-night run to Farnborough Airport for an early flight the next morning. I got in the car, started the engine, switched on the headlights… and the reason I will never buy a Mazda3 hit me between the eyes. I realise style and design are personal choices, and I accept some people couldn’t give a monkey’s how the dashboard looks. But I’m not one of them; creating the interior should be as much a labour of love as the exterior. Designers will spend months carefully ensuring the windows, bonnet, bumpers and doors all blend together to produce something beautiful. So why on earth don’t they do it with the cabin? What about the Mazda3 so offended me? There are two digital information screens centrally mounted at the top of the dash. One is a trip computer, the other has ventilation and audio details. They are about an inch apart, yet Mazda has somehow managed to make them look totally hideous. Each is completely different to the other. Screen shape, font style, font colour, background shade – nothing is shared. They have quite clearly come from two different suppliers who had no idea what the other was doing. The result is a mess. The Mazda3 might be the best driver’s car on the planet but I wouldn’t open my wallet because that one element would irritate me every time I sat behind the wheel. My gripe may sound irrational to you but I guarantee I’m not alone.

Driven: Hyundai i40

Why anyone buys a saloon is a bit beyond me. The back end is just so impractical. However, if you insist on having one – or it’s a company car and you don’t have a choice – you could do a lot worse than a Hyundai i40. I’d take the estate over the saloon every time as it’s a smarter looking design and obviously far more versatile, but the four-door model is another excellent vehicle from Hyundai. It’s hard to argue with performance figures of 113g/km and 65.7mpg, which are pretty much class-leading. Prices start at under £17,400 and you get a lot of kit as standard, including alloys, Bluetooth connectivity with voice recognition, leather steering wheel with audio controls, electric heated door mirrors and an electric parking brake with automatic hold function. I’ve nothing against the Ford Mondeo – it’s a great car – but the bottom-of-the-range Edge trim is £500 more than the i40 and doesn’t have half that kit on it. The Mondeo is undoubtedly a better car to drive but there’s not much wrong with the i40. If I was spending my own money, I know what I would be buying.

Driven: Hyundai Veloster

Spent a couple of hours in the new Hyundai Veloster yesterday, which I really enjoyed. It’s a sporty coupe for people who don’t want anything too extreme – there’s only 138bhp from the 1.6-litre engine, though a more powerful turbo is on the way – and is perfectly acceptable for that. It looks good, drives nicely and will still hit 60mph in under 10 seconds. The Sport trim I was driving has a panoramic sunroof as standard, and that makes it a little tight inside for headroom. It’s a trend I’ve noticed a few times on coupes recently; the new Porsche 911 suffers in the same way. If you want a sunroof it means the interior headlining is lower because the roof has to be thicker to accommodate the glass and mechanism. I wonder how many taller drivers are put off a car because of that, without knowing that if there’s a no-sunroof option available, the car would actually be more comfortable for them.