Nissan's Qashqai grabs top award

NISSAN'S Qashqai crossover has been voted ‘Used Car of the Year’ by used car pricing experts CAP – for the second year in a row. A panel of judges comprising of used car market and vehicle valuation experts at CAP said: “The Nissan Qashqai has created an entirely new ‘crossover’ sector and prompted other manufacturers to follow by marrying the practicality of a people carrier with the looks of a quality 4x4. By achieving this in a package that also offers economy, handling, strong build quality and reliability the Qashqai has become the perfect used car for our time.” The panel noted that strong demand meant the Qashqai was always highly sought after by trade buyers and customers alike, meaning it depreciated slowly and outperformed the general market.

Festival of the Unexceptional: the bad cars we love

Ever been to a classic car show and noticed how many old MGBs and sports cars of yesteryear have turned up, driven by their proud owners, but wondered what happened to all the more mainstream stuff? There are twice as many Ferrari 308 GTBs on the roads in the UK than Austin Allegros, because the everyday cars of the past fail MOTs, get chucked away and replaced with shiny new hatchbacks. Fortunately, there is a select group of people in the UK who care for the mundane stuff of yesterday and, because of this, a new event for “unexceptional” cars will be taking place this summer.

2015 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S drive review

What is it? The 2015 V12 Vantage S is the latest evolution of the sports car introduced in 2005, as the entry point to Aston Martin's lineup. It essentially melds the current, track-tuned V8 Vantage S with the range-topping V12 Vantage, which the V12 S replaces.