Those dealers who took on Skoda agencies in recent years are reaping many benefits right now.

"Right," I asked the guy delivering my review car. "Could you not give me something a little more visible?"

I doubt that when BMW re-launched the Mini in 2001 that the company planned the startling number of variants of the iconic car — from the standard One version through a bewildering number of Coopers and then the Countryman.

So, if you want to be seriously green and are not a dieselhead, you have to go for a Toyota Prius or one of the Honda hybrids.

I am fairly certain that if you were to walk into a BMW showroom right now and asked the salesperson about the ready availability of a new 640d, with a raft of additional extras which brought the price of said machine up to an eye-watering €113,000, they would be overcome with a powerful and debilitating weakness.

There was a time that the North American International Auto Show didn't really have much relevance for European motorists.

It is not the time of the year for wind-in-the-hair motoring, unless you want double pneumonia, but there will still be interest in the newest version of Mercedes’ iconic two-seater, the SLK.

It just might be that Irish motorists are ready to embrace a variant of their cars that has been neglected over the past two or even three decades.

Those who know the current Fiat Panda might be forgiven for thinking the new one is just a refresh.

It is probably appropriate that in the week in which we got our first sight of the new 3-Series from BMW, one of that car’s biggest rivals — the Audi A4 — should also get a facelift.

We tested the latest face-lifted C-Class Mercedes saloon recently and found it to be a very pleasing machine indeed, but then we tried the Estate version and found it to be even better again.

It’s funny how small things can put you off a car.

Coming hot on the heels of last week’s review of the excellent Range Rover Evoque comes news of a major competitor — the all new Audi Q3, which is Audi’s first foray into the premium A SUV segment.

This is the time of year when I like to take a relook at cars which have been with us for a while, to see if they have stayed the pace at which we first found them.

You don't buy a BMW 6 Series on a whim. Not least because you're going to be paying a six-figure sum by the time you get it out of the showroom and into your driveway, writes Brian Byrne.

Limited edition cars, I find, also usually have decidedly limited appeal, but I drove one recently which may just have more than that.

Sometimes I get into a car and I have to search for a word to describe the experience.

Sometimes a car doesn't immediately make an impression. And then, gradually as you share a few hundred kilometres with it, you get to appreciate its qualities.

Mercedes is set to shake up the compact MPV market in the coming months with the introduction here of the new B-Class contender which is going to redefine how many people look at this segment.