In 1997, when Mazda introduced its new ‘Owl’ logo — a stylised ‘M’ to convey that the company was spreading its wings for the future, its creators could hardly have envisaged what was going to happen to the company.

Every now and then in this gig you come across something which is a genuine surprise and, occasionally, a delight as well.

AS Spain’s only really serious motor manufacturer, Seat has suffered many of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune down the years, but in recent times and under the stewardship of the Volkswagen Group, it has enjoyed a fairly good time of it and I, for one, have certainly enjoyed driving cars such as the Altea, the Ibiza and the Leon.

We have long lauded the Skoda RS as being one of the best sports-orientated cars on the go right now, particularly so as it offers a performance package which is second to none at the price. Now, the car has another string to its bow, with a sporty diesel version which is designated simply as the ‘RS’.

The Golf GTi is, quite rightly, a motoring icon — having single-handedly created a market niche and then gone on to dominate that segment for decades.

In recent years the BMW 5-Series has raised the bar in the executive car segment to such a level that Mercedes and Audi were in serious danger of being left wondering who nicked their laurels.

Volvo has announced details of its new, V60 sports wagon and says the car will be available in Ireland next January.

In all my years doing this gig, I have seen many strange things — exploding test cars, hysterical PR people, maniac hacks, insanely jealous lay people causing ructions at car launches, and the occasional mental and physical meltdown of people so taken by a new car that they can hardly contain themselves.

Somewhat amusingly, the PR man from Kia emailed me recently, following my rant about faux 4x4 machines, wondering if there was any point in his sending the 4x2 Kia Sorento to me for testing.

PEUGEOT had really hit a nerve with the buying public with its new 3008 and 5008 MPV ranges, and, over in the UK, sales of these machines are reaching record proportions.

I DOUBT very much if there will be a more important new car launched this year than the new Saab 9-5.

ONE brand that does not appear to be feeling the universal downturn is Mini and the company this week reported that its sales are up by 23% to the end of April 2010.

There are cars that often fly below most people’s radar levels and THIS week’s tester is an unjustly oft-overlooked car very good example of same — or so it seems to me anyway.

Renault could possibly never have imagined when they introduced the original Espace that it would have kicked off a frenzy of imitators — across every market segment — as people, literally, jumped on the MPV bandwagon.

Citroën has had a torrid time of it here in Ireland in recent times, what with its franchise holder Gallic Distributors suddenly shutting up shop and leaving the marque temporarily high and dry, and then the name of the brand was further sullied by a series of court cases in which several dealers we

Never in the history of a motor company has the production of one car meant so much to so many as does the new Opel Astra.

The arrival of the two-litre turbocharged diesel engine across Subaru’s model line-up was a huge shot in the arm not only for the company as a whole, but also its distribution agents around the globe.

The arrival of the two-litre turbocharged diesel engine across Subaru’s model line-up was a huge shot in the arm not only for the company as a whole, but also its distribution agents around the globe.

Lest it be said that I am kicking a beaten dog when it is on the deck, let me stress from the outset here that that is most certainly not the case. And, what’s more I am not going to get any further embroiled into Toyota’s current worldwide difficulties — resulting , it has to be said, from the comp