Author name: Pamela Ross

Stellantis is mending fences in the aftermath of the stormy leadership of Carlos Tavares, which delivered incredible profits but also badly damaged relationships with unions, dealers, politicians and suppliers. “Those are areas where clearly I think we need to build back trust,” Stellantis chief financial officer Doug Ostermann told a banking conference in December. The

We regularly find cause to praise the standard of Suzuki’s chassis tuning and, happily, the Vitara offers us another chance to do so. Much like the Suzuki S-Cross, mostly everything the car does exudes a basic level of mechanical competence that puts many of its heavier, more ‘sophisticated’ ‘B-SUV’ rivals to shame. Certainly, owners of anything previously

Maintenance is affordable with specialists, although the V8’s fuel consumption is, well, noticeable, along with an appetite for brake pads. It’s heavy, which is why the early 4.2-litre model isn’t so quick; the 4.7 is more convincing. Avoid the clunky MC Shift automated manual in favour of the ZF six-speed automatic, which best suits the Maserati’s lavish

Mini aimed for a more materially sophisticated, practical and refined feel for the mk2 Countryman, and the effect of which was best described as ‘bubbling under’ in the busy, chromey, idiosyncratic but not quite uniformly well-finished cabin you’d find in the car. The grey cloth trim was sombre for a Mini (as was the piano black trim over