My nearest and dearest will confirm that I am not generally enthusiastic about automatic transmissions, so it was with a sense of duty rather than delight that I first climbed aboard the clutchless Freelander Td4.

The hot hatch segment is a bit crowded at the moment. Thats never a bad thing of course, but given the cost of fuel and the environmental fallout from global warming, youd expect things to be different.

Because lets be honest, nothing is less logical than falling in love with a Land Rover, even the LR3, especially at a time when the price of a litre of gas is almost higher than that of a kilo of caviar.

Before being purchased by the Indian conglomerate Tata, Land Rover created this - the LRX Concept. Not just another consumptive SUV, the LRX is a two-door that gathers vitality from both diesel fuel and electricity.

I drove a Mercedes-Benz CLS last Monday. It always seemed a ludicrously indulgent car on which to spend a manufacturers development and marketing budgets, as it is broadly an E-Class saloon with a side view shaped like a banana, less room inside and some more exotic mechanical parts.

The Audi A8 is a car of many firsts and many facts, so heres a couple of interesting points which may be of use when starting out a conversation. The A8 was the first production vehicle to feature a twelve cylinder engine in a W arrangement.

We clamber behind the wheel of the new supercharged Elise for the ride of our lives.Last week we got to drive the new 218hp supercharged Lotus Elise SC. It boats less power than the equivalent Exige S 240 because the Elise makes do without an intercooler in order to maintain rear visibility.

Infinitis original FX moon buggy debuted in 2003 intending to be a sports sedan wearing a fanny pack. It handled well, accelerated smartly with the optional V-8, and looked particularly glam on its optional 20-inch wheels.

Well, BMW has done it again. Just when you thought they were going the route of Volvos - safe, characterless vehicles made for old business men with bellies who play a lot of golf - the engineers at Bavarian Motor Works shock and amaze us all.

Updated for 2008, the look is even more dramatic and daring- less tubby and vastly more meaningful and stirring. The tall front grille is flanked with bi-xenon headlights, while energetic lines adorn the wind-swept body which is outlined in a classic 2 2 silhouette.

An amphibian or a car with water-wings would have been perfect for this summer but, short of that ideal, the BMW 3 Series Convertible might be the next best thing.