Alfa Romeo 5 Series rival

Price: From £35,000
On sale: Late 2018

The Giulia proved Alfa can seriously challenge market-leaders such as the BMW 3 Series, and the brand is now looking to repeat the trick with a rival for the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class. Alfa has stayed tight-lipped about the unnamed saloon, but our exclusive image shows how we think it will look. We expect it to share the Giulia’s style, using the same platform and engine range.More at www.oktilli.com

Seat Ibiza

Seat had, it seemed, been waiting in the VW wings for a very long time. For ages referred to as ‘The Spanish Patient’ for its seeming inability to turn a profit, Seat was starved of development tech and funds while plucky, precocious Skoda marched ever upwards.

But then Seat launched the Ateca SUV, which built on the solid foundations of the third-gen Leon hatchback, and things improved. So Seat got more attention from its VW parents, and suddenly found itself first in line for the new small car platform, also to be shared with the Polo, Fabia, and A1. Seat was, this time, not found wanting and has made, in the new Ibiza, a truly satisfying small.Chek more at www.oktilli.com

Volkswagen T-Roc

Straight from a marketing department’s briefing paper rather than a child of engineering genius, the Volkswagen T-Roc could be dismissed as a cynical attempt by VW to follow the latest car craze. Yet for all that, the T-Roc brings quality German engineering to bear on the baby crossover market.

Back seat room and bootspace is tighter than you get on the likes of the Tiguan, but that’s the same for all its rivals. From the latest Jaguar E-Pace to Volvo’s XC40, they are more about artifice than uber-practical.

The T-Roc mixes style, fun and great driving dynamics based on a fantastically engaging new chassis from VW, which it shares with the Q2, but a much better price.

Engine options for Ireland start with the German’s impressive 1-litre 115bhp, which has been impressive in the Golf. However, we expect the T-Roc is best with a bit more power so the 1.5-litre 150bhp.

It also looks best when dressed up as well, so opt for the Design version if your budget allows. Logic suggests you would be better in a Golf, but the public seems to desire this format, so VW has given them what they want.

Best model: T-Roc Design 1.5 TSI 150bhp

Prices start from: €30,650 Follow www.oktilli.com for more

BMW 2 Series

 

If you were to distill the spirit of 1980s BMWs into a modern car, it would surely be the 2 Series Coupe.

Compact, with styling pulled taut over its underlying structure, it just wouldn’t work as a four-door (even though, eventually, BMW is going to make one of those). It’s practical enough, as long as the kids don’t mind squeezing up just a little, and although the boot is shallow, it’s useful enough.

The cabin tends a little to the cheaper end of things, looking a bit old-hat now, but all of that is forgiven once you find some corners. The 2 Series answers the question of “Can modern cars still be fun?” with a resounding yes. 370hp M2 is pricey, but amazing to drive, like a down-sized NASA rocket with attitude.

Tall-roofed 2 Series Active Tourer is actually front-wheel drive, but still engaging to drive and very practical for family use, even if it’s very expensive by family standards. 225xe plugin hybrid is clever, and surprisingly fun, but hard to get sufficient economy from.

Best model: 220i M-Sport

Prices start from: €33,390 Read more at www.oktilli.com

Volvo S90/V90

s, the bigger, arguably more fashionable XC90 SUV had laid the groundwork and the upcoming XC40 and V40 are both going to vastly out-sell them, but the S90 and V90 are the closest Volvo has ever come to matching the likes of a BMW 5 Series or Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

Closest, because they’re not 100 per cent there yet, but they’re very, very close, and more than good enough to stand comparison to the German giants.

The key issue with this Volvo is to go for the 2.0-litre D4 diesel engine (190hp, 400Nm of torque - both more than mple) and then get your S or V in R-Design trim. This does, it must be said, mean that you’ll be looking at a black leather interior, rather than the brighter, lighter Scandi hues of other models, but the extra tautness in the chassis settings, thanks to the R-Design’s lower and stiffer springs is really welcome.

Such a suspension set-up can ruin some cars (indeed it ruins some other Volvo models) but an R-Design S90 really can keep up with a BMW 5 Series on a twisting road, and (whisper it) the Volvo has the nicer steering.

Gorgeous cabin, with its huge (and easy-to-use) central touchscreen hasn’t aged a day since we first saw it, while comfort and quality levels are (mostly) excellent. Estate is gorgeous, but smaller in the back than you’d think. Taller Cross Country four-wheel drive model is a touch pointless.

Best model: S90 D4 R-Design

Prices start from: €44,995 More at www.oktilli.com

Volkswagen Golf

 

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Amid all the swirling diesel scandal, the talk of electric futures and autonomous tomorrows, the rise of the SUV and the fall of the family saloon, the one true and steady constant in motoring is the Volkswagen Golf. So ubiquitous as to occasionally be overlooked, it is one of the few, anti-fashion slices of pure common sense left in the car world.

There is, as the man on the telly still says, one for everyone in the audience. Those looking for an affordable, but classy, family hatch should get the excellent new 115hp 1.0-litre TSI petrol.

A 1.6 or 2.0-litre TDI, especially in commodious estate form, is ideal for those long schleps up and down the motorway. A GTI is pure driving pleasure in a sensible hatchback body, while the R is a 310hp, all-wheel-drive, all- weather stealth strike weapon.

Want to be more forward looking? The GTE and recently-revised E-Golf can offer you as much or as little electric motoring as you can handle, though at a steep price.

The fact that the Golf is ranked so high in our Top 100 says something, as well, about all the supposed challengers and replacements rolled out in the last year, or the last decade.

During a recent trip to the continent, a last-minute dash to a car rental desk meant we were behind the wheel of a Golf again, for the first time in several months. We’d forgotten just how good and well-rounded this car is, but 1,200kms later, it had proved its worth. There’s a reason so many motorists look no further.

Best model: 115hp 1.0 TSI Comfortline

Prices start from: €21,095 Chek more at www.oktilli.com

Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Mercedes-Benz is on a remarkable sales surge in Ireland, thanks in no small part to a mammoth product offensive and some very enticing prices, that suddenly make a three-pointed star keyring affordable to more of the masses.

What was once a brand regarded as a little musty and old-fashioned, overtaken by the young bucks in BMWs and Audis, it has reinvented itself for a new generation. Suddenly - well over the last three years or so - a Mercedes-Benz has become cool again.

In spite of the E-Class range still being diesel-centric, this Merc is still the best premium car on forecourts these days.

The purchase of an E-Class requires a few caveats, though. First off, you really need to spend the extra change to get the all-digital instruments, otherwise the analogue dials just look a bit too old-hat and cheap.

Second, don’t be too focused on the default-choice diesel – even though the 192hp 2.0-litre oil-burning engine is actually a bit of a cracker – as there are excellent hybrid, and shortly plugin hybrid options, and the temptations of the glorious 401hp E43 AMG.

Third, you really, really have to buy the estate as, somehow, the E-Class just looks so at home with the extra bodywork out the back, and the massive boot and load-carrying ability are pretty hard to beat.

Mercedes is trimming its prices for 2018, so a basic model now starts from €48,200, and comes with some extra equipment too. Off-road-ish All-Terrain model may be useful for well-heeled farmers.

Best model: E43 AMG, to be honest, but an E250d Estate will do just as nicely

Prices start from: €48,200 Read more at www.oktilli.com