Suzuki Swift Sport gets 5 doors & costs £14,249

The new Suzuki Swift Sport 5-door (pictured) offers a more practical option to the Sport The Suzuki Swift Sport arrived in the UK at the end of 2011, and although it wasn’t exactly the sort of hot hatch that would make a Fiesta ST quake in its boots it did up the fun factor from Suziki’s more than decent Swift. In fact, the 3-door Swift Sport did a bit more than up the fun factor, it got Australia’s advertising authorities up in arms about its ‘suggestive’ advertising and got itself banned from Ozzie TV for being too ‘hot’. Which probably didn’t do sales any harm at all.

Volkswagen XL1

This, remarkably, is the production version of the Volkswagen XL1, the most fuel-efficient production car in the world, a car we'll see in Geneva in a little over a week. Barely changed from the concept version shown at the Qatar motor show two years ago, the production XL1 is the first production result of VW's 1-liter project – to design a car that uses less than 1l/100km (282.5mpg imperial) – that started with the lozenge-shaped, tandem-seat 2003 1L and the later L1 of 2009. The XL1 actually beats that by sipping just 0.9 liters with CO2 emissions of 21g/km.

Women 'prefer men in eco-friendly cars'

GIRLS go for men with "green" cars rather than those with gas-guzzlers, according to a survey. More than half of women reckon drivers of expensive sports cars are arrogant, the poll from Motors.co.uk found. But many women, and men too, found drivers of eco-friendly cars such as the Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius to be conscientious, intelligent and safe motorists.