UK roads slide in global satisfaction survey

THE UK has slipped yet further down a league table of roads quality, according to data released in the 2013-14 World Economic Forum report. Having previously sat in an already meagre 24th place, the UK has fallen to 28th, equal to Namibia – and the Republic of Ireland. The study, which is based on people’s perceptions of their own country’s infrastructure, highlights growing dissatisfaction among the British people regarding the state of the road network.

BMW 135i CSL – or something quick?

The powerful BMW 1-Series spotted at the Nurburgring We’ve had endless speculation that BMW are to produce an ‘M’ car for their baby 1-Series range. An argument for which is very strong. After all, if you can attach the ‘M’ moniker to a pair of fat SUVs – the X5M and X6M – attaching the ‘M’ badge to the 1-Series seems a no-brainer.

New Land Rover Freelander will actually be a Discovery

It seems – as we expected – that Land Rover are looking to make more sense of their range of off-roaders as new models are launched, and are going to concentrate on three core brands – Range Rover, Discovery and Defender – instead of the current mish-mash where many models really overlap with others (the top end Discoverys are really a cheaper Range Rover). So the next Freelander will become an entry-level Discovery with underpinnings borrowed from the Evoque (which is itself based on the current Freelander platform, a development of the Ford Galaxy’s platform), and arrive in both 5-seat and 7-seat guise, with the new Discovery ’5′ getting a platform based on the new Range Rover and perhaps spawning two models. The new Discovery range will be targeted as a ‘Lifestyle’ core range for Land Rover (much as the original Disco was) and the Range Rover range will be both sporty and luxurious, with a 7-seat Grand Evoque XL joining the current Evoque, Range Rover Sport and Range Rover.