Survey: Toyota, Honda, Ford are top brands for consumers

Toyota, Honda and Ford rank as the best brands in consumers' minds, an annual Consumer Reports survey found. Toyota finished first for the third consecutive year of the study, which involved randomly questioning more than 1,700 U.S. adults in early December.

What happened to the Bentley GT Speed Top Gear took rallying?

We asked Bentley what happened to the Continental GT Speed Top Gear took rallying in the first episode of Series 19. All that Top Gear did to the GT Speed to prepare it for the rally stage was to chuck out the comfortable, quilted Mulliner front seats and replace them with proper racing seats. Other than that, it was all down to the Bentley’s suspension and enormous torque to take on the worst roads Wales could throw at it.

Suzuki refreshes Swift with five-door Sport and 4x4 model

Suzuki is offering its cracking little warm hatch, the Swift Sport, with five doors for 2013. The family-friendly model shares its powertrain with the three-door Swift CAR ran (and loved) as a long termer last year – that means a naturally aspirated, 1.6-litre engine good for 134bhp, a six-speed manual gearbox and 0-62mph in 8.7sec. Suzuki says it expects one-third of Swift Sport customers to opt for the five-door model – sales have so far averaged 1200 a year in the UK.