Driven:- Nissan Qashqai Tekna 2.0 DCi

Crossover, baby. Take a walk on the wild side. Yes, wild. These slightly pumped-up, mildly macho looking off-roaderishly styled cars are hot property right now. They hint at an active, rugged lifestyle and provide a twinge of excitement while you drive to the shops or take the guinea pig to the vet.

You can get a small crossover from any of the major manufacturers these days, Fords Kuga is probably the best of the lot, the rest of them all co-exist in an identity parade that can be difficult to differentiate between. Today I’m driving a Nissan Qashqai; my first time behind the wheel of a car that guarantees my spell-checker instant meltdown.

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Driven #14:- BMW E46 320d Compact

Image and looks, two very separate things that just happen to be inextricably linked. See that cool guy over there? The handsome, well dressed guy? And that geek-chic girl he’s with? She’s really hot behind those glasses and the cable-knit sweater. And so it is, we will typically adjust our conceptions of a person’s image, depending on their looks. If a well-dressed man happens to be ugly people will say he’s craggy, or distinctive, or any of a thousand descriptions less insulting than simple ugliness. Ugly Betty, as we know, isn’t ugly at all. She just typically wears horrible clothes.

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Driven #10:- Toyota IQ

Let’s get the whistlestop review over with as quickly as possible. As an urban runabout the Toyota IQ makes a lot of sense. It takes up very little road or parking space; it’s less than ten feet long overall. It has been proven economical and will cost very little in road tax and, depending on who and where you are, insurance. It is also, within its remit, very pleasant to drive. Additionally it doesn’t feel like it’s trying as hard to create an image as other town-biased cars seem to, things like Smarts, Alfa Mitos and Minis. Toyota IQ drivers look a lot less like smug pillocks than Smart drivers do.

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