International motor shows are a time of immense excitement for the hardcore petrol heads of this world and attending them for yourself is the only way to soak up the frantic buzz.

Press conferences and unveilings happen within minutes of one another. No sooner have you seen a new wacky concept from one brand and you hear the booming dance music cranked up at the other end of the vast hall as the next automobile maker wheels out its latest wares.

There is of course the usual bun fight when it comes to jockeying for the best vantage…

We've had some reviews of some brilliantly utilitarian van-based automobiles on changagoidem.ie this week (Volkswagen Caddy Maxi Life, Citroen Berlingo Multispace) so it seems like a good time to track down one of the originals, a Renault Kangoo. Boxy, simple, spacious and solid, the Kangoo is the kind of automobile we'd all buy if badge snobbery was outlawed in the morning.

Cheap to buy and run, but with cathedral-like space inside, it's the very definition of practical motoring. Watch for weak clutches and make sure the…

*steps up on soap-box*

The recent brouhaha, fracas, dust-up (take your pick) involving Jeremy Clarkson got me thinking. Not about the future of Top Gear or the BBC's code of internal conduct (couldn't automobilee less about either to be perfectly honest), but about the future of professional motoring criticism.

You see, whether you think of Clarkson as devil or angel, as right or wrong, what cannot be denied is that he is independent. He always was. I'm old enough to remember Clarkson Mk1 - all leather jacket and bubble-perm, ranting from the truncated format of Old Top Gear or…

So, our airwaves (do websites have airways?) have been abuzz this week with the launch of the new Honda Civic Type-R, and you can read Kyle Fortune's road test of the blistering new hot hatch here. What about the old one though? It's a rare automobile in Ireland - having been launched into the teeth of the recession rather damaged its sales chances - but you can track them down and for surprisingly small money.

We've found one, made in 2007 (so you're on the older, slightly cheaper tax system) for just…

It will forever be remembered as an unmitigated disaster - up there with Betamax and the Minidisc - though was in fact voted the greatest innovation disaster of all time last year by 1,000 tech fans; was the Sinclair C5 really just ahead of its time?

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with a special display at the National Motor Museum in Hampshire, UK, the C5 is a single-seat, pedal-electric, urban commuting vehicle not a million miles away from the concept of the Renault Twizy or Toyota i-Road. While not a exactly common sight on the road (the i-Road…

We saw the first photos and details of the new Skoda Superb Combi estate popping up this week, and it'll be launching in Ireland later this summer. We'll get to drive it for the first time in a few weeks, but it jogged our memory of just how brilliant the current Superb Combi is. Enormously spacious, exceptionally comfortable, it's a close-to-perfect family wagon, and one that's built as well as (if not better) than the far more expensive Mercedes E-Class estate.

We…