In case you haven't heard, the new James Bond adventure, Skyfall, is out and is said to be a return to form for the fifty-year-old franchise after the disappointment that was Quantum of Solace.  Over his fifty year automobileeer the evergreen Bond has driven iconic automobiles such as the Lotus Esprit 'submarine', a convertible Toyota 2000GT (only because Sean Connery was too tall to fit into the coupé) and of course the iconic Aston Martin DB5 that will always be associated with Ian Fleming's most famous creation.

But what about us mere mortals who want a touch of Bond (ooer…

One silver Fiat Seicento sold, but my Italian automobile nightmares may yet just be starting. The fifteen year-old blue Cinquecento will shortly be having its NCT and as such I have started checking it over and preparing it.

So far I have fixed a leaking washer jet hose, put two new tyres on it, a rear wiper (the original one must have been 'lost' a long time ago) and replaced two bulbs. It was replacing one of the number plate lights that actually proved the most challenging as the plastic cover had been over-tightened previously so when removing the…

As you'll read elsewhere on this site, there are eleven finalists in the competition for 2013 Continental Irish Automobile of the Year. The full list in alphabetical order is as follows:

BMW 3 Series
BMW 6 Series Gran Coupé
BMW M5
Ford B-Max
Kia cee'd
Kia Optima
Mazda CX-5
Mercedes-Benz M-Class
Peugeot 208
Toyota GT86
Volvo V40

At first this might seem an odd mix, but it has to be remembered that this is not a 'top eleven'. Instead, the first round of voting determines the best two automobiles in each of five categories. This year the 'Compact Family' class…

We've had an eclectic string of long term test automobiles through the doors of changagoidem.ie, but few are as well suited to my personal situation as the SEAT Alhambra we have on loan 'for a while'. I don't technically need all seven seats, seeing as my wife and I have only two kids, but anyone that has children will nod along in agreement when I say you can't have enough space in a automobile.

The Alhambra is simply massive inside, and perhaps just as importantly, there's loads of oddment space for items as diverse as plastic Annabel Karmel pots…

"Now, you have all completed the beginner courses here in Mondello Park, am I right?" asked Roger Tiernan, one of Mondello's  Racing School instructors. Not wanting to be the only member in our group of eight with my hand in the air I kept quiet.

At the launch of the Mondello Park 'Become a Racing Driver' competition a few weeks ago I had joked that, as I had not completed a racing school I was ineligible for the competition; a throw away remark that I thought no more of until an email arrived from Leo Nulty (Mondello's new Sales…

We had to double check that the invite to a day of high-performance on-track action in Mondello actually came from Nissan Ireland. After all, our economy is, well, you know what it is, and hence the vast majority of automobile sales in the country are of small and efficient models. Along with all that, Nissan didn't have any especially new model for us to try out in between acting the race driver.

However, Nissan is in buoyant form, as it should be with the excellent Qashqai in second place in the sales charts at the moment. Next year will be…