Car journalists are often forced to endure fully paid for stays at beautiful hotels, and then face the punishing task of driving a brand new car over the country’s best roads, followed by a painful lunch in Franschoek. After surviving these nightmare scenarios, we managed to put together a few opinions about the Mercedes CLS 63 AMG and the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

Gavin actually owns the old Subaru Legacy, so this week’s review was close to home. The new Outback (not a legacy any more sadly) is not a bad car by any means, but its changed character so much that we can’t help but feel it’s lost some of the older model’s magic.

Mini has continued to expand and the next Mini to arrive in SA will be the new Coupe. We feel Mini are trying hard to move away from being a “handbag car” – ie, just an accessory to attracting buyers who want to drive them for their driving dynamics, which have always been very, very good indeed.

Gav’s been driving the GrandDaddy Range Rover, the one footballer’s like. It’s quirky but quite spectactular all in all. And lastly would you like to know what a former Spice Girl and the latest Range Rover have in common? Well look no further.

This week we have a go in and at the new Nissan Micra, a good car which pales in comparison to the model it replaces. We also have a chat about South Africa’s car of the year, the BMW 530d. What a sensible luxury car; if only we could get our politicians driving these.

I think if you told a mielie farmer in the 80s that one day he could buy a bakkie that looks this good, drives this well, has a reverse camera, satellite navigation and a sound system worthy of a U2 concert, he would have laughed very loudly and then chased you off of his farm. We review the new Nissan Navara V9X.

I think it’s important that we don’t forget that cars in general should excite us. They should just exist in our lives for no other reason than to make us feel like 7 year olds. I haven’t felt this way about a car in years, I actually want a poster of this on my wall. The Ferrari 458 Spider.

We’ve driven the single and double cab variants of this car and I’ll start off by saying I think they’re brilliant. Volkswagen has really taken the fight to the establishment and created a clever, powerful, fuel efficient, good looking, massive range of bakkies.

We should point out that in America these bakkies are marketed as “compact pick ups”.The Amarok is anything but compact. It is simply massive. Its like driving New Zealand. Not driving around in New Zealand, I mean the whole thing.

Catch us next week on Expresso!

This week it’s all gone a bit hybrid. We reviewed the future, in the form of the Honda CRZ and the brand new Lexus CT200h, which sounds like a microwave.

This week we reviewed two cars, one of which could probably fit inside the other. Audi’s tiny new car with a huge price tag, the Audi A1, and Mercedes Benz clever, fuel efficient and massive Vito Shuttle. Guess which one fits where.

This week it we featured two French rivals in a bit of a civil war. The Megane GT is a fine contender, with a 1.4T petrol engine you’d expect it to be boring but is exactly the opposite. A superb car i if you enjoy driving but don’t want the fuel bills. The Citroen C4 is the more luxurious, more laid back option, but both are superb value for money.

We’ll be back next week on Expresso with the Audi A1 and the Mercedes Vito. Which we imagine the A1 could slip into comfortably.