Exterior is a horrible overstyled pastiche of several other cars, so will go down great in China, where more is always more. Interior is actually quite nice, probably because they’ve not deviated that much from the basic Volvo cues.

Not out in the UK or Ireland.

Was going to ask the same thing. Is the Giulia actually on sale anywhere on the planet?

CRV would be a bit part player here in Ireland. Most of the “soccer moms” (I guess they would be “GAA Mammies” here) drive Nissans or Hyundais, although I have a sneaking suspicion the school car park will be full of Skoda Kodiaks a year from now.

I’m actually more disappointed with the interior of the 5 than the exterior; which let’s face it, was always going to be a conservative update in this segment. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it ergonomically, but Merc and Audi are now streets ahead on perceived quality and execution.

I think if I was an American driving on the correct side of the car for the first time, I’d have probably gone for an automatic.

That happened in America too? I always though the woodland porn fairy was a peculiarly British institution.

Australia is the worst place on Earth for petty rules enforced by overzealous idiot policemen. Its like Singapore without the clean streets.

Er, actually precedent is set. It can be used in other, similar cases. Australia is a common law legal system.

Heh, not sure if it was this particular one, but I’ve sat inside one of those; back in 1995 I was working for a car magazine publisher and one of the titles I was doing stuff for was Land Rover Owner Magazine. They did a feature on this for the magazine (it was at some off road show near Northampton) and as I was also…

Actually, they could. They got rid of channel that carries F1 in the middle of the season (because it was rebranded and carries the logo of a rival telco), and the offer to take the content back (includes a bunch of football rights as well) is still on the table. But they prefer screwing their customers over because…

Big deal. I couldn't watch the F1 here in Ireland yesterday because my cable company won't do a deal with the local rights holder (before you ask I can't change cable provider). My cable company is Virgin media, owned by Liberty media, owners of F1...

What kind of an idiot doesn’t know that Singapore is the one place in the world where you’ll get a massive fine for littering? The very first time I went there, at passport control they had a bowl of boiled sweets on the counter, I picked one, unwrapped it, ate the sweet, then realised there were no bins. My immediate…

Mmmm, blaaaand.

Old school Land Rover enthusiasts scream out in pain and Land Rover execs sleep soundly on their giant beds made of money.

Do these patents relate to Wireplay? Back in the day BT genuinely were ahead of the curve with a lot of gaming and digital distribution stuff, all under the Wireplay banner, but they weren’t the only ones (bizarrely, the notorious Enron corp also had a bunch of developments in this area). There is a bit of a fanboy…

TV licence fees are common in lots of countries.

Erm, Bertone would like a word.

Even though its rubbish, and I know its rubbish because I’ve driven one, I still can’t help liking it.

Not very Russian either if his name is anything to go by.