Every so often, manufacturers arrange driving days so that journo’s can mess around… ahem, I mean drive, and properly assess their range of vehicles, and this particular Driving Day was arranged by Mazda up in t’hills of Halifax, Yorkshire.  Being a Lancashire lad I grabbed my passport and made sure that all my jabs were up to date and set off towards the Pennines……

It's only the best 4x4 ever, that's what it is. Ok, I might be a little biased here.

If it was up to me there wouldn’t be any words here, this 'review' would be completely devoid, bereft and totally lacking of text in any form whatsoever, just photos.  Photos of what I firmly believe to be the best and certainly one of the most beautiful vehicles in the world.  However, Muddy Madam suggested that ….

Originally launched back in 2009, it’s fair to say that it wasn’t the prettiest SUV in the playground.  Now however, it appears that BMW have got their act together, and this new version is far more equipped to take on the premium SUV elite.

Although on a longer wheelbase, the new X1 is shorter in length, but ….

With a raft of awards under its belt, the C4 Cactus still appears to be a Marmite car, you either love it or hate it.  When it was delivered to The Mud Life Towers, the first thing the man from Citroën said when I opened the door wasn’t, ‘Hello Mr Turner, I have a car for you.’  No, the first thing he said was, ‘Sorry about the colour!’  Make no mistake, it's…..

Jumping into the Sport my first thought was, it’s a bit cramped.  No, let me rephrase that, I don’t mean cramped as what a 6’ 2”, 19 stone bloke feels like driving a Defender, perhaps snug is a better word.  Perspective I think is required before I dig myself any deeper……

For those of us who don’t need a full expedition roof rack on our 4x4's, yet still need to carry a variety of gubbins on the roof, the obvious solution is a set of roof bars, and in my experience, nothing is quite as sturdy as Thule. (Pronounced Toolay btw).

Decades ago I bought a pair of lockable Thule roof bars for my old ’74 Range Rover, they were brilliant and I still …….