BMW’s M3 convertible gets road tested, so too does the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and there’s a letter to Prince Charles

Jeremy Clarkson is enamoured by bits of BMW's M3 convertible, but has reservations about the whole package. As for its sat-nav, he'd like that to get lost… “The new 4 litre V8: very good. Lovely. Nice noise. Lots of power and bags of torque, whatever that is,” he writes. “The ride: excellent. Here at last is proof – are you listening, Mercedes? – that a sporty car does not have to shake your eyeballs out of their sockets. I also like the system that uses energy from the brakes to power the electrical appliances. This means the alternator has less to do and consequently takes less power from the engine. That's good for fuel economy, slightly. But there's no getting away from the fact that if you want a convertible, you are better off with an Audi RS 4 or a Mercedes. And if you want an M3, you are better off with the coupé or saloon. Just be aware. Until BMW sorts out the stupid sat nav system, you will also have to invest in a portable TomTom. Because if you rely on the idiot in the dash, you're going to spend the rest of your life in Guildford, looking for Edinburgh Castle.” CLICK HERE to read more

Over at the Sunday Telegraph, Neil Lyndon, it's ever-erudite motoring man, has driven the the Skoda Fabia GreenLine (its VW Polo BlueMotion cousin), and is moved to write an open letter to Prince Charles about it –as you do. “Dear Prince Charles, In recent years, you have often told us how much you fear that your grandchildren might, at some point in the future, reproach you over global warming and demand to know, 'Why didn't you do something?' Spurred to action by these anxieties, I felt compelled to borrow Skoda's Fabia GreenLine for a week.' However; 'the Fabia is not the best of Skodas and the GreenLine is not the best of Fabias.” Lyndon thinks driving the car is hard work, and that Skoda's plan to plant a tree to offset his carbon emissions whilst testing it is problematic. “It appears to follow that, over the course of its lifetime (say 50 years) my tree will absorb the same volume of CO2 as the Fabia GreenLine emitted over 4,159.5 miles, or fewer than six round trips between Windsor Castle and Balmoral. If that's the best we can do, I fear our grandchildren are going to have quite a lot to say.”

In the Saturday Telegraph's motoring supplement, James May vented his spleen about daft logos and general digitalised trickery. “I realise I'm not entirely safe out on the road,” he writes. “I've been effectively barred from owning a new Aston by all that "Passion, Beauty, Soul" nonsense, and I'm not much better off with Porsche. When I turn on the radio in my Boxster its display proclaims "PORSCHE" for what feels like the half-life of plutonium. Why? It already says Porsche on the steering wheel, and I never imagine I'm in the Panda. I keep missing vital pauses on Radio 3 because someone in Stuttgart was feeling pleased with himself.” CLICK HERE to read more. Meanwhile, his Telegraph colleague and one time Motor Trader editor Mike 'Mr Money' Rutherford has been in the US reviewing the deals in that car-centric country –and finding some bargains. “A straight, no-nonsense 50 per cent off an in-stock Dodge pick-up is a bit more like it. And that's exactly what a new dealership called Arrigo was offering a few days ago at its grand opening in Palm Beach,” he writes. “Up north in Troy, Michigan, I saw a dealership called Suburban knocking out 2008 Hummers at ar £11,500. Never mind that they cost more than that to build. No wonder this manufacture of hardcore 4X4s with a notorious drink problem is up for sale to the highest - or any - bidder. GM's Saturn division is doing zero per cent finance deals for six years. The Ford Focus can be bought from Bert Wolfe's Auto Plaza in Charleston for £6,000 - with a £50 fuel card thrown in. "Employee pricing for all" is a deal that's frequently used by manufacturers and dealers these days, but the problem with telling the 300 million people of America they can enjoy the same prices as auto industry employees is that those employees think they deserve bigger discounts than Joe Public. North American manufacturers tend to place newspaper advertisements for entire model line-ups rather than individual models these days. But a £7,200, 45 horsepower, turbocharged, front wheel drive single-seater that comes in any colours you like (as long as they're green and yellow) is one of the exceptions to that rule. The four wheeler in question is badged the John Deere 5103 and you've guessed it… it's a proper, full size tractor aimed at professionals, amateurs and big boys who love their toys.” CLICK HERE to read more.

Writing in the Sunday Express, Guy Bird thinks upgraded versions of the Mercedes A-Class are big news. “Forget the visual exterior and interior tweaks, the changes under the bonnet of this new model are the real news and represent the start of an eco-car onslaught from Mercedes. From October the A160 CDI Blue Efficiency model will become the cleanest Mercedes ever produced, offering 62.8mpg fuel economy and 119g/km of emissions – making it eligible for the low Band B road tax (£35 a year). The A160 will also be the first UK car to wear the Blue Efficiency badge, utilising improvements in engine efficiency, aerodynamics and weight reduction that equate to eight per cent more economy than before. The A-Class will also be the first in the Mercedes range to use stop-start technology on petrol-engined cars,” writes Bird, although not to a member of the Royal Family.

Over at The Independent Sean O'Grady drove a fuel cell Renault Scenic and was told of a surprising difficulty by one of the French firm's boffins. “The Renault engineer bent his head conspiratorially to me and vouchsafed his company's greatest technical challenge,” writes O'Grady. “Well, here's a story, I thought. What could this be? A dud new engine? Dodgy electrics? A faulty batch of steel that will reduce all Renaults to a pile of rust inside a British winter? (Actually a few years ago that really was their biggest challenge. But I digress). No. The big problem for Renault, as for every other carmaker, is really no secret at all - “it's the public”. Well, he had a point. The public don't like change. Which is perhaps why the most revolutionary car Renault has produced in decades, and probably ever, looks very much like a competent but ordinary mid-range people carrier. Yet the Renault Scenic they invited me to drive round a track in rural France was a very special Scenic indeed: for the Renault Scenic ZEV H2 is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The development costs mean its worth about 1 million euros. An expensive Renault, then. It won't be going on sale anytime soon, however, even at that price. The Renault folk say it will be a decade before they've managed to get everything right. Weight and cost are the most pressing problems with this replacement for the familiar internal combustion engine, that and the fact that there's nowhere to fill one up with gas.” CLICK HERE to read more.