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The Volkswagen Touareg, which was first produced in 2002, is not for me and frankly I have been put off by its size in the past and the spelling of its name. It’s even more of a beast of a vehicle in its new form, right, and swamped my garage, with my partner reckoning her Hyundai i10 would fit in its boot. However, there is no doubt it is a massively well-constructed piece of SUV art with a great, confident presence that stands out in the car park, wonderful technical innovations, incredible comfort and some brilliant design that almost leaves you gasping with appreciation.

I’ve a feeling that reviewing this week’s car is a bit like preaching to the converted. That’s because, purely on the basis of sales statistics, there is a good chance quite a few of you have owned or driven one. So maybe this should be directed more at those who haven’t.

They still had the camouflage on parts of the new Toyota Corolla five-door hatch and Touring Sports estate when we drove pre-production models around Madrid recently.

Engineers are only scratching the surface of hybrid’s potential.

A new device to prevent you from driving under the influence of alcohol ‘the morning after’ has just been unveiled here.It’s called the AlcoSense personal breathalyser and it is designed to help you avoid unintentional drink-driving.Prices range from €3 to €300, depending on the model.With stricter new drink-driving laws and the advent of Christmas parties, the device’s arrival is timely, to say the least.I saw it work in Dublin recently; the sensitive and expensive technologies and sensors are used by several police forces around the world.RSA figures show 12pc of drink-driving arrests occur between 8am and 2pm.It can take as long as 14 hours for alcohol to clear your system if you’ve had the equivalent of four large glasses of wine, for example.The Excel version costs €119.99, while the other models include the AlcoSense Lite, Elite, Pro and Ultra.The range is sold here by Halfords, or you can touch base at www.alcosense.ie.