The Daily Car

Not content with combining two cars, Volkswgen has - like SEAT and Renault - decided to join in with the current SUV MPV spirit, only VeeDub’s effort is more extreme: it is the Hatchback SUV MPV.

Meet the Golf Plus Dune. It’s based on the Golf Plus but is 2cm higher and gets a few bits ‘n’ bobs plastered around the bodywork to spice things up. There are 400 coming to the UK and if you want to buy one it will cost you £18,495. But why would you want one?

To be honest I think it’s all a bit stupid - we don’t really need new niches of car to be created every time a butterfly sneezes. We’ve coped for ages with the usual selection of machine categories so why the need for change now? Can’t they be busying themselves with other, more important issues, rather than creating pointless niches in the car market?

Last week, Renault unveiled a vehicle called the Scenic Conquest - a beefier (yet two-wheel-drive) version of the Scenic small MPV, with SUV looks. SEAT has been quick to keep up with the Joneses and show off the similar Altea Freetrack, a vehicle based on the Altea XL and the company’s first ever off-road car.

This MPV/SUV thing is not a puny 2WD vehicle, however - it has four wheel drive: take that, Renault! The 4×4 system itself is the VW group’s Haldex four-wheel drive system which has been previously used in the Škoda Octavia Scout. There will be a choice of two different 2.0 litre engines - a diesel and a petrol. The former will have 167bhp and achieve 41.5mpg, whilst both numbers for the latter - which is also found in the VW Golf GTi - rise by 30.

Inside, the cabin remains unchanged but expect a battery of equipment, including a built-in DVD player.

The vehicle will be shown at the Barcelona motor show and is thought to go on sale in September, but there’s no word on pricing yet.

Today, Euro NCAP - the European New Car Assessment Programme which crash-tests cars - launched a new brand image, website and campaign.

The new campaign is called Choose ESC and it is designed to both make consumers choose cars fitted with Electronic Stability Control and persuade the EU to make the essential and super-effective safety system a legal requirement, just like ABS.

At the Bridgestone Proving Ground in Rome, Euro NCAP said that it was not happy with the low amount of cars with ESC. Euro NCAP’s secretary general, Adrian Hobbs, said of the ESC report findings, We must all do what we can to raise awareness of ESC’s importance.

In order to make choosing a safer car easier for consumers, the Euro NCAP rating system has been revised - there are now colour coded icons.

Euro NCAP said that although it was happy with the level of cars achieving good results for occupant protection, it wanted better pedestrian impact results to be achieved by vehicles and if the public found it easier to find out about the pedestrian protection scores of cars, then the car industry would be more inclined to take care of pedestrians.

The new website has been redesigned too. Mr Hobbs said, I believe that the introduction of Euro NCAP’s new website will revolutionise the way that we display the results of our crash tests. I also hope it will really assist consumers in choosing and buying a safer vehicle.