Except for a name that amusingly resembles one of the uglier vegetables, the Suzuki Celerio offers nothing to excite.

This front-engine and front-drive micro-car, an obvious successor to the Alto, is a painfully conservative and seriously un-fun throwback from an age when visual boredom wrapped around acres of cheap grey plastic defined the category.

Things have moved on, as other cars designed to accomplish exactly the same mission – inexpensive mobility – so eloquently demonstrate. Look to the Renault Twingo, for example.

The Celerio is powered by a 50kW 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine, driving through a five-speed gearbox with manual or robotised shifting.

Suzuki claims class-leading packaging for the car, which does have a decently large 254 litre cargo compartment.

It goes on sale in Europe later this year, possibly to coincide with celeriac season.

It was intended to provide Alfa Romeo with a new Spider, but now the deal with Mazda to co-develop the next-generation MX-5 may expand to include other Fiat Chrysler Automobiles brands.

The alliance, announced in 2012 and finalised early in 2013, had obvious merit for both companies, with Mazda gaining a partner to share design and development costs, while Alfa would get a lively rear-drive Spider to take the place of the lacklustre front-drivers that have lately worn the name.

Now it seems FCA is rethinking its side of the agreement. “It’s potentially still part of the Alfa plan, as it is potentially part of another brand,” FCA chief executive Sergio Marchionne told journalists gathered at Geneva.

“I think that the architecture itself is sufficiently pliable to be available not just to Alfa but to others, and I think that we are in discussions with our partner now how to best utilise the commitment that we have made to Mazda.”

Marchionne declined to elaborate on which other FCA brands might be able to create something credible on the MX-5’s light, rear-drive base, but Fiat and its Abarth performance arm seem an obvious choice.

Fiat has Spiders in its past, and an agile, two-seat sports car from the Italian brand would probably sell in higher numbers than a similar model from Alfa. A high-performance Abarth version would also make sense.

Marchionne made it clear that FCA’s rethink did not mean the co-development deal was in danger of falling apart.

“We remain committed to the project, and that’s the important thing,” he said. “We are committed to using that architecture with our powertrains.”

Formula 1 is in a state of turbocharged metamorphosis, and not for the first time. Renault’s RS01 made history at the 1977 British Grand Prix as the first turbocharged car to race in F1. It took almost two years to reach its full potential but, within three years nearly every team on pitlane had switched to turbocharging and F1 was never the same again.

When engine outputs reached astronomical levels in 1986 – the BMW engine is widely believed to have topped out at 1044kW – the FIA moved to rein in manufacturers, firstly by limiting boost in 1987, then by banning turbocharging at the end of 1988. It was a short-lived era, just 11 years, but it changed F1 forever. And now, it’s back. In less than a fortnight we will finally witness the second-coming of turbochargers in Formula 1.

In the March issue of MOTOR we explain the return to turbocharging, explore the new technology and relive the fear of the turbo glory days, when men were forged from iron and tamed 1044kW animals.

1977 Renault RS01

The obvious Renault for this list is the RE10, the first turbocharged car to win a grand prix. But for sheer persistence, the RS01 gets my nod. Renault’s doggedness in the face of criticism and outright ridicule defines the Frenchies’ pioneering spirit. The car was co-designed by driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille, who put it on pole just 18 months after its debut, and it changed the face of F1 for the next decade. The RS01 is a worthy hero.

1983 Brabham BMW BT52

Widely regarded as the ‘prettiest’ F1 car ever built, the Gordon Murray-designed BT52 was proof positive that form and function need not be mutually exclusive. Powered by BMW’s M12/13 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo, the BT52 earned its place in history as the first turbo-powered car to win the world championship. Remarkably, BMW’s F1 monster, which produced up to 671kW in qualifying trim, was based on BMW’s standard 1.4-litre M10 unit, first seen in its road-going cars in 1961. Astonishing.

1985 Lotus Renault 97T

It wasn’t the best car but its simple design, resplendent in its classic black-and-gold John Player Special livery, made it irresistible. Add in a young Ayrton Senna – yet to win a race in F1 – and an icon was born. The 97T was one of the quickest cars on the 1985 F1 grid, with eight pole positions, but what it had in outright speed, it lacked in reliability. At season’s end, the 97T had scored three grand prix victories, one to Elio de Angelis and two to Senna, including his remarkable maiden win in Portugal. That race is enough to assure the 97T legend status.

1986 Benetton BMW B186

Benetton’s first attempt as an F1 constructor will long be remembered for the B186, a car still considered out of this world. With BMW’s M12/13 1.5-litre turbo unit bolted to the back (by now developed to the level of lunacy) the B186 easily topped out in the power stakes, forcing the FIA to change the rules. In qualifying trim, the B186 was reportedly producing around 1044kW, making it regularly the fastest car on the grid (Gerhard Berger clocked a V-max of 351.22km at Monza, F1’s fastest track). Reliability problems hampered its underlying speed but Berger did score one victory in Mexico. The win was a first for Berger, a first for Benetton and the last for BMW as an engine supplier in the turbo era.

1988 McLaren Honda MP4/4

The marriage of the Steve Nichols and Gordon Murray-designed MP4/4 to Honda’s RA168-E 1.5-litre V6 turbo unit that had just powered Williams to the 1987 world title represents the apogee of F1’s first turbo era. In the hands of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, MP4/4s won 15 of that season’s 16 grands prix, making it the most dominant Formual One car ever. Senna won the first of his three world championships, that feat alone enshrining the MP4/4 in the pantheon of F1 greatness.

Photos: Getty Images

This year’s Geneva motor show fires up on Wednesday and, if the glut of teaser information is anything to go by, it’s going to be a cracker.

Headline acts we know about already include: what could be the world’s quickest car, the Koenigsegg One:1; Audi’s sexy new TT; McLaren’s tarmac-eating 650S; and Ferrari’s first turbo-powered car since the F40 – the new California T.

Also, Honda is taking its new Civic Type R, which we drove in pre-production spec late last year, Mazda’s got a pumped up 2, and we hear Maserati has something sexy to celebrate its 100th anniversary. A Jaguar F-Type rival, anyone?

Of course, Wheels will have an army of journos on the ground to bring you all the latest news as it breaks, until then, let our preview fill your mouth with saliva. We can’t wait.

Mercedes-Benz has shoehorned its hot new twin-turbo V8 engine into an AMG-badged compact sports car to be launched in 2015, Wheels can reveal.

We can confirm that the car – to be called the GT AMG – will be powered by the same, all-new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 found in the new four-door C63, where it could produce as much as 430kW of power and 700Nm of torque.

In the lighter AMG sports car, the engine is expected to produce a 0-100km/h dash of less than four seconds.

An even more potent Black Series variant is also on the cards.

Captured by our spy photographer during cold-weather testing overseas, the car shows styling cues inspired by the current SLS supercar, though not the bigger car’s distinctive gullwing doors.

The new ‘baby SLS’ will be a price competitor for the Porsche 911, but will not be as hardcore as its iconic rear-engined rival.

Spotted wearing thinner camouflage than in previous sightings, the prototype’s proportions present like a trimmed-down version of the SLS.

While the GT is clearly influenced by the SLS, it is not a replacement for the flagship coupe.

Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that it will be a standalone model in the range.

Overseas pricing of about €110,000 ($A168,000) for the GT will directly challenge the latest 911 Carrera S, which sells for €105,173 ($A161,000) in Europe.

The bi-turbo AMG V8 is essentially two A45 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder engines mated together. It retains the same 90mm bore and 7mm cylinder wall thickness.

Caught with virtually no camouflage by Wheels spy photographers during last-minute testing, this is our best look yet at Bimmer’s latest high-performance drop-top.

Industry scuttlebutt suggests the M4 cabriolet could make its world debut as early as next month at the Geneva motor show.

Boasting the same beefed-up body kit as its hard-top M4 sibling, the convertible will also use the same engine – meaning a twin-turbo 3.0-litre six-cylinder producing 317kW/550Nm – significantly up on the existing V8-powered M3’s 309kW/400Nm.

As you’d expect from an M car, the power is sent to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch – but it’s not all good news from a performance perspective.

Weight is up 230kg due to the folding hardtop, meaning a kerb weight of around 1770kg, while rigidity will also be reduced over the coupe. All this means it won’t be as razor-sharp through the bends, or as quick off the line, but at least with the roof down you’ll be able to hear that turbo-six scream.

Wheels Car of the Year is the most coveted motoring award in Australia. Meet our judges, see how they analyse each contender…and watch as the winner is unveiled at the COTY dinner.

The 2013 Wheels Car Of The Year award was given to the Volkswagen Golf range. We presented the coveted trophy at a gala dinner on Albert Park Lake, in front of key motoring dignitaries. Check out the venue, layout and award handover in this behind-the-scenes gallery.

It’s the most deserving winner in decades, but how exactly did the VW Golf win Wheels COTY?

By acing our testing process that’s how. Click through the gallery to see our group of judges put the Golf through its paces, both at the Lang Lang proving ground and on the round.

A worthy winner.

Here is a car for all reasons. The Golf VII is satisfying to drive, serene to ride in and superbly user-friendly. It’s also remarkably fuel efficient, inarguably safe, technically advanced and, especially in its least expensive form, stunning value. Volkswagen seems almost to have set out to create a car to excel in every one of the five Wheels Car of the Year criteria.

Criticisms? The seventh generation of Volkswagen’s hatchback doesn’t exactly evoke excitement at first sight. The Golf VII’s exterior is an ultra-cautious evolution of the familiar forms and details of its predecessors.

Its interior is so super-conservative that it verges on plainness. But, from Volkswagen’s perspective, all that was required with the latest in its long-running line was for it to look unmistakably like a Golf. That’s exactly what the company’s designers delivered.

But Germany’s biggest car maker obviously asked its engineers for everything they had when it came to innovation and advancement. Volkswagen isn’t short of technical talent or manufacturing expertise. This much was clear even before the 2012 European launch of the Golf VII. Now it’s on the market, it is abundantly obvious how far ahead of the competition it is. The world’s other mass-market manufacturers must surely be awed, and probably frustrated, by what Volkswagen has achieved.

The wonder-workers of Wolfsburg have created a Golf that’s better in every way that can be measured. And the increments are anything but minuscule. Volkswagen has cut Golf’s weight up to 100kg.

This despite growing in wheelbase, length, width and roominess compared to its immediate predecessor. The VII is built on the company’s new MQB architecture. Those initials stand for the German Modularer Querbaukasten, which translates as ‘Modular Transverse Toolkit’ or ‘Modular Transverse Matrix’.

MQB is ultimately destined to provide the basis for up to 40 different VW Group models, but the architecture was designed primarily to accommodate the requirements of the Golf VII, according to head of project management Albert Meltzow.

Consequently, there’s extensive use of lightweight steel throughout the new Golf’s body structure and the kind of painstaking design that doesn’t put a gram of material anywhere it doesn’t serve some useful purpose. More than 20kg was shaved from the body’s weight this way. Similarly rigorous mass-reduction measures also extended to the Volkswagen’s seats, instrument panel, air-conditioning, and electrical system.

But it was a switch from cast iron to aluminium for the cylinder blocks of the Golf VII’s turbocharged petrol engines that delivered the single biggest weight saving – up to 40kg. The only thing the new EA211 spark-ignition fours have in common with the EA111 units they replace is an 82mm cylinder bore-centre spacing.

The new cylinder heads point their exhaust manifolds rearwards, and are inclined backwards 12 degrees in the engine compartment, so mimicking the Golf’s EA288 turbo-diesel fours. This reduction in installation variation simplifies assembly, undoubtedly saves cost, and surely contributes a little something to the new Golf’s competitive pricing.

Volkswagen’s aerodynamicists claim to have cut the Golf VII’s drag by 10 percent. Although 14mm wider, it’s 28mm lower, so frontal area is reduced. And the new shape is more slippery, too.

Lower weight and improved aerodynamics, plus other improvements like a less energy-hungry air-conditioning system, should add up to excellent fuel consumption. In the case of the Volkswagen, they do. The line-up of models assembled for COTY testing did exactly what those judges who had comparison tested Golf VIIs during 2013 expected – they delivered stunningly low consumption numbers, despite being driven with a merciless disregard for economy. From the base 90TSI engine, through the 103TSI and 110TDI, and on to the go-hard GTI, whether with manual or dual-clutch transmissions, the Golf VII delivers outstanding fuel efficiency.

At the pumps isn’t the only place owners will save. Responding to criticism of high and inconsistent maintenance costs, Volkswagen Australia introduced capped-price servicing just days after the local launch of the mainstream Golf VII models last April. The deal is good for the first six years or 90,000km of ownership, whichever comes first. Servicing costs for petrol-powered models, except the GTI, are capped at $2112. The turbo-diesel will cost a little more, $2371, to maintain for the same period.

The car itself is priced more sharply than ever. The entry point to the Golf VII line-up in Australia is the 90TSI with a 90kW 1.4-litre turbo engine and six-speed manual. At $21,490, it’s $500 cheaper than the equivalent Golf VI, which had a less powerful 77kW 1.2-litre turbo four.

The new Volkswagen remains competitive through the Comfortline grade, which, like the base model, offers the 90kW engine with manual or seven-speed DSG transmissions, and the Highline grade, with either the 103kW version of the turbo 1.4-litre and a seven-speed DSG or a 110kW 2.0-litre turbo-diesel with six-speed DSG.

Topping the Golf VII line up is the simply brilliant GTI, launched here in October at $41,490 with a six-speed manual and $43,990 with six-speed DSG. This is a hot hatch that winningly combines genuine maturity with youthful exuberance. It’s perhaps the most polished and well-rounded example of the genre ever made. The GTI’s 162kW 2.0-litre turbo four, third-generation of the EA888 series, simply bursts with elastic, exploitable energy.

It was impossible not to be impressed by its easy speed, and pair of excellent transmissions. With more direct steering than other Golf VIIs, a lower stance, wider tyres, better brakes, a specially tuned electronic differential lock and standard adaptive damping – with a useful range of four settings: ‘Sport’, ‘Normal’, ‘Comfort’ and ‘Individual’ – the GTI also delivers a rewarding and involving driving experience. Especially at Holden’s Lang Lang Proving Ground, where its limits could be fully explored, it sent judges into a superlative-hunting frenzy.

For different reasons, so did the least- expensive Golf VII of all, the 90TSI. This affordable hatchback is agile, eager, spacious, comfortable, fabulously refined and beautifully built. It’s the model where the scale of Volkswagen’s achievement is most obvious. Has anyone ever produced a car of such shining quality for such an excellent price before? That’s the question we kept asking…

As the judges worked their way through Comfortline and Highline, 103TSI and 110TDI, manuals and DSGs, and the pair of GTIs, attempting to find serious fault with the Golf VII began to become an obsession. This quest grew more intense as the days passed, and the test program moved from proving ground to public road. The judges’ notebooks record of growing frustration, especially regarding the 90TSI.

Corby: “How can a base model be this good?” Peter Robinson: “Base Golf more refined than A-Class for road noise and ride.” Sally Dominguez: “Pretty hard to fault.” Glenn Butler: “Sometimes it’s the little flaws that give something character… the Golf has none.” Byron Mathioudakis: “So utterly and toweringly capable it makes me sick!”

Safety was never going to provide a reason for criticism. The dry-as-dust data-crunchers at ANCAP, announcing the seven-airbag Volkswagen’s five-star rating, were even moved to note the car introduces a number of new safety assist technologies. Having duly noted this, the COTY judges tried to find some weakness in the car’s active safety systems. In vain. The Volkswagen’s ABS is more effective in the wet than on dirt, and the ESC could be a little more subtle, but that’s it.

The behaviour of the Golf’s DSG was thoroughly checked, too. On the handy brake-test hill at Lang Lang, theVolkswagen’s dual-clutch automatic performed perfectly.

The hill-hold function gives the driver a couple of stationary seconds after brake release to get their foot onto the throttle, which is ample. At steep angles, the Golf also seems to de-activate its start/stop system, a smart measure to prevent the possibility of stalling and subsequent rollback. Nor was there any DSG hiccup during repeated parallel parks on public streets.

Vision out of the Golf VII is better than average and its driving position is practically perfect, too. Sustained scrutiny of the interior revealed nothing but considerable care taken in both design and assembly. And the consistent simplicity that’s the defining feature of the car’s design, inside and out, eventually won some of those judges who’d thought it painfully plain at first.

Riding in the rear, the Golf VII’s higher tyre noise levels on coarse-chip surfaces were more obvious than up front. It’s not bad enough to be a deal-breaker, and the rear seat itself is excellent. There’s ample headroom, and the perfectly angled backrest and cushion are much more than averagely supportive. Further aft, the clever false floor of the larger-than-ever 380-litre cargo area, and the considerate provision of stowage for the compartment’s cover, were admired.

Many cars make perfect sense to buy, yet deliver imperfect pleasure once bought. The Golf VII is not one of them. From the smallest, thoughtful details to the biggest basics, this is a car that never falters. Its breadth of talent, its almost annoyingly persistent perfectionism and its unrelenting satisfaction make it something truly rare… a car for all reasons.

This is one of the most worthy Wheels Car of the Year winners ever.