CAP's manufacturer relationships manager Martin Ward scours the globe for the week's insider fleet intelligence

Tuesday

Andy Medcraft, product marketing manager at Seat UK, came up to Leeds to discuss the changes to certain models.

I was pleased to hear that the recently facelifted Leon and Altea ranges are being re-badged and those awful Reference and Stylance trim level names are finally going, to be replaced by S, SE and S Emocion.

To the naked eye it is difficult to spot the changes, but on closer inspection they have been tidied up with some subtle tweaks, notably the re-designed rear door and window on the Leon.

The Altea should sell better than it does as it is well put together, has versatile seating, plenty of storage space and is practical, with a good choice of engines. It’s a pity that not many people know about it.

The new sporty Leon FR with the 2.0 TDI 170bhp engine gets a CO2 reduction from 159g/km to 139g/km – dropping it by four benefit-in-kind tax bands.

The new Leon Ecomotive S and SE will have a CO2 figure of 119g/km so should join the list of favourites.

Thursday

Over to Spain to drive two new Audis – the R8 V10 and the A5 Cabriolet.

The 5.2-litre V10 engine in the R8 produces 525bhp and the noise it makes is just fantastic.

A super-fast, £100,000-plus supercar should be uncomfortable and difficult to drive with loads of quirky features, but not the R8: it is so easy to drive, very docile when it has to be and extremely comfortable.

We then swapped cars and drove the A5 Cabriolet back to Granada.

This is the replacement for the popular A4 Cabriolet and we found it to have such high quality.

It’s a pleasure to drive and has a wide choice of engines.

Audi has stayed with the cloth roof to save weight, room and keep the exterior design lines smooth.

Friday

Citroën and the Electric Car Corporation have announced the first four-seat electric car.

So which would you choose – a Citroën C1 1.0-litre petrol costing around £7,500 that does 50+mpg (costing about 10 pence per mile to run), or a £17,000 all-electric C1 ‘ev’ie’ that does a maximum of 70 miles on a full charge that costs 9ppm?

Even with the Government’s promise of a £5,000 subsidy for private buyers, it still makes the ev’ie look expensive and, with unproven technology, it makes you wonder whether sticking to what you know is the future, and much cheaper, too.

But good luck to them for their initiative in bringing the car to the mass market.