Drive it!: The Motor Magazine

From offroader to SUV - what's the philosophy behind modern compacts. Plus: how do you construct a mobile home that weighs just 3.5 tons? Drive It! introduces new automotive innovations.Present it! VW TiguanCars and motorbikes often follow similar trends. BMX started out on dirt tracks. But the scene has since moved on, with BMX fans taking over cities and trading dirt tracks for neat and tidy half-pipes.Off-roaders have gone through a similar transformation. They're now called "SUVs", and a growing number of drivers now buy them chiefly for the city. Drive it! puts the new VW Tiguan through its paces on and off the roads.Test it! Opel KarlWhat characteristics does a modern subcompact have to have? It has to be small, of course - which the Opel Karl certainly is. It also needs to be modern, and today that means having good communications systems.The Karl is the only vehicle in its class with a personal online and service assist. The system is called OnStar and offers a broad range of safety and comfort features. If a collision triggers the airbag, for example, the car automatically connects with the OnStar center and, through it, with the emergency services.Spot it! Hymermobil B Class DynamicLineRight in time for the camping season, mobile home manufacturer Hymer presents its new interpretation of a classic: the B Class DynamicLine. Don't confuse it with the B class from Mercedes Benz; the Hymer has been around longer.The first one came off the assembly line on a Mercedes chassis in 1981. Since 1987, it's been built on a Fiat chassis. The newest generation has drastically lost pounds using light-weight materials. It has a shower and a toilet, and still weighs in at under 3.5 tons. And so you can drive it in Europe with a standard passenger car driver's license.Taste it! Hyundai i30 CoupéHyundai stands for nice-price, dependable cars - albeit not necessarily exciting ones. The carmaker set out to change that image in 2013 with a coupe version of the i30. But it didn't really set automotive hearts on fire, not least because of the engines available at the time.They've now been upgraded as part of a facelift. We tested the most powerful diesel engine with 100 kW of power and a direct-shift gearbox.Vintage: The original SEAT IbizaWhile the automotive industry boomed in much of post-Second World War Europe, Spain lagged behind. In 1984 SEAT launched its first car as an independent company: the Ibiza. In 1953 the first SEAT vehicles hit production lines at the Zona Franca factory in Barcelona. Until the 1980s, however, SEAT produced only Fiat models under license.The prototype Ibiza was called the S1, meaning the "number one SEAT". The name signified radical new change. After their separation from the Fiat Group in 1981, SEAT signed a production agreement with Volkswagen before becoming part of the latter group. With 5 million models to date, the SEAT Ibiza is Spain's bestselling car.