Reliant still makes the costly and indefensible three-wheeled Robin but now it has made matters worse by

Reliant still makes the costly and indefensible three-wheeled Robin, but now it has made matters worse by importing nasty French microcars. It owns Audi and the underpinnings of the Audi TT coupe are essentially VW Golf. Fatalities in Germany and a crash in the UK have indicated that high-speed handling may not be the TT's strongest point. Even though there is evidence that driver error played a part in some of these incidents, clearly all is not right with the TT.

Audi is revising the suspension for the 1,000 or so owners who took delivery in the UK this year. The TT may be a desirable and distinctive model, but an inadequate suspension system makes it a very bad car, until every last one is sorted out.High-profile German embarrassment doesn't end there - take BMW. Its British subsidiary Land Rover has been having trouble building road-fit Freelanders. After almost two years in the market place, 1999 is the year when owners started to complain loudly. Accept no substitute.Obviously, the Germans have never been known to make a bad car, apart from East Germany's cardboard, oil-burning Trabant. Then again, there was the case a few years ago of the Mercedes A Class which fell over while avoiding a Scandinavian Elk.

Mercedes revised the car and A Class sales are stratospheric, but Mercedes still shudders in corporate embarrassment at such a public cock-up.Now it is the Volkswagen group's turn. Only buy a Caddy if you own a nightclub or have a deep need to be publicly ridiculed.Indeed, another way of enjoying the same experience is to saddle yourself with another unwise Yankee import - the Chevrolet Corvette. It's a legendary name, with plenty of V8 grunt, but it is left-hand-drive and isn't so special The other cheaper Chevy import, the Camaro, is much better. However, we have lots of home-grown muscle cars and the TVR is the pre- eminent boys toy brand. Surprisingly for such a huge car, rear seat passengers will find space at a premium.