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WHEN Kia made their famous claim that today’s cars are “all about looks” I bet millions of people laughed at them.

That was two years ago and now, after driving the new Mazda6 for a week, I reckon Kia have been proved right.

What makes me so sure? What is it that causes me to write stuff that angers so many people, especially boy racers, youngsters and anybody with dreams?

What’s wrong with having dreams? Nothing at all, except that they’re dreams. Sadly, the rest of us are forced to live in the real world.

The real world isn’t for people who dream of having a new Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes or, preferably, a supercar that looks like a rocket.

No, the real world can be a pretty damn harsh place and it’s time to grow up and face facts. You’re unlikely to see any cops driving around, but why should they?

There’s no money to pay them, so instead the streets, and especially the motorways, are lined with traffic jams and redundant speed cameras. The chances of finding a deserted road, where no-one could see or hear you, are remote.

You may as well move to Kamchatka, where you’re more likely to freeze to death than get a speeding ticket, or the middle of Australia, where the same applies except that death will be by boiling.

The Mazda6 I’ve been driving more than proves my point.

For starters it was an estate car, which Mazda call a Tourer. The first thing you notice about it is its appearance.

It genuinely is a fantastic-looking car, especially from the sides where its huge and rounded wheel arches that resemble a giant doughnut (half-eaten) are filled by smart 21-inch alloys.

Then there is the fact that this is an estate car, and so it should be.

Real Mazda6 drivers need a colossal 3ft 6in boot, which opens out to a bank vault-sized 6ft

4in with the rear seat backs folded flat because as sales reps they’ll need all that space for their endless supplies of A3 and A4 paper, ink cartridges, memory sticks, hard drives and laptops.

In fact, it’s got

522 litres of storage space.

Looking at it, parked on the sumptuous drive That Leads To Fowler Towers, I couldn’t believe how pretty it was. Had I gone mad? Apparently not, and I promise you this is true.

But walking back to the car, where I’d found somewhere free to park, the chap in front of me turned around when I zapped the vehicle open and said: “I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but I couldn’t get over how good-looking your car is.”

Then this fella, probably in his mid30s and dressed like he was on his way home from a building site, started asking me how much it cost to lease one. He wanted it, that’s for sure. Pity I had to tell him it wasn’t my car.

So what else, apart from a big boot, does Roger Rep get in a 2.5-litre, four cylinder, petrol engine Mazda6 with a colossal sounding

194hp? A remarkably posh stitched leather and pianoblack interior and ultra comfy electric seats, a bundle of kit as standard and that’s all Roger needs.

Despite its power the engine sounds rough when pushed, which you won’t want to do anyway because the accelerator is so heavy it’s not worth the effort.

Mind you, that all adds up to a fantastic fuel return of 41mpg in a near 16ft long car which weighs 1,610kg.

So Kia were right all along. Forget speed and handling. It’s looks that count in the real world.

MOT failure rates for diesel cars have increased by25% since changes to the test came into effect last May, report Prestige Motorwarehouse. Stricter emissions limits mean that cars with a diesel particulate filter (DPF) will score a major fault if the tester sees smoke of any colour coming from the exhaust or finds evidence that someone has tampered with the DPF.