The drop-top version of BMW’s instantly recognisable hybrid sports car is now on sale. Jack Evans heads out to Valencia to see what it’s like

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC)  has launched an investigation into the temporary loss of a Garda sub-machine gun and ammunition, citing reports of an “apparent lack of security” in the incident.

As the saying goes, drive for show, putt to drive another showy car into your garage.

BMW has created some of the world’s most iconic vehicles. Many of these are within the M5 family, and it was these that we were recently privileged to drive, but peppering them was a variety of other BMW legendary vehicles.

A Range Rover worth an estimated €140,000 was one of 21 vehicles seized in a massive operation targeting organised crime and the bogus motor trade.

Kia has updated the Picanto, its popular city car. James Baggott heads to Spain to try it out

OCCASIONALLY in this gig people will come to you seeking advice — on the basis, presumably, that as an official “motoring correspondent” you might actually have some small clue what you’re waffling about.

A car being chased by police in England has ploughed into a family leaving two people dead.

TOP Irish athlete Thomas Barr knows the value of staying the course, even when he doesn’t win. 

Boxers at least wait until the bell rings before launching their first attack. But in the scrap to win election 2016 votes, the political punches were being thrown even before the televised leaders’ debate began.

To mangle an old cliché, one man’s meat is another man’s murder. That is ever the way with motor cars as you will all too rarely find two people who can completely agree with each other about anything motoring-related.

I am surrounded by idiots, swimming in a sea of morons, stuck in a swamp of complete and utter dopes. Welcome to America.

The Court of Appeal has today adjourned sentencing a Cork man who was four times over the limit when he crashed his BMW into a roundabouut killing a woman and paralysing her friend in Skibbereen two-and-a-half years ago.

A seven-year sentence imposed on a man who was four times over the limit when he crashed his BMW into a roundabout killing a female passenger and paralysing her friend was “out of line” with other sentences for dangerous driving, the Court of Appeal has found.

The dubious honour of the largest consumer recall in US history — which was once held by Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol drug — now belongs to the Japanese car-parts supplier, Takata.

If your commutes rarely stretch beyond 60-70km this is worth considering, writes Stephen Rogers.

I KNOW the nature of critics and criticism is all too often clouded by histrionic blather where words like ‘classic’ and ‘masterpiece’ are bandied about with tiring regularity in relation to subjects which more often than not never live up to the hype.

Thousands of BMWs on the roads in Ireland are understood to be among 1.6 million vehicles being recalled due to safety fears over their airbags.

Paul Walker's car collection has reportedly gone on sale.

It was a weekend of positive and reassuring mood music.

Pádraig Harrington will bid to build on encouraging form in the United States this week by finally getting to grips with Wentworth’s West Course at the BMW PGA Championship.

BMW has posted record car sales for 2011 and forecast that a boom in luxury cars would keep it ahead of rivals this year as the world’s biggest maker of premium cars sees strong demand from China and the US.

A SMALL Irish town is set to play a starring role in a Big Fat Gypsy one-off show which gives a peep into nine jaw-droppingly extravagant Traveller nuptials crammed into one church over 10 days of Christmas.

GERMANY’S European Commissioner, (Günther Oettinger), has lent his voice to demands that the national flags of all bailed-out member states be flown at half-mast at EU buildings as a sign of the shame.

Bruce Springsteen paid tribute to his friend of more than four decades and E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons at a private funeral in a Florida church.

BILLIONAIRE Roman Abramovich owns 16 homes, including mansions and apartments, in four countries, and shares in seven companies, but no yachts nor airplanes, according to an official income declaration.

Elite garda officers are using luxury BMWs seized from gangsters to patrol organised crime hotspots, it emerged today.

I WONDER if you feel as sick as I do? And as scared?

BEFORE four-by-fours and fourballs formed the small talk at county board meetings, the GAA was run very differently.

GARDAÍ believe a highly professional gang may be exporting airbags stolen from expensive 5-series BMWs.

Jenson Button grabbed the most important pole position of his career on another day of woe for fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton.

Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix threatens to be one of the most hotly contested of the year following today’s final practice.

IRELAND’S car market collapsed by almost 70% last month as those with money to buy a vehicle headed north or to Britain for cheaper deals.

Gardaí are investigating the theft of a car transporter with around 10 cars on board in Co Westmeath over the weekend.

EIGHT days compared to eight months. Eight days of hope, of energy, of a palpable sense of new direction.

AND then the ghost dropped him, and the Taoiseach was plummeting towards earth, down, down.

GARDAÍ are seizing up to two stolen cars a week from innocent buyers who have purchased the vehicles privately believing they were genuine cars.

AM I alone in questioning Fianna Fáil’s interpretation of patriotism?

LIMERICK’S security-conscious criminals have a chance to buy an armour-plated bullet-proof executive car fit for an ambassador.

FEWER high-end luxury cars are rolling onto Irish roads with figures showing new licences for some up-market models have halved in just a month.

I MET a man recently who has spent most of his career working on major capital projects. He’s been involved in building bridges, motorways, third-level colleges and housing estates. And he’s involved on the financial side of things, so he knows a fair bit about money and how it should be spent.