There’s a very precise feel to the stalks clear dials and rotary switches for the main lights with

There’s a very precise feel to the stalks, clear dials and rotary switches for the main lights, with a handy automatic option which means you can never forget to turn your lights off or, indeed, forget to turn them on at night and in tunnels and underground car parks. Vauxhall has also opted not to go so far along the trendy route of trying to combine all the many functions of satellite navigation, audio player, in-car phone and air conditioning, and combine their control through one gigantic jam-jar-lid sized dial on the centre console.On that point, at least, you’ll find this vehicle easier to use than rival Audis or BMWs. No less pleasurable to use is the extremely smooth six-speed gear change. Combined with a very “torquey”engine, (that is one that supplies a good deal of power even when you’re not revving it very hard) it means that you hardly ever find yourself either in the wrong gear or making a mess of finding the right one. A somewhat basic engineering point, you might think, and one that can make all the difference to how easy a car is to live with day-in, day-out, but still something that a surprising number of manufacturers don’t pay quite enough attention to.Handling is predictable and neutral and the steering wellweighted at all speeds.

My abiding memory of the New Signum Design, though, will be how surprisingly comfortable it is. Other badges, notably the French marques, have garnered a reputation over the years for producing supremely smooth, soft-riding cars. Yet here is a Vauxhall that can match them for long-journey comfort; in the New Signum you’ll find very well-sized, supportive seats mated to a wellsorted UK suspension set up and that means a pretty soothing time at the wheel So, the New Signum is a very rewarding driving machine. Even the sat nav worked efficiently, never a forgone conclusion on even the most expensive cars. Judge it objectively, and you too may find yourself surprised.. The Wolseley has become such a fixture on the London restaurant scene, it’s hard to believe it’s only been around since 2003.

Surely celebs have been flocking there since the 1980s, checking out Michael Winner’s latest arm candy and wondering just what happened to Anne Robinson’s face?

Back when Jeremy King and Chris Corbin were preparing to launch their grand brasserie on Piccadilly, rumours about The Wolseley ran riot, including the one about The Ivy doorman being poached for a salary of £70k a year. There was much speculation in industry circles about who was going to take charge of the kitchens; the eventual announcement that Chris Galvin would be executive chef was widely approved. Here was a chef who had been doing great things at Conran’s Orrery for some time, and deserved a larger stage.
Excitement about his appointment faded to a muted sustenato of disappointment that the food there didn’t quite live up to expectations. Certainly there weren’t many fireworks, but then it’s hard to get airborne when you’re building your menu around the essentially stodgy cuisine of central Europe. After two years at The Wolseley’s monolithic ranges, Galvin has moved on, setting up his own venture in partnership with younger brother Jeff, himself a veteran of several distinguished kitchens, including Soho’s L’Escargot.That these brothers have been dreaming of something more homespun than their former workplaces is signalled by the choice of name – Galvin – Bistrot De Luxe. That apparent oxymoron tells you all you need to know about the balance between intimacy and aspiration the Galvins are trying to achieve in their new Marylebone premises.

It’s a bistro, so expect something smaller and less fancy than a high-end restaurant. But that “De Luxe” promises the kind of attention to detail you’d associate with the brothers’ Michelin-starred backgrounds.The site, halfway up Baker Street opposite the former headquarters of M&S, has recently been home to a couple of disastrously short-lived restaurants. First, it was a groovy Italian called Innecto, then Alan Yau took it over as Anda, after a refurbishment that seemed to last longer than the subsequent restaurant.The Galvins’ designers have reconceived the space as a sophisticated, upscale brasserie, the Marais by way of Manhattan. The L-shaped dining room, with its black leather banquettes, classic bentwood chairs and dark wood walls, feels intimate, clubbable, timeless yet modern.The shortish menu combines brasserie classics such as confit of duck and charcuterie maison with slightly more directional offerings, like grilled cod with coco beans. A working knowledge of restaurant French comes in handy in navigating around the pithiviers and parmentiers, though on the evidence of our meal, you might as well throw away the dictionary and dive in regardless. Between four of us, we sampled half the dishes on the menu, and not one was disappointing.From the simplest – a half dozen briny fines de claire oysters – to the most complex – a shimmering, loosely heaped pile of pasta leaves, layered with Dorset crab and the most delicately flavoured velout?f girolles, starters were wonderfully prepared and presented. A pithivier, or puff pastry parcel, of pigeon breast served with caramelised chestnuts was particularly gorgeous to the eye, like a Cornish pasty prepared by an ambitious food stylist.Mains, too, provoked gasps of pleasure, even before the first bite had been taken.