THIS year the Scottish Motor Show proved to be the only showcase for cars in the UK, the London event having been called off due to lack of support and Belfast because of the foot and mouth crisis.

While there were notable absences by several manu-facturers, Citroen was there to show off a full line-up of their cars as well as some of their rally winning vehicles.

Vauxhall had a number of concept cars, major among those being the stunning Sigmus, which I bet, within a couple of years, will be the replacement of the Vectra, the latest version of which was also on display.

More about that next week.

Land-Rover, MG Rover, Bentley, Daihatsu and the fabulous Noble supercar were also to be seen.

But it was the Swindon-built Honda CR-V, the Civic Type-R and what I predict will be a huge success, its new super-mini, the Jazz, that made the biggest, impact.

It has just been named Car of the Year in Japan.

Close behind in interest came the beautifully designed Fiat Stilo and Ford's new Fiesta, unveiled for the first time in the UK by former F1 World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart.

But it was the Jazz that really caught people's fancy.

For a small car it has a re-markable amount of room.

On sale in Japan already, it is selling at the rate of more than 16,000 a month with a waiting list of more than 40,000.

It is Honda's top selling model there and its resemblance to the bigger Civic and Stream is intentional as Honda completes its family of cars.

It has a 1.4 litre i-DSI engine which uses twin spark plug technology and compact combustion chambers to achieve a blend of lively per-formance, exceptional frugality and compact dimensions.

Honda says that at present only provisional fuel con-sumption figures are available but tests suggest a combined cycle figure of 51.5 mpg.

The company believes the Jazz, built at its Suzuka plant in Japan, will make a sig-nificant contribution to its European sales when it enters the market here early next year.

Much of the extraordinary amount of room is achieved by its relatively short nose section, so freeing up further cabin space.

This is made possible by the compact nature of the engines, the simply constructed yet high performance front strut sus-pension, as well as the new front and side frame sus-pension.

Together with its monoform design, with a windscreen base raked well forward, Jazz offers an unprecedented amount of cabin space.

The innovative rear seat arrangement, whereby the squab is lifted with the entire seat, which can be split, then folding forward, allows for a totally flat area.

Simple and very efficient.

Unlike the Civic and Stream, the gear lever is normally mounted and not on the dash.

Initially the car will come with just a five-speed manual box.

But a new Honda CVT option, equipped with a seven-speed semi-automatic shift control system promising excellent fuel economy is due to be introduced at a later date.

Honda won't be drawn on such things as top speed or price at present.

But one can expect figures of about 115 mph and the car costing in the region of £9,000 at entry level.

This is a car that should prove very attractive to a wide range of drivers from starter to second car families.

I can't wait to try it.