Innholdsfortegnelse for 09/03/2016 i Autocar

The Vision Next 100 concept is BMW’s attempt to “shape our future rather than wait until it arrives”, according to head of design Adrian van Hooydonk. The Vision Next 100 is a pure concept to explore themes for the future of cars, as opposed to having any production intent in its entirety. It showcases new construction and design techniques, as well as digital-based interaction methods and autonomous driving technology already under development for future BMWs. The Vision Next 100 is the first of what BMW chairman Harald Krüger says is a series of four themed concept cars from BMW brands. As well as this car, Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW’s motorcycle operation will unveil Next 100 concepts during BMW’s centennial year. The Mini and Rolls-Royce concepts will be shown at the…

Audi’s new Q2 was unveiled in Geneva and will go on sale this summer from around £21,000. It also reveals a new front-end look for Audi’s Q models. Audi says the Q2 is aimed at young, urban drivers and hopes it will draw new customers. “Buyers in this segment have edgier desires,” said Matthias Link, the Q2’s exterior designer. “They have different aspirations from their parents, and we’ve tried to reflect that.” The Q2’s front has a new single-frame grille with polygon details — a feature that will be adapted for all future Q cars — and headlights that are slightly more squared off than those of recent Audis. There’s also an R8-style blade on the C-pillar that can be had in different colours and changed by customers. The tail-lights…

DESIGN HOUSE ITALDESIGN is forging a new business strategy under Audi’s control following the departure last summer of its founder, 77-year-old Giorgetto Giugiaro. The company is being reorganised around six “core competencies”, new boss Jörg Astalosch told Autocar. One of them is virtual design, in which a prototype or concept car goes from computer design to physical model without the usual clay model stage. The GT Zero electric supercar concept at Geneva was developed this way. About 60% of Italdesign’s business is in engineering, with 25% building prototypes and 15% on styling work. Italdesign enjoyed a record year last year, with a turnover of €197 million (£153m), the bulk of the work being for VW Group companies. But Astalosch said the new strategy envisages more outside work.…

CHINESE COMPANY TECHRULES has developed a new turbine-based range-extender system for electric vehicles. The TREV (Turbine-Recharging Electric Vehicle) made its debut in a concept for China’s first supercar. The company plans to manufacture both the car and the powertrain in-house. “Today, we are an R&D company,” said chief technology officer Matthew Jin, “but in a few years we will become an OEM.” The supercar is expected to enter production in two years and be followed by a city car in three years. The turbine system will be offered under license to other OEMs and is claimed to be 50% more efficient than petrol-fuelled piston engine systems. Micro-turbine generators are not new — Jaguar’s CX-75 hypercar concept was equipped with two —but Techrules’ new air-bearing and internal heat-exchanger designs increase efficiency,…

WILD SPECIAL EDITIONS like the Lamborghini Centenario will be at the core of Lamborghini’s offerings in future, according to departing company boss Stephan Winkelmann, who will take up a new post in charge of Audi’s Quattro performance division from next week. Speaking exclusively to Autocar, Winkelmann highlighted the role of cars such as the limited-run 759bhp Centenario, which is based on the Aventador’s platform. Just 40 examples will be built and they’ll cost close to £1.64 million each. “These very special cars allow us to do something outstanding from time to time,” said Winkelmann, who started the extreme limited-run process with the Reventon in 2007. “That’s important for us, because it allows us to do something special and to make headlines all the time, even with a two model line-up.…

THE NEW AUDI SQ7 SUV is the first series-production car to receive an electric-powered compressor to boost the performance of its engine — a new 4.0-litre V8 diesel also destined for the next-gen A8 and a new Q8. In another first for Audi, it also features a 48V electric sub-system to run a new electromechanical active roll stabilisation system that suppresses roll in corners. The new 429bhp, 663lb ft 4.0 V8 TDI replaces the existing 4.2 V8 TDI engine. It uses three chargers to boost induction: two exhaust-gas-driven turbochargers and a separate electrically driven compressor. Audi quotes an official 0-62mph time of 4.8sec and the top speed is limited to 155mph. Combined economy is 38.2mpg and CO2 emissions are 194g/km. Autocar can reveal that the new V8 forms the basis…

Seat’s performance boffins have been busy beavering away to make their quickest hot hatch even quicker. The already rapid Leon Cupra 280 has been replaced by this new 290 version, which gains an extra 10bhp over the old model Not only does it have more peak power but the Leon’s peak torque output is also available for an extra 550rpm, now arriving slightly earlier at just 1700rpm and hanging around until 5800rpm, 300rpm higher than before. Despite the increases, emissions and fuel economy figures are unchanged. Helping to boost performance and generating a sportier sound is a new exhaust system, which has a lower back pressure than the previous pipework and is also 5.8kg lighter. Rounding off the changes is Seat’s Full Link multimedia system, which supports Mirrorlink, Android Auto…

Mileage 6872 Regular readers will remember that a couple of weeks ago, Luc Lacey gave me his Ford Mondeo for a week while he took the Corsa VXR off my hands in a hard-hitting journalistic exercise. So in part two of Car Swap (I’m still awaiting that TV commission for this idea), Luc has filled me in on what he thought of the VXR. Luc won’t mind me saying that for a photographer he’s a handy driver, not that the two things are mutually exclusive. He used to work at a drift school and once made me feel quite sick in the passenger seat of a Mazda MX-5 as he larked around some roundabout in Milton Keynes. So without me in the passenger seat feeling ill, Luc was able to…

My car’s scrap value is £80 and I’ve had a few offers in that region via social media When you have a surplus used car, there are several options. You can part-exchange it if there is something else you want to get. It is possible to go all old-fashioned and sell it through the many channels that are now available to us. Or it is possible to just do a really nice thing and give it away. Over the past few disposal scenarios, I have given away (BMW), given away (Saab), driven into a scrapyard (Jaguar) and had it collected by a couple of chancers with a trailer (Land Rover). Right now, though, I have an undriveable BMW 7 Series parked on the grass and I was considering what to…

Autocar’s star ratings explained Inherently dangerous/unsafe. Tragically, irredeemably flawed. Appalling. Massively significant failings. Very poor. Fails to meet any accepted class boundaries. Poor. Within acceptable class boundaries in a few areas. Still not recommendable. Off the pace. Below average in nearly all areas. Acceptable. About average in key areas, but disappoints. Competent. Above average in some areas, average in others. Outstanding in none. Good. Competitive in key areas. Very good. Very competitive in key areas, competitive in secondary respects. Excellent. Near class leading in key areas, and in some ways outstanding. Brilliant, unsurpassed. All but flawless. Any car that has had a full Autocar road test is highlighted in yellow. FOR FULL RESULTS see page 83…

THE DS E-TENSE supercar could make production as a halo car for the brand, although not for the foreseeable future, according to Carlos Tavares, boss of PSA Peugeot-Citroën, which owns DS. The carbonfibre-bodied concept car was revealed in Geneva and its makers stressed that it had been made to production standards, including the all-electric drivetrain. The car also complies with all current crash test standards. Asked if the concept would reach production, Tavares said: “In the next two years? No. It takes time to build a brand that has the pricing power to sell a big-ticket item like this. But I have learned in this business to never say never. I accept that we will need a halo car for the DS brand, but whether it will be this car,…

A TOTAL OF 180 Bugatti Chiron customers have already placed deposits of €200,000 (£155,000) prior to being given the spec of the car or driving it in any form. In total, 500 Chirons will be built if there is enough demand, at a rate of around one a week. The car should be on sale in various forms until 2024. Bugatti CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer revealed that existing Bugatti customers will get first refusal on the car as a reward for loyalty to the brand and because their ownership indicates they won’t sell the car on to make money. “Interest has been exceptional,” said Dürheimer. “We have set out a clear policy of communicating with existing customers first, and the reaction has been amazing. One-third of the allocation has a deposit…

Toyota showcased its new C-HR compact SUV at the Geneva show ahead of UK sales this summer. The C-HR will rival the likes of the Nissan Juke and Renault Captur, sitting below the RAV4 in Toyota’s range. Its rakish, angular design is inspired by a concept car of the same name. Indeed, the car’s designers were briefed to create a model that stands out from the rest of the Toyota range. The new model also sits on the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) platform, which is also used beneath the latest fourth-generation Prius. It gets two powertrain options in the UK. A new 114bhp 1.2-litre turbo engine, first shown in the Auris, is offered. It comes mated to either a six-speed manual transmission or a CVT automatic. The CVT option…

RENAULT DESIGN BOSS Laurens van den Acker freely admits that the Scenic MPV needed some serious rejuvenation if its sales are not to face further routing at the hands of crossovers. Besides its new design, more driver-orientated cockpit and higher seating, it’s unusual for using the same 20in wheel diameter regardless of model. The tyre, which has been developed by Michelin and Continental, is narrower than average, but its big diameter provides a decent footprint. Apart from obviating the need to develop different chassis set-ups for different wheels, this one-size-fits-all approach allows the styling to be optimised around that wheel size, and the narrowness reduces drag and rolling resistance. The tyre has also been developed to provide a good ride. “If we can’t sell a beautiful, sexy car with 20in…

Porsche GT3 guru Andreas Preuninger has confirmed that the six-speed manual gearbox used in the new 911 R will be available as an option on the next generation of GT3 as well. However, the track-focused GT3 RS will remain PDK-only. Preuninger confirmed that his cars will retain natural aspiration “for the foreseeable future”, with the exception of the next GT2 RS due next year. In addition to this, and contrary to those who maintain the new 718 Cayman will only accept four-cylinder engines, Preuninger said there will be a new Cayman GT4 and it will have six cylinders. Porsche will also look to offer more ‘purist’ models in future if the 911 R is a success. The R will be limited to 991 units because Preuninger didn’t want to make…

Audi’s all-new A8 will be the first model to feature a mild hybrid transmission, according to Stefan Knirsch, the company’s new board member for technical development. Due for launch in 2017, the new A8 gets a 48V electrical system that works with a large starter generator motor (SGM) — in essence a super-sized alternator connected to the engine’s crank pulley with a large rubber belt — and a small lithium ion back-up battery. The SGM not only recharges the back-up battery but can also help ‘assist’ the engine via the rubber belt when the car pulls away at low speeds. This helps reduce fuel consumption and can lower exhaust pollution in certain driving situations. Knirsch says the mild hybrid engines will come in both petrol and diesel guises and will…

VOLKSWAGEN GROUP CEO Matthias Müller has confirmed that VW’s leading engineers have been challenged to create an electric car that can be as iconic as the Golf, offering a 310-mile range, a charge time of 15 minutes and a price that undercuts a conventionally engined car’s. This confirms the plan uncovered by Autocar earlier this year. Speaking at the Geneva show, Müller told Autocar VW would launch 20 plug-in hybrids or electric cars by 2020, bring autonomous cars to market by 2025 and bring car and digital design teams together in three centres around the world to better integrate digital solutions into car design. Audi has also pledged to focus on electric and digital car innovations this year as part of a wider £2.3 billion investment.…

The fifth-generation Mercedes E-Class is the newest iteration of what is one of the most successful franchises in executive car history. It is not only lighter, faster and more economical than the car it replaces but also packed with technology including various autonomous options that allow it to practically drive itself under certain circumstances. The stand-out power unit at launch will be a new four-cylinder diesel engine that – in defiance of apparent logic – combines 191bhp with an official fuel economy figure of 72.4mpg and CO2 emissions of just 102g/km, assuming you’re prepared to make do with 17in wheels. The new E-Class has grown compared with the previous model, with a 43mm increase in overall length to 4923mm and a 65mm wheelbase stretch (to 2939mm) improving space in the…

The Volvo takes off quicker than the BMW; it’s rapid enough to shade almost every diesel SUV Luxury SUV drivers like a bit of added value. They’re room-with-a-view, table-by-the-window, seat-with-the-extra-leg room kind of people, or so you’d imagine – and, given the choice, who wouldn’t be? And now those lucky people can have the parking space nearest the front door of the motorway services, too. The plug-in hybrid petrol-electric luxury SUV is here – and here in numbers. Two years ago, Porsche pioneered the sub-species with its Cayenne S E-Hybrid. Late last year, Mercedes dipped its toe with the GLE500e. And this year Volvo, BMW and Audi are all jumping on the bandwagon. A micro-niche is becoming better established, more varied and much more interesting. Whether it will flourish in…

City analysts have suggested that the total cost of Dieselgate to VW could be £18 billion and some estimates put it at more than double that Volkswagen Group bosses are considering radically restructuring the company’s research and development plans to save significant sums of money and prepare itself for what are likely to be the huge costs of the Dieselgate scandal. According to some insiders, the VW board is looking seriously at streamlining the group’s labyrinthine platform strategy and, as a consequence, being able to make substantial savings in its R&D budget. The VW Group has the largest R&D spending of any company in the world and that cost has ballooned over the past five years or so. In 2010, R&D annual costs were £4.85 billion. By 2009, that grew…

When the tour finished, we walked back to the plant entrance where our Astra stood Even before it started appearing in British showrooms six months ago, the new British-built Vauxhall Astra had already staged one remarkable fightback. Not long before its launch, plans had been laid for the closure of the Ellesmere plant, near Liverpool, that today builds about 30 new-generation Astras an hour and has been making General Motors’ small cars since the original Vauxhall Viva back in 1962. The presumption that Astra production would move to Germany was turned on its head by an exceptional co-operative effort by Ellesmere’s staff and management, and the Astra’s status as Britain’s one locally built hatchback was preserved. All of which is partly why we decided to run an Astra on our…

My second brief encounter with the MX-5 didn’t start well. As the car’s odometer passed 6000 miles, the handbrake warning light began to flash on and off (not for the first time, if you recall) and the service warning indicator glowed orange on the dashboard. I booked the car in to my nearest dealer, Masters of Beckenham, for a check. Less than 10 minutes after I’d handed the key to the service technician, he returned to tell me that the flashing handbrake light had been caused by a slight deficiency in brake fluid, which he’d topped up. The service warning light had lit up as a reminder to get the front and rear tyres rotated. This would have been specified when the car was new, but we’d fitted winter tyres…

READER’S CAR: VOLVO S60 Wayne Healey has his very own Vin (Diesel). “He’s my 2003 Volvo S60 D5 SE,” Healey says. “I purchased him from my next-door neighbour a year ago with 322,000 miles on the clock for £500. He cost me about £250 to get through the MOT test, mostly suspension bush related, but as I’m an ex-mechanic, I had no labour costs. “Other than that, he has only cost me tyres and service items. I regularly get 47mpg-plus, and with 163bhp he’s not slow, but he’s incredibly refined with it. A brilliant car.” WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK: PORSCHE 944 PRICES As all Porsche prices go crazy mad, 944 values remain relatively sane. That can’t last, so I would be inclined to hurry if you want a…

‘Proper luxury brands have to have an indulgent car in there somewhere. We’ve got two: XJ and F-Type’ After months of debate Jaguar bosses have finally pushed the button on reinventing the XJ as an “indulgent, super-luxury” car. The new XJ is likely to feature mixed-materials body construction, a new-generation V6 hybrid drivetrain, an entirely fresh look for the interior and much more of the technology needed for connected and autonomous driving. It’s expected to arrive in showrooms in spring 2019 and a concept version could be seen in 2018, the 50th anniversary of the original XJ. According to inside sources, the debate on how to replace Jaguar’s flagship model was wide-ranging. Some in the company thought the XJ could be remade as a kind of super-SUV similar in concept…

THE NEW ABARTH 124 Spider has been unveiled at the Geneva show and will go on sale in Europe in September, priced from €40,000 (around £31,000). The performance-focused version of the Fiat 124 Spider has been developed with the Abarth Racing Team and has more aggressive styling, a matt black bonnet, a limited-slip differential and a ‘Record Monza’ exhaust system fitted as standard. It’s powered by a tweaked version of parent brand Fiat’s four-cylinder 1.4-litre Multiair II engine, which produces 170bhp and 184b ft of torque. It’s paired to either a six-speed short-throw manual gearbox or a six-speed automatic with paddle shifters. Abarth claims a 0-62mph time of 6.8sec and a top speed of 143mph. The two-seat, rear-wheel-drive Abarth 124 Spider weighs 1060kg and has 50/50 weight distribution, according to…

The new Aston Martin DB11 kicks off a product assault which will result in new versions of the Vantage and Vanquish being built on the same aluminium architecture. The DB11 made its debut in Geneva, and Aston has revealed that more than 1400 orders had been placed for the new £154,900 V12-powered 2+2 GT as of Thursday 3 March. Around 500 came from VIP customer preview events, the same again from people who saw leaked images online before the show and around 400 from Geneva itself. Following the DB11 will be a new Vantage sports car, which is due late next year and should usher in Mercedes V8 engines to the Aston line-up. A new Vanquish will follow the Vantage, although whether it will be a performance GT or a…

ALFA ROMEO BOSS Fabrizio Curci has admitted that engineering issues have delayed the launch of the Giulia “by just a few weeks”. He denied reports that the all-new car failed to pass European front, side and rear crash tests, causing a six-month delay. “Not one single screw is a carryover,” he said. “This car is all new, and it is true that we wanted to launch this car with the right quality from the start, but that caused a delay of maybe some weeks, certainly not months. There is no more to say than that. The car is ready, and it meets every requirement that has been set for it by the regulators and by us.” In Geneva, Alfa revealed the standard Giulia models. These will be powered by a…

VAUXHALL-OPEL ENGINEERS are looking at adapting the all-wheel drive componentry from the Mokka crossover to make the handsome GT coupé concept a production reality. The proportions of the compact two-seater are built around a rear-drive powertrain, but parent company GM has no suitable ready-made platform in its global portfolio. “It is true we have no rear-drive platform,” Opel boss Karl-Thomas Neumann told Autocar, “but engineering is looking at a solution. There are possibilities.” Sources said the rear differential and suspension from the Mokka could be adapted for the GT. The search is also on for a suitable compact gearbox that can channel drive from an in-line mounted engine to the Mokka rear diff. Other key aspects of the GT have already taken into account a production future. Vauxhall-Opel design chief…

THE VOLKSWAGEN T-CROSS concept will by launched as a Polo-sized SUV by 2018, as the smallest of a five-strong SUV range being prepared for production by the brand. It will be joined in the line-up by a Golf-sized SUV production car based on the T-Roc concept, the new Tiguan launched this year, a production version of the seven-seat CrossBlue concept and the all-new Touareg set to be unveiled later this year. The production version of the T-Cross is not expected to be offered as a convertible, in the style of the concept car, and VW is expected to give it a standalone name rather than refer to the Polo. Sources have also confirmed that investigations into selling an even smaller VW Up-based crossover have been shelved. “We looked at the…

VOLKSWAGEN HAS admitted that then-CEO Martin Winterkorn was first aware of the NOx emissions irregularities as far back as May 2014 but has denied it misled shareholders by withholding the information until September 2015. The revelation came in an official statement by VW that outlined the timeline of events as part of its defence against legal action by shareholders, who say VW illegally withheld details about the scandal. VW traces the scandal to 2005, when it decided to launch diesel engines in the US. VW earmarked the EA189 engine for it, but US regulations were far stricter than those in Europe. During development of the EA189 for the US, VW says, as yet unknown powertrain management engineers modified the engine management software within existing budgets and without the need to…

FORD IS PLANNING a September launch for the new Ka+ — a five-door Ford Fiesta-based B-segment ‘value’ hatch. The Ka+ will be priced from about £8000. It will be built in India in just one bodystyle and is intended to appeal to buyers in the lower reaches of the growing market for small cars. The Ka+ is intended to offer robustness, cabin quality and good handling, while excusing Ford from excessively cheapening its long-time class leader, the Fiesta, itself nearing replacement next year. The Ka+ is closely related to a four-door design study called the Ka Concept and shown in Barcelona in 2013. Ford of Europe president and chief executive Jim Farley believes aggregate sales of the Ka+ and Fiesta could drive sales forward by 20% or even 30% in…

It goes a lot harder than its siblings. This is a turbocharged engine that feels crackling and lively The E10 R is the ultimate version of the lightweight British sports car introduced by Caterham ex-pats Ansar Ali and Mark Edwards in 2014. We drove it in prototype form last year, but now the chassis is signed off, the ink on the order forms is dry and we can find out what the finished article is like. This is one of the more tempting track-intended two-seaters for two reasons: it’s powered by the 2.3-litre turbocharged engine you’ll find in the blockbusting new Ford Focus RS and it’s priced at less than £40,000. So it has more power and torque than Caterham’s new 620S (see p50) and costs £6000 less – not…

The Ford Capri is one of those iconic automotive designs. In its various forms, the fastback brought sporting coupés to the masses in the UK and almost two million were sold between 1969 and 1986. But some Capris are more special than others. Gordon Spice and his line of 3.0-litre V6 versions dominated the British Touring Car Championship (or British Saloon Car Championship as it was then known) in the second half of the 1970s. The idiosyncratic nature of the scoring system, which allowed class winners to record the same number of points as outright victors, meant that Spice never won the overall championship, but six class titles and 26 wins underlined the combination’s impact on the Group 1 era of tin-tops. Genuine ex-Spice Capris are rare, so the return…

Since this topic has been rolling for a couple of weeks, I thought I would share my observation that the highly intelligent and efficient Swiss post office vans are right-hand drive so that the postal staff waste less time climbing into and out of the vehicle during deliveries and collections. Throw in the obvious safety benefits — to the postie as well as other road users — and you have to ask why Royal Mail doesn’t use left-hand-drive vehicles in the UK. WIN Letter of the week wins a ValetPRO exterior protection and maintenance kit worth £58.95…

1 Toyota Celica (1999-2006) Seventeen years after first gracing our roads, the Celica remains as fresh as a daisy. The Toyota was originally designed as a coupé, rather than a chopped-up hatchback, so it still cuts the mustard where it matters — out there on a challenging road. Feeling every bit the sports car it was meant to be, it has a low-slung driving position, lots of grip, fine handling and crisp steering. The two rear seats are really just for show, but there is a big boot to add a dash of practicality. Reliability is a strong point, too. We found a 52-plate car with 100,000 miles for our £1000 budget. 2 Hyundai Coupé (2002-2007) You’re off to a good start when famous Italian design house Pininfarina turns an…

Large SUVs 1 Range Rover Sport From £60,000 Now bigger and better. A cut-price Range Rover rather than a jumped-up Discovery — and the best here by a mile. 2 Porsche Cayenne From £50,000 The current model is more agile, more stylish and more sporty-feeling than before. A great interior, too. 3 BMW X5 From £43,000 Remains an accomplished and luxurious product. Trumped by others in the driving department now, though. 4 Land Rover Discovery From £40,000 Looks like an outmoded hulk in this list, but it can still do everything you’d ever want it to. Seven seats, too. 5 Volkswagen Touareg From £42,000 VW’s biggest SUV is a well-balanced blend of solid dynamics, good price and usable, comfortable interior. Visit autocar.co.uk for all of our Top Fives…