Innholdsfortegnelse for 31/08/2016 i Autocar

Hyundai has revealed its facelifted i10 ahead of the model’s Paris show unveiling. The revised city car gets a new ‘cascading’ grille, which is set to feature across the brand’s line-up, revised infotainment and new safety kit. The engine line-up continues unchanged, and tweaks have been made to the car’s dynamics. Front collision warning and lane departure warning systems have also been introduced. The new i10 will go on sale next January. Prices are expected to rise slightly over those of the current model, which starts at £8995.…

BMW is developing a competition version of its M4 Coupé, called the M4 GT4, to compete in GT4 racing series around the world. Although it is still in the early stages of development, the model is on course to race from the start of 2018, when it will be eligible to compete in championships such as the GT4 European Series. The car has moved from wind tunnel tests to circuit running, allowing BMW Motorsport’s engineers to start evaluating the performance of the racing model’s bespoke aerodynamic kit in real-world conditions. The M4 GT4 has more aggressive aerodynamic features than the hottest road-going M4, the GTS. These include a larger, fixed rear wing, a more prominent front spoiler and lower side skirts. The car will also have a more complicated rear…

Volkswagen will unveil a new electric hatchback concept at next month’s Paris motor show as a precursor to a range of up to five battery-powered vehicles already granted a developmental green light by VW brand boss Herbert Diess. The move is part of the ambitious Strategy 2025 plan aimed at netting the German car maker up to one million electric car sales annually by the middle of the next decade. The concept will sport a new design lineage that Wolfsburg sources suggest will influence the appearance of the new generation of electric cars. The five-seat concept is described by Diess as being slightly smaller than a Golf but with interior space comparable to that of a Passat and an electric range of 400-600km (250-370 miles). That is roughly double the…

Kia has previewed the new Rio’s styling in a sketch ahead of its Paris motor show debut next month. The new supermini is likely to be five-door only when it goes on sale next year, with sportier styling than the current model’s and a less cluttered interior. Between July 2015 and July 2016, just 12% of all Rios sold in the UK were three-doors. There won’t be a hybrid or electric version, but a 1.0-litre turbo three-pot engine is likely, in addition to a high-spec GT Line model and a GT hot hatchback that may use Kia’s 1.4-litre turbo petrol engine. Prices are tipped to rise slightly over the current Rio’s so an entry point of close to £11,500 is expected. The next-gen Picanto will be a five-door only, too.…

“There’s no doubt the 138bhp engine offers a decent amount of thrust when needed” The latest version of the Hyundai i30, the Korean brand’s C-segment hatch, is so new that it hasn’t been fully revealed yet. Hence the black tarpaulin and lumpy bits you see in these pictures. Even so, Hyundai was keen for us to try the third-generation i30’s brand-new platform and equally new turbocharged 1.4-litre petrol engine. Although a manual gearbox will be available, our test car was fitted with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic that can be found on the existing i30. Regardless of engine, all models get fully independent, multi-link rear suspension, trumping the likes of the Vauxhall Astra and lowly versions of the Volkswagen Golf and Seat Leon with their less sophisticated torsion beam set-ups. Hyundai…

MODEL TESTED 1.6 GDI DCT 2 • Price £22,795 Power 139bhp • Torque 195lb ft • 0-60mph 9.7sec • 30-70mph in fourth 13.7sec • Fuel economy 50.1mpg • CO2 emissions 88g/km • 70-0mph 59.6m It’s hard to imagine a car more conspicuously of its time than the all-new Kia Niro. For a start, it is that most prized family-sized possession: a compact crossover – supposedly as useful as a double-decker pram and three times as covetable. And second, it’s a hybrid and therefore as overtly voguish and right-on as a soy cashmere jacket. It isn’t, though, a plug-in model – for now, at least. Instead, like the Toyota Prius, its electric motor is generally run in parallel with a petrol engine via an automatic gearbox. However, its use of well-established…

The expedition took on the rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the vast land mass at the heart of sub-Saharan Africa that, until independence in 1960, was known as the Belgian Congo before being renamed Zaire in the 1970s. Its rainforest is second only to the Amazon in size and in some areas annual rainfall reaches 2000mm, which is why so many roads are rutted and there are so many rivers. Raw materials are the DRC’s main export, and many of the wranglings in which the expedition got caught up were linked to diamond and cobalt mining. Locals persistently offered the expedition ‘red mercury’ to buy — a hoax substance purportedly used in the making of nuclear bombs.…

“Our ruse to avoid traffic was scuppered by all-night trucks, all of which travelled at 45mph” It wasn’t even our idea. There we were, chipping away at the familiar walls of the Autocar salt mines, when a bloke called Dominic Vizor, one of Nissan’s 8000-odd employees in the UK, came up with the idea of a Nissan-Autocar team doing the celebrated Three Peaks Challenge and using a Nissan Leaf for the 470-mile journey it entailed. Vizor’s plan fell on unexpectedly fertile ground. Hacks are known for sedentary pursuits such as typing and sitting in cars but, as luck would have it, editor Matt Burt is oddly partial to running up hills for sport. So he needed minimal encouragement to start hand-picking a team to ascend the highest peaks in…

USED CAR SPECIAL When to buy a bargain What’s the best time to buy a used car? James Ruppert reveals all FIRST DRIVE BMW 5 Series prototype We get an early taste of Munich’s seventh-generation executive saloon LONG DRIVE Speed record haunts tour We pay tribute to British motoring pioneers in a Jaguar F-Type SVR ROAD TEST Volkswagen Passat GTE Petrol-electric rival to the Volvo S60 Plug-In Hybrid and BMW 330e is fully assessed SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe…

For those fearing I might be about to engage hyperbolic overdrive on the subject of the i8, and as promised last time around, I shall dedicate this report to telling you what I don’t like about the car. First is parking the thing. If you’re in a car park, you really must find a space on the end of a row to guarantee you won’t get blocked in. Make the mistake at an airport and it could be days before you get home. The doors open more upwards than outwards, so what aperture exists in a restricted space is underneath, requiring you to contort your frame into shapes an overweight and middle-aged constitution does not care to adopt. You can get in from the other side, but it’s inelegant, awkward…

MILEAGE 153,000 BMW 5 SERIES Last in the Ruppert line-up is Shed 5, or Sheddy McShedface. Getting it through the MOT wasn’t a formality. The ABS light randomly popped on and I thought the worst, then the wash-wipe didn’t work. Was I going to get just two months from a motor? My local garage replaced the ABS sensor, welded the exhaust and fitted some wash-wipe piping for a couple of hundred quid. We now have an MOT and a year of 40mpg. Correction: In reference to our Volkswagen Polo (11 August issue), I said it was a 1.2, but as my teenager pointed out, it’s a full-fat 1.4. Never trust me on anything, especially the facts.…

Jaguar has been given the green light to launch a compact all-electric SUV by 2018, putting it ahead of its Range Rover sister brand in the race to get a battery-powered vehicle into showrooms. The electric Jaguar is due to be revealed by the end of this year. There’s no word yet on what the vehicle will be called, but E-Pace, a name that Jaguar has trademarked, is a distinct possibility. Autocar understands the electric SUV will be based on the Jaguar Land Rover EV platform unveiled a year ago at a low-carbon vehicle event in Bedfordshire. Although the project was called the Evoque_e, Autocar understands Jaguar is now leading the project, and the styling of the new EV has recently been signed off. The E-Pace is believed to be…

JAGUAR LAND ROVER is working on two more hybrid systems to be rolled out across its model range. The first is a plug-in hybrid for larger models such as the Range Rover Sport, and the second is a mild hybrid for the smaller Evoque and Discovery Sport models. Developing plug-in hybrids alongside electric vehicles makes sense for JLR, because PHEVs will become relatively mainstream sooner than EVs. Their take-up will only be sped up by increasing traffic restrictions in cities such as London and a crackdown on tailpipe pollution. Although Land Rover has been selling a Range Rover V6 diesel hybrid since 2013, it is working on an all-new plug-in hybrid powertrain that is based around a new 295bhp four-cylinder Ingenium petrol engine. According to an engineering presentation last year,…

CITROEN HAS REVEALED a new executive saloon concept, called Cxperience, which uses a plug-in hybrid petrol-electric powertrain and features the brand’s Advanced Comfort programme and a host of interior technology. The company says the concept, which will be displayed at next month’s Paris show, showcases future Citroëns and demonstrates how the styling of recent smaller cars, such as the C4 Cactus and new C3, can be used on larger models. The Cxperience is 4.85m long (a similar length to the C6 saloon), just 1.37m high and has a 3m wheelbase. It has short overhangs and 22in wheels with a five-spoke design. Exterior highlights include adjustable air intakes on the front bumper, an aerodynamic concave rear window and rear-hinged doors giving easy access for passengers. Inside, a 19in rectangular display controls…

TESLA HAS ANNOUNCED that its new Model S P100D, which uses a 100kWh battery pack, can sprint to 60mph in 2.5sec. That’s 0.3sec faster than a McLaren P1’s 0-62mph time. With the Porsche 918 Spyder and LaFerrari now sold out, the Model S P110D is officially the quickest car currently on sale. The upgraded Model X P100D will also use a 100kW battery and hit the 60mph mark in 2.9sec. Both cars are four-wheel drive. Speaking to Autocar, Tesla boss Elon Musk confirmed details of the revised models, including their extended ranges. The Model S P100D will cost from £114,200, more than double the entry-level Model S 60’s £53,400 starting price. The price includes the Ludicrous Speed upgrade and Tesla’s Smart Air Suspension. First deliveries are estimated for December this…

“The range extender plays an important part while range remains a source of anxiety” AS VOLKSWAGEN’S electric vehicle plans get under way, BMW is preparing to expand its zero-emissions range with a model positioned between the i3 and i8, understood to be badged i5. Henrik Wenders, head of BMW i’s product development, confirmed to Autocar that a model placed between the two existing i cars is well advanced, describing it as a “new car in the range to attract families”. The next i model isn’t expected to arrive until 2020. Wenders said BMW is planning to offer future i models with a range extender engine as an option, in effect confirming that the next car will essentially be an EV rather than a hybrid. “The range extender will continue to…

AUDI IS SET to equip its new RS4, RS5, soon-to-be-confirmed RS Q5 and a new entry-level version of the R8 with the twin-turbocharged 2.9-litre V6 petrol engine recently unveiled by Porsche in the new Panamera. The 90deg unit has been developed in a joint venture by Audi and Porsche as part of a new modular engine family known under the working title KoVoMo. It has been engineered for what Porsche engineers have called high-power applications from both car makers. The new turbocharged V6 replaces Audi’s older, naturally aspirated 4.2-litre V8 petrol engine. Audi’s V8 has been discontinued because of what Ingolstadt officials describe as a combination of the high costs of updating it to meet future emissions standards and concerns in markets such as China, where road tax is linked…

Skoda, in keeping with current automotive trends, has chosen to swap the entry-level Octavia hatchback’s 1.2-litre four-cylinder petrol engine for a turbocharged 1.0-litre three-pot unit. It will need to stack up against rivals such as the three-cylinder Ecoboost-powered Ford Focus, the Peugeot 308 1.2 Puretech and the Vauxhall Astra 1.0 Ecoflex. The Skoda’s new engine produces 113bhp at 5500rpm, which is 9bhp more than the 1.2 it replaces. Torque gains are more significant, with the 1.0 TSI offering some 19lb ft extra from lower down its rev range, but there’s no change in the quoted 9.9sec 0-62mph time. Official average fuel consumption is up to 62.8mpg, from the 57.6mpg of before, while its CO2 output is 104g/km. Importantly, the 1.0 TSI doesn’t feel short of breath. The Octavia has some…

It took Toyota four model generations to come up with a Toyota Prius – the car with which Kia’s first dedicated hybrid must inevitably be compared – that feels normal to drive. And by ‘normal’, we mean fully realised: broadly uncompromised on driveability and handling as well as being efficient. Kia must be given the freedom to grow at its own pace, but the Niro certainly feels like a first attempt, even though in many ways it shouldn’t. It’s cleverly packaged, keenly priced, well equipped, swift enough in outright terms and dynamically passable. But in real-world use, the Niro lacks easy driveability, accessible efficiency and ride and handling sophistication. And somehow it fails to make the electric part of its powertrain work hard enough to provide a convincing selling point…

“The Mégane GT rides with the kind of body control that reeks of careful and skilful tuning” The Renault Mégane is a car apparently trapped in a permanent identity crisis. While rivals appear capable of regenerating every six or seven years without ever needing a wholesale character reinvention, the Mégane seems to come back drastically altered with a different agenda and fresh selling points every time there’s an all-new model. As its dynasty has developed, we’ve gone from The Beaky One to The Whacky One to The Oft-Facelifted-Blink-And-There’s-A-New-One One. And now to this: Mégane Mk4, The Pretty One. Sort of. Over the years, we’ve been led to expect outstanding safety from the car, then innovative technology and unconventional style followed by value and efficiency. Now we’re offered a certain…

“Only seven more corners to go,” chirrups mountain leader Rich Pyne as he pauses to allow us to catch him up and then catch our breath. I follow his gaze, vainly trying to pinpoint the top he’s referring to as he tries to motivate us onwards to the top of Ben Nevis via the well-trodden Mountain Path. We’ve been trudging for three hours and I hope we’re reaching some kind of final push to the top. The corners Pyne is referring to mark the completion of a section of a steep, zig-zagging path. The route up has taken its toll on my short legs and rusty joints. It’s also surprisingly mentally taxing, reading the terrain and focusing on where you’re putting your feet. Then all of a sudden, every sweaty…

For a clear indication of just how much fun the fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 has been to live with over the past year, just look at that bill for tyres: £860 for eight of the blooming things. We just couldn’t stop driving it hard, because this was a car that demanded to be discovered, compared, questioned, explored and enjoyed at every opportunity. The brief for the Mk4 MX-5, launched last summer, is well known – not that ‘tyre-shredder’ was in it. And it isn’t a tyre-shredder, of course, because that was all our doing. But more on that in a moment. Mazda’s brief, then, was to make the MX-5 smaller and lighter while keeping it fun and affordable. The MX-5 kept the classic front-engined, rear-wheel-drive roadster layout and now looks even…

Audi A3 Sportback Steve Vaughan has a 2008 Audi A3 Sportback 2.0 TDI SE. “I bought it from a Renault dealer in 2010 with 17,000 miles, no warranty and no prep for £15k,” he says. “It’s now done 150k miles. After being faultless, a rear wheel bearing has just failed, so I replaced both rears as preventative maintenance. A self-levelling sensor on the rear suspension for the adaptive lights has failed and the hinge on the glovebox has just broken. It’s got to soldier on for another two years, when the mileage will be just under 200,000.” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com…

“The XK8’s increasing popularity is perhaps because of a pining for ‘proper’ Jags of old” We think of platform sharing as a recent innovation, but it has been happening for years. The XK8 and its posher compatriot, the Aston Martin DB7, emerged from the Jaguar XJS, which in turn rose out of the Series 1 XJ6 of 1968. The XK8 never quite shook off its association with the XJS. The DB7 managed to distance itself more successfully, but today a tip-top XK8 is entry-level Aston money, or around £20,000. The invention of the ‘modern classic’, fuelled by people keen to buy anything that promises a greater return than their savings, has much to do with the XK8’s increasing popularity and also, perhaps, a pining for ‘proper’ Jags of old –…

Hyundai’s luxury Genesis brand could reach the UK by 2018, with the arrival of its first SUV model primed to help the marque take on the European market. While the G90 luxury saloon, new G80 executive saloon and upcoming G70 compact exec are initially being offered in left-hand drive form only, UK boss Tony Whitehorn says right-hand drive demand is expected, particularly in Australia, allowing Hyundai to bring them to the UK too. However, he acknowledged that the brand’s first SUV, due in 2018 and set to be followed by a smaller SUV crossover, would be the primary focus for the European market and could be built in right-hand drive form from the offset. “The Genesis of today is more of an American car, but there are models coming that…

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE software start-up company Nutonomy has beaten Uber to launching the world’s first autonomous taxi trial. The trial allows invited members of the public living in Singapore to hail a free taxi ride, operated by Nutonomy, via their smartphones. The test vehicles operate in a limited 2.5-square-mile area of the one-north district of Singapore, with collection and drop-off points in set locations. The fleet initially has six test taxis, with plans to increase that to 12 by the end of the year. The fleet includes Renault Zoes and Mitsubishi i-MiEVs, modified to include lidar laser technology and cameras to scan for obstacles and traffic light changes. Each car will have a driver ready to take back control should the need arise. A researcher will also be present in the…

Audi will redefine the ride and handling characteristics of its cars as each new generation is launched, starting with the flagship A8 next year. Engineers are believed to have been tasked with maintaining the sporty remit of the current-generation models while giving them a broader range of dynamic attributes. This includes developing more involving steering feel and more pliant ride settings, where appropriate. Audi’s focus for mainstream models has long been a ride and handling balance that gives drivers the feeling that they are in a sporty car, but not one that is in any way tiring to drive, particularly on a high-speed motorway run. Current Audis ride significantly better than their forebears but are still frequently criticised for having uninvolving dynamics. In the case of the next-generation A8, for…

THE STARTING PRICE of a Ford Fiesta has risen by more than £3000 following the car maker’s decision to drop the entry-level Studio and Style trim levels from the model’s UK line-up. The Fiesta now costs from £13,395, rather than £10,345. Ford has decided to ditch the Fiesta’s cheapest models to clear space for its upcoming Ka+, which arrives as a cheaper five-door, five-seat hatchback, priced from £8995. Ford said the model’s similarity with the base Fiesta trim levels would have left customers with two near-identical offerings. A spokesman said: “We never want customers to be faced with a model-versus-model scenario, so dropping the Studio and Style gives the two cars clear differences.” Although the decision to drop the Studio and Style trims was based on the arrival of the…

“It wouldn’t take a huge amount of tweaking to make the Kicks competitive in Europe” The Nissan Kicks is a small crossover developed initially for Central and South American markets but which will also be on sale in more than 80 countries before long. The UK, though, won’t be one of them. Just when most car makers are becoming ever more global in their product offerings, Nissan is sticking to making things that are developed specifically for different regions. (Mostly, anyway; let’s gloss over the most recent Micra, designed for Asia and converted, rather badly, for Europe.) The Kicks is another of Nissan’s many crossovers, sitting in size between a Juke and a Qashqai. It’s 4295mm long, compared with a Juke’s 4111mm and a Qashqai’s 4377mm, so it’s more or…

Since its release in 2013, the second-generation Grand C4 Picasso has been a dominant force in the MPV market, with its blend of Parisian style and class-leading practicality securing it a place at the top of the sales chart. To keep the Grand C4 Picasso relevant, Citroën has treated its best seller to a mid-life facelift. Three trim levels are now available: Touch, Feel and Flair. Feel models get 17in diamond-finish alloy wheels and Flair versions gain integrated roof bars and aluminium trim. All models also have a new front-end design and ‘3D-effect’ tail-lights. The biggest change is the addition of a new Citroën Connect Nav system, which offers 3D maps, touch operation and real-time updates, voice recognition for sat-nav, phone and media functions and the ability to access and…

It could be a stand-up comedian’s joke: did you hear the one about the army officer, the photographer and the doctor who drove a 27-year-old Land Rover to Africa and through the jungle of the Congo? But it’s no joke. Three intrepid explorers did exactly that in 2013, taking four months to drive to Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and then two months to cover 2500 miles of jungle hell. All in a very basically prepared D-reg Land Rover 90 bought off eBay for £2700. “We never intended to cross the Congo, but conflicts in north Africa cut off options to loop back to the UK,” says Mike Martin, who tackled the trip with fiancé Chloe Baker and photographer Charlie Hatch-Barnwell. “We knew it would be…

“To dominate the way we did in Finland is very special. The event is all about pure speed” It takes a special kind of driver to win Rally Finland, and it takes a special kind of navigator to sit alongside him, coolly delivering the pace notes that tell the driver exactly what level of speed and commitment to take into the next tree-lined corner. Disaster could be one misread pace note away, yet the navigator’s contribution is often overlooked, which is precisely why Kris Meeke made a point of crediting his co-driver, Paul Nagle, after the pair won on the super-fast Finnish gravel roads in August. Meeke and Nagle are late bloomers in the World Rally Championship, but having snagged that elusive first victory in their Abu Dhabi Total…

My three-car garage After owning more than 50 cars in my 68 years on this planet, I thought readers might be interested in my latest collection: Bentley Continental W12 GTC for special occasions, S open top-andBMW i3 for saving the planet. I deeply love them all, for different reasons, and get a huge kick from driving them. At the moment, I can’t think of a better mix of posh, fun and latest tech. Martin A Morris Via email Nice collection, Martin. We’re interested to know what other three-car garages our readers have (or dream of). Write in and let us know — DR WIN Letter of the week wins this ValetPRO exterior protection and maintenance kit worth £58.95…

“The V6 is faster and smoother than the 2.0 TDI and only fractionally less efficient” Less is more, we’re told. And while it’s a hackneyed phrase, there’s no denying that when it comes to cars, tax pressures have led to the smallest engines selling in by far the biggest numbers. Take executive saloons. Not long ago six-cylinder models accounted for a sizeable share of sales, whereas today most have been swept from the road by a torrent of 2.0-litre fours. The latest addition to our long-term fleet, however, seems to have been designed to reverse that trend. The car in question is the red Audi A4 that you see above, and although it looks an awful lot like the white 2.0 TDI 190 that Andrew Frankel has been running for…

Mondial 8 with something missing The Mondial 8 was once the affordable Ferrari that you could find for less than £20k. Ferraris, though, live or die by their service history, and as the ad for this 1982 example says: “Unfortunately the service history has been misplaced.” You could start at year zero, as it will get a full service and cambelt prior to sale. The way classic prices are going, £39,995 sounds cheap for a Ferrari. Stand out from the crowd in a G40R The trouble with so many sports cars these days is that you quite often see the same Porsche coming the other way. But that is unlikely to happen very often if you’re driving a Ginetta. This 2012 G40R is the first road-legal model and has chassis…

An expert’s view GARY ROBINSON, SWALLOWS “Prices are rising for anything but the worst XK8s. Ignore colour and mileage: condition is everything. View as many cars as you can to get a feel for prices. Putting the Nikasil and chain tensioner issues on early cars to one side, the 4.0 and 4.2 engines are reliable and unstressed but thirsty. Convertibles are worth around £1000 more and XKRs at least £2000.” Buyer beware… • RUST Check the floorpan at the front, footwells, sills, rear wheelarches and quarter panels and rear bumper where it meets the body. • BORE PROBLEMS Nikasil bore liners on some pre-2000-model-year cars suffered sulphur erosion due to low-grade fuel. Affected cars have VINs 001036 to 042775. Jaguar replaced some engines with ones fitted with steel liners. Check…

1 BMW 5 Series From £31,900 Performance, efficiency, handling sophistication, practicality, desirability and value all rolled into one. Excellent. 2 Jaguar XF From £29,900 Outstanding ride and handling and a rich, pleasant cabin. Not as roomy as some; four-cylinder engines disappoint. 3 Audi A6 From £32,300 Perfect for anyone looking for a smart office cubicle on wheels. Supremely well constructed but soulless to drive. 4 Mercedes-Benz E-Class From £34,900 A bit on the pricey side and less sporting to drive than its key rivals. Four-pot diesels are a bit sluggish. 5 Lexus GS From £33,495 Restrictive engine range limits the GS’s appeal, but outstanding refinement and cabin quality make amends to a point.…