Innholdsfortegnelse for 8/3/2017 i Autocar

When it comes to building mid-sized convertible concepts, Bentley has form. The firm wowed Geneva in 1994 with a great-looking design proposal called Java, created by a co-operation between former Bentley-Rolls-Royce designer Graham Hull and the former Rover design boss, Royden Axe, at a Warwick-based company Axe formed called Design Research Associates. The car was based on BMW 5 Series underpinnings and received wide acclaim for the way it carried Bentley’s prestigious design values on what was then an unprecedentedly small car. But Bentley, which was combined with Rolls-Royce at the time, was a subsidiary of the Vickers aircraft conglomerate in 1994 and didn’t have the finance or the appetite for taking a risk. So the car never made production, even though calls for its emergence continued long after Geneva…

Porsche has unveiled the most practical version of the Panamera yet, the Panamera Sport Turismo, which will go on sale in the UK this October. The new sporting estate joins the second-generation Panamera line-up with a new four-plus-one seating layout, a large, electronically operated tailgate, a significantly lower loading lip and an extra 20 litres of luggage capacity behind the rear seats. The model was granted the green light by former Porsche chairman Matthias Mueller following a positive reaction to the Sport Turismo concept seen at the 2012 Paris show. Five years on, the model holds true to the concept, with a uniquely styled rear end that helps to provide greater interior flexibility and load space. Porsche hopes the new model will win over buyers who may have otherwise chosen…

THE NEWLY RENAMED Audi Sport division has unveiled the second-generation RS5. It is powered by a new twin-turbo 2.9-litre V6 petrol engine developing the same 444bhp, but 442lb ft, which is a considerable 126lb ft more than its predecessor’s naturally aspirated 4.2 V8. Set for UK sales in June, the performance coupé has a new platform and grows in size over the model it replaces. Further developments include a new chassis with five-link front and rear suspension and Audi Sport’s Dynamic Ride Control system with variable damping control. An eight-speed torque converter automatic gearbox is allied to a quattro four-wheel drive system that apportions drive in a rear-biased 40/60 split. A sport differential offering a torque vectoring effect for the rear wheels is optional. Audi claims a 0-62mph time of…

INFINITI HAS UNVEILED a high-performance hybrid coupé concept, the Q60 Black S. The car has been created to mark Infiniti’s new technical partnership with Renault’s grand prix team. The Q60 Black S is based on the top-spec, four-wheel-drive version of Infiniti’s two-door Q60 coupé. That car’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 produces 400bhp and enables a 0-62mph time of 5.0sec, but the concept’s performance is supplemented by a Formula 1-style Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), which stores recovered braking energy and deploys it when a power boost is needed. The KERS-equipped Q60 Black S will offer “instant, lag-free acceleration”, according to Infiniti, although specific performance figures haven’t been revealed. The concept’s powertrain is being developed by Renault and Infiniti engineers working in partnership at Renault’s F1 engine headquarters at Viry-Châtillon, south of…

The A5 Sportback was never going to lack technological sophistication or premium refinement, or feel anything less than supremely well engineered. And yet, while Ingolstadt seems to set itself ever-higher standards and lead us to expect ever-greater technical brilliance from every new product, this particular Audi has still taken us by surprise. The multi-talented turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine makes it perfectly positioned to take advantage of the mood to ditch diesel that’s becoming so prevalent. It also makes this A5 genuinely evocative of the silken executive options that forged Germany’s reputation for superior car making some 40 years ago. But for this car, for our money, that’s still not quite cutting the mustard. Appealing style undoubtedly played a bigger part in the overall appeal of the last A5 Sportback than…

“The Zerouno’s detail and quality are redolent of the inest old-style coachbuilders” On arrival, you could be forgiven for thinking nothing at Italdesign has changed. True, there are more cars parked in the street, but that just means there are more employees, a given for a thriving company. But the two large studio buildings through which you usually enter Italdesign’s estate on the southern outskirts of Turin seem hardly to have altered, even though it’s nearly 50 years since the company’s famous founder, Giorgetto Giugiaro, decided to launch his own design business. Don’t be fooled. Nearly everything at Italdesign is different. Apart, that is, from the sound of Italian voices and the signs that this is still a happy home for the Italian creative spirit. Inside, the name of the…

A touchy subject I’m with Matt Prior in thinking that eliminating buttons in favour of touchscreens is the wrong way to go (Tester’s Notes, 22 February). Touchscreens are not correct for frequently used functions like adjusting the heater temperature, rear screen demister and radio volume. My 2016 Ford Mustang has largely got the mix correct. I adjust the radio volume with the large knob rather than the touchscreen or wheel buttons. The rear window demister, temperature and fan speed are adjustable via the touchscreen or buttons but I almost invariably use the buttons. Trying to use the touchscreen to make adjustments takes longer than using a button and it is easy to hit the wrong function on the screen when you are moving. You need to brace your thumb on…

Life goes on with the Mustang after the revelation that it scored only two stars in Euro NCAP crash safety tests. Its Euro NCAP score didn’t occur to me when I bought the car. When it comes to safety, I’m not sure what is more significant. Is it the fact that it hasn’t got Autonomous Emergency Braking (one of the main reasons it fared so badly in the Euro NCAP tests), or that it is powered by a monstrous engine, is rear-wheel drive and lets you turn the stability system off completely if you wish? In that sense, safety is relative to a number of things, like other cars in the class. None of them have been tested by Euro NCAP under the new testing criteria in force since 2016.…

This update on my newest acquisition comes not so much from the garage as the vehicle admin area of my office. I think I may have warned readers never to buy a car without a V5. Well, for reasons that will be explained in the future, I did. So despite the car’s MOT certificate and insurance, I now own a vehicle I can’t drive. I trusted the seller to sort out the missing V5. It finally led to me to talk to the DVLA after reports that, due to the March taxation changes, it couldn’t cope, which is not the case. Stay tuned to find out if I manage to get the V5 sorted.…

“You won’t get a Bentley Continental GT for anything like the same money as a Phaeton” Probably the last thing Ferdinand Piech, former boss of the Volkswagen Group, thought his beloved Mercedes-Benz S-Class rival would be is a used car bargain. But it is – although, like all bargains, the Phaeton can bite you, and hard. How about £1800 hard? That’s what one owner had to pay for electrical work to his car (see panel, right). It makes you think, unless you take the ‘it’ll never happen to me’ approach and start imagining yourself wafting around in the enormous Passat lookalike. In fact, for just £3795 – the price of an 85,000-mile, 2004/04-plate Phaeton that we know of – you could be doing exactly that. The downside? It’s the thirsty…

Porsche Cayman From £39,878 Scalpel-blade incisiveness, supreme balance and outstanding driver involvement. A practical two-seater, too. Mazda MX-5 From £18,495 Brilliantly packaged, brilliantly priced and even more vibrant and perfectly poised to drive than the original. Toyota GT86 From £22,075 Who knew Toyota had another dynamic masterstroke in it after the Lexus LFA? Almost as much fun as a limited budget can buy. BMW M240i From £35,420 Towers over most German rivals. Outstanding engine, characterful handling, strong usability. Lotus Elise S From £30,800 If you want a delicate, vivid and unfettered drive, none does it better; if you want a daily driver, shop elsewhere.…

“This is an electric car, but we were passionate that it had to represent the soul of the brand” Bentley is reinforcing its growing interest in electric propulsion as a luxury car medium with a new two-seat roadster concept, the EXP12 Speed 6e, unveiled this week at the Geneva motor show. The new car develops many of the themes first expressed in the EXP10 coupé concept unveiled in Geneva two years ago. It also signals the direction of Bentley’s thinking about the shape of the fifth model line to which Bentley CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer has often referred. A two-seat sports car has not yet been signed off for production, but Dürheimer has previously told Autocar that adding another model would put Bentley “on a very sound footing for the future”.…

McLaren has revealed a faster, lighter, roomier, more aerodynamic Super Series model, the 212mph 720S, promising it will “redefine expectations of supercar excellence”. The car’s debut comes just weeks after the Woking firm, which is increasingly seen as a serious threat to Ferrari’s supercar supremacy, announced a doubling of its year-on-year volume and that its sales in five years had passed 10,000 units. The 720S will replace the 650S as McLaren’s new core model and is the first of 15 new-generation McLarens, half of which will be hybrids, promised by 2022 under CEO Mike Flewitt’s ambitious Track 22 development plan. The new model is McLaren Automotive’s first replacement for an existing model since opening for business in 2011 and putting its first car, the 12C (which became the 650S), into…

“The A110 weighs 1080kg at the kerb, which gives it a power-to-weight ratio of 229bhp per tonne” The new Alpine A110 has been engineered to have a better power-to-weight ratio than its most accomplished rival, the Porsche 718 Cayman, as the reborn brand bids seeks to wow buyers by making one of the most agile sports cars in the world. The A110 — which revives the name of Alpine’s most iconic car — is powered by a turbocharged 249bhp 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine producing 236lb ft. The engine is mounted transversely in the back of the rear-drive car and linked to a seven-speed wet clutch paddle-shift transmission. The compact A110 weighs 1080kg at the kerb, which gives it a power-to-weight ratio of 231bhp per tonne. The 718 Cayman has 296bhp and…

PORSCHE IS reintroducing a manual gearbox option to its 911 GT3, following criticism that the current car has only been offered with a seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic gearbox since it was launched in 2013. The revised GT3 uses a 493bhp 4.0-litre flat six, replacing the 469bhp 3.8-litre flat six. It is a development of the engine used in the 911 R and GT3 RS, with an upgraded valve train, a stiffer crank, low-friction cylinder liners, a new cylinder head design that dispenses with hydraulic valve adjusters and a 9000rpm redline — 750rpm more than the RS. The difference is “a quantum leap”, according to Porsche GT boss Andreas Preuninger. “It is an absolute dream,” Preuninger added. “It has the ability to rev explosively. This is a unique selling point.” With…

“The Range Rover Velar will be priced from £44,830 and go on sale this summer” The new Range Rover Velar, the fourth member of an expanded family of Range Rover vehicles, is the most “car-like” model the brand has yet produced, according to Land Rover’s design director, Gerry McGovern. The Velar is underpinned by the same technology as the similarly sized F-Pace made by sister brand Jaguar. The new model will slot in between the Evoque and Range Rover Sport in the range. The Velar – which was revealed at a special event in London ahead of its public debut at this week’s Geneva motor show – will be priced from £44,830 when it goes on sale this summer. Land Rover’s new Porsche Macan rival was called “the most car-like…

“It’s due to indirectly replace the CLS Shooting Brake, which will be discontinued later this year” Mercedes-AMG has revealed a sleek fastback concept at the Geneva motor show. The car previews an 800bhp-plus petrol-electric hybrid production model that is planned for UK sale in 2019. Called the Mercedes-AMG GT Concept, the four-seater has been conceived to complement the firm’s existing two-seat GT sportscar in what Tobias Moers, chairman of AMG, said will be an expanded range of dedicated AMG models to be offered alongside traditional performance variants of standard Mercedes models in future years. “With the GT Concept we are giving a preview of our third completely autonomously developed sportscar, extending the AMG family to include a four-door variant,” said Moers. The low-slung GT Concept, which forms part of AMG’s…

NISSAN HAS REVEALED a revised Qashqai, which gets a new range-topping trim, more aggressive front-end design and semi-autonomous technology to refresh it in the face of new competition. The Qashqai has been a global sales sensation for Nissan since its launch in 2006, kick-starting a crossover boom that continues to sweep across the market. However, in recent years, the Qashqai has faced growing competition from cars such as the Kia Sportage,Seat Ateca and Volkswagen Tiguan. The upgraded model will be one of the first mainstream crossovers to feature semi-autonomous technology. It will be able to steer, accelerate and brake in a single lane on the motorway. The system can updated and next year it will be able to change lanes by itself. Nissan claims it will be able to navigate…

Given the popularity of SUVs, we’d say it’s a wise move for Alfa Romeo to offer a fast diesel version of its new Stelvio, certainly if the Italian manufacturer wants to appeal to the modern premium car buyer. That this 207bhp 2.2-litre diesel model emits less CO2 than the equivalent Jaguar F-Pace or Audi Q5, but is also quicker than both, won’t hurt its chances. But speed and frugality aren’t enough to make a true Alfa Romeo. When the road twists and turns like a strand of wet spaghetti, an Alfa also needs to engage and entertain its driver. Following our guardedly positive test of a Stelvio on a race circuit last week, we’ve now had the opportunity to try an oil-burning version on the road to see if it…

If you suffer from severe range anxiety, may I recommend Andorra? This small principality, nestled in the Pyrenees between Spain and France, has such generous tax laws that booze, fags and, most obviously, fuel – at around €1, which is currently 85 pence, per litre – are extremely cheap. Which means filling stations are everywhere. “You should go to Andorra,” I was told when we were lining up the longest test yet of the new BMW 5 Series. Our mission was a drive of at least 2000 miles, from southernmost Spain to Britain in three days, with the second of those spent somewhere pretty for photographs. Andorra is extremely beautiful, apparently. But, 10 minutes in, entering the capital, Andorra la Vella, all I’ve seen is the exquisite beauty of two-dozen…

DRIVEN Jaguar I-Pace – first drive We get behind the wheel of the radical I-Pace concept car to sample Jaguar’s electric future for the first time FEATURE Farewell to the McLaren 650S Andrew Frankel has one last epic drive in McLaren’s first supercar FEATURE How to be a test driver We head to Millbrook for the inside line on professional test drivers EVERY WEEK Road test: Audi Q5 It’s well built and lovely inside, but is there any fun in how it drives? News: Geneva motor show Special report with all the reaction and gossip from the year’s biggest show Used buying guide: BMW M5 Find out how to get a V10-powered super-saloon on your driveway SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p36…

AS I MOVED from my previous longterm test car, the large and rugged Nissan Navara pick-up, to this smaller SUV, I was looking forward to it being a more comfortable, and easy-going affair. So now its odometer has nudged past 5000 miles, how is the Renegade doing? The 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel strikes a good balance between performance and economy. The 138bhp unit feels nippy and fun around town and is happy to cruise on a motorway, although it is less comfortable when pushed hard. It’s clear that this is not a refined motor. It’s as noisy as the Navara’s and emits an agricultural rumble. At idle, the vibration in the cabin gives you an unwanted seat massage. For the most part, the nine-speed automatic gearbox is well suited to this…

Rules are rules, but sometimes you can break them and get away with it, as Kenny Smith attests. He says: “A sound rule of Bangernomics is: ‘Do not go bidding crazy on popular auction websites late at night’. “By ignoring this intelligent advice, I became the new owner of a 1995 Citroën ZX 1.9 XUD diesel with nearly 155,000 miles and eight previous owners, including a taxi company and a caravan enthusiast. “However, it gave good service as a second vehicle for another seven years and 31,000 miles until, sadly, the body eventually became too badly corroded to continue further. Not bad for a winning bid of £275.” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com…

An expert’s view DAVID TUDOR, VAG BOLTON “The Phaeton is expensive to repair. Parts have to be original equipment and they aren’t cheap. ECUs are the biggest expense. Water ingress wrecks the electrics, especially behind the glovebox. We’ve just repaired one that ran up an £1800 bill. Mechanically the Phaeton is reliable. Ignore VW’s claims of long-life coolant and transmission oil; those were only ever about keeping the pence-per-mile costs competitive. Instead, change the engine oil each year or 10,000 miles and change the coolant and transmission oil as soon as you get the car.” Buyer beware… • ENGINE The 4.2 V8 needs a cambelt at 80k miles; other engines are chain-driven. Failed turbos on V10s can destroy the engine. The swirl flap motors on V6 diesel engines can play…

Ford Fiesta From £13,545 Not a class-beater in every regard, but its dynamics are so far ahead of the curve that it’s currently unassailable. Mini From £14,075 Three-pot engines and cleverly recycled interior make the Mini a superb choice. Second to Fiesta on value, though. Mazda 2 From £12,195 A very grown-up and well-made supermini. Drives with real charm, too. Engine not quite so appealing. Volkswagen Polo From 12,155 Still the sensible choice in a lot of ways: usable, re›ined, easy-going, desirable and very solidly built. Renault Clio From £11,815 An attractive and practical proposition and still pleasingly French. Ride and handling great, interior less so.…

“Torque remains at 295lb ft, but peak power is up by 10bhp to 316bhp at 6500rpm” The new Honda Civic Type R hot hatch will strike the perfect balance between performance and comfort, according to project boss Hideki Kakinuma. The current Type R has been criticised for being too performance-focused, so this move is an acknowledgement that a broader approach is needed in order to attract a larger audience, not least in the US, where the Civic Type R will be sold for the first time. Referring to the new Civic hot hatch, Kakinuma said: “Some rivals focus on extreme performance and others go in the direction of comfort. We want to go right in the middle.” The Civic Type R features a revised version of the turbocharged 2.0-litre VTEC…

THE NEW SUZUKI Swift will have a range-topping mild-hybrid model that uses a Boosterjet 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine and an integrated starter motor. It is the first time the supermini has had a hybrid option. The petrol-electric model has CO2 emissions of 97g/km. Three trim levels are available — SZ3, SZ-T and SZ5 — and two petrol options sit alongside the hybrid. The new five-door-only car is 10mm shorter than today’s but is wider and has a 20mm-longer wheelbase. Cabin space has grown by 25%, says Suzuki, and boot space rises 54 litres to 254. It’s on sale in June. Today’s starting price of £8999 is expected to rise slightly.…

The Aston Martin Rapide AMR and Vantage AMR Pro have been revealed at Geneva, launching a new, limited-edition performance sub-brand for the British marque that will be applied to all future model ranges. AMR models will offer enhanced performance, sharper dynamics and more extreme styling. Aston chief creative officer Marek Reichman describes the new line of cars as the “cherry on the cake” of every model in Aston’s range. AMR cars will be road-legal, while AMR Pro models will be track-only and developed separately by the Q by Aston Martin division. The Rapide AMR is described by its makers as “the world’s most thrilling four-door”. It is powered by the 592bhp V12 from the Vantage GT12, running through a new quad exhaust system. It has a top speed of 210mph.…

LAMBORGHINI HAS revealed the Huracán Performante at the Geneva show, a week after a camouflaged version smashed the Nürburgring production car lap record, beating the Porsche 918 Spyder’s time by 5.0sec. Driven by Lamborghini test driver Marco Mapelli, the Performante recorded a lap time of a 6min 52.01sec. The Huracán Performante uses a mid-mounted 631bhp, 443lb ft 5.2-litre V10 and can hit 62mph from rest in 2.9sec, 0.3sec faster than the regular Huracán. Top speed is 202mph. With a dry weight of 1382kg, it has a power-to-weight ratio of 464bhp per tonne. The Performante features a new, ultra-lightweight forged carbonfibre composite material, which has been patented by Lamborghini and allows complex moulded shapes to be made in one piece. Use of the new material is focused on active aerodynamic elements.…

RENAULT HAS CREATED a hot two-seat version of its Zoe electric hatch which draws on technology developed from the firm’s involvement in the Formula E racing series. A faster Zoe has long been the subject of speculation but increasing performance while preserving a credible driving range has been the issue. The concept, called the Zoe e-sport, won’t make production but instead shows “what’s possible for a performance electric car,” said a Renault spokesman. The Zoe e-sport concept has two electric motors developing460bhp and 472lb ft in total. The car can sprint from 0-62mph in 3.2sec and 130mph can be reached in under 10sec, claimed Renault. The concept’s two motors are identical, with one sited at the front and the other at the rear, each driving an axle. As in Formula…

It was only there for a fleeting moment, but I saw it. It was a shy, somewhat coy, slightly surreptitious move. It was even preceded by a quick look to the left and right to make sure the coast was clear. But then, and unmistakably, the little white Volkswagen winked at me. And silly slice of concept car theatre though it was, in that blink-of-an-eye gesture (pun entirely intended), a whole new world opened up to me. A world where cars were no longer passive machines, there to be operated only by those within, but quasi-sentient beings capable also of interacting with those without. Capable of mild flirtation, even. If VW has its way, by 2025 this ID concept will have spawned an entire family of autonomous-capable cars amounting to…

Put the word ‘coupé’ into the world’s favourite online search engine and you’ll find that it means a car with a solid roof, two doors and a sloping rear. Over the past few years, that definition has changed beyond recognition. Stick a fastback on anything these days and it seems you can call it a coupé. That brings us to the GLC43 Coupé, which is based on the existing hot version of Mercedes’ mid-sized SUV, the GLC43. It has that car’s twin-turbo V6 and is good for an identical 4.9sec 0-62mph time. In fact, the only thing that’s reduced is boot capacity: there’s around 50 litres less when the rear seats are up. The suspension has been changed, though. The air springs have been retuned to make the GLC43 Coupé…

MODEL TESTED 2.0 TFSI 252 QUATTRO S LINE S TRONIC Price £41,240 Power 249bhp Torque 273lb ft 0-60mph 5.7sec 30-70mph in fourth 8.3sec Fuel economy 30.6mpg CO2 emissions 144g/km 70-0mph 45.0 In a universe of infinite possibilities, there must be a reality in which Audi’s 2009 marketing wheeze of retrofitting the A5 coupé with rear doors and a hatchback boot (and charging significantly more for it than the mechanically identical A4) was met with buyer contempt. Here, though, and despite the aftershock of recession, the frameless doors and more shapely body were a moderate hit, and the car was easily successful enough for Audi to deliver much the same overhaul that has already been visited on the A4 and the A5 coupé at the end of last year. The look…

“I already have a feeling that this car is going to cause some head-scratching” We’re all for diversity around here. Among the current 30-odd cars on the fleet, we have a V-twin three-wheeler, a petrol V8, a tri-turbo diesel V8, a petrol W12, an EV, a parallel hybrid, two hydrogen fuel cell cars, a petrol-electric sports car and now this, the plug-in hybrid Volkswagen Passat GTE Estate. Those last six cars are interesting because they represent a disproportionate 20% of Autocar’s long-termer lineup – disproportionate because for now the real-world percentage of alternatively fuelled vehicles on our nation’s roads is much lower. Diversity, then, and pioneering the future of motoring – whatever that may turn out to be. And I suppose it’s worth asking if that future is going to…

Throughout the southern half of England, it has been a pretty moderate winter, so the whole ‘should I buy winter tyres?’ thing has been less of an issue in this neck of the woods. Usually, a few snowflakes settle, people take five hours to get home once and it’s the first question they google when they get there. The answer is ‘it depends where you live and what you drive’ but I drive a lot of miles, all over the place, and at the moment in a four-wheel-drive car, so I’ve opted to test a set of tyres on the Superb – not winters, but all-season tyres. They’re not as all-out winter-focused as winter tyres, which have bigger tread blocks, a softer compound and little lines (‘sipes’, apparently) that deal…

Distance no object for stacked S60 If you want a motorway bullet, rather than the obvious executive expresses, the Volvo S60 makes a strong case for itself. Add an R Design package and the car really starts to look the part. So for £6500, with 130k miles, this 2011 S60 D3 is a well-equipped way to go about your business. With half-leather trim, 18in alloy wheels and colour-coded bumpers, it’s a shrewd choice. Gallardo is orange and no lemon This is what counts as an old-school supercar these days. Lamborghini Gallardos are still satisfyingly expensive, but still not stupidly overpriced. This 2005 example has a solid 41k mileage. According to the advert, the tyres are new and fitted to 19in alloy wheels, and the car’s colour is the proper Arancio…

Diesel is fast becoming a dirty word in the UK. Already, six British cities have been given the go-ahead to create clean air zones in which drivers of diesel cars could face congestion charges. Ten more are being proposed. In London, a £10 daily charge will apply equally to petrol and diesel cars that don’t meet a certain emissions standard, but other cities’ councillors have mooted diesel-specific charges. At £10 a day, that’d amount to around £200 extra every month for most daily commuters. Even those who don’t commute by car would probably avoid buying a diesel-engined car if they knew they couldn’t drive into most large British cities without paying a fee, or even get in at all. What does all this mean for used car buyers? Well, so…

Jaguar XE From £29,775 Jaguar has made the XE class-leading the old-fashioned way. A steadfast focus on the driver makes it irresistible. BMW 3 Series From £25,160 Still one of the ›inest all-round prospects currently on sale and almost certainly the best 3 Series yet. Splendid. Audi A4 From £26,350 Trails behind its rivals and is still ordinary to drive. But certainly a smarter and better way to travel than before. Mercedes-Benz C-Class From £29,295 Still doing things its own way. Has an upmarket and stately way of working itself under your skin. A clever car. Audi A3 Saloon From £24,235 Unexpectedly good to drive and with an upmarket cabin, this is a ›ine alternative to the A4 — if a bit shy on space.…

MERCEDES V-CLASS MARCO POLO | APRIL Mercedes is taking on the Volkswagen California with this camper van version of its V-Class van. The Marco Polo has four berths, a wardrobe, a kitchenette with a fridge and hob, and a sofa. It also has an electrically raising roof. The Marco Polo offers two versions of a 2.1-litre diesel engine, with either 163 or 190bhp. There are two trims: Sport and AMG Line. Pricefrom £53,180 MARCH AC Cobra 378, Atalanta sports car, BMW 670Li xDrive update, Ferrari GTC4 Lusso T, Honda Civic, Hyundai i30, Jaguar F-Type update, F-Type 400 Sport, Nissan Micra, Renault Captur update, Seat Leon Cupra R, Skoda Octavia update, Smart Fortwo Cabriolet Brabus Edition #2, Volkswagen e-Golf, Golf Hybrid, Zenvo TS1 GT APRIL/MAY Alpina B3S, B4S, D5, Audi A5…