Innholdsfortegnelse for 9/8/2017 i Autocar

THE REVISED PORSCHE Macan, to be revealed at the Detroit motor show in January, will get new V6 engines and an updated interior in line with the latest Panamera when it goes on sale next year. These latest images show the car almost undisguised as prototypes of the Jaguar F-Pace rival rack up miles in durability testing. Set to be launched four years after the Macan was first introduced, the facelifted version will remain on sale until 2021, when it will be replaced by an all-new model that will offer, among other engine options, full-electric drive. Subtle styling changes include tweaked front and rear bumpers with new-look air ducts. The Porsche SUV also receives upgraded headlights with altered LED graphics and a full-width reflector panel across the tailgate. The facelifted…

EVERY NEW MASERATI will use some form of electric propulsion from 2019, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) CEO Sergio Marchionne has revealed. Talking to investors, the boss of Maserati’s parent company said the brand would now spearhead the wider group’s push to electric. More than half of FCA’s range will use some form of electric power by 2022. FCA’s brands, which also include Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler and Dodge, will all benefit from the new electric plan. Marchionne said Maserati will switch almost all of its investment in powertrains to electric after “it completes the development of its next two models”. The first new all-electric Maserati is predicted to arrive in 2020. It will be based on the Alfieri concept that made its debut in 2014. The all-electric model is a…

PSA Group boss Carlos Tavares has promised that “Vauxhall will remain British”, following the company’s acquisition of the Opel and Vauxhall brands. He added that the two marques, formerly owned by General Motors, were a “perfect fit” alongside PSA’s existing brands Peugeot, DS and Citroën. Despite committing Vauxhall to the UK, Tavares added that he has yet to address the future of its two UK factories in Luton and Ellesmere Port. A spokesman told Autocar that it is “business as usual”. Tavares previously said “the only thing that really protects [employees in each brand] is their ability to be at the right level of performance”, suggesting that the future of the UK plants will depend on how well the brands perform. He also noted that the two factories could create…

MERCEDES-AMG IS looking at how to develop performance versions of Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles — and the brand’s director of vehicle development, Drummond Jacoy, has said it will have to reinvent itself as a result. Mercedes-AMG is already working on a number of hybrid projects, including the Formula-1-powertrainderived Project One hypercar and the GT Concept that was unveiled at this year’s Geneva motor show. The firm has also previously developed a pure-electric SLS. “It’s obvious we’re not going to make the world happy with V8s for the next 200 years, and AMG has shown in the past, with the electric SLS years ago, that it has capabilities in all-electric drive,” said Jacoy. “That was a very impressive vehicle for its time and we’ve nurtured that technology and the learning we have…

FERRARI BOSS SERGIO Marchionne has fuelled the rumours that the Italian supercar maker is planning to produce its first SUV. During a press conference last week, Marchionne said: “I think that if we allow the Ferrari engineers to reinvent the concept of a vehicle that has some utilitarian features, I think the answer is it will probably happen, but it will happen Ferrari style. “And Ferrari has been known historically for being able to redefine and define automotive segments. But I don’t want it to be a UV [utility vehicle]. I want it to be what Ferrari thinks is appropriate. But no decision has been made yet.” However, despite Marchionne’s comments, a Ferrari spokesman said: “With reference to recent speculation in the international press, Ferrari will not be launching an…

The 2 Series has undergone the latest wielding of the BMW design department’s surgical knife, resulting in a facelift for all Coupé and Convertible variants. Outside, there are new standard LED headlights (adaptive ones are an option), a redesigned kidney grille, new (optional) LED fog lamps and restyled front air intakes. Three new exterior colours and four new styles of alloy wheel are available too. Inside, the dashboard, angled more towards the driver than in the old car, is new, as is the instrument display. The latest iDrive infotainment system features, and so does new leather upholstery. A scattering of air-vent, window-button and cup-holder enhancements complete the list, but there are no mechanical changes. So to drive, the 2 Series is as it was before. BMW’s 2.0-litre diesel engine fires…

Nothing quite scouring of that dream car you’ve always promised yourself since reading about it in Autocar. So here is how to do it, and no fewer than 100 great cars we recommend. The premise is simple: rather than being a traditional countdown explaining why a Ford Focus diesel from 2013 is a better used buy than an Audi A4 from 2009 or a Hyundai ix35 from 2012 (not that any of them wouldn’t make a fine used car, of course), this is a range of 100 cars, priced from £300 to £250,000, to make you dream. Our top writers have picked 10 of their favourite cars, each to a certain theme. The resulting lists include some of the all-time legends, a few of them driven again and all of…

This piece really doesn’t need much explanation beyond the headline. The very fact that there’s one way to put a 400bhp car on the driveway for less money than most families spend on a supermini deserves a cheer – and we’re bringing you 10 of the best options. Some of these cars should qualify straight away, others with a bit of light tinkering and one or two with some not-so-light tuning. “For this budget, nothing bludgeons its way past 400bhp like a Cayenne Turbo” Porsche Cayenne Turbo Built 2002-2010 Price range £6500-£20,000 We’d pay £9500 One we found A 53-plate car with 77k miles, grey paintwork, black hide, 20in alloys, lots of kit and a service just 1000 miles ago. It is up for sale for £9950. How many cars…

This is the Sunday afternoon category. The toy box top 10. The garage fillers. No space here for common sense or the baby seat: just f un and frivolity and four wheels where a cash ISA probably ought to be. These cars are mostly about satisfying a peculiar sort of itch – one not easily explained to a parent or significant other sceptical about the entertainment value of overtly mechanical objects. Nevertheless, short of purchasing a light aircraft, there is pound for pound no better way of atomising your money than investing it in something small, fast, light and invariably made in Blighty. Because it’s all so splendidly puerile and selfish, you’ll be needing properly disposable income to play. (A Porsche Cayman you can use for work. A Westfield Megabusa?…

“I used to sell five cars a day. Now it is two a month” “Ninety per cent of my customers are mad.” That’s Tony, boss of Cars 4 Sale in Rainham, Essex. He has been selling used cars for 27 years, and he’s worried. “I’d love to tell you that people have been saying ‘I was just passing on my way to buy a new car on a PCP but I thought I’d buy a £2000 car from you instead’, but they aren’t. “There’s too much credit sloshing about. The dads bring their kids here but the kids aren’t interested. They want a new car, on a PCP for £160 a month. Then they can go off and show their friends how much Dad loves them and how much money…

COMPARISON New vs used: £25k sports cars In the market for a punch-packing performance car? We tell you the best way to spend your hard-earned money FEATURE The sweet spot What’s the perfect formula for making a great driver’s car? FEATURE Asleep at the wheel Who needs a hotel? We show you how to holiday in your car EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Skoda Octavia vRS 245 Czechia’s latest performance hatchback gets the full treatment FIRST DRIVE Audi RS3 saloon Four-wheel drive, 392bhp mega-hatch hits UK asphalt for the first time USED BUYING GUIDE BMW 8 Series As BMW prepares to bring back its big coupé, we look at the original SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p20…

MILEAGE 6104 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Is there a better bargain driver’s car? We don’t think so but need to be sure… An astrophysicist once said that interstellar wormholes were our best bet for time travel, but he’d obviously never stepped inside a Subaru BRZ. If he had, he would have noticed that the buttons, the switches and the clock look like they’ve been transported through the fabric of time from 1993 to 2017, therefore proving that the BRZ is indeed from a different era. That’s the only explanation I can think of to account for the reason so many of the details in the cabin are so square and lacking in design appeal. The numbers in the digital displays, the fonts on the centre console and the heated-seat controls…

Thanks again to serial Reader’s Rides provider Kenny Smith, who has unearthed yet another bargain. “My friend Jon Greenhalgh knows a bargain when he sees one, and he liked the look of an early 1999 Volvo C70 coupé for sale with only 130,000 miles on the clock. The downside was it only had five days left on the MOT certificate, which helped Jon to negotiate the asking price down from £750 to £275. “With a minimal test pre-inspection of checking the basics, it passed the MOT first time – much to the disappointment of one of his fellow Volvo-driving friends, who had his eye on it as a future spares car!” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com…

An expert’s view DAVE WEBSTER, AUDI-VW SPECIALIST LTD “The Corrado was current when I was training at a VW dealer. We saw lots of them and what stood out was the unreliable supercharger on the G60. The other thing was the timing chain stretching and jumping teeth on the VR6 variant. The 1.8 and 2.0-litre Corrados were much simpler and less troublesome. I also remember the rust; in those days, body kits were held on with clips that dug into the paint. They trapped water, too. Over time, the metal underneath corroded. Wheel arches and sills really copped it.” Buyer beware… • ENGINE On the VR6, plenty of oil and filter changes are desirable. Listen for timing chain rattles. They can let go at 100k miles and are £800 to…

“The new S1 will eschew the turbo 1.8 of today’s model for a turbo 2.0 kicking out up to 250bhp” The all-new second-generation Audi A1 will be both more dynamic and more comfortable than its predecessor, according to insiders at the company’s Ingolstadt HQ in Germany. The aim, they say, is to eclipse the latest Mini for overall competence. Audi plans to achieve this by using a new platform structure, a heavily reworked suspension system that features optional adaptive damping control, a new range of engines and updated gearboxes. The new A1 is due to be launched during the first half of 2018 at a starting price expected to remain close to the £14,570 of today’s model. The entry-level Audi has grown in size and receives a brand-new look to…

The LEVC TX, a range-extender electric taxi, is on sale now, priced from £55,599. That’s 50% higher than the outgoing diesel-powered TX4. However, the LEVC TX’s creator, the London Electric Vehicle Company, expects more than 90% of buyers to opt for its finance plan: £177 per week over five years. The TX4 is £167 per week over four years. LEVC claims the TX will be about £100 per week cheaper than a TX4 to fuel. The new TX has a range of more than 400 miles and can exceed 70 miles on pure electric power. All London cabs registered from 1 January 2018 must be capable of zero-emission running.…

AN ELECTRIC RALLYCROSS series could be launched to run at the same meetings as Formula E single-seater races, Autocar has learned. The move would be part of a manufacturer-led initiative to promote electric cars. Supporting Formula E is favoured because the sport attracts big crowds in city centres, where electric cars are most likely to be bought. Competing with cars with familiar body shapes is also seen as crucial to promoting the fact that the technology used in Formula E is relevant to road cars. Wolfgang Dürheimer, head of the Volkswagen Group’s motorsport strategy, said: “It is one possibility we are looking at. The idea of electric rallycross is perfect. The cars are spectacular and the races short, so the cars can be charged between them. It could be the…

NISSAN WILL USE the platform of its next-generation Leaf to produce new electric models in an attempt to offer a more comprehensive range of zero-emission vehicles. Its electric line-up includes the Leaf, e-NV200 Combi people-carrier and e-NV200 van. However, a recent patent suggests it will soon gain an SUV model called the Terra, which is expected to share its structure and drivetrain with the 2018 Leaf. The Terra name has not been used since 2012, when it was the title of an electric SUV concept first revealed at the Paris motor show. That car used the Mk1 Leaf’s electric driveline to power the front wheels but added a hydrogen fuel-cell system to power two motors at the back, making the car all-wheel drive. The production Terra will use the vastly…

British buyers have become used to selecting diesel power for their SUVs pretty much as a default choice, but the wider Stelvio range makes an excellent case for seriously considering the petrol versions. Not because the diesel is bad per se, but because it can’t match the charisma of the cheaper 197bhp 2.0-litre petrol, let alone the zing of the 276bhp turbo that tops the range. The diesel is, unsurprisingly, tuned for torque, producing its peak 346lb ft at just 1750rpm. The quick-shifting standard automatic gearbox juggles its eight ratios intelligently to keep the engine in its comfort zone. Everyday pace is delivered without effort but requests for higher speeds have the engine revealing both the narrowness of its power band, which fades quickly after the 3750rpm at which peak…

“Today, both the Audi RS6 and BMW M5 offer compelling value” BMW M5 Built 2005-2010 Price range £12,000-£25,000 We’d pay £18,000 One we found A low-mileage, four-owner example for £19,980 that its seller calls “the best in the country”. Keen to sell to an enthusiast. Audi RS6 Built 2002-2004 Price range £8000-£20,000 We’d pay £15,000 One we found A tidy, 89,000-miles, unmolested example with loads of service history, receipts and four nearly new tyres for £12,950. While only a small minority of British resident examples will ever make it to unrestricted roads in Germany, ‘bahnstormer’ has long been accepted shorthand for a certain type of car: muscular, fast, normally Teutonic in origin and combining pace with proper high-speed comfort. But for the buying of second-hand cars, the most impressive statistic…

“Very few cars have such natural class” BMW M5 Built 1985-1988 Price range £40,000-£100,000 We’d pay £50,000 One we found A 1986 M5 requiring a rebuild in every respect from the ground up for £97,500. If you have a few followers on social media, you can be sure that any picture you post of any interesting car will earn some kind of reaction from at least a few people. Then, just occasionally, you get an avalanche. My most recent was when I posted a picture of this 1987 BMW M5 parked in a field on a wet day. It may look like just another three-box saloon, but there is so much love for it that even I, an E28 fan since day one, was surprised by the response. To me,…

Now this ought to be high risk. Buy an extensively equipped, complex car from a defunct car maker. Buy the last model that this defunct maker developed, complete with teething troubles. Pay a surprisingly high price for said car, despite the absence of a dealer network, an apparently uncertain parts supply and a tiny constituency of people who might actually want one when the time comes to sell it. But if I had £10,000 to splash, a Saab 9-5 might just win my money – even though I know there are better cars to be had for the same price, just as there were when it was new. And back then, between 2010 and 2012, there was a network, a parts supply and the spluttering flame of a future for…

“The Volvo V90 may be the best-looking estate car on the road at the moment” MILEAGE 1874 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover if Volvo is still the master of the big estate car Apparently, it makes me quite unlike most buyers of modern luxury and premium-branded cars, but I’m not the kind of driver who likes to configure his driving experience too much. Drive modes are all well and good while the novelty of your latest motor is still present and gleaming, but before too long, I reckon you just pick the one you like best and stick with it. Beyond that, my preference would always be simply to know that my new car is configured – for steering weight and ride tuning and pedal response and everything else…

Renault Laguna Coupé from £2750 The French and coupés have a mixed relationship, but the Renault Laguna Coupé shows how it can be done oh-so well. Its sleek looks garnered plenty of praise when it was new and the shape still looks fresh today, which is why one dealer who dabbles in precious metal has tipped it to us as a future classic. Certainly, all the ingredients are there: rarity thanks to a truncated production run and good looks. Yet you’ll want to use it rather than tuck it away in the hope of making a slow buck. After all, the cabin is spacious and airy up front, although passengers in the rear are a little squashed, and there’s a good spread of engines on offer. The sensible choice is…

JAGUAR F-PACE SVR | EARLY 2018 JLR’s Special Vehicle Operations division has been spied testing a hot new 567bhp F-Pace. It is likely to employ the supercharged 5.0-litre petrol V8 and eight-speed automatic gearbox of the F-Type SVR. A Porsche Macan Turbo-beating 0-62mph time of less than 4.0sec is expected. Price from £70,000 (est) AUGUST Audi RS3 Saloon (right), RS3 Sportback, Hyundai i30 Tourer, Kia Niro PHEV, Lexus LC, Volvo S90 T8, V90 T8 SEPTEMBER Alpina B5 and D5 Touring, BMW M4 CS, Citroën E-Berlingo Multispace, Fiat 500L update, Ford Ecosport update, Fiesta, Fiesta Active, Honda Civic Type R, Levante S, Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet, X-Class, Peugeot 308, 308 GTi (left), 308 SW update, Renault Trafic Spaceclass, Skoda Kodiaq Scout, Smart Fortwo ED, Fortwo Cabrio ED, Forfour ED, Ssangyong Rexton, Volvo XC60…

The Tesla Model 3 line-up will be headed by a Performance version that could become the brand’s quickest-accelerating car yet. The hot range-topping model is due to be launched next year. It’s likely to use a dual-motor, four-wheel-drive set-up similar to that in the Model S Performance. But the Model 3 is about 400kg lighter than its bigger sibling, giving it the potential to edge Tesla’s quickest 0-60mph time even closer to the 2.0sec mark. From its launch, the Model 3 is available in two versions: standard and Long Range. The standard car costs from $35,000 (£26,650). It has a claimed range of 220 miles, covers 0-60mph in 5.6sec and has a top speed of 130mph. The Long Range model costs from $44,000 (£33,500), delivering 310 miles of range, 0-60mph…

Transport for London will install 1500 new electric car chargers on the capital’s streets between now and 2020 in an attempt to boost the uptake of zero-emission vehicles. Announced by London mayor Sadiq Khan, the residential points aim to provide energy access to those without off-street parking to enable overnight charging. They will add to the city’s network of rapid charge points, which can charge EVs to around 80% in about 30 minutes. Twenty-five of London’s 32 boroughs will receive the investment. The move is part of a plan to transform London into a zero-carbon-transport city by 2050.…

Mercedes-AMG will turn up the wick of its already hot A45 4Matic mega-hatch with a second-generation model that has been dubbed ‘the Predator’ by company insiders. Due in 2019, the new all-wheel-drive five-door will have at least 400bhp and crack 4.0sec for the 0-62mph sprint, as it attempts to rank top against rivals such as the Audi RS3, plus the M2 CS being considered by BMW. The A45’s M133 turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine has been comprehensively reworked to give the second evolution of this four-cylinder unit the highest specific output of any AMG production car engine. It will have more than 200bhp per litre, trumping the 189bhp per litre of its predecessor, and produce at least 369lb ft. The changes will enable the new A45 to outpunch the 394bhp RS3…

“Engine noise is part of the emotion for Ferrari customers” When Enzo Ferrari founded his eponymous car company 70 years ago to help raise money to fund his racing team, he can’t have imagined it would grow to become arguably the world’s most revered car brand. In 2017, Ferrari remains one of the finest manufacturers of sports cars and supercars, but there are seismic shifts taking place in the motor industry. Autonomous cars, electrification and the decline of the combustion engine are altering the fundamentals of the motoring world. How will Ferrari cope with such changes? Autocar spoke exclusively to Enrico Galliera, Maranello’s marketing and commercial boss, to find out. You’re celebrating 70 years of Ferrari, but where do you see the company going in the next 70 years? “This…

TESTED 21.7.17, DONINGTON PARK ON SALE NOW PRICE £47,500 If you’re familiar with Donington Park, you might just recognise this car’s colour scheme: the blue and white of the circuit’s kerbs and tyre walls and the flash of red that’s borrowed from its logo. This is the Caterham Seven 420R Donington Edition, a car that jointly celebrates 60 years of Caterham Cars and 40 years since the reopening of one of Britain’s prettiest circuits. Rather than being a full factory model, the Donington Edition is the work of BookaTrack Caterham. (For the uninitiated, BookaTrack is the renowned track day company that recently secured the Midlands Caterham franchise, its showroom located at Donington Park.) Just 10 such cars will be built, at £47,500 apiece, with orders being taken now. The 420R…

MODEL TESTED 1.0 ECOBOOST 125PS TITANIUM Price £16,645 Power 123bhp Torque 125lb ft 0-60mph 9.6sec 30-70mph in fourth 14.9sec Fuel economy 42.4mpg CO2 emissions 98g/km 70-0mph 54.7m For anyone under the age of 40, there has always been a Ford Fiesta. Such longevity confers on it the kind of rarefied status that makes a car synonymous with both the brand and its proclaimed values. Certainly, the outgoing model – launched back in 2008 – has been not only the bedrock for Ford’s sales in Europe but also the prime conveyor of its ‘Feel the difference’ dynamism and peach-pretty exterior styling. And although it never managed to be the cheapest, most practical or best-equipped supermini, its virtues repeatedly distinguished it as not only the car to beat in our eyes but…

“Buy the best you can and try to keep the chassis on top form” Honda Integra Type R (DC2) Built 1997 (UK cars), 1995-2001 (imports) Price range £5000-£13,000 We’d pay £10,000 One we found Official UK cars are hard to find, so here’s the best of the Japanese imports, at £12,990. When BMW was in charge of Rover, there was a big sign at the end of the Rover 75 production line that read: “You are building the best front-wheel-drive car in the world.” It was the type of backhanded compliment that meant “we still make the best rear-wheel-drive cars in the world” but it was, at least, kinda true, if you wanted a complete all-round car. But when I’m talking about the best front-wheel-drive cars, I’m not looking for…

It’s 2009, some time in autumn. The Renault Sport Clio 200 Cup is a brand-new car. So is the Audi R8 V10 that’s up ahead. I always suspected a well-driven hot hatch could keep up with a proper sports car, perhaps even a full-blown supercar, on a winding country road. As the R8 jinks and darts its way along this meandering, well-sighted stretch of tarmac that cuts across endless Welsh moorland, the Clio looming large in its rear-view mirror, the theory is being proven in real time. The supercar pulls out a few lengths every time the road straightens a little but, whenever it bunches up into a sequence of bends, the gap is reduced to nothing. It can be done, then. But after that eye-widening dash across north Wales,…

Road to perdition I read with interest your article on the future of electric roads to charge electric vehicles (The electric roads of the future, 12 July). Fine in theory, I thought, but can you imagine the implications for actually rolling this out across our road networks? Given sections of the M3 have been under the tyranny of cones and cameras for years, just to apparently tidy the verges and plant a few bulbs, it’s likely we’ll have established colonies on Mars before even a relatively short section of motorway could be converted to induction charging. And you know for sure that the moment they finish installing it, some utility company will dig across it within a week and cripple it! Or am I being too cynical? Stuart Seear Via…

MILEAGE 5384 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out just how beguiling this practical version of McLaren’s most usable sports car is The partnership between McLaren and Honda has given us some memorable Formula 1 moments, if for the wrong reasons of late. Perhaps like all too many marriages, the two have found themselves drifting apart and following different paths, the common ground once shared seemingly now a no man’s land. That would seem to be the case when you compare the 570GT with its Honda NSX rival, as I did this month. This followed an earlier group test for Autocar’s sister brand, Pistonheads.com, against the Audi R8 and Porsche 911 Turbo S. Of that trio, the McLaren was clearly the most exotic and expensive. Against the NSX, it was…

MILEAGE 78,988 Dramatic news: the Baby Shark has a new set of mats. I bought them in the wrong shade of brown, but they are at least fitted ones, tailor-made for an E21 BMW. They cost £30. That’s really funny because back in my BMW dealer days in 1984, when I would tot up the sales invoice, a set of fitted mats retailed at £50. You could also buy a maisonette for that back then. So I feel pretty happy and they seem to collect an awful lot of dirt too. Job done.…

“It was billed by its maker as ‘the European sports car with the Volkswagen difference’” Autocar tipped its hat in a recent issue (12 July) to the Volkswagen Golf GTI, 40 years old this year. The Corrado, the model’s sister car, will be 30 next year, but although it can’t claim to have the Golf’s loins, like a rock star who expires too young, its reputation has prospered without need of future generations. Of course, there were the wilderness years when people kicked its tyres and wondered what it was, but today, with modern classics all the rage, the Corrado is on its comeback tour. Already, the most expensive VR6 Storms are nudging £20,000. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend that and nor should you. Instead, tidy VR6s begin around…

1 Ford Fiesta ST  From £17,000 Given the long wait, this could have been a huge anti-climax. It isn’t. Firm ride aside, it’s brilliant. And cheap. 2 Mini Cooper S  From £19,000 Came within a hair’s breadth of toppling the ST. Arguably the more well-rounded option but not quite as much fun. 3 Peugeot 208 GTi by Peugeot Sport  From £22,000 Easy to live with, easy to enjoy and quick in a straight line, the 208 is the best GTi Peugeot has built in a decade. 4 Audi S1  From £25,000 There’s no denying its raucous attitude, but its price limits the appeal. Easily the most entertaining S-badged Audi. 5 Renault Clio RS 220 Trophy  From £21,000 Massively improved with additional grunt and a sterner chassis. The auto ’box disappoints,…