Innholdsfortegnelse for July 25, 2018 i Autocar

NEXT YEAR, VOLKSWAGEN will launch two similarly sized hatchbacks: the eighth-generation Golf and the production version of the ID Concept electric-powered hatch. It’s hard to know which is the more important. It’s tempting to focus on the ID. While the new Golf is the latest in a line of cars dating from 1974 and will feature only mild-hybrid technology, the ID hatch is Volkswagen’s first ‘pure electric’ car, the first built on the VW Group’s MEB electric vehicle platform, and the first in a whole family of electric cars. It’s a milestone machine that represents the future of Volkswagen. But it would be wrong to dismiss the importance of the Golf. It’s the firm’s bestseller and was the second bestselling car in the UK in 2017. We’re still some time…

Hyundai has launched its first N Line model, a warm variant of the i30 intended to fill the gap between the standard cars and the i30 N hot hatch. The i30 N Line gets more aggressive exterior design, including bumpers influenced by those on the i30 N and twin exhaust pipes. There is a firmer chassis set-up, larger front brake discs and Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres. The car is available with either a 138bhp 1.4-litre petrol unit or a 134bhp 1.6-litre diesel. Both engines are taken from the standard i30 range, but Hyundai said it has made them more responsive for the i30 N Line. Hyundai Europe’s product boss, Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, said the positive reception to the i30 N had prompted this warm variant. “Now we are extending that…

THE ALFA ROMEO Mito will be canned early next year as the brand makes way for a new era of SUVs and sports cars, Europe boss Roberta Zerbi has confirmed. Last month, Alfa Romeo’s parent company, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, laid out a five-year plan for the Italian maker, which includes two new SUVs, a range topping 8C sports car and a modern-day GTV, a four seat coupé. The Mito did not feature in the plans but no more details were given. Now, Zerbi has confirmed to Autocar that it will be withdrawn from sale by early next year. “Mito is a three-door and people are choosing more and more five-door cars,” she said. Zerbi added that previous buyers of the Mito would hopefully migrate into the Giulia or upcoming small…

When Mercedes-AMG introduced the current C63 in 2015, the car had more power than any of its direct super-saloon rivals and more torque – and it was the only car of its kind with a V8 engine. Fast-forward three years and, despite plenty of activity in the C63’s model niche (and ignoring the soon-to-be-discontinued Lexus GS F and left-hand-drive-only Cadillac CTS-V), it can still make an outright claim to two out of three of those titles and assert shared ownership of the third. This midlife facelifted version of the car certainly didn’t need any more grunt. And neither has it got any. What is new is to be found downstream of the 4.0-litre ‘hot vee’, where the old C63’s seven speed torque-converter automatic gearbox has been replaced by a new…

Track use obliges the 812’s tyres and brakes to engage in a Sisyphean struggle to marshal and contain the sheer potency of its 789bhp V12 engine. For a while they enjoy some success but, at least if you give that engine its head without much consideration for the consequences, ultimately both are left in a steaming, frazzled mess. There is more than enough power to cue up an armful of oversteer in almost any gear and cornering situation. When a slide comes, it comes quickly but the sheer directness of the car’s steering means you can apply corrections with matching speed. Driving the car with pace and precision requires discipline, although keeping Race mode activated maintains handling stability well, at a cost of some intrusiveness. Optional track-day tyres should be…

MILEAGE 6408 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out why UK drivers are turning to pick-ups in increasing numbers and to determine whether the X-Class is as refined to live with as any of Merc’s cars Running the X-Class through a hot summer has been fun and very useful. Instead of cowering out of the rain, several of us have been able to make proper use of the one-tonne pick-up aspect of this vast but versatile Mercedes-Benz to enrich our lives. Mr Editor Tisshaw has used it to move house. I have used it to shift the junk of 20 years, the kind of stuff that usually never goes away. The solitary downside is that the blokes at our local tip have got to know the pick-up a bit too…

This was Citroën’s version of the Peugeot 306. It is just as comfy and very roomy for such a compact car. The seats can be too soft for some but the ride is relaxing. The ZX has a good range of petrol engines. Even the smallest 1.4 is a lively performer. The 1.6 is slightly more relaxed on the motorway and the 1.8, 1.9 and 2.0 cars are surprisingly quick. All diesels are quite swift too. My local garage has a fleet of ZXs as courtesy cars, which is good enough for me. You can still buy one for £450: a 1997 1.9 diesel, one-family-owned for 13 years. SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com AND READERS' QUESTIONS TO autocar@haymarket.com…

An expert’s view NICK GOODALL, CHAIRMAN, AUDI TT OWNERS CLUB “This is my second TT. My first was a Mk1 1.8 T that I owned for 13 years and sold earlier this year with 200,000 miles on the clock. It never missed a beat. I hope my new Mk2 – it’s a 2011 facelifted 2.0 TFSI quattro S tronic with 33,000 miles that cost me £14,000 – is as reliable. I’m sure it will be. It will be serviced every 10,000 miles. It feels sturdier and safer than the Mk1. I did look at TTSs but they were all ‘destroyed’ – worn interiors, body damage, skipped services…” Buyer beware ▪ ENGINE Generally reliable but thrives on regular servicing and requires a new cambelt every five years or 75k miles (around…

The next Volkswagen Golf will move upmarket to carve out a distinctive new niche in the family hatchback market. The Mk8 Golf, due to go into production in less than 11 months, will have levels of fuel-saving technology, connectivity, autonomous driving capability and refinement that promise to render the mainstream competition second best. The Golf’s exterior styling, hinted at by a sketch shown at a suppliers’ meeting at the start of the year, will be an evolutionary design that again emphasises a wide, flowing C-pillar. There is expected to be a little more sharp-edged definition to the bodywork, following the template of the latest Polo. The GTI version will feature large corner air vents in its lower bumper, as previewed by the GTI TCR concept earlier this year. VW will…

AUDI WILL DROP the lowest-powered petrol and sole diesel variants of the TT from the model range when updated versions of the two-door reach showrooms at the end of the year. In a move that TT product marketing manager Jens Meier said will “simplify the range”, the car will come exclusively with Audi’s 2.0 TFSI petrol engine. Although Audi has not officially linked the changes to the new WLTP fuel economy and emissions testing, it’s understood that the more stringent test procedure has prompted the use of one engine across the range. Three states of tune will be offered. The 40 TFSI, produces 194bhp, 16bhp more than the outgoing 1.8-litre TFSI that features at the bottom of the current TT range. There will also be a 242bhp 45, and the…

Nissan is in the early phases of designing and engineering a new platform for the next Nissan GT-R, but has still to decide how much electrification the car’s powertrain will adopt. Talking exclusively to Autocar, Nissan design boss Alfonso Albaisa said that the car won’t take cues from the limited-run GT-R50 on show at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed but instead “has to be its own special car”. Although he’s constantly reviewing sketched proposals for the styling of the next GT-R, Albaisa said his design team can’t begin serious work until final decisions are made about the new powertrain and platform. That suggests the car is still several years from production readiness. Determining the direction the next GT-R should take is a tough challenge for Nissan. The current two-door…

The Kona Electric sits somewhere between being a dedicated electric vehicle built from the ground up and one adapted from the platform of a conventional internal-combustion-engined model. There are other versions of the Kona that share this platform and derive their motive force from the combustion of fossil fuels, but an EV model was always part of the plan. The most apparent manifestation of that is the location of the batteries. They are spread out across the floor beneath the passenger compartment, just as they are in a Tesla. That’s precisely where you want them because the car’s centre of gravity is kept close to the road and boot space isn’t compromised. By spreading them out like that, there is room for far more battery cells than could be squeezed…

There is a supremely confident strut about modern Ferrari road cars and, by and large, they appeal all the more because of it. The company’s commitment to making the fastest, most powerful and most exciting options within the niches of the sports car market in which it competes has brought us some sensational driver’s cars in recent years, and has brought us another memorably visceral and rambunctious one in the new 812 Superfast. But it has not brought us a car that we’d instinctively choose to drive from one end of any given country to the other; in which case, we plainly can’t put it at the very top of our ‘Super GT’ chart above rivals we’d prefer for that kind of journey. The 812’s V12 engine is spellbinding and…

Will the real Jenson Button please step forward? If you followed his Formula 1 career, you might think him everything from an exhibitionist to a womaniser to a decent driver who ended up in the right car at the right time… or you might just as readily recall him for scooping the 2009 world championship, 15 GP wins, some of them sensational, and out-scoring none other than Lewis Hamilton over their three years as team-mates at McLaren. If we’re ever going to find out the truth, the time is now. Button’s been out of F1 for 18 months, bar a one-off return in Monaco when Fernando Alonso did the Indy 500 last season, and is notably at ease with the world, be it in his private life – where he’s…

we’ve attempted this folly before. Almost exactly two years ago, three fearless – or should that be naïve? – Autocar staffers set out to climb Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England’s Lake District and Mount Snowdon on the north-western corner of Wales all within 24 hours. You may already know this as the Three Peaks Challenge, and the numbers are plain scary: 23 miles of walking including 10,052ft of ascent. Linking the lactic acid is almost 500 miles of driving, and to amplify the task at hand our steed was the pure-electric Nissan Leaf. A leggy diesel would have dispatched that sort of distance without even a solitary visit to the pump. As it was, the Leaf gave us roughly 110 miles of range to play with, and…

We’re in the stunning and historic London headquarters of the W Royal Aeronautical Society. The building, just off Hyde Park Corner, oozes history, with varnished noticeboards carrying the names of the society’s past presidents, many of whom were at the forefront of aeronautical engineering and development. I’m here to talk about self-driving cars with a gentleman called Tony Henley, who has spent his whole career in the world of avionics including 35 years at BAE Systems specialising in navigation and navigation displays. He has a degree in electronics and a masters in instrumentation. Today he is a consultant to various bodies, including the government, on subjects that include drones. Why am I talking to an aviation expert about cars? Because more than once I’ve been sitting next to a car…

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 9964 WHY WE RAN IT To see if the most fearsome front-drive hot hatchback on sale today really can be docile in everyday use That’s it, then, the Honda Civic Type R has gone. T And with it, after nearly 10,000 miles, we know that this 2.0-litre turbocharged hatchback, unlike its predecessor, is a well-rounded all-year-round car and not just a one-dimensional Nürburgring scream machine. Yup. The main thing I’ll take away from this test is how usable the Civic Type R is on a daily basis, given it’s the most ferocious front-drive hot hatch on sale today. Far more so than the previous Civic Type R. Last time around, the Type R was shoehorned into the Civic’s model cycle near the end of the car’s life,…

QUESTION I’m looking for a new family hatch. I’d like it to be economical but big enough for my growing teenage boys. I’m worried about diesels and not keen on a hybrid. Is there anything suitable under £13k? Janice Long, Sudbury ANSWER There’s nothing serious to worry about with diesels and hybrids, but we understand that they don’t fit everyone’s lifestyle. So if you want an economical petrol car that’s big inside, I’d suggest you take a look at the Seat Leon, specifically one fitted with the 1.4 EcoTSI engine. It can shut down two cylinders on light throttle loads and this dramatically cuts fuel bills. Plus, the Leon has generous rear leg room, a decent boot and plenty of kit for the money. MA QUESTION I’d like to do…

You might already know the story of this legendary Y car: developed by Lotus (which probably needed the money the contract brought in at the time), blasted in the national press for its 176mph top speed, loved by the car mags because of its startling abilities, and then, sadly, driven to its demise in the early 1990s by the recession and skyrocketing insurance premiums. For years, the price of the Lotus Carlton languished in the £15,000 to £25,000 region, but a look on the internet at the few that are available today shows that prices have gone up dramatically. There’s one that has covered only 4500 miles that’s up for £125,000, and another for £150,000. That is crazy money compared with what they were worth 10 years ago. So this…

The second-generation Audi Q3 has been revealed before orders open in the autumn and the first cars appear on roads in November. According to the German manufacturer, the new Q3 plays a different role from its predecessor because it is no longer the baby crossover of the family. It is more practical, more generously equipped and more mature in its appearance to make space in the model range for the new Q2. “The buyers of the first Q3 have grown up and so it has grown up, too,” said Matthias Fink, exterior designer for the new car. “With the Q2 playing the role of the young one, we focused on getting the Q3’s design balance right so that now it looks more like an SUV.” This shift is most obvious…

Polestar’s second model, a Tesla Model 3-rivalling EV, will be unveiled next year with a price range of £30,000-£50,000, as much as 400bhp and a range of up to 350 miles, according to COO Jonathan Goodman. Talking about that 350-mile range of the new 2, Polestar’s entry-level model, Goodman said: “The 2 will represent the lower ‘bookend’ of our showroom range and, for now, it should give us as much access to the volume end of the EV market as we need.” Polestar boss Thomas Ingenlath added: “The 2 will set new standards for performance in the class and bring our brand into the reach of today’s mainstream premium car buyers. The timing is good. Revealing the car in 2019 and launching it in 2020 should mean we arrive as…

If you’re still getting over the fact that kids born in this millennium can buy booze, then prepare for a shock: the Audi TT is 20 years old. The original, very pretty concept came about in 1995. Yes, really. Since 1998, when the production car first went on sale, more than 600,000 TTs have been sold. With this third-generation car around since 2014, the time is ripe for a midlife nip and tuck. The visual changes amount to new colours, bumpers and grilles, plus more standard kit offered for what’s expected to be an increased price. Audi says to expect a price of about £45,000 for the TT S, which gets some more substantial changes than other derivatives. The car is now automatic-only, the previously optional six-speed gearbox now replaced…

MODEL TESTED 812 SUPERFAST Price £263,033 • Power 789bhp • Torque 530lb ft • 0-60mph 3.1sec • 30-70mph in fourth 4.3sec • Fuel economy na • CO2 emissions 340g/km • 70-0mph 42.1m ‘M’is for ‘modificato’ – or modified. Ferrari has used the letter as a suffix on some of the various direct and indirect predecessors of this week’s road test subject several times: on the 575M, 456M and F512M. And, while the observant will have noticed that it hasn’t actually used it on the official model name of the new 812 Superfast, it has used it on the car’s internal codename. The car’s immediate predecessor, the 2012 F12 Berlinetta, was simply known as ‘F152’ to anyone personally connected to its creation; the new 812 is ‘F152M’. Which tells you a lot…

“You’ll not only hear this car’s Ferrari engine but feel it through your seat too” This is an idea that doesn’t want to die. Here we are, about to drive the third attempt to revive one of the most startling cars of the 1970s. This time, its latest re-creators tell us, there will be 25 new cars, each costing ¤550,000 (about £486,000) and demanding a difficult sacrifice first. We’ll get to that. First, some words about why the Stratos beguiled then and beguiles now. Mostly, it’s about the shape. An assertive wedge of glass fibre encased spaceframe, Lancia’s 1972 rally missile was capped with a visor-like wrap of glass – its scrabbling, darting, time compacting mission underlined by an arrestingly cropped wheelbase and stunted overhangs. Anorak-clad rallyists might glimpse the…

Just to stick my oar in on the hydrogen versus battery debate, surely hydrogen is going to play a major part for one big reason: we don’t have the power generation in this country to our own households, let alone thousands of new chargers. Even the new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point – whenever that is ready – will only supply 7% of the country’s power needs and that’s not taking into account the amount of new car chargers required (our current need for imports of electricity from France and Holland via interconnectors is a whole other argument). BP is talking about 150kw rapid chargers being installed on its forecourts. This is a lot of power just for one charger alone. To put this in perspective, if power equals…

MILEAGE 2556 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if BMW has finally created a credible alternative to the Merc S-Class Part of the reason the idea of running the 740Ld P appealed was because I absolutely believe there remains a place for diesel-powered cars in the marketplace and I thought the flagship BMW would make the point rather nicely. But I could scarcely have imagined how right, for once, I would turn out to be. But let’s first examine exactly what we have here, which is a car that, in basic form, weighs 10kg less than two tonnes. With all the equipment that’s been shovelled into this one, I’d expect its actual mass would be closer to 2.2 tonnes. It’s powered by a 3.0-litre engine pushing out over 100bhp…

There is a lot to be done on the Baby Shark and one of the problems of actually using a car is that it starts to show some wear and tear. It was used intensively when we were effectively down to just the three cars. So I had a passenger quite a lot and that has caused the already hard seat material to deteriorate. I am certainly not going to do something as crass as leather or pleather it all up, so I will have to find an upholsterer to make it better. Oh, and someone who agrees that a Solex carburettor is rubbish.…

“Want more power? Check out the 244bhp 3.2 V6 quattro. Around £7k gets a good 2008 one” Whatever the generation – Mk1, Mk2 or Mk3 – an Audi TT is a gift to used car buyers. Evolutionary design means even a Mk1 looks reasonably fresh, while the mechanicals are tough and well proven and the bodies resistant to rust. Prices for the Mk1 start at around £1000 but, in truth, it’s a bit long in the tooth. The cheapest Mk3 is around £14,000 – a little pricey for a bargain hunter. Which leaves the Mk2, again available in coupé and roadster forms. Prices start at around £4000 for early and leggy 2.0 TFSIs, although just £2000 more puts you among better-kept examples with lower mileages. Want more power? Check out…

TRIUMPH TR7 The wedge was the butt of many jokes and has spent several decades in the bargain section of the classified ads. Reviews at the time were not flattering since the TR7 had a live rear axle, a simple four-cylinder engine and no soft-top roof (a convertible came later). Attitudes towards the TR7 are mellowing. This 1981 example with plenty of history to back up a careful ownership record recently sold for £3080 at auction. The metallic green bodywork was described as being free of rust. If you can find a solid one, you’ll have an interesting talking point at any car show. GET IT WHILE YOU CAN Hyundai Santa Fe Price new £36,545. Price now £22,500 Although it might not be the best car in the class to…