Innholdsfortegnelse for September 26, 2018 i Autocar

LAST WEEK, JAGUAR’S Castle Bromwich plant moved to a three-day working week. Jaguar said this was due to wider industry turmoil, caused by the uncertainty around Brexit and the declining demand of diesel. Perhaps, but maybe it’s also because the models built at Castle Bromwich – XE, XF, XJ and F-Type – aren’t resonating with buyers. No matter how good they might be, they are mainly conventional, old-tech models, existing in a world dominated by SUVs and with a fast-growing interest in electric cars. Jaguar knows this itself with the success of the F-Pace and strong interest in the I-Pace. The latter cars have shown Jaguar at its most daring and it is reaping the rewards for challenging the status quo. As a company, Jaguar is versatile enough to adopt…

To get a proper scale of Jaguar’s troubles, you have to look at its Castle Bromwich factory’s output between January and August this year. With the model-by-model build numbers outlined below, the factory’s output totalled 52,476 cars over eight months’ production. XE and XF sales dropped significantly, down 25% and 17% respectively for the year. Over the same period, 63,815 examples of the F-Pace and E-Pace were built outside of Castle Bromwich. Total Jaguar sales over the first eight months of 2018 were 116,849, including 588 I-Pace models. Extrapolating to a full year of sales, Castle Bromwich output would be around 78,700 units and total Jaguar sales about 175,200. For a brand with three mainstream saloons and two mainstream SUVs, that figure is very low. Even Jaguar’s SUVs are under…

“By 2021, all of Ferrari’s mid-engined models will have hybrid drivetrains” Ferrari has announced a bold new product plan that will see the company launch 15 new models over the next five years, including an SUV-style vehicle, as well as incorporating hybrid drivetrains on the majority of the cars it sells in 2022. As well as continuing to invest in V12 and V8 engines and further improving their output per litre, Ferrari is introducing a new turbocharged V6 engine family that will be packaged with hybrid assistance. The future Ferrari range will be split into two distinct lines: rear mid-engined sports cars and front mid-engined GT cars. In addition, it will produce two limited-edition lines, the ’Special Series’ models (such as the 488 Pista Spider) and ‘Icona’ models, which will…

Renault’s Captur crossover will be replaced by a new model in the middle of next year. Spy shots show that the next-generation Nissan Juke rival will feature styling inspired heavily by the new Clio, due first in 2019. It will also benefit from the same technology upgrades, including a Tesla-style portrait touchscreen and semiautonomous driver aids. New turbo petrol and diesel engines, developed jointly with Mercedes, will be introduced, alongside a mild hybrid and potential full plug-in hybrid to arrive in 2020.…

BMW, Daimler and the Volkswagen Group are being investigated by the European Commission to determine whether the firms colluded to avoid competing against each other in developing emissions reduction technology. The EC said that such an agreement would be in breach of EU antitrust regulations. The investigation follows warranted inspections of BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen and Audi premises in Germany in October last year. Margrethe Vestager, the commissioner in charge of competition policy, said the EC hopes to discover whether or not the three companies “agreed not to compete against each other on the development and roll-out of important systems to reduce harmful emissions from petrol and diesel passenger cars”. The investigation will centre on alleged meetings between officials from BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche, during which they may have…

The recently unveiled E-tron will be the first of 12 electric models to be launched by Audi before 2025. Following the E-tron SUV, the E-tron Sportback SUV coupé will be revealed next year and a four-door E-tron GT, a rival to the Tesla Model S, will arrive in 2020. Also confirmed is a compact model, an electric equivalent to the Audi A3, coming in 2020 and five more SUVs. Another possible newcomer is a production version of the PB18 concept, shown last month, previewing an R8-style electric sports car. All of the electric cars will be stand-alone models rather than electric versions of existing cars. Audi has also said the zero-emissions line-up will include “classic body layouts” such as Avant and Sportback, and the range will cover every segment from…

A new Suzuki Jimny doesn’t come along very often. The first arrived in 1970, and lasted 11 years. Its replacement was on the market for 17 years. The third generation arrived in 1998, and has only just gone off sale after 20 years. For comparison, the Ford Focus was also launched in 1998, and is already onto its fourth generation. Given how long the previous Jimny was on sale, it’s no surprise that much of this new model is all-new (an example: it features Apple CarPlay, which wasn’t on the old car, probably because it was launched nine years before the iPhone was invented). But beyond a welcome new layer of technology, what’s more notable is what hasn’t changed. In particular, Suzuki’s mission remains: to make the world’s smallest authentic…

As I write, a number of Lamborghini Aventador SVJs are, a few yards away, belting along the main straight at Estoril circuit. The noise is more race meeting than track day, something rare in the world of production cars. There are still other naturally aspirated V12s, but none in the same setting as this. There’s a figurative and literal exhaust length difference between a super-GT and the original supercar. The Aventador will never be ‘so what’. Then there’s the 6min 44.97sec lap of the… well, you know where. It achieved that lap time by being more powerful, lighter, more aerodynamically clever, dynamically tweaked and having more grippy tyres than ever. The full engineering gamut. The 6.5-litre V12 has titanium inlet valves, a lighter flywheel, less internal friction and an 8700rpm…

The Volkswagen Group cousins that share this platform are an oddly hit-and-miss bunch, but there is enough substance about the Q8 50 TDI to ensure a favourable, if not quite glowing, road-test verdict. One tester described the design as ‘by the numbers’, but the consensus is that this is still the most successful attempt at a striking coupé-SUV yet. Its design brings practical limitations, but this is a capacious and refined cruiser whose frugal, mellifluous diesel powertrain is as welcome during long journeys as the sophisticated interior. Those in the market for a high-riding car but without the utilitarian connotations could do far worse than this. And yet we can’t help feeling there’s more to come from the Q8, whose remit is to offer all of the above but with…

A few years ago, you’d have said a mainstream manufacturer trying to give its staple D-segment saloon model an extra special persona would be better off trying to land one on Uranus. Big four-doors were what every self-respecting family had on the drive, the commonest sight in school-day queues for the local roundabout. Today, the vogue is SUVs. Family saloons have begun acquiring a comparative sleekness and delicacy, assisted by new-age aerodynamics and the latest in lighting design. They’re also becoming almost exclusive on our roads. The once ubiquitous Ford Mondeo has been a stranger to the UK’s bestseller list for a decade, and the Peugeot 508 has been ranked a way below that. Now there’s a new 508 and, admirably, Peugeot has viewed this change as an opportunity. It…

“What’s it like? Lovely. The ride quality is really smooth, control weights easy and responsive” FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if a utility vehicle is an endearing everyday vehicle Here is, I think it’s fair to say, a specification you don’t see every day. Unless you work for the United Nations, presumably. And even then, it’s probably a five-door. I have small hunch, though, that this, the three-door Toyota Land Cruiser of the latest generation, will become a slightly more familiar sight on British roads than previously, owing to the demise of the Land Rover Defender. I feel a bit bad comparing the two because, on even the quickest acquaintance, the Land Cruiser shows itself to be vastly superior to a Defender in terms of ride comfort,…

QUESTION I need to replace my Range Rover 4.4 Vogue. I am considering a new Volvo XC90 or a two-year-old Range Rover Sport 4.4, each priced about £60k. Which is the better investment? Michael Lynskey, via email ANSWER As you probably know from your Range Rover ownership, a luxury SUV is no investment and often haemorrhages money. However, the popularity of the Range Rover Sport has helped it to maintain its value better than the XC90. For example, a year-old D5 Inscription Pro XC90, £60,000 when new, is worth £44,000, which is quite a scary drop. Also, a used 2016 4.4 SDV8 Sport will cost you £315 a year to tax versus the £450 of the new XC90. MA QUESTION My car’s alternator has just gone and the garage wants…

COOL AND CAPABLE 4X4 If you can’t wait for the new Defender, then buy one of these. It may look like it should be being driven by uber-cool Californian surfers, but the FJ Cruiser is an homage to the old FJ40 that could be seen in service all over the world between 1960 and 1984 and helped to forge Toyota’s reputation for rugged reliability. The FJ40 was (and continues to be) highly thought of within the company, so it was a given that Toyota would use it when recreating its Jeep rival – aiming to offer an alternative to the Wrangler, which dominated the market for cool-looking recreational off-roaders. The FJ Cruiser went on sale in the US in 2006, before making its way to Japan and Australia. Behind the…

“A full-on luxury electric saloon, replacing the unloved XJ, is expected within two years” Jaguar Land Rover bosses are considering a plan to turn Jaguar into an EV-only brand within the next decade, Autocar has learned. It is understood that company product planners have produced an outline strategy under which Jaguar’s conventional vehicle range would be phased out over the next five to seven years, to be replaced by pure-electric vehicles. Under the plans being considered, a full-on luxury electric saloon, replacing the unloved XJ, is expected within two years. It will be a direct competitor for Porsche’s upcoming Taycan, alongside strong-selling cars such as the Tesla Model S. Rethought as an electric vehicle, the new XJ will both play to the strengths of the 1967 original by offering segment-leading…

Peugeot has unveiled the e-Legend Concept, an electric sports car with advanced autonomous features and styling heavily inspired by the 504 Coupé. The e-Legend will make its public debut at the Paris motor show in October, 50 years after the French firm launched the two-door version of the 504. Peugeot design boss Gilles Vidal said the e-Legend was designed to contrast with its last autonomous concept, the Instinct. “That took the shape of a future-orientated machine,” he said. “We wanted to push that logic further and talk about a non-boring future in which we don’t have to have slow-looking cars that are sleek and minimalistic”. Despite that, the firm was determined to ensure the e-Legend wasn’t simply a retro design, giving it sharper lines that ape American muscle cars. Under…

The Hyundai i30 Fastback N has been unveiled ahead of the Paris motor show, and the firm believes it can fill a gap in the market as a hot C-segment fastback. The new car also introduces a number of minor tweaks that will be adopted by the i30 N hot hatchback. Mechanically, the new model is virtually identical to the i30 N, with the same 2.0-litre petrol engine. It will again feature 247bhp in standard mode, or 271bhp with the Performance pack. With the vast majority of i30 N UK sales being the Performance variant, Hyundai has yet to confirm if it will offer the lower-powered Fastback N in this country. Product manager Adrien Pere said that the decision to offer an N version of the fastback was to target…

There can’t be very many other car makers that would try it on quite as spectacularly. The Porsche Panamera was given its own model identity: even though it looks a bit like a supersized 911, it wasn’t called a 911 GT. And even though Audi likes to think that every new car it launches these days can be made to look a bit like its 1980s four-wheel-drive icon, it won’t re-christen the next RS7 the Quattro Touring. BMW won’t hint that its next 8 Series Gran Coupé is a proper sports car underneath. They just wouldn’t have the brass neck. So is Mercedes-AMG setting us all up for disappointment by deliberately picking an identity for the new ‘GT’ 4-Door Coupé that suggests there is a meaningful technical similarity between this…

The Kia e-Niro arrives at quite the opportune time, with big-range electric cars – and the charging network to support them – gaining momentum, acceptance and awareness among the wider buying public beyond early adopters. The Niro is a couple of years old now and launched as Kia’s dedicated eco-friendly model, promising hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric drivetrains within the same range – and the time has now come for that electric version. You’ll spot more than one or two similarities between the e-Niro and the Kona Electric from sister brand Hyundai. The drivetrain is common between the pair, consisting of an electric motor powered by a 64kWh lithium ion polymer battery with a 301-mile range, now homologated as a real-world-representative figure. Our test e-Niro is a Korean-spec model driven…

The Mazda CX-3 was a jack of all trades when it arrived in 2015. It looked the part, drove well and was fairly economical, but it didn’t truly excel in any one area at a time when rivals were championing practicality, value and sheer niche appeal. That changes with this facelifted version, which gets a slew of mechanical upgrades in addition to visual tweaks and interior revisions. New coil springs and dampers have been fitted to the MacPherson strut front and torsion beam rear suspension to sharpen the handling, the electric power steering has been tuned for a closer match between input and response, and the front stabiliser has shrunk to improve roll response. So more than just a prettier face, then. Tested here in entry-level 119bhp guise, the 2.0-litre…

MODEL TESTED 50 TDI S LINE Price £63,745 Power 282bhp Torque 443lb ft 0-60mph 6.9sec 30-70mph in fourth 6.9sec Fuel economy 28.8mpg CO2 emissions 178g/km 70-0mph 44.1m How many modern premium car makers, when designing an all-new, clean-sheet, passenger car flagship, would come up with a high-rise, super-stylish large SUV? Right now, with plenty doing exactly that, it’d probably be quicker to count how many wouldn’t – or yet haven’t. While the Audi Q8, the new range-topping, coupé-aping luxury SUV to which we’re turning our attention this week, might be fairly closely related to the firm’s more conventional-looking Q7 and might also be following one or two other well-known added-desirability SUVs into an already reasonably well-established and lucrative market niche, it is perhaps most interesting to contemplate it along those lines.…

A twin-turbocharged V6-powered Kia sports saloon developed by BMW M’s former chief engineer seemed like a fairly outrageous idea a few years ago, but the Stinger turned out to be so credible that you wouldn’t believe it was a first attempt from its maker. In that context, a 5.1-metre-long, V8-powered, four-wheel-drive Kia luxury saloon to rival the Mercedes-Benz S-Class might not seem quite such absurd an idea as it once might have done. Perhaps more far-fetched, yes, but not completely a cause for spitting out your cornflakes. And yet such a car is not an idea, but a reality – and one that has been a part of Kia’s range further afield for a few years now. The K900 (known as the K9 in Korea, but renamed for export for…

“I’ve noticed how cars, even black cabs, stop to let the Rolls through” The temperature’s rising, the traffic lights are on red and my passenger, located somewhere behind me in the far reaches of the car, is late for his business meeting. It’s the perfect test for my longwheelbase Rolls-Royce Phantom. If it cannot perform here, relaxing my passenger with its opulence and air-cooled comfort, it has failed as a luxury limo. More to the point, if I can’t perform here, I’ve failed as a chauffeur. You see, I’m learning to be one; a student of Abbass Zadeh, founder of AZ Luxe, whose company motto is: ‘Arrive in luxury, depart in style.’ Today, I’ll test that claim – hopefully, not to destruction. At least I won’t be able to blame…

As a very long-standing reader of Autocar, I read your reports about the poor ride of so many performance cars and wonder what is progress. It surely does not have to be like this. High-performance cars can be engineered with a good ride and surely they can also deal with the restrictive and dangerously oversized A-pillars. I have just spent a month driving my 1996 Honda NSX through Italy and Germany with the objective of driving round the Targa Florio course. The car has an excellent ride and seats. After nearly 5000 miles driven during that month, I still felt fresh. With slim A-pillars, it also has a superb unobstructed view from the driver’s seat. I have owned the NSX for 10 years and it has covered 137,000 miles so…

MILEAGE 3075 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if Nissan has advanced the cause of EVs at the affordable end of the scale The Leaf’s indicated range is proving to be a tad optimistic if much high-speed driving is involved. Although it changes a bit, depending on how the car has been driven previously, I’ve regularly been seeing between 160 and 170 miles on the display after each full battery recharge, but in a mixture of urban and open-road use the actual usable range is closer to 140 miles. The discrepancy was first noticed one weekend as I was heading down to West Sussex for a party at a country pub – a round trip of about 120 miles from south-west London. With a range of just over 160 miles…

It is amazing just how much the Flying Pig’s pong has amused and entertained you. For me, it has been a bumpy and rather smelly ride. I’ll pass on one top tip, though: please, don’t ever be remotely tempted to put a box of freshly cut grass in the boot of your vehicle. What you end up with is a stink that rivals Glastonbury on a damp and muddy Sunday morning in front of the main stage. Thanks, then, to the Autocar reader who suggested Valeo ClimSpray. You set the air-con to recirculate and maximum fan, press the button and retire for 15 minutes. Pong gone – we think.…

The Mini is such a friendly little thing that it comes as a shock to discover that the minute your back is turned, the Cooper S of 2007-13 likes to throw its timing chain. It’ll give you a few hints first, like a brushing noise or perhaps a rattle, from cold at idle. I once owned a Vauxhall Zafira 2.2 that did the same thing. The noise came and went and then one day the pistons and valves shook hands, and that was that. The same will happen to the Cooper S’s engine, although more likely to any fitted before 2011, after which a revised chain tensioner was installed. That’s right: it’s the hydraulic tensioner rather than the chain that’s the culprit. It doesn’t help that the engine likes a…

KIA PLANS TO make its cars more fun and involving to drive, but will not crown that process with the launch of a high-performance Hyundai N-style offshoot, according to performance development boss Albert Biermann. Instead, it wants to further develop a small range of GT models with more real-world performance focus. “With the Ceed GT now, the minute you go high performance, you need to work at a racetrack, and then the costs go up and the business case gets very challenging,” Biermann told Autocar. However, Biermann said that the next-generation Optima GT is likely to push the performance brief further, with “an interesting powertrain and suspension at the next level”. The next model to get the Biermann treatment is the new Soul, set to launch soon, with promises of…

MORE OFFICIAL DETAILS have emerged about Volkswagen’s new MEB electric vehicle platform (Modular Drive Electric Matrix), which is due to enter production in 2019. Cars underpinned by it will be produced at four different plants across Germany, with a total of €6 billion being invested in the brand’s electrification strategy. The first car to go on sale will be the ID hatchback at an entry price of around £25,000 before any government grant. Pre-orders of the ID hatchback will start at the end of 2019, with deliveries in early 2020. VW’s ID models will use a large head-up display for instrumentation. VW will also equip ID cars with augmented reality holographic-type menu systems. There will be an all-new electrical architecture too: ID cars will be online at all times, boosting…

The second-generation Audi Q3 arrives in a crowded marketplace a world away from the one it entered as a trailblazer in 2011. Not only must the Q3 count the BMW X1, Volvo XC40, Range Rover Evoque and Mercedes-Benz GLA as rivals, but also its own baby SUV sibling, the Q2, launched in 2016. Audi wants lots of differentiation between its two compact crossovers so gone is the first-generation Q3’s bulbous design and in its place is a chiselled SUV. It’s also larger than its predecessor and comes fitted with the latest Audi infotainment system, also found on the flagship Q8. What’s most notable about the new Q3 is its relative good value for money. The entry-level Sport trim in 1.5-litre 35 TFSI guise starts from just under £31,000 and has…

Audi’s tendency to equip its vehicles with vague steering kills any real sense of communication between your hands and the car’s front tyres, and it doesn’t make for a particularly engaging driving experience around Millbrook’s testing Hill Route. That said, quattro four-wheel drive ensures the Q8 has plenty of traction out of sharper bends, while fast camber changes had limited effect on the Audi’s stability. The optional four-wheel steering fitted to our test car also adds to its sense of agility, particularly through tighter corners. Audi’s sportiest drive modes keep lateral body roll tidily in check, with the restraint building up in a progressive and predictable fashion. The electronic stability control systems aren’t particularly intrusive, either – only noticeably intervening following severe compressions or if you carry too much speed…

“Chase laughs rather than lap times and it’s a tyre-smoking drift machine” Any day involving both a new McLaren and a racetrack is a good one, but the company’s enthusiasm for restricting our first taste of new products to circuits rather than public roads means you’ll have to wait a little longer to find out how the 600LT copes with the real world. On the basis of our first acquaintance at the Hungaroring, however, it feels pretty special. We’ve reported extensively on the basic ingredients before but here’s a recap. The 600LT gets a modest increase in power (its 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 turned up to 592bhp from the 570S’s 562bhp), more aggressive suspension, a top-exit exhaust on the rear deck and, because of this, a fixed rear wing with a…

British Touring Car Championship races are short, intense affairs, around 30 minutes of bumper bashing and battling. Still, even with three of them in a day, such short races might not seem much of an endurance challenge for a driver. Yet the reality is somewhat different. Those three races are packed into around six hours. Add in the attention, scrutiny and pressure that come with being part of Britain’s biggest motorsport championship and race day becomes a non-stop, pressure-filled marathon for the drivers, with little time to rest. Tom Chilton knows that well. The 33-year-old has been racing in top-line touring cars since making his BTCC debut back in 2002. Ten years later, in 2012, he switched to the World Touring Car Championship. Last year, he competed full-time in both…

REVEALED New BMW 3 Series and Paris show stars The headline act at this year’s Paris motor show is the all-new 3 Series. We’ve got the full story, plus news on all the other show stars FEATURE Alpine goes rallying We find out if Alpine (and some friends) still has a rallying pedigree COMPARISON Ford Focus vs every rival Ten cars, 12 pages, one winner: we name the best new family hatch EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Jeep Compass Jeep takes aim at the European crossover market with a proper SUV FIRST DRIVE BMW X5 Third-gen X5 is more comfortable and refined — so says BMW. We drive it USED BUYING GUIDE MG B Tempted by a bit of British motoring history? Then you need to read this SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or…

MILEAGE 5460 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT We had a diesel vRS for three months. Now it’s a petrol vRS for three months. Which makes the better buy? A couple of weeks ago, I said of the Octavia vRS 245 that I could think of no realistic, actionable way in which it could be improved. With a little more space here, I want to revisit that statement because, on face value, it sounds rather a lot like I was saying the vRS is a perfect car. Which it categorically isn’t. For one thing, there are several minor but still irritating things about it that Skoda could, and should, put right for this car’s replacement. The navigation system, for instance, is no match for a little local knowledge when it comes to…

The Astra Mk4 was never the prettiest or most distinctive car in its class. It is, however, unpretentious and unashamedly practical. For keen drivers, the good news is that extensive work by Lotus turned the previously dull Astra into an entertaining drive. The steering and handling are superb, being direct, yet fluid. The ride is smooth and well-behaved too. When launched, it had the roomiest interior in its class, never mind the drab colours or diesel engines. Just £250 buys a 2004 SXi 2.0 DTi with 174k miles. SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com AND READERS' QUESTIONS TO autocar@haymarket.com…

An expert’s view ALEX CASTLE, MASTERDRIVER.CO.UK “The R56 timing chain can let go at around 80,000 miles. The plastic tensioner guide is the culprit. If you hear a brushing sound, it’s on the way out and you should change it without delay. The later N18 engine is much improved but the tensioner wasn’t upgraded until 2011. Fortunately, owners are enthusiastic and look after their cars. There are plenty to choose from so you can afford to be fussy. New, options were pricey, but that cost evaporates as the cars get older so fully loaded Coopers aren’t much more expensive. My favourite extras are the panoramic roof and Harman Kardon sound system.” Buyer beware… ▪ TIMING CHAIN The timing chain, or more specifically the tensioner, is the weak spot. Keeping the…

Based on the Jaguar XJ40, the Daimler Six is basically the same car under the skin: it just has a plusher interior, natty wooden picnic tables in the back and fluted chromework on the grille and bootlid. The XJ40-series had a turbulent upbringing under British Leyland but, by the time this 1994 car was built, Ford owned Jaguar and build quality and reliability had improved. The 4.0-litre six is reliable if looked after, so mechanically this should have been a good buy for £2000, including auction premium. Generally, watch for rust and ensure the leather is in top condition. GET IT WHILE YOU CAN Mazda MX-5 2.0 Sport Nav Price new £24,395. Price now £17,000 Mazda has just given its perennially popular MX-5 sports car a minor facelift. Cosmetically, it…