Innholdsfortegnelse for May 20, 2020 i Autocar

LAND ROVER IS well into its development programme for the next Range Rover, with new spy shots giving us a detailed view of the luxury SUV. The model, which is being tested in disguise ahead of its debut next year, was seen being benchmarked against the new Mercedes-Maybach GLS. We can see the design is an evolution, as to be expected for such a traditional model, but it has a wider stance, more pronounced shoulder lines and an imposing front end. Classic door handles feature rather than Velar-style pop-out items, while a split tailgate also appears to have been retained. The new Range Rover is based on JLR’s latest MLA platform, which allows for mild-hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric powertrains. While a fully electric Range Rover is some way off,…

KIA’S BUSINESS HAS been less negatively affected than its competitors by the pandemic, according to the firm. In fact, Kia believes it has actually benefited in terms of meeting the EU’s tough new fleet average CO2 emissions targets. “We think we will be less impacted than the industry in general,” Kia’s chief operating officer for Europe, Emilio Herrera, told Autocar. “We saw that in the first quarter: the market was down 26% in Europe, but Kia was down 14.5%. Consequently, we increased our market share. Usually when there’s a crisis, Kia behaves better than its major competitors.” Herrera cites the Korean brand’s positioning as “a more rational choice”, alongside its relative value and the peace of mind afforded by its seven-year warranty, to explain its relative success in this time…

Mercedes-Benz is investing heavily in its MBUX infotainment system because of the potential for making money from offering online services, which in future could rival the profits made from selling cars. Mercedes introduced the latest version of MBUX on the A-Class in 2018, and the system is now available across virtually its entire model line-up. A key focus of the system is voice control. Mercedes is currently rolling out an over-the-air software update in certain markets allowing more informal language to be used. In China, the firm has also launched a feature that allows users to order and pay for takeaway food via voice control while driving. A service for booking cinema tickets is also being offered. A recent report predicted the market for automotive AI systems (including hardware, software…

MODEL TESTED EVO RWD COUPE There aren’t many ways, at least plausible ones, in which Lamborghini’s modern supercars could be made even more exciting, but removing the front driveshafts is one of them. And that’s exactly what has happened here. This is the Huracán Evo RWD, with the initials standing for ‘Rear-Wheel Drive’, Lamborghini having opted to anglicise the derivative’s name rather than following Italian supercar protocol and simply using the mother tongue for added exoticism. That would have resulted in the more romantic-sounding, if lengthy, Huracán Evo Trazione Posteriore. Of course, neither rolls off the tongue quite so sweetly as the name Balboni, which is where this new car’s lineage begins. Named in honour of the then chief test driver Valentino Balboni, the excellent Gallardo LP550-2 Balboni of 2009…

VERDICT When Lamborghini expressed an ambition for the Huracán Evo to prise business from Porsche’s GT division and McLaren, we were sceptical. And rightly so. The four-wheel-drive Huracán remains an imperfect driver’s tool, more heavily and obviously reliant on clever chassis electronics than any 911 GT3 and less expressive or flowing in its handling than the explosive V10 engine note suggests. It’s an awe-inspiring machine, but also one that lacks the depth and breadth of talent seen in several rivals. This rear-drive take on the Huracán Evo is different and demonstrates the sort of fundamental handling appeal that brings this car close to meeting Lamborghini’s original ambition. The rear-defined balance, new-found delicacy in the steering and a propensity for oversteer that requires genuine respect for the forces involved combine to…

Like all great car designers, and quite a few who aren’t, Julian Thomson drew cars constantly when he was young. But instead of drawing other people’s designs – Ferraris and Porsches, like the other kids – he always drew his own. “My father, who worked in the National Gallery, wasn’t especially into cars but he loved the creative process,” says 58-year-old Thomson, who succeeded Ian Callum last July as Jaguar’s design director after 20 action-packed years as his closest associate. “He always encouraged us kids to do our own thing. If we made an Airfix kit, we’d immediately cut it up and make it into something of our own. I suppose I was designing from the very beginning without realising it.” Thomson was always the natural successor to Callum, having…

Bristol’s car-building arm was launched at the end of the war, when the aeroplane company had a surplus of labour and few aeroplanes to build. Bristol acquired rights to BMW’s pre-war cars as war reparations, formed a car division and by the end of 1946 had launched the handsome, fast and progressive 400, powered by a BMW-related 2.0-litre six-cylinder engine. In 1956, the car division became a company in its own right, and in 1960 it was bought by Anthony Crook and Sir George White as partners. A year later, the BMW engine was dropped in favour of Chrysler V8s, which powered Bristol cars until demand waned in the 1990s. The Dodge Viper V10-powered Fighter began a brief fightback in 2004, but the brand’s golden days were long gone by…

MILEAGE 4338 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To get to know Vauxhall’s new supermini and to test its 1.0-litre turbo petrol triple Funny how your attitude to a car can change quite a bit during lockdown. The Vauxhall Corsa lives at present with half a dozen others in our Gloucestershire bunker, but it has become the car of choice for our two or three weekly runs to the supermarket, because of its sheer convenience. The compactness and ease of driving are the main points of appeal, although I have a powerful feeling we also choose it because it has such a cheery paint job. I must say I felt a frisson of pride when I saw the car sales figures for the tortured month of April just past. The Corsa came…

Mercedes-Benz E220 Reader Phil thought we’d like to see his daily driven W124 E220 Auto, and obviously we do. “I paid £1000 for it 18 months ago and have covered 15,000 trouble-free miles since,” he says. “The MOT history backed up the low mileage. There was some main dealer history from years ago, although not much recently. Incredibly, everything works, including the electric mirrors and roof, and the ’box shifts smoothly. It has quirks but I’ve found that if something stops working, giving the fuses a wiggle sorts it out. I give it the respect a 25-year-old car deserves, and it gets about 35mpg on my 100-mile daily commute. When I hear people talking about their horrendous experiences with unreliable modern cars, I know Bangernomics works if you pick the…

Volkswagen Lupo GTI £5000 The Lupo GTI weighs a mere 960kg and makes 125bhp, so it can cover 0-60mph in 7.7sec, and it has more character than its modern equivalent, the Up GTI. However, this hot city car is becoming rare, so prices are creeping up. Tatty ones with lots of miles and low prices have long been snapped up, leaving more pristine examples that may not seem so reasonably priced but stand a good chance of not dipping further. The one we found had a respectably low 70,000 miles in almost 20 years and came with a full 12-month MOT.…

An expert’s view AIMEE BRADLEY, ROTARY REVS “Over the years, and despite the copious amounts of praise that the RX-8 has acquired, engine failures, high fuel consumption and relatively high running costs have given it a ‘problem child’ label, putting off potential owners who are looking at all the boxes of positives it ticks. It goes without saying that not every RX-8 is a bad one. With some knowledge on what to look for, it can be easy to pick up and enjoy an absolute bargain.” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE Rotaries are much more mechanically simple than piston-powered engines, but failure of the RX-8’s unit can be fatal. See that it starts in less than two seconds when hot or cold, check for flat spots under acceleration and listen out…

Porsche is continuing its five-decade love affair with the Targa roof design, revealing the eighth generation of the semi-convertible 911 variant. The new 911 Targa picks up where the last generation model left off – with a fully automatic system that stows the hard-top roof panel behind the rear seats. When operated, the entire rear deck and screen lift up to allow the roof section to fold into the space. This leaves the car’s characteristic central roll-over bar in place of the B-pillar behind the door. The mechanism is able to open and close the Targa roof in 19 seconds – seven slower than the fabric-roofed 911 Cabriolet, which was launched last year. Porsche describes the Targa as offering “open-top driving in a cabriolet paired with the sleek convenience of…

Aston Martin has confirmed that it plans to add more “derivatives” of its new DBX SUV in 2021, thanks to a healthy book of orders for the standard car. The announcement was made as part of the firm’s first-quarter financial report (see below), in which new executive chairman Lawrence Stroll said the Porsche Cayenne rival’s launch plan remains on track despite shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Stroll said: “With St Athan reopened safely last week, I’m extremely pleased that the DBX remains on track for deliveries in the summer and has a strong order book behind it extending into 2021. “Based on these successful initial orders for the DBX, we plan to unveil future derivatives starting from 2021.” While CEO Andy Palmer has been open about plans to introduce…

Kia expects the number of diesel cars it offers to be “really minimal” by 2025, with the fuel being reserved for the brand’s largest European models, for which high torque and towing capability are necessities. “There is a shelf life to diesel engines,” said Kia Europe COO Emilio Herrera. “We see now by introducing the mild-hybrid petrol cars, the benefits of diesel [in smaller cars] disappears. “The Sorento is a big car, it’s often used for towing, and you can’t solve the problem with a [petrol] mild hybrid.” Herrera expects Kia to go 100% electric in the second half of this decade, but he stressed that the anticipated growth of EV sales will only come where governments are actively involved in promoting them. “We clearly see the markets that have…

Low-resolution images of the new S-Class have been leaked online. They show the new Mercedes-Benz flagship with barely any disguise, revealing an evolutionary design that takes detail inspiration, such as in the tail-lights, from today’s CLS. The interior is more radical, with a dashboard unlike that of any current Mercedes. The minimalist look centres on a large, portrait-oriented touchscreen and a digital dial display, plus there’s what looks like a more advanced head-up display. The limo is due to be unveiled later this year.…

CAR DEALERS IN England won’t be able to reopen their doors until at least 1 June – but they have been given clearance to offer ‘click-and-collect’ sales until then. Sales of new cars have virtually ground to a halt since lockdown restrictions to combat the coronavirus were introduced in mid-March. Car showrooms are listed among retail outlets that will be allowed to open in waves from 1 June, with that date dependent on the spread of the virus. All dealers will need to introduce new safety measures and complete an online Covid-19 health and safety assessment. The government guidance for stores in England states that “click-and-collect services can also operate, though customers must not enter premises”. That would enable cars to be delivered to customers by being placed outside a…

WHY NOT TRY OUR OTHER GREAT TITLES? View all of our offers on themagazineshop.com TERMS AND CONDITIONS This is a UK-only offer; for overseas offers, please visit themagazineshop.com or call +44 (0) 1604 251 450. All savings are based on the UK cover price and are correct as of January 2020. Please allow 35 days for delivery of your gift and first issue. The gift will be sent under separate cover from the magazine and won’t be dispatched until your first payment has cleared. Should we run out of gifts, you will be offered an alternative gift; there is no cash alternative. Direct Debit rates are valid for one year, after which they are subject to change; should prices change, we will inform you in writing. Should you wish to…

Volvo’s shift to electrification is happening faster than with most manufacturers, to the extent that it’s now impossible to buy a new XC90 without some form of hybrid assistance. A pure-electric version of the company’s seven-seat flagship SUV might be a long way off, and a plugin powertrain remains the preserve of the flagship T8 Twin Engine, but even the entry-level models now use a 48V starter motor/generator and a small battery. The system assists the 2.0-litre engine under acceleration and recuperates power through braking, which Volvo says helps cut down emissions over the outgoing, combustion-only car and gives real-world fuel economy a boost, too. Our car is the B5 petrol: a 2.0-litre four-cylinder, available exclusively with all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic transmission, and not to be confused with…

1 FERRARI F8 TRIBUTO Stellar Ferrari matches neither the pace of the 720S nor the noise of the Huracán, but it comes close and the handling is extraordinarily exploitable. 2 McLAREN 570S The finest steering in the class and arguably the most communicative chassis. Looks good value next to the Lambo but lacks character at times. 3 LAMBORGHINI HURACAN EVO RWD COUPE Balances drama with usability in a way that’s difficult to resist. Exhibits unusual handling panache for a Lamborghini. 4 PORSCHE 911 TURBO S Bugatti Veyron quick but just as usable as any base 911. Too understated for the average Huracán owner, perhaps, and lacking an operatic engine. 5 AUDI R8 Huracán’s sensible cousin neatly straddles supercar and sports car domains. Not as involving as it might be, but the upcoming RWD version may…

THE INDIANAPOLIS 500, American’s most storied race, was due to take place this weekend but has been delayed until August due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will be the first time the event, first staged in 1911, won’t be run during the month of May. To mark the race’s traditional weekend, here are five of the best 500s in history. 5 1992: Unser Jr sneaks his first Michael Andretti led much of the race but dropped out with a mechanical issue 11 laps from the end, leaving Al Unser Jr and Scott Goodyear to battle it out. Unser led out of the final turn but Goodyear got a tow and pulled alongside in a drag race to the line. Unser won by just 0.043sec, then the closest finish in history.…

I was watching Bangers and Cash on TV yesterday and an odd comment stuck in my head. The boss said that it takes them two whole days on average to prepare a vehicle up to showroom standards ready for auction, assuming that it’s in pristine condition. Wow! Here I am, sitting in lockdown, and my Jaguar F-Type is languishing in the garagege with nowhere to go. Normally, I simply have no time to consider a full clean inside and out, never mind a full hand polish. So I set to with all the gear in my box of polishes and ‘unctions’, as I call them, that my dad handed down to me. The collection includes: T-Cut, Duraglit, silver polish, white spirit and tyre black (apply with a rag, never a…

MILEAGE 3772 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the Juke can continue to hold its own in a crowded crossover class Ask Nissan what its key goal was for the latest Juke and it will tell you: an improved interior. At the car’s launch, European design boss Alistair Weaver said the quality inside had “jumped quite a few levels” and that it’s intended to be less playful and more mature than the original. When you compare the centre console and infotainment functions of old versus new, that’s certainly true. There’s the obligatory larger touchscreen, plus a major simplification of function controls around the screen and for heating and air conditioning controls, too. There are also undoubtedly better-quality plastics. Whether it’s on a par with the Seat Arona or Renault…

QUESTION What impact will the coronavirus have on used prices? Should we buy now, or will we get a better deal after lockdown? Henry Jacobs, Gloucester ANSWER Nobody can say with any real certainty at present. Sales have dropped dramatically during the lockdown, but many dealerships still have an active presence online. So with dealers desperate for sales and nobody buying cars, you may find quite a bit of leeway in negotiating right now. If you find something that you want, get in touch with the seller and make an offer. And if you’re worried about picking up the car while restrictions on movement are still in place, many dealerships will allow you to strike the deal now and pick up the car later. DR QUESTION My daughter loves horses.…

McLaren 570S £82,950 ‘Supercar fatigue’ sounds like a pretentious phrase you would hear uttered only by spoilt motoring journalists who are flooded with fast and exotic metal on a weekly basis. But it appears that such a thing exists: such is the embarrassment of riches in the world of supercars that used prices for many are beginning to look very tempting. McLarens seem to be hit particularly hard by this, following a dizzying onslaught of cars coming out of Woking within just a few years. The 570S became McLaren’s entry-level car in 2015. Magnificent steering, a wonderful balance between ride comfort and handling prowess and a 562bhp V8 meant it was nothing less than top-drawer. Yet we’ve found a stealthily specced example going for £82,950 – almost a 50% fall…

ASTON MARTIN LAGONDA Limited posted a pre-tax loss of £118.9 million for the first three months of this year, with sales falling by nearly half, mainly due to the pandemic. The British manufacturer sold 578 cars from January through to the end of March – a 45% drop from the 1057 in the same three months of 2019. Notably, the average selling price of each car was £98,000, compared with £160,000 in 2019. Aston Martin attributes this to it not having any limited-run special models on sale in the quarter. Aston Martin was hit hard by coronavirus-induced lockdowns in China and other Asian countries for much of January and February. Sales in the region fell by 74%, with those in China down 86%. In the UK, sales fell by only…

Toyota will bring its Highlander seven-seat SUV to the UK for the first time next year, offering it exclusively with a four-wheel-drive hybrid powertrain. The Highlander has been on sale in markets including the US and Japan since 2000 but has never been available in Western Europe or Britain. However, with the continuing growth in demand for SUVs, Toyota will add the seven-seater to its growing UK lineup as a rival to the Peugeot 5008 and Skoda Kodiaq. The fourth-generation Highlander was unveiled at the New York motor show last year. It uses the same TNGA-K platform as the Camry saloon, which was reintroduced to the UK as a hybrid last year. In the UK and Europe, the Highlander will come with a single engine option, based on Toyota’s latest…

BEING ALL THINGS to all people is something combustion engines have never been much good at, but supercar maker Koenigsegg may at last have that one licked with its Freevalve technology. Freevalve does what the name neatly implies: frees inlet and exhaust valves from the constraints of the traditional camshaft used to open and close them. The technology was aired in the TFG (The Friendly Giant) engine of the Koenigsegg Gemera at the virtual Geneva motor show in March and is due for production in 2022. The so-called ‘camless’ engine isn’t a new idea and many concepts have emerged from companies such as BMW, Renault, Fiat, Lotus Engineering and, more recently, British company Camcon. Fully individual control of valve timing and lift (when they open and close and by how…

The purpose of a UK first drive, according to Autocar’s long and detailed test procedure, is to discover how a car that’s already been driven in foreign parts copes with this country’s very different roads. There’s usually a major difference between the way a model first tested in Germany, say, copes with our own peculiar cambers, corners and crowns. And, of course, with our variety of surfaces (usually bad), with their built-in ruts and bumps. So let’s deal first with the dynamic stuff in the case of the Bentley Flying Spur, which we first drove in Monaco late last year. The plain fact is that this £168,300 luxury saloon, with its sophisticated three-chamber adjustable air suspension, long wheelbase, considerable weight and years of painstaking development, copes just as well in…

This is the car the Mercedes-Benz GLA should have been all along. The first-generation model was, for budgetary reasons, heavily based on the A-Class hatch – and it showed. This new one, however, has been granted greater engineering freedom, and is a much more convincing effort. Bucking an industry trend, it’s also shorter than the car it replaces, though width and height are up, giving the second-gen GLA even more crossover-esque proportions and a larger footprint than either the BMW X2 or Audi Q3. Having been impressed by the top-of-the-line GLA 250 petrol, what we have here is the 220d, which is the more powerful of two diesel models confirmed so far. It uses the turbocharged OM654 2.0-litre engine found in so many Mercedes cars, and with 188bhp and 295lb…

MODEL TESTED PREMIERE EDITION There’s something Herculean about Renault’s revival of Alpine. Here’s a French sports car manufacturer that hasn’t actually manufactured a sports car – or any car, for that matter – in around two decades. And yet the target that this Lazarus of the automotive world has its sights set on with its first production car since 1995 is a true sporting giant: the Porsche 718 Cayman. Welcome, then, to the new Alpine A110. The styling is a triumph of modern ‘retro’ design in a market where recent homages to classics of the 1960s and 1970s have as often as not been bungled or half-baked (see Fiat 124 Spider). The car’s biggest departure from the template of its famous predecessor therefore concerns engine layout. Alpine’s new 1.8-litre turbocharged…

We’ve just become the guardians of Bristol Cars’ name and heritage. Well, not really, but notionally. We’ve done it to enjoy the process of creating an important car from scratch – without risking a penny on production or marketing but using a convenient, venerable heritage to guide us to a modern product. The real Bristol Cars business was liquidated by court order late last year, so no car production is remotely likely, at least for a while. But the company’s name is still an asset, and someone somewhere may one day use it. For the want of hard news about that, we’ve decided to create a Bristol of our own. We’ve assembled a tight, talented team for this task of renewal. First, we’re tapping into the distilled imaginings of the…

Who is the greatest rally driver ever? It’s an argument that could occupy many hours of pub debate (if only the pubs were open). But now, for the first time, there has been a global poll – on the World Rally Championship website – and the deserved winner was Carlos Sainz. There are drivers who have won more rallies and championships, but Sainz himself doesn’t measure everything by raw statistics: instead, he’s most proud of the facts that he was the first driver to win on every surface and that he was competitive from the very beginning to the very end of his long career. I was fortunate to report on Sainz while he was still at the height of his WRC powers and then follow him over half of…

INVESTIGATION Future of the British car industry We explore the total impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our automotive sector and plot the route ahead DRIVEN New Toyota Supra Matt Prior tests the 2021 North American Supra… from his living room MOTORSPORT Daniel Ricciardo New McLaren signing tells us his goals for 2020 once F1 can finally start again EVERY WEEK FIRST DRIVE Mountune Ford Fiesta ST Tuner’s latest hot hatch fettling proves predictably spectacular ROAD TEST Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid Porsche’s latest hot hybrid is given the most thorough of once-overs SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p16…

MILEAGE 131,449 LAND ROVER SERIES 3 In-Lorry entertainment has always been a bit dicey, and I’m not truly bothered any more whether it works or not. I have been spending a lot of time with the old girl, though; I’m lucky enough to be busy, and the not-really-that-cavernous but conveniently high load bay makes life easier for an old boy like me. Anyway, the radio reception is terrible, as it is in every car out here in the sticks. I use my phone to listen to things, but I soon realised that costs money if you don’t download before leaving the house. Anyway, the stereo issue turned out to be a loose wire. Sorted.…

The eyes of new-car buyers may be on the recently launched third-generation Hyundai i10, but savvy city car customers would do well to check out its predecessor. This dinky hatchback proves that basic transportation doesn’t have to mean basic transport. From around the £3000 mark, you can pick up a modern car that’s easy to drive in cut-and-thrust traffic but also offers the equipment and refined feel of something far bigger. Power comes from one of two petrol engines. There’s a 65bhp 1.0-litre three-cylinder unit that’s just about satisfactory around town but, if you’ll ever be venturing out onto the open road, you’ll appreciate the greater vim and vigour offered by the 86bhp 1.2-litre four-cylinder. This is almost as economical, too. Stick with the five-speed manual gearbox because, although the…

FIAT COUPE 20V The dashing yellow paint is almost as eyebrow-raising as the sub-£1000 price this Fiat Coupé sold for recently. Alas, it’s the naturally aspirated 20V version, which at 143bhp concedes 60bhp to the Turbo. It’s a little leggy, too, at 135,000 miles, and there are some holes in its service history. We’d make sure the rear coolant hose is secure: it can suddenly let go and the bonnet traps the steam, so you don’t realise until it’s too late. The car being nose-heavy puts strain on the front suspension, so we’d check all is well there, too, and search for rust. For this bargain price, though, it’s surely worth a punt.…

The RX-8 was the last rotary-engined car sold in the UK and, now that Mazda is considering a revival of its famous Wankel concept for a new hybrid powertrain, it seems pertinent to consider its virtues. This friendly looking four-seat sports car (Mazda actually referred to it as a quad coupé) has a relatively diminutive powerplant of 1.3 litres. However, it won favour with performance enthusiasts worldwide, thanks in part to its class-leading dynamic capabilities and to that innovative engine’s 9500rpm redline. What’s more, the RX-8 offers a sub-1400kg kerb weight, a near 50:50 weight distribution and rear-hinged ‘freestyle’ doors that are as unusual as they are arguably impractical. When the RX-8 was launched in 2003, buyers could choose from a 190bhp entry-level model or the 228bhp range-topper. Although an…