Innholdsfortegnelse for September 16, 2020 i Autocar

Skoda is planning a range of Enyaq iV electric models over the next few years as it looks to capitalise on the growing demand for EVs. The Enyaq, revealed earlier this month, is Skoda’s first bespoke EV and is based on the Volkswagen Group’s MEB electric modular platform. A Kodiaq-sized large SUV, it will from launch offer two rear-wheel-drive models with 242 miles and 316 miles of range, plus two four-wheel-drive variants, one of which is badged vRS. Now Skoda’s sales and marketing boss, Alain Favey, has told Autocar that more variants are due. He said: “We think the Enyaq is the perfect right step, and there will be a range of Enyaqs that will be expanded over the years.” Given the flexibility of the MEB platform, the cost-effectiveness of…

Nissan’s hotly anticipated new generation of the Z sports car has been previewed with the Z Proto – a prototype with a twin-turbo V6 and manual gearbox. However, there’s bad news for the UK and mainland Europe: the as-yet-unnamed new model won’t be offered for sale here. In a statement sent to Autocar, Nissan cited a “shrinking European sports car market and specific regulations on emissions” as the reasons why it was “unable to build a viable business case” for the car’s European release. The Z Proto plays on the sporting sub-brand’s 50-year history, with a silhouette that “communicates respect for the original model”, the 240Z. The launch car’s yellow pearlescent paint is a tribute to the first-generation Z as well as the Z32-gen 300ZX of the 1990s. Nissan also…

Care by Volvo is offered on the firm’s full range of UK cars, with no deposit but monthly payments starting from £559 for an entry-level XC40 T3 Momentum. The payment includes the car, scheduled servicing, maintenance (including replacement tyres), roadside assistance, tax and 10GB of in-car wi-fi. Insurance can be added as an extra. New customers get a 30-day trial and pre-specced cars can be delivered within 30 days of ordering. Customers can give three months’ notice to switch cars or cancel their subscription. Manufacturer-run subscription services are relatively new to the UK market. Jaguar Land Rover also offers a scheme, called Pivotal, which gives customers access to a range of vehicles and starts from £750 a month.…

Back in 1999, the bright folks over at what was then known as Quattro GmbH lit something of a small fire when they launched the original Audi S3. Just as the regular A3 on which that car was based is now widely viewed as the first posh family hatchback, the original S3 is arguably the car that properly kick-started an entirely different and slightly wilder automotive genre: the mega-hatch. With four-wheel drive, a manual gearbox, 207bhp, a compact hatchback body and some immaculate motorsport heritage that its maker could hark back to, the original S3 stoked the embers that were first set burning by the likes of the Lancia Delta Integrale and a small handful of other niche, low-volume rally-bred road cars. In the years following the S3’s launch, a…

The US may be bitterly divided at present, but at least when it comes to cars, and specifically the type of fuel that goes into them, Americans are united in their preferences. Petrol, unleaded, gasoline: so long as it isn’t diesel, they will generally be happy. This, Audi claims, is why the SQ7 has ditched its mighty oil-burning V8 in favour of the twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 that’s used in everything from Audi’s own RS performance models to the Bentley Continental GT and more in between. Americans just prefer it that way – although it does seem to contradict Audi’s recent efforts to shift all of its S-badged saloons onto diesel V6 power. Maybe that will be reversed soon as well – not that Audi revealed anything when we asked the…

LAND ROVER DISCOVERY SPORT D180 SE AWD Seven-seater with strong 4x4 capability and refinement, and a well-rounded drive. We’ve yet to drive the updated D200 version. VW TIGUAN ALLSPACE 2.0 TDI 4MOTION R-LINE TECH Range-topping diesel version of stretched seven-seat Tiguan is a typically strong all-rounder with a likeable air of understatement. KIA SORENTO 2.2 CRDI 4WD AUTO KX-4 Replacement imminent, but even outgoing Sorento deserves serious thought if you want a seven-seat SUV on a budget. MERCEDES-BENZ GLB 220D AMG LINE PREMIUM 4MATIC Not refined or spacious enough to force into the top three; still quite well-packaged, though, and has Mercedes luxury lustre. PEUGEOT 5008 2.0 BLUEHDI 180 GT Does premium allure very differently to the Merc, but effectively enough. Clever seven-seat arrangement.…

Renault rebrands F1 team as Alpine Renault will rename its Formula 1 team after its sports car brand, Alpine, from next season. The move is part of a reorganisation of Groupe Renault’s activities by new CEO Luca de Meo and will pitch Alpine against firms including Aston Martin and Ferrari. Its hybrid engines will still be branded Renault E-Tech. Madness at Monza AlphaTauri ace Pierre Gasly admitted he “struggled” to comprehend his shock Italian Grand Prix victory – an emotion shared by most F1 fans. The 24-year-old took advantage of red-flag disruption to take the Italian team’s first win since 2008 and become the first French winner since 1996. Vettel moves to Aston Four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel will drive for Aston Martin (currently Racing Point) from 2021 after…

I bought a Tesla Model S P85 in September 2014 and changed to a 100D 20 months ago, and have done more than 100,000 miles between the two. In 2014, I was looking for a new car. I tried Maserati but was struck by neither the car nor the dealership, which had changed from fantastictic to awful since I had bought a Quattroporte in 2005. I tried a Tesla around Regent’s Park and then ordered one immediately. It made all my petrol cars seem so out of date, and I still find its fast, quiet acceleration addictive. I love one-pedal driving and can’t understand why others like to freewheel. Many who haven’t driven a Tesla don’t realise you feather the accelerator and can adjust the regeneration from none to full…

MILEAGE 1694 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover whether a technology that suits the car industry also suits drivers Data is everywhere these days. As a keen amateur runner, I can track every run using my Garmin smartwatch and then spend hours poring over data showing my pace, cadence, foot strikes, heart rate and more in a bid to improve my speed. Usually, I find that the key is just to run faster. Since I’ve been looking after the Volvo XC40 Recharge T5, I’ve got a new smartphone app battling Garmin Connect for my data-driven attention: Volvo On Call. Generally, I find many car firm apps to be little more than gimmicks, but with the XC40’s plug-in hybrid powertrain, the data it provides is fascinating. Assuming you give the necessary…

MILEAGE 108,086 PORSCHE CAYENNE The Flying Pig continues to fly, which is good. It has done a couple of long journeys packed with boxes and stuff. Trouble is, that tailgate. Read any classified advert for older Mk1 Cayennes, like this one, and you’ll be familiar with the line ‘needs tailgate struts’. You can watch people online replacing them, where they call them ‘trunk shocks’, and that’s probably something I should get around to doing. I am not the tallest in my household so it isn’t too pressing a problem, just a bit annoying as it drops down mid-load. The replacement struts are around £100, so I will look into that and let you know how I get on.…

Usually, if you want to do something fun in life, it’s going to cost you. The current, Mk4 Mazda MX-5 (known as the ND) proves this need not be the case, as an entertaining little sports car that can now be bought for as little as £12,000. The engine range starts with a 129bhp 1.5-litre four-pot. This sounds modest, but you can still enjoy brisk acceleration with it, since the MX-5 weighs comfortably less than a tonne. Then there’s a 2.0-litre unit that was initially offered with 158bhp before being uprated to 181bhp in mid-2018. There are countless special editions of the MX-5, but we’re focusing on the main models here. The entry-level SE gets 16in alloys, LED headlights, air conditioning, a basic sound system with an aux input and…

PEUGEOT 405 Mi16 4x4 The story behind the insane-looking, 316bhp Peugeot 405 ‘Grand Raid’ is rather interesting, as you would expect given its £53,376 estimate. Built to take part in the hardcore Australian Safari rally in 1993, it counts carbonfibre doors, a 300-litre fuel tank, forged pistons and a Torsen differential among its upgrades. It never actually took part in the rally itself, which is probably why it remains in such a usable condition today. But considering that a same-aged Group B rally car would set you back more than twice as much, this is a relatively affordable slice of motorsport history.…

If you have a wad of cash to splurge on a capable and luxurious off-roader but don’t fancy following the herds into a new Land Rover Defender, why not consider a used example of arguably its closest rival? It has visibly evolved even less during its 41-year life cycle than the original Defender did, but regardless of that, the Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen (meaning terrain vehicle, but you’ll know it as the G-Wagen or G-Class) is an overwhelmingly capable off-roader that manages to marry refinement with ruggedness in a way its British contemporary never really could. Here we’ll ignore the post-2018 and performance models, because they’re different beasts entirely, and turn our attention to the W460 (1979-1992), the W461 (1992-present) and regular versions of the W463 – the evolved W460 introduced in…

Maserati has revealed the MC20 supercar, which will spearhead a bold, multibillion-pound revival plan for the historic Italian marque that includes a return to its performance-focused and racing roots. Initially being sold with a mid-mounted 621bhp V6, the new halo model will also offer electric power from 2022. Convertible and motorsport versions are on the cards, too. The MC20 is the first supercar that Maserati has produced since the limited-run MC12 two-seater it launched in 2004. While that model was essentially a rebodied Ferrari Enzo, the MC20 marks Maserati’s return to producing its very own sports cars, after parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles sold its stake in Ferrari back in 2016. “Initially being sold with a mid-mounted 621bhp V6, it will also offer electric power from 2022” The Maranello firm’s…

Maserati’s ambitious revival plan has been fully detailed, with 13 new models – including battery-electric versions of each new variant – due by the end of 2024. Core to this will be a new, Porsche Macan-rivalling SUV, dubbed the Grecale and sitting below the Levante. Based on the platform of the Alfa Romeo Stelvio (alongside which it will be built in Cassino, Italy) but with Maserati engines and design, it will be joined by an electric version in 2022. Following the MC20 will be an MC20 Spider convertible and, by 2022, an electric variant of the supercar. All of Maserati’s new EV variants will come under the umbrella sub-brand Folgore, meaning thunderbolt in Italian. They will use three electric motors – one on the front axle and two on the…

The new Tucson is claimed to mark a “design revolution” for Hyundai as the brand continues to push upmarket. Revealed in advance of sales starting later this year, the SUV receives a styling makeover and a raft of new technology. The fourth generation of the South Korean firm’s worldwide best-seller will go on sale with a line-up of 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, most featuring 48V mild-hybrid technology, and a 227bhp 1.6-litre T-GDi hybrid. A turbocharged plug-in hybrid version will follow next year, although Hyundai has yet to give performance details. The latest Tucson features a bold new front grille with what Hyundai calls ‘Parametric Hidden Lights’ built in. Effectively, the LED headlights and “jewel-like” running lights are integrated into the sides of the grille and can’t be distinguished…

ELECTRIC DRIVE UNITS (EDUs) – integrating motors, electronics and transmissions into a single, compact drivetrain – are for making sure the various elements work together as efficiently as possible. With the Octopus research study (it stands for optimised components, test and simulation, toolkits for powertrains which integrate ultra high-speed motor solutions), Bentley and its 15 partners expect to develop the most sustainable electric powertrain technology for future Bentley hybrids and pure EVs. One partner, the Advanced Electric Machines Group, is a spin-off from Newcastle University, where electric motor research is a speciality. One element of many EVs that isn’t sustainable is the use of rare-earth material (usually neodymium) in permanent-magnet motors. When combined with iron and other materials to make an alloy, neodymium magnets are the most powerful permanent magnets…

Minor revisions to the Hyundai i30 N take what’s already a very entertaining hot hatch and improve it notably. This car really likes cornering and when you turn in shows a genuine willingness to resist pushing on and rotates seemingly around its middle, so it’s not all about desperate front tyre scrabble. Ford ST cars do the same and Renault Sport models used to, alas not always so naturally now. Thankfully, these revisions leave that character unchanged. Chiefly they add the option of an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission (DCT), a better ride, forged wheels that save more than 14kg of unsprung mass, 15mm-bigger front brake discs, safety tech, infotainment and seat upgrades and an extra 5bhp, leaving the i30 N Performance a 276bhp car. Some of the suspension changes were…

It tackled Millbrook’s challenging Hill Route with commendable aplomb, if not much in the way of dynamic flourish or engagement. Good stability and handling security prevail here, with the GLB’s all-wheel drive system endowing the boxy SUV with good traction. Get its nose tucked into a corner under braking and the GLB adopts a pleasingly neutral stance as you power past the apex and on towards exit. Sure, if you’re a bit of an ape with your right foot, its nose will push into understeer but it does so progressively and is easy to rein in with a slight lift of throttle. Meanwhile, body roll feels pretty tightly controlled and the steering weights up intuitively as you add lock. Although the gearbox responds quickly enough under its own steam in…

What is it and where is it going? Those are easy questions to answer in this particular case. It’s a Jaguar F-Type coupé with a stonking great V8 and I’m driving it to the Jabbeke highway, a stretch of motorway in western Belgium with which Jaguar – and this magazine – has some history. But for Jaguar generally, maybe ‘where is it going?’ is harder to answer, particularly for the F-Type. There’s the Jaguar range as it exists now, and we know there’s a new XJ due, all-electric, expensive, luxurious and stylish. But beyond that, what will be for Jaguar or its sports car? Who knows? Not me. Not you? Does Jaguar? Once, it had a very clear direction. In 1961, at the Geneva motor show, it revealed the E-Type…

The time will come when people will look back and marvel that a place like Bruntingthorpe ever existed. Or the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, to give it its official name. But it was never that to us. It was, remains and always will simply be Brunters. And now that it has changed hands and seems likely never to be used for car testing again, it already seems faintly improbable that we got to use it at all. For this in our risk-averse, cotton-wool-wrapped 21st century was a place where you could be doing 200mph within five minutes of turning off the main road onto the facility. Indeed, I remember doing exactly that with Peter Boutwood of Noble Automotive about 10 years ago in the then new M600. We turned up, we…

Estonia was one of two brand-new additions to the World Rally Championship for this season due to Covid chaos, the other being Belgium at the end of the year. And while it was no surprise that Ott Tänak triumphed on home territory in Tartu, not that many were expecting to see Craig Breen follow him in second – impressively only 22sec behind after 17 stages. Tänak grew up on Estonian roads so seemed destined to become the fourth WRC winner of the four rounds held so far. But although Irishman Breen has driven Rally Estonia before (as a warm-up for Rally Finland), keeping pace with the reigning world champion wasn’t something that he would have put on his agenda at the start of his part-time season. There’s something about the…

FIRST DRIVE New Rolls-Royce Ghost Is this all-new luxury saloon really the British brand’s best driver’s car yet? Find out from our full review FIRST DRIVE Vantage Roadster Aston Martin’s 500bhp, 190mph V8-powered drop-top rated FEATURE Back to basics Stressed out by 2020? We revisit the joy of no-frills driving in a Caterham EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Toyota Yaris Does new hybrid supermini have what it takes to topple the Fiesta? FIRST DRIVE Porsche Panamera GT has been given more power and new kit. We put it through its paces SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p46…

MILEAGE 7007 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the Juke can continue to hold its own in a crowded compact SUV class It’s an unlikely day: I rock up at a five-star hotel in the picturesque Cotswolds in our modest Juke, where every other car in sight costs at least five times what the Nissan does. I’m here for two reasons: one, it’s the first time I’ve given the Juke a proper run beyond some motorway-focused trips since lockdown began, and two, there’s a new smartphone app I’ve been invited to trial that promises excellent road trip routes in the UK and Europe. Maybe it’s just me, or London dwellers more generally, but it’s a perennial (first-world) problem of mine: I want to go for a drive on some…

Volkswagen Golf Stephen has an inspiring tale and arguably has acquired the best-value banger of 2020: “I have become the proud owner of a £120 Golf Mk4 dating from 2002. Saved from the teeth of the crusher on 1 August, it has just breezed through its MOT. I bought it as a project for my sons and my nephew and it is now looking quite tidy after a clean and cosmetic tidying and not at all like a 202,000-mile car should look! “Top on the list of jobs is a rear anti-roll bar to make it handle better but there’s something about the simplicity of this car that makes you think it could just carry on plodding its own sweet way for many years.”…

Ford Mondeo Estate ST 220 £3890 Remember when Mondeo Man started hitting the gym and got in shape? Don’t let this Estate’s somewhat tame styling fool you: under its bonnet is a 3.0-litre V6 making 223bhp and 210lb ft. Those are modern hot hatch numbers, and its 6.6sec 0-62mph time isn’t far off either. Sadly, clean ST 220s are few and far between these days, with most having ended up on the wrong side of a hedge, the scrapyard gate or the law, so this 2006 car’s sub-£4000 valuation doesn’t seem unreasonable, especially as it’s bound to shoot up in the near future.…

The refreshed Jaguar F-Pace, which includes a new plug-in hybrid variant and an overhauled interior, hints at the design of a future generation of Jaguar models. Jaguar exterior design boss Adam Hatton said: “We’ve had a good era [of design] from 2013’s F-Type and a generation of cars that came from that. This F-Pace refresh is a step towards what we’re talking about for the future.” The most pronounced exterior tweaks are slimmer LED headlights and tail-lights, new bumpers, a reprofiled bonnet and a larger grille with a diamond mesh design. However, the F-Pace’s cabin is where the most attention has been paid. As interior design chief Alister Whelan put it: “When the interior [of the outgoing F-Pace] came out, it was a good interior but not a great interior.…

THE HYUNDAI GROUP’S luxury brand, Genesis, has updated its G70 saloon with a substantial visual redesign and improved technology. It comes as bosses prepare for a potentially imminent (but still unconfirmed) introduction into select European markets, including the UK. Visually, the G70 features a new hexagonal grille and split-lens LED headlights. The chrome trim on the wing has been removed and new tail-lights reflect the changes made at the front. The rear bumper has also been redesigned. Inside, the focus is modernising the tech, with a new 10.25in infotainment screen. No mechanical changes have been disclosed, but more details will follow next month.…

The growth in online services has sparked a huge rise in subscription-based business, in areas as diverse as television (Netflix), music (Spotify) and even magazines (Readly). Now Volvo, along with other car firms, believes that this business model is set to change the way people access cars. After running a number of trials, the Swedish firm recently rolled out its Care by Volvo subscription service across the UK, giving customers rapid access to new cars from £559 a month with no deposit and no contract (see box, right). Volvo believes the subscription model – which is also being adopted by related firms Polestar and Geely – will be part of a wider online revolution in car sales. Magnus Fredin, Volvo’s global head of online business, spoke to Autocar about Care…

We can bemoan that the BMW 1 Series has swapped six cylinders for four and rear-wheel drive for (mostly) front, but it’s not all bad. Eighteen months ago, work started on the 128ti. In effect, this is BMW’s first proper hot hatch in the traditional mould and is simultaneously an odd and exciting prospect. It feels much like Porsche building an M3 rival, or Alpine trying its hand at an Up GTI: new ground is most definitely being trodden. The 128ti is also a reminder that things move quickly in this industry. Even five years ago, it’s unlikely the hot hatch front runners – currently Volkswagen, Ford and Honda – thought they might potentially have a Munich-flavoured problem on their hands so soon. Of course, in the case of the…

MODEL TESTED 220d AMG LINE PREMIUM 4MATIC Price £43,855 • Power 188bhp • Torque 295lb ft • 0-60mph 7.4sec • 30-70mph in fourth na • Fuel economy 39.0mpg • CO2 emissions 156g/km • 70-0mph 45.3m For decades, Mercedes-Benz had just one vehicle of raised stature and two driven axles in its line-up – the inimitable G-Wagen – but it now has no fewer than eight. The GLB put under the road test microscope this week is the latest and it fills the space between the GLA and GLC, so it’s not the smallest SUV Mercedes makes, merely the smallest but one. Of course, there is nothing ‘small’ about the compact SUV segment in which this new car will compete. Cars of this ilk are now absurdly popular and crucial to the…

Toby Ecuyer, designer of the new Ineos Grenadier 4x4, is famous in the design world but entirely new to the automotive sphere. Although he insists he has felt and understood the intrinsic appeal of cars from childhood, he didn’t learn to drive until he was 30, trained at university as an architect and has spent most of the past 20 years designing some of the world’s finest superyachts. The Grenadier is his first-ever automotive design project, remarkable given the vehicle’s instant prominence in the car world as the replacement – in spirit at least – for a 70-year-old off-roading icon. It’s a bit like Ferrari choosing a distinguished furniture designer to shape its Enzo replacement. For the Grenadier’s billionaire backer, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, this is a debut automotive project, too,…

For years, enthusiasts have craved a BMW M3 Touring, for the simple reason that it just makes so much sense. With the hot estate market spawning a host of cult classics, it was always mystifying why the Munich firm had never produced a big-booted version of its sporting 3 Series. Thankfully, it will put that right in 2022. But the M3 Touring (previewed below) is far from the only car that we can’t believe doesn’t exist. Here we nominate those we most want to see. MINI MOKE Mini came close to the idea of a new Moke with the 2010 Beachcomber concept, but that was probably more a preview of the Countryman SUV’s styling. Or maybe it just didn’t get the coverage or the willing reception that Mini had hoped…

You might not expect Denmark to be a hotbed of motorsport talent, but the country has in recent years produced a surprising number of sports car drivers. And, for reasons that nobody can quite explain, a lot of them having ended up racing for Aston Martin. The Dane Train, as it has become known, first ran in 2012, when Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Allan Simonsen teamed up in the Le Mans 24 Hours’ GTE Am division in an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE. Since 2016, the Dane Train has comprised Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim, who won the GTE Pro division of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) that season and currently lead the 2019/20 standings in their Vantage AMR. The pair, joined by veteran Brit Richard Westbrook, are…

FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see how much it matters in daily use that this smaller BMW has ditched rear drive for front-biased four-wheel drive I’m not going to lie about this. In this first of six months’ episodes about running our new M235i, I’m supposed to come over all concerned that the smaller breeds of BMW are now not the purist rear-driven cars they were but common-or-garden transverse front-drivers with a bonus capability (in the more powerful editions) to shunt 50% of the torque to the rear in case the going gets really tough. The BMW enthusiast circle has been pretty concerned about this. Powerful rear-drive cars, especially with limited-slip diffs and their traction control disabled, are supposedly easier to slide neatly and satisfyingly than other cars.…

QUESTION I’m interested in a new BMW i3 but have heard rumours it will get a new battery next year and be phased out in three or four years. I worry that might affect resale values. Advice? Helen Holland, via email ANSWER BMW sales boss Pieter Nota recently said the i3 “still enjoys double-digit sales growth and is an extremely successful car which will be with us for some more years”. Even when it does eventually meet its end, values are likely to hold strong because it’s a unique offering. It’s unlikely to borrow a larger battery from its new stablemates because it sits atop a different platform, so you shouldn’t miss much by taking the plunge now. FP QUESTION I’ve been holding on to my old car hoping the…

With a snarling naturally aspirated V8 pumping 417bhp and 372lb ft to its rear axle, a sub-5.0sec 0-62mph time and a top speed in the high hundreds, the often-overlooked Lexus IS F is the affordable and fun BMW M3 rival you’ve been seeking. This Japanese super-saloon’s appeal is boosted these days by its relative rarity, a result of its high original prices, so you may struggle to find a good one. But happily, unlike with an M3 of similar vintage, there’s remarkably little to worry about if you do: it is a Lexus, after all. It says it all that the only fault that is known to regularly crop up is the water pump’s propensity to spring a leak (okay, you’re looking at a hefty labour bill if it does),…

An expert’s view JOHN DRING, G-WAGEN OWNERS ASSOCIATION “All things considered, old G-Wagens never die and are simply worth too much to be allowed to do so. They’re much rarer than a Ferrari and more practical (but with similar fuel economy). You might come across a barn find for a little under £10k, or opt for a nuts-and-bolts restoration, possibly with an OM606 diesel engine addition, costing you £30k-plus. No one ever said quality or style would come cheap. What would you rather have: a new Mini or a mint G-Wagen?” Buyer beware… ■ ENGINE Don’t think the G-Wagen is in any way fast or frugal. Instead, take pleasure in the reliability of its laid-back motors. That said, propshaft failure is a known fault, signalled by a pronounced shudder under…