Innholdsfortegnelse for January 18, 2023 i Autocar

Why does the Inception concept take the form of a car that you won’t build? “What we’re saying is that all of the technologies that you’ve seen will appear on Peugeot models across the range. So, if you like, it’s a manifesto. It’s really a showcase of technologies, as opposed to simplistically saying: ‘This is a great concept and we’re going to bring it to the market.’” Why invest in wireless charging technology when there’s no infrastructure to support it? “We’re investing for the future. And we have to remember that the speed of development of all aspects of electrification is so rapid. We’re saying these technologies will be introduced from 2025 onwards; we’re not necessarily saying that fast charging is [coming in] exactly 2025. We need to move forward…

As the dust settles on the Covid-19 pandemic, the automotive landscape does not present a pretty picture. From the semiconductor shortage to repeated lockdowns in China, various factors have conspired to strangle manufacturers’ production capacities over the past two years. Such is the magnitude of the problem that new car registrations in the UK reached a 30-year low in 2022. The 1.61 million sales tally is 700,000 short of 2019’s total, the most recent ‘normal’ year. Yet at the very upper echelons of the car market, luxury brands went ever upwards. Among the marques to achieve record sales in 2022 were Bugatti, Mercedes-Maybach and Rolls-Royce, plus plenty more. Not only did they set new benchmarks for volume, but rocketing demand for extensive customisation also drove profitability to new heights for…

Renault UK boss Guillaume Sicard has ruled out following rivals into an agency retail model, whereby the car maker rather than the dealer handles sales. Earlier this year, Mercedes-Benz became the first brand to move to an agency model, centralising the sales process (including pricing) and using dealers only to hand over sold cars for a fixed fee. Stellantis-owned Alfa Romeo and DS are expected to follow suit soon, and many others have committed to making the transition, arguing that it improves the customer experience as well as profits. However, Sicard, who took over running Renault UK one year ago and grew sales by 8.2% in 2022 to take a 2% market share, cautioned: “I’m not in favour of agency. I love dealers, I love and respect the job they…

Right, I need to take myself outside and have a quiet word with myself. I’m in a photographic studio having a nose around a GMC Hummer EV, the first in the UK, and to my considerable surprise and even disappointment, I don’t hate it. I know. There’s no excuse really. It’s 2.2 metres wide, it’s 5.5 metres long, it weighs 4.1 tonnes and, once you’ve paid over the odds to a dealer in the US to buy one, the import duty, the legal gubbins it needs to get it onto the road in the UK and a premium to the importer who supplies it (Clive Sutton of London in this case), it will cost you £300,000. It’s so heavy that if you passed your driving test after 1997, your standard…

THERE’S LITTLE SPORTING action in early January, so we visited Bicester Heritage – at the start of its 10th-anniversary year – for 2023’s first Scramble to blow away the cobwebs. These quarterly Sunday morning events are a gentle joy for enthusiasts of cars old and new, with gems of all vintages scattered randomly around the grass verges. We were drawn to a pair of pristine Renault 5 Turbos (horses for courses, eh?) and an ex-Klaus Ludwig Ford Capri Cologne (genuine, apparently). Classic Performance Engineering was one of many Bicester residents to open its doors, so we popped our head in to see the unique Ferguson P99, the only four-wheel-drive F1 race winner. Sir Stirling Moss used it to conquer the Oulton Park Gold Cup in 1961. Then over in hangar…

“It’s the sort of car that would do very well churning through motorways” Last year, the Toyota GR86 famously sold out in just 90 minutes, giving Glastonbury a run for its money in the popularity stakes. But there was another fast-selling in-demand car that slipped under most people’s radar: the Hyundai Ioniq 6 First Edition, which was all gone in just 24 hours. Granted, that’s not quite Billie Eilish fast, but for an electric car, and a Hyundai at that, it’s still some statement. As a result of its global popularity and the (yawn) ongoing supply problems, we’re only just getting into a car in the UK, despite it being available in Korea back in October. The proper dealer allocation won’t even come through until March. What can people expect…

MODEL TESTED AWD VISION Price £54,010 Power 214bhp Torque 249lb ft 0-60mph 6.4sec 30-70mph 5.9sec Economy 3.1mpkWh CO2 emissions 0g/km 70-0mph 48.1m Toyota has mostly stayed out of the early electric car melee. After all, with its range of efficient hybrids, it didn’t need EVs to meet fleet CO2 targets. To the contrary: it has enough wiggle room to happily continue churning out GR Yarises and naturally aspirated V8 Lexus LC 500s. For that, we salute them. But combustion-engine bans are coming and Euro 7 emissions regulations are looking tough, so Toyota has finally come up with an EV, the bZ4X. It arrives in the impossibly crowded medium SUV segment. How’s this for a list of direct rivals: Skoda Enyaq iV, Audi Q4 E-tron, Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Genesis GV60,…

“Casper might be friendly, but at speed he’s a bit of a whiner” Meet Casper. Casper is your new friend and, well, he’s a bit of a cheeky character. Okay, yes, Casper is just a car, but Hyundai has created a whole backstory filled with mention of ‘character’ and ‘personality’ to explain how he – sorry, it – will appeal to young urban buyers, so let’s just roll with it. Besides, Casper really is quite adorable. The Hyundai Casper was launched last year as the smallest car the firm offers in its gargantuan domestic Korean line-up, and is best described as a crossover version of the i10 city car. It uses the same platform (also shared with the Kia Picanto), but at 3595mm long is actually 100mm shorter than its…

Call to arms The dislike of ‘feelsome’ expressed in Steve Cropley’s 21/28 December 2022 column caught my attention. I don’t share this particular phobia, but another word has made me increasingly uncomfortable over the past couple of years, that being describing cars as ‘weapons’. I would dearly love to see this stop. Weapons are designed to injure or kill. A car in the hands of a drunk or drug driver could reasonably be called a weapon, but otherwise it’s horribly inappropriate to describe any (but usually exciting) vehicle. Across your two December double issues, ‘weapon’ was used to describe the Audi TT RS, Audi RS3 Sportback, Lamborghini Huracán Tecnica, Porsche 911 Sport Classic and Ford Focus ST. My daily driver is a 450bhp 6.2-litre V8-powered coupé with awesome capability, but…

How to make a Lotus LOTUS PUSHED UPMARKET and away from its kit car roots in the 1970s, launching the Elite, Eclat and Esprit coupés, designing its own engines and upgrading its production techniques to match. “In the sort of markets Lotus is in today, design brilliance is not enough. Quality of construction and reliability must match the exotic alternatives from the bigger manufacturers,” we said as we headed to Hethel to see how the latest Lotus cars were made. The machine shop was “clean, tidy and efficient, thanks to a series of modern tape-controlled machines” (computers). Only one alloy casting wasn’t done there. In the engine shop, ‘907’ units were built up by hand, the spec differing per market. Valves had recently started to be ground in by hand…

MILEAGE 2987 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Does Kia still hold its own among the throng of affordable crossovers? It might not be all-new technology, having already made outings on the Kia Sorento and EV6, but the blindspot view monitor, which appears on the instrument panel in our Sportage, is a major talking point with any passengers I have. “Oo, what’s that? Fancy!” In essence, it supplements the existing, old-school door mirrors by using cameras to display a real-time rear-side image of the car when the driver indicates to cover off the blindspot. I found the images disconcerting at first but quickly came around to them. This is a great example of tech that is genuinely useful. I’ve been driving long enough that I’m not quite willing to give up my…

A road test in any other magazine might well be a short, subjective summary of a new car produced under almost any circumstances, but the Autocar road test is different. Specific, rigorous and detailed, it’s the closest examination we can give of any new model. It appears over at least eight pages and is close to 50 man-hours in the making every week. Most of what the road test process entails is designed to be strictly repeatable and fair. We benchmark standing-start and in-gear acceleration at a purpose-built test facility every week. We carry out both subjective and objective handling tests on both road and track, on the latter up to and beyond the limit of grip, so as to fully assess stability, drivability and limit handling appeal. And while…

“Added firepower arrives alongside a chassis and drivetrain overhaul” The new Aston Martin DBS 770 Ultimate has arrived as a radically enhanced swansong for the firm’s brutish V12 grand tourer – as well as an enticing statement of intent for the marque’s future sports cars. Launching as Aston Martin celebrates its 110th birthday in 2023 – and the 75th anniversary of the DB nameplate – the 770 Ultimate is “the most powerful production Aston Martin ever”. Its 759bhp puts it some way clear of the standard DBS, which has 715bhp. There have been more potent road cars to leave Gaydon in recent years – not least the 1160bhp Valkyrie hypercar and 836bhp Victor coupé – but they have been highly limited and ultraexpensive propositions. The 770 will receive an extended…

SUZUKI HAS PROVIDED a first look at its maiden EV with the eVX concept, an SX4 S-Cross-size crossover intended to “carry forward the brand’s 4x4 legacy”. Revealed at the Delhi Auto Expo in India, where Suzuki has a major presence, the concept features a 60kWh battery, giving it a range of 342 miles. Suzuki’s budget-friendly billing means a single-motor, two-wheel-drive powertrain is expected to feature in most of the production eVX variants. Slated for 2025, it is likely to be priced from around £30,000 to take on the Citroën ë-C4 and MG ZS EV. CHINESE SUBSCRIPTION SPECIALIST LYNK&CO PLANS UK LAUNCH Geely-owned Chinese brand Lynk&Co, a pioneer of car subscription, will come to the UK in 2024 with a new electric SUV. Currently without a name, the EV will be…

Nissan is committed to launching an electric car with a solid-state battery, believing itself to be in a “class-leading position” regarding the technology. The Japanese firm, which was first to launch a massmarket electric car (the Leaf) in 2010, plans to have a pilot solidstate battery production plant up and running by 2025; to have completed engineering on the initial technology by 2026; and to then ramp up towards mass production in 2028 with the first application in a car. David Moss, Nissan’s senior vice-president for research and development in Europe, said: “We think we have something quite special and are in a group leading the technology. We want to get the cost down [compared with lithium ion batteries] by 50%, to double the energy density and to offer…

THE MAZDA MX-30 crossover has gained a new powertrain that marks the company’s first use of a rotary engine since the demise of the RX-8 sports coupé in 2012, bolstering the model’s range. Revealed at the Brussels motor show and labelled by the Japanese car maker as a “unique series plug-in hybrid”, the MX-30 R-EV partners a 17.8kWh battery with an 830cc petrol rotary engine and an electric motor, producing a total power output of 167bhp and 191lb ft. The innovative 830cc rotary petrol engine acts as a generator for the MX-30’s battery, while the electric motor sends power to the wheels. Combined, the model’s 50-litre fuel tank and battery offer a driving range of more than 400 miles, with CO2 emissions of 21g/km. That represents a big range increase…

Are you happy with Renault’s 2022 performance, given the overall market shrank? “Yes. If I look at all the constraints that we had in terms of components, logistics, pricing and launching, I have to say that in the end we had a good year, increasing the market share.” How long are waiting times for new customers now? “As an average, a few months for passenger cars – about the same as rivals but really too long. Sure, it’s nice to have more customers than cars, but the optimum point is when you have one more customer than you have cars, not like it is today. By the second half of 2023, I expect to see supply starting to open up nicely again.” Will your profits be eroded as supply opens…

SATURDAY For weeks my preoccupation has been to discover whether Ford has fixed the Mustang Mach-E’s suspension. Early tests shockingly revealed the electric SUV’s good attributes were largely negated by a god-awful ride, particularly a disconcerting pitching on anything but a billiard table. Dearborn has taken an age to tackle this, and the company’s European experts (whose work we’ve often admired) have been oddly mute. Still, the springs and dampers have now been revised. A “corrected” car has come our way, and I’ve been driving it. It’s better. Now it’s often enjoyable. You can tackle the bumps and wrinkles of the Fosse Way without being flung about like a pea in a barrel. On unthreatening roads, especially in the tautest driving mode, called Untamed, the body control is more effective.…

It’s early morning as a fleet of camouflaged new Porsche Cayennes leaves a Los Angeles hotel’s underground car park. They join the traffic and run in convoy along the back roads of Venice Beach and Santa Monica, before reaching the Pacific Coast Highway and heading farther north beyond Malibu in search of challenging canyon roads. These early-build prototypes, both in conventional SUV and coupé bodystyles, have been at the centre of a demanding test programme along the California coast and in Nevada’s Mojave Desert for almost a month. Now, before they’re all flown back to Germany, where they will be torn down to study the wear and tear on various components or pushed into further testing duties, it’s our turn to discover how Porsche has tried to raise the Cayenne’s…

The new Citroën ë-C4 X is as straightforward a proposition as its name suggests. The ‘ë’ is because it’s electric-only, the ‘C4’ because it’s derived from the C4 hatchback and the ‘X’ because there’s more besides: a fastbackstyle rear end with a saloon boot. It is longer than the C4, at 4.60 rather than 4.36 metres, but keeps its 2.67m wheelbase, so everything new is hanging out the rear. It’s very much a saloon version of the hatch, and it’s the longest car on Stellantis’s CMP platform, meant for little’uns. Of significance is that the rear seats have a more reclined back angle and the boot volume is 130 litres bigger, at 510 litres, although less versatile, as the opening when you drop the bench is shallower. We Europeans are…

Bravo Autocar for at last stepping back from the din of EV evangelism to offer an article that goes some way to acknowledging the longevity of ICE cars (‘Happy days’, 7/14 December 2022). Andrew Frankel did sail perilously close to the familiar insinuation that any enthusiasm for internal combustion is synonymous with Luddism (Graham Samways’ letter of 30 November was spot on in cautioning against this all too convenient caricature). However, he at least observed that ICE cars will be around for decades (a seemingly obvious point, but one that’s scarcely examined by the press) and that driving such cars for fun shouldn’t be dismissed as a heretical transgression. In our current era of ecological sanctimony, when responsibility for ‘destroying the planet’ is often devolved onto the individual’s habits, it…

MILEAGE 6841 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if an electrified estate has a place in a world of crossover competitors I’m starting to get to know my Peugeot 308 SW a lot better after a few weeks of ‘ownership’, and as mentioned in my last report, the stylish wagon’s first mission was to ferry me and a boot full of stuff down to the south coast of Cornwall. In my mind, it would be the ideal test of the plug-in hybrid estate’s long-range economy, with a mixture of electric, petrol-electric and petrol power, while simultaneously taking on Cornwall’s varied terrain. I left Berkshire with a full tank of unleaded, prompting the digital display to show a range of 485 miles, along with 18 miles of EV range, so I…

Managing at the same time to look both butch and graceful, the Mercedes-Benz CL has always been such a handsome thing that it has been able to overcome its obvious drawback: it’s charging you more for less. Based on the contemporary fourdoor S-Class, the CL gives you just two doors and less commodious rear accommodation, but what the heck. It looks rakish and it still glides down the road like little else. Making its debut at the Geneva motor show in March 1999, the Mk2 CL presented a new generation of luxury motoring to the world with the help of never-before-seen technologies from Mercedes, such as its Active Body Control (ABC) suspension, included as standard on all models. Not only did this innovation improve safety through the prevention of body…

The more wheels the better? That certainly seemed the thinking when the designers of these multi-axle machines put pen to paper. Whether it’s form, function or just non-conformity you’re after, nothing says it with more gusto than half a dozen wheels on your wagon. Here, then, is our pick of the best tri-axle machines from the past and the present. Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6x6 If you want to look down on every other school-run SUV, the Mercedes G63 AMG 6x6 is the car you need. Not only does it sit on half a dozen 37in tyres, it’s also 272mm taller than a standard G63 with a mere four wheels. And it’s 225mm wider and 1106mm longer to boot, so it dwarfs just about anything that you will encounter on the…

“Straddling segments will provide the best balance of efficiency and practicality” The 508 is set to be reinvented for an electric-only third generation as Peugeot prepares to embark on its most drastic and wide-reaching shake-up in decades. From 2025, the French firm’s electric cars will switch from legacy PSA Group architecture to the new-era Stellantis STLA modular EV platforms that are being introduced to Peugeot and its 13 sibling brands. As previewed by the stunning Inception coupé concept earlier this month, these platforms will bring about a step change in the technical make-up of Peugeot’s EVs, introducing trick new wireless steering hardware, advanced autonomous driving functions, much more powerful motors and longer-range batteries with faster (and potentially wireless) charging capacity. Peugeot was careful to clarify that it has no plans…

EVEN IN THE fuel crises of the 1960s and 1970s, which were far worse than anything we’re experiencing today, little effort was made to explore ways of making cars more energy-efficient. It has taken this long, global warming and the world waking up to the need for sustainability to get companies to look into ways of making cars more efficient. On the face of it, some of these might seem unlikely to be worthwhile, but the science suggests otherwise. One of the most recent ideas to emerge is the heated seatbelt from ZF. Direct heating in the cabin is something that manufacturers and suppliers have been seriously considering as a way of heating occupants’ bodies directly, using radiant heat rather than heating cabin air, which consumes masses of power. That’s…

AND THERE’S MORE The new Huracán Sterrato off-road supercar arriving this year will be the last-ever V10-engined Lamborghini – or will it? When we asked head honcho Stephan Winkelmann recently, his immediate response was to laugh and reply: “You nearly got me there.” The twinkle in his eye seemed to suggest that he had something up his sleeve… CROSS EXAMINATION The Toyota Corolla Cross was due on sale in the UK in 2022 as a rival to the Skoda Karoq, but it remains unavailable here two and a half years since its unveiling. European product boss Andrea Carlucci told us it’s because Toyota GB has “decided to hold on” to stop wait times for existing models becoming “beyond reasonable” in light of the global supply chain crisis. “I think the…

“There’s more stability when you need it but slicker adjustability when you want it” Thruxton isn’t the easiest circuit on which to get comfortable with a new performance car. Even in the wet, it isn’t a place where traction will be your problem: it’s too fast for that. Instead, the loss of grip at three-figure speeds and when weight transfer is really emphasised will be your concern. That does, however, make it a good place to find the difference between the old Honda Civic Type R (FK8) and the new (FL5), which has just arrived here with a price that might genuinely make you gasp. Note, though, that while the FK8 was made in considerable volume in Swindon, the FL5 is made in Japan (its 325bhp engine arriving from the…

Naming conventions for modern cars can be a bit complicated, so let’s be clear from the start: this isn’t the GR Yaris, Toyota’s beloved rally refugee hot hatch. No, the Yaris GR Sport is instead Toyota’s hybrid supermini in its new rangetopping trim. Costing £25,070, it is powered by a 1.5-litre hybridised petrol engine making 114bhp and 88lb ft. No Torsen differentials here. Despite its sporty looks, the GR Sport isn’t particularly quick, then, taking 9.7sec to get from 0-62mph and topping out at 109mph. It’s well equipped, though, with standard equipment including an 8.0in touchscreen system; sports seats; LED headlights with automatic high beam; a rear-view camera; and Toyota’s Safety Sense pack, which features pre-collision assistance, lane keeping assistance and adaptive cruise control. It also looks rather sharp, the…

Let me start this exercise as I mean to go on, with a couple of general observations that I hope can be agreed on no matter where on the love-’em-or-hate-’em Alfa Romeo scale you happen to sit. Older, longer-established car brands are, we know, generally less agile than younger ones. They can find it difficult to move with the times. Every new model seems to have a certain friction or inertia to overcome before it can be launched. Sporty car brands, meanwhile, often have trouble crossing the Rubicon with cars that find big commercial success at volume. We all wish there were more car enthusiasts in the world, but some car brands have learned the truth to their considerable cost. Both key problems have afflicted Alfa Romeo over the decades.…

Fifteen walked up and 14 down, an unfortunate slip and an urgent appointment at the local hospital for 19 stitches necessitating a helicopter evacuation for one. Ouch. But how does a walk up a mountain find itself worthy of coverage in Autocar? The key is the people who undertook the trek and where they worked, and the charity that they sought to support in doing so. The British car industry has a long, often proud and sometimes turbulent history, with the colourful stories behind it shaped by an army of workers operating from the shop floor to the very highest management offices across the land. In order to look after its own, in 1905 the automotive charity Ben was set up, and today it seeks to provide support for anyone…

FIRST DRIVE BMW M3 Touring Despite rivals’ much-loved efforts, BMW always resisted an M3 estate, but at last it has been tempted. Was it worth the wait? USED CARS A to Z of used cars From Abarth to Volvo, we pick the best car that each brand has to offer FEATURE ID Buzzing around In the depths of winter on Blue Monday, we entertain Cornwall in 2023’s cheeriest car EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST BMW X1 All-new third iteration of familyfavourite SUV is given a full appraisal BUYING GUIDE Alfa Romeo Giulia QV Dream wheels, although with some caveats. Here’s all you need to know SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p38…

“It steers smoothly and the drivetrain is slick” FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the latest VW ’bus has all of the charms of its predecessors There’s potential for confusion here. This is the Volkswagen Multivan, which you could consider to be the latest in the long line of VW vans stretching back to the original Type 2. The generations that followed have been dubbed Transporter in T3, T4 and so on forms, right up to the recent T6. Each base Transporter generation has been used for a van and a camper and, more recently, a big comfortable passenger car too. The T6 has just given way to this, the new T7 Multivan. But this time there’s more, because there’s also the electric ID Buzz, plus an…

Even nine years after it first went on sale, some people might still be unaware that the Audi A3 Saloon even exists. While the A3 hatchback is ubiquitous in many parts of the country, the saloon has always been much lower in profile, the sales ratio roughly 3:1. We think that’s unfair, because the Mk1 saloon is handsome to look at, easy to drive, usefully practical and, being fairly small (only 146mm longer than the hatch), pretty easy to manoeuvre in tight confines, too. The most obvious rival when it was new (2013 to 2020) was the Mercedes-Benz CLA. It’s for you to decide which looks smarter, but the A3 objectively has the nicer interior. As with the hatch, it has materials and equipment usually reserved for much pricier cars,…

An owner’s view STUART TARRANT “I bought my CL 500 at a year old and kept it for over 100,000 miles. I’ve bought other Mercs since but I haven’t been as impressed by them as I was by this one. It was lovely to look at and sit in and it was so smooth, especially on the autoroutes. It wasn’t faultless, though, and it cost a fortune in petrol and servicing. Be careful, because a bad one can be a real money pit.” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE Some of the V12s were susceptible to oil cooler O-rings failing, causing the vehicle to leak oil. Check the engine number for balancer shaft problems, which affected the V8 engines produced from 2005 onwards, and if ignored could lead to total engine failure…