Innholdsfortegnelse for September 27, 2023 i Autocar

The government will push back the ban on the sale of new petrol-and dieselengined cars by five years from 2030 to 2035. The decision by prime minister Rishi Sunak rolls back a key policy introduced in 2020 by former PM Boris Johnson, and it has received a mixed response from the UK automotive industry. While some firms such as Toyota have welcomed the “pragmatic” flexibility it offers, others, including Ford, have said it could risk future investment in the British EV industry. The ban on the sale of non-zero-emission cars was first announced in 2017, with plans to implement it in 2040. But that was then brought forward to 2030 by Johnson – with the caveat that some hybrid powertrains capable of “significant zero-emission running” would be allowed until 2035.…

Nissan has previewed the long-awaited next Micra with the motorsport-themed 20-23 hot hatch concept. Created ostensibly to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the car maker’s European design centre in Paddington, London, the striking supermini bears the influence of both Nissan’s participation in the Formula E race series and the firm’s “heritage of bold hatchbacks”. The concept was unveiled by company president and CEO Makoto Uchida in front of Nissan Design Europe’s (NDE) headquarters, with the central London venue chosen to emphasise the 20-23’s billing as a “sporty urban” proposition. The NDE team’s brief was to design a car “with no constraints”, which they would like to drive “on the streets of the city where they work”. The result is an overtly race-inspired design that takes the lead from full-blown race…

PORSCHE AND PARTNERS are on track with the production of e-fuel at the Haru Oni demonstration plant in Chile. The next step is to develop the direct air capture technology (DAC) from the atmosphere to make production as sustainable as possible. DAC captures CO2 from the atmosphere to combine with green hydrogen made at the plant using electrolysis powered by wind-generated energy. The hydrogen and CO2 are combined in a synthesis process to make methanol, which is further processed to produce the e-fuel. The e-fuel we’re interested in is a synthetic petrol that is chemically equivalent to fossil-fuel petrol, but it can also be formulated as aviation jet fuel. The fuel can be used with existing engines and, if it were to make large-scale production in the future, could be…

The design for the new MG 3 has been unofficially revealed ahead of an expected unveiling in the coming months. Trademark filings for the exterior of the second-generation supermini, due on sale next year, confirm that its design will be influenced heavily by that of both the larger MG 4 and the new MG Cyberster flagship sports car. Unlike those cars, though, the new 3 is set to stay true to its affordable billing by sticking with petrol power rather than switching to a pricier allelectric drivetrain – a decision seemingly corroborated by the new car’s lengthy front overhang, sizeable grille and filler cap at the rear that is too small to accommodate a CCS charger. MG has not yet said when it will officially unwrap the new 3, but…

SATURDAY One of the best days of my year, driving a BMW i4 M50 in the Watergate Bay sprint, the Cornish event I mentioned for which the authorities close a kilometre of coastal road and turn it into a racetrack. The twin-motor, four-wheel-drive, electronic-everything M50 is extremely potent (537bhp), so it’s shatteringly quick out of the blocks despite a 2.3-tonne kerb weight. I managed to manhandle it up a narrow and technical course to beat two-thirds of a bumper field. I couldn’t beat the Tesla Model 3s, though. The two that had entered weighed 450kg less – in fact, one of them set the fastest time of the day, beating a Metro 6R4! The Watergate day was part of my 600-mile round trip by i4 from BMW’s Farnborough HQ (story…

Whenever a new mid-engined Ferrari coupé is launched, you can set your watch to the inevitable launch of the convertible version. But the frontengined V8 Ferrari Roma appeared in 2020, and then… nothing. In some ways, that made sense. The Roma was positioned as the keen driver’s alternative to the Portofino M. It was a coupé with a more focused suspension tune, but also styling that was more subtly elegant, less shouty and more of a personal pleasure. Anyway, you can forget most of that, because in comes the Ferrari Roma Spider, making the Portofino largely redundant. It’s a good thing that the latter is going off sale soon. You’d almost think Ferrari planned it like this. Mind you, the drop-top Roma is still a slightly different proposition from the…

The Maserati Granturismo has arrived in the UK, albeit still in left-hand-drive form. This is the Trofeo, the faster of two petrol versions in the line-up, with 542bhp rather than the 483bhp of the entry-level Modena. Also coming is the Folgore electric model, with 751bhp. It’s all developed on the same platform, which seems sensible given the Granturismo traditionally has a long life and different markets are adopting varying approaches to automotive electrification. The Trofeo, then, features the 3.0-litre ‘Nettuno’ V6 also found in the splendid MC20 supercar, and it drives all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. We’ve tried the Trofeo before overseas, so this is a good chance to assess how the suspension copes with our unique roads. To that end, and to contend with the fact…

Generally speaking, when a journalist attends a car launch, the idea is to write about the car you’ve been invited to drive. Quelle surprise. But the BMW X1 launch didn’t work out quite like that. I turned up to the event to drive its new, rather inoffensive compact SUV but left with thoughts only of the other car I drove while there. For as I was leaving, I walked out to the car park, there to find an M340i Touring sat amid the ranks of X1s gathered for the press to drive. This M340i, as it happens. So I turned on my heels, went back inside and asked if I might be allowed to take it around the block. “The turbo boost arrives like a gentle cooling breeze on a…

You had one job Has anyone used the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) to get their excess back after an incident involving an unidentified car or driver? A driver hit me in the rear and left the scene after threatening me, not giving any details. It turned out he was running on false plates. This went through my insurance company but cost me my excess. I placed a claim with the MIB, whose purpose is to compensate victims of uninsured and unidentified drivers, but it was rejected, as I couldn’t identify the car or driver and had no photographic evidence. How can the MIB say it helps victims of such incidents if its own rules say otherwise? If I knew the driver or the car’s identity, I would have added this…

Can it really be five years since the last Scirocco Mk3 was registered? Fortunately, it’s still a fresh-looking thing with, especially in performance R-spec form, real road presence. It’s based on the Golf Mk5 of 2004. Nothing to be ashamed of there: the GTI in particular was a fine car. Prices for the Scirocco begin at around £2000. This buys an early car from 2008 or 2009, but slap a private plate on it and it could be mistaken for a post-2015 facelifted model. For this update, external changes ran only to reprofiled bumpers with snazzy aero blades, a new grille, bi-xenon headlights and LED rear lights, while inside, the dashboard was updated and gained three, top-mounted gauges, including one displaying turbo boost. In truth, these post-2015 cars do look…

WHILE THE START of World War II is still in living memory, WW1 has been consigned to history; while most know about the Panzer and the Spitfire, the Minerva and the Taube have become quite obscure; and while we know how it played out, we’re viewing it in hindsight and through distortion caused by subsequent developments. Let us, then, go back 109 years to arrive as Autocar assessed the roles that automotive vehicles were enacting in this whole new kind of warfare. Within days of Britain declaring war on Germany (4 August), we printed a form that readers could submit to ‘lend’ their cars to the army; and by September, we were giving advice on how to maintain and prepare cars for this purpose. We noted that Belgium had thus…

The long-mooted electric BMW M3, arriving in 2027, will use “crazy” chassis control software in an attempt to offer dynamic performance “far above” that of today’s hot BMWs. The electric M3 will be based on the firm’s Neue Klasse (NK) platform and will arrive shortly after the next-generation, electric BMW 3 Series – as previewed by a radical concept at the Munich motor show earlier this month. BMW development boss Frank Weber has given some early details of the model. “The next M3 will be batteryelectric – full battery-electric,” he said, but “there will be a coexistence” with the current petrol M3 for a period, “which is necessary”. The S58 six-cylinder engine used by today’s M3 is set to remain in production beyond 2030. Giving clues as to what to…

The next-generation Volkswagen Transporter will arrive in 2024 with an all-new architecture developed with Ford and offering pure-electric power for the first time. The hugely popular van, which makes up two-thirds of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ (VWCV) total sales, will be twinned with the Ford Transit Custom (itself the UK’s best-selling vehicle) and be built at the Ford Otosan factory in Turkey. From launch, the Transporter will again be available as a nine-seater Shuttle, two-row Kombi and cargo-carrying panel van, Autocar can confirm. A Sportline trim is also expected to be offered, although this has not yet been confirmed. The next-gen Transporter will not, for the first time, be the basis for the new California camper. Instead, that model will be derived from the MQB-platformed Multivan MPV, as previewed by a…

Safety systems designed to support motorists are coming under closer scrutiny as road casualty rates flatline and concern grows that drivers are switching the technology off. Advanced ariver assistance systems (ADAS) are now standard across all new vehicles, at least to varying degrees. They include blindspot and lane departure warning, emergency brake assist and adaptive cruise control. According to a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US, ADAS has the potential to prevent 62% of traffic deaths per year. The mass adoption of many systems occurred from around 2010-15. However, in the same period, road deaths in the UK have declined only slightly from 1857 in 2010 to 1695 in 2022, while each year from 2012 to 2019 they averaged 1762. While the causes of road…

PREFER YOUR MGs with a touch more sporting prowess? Abingdon engineering firm Frontline Developments is marking 60 years of the hallowed MGB with a pair of enticing restomod special editions. The LE60 packs a 375bhp 4.8-litre V8, while the tellingly named BEE swaps to an all-electric powertrain with a 40kWh battery and a 100V motor that revs to 9000rpm. Both weigh less than 1200kg, both can be bought as coupé or convertible and both – notably – send their reserves through a five-speed manual gearbox.…

potting future Formula 1 talent rising through S the single-seater ranks is an endless source of intrigue and pleasure. The climb is pockmarked by jeopardy and you can never be sure who will make it, no matter how good they look in the junior categories. Ability is never enough. You need luck, often eye-watering levels of funding and a certain momentum that means opportunity comes to you. Formula 4 is the spiritual successor to Formula Ford as the key stepping stone out of karts and into the shark-infested world of singleseaters. The UK championship has a tradition of bringing on the brightest young stars, since a 15-year-old kid called Lando Norris won the first title in 2015. This year, the latest batch of hopefuls have embarked on their own climbs,…

You can’t accuse Porsche of under-promising with the 911 S/T. Andreas Preuninger, who runs Porsche’s GT division, tells us it is “one of the greatest 911s of all time, if not the greatest” and “the most entertaining”. And he says Walter Röhrl, Porsche’s brand ambassador (and two-time world rally champion), calls it “the best street-legal car I’ve ever driven”. Which, when even just the recent back catalogue has the GT3 RS 4.0 and 911 R in it, is no minor boast. The S/T is a special-edition 911 limited to 1963 units (it’s the model line’s 60th anniversary), about 10% of which will come to the UK, each priced at £231,600. It’s based on the GT3 Touring, the marginally more laid-back, road-friendlier version of the GT3 that is Autocar’s reigning –…

A lone black mailbox alongside the Extraterrestrial Highway is stuffed with letters addressed to aliens the American government supposedly keeps captive inside Area 51, the world’s least secret secret military base. Bathed in the summer heat alongside Nevada’s highway 375 – officially renamed the Extraterrestrial Highway in 1996, because why waste a tourist opportunity? – you can see why the military would pick this part of the country to build a secret airbase, whether for holding aliens or ‘just’ to test new jet technology. There is mile upon mile of nothing save for a circle of impenetrable hills made for concealment. In the distance, a vehicle kicks up dust, heading our way. One of the base’s gates, and said to be how most civilian workers arrive for their shifts, bussed…

MODEL TESTED 2.5i LINEARTRONIC TOURING Price £42,490 Power 167bhp Torque 186lb ft 0-60mph 9.3sec 30-70mph in 4th 12.3sec* Fuel economy 29.3mpg CO2 emissions 193g/km 70-0mph 49.0m Amid the barrage of new models – often electric – it can be easy to forget the handful of smaller independent brands still managing to carve their own path. This all-new generation of the Subaru Outback came out in 2021 but somehow slipped through our net. That appears to be equally true for media as it is for consumers. In 2022, Subaru sold a mere 1391 cars in the UK. That’s behind Alfa Romeo and Bentley, and only just above newcomer Genesis. It hasn’t helped that the brand has lacked any kind of halo car for a number of years. The WRX STI (née Impreza)…

MILEAGE 12,314 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out how much a good threepedal gearbox can improve a modern sports car with a classic flavour Road test editor Matt Saunders happily took delivery of our long-term Toyota Supra manual but, thanks to a bit of shuffling, I’ve equally happily taken over custody of it. Just one problem: I haven’t seen all that much of it. Having the keys to a Supra makes you very popular in the Autocar office, with plenty of requests to borrow it for long weekends or holidays. So recently the Supra has been across the Cotswolds, down to Cornwall, over to Belgium and more, but sadly all without me driving. Still, my colleagues have all returned the keys with smiles on their faces – and tales…

I feel that I must respond to Colin Mynott’s 23 August letter about Jaguar’s lack of popularity. In 2011, I bought a one-year-old, low-mileage XF S for £38,500. It didn’t take long for the dreadful cockpit ergonomics to infuriate me. It made driving it a chore. So much so that I bought another car and put the XF up for sale. It took four months to sell and I got £25,000 for it – a loss of £13,500 for eight months’ driving. I nearly cried. I vowed never to buy a Jag again. Fast forward 10 years and the memory had faded somewhat and I bought a year-old, lowmileage E-Pace 240 for £36,700. It didn’t take long for the poor low-rev throttle response to irritate me, and then the dreadful…

An owner’s view PAUL BRADBURY “My Scirocco is the 181bhp 2.0 TDI GT. It’s a 2015-reg auto with cream leather sports seats and a panoramic sunroof. I bought it six years ago with 4000 miles on the clock and it’s now done 50,000 without trouble. Although I do mostly local driving, it’s never had any DPF issues. Over rutted roads, the ride is hard and jiggly. Motorways are where it’s most at home. The overtaking power is incredible and it will easily do 50mpg. It’s great fun on A-roads, although I am aware of the heavy engine weighting up the front in fast corners. The build quality is impressive: it’s like a battleship.” Buyer beware… ENGINE With the 1.4 petrols, listen for misfires caused by faulty coil packs. On the…

THE FORD RANGER PHEV has been revealed as the UK’s first plug-in hybrid pick-up, ahead of European deliveries beginning at the start of 2025. It broadly matches the abilities of the current Ranger, with the same one-tonne payload, 3.5-tonne towing capacity and the highest torque figure of any model in the Ranger’s eight-strong line-up – although Ford has not given precise figures. Power comes from Ford’s 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol, boosted by a “relatively large” electric motor for a total output likely to eclipse that of any pure-combustion Ranger, including the 288bhp V6-engined Ford Ranger Raptor. Ford would not disclose the exact size of the EV battery but said it will offer “more than” 27 miles of electric-only range and will support AC charging only. The PHEV will be available…

THE AFTERSALES divisions of car makers can be seen as the less glamorous side of the business. Looking after floor mats and roof bars is often left to trainees yet to prove themselves or the old-timers who are cruising towards retirement. It’s not that this area of the business isn’t important; it can be where a good chunk of profit is made. But executives don’t pay much attention when managers present projections of pollen filter promotions in Portugal, for example. This meant the bosses at one car maker failed to spot the blip in a chart showing screenwash sales in Russia rising by more than 1000% in just a few weeks. However, they soon took notice when a huge parts distribution warehouse was raided and shut down by Russian authorities,…

Such a long time ago darling, I know, but do you remember then energy secretary Grant Shapps talking about the 2030 pure-combustion car ban? “We’ve always been more forward-leaning on this stuff than the EU,” he said, a whole 182 days and two cabinet jobs ago. But if you thought then that his words sounded like nothing more than glibness and bluster, it turns out you were right. There’s plenty of news and analysis elsewhere in this mag on the week’s zero-emission realignment, so I won’t dwell on what it means for mainstream car makers and energy sellers, whose reaction is dependent on how it affects their bottom line: JLR is pleased it will have more time to develop an electric Range Rover that doesn’t require an HGV licence; others…

The new 600e is an Italian car. Fiat owner Stellantis most certainly won’t let you forget it and you can’t really blame the company for wanting to push that point. After all, this is the land that gave us da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Dante, ‘Nino’ Farina, Valentino Rossi, the Colosseum, central heating, those strappy gladiator-style sandals, tricolore salad, pizza, pasta, Valentino Rossi, Gucci, Versace, Ducati, Vespa, Ferrari, Maserati, Lancia, Lamborghini, Valentino Rossi and – obviously – Fiat. And Valentino Rossi. To name a few of Italy’s resoundingly epic ‘things’. This is nothing if not a colourful, charismatic and dramatic heritage to draw on and Fiat is absolutely right to shout about it from the top of its historic Lingotto test track, while supping espresso, eating gelato and looking effortlessly fabulous.…

The new Porsche Cayenne isn’t quite all-new: as the kids might put it, ‘because reasons’. Its maker is currently investing in both an electric Cayenne (due in 2025) to sell alongside this one and an even larger electric SUV (for now known as the K1 and due in 2027) to sell alongside that. It’s also about to deliver its electric new Macan, which it has been investing in for even longer than either the Cayenne EV or the K1. In other words, it’s shovelling cash into a scenario that might leave a rapidly diminishing place for a traditional, combustion-engined SUV, but it has also yet to really test the market’s appetite for any of its new zero-emissions offerings (save the Taycan, of course). The company accountants could well be taking…

Many bold automotive start-ups die without either a bang or a whimper, simply disappearing without ever delivering on their promises. That’s not the case with E-Legend, the German start-up that two years ago announced its plan for an electric supercar inspired by the 1980s Audi Sport Quattro. We met the EL1 concept and the team behind it at the 2021 Munich motor show. Since then, work has been continuing steadily in the background, and E-Legend has now built a prototype of the EL1’s carbonfibre structure and fourwheel-drive powertrain – which I got to experience with a breezy but thrilling passenger ride at the Oberschleissheim airfield near Munich recently. The 2021 concept was an exterior styling model; this prototype is the exact opposite. It’s like seeing the finished car through X-ray…

MILEAGE 5103 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Audi’s everyman sports car is bowing out after 25 years and its five-pot is on borrowed time. Let’s celebrate both Most of my previous longterm test cars have been powered by electricity, so I considered the opportunity to jump into the Audi TT RS as particularly valuable. This came at a good time too, because it coincided with me taking my birthday week off work, which started with the drive from Autocar HQ in Twickenham to my family home in Berkshire. I had seen the TT RS around the office car park previously – highlighter green isn’t easy to miss – but I wasn’t quite prepared for just how brilliant it sounds when you press the start button and awaken its 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine.…

COMPARISON Maserati Grecale vs Range Rover Velar Would you like your luxury SUV with a touch of Italian flair or British class? We compare the two approaches DRIVEN BMW i5 The 5 Series has long been the best exec. How will it cope with the switch to electric? FEATURE Bridgwater batteries JLR’s owner will build a new battery factory in Somerset. We ask what the locals think EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Kia EV6 GT How much more than Drift mode is there to the 577bhp electric flagship? FIRST DRIVE Lexus LM Hybrid luxury MPV arrives with distinctive styling and a high price SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe…

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…

The Porsche 911 was revealed – as the 901 – at the Frankfurt show in 1963 and went on sale with the more familiar moniker in 1964 after Peugeot laid legal claim to names with a zero in the middle. In the 60 years since, there have been many 911 variants including a string of highly modified hardcore versions. Here are some of the most extreme. Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion 1997 The GT1 was created in order to compete in motorsport, and to meet the rules of the class the firm reverse-engineered a road-legal version to serve as a homologation special. It was designed entirely for competition, but Porsche had to offer a number of road-legal variants – around 20 – for sale. The Strassenversion (German for ‘street version’) was…