Innholdsfortegnelse for May 01, 2024 i Autocar

THE NEW PLUG-IN hybrid version of the Mercedes-AMG GT is not just the brand’s quickest-accelerating road car yet but also one of the fastest cars in production. Arriving just a few months before Porsche is expected to reveal the long-awaited hybrid version of the 911, the GT 63 S E Performance shares its electrified innards with the recently revealed SL hybrid. AMG’s twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8, producing 603bhp on its own, is paired with a 201bhp electric motor on the rear axle to give four-wheel drive and 804bhp – more than the Ferrari 812 Superfast and McLaren 750S – and a colossal 1047lb ft, which is one of the highest torque outputs offered by a combustion-powered road car to date. Those figures are sufficient to send the GT from 0-62mph in…

Fiat is working towards offering two distinct families of small cars, inspired by the 500 and the original Panda. The Italian brand recently revealed five Panda-inspired concepts, which are due to evolve into production cars in the next three years. However, there remains room in its line-up for the 500 to evolve and spawn new derivatives, as its “vintage” appeal “will never die”, according to Fiat design boss François Leboine. Leboine explained that he perceives Fiat as having two “souls”: the “dolce vita” ethos embodied by the 500 and its derivatives and the “more practical, functional” design language that defined Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Panda. “These two souls of our brand are answering two different types of customers,” said Leboine. “We’re superhappy to have this, because it’s two translations that are both…

CUPRA HAS GRAFTED a new face onto the Formentor and Leon to better distinguish its line-up from that of sibling brand Seat. The new ‘shark-nose’ front end brings the crossover and hatchback into line with the upcoming Terramar SUV and gives the brand’s three combustion cars a clearer familial link. Key to the look is a prominent beak, which tops a broader grille. The lights are now triangular-shaped LEDs and the rear badge on each car is now illuminated. Cupra’s debut model, the Ateca, has not been included in this refresh, but given that it is based on an eight-year-old Seat model, it is likely to be retired soon. Inside the new Leon and Formentor, Cupra has pushed to improve sustainability. The cloth upholstery on the optional bucket seats is…

“We are not producing TVs with wheels. The focus on our cars will always be the driving experience” The Lamborghini Urus is now available exclusively with plug-in hybrid power, combining a V8 with an electric motor for nearly 800bhp and supercar levels of speed. Called the Urus SE, it becomes Lamborghini’s second hybrid after the Revuelto and will be joined later this year by an electrically assisted replacement for the Huracán, making Lamborghini’s line-up all-electrified. The production version of the fully electric Lanzador super-crossover is expected in 2028, and the second-generation Urus is due to follow shortly after with an EV powertrain. The Urus SE was revealed on the eve of its public debut at the Beijing motor show last week, sporting a subtle new look that marks it out…

After a four-year absence, Caterham has revived its Drift Experience. The clue is in the name to what happens: it’s a day spent learning to drift, in a Caterham. While it’s rear-wheel drive, a Seven isn’t the most natural car in the world in which to drift. These are light cars with short wheelbases and unassisted steering: great at scribing lines on a race circuit but not easily held sideways like an overpowered long saloon car that has oodles of steering lock and heavily assisted steering. So Caterham does its Sevens a favour. It takes the 360Rs it uses for other track experiences, jacks up the rear suspension, puts hard back tyres on its biggest-diameter wheels and overinflates them. Voila: a car that can easily be sent sideways and, with…

More than 4000 Brits bought an MG 3 last year. Impressive, even if this supermini was one of the country’s cheapest cars, having been launched over a decade ago. The somewhat crude dynamics and especially its rough engine signalled that pretty clearly. The new 3 is an entirely different proposition: a modern design, with new underpinnings, MG’s first full-hybrid powertrain and a fancier interior with new infotainment and a digital dash. Indeed, MG says it has effectively skipped a generation. So it’s “see ya, Dacia Sandero” and “how ya doin’, Renault Clio?” as the base price jumps from £14k to £18k. As such, almost all of its buyers will be ‘conquests’, and MG expects there to be a lot of them: it has more 3s on the first ship from…

When we road tested the new W214-generation Mercedes-Benz E-Class earlier in the year, our test car had a 2.0-litre diesel engine. We liked it and found diesel suited the E-Class, as it had done for 20 years. However, this E300e plug-in hybrid is the version that will actually sell in numbers. Its 71 miles of official electriconly range trumps all rivals and nets it just 5% company car tax. In my testing, the engine fired back up after 60 miles, which is still pretty impressive. That sort of range will let most owners do most of their mileage on electric power, and the car feels punchier than its 127bhp output with the engine off suggests. The gauge cluster shows clearly how much throttle you can use before the engine will…

Not many car manufacturers, certainly not long-established ones, can boast of 248% year-on-year sales increases, but Jeep can. Of course, that’s not because Brits have started buying Wranglers en masse: it’s largely thanks to the new Avenger. Does the fact that most of the cars Jeep sells in the UK are now small crossovers that send most or all of their power to the front wheels dilute the brand? Well, Jeep’s people talk about “protect the core, broaden the reach”. In other words, it’s no good keeping the brand pure if it’s not commercially viable, but the Wrangler is still a very important part of the range – not because of the sales numbers it generates but because it legitimises the whole operation. So with that in mind, Jeep has…

It’s hazy at Hells Gate, and the smoke stings your eyes. A few miles to the north, an out-of-control wildfire has caused a road closure, turning this narrow two-lane canyon road into a suddenly empty spur to nowhere, free from traffic. Contemplating the big Dodge Challenger sitting on the shoulder with the smell of burning timber hanging in the air, it’s not hard to see why the era of this sort of combustion-powered guilty pleasure is drawing to a close. For 15 years, this huge coupé has represented moonshine-grade distilled nostalgia for a time that was shorter than everyone seems to remember. The original model was introduced in the autumn of 1969 and was dead in just four years, killed off by the meteor impacts of 1970s fuel crises. Now,…

MILEAGE 10,288 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see whether a recent update has kept Audi’s flagship EV at the leading edge For all the intermittent whinging we do about topping up electric cars, there’s no point in pretending our big fastback E-tron isn’t a serious mile-muncher. I’m just a few days short of having spent five months driving this car and the mileage has climbed in the past week beyond 10,000. In that time and distance, I have encountered only four properly faulty public chargers and have never been irrevocably marooned. So I have to say travel by big Audi EV in the UK (because I haven’t yet left the country in it) is entirely practical. It’s fascinating how you keep learning about cars like this, though. Having bleated copiously…

Ian Fairweather (3 April) complains that no electric car offers a CD player. My last car, a 2015 Mercedes-Benz CLS (not an EV), could play CDs, but I used an SD card to load MP3 files that I had ripped from my CDs using my computer. I have more than 5000 CDs, yet all that music hardly filled the 256GB SD card. I could play an album, or, as I prefer, songs randomly – and the quality was equal to what you get from a CD. While no new car offers a CD player, they do all have USB ports. So with my new Mercedes-Benz EQS (an EV), I’ve loaded everything onto a USB stick and put that in the car. Again, I can play an album, but also play…

An owner’s view GORDON FOSSET “I’ll be honest: I’d never have considered buying a Kia – call it badge snobbery – and certainly not a Soul, but my wife needed a car and my hairdresser was selling one so it was an easy decision. It’s a 1.6 CRDi that I knew had been looked after so we bought it. The 2016-reg car has now done 96,000 miles and looks and feels as fresh as one much younger. It’s completely changed my view of Kias. The steering, gearchange and clutch are light and easy to use and it has stacks of equipment. It’s roomy too, although the boot is small. It’s also not that economical for a diesel: around the mid-40s is typical. Otherwise, I can’t fault it.” Buyer beware… ENGINE…

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 new electric Range Rover has been all but revealed as final-stage testing gets under way in preparation for its launch later this year. New images show JLR’s second production EV testing in the Arctic Circle – following a year of component and virtual tests – where temperatures fall as low as -40deg C. Unusually, the electric Range Rover has been shown completely uncamouflaged – a decision made to “underline the build quality of the initial prototypes”, according to its maker. Painted entirely in black without the contrasting matt trim elements that JLR has previously suggested will mark out the EV powertrain, the prototype looks all but identical to the combustion Range Rover that has been on sale since 2022. JLR said these new images show how the prototype’s “modernist…

Volkswagen has revealed a radical shift in design for its future electric models with the unveiling of the ID Code concept at the 2024 Beijing motor show. Sporting a sleek new design language conceived exclusively for Chinese-market cars, the SUV-coupé concept previews a new range of EVs that are being developed in partnership with Volkswagen’s various joint-venture partners in China, according to Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer. The ID Code is based on an unspecified platform architecture that is claimed to accommodate single-motor rear-wheel drive and dualmotor four-wheel drive, as well as varying battery capacities and ranges. The concept itself will evolve into a flagship model for Volkswagen’s newly announced ID UX Chinese EV family (see box, below). Departing dramatically in styling and packaging from today’s ID-badged models, the new four-seater…

MG HAS UNVEILED the EXE181 concept, a futuristic Rimacbaiting electric hypercar, ahead of its public debut at the Beijing motor show. It was inspired by the EX181 land speed record car driven by Sir Stirling Moss and Phil Hill throughout the late 1950s, which was designed for optimal aerodynamic efficiency. Similarly, the EXE181 wears as little bodywork as possible, with a smooth-surfaced shell wrapped tightly around a single-seat monocoque. The driver sits inside a prominent central bubble, a reference to the UFO-like EX181. The cockpit’s teardrop shape stretches out into a sloping tail fin, capable of raising from the car’s body to act as an airbrake when slowing from high speeds. MG claims a drag coefficient of just 0.181. For reference, the Volkswagen XL1 was a claimed 0.199, while the…

THE NEW TESLA Model 3 Performance has arrived as the saloon’s quickest variant yet, bringing supercar pace and a host of chassis tweaks. UK-bound examples get a dual-motor set-up that sends up to 453bhp to all four wheels. Cars produced in the US are boosted to 503bhp. In both cases, the Model 3 Performance dispatches 0-62mph in 2.9sec, which is on a par with the Ferrari 296 GTB and Lamborghini Huracán Evo. It packs the same 75kWh battery as the Model 3 Long Range, officially yielding 328 miles between charges. In addition to the power uplift, the Model 3 Performance gets upgraded anti-roll bars, adaptive dampers and bigger brakes. Inside, sports seats with fatter side bolsters are fitted to provide better lateral support through bends. Prices start at £59,990 and…

MODERN CAR factories are filled with sophisticated robots and computer-controlled conveyors, yet workers at one UK assembly plant rely on a soap dish bought from B&Q to keep the line moving. The ornate chrome shower storage shelves are used to hold clips and trim parts while they are being fitted to the interior of the vehicles. They have been slightly modified with pipe insulation foam, which also came from the plumbing section of the same DIY store. It came about when one of the workers was having a shower one morning and realised the shelf his wife had recently bought to hold her shampoo, soap and conditioner would be ideal for holding trim parts. Hooking the shelf onto the pillar meant he no longer had to bend down to pick…

SUNDAY A perfect day for the opening of the Scramblers’ season at Bicester Heritage, especially because I ran straight into former Jaguar design boss Ian Callum, who left Gaydon five years ago to start his own design business, now thriving. Callum wowed the crowds by bringing the world’s one and only road-registered Jaguar C-X75, a superb concept designed on his watch in 2010. This example, fresh from a six-month refurb, is owned by one of his customers. As you may know, the C-X75 was a radical hybrid hypercar that Jaguar agreed to build with Williams – until the bean counters killed it. Four sturdy stunt cars were subsequently created for 2015 Bond film Spectre, powered by supercharged XKR V8s. This one’s the best, now with perfect paint, tight panel gaps…

Serving as an indirect successor to the E53 Coupé, the CLE 53 Coupé is for the moment the hottest two-door Mercedes – but while it wears AMG badges, it isn’t quite a full-bore, Affalterbachmade model. A CLE 63 is on its way, but it remains to be seen what will power it: the latest C63 saloon fell way short of the mark after swapping its roaring V8 for a fourcylinder plug-in hybrid system. The 53 looks meaner than regular CLE models and gets a suite of powertrain, suspension and interior upgrades to give it a more dynamic and sporting character. Among the visual changes is the adoption of a new front bumper, AMG’s Panamericana grille, a large rear spoiler and a decorative diffuser. Also, thanks to wider wheel arches, it’s…

As Subaru forges ahead with electrification, it has given the car with which it started down that path, the Forester SUV, a final refresh before the sixthgeneration model goes on sale next year, having already been revealed to the key US market that snaffles around 70% of production. The changes are limited to a facelift to bring it into line with the smaller new Crosstrek, plus mild interior tweaks and the addition of a Sport trim level between basic XE and Premium. That adds red stripes to the exterior and matching highlights in a cabin that feels its age but still works well – particularly in the spacious rear, with theatre-style seating giving a good view and class-leading child protection. On the road, the CVT dominates until you learn to…

Jim Farley, president and CEO of Ford, has just qualified 13th. It’s 2pm and we’re at the 81st Goodwood Members’ Meeting, where the Ford Mustang 289 V8 that Farley is sharing with Britain’s Steve Soper, the former BTCC ace, has finished in the top half of a stellar 30-car field in qualifying for the inaugural Ken Miles Cup. It’s a special one-make event staged to mark the 60th anniversary of the Mustang’s launch. Farley’s lap times are a second or so behind Soper’s and he isn’t pleased, despite the fact that this is actually prodigious performance. At 62, Farley is driving an unfamiliar and very potent car on a very fast track that he has tackled only once before. And although he loves racing, Farley really doesn’t have much time…

Building a Formula 1 car in your own shed? It’s a romantic notion, the stuff of daydreams for many of us. But for the late Ken Tyrrell, there was nothing whimsical about such a homegrown approach. As one of the greatest and most fiercely independent team patrons, he oversaw the creation of grand prix-and world championship-winning Formula 1 cars from just such a humble abode in his family-run timberyard in Ockham, Surrey, for years. And why not? What more did one need back in the 1960s and 1970s? Today and just down the road sits the fantastical McLaren Technology Centre. The F1 that Tyrrell first knew and thrived in half a century ago might as well have existed in another world. Tyrrell’s humble hub of innovation remains the most famous…

MILEAGE 11,817 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT It took Nissan 11 years to give us a second EV. Has it been worth the wait? If I had a time machine and travelled back to meet my 17-year-old self, complete with his freshly acquired 10-year-old 75bhp Renault Clio, and told him that in the future he’d be dailydriving a 300bhp four-wheel-drive Nissan, he’d probably pass out. Yet today, even with a sub-6.0sec 0-62mph time, this Ariya fails to excite 32-year-old me. I don’t think this is strictly an Ariya problem. Off the line, like many an electric car, it is of course very zippy. But the lack of noise, rumble, mechanical feedback and gearchange just leaves me feeling cold and a bit unbovvered. Even selecting drive or reverse via a toggle on…

FIRST DRIVE Mini Cooper E and SE We liked the first proper ground-up electric Mini as a prototype. Is the finished product the affordable driver’s EV we’ve been waiting for? TWIN TEST Swift vs Clio Suzuki’s latest small petrol hatchback takes on Renault’s class leader DRIVEN Jeep Grand Cherokee American brand’s all-new PHEV-only Range Rover rival lands in the UK EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Ford Transit Custom Does it remain the best van you can buy as it enters a new generation? USED GUIDE Volkswagen Polo GTI Everyday performance in a smaller package, and now for a smaller price SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p20…

The first fibreglass-bodied car was an American roadster of 1949, the Glasspar G2. In the 75 years since, there has been no shortage of weird and wonderful cars with a fibreglass body, and some with a fibreglass monocoque too. Some engineers may look down their nose at fibreglass, but here are some significant cars with the whiff of epoxy resin that the world would have been a duller place without. Lancia Stratos 1973 Created for rallying, this mid-engined coupé featured clamshell nose and tail sections, fashioned from fibreglass, that pivoted up towards the sky. Sat in the engine bay was the 2.4-litre V6 from Ferrari’s Dino. Marcello Gandini designed it after Nuccio Bertone bought a friend’s Lancia Fulvia and set about creating a new concept. The result was the Stratos…

Ford is so delighted with the burgeoning worldwide sales of its 60-year-old, petrol-powered Mustang that it is contemplating launching a new range of “authentic” combustionengined variants that could include a four-door model for the first time in history. Speaking exclusively to Autocar at the recent Goodwood Members’ Meeting – where he raced an Alan Mann-prepared Mustang V8 Notchback – Ford CEO Jim Farley claimed the Mustang is now “by far” the world’s best-selling coupé and has developed a huge body of followers worldwide. However, he acknowledged that new derivatives would only be accepted by these supporters if they had the “performance and attitude” of existing models. “We will never build a Mustang that isn’t a Mustang,” he insisted. “For instance, there will never be room for a small, two-row Ford…

THE SMART #5 Concept has been unveiled as a first look at the brand’s largest, most technologically advanced electric car to date. Sized roughly in line with the Audi Q3 and Volvo XC40, the four-wheel-drive #5 introduces a new styling direction with a harder-edged, more rugged appearance than Smart’s two smaller crossovers, the #1 and #3. The production version is strongly tipped to share the SEA platform with its range-mates but, unlike those cars, the #5 will use an 800V electrical architecture to enable much quicker charging speeds. It has also been confirmed to feature a battery with a capacity of more than 100kWh, which will be among the largest of those used by an EV of this size. Smart claims that the #5 has a range of more than…

Lotus has officially revealed a wild, one-off reworking of its Evija hypercar – and it has already set the third-fastest Nürburgring lap of all time. Created as a technological halo for Lotus’s expanding EV line-up, the extreme track car was spotted lapping the Nordschleife last year and the firm has now confirmed it achieved a lap time of 6min 24.047sec – only 19sec behind the Volkswagen ID R. The Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo remains comfortably the fastest car around the Green Hell, with a lap time of 5min 19.545sec. Lotus says the Evija X’s time is the fastest achieved by any car with a production chassis, though, and believes the car has more to give, having set its unexpectedly quick lap time on a damp day in October. “Watch this…

MOST OF THE major manufacturers have already revealed technology road maps for the next decade that involve a steady move away from ICE to pureelectric drivetrains. Anyone who’s ever visited a modern engine plant will appreciate just what a huge task that must be and how no manufacturer would take the decision lightly. There’s more to it than simply the cost and a shift in strategy: there are cultural implications too. Skills built up in the industry over 100 years for the development of complex ICE powertrains will be replaced by a different set altogether. Audi’s facility at Gyor, Hungary, is billed as the largest powertrain plant in the world and it’s where the firm is producing all the electric drivetrains for its new Premium Platform Electric (PPE), developed with…

Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares has branded the current zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate a “terrible thing for the UK” and warned that it could “kill” the domestic automotive industry. Under the current terms of the ZEV mandate, car makers must achieve at least a 22% sales mix of pure-electric models in the UK this year or risk heavy penalties. That proportion rises in increments to 80% in 2030 on the way to combustion car sales being stopped in 2035. Speaking to UK journalists from Stellantis’s small van factory at Ellesmere Port, Tavares agreed with the logic behind this notion. He said: “I think the fact that they are imposing a ramp-up of [EV sales] makes sense.” But he added: “The problem is the magnitude and the positioning of the ZEV mandate…

Watching motorsport in Italy is an almost spiritual experience. Standing under the trees at glorious Imola’s Acque Minerali, looking down on the double right-hander among a reverential tifosi as Hypercars and GTs teeter on the edge then hammer away up the hill, will stick with me as a highlight of 2024. During a thrilling, rain-affected second round of the World Endurance Championship, all seemed right with the world. Not for the partisan 75,000-strong crowd by the finish of the six-hour race, though. Their beloved and dominant Ferrari 499Ps had lost what had looked a nailed-on home win in the dry with a bad strategy call when the rain came. That allowed one of Toyota’s GR010s to rise from sixth on the grid, playermanager Kamui Kobayashi holding his nerve in a…

Since being launched in 2021, the Q4 E-tron electric crossover has become a firm favourite in the Audi stable. Three years on, the German company has given it a technical update in response to the increasing allure of rivals such as the now-cheaper Tesla Model Y. The substance of this update can be found underneath a subtly restyled exterior. The big news is a new motor (as found in the new Volkswagen ID 7 saloon) on the rear axle that’s more efficient, thanks to better thermal management – resulting in more power and more range. All Q4s continue to use an 82kWh battery pack. We have driven this new Q4 before, but that German-spec test car was equipped with adaptive dampers, which aren’t offered in the UK. The car we…

Fashion can be so capricious. Not two years ago, MPVs looked a dead cert to join the format scrapheap, yet now the class is bursting with activity. Apparently we have Chinese businessmen to thank (or otherwise). Don’t get rid of your skinny jeans just yet, I suppose. Following the Mercedes-Benz EQV, Volkswagen ID Buzz and Lexus LM into the UK is the Mifa 9 from Maxus – a brand that might be familiar from its eDeliver electric vans and tippers and the T90EV, the first electric pick-up truck sold here. Maxus has a complex heritage, as evidenced by the fact that the Mifa is sold abroad as an MG and an LDV. Yes, as in the Birmingham maker of spit-and-sawdust vans, itself formed by Leyland and Daf in the 1980s.…

As drivers considering making the switch to an EV anxiously sift through model specs, comparing ranges and PCP bills and plotting the locations of rapid chargers, over at Bradshaw Electric Vehicles they couldn’t be happier with their EVs that have ranges of 28 miles and top speeds of 18mph. ‘Horses for courses’ is the phrase that springs to mind as I survey the Cambridgeshire firm’s range of own-make, French Goupil and American Club Car EVs, some in production, others awaiting dispatch. And it’s one that all EV buyers would do well to remember when browsing the digital brochures. Why do I need a 250-mile range when all my driving is local? Why am I obsessing over public-charger provision when charging at home will do just fine? Why do I need…

MODEL TESTED SINGLE MOTOR EXTENDED RANGE PLUS • Price £38,545 • Power 268bhp • Torque 253lb ft • 0-60mph 5.7sec • 30-70mph 5.1sec • Economy 2.8mpkWh • Max DC charging speed 135kW • 70-0mph 45.9m Volvo is aiming for a change of gear on its path towards electrification with this week’s road test subject. The EX30 is a small car that, it’s hoped, can have a big impact on Gothenburg’s sales mix. Its maker is already aiming for half of its global sales to be of all-electric models by 2025, and to be selling BEVs exclusively by 2030. In order to hit those marks, however, Volvo needs affordable electric models like this – but, moreover, it needs people to buy them in greater numbers than they are currently. You wonder,…

MILEAGE 3276 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if this new saloon makes more sense in much cheaper ICE form As the petrol C4 X is largely identical to the electric ë-C4 X, my transition from one Citroën saloon to the other has been smooth. It remains a very comfortable place to sit, as practical as ever and as easy to drive, making my routine travels between London and Berkshire a doddle. I mentioned previously that I was curious to see how the ICE car would compare in terms of relaxation, isolation and quietness, which the EV excelled at. Well, several hundred miles later, it’s clear that it’s a mixed bag. The ride is equally pleasant as in the EV – soaking up most bumps and divots easily – but…

Sticking the boot in So, a political backlash in Italy has caused Alfa Romeo to rename the new Milano. Imagine how different motoring history would have been if Italian politicians had objected to the name Ford Capri back in the 1960s – and don’t get me started on all those Seats with Spanish city names that aren’t made in Spain. No wonder Italian politics is in the gutter if this is what they worry about! Jeremy Via autocar.co.uk Reminders needed I can understand what happened to Ben (10 April), as I had a similar issue. My son recently came home to a DVLA letter that he assumed was his V11 renewal. Not so: it was advising that his car wasn’t taxed. The V11 had never appeared, so we assumed it…

What’s the betting you could draw a Kia Soul, be it a Mk1, Mk2 or Mk3, from memory and get it just about right? The high roof, which appears to slope to the rear, the shallow windows, the high waistline – they’re all easy to recall. The Mk2 of 2014-19 covered here looks similar to its predecessor but, thanks to its new platform, is larger and roomier. It also features more sophisticated suspension for, it was claimed, better ride and handling. Autocar’s road testers praised its practicality, build quality, kerbside appeal and competitive price but they reckoned it lacked something next to the more “extravagant Nissan Juke, the pragmatic Skoda Yeti and the chic Renault Captur” and so awarded it three stars. Today, with clean Yetis expensive and hard to…

WE TAKE FOR granted these days that communications will be easy, instant and possible everywhere. Indeed, almost everything in the modern world relies on it being so: just see what happens when the wifi drops in an office. It’s therefore fascinating to see how complex such simple things used to be. Imagine you park your car on a London street and return an hour later to find it distinctly absent. You would pull your smartphone out of your pocket, ring 999 and inform the police. The call handler would send a digital report to a dispatch, who would then relay it to police officers and their patrol cars by way of encrypted radio signals. Back in the 1930s, as we found out on a visit to the Metropolitan Police’s headquarters,…