Auto Express 1412

Visit autoexpress.co.uk for all the latest new cars news THERE are always a lot of words spoken at a motor show, and at Geneva last week two of the phrases I heard repeatedly were “autonomous driving” and “mobility solutions”. At a preview event that I attended on the eve of the show, VW Group execs spoke at length about an acceleration towards a self-driving future where bland-looking pods whisk us about from A to B. The benefits were endless; the disabled will be mobilised, there will be fewer car parks (and so more green space) and more than a million lives could be saved each year due to the reduction in accidents caused by human error. Sounds great, doesn’t it? And that, to me, is the problem. It sounds Utopian,…

Lawrence_Allan@dennis.co.uk @LobAllan “Sloping roof, short rear overhangs are key to attracting younger buyers” AUDI revealed the smallest and cheapest member of its SUV range at the Geneva Motor Show, but Auto Express got to look around the Q2 before the wraps came off. The newcomer will hit dealers in the autumn, priced from around £22,000. It currently sits in a niche of its own, but will hope to steal customers from the upcoming BMW X2 when that car launches next year. Influence for the baby SUV is drawn from the two-door Audi Crosslane Coupé concept revealed at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. And the Q2 is the first Audi overseen and signed off by new design boss Marc Lichte, who joined in 2014 and has been relishing the chance to…

Lawrence_Allan@dennis.co.uk @LobAllan ABARTH has worked its magic on the new Fiat 124 Spider. The tuned-up roadster made an unexpected debut at the Geneva Motor Show and will go on sale towards the end of the year. It’s powered by a 168bhp version of the 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine from the Fiat, but gets racy looks and a tweaked chassis to go with the performance boost. We’ve only just driven the standard 124 Spider (Issue 1,410) and came away very impressed with Fiat’s adaptation of the Mazda MX-5 platform. The new Abarth version will become the halo car for Fiat’s performance arm, with the roadster available to order now from £29,565 – a premium of around £10,000 over the Fiat 124 Spider’s predicted price tag. But the Abarth is clearly more…

Cool new XV’s glimpse of future Subaru range THE next-generation Subaru XV is still a few years away, but this Geneva show concept (above) indicates how it could look. It also previews the design direction for the entire next generation of Subaru vehicles, bosses at the company have claimed. It features a new version of Subaru’s ‘hawk-eye’ headlamps and grille, plus ‘Glacier Khaki Silica’ paint. Peugeot-Citroen set to quote ‘real’ economy PSA Peugeot-Citroen will become the first maker to publish real-world fuel consumption figures for its models. Under natural testing, the Peugeot 308 (above), Citroen Grand C4 Picasso and DS 3 returned 56.5mpg, 50.4mpg, and 57.6mpg respectively – some distance off the claimed economy of 88.3mpg, 70.6mpg and 78.5mpg. The test was conducted in various scenarios, with passengers and luggage…

Graham_Hope@dennis.co.uk “The exterior design [of the Vision S] is pretty much what we want to deliver from our serial production car” BERNHARD MAIER CEO, Skoda SKODA’S assault on the SUV market got under way at Geneva as the firm unveiled its Vision S concept, which previews a production model called the Kodiaq to be revealed later this year. The Kodiaq will be the first of four new SUV/crossover models to be launched by Skoda over the next few years. New CEO Bernhard Maier told Auto Express: “We are now clearly focusing on our SUV strategy as the SUV segments are the fastest growing in the entire automotive business.” And Maier confirmed that the concept pointed very firmly to what we can expect from the Kodiaq. “The exterior design is pretty…

FASTER and more fun Kias are on the way, according to Albert Biermann, ex-BMW M boss and new head of vehicle testing at Hyundai Motor Group. Biermann told us the new models will build on Kia’s current GT range and be even more entertaining: “There are no limits to what we can do.” Kia currently has two GT models on sale, based on the Pro_cee’d and Cee’d hatch. Two more will join the range this autumn: the Optima GT and Optima Sportswagon GT. These will be powered by a 2.0-litre turbo engine that delivers around 250bhp, making them the most potent Kias ever sold here. Biermann is already thinking about the next step, yet he said higher-performance cars would be named something different to GT. A four-door, rear-wheel-drive coupé based…