Auto Express 1426

Visit autoexpress.co.uk for all the latest new cars news WHILE the debate continues about Britain’s position on the European political map – for the record, in our online poll 50 per cent of Auto Express readers said they’d vote to leave the EU and 34 per cent wanted to remain in – our fifth annual Brit List reveals the most influential British executives on the global car stage. If anything, the influence of Brits on the cars we buy and those we dream about is greater than ever. Brits have always over-indexed in the most senior positions, due in no small part to our culture – as this year’s number one Brit, Mike Manley (above), told us, being able to understand and work with different cultures comes naturally to Brits.…

James_Batchelor@dennis.co.uk @JRRBatchelor Essentials Abarth 124 Spider Price: £29,565 Engine: 1.4-litre 4cyl turbo Power/torque: 168bhp/250Nm Transmission: Six-speed auto, rear-wheel drive 0-62mph: 6.7 seconds Top speed: 143mph Economy: 44.1mpg CO2: 153g/km ON SALE Now THE new Fiat 124 Spider may well be the sister car to the Mazda MX-5, but it also has a more boisterous, bigger brother. The Abarth 124 Spider is undeniably a hot property in the reinvigorated sports car market – a drop-top promising old-school sports car charm and serious performance. Mazda’s MX-5 has been the daddy of roadsters for over 25 years, but you’d never call it powerful. Mazda likes to keep things pure and uncomplicated – but that’s not Abarth’s way. The brand has a new mission, and that’s to build authentic performance cars and not just…

James Batchelor James_Batchelor@dennis.co.uk @JRRBatchelor Essentials Fiat 124 Spider Lusso Price: £22,295 Engine: 1.4-litre 4cyl turbo Power/torque: 138bhp/240Nm Transmission: Six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive 0-62mph: 7.5 seconds Top speed: 135mph Economy: 44.1mpg CO2: 148g/km ON SALE Now WHEN we drove an advanced prototype of the Fiat 124 Spider earlier this year (Issue 1,410), we gave it a five-star rating, so can the full production car impress in equal measure? This is our first drive of the showroom-ready version. The biggest difference between the Fiat and the Mazda is just how grown-up the 124 feels. The two cars share the same chassis structure, suspension and rearwheel-drive transmission, but Fiat has worked hard to make its sports car feel a little more mature and rounded. While the Mazda uses a couple of naturally aspirated…

Sam_Naylor@dennis.co.uk @SamNaylor_AE “The twin-turbo 503bhp V6 engine could make an appearance along with Alfa’s first six-cyl diesel” ALFA Romeo is planning a new executive saloon to rival the BMW 5 Series, Auto Express can reveal – and our exclusive images show how it’s likely to look. The new model will feature a range of powertrains, including a plug-in hybrid and the company’s first-ever six-cylinder diesel. As it will be based on the same rear-wheel-drive platform as the recently launched Giulia saloon, it should share the engine range, including the fourcylinder diesel and petrol units, too. “We owe our investors a constant stream of new, fresh global products that can be sold,” Fiat Chrysler chief technology officer Harald Wester told Auto Express. “It will be a relatively fast sequence of relevant…

Sam_Naylor@dennis.co.uk SamNaylor_AE A QUARTER of a century after the first ever Clio was introduced, Renault has revealed an updated version of the fourthgeneration supermini. It features a round of updates including new powertrain options and interior upgrades, and will go on sale in October with a slight price hike over the current model’s £11,145 starting point. A few changes have been made to the way the new Clio looks, but the facelift is a subtle one. New LED lights, a wider grille and a redesigned back bumper are the main changes, while new paint colours including Mars Red, Titanium Grey, Arctic White and Iron Blue have been made available. Inside, there are some higher-quality materials, with a matt finish on the chrome trim to give it a classier look. A…

“Motorists were encouraged to help cut CO2 by buying diesels. Now they will be taxed” Edmund King President, AA Martin_Saarinen@dennis.co.uk @AE_Consumer “In 2001, just 13.8 per cent of cars in the UK were diesels. Last year, it was over 37 per cent” DIESEL car owners could be hit with a tax hike as the Government looks to cut down on air pollution, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has hinted. According to McLoughlin, the growing uptake of diesel cars in the UK has caused a “dramatic rise” in air pollution in cities like London. He said: “We have got to look at that; it’s something the Chancellor will need to look at in due course.” The roads minister also told the London Evening Standard the decision by the previous Labour government to…