Innholdsfortegnelse for 1498 i Auto Express

Richard_Ingram@dennis.co.uk @rsp_ingram THE annual Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show took place in Las Vegas last week. The expo is closed to the public, and instead focuses on industry traders and automotive media – showcasing the latest in aftermarket tuning, interior tweaks and performance upgrades. However, unlike other modified car shows, SEMA is regularly attended by international car giants such as Honda and Toyota, as well as Ford, Audi and BMW. This year was no different, with brands using the event as a platform to launch new sportinspired accessory packs, crazy concept cars and high-end production vehicles. Here’s our round-up of the very best manufacturer models at SEMA 2017. “Brands use SEMA as a platform to launch new sport-inspired accessory packs and crazy concepts” Toyota C-HR R-Tuned TOYOTA’S current range…

Price right for new 444bhp RS4 Avant AUDI has announced its new 444bhp RS4 Avant (above) will be priced from £61,625. At that price tag, buyers get 19-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights with high beam assist, RS sports seats and Audi’s 12.3-inch Virtual Cockpit. Sat-nav and cruise control also feature. The RS4 is powered by a new 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, and features quattro all-wheel drive as standard. VW eyes banking licence post-Brexit THE Volkswagen Group is in discussions with the Bank of England to secure a UK banking licence so that it can continue to offer PCP and other finance deals after Brexit. Volkswagen Financial Services is the largest car finance provider in the UK, and currently operates under a German banking licence thanks to the EU ‘passporting’ system.…

James_Batchelor@dennis.co.uk @JRRBatchelor Videowatch WE drive Jaguar’s stunning new 567bhp XJR 575 this week at youtube.com/Autoexpress, and report on the Mercedes Unimog. First drive video on new Jaguar XJR 575 MOST new car launches of late seem to be of fuel-sipping, tree-hugging new models. But not at Jaguar. Its nichest of niche models, the XJR, has been overhauled. The two-tonne limo now features a 567bhp version of Jag’s fabulous 5.0-litre supercharged V8. With high emissions and fuel consumption, the XJR 575 isn’t very 2017, but our man Steve Sutcliffe has produced this video review. Off beaten track in ultimate Mercedes IS the fabulously old-school G-Class the ultimate Mercedes off-roader? Meet the Unimog – a legendary Mercedes that for decades has been the king of going off the beaten track. But can…

“In a place this busy you’ve got people’s attention for seconds before you lose them” RICHARD HARRISON SEAT UK MD MOST people may aspire to be managers of sorts, but at the end of the day, there’s nothing quite like rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck into the day-to-day graft with the rest of the company. Car manufacturers are no different. When SEAT launched its new ‘store’ dealership in at the Westfield shopping centre in West London, its UK managing director Richard Harrison decided to join the sales staff for a day. Auto Express spent a few hours with Harrison, watching him buffing bonnets and talking shop to see how the boss adapts to a life in the showroom. The Westfield mall is now a mecca for manufacturers who…

James_Brodie@dennis.co.uk @Jimmybrods WITH the new Volkswagen T-Roc looking set to become one of the firm’s prize breadwinners, a spread of powertrains will be offered when the new Golf-sized crossover goes fully on sale early next year. The two diesel T-Rocs are set to play a supporting role when it comes to sales. Volkswagen predicts that as many as eight out of 10 T-Rocs sold will be petrol-powered, with the 1.0-litre TSI model the headline act. Still, this 148bhp 2.0-litre TDI has the most torque of any T-Roc we’ll get in the UK, at 340Nm – at least until the anticipated arrival of the hot T-Roc R – and it feels gutsy when in action. The performance figures quoted by Volkswagen seem realistic. In the UK, the range-topping diesel option will…

mail@autoexpress.co.uk THE second-generation XF Sportbrake is without question a better car than the original. We discovered that during our first drive of the diesel (Issue 1,489) – but is the powerful petrol turbo even better? It has 247bhp and 365Nm, and in R-Sport guise costs £42,435. But while decently refined, the 25t motor doesn’t feel as smooth or effortless as the diesel. The bare figures seem impressive enough, with a 6.6-second 0-62mph time, but because you have to work the petrol engine that much harder to access the torque, you must rev it higher – and that incites more noise from the harsh-sounding unit. As a result, you’ll struggle to match the XF’s claimed 41.5mpg. The eight-speed box is excellent, although throttle response is a little dull – even with…

What we rated ALL tyres were the same size: 205/55R16. Speed ratings were H (up to 130mph) and V (up to 150mph) and weight ratings were 91 or 94. Below, we also list each of our tyres’ EU compulsory tyre rating for fuel economy (FE), wet grip (WG) and pass-by noise (N). The first two are ranked from A down to G. Noise is measured in decibels, so the lower the number the better. Falken Euroall Season AS200 91 H (FE) E; (WG) C; (N) 71 Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2 94 V (FE) C; (WG) B; (N) 68 Hankook Kinergy 4S 94 V (FE) E; (WG) C; (N) 72 Kumho Solus HA31 94 V (FE) E; (WG) C; (N) 71 Michelin CrossClimate + 94 V (FE) C; (WG) B; (N)…

HEAD TORCH LED Lenser SE03 Price: £24 Contact: www.ledco.co.uk CAR repairs on the hoof are seldom simple, but working in the dark adds a whole new layer of pain to the whole process. Wearing a head torch not only illuminates exactly the area you want, it also leaves your hands free to work. We put the SE03 at the top of the pile in our Issue 1,490 test. It’s versatile, featuring high and low beams with focus control, as well as beacon and red modes. An IPX6 rating means it’s heavily protected against moisture and dust ingress, plus it comes with a neat padded bag featuring a handy belt loop as part of the package. 12V JUMP START PACK Sealey Jump Starter Power Pack SL65S Price: £89 Contact: www.sealey.co.uk WAITING…

Hugo_Griffiths@dennis.co.uk @AE_Consumer Q How much VED will I pay? I AM looking to buy a nearly-new car, one that was registered after 1 April 2017. With the new VED rates, would I have to repay the high, first-year rate, or would I simply need to stump up the £140 flat fee instead? Chris Dewar, E-mail A THE new VED system doesn’t allow payments to be transferred between owners, so you’ll have to pay the remainder of the first-year tax. After that it’ll be £140 a year, or £130 if it’s a hybrid, plus an extra £310 a year if the car cost £40,000 or more when new. Q Worried about i10 noise MY 67-plate Hyundai i10 automatic makes a strange intermittent noise once it’s warmed up. I can only describe…

James_Brodie@dennis.co.uk @jimmybrods ▪ New ZS majors on space and standard equipment ▪ 1.0-litre engine delivers 110bhp and 160Nm of torque MG is determined to cash in on the crossover craze. Despite inheriting its nameplate from a nineties sports saloon, its new ZS will take on compact SUV rivals such as the Nissan Juke and Renault Captur, plus newcomers including the SEAT Arona. So its hopes are high, with bosses looking to the SUV to more than double current UK sales. British buyers will be offered three trim choices, priced from £12,495. However, the company reckons that the most popular choice will be the Exclusive model, priced from £15,495 or £17,495 as tested here with a new 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine and a six-speed automatic gearbox. The engine develops 110bhp and 160Nm…

Martin_Saarinen@dennis.co.uk @AE_Consumer MANUFACTURERS could face limits on the type of tyres and brakes they can use in the future, as experts predict legislators could soon turn their attention to particle matter emissions from these components. A recent report by Transport for London and the Greater London Authority found that particle matter (PM) 2.5 emissions are a contributor to 29,000 premature deaths a year in the UK, and are “widely acknowledged as being the pollutant which has the greatest impact on human health”. Small-particle emissions are linked to the use of wood-burning stoves, construction and the transport sector – in particular, wear from tyres and brakes. In cities such as London, vehicles contribute to more than half of PM2.5 emissions, with the capital already in breach of its pollution limits set…

RECENT reports in the national press claimed that some diesel values have fallen by up to 25 per cent, marking the collapse of prices. Yet these claims are unfounded, as the numbers don’t add up. Our own insight shows diesel values only falling by two per cent more than usual so far this year. Diesel models are still on sale on forecourts around the UK, so don’t expect that to change. Close examination of the data reveals that diesel values have fallen by around eight per cent in the first nine months of the year. That’s around an extra £185 on the average three-year-old VW Golf. Analysis of depreciation from January to September 2017 indicates that while diesel suffered slightly, the petrol sector picked up throughout 2017. The data shows…

Lawrence_Allan@dennis.co.uk @LobAllan SKODA’S Scout sub-brand isn’t exactly an original theme in the Volkswagen Group, with Audi, VW and SEAT all offering similar off-road-ready versions of existing models. Yet the idea has always fitted best with the Czech company’s practical and no-nonsense approach. The Octavia and Superb were the first to benefit from the Scout treatment, and now the Kodiaq SUV has been given the rugged makeover. While the model’s two estate stablemates needed significant revisions to ensure they’re capable of tackling more than a muddy car park, the Kodiaq’s SUV status gives it a head start. Externally, the tweaks are more subtle than on other Scouts, and are limited to unique wheels, some extra badging and silver-painted skidplates front and rear. You’d be hard pushed to spot the Kodiaq Scout…

Sam_Naylor@dennis.co.uk @SamNaylor_AE THE Golden Steering Wheel awards are among the most coveted in Europe, having been run by Auto Express’s sister publication Auto Bild for decades. A mix of reader polls and expert opinion, the awards mark out the best new cars to be launched in the past 12 months. We asked for your votes in Issue 1,485, and now, after an intense judging session in October, we can announce the winners – alongside the cars UK readers chose. It’s clear British buyers have different tastes to those on the rest of the Continent; not one choice was the same. For each winner we’ve also included our picks of the range. SMALL CARS The winner is... Opel Ampera E OUR PICK: Not available in the UK PRICE: N/A THIS year’s…

LOOK across our results tables, and you can see our tyres are divided into groups. Toyo and Kumho were closely matched, but were a step, albeit a small one, behind the best performers here. There was even less between the Falken and Hankook as both focused on wet and dry grip at the expense of snow performance. Nexen proved its range revamp has put it at the head of the Far Eastern tyre makers. Goodyear and Nokian could barely be separated across our 15 tests, and are the standout performers with a winter focus. The winning Michelin works sufficiently well on snow to the point where it matches some winter tyres, but its ability in the wet and dry makes it best suited to UK conditions and reduces the compromises…

Stephen_Errity@dennis.co.uk FERRARI has threatened to quit formula One at the end of the decade after details of new 2021 engine regulations were released by the sport’s bosses last week. The proposals suggest retaining the current format of 1.6-litre turbocharged hybrid V6 engines, but with the rev limit increased by 3,000rpm for a better sound. The engines’ hybrid tech would also be simplified, with a single energy recovery system instead of the current two and a greater emphasis on drivers deploying the recovered energy manually. finally, some elements of the engines’ design will be standardised to cut costs. in a conference call, ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne revealed he was unimpressed with the direction Liberty Media was taking the sport. “The fact we [are] now at odds in terms of strategic development…

John_McIlroy@dennis.co.uk @johnmcilroy DS is planning to square up to the MINI Countryman and Audi Q2 with a high-riding DS 3 SUV that’s due to break cover next year and arrive in British dealerships at the start of 2019. And a fully electric version is also on the way. Likely to be badged the DS 3 Crossback, the new car will vie with the next-generation Peugeot 208 to be the first model based on parent company PSA’s all-new small CMP platform. It’s expected to be just over four metres long and, as previewed in our exclusive images, it’ll mix existing DS 3 styling cues with design language introduced on the forthcoming DS 7 Crossback. Speaking at the recent Tokyo Motor Show, Eric Apode, DS’s executive vicepresident with responsibility for research and…

Richard_Ingram@dennis.co.uk @rsp_ingram ALONGSIDE the mad, modified models at the SEMA trade show in Las Vegas (Page 12), Jeep showed the first images of its all-new Wrangler for 2018. The rugged 4x4 will be officially launched at the LA Motor Show in December, but the first details are slowly trickling out. The new Wrangler’s styling is best described as evolutionary, and the retro profile is instantly recognisable. Revisions to the light clusters, grille and bumpers give it softer features, but the flat roofline, upright nose and exposed door hinges transfer over. “There appears to be a greater variety of higher-grade materials inside, while the tech has been improved” Although no details have been issued on the interior, spy shots have shown a similarly upright dashboard design. There appears to be a…

John_McIlroy@dennis.co.uk @johnmcilroy TREVOR MANN’S VISION FOR MITSUBISHI “I’m disappointed with where we are in the US. We’re not punching our weight, especially as a brand known for our SUVs. We need to work on the network and service” TREVOR MANN Chief operating officer MITSUBISHI will need to be patient before it can really reap the rewards of its new-found position in the mighty Renault-Nissan Alliance, according to the Japanese brand’s chief operating officer, Trevor Mann. Mann came up through the ranks of Nissan’s Sunderland factory to become one of the Alliance boss Carlos Ghosn’s most trusted lieutenants. He was parachuted into his position at Mitsubishi soon after the brand was taken over last year. Since then, he’s racked up 223,000 air miles and visited 23 countries, aiming to get a…

SMARTPHONES have brought a lot of good into this world. They’ve given us instant access to information, new ways of interacting with friends and family and have quickly become the 21st-century equivalent of the Swiss army knife. What they’ve also become is a daily distraction. Mobile phone use at the wheel is a known road safety concern. But mobile phone distraction is affecting pedestrians, too. People crossing the street while viewing their smartphone has become a large enough problem that authorities in the US and Europe are starting to come up with new ways of breaking the habit. Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii in the US, has become the first city in the world to fine pedestrians for crossing the road while staring at their phones. People are allowed to…

Contact Hugo Griffiths mail@autoexpress.co.uk @AutoEpress Write to: Watchdog/Letters, Auto Express, Dennis Publishing, 31-32 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP HOT TOPIC London’s new T-charge FROM: Riccardo Godfrey-Bonnici UNLESS all buses and taxis are either electric or hybrid, the T-charge isn’t going to have a major effect on reducing pollution. What it does is stop poorer people with older cars from driving in London. I think drivers shouldn’t be taxed like this. FROM: Stuart Coster THE T-charge is unfair and unacceptable. The biggest polluter on central London’s roads has to be TfL’s 9,300 diesel buses, under the control of the Mayor himself. He hasn’t gone far enough towards eliminating this source of NOx before charging car users. Join the debate at www.autoexpress.co.uk ▪ “Drastic problem requires a drastic solution. It’s doing the…

Lawrence_Allan@dennis.co.uk @LobAllan OVER the past decade, Hyundai has gone to great lengths to banish its image of being a bargain basement brand by launching a range of competitive models in most classes. But until now, it’s shied away from performance offerings, leaving European rivals to dominate the market. At long last, the company has introduced a new ‘N’ performance sub-brand with this: the i30 N. We were impressed with it out in Germany earlier this year (Issue 1,492), but this is the real acid test on Britain’s broken and scarred tarmac. This is also our first chance to try the cheaper 247bhp base car, which costs £3,000 less than the 271bhp Performance Package model. Hyundai’s engineers did hundreds of laps of Germany’s Nürburgring race track during development of the i30…

Sam_Naylor@dennis.co.uk @SamNaylor_AE THE Mercedes S-Class is famous for being a tech leader in the car industry, as well as a core model for the brand. It’s used as a pioneer for new systems, which then filter into lesser models over the years. To stop the S-Class from falling behind, Mercedes has updated it with new kit and a fresh look. We drove the powerful S 400 d back in July (Issue 1,482), but now we’ve got the cheaper S 350 d in the UK. A new set of bumpers, lights and grille are the main exterior changes. Under the bonnet, the new straight-six turbodiesel engine replaces the V6 unit in the previous 350 d. The old motor was powerful and smooth, but this new one is an even better fit.…

Jonathan_Burn@dennis.co.uk IT’S the time of year every motorist in the UK dreads. The dark nights set in, temperatures plummet and the UK’s road network grinds to a halt thanks to unpredictable weather and unprepared drivers. To ensure you’re fully equipped for the coming months, Auto Express has put together a comprehensive winter driving special to give you all the top tips and tools you’ll need. Our special issue kicks off with a rundown of the 102 best SUVs on sale in the UK today. From Alfa Romeo to Volvo, every SUV is ranked in our countdown. But to make it as comprehensive as possible, we’ve taken into account more than just how accomplished an SUV is off road or on poor surfaces. In such a crowded area of the market,…

In association with blackcircles.com click & fit tyres products@autoexpress.co.uk @AE_Consumer THERE’S no doubt that all-season tyres are becoming a main focus for tyre makers as motorists seek better performance in adverse driving conditions. Several new tyres have been launched over the past 12 months, while a number of existing designs have been upgraded and their ranges extended. Even Continental, which for years has been a fervent supporter of drivers switching between specialist tyres for the different seasons, has launched an all-season design. Its new AllSeasonContact arrived too late for our test, but we have gathered eight tyres to find out which is the best for all-year-round motoring. We headed to Nokian’s proving ground in Ivalo, Finland, for snow testing and returned to Continental’s Contidrom near Hanover in Germany for the…

Transforming an inner city engine plant into a modern battery and EV motor site makes sense. That’s why Ford must vacate London I UNDERSTAND and believe that Ford will close and demolish its sprawling Dagenham factory in East London that once boasted 40,000 workers but now employs nearer 4,000. Born in 1931, it went on to occupy 620 acres of Thameside space. Yet I fear it may not reach its 90th birthday. Ford no longer builds vehicles in Dagenham (or anywhere else in the UK). Instead it uses the site to make internal combustion engines that will soon be illegal and unsaleable. But Dagenham’s likely death as a motor industry town shouldn’t lead to a further loss of Ford jobs in Britain. Minutes away in Essex there is ample space…