Auto Express 1626

ANYONE expecting anything other than a near total wipeout in car sales during April must be living in cloud cuckoo land. The 97 per cent drop in registrations is woeful news for an industry already in the doldrums, but there are clear learnings for the future of retail. Surprisingly, the appetite for car buying – or at least taking delivery of an already-ordered new car – didn’t disappear completely during April. But no car makers were geared up to be able to complete purchases and make deliveries during lockdown – except one: Tesla. We’d already predicted that Tesla would top the UK car sales charts in April because, quite simply, it was the only manufacturer set up for online ordering and delivery long before the outbreak of the pandemic. One…

● VW icon is ready to roll ● New hot hatch at the limit FOR this story, we first have to look into the past. Not to 1976, when the first Volkswagen Golf GTI was presented – that tale has been told countless times. Our story is more recent. In the mid-nineties, Karsten Schebsdat developed the chassis for the first Ford Focus. Trialling the car on the Blue Oval’s test track in Lommel, Belgium, he struck such a good compromise between sporty driving behaviour and comfort that he still proudly says the Focus was the reason why the Golf Mk5 got a multi-link rear axle. Several professional positions later (including 997 GT2 technical project manager at Porsche), Schebsdat is now part of the vast VW engineering team, as head of…

THE Volkswagen Golf range will be crowned with a flagship R model, which is due to arrive in showrooms at the beginning of next year. Undisguised prototypes spotted testing at the Nürburgring provide us with an unfiltered look at the upcoming hot hatch. The Golf R will continue with the rather understated appearance, but enlarged air intakes and the trademark quad-exhaust set-up at the rear of this prototype clearly identify it as the range-topping model. VW has released no official details on the next Golf R. However, a leaked internal document revealed that the hot hatch would receive a substantial power upgrade. The 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo from the outgoing R will be carried over but tuned to develop 329bhp – an increase of 33bhp. Unlike the GTI, the R won’t…

John_McIlroy@dennis.co.uk @johnmcilroy ● First taste of Skoda’s first EV ● Pace and comfort impress SKODA is on a roll at the moment. The excellent Scala is grabbing family car sales, the big-selling Kamiq is shaking up the small SUV market, and a new version of the firm’s volume flagship, the Octavia, is arriving in UK dealers this summer. But the Czech brand is about to take a huge leap into a new area of the market with its first bespoke electric car: the Enyaq. And Auto Express had an early chance to drive the new arrival, as part of a prototype test taking place in Ireland. The Enyaq uses the same MEB underpinnings as the Volkswagen ID.3 and ID.4, as well as the forthcoming SEAT el-Born. This all-new platform is…

James_Brodie@dennis.co.uk @jimmybrods ● Revised cabin, extra tech ● Powered by 503bhp V6 AFTER revealing revised versions of the Giulia saloon and Stelvio SUV last year, Alfa Romeo has now unveiled the updated Quadrifoglio performance variants. Cosmetic updates are restrained, with the new Giulia Quadrifoglio receiving new badges and a pair of revised LED tail-lights with smoked lenses. Buyers can also now have carbon-fibre replacements for the standard radiator grille, mirror caps and rear spoiler as optional extras. The Stelvio gets identical changes, but with one extra tweak: the availability of new 21-inch wheels. New paint colours arrive, too, including a metallic green that pays homage to the shade used on the iconic Alfa Romeo Montreal. On both models the dashboard and centre console have been retrimmed, while a new leather…

THE UK’s new-car market contracted by 97.3 per cent in April as the coronavirus lockdown shut dealerships, and registrations fell to levels not seen since 1946. Just 4,321 new cars were registered last month, compared to 161,064 in April 2019. Most of these were sold to key workers and front-line public service providers, while the total number of cars registered last month was lower than the amount of Ford Fiestas that found homes in April 2019. Last month’s figures brought with them further anomalies. New car registrations were so depressed that, in a reversal of normal trends, a van was the UK’s best-selling vehicle. Sales data showed that the Mercedes Sprinter outsold the best-selling car. The Tesla Model 3 was the UK’s most popular new car, with 658 registrations, achieved…