Innholdsfortegnelse for 03/02/2016 i Autocar

Alfa Romeo’s dramatic relaunch has been scaled back and delayed, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has revealed. In a presentation to investors, parent company FCA delivered an update on Alfa’s relaunch as a maker of lightweight, high-tech and sporty rear-wheel-drive driver’s cars built in Italy and powered by bespoke engines, announced to much fanfare in May 2014. The first of these, the Giulia, was revealed last summer and will go on sale in the UK in September. It was due to be followed by seven more new Alfas before 2018 as part of FCA’s €5 billion (£3.8bn) investment. FCA said the “commitment to the overall brand and product strategy remains in place” but “R&D, manufacturing and product investment [will be] reduced through 2018” and the “planned product line-up will now be…

LEXUS WILL REVEAL a hybrid version of the LC500 luxury performance coupé at the Geneva show. The LC500 combines a 467bhp naturally aspirated V8 with a striking design. The hybrid version, expected to be badged LC500h, will use Lexus’s 3.5-litre V6 mated to an electric motor to improve fuel consumption without damaging overall performance too much. A similar V6 hybrid set-up in the GS450h executive saloon gives that car a 0-62mph time of 5.9sec. The LC500 is built on an all-new rear-drive platform that combines lightweight materials, including carbonfibre, for the best combination of low weight and stiffness, Lexus says. Prices are yet to be announced, but they could mirror those of the LS saloon, which runs from £70,000 to just over £100,000.…

SKODA WILL PROVIDE a close preview of its first production SUV with the Vision S concept at next month’s Geneva show. The concept, which is teased here in this official sketch, will come with three rows of seats offering space for six passengers, although the production version is expected to be a seven-seater. The concept features a prominent grille with raked headlights and a large lower grille with side air intakes. The roofline dips towards the rear. The Vision S is around 4700mm long, 1910mm wide and 1680mm high, making it longer, wider and lower than the Kia Sorento. The production version will be pitched as a rival to the Sorento and its sister model, the Hyundai Santa Fe. Skoda’s SUV is expected to take the Kodiak name and should…

Longer punctuations between upshifts help to dramatise the moments of undiluted thrust When Caterham launched the 620R last year, it promised buyers that they were getting a road-going version of the R600 race car – the supercharged Seven built to satisfy a desensitised lunatic fringe who considered the R300 too pedestrian. The claim was not overstated. I enjoyed the 620R, just as you might conceivably enjoy an SAS Arctic survival course or being shot from a cannon. Realising that the combination of brutal sequential gearbox and track-spec suspension might not be to everyone’s taste, the manufacturer has duly followed it up with this, the 620S. Being the actual road-going version of the R600, the new model keeps the meat – in this case the 310bhp supercharged 2.0-litre Ford Duratec engine…

Driver Car is piloted autonomously until car-to-infrastructure GPS spies some quiet B-roads ahead and cedes control to the driver Chassis Constructed from a mix of lightweight steel, aluminium, carbon›ibre and bio-materials; engine parts are made of plastic Motors In-wheel electric motors are powered by a lithium sulphur battery that’s good for a driving range of more than 350 miles Tyres Adaptive tyres change shape according to road conditions and convert heat energy to electricity Relax: a quarter of a century from now, those of us who enjoy driving will still be turning the steering wheel, pressing the pedals and shifting the gearlever with our own limbs, via inputs from our brains and feedback from our senses. At least, we hope we will, because we’re not quite ready to change the…

Over the past 40 years, Subaru has built 14 million Symmetrical AWD vehicles. That’s more than any other manufacturer. In the process, it’s also built a global reputation for quality, strength, performance, and get-you-there ability. Discerning UK drivers have been happy to stump up for the supreme level of ability delivered by an AWD Subaru. After all, when it comes to looking after your family, ‘saving money’ should not be one of the tickboxes. hereassurancethatfl#owsfromSubarus experience and talent never came cheap. Except that, these days, it does. The entry price for an AWD Subaru is now just £17,495. Have a look around to see what else you can get for that price. You might be disagreeably surprised. Whatever it is that you manage to come up with, chances are that…

ON THE BUTTON Autocar’s road testers can blame drivers such as myself for asking Porsche to move the gearbox’s Sport button away from the centre console (Porsche 911 Carrera S road test, 20 January). This was as a result of preparing to overtake and having to look down to locate a hard-to-find button rather than concentrating on the articulated lorry in front and the approaching traffic on the other side of the road.› Derek Johnson via email MIXED SIGNALS Whatever happened to ‘mirror, signal, manoeuvre’? I’m referring to Mike Kislingbury’s letter (Your Views, 20 January), in which he comments on the fact that he could not see the indicators on the vehicle in front as they were buried in bright LED brake lights. While I sympathise, it’s a common…

Every year I migrate back to my family home for Christmas. This involves packing my life into the boot of whatever car I’m running and heading for the hills and back to Kettering. Last year this was no problem because I was in our long-term Nissan Qashqai, a car overflowing with practical storage solutions. The Jaguar is more limited in that regard. It has a smaller boot than its key rival, the BMW 3 Series, which offers 480 litres of space with its rear seats in place, compared with the XE’s 455 litres. The Jag’s boot floor is on a slope, too, meaning items loaded towards the seatbacks have a tendency to slide back towards the boot opening. Split/folding rear seats are an option on all XEs, but they’re not…

READER’S CAR: MERCEDES-BENZ CLS Jeremy Churchill loves his 2005 Mercedes CLS55 AMG. “I’ve always fancied CLSs,” he says, “but never thought I could afford to run one until I caught sight of two side by side on a sales lot. The first five minutes of the test drive was enough. That was two years and 20,000-plus miles ago. My concession to Bangernomics is to buy at the bottom of the depreciation curve, while it’s still fairly fresh and before it starts to become unreliable. I’ve enjoyed this one so much I suspect I’m going to try my luck again — but not too soon!” SEND YOUR BANGERNOMICS TALES TO JAMES Twitter: @Bangernomics Email: james@bangernomics.com WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK: DEFENDERS People minimal are -mile paying Land over…

Ferrari is planning to build a production hybrid that will combine supercar performance with the ability to travel as far as 30 miles in electric-only mode. The plans are detailed in a patent application that has been uncovered by Autocar and was filed last June. There’s no direct clue as to the identity of the new model, aside from it being front engined, which puts the replacement for today’s F12 Berlinetta (most likely by the end of the decade) in the frame. However, the nature of Ferrari’s new hybrid layout — with slimline batteries built into the floor structure and an electric motor attached the rear-mounted transmission — makes it suitable for future models with both front and mid-mounted engines. This means the hybrid system is also likely to be…

‘ When it came to the final car, the crowd was huge and so were the cheers’ THE MORNING STARTED early. It had long been arranged that the Land Rover faithful would pass through the famous gates of ‘The Home of the Legend’ by 7.15am, to be marshalled into place beside the longest-surviving production line on JLR’s mighty Solihull estate in order to witness the final build of the last dozen Defenders that would ever be made. Organisers swirled about and bacon rolls were plentiful, but no one really knew how it would go, or who would turn up. But it swiftly became clear that far more people would be on hand than were initially expected, and that the ruling mood, at least until the last car’s last moment, would…

VOLKSWAGEN HAS developed a lightweight version of its recently unveiled Golf GTI Clubsport to a production-ready stage, a high-ranking official has revealed. However, concerns over the 296bhp hot hatchback’s overtly sporting image at a time when VW is attempting to keep a low profile in the midst of the diesel emissions scandal mean the racy two-seater may never be offered to customers. The new front-wheel-drive Golf GTI Clubsport Lightweight was conceived as a road-legal race car. A decision on whether the Golf GTI Clubsport Lightweight will go into production rests with VW’s newly elected supervisory board, which is said to be concerned about the message the new car will project. VW still plans to show it at a fan event in May. If it were to make production, fewer than…

The BMW 330e is the latest entry into the fast-expanding market for plug-in hybrids. To be sold exclusively in saloon guise in the UK, it aims to sway executive car buyers away from petrol and diesel models with the promise of a zero-emission range of up to 25 miles and combined economy of 148.7mpg. The starting point for the 330e is the recently facelifted 320i, with which it shares its turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine, which produces 181bhp and 214lb ft. Joining it is an electric motor mounted within the 330e’s eight-speed automatic gearbox, delivering an added 87bhp and 184lb ft, either in combination with the petrol engine or on its own in pure electric mode. All up, BMW claims total system outputs of 249bhp and 398lb ft, all of which…

You don’t have to go too far back into Aston Martin’s tortuous corporate history to find a time when Lagonda saved it. Indeed, it’s the car that most people will associate with the name, the wedgy 1970s Aston Lagonda saloon, that can take the credit. This was a car famed for both its opinion-splitting design and the unreliability of its electronic systems, but one that also found a steady seam of buyers in an era when Aston was struggling to interest people in its increasingly outdated sports cars. Only 650 Lagondas were produced in 13 years, but they brought in much-needed revenue during a time when the company’s annual production never broke out of three figures, and sometimes dropped into two. Without it, there’s a very good chance Aston wouldn’t…

I couldn’t agree more with Dan Trent, custodian of your M4, in relation to the false exhaust sound BMW has given to the car (Our Cars, 20 January). From the outside, the sound coming from the exhaust gives it an aftermarket, big-bore exhaust resonance, and nothing approaching the well-engineered noise coming from the V8 engine. This translates to the inside of the car, where BMW has given further ‘help’ in an attempt to sex it up a bit — to the extent that Dan has needed to disconnect the speakers. This can’t be right. If you agree with my comments, have a look at the i8, with its little petrol engine, which has been given a sound like a V8 when you plant the throttle. It’s totally ridiculous. Keith Gaulton…

Pass the tissues: the 650S has gone back to McLaren. My sit-in protest failed and I didn’t want to chain myself to the alloys, because that might scuff them up for the next owner. The lucky so and so. Envious? Me? The 650S may be gone but it’s certainly not forgotten. But before I properly bid farewell to it with a full report in a few weeks’ time, I dished out the keys to a couple of colleagues. Photographer Luc Lacey and videographer James Holloway were the lucky winners, each getting the keys for extended weekend runs. They both loved the little electric window at the rear, mentioned last time, the lowering of which fills the cabin with engine noise. There were mixed reviews for the doors. Both James and…

1 Ford Fiesta ST 2.0 (2004-2008) Fast Fords tug at the heartstrings more than any other and are particularly captivating in small hatchback form. This may not be the best Fiesta ST in recent memory, but it still ticks the right boxes. An excellent chassis ensures precise handling, plenty of grip and little body roll, and with a hardworking engine, this little Ford offers real finesse and precision. Inside, you get figure-hugging part-leather seats, ST-branded kickplates and brightwork added to the dials and handbrake. This hot Fiesta isn’t as fast or hard-edged as some rivals, but it offers an excellent low-cost, all-round package. A 52,000-miler can be yours for less than £2800. 2 Peugeot 207 GTi 1.6 THP (2007-2012) Peugeot was under pressure to revive the former glories of its…

Mega-hatches 1 Volkswagen Golf R From £30,000 Blends the formerly unblendable: VW sophistication with frenzied driver appeal. Fantastic value for money. 2 Audi RS3 From £40,000 Too closely related to the VW to justify its price, but the five-pot makes it mind-meltingly fast. Comfy now, too. 3 Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG From £38,000 The new RS3 may make it sound a little tame, but that doesn’t mean its appeal is lost on us. Far from it. 4 BMW M135i From £31,000 Puts the old-school heft of a six-cylinder engine front and centre. Doesn’t quite have the handling to match. 5 Subaru WRX STI From £29,000 Not a hatch and not brilliant, but the WRX is the last outpost of the once mighty Japanese presence in this class. Visit autocar.co.uk for all…

The make-up of the next-generation Land Rover Defender remains shrouded in uncertainty, even though JLR sources admit that they need to get the model into production as a matter of the highest priority. Officials won’t admit it, but they’re acutely aware of the enormity of replacing the 68-year-old icon. However, in the wake of the recent sale of the two millionth Defender (for £400,000) and the assembly of the last Defender at Solihull, officials have admitted that no one feels good about proceeding without the model in the range. It is known that there will be more than one Defender model in future, with an insider describing the model line-up as “a small family”. It is certain to be related to existing product, as no other approach would be viable…

Aston Martin’s crucial new DB11 has been caught undisguised on a marketing shoot a month from its Geneva show debut. The DB11, which finally ushers in a new architecture, engine and styling direction for the British marque, was seen in Spain last week, with the image appearing on a Dutch website. The sole, grainy image, which Aston insiders have confirmed is of the new DB11, shows a striking new look for the car compared with the DB9 it replaces. The picture reveals nods to recent concepts, including the DBX and CC100, in its sharper lines and more muscular form, as well as elements of the DB10 created for the Bond film Spectre. However, several Aston Martin design cues are retained and the model remains instantly recognisable as an Aston. The…

Volkswagen should compensate owners of cars that are given revised fuel economy and emissions figures without being mechanically changed, Louise Ellman MP, chair of the transport committee, has said. Ellman’s comments came in response to an exclusive Autocar investigation that revealed 44 Audi and Seat models had their CO2 and fuel economy figures amended without explanation in December and January — shortly after the VW Group had claimed its investigations into CO2 irregularities were “largely concluded”. The changes affected Audi A1, A4 and Q3 models and Seat Ibiza and Leon derivatives. The most extreme change was to the Seat Leon X-Perience SE Technology 2.0 TDI auto, which had its emissions raised by 10g/km and fuel economy lowered by 5.3mpg. As a result, the second-year VED rate on that car will…

Whatever you compare it with, give it everything and the Huracán is savagely, hilariously fast Dismiss it as a boulevard cruiser if you wish. There’s even merit to the anti-cabriolet argument for a number of purist sports cars. But frankly, Lamborghinis suck up attention like they suck up super-unleaded, and the Huracán was made to be an open-top. So here it is, the Huracán LP610-4 Spyder. It has identical running gear to that of the existing coupé, so behind your ears is a throaty 5.2-litre V10, which streams its 602bhp to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. The fabric hood goes up or down in 17 seconds, at speeds of up to 30mph, but the extra mechanical gubbins needed to lift the lid have increased weight to…

The 471bhp GS F is Lexus’s entry into the super-saloon market. It follows the standard template for its kind with a hearty V8 powering the rear wheels, seating for at least four and a decent boot. The GS F stands out because it has no forced induction. While the BMW M5 and Mercedes-AMG E63 are turbocharged, the GS F’s 4969cc V8 is naturally aspirated, with its peak torque of 391lb ft developed at a lofty 4800-5600rpm. In the Germans, maximum twist is more than 500lb ft and comes at little above tickover. Modifications over the normal GS include chassis-stiffening reinforcements, aluminium-intensive components for the suspension, stiffer springs with passive performance dampers from ZF Sachs, upgraded Brembo brakes and a torque-vectoring differential. Styling tweaks add aggression to the nose, side skirts…

Pappu doesn’t want to risk getting the door mirror knocked off by using it “So, do the indicators work?” I ask, after squeezing in behind the sizeable steering wheel of the dilapidated Premier Padmini taxi. But I think I already know the answer. Sure enough, no, they don’t, I’m told by the taxi’s owner, Bhosad Pappu, who is sitting in the back looking on, tense. When I ask if the car has any other faults worth mentioning, his diagnosis doesn’t fill me with confidence. “Suspension, brakes, tyres, gearstick, gearbox, engine. I don’t know what’s wrong exactly, but it definitely needs a service,” he says, translated – with a concerned look – via my colleague, Rahul Kakar, who is sitting next to him. Some taxis are as famous as the landmarks…

Mileage 4250 It seems my CX-3 isn’t the only one afflicted by an annoying rattle from around the front passenger seat and, more recently, the rear seats every time I hit a pothole or go over a speed bump. A couple of readers have written in to complain of similar noises from the passenger seat, although theirs rattle only when unoccupied. Mine seems to be louder when the front seatbelt is actually in use. I’ve had a good look at the seat, the seatbelt and the holder, but nothing seems to be amiss. I’d be interested to hear from any other readers who may have this same issue, and to find out whether they managed to resolve it without visiting a dealer. Happily, however, I cured the rattle from the…

AA Cars’ new service offers dealers the ability to upload short video ‘walkarounds’ of their used car stock Flogging used cars: it’s not difficult, is it? All buyers want is the right car at the right price and with the minimum of fuss. Imagine if someone gave you a great big coin to stick in a slot and, after lots of whirring and mechanical noise, the used motor of your choice was delivered to the showroom floor from a multi-storey selection, like a can of pop from a machine. Well, that’s the most super-clever idea ever, and it’s enough to make me fly to Nashville, Tennessee, to try it. The company is called Carvana, and the used car dispensing machine — or automated parking garage, as it is more accurately…