Innholdsfortegnelse for 01/06/2016 i Autocar

VOLVO’S NEW THREE-cylinder T5 plug-in hybrid powertrain will significantly reduce the number of diesel cars it produces as it reacts to increasingly tough diesel emissions standards. The new T5 hybrid system was shown in Gothenburg last month, alongside two 40-series concepts, and it will appear for the first time in the production XC40 next year. It uses a 74bhp electric motor that can power one of the shafts of a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox alongside a 180bhp turbocharged 1.5-litre three-pot petrol engine. Electrical power comes from a 9.7kWh battery pack, which will give around 30 miles of electric-only range. According to Volvo’s head of R&D, Peter Mertens, the set-up is more efficient than rival hybrids and easier and cheaper to produce. “It is a very attractive alternative to a diesel…

The removal of two doors and the remodelled rear required ‘a lot of welding’ Skoda has revealed a two-door coupé that has been designed by a team of students who invested 1700 hours developing it. The Atero, which started life as a five-door Skoda Rapid Spaceback, isn’t on Skoda’s development agenda — “it’s too niche,” said a spokesman — but the name has been copyrighted and potentially could reappear on a future production model. The car itself is the result of an in-house competition for Skoda students, now in its third year, that invites them to dream up a variation on an existing model and pitch it to management. The winners then get the chance to build the car in concept form. The Atero was picked from a field of…

DS will lead the PSA Group’s onslaught of electric and plug-in vehicles, the company has confirmed, with a rollout starting in 2019. The news follows the company’s recent announcement that it will launch four new battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and seven plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) by 2021. The group — which consists of the Peugeot, Citroën and DS brands — has previously said it will use only two platforms in future and has now confirmed more details surrounding these. The existing EMP2 platform, which was launched in 2013, will form the basis of the larger models, including C and D-segment saloon, SUV and crossover PHEVs. PSA believes PHEV technology better suits larger vehicles, so the new BEVs will only be developed on the new and smaller Common Modular Platform…

The definitive version of the Elemental RP1, the new British sports car from the Hampshire-based startup company, is taking shape ahead of its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed later this month. The latest version — dubbed ‘pre-production one’ and built to full customer specification — is significantly changed compared with the prototype tested by Autocar last summer. According to Elemental’s engineers, “almost every nut and bolt” on the £92,700 car has been re-engineered, replaced or improved following test sessions and feedback from potential customers. Visual changes are subtle but include a rear section that is slightly lower to improve airflow and rearward visibility. The aerodynamics have been tweaked, with larger side vents now incorporated into the bodywork behind the cabin to improve airflow to the engine, and…

Feelsome, direct and accurate steering draws you into the driving experience by your fingertips The long-time supercar-slaying Nissan GT-R – ‘Godzilla’ to those on familiar terms – has just been renewed for a scarcely believable ninth year in the showroom. If the R35-generation GT-R were a Porsche or Ferrari, of course, it would have been replaced already. But instead of an all-new version, Nissan is giving us what it calls the car’s biggest and most transformative facelift yet. The modifications incorporate a wide-ranging cabin update – including new seats, dashboard and infotainment – and an exterior design refresh that comprises new bumpers, a new grille and bonnet, deeper side sills and a new rear diffuser. Meanwhile, an aerodynamic reappraisal increases cooling and downforce without adding drag. A structural redesign has…

You need a run-up and some momentum to conquer any steep sand dune ascent Being known as a practically unbreakable, go-anywhere tool would be enough for most vehicles in the motoring world. And then there’s the new Toyota Hilux, which is attempting to have its cake and eat it by not only remaining as tough as they come but also appealing to a much wider audience by adding a more comfortable ride, a more SUV-like driving experience, a higher-quality and more gadget-laden interior and a more economical engine. It’s quite a brief – one with a significant dose of ambition, with Toyota aiming to develop a vehicle that you can enjoy and get the best out of without having to own a game reserve in Namibia. Ah, Namibia. The southern…

Think carefully, MG News of the MG GS and two more MG SUVs makes commercial sense (News, 18 May). What is frustrating is the implication that because the roadster market is a slender one, MG fans should not hold out hope for a new sports car. Nobody sent that memo to Mazda, Fiat, BMW or Toyota. I was reminded of the logic at British Leyland when Lord Stokes decided to close down the (costly) ‘Competitions’ department at the MG factory but kept selling sporty parts through ‘Leyland Special Tuning’. For a while, this seemed to work, until customers realised that ‘ST’ was trading on past glories and eventually the business withered. The present-day MG Motor seems intent on trading on some of the marque’s sporty reputation without the credibility of…

A call from Continental Tyres. Now that temperatures are starting to rise, the time has come to lose the Audi A4’s winter tyres and refit the originals. Winter tyres? I’d almost forgotten the car was wearing them. Sadly, we have not had the kind of winter I would like for this rubber and must now accept we’re not going to get one. So although I cannot tell you how a set of WinterContacts behaves in the snow, what I can tell you is that the reasons you’d get rid of your winters as soon as possible simply no longer apply. Yes, the Contis have increased road noise, softened the steering and impaired the handling, but by degrees so small that I noticed when they first replaced the summer tyres and…

1 Lotus Elise SC (2008-2010) What do you get when you take a car weighing just 900kg with a 1.8-litre engine that revs to 8000rpm and then whack a supercharger on it? One of the best Elises to date. The result is 217bhp sent through the rear wheels and face-stretching acceleration. Zero to 60mph requires just 4.4sec and it takes only 10.7sec to get from standstill to 100mph. As with lesser-powered Elises, the handling remains epic, with one of the best steering set-ups of any car. This is a hand-built, low-production sports car, so you’d be optimistic to expect bulletproof reliability. However, not too much seems to go wrong. We found a 2010 SC with 14,000 miles on the clock for £23,950. 2 Mercedes-Benz SLK 200 K (1996-2004) We love…

NOT LONG BEFORE the RS16’s Monaco debut, I went to Renault’s Aubevoye test centre, 50 miles north-west of Paris, to ride in the black prototype on a smoothly flowing two-mile handling track. I was lucky to go with David Praschl, the car’s chief development driver, who knew the car inside out and had played a leading hand in tuning its chassis. Already settled in the left-hand seat when I arrived, he smiled and held the door open. The engine idled benignly. It wasn’t benign. Praschl had done lots of laps already — you could smell the brakes — and we erupted away from a standstill. My recollection is of unstinting acceleration, well into three figures. In the first braking area, there was no evidence of the nose-heaviness I’d half expected;…

FORD PERFORMANCE IS starting work on the next-generation Fiesta and Focus ST, now that the Focus RS is in production, but a hot version of the current Mondeo looks increasingly unlikely. Speaking at the Autocar Awards last week, Focus RS chief engineer Tyrone Johnson confirmed his next job was to start work on the replacements for the Fiesta and Focus STs. Although Johnson wouldn’t discuss production dates, the new Focus and Fiesta are due in production in 2018-2019, suggesting launch dates for the ST versions of 2019-2020. Johnson says both cars will have to retain their blend of accessible performance and everyday usability but will also have to evolve to deal with competition from new rivals. Johnson was less encouraging about a Mondeo ST being engineered to rival the Audi…

BMW HAS REVEALED a limited-edition M3 called the 30 Jahre, which is heavily based on the M3 Competition Package and celebrates the model’s 30th anniversary. The M3 30 Jahre will go on sale this summer. Only 30 examples will be available in the UK, priced at £82,675. The M3 30 Jahre has the same performance figures as the M3 Competition Package, hitting 62mph from rest in 4.0sec with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Engine output is increased by 19bhp over the standard M3 to 444bhp, and the model has a few visual tweaks to distinguish it. Alongside exclusive Frozen Silver metallic paint, the car features embossed ‘30 Jahre M3’ logos on the front seat headrests, exterior badging on the sides and a logo on the door sill finishers. Other features…

Last year, Ssangyong revealed a concept dubbed the XLV Air (‘XLV’ for Exciting Lifestyle Vehicle.) It was essentially an elongated version of its small SUV, the Tivoli, which has since found about 63,000 homes around the world. The Air concept hinted at a seven-seat layout, but the production version seats just five. However, because the XLV has the same wheelbase as the standard Tivoli but nearly 24cm more length beyond its C-pillars, it now has a much larger boot, at a claimed 720 litres. Ssangyong hopes the XLV will take Tivoli-based sales nearer the 100,000 mark worldwide. The expectation is that UK buyers will want a higher specification, so here the XLV is available only with the pricier 113bhp 1.6 e-XDi 160 four-cylinder diesel, with a manual or automatic gearbox…

So often when older cars gather together for a drive like this, parting company at the end of the day is tinged with sadness. Not just because a good day driving borrowed cars has come to an end but also because the cars you’ve left behind have been replaced by a gnawing feeling that won’t go away. The truth is that for all their technical excellence, modern cars are often just not as much fun to drive as their forebears. How could they be? Customers have spoken and they’ve come down so hard on the side of mass-augmenting safety systems and bottom-softening comfort features that a generational shift towards cars that happily trade driving pleasure for ease of use has emerged. Yet through it all, two small voices have begged…

The Cup-S is the run-out edition of Renault Sport’s hot Mégane in its current form. It represents one last turn of the product crank handle Dieppe has been enthusiastically turning since 2004. Potentially, given the division’s track record (and its eagerness for actual track records), the final version could have been another skeletal masterpiece in the Trophy-R vein, perhaps divested of passenger seat and dashboard this time and tickled even closer to 300bhp – a front-drive racing car in all but name. But it’s not. It would take time and money to fine-tune such a car, and with Renault shutting down production in July, the Cup-S is a final, volume-generating throw of the dice rather than a last-gasp effort for yet more kudos. Which is perfect for two reasons. Number…

Mileage 15,280 The Volvo has been on the move a lot, again, to the Alps, to the former RAF Alconbury for an upcoming feature and to Ikea, all with other people. And to work, and back, and work, and back, with me. It’s the default choice for anybody who has a lot of miles to do. To its skiing holiday occupants, it was superbly accommodating. They liked the same things I do: the ease and comfort of driving it, some luggage space even with seven seats in place and being able to push different seats up or down to squeeze in long loads. But, like me, they found the odd foible. For example, if you need to pop the XC90’s gearbox into Park and unfasten the seatbelt and open the…

I was briefly distracted by BMW 645s with impressively high mileages at around £5k Bicycles. Yes, I know this is a magazine about motors, but there are times when it is important to be able to squeeze difficult objects into those motors. In my experience, nothing is more difficult than a pushbike of the non-folding variety. Even taking the bike’s wheels off doesn’t seem to help much at all, but imagine trying to find an interesting automatic coupé that can take a bike inside. That’s just what I’ve been doing. So any thoughts of £1000 worth of Renault Kangoo can be dismissed right now. The obvious place is to start with the fairly generous four to five-seat coupés. I find myself looking at BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz CLKs, but…

Family hatchbacks 1 Volkswagen Golf From £17,600 Expensive it may be, but there’s enough class here to make the tag look reassuringly precise. A class above 2 Ford Focus From £14,000 Has a blend of ride and handling that rivals can’t match. One of the UK’s most popular cars for all the right reasons. 3 Seat Leon From £16,200 As always, a Golf in cheaper Spanish drag. Margins are cleverly engineered to show, but this is the best Leon yet. 4 Vauxhall Astra From 16,500 The sixth generation British-built hatchback is an improvement on it predecessors and a contender once again. 5 Mazda 3 From £17,000 As ever, it seems, the Mazda aces driveability and efficiency but fails to totally convince in an all-star class. Visit autocar.co.uk for all of…

The prototype was given a high-speed run by Renault F1 driver Kevin Magnussen Renault Sport has revealed the fastest model in its 40-year history, the 271bhp Clio RS16, choosing the Friday of the Monaco Grand Prix meeting for a special high-speed demonstration of its prototype, driven by Renault Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen. The RS16, officially a concept, combines the 2.0-litre turbo engine and manual gearbox of the Mégane RS 275 Trophy-R — the firm’s quickest car to date and a recent Nürburgring front-drive record holder — with the lighter and smaller Clio RS body, adding a selection of exotic RS running gear, including some from its range of competition cars. Renault hopes the car will be as prominent in RS history as the mid-engined Renault R5 Turbo and the…

The hardcore Nismo version of Nissan’s GT-R has been revised as part of the firm’s 2017-model-year update for the super-coupé line-up. The revised model will be available to order from next week (at a price expected to at least match its predecessor’s £125k) and UK deliveries will start in December. Compared with the outgoing car, the new GT-R Nismo gets a stiffened body structure, retuned track-ready suspension and a more aerodynamic body with even greater downforce. Adding between 2% and 6% to the car’s localised torsional rigidity, the standard GT-R’s revised body-in-white provides a more effective platform for tuning the Nismo’s stiffened coil springs, adaptive Bilstein DampTronic dampers and beefed-up anti-roll bars. As a result, Nissan claims the GT-R Nismo is 2% quicker than the previous car through a benchmark…

Some hybrids look good on paper yet fail to deliver in the real world, but we saw 64.2mpg Kia’s Niro may look like a fairly conventional crossover, but underneath is a brand-new platform with some seriously eco-friendly credentials. Its efficient Atkinson-cycle petrol engine and electric assistance promise sub-100g/km CO2 emissions. Combined power output is 139bhp and it is channelled through a six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox – no CVT here. Thanks to the compact, power-dense lithium ion battery, it’s able to sit beneath the rear seats so as not to affect boot space. The Niro itself is a bit bigger than Kia’s Cee’d hatchback but smaller than the Sportage SUV. Although prices have not yet been confirmed, it won’t be the cheapest crossover because of the hybrid powertrain. Even so, it…

Dates in history remind us of great and tragic events. The day you passed your driving test (first time, hopefully) or maybe the day you got married (first or second time). For some, a date that resides painfully in the memory is 29 January 2016, when, after 67 years of production, the final new Land Rover Defender rumbled into life. This has left many loyal Defender owners with a problem, but there may be a solution. Don’t throw away your old Defender: just refresh it. Dare we say, improve it? Well, that’s what JE MotorWorks claims to do. The company behind the claim has been around for more than 40 years and now its existence, alongside rivals such as Kahn and Twisted, seems to make even more sense. One of…

DRESSED TO IMPRESS You pitted the new Bentley Bentayga against the Range Rover 5.0 V8 SVAutobiography — and that lengthy name highlights the dichotomy (‘Diamonds in the Rough’, 11 May). One can spend from circa £70,000 to £150,000 to get into a Range Rover, and onlookers would be hard pressed to calculate which ‘dressed-up’ model was sitting at the traffic lights. But there is only one Bentayga waiting at the lights. Danny Rose Esher, Surrey BETTER THAN BENTLEY I was staggered by the outcome of your Bentley Bentayga and Range Rover comparison. The very large, ungainly elephant in the room is what kind of person might think the Bentley is vaguely attractive at any price? Personally, I don’t think it’s pretty. At all. The Range Rover is so evolved and…

Two months on from the arrival of my Peugeot 308 GTi, we’re already developing quite a bond. Behind the wheel, it has more than proved itself as a daily driver. It’s perfectly sedate around town, despite its hot hatch capabilities. But I can’t deny that having 266bhp on tap is useful; the turbo spools up quickly to boost you away from the lights with an aggressiveness that always surprises those new to the car. One recent example comes courtesy of an airport parking driver who, after delivering the car to me, eloquently volunteered: “It’s quick, isn’t it?” That’s not the most reassuring thing to hear, but there’s no doubting he’s right. Not only does it get away from a standstill swiftly, but with consistent torque throughout the range, you could…

READER’S CAR: FORD KA Lewis Collier has a 2001 Ford Ka Collection 1.3 that he bought for just £360. “At first, I was simply looking for a first car with the cheapest possible insurance,” he says, “but now after owning it for six months, I’ve fallen in love with it. “Other than fixing an electrical issue in the first week, it has been perfect — nothing major at all. Despite my friends calling it many unpleasant names to begin with, they now love it, too. I’ve even been thinking of upgrading to the 1.6-litre SportKa.” WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK: V OLVO C30 I keep coming back to the Volvo C30. It is a well-designed hatchback and becoming better value by the day. It’s better to buy this long-lost…