Innholdsfortegnelse for 03/08/2016 i Autocar

“The cabin styling will be simpler and focus on making it feel more airy” The design and mechanical layout of the seventh-generation Ford Fiesta supermini, due to be unveiled at the end of this year, has been heavily influenced by two familiar small cars. One is the new budget Ka+, which promotes the Ka nameplate from the A-segment to the B-segment and frees the new Fiesta to move to a ‘mainstream premium’ position in Ford marketing parlance. The other influencer is the current, sixth-generation Fiesta, which is still setting records after seven years on sale. Its enduring popularity and great road ability reassure Ford that its customers will be happy with an evolutionary car. “The current Fiesta has been so successful,” one Ford insider told Autocar, “that it has earned…

THE BUGATTI CHIRON will not be offered in roadster guise, unlike its Veyron predecessor, according to the firm’s sales and marketing boss, Stefan Brungs. Talking to Autocar at the opening of Bugatti’s only UK showroom — HR Owen Bugatti in London — Brungs said there would be “no roadster or convertible” version. Asked about other, faster variants in the mould of the Veyron Super Sport, Brungs said: “We’re looking at different options.” He also said Bugatti was solely focusing on selling the 500 standard Chirons for the time being. Brungs cited the importance to Bugatti of the UK as a market. “London is one of the most important locations for Bugatti worldwide,” he said. Sixty-five Veyrons are currently owned by customers in the UK and 15 orders for the Chiron…

“There will be a sporty version and its performance level is not far away from a pure sports car’s” Kia is poised to launch a stylish four-door sports saloon that takes its inspiration from the firm’s GT concept car. It’s five years since Kia first showed the GT concept at the 2011 Frankfurt show, but now the long wait for the production equivalent is almost over. The showroom version, due next year, will stick closely to the formula suggested by the GT concept. That means a rear-wheel drive chassis and low-slung, coupé-like styling, with a variety of engines that will include a high-performance version. Although this won’t be the first rear-drive Kia, the production GT will be far more dynamically focused than the existing K9/K900 limousine, which is not sold…

It may not be as important to Jaguar’s future as the F-Pace SUV, or indeed the regular XE itself, but this new all-wheel-drive version of its compact executive saloon is born out of the same desire to expand into sectors of the market traditionally dominated by the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The all-wheel drive system is related to the one found in other Jaguars, which means it’s mostly rear-biased. In fact, much of the time the car remains entirely rear-wheel drive, but it will divert up to 50% of its power towards the front wheels when slip is detected. Naturally, there’s a penalty for the additional hardware, with kerb weight rising by around 100kg, and CO2 emissions and fuel consumption figures have also headed in the wrong direction.…

“It feels as fast as a McLaren P1 or Porsche 918 Spyder and is more immersive than both” They named it after the bomber, not the Star Trek species, apparently. Which makes sense. One was conceived to be noisy, obviously threatening, heinously expensive and limited in production and was destined to spend most of its time ready to run but actually mostly sat idle. The other one majors on logic. And whichever way you look at it, there’s nothing terribly logical about an 820bhp 7.0-litre V12-powered car that you can drive only on track days that have remarkably liberal noise limits. The Aston Martin Vulcan measures at 118dB when its exhaust is in angry mode but can be reduced to 103dB with optional baffles in place. For a while,…

“In Dynamic mode it sounds like a small war on wheels” How much do you pay per unit of F-Type power? The base 3.0 V6 coupé costs £154.55 for each of its 335bhp and the 375bhp V6 S £162.07 per horsepower, while the all-wheel-drive V8 R’s 542bhp requires £169.15 and the 567bhp SVR £194. Visit tuner Viezu Technologies, however, and you can decisively improve the bhp-per-pound ratio. Viezu’s tuning costs £8108 on top of the £91,680 of a V8 R, taking the total to £99,788, with a cost-per-bhp of £155.68 – usefully less than you pay per unit of SVR horsepower. Better still, you get plenty more grunt, the 641bhp, 687lb ft Viezu F-Type comfortably outsmoking the SVR’s 567bhp and 516lb ft. There’s no smoke at all when we witness…

FIRST DRIVE How good is the new Aston Martin DB11? Matt Prior delivers his verdict on the most important Aston Martin for years ROAD TEST Controversial 718 Cayman S Every aspect of Porsche’s new coupé analysed, not least that turbo motor LONG DRIVE Range Rover Evoque cabrio Is the smash-hit Evoque just as capable with its top down? FEATURE Big bangs for small bucks Which new car offers the greatest performance per pound? SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe…

Reactions to the Jazz have been decidedly mixed so far. One of my daughters called it “embarrassing” and the other asked that I don’t drive her to school in it just in case anyone in her class should see it. Whether their reactions are a comment on the colour of the car or the car itself, or a combination of the two, I haven’t asked. Certainly, people in the street find my Attract Yellow car amusing, and I’ve discovered it tones in quite nicely with parking tickets. Back at Autocar headquarters, I haven’t noticed the keys flying off my desk with quite the same alacrity as when I ran a Lexus long-term test car, or a Jaguar, or even a Nissan Qashqai. Alas, the Jazz is often unfairly derided as…

FAMILY SUVS 1 Land Rover Discovery Sport From £32,400 Seven seats, lots of space, fine on-road handling and Land Rover’s usual off-road capability — plus new-found desirability. 2 Jaguar F-Pace From £34,200 Credible first SUV effort handles like a proper Jaguar. Deserves a better engine than the entry-level diesel. 3 BMW X3 From £31,300 A close match for the Land Rover in terms of practicality and dynamism but with better engines and equipment levels. 4 Volvo XC60 From £31,300 Refreshing design now made more competitive by Volvo’s recent engine revolution. Not quite as spacious as some. 5 Mercedes-Benz GLC From £35,000 Not exactly exciting to drive but does luxury and re›inement better than anything else in the class. CITY CARS 1 Volkswagen Up From £8800 VW’s city car is no…

“The 0-62mph time is likely to drop to around 4.2sec, while top speed is set to climb to 167mph” A high-performance Ford Focus RS500 is awaiting the final production go-ahead for a launch next spring. The limited-run RS500 is under development in Germany by Ford Performance as one of 12 high-performance models due before 2020 (see right). The go-ahead is understood to hinge on practicalities such as whether the 500 limited-run models can be added to the Focus production line in Cologne without too much disruption and ensuring there’s a business case for the RS500 to be a financial success. Ford won’t discuss future products, but a source told Autocar that the RS500 is “not genuinely green-lighted, but the desire exists to have a star in the RS and ST…

Development of Porsche’s all-electric Mission E saloon is under way, with spy pictures emerging of a mule that is understood to be testing the new powertrain. The mule appears to be based on the so-called baby Panamera, which was shelved in 2014, but it’s understood that the small saloon will now morph into the production version of the Mission E concept, unveiled at the 2015 Frankfurt motor show. The four-door EV is due to go on sale by the end of the decade. Despite this mule featuring exhaust tailpipes, which are most likely intended to conceal its real powertrain, technical specifications for the Mission E will include a lithium ion battery pack capable of providing a range of more than 330 miles. In combination with two electric motors, it promises…

Bristol’s new £250,000, two-seat Bullet will be the precursor to a new generation of high-tech range-extender models that will begin as soon as the run of 70 V8-powered roadsters is complete late next year. The new generation of Bristols will have a brand new electric drive platform and a small charging engine but will continue the company’s 70-year tradition of making exclusive, luxurious GT cars. Over the past five years Bristol has acquired expertise in low-emissions vehicles through its electronics arm, Frazer-Nash, composites partner URT Group and Metrocab, which has developed a range-extender taxi to meet London’s stricter emissions regulations. The partners are all part of Kamkorp Group, owned by the UK-based Indian technology entrepreneur Kamal Siddiqi, whose profile rose abruptly when he bought the Filtonbased car manufacturer in 2011.…

Kia doesn’t expect SUV sales to peak any time soon and says the decision to launch the small Niro hybrid as a crossover has already been justified by its early success. Thomas Oh, Kia’s chief operating officer, said demand is running ahead of expectations in Korea and anticipates around 40,000 sales in the US next year and 20,000 in Europe once the car is launched here. “It doesn’t look like a Prius because Prius customers are very loyal,” he said, “but many customers want small SUVs, including those looking for eco-friendly cars.” A Niro EV is also expected alongside the hybrid.…

If you have a liking for beautifully finished, high-precision tuning parts, the pieces laid out on a table deep within the Mini factory in Oxford might just get you excited. On display is a quartet of four blue coil springs, a pair of these being Nitron coilovers and all four of them height-adjustable. Also present – and a surprisingly heavy thing to lift – is the flanged, step-domed shape of a Quaife automatic torque-biasing limited-slip differential. Absent from the table, for reasons of weight and bulk, are the carbonfibre-tipped JCW Pro sports exhaust whose straight-through valve is operated by remote Bluetooth control, a set of drilled and grooved brake discs and four lightweight Team Dynamics 17in gloss black-coated alloys and their Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. Also missing are…

MODEL TESTED 1.0T BOOSTERJET SZ5 Price £13,999 • Power 110bhp • Torque 125lb ft • 0-60mph 9.8sec • Fuel economy 55.2mpg • CO2 emissions 105g/km • 70-0mph 49.8m • 30-70mph in fourth 15.2sec Suzuki must by now be well used to the idea that it isn’t fated to be like other car makers. It has made two concerted attempts to sell what we might consider to be a typical family-use, full-sized hatchback in both Europe and the US. The most recent of them, you may remember, was the Liana. But before the Liana came the original Baleno, a decent but typically unadventurous model, available in hatch, saloon and estate bodies, that was launched in 1995. Built on a stretched Swift platform, it was the car intended to propel Suzuki into…

Frequent visitors to mainland Europe rarely pass up the chance to bemoan the relative state of the UK’s motorway network, in my experience. Compared with the paid-for indulgence of French autoroutes or the distance-munching majesty of much of Germany’s derestricted autobahns, the overworked and undervalued grey sprawl of hurt that UK drivers are expected to tolerate has long been a national embarrassment. Right now, its torrid state seems to have grown particularly acute. On a trip from the Midlands to Glasgow and back not so long ago, I turned up lengthy roadworks on the M1, M6, A1(M) and A74(M) – all in place on the same weekend. They probably amounted to 100 miles and several hours of delays and provided a tougher test of patience than on any long-distance trip…

Our Bentley Continental GT V8 has finally departed. The exhaust rumble that used to emanate nightly from our chairman’s parking space under the building (he donated his spot to the Bentley for the duration) is stilled at last and the car has gone to find a new owner. Our 22,000-mile GT – an early 2013 model priced at £89,950 instead of the £140k you’d pay today – arrived in December and was meant to stay for three months. It was here for more than six, mostly because we kept finding enjoyable things to do with it, and Bentley (aware of how directly its owners associate their cars with good times) was happy to go along. Thus, we were able to drive the GT to Silverstone to see its race-bred brothers…

MILEAGE 900 (OKAY, IT’S BEEN AROUND THE CLOCK A BIT) MINI COOPER I thought I had better introduce you to each member of the fleet. I’ll start with the smallest: my 1964 Mini Cooper. You’ve seen it in these pages before. We’ve been together since 1979 and it is now a tax-free classic, with marginal insurance and running costs. I rather like the fact that it’s a hand-built Brit with a Formula 1 pedigree. I can do most little jobs on it, and with regular exercise it hasn’t caused any problems, apart from a dead starter motor last year. So say ‘hello’ to my pocket-sized recreational vehicle. There’s no real point to owning it except that it seems to increase in value daily and is more fun to drive than…

“Prices for the best used Caymans have been firming as more people realise how good it is” For 10 years, the Porsche Cayman has toiled quietly away in the shadows of the Boxster on one side and the 911 on the other, earning the admiration of enthusiast drivers with its steering, brakes and sweet, mid-engine balance. Whereas you might need a track to fully appreciate the 911’s full range of talents, a good, quiet road is all the Cayman requires. It’s that accessible. It’s practical, too, with enough space for a golf bag in the boot and a soft bag or two under the bonnet. Unsurprisingly, prices for the best used ones have been firming in recent years as more people realise just how good the Cayman is. Those prices…

BMW claims its new generation of Efficient Dynamics petrol and diesel engines will offer economy gains, smoother running, improved acoustic qualities and — especially in the case of the diesels — much more efficient pollution control. The new engines are designed for transverse and longitudinal installations, so they will be used in future Minis as well as BMWs. The company isn’t saying when the engines will arrive, but it’s likely some will make their debut in the next 5 Series, which is expected to go on sale later this year. BMW promises around a 5% cut in CO2 emissions, 7bhp more power and about 15lb ft more torque. However, it’s thought the redesigned engines have been primarily optimised to reduce exhaust pollutants to meet impending stringent regulations. The petrol triples…

“The XC40 will be the first Volvo to introduce the modular 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine” Volvo’s new XC40, the brand’s first foray into the booming market for compact SUVs, is set to make a Geneva motor show debut next March — and Autocar has been given exclusive access to its precursor, the Concept 40.1. The XC40, described by Volvo design boss Thomas Ingenlath as the beginning of a new Volvo design generation, will be closely based on the 40.1, which was first revealed in May. The 40.1’s sister saloon study, Concept 40.2, unveiled at the same time, also points strongly to the expected launch of a V40 hatch once the crossover is established in the market. It will also adopt the concept’s crisp, elegant lines and could incorporate the 40.2’s…

UK-BASED CAR manufacturing plants could still make a record two million cars per year by 2020, but hitting that goal hinges on positive government support for the industry in the wake of the Brexit vote, according to the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The news comes as the UK car making industry recorded its 11th consecutive month of growth, building 158,641 cars in June — its best performance in the first six months of a year for 16 years. The rise was driven by exports, which accounted for 695,139 units of the total of 897,157 manufactured this year to date. Britain is Europe’s third-largest car manufacturer, behind Germany and Spain. “Brexit creates uncertainty, but we can point to the productivity record of the plants here — which are…

Kia is set to launch a wave of hot GT derivatives — and the chassis tune of more basic cars will become more dynamically focused. The original Procee’d GT was designed exclusively for Europe, but Hyundai-Kia’s chassis boss, Albert Biermann, has said future versions will be global. “The Cee’d GT is a very balanced car,” he told Autocar, “but we’re a few years further down the road, and if we were to engineer it now, it would have some more spice to it.” Although Biermann said “GT is not right for all Kia models”, the plan is to create performance derivatives of most of the company’s mainstream cars. The Optima GT is set to be launched shortly and there are plans to create a GT version of the next Rio…

“As the road opens up, you begin to get a feel for the Morgan’s inherent balance” Unveiled at the 1936 London motor show, the Morgan 4/4 can lay claim to being the longest-running production car in the world, with 2016 marking the 80th anniversary of this British icon. Forget the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, Volkswagen Beetle and first-generation Mini: the 4/4 is the king of automotive longevity. To celebrate the roadster’s eight decades of existence, Morgan has produced a limited run of commemorative 4/4s. Inspired by the first examples, this 80th Anniversary edition has a host of classic cues, including solid wheels with brass centre locks, quad bonnet straps, a brass grille and an old-school mohair roof with part tonneau cover. Three classic colour schemes are available: Dark Red, Saxe Blue…

Those chrome door handles say it all. On one hand, they’re a statement of Suzuki’s ambition to expand into new territory with the new Baleno, which is desperately trying to be more mature, rounded, usable and sophisticated than any supermini we’ve seen before from the Japanese manufacturer. And yet they’re also symbolic of a model that’s been over-decorated and undercooked – one that has so many of the trimmings of a classy European equivalent but lacks much of the material quality and vital engineering substance. A fine engine, a practical cabin and boot, a high equipment level and a low price may be all the Baleno needs to convince the modest required number of British buyers each year to get their money out – but we suspect they won’t be…

Your Volvo S90 road test (Autocar, 13 July) got me thinking. I suppose Volvo has always made huge cars and will continue to do so, because the profit margins are so much better. However, years ago there was a 340 model that was Volkswagen Golf-sized but awful. It sold by the shedload, because many buyers felt invincible with that badge on the front. Do you think anyone at Volvo will have the imagination to scale down future model sizes so that, in the real world of gridlock and supermarket car parks, a more user-friendly 340 will happen? Well, I’d be interested for one. Richard Jenyon Hastings WIN Letter of the week wins this ValetPRO exterior protection and maintenance kit worth £58.95…

“We’re 1000 miles into our ‘ownership’ and averaging 55mpg without trying too hard” I’ve got previous here. The first car I bought with my own money was a saloon – a 2007 Ford Focus four-door – and I loved it. I loved it because it did everything the regular Focus hatchback did but also included a bit of its own image, a bit of flair and individuality. Rubbish, you might be thinking: saloon versions of popular hatches aren’t any more practical – and are considerably less popular – than the cars on which they’re based. They also rarely make it to the UK. Saloon versions of the Vauxhall Astra and Focus are sold widely across mainland Europe, but neither is available here, because British buyers tend to opt for either…

BMW 530i Ash Walker bought this E39 530i for £1400 six months ago with 104,000 miles on the clock and a full history. “I fell in love with it and decided to keep it forever,” he says. “I have since done a major service — brakes, reconditioned gearbox, rocker cover gasket and cam sensor — all myself, saving a small fortune on labour. I also got a set of headlight adjusters for £5 and machine-polished lenses. The lights are like new, rather than £450 a side for new ones from BMW. I will never sell this car. It’s a future classic.” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com…

SUZUKI SWIFT | 2017 This fourth-generation hatch will maintain its place in Suzuki’s range as the smaller, lighter and more ‘emotional’ sibling to the Baleno. Engines for the new Swift will include the 1.0-litre Boosterjet and possibly the 1.2-litre Dualjet. Spy shots of the car show that many design features remain, such as the ‘floating’ roof, while some, such as the headlights, are taken from the Baleno. It’s likely that the three-door Swift will be axed for next year, hence the price increase from £8999. Price £10,000 (est) AUTUMN / WINTER 2016 Alfa Romeo Giulia, Alpina B7, Aston Martin DB11, V12 Vantage S Spitfire 80, Audi Q5, A5, R8 Spyder, S5, TT RS, Bentley Bentayga, Mulsanne facelift, BMW M140i, M240i, 740e, 740Le, M3 30 Jahre, Bugatti Chiron, Citroën C3 Picasso,…