Innholdsfortegnelse for 28/12/2016 i Autocar

It remains the “dream” of Mazda design chief Ikuo Maeda to put the rotary-powered RX-Vision sports car concept into production. Revealed at the Tokyo motor show in October 2015, the two-seat, two-door coupé concept was officially described at the time as being “Mazda’s vision for the ultimate in front-engined, rear-wheel-drive sports car styling”. Maeda said the car was his “lifeline” but Mazda didn’t “have any specific plan yet for design development”. Although no design work is currently ongoing, he said: “We’re still looking at it [the project as a whole], yes. It hasn’t just stopped.” The design team and other senior executives all share a desire to bring a rotary-powered sports car back to the Mazda range. However, the business case for it and the technological breakthrough to solve rotary’s…

VOLKSWAGEN BOSSES ARE still evaluating what to call the company’s economy brand when it is launched in China around 2019. The new brand — the Volkswagen Group’s 14th after the debut of its Moia mobility brand last month — will be launched initially in China before being sold in other emerging markets such as India. VW’s board member in charge of R&D, Frank Welsch, confirmed plans are continuing to launch a “family” of economy cars but said the brand’s name is still under discussion. “It is not yet decided,” he said. “We’ve discussed having a sub-brand on its own, or it could be ‘Such and such a car name by VW’. We will see.” At least two SUVs are said to be under development, but Welsch would confirm only this:…

AUDI HAS CONFIRMED that a Q8 concept — a near- production-ready version of the upcoming Q8 SUVcoupé — will appear at the Detroit motor show. Set to top Audi’s line-up of Q-badged SUVs when it arrives in 2018, the BMW X6 and Mercedes-Benz GLE rival will share its engineering with the Q7 and have a range of petrol and diesel powertrains. It will also be offered as a hybrid, as confirmed by these sketches, which show an e-tron badge, used by Audi to denote its hybrid and electric models. The four-seat Q8 is also expected to share many of the advanced systems being developed for next year’s A8, including a 48V electrical system, OLED high-definition digital displays and the latest in autonomous driving functions. In the UK, the sleek SUV…

“Lotus in profit shock: the company actually went into the black this autumn” The growth in UK new car sales in recent years is set to come to an end after the highs of 2016. The 2.7 million new cars sold this year is a near-40% increase over the 2011 trough of 1.94m. The big question is over the extent of the coming decline. The SMMT expects a 5% reduction next year, but many dealers suggest closer to 10% due to declining consumer confidence and rising prices. Foreign-built cars will be more expensive because of a weaker pound, but even UK-made cars will suffer, because the average UK car gets 59% of its parts from overseas. ALFA ROMEO 2015 market share 0.19% 2016 market share 0.18% In recent years, Alfa…

“The payback for the firm ride is eager cornering and little body pitch or roll” Meet the Volkswagen Arteon, the car formerly known as the CC and, prior to that, the Passat CC. The new name comes from the word ‘art’ and the made-up but apparently upmarket-sounding ‘eon’ suffix, which the manufacturer also uses on its Phaeton-replacing Phideon in China. For all that, it is this car’s original name that gives the biggest clues as to where it is derived from, but of course VW, armed with its MQB architecture and its hastening push for more ‘emotional’ designs, wants to claim it is a stand-alone model and give this European range-topping four-door ‘sports coupé’ its own space in which to play. That space is set to be pretty rarefied for…

Compact, practical and affordable cars have become the cornerstone of Citroën’s business in the UK. Its previous homage to a Parisian brand of style and glamour has been assimilated by DS, while saloons and SUVs are left to PSA Group sister firm Peugeot. MPVs now dominate the more expensive end of Citroën’s line-up, with the C3 Picasso and C4 Cactus somewhere in the middle and the C1 propping things up at the bottom. And if the hole that leaves for the C3 is a fairly unmistakable one, then so too is the pressure on it to generate a large share of sales volume. In the past, Citroën has succeeded by making its supermini conspicuously spacious and, because the DS 3 has become the desirable three-door variant by substitution, doggedly innocuous…

There are three immaculate Subaru Impreza Turbos in the equally immaculate workshop of Roger Clark Motorsport (RCM). The first belongs to an Icelandic drag racer; the other two are RCM’s famous Gobstopper I and Gobstopper II hillclimb and sprint cars. Driving Gobstopper II, Olly Clark set the overall fastest time up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed both last year and this year. But those successes weren’t just about Olly’s wheelmanship; they were also down to the engineering skills of his brother, Matt. “Matt is the engineering mastermind who comes up with the technical ideas while I figure out how to pay for them,” says Olly. Their business is 95% mail order parts supply and 5% hands-on preparation and tuning of Imprezas. RCM has prepared and rallied Imprezas…

In my 2012 Volkswagen Golf, I can look over my shoulder and out the window in the back door to see reasonably well. My 2004 Bora was even better. I can see low down, too, so a child, for example, would be visible. When I borrow a new car, I can’t see this view at all because of the upsweep of the side windows, which is done to make the car look like it’s ‘going fast standing still . Combined with cars growing ever larger and SUVs getting more common, we now have people driving large cars with poor visibility when the only people safe are the occupants. Rob Lightbody Bearsden, Glasgow WIN Letter of the week wins this ValetPRO exterior protection and maintenance kit worth £58.95…

We’ve been piling on the miles in our Audi SQ7, mostly thanks to a trip to see family in Coburg, Germany. It speaks volumes of how much I’d already enjoyed the SQ7 that I was relishing the 1300-mile round trip, and it didn’t disappoint. That monstrous torque, that loping suspension, that high seating position, that refinement, that sound system… they all made big miles seem small, and the other half and I loved every minute. It even did more than 30mpg when we weren’t using the autobahn to sample its top-end performance, which is startling for such a behomoth. The SQ7 is always stable, always slick, always in its comfort zone, always rampantly fast. Interior space was a boon, too, given the paraphernalia involved in taking our five-month-old daughter across…

“The best engine ever to find a home under the Brera’s handsome bonnet is the 1750 TBi” The new Alfa Romeo Giulia arriving in showrooms and the forthcoming Stelvio, now just months away, are reminders that when Alfa brings out its sketchpad, it knows how to draw. Fortunately, you don’t need to spend north of £30,000 to sprinkle some of the car maker’s magic on your driveway. Instead, a Brera coupé, surely one of the best-looking Alfas in recent years, can be yours for just 10% of that: £3000. That’s the price a dealer is asking for his 2007/07, 2.4-litre five-cylinder diesel Brera with 130,000 miles on the clock and full service history. It’s far from the most frugal oil-burner you can buy (around 40mpg) but it’s a warm performer…

“Smaller than the Q2, the Q1 is said to measure just 4000mm long” Audi has hatched plans for an entry-level SUV to slot into its line-up beneath the recently introduced Q2, according to an Ingolstadt official with knowledge of the firm’s future model plans. Set to take the Q1 name into production, the new Nissan Juke-sized baby SUV is being developed as a sister car to Volkswagen’s Polo-based T-Cross, due in 2018, and Seat’s Ibiza-based Arona, which is set to be launched at the end of 2017. Nothing is official just yet, but sources say the Q1 is planned to be introduced in 2019 as part of a small car offensive being pushed heavily by Audi chairman Rupert Stadler as an answer to the continued success of its premium small…

Hyundai’s next performance-orientated car after the upcoming i30N hot hatch will be a performance version of the i20 supermini. Badged i20N, it will take inspiration from the new i20 WRC that is set to compete in the 2017 World Rally Championship. Hyundai UK boss Tony Whitehorn told Autocar that the i20N — a Ford Fiesta ST rival — would be the next logical step for the firm’s performance-focused N sub-brand. No date was put on when the i20N would go on sale, but it isn’t likely to be before 2018. The first N-branded model, the i30N, is due to arrive next year. Whitehorn further justified the i20N’s existence by highlighting the presence of N-brand decals on the i20 rally car. Given this link, a more hardcore i20N with four-wheel drive…

Mercedes-Benz’s next SL roadster, due in 2019, is set to share a platform with the AMG-developed GT models in a bid to improve performance and dynamism. The switch in platform follows a decision by Mercedes to hand the lead engineering responsibilities for the new SL to its AMG performance division in a development programme running parallel to its own GT roadster. The shared platform will provide AMG with greater economies of scale in development, production procurement and engineering operations, according to sources familiar the model plans The new SL is primed to have a 2+2 interior layout. Plans to resurrect the SL coupé are also being considered.…

“Settle the nose, enjoy the steering and feel the chassis come alive on the exit” Aston Martin’s ‘second century plan’ has just brought us the DB11 – and very nice, so it is – but it still has other cars for sale. You know what we used to say: sometimes they look a bit alike and do alike. Of them all, though, spare the biggest thought for the Vanquish, whose patch the DB11 encroached on most as that car replaced the DB9. The Vanquish was Aston’s most powerful series production model and flagship super-GT, and it needs to stay on sale – and stay selling – until its replacement arrives in 2019. Some at Aston feel it wasn’t totally on-message for the segment anyway. “It was more GT than super-GT,”…

MORGAN 3 WHEELER MATT PRIOR Ho-ho-ho. ‘Three unwise men’, then. That’s all there is to this idea: hang a feature around a half-festive headline. Three grown men doing something that isn’t considered to be very clever, such as driving three open-top cars – summer cars – several hundred miles in weather that you’d only walk the dog as far as the pub in. Testers Nic Cackett, Matt Saunders and I weren’t meant to be making individual cases for the cars we’re driving here, shouting to each other and, more importantly, to you about why we’d have one over the others. But call it Stockholm Syndrome. When you’ve spent 14 hours straight in a Morgan 3 Wheeler and can’t feel your fingers any more, perhaps it’s natural to look for reasons…

“Our Q30 is £33,500. That’s less than £1000 shy of an automatic Audi S3 Sportback” It’s hard to miss the Infiniti Q30 waiting for me at the start of its six-month residency at Autocar. The Moonlight White, slightly raised premium hatchback certainly stands out from its rivals as a bit of a looker – a mass of creases and flame surfacing in a multi-storey car park full of Germanic conservatism. We gave the Q30 a promising but not class-leading three and a half stars when we road tested it earlier this year – not bad for a company with Infiniti’s diminutive stature in the UK. But in the marque’s ambition to boost its size from the 2813 sales that its entire range had accrued in 2016 by the end of…

RECENTLY, I MET a man who actually owned an i8. Spent his own money on it – or at least his company’s. Broke a Porsche 911 habit measurable in decades to do it. Did he buy it for its looks, its CO2 emissions, or its carbonfibre construction? Did he hell. He bought it because, as a taxable company benefit, he said it saved him thousands relative to his last car, a 911 Turbo. Did he not miss the extra punch of the Turbo? Not in the least. What about that flat six howl? No, again. But surely he missed its grip, agility and the intimacy of the Porsche driving experience? Thrice nope. Truth is, he bought the car because, over the three years he will have it, its total costs…

An expert’s view PAUL NANASBAUM, VELOCES “I call the Brera coupé the most beautiful car in the world under £30,000. You can pick up tired ones for £2000, but nice, low-mileage models are much more expensive and holding their value. The most expensive Brera you can afford will be the best value because you won’t have to fork out for expensive repairs. My favourite? A 3.2 S Prodrive.” Buyer beware • ENGINE The 3.2 petrol needs three new timing chains at 100k miles (around £3000) and the 2.2 two of them at 50k (£750). Diesels need a cambelt at 60k and change the water pump at the same time because it can seize, causing the belt to fail. Oil and filter changes are ideally every 12k miles. • GEARBOX M32…

BMW M4 From £57,000 Has all the grip, precision, pace and all-round civility you’d hope for but lacks some dynamic charm. Audi RS5 From £60,000 A straight-laced Audi coupé complete with a high-revving V8, but the handling is still a little remote for our tastes. Alpina B4 Biturbo From £59,000 Twin-turbo engine is more dramatic but less well mannered than the M4’s. Better on the road than it is on the track. Lexus RC F From £60,000 An alternative coupé with plenty of character — but too heavy and sluggish to break into the big time Infiniti Q60 From £36,800 Handling and tuneful V6 are likeable attributes — but the Infiniti is short on power and showing its age.…

BMW EXPECTS EUROPE to be the last major market in the world to adopt autonomous cars, and London in particular has been named as highly unlikely to embrace the technology any time soon. China and the US are expected to get autonomous cars first, according to BMW’s development boss, Klaus Frölich. China has a desire for such cars and is willing to make its roads suitable for the technology. The US, meanwhile, has greater space and generally more predictable drivers and road layouts. Frölich said more than 100 cities had declared an interest in autonomous driving trials, chiefly in the US and China, but London was not one of them. The more anarchic road conditions of cities, particularly in Europe, means that when BMW has its first autonomous model in…

LONDON’S KERBSIDE EV charging network is on course to have a charge point every half a mile by 2020, even though progress towards a 5000-strong network is slow because many London boroughs are refusing to participate. Just 17 out of 33 London boroughs have signed up for the network of Source London charging points owned and run by French company Bluepoint, which in 2015 took over the network hastily patched together by Transport for London (TfL). “We still can’t set a date for the 5000 network because we need all the boroughs to sign up and many still aren’t ready,” said Bluepoint managing director Christophe Arnaud. “We cannot force them. We can only talk to them and they make their own decisions.” In 2015, Bluepoint’s aim was to have 5000…

Appearances can be deceptive. Indeed, one of the more depressing trends in these frenzied crossover-crazy days in which we live is for cars to promise the world visually yet dynamically deliver little more than a run-down semi on the outskirts of Godalming. With the new Mercedes-AMG GT R, this is not a risk you have to take. Indeed, if you’re in a rush, just look at the damned thing, imagine what it’s like to drive and be on your way. Despite popular perception, a picture rarely paints a thousand words, but in this case, it’s not far off. For the rest of you, allow me to add a little light and shade. This may not be the most powerful or expensive Mercedes ever sold, but it is by some margin…

When the Nissan Leaf appeared in 2010, we were fed statistics that should have alleviated a number of fears and misconceptions about all-electric motoring, including the claim that a 100-mile range is enough for more than 75% of all journeys. But the car as a concept has been such a success over the past century because of its unparalleled flexibility. Having the freedom to go where you like, when you like and with a minimum of inconvenience is something most people simply don’t want to give up. In short, they care about that extra 25% of journeys. A number of car makers have since responded to concerns about range, with BMW and Nissan recently taking steps to increase the performance of their pure EVs. But only Tesla offers an ‘entry-level’…

1 GO TO LE MANS AND STAY UP ALL NIGHT Frankly, until you’ve stayed up all night at Le Mans, you’ve not really been to Le Mans. You may never do it again, but to stay trackside with a few mates and a few more beers while watching 1000bhp prototypes hurl themselves at the French scenery is an experience without compare. Be at Tertre Rouge at dusk and work your way backwards around the circuit to see all the best viewing spots and be at the Porsche Curves for dawn. And remember, sports car racing is changing: the top LMP1-H category has already lost Audi this year, leaving just Porsche and Toyota remaining. If one of those goes, it is unlikely the other would hang around, and then the most…

After six months with the Seat Ibiza Cupra on the Autocar fleet, I’d sum up the car in three ways: energetic, dependable and a bit of a dark horse. It will be sorely missed. But it wasn’t always like that. Early impressions left me concerned that the Cupra was a slightly numb offering in the hot hatch arena. It was quick, but it didn’t immediately display the flair of some rivals, such as the Ford Fiesta ST, which is the benchmark in this class. I initially thought it was quite pricey, too. Our generously specced Cupra Black cost £19,430, which is only £485 off the range-topping ST-3 version of the Fiesta. But now, six months on, I think that price is a bit of a bargain. Just goes to show…

“Get it wrong and you won’t be around to worry about it,” laughed the man showing me how to use a hydrogen refuelling station. He was joking, I think, but it seems to be a default setting for anyone discussing the use of hydrogen as a fuel to have a mental image of the Hindenburg disaster pop into their head and feel the need to say something negative. It’s illogical, of course. For starters, it is worth remembering that conventional engines rely on explosive combustion to generate power, whereas fuel cell vehicles create energy through a combustion-free chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. Then there’s the fact that using a hydrogen refuelling station is scarcely more complicated than using a regular fuel station. And, of course, the hydrogen tank is…

Loaded SUV that thinks it’s a coupé Here’s a BMW X6 that has found itself at a Jaguar dealer. Why? Presumably it’s the F-Pace effect. This one’s a 69,000-mile 2009 xDrive30d, but basically it’s a big coupé-cum-off-roader with heated seats and sat-nav and all those gadgets you expect to find on pretty much everything these days. It comes with six months’ warranty, too, and all for a reasonable £18,895. Take it to the B-Max You can get bigger MPVs, of course, but really this sort-of Fiesta-based, downsized people carrier with sliding rear doors is all the average 2.4-child household needs. It has air conditioning, immobiliser, remote locking and 53,000 miles on the clock, and all from a main dealer. The asking price of £6488 won’t buy a decent new supermini,…

“Owners are starting to hang on to this simple, agile pint-pot performer” Fiat Panda 100HP from £1500 Small and light makes for a great driving recipe, and so it is with the Fiat Panda 100HP. With 99bhp in a one-tonne body, this bambino is nippy rather than outright quick, but owners are starting to hang on to this simple, agile pint-pot performer. And that means prices are firming up. You can find a handful for less than £2000, but the sweet spot is £3000 for a low-mileage 100HP with full history. That service record should show cambelt tensioner checks, and probably a replacement belt, every 36,000 miles. It must also bear witness to careful coolant checks. So much fun is easily maintained, too, with weepy dampers and missing suspension bump…

FISKER EMOTION | LATE 2017 The first model from designer Henrik Fisker’s new car company is this four-door electric sports car, which uses innovative graphene battery technology that promises a range of around 400 miles and quicker charging times. Top speed is a claimed 161mph. Clever packaging of the battery will maximise space in the cabin, which is accessed via four dihedral ‘butterfly’ doors. Pricetbc JANUARY 2017 Bentley Bentayga Diesel, Bugatti Chiron, Citroën C3, Dacia Duster update, Logan MCV update, Sandero update, Sandero Stepway update, Ford Mustang Black Shadow, Mustang Blue Edition, Hennessey Mustang HPE800, Hyundai i10 update, Mazda MX-5 RF, Peugeot 3008, Renault Twingo GT, Zoe update, Skoda Octavia update, Skoda Kodiaq, Suzuki Ignis, Toyota C-HR, Prius Plug-in Hybrid, Volkswagen Golf update FEBRUARY 2017 BMW 5 Series, Ford Ecosport…