Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2, 2015 i Autocar

BANG FOR BUCK: getting the most of the former for as little of the latter as possible is the delicate equation that underpins many car enthusiasts’ purchases. Although the ‘bang’ is primarily a byword for heady performance, it could also apply to other car attributes, such as deft handling, stunning exterior styling or a plush interior. Our ‘New vs Used’ comparison tests, which start on p36, pitch four box-fresh motors against second-hand dream cars that are now available for comparable money but started out costing significantly more when they left the showroom. Is the thrill of driving a pristine, delivery-miles-only car outweighed by the satisfaction of knowing that buying second-hand puts even more desirable machines within reach and that someone else’s wallet has already taken the biggest hit of depreciation?…

Adrian Newey’s road car could be launched as a pure electric model, with hybrid spin-offs set to follow after the initial launch in around 2018. While insiders continue to insist that the Red Bull F1 team’s chief technical officer has yet to get the green light to develop the car beyond the concept stage, latest reports suggest that he is spending an increasing amount of time on the project, on which he is working with Aston Martin. Newey has a free role within Red Bull Technologies to work on projects of his choosing. Earlier this year he was said to be taking an active interest in working with Ben Ainslie Racing on its America’s Cup sailing project, but insiders have suggested that the road car has since taken priority. Although…

FURTHER CONFIRMATION that Toyota is planning a production version of its C-HR concept car has come with this spy shot of the new crossover out testing. Disguised prototypes have been spotted on two different continents. Both test cars appear to show that the two-door coupé style of the C-HR concept has been translated into a more conventional five-door layout for the production car. Other than this change, the car looks to be sticking closely to the concept’s polarising looks in a bid to break into the hotly contested crossover category. Potential customers are said to have favoured the concept’s looks over more traditional interpretations of the crossover theme. The C-HR’s styling was developed in response to a demand from company boss Akio Toyoda for Toyota’s designers to be more adventurous.…

The fourth-generation Kia Sportage has been revealed with a brand-new look ahead of the car’s public debut at this month’s Frankfurt motor show. The new Sportage has totally new styling at the side and rear, although the biggest changes are at the front end. The headlights are no longer integrated into the grille, as they are on the outgoing Sportage, but now sit higher up on the sides of the bonnet. This leaves the now-familiar Kia nose, which features on most of the company’s range, with a stand-alone grille. A larger lower grille, with a silver-coloured kickplate on the lower edge, also features and the foglights sit in a larger cluster than before. At the side, the Sportage retains its traditional SUVlike look but has a marginally more raked profile…

Twenty grand for a hot hatch. Easy decision, no? Buy a Ford Fiesta ST and pocket some change. But there’s something the Blue Oval can’t deliver, and that’s premium appeal. ‘Premium’ may be a winceworthy word around these parts, but few are totally immune to its lure. So in a bid to have our cake and eat it, we’ve chosen two rapid hatches that add a layer of gloss to their go. And it’s a story of little(ish) and large. Today’s Mini is far from petite, but our Volcanic Orange Cooper S is still a full 418mm shorter than the used Volkswagen Golf GTI against which it is pitched here. With three doors, the 189bhp Mini retails at £18,840. Our specced-up example costs £24,415, but choose the popular Chili Pack…

How often have you been asked what your dream garage is or, worse, your favourite car? And how often have you ummed and erred before coming to a totally different conclusion from the one you arrived at last month? It’s a problem, we know. And it’s the key problem with this test, because we already know that the Bentley Continental GT V8 and the Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS are both dream cars – both four-seat, four-wheel-drive, everyday supercars that will lavish you with feelgood comforts or buzz you with adrenalin as you wish. Deciding which one is better is like trying to find quantifiable reasons why chocolate ice cream might be better than vanilla. But although it’s tempting to shrug and give up, we don’t do that here at…

DEVIL IN THE DETAIL Matt Prior cites the excellent gearchange of the new Mazda MX-5 as a mark of quality leaning towards premium (Tester’s Notes, 12 August). This is perfectly valid for new cars, but my measure of quality is more to do with how a car looks and feels a few years down the line. I see expensive Mercedes-Benz cars with rusty wheel nuts, Lexus alloy wheels with peeling lacquer and Ford dealers who fit number plates with what look like rusty nails. Sometimes it’s the little things that say the most. Stuart Underwood via email POWER TO WEIGHT I know numbers aren’t everything and, as a Porsche fan, imagine the 911 GT3 RS to be a wonderful thing. However, I couldn’t help but notice that the 991…

Sometimes it’s the smallest things that can boost your appreciation of a car to new heights. In the case of the Audi TT Roadster, it’s the fact that you can lower the soft-top when you’re on the move. The other day, you see, I was sitting at a set of traffic lights in London (one of the TT drop-top’s typical environments) and the driver of a BMW Z4 in front of me decided to lower his roof at the same time as I was folding away mine. To his horror, the lights flicked to green quick-smartish and he had to pull away with his folding metal roof at half-mast, then stop at his earliest convenience to finish off the job. The Audi’s roof mechanism, on the other hand, can operate…

READER’S CAR: FIAT SEICENTO Jim Pace bought ‘Enzo’, a 2000 Fiat Seicento, when his daughter was learning to drive. It cost £350.03 in an online auction and broke down on the way home. Jim fitted new plug leads, a new cooling fan and new rear brake shoes and drums. “She took her test in it, passing first time,” says Jim. “For a car that was expected to last six months, it has now been with us for three years. It has once again passed its MOT, after I replaced the exhaust and catalyser at a total cost of £55. Enzo is no longer a car; he’s one of the family.” SEND YOUR BANGERNOMICS TALES TO JAMES Twitter: @Bangernomics Email: james@bangernomics.com WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK Mileage correction…

Vauxhall Astra Autumn The seventh-generation Astra is shorter and lower than the car it replaces, but thanks to clever packaging it offers more space inside than the outgoing model. Power comes from engines shared with the new Corsa and also includes a new 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol unit with 104bhp. Ecoflex diesel versions emit just 82g/km of CO2. Price From £15,295 SUMMER Aston Martin Vantage GT12, Audi A8 Sport, Q7, BMW 3 Series facelift, Cadillac CTS-V, Chevrolet Volt, Citroën Berlingo Multispace, Ferrari 488 GTB, Honda Civic Type R, HR-V, Jazz, Lamborghini Huracán Spider, Aventador SV, Land Rover Range Rover SVAutobiography, Lotus Evora 400, Mazda MX-5, McLaren 675LT, P1 GTR, Mercedes-Benz GLE, GLE Coupé, Mercedes-Maybach S600, Mitsubishi L200, Peugeot 2008 facelift, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Boxster facelift, Boxster Spyder, Renault Kadjar, Toyota…

PSA Peugeot Citroën’s DS brand has given the DS 4 a major makeover. The model gains a freshly styled nose, new headlights with xenon and LED technology, a freshened engine line-up and more paint and trim options. In addition, DS has created two models out of one. In place of the original single variant, there’s now a choice of two distinct versions: the standard-issue five-door hatchback, which has a normal ride height, and the new Crossback, which rides 30mm higher and has more rugged styling, including larger wheels, cosmetic skidplates and roof bars. Both versions of the new 4 will be front-wheel drive only and the engine range is made up of three turbocharged petrol engines and three diesel motors. A six-speed manual gearbox and a six-speed torque-converter automatic are…

The MG GS SUV has been spotted testing on UK roads, having been unveiled at the Shanghai motor show in April. It’s already on sale in China and a UK introduction is earmarked for early next year. The GS rides on a new scaleable SUV architecture developed in partnership with SAIC. At 4500mm in length, it is 73mm longer than a Volkswagen Tiguan. From launch, an in-house-developed turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine will be offered with 217bhp and 258lb ft. This mule was testing a 168bhp turbocharged version of the 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine from the MG 3. The MG 6’s 1.9-litre diesel is also earmarked for the GS, which will be offered with front or all-wheel drive and a six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox.…

Peugeot will reveal the second generation of its i-Cockpit interior design language with this Fractal concept at this month’s Frankfurt motor show. The two-door, four-seat concept, described as an ‘urban coupé’, is powered by two 168bhp electric motors — one located on each axle — with a combined output of 335bhp. Peugeot says the concept has a range of up to 280 miles on a single charge. The motors are fed from a lithium ion battery pack mounted in the centre of the car. Measuring 3.81m long by 1.77m wide, the concept, which features a removable roof, sits on 19in ‘Tall&Narrow’ wheels and weighs just 1000kg. Peugeot says the Fractal can hit 62mph from rest in 6.8sec. The minimalist cabin features a small steering wheel with integrated touchpads that can…

ALTHOUGH ADRIAN Newey’s road car project is said to be independent of the brand’s F1 team, it is inextricably linked because of the race team’s desire to switch from Renault to Mercedes engines next season — revealed by Autocar in June — and the fact that it is thought highly likely that Aston Martin would sponsor the F1 team if it did so. Talks regarding the switch are said to be ongoing but have been delayed because Renault has a contract with Red Bull to supply F1 engines until the end of the 2016 season. Reports on whether Red Bull has a performance clause in its contract that allows it to dump Renault are mixed. A further complication is that Mercedes doesn’t have the capacity to supply more than the…

The next-generation Vauxhall Insignia will grow in size as it morphs into a truly global model. The new Ford Mondeo-rivalling five-door hatchback, caught here undergoing tests in Germany, will be sold in Europe, the US and China under Vauxhall, Opel and Buick badges. It’s thought that the second-generation Insignia is about 12 to 15 months away from making its public debut. The biggest change is expected to be a small stretch in the car’s wheelbase. Although the new car’s styling theme won’t change much from that of the original, the swooping roofline is higher at the rear and the tail end is wider behind the rear wheels. As well increasing rear space and making it easier to access the rear cabin (thanks to the taller door apertures the design allows),…

RENAULT IS BOOSTING the power and cutting the starting price of the Mégane Renaultsport for the 2016 model year. The cheapest Mégane Renaultsport model available now is the 275 Cup-S, which not only gets a boost of 10bhp to 271bhp compared with the outgoing 265 model but also now starts at £23,935. As with previous Renault Cup models, the new version comes with an uprated chassis that features stiffer suspension. It also gets a mechanical limited-slip differential, red brake calipers and a stiffer anti-roll bar. These tweaks come in exchange for some of the higher-level equipment, such as satellite navigation, rear parking sensors and camera, auto lights and wipers and dual-zone climate control. The 275 Nav gets all of this and directly replaces the old 265. The pricing is unchanged…

The new Hyundai Tucson is the latest in a long line of crossovers to go toe to toe with the class-leading Nissan Qashqai. It is, in effect, a slightly larger replacement for the now-superseded ix35. Even before turning a wheel, the Tucson has much in its favour. For example, it comes with a five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty. That eclipses the vast majority of its rivals, which typically feature three-year, 60,000-mile warranties. There’s a sense from the outset that the Tucson has been designed to be painless to live with. From its simple push-to-open fuel filler door to the easily dropped rear seats, every aspect appears pleasingly straightforward. Hit the road and this theme continues. Urban and country roads are tackled with ease, rarely troubling the driver and passengers. The 2.0-litre diesel…

Oh for heaven’s sake, at least make it a fair contest. Sure, the Peugeot RCZ is an attractive car and at its best in the 266bhp R form you see here. It has a fizzy turbocharged 1.6-litre engine, keen front-wheel drive handling and a real limited-slip differential and it costs not much more than £30k. All of which is competitive. All of its numbers are consistent with those of its peers in the new car market. But, er, well. If you want to see an example of how unfair on new metal the used car market can be, take a look at the other £30k-ish car on this page. It’s also an attractive 2+2 coupé with hopeless rear seats, but the similarities just about finish there. It’s a four-year-old Jaguar…

Have motor manufacturers, in their craving for green credentials, lost sight of reality? I think I am an average person who is looking to replace a car for my wife. I visited three dealerships (Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Audi), and in the ‘green era’ in which we now live I was only able to come away with one printed brochure — as apparently online saves the planet. Has anybody tried to compare cars’ specifications online? Thank you Audi for bucking the trend. I have now placed my order with them. WIN Letter of the week wins a ValetPRO exterior protection and maintenance kit worth £58.95…

The south of England’s summer that wasn’t appears to have prompted a healthy exodus to warmer climes — and that has brought with it a pleasing lightening of traffic. This, in turn, has given me a few opportunities to sample the Panamera’s qualities away from its daily grind through the M3 average speed cameras at 50mph. It’s a behemoth, the Panamera. Indeed, the sensation of sitting low down in something nearly two metres wide and more than five metres long must be similar to driving a large old-school Lamborghini. Sheer bulk works against you when you’re trying to thread it down narrow lanes. Give the E-Hybrid a sniff of a more flowing B-road, though, and it comes alive. There are three main factors in this. First, the steering is beautifully…

1 Jaguar XJ (20032009) Jaguar XJs have been around since 1968, but here we’re discussing the models codenamed X350 and X358, Jaguar’s first all-aluminium cars. The X350 looks a lot like XJs of yore, mainly because unhelpful quizzing of US buyers encouraged the company not to change anything, with the result that despite the fact that it was yards better than any predecessor, the market was disappointed that it looked the same and failed to buy it in the predicted droves. The short-lived X358 was an attempt to spruce the X350 up. Pick of the engines are the 2.7-litre V6 diesel (loads about for £5000) or the supercharged 4.2-litre V8, for which you’ll pay £1000-£1500 more. 2 Citroën C6 (20052012) The C6 is Citroën’s most recent attempt at a big,…

Mercedes-Benz is promising supercar-like performance, an opulent driving experience and unmatched levels of interior luxury with its S63 4Matic Cabriolet — the 577bhp twin-turbocharged 5.5-litre V8-powered, four-wheel-drive model that spearheads its new S-Class Cabriolet line-up. Pictured here ahead of a planned Frankfurt show debut, the 2110kg four-seat rival to the Bentley Continental Speed Convertible is claimed to hit 62mph in 3.9sec, placing it ahead of many performance-orientated open-tops for off-the-line accelerative ability. The car, which also produces 663lb ft, returns 27.2mpg and CO2 emissions of 244g/km. As sister model to the new S-Class Coupé, the S-Class Cabriolet is the sixth and final member of the S-Class line-up. It is the first four-seat luxury drop-top model from Mercedes since the 112 series, which ceased production in 1971. The S-Class Cabriolet adheres…

The Volkswagen Group is set to boost its presence in the booming compact SUV market with new models from each of its volume brands. New five-seat SUVs will be sold by the group’s Audi, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen brands. The SUVs will share their basic underpinnings but take differing guises. They will rival the likes of the Mazda CX-3, Nissan Juke and Vauxhall Mokka in what has become one of Europe’s most lucrative market segments. The various new SUV models have been conceived to sit below the Audi Q3, production version of the Seat 20v20 concept, Skoda Yeti and Volkswagen Tiguan. They will be priced to start from between £14,000 and £20,000 and be offered with the choice of either front or four-wheel drive. This move by the Volkswagen Group…

THE NEXT GENERATION of Peugeot 3008 has been spotted testing ahead of an expected launch in early 2017. Despite being heavily camouflaged, the second-generation 3008 appears to have ditched the chunky styling of the first generation in order to adopt a more conventional SUV look. The new model features a low side window line and a sloping roofline and is expected to take inspiration from the Quartz hybrid crossover that was revealed at last year’s Paris show. Even though the exterior of the 3008 looks set to change, the cabin of the popular family car is likely to remain much the same, with reports suggesting that it will take on a similar appearance to that of the 308. The new 3008 is reported to be based on the same platform…

Porsche engineers are currently working on how to package a hybrid powertrain within the 911’s body. The move is partly in order to lower CO2 emissions for the model’s eighth generation, which is due in 2018. Porsche’s 911 product line director Erhard Mössle said: “There are discussions. It’s clear that we have to do something. We have to meet the CO2 regulations in 2020. “The Volkswagen Group needs an answer to Tesla. The technology available is not far away from meeting our goals for such a car in terms of range and charging speed.” Porsche already has hybrid powertrains in its Cayenne SUV and Panamera saloon, with both cars using the same supercharged 3.0-litre petrol engine in combination with an electric motor. The 918 Spyder also features a hybrid powertrain,…

SMART HAS ADDED a cabriolet version to its all-new Fortwo city car line-up, complete with a novel new roof arrangement. The two-seat cabrio’s ‘tritop’ fabric roof can either be slid halfway back with the rear screen built into it still up, or fully folded down onto the tailgate along with the rear screen, at which point the two roof rails can also be removed and stored in the boot to turn the car into a full convertible. The roof, which is offered in a choice of three colours, can be slid fully back in 12 seconds, even when the car is travelling at its maximum speed. It can also be opened from outside the car using the key fob. The cabriolet shares its look with the standard fixed-head Fortwo on…

The sixth-generation BMW 7 Series looks set to make quite an impact on the luxury car ranks when it goes sale in November following a debut at the Frankfurt motor show. As befits its status, the new four-door comes loaded with a host of new technologies, including lightweight carbonfibre construction solutions, new petrol and diesel engines, the latest in internet-supported connectivity, various autonomous driving and safety features and an optional smart key that allows you to monitor functions such as fuel range and interior temperature from the palm of your hand. Also available with an autonomous parking function that enables you to step out and park the car at the press of a button, the 7 Series aims to challenge the dominance of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and provide stiffer competition…

Patience is a virtue. That shiny new performance car you drooled over in our road test a few years ago may have been agonisingly unattainable back then, but while you’ve been busy living your life, it might have gently edged into your price range thanks to the irresistible force of depreciation. If this feature was purely about bang for your buck, it’d be a clean sweep for our four used cars. They all outgun their new rivals in the power stakes. But it’s not that simple. The latest tech, freshest styling and lower running costs could easily tempt you back towards the new car instead in each contest here. We’ve come to a Cold War airfield to sort this one out. Time to reach for the big red button……

A tantalising match-up, this one. It’s rare that Maranello and Munich face off on equal terms, but here we have it: a pair of 2+2, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive super-coupés from BMW and Ferrari costing around £60,000 apiece. The Ferrari 612 Scaglietti (2004-2011) cost more than £210,000 by the end of its tenure, but this left-hand-drive, HGTS Pack-equipped 2006 example is for sale by VVS UK in Cranbrook Common, Kent, for £62,990. After only 18,000 miles, it has shed £125,000, but that’s for someone else to worry about, because their loss gives us a full complement of 12 glorious, V-mounted, naturally aspirated cylinders to pitch against the M4’s mere six. But the M4 makes the most of those six cylinders, eking out 425bhp from its twin-turbocharged 3.0 litres. Indeed, it’s a proper…

We’ve grown used to giving couched verdicts on sports cars, sometimes weighing progress in one direction against compromise in another. Not so here. There isn’t a single area in which this new Mazda MX-5 fails to surpass its predecessor. It’s shorter, lighter, more spacious and better laid out. It’s sharper-looking but still disarming and distinctive. It’s faster, more frugal and even more vibrant and engaging to drive. All that and yet the MX-5 is still every inch the same zesty and inimitable car that it was. Its character hasn’t altered at all. There’s no five-star rating, reflecting the fact that the 1.5-litre mid-spec model tested didn’t quite feel like the definitive version. Most modern sporting tastes will crave a bit more performance than it offers. The 2.0-litre model provides that,…

Mileage 7850 Early fears that the Focus hatch wouldn’t be as useful as an estate have failed to materialise. We’ve been getting on just fine, in fact. A couple of weeks ago I drove to my sister’s in Devon to steal my second-favourite niece’s high-rise bed for my own daughter to use. Once mostly dismantled, the bed measured 182cm at its longest and 83cm at its widest points. Would it fit in the Focus? Yes, but only just, and it wouldn’t have been possible with a front-seat passenger. With my daughter’s child seat moved so she was behind me — so the wider part of the rear seat could be folded down and my daughter could kick me in the back for three hours — and the front passenger seat…

There’s nothing quite like a freedom of information request to stir things up. On this occasion it was a BBC local radio station wondering why, in its area of Hertfordshire, rather a lot of cars were being clamped by the DVLA. I provided some sarcastic comment on the phenomenon. Well, it isn’t so much an unexplained series of events as the rather obvious consequence of motorists failing to pay their road tax. As we all know, since October last year it has been all change down at the DVLA. In case you need reminding, road tax no longer stays with the car when it is sold. The seller automatically receives a refund and the buyer needs to tax the vehicle before it is used on the road. I bought a…