Innholdsfortegnelse for December 30, 2015 i Autocar

AUDI IS RUNNING an intelligent time management project in the Santa Fe district of Mexico City. The company says Mexico City is home to 22 million people and nine million cars. Commuters to the Santa Fe business district have an average return trip time of around three hours per day and an average speed of less than 4mph. Futurologists claim the new generation of workers — born between 1980 and 2000 and known as millennials — are unwilling to spend such a large portion of the day in traffic and this could result in businesses pulling out of the Santa Fe area altogether. A study by Harvard professor and architect Jose Castillo found that 63% of commuters use their own car and 87% say they would car share, even though…

British motorists contributed £46.6 billion in taxes to the Treasury in 2012, or nearly 8% of all the tax collected by the government that year. These figures — the most up to date available — have been released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). Using figures from the 14 EU countries that break out motoring taxes as separate statistics, including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, France and the UK, the total raised from motoring taxes was £284bn (€396bn). The UK’s motoring-derived tax take was almost exactly the same as government defence spending, which came in at £46.4bn in 2012 and was just under half of what was spent on education. According to the detailed breakdown, the largest amount of tax raised from UK motorists was from the sale of fuels…

With the UK market expected to reach 2.6 million new car registrations in 2015, demand is at record levels. But voices inside the car industry suggest “disorderly marketing” (discounts and pre-registrations) were on the rise, especially in the second half of the year. Dealers’ favoured sales technique is now to contact owners who have six months still to go on their PCPs and ask them if they’d like an improved new car “for just a few pounds more a month”. It makes sense to the buyer and can increase annual retail sales by 10-20% without adding a single new customer. It’s too early to be sure about the XE’s impact, but the signs are encouraging JAGUAR 2015 market share 0.90% (up from 0.74%) It is still too soon to be…

CHECKLIST 1 Go on a road trip. 2 Oversteer… 3 …then try it in a Nissan Leaf. 4 Buy a Volkswagen. 5 Pray your team makes it to the finals of Euro 2016. 6 Spectate at Wales Rally GB. 7 Take a horse riding lesson. 8 Have a free 30-day trial on Amazon Prime. 9 Get a story published. 10 Read a great motor racing biography. 11 Make your motorsport debut. 12 Beat your car’s claimed mpg. 13 Buy yourself a Ferrari F40. 14 Go to Goodwood. 15 Drive a classic racing car. 16 Stop at Tebay Services. 17 Buy a slow, old car. 18 Go to the Isle of Man TT races. 19 Watch Grand Prix and Le Mans back to back. 20 Buy a decent toolkit. 21 Buy…

If I were responsible for a new Audi A4 so good that it was the first in more than 20 years and five generations to be considered an equal to the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, I’d want the world to know about it. I would ensure that it still looked like an Audi, but I’d charge my designers with making sure that its shape advanced by at least as much as the engineering it concealed. But that’s not what has happened. Usually I like masterly understatement, but this A4 looks so similar to the previous one that it seems to me more like a missed opportunity. This particular car comes to me already fully bloodied from a short, hectic life to date. It has been the subject of…

I had a go in one of those new-fangled Audi TTs the other day. I didn’t go far — all I did was reverse it out of a parking slot and drive it into a garage — but it was far enough for me to decide I wanted one. I loved the original soap-bar TT, and the addition of funky lights and a sharper shape hasn’t dented the basic appeal. It even has a decent boot for a weekend mini-break, either as a coupé or a convertible. The facelifted ones are now fairly affordable. So before we get all excited about the newer ones (I was in a 2015 example), the originals are now as cheap as Bauhaus-shaped chips. You need to be careful, but the fundamentals are that underneath…

1 DeLorean DMC-12 (1981-1983) With a gullwing-doored aluminium body designed by Giugiaro, the DeLorean was born to be a film star. Concepts hinted at a lightweight, mid-engined 200bhp supercar, but the DeLorean came to market late, overweight and rear-engined, with just 170bhp from its 2.9-litre V6. Top speed was 130mph and it could Mcfly from 0-60mph in 8.8sec. Dynamically, it was disappointing. The car was mired in quality issues and the charismatic boss became the subject of a drugs inquiry. Production ceased after two years, but a role in 1985’s Back to the Future guaranteed eternal fame. Today, £15k buys a shoddy car and £25k-£30k a better one. Time-travelling abilities cost extra. 2 Aston Martin DBS (1967-1972) Some thought the DBS too slow and plodding. Coincidentally, some said the same…

AUDI HAS ANNOUNCED three new projects with city governments in the US and Mexico as part of its mission to ensure that “individual mobility” in the form of car use is not designed out of the new cities of the future. The three projects include tackling congestion and reducing the space given over to parking. Rupert Stadler, Audi’s CEO, told a gathering at November’s Smart City Expo in Barcelona that “no smart city could work without smart mobility”. Audi’s own experts expect around 70% of the world’s population to be living in cities within 20-30 years and say future cars will have to be able to “intelligently” interact with their surroundings, including city infrastructure. “Mobility is a core element of urban life, but some people don’t regard the car as…

Fiat is likely to bring an Abarth-tuned version of the 500X crossover to market in 2017 as the Italian company looks to expand its line-up. While plans for a more powerful, Abarth-branded version of the 124 Spider, Fiat’s most recent new model, are well known, the tuning house is also considering a breathed-on version of the 500X, with the resulting model acting as a rival to the likes of the Mini Countryman JCW and Nissan Juke Nismo RS. Nothing is official at this stage, but Abarth boss Paolo Gagliardo has spoken candidly about his desire to expand the Abarth range beyond its current 500-based models. “We want to keep growing and stabilise at a certain level,” he told Automotive News Europe, while admitting that the UK and Italy are currently…

Ford hasn’t been shy about what the 526bhp Shelby GT350R Mustang has been benchmarked against during its development. The Porsche 911 GT3 may undercut the big American pony car by a substantial 251kg, but Ford says the GT350R is faster than the rear-engined German car around a circuit. Ford isn’t messing around with its track-focused Mustang. And with the iconic coupé finally on offer in the UK with right-hand drive, British drivers should be paying closer attention to this Shelby version. Part of the GT350R’s seriously impressive pace is no doubt down to its lightweight carbonfibre wheels and steamroller-wide Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. The 394mm Brembo brakes and magnetorheological adaptive dampers surely help, too. But the real story is the engine. Germany may be the focus for lap…

It has taken us more than 18 hours, with multiple transfers, to get to Yellowknife, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, from Germany. But there’s a good reason for it. We have been fortunate enough to be asked to join Porsche’s severe winter tests of the next-generation Boxster. Alex Ernst, the chief conductor of this secret test, explains to us that even though there are other possible locations in northern Europe with the similar latitude, such as Ivalo or Rovaniemi, both in Finland, Yellowknife is better suited to this type of testing because of the consistency of the low temperatures – around -20deg C – from December through to March. He also adds, with a wink, that although Canada’s snowy wastes are filled with harmless tourists from Japan here to see the…

Scotland. A mid-week day with motes of brilliant sunlight occasionally piercing the clouds to spotlight the Highlands. The Mazda MX-5, an empty mountain road, and one of those freeze-frame moments when you know that driving doesn’t get better than this. I’ve driven supercars on Wales’s finest roads, lairy muscle cars sideways and a Caterham down the Route Napoleon, but give me the MX-5 and the Applecross peninsula any day. Everything gelled. It was sublime. Fast forward a fortnight or so and the MX-5 and I found ourselves at a windswept track day on the rather bleak-looking Abingdon airfield. This was a promise to a friend, who owns a Mk3 MX-5. I’m not generally a fan of airfield-based tracks — cones for apexes never properly satisfy — but the event, organised…

READER’S CAR: FORD MONDEO Andrew Sloan refers to his 2000 Ford Mondeo 1.8 LX as ‘The General’ because of its paintjob, created prior to a 4500-mile banger tour of Europe. “Despite brake failure at the ferry terminal on the return leg, a botch job in Halfords car park made the car fit for the run back to Scotland,” says Andrew. “It was bought for £300 with 65,000 miles, a full history and a half-decent MOT, and was sold six months later for £300. Banger rallying doesn’t come cheaper. I’d forgotten just how well early Mondeos handle.” WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK: SPARE PARTS You can still get every spare part you might need for a Citroën 2CV, but not for a Ford Capri. I think that’s a shame. There…

Audi is preparing to launch a city car — a new youth-orientated model that will become its cheapest offering in key global markets, including the UK. The compact four-seater is tentatively scheduled for a launch in 2019. It has been conceived to offer a choice of petrol power or electric propulsion, according to Audi sources, who suggest the proposed new entry-level model will be previewed in concept form as early as next year’s Paris motor show. The city car will be shorter than 4.0 metres in length and will sit below the A1 in an expanded Audi line-up. Its perceived rivals span a diverse range of existing city cars, including the Fiat 500, Smart Forfour and Vauxhall Adam. At the same time, it will seek to challenge a raft of…

TWO OF AUDI’S urban projects are based in the Somerville district of Boston in the US, which is undergoing a major revamp. One is ‘Audi parking pilot’, which will use Audis as a car-sharing fleet for residents of the new districts. These cars can also self-park, allowing the parking spaces and the car park itself to occupy around 25% less space than a conventional car park. Further into the future, if all the cars in use can park autonomously, the car parking space could take up just 38% of that of a conventional car park. The spaces could also incorporate induction charging plates for use with electric vehicles. Audi’s vision also encourages the use of underground parking, something that is rare in the US. Development rules in the US mean…

THE FORTHCOMING Lamborghini Urus SUV is a better candidate to be the Italian car maker’s first plug-in hybrid than the Huracán and Aventador super-sports cars, company chiefs have revealed. Although Lamborghini bosses haven’t yet signed off the business case for a plug-in hybrid version of the Urus, which will be offered first as a non-hybrid twin-turbo V8 in 2018, a petrol-electric plug-in hybrid model is still a strong possibility. It would be much more challenging to install a hybrid powertrain into a sports car, where the extra weight has a greater impact. Lamborghini research and development boss Maurizio Reggiani said: “When you add a 200kg battery to a super-sports car, you immediately change the weight distribution of the car. You destroy the DNA of the car. “In the Urus there…

Honda will launch an all-new Civic at the end of 2016 as it attempts to turn around its fortunes in Europe. The new five-door hatchback will replace today’s model, which has not made the market breakthrough for which Honda had hoped. The new five-door Civic will be built at Honda’s Swindon plant, which has been running significantly below its capacity of 250,000 per year since 2009. Despite Swindon making just 119,000 Civics and CR-Vs last year, Honda confirmed earlier this year that it would make a fresh £200 million investment in the plant to allow for the production of the new Civic. Swindon will be the sole global source for the Civic hatchback. Production of the CR-V will shift to Canada. There’s no news on whether Europe will again get…

The boundaries between the original Exige and the Elise from which it was developed were blurred by the fact that they were fundamentally the same car. The Exige was always the hardcore, track-ready version, with a fixed rather than fabric roof and increasingly potent states of tune. Then the arrival of the supercharged V6 from the Evora S in 2012 brought about a very different Exige S, far more potent and rapid than any that had gone before. Roadster, automatic and Cup versions followed, but with this Sport 350, Lotus has brought the pace of the extreme variants to its standard Exige. And it’s done it in a very Lotus way: primarily by removing weight. Everything has been scrutinised for its purpose, weight and cost. The near-useless sun visors have…

I like Mark Pollard’s concept of a road test ride quality rating, and particularly appreciate the use of the Citroën 2CV as a comparator (Your Views, 18 November). The scale, then, would obviously start at ‘un cheval’ (1CV), which would be like riding a horse, and ending at deux chevaux (2CV). Scoring more than 2CV would, of course, contravene the laws of physics. Spine-compressing nonsense such as the Mercedes-Benz CLK would score about 1.05CV, while anti-fashion vehicles such as the much-lamented but supremely comfortable Rover 75 would score 1.9CV. I commend the idea to the house. Graham Sutton via email WIN Letter of the week wins a ValetPRO exterior protection and maintenance kit worth £58.95…

It has been almost a year since the C4 Cactus arrived at Autocar and, truth be told, it’s proving just as divisive now as it was back then. Drive one down a busy high street and 50% of passers-by are intrigued and voice nothing but pleasantries about it. The other 50% turn up their nose at it. “I can’t understand why you felt compelled to buy this,” one man opined to an innocent colleague, who’d taken the Cactus into town. That split was just as prominent among those who had driven and spent time with it. I could understand both sides. On the one hand, the Cactus was easy-going, efficient and rugged. On the other, it was no more practical than a conventional hatchback, arguably wasn’t as good to drive…

We’re past the 2000-mile mark with the Ssangyong Tivoli and already a few trends are becoming clear. First, it goes a long way on not a great deal of fuel. It’s refreshing to brim a car with 50 quid’s worth of diesel and then see a predicted range of nearly 500 miles appear on the trip computer. Second, it is happier cruising along motorways at 60mph than it is being hustled at any more than that — or along a B-road. The diesel rumble dies down to a respectable level when you’re in no great rush, but revving it unleashes a pretty harsh rasp. At least there’s plenty of low-down torque — more than enough for relaxed progress. The baby Ssangyong also attracts a surprising amount of attention. Perhaps the…