Innholdsfortegnelse for 29/3/2017 i Autocar

The huge beneficial effect of performance models on Ford’s image and the success of the current Focus RS suggest there’s every chance of a successor to the all-wheel-drive mega-hatch. At the Geneva motor show earlier this month, Ford Performance project engineer Tyrone Johnson made encouraging noises about the likelihood of his team doing a Mk4 Focus RS. “Ford Performance is going extremely well,” he said. “The number of projects is increasing. Sales have gone up in the past couple of years.” Success in the UK will be vital, because this is the single biggest market for the RS. Originally, Ford predicted 4500 sales, but demand has pushed that up to 6000 a year. “The RS has been a big success,” said Ford of Britain chairman Andy Barratt. “We’ve still got…

Skoda’s first electric model will be an SUV. It will be shown as a concept at the Shanghai motor show next month and will go on sale in 2020 or 2021. The new electric SUV will have a swooping roofline and coupé-style rear. It will follow the release in 2019 of a Superb plug-in hybrid, which will be Skoda’s first electrified car. Skoda’s SUV will go on sale after its Volkswagen sibling’s first electric vehicle, with which it will share its architecture. VW is also set to show an electric SUV at Shanghai – its third electric ID concept after the ID hatchback and ID Buzz microbus.…

BMW IS SET to phase out the option of a manual gearbox in mid-sized models such as the 3 Series because so few buyers choose the transmission. The move comes in the wake of the recently launched 5 Series, which is only offered with an automatic transmission, apart from in a few small markets. By the end of the previous-generation 5 Series’s production run, manual gearboxes were fitted to fewer than 5% of British sales of the model, and the decline is expected to continue. Ian Robertson, BMW’s head of sales and marketing, said: “Virtually all of our 3 Series models and above have automatic transmissions. China has never had manual gearboxes – it went straight to [automatic transmissions]. The North American market is predominantly for automatics and we’re seeing…

Legendary race car engineer Gian Paolo Dallara’s plan to unveil a road car project on his 81st birthday on 16 November is moving forward, it can be revealed. The first target, wheeling out a running prototype, was met last year at the manufacturer’s headquarters in Parma, Italy, on Dallara’s 80th birthday. According to an insider, the company plans to produce 600 examples at the rate of 10 per month over a five-year period. It recently started construction of a bespoke manufacturing facility situated alongside its race car factory. “We bought a factory site next door to us and knocked it down,” the source revealed. “The building work is going to plan and we will start recruiting production staff shortly.” The as-yet unnamed road car will be aimed at the expanding…

A consortium led by AC Cars, makers of the reborn Cobra, has bought Zenos Cars for an undisclosed sum more than two months after it went into administration. AC Cars has acquired all of Zenos’s assets, including a stock of 10 new models and all of its intellectual property. AC Cars’ owner, Alan Lubinsky, told Autocar that a key issue for Zenos was “the cars cost too much to build”. Lubinksy wouldn’t disclose how much was paid for Zenos or name the other investors in the consortium, but he said they are companies with which AC Cars works. AC Cars will run Zenos, Lubinsky added, and the firm will probably be renamed AC Zenos. The consortium will keep Zenos’s Norfolk facility in the short term but will re-evaluate its cost-effectiveness.…

PEUGEOT’S AMBITIOUS PLAN to put its 493bhp petrol-electric 308 mega-hatch concept into production has been shelved. Peugeot design director Gilles Vidal told Autocar the plan to bring the four-wheel-drive hybrid mega-hatch to market has been put on ice because the cost of the required electric powertrain technology is still “much too expensive”. The other stumbling block, Vidal said, is that the current 308’s lifecycle is too short to create the necessary return on investment. “We were all very excited by this car,” Vidal said, “but it’s a very challenging project because of the technology involved and the cost. Within the lifecycle of the current 308, it is now too late to have the car ready in time. And at the cost at which the car would need to be sold…

t’s just a car. That’s the thing to remember. Just a car, like any other: four wheels, some seats and a tank of petrol. It’s just that the Bugatti Chiron happens to be a car that’s able to do… what, exactly? Well, some numbers, if I may. The official figure says the Chiron is able to do 420kph, or 261mph, but that’s misleading because it is both electronically limited and slower than the old Bugatti Veyron Super Sport was when that became the world’s fastest production car at 267.8mph. That had a mere 1183bhp. The new Chiron has 1479bhp to be getting on with. So it ought to go rather faster than the Veyron. Especially given that the Chiron’s brief was very simple. The simplest that Bugatti boss Wolfgang Dürheimer…

If the last sporting Alfa Romeo you drove was a 4C, you’d have been forgiven for not holding on to huge reserves of hope for the impending arrival of the Giulia Quadrifoglio. And, like some of our testers, you’d have been wrong. Gloriously, magnificently and spectacularly wrong, because the Giulia is one of the most magnificent driver’s saloons in a decade. It does it all: it goes, it stops, it steers and it sounds good, and it does all of those things with just the right amount of conviction and aggression. It is never too hard, never too soft, never not poised or agile enough and yet it never feels nervous at a cruise. No car is ever perfect, of course, and there are areas – such as the quality…

“This SLK is a snip at £21,000, which is nearly £16,000 below its list price” Mazda is justifiably proud of the current MX-5’s lightness, with the entry-level soft-top barely disturbing the weighbridge at just over a tonne. The hard-topped, quasi-Targa RF (for Retractable Fastback) version adds 45kg, most of which is located high up, but chassis adjustments are said by Mazda to have preserved the roadster’s entertaining dynamics. Top-down thrills and closed-cockpit comfort in a pint-sized package, then, and all for £25,695 if you go for the 2.0-litre Sport Nav version. But similar money can also command a plusher alternative in a used Mercedes SLK – the car that brought folding hard-tops to the compact roadster segment in 1996, when combat trousers were en vogue. At this price point, you…

Lamborghini Huracán Performante Current production car record holder, according to Lambo’s own timing, at 6min 52sec. It beat the Porsche 918 Spider’s time by five seconds. Koenigsegg One:1 The One:1 was explicitly targeted at the record. The first attempt was canned due to temporary speed limits, the second after a crash during testing. Porsche Cayenne Turbo S This leviathan quasioff-roader is currently the fastest production SUV around the Norschleife, having recorded a time of 7min 59sec in 2015. Nio EP9 This electric Chinese supercar clocked a claimed 7min 05sec last year to take the EV record, with British sportscar racer Peter Dumbreck driving. Revo Volkswagen T5 We’re getting silly now, but this tuned panel van, powered by a 220bhp 2.0 TDI engine, managed a time of 9min 57sec back in…

“Instead of blending in with the crowd, I’m the one turning heads. Well, the Q2 is, at least” You’d be forgiven for thinking the Audi Q2 is all about appearances. After all, it’s built on the VW Group’s versatile MQB platform, which is the basis for the VW Golf, Audi A3 and Skoda Octavia, as well as the latest SUVs, such as the Seat Ateca and Skoda Kodiaq. So is the Q2 just a Golf wrapped in a tall, rugged-looking new body? We’ll find out in time, but every sign is that the Q2 is bristling with the kind of advanced ‘big car’ technology that makes Audi a premium player in the car market. For example, the Q2 we’ve just taken delivery of is fitted with the VW Group’s engine…

YOU’RE GOING TO think this is the opening round in a secret contest to see who can get the most tedious picture of their car published, but it’s not. I know the picture on the right just shows ventilation controls, but where I live in the middle of nowhere, this sort of stuff counts. I’ll explain. I have for years run cars with diesel engines and, more often than not, quite large diesel engines at that. Just about the only thing I don’t like about them is how long they take to warm up of a cold and frosty morning. And that not only means fuel consumption to rival a Sherman tank, but it can also be an absolute age before the most miserable wisps of faintly heated air start…

Huge thanks to Kenny Smith for this follow-up on the sad loss of his old faithful Citroen ZX. “I swiftly needed another dependable banger to do the dirty jobs,” he says. “I spotted a 2002 Focus Estate, a Mk1 with the earlier TDDi engine and the useful and desirable Climate option pack. “It had done 137,000 miles and cost £975, which was more than I would have liked to pay, but it did have 12 months’ MOT and a three-month warranty, so it was still a decent deal. For two years and 12,000 miles it has given excellent service, apart from service items and worn wheel bearings, a common Focus issue.” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com…

Ford Fiesta ST From £18,145 Given the long wait, this could have been a huge anti-climax. It isn’t. Firm ride aside, it’s brilliant — and cheap. Mini Cooper S From £19,130 Came a hair’s breadth from toppling the ST. Arguably the more well-rounded option but not quite as much fun. Peugeot 208 GTi by Peugeot Sport From £22,900 Easy to live with, easy to enjoy and quick in a straight line, the 208 is the best GTi Peugeot has built in a decade. Audi S1 From £25,940 There’s no denying its raucous attitude, but its price limits the appeal. Easily the most entertaining S-badged Audi. Renault Clio RS 220 Trophy From £22,425 Massively improved with additional grunt and a sterner chassis. The auto ’box disappoints, but the old Renault Sport…

“Ford sees performance models as vital to distinguish the Focus from its rivals in a crowded market” The launch of the next-generation Ford Focus will be spearheaded by petrol and diesel ST models, with up to 275bhp from a high-tech turbocharged 1.5-litre engine in the petrol version. The ST hot hatches will go on sale soon after the mainstream Focus late next year and appear in five-door and estate bodystyles. Details of the new ST are still scarce, but Ford sees performance models as vital to distinguish the Focus from its rivals in a crowded market. So far, ST models have been more popular than the more recently launched Vignale luxury variants. The STs are expected to maintain their formula of affordable and accessible performance, combined with road manners that…

MITSUBISHI UK BOSS Lance Bradley has accused the government of not having “a clear and consistent plan” for electric vehicles. Bradley cited the vagaries of the new Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) that comes into force on 1 April and mean that some versions of the brand’s best-selling Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid, which has CO2 emissions of 41g/km, will end up costing almost the same in VED as a Range Rover SDV8, which emits 219kg/km of CO2. The Mitsubishi has a VED rate of £10 in the first year of ownership, compared with the Range Rover’s £800. However, for the ensuing five years, both vehicles will attract a £310 supplement on top of their VED rates because they cost more than £40,000. An Outlander PHEV owner will pay £130 in VED,…

The successor to the Ssangyong Rexton will be unveiled at the Seoul motor show this week. The Rexton’s replacement — codenamed Y400 but yet to be named officially — will major on safety and be available in both rear-wheel and all-wheel drive. It will be the Ssangyong flagship model, sitting above the Korando and a forthcoming seven-seat SUV. It’s aimed squarely at the Hyundai Santa Fe. The new Rexton will come with a choice of 2.2-litre diesel and 2.0-litre turbo petrol engines. Pricing is expected to start at less than £30,000 in the UK, which would undercut the Santa Fe.…

THE FIRST 500 of TVR’s new V8 super-coupés, due to be launched in September, will have a special, extra-value ‘launch edition’ specification that will never be repeated, according to company chairman Les Edgar. The reborn company, which last weekend revealed a full-sized model of the car to customers who have already paid deposits in the first of a series of secret briefings, said the cars will have a special paint finish, wheel style and grille. Each of the first 500 cars will also carry a special numbered plate. The launch cars will cost “under £90,000” and are understood to be built to a unique high specification. Edgar said TVR has held “a few” launch-edition spaces open for owners who insisted on seeing the full-sized car before committing, but said the…

t’s an obscure novelty but an interesting one for Ferraristi: the GTC4 Lusso is Maranello’s first showroom model to be offered with a choice of engines. The addition of a ‘T’ to this already cumbersome name denotes the residency of a twin-turbocharged V8 beneath that long bonnet, as well as the deletion of the front-drive elements of the V12’s four-wheel-drive transmission and the loss of 88bhp. Gains include those twin turbos, their intercoolers and plumbing (hence only a modest a 55kg weight saving), a potentially more entertaining 46/54 front-to-rear weight distribution than the V12’s 47/53 apportionment and an unexpected 47lb ft torque bonus. There’s also a 32% economy improvement and CO2 emissions tumble from 350g/km to 265g/km. The V8 GTC is also less expensive at £199,285, a price few will…

“I can’t recall another recent Vauxhall looking quite as good as this” We saw the flash of his camera before we saw him. Stark, inimitable white pops against the hell-black bluster of a cold night in Denmark. No other patron of the three-hour slow ferry to Norway had chosen to brave the rain, but our man was on a mission. Working his way methodically around our car, he had the cherished event committed to memory card in moments before making good his escape back up the queue of bemused North Sea crossers. Such behaviour isn’t uncommon in the esoteric world of driving just-launched cars, yet it generally doesn’t occur when you’re sitting in a three-box D-segment hatchback. The occasions when I can recall it happening to something sporting a Vauxhall…

Mattandflash. Flashandmatt. People in and around the Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civic Type R British Touring Car Championship team say it like it’s one word: “Mattandflash will be at the track in the morning.” “Have Flashandmatt been out in the cars yet?” It takes a moment to realise they’re talking about Honda drivers Matt Neal and ‘Flash’ Gordon Shedden (see what they did there?), each a three-time BTCC champion. Both lovely fellas. Both very fast. Both team mates, on and off, since 2006, and always since 2010, hence they’ve become rather tolerant of each other. So they’ve come to Parcmotor Castellolí, not far from Barcelona, Spain, for pre-season testing, where the weather is consistent and where there’s a quite frankly brilliant circuit that could be straight out of Gran Turismo.…

No sympathy for the derv-il I’m tired of all these calls to help the ‘poor’ diesel car owners as it is at last recognised how much damage they do. Get real: diesel car owners have been reaping massive savings for years, so if they now have to pay some back, what’s wrong with that? What about the poor petrol car owners who have been paying the extra benefit in kind and road tax that has been levied on their cars, while the damage caused by diesel has been ignored? Surely, and more to the point, there should be a rebate to all petrol car owners, and the government should own up to what is probably the biggest mis-selling scandal of all time. Jeremy Clarkson famously used to label diesel as…

“What sticks with me most was how adept it was on the morning commute” It was as though the Octavia knew it was going back into storage at Skoda and had started to express its dismay through the medium of its sat-nav. At least, that’s how it seemed. Just a few days before the car’s return, the sat-nav decided that I wasn’t on the M25, heading west, as my eyes would have me believe, but rather that I was on a north-easterly path through the Hampton Court Palace Golf Club. I rather hoped that wasn’t the case – apart from anything else, I’d just had the Octavia cleaned before it went back – but the asphalt beneath me was testament to the fact that I was still on the M25.…

Life with a Mustang means life with a big car. It’s the automotive equivalent of walking into an American hamburger joint and upsizing to the biggest plate of food on the menu. I didn’t buy the Mustang as a daily driver and I admit I’m choosy about where I take it for routine journeys. For example, I reckon closely packed multi-storeys are not the ideal places to park if you want to avoid random dents and paint damage from opening doors. The big Ford is a snug fit in most parking bays. Although ‘only’ a 2+2 in terms of occupant accommodation, the Mustang occupies the same footprint as its chunky MPV sister, the S-Max. The mileage is still low, but the transmission is beginning to loosen up nicely and the…

Don’t write off this Vauxhall This car is rather apt in light of what I’ve wobbled on about on the opposite page. It is one of those Lotus-infused Vauxhall VX220 two-seat sports cars, although you’ll have to go to Holland to buy it. This £11,750, 62,000-mile 2004 car is listed as a Cat C write-off, though, so it would be interesting to find out what the story is. All the paperwork is in place, apparently. Holding out for a Holden? Try this one If you’re going to buy one of those bonkers Aussie-built Vauxhalls, then it is best to find a specialist and take their advice. Well, here’s one selling a proper Holden, a 2009 VE Commodore 3.6 V6, and it’s a 60th anniversary edition. It’s a one-owner car with…

McLaren 570S From £143,000 A supercar-slayer for a new age. Blisteringly fast and exciting, with handling appeal far in advance of its price. Honda NSX From £144,000 The modern digital hybrid supercar made analogue. Tactile steering, balanced handling, understated brilliance. Porsche 911 Turbo S From £142,000 Still rules the everyday-use, any-occasion sporting ranks. Practical, easy-going and monstrously quick. Jaguar F-Type SVR From £110,000 Jaguar’s most convincing sports car since the XJ220. Excellent chassis matches bombastic engine BMW i8 From £104,500 If BMW’s plug-in hybrid is what the future of the sports car looks like, we welcome it. A knock-out to look at but not so much to drive.…

Porsche 718 Boxster From 41,739 Our idea of drop-top perfection is also an outstanding sporting two-seater. Exceptional to drive. Audi TT Roadster From £29,845 Plenty of pace and driver reward, along with Audi’s distinctive brand prestige and design-icon style. Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet From £42,810 Genuine four-seat cabrios are rare birds — particularly when they’re as refined and sophisticated as this one. BMW 4 Series Convertible From £37,315 Mixes sporting driving dynamics with ›ine engines and usable back seats. Folding metal roof provides security. Vauxhall Cascada From £26,760 Lacks a premium badge but little else. Competent, comfortable and not troubled by sporting ambition.…

The London Taxi Company (LTC) has opened a new £300 million factory in Warwickshire to produce its new range-extender electric black cab, which will go on sale later this year. An electric van will also be built at the site, which is the first new vehicle manufacturing plant in Britain for more than a decade and also the first dedicated electric vehicle production facility. LTC, which is owned by Chinese car maker Geely, says the factory has created more than 1000 jobs. The plant in Ansty, near Coventry, has the capacity to build more than 20,000 vehicles a year and will initially focus on the range-extender black cab. Output could reach up to 36,000 units a year, including the electric van. Geely, which also owns Volvo, has confirmed an additional…

SPORTS CAR MAKER Ginetta has purchased Blyton Park circuit in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and is planning to develop it into a dedicated motorsport and driving venue. The Leeds-based company wants to adjust the circuit’s layout and improve facilities for visitors. It will continue to operate the venue for customer and corporate track events, and will keep models including its G40 on site to be hired for track use. Ginetta commercial director Nick Portlock said: “We plan to invest in improving the customer offering and experience at the circuit. It’s crucial for us to ensure it remains ‘business as usual’, with all manufacturers encouraged to continue to use the facility.” The circuit’s former owner, Richard Usher, will assume the role of Blyton Park’s managing director. He said: “Ginetta is heavily invested in…

Goodyear’s spherical wheel and tyre concept, the Eagle 360 Urban, could become a significant enabling technology for autonomous cars of the future, the company believes. Each sphere, powered by internal electric motors and batteries and supporting the car by magnetic levitation, would be equipped with a high level of artificial intelligence. Sensors inside the sphere and embedded in the tyre’s super-elastic polymer ‘bionic skin’ would allow it to communicate with the car’s chassis, other road users and service centres. This connectivity between ‘the internet of things’ is expected to be key to making fully autonomous vehicles a reality. The Eagle 360 Urban’s reusable spherical core contains batteries, drive motors, sensors and a control computer. It is clad with a 3D-printed ‘bionic skin’, which contains sensors and, like human skin, is…

SEAT’S NEW LARGE SUV, due next year, will feature elements of a new styling direction that will be fully introduced on the next-generation Leon around 2019. “The large SUV will anticipate some kind of new styling and hint at what will come with the new Leon,” said Seat chairman Luca de Meo. De Meo said the Arona B-segment crossover, due for launch later this year, “will close the design cycle” started with the current Leon. Seat’s version of the Volkswagen Group’s scalable MQB A2 platform, which also underpins the Skoda Kodiaq and Volkswagen Tiguan, is expected to be tuned to have sportier road manners. “We are using the same architecture, so concept-wise we can’t do anything different,” said de Meo. “But we will try to make it as sporty as…

What you’re looking at is a Mercedes-AMG GT without a roof. It’s called the GT Roadster, unsurprisingly, and it’s tested here in an all-new ‘C’ specification, which sits between the GT S, which is quite fast, and the all-mouth and also all-trousers GT R, which is extremely fast. That broadens out the GT range to quite a few models now, possibly confusingly, so here’s the simplified rundown. You can get a GT as a coupé and a roadster. All have a 4.0-litre V8 but the angriness of the car and engine package varies. There’s the standard GT, with a mechanical limited-slip differential and 469bhp. Then there’s the GT S, which gets an electronically controlled limited-slip differential and 515bhp. At the moment, this is a coupé only, but a roadster version…

Just 11,000 people bought a Suzuki Swift last year, but it has a loyal following among those who value its distinctive looks, keen pricing, good reliability and vivacious handling. The target for this new version is 20,000 a year, so there’s a lot riding Suzuki’s second best-seller in the UK after the Vitara. The Swift shares its lightweight but stiff chassis with the Baleno and Ignis. Two petrol engines are offered: a 89bhp 1.2-litre four-pot, with two and four-wheel drive; and a 109bhp 998cc three-cylinder turbo, with front drive and five-speed manual or six-speed automatic. There’s also the option of a mild hybrid system, which reduces CO2 emissions by 7g/km. The body is recognisable as a Swift but 10mm shorter, 15mm lower and 40mm wider than before, with a wheelbase…

MODEL TESTED QUADRIFOGLIO Price £61,000 Power 503bhp Torque 443lb ft 0-60mph 4.5sec 30-70mph in fourth 5.4sec Fuel economy 27.7mpg CO2 emissions 189g/km 70-0mph 42.2m Skidpan 1.17g Few car makers inspire such unwavering loyalty and enthusiasm from those who purchase their products as Alfa Romeo – and fewer have been so guilty of taking such passion for granted in the recent past. In the 25 years since the last rear-wheel-drive Alfa saloon, the 75, ceased production, we’ve seen Italy’s once world-leading automotive power under-invest and neglect the true sporting values of its brand – and watched as the company’s fortunes have declined. Turin gave us a procession of relatively plain-handling front-wheel-drive cars, such as the 156, 147, 159 and Brera, while its German rivals began to fully capitalise on the dynamic…

GKN’s Twinster all-wheel drive system, as fitted to the Insignia Grand Sport we drove through Norway, was first used on the Range Rover Evoque and later on the Ford Focus RS and Land Rover Discovery Sport. All three might be considered specialist applications, giving either all-terrain capability to an SUV or road-focused vehicle dynamics to the hot hatch. In every case, the Twinster’s ability to apportion, or ‘vector’, torque from one wheel to the other to influence the handling balance plays a major role. So how will the driver of what is foremost a fleet car benefit? Andreas Holl, head of chassis controls and all-wheel drive integration at Vauxhall-Opel, says: “We want to deliver a driver-focused car, fun to drive, with neutral handling in Normal mode, more dynamic handling behaviour…

“Manufacturers are claiming records off the back of their own timing” Lamborghini’s announcement last month that its Huracán Performante had broken the Nürburgring production car lap record by lapping the 12.9-mile Nordschleife in just 6min 52sec set the car world aflame. Opinion was divided: on one side were those celebrating an era when a road-legal supercar can get within 41 seconds of Stefan Bellof’s all-time record set in a Porsche 956 in qualifying trim. On the other were people wondering just how the 631bhp Lamborghini could take five seconds out of the previous record of the 874bhp Porsche 918 Spyder, with the scepticism triggering some critical analysis of the supporting in-car video. Like it or not, Nordschleife records matter, certainly to those car makers taking increasing risks to claim them.…

GORDON SHEDDEN (Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civic Type R) The Civic “should be at the front of the front-wheel-drive cars,” according to Neal, while his team-mate Shedden “won it last year, so he should be confident”. COLIN TURKINGTON AND ROB COLLARD (Team BMW BMW 125i M Sport) , and ANDREW JORDAN (BMW Pirtek Racing BMW 125i M Sport)  Drivers of rear-drive cars “all complain about front-wheel drive and we do the same about them ” says Neal. , , “So I’m just doing the party thing. But that BMW was very good last year; it should have won. Sam Tordoff led the championship going into the final weekend but nicked defeat out of the jaws of   victory. If they’d have had Shedden, Colin Turkington or Jason Plato in that…

INVESTIGATION Diesel: should you buy one? We look into the industry’s most hotly debated topic to find out the truth about the future of diesel SCOOP Aston’s future revealed The seven new models that will shape Aston’s future ROAD TEST Bentley Bentayga Diesel We determine whether Bentley’s first oilburner is any good EVERY WEEK USED GUIDE Jaguar S-Type R How much to pay for the beguiling super-saloon — and what to look for LONG-TERM TEST Smart Fortwo Our year is up with Smart’s latest baby. Find out how we got on with it FIRST DRIVE Seat Ibiza New supermini gets a chance to land a bloody nose on the Ford Fiesta SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p36…

Interesting car, this. Interesting and complicated. You might recall that in my previous report I was scratching my head over how to accurately determine the Passat’s real-world economy. We all know that official economy figures are to be taken with a pinch of salt. Or are they? VW claims 156.9mpg combined for the Passat GTE, which sounds real-world laughable, but I’ve already seen over 100mpg on the trip meter on my 36-mile, mostly motorway, part-urban commute. The other day I did a five-mile local run almost entirely on battery power. The petrol engine chimed in of its own accord (I’m still not sure why) for barely half a minute, if that, so the trip meter calculated an average economy figure based on the amount of fuel used over the whole…

HAVING SETTLED INTO daily life with our Ka+, I spend a lot of time surveying the dashboard and cabin fittings during my commute. Considering the little car’s price point, we weren’t expecting many, if any, soft-touch materials. True to form, the dashboard is dominated by hard textured plastics, but what Ford has put together can’t be sneered at. This is largely due to most of the fixtures and fittings being taken from the same parts bins as the more expensive Fiesta, including the leather steering wheel that came as standard on our Zetec-trim car. As a consequence, the Ka+ feels well screwed together, although there are also some differences in the cabin that raise the car above being merely a low-rent Fiesta. These include the instrument cluster, door mirror controls…

An advisory on the X5’s last MOT noted that the headlights were a bit too misty. Buying a new headlight cluster is a few hundred quid, while second-hand ones are £40-plus. It seemed a bit daft, though, to buy the whole offside light when I had a tube of toothpaste handy. I know you can buy plastic headlight cleaner, but I’m a skinflint, so instead I decided to see if using some mildly abrasive toothpaste actually works. Well, it does. It brightened up the cover, although there are still a few spots that look like they’re on the inside. Should I change my toothbrush now?…

Next year’s 1.5-litre Ford Fiesta ST will be quicker, greener and doubtless more fun to drive than its ancient forebear, the ST150 of 2004 to 2008, but one thing’s for certain: it won’t be cheaper. Prices for straight ST150s with history and a longish MOT begin at around £1200. At the time of writing, a 2007-reg car with 98,000 miles and a long MOT had attracted 28 bids on eBay, the highest £940. The seller’s description gives some pointers: “Grinds into reverse and the seat tilt handles are broken.” The latter is a common issue; the former can be expected on a hot hatch that has lacked mechanical sympathy. That there are no worse problems (the car looks like your worst fast Ford nightmare: lowered suspension, lime green alloys, shonky…