Innholdsfortegnelse for 21/6/2017 i Autocar

The sale of premium two-door models spun off from conventional saloons looks to have peaked, with both BMW and its great rival Mercedes-Benz saying they are planning to move away from conventional coupés and cabrios in coming years. Instead development will include more coupé-SUV variants and four-door ‘coupé saloons.’ However, BMW still has plans to launch a new range of 4 Series models to compliment the next-generation 3 Series line-up. “These coupés and convertibles were always niche cars, of course,” said Mercedes chief Dieter Zetsche at the Geneva motor show earlier this year. “The expansion of China and other emerging markets [has given] huge opportunities for saloons, but [those markets] did not take up the speciality cars… which makes the business case for such vehicles less easy.” Zetsche confirmed that…

BLOODHOUND SSC, Britain’s 1000mph world land speed record challenger, will begin initial speed tests on 26 October, with the world’s fastest man of the past 20 years, Wing Commander Andy Green, at the wheel. The jet and rocket-propelled car will be run up to 200mph, powered by its EJ200 Eurofighter engine, on the main runway at Newquay Airport. Chief engineer Mark Chapman explained that the Newquay run would help “decide the speed at which we can apply full throttle”. Chapman said: “Jet engine intakes are designed to work best at speed, and there’s a threshold at which they can accept full throttle. It’s important to know it because it affects how much track you use up before the car can start accelerating in earnest”. Project director Richard Noble, himself a…

Jaguar Land Rover last week opened a new, £7 million Classic Works headquarters in Coventry. The building is described as “the heart and soul” of its fast-growing global business restoring, maintaining and selling older vehicles. The opening marks the 60th anniversary of a history-making domination by the Jaguar D-Type of the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours, in which it scored first, second, third, fourth and sixth places. The 150,000-square-foot Classic Works facility, the largest of its type in the world, is situated close to the recently opened base of JLR’s SVO operation, which upgrades the latest models to customers’ requirements. Classic Works will be supported later this year by the opening of a second classic restoration facility, located in Essen, Germany. JLR launched its Classic business a little over a…

“The Stonic majors on styling, electronic driver aids and a wider colour palette than the Kia norm” The scramble by car makers to offer small crossovers has intensified with the launch of the Stonic, Kia’s striking entry into an increasingly populous market segment. Expected to cost from around £15,000 when it goes on sale in October, the Stonic majors on styling, electronic driver aids and a wider colour palette than typically offered by Kia. Choices include two-tone options and several bold interior decor schemes. The petrol engine line-up runs to 83bhp 1.25-litre and 99bhp 1.4-litre four-cylinder units and a 118bhp 1.0-litre turbo triple. A six-speed manual gearbox will be standard on the 1.4 and 1.0 turbo. A seven-speed automatic will be offered on the 1.0 turbo later. The diesel engine…

“There’s lots of lowdown torque and a purposeful if subdued exhaust soundtrack” Mitsubishi is bringing back an old name for a new car. The previous Eclipse was a coupé designed for the US market and never officially sold in the UK, but the Eclipse Cross is that most fashionable of things: a mid-sized crossover. In terms of space offered, it slots between Mitsubishi’s ASX and Outlander and is further proof of the company’s determination to become an SUV specialist. In fact, the unloved Mirage is the only conventional car left in its European line-up. Having been developed before the company was absorbed into the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the Eclipse Cross could also be the last car Mitsubishi ever develops by itself. It sits on the same basic architecture as the larger…

Before getting on to the way the David Brown Automotive Mini Remastered looks, or how it drives, or anything to do with its unusual technical specifications, I really must address one particular point: the astronomical cost of the teeny little thing. For the ‘Inspired by Monte Carlo’ version you see here, a limited-edition model whose production run will extend to 25 examples, you’ll be laying down a whisker under £100,000. That’s a lot of money for any car, but an especially large sum for one that could be stored in a corner of your wardrobe. (In terms of floor space, the Mini Remastered actually costs exactly the same – £2200 per square foot – as the average home here in the UK). Clearly, this is not a cheap car and…

“Our new Ignis is already doing a good job of charming everyone who drives it” It would appear that Suzuki is suffering from a spot of writer’s block at the moment. After reintroducing the Baleno nameplate last year, ‘Ignis’ has now been lifted from the storage bin, dusted off and slapped onto the back of an SUVcum-supermini. Thankfully, while those in the naming department were scratching their heads, Suzuki’s designers seem to have had a flash of inspiration. Despite the new Ignis being shorter than a Ford Fiesta, Suzuki’s top crayon-wielders have created a shape that’s a bit tough, a bit cute and with enough 4x4-ness to make it look like something a bit different within the class. Think of it as the automotive equivalent of a wellington-boot-shod pug in…

As discussed in our first report in the 31 May issue, the 570GT’s job is to bring a bit of carbonfibretubbed, McLaren-branded glamour to the ‘everyday supercar’ realm dominated by the 911 Turbo and Audi R8. So, how’s that working out? Well there’s nothing everyday about the kerbside theatre of getting in and out. It’s not for those with bad backs or stiff joints but, with practice, I’ve just about nailed the entry procedure of ‘bum first, legs in and swing the door down’ in one motion. Once you’re settled, the 570GT’s clarity of purpose is unmistakable. It may be the luxury McLaren, but it’s still a McLaren, with the driver-focused minimalism, superb visibility and meaningful weight of the controls all characteristic of the brand. Even with the sports exhaust…

Ford Focus Kenny Smith reveals what to do when your brother keeps borrowing your car. “After my brother Eddie had his previous vehicle sadly written off in a minor non-fault accident, he swiftly needed a vehicle to use as much as I did,” Kenny says. “I spotted a tidy 52-plate Focus 1.6 petrol for sale with 108,000 miles and nine months’ MOT for £500. “I discovered a set of new tyres, front brake pads, alternator, coil pack and the unreliable in-tank fuel pump had been recently changed. All that was needed was a precautionary service and new cambelt and tensioner to be fitted, and it was good to go.” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com…

“Its limited power, far from being a handicap, is its biggest strength” Eighty-five brake horsepower. No more, no less. To our modern ears, that sounds like a pitiful power figure for a hot hatch, doesn’t it? Yet back in the 1980s, it was enough to qualify the Citroën AX GT as a junior pocket rocket. Granted, it never had the cojones to battle the hot hatch giants of its time, but with its carb-fed engine, beer-can-thin metal and almost total lack of frippery, the AX GT represents the ‘simplify, then add lightness’ approach better than any other hot hatch. First, we should digress to talk about this specific example, which is a veteran of 247,000 miles. Yes, 247,000 miles. How? When its previous owners bought it brand new, they found…

VW TIGUAN ALLSPACE | SEPTEMBER Extends the standard Tiguan’s overall length by 215mm and its wheelbase by 110mm, giving an extra 115 litres of boot space and the option of a third row of seats. Engines will be revised 1.4 and 2.0-litre petrols and diesels. The Allspace will cost about £3k more than the regular Tiguan. Price from £26,000 JUNE Audi RS5 Coupé, BMW 2 Series update, Dacia Logan MCV Stepway, Jaguar F-Type four-cylinder, Mazda CX-5, Mercedes-AMG GLC63, GLC63 Coupé, Mini Countryman S E hybrid, Porsche 911 GT3, Renault Koleos, Suzuki Swift, Vauxhall Insignia Country Tourer (above), Insignia Sports Tourer, Volkswagen Arteon JULY Alfa Romeo Stelvio, BMW M4 update, Bristol Bullet (left), Fiat 500L update, Jaguar XF Sportbrake, Kia Soul EV, Land Rover Range Rover Velar, Lexus NX update, Maserati…

“New performance orientated 3 Series models will aim at the Audi S4 and Mercedes-AMG C43” BMW will ramp up the inherently sporting qualities of the next 3 Series in a bid to extend the depth and overall reach of its best-selling range of cars. Key to the expansion plan for the seventh-generation 3 Series – set to arrive in 2019 – is the addition of two new M Performance models powered by six-cylinder engines. In a strategy mirroring that undertaken with the latest 5 Series, the new M Performance variants will go on sale shortly after more mainstream versions of the new 3 Series are launched in both saloon and estate body styles. The new derivatives will be offered as either a petrol or a diesel and will bridge the…

Despite the continuing commitment to diesel, BMW is also forging ahead with the electrification of the new 3 Series, which is to be offered with the choice of two plug-in petrol-electric drivelines. Included is the 325e, which uses a turbocharged 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine in combination with an electric motor to offer around 230bhp. Above it in the model range will be the 330e, which draws on the system already seen in other BMW models, with a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and electric motor serving up close to 265bhp. As well as offering improved efficiency over today’s plug-in hybrid models, the new units to be used in the next 3 Series are claimed to offer a greater electric range of up to 31 miles, together with conventional plug-in recharging…

The new VW Polo has grown significantly to match its rivals The new Volkswagen Polo, an outwardly larger and significantly roomier car compared to today’s eight-year-old model, will be revealed at the Frankfurt motor show in September. The sixth-generation Polo will only be available as a five-door hatchback and will be more technically sophisticated than the outgoing version. The range will be topped by a 197bhp turbocharged 2.0-litre GTI. UK deliveries of the new Polo will start in November. The new Polo has been developed from the ground up in an VW Group engineering programme that also encompasses the new Seat Ibiza and yet-to-be-launched Skoda Fabia Mk4, as well as upcoming production versions of the VW T-Breeze and Seat Arona small SUVs. Based on VW’s MQB AO platform architecture, the…

A new Peugeot 508 will be launched next year with a drastically altered look that ditches the current car’s saloon body shape in favour of a sportier fastback design. The Vauxhall Insignia Grand Sport rival’s cabin will have the second-generation of Peugeot’s i-Cockpit layout, with a 12.3in digital instrument display and an 8in touchscreen. Most of the range will be powered by four-cylinder BlueHDI diesels, but the hybrid range-topper is expected to swap the current diesel-electric powertrain for a petrol-electric one.…

The Stonic is potentially quite a colourful sight, bright hues and an optional two-tone finish complemented by similarly bright (albeit optional) cabin decor. It looks less mini-SUV and more high-riding hatchback than some of its competitors, the aim being to imbue it with a sportier flavour than some. Not that this is a car in which to lay rubber. The most powerful version is a 118bhp 1.0-litre turbo triple, which we tried on public roads around the Hyundai and Kia R&D centre in Namyang, South Korea. We also drove the 109bhp 1.6 diesel. You certainly climb into a cheerful cabin if it’s finished with the metallic orange highlights of the petrol test car, to survey a tidily modern dashboard design complete with upstanding infotainment screen. The driving position is good…

“There’s a lot of confusion about diesel cars’ impact on the environment” The demand for diesel cars is set to slump due to concerns over emissions and pollution, according to a survey commissioned by Autocar, with more than a sixth of all motorists planning to buy a hybrid or electric car next. In the wake of ongoing controversy about emissions and the VW Dieselgate scandal, Autocar commissioned leading survey research advisor Simpson Carpenter to investigate the attitude of motorists towards diesel engines. More than 1000 interviews were undertaken for the study last month. The results show that despite diesels currently accounting for around four in 10 cars on UK roads, only 23% of motorists plan to buy a diesel as their next car. Notably, more than half of all current…

“There’s a reason behind its look: the back wing and underbody generate downforce” This, as you can probably tell from the tremendously large rear wing and the fact that it looks like a selection of power bulges haphazardly applied to a vaguely Honda-ish-shaped hatchback, is the new Honda Civic Type R. Beneath these lumps is the most powerful front-drive hatchback around, one with 316bhp, which, by conventional thinking, is the sort of power you’d put through all four wheels. Not so Honda, which has recently made setting the front-drive production car Nürburgring lap record its ‘thing’. It achieved that with the previous-generation Civic Type R and has done so again, so it says, with this, going around the Nordschleife in 7min 43.8sec, 7sec quicker than last time. The new time…

The Kia Stinger feels like it could be the beginning of something big for its Korean maker. Alternatively, it could be a self-indulgent sideline whose most important legacy is to remind Kia of the potentially ruinous consequences of overreaching itself. Only the market will tell – although it certainly feels like the former. It is undoubtedly a risk: a stylish five-door ‘liftback’ whose mission is to tempt people out of Audis, BMWs, Jaguars, Mercedes and Alfas – built by the company that also brought you the Rio, Cee’d and Sportage. We’ve had a brief taste of it already, on UK roads in a prototype. For our second one, Kia laid on access to the Nürburgring Nordschleife and the top-of-the-line Stinger GT: a car whose 365bhp twin-turbo V6 petrol engine and…

Fifteen years ago someone with Amy Rimmer’s maths skills would likely have been lured into banking. She did consider it. That she chose automotive instead is a testament to the industry’s new-found ability to attract the brightest talents to work on future technologies. At just 29 years old, Rimmer is already a core part of the Jaguar Land Rover autonomous driving research team, so much so that one element of her job is to demonstrate to government ministers just how far the technology has come. That was just one reason the judges assessing the nominations for Autocar’s Great British Women Rising Stars chose Rimmer over so many other talented candidates. She and the eight category winners (see right) will be honoured at a special event in Twickenham this week. Rimmer…

Great Eight THANK YOU FOR publishing my letter on our Citroën XM (Your views, 31 May). At the risk of appearing greedy, I had to reply to the article in the same issue on the new and original BMW 8 Series. The third car in our garage, along with the XM and a BMW i8, is an 840Ci Sport from the last year of production, 1999. We have owned it since 2004 and, apart from an ABS return pump, it has only needed routine maintenance. Far from being “sluggish” and “notoriously unreliable”, with “monumentally high running costs”, as your article attested, it has been a joy to drive, cheap to run and completely reliable with a granite-hewn build quality. At 140,000 miles it feels barely run-in. The i8 is a…

Our big Jag has spent six months doing one of the jobs for which it was designed: covering big miles with the minimum of fuss while offering maximum comfort. I’ve been putting 80-90 miles per day on the odometer, so it’s little wonder that our car’s 16,000-mile first service rolled around. Earlier this year, my colleague Allan Muir was left a little underwhelmed by his experiences of Guy Salmon, the Jaguar Land Rover dealership closest to our office, when he took his Land Rover Discovery Sport there. With that in mind, I decided instead to try Harwoods Basingstoke, the dealer closest to my home. The experience was creditable and efficient from booking to collection. When I dropped the car off, I wasn’t offered a courtesy car (but neither did I…

Two-seat Honda was the future, once The Honda Insight is a brilliant craft from another time and planet. It is great to see that examples are still the right side of affordable, with this 2002 example up for £3750. Best of all, this one had a fresh and upgraded battery pack fitted a couple of years ago. It has had three previous owners and has covered a reasonable 133,000 miles. There’s plenty of service history with it, too. F-Type fun – and the fresh air is free The Jaguar F-Type just looks better and better and here is a rather smart-looking example. All the quick Jags look great in red. This one is a 3.0 V6 version from 2013 and it has covered 28,000 miles. It has all the connectivity…

“A healthy 630Ci coupé will crack 0-62mph in 6.5sec and slurp one gallon every 30 miles” Have you got shale oil welling up through your lawn? You might need it if you’re considering a BMW 6 Series (E63/64 generation) of 2003 to 2011. It loves the stuff, necking it when you least expect it and blowing it out through the exhaust, past rocker cover gaskets, through breather hoses, down cylinder bores… Best to get that little problem on the table from the start. We wouldn’t want you thinking this was just another dewy-eyed tribute to a snazzy BMW GT powered by a choice of thumping V8s (a 4.4 and later a 4.8), a sweet straight six 3.0-litre and a sensible-as-brown-shoes 3.0-litre diesel with twin turbos. Who can forget its predecessor,…

Porsche’s 911 GT2 RS, the most powerful and extreme road-going 911 yet, has been previewed during the launch of the Forza Motorsport 7 video game. The new model, which is one of the game’s star cars, is due to go on sale later this year with a 3.8 turbocharged flat six engine that is related to the 572bhp unit in the 911 Turbo S. However, Autocar’s sources suggest the GT2 RS’s power figure will be close to 700bhp. The GT2 RS’s underpinnings are derived from the current 991.2 family of 911s and it will use some hardware from the GT3 RS revealed at the Geneva motor show in March. The rear-wheel-drive GT2 RS will also have rear-axle steering with torque vectoring and a variable locking rear differential. Porsche hasn’t confirmed…

HYUNDAI WILL FURTHER expand its SUV line-up with two new models and an electric version of the newly launched Kona. They are set to be three of 30 new Hyundais to arrive by 2021 as part of the company’s plan to be the number one Asian car brand in Europe, up from its current third position. Speaking at the launch of the new Nissan Juke rival in Seoul, Hyundai’s vice chairman, Eui-sun Chung, said the firm would launch a smaller SUV than the Kona by 2020 and aim it chiefly at emerging markets, including India. A large SUV that sits above the Santa Fe, the biggest market for which will be North America, will follow to complete a five-model SUV range. Chung said the planned electric Kona was part of…

As names go, they don’t get much more literal than this. The Ferrari 812 Superfast is the latest super-GT car from Maranello, the newest in a long line of front-engined V12s, hence the ‘12’ in the title. It replaces the F12, which wasn’t exactly unsuperfast itself, what with its 730bhp and everything. But now – and here comes the ‘8’ – peak power is up to 800 metric horsepower, or 789bhp, so if it wasn’t fast enough before, the chances are that it will be now. How much power, Raffaele de Simone, Ferrari’s chief test driver and lead engineer, is too much? “If you have control, it’s never enough,” he says. Righto. Control, mind, was one of the things that the recent, limited-run F12tdf did not offer in quantities to…

If you’ve ever seen an example of BMW’s previous hybrid 5 Series – the ActiveHybrid 5 – you have spotted a rare car. Less than 1% of the 15,000 or so 5 Series cars BMW sells here yearly were part-electric. The ActiveHybrid 5 was expensive, and equipped with six cylinders and 302bhp, 149g/km CO2 performance to suit the US, which is why it made little ground here. BMW hopes that will change, dramatically, with this new 530e iPerformance hybrid, which is a plug-in propelled by a 249bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine and a 112bhp electric motor. The crucial difference lies in some key numbers: the 530e’s £44,765 list price is £770 less than for a 530d SE and £7405 more than for a 520d Efficient Dynamics; and its 46g/km CO2…

MODEL TESTED SQ5 Price £51,200 Power 349bhp Torque 369lb ft 0-60mph 5.5sec 30-70mph in fourth 7.1sec Fuel economy 26.6mpg CO2 emissions 195g/km 70-0mph 43.7m The European car-making business’s love affair with the SUV is showing no signs of cooling – and the good news is the variety that infatuation is fuelling makes the phenomenon anything but boring. Big ones, small ones, rugged ones, hybrid ones, premium ones, cheap ones, square ones and rakish ones: all seem to be good news at the moment – even the ‘sporty’ ones. If you still look on the very idea of a ‘performance SUV’ as an unfathomable contradiction in terms, you can plainly consider yourself well out of step with the tastes of those with a generous five-figure budget to lavish on a fast,…

Magic wands don’t exist, at least not outside Hogwarts. Progress has to be fought for and won. This is especially true in the field of automotive engineering. But what if there was one thing you could do that just made everything better for cars – one act that instantly conferred superior acceleration, higher cornering speeds, better handling, improved braking, lower fuel consumption and fewer emissions of every single kind? And what if, as it did so, it also used far less of the world’s finite natural resources? Would that not be as close to a wand fit for a wizard as can exist? Well, it does exist and it has been known about for as long as people have been making cars. It can be defined in three simple words:…

REVEALED Jaguar XE SVR Project 8 Full details and pics of Jaguar’s explosive new 592bhp super-saloon ahead of its starring role at the Goodwood Festival of Speed FREE 68-PAGE MAGAZINE New Honda Civic Type R As Type R turns 25, we lift the lid on the latest to wear the badge COMPARISON Fast estate showdown Skoda Octavia vRS vs Seat Leon Cupra ST and Volvo V60 Polestar EVERY WEEK FIRST DRIVE Audi RS5 We get behind the wheel of Audi’s new M4-rivaling super-coupé ROAD TEST Mazda CX-5 Second-generation crossover gets the eight-page road test treatment NEWS Seat Arona revealed First official look at Seat’s new baby SUV that’s going after the Juke SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p58…

TWO USEFUL OPPORTUNITIES to test the Micra’s practicality arrived in quick succession: helping my mum with a garden project followed by several days of hosting my in-laws. First up was finding out much real-world stuff the Micra’s 300-litre boot would hold and how easy it was to manoeuvre awkward items in and out. Finding out consisted of one trip to the tip with numerous terracotta pots full of old plants and compost, and another to the local garden centre. The Micra took all 10 bags of compost in one hit, and even though we’d lowered the seats in anticipation of exceeding the boot space, we needn’t have bothered as the little Nissan proved capable of swallowing the whole load. The hatch opening is wide and well shaped, with a sizeable…

MILEAGE 127,864 LAND ROVER SERIES 3 It was a very simple choice: park the lorry somewhere in the garden and let nature take over, or rebuild it. If I was retired, then I would get stuck in, but it seemed preferable to get an expert to do it in months, rather than wait for me to never finish it. Working hard right until the end of its MOT, the lorry was shifting boxes and acting as a surrogate ice cream van at the local fête (all proceeds to the village hall). The next day, it limped into the expert’s compound for the surgery to begin.…

An expert’s view STEVE BUCK, A1BN “They can leak oil — lots of it: hoses cracking or getting blocked, gaskets failing, gearboxes running dry… these are the problems we see all the time. Would I buy one? ‘Buyer beware’ is all I can say. Go in with your eyes wide open and don’t buy the first you see, or the second. I’m bound to say it, since we can offer this service, but pay for a pre-purchase inspection by a professional. We charge £102. It takes a couple of hours and we go through the whole car. That flushes out the problems.” Buyer beware • PETROL ENGINES A ‘check engine’ light could indicate that the camshaft position sensor needs changing. Vanos solenoids and actuators can fail, leading to poor running.…

1 Land Rover Discovery Sport From £32,400 Seven seats, lots of space, fine on-road handling and Land Rover’s usual off-road capability – plus new-found desirability. 2 Jaguar F-Pace From £34,200 Credible ›irst SUV effort handles like a proper Jaguar. Deserves a better engine than the entry-level diesel. 3 Skoda Kodiaq From £23,000 Does wonders for the Skoda brand, and brings seven-seater functionality to a new audience. Not as great to drive as some. 4 BMW X3 From £31,300 A close match for the Land Rover in terms of practicality and dynamism, albeit with better engines and equipment levels. 5 Volvo XC60 From £31,300 Refreshing design now made more competitive by Volvo’s recent engine revolution. Not quite as spacious as some.…