Innholdsfortegnelse for 18/10/2017 i Autocar

“I DON’T THINK anything better could have happened to us.” So says Lotus boss Jean-Marc Gales on Chinese giant Geely’s deal to buy the battle-weary sports car firm. Lotus has forever felt like a business with a ‘but’ attached to it. That should finally change under the vast and incredibly well-funded Geely, which understands and respects great brands. It has moved Volvo out of the mainstream and into being a full-blown premium car maker, and trusted Volvo’s management to get on with it. Gales has had to do lots of firefighting in his first three years at Lotus in dragging the company back to profit, but he’s a man of ambition. Geely clearly matches his vision. Now there’s an opportunity of moving Lotus towards being a mini Porsche: creating next-generation…

POLESTAR WILL LAUNCH two more models in the next four years – a mid-sized Tesla Model 3 rival, due in 2019, followed by an SUV-style vehicle. Both will be battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The firm hasn’t revealed specifics about either model, although it said the mid-sized BEV Polestar 2 car, currently in the engineering phase, will “join the competition” around the Tesla Model 3. The Model 3 is available with 50kWh and 70kWh batteries. The Polestar 3 is described as a “larger SUV-style BEV” and “a modern expression of electric performance and driving dynamics”. It will sit between the Polestar 1 and entry-level Polestar 2 in terms of volume and pricing. As with the Polestar 1, both machines are likely to draw heavily on Volvo architecture and technology. Polestar boss…

LAND ROVER DESIGN boss Gerry McGovern has revealed that the firm is nervous about creating concept cars in case the designs are copied. The company famously sued Chinese firm Landwind over its X7 model that echoed the Range Rover Evoque. McGovern said past experiences had made the company think twice about previewing upcoming designs. “We’re nervous about showing show cars a couple of years out as you can be copied just like that,” McGovern said last week in London at the reveal of the revised Range Rover. He added that there was a need to protect the huge investments that went into the development of new cars, which was anywhere between £500 million and £1 billion, depending on the project. Land Rover has not shown as many concepts as other…

Aston Martin’s fast-expanding DB11 range has gained a new drop-top Volante version, powered exclusively by the AMG-sourced 4.0-litre turbocharged V8 engine. Aston says the new car is its sportiest open-top model yet. It has chosen to launch with the lighter V8 engine rather than a V12 to ensure the handling is as keen as possible. It is understood that a V12 version is not currently in the product plan, but it would be a likely addition later in the car’s life. The V8 engine in the 2+2 DB11 Volante produces the same 503bhp at 6000rpm and 513lb ft at 2000-5000rpm as it does in the DB11 V8 coupé. It is connected to an eight-speed automatic gearbox and drives the rear wheels. With a kerb weight of 1870kg, the DB11 Volante…

Anew compact SUV. Does the world need another one? Yes, according to Volkswagen, whose new T-Roc slots in below the full-fat Touareg and the mid-sized Tiguan, because 27% of new cars sold in Europe are SUVs and, in five years’ time, that figure will rise to 34%. The T-Roc features a very wide, boldly barred front grille and MQB underpinnings from the VW Group’s modular platform kit. But for all this underskin standardisation, and the strictures around car engineering in today’s crash-regulated world, the T-Roc is an individual piece of design. It has a roofline sloping significantly downwards to the rear, polished aluminium hoops to emphasise that line and a shallow glasshouse, all to hint at a coupé look. It manages to look like a crossover without actually appearing tall.…

TESTED 10.10.17, SPAIN ON SALE NOW PRICE £19,895 t’s that tricky second album for Seat. Martorell’s first SUV, the Ateca, arrived under the radar last year, catching the Qashqai snoozing and sneaking past it to the top of our crossover class. As such, the weight of expectation on the Arona’s shoulders is considerable. You expect it to be good. So do we. So does Seat. So where does the Arona fit in this ever-expanding crossover/small SUV class? It sits on the Ibiza’s MQB A0 architecture, so it’s mainly a Nissan Juke and Renault Captur rival, although further up the trim ladder it creeps into Mini Countryman and Volkswagen T-Roc territory. The Arona comes with the trinkets to all but guarantee success, including a contrasting roof and a smattering of underbody…

MODEL TESTED LC500 SPORT+ Price £85,895 Power 471bhp Torque 398lb ft 0-60mph 5.2sec 30-70mph in fourth 7.4sec Fuel economy 27.1mpg CO2 emissions 267g/km 70-0mph 48.5m Concept cars are endlessly frustrating. Often jaw-dropping in design, they embody the formidable creative potential of companies operating in one of the most competitive industries in the world. Invariably, however, the years-long transition from motor-show plinth to dealership car park causes their most exotic edges to be knocked off as the realities of safety legislation, supply-chain economics, takt-time travails and so on bite hard. All of which makes the new LC500 an unusually exciting prospect. It is, give or take, indistinguishable from the LF-LC concept whose rakish profile dropped jaws at the 2012 Detroit motor show and whose popularity convinced the suits at Lexus headquarters…

As the latest hot hatchbacks go, the new, £30,995 Honda Civic Type R represents decent value for money. But for the same £2000 that it costs to upgrade the Type R to GT spec, you could buy an entire used hot hatch. That’s a whole car for the same amount of money as sat-nav, a dimming rear-view mirror and a handful of other trinkets will cost. And far from today’s ever-converging contenders, our rogues’ gallery of 10 fast yet practical used cars, each available for two grand or less, includes a mish-mash of engine capacities, configurations and aspiration, with diehard-sating manual gearboxes and hydraulic steering aplenty. “Its responsiveness and induction howl seem even more startling now” Honda Civic Type R EP3 FOR ALL ITS 316bhp, the latest Civic Type R…

If all goes to plan, on 26 October, Wing Commander Andy Green will strap himself into the cockpit of his Bloodhound SSC Land Speed Record car and fire it down the 9000ft runway at Newquay airport in Cornwall. There will be about 5000 people watching, yet, despite this, Bloodhound chief engineer Mark Chapman is adamant that will be the first time it will move under its own power. “No sneaky test runs away from the public eye?” I enquire as he guides me around his machine. “We will run everything up, do some tests with the car tied down but, no, when it runs for the first time, you’ll be there to see it,” he responds. If the runs go to plan, the team will decamp to Hakskeenpan in South…

“This car is quite serious about keeping you at the right temperature” FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see how well suited this luxury offroader is to executive travel, alongside the usual Merc and BMW suspects Before you look at the price of this Land Rover Discovery, it’s worth noting that more than half of Discovery buyers opt for the top-specification trim. Because the price as tested (£74,420), or even perhaps the basic price (£64,195), might cause an involuntary breath to leave your mouth, as it did mine. But this is not unusual, and it speaks of where Land Rover is today. The Discovery is, at the very least, an executive car, nudging towards a luxury car. Take a look around: there are loads of them specced like this.…

QUESTION I want something quick and stunning but need to accommodate two adults and a child in a baby car seat. What do you recommend? Gavin Berwick, via email ANSWER A Nissan Skyline fits the bill and is a legendary performance car that is happy popping to the supermarket as well as tearing around a track. It’s easy to drive, has a decent boot and the rear seats are fine for children. Prices for 2009 models are £36,995. I also found a 2016 model being sold privately with 24k miles at around £59,995. QUESTION I no longer need my Ford Galaxy, but I love the look of a sports utility vehicle and love gadgets. Any recommendations? Barry Gill, via email ANSWER You can part-exchange the Galaxy for a Ford Kuga.…

“A tidy 300ZX in standard trim is still an impressive and dignified thing” DID YOU KNOW? A 60sec ad for the 300ZX Twin Turbo, directed by Ridley Scott, was aired during Super Bowl XXIV in 1990. However, Nissan executives then agreed to pull the commercial after pressure groups objected to its depiction of speed. The 300ZX restored the reputation of Nissan’s legendary Z-series sports cars after the woeful 280ZX and 300Z models that immediately preceded it. A large 2+2, it had sleek but muscular styling, four-wheel steering and a 3.0-litre petrol V6 with variable cam timing fed by a pair of quick-acting Garrett turbochargers with twin intercoolers. Not only did it draw a line under its predecessors but it also bested those other Japanese super-coupés, the Mitsubishi 3000GT, Mazda RX-7…

1 Volkswagen Golf From £17,600 Expensive it may be, but there’s enough class here to make the price look reassuringly precise. A cut above. 2 Ford Focus From £14,000 Has a blend of ride and handling that rivals can’t match. One of the UK’s most popular cars for all the right reasons. 3 Seat Leon From £16,200 As always, a Golf in cheaper Spanish drag. Margins are cleverly engineered as a result, but this is the best Leon yet. 4 Audi A3 Sportback From £19,200 Outstanding cabin quality, peppy engines and low ownership costs make it good for those uninterested in dynamic zest. 5 Vauxhall Astra From £15,500 The latest Astra is big on practicality, standard speci ication and choice of engines, but it is still an ordinary car to…

“The Polestar 1 is a 592bhp four-seat hybrid GT coupé that will act as the brand’s halo model” Polestar has revealed its first model since becoming a standalone brand from Volvo. The Polestar 1 is a 592bhp four-seat hybrid GT coupé that will, the brand says, act as a halo model for its future range of electric performance cars, which will be sold via subscription only. The Polestar 1, due to go into production in mid-2019, is described by company boss Thomas Ingenlath as “an electric car with support from an internal-combustion engine”. It will be the only hybrid to carry the brand’s new badge. All future Polestars, beginning with a Tesla Model 3 rival and a larger SUV-style machine (see separate story, p11), will be full battery electric vehicles…

The first Seat to use a bespoke EV platform will be launched in 2020, the brand’s design boss, Alejandro Mesonero, has told Autocar. It is understood that the model will essentially be the Spanish car maker’s take on the Volkswagen ID, using the same MEB underpinnings and sharing much of its technical architecture. The ID concept, which previews VW’s production model, uses a single electric motor to produce 167bhp. The MEB structure it will share with the Seat EV is the VW Group’s first to be developed purely for EVs. It has been designed with a no-compromise philosophy to maximising range and electric performance. Mesonero said he believes Seat’s electric car should have a range of 400km (249 miles). That would align it closely with the next-generation Nissan Leaf, which…

FUTURE LAGONDA MODELS, two of which are due to be launched in 2023, will need to have unconventional designs, according to Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer. He believes they must break away from the usual forms adopted by the established luxury rival models from Rolls-Royce and Bentley. “The truth is I don’t want either of them to be what you’d call a traditional saloon,” Palmer told Autocar. “If we just do another three-box, it’s going to be hard to break into that market. So what I’m challenging the design guys to do is to look for something that breaks that duopoly [between Rolls and Bentley] but which still has appeal to what is a relatively conservative market, and what is still very much a chauffeur-driven market.” It is also possible…

McLaren has confirmed that it will launch its most extreme, track-focused road car yet next year. Referred to internally as the P15, the forthcoming Ultimate Series model, scooped by Autocar earlier this year, is being developed with a hard focus on track driving – so much so that the Woking-based manufacturer admits that it will sacrifice daily usability in order to maximise performance. The two-seater is due to make its public debut at the Geneva motor show in March, sporting what McLaren calls a “brutal” design representing the “purest expression” of its form-follows-function styling. Autocar understands the 675LT development car that has been spotted testing at the Nürburgring in recent weeks is a mule for the P15, offering insight into the advanced aerodynamic layout of the final production car. The…

“The 6 Series GT is considerably more agile, and willing, than its predecessor” The outgoing 5 Series GT is not one of BMW’s most elegant cars. The bulky executive class hatchback fields an odd mix of positives – room, comfort and a raised seating position – bundled with less than thrilling dynamics. This new Gran Turismo is now a 6 Series rather than a 5, its redesign taking into account customers’ views of its good points, and what the car’s project boss, Claus-Otto Griebel, tactfully calls its “less good points” – more of which shortly. The 6 GT rides on the same wheelbase as the latest 7 Series, has grown 87mm in length (most of this devoted to a boot that is one of the outgoing car’s less good points),…

“This is truly one of today’s hot hatch greats. The Type R brand is in a very good place indeed” You’ll have seen the video. The brown leather loafers; the unfortunate, bright white socks. When Ayrton Senna tested the Honda NSX-R at Suzuka in the early 1990s, it was, to him, just a day of promotional activity. He could never have known anoraks like me would still be wittering on about that day a quarter of a century later. But it’s just too good to forget, isn’t it? One of the great Formula 1 drivers at the height of his powers, whipping chunks out of a very special supercar – on one of the few truly iconic motor racing circuits, no less – as though a championship was on the…

“Moroccan driving is no more than mildly anarchic” Earnest engineering. That’s what Dacias are about. That and, most famously, low prices. Forget premium-brand mark-ups or even the mark-ups of volume brands trading on history and extra sophistication. Instead, the Dacia formula, as most of us know, is about back-to-basics transportation. It’s a formula with considerable appeal. The Dacia Sandero, you may be surprised to hear, is the 12th best-selling car in Europe, and 100,000 Dacias have been sold in Britain since the brand’s 2013 relaunch. No-nonsense, budget cars have considerable appeal on other continents too: Dacia brand owner Renault has two plants in Morocco supplying not only Africa but export markets besides. Its ultra-modern Tangier operation builds the UK’s Sanderos (see separate story, p61). Opened in 2012, this plant recently…

My dream garage is… bigger Your informative article on how to buy a secondhand supercar (Autocar, 4 October) started with the phrase ‘your dream car in the garage’. The problem is that most used-car buyers have only a standard domestic garage, the dimensions of which were laid down in the classic-car era. I realise your comment was only a figure of speech, but it draws attention to the fact that supercars are always too wide and sometimes too long if they have 2+2 accommodation. The population and its cars are becoming progressively larger. Getting the car into a garage is one thing. Opening the door for a portly fat cat (who can afford a supercar) to get out is quite another. Around my way, many houses have garages that cannot…

MILEAGE 2456 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To ascertain how appealing Skoda’s first large SUV is to big families Leaving the hospital with a newborn marks a pivotal moment in life, I reckon. Off you drive, happy, content, a touch nervous but sure that you will, like every generation before, find a way through what lies ahead. And then, as sure as night follows day, there’s a gurgle, a cry or full-blown yell that snaps you out of your reverie, locks your eyes onto the rear-view mirror and lets the reality of what’s unfolding come crashing in. I’ve experienced it twice, lucky fellow that I am, and yet, when I look in the mirror now, almost 10 years after the first, there always seems to be three, four or even five…

MILEAGE 77,549 VOLKSWAGEN POLO When I was a youngster, my dad put a tiger in the tank (an old Esso advertising slogan) and that seemed to work well enough. Since then, apart from leaded, unleaded and occasionally diesel, I’ve not bothered with anything else. We are, though, putting a cat into the youngster’s Toy Polo. Well, to be more accurate, it’s actually some Cataclean that I bought. (I don’t ever get sent anything to try, be it a Ferrari or a shammy leather.) The Polo and its keeper will tell us if it makes a difference.…

“It redlines at 7800rpm, which gives a wide power band and a thrilling top end to chase” Things to look out for • #Oil changes are crucial and need to be carried out every 7500 miles. If an Impreza lacks the sort of history that proves this has occurred, walk away. • #Imprezas eat their clutches, especially if they’re tuned, so watch out for clutch judder, and if there’s a hint of it, budget for an imminent replacement. • #Smoke of any colour from the exhaust once the engine’s warm is a bad sign and could point to a turbocharger failure or something else equally nasty. • #Standard cars are worth more, but if the only ones you can track down are modified examples, try to find a car that…

An expert’s view JAMES THOMAS, POWERZED “I bought my ZX, an import, in 2005. It has now done about 80,000 miles and, because I look after it properly, never put a foot wrong. It does around 22mpg but can do 30mpg on a motorway run. It has no bodykit or add-ons. I hate those things. The car looks good enough in standard trim. Saying that, a good supplier of top-quality aftermarket bits is Stillen [stillen.com], founded by US racer Steve Millen, who raced the 300ZX in the 1990s. The attraction of the 300ZX for me is the performance, the roadholding and the styling. Also, the fact that at the end of a long drive, I get out still feeling fresh. I have an elderly customer who regularly drives his from…

1 Range Rover Sport From £61,300 Now bigger and better. A cut-price Range Rover rather than a jumped-up Discovery — and the best here by a mile. 2 Volvo XC90 From £45,800 The XC90 is cleverly packaged, smartly styled, competitively priced and a pleasing thing to drive. The T8 hybrid is also commendable. 3 Porsche Cayenne From £49,600 The current model is more agile, more stylish and more sporty-feeling than before. It has a great interior, too. 4 Land Rover Discovery From £41,600 Looks like an outmoded hulk in this list, but it can still do everything you’d ever want it to. 5 Audi Q7 From £47,800 Biggest Audi is typically unengaging to drive but fast and light on its feet. Cabin is both huge and brilliantly classy.…

Seat will put a sporty SUVcoupé into production in 2020, the brand’s research and development boss, Matthias Rabe, has said. Speaking at the unveiling of the new Seat Arona crossover, Rabe confirmed the brand’s plan for the model, which looks on course to be the first launched under what will then be a standalone Cupra brand. The model’s styling will draw heavily on the Seat 20V20 concept of the 2015 Geneva motor show. There is likely to be a plug-in hybrid variant of it as the Barcelona brand prepares to electrify its range in line with its Volkswagen Group stablemates. Seat boss Luca de Meo previously said he sees potential in the sports crossover market, citing the Porsche Macan as an example. Given de Meo’s Macan reference, it’s likely Seat’s…

ASTON MARTIN CEO Andy Palmer has confirmed its mid-engined supercar, previously scooped by Autocar, has been signed off for production. The car is one of seven models the company intends to launch between now and 2023 and will arrive towards the end of that time frame. It will be developed with Red Bull Racing at a new facility in Milton Keynes. However, unlike the Valkyrie hypercar that will precede it, the mid-engined model will be more of an Aston project, according to Palmer. He also revealed that the car will have an all-new engine. “In our portfolio today, we don’t have an engine capable of giving us the output we require,” he told Autocar. “Whether through collaboration with AMG or whether by ourselves, we have to find an answer.”…

“There is a niche for a Lotus crossover that is light and handles like nothing else” LOTUS BOSS JEAN-MARC Gales has promised to keep sports car production in Norfolk as he begins to develop a new generation of models, due from 2021, as part of a plan drawn up under the brand’s new owner Geely. Geely bought Lotus at the end of last month, with the sports-car firm joining the Chinese manufacturer’s fast-growing – and so far hugely successful – portfolio of diverse automotive brands, the flagship of which is a revitalised Volvo. Gales, who has been confirmed as Lotus’s CEO, is now working on future plans to present to the Geely board. The new line-up is set to include an SUV, for which Gales believes Lotus can find a…

Don’t expect any vaulting advances from BMW’s latest X3, the formula for this new version very similar to that of its predecessor. Given that BMW has sold more than 1.5 million X3s over the first two editions and 14 years, that shouldn’t be a surprise – inching intergenerational progress is the evolutionary hallmark of every car that’s a big hit. In fact, this third-generation X3 contains useful advances on multiple fronts, not least on the aesthetic, dynamic, connected and tactile fronts. Tactile? If you order your X3 with Fineline open-pored wood, and Aluminium Rhombicle (!) interior trim highlights, you’ll discover that it’s impossible to resist touching these textures a second time, and many more, once you have run your fingers over them. The open-pored wood allows you to feel the…

TESTED 12.10.17, NORFOLK ON SALE NOW PRICE £112,500 “Porsche 911 GT3, GT3 RS, Mercedes-AMG GT S, McLaren 540C…” These are the cars that Lotus boss Jean-Marc Gales reels off when asked what he considers competitors for his firm’s latest model, the Evora GT430. Those rivals might raise an eyebrow if your Evora impressions are still rooted in the 276bhp, £47,500 original from 2009. But the car has come a very long way since then, improved most dramatically in becoming the Evora 400 in 2015, incrementally so again with the Evora Sport 410 last year, and now with the GT430. At £112,500, it completes the Evora’s transformation from sports car to bona fide supercar, becoming the fastest and most powerful car Lotus has yet produced. The changes over the Sport 410…

RENAULT HAS HAD a presence in Morocco for decades. The first vehicles were sold there in 1928 under a company called Somar. This became Renault Morocco in 1967 after the company opened the Somaca assembly facility at Casablanca. In 1999, the French replaced the locally produced Renault Express van with the Kangoo. In 2005, Renault became a major shareholder in the Somaca plant and, two years later, plans for a brand-new plant and supporting infrastructure, including a rail link to a new port known as Tangier-Med, were revealed. The new Tangier plant opened in 2012 and a second production line began at Casablanca the following year. The Renault and Dacia plants have an impressive grip on the Moroccan new-car market. Dacia has a 29% market share and the two brands…

On 4 January 1967, a 14-year-old Londoner went into mourning. He wasn’t alone. Thousands of other youngsters followed suit when their record-breaking hero, Donald Campbell, died as his Bluebird K7 hydroplane plunged into the depths of Coniston Water during an attempt on the world water speed record. Far from being put off, however, David Tremayne – that teenager in the capital – was inspired and promised himself that one day, no matter what, he too would become a record breaker. Half a century later, on 18 August 2017, Tremayne remembers that promise as he straps into his Team Duo Stay Gold gas turbine-powered car. He’s attempting to break the UK land speed record of 301.67mph. It is the culmination of years of struggle and planning, including searching for the right…

FIRST DRIVE NEW JAGUAR XJR The overhauled XJR brings with it more power and a sharper chassis. Matt Prior sees if the Jag is the ultimate performance saloon FEATURE What Westfield did next The British sports car maker on its ambitious – and innovative – plans ROAD TRIP Hyundai i30 N epic drive We retrace the route of the original 1932 RAC Rally EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Honda Civic Type R It’s beaten all comers in comparison tests. Now for the big one FIRST DRIVE Audi R8 V10 Plus Spyder Audi’s R8 Spyder gets even faster – and we’ve driven it USED BUYING GUIDE BMW Z4 M How to track down the forgotten M – and what to look out for when you do SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p20…

MILEAGE 7481 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out how well it blends luxury and sporting traits in a practical body ONE OF THE vehicles pictured above is a people-carrier and load-lugger extraordinaire, a go-anywhere, practical German machine designed to deal with anything that life can throw at it. The other is a Volkswagen Type 2. Titter. Joking aside, if you asked me to choose one of those vehicles in which to spend a road trip with a mate, I’d choose the red (sorry, that’s ‘hyacinth red metallic’ to me and you) one. In fact, I’m about to embark on just such an adventure to the Hebrides. More on that in a future report. I took the above photo in a car park in the New Forest, on a day…

Honda Accord Nick Williams adores his Honda Accord: “I recently bought a July 2008, latest-shape, eighth-generation Accord automatic with a 2.4-litre engine and every extra imaginable. It has done just 41,000 miles and came with a full Honda service history. The only problem I have discovered with this model is that the front of the sunroof rusts. However, the Honda dealer has ordered a new sunroof and will be fitting it under Honda UK warranty. That’s great customer service. “Otherwise, the Accord is comfortable and reliable. This 2.4 can do 32-34mpg easily. Road tax is high at £290 but I only drive about 7000 miles a year so a petrol engine is best. Best of all, it is not a ubiquitous German machine. I intend to keep it a long…

Nissan 350Z According to a dealer we spoke to, the Nissan 350Z is a dead cert to become a modern classic. It’s easy to see why he thinks that when you get a 3.5-litre V6, rear drive and 0-60mph in less than 6.0sec. It’s also handsome, tuneful and easy to live with. Not a lot goes wrong, but check for noisy exhausts, clicking driveshafts and worn suspension bushes. Your best bet is a GT-spec car that comes with electrically adjusted leather seats, cruise control and Bose stereo. Most buyers prefer the Rays six-spoke wheels and they do look great. True UK cars, rather than Japanese imports, start at £5000 with 80k miles. Mitsubishi i Could you cope with the attention a Mitsubishi i gets? A recent drive proved that seemingly…

1 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. 2 Honda NSX From £144,000 The modern digital hybrid supercar made analogue. Tactile steering, balanced handling; understated brilliance. 3 Porsche 911 Turbo S From £142,000 Still rules the everyday-use, any-occasion sporting ranks. Practical, easygoing and monstrously quick. 4 Jaguar F-Type SVR From £110,000 The most convincing Jaguar sports car since the XJ220. Excellent chassis matches bombastic engine. 5 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.…

FORD ECOSPORT | JANUARY 2018 Ford’s smallest SUV has been revised for a second time to better suit European tastes. Along with Ford’s signature trapezoidal grille, additions include a new 1.5-litre diesel engine, an ST-Line trim level and Sync 3 infotainment. The chassis has also been fettled to improve the handling. Price from £15,700 OCTOBER Aston Martin DB11 V8, Vantage AMR, Audi TT RS (left), BMW6 Series GT, Hyundai Kona, Jaguar XF Sportbrake, Kia Stonic, McLaren 570S Spider, Mercedes-Benz S-Class update, Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo, Ssangyong Rexton NOVEMBER BMW X3, Citroën C3 Aircross, Hyundai i30N, Jaguar E-Pace, XJ update, XJR 575, Kia Stinger, Nissan X-Trail, VW Tiguan Allspace DECEMBER Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Audi A8, Dallara Stradale, Honda CR-V, Jeep Compass, Kia Sorento update, Lexus CT and NX updates, Lotus…