Innholdsfortegnelse for 28/03/2018 i Autocar

THAT THE TOYOTA Yaris GRMN falls short of the class best in its road test (p32) is secondary to the fact it even exists at all. Turning the most humdrum of superminis into a characterful hot hatch shows just how serious Toyota is about injecting excitement into its brand once more. To his great credit, company boss Akio Toyoda has prioritised bolstering driver involvement in every Toyota and Lexus model. It is an element that has been eroded in recent years; Toyota builds so many different cars for so many markets and too many had a ‘designed-by-committee’ feel to them. The company lost its focus. Now with each new Toyota and Lexus comes evidence that it has snapped out of that. The recent Toyota C-HR and Lexus LC are the…

Sandstorm The most radical of Jeep’s Moab concepts, the Sandstorm is a Baja desert-racer with a cut-down body and high-articulation off-road axles, claimed to boast 14in of front travel and 18in at the rear. Power comes from a 6.4-litre Hemi V8 and sand-grip 39in tyres help transmit the power to the ground. 4Speed An example of a concept that Jeep has tried before – a radically lightened off-roader that’s faster and more nimble than the Wrangler it’s based on. The 4Speed loses 430kg with a combination of carbonfibre bonnet and wheel arches, a cut-down body and a roll-cage made from thin-wall tube. Jeepster The second-most-extreme Wrangler to be shown at Moab features a 2in roof chop and 2.5deg windscreen lay-back to recreate the look of the original 1966 Jeepster. It…

THE NEW TOYOTA Auris is set to spawn a GRMN-branded hot hatch to rival the Volkswagen Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST. The British-built new Auris will go on sale in March 2019 and a hot hatch version is understood to be part of production plans for soon after. “With GRMN, we said we wanted to bring the excitement of motorsport closer to the customer by offering more of these types of vehicles in the future,” said Johan van Zyl, Toyota’s boss in Europe. “We look at that and the potential for the Auris in the future.” Toyota’s GRMN performance brand has just been launched in Europe, with the limited-run, hardcore Yaris GRMN, although it has been established in Japan for longer. There, Toyota sells different levels of GRMN products,…

The British public is split over the acceptance of self-driving cars, according to a survey of 1300 people linked to the first opportunity for people in the UK to ride in prototype autonomous vehicle pods. They were interviewed by Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), the University of Greenwich and the Royal College of Art. Just under half (47%) said they feel positive towards connected and autonomous vehicles while 43% said they have concerns, and a smaller number of respondents (10%) said they feel negative towards self-driving vehicles. The findings are the preliminary results from a trial that Autocar was last week able to experience by riding in one of four self-driving pods operating in Greenwich, London, on a 2.1-mile route on the narrow riverside path around the O2 Arena. The alloy-chassis…

“Hydrogen will solve a lot of issues that dog electric cars” SATURDAY One of the most extraordinary days any of us will ever spend at Goodwood, all because of the ridiculous weather. The spectre of F5000 cars bellowing towards us out of a blizzard, then disappearing back into it at the other end of the straight – while still being driven with remarkable commitment – will stay with me forever. The heart rates of the drivers must have recorded some big numbers! What was most amazing, though, was the stoicism of the onlookers, universally freezing and sodden, who enjoyed it anyway. Their commitment was mirrored by the durability of the Duke of Richmond’s daffodils, which stayed perky despite lots of provocation not to do their stuff. Made me wonder whether…

The P400e’s powertrain has been designed with optimal weight distribution in mind. The 114bhp electric motor is mounted on the eight-speed ZF transmission and the Samsung-sourced battery pack sits under the boot floor – where the full-sized spare wheel would normally sit. The 7kW on-board charging socket is housed behind the Land Rover badge on the front grille. With a dedicated 32-amp charge point, the 13.1kWh battery pack can be replenished in as little as 2hr 45min, although a regular 10-amp unit will extend this to 7hr 30min. Two driving modes are available: Parallel Hybrid and, for electriconly travel, EV. Parallel Hybrid combines the petrol and electric motors in the most efficient way and also offers a ‘Save’ function that allows the driver to prevent charge from dropping below a…

MODEL TESTED YARIS GRMN Price £26,295 • Power 209bhp • Torque 184lb ft • 0-60mph 6.4sec • 30-70mph in fourth 10.6sec • Fuel economy 27.4mpg • CO2 emissions 170g/km • 70-0mph 50.5m ‘Gazoo Racing tuned by the Meister of Nürburgring.’ That’s the rather convoluted meaning of that four-letter initialism affixed to the back of this particular Toyota Yaris – the subject of this week’s road test. Bit of a mouthful, isn’t it? Say it a couple of times and you’ll soon appreciate why the ‘GRMN’ badging is necessary, even if it doesn’t particularly roll off the tongue any more easily. Motorsport fans will have come across the Gazoo Racing name before. Originally, it was one of a number of in-house racing teams operated by Toyota – running alongside the likes…

There will never be a perfect time to buy your first sports car, or your first future classic. Be it school fees, a house purchase or your second daughter’s wedding – or even your daughter’s second wedding – there will always be at least one financial obligation to discourage you. If we accept that this is the fact of the matter, however, it must follow that now is as good as any time to buy your first Aston Martin, or your first V12. If not now, then when? Over the next few pages, we’ll look at 19 different ‘firsts’ and steer you around the pitfalls and towards the light. Your first Bond car. Your first getaway car. Even your first TVR. The only thing that each of the 19 categories…

FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out whether a big, separate-chassis, part-time all-wheel-drive SUV still has a place in the world Whatever you think of Ssangyong, there’s no denying that the company’s new Rexton four-wheel drive is a vehicle of intriguing contrasts. It has a finely appointed interior crammed with modern electrical tech, yet there’s an old-school rotary knob allowing you to switch between rear-wheel drive, four-wheel drive and low range. It has a rather 20th-century separate chassis, above which sits a modishly sumptuous quilted leather interior. So this is your big, tough SUV in the form that most of these beasts used to come in, underpinned with box-section steel reinforcements that would have been familiar to Isambard Kingdom Brunel. South Korean Ssangyong is now well into a…

What I like about writing for Autocar is that if I ask a question, dear readers always come up trumps and answer it. So when I asked about how reliable your motors are, well, we have some jolly good news for the Volkswagen Group, or whatever it is called this week. At one end, we have Skoda, and the Fabia in particular. Reader Lee bought his example secondhand with 10,000 miles on the clock and it now has racked up 82,000. Fabbies are little runabout cars for nipping between not-too-distant places, right? Well, Lee told me that his “has taken us through Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and down to the very south of France three times, to the Inner and Outer Hebrides 12 times, and many more places too. “She had…

QUESTION I currently own a 2009 Alfa Romeo Spider, which I could use as a deposit on a new Stelvio. or I could find £6k for the deposit and keep the Spider, which I love. Is it worth keeping hold of? Is it due for classic status any time soon? Dan Eaves, Chelmsford ANSWER Nobody can put a price on love for a car but, viewed objectively, the Spider isn’t going up in value any time soon – in fact, it’ll probably go down before it does – so that shouldn’t influence your decision. I’d be tempted to stick it into the Stelvio deal. QUESTION I need a car that’s at home on the motorway but small enough not to be unwieldy on narrow country lanes in the West Country.…

Fiat Barchetta £2500 Being part of a crowd is all very well but it’s far better to stick out from one. However much we admire the Mazda MX-5 – and we do; all God’s children do – there’s no denying there are rather a lot of them. This was all the encouragement many people needed to go out and instead buy a Fiat Barchetta, the tiny two-seat convertible that not only powered its front rather than its rear wheels but also had the temerity to appear in the UK in left-hand-drive form only. Worse, everyone knows it to be a Punto underneath, even though that was actually a rather good car in its early days. The Punto was attractively styled, its engines had a hint of bravura and its road…

Audi A8 3.0 TDI 262 Quattro SE Exec LWB Price new £69,140. Price now £33,500 There’s a new A8 in town, and it’s a quick, quiet and smooth luxury car that’s both practical and well equipped. The only problem is that to put one on your driveway will cost a great deal of money. The solution is to buy one of the old ones, which is also a relaxing limo and is almost as good in nearly every way. A year-old car in good condition will cost you less than half the price of a new one.…

“The 5.0-litre V8 has been tuned to suit the F-Pace SVR’s dynamic abilities” This is the new Jaguar F-Pace SVR, the first high-performance SUV ever made by the brand as it looks to exploit the model’s massive sales success and capitalise on booming demand for fast high-riding cars. The F-Pace SVR is the second Jaguar SVR, after the F-Type, and has been developed by Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division. Intriguingly, it has been launched before any high-performance versions of Jaguar’s new saloons, which also underlines the market shift away from such cars. At present, there are no plans to launch an SVR version of either the XE or the XF, besides the limited-run XE SV Project 8 that was made for a Nürburgring record attempt. Powered by…

“The Touareg will launch in the UK with a 3.0-litre V6 diesel with 282bhp” Volkswagen says the new Touareg represents the “biggest leap forward” in the history of its SUV, as the car maker attempts to push the flagship model further into premium territory. The third-generation SUV, unveiled in Beijing last week, has been redesigned with new technology, road-focused styling and a revamped interior that is dominated by VW’s new Innovision Cockpit. The Touareg will launch in the UK later this year with a 3.0 V6 diesel engine with 282bhp and 442lb ft. A second 3.0 V6 diesel with 228bhp and 369lb ft will follow in the autumn, as will a 3.0 V6 petrol with 335bhp and 332lb ft. Prices will start at about £50,000, an increase of almost £5000…

Jeep has created seven new concept cars as part of its annual Easter Jeep Safari held in the US city of Moab, Utah. None will reach production, according to Jeep boss Mike Manley, but elements of each will be used to inspire future models. “If you look back at previous Safari concepts, there are plenty of ideas that have made production,” said Manley. The concepts draw from Jeep’s most iconic model, the Wrangler. Design boss Mark Allen said: “The Wrangler is the nucleus of everything that Jeep does. Everything comes from the Wrangler.” Jeep has made the Easter meet at Moab – an event that started in 1967 – a focus for its design concepts because thousands of owners descend on the famous off-road trails. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) boss…

The revised Mercedes-AMG C63 models keep the same performance figures as the outgoing versions but instead focus on “even better dynamics” and a heavily revamped interior, according to the brand. Offered in saloon, estate, coupé and cabriolet guises, the AMG-bred C-Class is the bestselling AMG series model, taking into account the C63 and C43, the gentler AMG variant intended to bring more people to the performance brand. To improve dynamics, the C63 replaces its seven-speed Speedshift transmission with a nine-speed one for shorter shift times, and there are up to six drive programmes available: Slippery, Comfort, Sport, Sport+, Race and Individual. There is also a new set-up called AMG Dynamics, which can be adjusted to match the car’s handling characteristics to different demands and driving conditions. It offers four functions…

THE LYNK&CO 02 crossover will be the third model for the Geely-owned brand. It will sit alongside the bigger 01 SUV – the firm’s first product and due to go on sale in Europe in 2019 – and a saloon called the 03. Lynk&Co, which has the same owner as Volvo, began selling cars in China in 2017 ahead of its European launch next year. It says the new 02 is central to its plans to gain a share in Europe. All of its European models will feature hybrid electric powertrains. They are likely to use the three-cylinder hybrid engine that will be introduced to the XC40 later this year. Lynk&Co design boss Andreas Nilsson said the 02 “sits at the absolute centre of our brand”. It features a shorter…

Ever since the first-generation Range Rover entered production in 1970, that alliterative nameplate has been synonymous with luxury and refinement, so much so that today it wouldn’t be unreasonable to label the big SUV as the benchmark against which all other high-end cars are measured. Well, all cars this side of a Rolls-Royce Phantom or Bentley Mulsanne, perhaps. Anyway, considering the market position that the Range Rover now occupies – as well as the connotations associated with it – Jaguar Land Rover’s decision to introduce a plug-in hybrid model is backed by some pretty solid logic, and that’s not necessarily referring to the environmental benefits that electrified powertrains are claimed to bring about. You see, as important as a coveted badge, plush interior and classy, stately styling may be in…

Knowing exactly how the feat was achieved doesn’t actually make it any easier to wrap your head around. That, somehow, BMW’s M division has added the driveshafts and controllers and clutch plates and joints and everything else necessary to so contentiously switch its long-serving super-saloon idol – the M5 – from two driven wheels to four. That it has made the latest F90-generation version larger in every dimension than the F10 it’s succeeding. And that it has given it a more powerful, torque-laden turbocharged engine and the most sophisticated electronic chassis control system that any of its performance cars has had. All of that is true – and yet it has also made this car lighter. Admittedly, only by 15kg, but still: it’s lighter. That’s where we are. You can…

Gazoo Racing’s alternative and old-school formula for a hot supermini, applied to a car as ill-suited to the purpose as the Yaris, hasn’t resulted in the most e.ective of performance hatchbacks – but there’s still plenty on which to commend this feral little car. That supercharged engine is unique in the segment, and the requirement to work it hard goes a long way towards making this one of the more rewarding driving experiences in this class. There’s character in spades thanks to its genuine eagerness to rev and addictive soundtrack. And it makes the Yaris a properly quick hot hatch. Given Toyota’s apparent intention to pitch this as a car that puts its driving experience above everything else – think no-frills interior and aggressive exterior – it’s a pity that…

Our tour started on Concorde Road in Patchway, close to Filton airfield. From there, we drove along the A4018 towards the centre of Bristol, stopping on Alma Vale Road in Clifton. We then crossed over the Clifton Suspension Bridge and picked up Clevedon Road, the B3128, until reaching Naish Hill. After that, we continued into Clevedon to see Alfaholics before dashing up the M5 for a few miles until Avonmouth, the home of Bloodhound SSC. The total distance was 30 miles.…

Hurtling around an ice track in Arjeplog, northern Sweden, in a succession of cars equipped with variations on GKN Driveline’s Twinster torque vectoring system, I’m surprised when one of the mainly German development engineers tasked with presenting each test vehicle turns out to be a young Brit. Henry Jackman-Day may be only 24 but, as he tells me, he’s already managed to cram what feels like a decade’s engineering experience into the years during and immediately following his time at Coventry University, where he studied motorsport engineering. “I did my university placement as a test engineer, with several weeks at GKN MIRA working on production Jaguar Land Rover vehicles,” he tells me. “I was subsequently offered a place on GKN’s European Graduate Leadership Programme, a series of four lacements, each…

Woolf Barnato would approve. Tackling the Pikes Peak hillclimb, one of the original motorsport tests, is firmly in the spirit of the challenges undertaken by Barnato and the other original Bentley Boys of the 1920s. Back then, the Bentley Boys proved the prowess of the manufacturer’s models by racing against trains, dominating Le Mans and setting records at Brooklands. Now, to prove its Bentayga W12 can outmuscle and out-handle its high-riding performance car rivals, Bentley is heading to the Colorado mountain in mid-June to attack the class record for production SUVs. That benchmark currently resides at Gaydon: in 2014, a Range Rover Sport driven by Paul Dallenbach achieved a time of 12min 35.610sec for the 12.42-mile course. Bentley is confident it can set a new class standard and has signed…

Diesel. Just 10 years ago, it was the answer to all our problems. Car campaigns told us to ‘change something, make something better’. Go diesel. Politicians told us diesels were much better than petrol. Buy diesel and reduce CO2 emissions. All the while, we knew there was a problem with NOx gases, but the problems were hidden beneath the noise and diesel was the fuel of choice. And I think we’re back there again. Only this time, the message is ‘buy electric’. It doesn’t matter that many electrified cars solely derive their energy by burning fossil fuel; it doesn’t even matter that you cannot guarantee the source of the electricity that powers your plug-in electric car. Just buy electric. Go electric. Meanwhile, the real message is hidden behind the noise…

MILEAGE 6026 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if, after 40 years, the Golf GTI is still the world’s best all-round hot hatch It snowed the other week, as I’m sure you probably noticed. This was not great for many reasons. Chief among them at Tisshaw headquarters was an upcoming trip to Bruges and a Volkswagen Golf GTI in which to tackle the leftovers of the Beast from the East and get me to the Eurotunnel for 8.50am on a Saturday. The Golf GTI had shown itself to not be the most willing of companions in these conditions earlier in the week when ice caused a wheelspin-induced halt a metre short of the exit of the underground car park below my flats. Three more unsuccessful attempts were made, each employing…

I was going to feature a vehicle that I have just ‘unbought’, but will save that story for next time. Right now, I have to tell you what a hoot the Mini Cooper has been in the snow. Of course, you knew that already, and all those Monte Carlo wins proved the point, but this was in deepest Norfolk where we had sheet ice and snow drifts and everything. For a long-ish journey one night, from countryside to the city and back again, my Land Rover was just too flaky. The Cooper was on fire. People who lock away classics in winter are nuts.…

Reliable, bought new by enthusiasts, cherished by subsequent keepers and supported by owners clubs and specialists, the Toyota GT86 and the almost identical Subaru BRZ make top used buys. For its greater availability at prices ranging from £8500 to £26,000, plus the possibility of covering older examples with a Toyota used car warranty that’s great value for money, the GT86 gets our vote. There’s no official Subaru warranty but dealers offer something called AutoProtect. Toyota servicing prices tend to be a little lower, too, and you’re more likely to have a Toyota dealer on your doorstep than a Subaru one. Used GT86s are available in at least eight flavours ranging from the standard car through Giallo to Club Series Orange Edition. Standard models are well equipped, highlights being sports seats,…

PETER HORBURY, GLOBAL head of design for the Geely Group, has taken overall charge of design at Lotus Cars, where the race is on to create two new sports cars, plus an SUV embodying Lotus values for later manufacture in China or Malaysia. Horbury, a former global boss of Ford design and credited with a seminal 1990s overhaul of Volvo design, has made two fact-finding visits to Lotus’s Hethel HQ, where, he said, long-serving design chief Russell Carr will stay in charge. “Russell runs a great team,” he said, “but they will now have the resources of Geely Design to assist as they want. We are already drawing cars.” Horbury said his role is to “set the goals and steer the ship”, rather than to “become a design dictator”. His…

Having been introduced four years ago, the third-generation ‘new Mini’ is due a facelift. Sales of the most popular Hatch derivative reached a peak of 44,560 in the UK in 2015 but, by last year, that figure had fallen by 10%. Mini hopes a refreshed headlight design, tail-lights that incorporate a Union flag motif, a handful of new wheel and colour options, piano black rather than chrome trim and much more besides will help drive those sales figures back up. The new lights front and rear use LEDs, with very clever adaptive LED headlights now featuring on the options list. There are new personalisation options too, including a number of 3D-printed parts that buyers can customise with their own name or simple graphics – a world first in the car…

Have you ever wondered what contribution your home town has made to this country’s automotive tapestry? If you grew up in one of the 1920s semis along Browns Lane in Coventry, you’ll know very well that you hail from Jaguar’s home patch. And if your weekday mornings were soundtracked by buzzy fourcylinder engines being wrung out on the test track just over the way at Hethel, you’ll be well aware that your corner of the country brought us Lotus, as we know it today. For those of us who don’t come from one of Britain’s many famous car towns, though, it’s a question that demands a little digging. For all but a few of my 31 years, I have lived in Bristol. Twelve of those were spent in a north…

Depending on where you stare, you could be looking at a British used car pitch from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s or 1980s. Perhaps an estate car specialist, given the cluster of late-1960s Ford Zodiac wagons, a flamboyant 1950s Vauxhall Cresta and a couple of very sad 1960s Vauxhall Victors. Arranged in another spot is a neat echelon of cars that could have been the used car stock of an Austin Rover dealer, circa 1989. Or perhaps you fancy plunging further into the past, to an era when British family cars whined their way into monochrome fog with their unsynchronised first gears, perhaps driven by a man called Reg, his wife Marjorie sharing the bench front seat. Step this way, then, if you fancy a beetle-backed 1950 Standard Vanguard, a Morris…

BMW M5 versus rivals Can the new four-wheel-drive M5 topple its nemesis, the Mercedes-AMG E63, and America’s finest, the Cadillac CTS-V? Rolls-Royce Phantom Landmark car meets landmark road test. Let’s see how it fares The police’s secret weapon We find out how Surrey traffic cops catch inattentive drivers EVERY WEEK Lotus 3-Eleven 430 Hethel’s race-bred special signs off with its fastest variant yet Ferrari F355 Why this seminal 1990s sports car is a more sensible buy than you might think Skoda Octavia vRS Skoda’s potent hot hatch joins our fleet. And yes, it’s a diesel… SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p30…

MILEAGE 22,400 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see how well suited this luxury off-roader is to executive travel The Land Rover Discovery has an auxiliary fuel-burning heater, which ignites on start-up at less than 5deg C to aid cold start and heat up the cabin quicker. It burns a small amount of diesel and normally you wouldn’t be aware it was running. You probably wouldn’t even know it was there. But I know it’s there, and I know when it is on. How? Because during a recent cold snap, the car began smoking like a laboratory beagle on start-up and didn’t stop for ten minutes. If you’re moving quickly, you’d not notice much happening, but if you’re moving along more slowly, it emits more light-coloured smoke than a papal conclave.…

Better to drive than look at. Loads of kit and space, plus a nice cabin. Ultra-reliable and ultra-useful for most small families, and great value. There’s a definite nimbleness to the Nissan Almera too, although that goes when you load it up with passengers and luggage. Engines include 114bhp 1.8 and 136bhp 2.0 petrols, and 2.2 diesels with 110 or 134bhp. I found a part exchange to clear: a 1999 1.6 special-edition Ambition. It has 75k miles and not much detail but a missing V5. Dealer said it “drives spot on”. A mere £250.…

An expert’s view IAN LITCHFIELD, LITCHFIELD MOTORS “The GT86 and BRZ are rock-solid cars. Early ones had valve timing issues, and second-gear synchros can be notchy, but otherwise they’re trouble-free. The clutch is strong but a forced induction kit will wear it out quickly. Your biggest concern will be whether it’s been a track-day car and if it’s ever been crashed. Are there signs of damage? Are repairs to standard or bodged? A few cars have had power and handling tweaks. These are okay if they’ve been done properly. Ask for receipts and research the suppliers. We do a handling pack that enhances handling performance without trashing ride comfort (£994). Our performance pack (£1314) features a full Milltek exhaust and an ECU remap to give an extra 25bhp.” Buyer beware……

Some things are immutable: the contrariness of the electorate, the hardness of diamond, the inevitability of the dying of the light and the desirability of a Bentley. There will always be a special appeal to these cars, even if it’s a Bentley Eight. You see, the Eight’s standing as the entry-level Bentley shouldn’t put you off. Straight-line speed may be lacking (it’s no Turbo R) but the interior is still an intimate leathery cocoon. This one was extensively refurbished a couple of years ago but sold at auction for a mere £6254, which is rather like giving it away.…

BRIEF Bored with being sensible, but restricted by a feeble budget, I need something fun to blow away the ennui. What can you find me, boys? Mazda MX-5/Eunos £3295 Admittedly, I have not thought outside the box with my contender, but there is a reason for that. When you consider a ‘fun’ car, the MX-5 is usually the vehicle you’d envisage; it’s motoring thrills without the spills. This one is an imported Spec-V with the 1.8-litre engine and a limited-slip differential, so you can enjoy tail-out action in a carefree manner. That’s what the MX-5 is: playful, inexpensive and convivial. In short, the definition of fun. MAX ADAMS Toyota MR2 £3950 I haven’t thought too much further outside the box than Max (well, not when you consider that a pink…

The affordable performance car might die. Sound melodramatic? Oh, well, it might be, to be fair: but you know, headlines, opening lines, they’re meant to be dramatic. Big up the worst case. Glass half-empty. You know how it is. There will always be sports cars, I guess; although car industry regulators are not exempting them from becoming cleaner. And that is the problem for the affordable performance car, because a fast low-emissions car isn’t easy to make. As it stands, if you produce a lot of cars, their average exhaust CO2 output will have be a lot lower (95g/km on what’ll then be the ‘old’ NEDC drive cycle fuel economy and CO2 calculations), across the board, by 2020, than it has been previously. And then it will need to be…