Innholdsfortegnelse for 4/4/2018 i Autocar

THE NEW ROLLS-ROYCE Phantom is the pinnacle of motoring today, as you’ll discover in our world exclusive road test, which starts on page 32. It is the ultimate testament to the quite extraordinary creations the automotive industry is capable of in pursuit of a singular purpose, and quite simply the car at its very best. Even if it’s not to your taste, or a car that will never enter your sphere, it demands both your respect as a feat of engineering and your applause for the quality of execution. Perhaps most poignantly, it’s also likely to be the last car of its kind. By the time the next Phantom comes along at the end of the next decade, much of what makes it so great now will be radically evolved…

MERCEDES’ C-CLASS will not be offered as a pure electric car. The company will instead launch a similar-sized zero emissions car in its EQ range. C-Class chief engineer Christian Frueh confirmed an electric C-Class will not happen and said the electric saloon will have a different design to the C-Class. An EQ compact saloon will join the confirmed line-up of the EQ A hatch and EQ C SUV. Mercedes officials told Autocar last year that it is also planning a similar strategy for a large electric EQ saloon instead of a zero emissions S-Class. Mercedes has revealed plans to launch 10 new electric models by 2025. The car maker will focus on offering hybrid variants of its C-Class. The latest revised model features both diesel and petrol plug-in hybrids, plus…

THE GENESIS ESSENTIA could arrive as soon as 2021 or 2022, according to brand boss Manfred Fitzgerald. The electric four-door concept, shown at New York, previews a halo model for the luxury brand. “It could happen as soon as 2021/2022,” Fitzgerald said. “You need three to four years to hack out a project like this, but all what you see is very feasible.” Talking about the concept, design boss Luc Donckerwolke said: “We started working on an icon for the brand 10 months ago. We wanted something that would transport the athleticism and elegance of Genesis. We came to the conclusion that a GT was the best object to do that. We have a coupé in our future line-up and we believe this could be it.” The Essentia is built…

MCLAREN PLANS TO keep its model cycles short with a number of variants during a car’s life, according to boss Mike Flewitt. The supercar brand has been making cars for just seven years, and the quick switch from its original MP4-12C to the 650S, before a full replacement with the 720S in 2017, means the company has yet to settle into a typical model cycle. Flewitt said the firm was still “learning and evolving” to that end but, without putting a definitive number of years on it, added that McLarens would have a “short life, with a number of variants”. However, Flewitt said that turning the 12C into the 650S after just three years on sale was a one-off, and that this kind of mid-cycle change was something he wanted…

WEDNESDAY After five days in Autocar’s Skoda Kodiaq longterm test car, I reached the conclusion it is exactly what our family needs as its anchor vehicle, even in preference to the Land Rover product we’ve often considered. The Skoda gently grows on you: the seats get more comfortable, the step-off gets smoother, you notice how brilliantly refined the powertrain is at speed, the balance between steering and stability becomes exceptional and the fine primary ride soon overwhelms the lumpy secondary ride you notice at first. The whole thing exudes an almost Jeevesian air of capability. THURSDAY Our recent story about a couple of Loughborough academics coming up with the ACCT (ammonia creation and conversion technology) process, an apparently foolproof way of all-but eliminating NOx in diesel exhausts, stirred an extraordinary…

That didn’t take long. Only four weeks ago, we were getting our first taste of the third-generation Mercedes CLS four-door coupé in oddly snowy Spain – and now we’re poised to shade in the detail on the car’s British-roads performance. The new CLS went on UK sale last month and, having sampled it chiefly in range-topping AMG 53 form before, we’ve been getting acquainted with the one-rung-down performance diesel version – the CLS 400d. You read that last bit right, by the way. Mercedes hasn’t traditionally tackled Audi and BMW at the very top of the diesel-sipping executive model tree, but the arrival of its new families of straight-six turbocharged engines changes things. And so, in addition to a CLS 350d with 282bhp, you can get this CLS which offers…

Considering this is the most luxurious car in the world, it tolerates being driven to the limit of grip with good grace. Although most owners won’t care about track handling, they’ll have more than a passing interest in how controllable their car might be when avoiding an accident, or how much reserve is engineered into its cooling or braking capacity. There’s no cause for concern on any of those fronts. Our scales revealed a nearly perfect weight distribution, which contributes to limit handling that remains adequately controlled (although there’s plenty of body movement) and controllable for as long and as far as its always-on stability control is prepared to be pushed. For the juvenile and curious among us, there’s no way to make the car oversteer, even in very slippery…

Fun fact: remember the British Touring Car Championship Honda Civics you were watching last year? They were built in 2012. Okay, maybe it’s not that much fun, but it’s definitely a fact. Seriously, the five cars driven by Matt Neal and ‘Flash’ Gordon Shedden, plus three other Honda-supported cars, were all in their sixth season of racing. Some smart alec is going to tell me I’m wrong. The Civics used in the BTCC were hatchbacks from 2012, but estates in 2014, and Type Rs from 2015, they’ll say, head in notebook. And they’d be right. But here comes James Rodgers, team manager at Honda Yuasa Racing, which is run by the Neal family’s Team Dynamics outfit, Honda’s supported race team. “We made seven shells in 2012,” he says. “In 2014,…

FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT It’s the first in a two-parter: diesel vRS for three months, petrol vRS for three months. Which makes the better buy? All things considered, this is a slightly strange time to be taking delivery of a new diesel car. Certainly, far fewer people are doing so now than at any point in the past few years. The stats show that sales of new diesel models were down in December by 31% year on year, the result of a persistent and, we reckon, wholly unreasonable character assassination of the black stuff both in the mainstream press and at the hands of the government. Just a few days ago, new tax rules were implemented that effectively make all new diesel cars more expensive to buy. For…

I am thinking of going into the tyre business. I will supply only one type and the clue is in my business name: Bargain Balloons. I will be retailing from a small industrial estate in the Midlands. It will be a fast fit operation, which will supply maximum profile tyres and wheels. I think there is a massive market for this because of the number of times I get asked to find a car with a decent ride, that soaks up potholes and quite possibly does not aggravate the driver’s bad back. My old BMW 7 Series, Shed Seven, was great at dealing with the rubbish roads we have to drive on. Indeed, my 3 Series from the dark ages (the 1970s) has 13in wheels, tiny by today’s standards, and…

Engage brain and put your heart away is a good tip when considering a Ferrari F355. After all, there’s lots to make a grown punter throw good sense to the wind. Good things like the sound from that mid-mounted 3.5-litre 40-valve V8 producing 370bhp, and those looks – prettier than its predecessor, the 348, and certainly the 360 that followed it. The trouble is, the bad things are just around the corner, and if you buy an F355 on a whim, there, ready to surprise you. Five years ago, when prices started at around £35,000, you could perhaps afford to drop a clanger. Not any more. Today, unless it’s a left-hooker, starting prices are at least double that. The model was launched in Berlinetta coupé and GTS Targastyle forms (the…

You might let out a short gasp upon seeing the price this GTV went for at Historics’ 3 March auction at Ascot: £5936. That’s strong for a Twin Spark, even one with just 36k miles on the clock. It makes us wonder if prices of clean examples are about to start drifting up. For context, Italian exotic dealers Meridien have an immaculate 2005 example with 48k miles for £4950 – and that’s retail. Elsewhere, we found a 74k-miler in great nick in a private sale for £1849. If you’ve always fancied owning this cracking-looking coupé, it might be worth jumping on cars like this before it’s too late. GET IT WHILE YOU CAN Suzuki Swift Sport Price new £14,754. Price now £9995 With the new Swift Sport hitting showrooms as…

Bentley’s next Flying Spur will be reinvented as a much more distinctive luxury saloon in 2019 and will be the last Bentley to be launched before the company completely reinvents its cars for the era of electrification. The four-door Flying Spur will be Bentley’s answer to the likes of the Rolls-Royce Ghost and Mercedes-Maybach S600. It will begin a shift in style away from the Continental GT (although the two cars will continue to be closely related under the skin) and bring the curtain down on Bentley’s current era of design before an all-new look for the firm is introduced, most likely on Bentley’s first electric model. Design work on the Flying Spur – and, indeed, the entire Continental family of models – has long been completed. The Continental GT…

Bentley has yet to decide exactly how to evolve its flagship Mulsanne model in future, Autocar understands. Despite originally going on sale in 2010, the Mulsanne’s production run is not due to finish until the early 2020s, but by then the luxury market will be inhabited by a greater number of electric models and new challengers, among them Aston Martin’s reborn Lagonda brand, which is promising to shake up the segment and attract a younger audience. Autocar understands the Mulsanne’s future is up for debate, specifically as to whether there will be a like-for-like replacement for a car that has always been in the shadow of the Rolls-Royce Phantom. It is understood that Bentley will always have a flagship model, however. One option could be to go down the Lagonda…

T he new Ford Focus has been developed using the know-how gained over the 20 years creating and working on the previous three generations of the car, according to vice president of product development in Europe, Joe Bakaj. As part of Ford’s global development strategy, the new Focus Mk4 – set to be unveiled next week – has been developed by the firm’s European-based engineering teams, headed by Bakaj. The project leader has been Ford’s small-car guru, Darren Palmer, whose team engineered recent launches including the new Fiesta, Ka+ and Ecosport. “Back in 1999, we had the brief to redefine the segment and the new Focus will take every lesson we have learned into one package,” said Bakaj. “The goal is to set the benchmarks in the class for design,…

The Jaguar I-Pace will be used by Waymo, Google’s self-driving car division, to develop autonomous technology as part of a long-term partnership between the two firms revealed on the eve of the New York motor show. The deal – which was described as a “long-term strategic collaboration” and could lead to Google buying other Jaguar Land Rover products – will result in autonomous I-Paces hitting the road to undergo testing later this year and being available for public use from 2020. Underlining the significance of the deal, Waymo has committed to put “up to 20,000” I-Paces on roads as part of the agreement, which the firms say will give them data from up to one million trips per day to analyse and learn from. Waymo boss John Krafcik suggested that…

Hyundai is plotting a second concept car as a follow-up to its recent Le Fil Rouge, as the firm looks to bolster the emotional appeal of its cars. The Le Fil Rouge four-door coupé, a star of the recent Geneva motor show, will be followed later this year by a concept car that demonstrates how Hyundai’s new design theme can be interpreted quite differently, according to styling chief Sang-yup Lee. “We don’t want ‘Russian doll’ styling. It just doesn’t work on a brand like Hyundai,” he said, because, with so many different Hyundais sold around the world, it would be impossible to create one look to suit them all. Lee used chess as an analogy to describe the approach being adopted by Hyundai. “You have a king, queen, bishop, knight…

The Ford Focus RS Mk3 is one of the most exciting driver’s cars of recent times – it received a full five-star rating in these pages when we road tested it back in 2016. But two years after the four-wheel-drive mega-hatch arrived offering sports car performance for just £32,765, a number of owners are reporting reliability issues. A plume of white smoke on start-up is the telltale sign that something is amiss under the Focus RS’s bonnet, as are reports that low-mileage cars have needed new engines and that a parts supply issue is keeping some cars off the road for weeks. Online owners’ forums are rife with suggestions that about 15,000 cars around the world could be affected, yet no official recall has been issued by Ford. So what…

With a debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2015, the Lotus 3-Eleven has been with us for less than three years. Now, with the 311-car production run coming to an end, Lotus has saved what should be the very best until last: the 3-Eleven 430. If you’re familiar with Lotus nomenclature – it would be understandable if you weren’t, given the proliferation of recent models – then you will recognise the ‘430’ tag from the Exige and Evora. It denotes a maximum power output of 430bhp, making all three models with this version of the supercharged 3.5-litre Toyota V6 the fastest of their respective ranges. For the 3-Eleven, it makes for the quickest Lotus yet produced. Its 1min 24sec lap time around the Hethel test track is nearly…

n the UK at least, the Ford Mustang is a great way to stick out like a sore thumb. It’s big, it’s brash and, with a 5.0-litre ‘Coyote’ V8 under that long bonnet, it’s not what you’d call quiet, either. It has now been facelifted, although the changes go largely unseen. Sure, there’s a new-look face, but there’s now also a digital speedometer, more safety equipment (to help improve that disappointing two-star Euro NCAP safety rating) and an optional 10-speed auto ’box. Ford’s engineers have also worked to sharpen up the Mustang’s handling. The shock absorbers have been retuned for greater stability through the twisty stuff and a new cross-axis joint helps to stiffen up the rear suspension. An adaptive MagneRide damping system has also been made available, although it’ll…

Sequels are rarely better than the books, films or shows they succeed. And yet the functional superiority of the new Phantom over its super-luxury peers may be even greater than the margin by which its predecessor led its field. Despite the strides taken by the latest A8 and S-Class full-sized executive saloons and even by the Bentley Mulsanne, the Phantom surpasses by some distance what they offer in every way that’s critical for a genuinely luxurious car: on mechanical refinement, ride comfort, cabin isolation, convenience, outright space, lavish richness and easy drivability. It has grandness, ostentation and sense of occasion far in advance of anything else on four wheels, yet that was true of its predecessor. But it also seems even better aimed at the tastes and preferences of its…

It’s Friday morning on the M25 and the observer in the front passenger seat of the police vehicle I’m sitting in has spotted a woman on her mobile phone at the wheel of a Range Rover ahead of us. We accelerate alongside to enable him to film the woman on his video camera. It’s a good ‘spot’ since she’s holding the phone in her left hand and pressing it tight against her ear. The driver of a passing car would be unlikely to see her using it, except this isn’t a passing car – it’s the latest weapon in the fight against distracted drivers: a Mercedes-Benz Actros HGV cab. The vehicle gives the police a clear view of car drivers below them and truckers alongside. Although the Actros is now…

Following on from the recent letter from Donald McHarrie (Your Views, 7 March), I couldn’t agree more that all car parks need to take into consideration the increase in size, particularly width, of all cars. It’s also important that house builders similarly take note. Currently the government is trying to increase the number of houses being built in the UK, which is obviously very important, but of what use is a garage in which very few cars will fit? At the end of 2017, we decided to change our car and we were astonished to find that we were limited in our choice due to the width of some vehicles and the apparent lack of width of our garage and garage door. Alternatively, of what use is being able to…

MILEAGE 10,082 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Is it a logical next step towards full electrification or an expensive distraction? Few cars intrigue more Charging the Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid’s electric motor involves plugging it in. Fairly obviously. The clue is in the title, after all. Trouble is, I haven’t got a Prius plug-in charging point outside my house. So when I borrowed it from custodian Steve Cropley (who, you may recall, is fiercely protective of his 90-plus average mpg) for a weekend of low-mileage and cost-effective motoring, I had three options. I could rely on the petrol engine, try to find a charging point somewhere near my house – or try not to exceed the Prius’s 30 miles or so of pure electric running. My challenge, then: to spend a…

My 3 Series, also known as the Baby Shark, is something of a pain to start. I have been using it a lot recently and I’d hoped that would help matters. It hasn’t. It hates hot starts, loathes cold ones and resents anything in between those extremes. It relies on a Solex carburettor, which is probably at the root of the problem. I don’t mind making technical changes to improve the car’s performance, so I need to find a specialist to do some jobs. The last local expert was great but took ages just to do a cambelt. A TO Z BANGERPEDIA S is for Sirion The Daihatsu Sirion was based on a Toyota Yaris and was largely overlooked, but it had plenty of equipment, was incredibly reliable and, best…

An expert’s view JAMES ROXBURGH, F355 OWNER “I bought my 1997-reg F355 Berlinetta five years ago for £34,000. I’d considered a 360 but didn’t like the looks and the 348, I was told, would be hell to live with. Not that the 355 has been a bed of roses. I’ve just spent £6500 on it. That bought a service but I also had new suspension bushes fitted, some rust treated, the magnesium alloys refurbished and new rear P Zeros (£328 each). I also had the sticky facia trim peeled off and the dashboard cleaned up and sprayed black. It looks like new. I consider the outlay to have been a good investment. Now I’m bracing myself for the threeyearly belt change (around £1500).” Buyer beware ▪ ENGINE Check for oil…

The all-new Toyota RAV4 “will be more of a proper SUV” than the car it replaces, according to its chief engineer, Yoshikazu Saeki, who was speaking at the SUV’s unveiling at the New York motor show. Even though the current RAV4 has become the bestselling car in North America, beaten only by pick-up trucks in the sales charts, Saeki is setting his sights even higher. “I don’t believe the current car was very successful at all,” he said. “I’ll consider a car to have been successful when there are no further advancements to make.” The latest RAV4 is based on Toyota’s new TNGA platform and now sits on underpinnings more closely related to the large Camry saloon than those of a Prius. Two engines are available at launch: a 2.0-litre…

A JAGUAR I-PACE SVR model is under evaluation as the firm seeks to maintain its advantage in launching an electric SUV ahead of all its established premium rivals. Hanno Kirner – Jaguar Land Rover’s executive director for corporate and strategy as well as head of the Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division – said: “We haven’t committed to anything, but we have begun evaluating what an electric SVR could offer and how we can make authentic SVR cars using the technology. “The I-Pace has strong levels of speed, you could say, and there are technical additions that could make various interesting projects for SVO. That includes fast SVR versions, but also perhaps extreme luxury SVA or off-road SVX models.” Wayne Burgess, head of design for Jaguar SVR models, also hinted that…

LONG-STANDING ALLIANCE partners Nissan and Renault are in talks about merging to create one new company, according to a report by news agency Bloomberg. The companies have been partners since 1999, with Mitsubishi joining them in 2016, and recently overtook the Volkswagen Group as the largest car group in the world. Now Bloomberg suggests the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance is seeking to further boost synergies and trade as one stock. Both Renault and Nissan declined to comment when contacted by Autocar, with a spokesman from each brand stating that they do not comment on “speculative rumours”. But other reports state that Carlos Ghosn, chairman of the alliance, is keen on the merger. Late last year, Ghosn announced a joint £8.9 billion investment in electrification and autonomous driving technology across the alliance. The…

MODEL TESTED PHANTOM Price £360,000 • Power 563bhp • Torque 664lb ft • 0-60mph 5.5sec • 30-70mph in fourth na • Fuel economy 19.1mpg • CO2 emissions 318g/km • 70-0mph 45.9m The concepts of largesse and largeness, as easy as those words may be to confuse on a Scrabble board, can rarely be applied to a new car as faithfully as to Rolls-Royce’s biggest showroom model: the inimitable Phantom. Goodwood’s self-proclaimed ‘best car in the world’ was, in its previous generation, the car with which its maker revealed the full size and scope of its ambition under BMW Group ownership in 2003. And it was a limousine unlike any other the world had seen. Now, in second-generation modern form (although this is the eighth generation of the Phantom in Rolls-Royce…

Wary and withering looks were not in short supply, I can tell you. A three-car, near-2000-horsepower, 10-wheel-drive convoy of super-saloons rolling up next to a gently steaming strip of Tarmac, freshly laid by one of North Wales’ finest road resurfacing crews, is evidently a rare occurrence in those parts – and also a cause for muttering concern. So it was last week. With the snow melting across the Snowdonian valleys, the good local councillors had plainly sent out the diggers, mixers and rollers to deal promptly with the potholes that elsewhere in Britain were doubtless being left to cause angry consternation and inevitable correspondence. Bravo, we should add: civic responsibility, thy name is Gwynedd. Except that in one particular instance, before the Instarmac had fully set, there we were, just…

1 NO MORE SURPRISES FROM ASHLEY SUTTON Few predicted Ashley Sutton would storm to last year’s title in just his second season in the BTCC and his first in a Team BMR Subaru Levorg. This year, Sutton goes into the season as the driver to beat, a very different pressure. The BMR squad has slimmed down to three cars this year, with former champion Jason Plato returning. He’ll be aiming to bounce back after a tough season in which he scored just one race win. 2 THE BMW BOYS Sutton’s closest rival in 2017 was Colin Turkington, who headed the manufacturers’ title-winning line-up of WSR BMW. The double champion is back in an unchanged trio alongside 2012 champ Andrew Jordan and multiple race winner Rob Collard. 3 INGRAM EXPECTS Tom…

New Ford Focus Everything you need to know about Ford’s all-new hatch, as the covers come off the fourth-generation Volkswagen Golf challenger New Aston Martin Vantage Matt Prior’s first drive of Aston’s reinvented Porsche 911 rival On the trail of Jim Clark Fifty years after his death, we go on a pilgrimage to his homeland EVERY WEEK Jaguar E-Pace We’ve eight pages to determine just how good Jag’s Volvo XC40 rival is Mercedes-Benz CLS Can’t afford the new one? Then read our guide to Merc’s original style icon VW Golf GTI vs Golf R Our fleet’s iconic hot hatch goes up against its more raucous sibling SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p22…

MILEAGE 9474 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Rational brand makes its most rational car to date: a seven-seat family SUV. Can it score what’s surely an open goal? To Belgium and Ypres for a history lesson with my 10-year-old, in an effort to mark 100 years since the end of World War I and learn some lessons on perspective. What car to take? A father-and-son weekend in a sports car would have been perfect if the goal had been to make myself look better and earn some bragging rights, but the decision to take the Kodiaq ticked every box for practicality, comfort, economy and peace of mind, as regards to driving on unfamiliar country lanes and parking in unknown car parks overnight. The journey itself was simple; so simple, in fact,…

QUESTION We need a diesel mile muncher for about £6000. We’re thinking about a Volvo C30. Any other suggestions? Luke Huckle, via email ANSWER If you do enough miles to justify a diesel engine, and don’t need five-door practicality, the C30’s a good bet. It is stylish and a little different but still comfortable and frugal. A Volkswagen Golf Mk6 is worth a look too; arguably less interesting but more practical. AR QUESTION The rock band I play in urgently needs suitable transport for touring. Must seat five and have space for guitars, drums, amps and our singer’s ego. We’d rather buy because renting seems like a false economy. What would you recommend? Peter Norton, London ANSWER New car, caviar, four-star daydream? I assume not if the alternative is to…

Citroën Xantia Activa £3200 Is this Citroën Xantia Activa worth £3200? Certainly, they’re becoming rare. Just 20 roam our streets now, according to howmanyleft.co.uk. The Activa, released in 1995, was Citroën’s attempt to harness the antiroll potential of its hydropneumatic suspension system. It incorporates two computer-controlled ‘Active Rams’, which effectively push the leaning body back upright. The result is a car that eliminates body roll almost entirely – and, consequently, provides stupendous amounts of cornering grip, as its tyres are kept in full, perpendicular contact with the road at all times. Combined with a 2.0-litre turbocharged four, this all sounds rather promising, but sadly the rather vague steering, sharp brakes and anodyne engine note let it down. Nevertheless, the unorthodox driving experience, cushy interior, torquey engine and handsome looks make…

The Formula 1 season is upon us. I tend to watch more out of professional curiosity than for personal pleasure these days. F1 bosses have acknowledged that the season opener in Australia was perhaps not as exciting as it could have been. A statistic I saw online suggested that the past two Melbourne grands prix have elicited not much more than half a dozen overtakes between them. Perhaps the Albert Park street circuit, some have suggested, ought to be modified to allow easier overtaking. It definitely shouldn’t be. During the GP weekend the circuit also hosted no fewer than four rounds of the Australian Supercars series. Sorry if this is my pet subject, but watching antipodean touring cars online is the best £30 I spend each year. And in the…