Innholdsfortegnelse for 11/4/2018 i Autocar

THE ARRIVAL OF a new Focus has traditionally brought with it a new, more prosperous era for the Blue Oval itself. The 1998 original was the catalyst for Ford returning to making great everyday driver’s cars, a policy it still lives by today, while the outgoing model marked a turning point in the firm’s journey from avoiding bankruptcy protection to becoming a hugely successful and truly global car maker. The all-new Focus (p6) is of no less significance. It brings with it a new platform that will in time underpin some 3.5 million Fords per year across dozens of models. It is flexible enough to respond to changing demand and tastes for different body styles, as well as being future-proofed for electrification and connectivity options that will become ubiquitous during…

The future of Vauxhall’s Luton plant has been secured for the next decade, with the PSA Group confirming that its next generation of vans will be built there. Since the PSA Group – which also owns Citroën, DS and Peugeot – bought Vauxhall and Opel from General Motors last year, there have been questions surrounding the future of Vauxhall’s Luton and Ellesmere Port plants in the UK, which build the Vivaro and Astra respectively. This decision safeguards the future of the Luton plant. PSA boss Carlos Tavares said the decision was “due to an urgent need to increase capacity for light commercial vehicles to meet growing demand”. The Luton plant produced 60,000 Vivaros last year. By the end of 2020, annual production will rise to 100,000 units, which will consist…

So Lotus is going to make a new car in an “upper segment above the Evora”, one that doesn’t compete with anything wearing a ‘911’ badge. The next place to go, then, is into the world of entry-level mid-engined supercars like the McLaren 570S and Audi R8. Even if Lotus won’t say it, we will for them: they’re making a new Esprit. And they’re doing so with the wind in their sails: the Evora has quietly (and quite brilliantly) crept up from a £47,500 car at launch in 2008 to one with a £112,500 price in GT430 guise. It’s a price tag the Evora actually wears rather well, albeit at the limit without encroaching into McLaren territory. There’s only one thing to do, then, and they’re going to do it:…

The UK will be the main target of Genesis when the marque is launched in Europe in 2020, according to brand boss Manfred Fitzgerald. Hyundai’s luxury arm launched as a brand in its own right in 2016, focusing on US and Asian markets but with the expectation that it would eventually arrive in Europe. However, until now, it has been unclear if and when right-hand-drive models would be offered. A model called the Hyundai Genesis was previously sold in the UK. However, the large Audi A6-rivalling saloon (which has since morphed into the G80 saloon elsewhere) sold only 50 units in two years and was axed in 2017. That has left a clear path for the Genesis brand to enter the UK. Former Lamborghini brand and design boss Fitzgerald said:…

With the F-Pace being such a hit, it was inevitable that Jaguar would follow it with a smaller, more accessible compact SUV – one that could propel global sales figures beyond 250,000 for the first time. The result is a car that hits a few highs, chiefly in its exterior design, but mostly leaves you disappointed at the missed opportunity to set a new benchmark in a class short on handling dynamism. The E-Pace is hamstrung by its heavy underpinnings and, in D180 guise, has particularly lacklustre performance. Neither moderately enticing steering nor a fairly keen front axle can quell our regret that the car doesn’t handle with more of the alacrity, fluency and balance we now expect of Gaydon’s sportier brand, and nor can the fact that this is…

Every Easter, thousands of Jeep enthusiasts converge on Moab, Utah, to thread their cars across, through and over challenging off-road desert trails. Still organised – as it originally was in 1967 – as an enthusiast event, the Easter Jeep Safari (EJS) has nevertheless become such a significant gathering that Jeep showcases new design ideas and this year revealed seven EJS concepts, five based on the new ‘JL’ Wrangler, the range icon launched last year. Jeep won’t commit to production of any of the concepts, but they provide a creative entrée into a busy year for the brand, which will winch up another level on 1 June when Jeep’s owner, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), announces its next five-year business plan out to 2023. Jeep and its CEO, Michael Manley, are on…

Anostalgic spin and drift around the park with the radio-controlled Tamiya Porsche 959 you built as a teenager? Irresistible. Beers, pizza and a riotous evening with your mates and a Scalextric set usually dormant in your loft? Ditto. A 20-minute, leg-pumping workout as you shave tenths off your lap time around the garden in your childhood pedal car? Possibly not, unless you’re bashless enough not to mind appearing in A&E with a small metal motor vehicle wrapped irremovably around your legs. Pedal cars: once a hugely desirable toy for the small and incompletely formed, these four-foot-long, pump-action motors were quite often a pastiche of the car dad drove – or something he was never likely to drive at all, such as a Jaguar E-Type or an F1 racer. Pedal cars…

There are all sorts of risks involved in acquiring such a storied marque as Lister, and Lawrence Whittaker – as a young man in the context of his position – must have been relieved when orders totalling £3.1 million rolled in only 24 hours after announcing the Thunder. He and father Andrew had already orchestrated a successful run of continuation examples of the Knobbly, but this was proof there was also a hearty appetite for road cars. Those road-going Listers will be built at a new facility in Milton Keynes. Up to six cars can be worked on concurrently, with a three-month lead-time for the conversion. Whittaker’s medium-term ambition is to develop his company into a tuning outfit with intimate links to Jaguar. He cites Alpina’s relationship with BMW as…

MILEAGE 7302 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if, after 40 years, the Golf GTI is still the world’s best all-round hot hatch yeah, but a Golf R only costs a couple of grand more…’ is a line often trotted out in reference to the Golf GTI. Which is not actually true when you delve into the price lists: a three-door manual-gearbox-equipped GTI costs from £28,465 (due to a small price increase since we took delivery of our car) and a three-door manual R is £32,880. A similar gap exists between the GTI and the next petrol Golf below it in the range. The price gap narrows towards the anecdotal £2000 when you switch to the monthly payment option presented by PCP deals, the way so many new cars are…

MILEAGE 1931 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out whether a big, separatechassis, part-time all-wheel-drive SUV still has a place in the world The Rexton’s seat heaters did much to blunt the chill of the recent Beast from the East. The luxury of this suffusing warmth, and the complementary heated steering wheel, also compensated (slightly) for the discovery that it’s all too easy to see the trip computer’s estimation of your fuel consumption dropping below 30mpg. I’d hoped that the running-in period – the Rexton arrived with just under 700 miles on the clock – might improve the 29.5mpg originally achieved. The Rexton has now done almost 2000 miles, and there has been a slight gain to 29.7mpg since, but I’m less optimistic now. Still, these figures are less surprising…

Jaguar XK Nick Davies was prompted to write after we mentioned the Jaguar XK recently. “Towards the end of last year, I decided it was time to buy one,” he says. “I found a very clean one with a Jaguar specialist. It is a 2007 4.2 V8 XK with 76,000 miles and a Jaguar service history. It has had only two previous owners and was £14,995 with an RAC warranty. “This car has convinced me of the sense of the Bangernomics idea that you can enjoy V8 power and Jaguar comfort for so little money compared with new.” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com AND READERS' QUESTIONS TOautocar@haymarket.com…

An expert’s view MIKE MCCARTHY, STAR MOTOR SERVICE “The CLS is very popular. It looks great and is really comfortable. The main issues are balancer shafts on early petrols, the gearbox speed sensor on petrols and diesels, and the diesel engines’ inlet port shut-off motors. These live under the turbo, so if there are other problems with the turbo it’s sensible to replace the shut-off motor regardless. I wouldn’t buy an early petrol without checking it had the uprated balancer shafts. I’d go for a 320 CDI. I have an E-Class with the same engine. It’s done 220,000 miles and is smooth and trouble-free.” Buyer beware ▪ ENGINE On early CLS350s, check the engine number for balancer shaft problems (see ‘Also worth knowing’) and check for an oil weep from…

“The Focus will be offered in two bodystyles and four distinct trim levels” Ford said it has retained driving engagement as a key priority for the new Focus, the fourthgeneration version of the small family hatchback that redefined the company’s attitude to dynamic ability when it was launched in 1998. The new Focus, due on sale in July, will come in two bodystyles in the UK: five-door hatchback and estate. A saloon will remain on sale on the Continent. There will be four trim variations and Ford said a raft of new technology will make the Focus the most advanced car it sells in Europe. Beyond that, however, the agility that has made the Focus so popular to date will remain. Joe Bakaj, Ford of Europe’s vice president for product…

The new Audi A6 Avant’s aggressively sloping bootline has been achieved without compromising load space and negates the need for the company to produce a shooting brake version of the car “like some of our competitors”, according to its head of exterior design, Helmut Jung. The remark – likely referring to Mercedes – highlights Audi’s confidence that it has produced a car that will appeal to buyers both for its practicality and its looks. “This is a car that delivers on both fronts,” said Jung. “Usually such a dramatic line as the slope we have from the roof to the boot brings compromises but, because of the extended length of the car and some clever design work, we have exactly the same boot space as before.” The A6 Avant’s boot…

“? The new star Lotus will sit in an upper segment, above the Evora, and take the Evora a step further” Lotus boss Jean-Marc Gales has revealed that two new sports cars are in the pipeline as investment begins to materialise from the company’s new owner, Chinese automotive giant Geely. The two cars will include a new star model, due in 2020, that will sit above the Evora – essentially placing it as a modern-day version of the Esprit. It follows recent news that Lotus is currently finalising the design of its first crossover, which is expected to make use of Geely-owned Volvo’s SPA architecture. The Norfolk-based company currently employs two platform families: one underpins the flagship Evora, which is available as a 2+2 and a 2+0, and the other…

Groundbreaking proactive suspension technology, which can essentially stop all car body movement caused by rough surfaces and cornering, will make its road car debut next year. Developed by US engineering firm Clearmotion, the so-called ‘digital chassis system’ is said to be significantly more proactive than technology currently featured on even the market’s most luxurious cars, including air-sprung models such as the latest Mercedes-Benz S-Class and Bentley Continental GT. “Our technology is the fastest proactive ride system that exists today,” Clearmotion CEO Shak Avadhany told Autocar in an exclusive interview. “It really delivers an almost instantaneous level of isolation that’s so noticeable you’d feel the difference in the first 10 feet of driving.” Avadhany said the technology, which benefits from control software acquired from a 30-year skunkworks project at Bose called…

“Get it right and Rexton would be big trouble for other 4x4s” MONDAY An impromptu comparison this week: ultracompetent Skoda Kodiaq SUV versus less well-known and riskier Ssangyong Rexton. Both cost about £32k; both turned up at my place in the Cotswolds during a week’s home holiday. You’ll have heard Autocar on the Skoda: it’s one of the most logical choices you can make for comfortable, economical, affordable and swift motoring. The Rexton, meanwhile, is as big as a Range Rover and bristles with enough equipment (audio, driver assist gadgets, quilted leather, surround cameras and more) to outclass the Skoda and send a similarly equipped Range Rover spinning into six figures. And although the Rexton’s 2.2-litre diesel doesn’t enthral, it’s quiet, torquey and enables a decent turn of speed. The…

For the first time in its 12-year history, Audi’s mid-engined supercar is available with rear-wheel drive. The R8 RWS (for Rear Wheel Series) junks the standard model’s front driveshafts, centre differential and propshaft, saving 50kg. The suspension geometry has been tweaked and a beefier front-anti roll bar fitted to add some safety understeer to the car’s balance. Despite 533bhp now being deployed by the rear axle alone, the RWS – tested here in the UK following our European drive in February – still has bundles of traction, thanks to wide rear tyres and the weight of that mid-mounted V10 pressing them hard into the road. What’s changed for the better is the steering, which is purer, less corrupted and much easier to read. Four-wheel-drive R8s only really come alive when…

What made Clark different from modern Formula 1 champions? “Firstly, the ever-present risk of death: Sid Watkins’ successful measures to minimise danger did not exist in Jim’s day. He used to be pretty upset when his competitors were killed and by the number of race widows, although he seemed to switch that fear off in the cockpit. Also, Jim never really appeared to worry about the lack of money he was earning compared with today’s drivers. He raced for the love of the sport. Finally, he was essentially a gentleman, and behaving in the way some more recent drivers have would just never occur to him. He would have worried about the risk of causing fatal accidents.” Are there similarities between Clark and other drivers? “While I am sure Jim…

We’ve not made it 50 yards when photographer Luc suggests that this is the most feral sounding thing the sensible side of a Ferrari 812 Superfast. He is probably correct too. Lacey isn’t a man prone to hyperbole, which is funny in itself because the car we’re driving trades committedly in the stuff: it’s an inky menace with acid-green highlights, enormous wheels satiating their arches with barely a toothpick’s width to spare and bodywork draped to the asphalt like a studded-leather ballgown. It sounds like a Nascar escapee, for pity’s sake. Welcome, then, to the Lister Thunder. While this development car is recognisably F-Type, any vestigial elegance of Jaguar’s coupé is buried beneath a truly gothic disposition. At heart it’s an F-Type R, only with new supercharger pulleys, an upgraded…

Junction dysfunction Iain Macauley (Your Views, 14 March) highlights an issue of possible lethal or disabling significance regarding signalling at junctions. Of those who don’t signal, a proportion refuse to do so because it’s ‘uncool’, or they are lazy, or are distracted, or are unable to, or are unaware (God help us), even if this actually means running into someone. As a regular pedestrian and cyclist, I know for a fact that there is a subclass of driver that wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep if they hit you. They would see it as your fault for being in the way. This terrifies me. I could even tell you the makes and models of vehicle I am most wary of. Until or unless there is a concerted effort to isolate these…

Just as a heads-up, I am slowly putting together a book that I am going to call a ‘Bangerpedia’. Right now, I am not at all sure when, or even if, I am going to finish it. The sheer volume of models offered to the UK car buyer in any given decade is absolutely overwhelming. What I want to do with the book is address the situation where an awful lot of people think that some old cars are all of a sudden quite cool and desirable. I found myself on the radio recently being asked to explain why certain models are dying out. Apparently, there are only two-and-a-half Morris Itals left. Personally, I can’t see the downside, having briefly owned one. The people in radioland could not comprehend how…

QUESTION I’m looking for a Ford Mondeo estate, preferably from 2016 onwards. Any tips on engine and specification? Marcus Adams, Shillingstone ANSWER Even allowing for all the concern surrounding diesel, petrol versions are much harder to find, so I’d aim for a 2.0 TDCi 150 Titanium or Titanium X: lots of kit, plenty of choice and a gutsy, economical engine. AR QUESTION Is a Honda CR-Z hybrid a good deal or are the batteries going to be a problem? Denise Trafford, Taunton ANSWER CR-Zs are looking like terrific value at the moment and I’d strongly recommend buying one while they’re this cheap. They’re fun to drive, look great and will surely become a cult classic. There’s no sign of any problems with the batteries yet. AR QUESTION With a new…

The other day Rory White, new cars editor of our sister title What Car?, became the proud owner of a 1993 BMW 730i, a car for which he’d paid a pittance. Apart from the odd spot of rust, some lacquer peel and the dire need of a thorough vacuum, the car impressed us all. However, if you are willing to splash a bit more cash, you could find yourself at the wheel of the top-dog E32-generation 7 Series, the 750iL, with its V12 petrol engine. You’d need to be a bit of a BMW geek to spot the differences between a regular 7 Series and a V12 one. There are the bigger kidney grilles and the squared-off exhaust pipes, but apart from that, there’s not much to tell them apart.…

FORD IS, REASSURINGLY, one of those companies that you can guarantee would like to build exciting, fast variants of its cars whenever it can, and a Focus ST is already set into the model programme. Autocar understands that, like the current ST, it will use a four-cylinder turbo engine of 2.0 litres, which is what you need for a power output getting on for the 250bhp now expected in the class. The new Fiesta ST uses a 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine, because a cylinder size of 500cc gives thermal efficiency advantages, but despite the Focus’s reduced kerb weight – which extends to steering knuckles that are 3.6kg lighter than those of the current Focus – this is surely a car that’s too big to be powered by a three-pot motor. Instead,…

Jean-Marc Gales expects Lotus will still be using Toyota engines in the immediate future, but the Lotus boss is keen to embrace the powertrain options available from other Geely-owned brands. Such co-operation is most likely to make use of resources developed by Volvo, whose technology is also being used by fellow Geely brands Polestar and Lynk&Co. Volvo’s petrol range now consists of a 152bhp 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo and several variations of a 2.0-litre turbo four-pot making between 187bhp and 306bhp, the latter additionally aided by supercharging. It is expected that Lotus would use in-house expertise to boost performance from any Geely-sourced engines, as it does with the current Toyota units, but it seems unlikely that an unassisted 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine would provide the power required for Hethel’s top-performing sports cars.…

“It has been engineered by people who believe cars should handle properly beyond the limit” “Is it better than the Porsche 911?” That’s the question Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer asks his engineers and it’s not an unreasonable one for you to ask too. And the answer is? Well, as they’ll tell him and I’ll tell you over the next 1500 words or thereabouts, it’s not that simple, guv. In some ways, yes, it is better; in many ways, no, it isn’t; but, for the most part, it’s just different. And that’s fine. Where are we, then? Two models into the ‘second century plan’ that’ll see a new Aston Martin launched every year until 2022, when the cycle begins again. It’ll be a range of sports cars under constant reinvention,…

MODEL TESTED D180 AWD SE Price £39,715 • Power 178bhp • Torque 317lb ft • 0-60mph 9.9sec • Fuel economy 36.0mpg • CO2 emissions 147g/km • 70-0mph 60.4m • 30-70mph in fourth 12.1sec For an idea of the scale of ambition embodied in the new Jaguar E-Pace, consider that 80% of those who choose to buy one over, say, an Audi Q3 or BMW X1 will be new to Jaguar showrooms. ‘Conquest customers’, as they’re dispassionately known within the industry. That’s a mighty statistic even for a car expected to supplant the F-Pace as the brand’s best-selling model, although it is one bolstered by the fact that quite a few will be built specifically for the Chinese market in a state-of-the-art plant in Changshu. To grease manufacturing wheels and meet…

“Senna paid homage to a plaque in a chapel at Clark’s old school” There’s an archetypal personality in the Scottish Borders, the verdant wedge of rolling lowland abutting England’s northernmost reaches. Innocent of motorways and barely skirted by rail, the region preserves an identity shaped not only by agriculture but also centuries of cross-border conflict. It’s an archetype that’s modest but steely, cautious of strangers and reluctant with an audience but boisterous among friends. I grew up surrounded by it. You’ll find it from Burnmouth to Buccleuch. Nothing unusual, then, about James Clark, Jnr, the young farmer from Chirnside. Except that he was the greatest racing driver in the world. Clark was Formula 1 world champion in 1963 and in 1965, when he paused from winning six consecutive grands prix…

As a graphic illustration of how far Jeep has come, the $86,000 Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is the ultimate example. Seventy-five years ago, the Jeep was a utility vehicle clogged up to its axles in WW2 battlefields. Today, the Trackhawk is a 697bhp, 3.5sec-to-62mph luxury beast that snarls like a Nascar racer and is trimmed in fancy leather yet rolls with indecent comfort. Given that Jeep is eyeing up new territory above the Grand Cherokee for the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer models, the pricey Trackhawk is surely paving the way, isn’t it? “To answer your question simply: yes,” says Jeep CEO Michael Manley. However, Jeep is not generally heading towards some stratospheric price positioning, like too many Land Rover and Range Rover models. And that’s great for car buyers, especially in…

New Mercedes-Benz A-Class The third-generation A-Class was a smash hit for Mercedes. Does its successor measure up? Read our first verdict Alfa Romeo vs Porsche Stelvio Quadrifoglio meets Macan Turbo in a battle of the super-SUVs The A-Z of Chinese cars Know your ArcFox from your Qiantu? You will after reading this EVERY WEEK BMW M5 It’s beaten its peers in a group test. Now the M5 faces our road testers Vauxhall Astra VXR How to get Vauxhall’s bargain Focus RS rival in your garage Mercedes-Benz E-Class Our time with the AWD estate is up. Just how good an all-rounder is it? SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p24…

WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To get fully familiar with the dynamic successes and foibles of an alluring driver’s car. And to see if the UK public can get the idea of a truly desirable Kia Our Kia Stinger GTS may be becoming a victim of its own success. If it had met with a bit less praise when first introduced, it might not have this problem. But when fellow Autocar staffers get their first taste of the car, I’m getting the impression they’re giving it what we might politely describe as ‘a pretty thorough workout’. Makes sense, given that there are no predecessors from which to get a guide on exactly how good a driver’s car it might be. What else is there for a car reviewer to do but…

VOLKSWAGEN POLO MILEAGE 80,961 Our Polo, also known as ‘the toy car’, won’t be around for too much longer. It’s better to sell it with a pretty long MOT and a clean bill of heath. We left it at a local garage for checks and they came back with the good news: all it needed was a couple of new rear tyres. We had spotted that those were on the way out. It also had a minor service and a replacement auxiliary belt (fan belt in the old days) and they changed a headlight bulb I had installed cack-handedly. The decade-old hatch is worth a surprising amount of money. I’ll let you know what will replace it.…

Last month, Autocar published a first drive of the new Mercedes-AMG CLS53 – and what a creation it is, good enough to garner four stars no less. But the price? Around £70,000. Even the ‘basic’ 350d 4Matic AMG Line is £57,510, but worry ye not: we know of a CLS320 CDI for sale for just £2750. Granted, it’s a first-generation model registered in 2006, has done 102,000 miles and has ‘service history’ rather than ‘full service history’. But the seller confidently claims the engine and automatic gearbox operate ‘perfectly’ and that, save for a few ‘discreet’ scratches and light wheel kerbing, the body is ‘good’. So also, he says, is the interior. t sounds tempting, because the first-gen CLS is just so darned attractive and 100,000 miles is nothing for…

ROVER 3500S V8 The Rover 2000 was the first car to win the European Car of the Year award in 1964 and this later 1972 3500S is a continuation of that winning formula. The P6 (as it was known internally) was made very intelligently, with all the outer body panels being completely unstressed. The rear axle is a de Dion tube set-up that keeps the rear wheels parallel to each other at all times, and the rear brakes are inboard to reduce unsprung weight. This car sold for £5088 at auction. That’s a little below the price of a P6 in top nick, but it’s still good for a usable example. GET IT WHILE YOU CAN Mercedes-Benz CLS350d AMG Line Shooting Brake Price new £52,145. Price now £38,900 The CLS…

Hark: the sound of change is afoot. What has been standard in That London for many, many years might soon be coming to the provinces, introducing a new method of thinking to our towns and villages. No, not ‘being allowed into nightclubs wearing trainers’ or ‘the chance to eat out after 9.30pm’, but something rather more mundane. Something, I might say, rather more ominous. I give you Rule 244 of the Highway Code. You remember that one. It’s a classic. “You must not park partially or wholly on the pavement in London,” it reads, “and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it.” It’s the “should not do so elsewhere” part of things that could be changing. “Should not” means that it isn’t technically illegal to stick two wheels…