Innholdsfortegnelse for 10/09/2014 i Autocar

IT’S NOT HYPERBOLE to state that the new XE is one of the most important cars that Jaguar has ever produced. Not only because it has the potential to restore the company to the profit margins not seen since the days of Sir William Lyons but also because it’s an all-new car, with an all-new engine, built in two new factories in the West Midlands. It will also see the company squaring up to BMW, Audi and Mercedes on an equal footing for the first time. Even so, it’s going to be tough for Jaguar to make a dent in this German hegemony. Not least because it will require the XE to have a much broader appeal than Jags of late – an appeal based on rational and not just…

After years of anticipation, Mazda has finally revealed the fourth-generation MX-5. The latest version of the 25-year-old roadster is new from the ground up and enters the market next July with a brand-new rear-wheel drive chassis and two new petrol engines, all built using the company’s SkyActiv technology. The firm describes the new model as “returning to the original aims of the first-generation car and embodying the fundamental pleasure of driving a lightweight open-top sports car in a product suited to today’s needs”. The latest version reverses the trend of generational changes of MX-5s by being lighter and smaller than the car that it replaces. Mazda isn’t saying exactly how much the new MX-5 weighs, but it will admit to savings “of around 100kg”. This means that the base model…

A sleek, sporty three-door variant will join the range of the new Hyundai i20 next year. The Korean firm has revealed a single sketch of the new body style, which it is calling the i20 coupé. Although the current i20 is offered in three-door and five-door bodies, the sketch shows how the new three-door i20 coupé will be more clearly differentiated from its five-door sibling. It features a more sharply raked roofline and a spoiler at the rear of the roof to enhance its sportier positioning compared with the more practical five-door. Hyundai says the new variant “promises to combine driving fun, a distinctive character and sporty refinement, with the enhanced practicality and quality already previewed in its five-door sibling”. Like the five-door version, the i20 coupé was designed and…

BRISTOL CARS HAS released the first image of Project Pinnacle, a car designed to celebrate the firm’s 70th anniversary. The car, which will go on sale next year, is described by the manufacturer as being “a modern take on the best of British craftsmanship” and is “engineered to excite”. Bristol says the new model will help to re-establish the brand, with millions having been spent on the project since Bristol was bought in 2011. Bristol boss Julian Ramshaw said: “Investments in our new products and facilities spearhead our modern philosophy for the Bristol marque. We believe that the automotive landscape is changing, particularly in the premium and luxury sector. The definitions of luxury are changing. People’s expectations are changing. And Bristol Cars is changing, too. This is just the start,…

Peugeot has launched a pair of 308 GT models. The French manufacturer says they are the most dynamic interpretations yet of the company’s staple C-segment hatch and “embody the brand’s continued ‘move upmarket’ strategy”. The 308 GT is available as a hatchback or an estate and comes with a choice of two engines. The GT205 is powered by PSA’s 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine, which develops 202bhp and 210lb ft and drives a six-speed manual gearbox. This GT205 offers a claimed 50.4mpg combined in the hatch (48.7mpg in the SW) and a CO2 output of 130g/km. Peugeot says the model has a “remarkable” power-to-weight ratio of 168bhp per tonne. The diesel GT180 uses a 177bhp 2.0 BlueHDi engine coupled to a new Aisin AW six-speed torque converter automatic gearbox. Peugeot says…

Who is GKN Driveline, and what does it make? GKN is the biggest supplier of automotive driveline components and systems in the world. We’re a British limited company, started as a steel foundry in south Wales 255 years ago, but we’ve reinvented our business countless times over the years. We’re probably best known for supplying CV joints for front-wheel-drive cars — most memorably the original Mini. Today we make 80 million of them a year. The business was worth £3.5 billion in 2013, but the growth part of our business now is making transmissions for hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fully electric passenger vehicles. What’s the most advanced transmission you offer that’s currently available on a production car? The multi-modal eDrive transmission on the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV — which is unique…

THE PREVIOUS FOCUS was our benchmark for ride and handling in this class, but changes to it this time run pretty deep anyway. Most notable to the driver is that the steering is lighter. But, Ford reckons, despite increased assistance levels, it can nonetheless offer better road feel, because the chassis to which it’s mounted is torsionally more rigid. The thickness of two chassis brackets in the engine bay has been increased for that just reason, as has a better arc welding technique on surrounding areas. Increased lateral stiffness of some suspension bushes, too, results in less flex as cornering forces build, allowing them to be fed through to the wheel rather than absorbed by a flexing bodyshell.…

FIRST VERDICT Top of its class — if it’s a class for those who really want a Nissan but find a Qashqai just too racy SO GOOD Generous rear legroom Comprehensive kit and tech lists Low noise levels NO GOOD Bland interior design Uninvolving dynamics Could barely be less interesting TESTER’S NOTE Release lever for the (massive) fuel filler flap is right next to the bonnet release lever. Not genius. MP IT COMES WITH lots of stuff. That’s the most important thing to know about the Pulsar, a wholly conventional C-segment hatchback Nissan is now introducing, eight years after it gave up on conventional C-segment five-door hatchbacks. That move was in favour of making crossovers like the Qashqai, which is now a resounding success. But not quite resounding enough to…

With a fanfare designed to echo across the country, Jaguar has removed the wraps from its all-important new compact sports saloon, the XE, revealing a car that not only bristles with desirability and enticing technology but also holds the keys to the marque’s future success. As well as being arguably the most genuinely new British car in 60 years – new chassis, new materials, new body, new assembly works, new engine range, new engine plant – the XE issues the first truly credible British challenge ever to the German trio that currently dominates world premium saloon sales: the BMW 3-series, Mercedes-Benz C-class and Audi A4. The XE’s success has huge implications for Jaguar’s ability to fulfil its new model plan of the future, believed to include as many as half…

In six years, you’ve seen extraordinary expansion at Solihull. What’s happened? The Tata acquisition of JLR led first to the establishment of the Range Rover aluminium body shop, then the biggest in Europe. Now we’ve opened the XE-Range Rover Sport shop, plus a trim and final shop to go with it — at an all-in cost of £1.5 billion. We’re making Jaguars inside Solihull, the first time that’s happened in 70 years. The latest body shop is bigger again, right? It’s about twice the size of the Range Rover shop — as big as 12 football pitches. Our new trim and final assembly hall is big, too — another 10 pitches. And you’re hiring new people, aren’t you? We have 500 new employees so far, and we’ll eventually need 1700…

GOING BACKWARDS FAST With all the road tests of cars with DSG gearboxes, I cannot recall any comment about their suitability when reversing in a car park. The sudden uptake of drive in what seems like a high gear suddenly catapults the car rearwards at a very high velocity. It brings to mind an automatic 1965 Singer Vogue that I once owned that would easily do 40mph in reverse on an open road. But surely in a busy car park, this is not a satisfactory feature, is it? D Johnson Southampton BRAKE DUST: AN EXPENSIVE FIX Hugh Fox (Your Views, 20 August) says that he would like wheels free from brake dust. There is a simple but expensive solution to this problem: buy a car with ceramic brake discs. Due…

As the mileage mounts on the RCZ R, it’s the superb 1.6-litre turbocharged engine that I’m still having trouble getting used to. It’s because it’s so powerful, yet so docile, and because the average fuel economy keeps building. It’s 36.8mpg now, a cool four per cent better than when I reported at 2000 miles. In our job, you get plenty of chances to compare what you drive with the best in class, and I’m struggling to find another 1.6-litre turbo with so much power (266bhp) that also idles so sweetly and pulls so docilely from low revs, both properties that you come to value more as the mileage mounts. The RCZ R is proving notably easy to handle in dense lines of traffic, a particular boon as the holiday traffic…

STEERING WOBBLE Some Jeeps suffer from a pronounced steering wobble at upwards of 40mph. You’ll need to get the car up on a lift to identify which steering or suspension part is worn. TRANSFER CASE Even if an owner doesn’t use the 4WD modes, they should still cycle through them at sensible intervals. Not doing so can cause problems, such as the shift linkage seizing up. TRANSMISSION FLUID Regular fluid changes are vital to ensure the longevity of the gearbox. Fresh fluid is red. It turns brown when overdue a change. If it’s black and smells burnt, there could be problems. AIR CONDITIONING Many sellers will tell you that air-con that doesn’t work simply needs regassing. But the problem can often be more serious, such as a hole in the…

This is the new Mercedes-AMG GT — the second series-production model from Mercedes-Benz’s performance car division in Affalterbach, Germany, following on from the recently discontinued SLS AMG. The rear-wheel-drive performance coupé shares elements of its body structure with its predecessor and is the first Mercedes-AMG model to use a newly developed twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 engine. The GT is scheduled to reach the UK during the first quarter of next year. Pricing is not planned to be made public until orders start in October. However, AMG sources suggest that the new two-seater will start at around £100,000 in the UK — significantly less than the £168,485 of the SLS AMG. “With the new GT, we are positioning Mercedes-AMG even more aggressively than to date,” said the CEO of AMG, Tobias Moers.…

EOIN YOUNG, AUTOCAR’S longest-standing contributor of the modern era, died last week in New Zealand, close to where he was born 75 years ago. He’ll be best remembered for his gossipy, fearlessly written column, Straight From The Grid (later From The Grid and then Eoin Young’s Diary). Such was its popularity — it appeared in seven other titles around the world — that Autocar published it for 31 years from 1967. Born in 1939, Eoin Spence Young started work as a bank clerk in Timaru, New Zealand, and began writing motorsport stories for his local paper, the Timaru Herald, as a hobby. He became friendly with a local club driver, Bruce McLaren, and when McLaren won New Zealand’s ‘Driver to Europe’ scholarship, Young kept in touch, ghosting his columns in…

This new Citroën Divine DS concept symbolises the future styling direction of the DS brand, according to the company. It will make its public debut at the Paris motor show next month. DS boss Yves Bonnefont has described the concept car as having “avant-garde design” and “visible technologies, refinement and a balance between comfort and dynamics”. The car — based around a C-segment hatchback — is intended to signal the future brand and design direction of DS rather than preview a new model. Bonnefont said the brand will eventually feature six models, a doubling of the line-up currently offered in Europe. “Our ambition is to generate growth by developing the product range — in the mid-term to have six models — which will be the same in all regions,” he…

The new 2-series convertible is a more “grown-up and prestigious car” than the 1-series convertible that it replaces, according to BMW chiefs. Pictured here ahead of its official unveiling at next month’s Paris motor show, the soft-top convertible will go on sale in the UK next March. The 2-series convertible has the same footprint as the 2-series coupé. So it is longer and wider than the drop-top 1-series, as well as having a longer wheelbase and wider front and rear tracks. BMW says the increase in size makes for easier entry and exit for rear passengers, and greater luggage capacity. Boot space has increased by 30 litres to 335 litres with the roof up. When the top is folded, it’s 280 litres. At its widest point, the boot is also…

SUZUKI ENGINEERS ARE working on a new model to rival compact utility models such as the Nissan Note and the all-new Honda Jazz. It’s likely to reach showrooms in about 18 months. The new car is believed to be based on the same basic platform as the Swift supermini and be about 4.3m long. It will in effect take over from the Liana model, which was discontinued in 2007. The new model will have the same basic 1.2-litre and 1.6-litre petrol engines as the Swift, but the 1.3 diesel may be dropped because of the high cost of making oil-burners comply with stricter Euro 6 emission regs.…

FIRST VERDICT Better on road than it is on track but still feels like a car designed for the previous decade, not the next SO GOOD V8 makes a lovely noise Impressively refined Rides comparatively well NO GOOD Feels too heavy on a circuit Brakes fade rapidly after a few corners Shame there’s not a four-door TESTER’S NOTE Sorry, but 1840kg isn’t acceptable for a mid-size sports coupé in 2014. Why is the RC F so heavy? SS LOOK DOWN THE spec sheet for the new £59,995 Lexus RC F and you will be struck fairly quickly by two thoughts. One, that it appears to represent an awful lot of car for the money. Two, that it is, despite what Lexus might claim, very much an old-school kind of performance…

FIRST VERDICT On balance of performance, efficiency and dynamics, the best Golf yet. Not cheap, though SO GOOD Outstanding refinement Composed handling Extended electric range Low running costs NO GOOD Hybrid tech’s added weight Reduced boot space It’s pricey TESTER’S NOTE It isn’t quite in the Golf GTI league for entertainment, but it firmly dispels the myth that hybrids are inherently dull to drive. GK FOLLOWING THE introduction of various petrol, diesel, natural gas and pure-electric Golfs over the past two years, Volkswagen now has a plug-in hybrid version. The name, GTE, hints that it is a truly sporting model in the mould of the Golf GTI and GTD. With a 0-62mph of 7.6sec, a 138mph top speed, a claimed 188mpg, CO2 of just 35g/km and an electric-only range of…

What does this car’s design have to achieve? The XE’s number one job is to be visually exciting. Just because it’s the entry model doesn’t mean it shouldn’t embody all of the marque’s values. If you think about it, this is the defining sports saloon for Jaguar, given its lowness and compact dimensions. Did the fact that the XF had pioneered the look of a new Jaguar help you? It did. People understood it as soon as they saw it. The two cars are very different, but we used some of the XF’s devices — the grille’s a good example — because people away from our market still need to learn more what a Jaguar is like. We discussed changing the face [which is more upright and prominent] but decided…

There’s a car magazine you’ll find not far from this one. I can mention it because it’s near this one not just physically on the news-stand but also along the corridor at Haymarket Towers. Until last January, it had named the Audi TT its best coupé for six straight years. Not without good reason, either. The magazine is a buyer’s guide and its readers care about residual values, fuel economy, taxes on benefits in kind and the like. In these areas, the TT has been king. Crucially, though, for the likes of you and me, that class leadership has not quite extended to the way the TT drives. So although the new TT will again want to set the kind of class standards that allow it to register impressively in…

MODEL TESTED e-Golf • Price £25,845 (inc £5000 gov’t grant) • Power 113bhp • Torque 199lb ft • 0-60mph 10.5sec • Fuel economy 244Wh/mile • CO2 emissions na • 70-0mph 49.5m • Skidpan 0.88g WE LIKE Above-average battery range • Blend of performance and efficiency • Golf-brand quality and usability • The closed-off, gloss black grille is arguably one of the e-Golf’s most distinguishing features, especially with the electric blue band that is also incorporated into the VW logo. • The new front bumper incorporates the C-shaped daytime running light design already seen on the e-Up. Expect this feature to be a signature of future VW electric cars as well. • The 16-inch alloy wheels are designed with better aerodynamics in mind, although the rolling resistance has also been reduced…

Have I missed the conversations and correspondence about the forthcoming changes to the law regarding displaying a tax disc on your vehicle? It seems that although we will still have to purchase a tax disc, no paper disc will be issued by the DVLA and, therefore, no disc will be displayed on the vehicle. It strikes me as another way that the law breakers can thumb their noses at the rest of us. To combat the number of vehicles on our roads without tax, insurance or MOTs, surely it would be better to add two further discs to be displayed rather than removing the one current disc that we have. Pete Muray Via email WIN Letter of the week wins a full year’s supply of CleanDrive (4 bottles) worth over…

Our favourite greasy spoon was the venue for me telling Steve Sutcliffe that the F-type R coupé had finally arrived. His short response was, “Proper car”, and we got on with the business of munching bacon sandwiches. But Sutters knew that I knew exactly what he meant: an extremely fast, extremely well sorted car that sounds and looks as good as it goes. And now that it’s properly run in, the rest of the team and I are now taking full advantage of those attributes every day. However, I’m also starting to discover that Jaguar’s most glamorous model is a proper car in lots of other ways. Most of the miles so far have been accrued on the motorway. Okay, it’s hardly wafty and there’s a fair bit of road…

THE NEW MERCEDES-AMG GT is launching into a very crowded segment. A couple of years ago, Lamborghini revealed that the market for what it calls “super-sports cars” had taken a huge hammering during the global credit crunch. Sales at the tail end of the boom in this market had bulged globally to about 35,000 vehicles annually. After the crunch, this niche shrank back to just 25,000 units, and although it will have risen somewhat over the past 24 months, this is still a very hard-fought niche. It is, of course, a potentially highly profitable segment, as Porsche’s 911 Turbo proves, with its industry-leading cash profit per unit. Car makers are clearly aware of this and there are plenty of new products in the super-sports car market. Lamborghini has just refreshed…

Honda’s all-new HR-V compact crossover is set to make its public debut at the Paris motor show next month, eight years after the quirky original model went out of production. It has already been seen in Japan and other Asian markets as the Vezel. The new HR-V is based on a similar platform to the current Civic and upcoming all-new Jazz, which has its fuel tank sited under the front seats. So when it arrives early in the new year, the HR-V will have a clever rear seat arrangement like the Civic and Jazz. In the HR-V, the rear seats — including the seat squabs — can be folded forward and downwards to create a completely flat load bay that is much lower than with conventional folding seats. The HR-V’s…

MORGAN HAS JOINED the likes of Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren by initiating a special division for bespoke commissions — and it has marked the new venture by unveiling its first creation, the SP1, at Salon Privé in London. Ordered by long-time Morgan customer Brian Voakes, the SP1 draws heavily on the company’s LifeCar fuel cell concept, shown at Geneva in 2008. Features such as the canopy-style roof structure, solid-surfaced wheels and twin ribbons of wood that encompass the seats and dashboard are carried over Features new to Morgan include a curved windscreen, iPad-controlled infotainment and Watt’s linkage rear suspension in place of leaf springs. The leather-clad, steel-framed wooden seats fold down to reveal a pair of luggage pods, and a row of overhead switches (including starter toggles) adds theatre…

THE MERCEDES-BENZ GLA has scored top marks in the latest round of Euro NCAP crash tests. Overall, the GLA achieved a 96 per cent safety rating for adult occupants, 88 per cent for children and 67 per cent for pedestrians, with testers noting good scores for side impact protection and for front passengers. The new Renault Twingo scored four stars. Testers said the Twingo’s passenger compartment remained stable during a frontal impact, with the car receiving a 78 per cent rating for adult passengers, 81 per cent for children and 68 per cent for pedestrians. Toyota’s new Aygo also received four stars, with an adult passenger safety rating of 80 per cent and 80 per cent for children. The mechanically identical Peugeot 108 and Citroën C1 also received a four-star…

NISSAN CHIEF ANDY Palmer will leave the company to become the new CEO of Aston Martin. Aston Martin said that Palmer is tasked with leading “the next phase of technology and product creation”. Palmer had also been running Nissan luxury arm Infiniti since July. Reports suggest that Palmer was Aston Martin’s main target during the recruitment process, which is understood to have taken more than a year. Former Aston boss Ulrich Bez stepped down late last year. Renault’s product planning boss, Philippe Klein, will replace Palmer as the head of Nissan when he leaves later this month. A statement from Aston Martin’s board of shareholders said: “Andy’s wealth of experience on the global automotive stage in marketing and sales, engineering and technology, and luxury and brand management will be instrumental…

FIRST VERDICT The dynamic best just got better; closer to the Golf than ever overall SO GOOD Best-in-class chassis dynamics Perceived quality approaches Volkswagen Golf levels Control weights, gearshift and engine response are pleasing NO GOOD Driver’s seat is still too high Ergonomics still trail the best TESTER’S NOTE Delighted to find a manual handbrake — so much so that I’ll not mention that the armrest baulks using it… oops. MP THE FORD FOCUS is a conventional family hatchback. The airport is 40 miles away. Left is a motorway that runs straight to it. Right is a twisty road, which doesn’t. I have time either way, but I’ve been up since 4.30am and would quite like a cup of tea. But I turn right. The new Focus still isn’t quite…

FIRST VERDICT Early signs suggest that Skoda has delivered a much better, more rounded and more mature Fabia SO GOOD Better-proportioned new look Good ride/handling balance Appealing-looking and newly spacious interior NO GOOD Smaller engines lack gumption Bugs yet to be ironed from infotainment system TESTER’S NOTE The boot space is up to 330 litres, which is 40 litres more than you’ll find in the equivalent Fiesta. NC THE ALL-NEW SKODA Fabia has been a long time coming. Its predecessor graced the stage for seven years – a normally solid innings made to feel like an aeon by the arrival of the curvaceous Ford Fiesta just 12 months after its launch. Not that the Fabia needed much help to look tall and ungainly. But next year Skoda expects the new…

THE LAUNCH OF the Jaguar XE is a red-letter day for the British car industry. Why? Because it’s an all-new British-designed and engineered car, built upon an all-new chassis from an all-new factory, with an all-new engine manufactured in another new plant. We’ve tried hard, but it’s near-impossible to think of another time in history when this has happened in post-war Britain. Previous Jaguars and Land Rovers have certainly not entirely had this distinction, and nor did the numerous offerings from the British Leyland days. Even the 1959 Mini was powered by an old engine and its 2001 successor was manufactured in an old plant. The 1951 Austin A30 that preceded the Mini was the first use of the A-series engine, but it was built in a modified Longbridge factory.…

The impact of Formula E, the new electric car racing series that begins on the streets of Beijing this Saturday, probably won’t be appreciated for years to come. If in the future we get to enjoy, say, a 400-mile range from electric road cars, or get to marvel at the sustained performance of battery-powered supercars, we might then reflect on how electric motor racing has contributed to the advancement of EV technology. The brains behind this series want Formula E to do for EVs what rallying did for four-wheel drive systems: provide a high-speed test bed for the technology that can then trickle down into road cars. Racing, the saying goes, improves the breed, and the Formula E breed is a 20-strong grid of open-wheeled, rear-wheel-drive singleseaters powered by electric…

Mileage 2977 I don’t do driving holidays. I do driving and I do holidays, but never at the same time. I can’t claim to have lacked a car big enough to carry the family clobber — the X5’s immediate predecessors were a Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake and an Audi A6 Allroad — but something stopped me. Or someone. Or, to be very precise, some bodies. My daughters, visions of fragrant, ethereal grace out of the car, sadly also have a real and ready capacity to turn into wild west bar-brawling hooligans the moment the door shuts behind them. And arbitrating between them amid the hair pulling, scratching, biting and gouging is not my idea of a holiday. And, yes, I exaggerate wildly — in truth, they never do anything other…

With winter seemingly just around the corner, you may well be considering investing in a cheap 4x4 to run around in. There are several options out there, but one of the most prevalent is the XJ generation of Jeep Cherokee. They’re common, easy to maintain and, in 4.0-litre Limited spec, powerful and well equipped. The Jeep arrived in the UK in 1993 and was offered until 2001. It received a cosmetic update in 1997 that resulted in much softer styling and the addition of a more European-looking interior. Engine options comprised 2.5-litre, four-cylinder diesel and petrol units and a 4.0-litre petrol straight six. The petrol 2.5 isn’t usually any more efficient than the 4.0, though, and a lot less powerful, while the 2.5-litre diesel can be prone to cylinder head…

If you’re looking for a fun, comfortable and muscular saloon — but don’t want to spend a fortune — how about a Jaguar S-type R? The 400bhp 4.2-litre supercharged V8 saloon is an ideal alternative to the likes of an E39-generation BMW M5, or an older Mercedes-Benz C43 AMG. It was launched in 2002, and a search on Pistonheads revealed one from that year for just £3000. It had covered 126,500 miles, had some service history and had just been MOTed. Sure, the car had some minor cosmetic issues — small rust spots and mismatched headlights — but, for a 12-year-old car, certainly nothing disconcerting. It had even had some classic failure-prone parts, such as the coolant pipe underneath the supercharger, replaced. The flagship S-type packed plenty of kit when…