Innholdsfortegnelse for Agosto 22, 2018 i Autocar

TODAY, VAUXHALL REVEALS the look and direction for its future road cars in the shape of the GTX (p6), an exciting and interesting concept. If future Vauxhalls look as striking as this, then the famous brand will have a distinctive and relevant place in the car market. But as good as the GTX looks, we must wait another year for any new generation Vauxhalls to hit the road. Up first is the all-new Corsa, a car hastily switched from a General Motors architecture to a PSA Group one, and, perhaps unnervingly for a model that needs a firm reboot, developed in double-quick time – too soon to be inspired by the GTX. Of course, we must wait to see and drive the Corsa before we deliver our verdict on it,…

MERCEDES-BENZ’S AMG performance car division is putting the finishing touches to a facelifted version of the GT, some four years after the German manufacturer’s front-engined rear-wheel-drive sports car first brought the challenge to the Porsche 911 in 2014. The reworked AMG model, spied on public roads in Germany, is expected to be unveiled at the upcoming Los Angeles motor show in a move aimed at stealing the limelight from the all-new 992-generation 911. The lightly disguised prototype pictured above reveals that the GT is in line for some subtle styling changes, including a slightly larger ‘Panamericana’ grille and an altered splitter design. Further revisions include newly designed headlight and tail light graphics. Although the changes to the appearance of the GT are mild, sources at Mercedes-AMG suggest it is in…

A V6-powered plug-in hybrid variant of the Bentley Flying Spur will be introduced at the start of next year. The flagship saloon has again been spotted testing in PHEV form, this time on European roads. It’s clear that this prototype is no ordinary Flying Spur due to its two fuel filler caps, one of which hides a charging port. Bentley has decided to equip the plug-in Flying Spur with the electrified powertrain from the Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, instead of the system found in the hybrid Bentayga. Like the saloon, the plug-in SUV won’t arrive until early next year despite being unveiled in March, because fine-tuning is required to ensure it meets the new WLTP fuel economy regulations. Based on the Panamera’s specs, expect the Flying Spur hybrid to put…

Double world champion Fernando Alonso is poised to race in Indycar and sports cars next year, after deciding to leave Formula 1 at the end of this season. The Spaniard, who won back-to-back titles with Renault in 2005 and ’06, has struggled since moving to McLaren in 2015 and has failed to score a podium finish in his time with the Woking-based team. Alonso’s frustration with the lack of power from Honda’s F1 engine was one of the key reasons why McLaren switched to customer Renault units this year, although the move has not yielded a significant improvement in results. Alonso hasn’t won a race since 2013. With no seats available in a top team for next year, the 37-year-old decided that “after 17 wonderful years in this sport, it’s…

In the context of its immediate Volkswagen Group rivals, the latest Skoda Fabia supermini could almost be seen as something of a younger sibling. While the Seat Ibiza and Volkswagen Polo have been treated to thorough overhauls, complete with new MQB-A0 platforms, upgraded tech and sharp new exteriors, the third-generation Fabia – which has now been facelifted for 2018 – is still, to an extent, kicking about as one of last year’s hand-me-downs. Beneath that subtly revised exterior sits the older PQ26 platform that’s underpinned the Mk3 Fabia since 2014. There’s the same MacPherson strut front and torsion beam rear suspension arrangement found on the pre-facelift Fabia, while power comes from 1.0-litre three-cylinder TSI and MPI petrol engines. Power outputs are decidedly modest. The two MPI engines range from 59bhp…

A decade or so ago, a car with the Duster’s budget positioning might not have come with anti-lock brakes and definitely not with electronic stability control. The fact that a £10,000 family car now includes both as standard is a victory for safety. Moreover, the fact that the ESC is a decent system which isn’t overly intrusive or without subtlety — and so you won’t regret not being able to disable it — is also good news. The car’s outright body control is respectable, and it grips keenly enough and stays decently balanced even when rolling hard, allowing the ESC to stay in the background until you really need it. When it does chime in, it can act to quell ham-fisted throttle-on understeer as well as oversteer (which isn’t to…

“I can’t look you lot in the eye if I don’t actually own a car. Lease cars don’t count” Andrew Frankel looked appalled when he first saw it and A photographer Luc Lacey is concerned that the car is so ugly that capturing its image may permanently damage his expensive camera. But I don’t care because I am in love with our new Saab 9-3 convertible. It’s not actually new, it’s a 14-year-old on a 2004 plate. Yes, it has noticeable scuttle shake and, yes, it would have come last in a contemporary group test against German opposition. Buying this car has given us an instant pay rise. Like many of you, the Goodwin family has been down the leasing route. For the past few years, after a run of…

Anonymity guaranteed I can only assume that Volkswagen is having a bit of fun charging nearly £73,000 (as tested) for a Touareg (Road Test, 8 August). It is a huge amount of money for a worthy but desperately anonymous car. Surely VW must realise that even within its own set of brands, the same money would be far better spent (especially for a private buyer) on a new or nearly new Audi Q7 or Porsche Cayenne? Otherwise, similarly, ly, a Range Rover, BMW X5, Mercedes GLS etc. All of those cars have their own appeal and qualities but, most important, all have a brand identity that justifies such a significant expense. The Touareg is far too anonymous to present a serious choice at this price level. You may as well…

MILEAGE 10,328 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover if Vauxhall’s flagship offers an unbeatable mix of practicality, value and executive comfort in estate form It was one of the more painful weekends I can remember. ‘Sports Tourer,’ they call this Insignia derivative. That’s Vauxhall’s marketing pidgin for an estate. So I took it on a ‘sports tour’. Well, a lads’ cycling trip to the Brecon Beacons of an August weekend. I’ve enjoyed sporadic stints of sustained, semi-serious cycling over the years, but these were my first pedal strokes for some time. Think of it less as a mid-life crisis and more of the ‘Tour de France’ effect. A Welsh bloke wore yellow in Paris, so surely three fat English blokes could ride up a Welsh hillock or six? Pah. Loading…

There are an awful lot of things to do on all of the Ruppert cars – apart from the endlessly reliable but fairly new Golf. So maybe I had better check in with the owner/driver of our least bothersome fleet member. According to its 21-year-old pilot, the car is very awesome indeed. You might have forgotten that it’s part of our line-up but it’s a reminder of just how trustworthy modern cars are. Plus there’s Bluetooth, a large boot and plenty of room for four mates. It also manages to gulp just a gallon of petrol every 60 miles. Winner, winner.…

If you’re over 18, you’re probably not that interested in a Corsa VXR, but stay with us. You’re never too old to have fun and the three-door Vauxhall, on sale from 2007 to 2014, serves it up in spades. From its outrageous styling, replete with scoops, funnels and diffusers, and slick six-speed gearbox to its 186bhp 1.6-litre turbocharged engine (torque is 170lb ft, available from 1950rpm), it’s an absolute hoot. Want a bit more punch? There’s an extra 26lb ft where that came from, available for five seconds thanks to an overboost function. And it doesn’t stop there. If you want more power, track down a Nürburgring VXR of 2011 or a runout Clubsport special edition of 2014. These little crackers serve up 202bhp and 184lb ft (207lb ft on…

Vauxhall-Opel has revealed a sporty new B-segment SUV concept at its design centre in Rüsselsheim, Germany. Dubbed the GTX, it has been produced to give a clear view of a changing design language for the evolving brand. The GTX, which is “far more than just a concept car” according to its maker, has been planned both to mark Vauxhall-Opel’s acquisition by the PSA Group and to demonstrate that much greater design freedom is coming to future new Vauxhall and Opel vehicles. Though quite different in its proportions, the new GTX bears an obvious similarity to Vauxhall’s previous much-praised concept, the two-door GT coupé, for which a successor was always promised. The GTX (the ‘X’ to convey a crossover function) is much more practical, having a fully designed cockpit that features…

ASTON MARTIN IS to create 25 new examples of the DB5 as part of its programme of continuation projects, with each example featuring working gadgets as seen in the car’s seven James Bond film appearances. A further three cars will also be created, with one being kept by Aston Martin, one going to Eon Productions — the company behind the James Bond film franchise — and the third to be sold off in a charity auction. The cars, which won’t be legal to drive on the road, will be built at Aston Martin Works’ Newport Pagnell plant, where the DB5 was originally produced. The cars’ gadgetry is being co-developed by James Bond special effects supervisor Chris Corbould in collaboration with Aston Martin’s Q bespoke department, having been approved by Eon…

A lack of clarity caused by the government, regulators and the car industry itself on key issues ranging from diesel to future car technology is holding potential new-car buyers back from making purchases, new research shown exclusively to Autocar suggests. New car sales were down 5.5% year on year in the first half of this year. An HPS Group survey of 1000 potential newcar buyers backs up assertions from the Society of Motor or Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) that buyers are simply holding off a purchase, rather than cancelling it altogether, as a result of ongoing market uncertainty. The research suggests that 90% of would-be car buyers will replace their current car as expected and that as many are likely to bring forward a decision as hold off at present.…

Examine the UK’ new car sales figures for July compared to last year and you’ll discover MG’s rate of growth has been spectacular. No less than 167% in fact, at a time when most marques are experiencing sales falls, not least value-proposition opposition Dacia. That Bentley is the next highest in terms of growth on 103%, however, should give you some indication of the underlying reasons for such an apparent statistical surge. The truth is that it’s taken four long years for the Chinese-manufactured MG 3 to amass 10,000 sales in an out-and-out volume segment. Ford, for reference, sells the British public around 5000 examples of the Fiesta every month. But if the MG 3 is some way off the pace in sales, this lightly revised version also remains some…

Five years ago, the Dacia Duster came to the UK with a starting price that offered change out of £9000. We couldn’t quite believe the value for money it offered, or the fact that driving or owning one wouldn’t feel more like a wilful act of masochism. The second-generation version feels familiar in lots of ways, but its comfort, refinement, material quality, practicality and convenience have all improved – and you can still get one for less than £10,000. While the car’s appeal may be limited in other ways, that fact alone wins it enormous credit. Dacia has assumed that, given the choice between either a more pacey and enticing drive or significantly improved cruising manners, the average Duster buyer would take the latter, and rightly so in our book.…

TOP 5 CHIMES Greensleeves ’O sole mio Teddy Bears’ Picnic Yankee Doodle Match of the Day British, bespoke and handbuilt in Crewe – it can only be one B thing: a Whitby Morrison ice cream van. With its familiar cheery chimes and vivid, shouty graphics, it’s a British institution. Now is peak season. Around 4000 ice cream vans are out there making hay (well, ice cream) while the sun has shone like never before – or at least like it did in the summer of 1976. Whitby Morrison is busy but not half as busy as it will be in autumn when the country’s soft-scoop barons return from the nation’s streets, beaches, fields and festivals to splash out on a shiny new £70,000 Mondial Lusso (the company’s top-selling van available,…

ON SALE 29 AUGUST 16-PAGE MEGA-TEST Britain’s Best Affordable Driver’s Car Eight cars, each under £30k, and starring the new Ford Fiesta ST and Renault Sport Mégane, head to Blyton Park for our big annual shootout FIRST UK TEST New Ford Focus vs the UK One day, 500-plus miles, UK’s best roads: how good is Ford’s latest? FEATURE Why I bought an Alpine A110 reaches its first UK customer. We meet him and his car collection SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p60 EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Kia Ceed Early tests have shown promise in what could be the best Kia yet. Is it? USED BUYING GUIDE Morgan Plus 4 If you’re sold on the charm of the Plus 4, here’s how to pick a good one LONG-TERM TEST BMW M5 Just…

MILEAGE 3782 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if BMW has finally created a credible alternative to the Merc S-Class It seems odd to be starting this with a line or two I about a Mercedes-Benz but a letter from a reader explaining why he gave up on 30 years of three-pointed star ownership to try his luck with a 740d is fascinating. To quote David Bridge directly: “I decided to look elsewhere for my main car as I don’t like the absence of a ‘traditional’ grille and bonnet star in the versions of the E-Class now offered in the UK.” He then discovered he could buy a 7 Series “for not much more than a well-specified E-Class.” In the end, after ringing only two dealers, he secured an…

Mitsubishis are well made and utterly reliable. Running costs are fairly reasonable too, mainly because of that innate reliability, but after that it starts to become a struggle to find nice things to say. The fuel economy isn’t bad at around 40mpg overall, but, er, that’s it. Not an inherently bad car, then, just old, outdated and not as practical as you might expect because the only model was a three-door hatchback. So while it was comfortable up front, rear-seat passengers certainly felt the pinch. SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com AND READERS’ QUESTIONS TO autocar@haymarket.com…

An expert’s view GARY CONWAY, OWNER, GCAP PERFORMANCE “The Corsa VXR’s biggest problem is failure of piston four. It’s a cooling issue that causes the ringlands, where the piston rings sit, to crack. Basically, the piston casting is poor. If it’s down on power, misfires and smokes at idle, it’s likely to be piston four. Catch it early and have all the pistons modified before it breaks and destroys the engine. Otherwise, the Corsa is a tough little thing. My demo car is a Nürburgring VXR with a forged engine, custom camshafts, a Garrett GTX30 turbo, an uprated swirl pot and large 875cc fuel injectors. It makes about 500bhp. I’ve changed the diff to a Wavetrac to help keep it on the road.” Buyer beware ENGINE Low power, noisy acceleration,…

NISSAN LEAF There’s plenty of interest in electric cars and one of the main blockers to purchase is the upfront cost of buying one. As a result, many new buyers opt to lease and now there is a glut of low-mileage, great-condition three-year-old examples on the market. Sure, these cars have a significantly shorter range than the latest model, but if you don’t need the extra range, and therefore additional battery cost (and most of us don’t need more than 80 miles a day, or 60 in winter), then the impact of depreciation has turned a pioneering £25,000 car into a £6000 bargain. GET IT WHILE YOU CAN Volkswagen Beetle Price new £17,370. Price now £14,957 If Matt Prior’s recent final drive in the venerable Beetle (Autocar, 25 July) left…

Aston Martin’s upcoming Vanquish mid-engined supercar, a rival to the Ferrari 488 and McLaren 720S, will be developed within the Red Bull F1 team’s factory. Aston and Red Bull have established a new Advanced Performance Centre at the F1 team’s Milton Keynes campus. Aston is in the process of moving 130 staff from its advanced engineering department at Gaydon to the new facility in order to develop the new supercar, due in 2020, among other models. The relationship between the two companies is rooted in road car product development, rather than being a simple case of Aston Martin logos appearing on Red Bull’s F1 cars. The first co-developed model will be the Valkyrie hypercar, with a slightly less-expensive model, christened “son of Valkyrie” by Aston boss Andy Palmer, also in…

Mercedes will finally have a true challenger to the BMW X1 and Audi Q3 in the form of the new GLB, set to arrive next year. Testing of the small SUV is well under way, with new spy shots showing it lapping the Nürburgring Nordschleife as engineers tune its chassis. Due to appear in showrooms in the first half of 2019, the GLB mixes old-school G-Class influences, including a boxy profile and an upright rear end, with contemporary details such as the brand’s softer front-end design and LED headlights. Development of the GLB was accelerated to bring the car to market in 2019 and maintain sales momentum in the lucrative premium compact car class. The GLB will serve as a sibling to the smaller GLA, with a less conventional appearance…

HONDA IS COMMITTED to Formula 1 because it is the best motorsport formula for learning about electrified technology and energy efficiency, according to the company’s technical director, Toyoharu Tanabe. The Japanese car firm returned to the sport in 2015 with the McLaren team, attracted by current F1 powertrain regulations specifying 1.6-litre turbocharged engines linked to two hybrid systems. But the firm has struggled to be competitive and has yet to score a podium. That led to a split with McLaren and a new partnership with Scuderia Toro Rosso this year. Despite its lack of success on the track Tanabe said the complexity of engine technology and strict limits on fuel and energy usage were providing useful lessons that will translate to future road cars. Tanabe said Honda’s F1 powertrain is…

To the new management of Aston Martin, the DB11 when launched in 2016 was the equivalent of you moving into a beautiful new house, sumptuously decked out in high-quality furnishings and fittings by the previous owners and all, in their own way, entirely lovely and blameless. And yet not all of it is entirely to your taste. It’s better than acceptable, genuinely good, just not quite in certain small but significant ways exactly, well, you. So you end up ripping out a perfectly good kitchen, re-tiling the roof and installing a home cinema, just because you can. This DB11 AMR is that house, the DB11 you suspect Messrs Palmer & Co would have delivered from the outset, had they been around when the project had begun, rather than arriving when…

MODEL TESTED SCe 115 4x2 COMFORT Price £13,195 • Power 113bhp • Torque 115lb ft • 0-60mph 13.1sec • 30-70mph in fourth 25.1sec • Fuel economy 37mpg • CO2 emissions 149g/km • 70-0mph 50.1m The introduction of the second-generation Dacia Duster seems like a good time to take stock of how much progress Renault’s Romanian no-frills budget car brand has already made in the UK. While it arrived in other markets some years earlier, the original Duster crossover SUV was the car with which Dacia chose to relaunch itself on these shores five years ago. We liked it, we rated it and, along with its Sandero, Sandero Stepway and Logan MCV range-mates, we watched it get off to a flying sales start. Having started from scratch in 2013, Dacia sold just…

Some car makers talk about making an ‘and’ car. It’s a handy if glib marketing phrase that suggests they’re capable of building cars with combinations of characteristics that you wouldn’t necessarily expect. Comfortable and agile. Fast and economical. Rakish and practical. That sort of thing. This new Porsche Cayenne Turbo and just-revised Range Rover Sport SVR, mind, are something else again. ‘And’ doesn’t quite do it justice. The plan is to take the most practical of all family vehicles – large SUVs – and throw the absolute works at them. Not to make them ‘and’ cars, but ‘everything’ cars; to be practical family cars that are also luxury cars and sports cars, which will go farther off road than you could imagine, will tow more than you could ever need…

“Why is there no hot water?” It was a squawk from a daughter that sparked an investigation that led to an adventure that made me wish this Mercedes-Benz G-Class was staying not for a few months but the rest of my time on earth. The answer was simple: for reasons too boring and revelatory of my domestic incompetence to tell, the Frankel household had run out of heating oil. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the ‘beast from the east’, that spot of proper weather that visited us in March. We live so remotely that every time I give someone directions, I include the line: “And when you find yourself thinking no one could possibly live down there, keep going.” The oil tanker struggles to get to us at…

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 7819 WHY WE RAN IT To determine whether Hyundai’s first stab at a hot hatch can stand up to its more established foes in everyday life In the past two years, few newly launched cars I have garnered as much attention as the Hyundai i30 N. That’s in part because the hot hatchback segment it joined – one where many long-standing models such as the Volkswagen Golf GTI and Honda Civic Type R sit – is so revered and in part because it’s rare that there’s an all-new entrant to it, and a pretty decent one at that. During my six months with the i30 N, it has attracted ample interest: the entire breadth of the Autocar team has hankered for a go and there has been…

QUESTION I’ve been offered a 1991 Jaguar XJS for £6k. I’m tempted by its looks and V12. Am I mad? Daniel Finnegan, Reading ANSWER What a dilemma – although it sounds like you’ve got the measure of what you’re up against. On the one hand, you have a defining 1990s coupé oozing old-school appeal and potent performance. And on the other? It could be a money pit. Get someone who knows what they are doing to give it a thorough inspection and pitch in with your eyes wide open. JH QUESTION I like a bit of wheeling and dealing but have bought a few duds. What’s your best bit of used car buying advice? John Jakobs, via email ANSWER Ring the doorbell. If you’re hopelessly addicted to the classifieds, then…

WISE BUY AT THIS PRICE As your mum often said, you can’t have everything. So it was with the McLaren it all a score. ‘C’ was for carbonfibre, in reference to the car’s tub. Most testers detected a glitch in said matrix, ranking the MP4-12C behind its arch rival, the Ferrari 458. Scoring the car on a spreadsheet was one thing, but as McLaren learned to its cost, there’s often a lot more to a car than its on-paper performance. As an early Autocar test concluded: “This is a magnificent car, but in some regards, it is a touch clinical.” The perfectionists at McLaren were suitably stung by the 4.5-star verdicts, instigating an improvement programme that in quick order led to the car being renamed the 12C and then being…