Innholdsfortegnelse for October 03, 2018 i Autocar

IN TERMS OF new model debuts, this week’s Paris motor show is probably the quietest since the global financial crisis kicked off a decade ago. The death of the motor show, you might think, yet the reality is anything but. Instead, the lack of new metal in Paris is down to the havoc car makers have faced in trying to meet the deadline for new WLTP real-world fuel economy tests for their existing ranges, let alone the launch of any additional models. The WLTP tests have forced many popular cars off sale, sometimes for short periods, others permanently, as car makers have struggled to get vast product ranges through the limited testing facilities available. Talk of WLTP, and even more pressing issues of Brexit and trade wars between the US…

A chance to drive a prototype of the new BMW 3 Series in 330i M Sport guise a few months ago revealed much promise, if no certain conclusions. The suspicion is that, in this configuration, an Alfa Romeo Giulia probably remains a more compact and lighter-feeling, marginally more incisive and naturally agile saloon. But then, modern BMWs are relatively complicated, more specification-sensitive cars than most of their executive rivals and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that, in just the right mechanical trim, this car could dive and swivel left and right just as keenly as its Italian challenger. Only certain drive modes were available to try on the test drive and this passively suspended 330i M Sport on 19in rims could have been forgiven for struggling a…

Mercedes-AMG’s new hypercar, dubbed Project One during development, will be officially named the Mercedes-AMG One. The firm says the name of the car, which is powered by a 1.6-litre V6 engine producing more than 1000bhp, reflects its position as the “pinnacle” of the firm’s model portfolio. The One will have a multipart, two-stage extendable rear wing featuring active aerodynamics in order to offer maximum downforce in Track mode. The One is on display at the Paris show.…

LAMBORGHINI BOSS Stefano Domenicali has confirmed that the firm is considering an “extreme aero” limited-series production car to rival the McLaren Senna and Aston Martin Valkyrie. Such a car would be “in the vein of Centenario and Veneno” – two multimillion-pound hypercars with strictly capped build runs. Such a car could offer an even more aggressive version of the aerodynamic package found on the new Aventador Superveloce Jota (SVJ). It would be likely to stick with a naturally aspirated engine, as is Lamborghini’s long-standing preference, but could employ a hybrid system to make up for the lack of a turbocharger. Whether the model would be closer in price to the £750,000 Senna or the £2.5 million Valkyrie remains to be seen. Domenicali also confirmed the importance of Nürburgring lap times…

In the 23 years since AMG last turned its spanners to an E-Class coupé, the status and desirability of the big-boned W124-generation E36 has risen like a rocket. Surprising, then, that it has taken so long for Affalterbach to issue a direct replacement. Disclaimer: this is not an entirely faithful recreation. The new E53 4Matic+ and its forebear might share brutishly elegant cab-rear profiles, a straight-six engine configuration and pillarless window apertures, but the new car is a spectacularly modern device replete with four-wheel drive, self-levelling air suspension and mild hybridisation. The headline figures are very healthy indeed: 429bhp and 384lb ft supplemented with 21bhp and 184lb ft from a starter/alternator motor mounted between engine and nine-speed gearbox. The 48V system driving this motor also feeds an electric compressor that…

MODEL TESTED 2.0 MULTIJET II 140 4WD LIMITED Price £31,495 Power 138bhp Torque 258lb ft 0-60mph 11.0sec 30-70mph in fourth 12.1sec Fuel economy 37.6mpg CO2 emissions 138g/km 70-0mph 46.8m The Compass is Jeep’s assault on the lucrative compact SUV market. Their ranks are numerous, and led by the likes of the Volvo XC40 and Volkswagen Tiguan, but few do much to embrace the utilitarian principles their raised ride heights espouse. It shouldn’t therefore come as a surprise that a company with 70 years of off-roading know-how should seek to leverage its experience and appeal to drivers who might just want some substance to match the style. It’s why the Compass not only has a stylishly raked roofline but comes with a switchable, GKN-built all-terrain four-wheel drive, and why it matches a…

“Like having sensory deprivation” is how Bryan Sellers, one of the first drivers to have signed up for Jaguar’s forthcoming I-Pace eTrophy race series, describes driving an I-Pace electric race car. The new one-make electric car championship will be the support race for next season’s Formula E electric race series, which starts in Saudi Arabia in December and visits at least 10 countries (two more to be confirmed) before finishing in New York in July. Some 20 I-Pace race cars will provide the warm-up entertainment on the converted street circuits that comprise the Formula E championship. And, probably, they won’t prove all that much slower than the main event. Simulations estimate they’ll be a little over two seconds a lap slower than last season’s Formula E single-seaters on some circuits…

Alpine-Renault had already made a name for itself in the 1970 and 1971 International Championship for Manufacturers (the forerunner to the WRC) but it was the 1973 WRC where it really dominated, with Jean-Claude Andruet, Ove Andersson and Jean-Pierre Nicolas taking the podium places, all in A110s, at the opening round in Monte Carlo. The rally was structured so that the cars started in a variety of cities with the objective of reaching Monaco before proceeding to special stages set in the mountains of Monte Carlo and southern France. Only the Ford Escort of Hannu Mikkola, which posted fourth place, managed to split up what would otherwise have been a top five made up entirely of A110s. A Fiat Abarth 124 Rallye took seventh. We grouped these modern cars together…

MILEAGE 3745 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if a cut-price luxury offering can be as urbane to live with as it is to look at I haven’t exactly warmed to our Volkswagen Arteon long-term test car over the course of the two months we’ve been running it. That’s not because I think it’s a bad car – far from it – but it’s easy to overlook the VW’s subtle charms when I’m distracted by some of the more engaging and exciting vehicles in the car park. However, there are times when a big, comfortable and refined saloon is just about the most desirable car on earth. I recently had one of those times when the vagaries of Autocar’s test drive schedule meant I had to fly from Europe to…

Reader Damon is very happy after a month spent with his lovely Lexus LS, which cost £9k after part-exchanging a slightly troublesome Audi A8. “This is the world’s greatest family car,” he says. “We went to Norfolk for a week at the end of August and not once did I get an ‘are we there yet?’ or ‘I’m bored’. The children were watching the Harry Potter box set on the roof-mounted screen, with wireless headphones. The cooler box in the rear seats kept drinks cold and the rear and side blinds kept the sun out. SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com AND READERS' QUESTIONS TO autocar@haymarket.com…

An expert’s view NEIL REYNOLDS, CHIEF MECHANIC, SMR LTD “The number of MG Bs out there is only equalled by the range of conditions they’re available in, from basket cases to concours, and from runners to death traps held together with body filler. A lot of sellers are taking advantage of the current craze for classics and patching up cars that really shouldn’t be on a forecourt, never mind the road. What a buyer should do is look at loads of them to compare prices and conditions and then, when they find what they think is a good one, pay around £150 to have it inspected.” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE Listen for the crank rumbling and timing chain chattering. Check for oil leaking from the rear main seal and from…

The base-spec version of the new BMW 3 Series must be the best in class to drive if the model is to be hailed a success, declared product manager Stephan Horn ahead of its world debut at the Paris show this week. Dynamic leadership was determined as the key goal for the new car – codenamed G20 and the successor to the F30 model generation – following appraisals taken from customers, media reviews and critical assessment of rivals, which began five years ago. “Our reputation is built on making the best car to drive, and while the current car is good, we knew we could do more and knew our rivals were pushing us hard,” said Horn. Although Horn was reluctant to talk about competitors, two new rival car launches are…

SKODA’S NEW KODIAQ vRS features the most powerful production diesel engine in the Czech firm’s history. The hot SUV, which will be offered with five or seven seats, has a 237bhp 2.0-litre twin-turbo diesel engine with 369lb ft at 1750-2500rpm. That’s sufficient to give a claimed 0-62mph time of seven seconds and a top speed of 137mph. The Kodiaq vRS is equipped with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, all-wheel drive and, for the first time in a Skoda, dynamic sound boost. It also features 20in alloy wheels, vRS logos and gloss black bodywork elements. Alcantara seats and Skoda’s Virtual Cockpit technology are fitted as standard. The Kodiaq vRS has lapped the Nürburgring in 9min 29.84sec, a lap record for a seven-seat SUV. Pricing has yet to be confirmed.…

SMART IS MARKING its 20th anniversary with an electric open-top two-seat concept car called the Forease. It’s based on the Smart EQ Fortwo cabrio and is intended as an “uncomplicated solution to urban mobility”. As well as the lack of a roof, the Forease is distinguished by a shorter windscreen and two ‘domes’ behind the seats for safety in the event of an accident. The car is finished in white with ‘Stream Green’ colour accents, which are also used to denote certain interior features. Because the car is permanently open to the elements, Smart has removed the air vents from the dashboard and replaced them with two extra digital displays. These can be used to show content from a related smartphone app. The EV powertrain is a nod to the…

When it comes to Tesla, attention is usually focused on its production struggles, the latest actions of company founder Elon Musk or, from a technology perspective, its pure-electric powertrains. But with the Model 3, the firm is also aiming to pioneer a new approach to chassis and suspension design. Tesla’s approach to designing those areas, which are crucial elements in defining a car’s character and desirability, didn’t follow usual automotive industry practice for volume car production. Autocar spoke exclusively with a number of Tesla engineers to gain an insight into that development process. Most manufacturers these days build major new models from a platform or architecture, but when it came to the design of the Model 3’s chassis and suspension, Tesla engineers stuck with a ‘first principles’ clean-sheet approach. The…

Neat detail No 1: when off-roading, you can see video images of each individual X5 wheel on the infotainment screen, as if you were outside. Neat detail No 2: a section of the middle row of seats will motor forward before tilting skywards, easing third-row access. Neat detail No 3: a button on the lower tailgate drops the entire rear end of the X5 by 40mm. Indeed, there are heaps of neat details on this car, but don’t let that mislead you into thinking that the core of this latest, fourth-generation X5 hasn’t changed too: almost everything is new, even the carry-over engines substantially reworked. According to project leader Johann Kistler, there were three broad goals. First, to offer a genuinely sporting drive, and to combine this with real comfort…

The Compass stays safe, stable and benign when driven to the limit of grip at Millbrook – and, given its remit, that’s all it really needs to do. That a Jaguar E-Pace or a BMW X1 would zip around with considerably more grip, pace and precision says more about their more road-biased dynamic briefs than any superiority in their dynamic execution. The Jeep’s fast initial rate of roll comes as a bit of a surprise when you commit it to a tight bend, but the body’s lateral movement is ultimately checked before it undermines the car’s handling stability or steering authority. The electronic stability control is well-matched to the grip level of the tyres, and quells understeer before it’s allowed to build too far. Leave it on and you can…

Ten years. That’s how long it’s been since the Ford Focus was Britain’s biggest-selling car over a full calendar year. That, to me at least, seems like ‘blink and you’ll miss a decade’ territory. It seems like just a moment ago that Ford so memorably imposed such a reassuring state of order on the UK car market, at least to road testers like me – one that lasted a full decade. The Blue Oval created a family hatchback that was a much better drive than anything else like it: the original 1998 Focus. Britain had some of the best roads in Europe on which to demonstrate its qualities. And, sure enough, Britons responded. The Focus became this country’s biggest-selling car. And still, even though for every calendar year since 2008…

“Much like the Porsche 911, the Merc S-Class has decent rivals but no true equivalents” FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the latest S-Class maintains the model’s luxury car superiority, and whether this S500 eclipses the old V8 Since 1972, we’ve known this one incontrovertible fact: if you want to know where the automobile is up to in terms of practical luxury and comfort, you’ll find the answer in the latest Mercedes-Benz S-Class. We’re not talking here about ‘bespokeness’. That’s usually a matter of richer-than-you owners attempting to one-up their peers. But if you want to investigate the latest and highest standards of mechanical refinement, big-car efficiency, seat and cabin comfort and driving ease brought by ever-more-ingenious gadgetry, the latest S-Class will provide you with the answers.…

QUESTION My husband and I put our faith in a new Range Rover a couple of years ago but it has been plagued by small electrical issues. We want to replace it with something similar. What do you recommend? Constance Sewell, via email ANSWER The Range Rover is a wonderful car but it is known for being a bit problematic. Our sister magazine What Car? recently published its reliability survey and, among large SUVs, the hugely competent BMW X5 scored very highly, with only 10% of cars developing a fault in the first three years. MP QUESTION My 17-year-old daughter wants to buy a new car. She liked the Vauxhall Corsa she passed her test in but wants a smaller car, like the Citroën C1. Is that a good option?…

SPIDER FOUND ON WEB Renault Sport Spider £28,995 All of us here at Autocar Towers admire the new Alpine A110, but some of us think its £50k-plus price is a little steep. Resorting to the used market for something as entertaining as the A110, but at half the price, brings us face to face with the ruthless Renault Sport Spider. Or wait: do we mean the roofless Renault Sport Spider? This magnificently open confection was one of the first vehicles to issue from the Renault Sport portals and was built in the Alpine factory in Dieppe. The Spider took its mid-mounted 148bhp 2.0-litre engine from the Clio Williams and, with just 920kg of car to propel, the performance was lively: think 0-60mph in 6.5sec and an eventual, and very windy,…

Okay, so we all know the Mondial isn’t the most popular Ferrari of all time – a reputation those who have driven one might consider a little unfair – but this one made a mere £19,000 at a recent auction and that’s about the least you’re going to pay for a roadworthy one in the UK. This one’s had quite a lot of work done, including an engine rebuild, full respray and fully restored cabin. It was even sold with a warrantied (and quite moderate) mileage of 78,000 and with a year’s MOT. The new owner will no doubt revel in that sweet V8, and he or she can even take the kids along for the ride. GET IT WHILE YOU CAN Audi A6 2.0 TDI Price new £33,925. Price…

Mercedes-Benz has claimed the new B-Class offers more dynamic handling and comfort than its predecessor, thanks to technology and features taken from the S-Class and A-Class. The third generation of the MPV, developed under the internal codename W247, is the fourth of up to eight new compact models to be launched by the company, following the fourth-generation A-Class hatch and saloon. The new B-Class retains the one-box silhouette of its predecessors but with a smoother form that reflects the firm’s latest design language. It also features the ‘predator face’ seen on the A-Class. The five-seat rival to BMW’s 2 Series Active Tourer is marginally longer (4359mm), wider (1786mm) and taller (1557mm) than its predecessor, with a wheelbase of 2929mm and a reduced drag coefficient of 0.24. The new B-Class has…

Skoda has set the stage for its forthcoming Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus rival with the Vision RS, a concept car that features a performance plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain. Under the sporty details and concept flourishes, the Vision RS is close to how next year’s Rapid hatchback will look. The fact that it has been previewed in vRS form, complete with 242bhp PHEV powertrain, shows how much further upmarket the new Rapid will go compared with the current value-led model. Skoda product marketing chief Björn Kroll said: “The current Rapid is too low market. For this one, we have tried to balance it out.” Skoda will drop the slow selling liftback version and concentrate on the Spaceback hatch for the new Rapid. The concept is 4356mm long, just over 50mm…

Renault has revealed the EZ-Ultimo, an electric powered, autonomous concept car designed as a luxury vehicle for short journeys. The company believes that the vehicle could be used by private individuals and by high end brands to transport clients between hotels and airports, for instance. It could also be used as an app-controlled ride-hailing vehicle. The EZ-Ultimo has a 310-mile range and features level four autonomy, which allows a car to drive itself in most scenarios. It seats up to three people and is 5.8 metres long, a similar length to Rolls-Royce’s Phantom. It is the third autonomous concept unveiled by Renault this year, with the firm aiming to show the variety of ways self-driving cars might be used by society. The six-seat EZ-Go, conceived as an urban vehicle for…

The Audi E-tron GT four-door electric sports car, due in 2020, will have a similar range to the new E-tron SUV but be “focused more towards power”, according to the firm’s powertrain boss. The E-tron SUV offers a 248-mile range measured on the new WLTP test and Siegfried Pint told Autocar the GT will achieve a similar range. But he added that the vehicle will be “steered towards performance”. In the most powerful boost mode, the E-tron has a claimed 0-60mph time of 5.5sec, with a top speed of 124mph. By comparison, the rival Tesla Model S P100D has a 0-62mph time of 4.3sec and a 155mph top speed. It is understood that Audi will endeavour to make the E-tron GT beat those figures. The E-tron GT, set to be…

Saying a new car is better than its predecessor is about as lazy as you can get because, if it weren’t, its maker would have had to have done something very wrong indeed. But the Ariel Atom 4 is noteworthy because it’s better to such a huge extent over the outgoing Atom 3.5 that it’s like buying a brand-new smartphone and, within 15 minutes, wondering how you ever coped with the one you’d had for years. It’s like weighing up the relative merits of a Ferrari 488 GTB versus not just a 458 Italia but perhaps even an F430. It’s a seismic shift for the car from Somerset. And feels easily as rapid as a 488 GTB too. Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising given that the Atom 4 represents the…

Right, let’s be clear about this: the SUV you see here is the Cupra Ateca and not, you must understand, the Seat Ateca Cupra. That might seem like a trifling point, but knowing the difference between Cupra as a Seat performance badge and Cupra as a Seat sub-brand is key to understanding the aims of this definitely-not-a-Seat-Ateca. While Cupra-badged Seat models were all about performance, the Cupra sub-brand has a slightly different brief, mixing performance with ‘uniqueness and sophistication’, according to company chiefs. The idea is that Cupra-branded models will appeal to a slightly more affluent customer base that won’t baulk at a higher sticker price. That’s why the first Cupra model is an Ateca and not, say, a Cupra Ibiza. Seat believes there are bigger profit margins to be…

A really strong contender in Europe’s burgeoning compact SUV segment could do wonders right now both for the Jeep brand and its FCA parent. But, while we don’t doubt that the Compass will bring a dose of growth, it’s unlikely to feature at the very top of the class’s sales chart on merit. While it’s rare for SUVs of this size to offer the most spacious of cabins, the Compass’s practicality is average at best. It has a torquey but gruff diesel engine that performs well enough in a qualified sort of way and ride and handling that’s passable but conspicuous by its lack of a premium-brand dynamic finish. When you look at the stated capabilities as an off-roader (strong but not outstanding), there’s also perhaps one less reason to…

“The A110 seems to levitate down the road with barely any conscious thought or effort” It was January 1973. Sideburns were big, shirts were tight, cigarettes were sexy and motorsport was ballsier than a team-sports convention in a soft play area. Sure, the UK was still suffering from the extreme trauma of having Little Jimmy Osmond’s Long Haired Lover from Liverpool at number one for almost a month, but we had things to look forward to. David Bowie would release Life on Mars as a single, Jackie Stewart would win his third Formula 1 championship and rallying’s pinnacle series would become known as the WRC for the first time. The inaugural FIA World Rally Championship was the making of Alpine-Renault and its strikingly beautiful A110. Of the top 10 cars…

Although many drivers share the frustration of witnessing often dangerous transgressions caught on their dashcams yet don’t see such cases pursued by the police, they might consider the reality of how such a system might develop. In some Chinese cities, people can submit videos of motoring offences for prosecution and get a cash reward. This has resulted in people driving around slowly in a way that forces other motorists to commit minor violations such as crossing a solid white line to pass them: the slow driver submits images of the offence and collects a £5 reward while the other driver pays a £380 fine. I think we can all see that local councils would happily embrace such a system in the UK. Don Trower Braintree WIN Letter of the week…

MILEAGE 9921 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover whether this sharply styled crossover is Toyota’s most appealing petrol-electric hybrid yet Watch a selection of TV ads for crossovers and SUVs and you’ll be left in no doubt that the protagonists live their lives at the limit, turning each and every car journey into a thrilling, emotionally charged adventure. In the minds of the marketeers, it seems, your average family car owner spends any spare waking moment engaging in all-action pursuits, when in reality, of course, most owners’ lives revolve around negotiating the vast steppes of the supermarket car park rather than the Serengeti. Occasionally, though, the opportunity arises to really put a car to the test by using it in the manner the ads insist is possible, which is why…

I’m currently trying to talk to someone sensible about the Baby Shark’s starting issues, as it is getting very boring to start. While I do that, here’s a picture of the radio I don’t like. It weighs almost nothing and the reception is awful but, in my neck of the woods, there isn’t much worth listening to anyway. The fact is that it tells the time and wastes battery when I have a perfectly good 1979 quartz clock. Worst of all is the aerial, sold to me as an invisible wire that looks like a rogue windscreen wiper. Least of my worries.…

“A Laycock overdrive on third and fourth gear was an option and is sought after today” Classic cars don’t come much less classic than the plentiful, ugly (at least with rubber bumpers) and slow MG B roadster and GT hatchback. At least that’s the view of those whose key cabinets resemble jewellery boxes. To the rest of us, the little B is a great first base; an affordable plug-and-points route to club drives and weekend tinkering. Actually, it’s not so affordable if you’re contemplating a nice, rust-free, wire-wheeled and chrome-bumpered roadster. You’ll need at least £10,000 for one of these, and the best tip £20,000. However, swallow your pride and you can get into a later rubber-bumper example in good nick for around £7000. Heavier and higher, these cars –…