Innholdsfortegnelse for December 27, 2018 i Autocar

IN THE PAST couple of decades, Audi has become a great car maker, but not a maker of great cars. Audi’s expansion as a huge, global player with a diverse range of models began with the A3 of 1996 – but, first-gen TT aside, for most enthusiasts the very best Audis were already behind it at that point. At last, Audi now appears to be doing something different. “High-tech throwback is a timely reminder of what Audi does best” is what we said of recent road test subject the A6 Avant, which provides a back-to-the-future blueprint for how more mainstream Audis can truly be different to their peers and shake their corporate edge and samey feel. Now Audi has gone further, and created the E-tron GT concept, which we get…

The DS X E-Tense concept car, unveiled earlier this year, is the French firm’s vision of what motoring will look like in 2035 – with DS design chief Thierry Metroz calling it a direct response to “boring” concepts from other firms. He was speaking after Autocar had been given the chance to drive the X E-Tense on public roads in France. The three-seat concept, built largely on the running gear of a DS Formula E car, features a highly unusual asymmetric design, which was inspired by a sidecar motorcycle. It features an open-top driver’s seat that echoes a single-seater cockpit combined with a spacious covered passenger pod designed for relaxation. Powered by two Formula E electric motors that combine to make 536bhp – and 1341bhp in circuit mode – the…

What are your plans for the UK market? “We’re looking to do a lot more business in the UK. It’s clearly a market that has some real excitement for Shelby: it has embraced the Mustang Bullitt, which shows that the market for speciality V8 Mustangs there is very strong.” How would you characterise a modern Shelby vehicle? “It’s about balanced performance – a good blend of straight-line [speed], handling and braking. Since the 2007 Mustang Super Snake, we’ve created a look and feel for all the vehicles through the signature front fascia, bonnet, wheels and stripe. When you see one from 50 yards away, you know it’s a Shelby. There are a lot of people out there doing things to Mustangs – Roush, Saleen and others – but we want…

The final UK 2018 new car registration figure is expected to be 2.4 million at best, a 5.5% drop on 2017 and a fall of 10.9% from the 2016 peak of just under 2.7 million. The hope is the market will now stabilise at around 2.3 million – but much will depend on Brexit. For now, here’s the good and bad news of 2018. ALFA ROMEO ↓ 2017 market share: 0.20% 2018 market share: 0.18% Alfa Romeo is in the Last Chance Saloon but, unfortunately, the Stelvio appears to have passed out on the floor. Sales only just exceeded 1000 units this year – about 10% of what the Jaguar F-Pace achieves. ASTON MARTIN 2017 market share: 0.06% 2018 market share: 0.06% Now Britain’s only publicly listed car company, Aston…

The E-tron GT shares its ‘J1’ platform with the upcoming Porsche Taycan, with similar claimed specs. Synchronous electric motors, mounted on each axle for four-wheel drive, produce 582bhp and a torque figure estimated to be around 600lb ft. While the headline performance figures are strong, engineers tell us the focus is on “easily repeatable performance”, not one dazzling acceleration run – a traditional foible of high-output EVs as the motors heat up and the batteries deplete. The 96kWh battery pack spread across the floor can be topped up from empty to 80% in 20 minutes thanks to Audi’s first 800V electrical system. Engineers tell us the floor has also been designed to be easily adapted for wireless inductive charging, which Audi hopes to offer to customers as a home installation…

MODEL TESTED VAUXHALL COMBO LIFE ENERGY 1.5 TURBO D 100 Price £21,540 • Power 99bhp • Torque 184lb ft • 0-60mph 14.7sec • 30-70mph in fourth 19.9sec • Fuel economy 45.0mpg • CO2 emissions 111g/km • 70-0mph 46.5m Vauxhall was quick to profit from the sudden popularity, two decades ago, of the compact people-mover. Earlier this year, however, we learned that the once-popular Zafira MPV wouldn’t reach its twentieth birthday. In a mood to rationalise under the auspices of its PSA Group ownership, Opel/Vauxhall decided not just to decline to replace the Zafira Tourer but also to idle the production lines and remove the car from sale altogether. If you’re wondering how that could make business sense, consider that PSA currently has to pay a licence fee to former brand owner…

Now that it’s all done and dusted, what will you remember most about motoring in 2018? Perhaps an epic road trip stands out. How about driving a new Ford Focus nearly 600 miles in a day, along Britain’s very best driving roads? Or taking a Bentley Continental GT through 15 countries in 24 hours? What about covering the length of America’s Route 66 in an Acura NSX supercar? Welcome to road trip central: we’ve done all of these and more this year. Now, in case you missed any of them in print during the course of a busy year, we’ve reprised some highlights from each over the next 23 pages as part of our annual Road Test Year Book. If your personal motoring highlight was simply a drive in something…

Having a twinkle in my eye for the first-generation Audi R8, I was interested in the Volkswagen Golf R comparison piece (‘Price match promise’, 5 December). My car shares the R8’s V8 engine, and it’s worth pointing out that the standard engine mapping does not give full throttle in the first three gears – a fact not widely publicised when it was new. There are reputable companies out there that can remap. Without mechanically modifying the engine, it is possible to liberate a little more power and a noticeable chunk of extra (and highly usable) torque, and allow full throttle in any gear. Not only does this make the car noticeably faster, but the greater flow through induction and exhaust liberates the engine’s voice too. Add that to the R8’s…

MILEAGE 3973 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if this quirkiest of compact crossovers has anything more to offer than its head-turning styling Three months after it first arrived, the C3 Aircross has changed my morning routine – although not exactly for the better. I already set my weekday alarm for an ungodly hour in order to beat London’s inevitable congestion, but now that the cold weather has well and truly rolled in, I’m having to factor in another 15 minutes to get the Citroën’s frosty cabin up to a manageable temperature. Even with the heating cranked to full, I sit shivering for a lot longer than I’d like. It doesn’t help that the infotainment touchscreen is the only way to adjust the heating once you have thawed out. A…

The Flying Pig has a fresh set of Falken tyres, but getting them fitted to the alloys proved to be something of a challenge. It was a matter of some urgency and my local garage would normally have had the job but they were short staffed, so I shopped around. The usual fast-fit suspects were pretty sniffy about it and said it was more than their jobs were worth if they hadn’t supplied the tyres. Tyre Pros, a sub-division of STS tyres, could not have been more welcoming. The Cayenne wouldn’t fit on their ramp, but they swapped all four in just over an hour at a reasonable £14.99 a corner.…

Most modern classics need a wealth warning but it’s fair to say the value of a sound Peugeot 205 GTi 1.6 or 1.9 is only going one way, and it isn’t down. For now at least, starting prices for clean runners have settled at around £4000 (we found a tidy 1989 1.6 with 113,000 miles, new parts and a long MOT for £4k). From here they go all the way to £43,000 for a one-owner, 1991 1.6 with 17,000 miles. In 2017 everyone was in a tizz about a 1989 1.9 with 5726 miles that fetched £38,480 at auction. The year before, the record was £31,000. You see our point? Fortunately around £5000 to £8000 should be enough for a solid GTi, while £12,000 to £15,000 buys a good, low-mileage…

“Power should push 700bhp, nearly double the i8’s 369bhp and exceeding next year’s M8” BMW is actively considering introducing a flagship “super-sports car” to its line-up. The McLaren 570S-baiting package would bring together the brand’s advancements in electrification, light-weighting and new materials. The i8 is currently BMW’s principal electrified sports car, with the new 8 Series becoming the more traditional flagship GT. Autocar understands a direct replacement for the i8 is unlikely, although BMW has yet to confirm this publicly. A new super-sports car would take inspiration from the i8 and could serve as an indirect replacement. However, it would have a higher price point and more power, and sit at the top of the M performance division. Klaus Fröhlich, the BMW board member responsible for product development, hinted that…

MCLAREN HAS REVEALED its new 720S Spider, which, it claims, is the lightest of any open-top supercar on sale. The Spider, which weighs just 49kg more than the 720S Coupé, at 1332kg, is 88kg lighter than the Ferrari 488 Spider. It uses the same 710bhp 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine as the fixed-head 720S for an identical 0-62mph time of 2.9sec, and it manages 202mph with the roof down and 212mph with it up. The retractable hard-top roof panel is made from a single piece of carbonfibre and can be raised and lowered in 11 sec at vehicle speeds of up to 31mph. The 720S Spider is priced from £237,000.…

The Porsche Macan was launched in 2014 and recorded its best year of sales yet in 2017. With upwards of 97,000 of these entry-level five-doors finding homes across the globe in those 12 months alone – an outright record for any Porsche model – demand for the Macan is showing little sign of slowing down. By the end of this year Porsche expects close to 400,000 to have found homes over the past five years. Given that the Macan was still proving to be such an unqualified hit among compact SUV buyers, we shouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that this mid-life facelift amounts to little more than a cosmetically tweaked front end with LED lights, plus a restyled rear that now incorporates a full-width light bar – a…

The Combo Life remained creditably stable and controlled at the limit of grip on the Millbrook Hill Route, remaining well governed by its electronics and benign enough thanks to Vauxhall/Opel’s realistic suspension tuning. A degree of body roll that seldom seems bothersome on the road is more of a factor here, gathering as it does to allow the car to lean to quite pronounced angles and begin to undermine its grip levels, although only at the front. The ESP system is always on above about 20mph and helps keep a lid on the speed you can carry into and through corners – which seems wise. The electronics are busier when a mid-corner bump puts a vertical input into an already laterally loaded chassis, which is when the car can be…

ENGINE Ferrari 488 Pista McLaren Senna’s 4.0-litre turbo V8? Aston Martin DBS Superleggera’s 5.2-litre V12, maybe? Nope. Both get absolutely bludgeoned by the breathtaking 3.9-litre V8 of the Ferrari 488 Pista. So absurdly potent-feeling you’ll swear that 710bhp must be a very conservative estimate indeed. Also has torque, response and operating range to die for. MS EXHAUST NOTE Ferrari 812 Superfast A close call between the most potent road-going atmospheric V12 Ferrari has ever made and the wailing V10 in the Lamborghini Huracán Performante Spider. The former just about gets our vote: 6.5 litres and 8900rpm of rich, noble and razor-sharp aural delectation. RL SEATS Bentley Continental GT Bullhide of the finest quality? Check. 20-way electronic adjustability? Present. Heating and cooling, with massage function? You’d better know it. The Conti…

MILEAGE 11,444 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover if Vauxhall’s flagship offers an unbeatable mix of practicality, value and executive comfort in estate form I am not saying all photographers are liars, but in order to capture some of the more magical shots that grace these pages, our nomadic tribe of staff snappers sometimes deploy a dollop of deception. It’s not just a case of Photoshopping out a tripod stuck to the bonnet of a car; sometimes the car is being pushed at walking pace while appearing to break speed limits, or an entire location can be changed by stripping a new background into a shot. Mountains can be uprooted and even the sun removed and put somewhere else. One of their favourite tricks, though, is tracking, or car-to-car to…

Bangernomist Anthony Griffith has a Vauxhall Vectra. “It’s a 2001 2.2CD auto bought for £1250 in 2012 with just 27k miles. It’s only on 68,000 now, but over the past seven years has taken my wife and I to Wales, the north of Scotland, Gibraltar and Austria, never missing a beat. It’s still a delight to drive. I cycled from Buckinghamshire to Leicester to collect the car, 100 miles on a miserable January day, so I was mightily relieved to see the car was as good as described. I paid up, put my bike in the boot and drove home. SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com AND READERS' QUESTIONS TO autocar@haymarket.com…

An expert’s view MARTIN THOMPSON, PEUGEOT RACING DEVELOPMENTS “I got my first 205 GTi at 19 and was hooked. I’m 37 now and I’ve owned 20. Part of its secret is its lightness. It’ll fold up in a crash, but keep out of trouble and it’s a blast. I’d have a 1.9 over the 1.6 for its power and torque. It’s got slightly longer gearing so is a better motorway car, too, but the 1.6 is great on back roads. A popular upgrade is to fit a 16v Mi16 engine from the Peugeot 405. I’ve fitted two Peugeot 3.0 V6s to one of mine: one at the front, one at the back.” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE Check exhaust manifold for cracks. Poor idle suggests a failed airflow meter. Check coolant…

Our used buyer’s guide star (see p74) is always popping up in the classifieds and at auctions. This 1990 example is due in the ring soon, and it’s estimated to make between £5000 and £7000. Not top money by any stretch but then it has done 136,000 miles, has part-service history and is in average condition. On the upside it’s just been through the workshop, where it was given a new head gasket, water pump, cambelt and radiator. It has leather and a sliding sunroof. As a comparison, one dealer is advertising a 1991 1.9 GTi with 145,000 miles in ‘fantastic’ condition for £8995.…

For an electric concept car, the X E-Tense is a visceral experience for its driver. That’s largely down to the open-top cockpit, which ensures that you feel the elements and hear the surprisingly loud whine from the two Formula-E-derived motors. The concept didn’t seem to have the full power promised by the drivetrain, but it still had plenty of pace for a one-off prototype. At 50mph, when the bracingly cold French wind really starts to bite, the comfortable, cocooned passenger compartment begins to feel very tempting. But then you reach some flowing corners and the X E-Tense’s focused driving position, stiff ride and firm steering draw you in. It feels like you’re driving a single-seater – unsurprising, given the concept is effectively built on the platform of one – which…

Porsche has outlined how it has future-proofed the new eighth-generation 911 by enabling it to support both mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid drivetrains. Following the launch of the car at the Los Angeles motor show, Porsche has revealed more technical details about the 992-series model. “We wanted to make it sportier, but also more usable in day-to-day life,” said R&D boss Michael Steiner. The 992-series 911 will be offered initially with a familiar range of turbocharged flat six petrol engines, with a 3.0-litre capacity in the first-to-launch Carrera S and 4S. But Porsche’s sports car development boss, August Achleitner, said work on a hybrid version – which can run purely on electric power for short distances – is progressing. “We’ve taken the experience we gained with hybrid versions of the Cayenne…

BMW WILL EXTEND the 8 Series range with a four-door Gran Coupé version, shown above with minimal disguise. The model, aimed at cars such as the Porsche Panamera, takes over the market position occupied by the old 6 Series Gran Coupé. The Gran Coupé will have the same underpinnings and mechanicals as the two-door, with a 316bhp 840d diesel entry point and the 532bhp M850i xDrive available from launch. A flagship M8 with over 600bhp is also expected not long after the standard car is launched next autumn.…

Driving a one-off concept car is, unfortunately, often less glamorous and exciting than you’d think. Time behind the wheel can be very restricted, sometimes to a couple of hundred yards in a straight line or two laps of a car park at 10mph. You’re surrounded by minders who are understandably nervous at the thought of a careless buffoon climbing behind the wheel and wrecking a near-priceless piece of their brand’s design history, while a hint of rain always stops play. There are rare exceptions, however, and our time driving Audi’s new E-tron GT was one of them. After last month’s Los Angeles motor show, where the E-tron GT made its debut, Audi pulled the concept, claimed to be worth €5 million (£4.5m), out onto the streets and gave a select…

You would think an F-Type and the XF Sportbrake share few major mechanicals but you’d be wrong. Along with a subtle refresh for its especially handsome estate, Jaguar has now equipped the car with the same 296bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine designed to make the sports car a better Porsche 718 Cayman/Boxster rival. The resulting car has four-wheel drive, a vast carrying capacity of 1700 litres and the ability to crack 60mph in less than six seconds. Priced from just under £45,000, the XF Sportbrake 300 R-Sport is also less expensive than its closest premium-grade rivals – the marginally quicker BMW 540i Touring xDrive (£51,475) and more economical diesel Audi A6 Avant 50 TDI (£49,525) – although it does make do with two fewer cylinders. Next to the Germans, the…

Here is a timely reminder that large and expensive SUVs can be beaten as practical family transport by something that need not cost more than a five-door hatch, or be poorly equipped, or feel particularly ‘commercial’ to drive. For outright versatility, carrying space and ease of use, cars like this always deliver more than expected of them, but there will always be those for whom the associated image remains an intolerable turn-off. Even next to its PSA sister products the Combo Life holds little aesthetic appeal and likely won’t do much to popularise the niche. As an affordable means of transporting a lot of people, a lot equipment, or a fair amount of both with little fuss or bother, however, the Vauxhall does okay. Limited performance and questionable body control…

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 14,870 WHY WE RAN To discover whether this sharply styled crossover is Toyota’s most appealing petrol-electric hybrid yet I live in London, so my view of Toyota hybrids has been coloured by dealing with the armada of private-hire Priuses seen on the streets of the capital. Thankfully, the Toyota C-HR is a little bit different. The C-HR is a quirky crossover with deliberately different styling. Last year the hybrid version was Toyota’s second best-selling petrol-electric model, behind the Yaris. Our now-departed executive editor, Matt Burt, initially ran the C-HR, and it rarely sent him into one of his trademark Cornish rages. That gave me an idea: I’d been running our Ford Fiesta long-termer but found the boot a bit small for my photographic kit (it’s a cliché…

QUESTION I just read the item on the real range of 10 EVs. How would a 900kg caravan affect the range? I think towing with one is a dead duck. R Lidster, by email ANSWER Given that an electric car produces maximum torque from virtually zero revs and has a high kerb weight, you could argue they would make excellent tow cars. In fact, a Tesla Model X P100D set a new record when it hauled a Boeing Dreamliner down a runway. But as for range, it’s easy to imagine an EV would quickly run out of juice. In any case, with the exception of EVs such as the Model X, few electric cars have been type-approved to tow. JE QUESTION Help! I’m thinking of buying a new Suzuki SX4…

Jaguar S-Type R £7695 With its mesh grille, discreet ‘R’ badging and smart alloys with silver brake calipers, the S-Type R is surely a gangster’s dream. It looks best in black but we’ll take grey if it means having this great-looking 2005 example with full Jaguar service history and a decent 88,000 miles on the clock, which shows it hasn’t been sitting around gathering dust and seizing up. Powered by a supercharged 4.2 V8 producing 395bhp and 399lb ft and driving the rear wheels through a tough ZF six-speed automatic gearbox, the R does 0-62mph in 5.5sec on the way to a limited top speed of 155mph. It needs careful buying, of course. Our find looks kosher, but even so, you’d want to make sure it’s had its plug and…

Bentley GTC V8 S Price new £164,800, price now £139,950 News of next year’s all-new GTC V8 (there’ll be a V12, too) means time is running out to grab a nearly new run-out model and save yourself a bob or two. We spied a one-owner, 2018-reg GTC V8 S Mulliner with 1000 miles for £139,950. Shame it’s in wedding white, though. So how about this alternative: a fully loaded 2018/18 example with, would you believe it, a matching 18 miles on the clock, in regal blue for £147,495? Surely an Autocar reader of your means won't miss the extra few thou’.…