Innholdsfortegnelse for January 30, 2019 i Autocar

MINI HAS ALWAYS been one of the most innovative car makers. The car that became a brand has spawned an extraordinarily diverse range of body styles and models in its 60-year history – some better received than others, but all of which we celebrate this week (page 52). That versatility means Mini is ideally placed to reap, explore and get creative with the advantages of electric propulsion. Many of those – the fun dynamics, performance and packaging benefits – all fit perfectly within the brand’s ethos. Mini was, in fact, one of the very first brands to adopt electrification with its 2009 E research prototype. Surprisingly, Mini is only now following it up with a production car this year, an electric version of the three-door Cooper S. Perhaps it’s another…

Volkswagen is readying a new eighth-generation Golf for an expected official debut later this year, but a barely disguised prototype has revealed the new hatchback’s design early. A prototype for the Ford Focus rival, stripped of the extensive camouflage you would expect of a model so early in its launch schedule, was snapped in a McDonald’s drive-through and posted onto Instagram by a Volkswagen enthusiast. The car in these images tallies with last year’s official preview sketch and Autocar’s previous renderings, with an evolutionary design approach for the firm’s range mainstay. It takes some inspiration from the Polo, particularly with the clamshell-style bonnet and lowered headlight position. The rear features the flowing, angled C-pillar previewed in an earlier official sketch, too, while the roofline appears to be lower than today’s…

BMW’S NEW ELECTRIC four-door coupé – a Tesla Model 3 rival thought to be called i4 – has been seen in prototype form for the first time. Due for a 2020 reveal, the i4 is one of up to five new dedicated i models expected to arrive by the end of 2021. They also include a further developed i3 and the iX3 SUV. Sources suggest the i4 will be based on a modified platform from the new, second-generation 4 Series and that appears to be given weight by this new prototype. A clear visual link between this and the new 3 Series (and therefore the 4 Series Gran Coupé) can be seen. Tell-tale signs that this car is a pure EV include ‘fake exhausts’ in the disguise, a blanked-off grille…

ROLLS-ROYCE IS preparing the next generation of its Ghost luxury saloon, and new spy images show the model’s design for the first time. The current Ghost has been on sale since 2010. The new car is expected to be revealed within a year as the next launch priority. The images, revealing an evolutionary look for the Bentley Flying Spur rival, show that the Ghost’s development is taking place in Germany. However, the model is still expected to be manufactured in the UK. The new Ghost will move from steel to an aluminium intensive architecture, like the Phantom, which should mean a small weight saving. While the BMW-sourced twin-turbo 6.6-litre V12 is expected to remain, it is unclear if the Ghost will be offered with the same four-wheel-drive system as the…

THE FIRST SPY images of Morgan’s all-new sports car have emerged. The as yet unnamed model will mark the Malvern maker’s 110-year anniversary when it is launched later this year. Known internally as the ‘Wide Body’, it will use an all-new bonded aluminium platform and a powertrain never seen before in a Morgan. The new car will mark the beginning of a new era by dispensing with a V8 engine, insiders suggesting it will make use of a downsized, forced-induction six-cylinder engine developed for an upcoming flagship model, due next year. While that may upset some purists, it’s clear this Morgan won’t feature radically altered styling, instead continuing with the familiar retro design theme that the brand’s models have championed for decades. Morgan will move to a new throwback era…

TESTED 24.1.19, ABERDEENSHIRE ON SALE NOW PRICE £35,580 Eight weeks after we first drove it in Spain, the least expensive AMG ever arrives in the UK for closer examination. It is the A35: a four-wheel-drive hot hatch with 302bhp from a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine and a cabin whose opulence most rivals can only dream of. There are only two bona fide rivals for this new Mercedes and they are the Volkswagen Golf R and its corporate Audi cousin, the S3. This is an interesting pair because, if the expensive A35 can closely match the dynamic breadth of the former and couple it with the latter’s outright sophistication, it will stand a good chance of topping this versatile corner of the class. A straight head-to-head with the VW is coming soon…

Ever fancied yourself as a racing driver? Your moment may have arrived, as a result of comprehensive rebranding and repurposing moves inside the UK’s governing body for motorsport, the former Motor Sport Association, recently renamed Motorsport UK. The organisation, currently based near Heathrow but soon to move to a “more appropriate” location, has begun planning and implementing initiatives designed to improve grassroots motorsport of all kinds, with special emphasis on simplifying rules and improving finances. The changes aren’t going to turn you into Lewis Hamilton, but are aimed at encouraging new arrivals to participate at the “fun” levels of the sport, as well as making it more enjoyable for current competitors. They are a result of the arrival a year ago of Prodrive boss David Richards as MSA chairman and…

For ‘non-petrolheads’, the idea of a motor car being used as rehabilitation therapy is far from reality. But not for me. I have enjoyed driving and tinkering with old cars from my early teenage years. It has never er failed to bring me happiness, even at the age of 70 and a recent diagnosis of incurable blood cancer. Looking at, and driving, my 2006 Jaguar X350 brings a unique ‘edge’ to my complex mix of chemo drugs. I adore being cosseted by its quality wood/leather and the delightful aroma they bring, while the rhythmic thrum of the silky V8 rarely runs much above tick-over at our legal limits! Jag aficionados adore the lines of the X350 and I just love to take it in, as a form of visual stimulus…

MILEAGE 5111 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the XC40 has the substance in daily use to match its eye-catching style and if its showroom success is justified If you think that our longterm XC40 is looking distinctively different, you’d be right. Our time is up with the red T4 AWD R-Design Pro, the top-trim XC40 and second most expensive petrol in the range, with prices starting from £35,250. In its place is an XC40 at the other end of the spectrum, the D3 Momentum Pro – one trim level up from the bottom – with front-wheel drive and a 2.0-litre diesel engine. This one starts from £30,300 but with automatic transmission, like ours, costs £31,850. It has plenty of extras, as did our T4, so the gap is…

MILEAGE 101,000 PORSCHE CAYENNE After some searching around, I came across a seller with a second-hand offside foglight lens, to replace my broken one, at £29.99, including postage. So I paid up and waited for the post. It was a slight pain to fit because there was a lot of bodywork to take off for access. My daughter helped as she can get hands where I can’t. We wanted to avoid a total deconstruction and it was possible to pull out the plastic bumper lip and dive in after releasing screws underneath the wheel arch but it was still a challenge. It was dark when I finished – a good time to test it……

It’s ugly, underpowered and uncomfortable but could the old Suzuki Jimny be Britain’s best used car? It certainly ticks many of the important boxes. Since it was launched 21 years ago, in 1998, this generation’s design barely changed until it went off sale last year. Today even an old £1500 example looks like a more expensive, later model. It’s so reliable that one dealer has stopped selling anything else and devoted himself to it, saving, he says, a fortune in workshop bills. It loses little money as the high prices of late-plate versions prove (at least until the new model establishes itself and used ones become available) and it costs peanuts to run. Finally, if off-roading is important to you, thanks to its light weight, short entry and departure angles,…

Jaguar Land Rover bosses are facing a decision on how to replace the Jaguar XE and XF models, which are currently selling in very small numbers and were outsold by the electric I-Pace in November last year. Autocar understands the company is focusing on how it should regroup and steady itself after a tumultuous 2018, with a review of Jaguar’s future product plans at the top of the list. While facelift versions of the cars are just months from the showroom, it is believed that company planners are now working on a strategy for the launch of new replacements for early 2023. Sources say that JLR is starting with a blank sheet of paper for the project. The options include the XE and XF being merged into a single model,…

Ginetta, the Leeds-based sports and race car constructor, will shock the supercar world this spring with the launch of a sophisticated, 200mph-plus supercar designed to catapult it into the high-performance road car arena currently occupied by Ferrari, Aston Martin and McLaren. The company, owned by Le Mans GT2 class winner Lawrence Tomlinson and well known for launching and backing a successful ‘own brand’ UK sports car racing series, is likely to have its new supercar ready to make a ‘wild card’ entry at the Geneva motor show in March. Tomlinson plans to use the new Ginetta project to support his promising LMP1 Le Mans racing project, begun last year, and to showcase Ginetta’s substantial in-house technical capabilities. In recent years, the company has installed autoclaves and CNC machining capability and…

PEUGEOT WILL FOLLOW up the imminent launch of its new 208 supermini with a new 2008 crossover, due to be revealed in the autumn. The first spy images of it have emerged, showing a prototype in disguise with a design heavily inspired by that of its larger sibling, the 3008. The prototype appears to be longer, wider and lower than today’s 2008 and it will sit on the flexible CMP platform, allowing petrol, diesel and fully electric versions from launch.…

TESTED 21.1.19, BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT ON SALE NOW PRICE £206,000 The Lamborghini Huracán Evo is less a mid-life facelift and more a comprehensive re-engineering exercise. It is Lamborghini’s attempt at bridging the gap between the underwhelming original Huracán and the brilliant, but far more expensive, Huracán Performante. This new model doesn’t have the weight saving measures of the Performante, nor its aerodynamic downforce, but it does have the same uprated V10 engine and a raft of new chassis technologies. Introduced for the first time are rear-wheel steering and torque vectoring, and those new systems – along with the existing dynamic steering, magnetic dampers, stability control and the powertrain – are all integrated into one central brain, called Lamborghini Dinamica Veicolo Integrata (LDVI). The idea is that the various systems work…

MODEL TESTED 2.0 TDI 150 Price £31,275 Power 148bhp Torque 251lb ft 0 - 60mph 8.9sec 30-70mph in fourth 12.9sec Fuel economy 38.0mpg CO2 emissions 134g/km 70 - 0mph 47.9m (damp) Since 2007, global demand for Czech automobiles whose snouts carry an abstract badge portraying a Native American warrior (Skodas, if you hadn’t guessed) has doubled, to roughly 1.2 million. That statistic doesn’t get any less extraordinary the more you think about it, and yet it should be even greater. Only recently, the proportion of sales accounted for by Skoda’s sports utility vehicles was half the European average. With just a solitary contender – the mid-size Kodiaq – in this zeitgeist market sector, that’s hardly a surprise, and yet it is perplexing that a strategy-savvy brand built on utilitarian principles should…

You only need to drive a Jaguar I-Pace a few hundred metres down a city street to know that Britain’s first electric luxury car continues to generate huge interest. Onlookers’ eyes sweep approvingly over its rising and falling flanks as you glide along. Stop anywhere and you’ll soon be part of an enthusiastic “what’s it like” conversation that at times can build a small crowd. It’s clear the I-Pace has filled enough news pages and TV screens to command near-instant recognition from those with the vaguest interest in cars. Can’t afford one, most people say, but I’m glad they’re doing it. Which makes the I-Pace much more important than simply being the early adopter’s luxury car of choice. It’s helping sell people on the enormous changes coming to every corner…

COMPARISON Porsche Macan vs Jaguar E-Pace New German model takes on Jag’s latest E-Pace to see who makes the best driver’s SUV INVESTIGATION The future of the car Our in-depth guide to the tech that is – and isn’t – on its way FEATURE Cars that got there first Think you remember the world’s first hot hatch, SUV and others? EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Lexus ES Toyota’s luxury arm takes on the German giants again. Has it worked? USED BUYING GUIDE Audi RS5 Super-coupé had a stonking 4.2-litre V8 and impressive handling too LONG-TERM TEST Alpina B3 Latest take on the 3 Series is fast and fun, but is it good to live with? SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p22…

MILEAGE 5579 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if there’s a truly engaging hot hatch hiding under the prim and proper facade of VW’s quick supermini The clearest indication of Volkswagen’s desire to make this latest Polo GTI a true little brother to the Golf GTI can be found under the bonnet. As mentioned previously, for the first time in a Polo, you’ll find a version of the Volkswagen Group’s EA888 engine, and a rather good job of providing the hot hatch with plenty of power and torque it does. Of course, packing a punch of extra performance comes at a cost and, in the case of the Polo, one place that cost shows up (quite literally) is in fuel economy. Granted, how far a car can stretch a…

John Salmon has given us an update on his V6 Bora 4Motion, bought in 2001 as an ex-dealer demonstrator with 10,000 on the clock and now up to 183,000 miles. He says: “It is difficult to think what more I might want for everyday transport. It is comfortable, it’ll take four adults and luggage for a week away, it is quick enough to enjoy and it has proved broadly reliable. “More modern engines provide better economy but I regularly get over 30mpg on a run, which I do not think is too bad for a 2.8-litre engine.”…

An expert’s view WILL CHAPPELL, DIRECTOR, COTSWOLD JIMNYS “We started the business 32 years ago selling all sorts of 4x4s but changed exclusively to Jimnys seven years ago when we realised they were the only model that didn’t cost us anything in the workshop. We’ve since sold upwards of 700. Unless they come in as a part-exchange, we don’t touch the soft-top because the quality is terrible. Otherwise, at all years, a Jimny is very reliable and cheap to run. Just make sure you rustproof the chassis.” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE The early 1.3 uses a belt that should be changed at 70,000 miles. The engine works hard so listen for camshaft noise and check around the filler for water and oil emulsion, a clear sign of head gasket failure.…

Looks like cuts have extended to the plod’s patrol cars, with this unmarked Mustang being a 2.3 Ecoboost rather than the full-fat 5.0-litre. Still, it must have been fun with the Bullitt theme blasting out and pulling over youths in saggy STs. Cop cars have a hard life but, unless savings have hit repairs and servicing, want for little. This one’s a 2015 car with an auction guide price of £19,950 – a few thou less than average, at least for pukka right-hand-drive ones. For other ex-police bargains, try West Oxfordshire Motor Auctions, which holds sales twice a month.…

“In 2020, it’ll become Renault’s first hybrid, with an 89bhp petrol engine mated to a 40bhp electric motor” Renault has shown pictures of the new fifth-generation Clio supermini ahead of the model’s official unveiling at the Geneva motor show in March. The new Clio is smaller outside yet bigger inside, with a lighter body, and Renault says it has been developed along three lines: evolutionary exterior design, revolutionary interior design and innovative technology. Across its four previous generations, the Clio has become Renault’s best-selling model. Unusually, the Clio 4 increased its sales every year from 2012 to 2018 to become the second-best-selling car in Europe, largely thanks, Renault thinks, to its design. “The top reason buyers give for choosing the Clio is always design,” said Vincent Dubroca, the Clio’s product…

Cupra will launch a coupé-SUV with bespoke styling at the Geneva motor show this year, helping the performance brand to distinguish itself from parent company Seat. The new model, rumoured to be called Terramar, will be the first from Cupra whose exterior design is a unique departure from Seat’s range. It adapts the bodystyle of the 20V20 concept seen at Geneva in 2015, but with a radically different look distinguishing the model from other, similar-sized Volkswagen Group SUVs. It will be wider and lower than Cupra’s first model, the Ateca, featuring a sloping roofline, pronounced rear haunches and a front-end design that takes inspiration from the Tarraco large SUV. Autocar understands that the new SUV won’t be totally new under the skin, however, and is likely to adopt the engine…

TESTED 23.1.19, LOS ANGELES, USA ON SALE APRIL PRICE £21,000 (EST) If you were a salesperson tasked with shifting the new Mazda 3, what would your elevator pitch be to prospective customers? It’s a question that the bosses at Mazda have attempted to answer with the fourth-generation 3. For years a car that was on the sidelines, like the shy child hiding at the back of the class, Mazda’s updated family hatchback has to come out of its skin and make itself noticed if it’s to make a positive contribution to the firm’s success. It arrives at a time when competition is moving on at a relentless pace. The Volkswagen Golf is the hatchback for all reasons with an upmarket vibe and these days as good as sells itself on…

TESTED 22.1.19, BARCELONA, SPAIN ON SALE NOW PRICE £25,535 When Kia signed off the third-generation Ceed, we’re told it spent a further six months fettling the suspension of the range-topping GT specifically for European roads. For a car designed in Frankfurt, manufactured in Slovakia and tested at the Nürburgring, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. And yet because the project was overseen by Albert Biermann – formerly head of BMW M, now chief engineer at Kia’s parent company Hyundai and therefore the man behind the excellent i30 N – the claim cannot be dismissed as marketing hot air. The Ceed GT predates the i30 N and has some history. Good history. Introduced as the Procee’d GT in 2015, Kia’s first go at a driver’s hatch wasn’t quick, and yet with…

Soft and a touch overly permissive is how the Karoq’s suspension feels when you really begin to throw the car around. This, we must remember, may be because it was the best dynamic compromise possible in order to allow the Karoq to cope off-road, in four-wheel-drive trim, without mechanical running chassis specification tweaks having been made. What it means is that, up to a point when cornering, the car is a bit vulnerable to body roll but still stable, drivable and under control – as long as its vertical composure isn’t disturbed. Beyond that point, and particularly if mid-corner bumps are involved, the suspension allows enough pitch and roll to take grip away from the unloaded wheels – at which point handling can become untidy and the car’s electronic stability…

It’s still here, 60 years and a whole other world away later. It’s bigger, faster, more civilised, safer, better equipped and much (much) better built now, but the Mini still looks like a Mini (mostly), still romps around corners and still has charm, if not always of the same flavour. It’s still fun to drive, The bold thinking behind the 1959 original was all about packaging – compacting the mechanicals into the smallest possible space to enable a 10ft-long box to swallow four adults and their travelling-lite luggage. The 2001 reinvention was also about packaging, but this time in the presentational sense. This was a much better-built Mini, and a much better-built premium supermini – indeed, among the very first of its kind. The new Mini also allowed you to…

QUESTION My friend has a 2000 Rolls-Royce Corniche but is worrying about whether it will comply with the new emissions regulations coming soon. Can you help? Neil Godwin, Royal Wootton Bassett ANSWER Sadly, it won’t: as a result of the new regs, the car will be worth peanuts but I’m happy to take it off your friend’s hands for a few bob if it will help relieve him of his distress… Only kidding: the emissions regs you refer to are probably those that have just been introduced on new cars. Your friend’s Corniche is unaffected but it shows how confusing these new rules can be, even to ordinary squillionaires. JE QUESTION I’m insured on my car with comprehensive cover, so am I insured to drive my friend’s car with his…

Renault Clio Renaultsport 182 £3990 good Renault Clio Renaultsport 172 and 182 models of 1998-2005 are rare, which is why this particular 182 leapt out. Remarkably, it’s a one-owner car; an FF Cup, so the fully loaded version with partleather interior and optional Cup chassis but not the purer, strippedout and supposedly lighter Cup version, if that makes sense. It’s a phase two car registered in 2004, when the more powerful 182 engine replaced the 172, and it has done a perfectly reasonable 85,000 miles. All good – and it gets better. The tyres are the correct Renaultsport Michelins and it has just had the cambelt, water pump, dephaser and auxiliary belt changed by a Renault specialist. And it’s in totally standard and unmarked condition. Basically, it looks like it…

Audi TT 2.0 TDI Ultra Sport Price new £32,080. Price nearly new £23,900 The anti-diesel lobby has claimed another scalp in the shape of the Audi TT 2.0 TDI. The arrival of the mildly facelifted model has allowed Audi to dump it from the line-up. It means that if you want a torquey TT with a new smell, the only place to look is nearly new. We found a 2018/18-reg 2.0 TDI Ultra Sport with 8000 miles for £23,900, a saving of more than £8000. Doubtless, Audi dealers were discounting new ones ahead of the model’s withdrawal but that was then and this is now.…