Innholdsfortegnelse for February 20, 2019 i Autocar

WE FREQUENTLY BEMOAN the fact that ubiquity in some modern architectures results in cars that are ‘samey’ to drive, not simply across multiple models but also multiple models from multiple brands. But the flip side is when a common architecture is so well executed that it breeds a whole range of models that star for its maker. This could soon be the case for Ford and its new Focus, the first recipient of Ford’s new C2 platform and this week’s road test subject (p36). The quality of the execution of the new C2-based Focus, which makes as significant a statement as the 1998 original as a driver’s car, offers a tantalising glimpse of just how good future C2-based Fords can be. With the C2, the architecture that’s just done better,…

The new Ford Focus ST will offer “the most responsive and agile Focus ST driving experience ever, on road and track”, according to the car maker, thanks to the model’s new C2 platform. On sale in the summer, this latest Focus ST is offered as a five-door hatch or estate, in petrol or diesel variants, and with a host of new technology derived from ‘halo’ models such as the Ford GT supercar and the Mustang. It is the first front-wheel-drive Ford to get an electronic limited-slip differential (eLSD), intended to enhance cornering stability. Rev-matching technology is available with the six-speed manual gearbox. A seven-speed automatic is also available. Selectable drive modes are another first for the Focus ST. They comprise Slippery/Wet, Normal and Sport, plus a Track mode for versions…

The overhauling of Rolls-Royce’s range will continue early next year with a new generation of the Ghost luxury saloon. The second-generation Bentley Flying Spur rival follows the launch of the Cullinan SUV late last year and the eighth-generation Phantom limo in 2017. The first prototypes of the new Ghost have been spotted undergoing development testing and reveal a typically evolutionary design approach for the British luxury brand. Since departed design director Giles Taylor intended to modernise the latest Phantom’s looks without losing its familiarity and presence, and the same approach looks to have been taken with the Ghost. It will retain the signature rear-hinged rear doors and prominent grille design, with modern touches such as ‘laser’ headlights and LED tail-lights. The bigger news is under the skin, where the Ghost…

Citroën has unveiled a tiny city car concept ahead of its public debut at the Geneva motor show next month. The Ami One is a two-seat show car that meets Europe’s quadricycle regulations. That means it’s less than 1.5m wide, has a top speed of 28mph and weighs less than 450kg. As a result, it could in some countries be driven without a driving licence. The concept explores some of the issues facing makers of very small cars as consumers turn to bigger models or stop buying cars entirely. “The Ami One is less than 1.5m wide, has a top speed of 28mph and weighs less than 450kg” “The young are connected to use, not ownership,” said Citroën’s senior vice-president of product and strategy, Xavier Peugeot. “To me, Ami One…

AUDI HAS PREVIEWED the next model in its expanding e-tron line-up ahead of its Geneva motor show debut. Called the Q4 e-tron concept, it’s a compact SUV with coupé-like styling, an expansive front grille and illuminated e-tron branding on the front bumper and side sills. It also features conventional door mirrors, rather than the digital cameras and screens offered on the E-tron SUV. It is also understood to provide clues to the non-electric Q4, which is due to be launched this year as a coupé version of the Q3.…

Land Rover’s Discovery SVX concept car will not now make production as originally planned. The rougher, tougher Discovery SVX was first seen at the 2017 Frankfurt motor show, and at the event the company confirmed a follow-up production version to go on sale by the end of 2018. As well as crowning the Discovery range with a more extreme, off-road-focused model with V8 power, the Discovery SVX was also due to launch the SVX sub-brand from Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations for its most extreme vehicles. SVX models would sit alongside SVR performance models and SVAutobiography luxury cars as part of a three-pronged range of vehicles fettled by SVO. Land Rover has confirmed to Autocar that a V8 (the concept’s was a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 with 518bhp) is now…

What is claimed to be an interior view of Land Rover’s all-new Defender has leaked online, several months ahead of the car’s reveal. The image, posted on social media by an unidentified user, shows that the rugged 4x4 adopts a heavily modernised cabin layout with a central infotainment screen and digital instruments. Details include ‘stop’ and ‘go’ stamped onto the throttle and brake pedals, while the car in these pictures features an automatic gearbox. It’s not clear yet if a manual will also be offered.…

McLAREN HAS RENEWED its contract with engine supplier Ricardo for a third time, securing a powertrain partner to propel its cars until at least 2025. UK-based Ricardo has been McLaren’s sole engine manufacturer since 2011, supplying more than 15,000 units to date. Five thousand of those were built in the past year alone due to the increasing popularity of the McLaren line-up. Ricardo’s building of McLaren-designed engines began with the MP4-12C in 2011 and has included the P1 hybrid hypercar’s. The relationship goes back to the original McLaren F1, for which Ricardo supplied the transmission.…

In 2019, there are reasons to be cheerful if you want a family hatchback without the ‘Made in Germany’ premium. I don’t want to spoil the surprise too much, but turn to this week’s eight-page road test (p34) and you’ll learn that Ford’s latest Focus has rediscovered the sparkle that make the original so special. Kia’s Ceed, built on a new platform and now with fully independent rear suspension, can’t match that level of dynamism but it handles with a precision and honesty that will jolt anybody whose perception of the brand is more than a couple of years out of date. Then there is the pebble-like form of Mazda’s new 3, which promises to drive almost as lithely as it looks. Toyota would have you add the new Corolla…

As part of its mid-life refresh, the GLC will adopt a new range of petrol and diesel engines as well as two new plug-in hybrid drivetrains. The old seven-speed torque converter-equipped automatic transmission also makes way for a more contemporary nine-speed gearbox coupled to an updated 4Matic four-wheel-drive system – one that will continue to feature on every new GLC model that arrives in the UK. The engine line-up will include a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder combined with a belt-driven starter-generator and 48V electric system – a mild hybrid, in other words. It delivers 194bhp in the GLC 250 4Matic EQ Boost and 255bhp in the GLC 300 4Matic EQ Boost, each benefiting from an additional 14bhp under acceleration from the electric motor. Other new features include a coast mode that…

MODEL TESTED ST-LINE X 1.5 ECOBOOST 182PS Price £25,650 Power 180bhp Torque 177lb ft 0-60mph 8.9sec 30-70mph in fourth 11.4sec Fuel economy 29.5mpg CO2 emissions 126g/km 70-0mph 55.1m The market introduction of the fourth-generation Ford Focus has been a slightly piecemeal and incremental process, but it’s nonetheless now nearing the point where the Blue Oval might tentatively call it complete. Having introduced the five-door hatchback in the summer of last year and added a couple of extra engine choices, an estate bodystyle and top-level Vignale trim in the autumn, Ford has now revealed the next Focus ST (see page 12). We’re also about to drive the big addition to the Focus model ranks: the crossover-flavoured Focus Active. Gradually, then, the pieces are coming together. Launching the car in stages doesn’t seem…

Welcome to the 2019 Autocar Readers’ Champion award, where we ask: what’s in a name? In what is possibly the only feature ever inspired by the arrival of a new Toyota Corolla, it struck us: the Corolla, as the biggest-selling nameplate in the world, is an icon. Now, ‘icon is an overused word’ is itself an overused phrase. But if a nameplate can be iconic, then Corolla’s certainly is. Across more than five decades and 45 million cars, it is a great survivor. But the greatest of all? That’s for you to say. To help you choose your icon of icons, our writers have picked the 17 most important, influential, desirable car names on the planet. The entry criteria is that they’ve had their name from birth and the car’s…

UNTIL THE CURRENT model, the Jaguar XJ was readily identifiable by the 98% of motorists who had never owned one by the very distinctive rear-end graphic. The slim tail panel was bookended, originally, by those distinctive sort-of-triangular rear lamps. There was a good reason for that look. One of the original styling models for the first XJ had a long tapering tail like a Jaguar E-Type. Indeed, imagine a four-door E-Type saloon. Long and low, with shallow sides. In the event, the styling was finalised by simply cutting through the tail’s taper, resulting in that highly effective cross-section we saw on the first production car. But those E-Type-inspired roots are also what made the XJ so very different and so timeless. Yes, the engineering key to the car was the…

YOU SHOULD VOTE Jeep. The real Jeep, I mean, not any old ‘jeep’ – the word that became a generic term for a 4x4; like Sellotape or Portakabin, it’s a trademark that crosses brands. I don’t think any other car has achieved that. Not even the first one. Just popping out in the patent-motorwagen, dear. How did we get here, then, with the American off-roader becoming the most iconic of all long-lived cars? It’s 1940 and the US military, suspecting it will be dragged into the European theatre of war, contacts 135 companies and asks them to tender a design and working prototype for an off-road reconnaissance vehicle, in just 49 days. Only two companies respond. Willys-Overland asks for more time, but Bantam comes up with the BRC 40, which,…

THERE IS ROOM for only one technologically over-saturated smack around the chops for the supercar fraternity and it’s called the Skyline GT-R. The name is legendary: synonymous with turbocharged Japanese muscle, endless traction and an overflowing homologation catalogue. As the brand’s flagship performance car, Nissan once even entered the GT-R into the Le Mans 24 Hours, where it was beaten by another GTR: the McLaren F1. Judge a car by the company it keeps, and all that… So why is the GT-R an icon? It didn’t save its maker from financial ruin – nothing so noble as that. And you certainly can’t pretend it changed for the better the lives of millions, like the Mini or Land Rover. Unlike the Jeep, it hasn’t won any wars and neither has it…

IN MY BOOK, an automotive icon is a venerable car that sets extraordinary standards, then retains them as time passes. The Defender, Beetle, Mini and E-Type would all qualify were they still being built in their original forms. This distinction points me unerringly to one supreme machine, the Lotus Seven, born in 1957 and then preserved after 1973 as the Caterham Seven when its inspired but restless creator, Colin Chapman, wanted to build more advanced road cars and make his way in Formula 1. In the entire car world, the Lotus Seven is the design I feel best embodies the elusive quality of automotive ‘rightness’. In 62 years, any upstart two-seater of similar size, weight and mechanical layout has looked like a Seven copy, simply because the original Lotus’s most…

This is not a twin test. There will be no winner or loser, T the cars featured merely illustrative of a point I thought I wanted to make. The McLaren Senna seen here could as easily have been any other hypercar or, indeed, top-flight supercar like a Ferrari 812 Superfast or Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. Similarly, although the Alpine A110 is undeniably well suited to the task in hand, a Lotus Elise would have sufficed. So those hoping for a David and Goliath contest where the little £50k sports car fells three-quarters of a million quid’s worth of carbon-fibre bodied hypercar are going to be sorely disappointed. There are some architectural and conceptual similarities between them – mid-engine configurations, seven-speed paddle-shift transmissions, an admirable focus on lightweight construction and so on…

It was the best pocket-sized Alfa for decades, with great styling, engines and specs. A genuine alternative to a safe and dull old VW Golf. The 2.0 came with the option of a semi-auto gearbox, which worked well but wasn’t reliable. The 3.2 V6 had a whacking 250bhp but struggled to put all that power to the road. There were also 1.9 diesels, offering 115bhp or 140bhp. Today, choose between Turismo or comprehensive Lusso trim across the range. It’s getting rare now, but a tidy 1.6 TS from 2004 with 107,000 miles is £500.…

An expert’s view NEIL BEACHILL, MITZY BITZ “I owned a Shogun SWB diesel in 2003. It was a cracking vehicle, although working in a Mitsubishi dealer workshop at the time, I had access to affordable servicing. My wife only drove it around town so its fuel consumption was high and, in the end, I just had to sell it. To this day, people still ask me whether they should buy one. I say, only if you have a real job for it like towing or as a general utility vehicle. And if you do buy one, make sure you stay on top of servicing and fix any rust the second you see it. It may be a tough Japanese 4x4 but it still needs TLC.” Buyer beware ENGINE Listen for…

“Elon Musk called 2018 ‘the most pivotal year’ in Tesla’s history and 2019 will be even more important” Tesla is finalising production plans for its crucial Model Y ahead of the SUV’s unveiling later this year – and the company is hoping lessons learned from the Model 3’s “production hell” can help it capitalise on the “massive” opportunity presented by its most important new model yet. The Model Y is due to go on sale in late 2020 and design work is now complete ahead of an imminent launch. Although company boss Elon Musk has previously said on Twitter that the Model Y would be revealed in March, he later clarified that was an estimate. Even so, the firm is readying its production line and pre-production models will shortly begin…

PRODUCTION OF THE hottest Mini yet, the new John Cooper Works GP, will start in 2020. Spy shots of the hardcore hot hatch show it will sport an extreme rear wing, aggressive bodykit and motorsport-inspired wheels. The limited-run model will arrive with over 300bhp from a four-cylinder turbo engine. Performance figures are yet to be released, but Mini is targeting a competitive Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time, which will better the 8min 23sec achieved by its predecessor. The interior of the concept version featured a rollcage and a pair of low-mounted bucket seats, with gearshifts controlled by paddles on the steering wheel. The previous JCW GP lost its rear seats but eschewed a rollcage for a rear strut brace. That’s likely to be the direction Mini will take again. Expect a…

The new Bentley Bentayga Speed has narrowly taken the crown of the world’s fastest SUV, beating the Lamborghini Urus’s top speed by just 0.5mph. The Bentayga Speed has a claimed top speed of 190mph, edging the Urus’s figure of 189.5mph. However, the Urus achieves the 0-62mph sprint in 3.6sec, whereas the Speed takes 3.9sec. The flagship Bentayga model, which will make its debut at the Geneva motor show, uses a more highly tuned version of the same 6.0-litre W12 twin-turbocharged petrol unit as the standard SUV, raising power from 600bhp to 626bhp. Torque remains the same, at 664lb ft. Compared with the standard W12 Bentayga, the Speed is 0.2sec faster over the 0-62mph sprint and its top speed is 3mph higher. The Sport mode, one of four choices, has been…

McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt has revealed he is “thinking hard” about a stand-alone GT model and, further into the future, even a 2+2, as part of plans to rapidly broaden the company’s product portfolio. McLaren is set to make an announcement at the Geneva motor show next month, and it is possible the Woking-based brand will detail the new GT. “We know our sporting models command great credibility in the market on that side of our core offering.” Flewitt told Autocar. “But I think there is space on the other side, too, for a proper GT. Many of our customers drive GTs all the time, so why not play to those characteristics?” But Flewitt is not about to design a rival to the Bentley Continental GT. He said: “It would…

In conditions far from ideal on Millbrook’s tortuously undulating Hill Route – patches of damp and temperatures only a mite above freezing – our Focus demonstrated the kind of composure you would expect from the best-handling car in its class. Body movements were marshalled well enough with the adaptive dampers in their default mid-way setting, though upping the rates in Sport mode introduced an additional veneer of composure. The Michelin Pilot Sport 3 tyres developed appreciable grip, though there were few surprises when it ran out – without the benefit of a limited-slip differential, the Focus edged benignly into understeer most of the time. The ESP software can’t be fully disabled, however, which is perhaps because this chassis will oversteer with surprising enthusiasm should you provoke it. ACCELERATION…

YOU COULD ARGUE, and I’m going to, that the BMW 3 Series was the car that started what would later be called ‘the flight to premium’. It was the moment car buyers saw the appeal of choosing a less well-equipped, better-made car with a desirable badge over a Ford or Vauxhall. The flight needed a long run-up – its germ seeding with BMW’s 1966 02 Series – but it’s a flight that has profoundly altered cars over the past 40 years. Why isn’t the 02 Series, and the famous 2002 that’s a part of it, the icon? Because that car sold in relatively modest numbers compared with the 3 Series, and being available only as a two-door, the (unsuccessful) three-door Touring and a Baur cabriolet, it didn’t enjoy quite the…

WHAT DO GEORGE HARRISON, Steve McQueen and Enzo Ferrari all have in common? You guessed it… they all, at one time or another, owned a Mini. That alone is enough to argue for ‘icon of icons’ status, but the 60-year-old Mini’s merits reach far beyond its famous owners. The original 1959 Mini (designed by Sir Alec Issigonis, a figure so significant that our top Autocar Awards accolade is named after him) quickly established itself as a pioneering vehicle in terms of packaging, design and engineering. Sales chart success beckoned, making it one of the best-selling cars of the 1960s, alongside models such as the Ford Cortina and the Austin/Morris 1100. Its triumph meant derivatives galore: the Riley Elf, Wolseley Hornet, Moke and Pick-up to name a few. The Mini’s engineering…

IT’S A GOOD exercise, this. We should probably make it part of the interview test for a job at Autocar. Any motoring journo with a pulse could come up with an argument for the iconic status of any one of these cars with at least one compelling reason in it. Where the Range Rover is concerned, there are at least six by my count. The influence of the modern Range Rover seems like the right place to start. How vastly different would the SUV-obsessed car market look today, after all, if Spen King and Gordon Bashford hadn’t decided that the time was right, in the late 1960s, for a well-mannered, easy-going, both on-road-and-off-road-intended Land Rover? If those early Range Rovers hadn’t shown the untapped potential of the emergent SUV as…

THIS ISN’T A defence of the modern Beetle, or an attempt to argue it was misunderstood or under-appreciated. I’m not going to die on that hill, or even stub my toe against it. The Beetle’s second life is just an excuse to sing the praises of the original. Nor is it just the first car’s huge production run that brings it here (more than 21.5 million by the time production finally ended in Brazil in 2003), nor its cultish following, nor even the unarguable appeal of Herbie Goes Bananas. Nope, the Beetle has earned its place on top of the list for proving that cheap didn’t have to mean nasty. Drive a Beetle today and ‘modern’ is not one of the words you are likely to take away from the…

WRITE TO autocar@haymarket.com LETTER OF THE WEEK The ugly truth Sadly for Jaguar, your excellent and objective comparison test (Porsche Macan vs Jaguar E-Pace, 6 February) once more confirmed a simple fact: ugly cars sell better. The seemingly endless range of wide- and deep-grilled monstrosities on sale today is simple testament to public taste. Jaguar’s tasteful designs just don’t sell in volume. This is very sad, but just look at the successful volume cars of the past 50 years. There is not one beauty to behold. Bold and ugly sells – God knows why – so give it up, Jaguar. You are battling the whole industry and you will never win. Massive ‘road presence’ is what people want. Stick a huge grinning grille on an electric car and then it…

MILEAGE 5823 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if there’s a truly engaging hot hatch hiding under the prim and proper facade of Volkswagen’s quick supermini It usually doesn’t take long to gauge a car’s character, the general disposition and underlying traits that set the tone for driving and spending time in it. But the more time I’ve spent driving our long-term Volkswagen Polo GTI, the more it has confused me. I just can’t figure out exactly what this car is – or even what it wants to be. In the broadest sense, of course, the Polo GTI is a hot hatch and, as noted in my first report, it offers both plenty of performance and typical Volkswagen sheen and polish. What I’m struggling to determine is where on…

QUESTION What new warning lights have hybrids and electric cars given rise to? David Potts, St Albans ANSWER One of the strangest has to be the Nissan Leaf’s tortoise light. It means the car has limited power. Another is the Renault Zoe’s battery with a thermometer through it. It’s telling you the temperature of the traction battery is either too low or too high and that you must reduce your speed. A third is the plug and cable light that’s telling you the car is still connected to the charger. Wonder what would happen if you sped off? JE QUESTION I’m tempted by a 2006 Focus diesel with 200,000 miles on the clock for £275. The MOT is due in March. Should I? Tom Ford, Guildford ANSWER It was all…

Jaguar XFR £9990 Where do we sign? This 2009 XFR has 90,000 miles on the clock and a full service history. Its 20in alloy wheels are described as being in “mint condition” and it has two new front tyres and a new battery. It also has a new coolant expansion tank, a common requirement on this model. So it’s set fair for some 503bhp japery, but before we slide into those black, electrically powered leather seats and turn up the volume on the upgraded Bowers & Wilkins sound system, we best do some checks. Such as listening for timing chain rattles when cold, supercharger rattles when warm, and water pump noises and leaks whenever. (It usually lets go at 60,000 miles.) Then, at the back and with the 5.0-litre V8…

Price new £41,930. Price nearly new £30,844 With a facelift in the wings, an XE should be easy prey for a bargain hunter. Sure enough, a dealer we know has a clutch of pre-registered examples in a variety of colours and trims, all on 68-reg plates and with delivery mileage. His 2.0d 240 R-Sport 4WD caught our eye. Ask nicely and a Jag dealer will knock around £2500 off the new price, but for the sake of an extra name in the logbook, our acquaintance can save you £11,000 on a nearly new one.…

ENGINE TUNING FIRM Swindon Powertrain will put its electric Swind E Classic Mini conversion into limited production. The Wiltshire firm will fully restore 100 classic Minis and fit them with its own electric 107bhp powertrain. The unit, which replaces the original engine and gearbox, enables 0-60mph in 9.2sec and an 80mph top speed. It’s powered by a 24kWh lithium ion battery, with 125 miles of range, and a full charge takes four hours from a Type 2 connector. Removing the petrol tank increases the boot capacity to 200 litres. The conversion adds 80kg to the total weight of the car, with the fore-aft weight distribution changing to 57:43, from 68:32 in the original. Each Swind E Classic Mini also receives new brakes with regenerative braking capacity, new suspension, underfloor heating,…

MASERATI WILL UPGRADE the production lines at its Modena factory this autumn in preparation for starting work on its Alfieri electrified supercar. The Italian maker confirmed its commitment to production at Modena, where it has been based since 1939, following a meeting with local government officials. The site will focus on making “special high-performance, high-technology sports cars”. Pre-series production of a “characteristically Maserati sports car” will begin in the first half of 2020. Although the Alfieri hasn’t been named, it was confirmed as part of Maserati’s five-year business plan announced last June. Based on a concept first shown in 2014, the Alfieri will be offered as a coupé and convertible, with three electrified powertrain options, including a purely electric one. It will be a replacement for the Granturismo and Grancabrio,…

A £30 BILLION roads plan to improve transport links in northern England over the next 30 years has been rubber-stamped by the government, with a fully dual-carriageway A66 from Scotch Corner to Penrith a priority. The 50-mile road is an infamous bottleneck and top of the list of road projects being pushed by Transport for the North (TfN). The A66 dualling is tipped to go into the next Highways England Road Investment Strategy (RIS2), which will be finalised later this year and run for five years at a cost of £30 billion. “We could possibly make a start on the A66 in RIS2,” said TfN’s road director, Peter Molyneux. “The north only has one east-west dual carriageway and we really need to improve links across the region.” Post-Brexit strategic thinking…

ASTON MARTIN HAS previewed its new hypercar ahead of an expected debut at the Geneva motor show. Project 003 is Aston’s answer to the McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari. It will sit below the Valkyrie as the company’s second mid-engined model but above the upcoming Vanquish, Aston’s McLaren 720S and Ferrari 488 GTB rival. The production version of the 003 will go on sale in 2021 priced from around £1 million and be limited to 500 units globally. Like the Valkyrie, it has been co-developed with Red Bull Advanced Technologies and will use a petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain. The image released by Aston reveals top-mounted exhausts, a roof-mounted air intake, heavily sculpted aerodynamic bodywork and a large diffuser. Although the 003 will fall into the hypercar bracket, it will have far…

Jaguar’s roofless rally car was a present to itself on the 70th birthday of the XK120, the model that was both a game-changer and a competitive rally machine. And now I’ve driven the F-Type Convertible, I know exactly why it is unsuited to rallying, for two main reasons. The first is weight: while a conventional rally car weighs around 1200kg, this one is more like 1500kg. The second is that even with a 40mm increase in ride height, it still doesn’t have enough ground clearance to breeze over really rutted gravel tracks, nor the suspension travel to absorb the biggest divots or bumps. But those things only make the F-Type less rapid along a rally special stage. In this instance, that’s entirely immaterial because this car hasn’t been developed for…

Last year’s running of our annual Britain’s Best Driver’s Car produced both the strongest field we’ve yet seen and a McLaren winner for the first time. The superb McLaren 600LT beat the Ferrari 488 Pista into second, the class of a class field in which the Porsche 911 GT3 RS didn’t even make the podium. Now the 600LT Spider arrives as an encore to the brilliant coupé, sharing its basic mechanical spec with the hard-top car. It also shares the same 592bhp version of McLaren’s familiar twin-turbo V8 engine, the lower, stiffer suspension and wider tracks, and that lovely top-mounted, flame-spitting exhaust, while many of the lightweight parts for the cabin are also familiar from the coupé. No bad thing, that. Being a convertible based on the 570S Spider, the…

The arrival of the new Ford Focus will have been observed closely by the Blue Oval’s key rivals. And given the weight of expectation placed on this stalwart of the family hatchback segment by customer and competitor alike, chances are such an occasion elicits a good deal of perturbation back at Ford, too. So it’s a good thing, then, that this fourth-generation model is now more practical, more advanced and more attractive than it was before. What makes it an even more compelling prospect, though, is that it’s now better than ever at what has always been its raison d’être: the way it drives. The introduction of a new platform, new engine and new adaptive dampers are crucial contributors to this realisation. Of course, the new Focus isn’t without its…

IMAGINE YOU DESIGNED a car so versatile, it was as good to drive as it was easy to live with. Imagine that, despite being a street machine, it went on to win all the major sports car races – Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans – not just in its class, but outright. Next add in a hat-trick of Monte Carlo Rally victories and a couple of wins on the Dakar Rally. Imagine this was a car sought out by film stars and race car drivers alike, and a car that was considered the best in its class throughout its life, usually by a frankly embarrassing margin. Imagine, finally, that this life was 56 years long. And counting. Usually when someone comes up with a new and successful format for a…

WHILE IT IS UNDOUBTEDLY the case that certain cars in this list have mobilised entire nations, the same cannot be said for this very impractical two-seater sports car. And while others still have become cultural artefacts, either through a starring role in a famous film or for having transported so many of us throughout our childhoods, that isn’t true here. In fact, on the subject of the Lotus Elise – a car few people will have sat in and far fewer still will ever own – all that I have to recommend it over the likes of the Fiat 500 and the Volkswagen Beetle is that it has consistently been one of the best driver’s cars at any money ever since it was first introduced 23 years ago. With that…

THIRTY YEARS OF making the MX-5, and Mazda has managed not to bugger it up. It has not put on loads of weight, it has not grown fat, it has not got too powerful and it has not got too complicated. Oh, and it hasn’t even become expensive. That’s rather impressive, isn’t it? Even the Porsche 911 has expanded over the years, as the new 992 demonstrates. Bit heavier, bit wider, bit faster. When the MX-5 arrived in 1989, the affordable roadster was essentially dead. It was a type of car we Brits were particularly well known for. All right, cars like the Midget, MGB and Spitfire weren’t dynamically brilliant and the quality control was a bit Friday afternoon, but they were fun and could be bought by normal people.…

WHEN IT COMES to trickle-down automotive technology, the vehicle perched solidly at the pinnacle is the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Look at the W126, which in 1981 had a driver’s airbag and a passenger-side seatbelt tensioner. Meanwhile, ABS brakes were an option but fitted as standard to the top-of-the-range 500s. These Mercedes were big on safety, with beefed-up passenger cells and clever touches like the door edges overlapping in their frames so that they would not jam solid in a crash. In 1965, Mercedes made a clean break from its ‘New Generation’ medium saloons and came up with a large, imposing and elegantly styled vehicle for the better off. The W108/109 was designed by Paul Bracq and, though not officially the S-Class, this is where it all began. What it had in…

MANY OF THE models here that have achieved hallowed icon status were brought into life not to be objects of desire, but to serve a practical, utilitarian purpose. The original Fiat 500 was no different. Taking its name (Cinquecento in Italian, but you know that) from the 500 ‘Topolino’ of the 1930s, it was designed and built to be a simple, low-cost, usable people’s car for Italians, much like the Beetle was for Germans. To that end, the 500’s cutesy, curvy looks made it a style icon by accident. The designer, Dante Giacosa, made it the shape it was in order to use as little sheet metal as possible because, in post-war Italy, steel was a costly material. Even the pop-off fabric roof was only really there because fabric was…

WE KNOW WHAT you’re thinking: what is the Toyota Corolla doing among a list of automotive icons? Safe, dependable, entirely unexciting family car, sure. But a motoring icon? Well, yes. Here’s why: the Corolla is the best-selling car in the world. Ever. Since it was launched in 1966, Toyota has sold around 45 million Corolla-badged cars. That is, you won’t need to be told, a lot. Of course, simply selling in record numbers does not an icon make. You could even count it against the Corolla, comparing it to a huge middle-of-the-road stadium-filling rock band. You know, the sort that dominates the charts by churning out pleasant, blandly inoffensive songs. The Toyota Coldplay, if you will. Undoubtedly, many Corolla sales are down to its affordability, practicality and reliability, rather than…

FEATURE Ford Fiesta ST vs a ski resort Remember when cars went bobsleighing? We revisit the site of Ford’s famous stunt starring Jim Clark in a Cortina FEATURE Ginetta: behind the scenes Ginetta’s making an Aston rival – and we’ve been to see it INTERVIEW The future of Lamborghini Meet the ex-Ferrari F1 boss tasked with keeping Lambo outrageous EVERY WEEK FIRST DRIVE Lexus UX Could this be the car to take Lexus into the European mainstream? ROAD TEST Kia Proceed GT Warm hatch chassis and engine in the body of a shooting brake. Full road test USED BUYING GUIDE Peugeot 308 CC Derided new, this is an interesting used buy now. Here’s what to look for SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p26…

MILEAGE 8426 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 Our long-term Volkswagen Arteon’s turbo four-pot petrol engine may never run better than it does right now. That thought occurred to me the other day while hoovering quietly down the M40, as I glanced down at an improving long-term test economy trip computer reading and an odometer closing in on 10,000. Any useful loosening this motor’s ever likely to do should now be done, surely; but not so much has yet happened that might adversely affect overall efficiency, performance or refinement. Now would seem as good a time as any, then, to review how our decision to avoid the four-cylinder diesel motor you might…

Remember that Mini Cooper I own? It has been at my local garage for a couple of months. Yes, really, that long. I have popped in a few times to check up on her and obviously she’s in very safe hands. I even got to start her after Christmas. The boss, Ian, is old school and won’t let it go until it is running perfect. The work amounts to what can be described as an engine rebuild. Ian has taken it for a spin and there were still teeny, tiny leaks and seeps. Plus something was missing, which had to be fitted. Forgot what it is. Hope I’m not charged storage.…

In the 1980s, Mitsubishi dealers couldn’t get enough Shoguns. I know this because I worked for one as a salesman. The big off-roader sold like hot cakes and for the list price, too. It was launched in 1982 and replaced by the Mk2 in 1991, which itself was replaced by the Mk3, the generation under the spotlight here, in 2000. This was a more sophisticated vehicle than its two rugged predecessors, with its monocoque body, independent suspension and rack and pinion steering. It used a refined version of the Mk2’s so-called Super Select four-wheel-drive system with full- and part-time 4WD, high and low ranges and a locking centre differential. Looking back, the Mk3 Shogun anticipated today’s SUVs while still being able to rough it with the likes of the Land…

Had it not already sold, here’s one our own Mr Cropley could have driven to the Festival of the Unexceptional at the Claydon Estate, Bucks, on 20 July (My Week in Cars, 30 January). It’s a 1969 Austin 1800 Mk2 ‘Landcrab’. It needs a bit more than a polish, obviously, but is structurally sound and has done just 40k miles. A colleague’s father had two, in which he racked up around 200k miles without any issues. He recalls the novel, floor-mounted umbrella handbrake, the spacious rear bench seat and the pride he felt when seeing it described in his local Halfords as a ‘saloon’.…