Innholdsfortegnelse for April 03, 2019 i Autocar

THINGS WERE ALWAYS better in the past, right? Not a bit of it. There are countless examples in our safer, better performing, more reliable, better built and more efficient road cars of today, and even some evidence in motorsport, too. The common conception was that the British Touring Car Championship, which kicks off again at Brands Hatch this weekend, was at its best in the Super Touring days of the 1990s, with big-name drivers racing works cars in front of big crowds. Yet speak to those who’ve competed across several BTCC eras, as we do this week (p56), and the truth is we’ve never had it so good as today. A 30-strong grid of cars, often covered in their entirety by a few tenths of a second in qualifying, and…

PORSCHE IS UNDERSTOOD to be developing two-door coupé and cabrio versions of the Panamera designed to rival the BMW 8 Series and Aston Martin Vantage. According to reports, which senior figures at the firm have not denied, Porsche is developing the two variants of its grand tourer for a planned unveiling next year. The cars are designed to offer enhanced practicality and space over the 911 but still be considered as 2+2s rather than outright four-seaters. Asked about the possibility of such cars, Porsche design boss Michael Mauer, who designed the original Panamera, said: “As a designer there are no limits to what I can conceive. I believe it is the design department’s role to sketch and consider every model it can for the future so that we are ready…

THE NEXT-GENERATION Honda Jazz, which has been spied testing for the first time, will be offered only in hybrid form from its launch next year. Scheduled to be unveiled at the Tokyo motor show in October, the top-selling Honda model in the UK is expected to be the first in the brand’s line-up to offer a hybrid powertrain only. This follows Honda’s announcement that all of its models in Europe will become hybrids by 2025. Currently the only model Honda offers as a hybrid is the CR-V, which indirectly replaced a diesel variant of the Japanese car maker’s compact SUV. Honda has seen great success with the CR-V Hybrid, which accounts for 60% of the model’s UK sales. Following the launch of the hybrid Jazz next year, the next electrified…

Mercedes-AMG has expanded its new entry-level line-up with the A35 saloon. Slotting alongside the A35 hatch and below the C43 as Affalterbach’s price-leading four-door, it will go on sale later this year as a rival to the Audi S3 saloon. It uses the same 302bhp 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine as the A35 hatch and promises a 0-62mph time of 4.8sec – 0.1sec slower than the five-door. Power is sent to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, and it has a boot that’s 50 litres larger than the hatch’s. Expect a slight price premium over the five-door.…

Recent news that more than 30 separate safety systems, including a speed limiter, will become mandatory for new cars sold in the EU and the UK from 2022 has provoked a strong reaction from drivers. So is this really a case of Big Brother in action? The reality, while still impactful, won’t be quite as restricting as initially thought. For one thing, most of the technology is already available on many cars on sale today. It was news of the adoption of a speed limiter, known as intelligent speed assistance (ISA), that had people most worried. This restricts speed based on the car’s knowledge of local limits, fed to it by an on-board camera or GPS-based location data, or both. Crucially, it will be over-ridable. It might activate every time…

Volkswagen is set to unveil the ID Lounge large SUV at this month’s Shanghai motor show, as it prepares the next wave of its electric ID range. The ID Lounge, first revealed by Autocar in December, is a luxurious seven-seat premium offering designed to rival the Tesla Model X. Volkswagen sources say it has already been approved for production, and it is due to launch in selected markets, including the US and China, in 2022. The ID Lounge will be the fifth mainstream model to be revealed from the marque’s ID line-up, all of which are based on the Volkswagen Group’s new MEB electric platform. The production version of the ID hatch will be launched later this year, followed by that of the ID Crozz SUV, ID Buzz MPV, ID…

It’s now more than 40 years since the original Star Wars blazed across cinema screens around the world, and this film, along with the eight that have followed it, still exert a pull powerful enough to inspire. For proof, look at the nose of the latest Kia Soul EV. Apparently that jutting lower jaw of a front bumper was inspired by Darth Vader. And like Mr Vader, this volt-charged Soul aims to be more assertive than the norm – and a bit more sporty, too, according to Kia. That may sound like a bold claim for this stylishly boxy urban crossover, but a 7.9sec 0-62mph time and some addictive mid-range zip earn the adjective, if not the associations with the man of memorably limited wardrobe choice. Never mind the fanciful…

How to describe the new Evoque? Like the old Evoque but dialled up by 10% – and that’s exactly how Land Rover wants it. Since launching seven years ago, the Evoque has done for Land Rover what the Cayenne did for Porsche. And the buyers just keep on coming. When you have such a successful formula, wisdom suggests not to mess with it. This second-generation design is only a subtle evolution, yet looks can be deceiving because the car is fresh from the ground up. The body structure is 99.9% new, with only door hinges remaining from the former car. It sits on a new platform, the Premium Transverse Architecture, which allows for mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants and gives more interior space. Space was a bugbear on the last…

On the famous Hill Route at Millbrook Proving Ground, the B-Class ultimately conforms to type, though in the process demonstrates more than enough capability for its given role in life. It takes committed cornering to expose the large degree of body roll you’d expect a car this tall to adopt more readily, and such composure allows the tyres to grip keenly through even the slower, tighter bends. Eventually, it is vertical movements than become wayward, though the point at which this happens is far beyond what might be experienced on the road. Of greater note is the respectable balance this chassis summons, which allows it to be driven with surprising speed. This engine lacks guts on the circuit’s several inclines, however, and this lack of firepower is felt that much…

My, my, the Lotus Evora has changed. The latest version of this now decade-old sports car (there is only one Evora derivative on sale at the moment) is the GT410 Sport – and it’s feisty. It’s got one of those motorway rides. You know the type: with that collusive, delicious high-speed fidget that can only be made by a short, firm coil spring working in tandem with an expensive, belligerent Bilstein damper – and which gently insists you divert immediately from your intended errand-to-wherever to some proper driving roads. It has a supercharged V6 powertrain that demands you time your manual gearchanges well, with the proper footwork, and that picks up from 4500rpm with raw, unfiltered ferocity. It steers with the weight and feel – and kickback – of a…

QUESTION I’m tempted by a 2007-reg BMW M5, an E60-generation car. What are the main things I should look out for? Colin Patterson, Birmingham ANSWER You’re talking about the 493bhp 5.0-litre V10 M5 of 2005-10 (facelifted in 2007), a quick but thirsty machine with a fondness for clutches. The service history should be watertight. (Missed oil services can cost you con-rod bearings.) Check the Vanos warning light isn’t showing. The SMG gearbox is clunky around town but should ease up on the open road. An oil weep from the diff may just be seals. It’s naturally noisy but any grinding is a no-no. Knocking or vibration through the steering column could be the control arms. JE QUESTION Is a used car warranty worth the money or would I be better…

PINT-SIZED BUNDLE OF FUN Smart Roadster £2899 Inspired by Colin Goodwin’s tribute to the Smart Roadster (Autocar, 13 March) and desirous of owning one? There are a few in the classifieds at prices ranging from £1500 to £7500. They came in two bodystyles: a coupé and a convertible. Most are powered by an 80bhp, 0.7-litre, three-cylinder turbocharged motor. We found a one-owner 2006/06-reg convertible with 88,000 miles and full service history for £2899. Also in the range was a 101bhp Brabus version and a so-called Light – an 80bhp version whose extras were removed to get the price down. A 2006/06-reg Light with 84,000 miles for £2750 caught our eye. Whichever model appeals, you must check a few things before you hand over any dosh. Such as making sure the…

“The new hybrid drivetrains are developments of those already engineered for the 911” Porsche is developing a fully electric 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman that will be launched by 2022 – and is considering offering them alongside mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the current cars. The next generations of the two-door roadster and coupé sports cars have for some time been thought to be among a range of future pure-electric models set to be spearheaded by the upcoming four-door Taycan and the Taycan Sports Turismo. However, Porsche chairman Oliver Blume has indicated that hybrid powertrains are also being considered. “We have prototypes of the 718 running in electric now, and a hybrid prototype is being built,” he said. “If you look to the next generation of those cars it…

Chinese car maker Geely has taken a 50% stake in Smart from Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler, the two firms have confirmed. Geely, which owns a number of brands including Volvo and Lotus, and Daimler will form a 50/50 joint venture to run the city car firm, which is in the process of becoming an electric-only brand. Under the deal, production of Smart cars will move to China, with new electric-only models arriving from 2022 onwards. Mercedes-Benz will lead the design and styling of those future models, with Geely leading the engineering. As part of the new product plan – precise details of which have not yet been disclosed – Smart will expand into the B-segment. The deal is intended to further develop Smart as “a leader in premium-electrified vehicles”, according…

SEAT WILL INTRODUCE six electric and plug-in hybrid models by 2021 and lead Volkswagen Group development on an entry-level electric car following record sales last year. The Spanish car maker confirmed the plans at its annual conference. It is targeting a sub-£20,000 price for the forthcoming entry-level electric model that will be based on a smaller version of the MEB platform. In a first for the brand, Seat will lead platform development in collaboration with Volkswagen. Resulting models will be around four metres in length, the same size as the VW Polo and Seat Ibiza, and rolled out across other VW Group brands. Seat had previously confirmed that two electric models would arrive by next year, but the brand has, along with the rest of the VW Group, revised its…

If doublethink is the simultaneous acceptance of contrary beliefs, then the 7 Series could be its greatest automotive exponent. How else do you square this car’s need to operate at the very apex of luxury and isolation, against the church-like Mercedes S-Class, and also inspire genuine confidence at the helm of a limousine chassis that weighs almost two tonnes and whose length easily surpasses five metres? The truth is that there was very little wrong with the way the G11 7 Series handled, and that’s why this heavily facelifted version carries over the same multi-mode air suspension largely unchanged. Except for a plug-in hybrid whose cylinder count rises from four to six and a flagship V12 whose total power falls from 601bhp to a paltry 577bhp (thank WLTP), the engine…

MODEL TESTED B180 SPORT • Price £26,975 • Power 134bhp • Torque 148lb ft • 0-60mph 8.4sec • 30-70mph in fourth 11.5sec • Fuel economy 32.9mpg • CO2 emissions 126g/km (WLTP) • 70-0mph 45.9m We like • First-rate cabin ambience, with generous dimensions and high-quality materials. • Effortless driving experience – perhaps too much so – and good road manners. We don’t like • Downsized engine lacks refinement under acceleration, with questionable gearbox calibration. • Lacks the outright boot capacity and sliding rear bench of direct rivals. The progressive metamorphosis of the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, from cleverly packaged box-on-wheels into conventionally formed luxury hatch, is no doubt one of calculated execution. Not only has it seen the original ‘baby Benz’ become increasingly competitive against the established premium hatchback set, but the transformation…

VERDICT Few people will buy a B-Class for what we might refer to as emotional reasons. The A-Class with which it shares so many components is the better steer, more conventionally attractive, and you can hardly claim there exists a yawning chasm between the two cars in terms of practicality and raw ergonomics. But what differences there are add up to alter the proposition significantly and, as highbrow family transport, the B-Class is more serene not only than the A-Class but also its chief rivals – the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer and Volkswagen’s Golf SV. It hits its brief, in other words, and the spacious interior is a rare treat for passengers, with a generous glasshouse, luxurious finishing and a digital array almost as intuitive to operate as it…

Hey, that’s my Midget! Selling my MG Midget (DVJ 336C) in about 1979 – for an Austin Maxi, since you ask – I imagined its future would be short, mainly featuring what we now call recycling. So I was more than a little surprised to see the car pictured on page 77 of the 20 March edition of Autocar (Used Buying Guide). Leaving my hands, it was tartan red with a 1275cc Gold Seal A-series engine and a very leaky floorpan pop-riveted in place using aircraft-grade aluminium sections, Isopon and mastic. Not everything about our motoring lives has got worse! Here is a picture of the car the day it left us. It would be fascinating to see the changes that have been brought about and work out if anything…

MILEAGE 7748 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if Ford’s hottest supermini can successfully pick up the baton from its class-topping predecessor Our time with the Fiesta ST is rapidly running out, but while it shared a space on the long-term fleet with Volkswagen’s fourth-generation Polo GTI (which we recently said goodbye to), I made sure to pit the two hot superminis against each other. That meant roping in Lawrence Allan, who has spent just as much time as me with each car, to argue it out over which would earn a spot in our personal garages. TM I just can’t get behind the Polo as a proper hot supermini, and it’s all because of that automatic gearbox. LA An auto does feel like a strange choice in a car…

MILEAGE 82,928 BMW 320 My double garage is rather chock-full at the moment. Two Minis, a BSA Bantam and a ride-on mower. The Baby Shark usually shares that confined space, but an arrival of stuff on the back of a lorry has meant four pallets have taken its place. Exposure to the elements has revealed that the boot isn’t that watertight. Indeed, the boot has popped itself open on a few occasions. When I bought it, I noticed the offside profile is slightly raised so presumably there had been an incident. At the moment, the floor is damp and contents soggy. Not the end of the world.…

When we drove what was then the all-new, fourth-generation Lexus GS at the tail end of 2011, we reckoned it firmly deserved the consideration of anybody in the market for a “good-to-drive saloon with a part-time sporty edge”. That was the 250 F Sport model, which came armed with Adaptive Variable Suspension and slightly more purposeful bodystyling than the standard model to give it a sportier flavour. Its engine was a normally aspirated petrol V6, good for 204bhp and a soundtrack no turbo diesel could ever hope to imitate. Lexus has always done things its own way, not least in its steadfast refusal to board the diesel bandwagon (a brief flirtation with the IS220d notwithstanding), which seemed an odd decision once but looks remarkably prescient today. Whereas the BMW 5…

FORD FIESTA XR2 The odometer of this 1988 XR2 read just 15,900 when someone snapped it up at auction for £3975. Recent work includes a new cambelt and water pump but doubtless the new owner is going through it, checking for split hoses, clogged fuel lines and perished seals. With only 96bhp to hand, the XR2 lacked the sparkle of the later, 110bhp XR2i that took on the 115bhp Peugeot 205 GTi 1.6, and lost. Still, our example’s pepper-pot alloy wheels look the business and there’s no doubting that it was a smart buy, since most clean XR2s with higher mileage are around £10,000.…

Launched in 2005, the Bentley Continental Flying Spur cost £133,200. Today, you can have this sibling saloon to the GT coupé on your drive for just £17,500. That’s what one private seller is asking for their 2005/55-reg Spur. It has done a healthy 97,000 miles, as distinct from an unhealthy 30,000 miles or so shuffling around London. For the past seven years, it has been maintained by a Bentley specialist and the seller has every invoice detailing work done. Recent jobs have included new front upper suspension arms and air struts. With potentially ruinously expensive cars such as an old Spur, the trick to buying a good one is that it has not only full main or specialist service history but also evidence of obsessively careful stewardship. On that point,…

The Porsche Boxster E, launched in 2011, was officially created to support an electric mobility project run by the city of Stuttgart. But the car, built at the firm’s Weissach R&D facility, also served as a testbed for Porsche’s nascent EV tech. Autocar drove the concept, powered through the rear axle by a 121bhp, 199lb ft motor shared with the Volkswagen Golf blue-e-motion. We noted the EV motor meant it “glides away with the sort of urgency you don’t get in the standard Boxster”, adding that it “doesn’t feel 185kg heavier”. With a limited top speed of 93mph and a 0-62mph time of 9.8sec, we noted: “The step off gives a good turn of speed around town, [but] the modest power output fails to haul the Boxster E along with…

The Ford Kuga has been redesigned from the ground up in a bid to attract more buyers in the still-booming family SUV sector, and the new model will be offered with plug-in hybrid and mild-hybrid powertrains, along with conventional petrol and diesel offerings. The hybrid line-up in particular is expected to be key to attracting new customers, with interest in electrified powertrains escalating exponentially. The new Kuga won’t go on sale in the UK until early next year, but Ford should still beat many of its rivals to market with its plug-in option, which mates a 2.5-litre petrol engine with an electric motor and 10.3kWh battery pack to deliver 222bhp. The model can travel up to 34 miles on electric range alone, giving it an official economy figure of 235.4mpg,…

Ford will begin the extensive electrification of its European range next year with a raft of new models, including mild hybrid versions of the Fiesta and Focus, a new plug-in hybrid Explorer, a fully electric Transit van and the launch of its Mustang-inspired Mach 1 full-electric performance SUV. The string of electrified models is part of Ford’s major overhaul of its struggling European business. Starting with the new Kuga (see p10), the firm will offer a mild hybrid, hybrid, plug-in hybrid or fully electric version of every new model. Ford’s European engineering boss, Joerg Beyer, said the “nuanced powertrain strategy” was necessary because “every customer’s circumstances are different”. The Mach 1 electric SUV has been previously confirmed by Ford, but the firm has revealed it will launch next year with…

WHEN MAZDA DEVELOPED its Skyactiv-X Spark Controlled Compression Ignition (SPCCI) engine, it perfected one of the most elusive concepts since Nikolaus Otto’s first thumper clanked into life nearly 150 years ago. Why? Getting petrol to ignite in the same way as a diesel by compression instead of a spark had been an engineering holy grail for a long time. Auto Ignition, Combined Combustion System and Gasoline Compression Ignition are all names used for similar past projects by others attempting to perfect the same concept. The proper name for the underlying concept behind all of these (including SPCCI) is Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI). With HCCI engines, the fuel is evenly – homogeneously – mixed in the combustion chamber. It’s lean, too, with extra air supplied by a supercharger-like pump. Compression…

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This is it, then. The once-bold new era, heralded by the introduction of a vehicle platform called VH which allowed about a dozen (similar) cars to be launched on the same architecture, draws to a close. It was the (Ulrich) Bez of times, it was far from the worst of times. But the new Aston Martin revolution is under way. And this Rapide, as outlandish as VH cars became thanks to four doors and four seats, is the last of the old line. It’s going out in limited-run AMR specification. Just 210 will be badged this way, with 35 extra horsepower and costing 45,450 extra pounds over a Rapide S: so 595bhp and £194,950. You might find unregistered examples of the S at dealers, but production has finished. For the…

1 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF SV 1.5 TSI EVO Golf on stilts boasts class-leading versatility and a smooth, frugal petrol engine. Sheer ease of use sees it top the class. 2 MERCEDES-BENZ B180 SPORT B-Class caters well for its audience, with a serene driving experience and the most pleasant MPV cabin. Dynamically inert, mind. 3 FORD C-MAX 1.0 ECOBOOST Not as practical as other non-premium alternatives to the B-Class, but we like this engine, and the well-judged, fluid handling. 4 BMW 2 SERIES ACTIVE TOURER 218i SPORT Handling precision you’d expect from a BMW, but lacks the silky ride quality and ambience of the Mercedes. 5 RENAULT SCENIC TCE 140 French MPV breathes life into the staid design norm for the segment. Rides well, too, but is unusually cramped in the rear.…

“So what do you want to do now? We could go and do some doughnuts,” says the chassis engineer with ill-disguised hope in his voice. Out heree in the frozen wastes of northern Sweden, it seems almost obligatory to scribe some circles in the snow. Which is how I find myself rotating at impressive speed in a Porsche Taycan, at least until it rumbles what we are up to and starts flashing rude messages at its driver. “It’s the same in all our four-wheel-drive cars,” sighs Christian Wolfsried, Porsche’s handiest hand on the Taycan programme. If I understand correctly, the front and rear axles have a bit of a pow-wow, figure out they’re being asked to do dramatically different things, rapidly conclude the driver is a lunatic and then shut…

“I attempt Eau Rouge at such a ludicrous pace I crash the simulation” Chris Goodwin used to joke that his office was the cabin of whichever prototype supercar he was developing at the time. But since moving from McLaren to become Aston Martin’s high-performance test driver, and head dynamic development on the brand’s three mid-engined cars, his workspace has become much more mundane: an industrial unit in Milton Keynes. Okay, so this unit is also the HQ of Red Bull Racing (RBR) – we’re not talking Wernham Hogg here – but it’s still far less exotic than Goodwin’s former haunts. His tally of air miles has stalled, too. “This is the first winter for years I’ve spent in England,” he says. “Gianfranco in the Riva del Sole hotel in Nardò…

COMPARISON New Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door vs Porsche Panamera So who makes the best big performance saloon in the world? Andrew Frankel pitches Merc’s new GT 4-Door against the class leader to find out INVESTIGATION Honda: what went wrong? We find out the real reasons why Honda’s closing its Swindon factory DRIVEN New Jaguar XE The XE is much improved, but can it dethrone the BMW 3 Series? EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Jeep Wrangler Jeep’s reinvented off-road icon is said to be better on road, too. Is it? FIRST DRIVE Skoda Scala Skoda enters the VW Golf segment with a conventional family hatch. We rate it USED BUYING GUIDE Porsche 928 Why now is the time to buy Porsche’s front-engined sports car SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p22…

MILEAGE 3984 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To assess if Cupra’s first own-branded car feels like the real deal or just a Seat made too sporty for its own good “This is an amazing engine,” said the technician looking at the Cupra’s 2.0 litres worth of turbocharged four cylinder. “I built one with 600bhp and fitted it to a Volkswagen Caddy. No modifications to the bottom end were needed – they’re really strong.” On that basis, assuming the Caddy doesn’t blow up after 20,000 miles, there should be no reason to worry about this 296bhp version of the engine getting overstressed. So why was a technician looking at the Ateca? Because it had been making odd noises. At first, it sounded like gurgling water, rather like a central heating system that…

Innocenti Mini It isn’t just me with a silly old Italian car. Some of you dear readers have already been that way before. So thanks to Andy Southall for sharing this with us. “This was my Innocenti that I bought in around 1986 and, I believe, was not even ‘solid’ by the time it fell off the end of the production line – poorly converted to right-hand drive, horrible respray, electrical nightmare. Saying all that, I just loved the styling and the fact that it was ‘different’. At 22 years old, I knew no better.”…

Fiat 124 Spider 1.4 S-Design Price new £26,905. Price now £18,995 Fiat pulled the plug on the Spider in January. Global sales were low and, as reported in Autocar, there’s speculation that the car’s 1.4 Multiair petrol engine required expensive work to get it through the new WLTP emissions regulations. Still, the new car showroom’s loss is the used car forecourt’s gain, with pre-reg Spiders being knocked out at huge savings. We spotted a 2019/68-reg 1.4 S-Design for £18,995, almost £8000 less than the new price. You’d be lucky to get a late Mazda MX-5 2.0 184 Sport Nav for less than £22,000.…

An expert’s view ADRIAN WORTH, CO-FOUNDER, PRESTIGE SERVICES, LEEDS “I joined Appleyard Rippon, a Bentley agent, as a trainee technician in 1974. Twenty years later, I left to start my own business with a partner, servicing and selling Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. So you’d expect me to revere the old Bentleys, and I do, but I’ve a lot of time for the Continental Flying Spur. I know it shares many parts with the VW Phaeton and Audi A8 – in fact, dig around and you soon find bits stamped with VW and Audi logos – but these were extremely well-built cars, so that’s okay. In any case, Bentley managed to imbue the car with an authentic charm and character. I just have to drive one and I’m back in love with…