Innholdsfortegnelse for July 10, 2019 i Autocar

JAGUAR HAS HAD huge success with the I-Pace. It has helped shed the company’s old-man image and brought the brand to people it could never have reached before. By getting such an electric car to market first, Jaguar stole a march on rivals in the process. However, since its launch a year ago, Audi and Mercedes-Benz have launched their own I-Pace rivals and detailed plans for the second, third, fourth and beyond electric cars for their line-ups. Whatever advantage Jaguar had seemed to have been squandered, with the I-Pace the exception rather than the rule. But now the secret is out: as Autocar has been reporting since as far back as 2015, Jaguar is on the verge of becoming a full-blown electric car maker and replacing its existing range with…

BMW HAS GIVEN the green light to a heavily reworked electric-powered production version of the Rocketman – Mini’s compact urban-based concept that was first displayed in 2011 (below). Set to be launched in 2022, the three-door hatchback is planned to be an electric-powered entry-level model within a realigned Mini line-up, with production set to take place at Spotlight Automotive – a newly established joint venture run by Mini’s parent company and its partner Great Wall Motors in Jiangsu, China. “We’re advancing plans for a model along the lines of the Rocketman,” a senior BMW official revealed to Autocar. “It’s a car we have been looking at for a long time, but to build it profitably at the price point we think customers are prepared to pay, you need a joint…

T he recent burst of publicity around the mandatory introduction of speed limiters on new cars from 2022 has certainly brought them to the attention of car buyers. But how will they be received? Are they seen as a brilliant safety initiative that will save lives or an Orwellian intrusion adding to the danger of our roads by taking control away from the driver? Market research firm Simpson Carpenter questioned more than 1000 car buyers on behalf of Autocar to find out. Supporters of speed limiters outnumber opponents by two to one: 49% are in favour of speed limiters, while 24% are opposed. But those with strong feelings on an issue are always the most vocal and here the gap is much narrower – 18% are strongly in favour while…

Volkswagen’s first age, its management claims, was defined by the car after which the company was named. Its second has been symbolised by the car that had been, until last year, the firm’s biggest-selling model since the 1970s: the Golf. Now, they say, it’s time for chapter three. They’ve said that before. Ferdinand Piëch famously wanted to move the brand upmarket throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but his engineering passion somehow ended up benefiting the Volkswagen Group’s sister brands more. Remember the fuss made about the family of Up concept cars in the late noughties? And, more recently, the upmarket move made with the Atlas, Phideon, Arteon and current Touareg? All were supposed to be the beginning of a new VW. Somehow, none were. This time, though, the new dawn…

This is the facelifted version of the third-generation Skoda Superb, the big old barge championed by airport taxi drivers and sales executives up and down the country. This is a restrained revamp in terms of styling, but you might be able to pick out the redesigned front end, some additional chrome detailing and the new grille, as well as the Skoda lettering across the boot lid. There’s more chrome in the cabin, too, along with a swish new digital instrument binnacle. New 148bhp 1.5-litre petrol and 2.0 TDI Evo powerplants will join the rejigged engine line-up later this year, while the Superb iV plug-in hybrid – Skoda’s first-ever electrified model – is due to arrive in the UK early next year. We tried the new 2.0-litre diesel. It’s the first…

MODEL TESTED PURETECH 155 PRESTIGE Price £29,455 Power 153bhp Torque 177lb ft 0-60mph 8.8sec 30-70mph in fourth 10.5sec Fuel economy 40.6mpg CO2 emissions 114-121g/km 70-0mph 48.7m PSA Group – car-making Goliath and parent of the Peugeot, Citroën and Vauxhall brands – invested ¤100 million in preparing its Poissy plant for DS 3 Crossback production. As a statistic, this is a blunt but effective measure of just how much stock is being placed in this bold-looking new car. A bold play it is, too. Following the larger DS 7 Crossback, this is only the second ground-up product from DS Automobiles, and is aimed at usurping traditional premium brands in the hugely popular and still growing B-SUV segment. Audi’s Q2 and the Mini Countryman are the cars in the firing line but, unlike…

“Can you stop doing this, please?” requested colleague and friend Richard Bremner. He’s got a point. This is the second feature in a year that has involved Bremner and I getting together with some of the younger members of the Autocar team and some iconic cars of varying vintage. It’s fun but it does make us feel rather ancient. So here we are again. The challenge this time is for half a dozen of us, representing a broad sweep of ages on the magazine, to choose our favourite from cars that were launched in the year we were born. You can now appreciate Bremner’s anxiety, not least because he’s the oldest. As you will read, the exercise has brought together a truly fascinating line-up of cars; a group so varied…

SPECIAL ISSUE Bentley at 100: the latest, the greatest, and our best bits Andrew Frankel leads the celebration of the centenary of one of Britain’s most famous marques DRIVEN BMW 1 Series It has switched from rear-to front-wheel drive. Time to rate it FEATURE Goodwin’s campervan What if Dacia put Colin in charge of development? Here’s the result… EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Mercedes G350d G-Wagen mixes modern tech with retro looks. Now it meets our testers FIRST DRIVE Mazda CX-30 Mazda is the latest to make a sleek family SUV. How good is it? USED BUYING GUIDE Porsche 968 How to buy the water-cooled, front-engined, rear-drive Porsche coupé SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p28…

MILEAGE 5200 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see whether £65,000 is too much for a 4 Series without an ‘M’ on its rump You might wonder what the service schedule for an Alpina looks like. Equally, you might have better things to do, but since you’re reading this, I’ll assume there’s a degree of interest. In fairness, it’s an interesting question, because although the B4 S looks a lot like the BMW 440i on which it’s based – albeit a supersonic version – there is almost no part of the donor car Alpina leaves untouched. The aluminium crankcase is recast to take an extra turbo along with the associated oil and water reservoirs, but this is just the start. An entirely new cooling system is fitted, replete with a high-performance…

Mini Cooper S Here is David Robertshaw’s 2005 Mini Cooper S. “Autocar is responsible for the Mini,” he says. “You ran a buying guide on the R53 Cooper S just as I was replacing my Audi A4 Cabrio. I spotted one at a trader nearby, went for a look and broke my used car rule of buying the first I saw, paying £2900. The risk paid off as the Mini has been brilliant for the past two and a half years and 10,000 miles, only needing a new back box and a couple of minor bits for MOTs. It’s fast and handles brilliantly. I intend to keep it a while yet.” SEND YOUR USED CAR TALES TO james@bangernomics.com AND READERS' QUESTIONS TO autocar@haymarket.com…

Volkswagen e-Up Price new £20,150 (after plug-in grant). Price now £8990 Volkswagen’s new ID 3 electric hatchback, due next year, is likely to cost from around £26,000. If, however, you’re itching to get into an electric Vee-Dub ASAP but only have a few grand in the bank, what is there? We turned up an e-Up, VW’s titchy electric city car, for £8990. The approved used motor, which until recently was priced at £9990, was registered in 2014. It’s done 45,000 miles, proving, to some extent, that it’s a credible daily driver. New, it had a three-year warranty, but the battery was covered for eight, which is reassuring.…

“Prices will start from around £24,400 – less than a petrol Cooper S” Mini’s long-awaited first attempt at a mass production electric car has been revealed, mating the brand’s classic three-door hatchback with an electric powertrain offering Cooper S performance in a package claimed to be more affordable than every rival. It has been dubbed the Mini Cooper S E in markets outside the UK, but the brand has chosen to retain the Mini Electric name in Britain to avoid confusion and clearly differentiate it from the standard range. However, the Cooper S badges will remain (alongside new E badging) to denote the performance level. The biggest development, however, is the car’s relatively low price point: including the government grant for electric vehicles, it will start from around £24,400 –…

FORD’S FESTIVAL OF Speed showstopper was a track-only evolution of the GT, called the MkII. Its power rises from the road car’s 647bhp to 700bhp, and the adjustable suspension is ditched to save over 150kg. Bodywork alterations result in 400% more downforce. The MkII will be sold on behalf of Ford by engineering partner Multimatic, with 45 units due to be built at a price starting from £952,750. ORAGE ON PARADE AT GOODWOOD Little-known French brand Prato led out the Goodwood Supercar Paddock with its Orage. When first previewed in 2017, it was claimed to have the world’s most powerful naturally aspirated V8 – an 8.1-litre unit with 888bhp. EXTREME E SUV RACER UNVEILED Extreme E has launched an electric SUV racer, set to take part in a global electric…

VAUXHALL HAS FOLLOWED up the launch of the all-new Corsa with a series of updates to the larger Astra, including new engines, styling revisions and equipment upgrades. Launched in 2015, the Astra is one of the older models in Vauxhall’s line-up, meaning it was designed and engineered under GM ownership before the brand was taken over by PSA. It’s not possible to install the French firm’s engines in the Astra platform, so units sourced from GM remain with PSA paying a licence fee to use them. The range kicks off with a three-cylinder 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol engine in 108bhp, 128bhp and 143bhp forms. The least powerful 1.2 makes 143lb ft and the other two 1.2s put out 166lb ft. All are mated to a six-speed manual gearbox and manage between…

Britain’s biggest commercial vehicle plant, Vauxhall Luton, last month started production of a new Vivaro van as part of a £100 million investment under new PSA ownership that secures 1250 jobs. The new van provides Luton with long-term security, gives a huge vote of confidence in the plant’s ability to adopt PSA manufacturing and quality standards and potentially opens up opportunities to build other vehicles based on the PSA EMP2 platform, which also underpins the Vauxhall Grandland X. “This is a very, very important investment for Vauxhall,” said plant director Mike Wright. “In less than two years, the workforce has turned this plant into one of PSA’s ‘European champions’. The amount of change at the plant has just been huge.” Five years ago, Wright guided Autocar through a tranche of…

The DS 3 Crossback took to Millbrook’s Hill Route in a way that could hardly have been described as enthusiastic, but it managed to keep things together well enough. Body roll during cornering was more pronounced than what you would encounter on the road, but for the most part the manner in which this arrived didn’t feel too sudden or disconcerting. Steering remained mostly light and tight-lipped for feel, although switching to Sport mode did at least introduce a more confidence-inspiring amount of weight that was welcome during high-speed cornering. The presence of a manual mode allowed for a greater level of control over the car’s gearbox, too, but didn’t quite remedy the often tardy shift times we had experienced on the road and the mile straights. Nevertheless, the 1.2-litre…

It’s 1962. How could anyone argue against it? Great Britain still ruled the motoring world. Well, a bit of it. An important bit, in fact, because cars like the MGB and Triumph Spitfire put hundreds of thousands of people behind the wheel of a cheap, half-decent sports car. Another legend broke ground in ’62: the Ford Cortina. We had to wait a year before Colin Chapman waved his wand over it, but even humble versions were good cars. If they were a bit mundane for you, how about the AC Cobra? Yes, it was a joint effort with the US, but it’s still an iconic car.…

Sometimes it seems we’re drinking in the Last Chance saloon where engines we actually want in our cars are concerned. But, of course, we’re not. A last chance offers at least the hope of redemption, an opportunity to mend our wicked ways. But so far as the V12 engine is concerned, it’s the No Chance saloon, the place you go to get absolutely plastered before being wiped off the face of the planet. Which is why there are so many of them. If I can be allowed to mix my metaphors, it’s called making hay while the sun shines, because everyone can see it’s about to slip beneath the horizon, never to return. BMW has one, as does Bentley (okay, a W12 but let’s not sweat the small stuff here),…

Jeep Wrangler TJ 4.0 Sahara £6500 We’ve had a soft spot for the Wrangler TJ of 1996-2006 ever since we ran one here as a long-termer. It was the popular 4.0 Sahara with a removable hard-top. There’s a 2.5 petrol, too, but the 4.0-litre, although thirstier, is the engine to have. We found a 2001/51-reg 4.0 Sahara with 89,000 miles for £6500. It sounds like strong money for a private sale, but never underestimate the power of a handful of readies and a determined stare. It has a full service history, too, the last fettle being a major seeing-to less than 100 miles ago. Surprisingly, the seller hasn’t thought to put a year’s MOT on it. It expires this month. That’s fine: it’s the perfect excuse to chip the price…

The used car market can be a strange place, and it’s no stranger than when two generations of the same model rub shoulders. For example, nosing through the ads for Volkswagen Golf Rs you’ll find that for around £15,000, you have two choices: an older Mk6 or a newer and improved Mk7. Of course, the Mk7 it has to be. Fortunately, below that figure and down to around £10,500, life is a lot simpler, since only the Mk6 is in contention. It was launched in 2010 and expired in 2012 but in its short life the Mk6 wrote the rule book for its successor: downsized 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine, Haldex four-wheel-drive system and a choice of six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic DSG gearboxes. The newer model has the sweeter…

An owner’s view JOE JAMES “I have a 2011 Mk6 R 5dr with 61,000 miles. It has full VW history and I’ve just had the DSG fluid and filter changed. The car is quick, comfortable and well made. I can’t fault it. The paddle shifts add an extra dimension – why would anyone bother with the manual? It’s more economical than the manual, too, with up to 32mpg on the motorway. My car has the optional ACC active dampers. It’s hard to tell Normal from Comfort, but Sport is very firm. Prices for Mk6s can be high because the model is rare and exclusive. Mk7s are 10 a penny!” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE A new belt and water pump at 60,000 miles and new oil every 10,000 are essential. Check…

THE DE TOMASO name has been reborn at Goodwood, 60 years after the company was founded, with the unveiling of a new supercar. The P72 is a spiritual revival of the ill-fated 1960s P70 prototype racer and bears no resemblance to the old Pantera, as had been expected. The P72 is based on the carbonfibre roofless tub of the Apollo Intensa Emozione and features a mid-mounted V8 of unknown size and output. The interior features intricate, Pagani style craftsmanship and no touchscreen. Just 72 will be built in total, priced at around £660,000.…

UNDER THE SKIN JESSE CROSSE TWENTY YEARS AGO, DaimlerChrysler, as the two merged companies were called then, launched the A-Class-based Necar 4, the first production-ready fuel cell vehicle capable of being driven on public roads. The plan was for the first commercial version, dubbed, ‘Necar X’ to be launched on public sale in 2004. By that time, DaimlerChrysler said it would have spent over £1.1 billion on fuel cell vehicle development: it was that big and looked that certain. The board member responsible for R&D, Klaus-Dieter Vöhringer, said back then: “From 2004 to 2010, the population of fuel cell vehicles has to increase very fast otherwise the [refuelling] infrastructure will not grow.” He was dead right in one sense: it didn’t grow and fuel cell cars haven’t taken to the…

One-third of all the vans sold in the UK are in the Vivaro’s class – and about one in six are supplied by Vauxhall. Delivery companies for online retailers and airport shuttle buses are pushing sales, so Autocar is sampling the most car-like version, the Life seven-seat passenger model, in top-of-the range specification. We’re struck by the car-like weighting of the Vivaro’s controls, effortless steering and the refined diesel engine. Visibility is good, the black leather-style trim gives off a stylish vibe and our only passenger, photographer John Bradshaw, appears to be relaxed and comfortable in the back seat. Our only question is whether the dashboard and switchgear – clearly French-influenced PSA Group designs – are true to Vauxhall’s traditional British brand heritage.…

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There are some pure driver’s cars that manufacturers just always get right: I’m particularly thinking GT Porsches, mid-engined Ferrari specials and extreme Renault Méganes. Happy to report, then, that with the latest hot Mégane, which Renault calls the Trophy-R these days, the same applies. Sigh. Time for another rejig of the ‘top 10 best front-wheel-drive cars of all time’ list. This is a great car. As usual, Renault chased a certain German lap time and, as usual, found it (in 7min 40.1sec), but it’s how the Trophy-R delivers speed rather than the speed itself that makes it so compelling. There is less weight, to the tune of 130kg, lost by thinning the rear door glass (-1kg), removing rear seats (-25kg), fitting a carbonfibre bonnet (-8kg), a titanium exhaust (-7kg), a…

As an exercise in expressing what DS Automobiles stands for through design, the 3 Crossback may be more successfully aligned with the brand’s supposedly avant-garde ethos than the 7 Crossback that came before it. Few testers described it as particularly alluring, but that its bold styling - both inside and out - will likely attract as many people as it will repel means it should be in line for qualified success. But while the French marque appears to have found better form in some ways here, there are shortcomings elsewhere that dampen the 3 Crossback’s overall appeal. Unremarkable handling and a choppy ride are notable offenders, as is an interior that fails to deliver the sort of space and convenience that compact crossover buyers are now used to. And while…

FIBREGLASS CARS BEST 10 The chances are you won’t have heard of the Glasspar G2. It was 70 years ago that the American two-seat sports car was built by Bill Tritt, a boat builder who took a fancy to creating a car for a friend. Tritt’s experience with fibreglass allowed him to sculpt a car similar in proportions and style to the later MGA. It was built on a bastardised Willys Jeep chassis and muscled along by a Ford V8. Soon enough, his G2 was spotted by a supplier of Vibrin resin, and a bespoke commission was made, with the resultant Alembic I gaining coverage in Life magazine and winning the attention of engineers at GM. In the passing 70 years, there has been no shortage of weird and wonderful…

Stuart Pringle can still boast a full head of hair, which is always a bonus for a chap in his forties. But in his case, it’s genuinely surprising. In fact, it’s a wonder his crop hasn’t turned pure white. Running Silverstone is onerous at the best of times, but in the past year the stress has hit new heights – largely because the playing surface at the self-styled home of British motorsport wasn’t fit for purpose. Last year, Silverstone was resurfaced for the first time in more than 20 years. To say it didn’t go well is an understatement. Formula 1 drivers were critical of bumps at the British Grand Prix, but that was nothing compared with what happened at the MotoGP in August. Torrential rain, Silverstone’s most persistent foe,…

I lusted after, but could not afford, the earliest Honda CR-V when it seemed to meet the requirements of my active lifestyle. Your longterm hybrid (Our Cars, 26 June) misses the me in a way that my previous diesel model does not. My hobby is sailing and I am an instructor, race officer and safety boat driver. We have three modest rigid inflatables at our club and the hybrid will tow only the smaller two. The largest, still a modest rescue craft and not a gin palace, is over the towing limit. I sometimes take my caravan to a regatta, but the hybrid won’t tow any proper caravan. Even without anything on behind, a load of grandchildren, toolboxes, sails and other impediments make a diesel pretty much the only choice.…

MILEAGE 5617 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT We know the 720S is one of the world’s greatest driving machines. But is it an equally rewarding car with which to live? It is, I think, an issue with which most of us have wrestled in those quiet moments when we choose to set aside the real lives we lead and briefly, if only in the space between our ears, go and live another. It’s a world where you fill up on the motorway because you’re so rich you don’t care that you’re being fleeced to the tune of 20 pence per litre compared with the garage round the corner. People who live here spec cars according to what they want, not what they can afford. And the cars they have are those…

Have I told you all my cars are broken? Well, they are. A call from the garage about the Baby Shark brought the revelation that the fuel pump has stopped working, which may explain some of the less than enthusiastic starting behaviour. Trouble is, the nearest replacement is in Germany and 10 days away. Well, that was through their normal supplier. So I suggested they should go with a non-normal one, because so far the car has been away for two weeks. At least that meant I could build a nice new set of shelves.…

Take one BMW 3 Series, give it the SUV treatment and – hey presto – you’ve a hit on your hands. Well, that’s the theory. In fact, by the end of its life, the first-generation X3 of 2004 to 2010 was losing ground in the face of fresher rivals. Whatever replaced it needed to be a lot better. Fortunately, it was. The second-generation X3, under the spotlight here, landed in 2010. Bigger, quicker, greener and, when its specification was taken into account, cheaper, it set about the opposition with gusto. By 2014 a facelift was necessary, not least because of the forthcoming Euro 6 emissions regs. It’s this facelifted version we’re discussing here, since it is, at least for the moment, future proofed against Ultra Low Emission Zones. Considering that…

BMW 316 Here’s a sweet E30, in this case the cooking 316 two-door. It was registered in 1989 and has done 105,000 miles but is none the worse for it. The car was owned by an Aston Martin engineer for much of its life and arrived in the ring in, it’s claimed, ‘superb’ condition. The E30 will forever be associated with the get rich-quick yuppie generation, with their shoulder pads and brick-sized phones. Can’t imagine what they saw in it given that the little BMW is perfectly proportioned and as honest in concept and execution as they come. This one went for £3679.…