Innholdsfortegnelse for September 11, 2019 i Autocar

WHILE LAND ROVER makes hay from Range Rovers, it is the Defender that gives all Land Rovers the authenticity and credibility of the true 4x4 go-anywhere image the company has built itself on. While the Defender, fully unveiled this week (p10), answers questions about the direction of Land Rover’s brand and model range – chiefly that it can still do something other than Range Rovers – it throws up some new ones, most notably around the Discovery. Intriguingly, in its styling the reborn Defender feels as much a successor to the acclaimed Discovery 4 as it does the iconic original 4x4. The Discovery, meanwhile, has always felt too close to a Range Rover to have a character of its own in its fifth generation. By giving it such a distinct…

Unveiled eight years ago to the month, the DC100 (Defender Concept 100) concepts were billed as showcasing two potential design routes for the next-generation car. One was a rugged-looking three-door, the other a two-door convertible. As likely intended, opinion was split, the convertible (right) in particular drawing ire from Defender stalwarts for its leisure-oriented outlook. This, remember, was at a time when the Evoque was flying high and Range Rover and Range Rover Sport sales were booming, shifting the epicentre and profitability of the company as a result. Nevertheless, at the time, Land Rover’s then brand director, John Edwards, told Autocar he was “massively encouraged” by the reaction to both concepts, and especially by feedback suggesting potential customers thought they were looking at a £45,000 car when it fact it…

BENTLEY WILL MAKE 12 new versions of Sir Tim Birkin’s 1929 4.5-litre supercharged Blower in what it claims is the world’s first continuation run of a pre-war race car. The new models will be built to the exact spec of the original, bar minimal changes for safety. To make them, Bentley will disassemble its own Blower – chassis HB 3403, one of just four ever made – to individual components, which will be catalogued, scanned and digitally modelled. The firm’s Mulliner division will then hand-build the 12 new examples using original 1920s moulds and tooling jigs. Bentley boss Adrian Hallmark said the continuation series will be a “homage” to the original, and meet demand for “genuine re-creations that can be used, enjoyed and loved without risk to the prized originals.”…

WILLIAMS ADVANCED Engineering has developed a new type of lithium ion battery module that could make automotive battery packs up to 30% lighter and 37% more energy dense – enabling greater power and range without adding weight or size. The Adaptive Multi-Chem module is in the development phase and, said the firm’s technical director, Paul McNamara, could be manufactured in a small series of 50 units in the next six to 12 months. It uses two types of cell chemistry and is intended initially for high-performance premium sports cars.…

With UK new car sales on the slide and an increasingly fragmented market, times are tough for manufacturers. Unless you’re Kia, that is. The Korean firm has bucked the downward trend, posting 2.5% year-on-year growth in 2019. And it reckons there’s even more scope for success with its latest niche offering, the Xceed. Slotting in below the Sportage, the newcomer is based on the Ceed five-door and billed as a crossover utility vehicle (CUV). It aims to combine the rugged style of an SUV with the everyday usability, efficiency and dynamic poise of a family hatchback. Tellingly, such is buyers’ appetite for these rough-and-tumble-looking machines that Kia believes this will be the Ceed range’s biggest seller. In delivering the Xceed, it would have been easy for Kia to simply jack…

The third age of the crossover hatchback roars on. If you’re a car maker, it’s probably already too late to jump on the first age’s Qashqai-sized bandwagon, and it’s getting too late to launch a cheaper and more compact Renault Captur-sized second-age one, too. It’s the high-design, fashion-item crossovers that have become the growth area now: the likes of the Mini Countryman, Audi Q2, Citroën Cactus, Volkswagen T-Roc and Toyota C-HR, which sacrifice a little bit of their added on-board practicality for extra visual appeal. Mazda is the latest to enter the sub-segment with this, the CX-30. The company’s sales pitch claims that it offers the cabin space of a CX-5 in a footprint much closer to that of a CX-3 – but take that with a pinch of salt.…

1 HONDA CIVIC TYPE R GT Bonkers Type R reigns as our champion hot hatch. Still the best for tactility, stability, pace and poise. An immense but questionably styled machine. 2 FORD FOCUS ST Might be only a shade easier to live with than the Civic, but not quite a match dynamically. Still impressively sharp and involving, though. 3 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI TCR Swansong for the Mk7.5 Golf GTI is a consummate all-rounder. Easy to live with and plenty entertaining, although expensive in this company. 4 MERCEDES-AMG A35 Another pricey contender, but the A35 remains an entertaining prospect. It handles sharply although it isn’t as focused as a Civic Type R or Mégane RS. 5 RENAULT MEGANE RS 280 Fitted with the Cup chassis, the Mégane RS is one of…

The Volkswagen ID R was always going to set a new hill record on Tianmen Mountain’s Big Gate Road. Of course it was. For one thing, it was the first official timed run up the 6.776-mile ribbon of concrete, which features 99 tortuous turns as it winds 3609 feet up the spectacular mountain known as the Gateway to Heaven in China’s Hunan province, at an average gradient of 10.14%. The road was built in 2006 to reach the amazing Heaven’s Gate natural arch and other sights atop the mountain. A mammoth project, it snakes and winds up the steep, rocky peak, carved by ingenuity and sheer force of will at angles a road has no place being built. It’s normally only used by a fleet of tourist buses – but…

QUESTION I paid a deposit on a car but have changed my mind about buying it. Can I get my money back? The car was a nearly new MX-5, so the dealer will have little trouble reselling it. Gary Kingman, Basingstoke ANSWER Whether the dealer does or does not have trouble selling it is irrelevant. In paying the deposit, you formed a legally binding contract to buy the car and your deposit is non-refundable. Circumstances when you could get your money back include if the dealer broke their side of their agreement, there’s a cooling-off period in the contract or you bought the car away from the dealer’s premises. JE QUESTION I can’t decide between a 2016 Subaru BRZ SE Nav with 22,000 miles for £14,290 and a 2015 Toyota…

Mazda MX-5 2.0 Sport Tech £8870 We should be talking about soft-tops in winter when, so the theory goes, their prices are lower, but who wants to wait until it’s too cold to put the roof down? In any case, the third-generation Mazda MX-5 that we found – a 2013/63-reg 2.0 Sport Tech with 62,000 miles – already looks well priced at £8870. Being a 2013 car, it has the later-style nose plus improved throttle response and brake feel. Meanwhile, the Tech part in the name means it has a TomTom sat-nav with touchscreen. We like the Mk3, and the later the better. Like all generations, it’s reasonably tough, and in comparison with the Mk1 and Mk2, it actually seems to be less prone to rust. Only ‘seems’, mind you:…

An expert’s view TIM HARRISON, FOUNDER, FIX MY VAUXHALL “I’m an auto electrician and have been working on Vauxhalls since the 1980s. The Tigra’s roof is generally reliable. I can’t think of many issues apart from failure of the pump modulator. Otherwise, being a Corsa under that trick body, the Tigra is a reliable and easy-to-drive car that’s also surprisingly well equipped. I mean, leather, climate control and a Targa-style panel that could be painted in a contrasting colour are pretty impressive on a car costing such little money, even when new. Don’t ignore the diesel. It’s a Fiat engine and pretty tough, as well as economical.” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE The 1.4 suffers timing chain tensioner problems. It’s a common fault and heard as an annoying rattle at tickover…

THE 718 – CAYMAN and Boxster – is the “right car to start electrification in [Porsche] sports cars”, according to Lutz Meschke, Porsche’s deputy chairman. Autocar first reported earlier this year on a possible electric 718 arriving in 2022 and Meschke’s comments are the strongest hint yet from the Stuttgart firm. He said the 718 will certainly go down a pure-electric route rather than any form of hybrid. “We need to start thinking about electric cars in the sports car segment. An [electric] 718 could be a very good step in the future,” he said. Meschke added that a new electric platform would be created for a battery-powered 718, which would then be shared with the wider Volkswagen Group, rather than sitting on the existing PPE platform shared with Audi…

THE SECOND-GENERATION RS7 Sportback has been revealed, with Audi saying it will serve as a true ‘gran turismo’ model atop the ever-expanding RS range. The machine, due on sale in the UK in early 2020, is 40mm wider than the regular A7 Sportback and has the same 591bhp, 590lb ft, 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, featuring a 48V mild-hybrid system, as the closely related RS6 Avant. Drive is sent to all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. The result is a 0-62mph time of 3.6sec, with a governed top speed of 155mph (or 189mph with the Dynamic Plus pack). The front grille is bespoke to the RS7, with most of the body panels different from the A7’s. The front gains R8-inspired air intakes and the rear features an enlarged diffuser. The…

MERCEDES-BENZ HAS revealed two new plug-in hybrid SUV variants: the GLE 350de 4Matic and GLC 300e 4Matic. The former uses a 191bhp four-cylinder diesel engine mated to a 100kW electric motor and 31.2kWh battery for a combined 316bhp and 516lb ft. The electric range is quoted at 61 miles, with CO2 emissions at 29g/km. The GLC 300e has a 208bhp four-pot petrol engine, 90kW motor and 13.5kWh battery. It has an electric range of up to 26 miles and emits 51g/km CO2.…

MODEL TESTED FOCUS ST Price £31,995 • Power 273bhp • Torque 310lb ft • 0-60mph 6.1sec • 30-70mph in fourth 7.1sec • Fuel • economy 32.0mpg • CO2 emissions 179g/km • 70-0mph 45.1m The recent European-market fortunes of the Ford Motor Company can be read in the generational development story of one of its great emblems of success: the evergreen Focus ST. This hot hatchback, now entering its fourth model generation, has been through a surprising amount of overhaul and change since the very first appeared in 2002; more, certainly, than most of its direct rivals. Emerging as its maker got used to the success of its epoch-defining Focus Mk1, the first-generation ST170 sprang to our attention in 2002. It had a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, a pretty modest 170bhp and the…

Autocar’s testing schedule necessitated a visit to Millbrook proving ground and the famous Hill Route rather than to MIRA, where we’re able to time cars on the Dunlop handling circuit. Had we been able to fix our telemetry equipment, how would the Focus ST have fared against the Honda Civic Type R and Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport S? In truth, it’s doubtful the Ford would have been quicker than either, although such is the car’s torque output and traction at Millbrook that there wouldn’t have been much daylight between the times. The Focus ST’s high-speed body control isn’t quite tight enough to mitigate the effects of a heavy engine in its nose. Despite the pin-sharp steering response and considerable capability of the electronic limited-slip diff in the front axle, the…

Diesel. Thought it was dead, didn’t you? And maybe it is. Sales have been down in the UK for the past 26 consecutive months and, anecdotally, more of the new cars arriving at Autocar road test headquarters now read 95RON on their filler caps; 98RON if we’re lucky. But try telling this to Audi. Audi spent millions (billions?) winning Le Mans time and again with smooth and bizarrely quiet TDI thrust, and now it’s fitting sophisticated diesel engines to its aspirational road cars. Models such as the S6 saloon and Avant, which only two generations ago used a normally aspirated 5.2-litre petrol V10 shared with Lamborghini. The S7 Sportback didn’t exist in the glory days of Audi’s supercar-engined but otherwise amusingly low-flying exec saloons, but it’s of the same ilk…

Relentlessly attacking, incredibly committed and exploiting his equipment to the maximum: no, not Romain Dumas, but the driver of the bus who took Autocar up the Big Gate Road. Our man regularly placed his Golden Dragon XML6700 perilously close to the cliff edge, and used the full width of the road with scant regard for the similarly committed tourist buses coming down the hill. A digital display showed passengers his speed, flashing red whenever it topped 40km/h, which was surprisingly frequently. Our time of 22 minutes might not have matched Dumas’, but that says more about the XML6700’s power deficit to the 671bhp ID R than any lack of commitment.…

We have a 2018 Renault Mégane ST Estate and it is stuffed full of the convenience and safety kit that earn plaudits in your road tests. ts. Unfortunately, none of it actually works. The auto-dipping headlights can’t seem to recognise a car travelling in front and so constantly blinds other road users. I’ve switched ched this function off. The auto lights themselves can tell when it is dark, but not when it is foggy or wet on the motorway. I turn them on and off manually. The lane departure warning is constantly activating on narrow Cumbrian lanes and yet, if you simulate a drift across lanes of a motorway, it stays silent. It’s useless, so I’ve switched it off. The blindspot detection is great in the dry but activates spuriously…

MILEAGE 9986 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the funky van-based MPV can recapture the simplicity, practicality and flexibility of the original Essentials for a camping trip to the Inner Hebrides at the height of summer? At least two gallons of midge repellent, on top of the three tents and bags of outdoorsy gear needed to keep four adults protected from the elements. Usually packing the car for a week-long road trip like this can be a bit of a nightmare, as your Tetris skills are put to the test. And even then, your passengers often have to share their leg room with carrier bags packed with vegan sausage rolls or flasks filled with kombucha tea – or at least they do on my trips. The Berlingo posed no…

MILEAGE 130,565 LAND ROVER SERIES 3 Just checking in with the Lorry, which is doing sterling work, shifting all sorts of stuff. Indeed, not pictured is a load bay stuffed to the roof with all sorts of metal- and paper-based nonsense. I also took the time to do a check and saw that, after a long time of being normal, the oil level had dropped a bit. I don’t think it is a problem – just might be a week or two longer since I checked. I use the mineral stuff that Halfords does, although I am sure someone else supplies something that is just as good. But I can’t be bothered to find it.…

These days, if you want a family-sized SUV with five or seven seats, four-wheel drive, an economical diesel engine and a tidy driving experience, you’re spoiled for choice. However, only one model brings something of the great outdoors to the table and that’s the Land Rover Discovery Sport. It was launched in 2015 as a replacement for the popular Freelander 2, as well as a kind of cheaper and more practical alternative to the hugely successful Range Rover Evoque, launched in 2011. Today, 2015-reg examples of the Sport and Evoque start at around £13,000 for cars with 100,000-plus miles. At this money, they have the old-school 187bhp 2.2 SD4 diesel engine but the Sport has seven seats rather than the Evoque’s five and is four-wheel drive, whereas the Evoque is…

BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT 6.0 Few used cars look such value for money as an early Continental GT W12. Take this one, which passed through auction recently. It’s a 2005-reg with 69,000 miles and full service history – most of it Bentley – that went for £16,650. The last service included a new spoiler motor and four tyre pressure sensors, so no expense spared. However, you don’t need to risk all at auction to bag a bargain Conti. Around £17,500 will get you into a tasty private-sale car – such as the 2004-reg one we found with 78,000 miles and full Bentley service history – and you can drive it before you buy it.…

Vauxhall has a habit of pulling a rabbit out of the hat from time to time. Remember the original Zafira with its Flex7 seating system and the Signum with its FlexSpace rear-seat arrangement? You can add another in the shape of the Tigra of 2004-09 – a pretty Corsa-based car with a clever electric folding roof. Forward 15 years and the classifieds, if not exactly wilting under the weight of used Tigras, are at least straining slightly. Prices start at just £500 for runners of all ages and top out at a shade over £3000. Around £1500 is all you need for a clean, well-serviced example from a good home. The model arrived with a choice of two petrol engines: a 1.4 16-valve producing 89bhp and a 1.8 producing 123bhp.…

The thing about getting a Defender owner’s view of the new version is that there are so many different types of old Defender. And owner. There are perhaps more than any other car: you’re as likely to see a Defender (or classic Series Land Rover) on a fashion model’s Instagram feed as you are when you want a tree chopped down, call out the Mountain Rescue or go car spotting in Knightsbridge. It’s one of those rare vehicles that looks at home in all places: at a shoot, opera, cattle auction, school, big house, small house, house on fire, house under fire, house under construction; you name it, you’ll see a Land Rover at it. As a result, not all Defender owners are going to get a new version that…

SMART HAS BECOME the first mass-market manufacturer to go solely electric with the newly updated EQ Fortwo, Fortwo Cabrio and Forfour. The exterior design of the new Smart EQ models is an evolution of the outgoing cars’ look. The grille has been lowered and made larger, albeit with much of the surface area blanked off because EVs require less air cooling. For the first time, the Fortwo and Forfour have different front-end looks, with Smart giving the four-seater a more “dynamic” profile than the “familiar friendly face” of the Fortwo. New tail-light designs also feature and full LED headlights are optional. No interior shots were shown, but Smart said a revised centre console brings a new compartment in front of the drive selector. A new, simplified infotainment system is said…

IT’S AN OFTEN overlooked fact that the headlights you turn on at night to read the road ahead are directly linked to what comes out of the tailpipe or the range of an EV. Why? If all the lighting on a car, including indicators, is by LED, the power consumption saving compared with using old-school halogen is 60%, and cutting that reduces fuel consumption and emissions. The colour temperature (measured in kelvin and literally the colour of the light) is much whiter than a halogen bulb, which is yellow by comparison, giving superior forward vision. Audi quotes 5500 kelvin for its LED headlights, which, it says, is close to daylight. LEDs – light-emitting diodes – are classified as semi-conductors, so named because they are more conductive than something like glass…

FERRARI HAS ALSO revealed another, more predictable, drop-top: the F8 Spider. Described as “less extreme than the 488 Pista Spider but sportier than the 488 Spider” that it replaces, the F8 Spider gets the same 710bhp version of Ferrari’s 3.9-litre V8 engine as the F8 Tributo. It therefore has the same power output as the limited-run 488 Pista as well as the car’s biggest rival, the McLaren 720S Spider. The twin-turbo engine helps propel the F8 Spider from 0-62mph in 2.9sec (0.1sec faster than the 488 Spider), 0-124mph in 8.2sec and to a top speed of 211mph. The Ferrari’s top speed is just 1mph shy of its Woking rival. The V8 engine produces 568lb ft of torque, peaking at 3250rpm in the F8 Spider. It is not only more powerful…

Toyota has unveiled a new TNGA-based small car platform, dubbed GA-B, that’s set to be used in the 2020 Yaris and an expanded range of small cars. The platform allows for variable wheelbase lengths, widths and heights, suggesting there could be multiple bodystyles in the firm’s future compact line-up. It can accommodate torsion beam and multi-link rear suspension and Toyota talks of a “highly rigid underbody”, low centre of gravity and low hip point for the driver, enabling a more engaging driving position.…

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The second-generation Honda NSX was always likely to struggle to match the stature of its predecessor. The Ferrari 348 was a considerably easier benchmark to surpass in 1990 than a McLaren 720S is today – and not just because of the passing of nearly 30 years. You can argue that today’s very best £200,000 supercars only have the usability, visibility, ergonomic accomplishment and all-round completeness that they do as a result of the legacy of the original NSX. That can’t have made Honda’s life any easier during the development of the current car, though, which did what it could to rewrite the mid-engined rulebook using electric motors and typical Honda ingenuity when it first appeared – but ultimately seemed to leave plenty of untapped dynamic potential to explore. Three years…

VERDICT What sort of hot hatch, then, has Ford given us? Within the remit of delivering a very quick front-driven hatchback designed to be used day in, day out, there were surely several approaches it could have taken. Bottle the ultra-adjustable playfulness of the Fiesta ST or use the car’s new-found technological bite to unleash a track-day-ready product with a much more serious demeanour. Take the fight to the Golf GTI’s door with effortless performance and sublime road manners or craft a more esoteric device that takes time to master and deliver driving satisfaction. As it happens, there are elements of all the above in the fourth iteration of the Focus ST, making it a prodigious all-rounder. With such practical roots, usability is right at the sharp end of the…

An icon in its own lifetime, the original Land Rover and later Defender was always going to be a hard act to follow. Many concepts have come out over the years to suggest what a future Defender might look like, but there have also been a few lesser-known projects within the company that did produce actual running prototypes. One of these experimental vehicles currently resides in the British Motor Museum, less than a mile from where it was born at what is now Jaguar Land Rover’s Gaydon engineering site. Finished in 1997, this little red pick-up called Lightweight Concept Vehicle, or LCV2/3, was constructed out of unused parts from an earlier LCV2 prototype. It was finished in time for a demonstration drive with Dr Wolfgang Reitzle, who at the time…

COMPARISON Naturally aspirated sports cars: the last of the breed Front-engined, rear-wheel drive, manual gearbox – such cars are an endangered species. We gather the survivors for a celebratory drive DRIVEN New Discovery Sport Land Rover’s best-seller has had a major makeover. We rate it MOTORSPORT How to fix Formula 1 Our writers on what should be the future of grand prix racing EVERY WEEK FIRST DRIVE McLaren GT The most diverse take on McLaren’s tried and trusted formula to date USED BUYING GUIDE Aston Martin DBS A decade ago, this was Aston’s flagship. Now it’s a bold but brilliant used buy ROAD TEST Audi S4 Audi’s performance saloon is a diesel. But is it good enough? SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p40…

MILEAGE 4809 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT The sporting appeal of BMW’s roadster has diminished over generations. We want to find out if it’s back At a risk of over-sharing, bad memories of a previous-generation BMW Z4 taint my view of the German sports car. Having spent a week travelling to, from and around Cornwall in a first-generation model driven by an unsuitable boyfriend many years ago, my feelings about the car – a horribly stiff chassis and abominable run-flats – echoed how I felt about my relationship. Fast forward 10 years: you’ll find a newer, wiser me and a newer, wiser Z4… hopefully. We’re two generations on from the one on which I reminisce: the run-flats are no more and BMW promises true sports car abilities plus more comfort. Grabbing…

Honda Accord Here’s the second instalment of Nick Williams’s love-in with used Hondas. “My Accord is still going strong. I’ve had it for five years now. It has done 90,000 miles and is extremely reliable. Expenditure – apart from insurance, car tax, fuel, servicing and MOT – has been a set of Michelin Primacy 3 tyres three years ago and brake pads and discs on the front. “Even though it has a 200bhp 2.4-litre, I get very reasonable mpg. I think it will be our main car for years yet. And it’s not costing me a £300-per-month PCP!”…

Porsche Boxster (981) If the interest in the last air-cooled 911s is anything to go by, interest in the last flat six Boxsters before the arrival of the flat four 718 may one day be almost as strong. Certainly, values of the 981-generation Boxster, as it is known, are holding up. Our tip for future glory is the 311bhp S variant with the manual gearbox. The more common Tiptronic is good but experience shows manuals become more sought after. We found just such a car – a one-owner, 2012/62-reg with 74,000 miles and full Porsche history – for £25,500.…