Innholdsfortegnelse for February 5, 2020 i Autocar

AFTER THE UK officially exited the European Union last week, attention has turned to negotiating a future trade deal. The SMMT, the UK motor industry’s body, has made its position clear by demanding tariff-free automotive trade with the EU, by far the biggest export market for UK-built vehicles and from where we import seven in 10 cars sold here. The government enters those negotiations off the back of an election victory that was made far more convincing by unexpected success in areas such as the Midlands and the north-east of England. The prime minister has been clear that these votes must be rewarded – and that is where the motor industry comes in. One in 14 UK manufacturing jobs are in automotive – rising to one in six in north-east…

THESE ARE THE first images of Kia’s all-new Sorento – weeks ahead of the SUV’s expected debut. The pictures, first posted by the Kurdistan Automotive Facebook page, show a pre-production prototype with the cover lifted. The Skoda Kodiaq rival features more of a square-edged design than its predecessor, with the latest tiger nose grille sitting in a bolder front-end profile. The rear takes heavy inspiration from the US Telluride large SUV. The amateur images also give us a glimpse of the interior, with a free-standing infotainment system flanked by vertical air vents and a reduced button count. Reports suggest the Sorento will be revealed within the next two weeks in its South Korean home market, before a Geneva motor show debut in early March. It should be available to order…

Jaguar Land Rover posted a pre-tax profit of £318 million in the final quarter of 2019. The figure was boosted by the popularity of the new Range Rover Evoque, recovering sales in China and the success of a major cost-cutting drive. The firm posted revenues of £6.4 billion in the three-month period – up 2.8% year on year despite a slight dip in total sales. Continued recovery of the Chinese market pushed volumes up there 24.3% year on year. Since JLR launched its Project Charge restructuring programme, the company says it has achieved £2.9bn in savings. The next restructuring phase aims to save a further £1.1bn of cost and cash-flow improvements by March 2021.…

There’s no bigger buzzword in the car industry right now than mobility: most of the major manufacturers now refer to themselves as mobility companies, trying to reflect the fact that they want to do more than just sell cars. Trouble is, few people really understand exactly what ‘mobility’ is. In fact, it’s not really clear if the firms racing to show off how good they are at ‘mobility’ even know what it is. This lack of clarity has made it hard to get people to engage – but that hasn’t stopped the industry becoming fixated by it. The reasons why are clear: profit margins on cars are being squeezed by new technology that’s set to change the way we own – or rather don’t own – and interact with vehicles,…

It’s a formula as well known as E=mc2: a compact car offering practicality, refinement, comfort and a healthy dose of ‘premium’ cachet. If you’re not thinking Volkswagen Golf, the very obvious answer is the Audi A3. But despite us seeing a new Golf, and very recently a new Seat Leon (on the same Volkswagen Group platform, of course), we haven’t seen much of the new A3 – until now. Unusually, our first experience of Audi’s latest family hatchback is of the hot hatch variety; the latest S3, driven in prototype form in the Azores. Now, even in the third-generation A3’s old age (apparently this new car was delayed due to Audi prioritising development of its electric E-tron models), it holds its own on the battlefield of the premium hatchbacks. Versus…

If the imminent arrival of the Corsa-e electric supermini represents a major step in Vauxhall’s journey towards electrifying its entire passenger car line-up by 2024, here is another: the first plug-in hybrid to wear the griffin badge (2012’s Ampera being, strictly speaking, a range-extender electric car rather than a plug-in hybrid) and also the most powerful production Vauxhall on sale today. The Grandland X Hybrid4’s 13.2kWh battery delivers as much as 35 miles of zero-emissions range – enough, says Vauxhall, for 80% of customers to do the majority of their driving on electricity alone. Or its twin electric motors and 1.6-litre four-pot can work in tandem to send 296bhp to all for wheels for a claimed 0-60mph sprint of just 5.9sec. The car drives with the kind of split personality…

With all of its various systems set to their firmest, angriest Sport and Sport+ settings, the M8 Competition has quite remarkable levels of grip and agility. Lateral body control is very tightly checked; handling response builds very quickly off centre; balance is more neutral than is the norm for a big GT; and the steering is quite lightly weighted. For all of those reasons, you end up hitting apexes a lot more easily and quickly than you might expect to. BMW’s 4WD Sport driveline setting and its M Dynamic stability control mode allow you to animate the chassis under bigger helpings of throttle, and with a reassuring ultimate safety net in place. But it’s a safety blanket you’re quite welcome of because the M8’s quietly feisty demeanour doesn’t make it…

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You’ve probably heard that car companies no longer wish to be known as car companies. These days, it is de rigueur to present yourself as a mobility company, unconstrained by the metaphorical straitjackets of four wheels and an engine. What you may not know is that many car companies, and especially design divisions, have long had the freedom to move outside established automotive circles – and few more so than Designworks, a California-based design consultancy set up in 1972 and bought by BMW in 1995 after it had built its reputation for forward thinking. In essence, it’s a subsidiary of BMW that is open for business to outsiders. So while its headline credits include early iterations of the BMW 3 and 8 Series and X5 and more recent work on…

Need a clutch release lever for your Vauxhall Corsa? Not a problem. There are hundreds of suppliers ready to service your enquiry and it should be with you tomorrow. Cost: about £16. But what if you need one for your Porsche 959, an extremely rare car, parts for which you’re unlikely to get online, never mind over the counter? Until a year or so ago you would have had to get one specially made at great expense but, since 2018, Porsche has been able to produce the part on demand and at reasonable cost using 3D printing and, specifically, a process called selective laser melting. This involves spreading a shallow layer of steel filings in a sealed container. Guided by CAD data derived from scanning an existing example of the…

Your report (News, 8 January) on the looming crisis over CO2 fines to be levied on vehicle manufacturers for failure to meet the 95g/km target made me think: why and how are we in this position? This is certainly not a problem that’s hard to solve with affordable technology. Unfortunately, it’s cultural and therefore marketing and consumer driven. Our comparative wealth enables us to afford ever bigger, faster, heavier and more excessively complex cars, yet we have less space and energy resources to drive this excess. The manufacturers embrace this because big equals expensive and therefore profitable, so the spiral of excess continues. This culture is highlighted by the endless announcement of 1000bhp hypercars. I love cars but, sorry, these are just boring and completely irrelevant. Small cars and city…

MILEAGE 14,200 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover if it’s as capable as we think it is – or if it’s just silly How do you off-road? That’s a question we wanted answering on video recently, and when you ask a question like that in this office, there’s only one choice of hardware to help find the answer, and it’s called the Ford Ranger Raptor. Kinda. We also took a Suzuki Jimny along. But the Raptor is the Raptor. So we rocked up (no pun intended) to our favourite disused quarry, near Corby, to answer the question, if not quite comprehensively then at least as a good beginner’s guide. What makes the Raptor easy to go off-roading in is that it’s hard to get into trouble. It has huge ground…

MILEAGE 106,645 PORSCHE CAYENNE After the Flying Pig’s headlight bulb went ping and we replaced that, it conked out again when we were on the move. At least it was only the nearside light that perished so we could see where we were going. When replacing the bulb, there is a clever little access flap and a nut you twist to release the entire headlight housing. Brilliant. The trouble is, it doesn’t seem to grab the housing very securely and, although I have had a tinker, this needs a quick shove each time I drive the car.…

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em: that was clearly the instruction when Mercedes’ designers penned the A-Class of 2012-18, which we’re looking at here. So, compared with its predecessors, the new model followed a more conventional path, incorporating design cues and engineering from other Mercedes models and slotting easily into the range as an affordable base camp for newbies aspiring to plusher models or for loyalists wishing to downsize without losing face. But be warned: there are thousands of these Mk3 A-Classes on the used car market, so if you think you’re buying into a special club, forget it. Still, that means there’s plenty of choice. Prices for the first Mk3 cars, as distinct from the facelifted versions of 2015 onwards, start at around £6000, a sum that will…

MERCEDES-BENZ E320 COUPE The old W124 E-Class of 1984-96 is respected for its looks and build quality, but it’s the coupé and cabriolet versions folk lust after. Of the two, the cabrio is easily the more desirable, but the perfectly proportioned coupé is no ugly sister. A late 1995-reg example with 162,000 miles on the clock went under the hammer recently, making £1020. Rust can take hold around the wheel arches and those looks can blind you to problems below, but this one appeared to be sound. The coupé is better value than the cabrio and the best are only going one way.…

An all-new generation of Volvos with hybrid and fully electric powertrain options will begin to launch from 2022, starting with the next XC90. The new seven-seat SUV will be the first model to use Volvo’s updated SPA2 architecture, which will underpin all next-generation versions of its 60-series and 90-series cars. The launch of the current second-generation XC90 in 2014 was the catalyst for a dramatic change in Volvo’s global sales volume. The marque’s annual sales have increased by almost 300,000 units since 2013 and the firm achieved a record 705,452 sales in 2019. The third-gen XC90 will be expected to build on that momentum. Diesel will not be offered with the next round of SPA cars. Instead, petrol power in combination with a mild or plug-in hybrid system will be…

A consortium led by billionaire Lawrence Stroll has bought a 16.7% stake in Aston Martin for £182 million – sparking a major revamp of the firm’s future product plan. The deal, confirmed in a filing with the London Stock Exchange and revealed by Autocar last year, also includes a £318 million cash infusion through a new rights issue, giving the British maker a £500 million boost. Stroll also owns the Racing Point Formula 1 team, which under the terms of the new deal will be rebranded as the Aston Martin F1 works team from 2021 onwards. Aston has pledged to launch its Valkyrie hypercar this year, committed to a revised mid-engined car strategy and revealed it will delay the launch of its electric vehicles, including the relaunch of the premium…

Porsche has talked openly about the possibility of bringing back the 914. The move has fuelled rumours that the German car maker is actively preparing the way for the launch of a new back-to-basics model aimed squarely at enthusiast drivers. In an official interview posted to its Newsroom website, Porsche has detailed the history and design of the 914, launched in 1969, recognising it as a successor to the iconic 550 Spyder and describing it as a “typical Porsche” in terms of engineering. It also asked if there is a future for the mid-engined 914 in an interview with head of design Michael Mauer. Mauer said that a “cheaper, entry-level Porsche would be the right thing to do”. He added: “We have this discussion all the time… A modern 550…

BMW IS POISED to launch a new range-topping diesel model called the M340d xDrive. Images show that the model’s design is broadly similar to that of the petrol-powered M340i. Although BMW refuses to divulge official details, the M340d is expected to use the twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six diesel from the X3 and X4 M40d, albeit with power boosted slightly to 335bhp and 516lb ft of torque. That gives it a significant boost over the same detuned unit in the 330d, which puts out 261bhp and 428lb ft, making it capable of 0-62mph in 5.4sec. The car is not set to be officially announced for some weeks – with the possibility of a Geneva motor show debut. BMW UK has not yet confirmed whether the model will be offered in the UK.…

Car production in the UK dropped for the third straight year in 2019 to the lowest output since 2010, according to new figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The 1.3 million production figure was a 14.2% drop on 2018 and more than 400,000 units down on the highest mark in modern times of 1.72 million in 2016. SMMT boss Mike Hawes blamed weakened business and consumer confidence in the UK, a declining interest across Europe in diesel models (of which the UK is a large producer), and a drop in demand in key export markets including China, Japan and the US. Now there is no longer the prospect of the UK remaining in an EU customs union, Hawes has called on the government to agree a deal…

ORDER BOOKS FOR the Mk8 Volkswagen Golf have opened in the UK, with pricing starting from £23,875 until more variants are rolled out. Initially, only two trim levels will be offered. Entry-level Life comes with standard kit such as 16in alloy wheels, automatic LED headlights, front and rear parking sensors, ambient lighting and keyless start, as well as a 10.25in digital instrument display and 10.0in touchscreen infotainment system with sat-nav. Wireless phone charging, a wi-fi hotspot and a three-year subscription to VW’s We Connect Plus services are also thrown in, as is ‘Car-to-X’ technology. A comprehensive suite of standard active safety tech completes the tally. The other trim level is Style, which has 17in alloys, LED Plus headlights, upgraded seats and upholstery, extra ambient lighting, decorative wood inserts and three-zone…

Since the current-generation S3 was refreshed four years ago, the model has offered Magnetic Ride, a damper set-up used for Audi’s more focused sports cars, the TT and R8. For this new S3, Audi has ditched Magnetic Ride, and instead further developed more traditional hydraulic dampers. Vehicle development project manager Haiko Wetter explains: “Magnetic Ride in the last S3 was perhaps a little bit too sporty for this model. It should also be a car for families and long journeys. We decided to do adaptive hydraulic dampers which give a wider breadth between comfort and dynamism.” The Magnetic Ride dampers do react slightly quicker than the new S3’s but that’s a pay-off Audi is willing to make for greater scope in the hot hatch’s dynamic abilities.…

MODEL TESTED COMPETITION CONVERTIBLE Price £130,435 • Power 617bhp • Torque 553lb ft • 0-60mph 3.3sec • 30-70mph in fourth 4.1sec • Fuel economy 19.0mpg • CO2 emissions 246g/km • 70-0mph 44.0m The BMW M division claims not to have played, until now, in what it calls the ‘performance luxury’ segment. Allowing for the existence of cars such as the old M6 Coupé and M6 Convertible, of course, and for several generations of the X5 M performance SUV, the truth of the matter is a bit less clear cut than that statement would suggest – but you can see why they’d make it. Until now, it has clearly suited BMW M’s purposes to define itself in opposition to rivals Mercedes-AMG, Porsche and Audi Sport predominantly as a maker of more credible…

VERDICT If we accept BMW’s argument that this is the M division’s first proper swing at a fast, modern, performance GT car, we’d have to admit that it’s a pretty good swing. The M8 Competition doesn’t want for outright pace or handling dynamism, or for capacity to thrill. Even if you bought one as an alternative to a big-hitting, purpose-built sports car, you’d be unlikely to feel short-changed in so many ways. But the brief of a great luxury performance GT car must be broader than such a mission statement, of course; and it’s with the delivery of GT-appropriate richness of experience – in the material feel of its interior and in the refinement, tactile sophistication and subjective appeal of its drive – that the M8 Competition falls a little…

Have a go at listing all the go-faster crossovers you could buy and get change from, say, 45 grand. And please take your time. The choice is vast, so I’ll help out. You’ll already know the Cupra Ateca, but if you’re prepared to spend a bit more, you can have the much larger, twin-turbo diesel Skoda Kodiaq vRS. There there’s the Audi SQ2 and BMW X2 M35i; these are the ones for those who like it premium, and they’ll soon be joined by the GLA 35, which will enter a Mercedes-AMG line-up that today includes the same number of crossovers as saloons. That’s vaguely sacrilegious when you think about it. Also expect a Ford Puma ST and for Nismo to breathe on the new Nissan Juke, allowing both models to…

If you were playing a game of word association, it is unlikely that the ‘supercar’ would be followed by ‘affordable’. Yet the truth is you don’t need a small fortune to fund the purchase of some exotic high-performance machine when buying used. Take a look through the classifieds and you’ll find that there’s more choice than ever, and many of these motors cost less to buy than a factory fresh mid-range family hatchback. The amount of bang that’s available for your buck beggars belief and, to prove the point, we’ve dug out 17 of the best examples, from traditional mid-engined missiles to superheated saloons. Plus, we’ve selected a handful of future bargains. So go on, you know it makes sense… PORSCHE 911 CARRERA 1997-2004 £9000-£30,000 The 996-generation Porsche 911 Carrera…

When production of the Defender ended in 2016, it felt like the end of an era. Never before had such an impressive send-off been organised, as the world’s press gathered at Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull plant to watch the last example roll off the line after 68 years of production. Four years later and following much hype, the all-new Defender is here, billed to be as tough as ever but with on-road comfort too. And it’s being built at a new plant in another country: Slovakia. The factory in Nitra has been up and running since October 2018, when it began building the Discovery, which also relocated from Solihull. A bit like Nitra’s operations director, in fact: Russell Leslie is a friendly Brummie who moved to Slovakia after 26 years…

MILEAGE 1816 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if reborn MG’s poster child is as easy to live with as the established names in the class Charging an EV should be easy, right? Plug one end of the cable into the car, the other into a socket and come back a few hours later – or sooner if you’re lucky enough to have access to a rapid charger. But as a few of the staffers I’ve lent the MG to have discovered, that’s not always the case – and that hasn’t been its only recent issue. With the ZS, you hook it up to your wallbox, lock the doors and listen out for a telltale whirring from the car’s nose as it locks the charging cable in place – meaning…

L is for Toyota Land Cruiser Quite easily the best working 4x4 that anyone can buy. Never cheap – with even mega-milers from the mid-1990s still commanding solid money – but worth every single penny. Not flash, just very hard-working, with the ability to tow anything and pack in lots of bodies and the stuff that comes with them. What to watch out for? Copper injector seal problems, and suspension and gearbox damage if used hard. Farmers only sell when it’s worn out, which is worth remembering. A 2003 150k-mile 3.0 diesel with history is £4300.…

Volkswagen Up GTI Price £11,950 From a future classic perspective, it’s hard to imagine tomorrow’s old tyre kickers getting excited about today’s city cars. Unless, of course, they hankered after an Up GTI. It may lack the zest of its Golf equivalent but it’s fun enough and that badge counts for a lot. Add rarity and you’ve a pint-size future classic. Today, prices start around £11,000. Our find is a private-sale 2018/67-reg three-door with 9000 miles for £11,950. Given that it only cost £13,750 new and approved used ones are about £12,500, we’d offer £11,000 and shake on £11,250.…

Global logistics firm UPS has ordered 10,000 electric vans from London-based start-up Arrival. The vans will be introduced across Europe and North America by 2024. UPS has the option of ordering another 10,000 vans, having made an investment in Arrival said to be worth “hundreds of millions of euros”. Other recent investors include Hyundai and Kia, which put £85 million into the start-up. Technical details for Arrival’s electric van remain unconfirmed, but the company claims it will “surpass traditional vehicles in cost, design and efficiency”.…

RENAULT HAS UPDATED its Mégane range with new cabin tech, an updated RS model and the first plug-in hybrid (PHEV) variant. The E-Tech PHEV follows on from the Captur crossover that uses the same system: a 1.6-litre petrol engine mated to two electric motors and a multi-mode clutchless transmission. Making 158bhp, the system features a 9.8kWh, 400V battery that allows a range of about 31 miles, and the ability to travel at up to 84mph, on electric power alone. It will be offered first on the estate, with a hatchback being launched later. Revisions across the range include the addition of Renault’s latest infotainment system, mated to a 10.2in digital display. A new level-two autonomous motorway driving system is included, while new ‘Pure Vision’ LED headlights are offered. A new…

WHAT IS 5G? Will it merely improve smartphones a bit and maybe in-car infotainment, or is there more than that? Hopefully the latter, simply because 5G is a superfast communications protocol that’s likely to have far-reaching implications for many things vehicle related, especially safety-critical driver assistance systems. One of 5G’s biggest strengths is low latency, which simply means less delay between a command being given and received. In human terms, that could mean the time between seeing an obstacle and hitting the brake pedal. In data terms, the 20 milliseconds for 4G drops to between one and five milliseconds for 5G. That’s virtually instantaneous. The latency in human reaction time is around 200 milliseconds, so there’s more chance of avoiding a collision if 5G is there to step in. V2X…

Wouldn’t you know it, Fiat has gone and made an electrified version of the Panda City Cross: the boxy, loveable small Italian hatchback that seems set on trying to convince anyone who claps eyes on it that it really, really is a proper, mud-plugging SUV. Only it isn’t, actually. It may have plenty of black plastic cladding and a slightly raised ride height, but beneath that lies a front-driven, slightly puffed-up city car. You probably knew that already; of real interest is the fact that this new Mild Hybrid version, along with its 500 Mild Hybrid sibling, represents the first stage of Fiat’s quest to redefine itself as a maker of electrified city cars. This Panda makes use of the same three-cylinder 1.0-litre petrol engine and 12V belt-integrated starter generator…

1 ASTON MARTIN DB11 VOLANTE AMG-sourced V8 fits the DB11 Volante’s character to a tee. It’s one of the sharper-handling cars in its class, but its cabin lacks some of the Bentley’s pizzazz. 2 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GTC The new Conti GTC V8 would be a better fit than the W12, but we’ve yet to drive it. This is by far the most opulent car here but the M8 betters it for straight-line pace. 3 MERCEDES-AMG S63 CABRIOLET Despite its age, the S63 Cabriolet is as impressive as ever. More luxurious than the M8 and a more capable GT. Magnificent. 4 BMW M8 COMPETITION CONVERTIBLE M8 Competition has straight-line performance to spare, but its more focused set-up hampers its suitability as a super-GT car. 5 FERRARI PORTOFINO Entry-level Ferrari is quick, loud and exciting but,…

MERCEDES-AMG C63 2008-2015 £12,000-£115,000 If the next generation of AMG creations really will be four-cylinder hybrids, it’s time to buy one of the old V8s while you still can. Better still, make it the crackling and howling naturally aspirated 6.2-litre one. When squeezed under the bonnet of a W204 C-Class, it makes for arguably one of the best small sports saloons ever. Fast and with a bombastic soundtrack, it also shines in the corners, with balanced and approachable rear-drive handling that can be altered as much with your right foot as the steering wheel. And because it’s a C-Class, it’s spacious, comfortable and built to last. One we found A very tidy, 75,000-mile 2008 saloon with a full Mercedes service history for just £14,750 JAGUAR XJR 2013-2019 £20,000-£52,000 There are…

FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Plug-in 330e will overtake 320d as the biggest-selling 3 Series. We’ll find out if it can match the diesel’s all-round appeal The BMW 330e comes with a lot of interesting numbers. There are the impressive performance figures (288bhp, 0-62mph in 5.9sec). Plus there are the official economy and CO2 figures (176.6mpg, 36g/km). Those then feed into the 330e’s real trump card – and its imminent crowning as the best-selling 3 Series in the range: its impending benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax rate of just 10%. Put another way, come April it will cost a company car driver in tax around one third that of the currently best-selling 3 Series, the 320d, which, says BMW UK, the 330e will quickly usurp in sales. And all that for…

QUESTION I’ve been told I can be fined £5000 if I drench a pedestrian by driving through a puddle. True? If so, it seems unfair, given the number of potholes.Gary Blade, via email ANSWER Soaking or splashing a pedestrian with your car is only an offence when it can be proved you did so deliberately. The offence is driving without due care and attention and the fine is a fixed penalty notice of £100 and three points. The £5000 everyone talks about is a worst-case one that could be imposed by a magistrate were your case to go to court. The best advice is to keep your speed down. JE QUESTION I plan to buy an emerging classic this year but how do you spot them and which ones do…

Four years ago you’d have been lucky to grab a Focus RS Mk2 for less than £19,000, but now prices start at around £13,500. Not only that but there’s also a whiff of the fire sale about them, with many being advertised at £1500-£3000 less than the market average. It so happens that a colleague has been considering selling his Mk2 Focus ST that he bought 12 months ago. Not a chance. Prices have nosedived and his plan to come out with his shirt on is in tatters. “Too many tired, ratty, leggy and modified cars, plus just keeping one on the road is getting more expensive,” is his theory. It could equally well apply to the RS. The upside is that if you’ve always hankered after one, now might…

Depending on your age, the idea of a big-bumper, oak green Golf GTI 16v Mk2 of 1990 will either raise your pulse or go over your head. It might not have been the quickest or sexiest hot hatch of its day, but it was easily the classiest and most rounded, and there’s a generation of drivers who lusted after one then but couldn’t afford it at the time. Well, if they’re quick, now’s their chance. For years the Mk2 has lived in the shadow of the Mk1. When its moment appeared to have arrived, along came that other great GTI, the Mk5, plus a strong revival of interest in the Peugeot 205 GTi. The Mk2 was promptly forgotten. In recent times, though, as prices for the Mk1 and 205 have…

An owner’s view RYAN JONES “I’ve just sold my Golf GTI after six months of trying. It was a 1989-reg with 118,000 miles. I originally asked £3000, then dropped it to £2300 and finally accepted £1800. It wasn’t the tidiest example but, except for a fuel pump packing up, it was reliable. The internal drains from the sunroof that are meant to channel water out of the rear of the car had rotted through, allowing it to soak the headlining and footwells. The car was easy to work on, the only difficulty being seized bolts. If I was buying one, I’d check the MOTs to make sure it’s been driven regularly.” Buyer beware ■ ENGINE Check for oil leaks from the rocker cover gasket and the camshaft oil seals, for…