Innholdsfortegnelse for March 18, 2020 i Autocar

BENTLEY IS SET to replace its ageing Mulsanne saloon flagship with a new range-topping SUV, CEO Adrian Hallmark has hinted. The new model could potentially sit at the top of an extended range of SUVs complementing the Bentayga, which has already transformed the firm’s sales volumes and accounted for 47% of Bentleys sold in 2019. “Our ambition is to fill the Mulsanne price space,” said Hallmark. “It will not be a sports car, because we will not build sports cars. The clear indication is that luxury car buyers see SUVs as being far more attractive, and that is where we see the potential. I can definitely see gaps for more derivatives of Bentayga and other opportunities within the SUV space.” Hallmark admitted that slipping sales meant there was no rational…

THE VALUE OF numerous car companies fell sharply last week as market uncertainty caused by the coronavirus shook the industry. On 12 February, Aston Martin’s shares were selling for just under £4.60 each, but their value had more than halved by 12 March, falling below £2 for parts of the day. This meant that the ailing company was worth less than £500 million as Autocar went to press – a dramatic fall from the £4.3 billion it was valued at when it was initially floated in London on 3 October 2018. Aston Martin’s ‘Geneva’ press conference (held at its Gaydon HQ after the motor show was cancelled) failed to make much impact, despite the introduction of billionaire Lawrence Stroll as executive chairman alongside the new V12 Speedster. Many car brands…

VOLKSWAGEN TECHNICAL chief Matthias Rabe believes combustion engines still have a long future in the car industry, due to environmentally friendly fuels. The company has set itself a target of net zero carbon emissions and made a huge investment in electric vehicle technology to achieve that. Yet Rabe said engines “will have a longer future than some people predict”, assuming widespread future adoption of synthetic fuels made from biomass or other materials. “We will come to e-fuels,” said Rabe. “If you look at the aviation industry, e-fuels are in high demand because [planes] won’t go electric, otherwise you won’t cross the Atlantic. “We take our CO2 targets very seriously and want to be a role model on CO2, but that doesn’t mean we will exclude the combustion engine.” Volkswagen is…

TALK TO JUST about any emissions expert in the car industry and they’ll all agree on one thing. The quickest way to reduce CO2 emissions across a national or even global fleet of vehicles is to switch to a ‘cleaner’ fuel such as petrol blended with ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Because the plant material used to make the ethanol absorbed CO2 when it was growing, the combustion of ethanol is carbon neutral. At least, that’s the theory. To be fully carbon neutral, so must the entire life cycle of the ethanol, including the growing of crops as a feedstock, harvesting, production and delivery. The UK is to switch from E5 (5% ethanol in petrol) to E10 (10%) and that may have an impact on drivers of old bangers. Higher concentrations of…

You know some big change is afoot when the humble Vauxhall Corsa is reconfigured in such a way that it can run on nothing but the electrons that flow from a power socket. In fact, it seems entirely fair to state that this new electric Corsa-e – which has an official WLTP range of 209 miles – is the most important car that Vauxhall and German twin brand Opel have launched since, well, the original Corsa arrived on the scene way back in 1982. Of course, the Spanish-built supermini was originally known as the Nova here in Britain, before the decision was made to import the Corsa moniker from the Continent in the early 1990s. But even with that rebranding occurring in between the first and second generations, very little…

When you first drive the Audi RS Q8 down a busy, potholed high street, you find you need a good imagination. The five-metre, 2.3-tonne, 592bhp, £101k behemoth purring under your backside may feel like an ordinary, £67k Q8, but it’s actually a genuine Nürburgring record-holder, 12 seconds faster around the famous 16-mile circuit than the Lamborghini Urus and Porsche Cayenne Turbo Coupé that are simultaneously its relatives and its rivals. The fact that this mighty machine’s low-speed ride and refinement are so impressive will come almost as a disappointment to some. Same goes for the classy interior and enveloping leather seats: they say luxury rather than top-end performance. But few cars demonstrate as starkly as this Audi how sophisticated electronics allow a car as unlikely as this to be a…

MODEL TESTED 1.3 TCE 130 S EDITION EDC Price £23,395 • Power 129bhp • Torque 177lb ft • 0-60mph 9.4sec • 30-70mph in fourth 11.3sec • Fuel economy 39.8mpg • CO2 emissions 124g/km • 70-0mph 46.3m The first-generation Renault Captur was one of those uncommon, enduringly successful cars that managed to find more buyers in its final year of production than during its first. Surprised? We were. We liked the original Captur of 2013 because it was undemanding to drive, attractive to look at, decently frugal if you went for the right engine and generally more mature than the Nissan Juke, which lit the touchpaper for this sort of car but has always been a highly divisive product. But we didn’t like the Captur that much, its poor body control,…

Yes, it’s convention to test a group of cars that are differently shaped, but this isn’t a normal group test. At least they’re a different colour. What we have here is a five-star car in the shape of the (dark blue) Alpine A110, a slightly flawed but brilliantly refreshing small French two-seat sports car with a bespoke aluminium platform and a Renault Sport engine in its middle to drive its back wheels. We’ve said an awful lot about the A110 already but, to recap, it’s a revelation. Weighing just 1103kg (in Pure form, or 1123kg as the Légende), it has agility in spades, while the ride over poor surfaces is doubly impressive. What we particularly love about it is its lack of convention; Alpine knows a great driver’s car doesn’t…

In motor racing, it’s drivers like Jim Clark and Ayrton Senna who are revered as legends taken too soon. In rallying, it’s Colin McRae and Richard Burns who were lost to the sport tragically young, but not before creating an enduring legacy. It was on a cold, late-winter day that McRae, who died in 2007 in a helicopter accident, was celebrated by family, friends and fans as the Chester Rally Revival marked 25 years since one of the crowning moments of his always spectacular career. Back in 1995, McRae was at the height of his fame and fans loved him for his relentless commitment. He took his works-backed Subaru Impreza by the scruff of its neck and hurled it around the stages. As had been the case right from the…

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 4217 WHY WE RAN IT To see if reborn MG’s poster child is as easy to live with as the established names in the class and whether electric or petrol is the pick of the range As ownership experiments go, our time with the ZS has been nothing if not thorough. Two custodians ran three different cars over several months, covering more than 12,000 miles in total. But the figure that makes the most interesting reading? Just how many MG has managed to sell. Even before taking delivery of our first petrol-powered ZS, the affordable SUV was already proving a winner for MG, accounting for more than half of the brand’s total UK sales in 2018. This helped to grow MG’s market share to such an extent…

MILEAGE 106,983 PORSCHE CAYENNE Here’s something that I could regret, but I’m going to do it anyway and get the Flying Pig’s stupid plastic coolant pipes swapped for aftermarket metal ones. It was never a recall issue, because it’s not a safety item, but it is a design fault and, after a year of dripping, it has become rather annoying. I spoke to a Porsche specialist, told them what needs to be done and they sent me a quote. £5000? £2000? Nah… £60. Actually, that was to put it on a ramp and plug it into a diagnostic system. I’ve made other arrangements and watched a couple of Russians on a video with spanners. More details soon.…

To paraphrase Henry Ford, you can have any Audi T A6 saloon of 2011-18 you like, so long as it’s diesel. In fact, make that a 2.0-litre diesel, or 2.0 TDI as Audi has it. We exaggerate, of course, but only a little. The fact is that A6 2.0 TDIs outnumber any other A6 saloon variants of the same generation by a huge margin. It’s not surprising, given the A6’s target market and the company car tax structure when it was new. Then there’s the engine itself, which bows only to the BMW 520d in terms of civility. The 2.0 TDI Ultra, launched in 2014, is extremely economical, too. This emphasis on diesel could seem less of a draw for used car buyers, whose mileage might not appear to justify…

FERRARI 412 For years, the V12-powered 400, 400i and 412 were the go-to cars for people after a ‘bargain’ Fezza and a cure for hypersomnia. Today, the few that remain fetch stronger money (from around £50,000). Even so, one fortunate punter managed to hook a 1986-reg 412 with 73,000 miles for about half that sum. The hammer fell at £27,560. It came from a private collection and, according to the sale catalogue, was originally ordered by Peter de Savary, an English entrepreneur, who subsequently lost it in a game of golf. Not in a bunker, we presume……

Even in 2005 when things like disproportionately large rear spoilers were all the rage, Autocar’s tester thought the then new Celica GT a bit OTT. “Buy one if you want to be looked at,” he wrote. However, he also said the model had sweet handling, a reasonable ride, a slick gearbox and, beyond 6000rpm, a great engine. The GT was based on the more restrained-looking T Sport and powered by the same 1.8 VVTL-i engine but with 188bhp. The letters stand for ‘variable valve timing and lift control with intelligence’, a variation on the standard car’s VVT-i system that increases the intake and exhaust lift between 6200rpm and the 8000rpm redline to boost power. It really works, although below 6250rpm the engine feels no livelier than the 143bhp VVT-i. For…

Bentley has begun conceptual work on a new high-riding saloon that it’s preparing to launch as its first fully electric car. The radical model will further the firm’s ambition to establish itself as the most environmentally and sustainably led premium luxury car maker in the world. In their bid to establish global leadership in these areas, Bentley bosses want to follow this year’s launch of the brand’s first hybrid models by revealing its first electric car by 2025. That date is already challenging designers and engineers as they wrestle with delivering a vehicle with sufficient range for customers looking for a grand touring experience along with the performance capability of today’s cars. Heavy investment in battery technology is already helping to reduce the cost and improve the capability of batteries.…

ONE-OFF BENTLEYS are “possible but unlikely”, CEO Adrian Hallmark has revealed. His comments come in the wake of Bentley unveiling the £1.5 million Bacalar, of which just 12 examples will be built. Created by Bentley’s Mulliner coachbuilding division, which is set to take on significantly more bespoke projects in the coming years, the Bacalar sold out before it was revealed. It now has a waiting list of customers willing to take up build slots if anyone with a reservation drops out. “The aim is for Mulliner to create cars whenever we have credible models with a customer demand for them,” said Hallmark. “We won’t work to a set schedule, but we will respond to ideas. If one of those ideas was a one-off, we would consider it and it is…

The new Apex AP-0 is an electric supercar engineered and built in the UK and designed by Guy Colborne, the Brit behind the Elemental RP1. The AP-0 is described as race-inspired and road legal. While the car revealed here is a concept, the model is due to make production in late 2022, with prices starting from around £150,000. The AP-0 is just the latest in a list of electric supercars being revealed worldwide from a variety of start-up companies and established players, including the Dendrobium D-1, Pininfarina Battista, Rimac C_Two and Lotus Evija. The ethos behind the AP-0 is more in line with the RP1 or KTM X-Bow, but Apex intends to offer more on-road comfort than those track-day specials, given that the AP-0 isn’t an open-top. Apex claims the…

Measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic captured wider attention but the government’s 2020 budget included several policies that will directly affect drivers and the car industry. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak introduced policies that included a huge investment in roads and EV charging infrastructure and more tax breaks for electric cars. Here are the key motoring decisions and what the industry thinks about them. TAXES ■ Vehicle excise duty (VED, or road tax) to rise in line with the retail price index from 1 April. ■ Zero-emission cars to be exempt from the VED ‘expensive car supplement’ for vehicles costing more than £40,000. ■ Fuel duty remains frozen. Although there were suggestions that fuel duty would rise, Sunak kept it frozen for a 10th consecutive year. He claims this…

VOLKSWAGEN T-CROSS 1.0 TSI 115 R LINE DSG Practical, drivable, comfortable and smart, it still bosses the class for all-round appeal. SEAT ARONA 1.0 TSI 115 FR SPORT DSG Arona’s mix of dynamism, sporty style, drivability and value means it pips the Renault to second. RENAULT CAPTUR 1.3 TCE 130 S EDITION EDC Delivers on packaging efficiency, visual appeal and value but lacks a little dynamic polish. NISSAN JUKE 1.0 TSI TEKNA DCT Practicality is no match for the Renault. Limited engine range. Desirable and decent to drive. MAZDA CX-3 2.0 SPORT NAV+ AUTO Fine-handling Mazda is now in run-out but worth seeking out. Smart interior and tidy to drive.…

I’ve not heard of anyone suggesting this, but to me the new Corvette is the De Tomaso Pantera reincarnated. Think about it: an affordable, rock-solid American V8 with an abundance of horsepower that will be cheap to maintain. And even in the worst-case scenario of the engine spreading itself across the road, a replacement wouldn’t break the bank. Plenty of owners had fun with the Pantera’s 351-cubic-inch [5.8-litre] Ford Cleveland V8 by fitting Weber downdraft carburettors or just giving it higher-compression pistons and a hotter cam. No doubt America’s huge speed shop community will offer a vast array of goodies for the C8. I loved the Pantera, but my passion waned slightly when I made the mistake of driving one, due to a terrible driving position, poor quality and the…

When people talk about a breathtaking experience, what W they usually mean is that it was highly memorable. And driving the Rodin FZED was clearly that. But it was also breathtaking in the most literal sense: when I was finally allowed to let the car rip, I either momentarily lost the ability to breathe or simply forgot to do so. Weeks later, it’s still not entirely clear. But that’s what happens when an engine making 675bhp is allowed to power a car weighing 609kg. For the world’s fastest road car, the 300mph Bugatti Chiron, to match the FZED’s power-to-weight ratio, it would need – wait for it – another 500bhp. Rodin Cars’ founder, Australian businessman David Dicker, reckons the FZED is the closest thing you can buy to a Formula…

My wife and I love road trips for our holidays. In recent years, we have explored large parts of North America, and the process of driving from one state to another, and even between the US and Canada, has been totally stress-free and not requiring of any special equipment. This year, we plan to drive from our home in Bath to Austria and Slovenia and back. In order to comply with all the regulations, we will need the following: vignettes to allow transit on motorways in Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia; an emissions sticker in order to enter certain French and German cities that have low-emissions zones; a warning triangle, fluorescent jackets (reachable within the car, not in the boot), a fire extinguisher, insurance documents, a first aid kit in a…

MILEAGE 3756 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see whether the latest Superb can cut it as an object of not only supreme practicality but also luxury You might have noticed that the Superb pictured that’s graced these pages over the past few months. The reason for the switch is simple: the grey one was crashed into. Now don’t worry, yours truly is fine – and the bloke in the van that hit me wasn’t hurt either. But the Skoda was a bit mushed; its rear bumper and hatch were looking particularly sorry for themselves, and in its battered state, there was no way I could reasonably expect it to carry on with its daily duties – at least until a repair job had been carried out. So it was…

Vauxhall Vectra David loves his Vauxhall Vectra (a C-generation one): “I never thought I’d hear myself saying that, either. But needing an emergency set of wheels, I paid £300 for a 1.8 2005 Vectra and discovered something of a hidden gem. Quiet, comfortable and huge, it quickly became an indispensable part of my life. Two MOTs later and now on 156,000 miles, it shows no sign of stopping. “Costs have been minimal, just regular servicing, and on a run I can squeeze 600 miles out of a tank! I love its quiet, safe character, which means long journeys are a breeze. Last year, I drove 25,000 assured, enjoyable miles in it. These are well-built cars of huge value and capabilities – and the Vectra C owners’ forum offers invaluable advice.”…

Ford Focus ST170 Price £3500 You could argue that at its advanced age the future has already arrived for the Mk1 Focus ST170, but still prices remain stubbornly low. You can get into a runner from as little as £750 but there are signs its fortunes may be turning. For example, we spotted an immaculate 2002-reg with 45,000 miles and a good service history for £3500. Strong money when you can get into a 2007-reg Mk2 ST with 60,000 miles for the same price, but the ST170 is much rarer and blessed with a really sweet chassis.…

An expert’s view ISHRAT ‘RAY’ REHMAN, CELICA COLLECTOR “I love the Celica GT for its quality, reliability and sporty character. You have to let the Yamaha-designed VVTL-i engine warm up before it will let you rev it to the full. A recurring problem is damaged chin spoilers, which careless drivers whack on speed humps. Prices are holding for the best cars with low mileage. I sold one with 30,000 miles for £5000 last year and now it’s advertised for £7000. It shows confidence in the model. Conversely, higher-mileage cars can hang around. I’ve had a 2006 VVTL-i with 83,000 miles on sale since Christmas without a bite. I’m sure it’ll go by spring.” Buyer beware ■ ENGINE All engines have timing chains. On the VVTL-i, over-revving or oil starvation can…

Bentley’s race programmes with the Continental GT3 can’t be sustained if the brand is to achieve its environmental ambitions, CEO Adrian Hallmark has admitted. He said: “We’re committed to the cars we’ve built and have a business built around selling more but, looking forward around 10 years, perhaps sooner, then I can’t see a place for racing as it is today fitting with our goals. “What we are keen to look into, though, is pure-electric endurance racing, particularly if they have a genuine link back to pushing the boundaries of battery energy management. Races of at least 1.5 hours but ideally up to four – even if it was two hours, then charging, then two more – would be something we’d like to be part of. “As I sit here…

“Think about an electric or PHEV Wrangler Rubicon: you're going to get the most capable Jeep ever” Jeep is fully ready to embrace electrification and wants to become “the greenest, most sustainable SUV company in the world”, its boss has said. A number of electric Jeeps are potentially on the cards, including an ‘adventure’ model making full use of the benefits of EVs for off-roading: namely instant torque to the individual wheel that needs it, reduced nature-disrupting noise and the ability to provide high-voltage power for camping. “There are so many things we need to bring together to make Jeep a modern, contemporary brand that will break through and sustain for the next 80 years,” Christian Meunier told Autocar. “That’s a big transition in our world. “There was a little…

“We see opportunities in terms of the instant torque and filling the gaps in the powerband” McLaren will launch its first mainstream hybrid car later this year, with sources suggesting it will sit towards the lower end of the British sports car maker’s three-tier model range in terms of power and performance. The new car will be part of its Sports Series and will use a twin-turbocharged V6 as part of a plug-in hybrid powertrain. It’s tipped to be revealed this summer ahead of deliveries commencing later this year. While McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt declined to comment on specifics, he admitted that he’s excited at the possibilities of using electrical power to boost performance yet also reduce emissions. “We have experience of hybrid systems with cars like the P1, P1…

PSA GROUP BOSS Carlos Tavares remains “eager to invest” in Vauxhall’s factory in Ellesmere Port should a suitable business case be made for it off the back of trade deal talks between the UK and the European Union. However, if tariffs are imposed on cars or car parts, Tavares said the UK government would need to make the investment, because it “would not be ethical” to make employees at profitable PSA factories elsewhere in the world pay for arrears at Ellesmere Port, where the Astra is produced, just to keep it running. To that end, Tavares repeated his call for a free trade deal between the EU and its former member state. “If conditions of trade are positive and there are no tariffs, then most of the investment would be…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY DISCOUNTS Exclusive discounts from carefully selected partners WEEKLY NEWSLETTERS Exclusive content in weekly newsletters COMPETITIONS Subscriber-only competitions SUBSCRIBER EVENTS Access to exclusive subscriber-only events FREE KITSOUND CUBE WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TODAY Features include: Bluetooth Wireless Long life *Gift will be in the colour blue WHY NOT TRY OUR OTHER GREAT TITLES? View all of our offers on themagazineshop.com TERMS AND CONDITIONS This is a UK-only offer; for overseas offers, please visit themagazineshop.com or call +44 (0) 1604 251 450. All savings are based on the UK cover price and are correct as of January 2020. Please allow 35 days for delivery of your gift and first issue. The gift will be sent under separate cover from the magazine and won’t be dispatched until your first payment has cleared.…

Mountune’s M520 belongs back in time, when no-name electric cars with 2000bhp didn’t show up out of nowhere and we thought supercars making barely one-third of that were pushing the boundaries of what normal humans could handle. If you want a date, try March 2000, which was the month Porsche showed a concept version of the Carrera GT in Geneva. This is the era you need to mentally revisit to fully appreciate such an extreme take on the Ford Focus RS. We’ve become worryingly immune to big numbers, so let’s be clear: 513bhp is an unhinged degree of power for a C-segment hatchback and it has been achieved by the company that, while Porsche was formulating its V10 supercar, was supplying four-cylinder turbo engines for the works Focus WRC cars…

The Captur is plainly one of the better-handling cars of its ilk yet it still isn’t one an interested driver would really seek out and it stops a way short of engaging its driver when driven quickly. Like the related Clio, the Captur steers with an intuitive pace and weight that’s well matched to the rate of handling response of its chassis and that makes it easy to place in corners. With the vast majority of drivers in mind, that’s as it should be – although the car’s grip level is pretty ordinary and its outright agility likewise; and while that grip level is quite nicely balanced and the chassis seems potentially playful at first, the non-switchable stability and traction controls wield an ultimately suffocating hand. The suspension prefers smoother…

The logic in Chevrolet lifting the venerable small-block V8 out of the nose of the Corvette and dropping it behind the seats is easy to understand. The engineers had got as much out of the front-engined, rear-wheel-drive format as they could; if they wanted more performance, especially on the track and in racing, going mid-engined was the logical move. However, there’s also another reason, and a more important one at that. The front-engined sports car is old-fashioned. For those of us who grew up fantasising about owning a Jaguar E-Type, Aston Martin V8 Vantage or Ferrari Daytona, the format is still highly emotional. For younger enthusiasts, though, a sports car is mid-engined (unless it’s a Porsche 911). Not so much for its dynamics but for the way it looks. The…

Chevrolet’s decision to relocate the Corvette’s engine C has caused not a small amount of controversy. While the enthusiasts on the previous few pages seem accepting, others are loudly pondering whether the C8 can really be a ’Vette after abandoning seven decades of front-engined tradition. Yet the US firm isn’t the first to mess with a tried and tested formula in the pursuit of greater performance or profit – or both. Here are 10 examples that have travelled a similarly contentious path with varying levels of success. TURBOCHARGED HONDA VTEC Honda has long been a hard-line exponent of naturally aspirated engines, such as the VTEC units in a long line of Civic Type R hot hatches that stuck with natural aspiration long after competitors went turbocharged. Yet it wasn’t long…

Your first thought when you step over the threshold of Jaguar Land Rover’s £20 million Special Vehicle Operations division in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, just outside Coventry, is that you’ve arrived in the foyer of a Formula 1 team’s headquarters. The place has the same wall-to-wall modernity of a classy, new piece of industrial architecture, the same aura of forensic efficiency of a grand prix team and the distinct feeling that nothing here happens by accident or just the passage of time. But whereas F1 teams make half a dozen cars a year and don’t build the engine, this place handles vehicles by the thousand. Managing director Michael van der Sande says SVO’s job is to take JLR’s already potent and luxurious models and “amplify” their characteristics, at times “turning them up to…

Since the 1990s, Thatcham Research, the insurer-funded vehicle and technology research organisation, has been testing vehicle security systems for the insurance industry. Last year, it launched a rating system to help car buyers. Called the Consumer Security Rating, it includes a relay attack test. Cars achieving the highest rating, called Superior, include the BMW 1 Series, Land Rover Discovery Sport, Skoda Superb and Ford Puma. The centre’s crime lab is home to some of the equipment it uses for the test, much of it sourced by police forces during raids and arrests. Assorted relay attack devices, OBD (on-board diagnostic) key programmers, GPS jammers that can disrupt GPS-based trackers (this is a growing problem) and signal jammers that criminals can use to prevent a key locking a car fill one table.…

Australian Grand Prix cancelled The Formula 1 season-opening Australian Grand Prix was cancelled hours before practice was due to begin last Friday after a McLaren team member tested positive for the coronavirus. The diagnosis prompted the Woking-based team to withdraw from the event on Thursday, sparking discussions between F1 bosses, race organisers and teams. A further 14 McLaren team members are now quarantined in Australia. The announcement that the race would be called off came as fans were queueing outside the Melbourne circuit – and after Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel had already flown home. The Bahrain GP, scheduled for this Sunday, seemed almost certain to be scrapped too as Autocar went to press, with F1 bosses potentially looking at delaying the season until the Azerbaijan GP in June. Artistic…

DRIVEN New Land Rover Defender The verdict is in. Read Matt Prior’s review of the most important new car launched so far this century COMPARISON New Jaguar F-Type against its rivals Just how good is Britain’s new sports car? INTERVIEW Valentino Balboni Legendary Lambo test driver has a new job – and it’s not what you would expect… EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Ford Puma All signs are that there is a new small SUV class leader. We test the theory MOTORSPORT BTCC 2020 preview The runners and riders for the UK’s biggest motorsport championship SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p20…

QUESTION I’m looking to buy a used VW Golf. After your story about advanced driver assistance systems not reporting faults (12 February), how can I tell if the adaptive cruise control is faulty? Do I have any redress?Simon Clarke, via email ANSWER The Golf will display a warning message if there is a problem with its front-mounted radar. However, the message can suddenly vanish, only for it to return several weeks later. Problems with it are not covered by VW’s approved used warranty so check the front bumper and radar mount before buying and make it a condition of sale that any faults with it within a reasonable time are the dealer’s responsibility. JE QUESTION I had a Mazda Eunos years ago and am toying with the idea of buying…

Porsche 944 S2 £12,995 The 944 was a car into which you could get most medium-sized domestic appliances – the Porsche Club GB’s experts know a practical sports car when they see one. They know a good one, too, praising the 944 of 1982-92 for its agile handling, strong performance, aggressive looks and easy cruising ability. The testers on Motor, Autocar’s then sister publication, agreed. In 1986, they set a 944 Turbo against an Audi Quattro, praising the Porsche’s less laggy engine, beautifully weighted steering, impeccable balance and immense grip. The 944 evolved from the smaller, less powerful 924 and passed through various iterations culminating with the S2-based SE of 1991. The pick of the lot is the standard S2 launched in 1990, powered by a 3.0-litre engine with 208bhp.…