Innholdsfortegnelse for April 15, 2020 i Autocar

Renault’s strong-selling Kadjar SUV will enter its second generation next year, gaining the quality and technology boosts found on the company’s latest cars as well as a greater-than-ever choice of powertrains. Having been on sale since 2015 and receiving the mildest of facelifts last year, the Kadjar remains one of Europe’s best-selling family SUVs. As with the new Clio and Captur, Renault isn’t expected to venture too far from the current visual approach, with gently evolved styling. However, the brand’s “interior revolution” under design boss Laurens van den Acker will continue in earnest. Set to be dominated by a touchscreen (large and portrait-oriented in top-end models) no longer sitting flush with the centre stack, the new Kadjar’s interior will strive for class-leading material quality and clean design – traits that…

The National Health Service’s urgent need for more ventilators and other medical equipment to help treat patients suffering from Covid-19 sparked an incredible response from UK industry, including a huge number of automotive and motorsport firms. On 16 March, the government called for manufacturing firms to assist with rapid high-volume production of mechanical ventilators, which are designed to assist critically ill patients with breathing and other functions. Several consortiums were formed in response, and within 15 days the first ventilators resulting from those efforts had been produced and were ready. So how have firms put automotive and motorsport expertise to use producing medical equipment? Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), originally formed to apply ply technology developed by the Williams Grand Prix team to other industries, has played a major role in…

Caterham has launched a new version of the Seven aimed at combining 1970s design inspiration with modern performance. The Super Seven 1600 revives the spirit of the original Super Seven and includes classic flared front wings, 14in wheels and a wood-rimmed steering wheel. The Super Seven’s 1.6-litre Ford Sigma engine has 135bhp, making for a 0-60mph acceleration time of 5.0sec. Caterham says throttle body injection by DCOE gives the car a distinctive 1970s soundtrack. The Super Seven 1600 is priced from £33,495.…

The original Mercedes-Benz GLA was an undoubted success from its launch in 2014, with sales that touched the one million mark worldwide. But with all the marketing nonsense that surrounded it stripped away, the high-riding hatchback was in essence not much more than a rebodied version of the third-generation A-Class, and the claim to it being a genuine crossover was somewhat empty in terms of pure function. This new one is different – and all the better for it. Developed as part of an eight-strong Mercedes compact car line-up, it has been given the necessary design and engineering scope to evolve into a much more rounded and talented rival to the Audi Q2 and BMW X2. While the mechanical similarities to its lower-riding sibling remain, a whole host of unique…

MODEL TESTED 1.2 MPi PREMIUM Price £14,995 • Power 83bhp • Torque 87lb ft • 0-60mph 12.3sec • 30-70mph in fourth 24.2sec • Fuel economy 42.0mpg • CO2 emissions tbc • 70-0mph 44.7m We like • Neat, more assertive new look • Impressive cabin space and equipment • Four-cylinder performance is strong for the class We don’t like • Handling feels more secure and grown-up but not as much fun • Ride refinement suffers a little for the firmer springing, too • Not the outright bargain it once was, although it’s still good value It seems a slightly odd thing to write but, if you’ve been paying attention to recent goings-on in the wider motoring industry, you might well have concluded that the subject of this week’s road test shouldn’t really…

You don’t need to add very many active safety features to a city car to make it class leading. Still, if anything, Hyundai has probably gone overboard to deliver that key safety selling point. (The firm hasn’t yet had Euro NCAP crash test results through for the car but they should be coming.) Every i10 gets a forward-facing camera and standard AEB, or autonomous emergency braking (branded ‘FCA’), which includes pedestrian detection, a rarity on city cars. A lane-keeping system with separate departure alert and lane-keeping assist (LKAS) modes is also standard, as is a simplified driving monitoring system. Both the AEB and LKAS are switchable for sensitivity, and neither becomes intrusive in any case, although most testers preferred the dialled-back settings. It seems odd, however, for Hyundai to make…

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It shouldn’t come as a great surprise that one of the most hotly debated automotive chassis technologies originated in Japan, a nation whose residents appear to be born with a fascination for high-tech gadgets and gizmos. Active rear-wheel steering was introduced in 1985. Fittingly, it made its debut on the Nissan R31 Skyline, a car as synonymous with innovation as noodles are with ramen. However, the technology was popularised by the 1987 Honda Prelude, which was sold globally. The benefits of active four-wheel steering were highlighted early on by American magazine Road & Track. In 1987, it took a Prelude 2.0Si 4WS, laid out a slalom course and pitched the Honda against sports cars from Chevrolet, Ferrari and Porsche. The humble Japanese saloon beat the lot of them. As with…

There has been a lot of talk in the past few weeks about esports – or, let’s be honest, video games. These games have of course never been more sophisticated (the lockdown has given me time to verify this), but nothing will ever feel quite as special to me as the iconic Sega Rally arcade game of the 1990s. Remember it? You would slip inside the white plastic cocoon, slide the hard seat jerkily towards the pedals, select either the Lancia Delta or Toyota Celica (inevitably) and set off on the Mountain stage that was modelled on the Monte Carlo Rally. Mostly I was pretending to be François Delecour – although he never drove either of those cars in the WRC. Instead, the poor bloke had to make his 1984…

MILEAGE 3746 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the Juke can continue to hold its own in a crowded compact SUV market With lockdown just a few days away and already attempting social distancing (had anyone even heard of this phrase four weeks ago?), my partner and I decided to get out of town to pick up my in-laws’ dog Stan for a countryside walk. I thought it would be perfect photograph fodder for these very pages – but Labrador Stan is so distracting that I, well, forgot. Still, we wouldn’t have got a good shot of him sitting in the boot because Stan is used to the lap of luxury in the front passenger footwell – and so it was that Stan demonstrated the better leg room in…

Here is another one of reader Stuart’s magnificent charity Jaguar XKs: “The car has done 34,000 miles. I bought it in January and had it wrapped by Blueprint of Nottingham. It is sponsored by Sheffield Prestige and has been fitted with yellow Alloygators, who help to sponsor my other cars. When the coronavirus has cleared, the car will go to events and shows, helping me raise funds for Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice.” To donate or find out more, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/sherwoodjaguarracing…

BMW M140i Price £16,000 Give it long enough and any BMW still standing is sure to achieve classic status, but we’re confident the M140i will achieve it rather sooner than that. It’s the last of breed, with a 3.0-litre turbo straight-six engine producing as much power and torque as the old 1M Coupé and driving the rear wheels. It was one of this magazine’s favourite hot hatches. Our find is a 2017-reg with 67,000 miles from a BMW dealer. It has the optional eight-speed automatic, a gearbox that Autocar’s testers just couldn’t fault. So all round, pretty darned desirable.…

GOT A STORY? Email our news editor lawrence.allan@haymarket.com “The Mk5 Range Rover has been given an even more imperious and imposing look” The all-new, fifth-generation Range Rover is in the first stages of testing before it hits the showrooms at the end of 2021, tasked with leading Jaguar Land Rover out of the coronavirus-induced slump that’s expected to affect the global car industry for much of this year and beyond. Despite the closure of JLR’s production facilities and the paused launch of the new Land Rover Defender, it’s understood that there will be no let-up in the development of either the Range Rover or the battery-electric replacement for the Jaguar XJ, which will also go on sale late next year. Pictures of a disguised prototype test vehicle show the large…

Israel-based start-up REE has designed a new electric vehicle platform with modular corner and wheel assemblies that, it says, allows more freedom of design and the fitment of more body configurations than is possible on current EV architectures. REE’s platform can incorporate a totally flat floor while the motor, suspension, steering and braking – all of which are by-wire systems – are all handled by individual wheel modules. There’s an ECU at each corner and one within the chassis itself. The system is scalable for anything from small delivery vans to large commercial vehicles. Speaking to Autocar from Tel Aviv, REE co-founder and CEO Daniel Barel said: “A V6 internal combustion engine [ICE] platform and Volkswagen’s MEB [electric architecture] are more or less the same. It’s still a three-box chassis…

FOUR-VALVES-PER-cylinder engines are the norm these days and the cylinder head combustion chambers of Aston Martin’s TM01 engine we examined here last week look much like they always have. Petrolheads generally accept that four valves per cylinder – usually opened by twin cams, one for inlet and one for exhaust – is better than two, but what’s the advantage? Engines rely on getting as much air into each cylinder as possible to produce power. Surprisingly, using two large valves, one to let exhaust out and a larger inlet valve for letting air and fuel in, isn’t the best way to do that. You can think of a valve in a typical engine as a disc attached to the end of a stick that seals a port in the combustion chamber…

VERDICT We probably shouldn’t be surprised that the third-generation Hyundai i10 is quite a different car from the one we grew to like so much a decade ago. The good news is that, in a great many ways, ‘different’ can simply be read as ‘better’. If we acknowledge the amount of cabin space it affords, the assured driving experience it offers, the equipment and perceived quality it has, and the technological sophistication and safety features it brings, we can only conclude that the i10 has taken significant strides and now represents the very best and most well-rounded A-segment hatchback on sale. This is a car whose appeal is constructed not quite like those of its predecessors, the peppy performance, spry handling and unassuming character of which have been replaced by…

Electric cars have come and gone over the years, gaining and waning in popularity as eco-friendly fashions have flared and faded, but this time they’re here to stay. Of course, the government’s proposal to ban the sale of new internal combustion-engined cars by 2032 plays its part in their assured future, but it’s the recent rash of battery-powered superminis that really points the way to their permanence. Small cars are big business but the margins are slim, so to invest hefty sums packaging them with expensive electrical internals is as strong an EV endorsement as you’ll get from the automotive industry. Almost all of the major players are in the process of launching a pure-electric supermini or city car, while many have already arrived. Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated is…

We’re carrying on. Of course we are; we always have. Autocar has witnessed a lot of world events and disasters during its 125-year life, but we’ve continued to produce a weekly magazine throughout. The Autocar was just a few years old when the Second Boer War broke out, but a war being fought in South Africa didn’t have much of an effect back home. Anyway, there were only six privately owned cars in Britain when the magazine was first published, and I doubt there were that many more while the Boers were being beaten. Only twice in its long history has Autocar not made it onto the shelves. There may be a few readers who were alive during the first occasion but probably none who will remember it or whose…

Two days ago, a text arrived from Tom Hartley’s personal assistant, Hannah, asking what filling I’d like in my sandwiches. Attention to detail: that’s Hartley. It has been a while. Eighteen years back, I took Hartley, probably the world’s most famous peddler of supercars, to the Geneva motor show. If your memory is better than mine, you might recall the resulting feature. Hartley brought his son Carl, who was 13 then and is now a full partner in the business. But more about the family later. We’re at Hartley’s establishment in Overseal, near Swadlincote, Derbyshire, for a couple of reasons. First, Hartley wants to show off his recently completed new showroom. Second, he wants to talk about his new autobiography, The Dealmaker. Establishment isn’t the official description; Hartley refers to…

Bernard Charles Ecclestone. Suffolk trawlerman’s son. Racing driver. Car dealer. Driver manager. Team owner. Pint-sized godfather of modern Formula 1. Ringmaster of the most political sport in the world. Businessman. Billionaire. Admired. Feared. Loathed. On the wrong side of racing purists, Munich prosecutors and a Labour Party funding scandal. On the wrong side of the law, too, if you wish to believe the mythology surrounding the Great Train Robbery – but, as you’ll hear later from the man himself, there wasn’t enough cash in that for it to be worth his involvement. Bernie. The man whose name and number reside in my mobile phone, but who in more than 12 months I have yet to summon the nerve to call. Somehow the journey from explaining how I have his number…

I loved your article in the 11 March issue on manual gearboxes (‘Shift work’). I particularly agree with sentiments about the Mazda MX-5. However, being a slightly older reader now, at 49, I couldn’t help feeling that there were a few missing models very much worthy of a mention. I am, of course, referring to pretty much any rear-driven Ford of the 1970s. My experience was mostly of Mk2 Escorts, but the majority of Cortinas, Capris etc all enjoyed the same ‘rifle-bolt’ accuracy and lightness, without the spring-loading of more modern gearboxes. Unlike the majority of the cars in the article, these were all bread-and-butter cars. A big part of their appeal was the way they drove generally and their accessibility. The fact that you could pick up a spare…

MILEAGE 4789 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see whether the latest Superb can cut it as an object not only of supreme practicality but also some luxury Fellow Autocar photographer Olgun was kind enough to leave the Skoda Superb for me recently while he went on holiday to far-flung parts, and I’m glad he did. I had a very comfortable, easy fortnight in the car before the lockdown hit. For a couple of reasons, I wasn’t quite as impressed with it as a utility car as some of my colleagues, but I did appreciate the long-distance touring manners. I’m a tough crowd for the Superb in one respect: my last long-termer, regular readers may remember, was a Citroën Berlingo – which is just about the only vehicle that, by direct…

QUESTION I’ve been looking at financing my next car and thought personal contract hire was only available to companies. How does it differ from personal contract purchase?Kevin Blake, via email ANSWER Like PCP, PCH is a form of leasing, only you’re renting rather than purchasing the car. Of course, few people actually buy a car on a PCP, choosing instead to part-exchange it for a new one, but the option is there. With PCH, the buying option is not automatically available, but if you ask nicely, the leasing company might let you buy it at the end. Also note that terminating a PCH deal is less straightforward. JE QUESTION We’re a big family physically and have £6k to spend on a hatchback. Not too old or too many miles, and…

Vauxhall Astra 2.0i 16v VXR £4230 In these gloomy times, welcome to our round-up of fun motors (plus a project car for self-isolators) at prices to suit most pockets. It kicks off with this, the Vauxhall Astra VXR. A Ford Focus ST is the better car but a touch discreet whereas the VXR screams hooligan. Well, maybe not so much in the grown-up blue of our example (inset). It’s a nice car, this: a 2010-reg with 72,000 miles, a full service history and just two former keepers. It hasn’t been tweaked and has just had new brakes (discs and pads) all round. Being a 2010-reg, it’s the facelifted version but still with 237bhp from its 2.0-litre motor, force fed by a BorgWarner K04 turbo. It’s worth checking for blue smoke…

POLESTAR’S PIVOTAL THIRD model, which is expected next year, will take heavy styling inspiration from the recently revealed Precept concept. Polestar head of design Max Missoni said a production version of the Precept saloon hasn’t been confirmed, but it will definitely influence future cars. “The design language of that car is something you can and should expect in our future cars, starting with the Polestar 3,” he said. The 3 SUV, which will follow the 1 plug-in hybrid coupé and 2 electric fastback, can therefore be expected to continue Polestar’s design departure from parent company Volvo, with an aerodynamically focused profile, a pointed front end and a wraparound tail-light bar among its features. Missoni further hinted at the 3’s billing as a sleek, minimalist Tesla Model X rival. “Our next…

VAUXHALL BOSS STEPHEN Norman believes the UK’s coronavirus lockdown is encouraging car buyers to embrace a new phone-based direct sales system his company is rushing to put in place – and he’s confident it will remain effective long after business returns to normal. Norman is so passionate about the new project that he plans to spend two hours a day personally answering phone calls from potential customers. The firm has about 12,000 cars in the pipeline between production line and dealer, a figure he called “unusually low”. “Even when we’re clear of the epidemic, I believe retailing will never go back to the way it was,” said Norman. “I expect car buyers to keep doing what we’re encouraging them to do now: phone the company, get a response from a…

This might come as something of a surprise, but if we had to pick a car that best demonstrates the virtues of electrification, this new Audi plug-in hybrid might be it. Why? Well, judged solely on what a luxury limousine needs to deliver, namely supreme refinement and smoothness for passengers and low running costs for the owner, the A8 60 TFSIe isn’t simply on par with its petrol and diesel siblings but better. Then again, it should be. BMW and Mercedes-Benz have offered plug-in hybrid versions of their largest limos for a couple of years already, giving the engineers at Ingolstadt something to aim for as well as the opportunity to make use of the newest hybrid technology available. That technology includes a 126bhp ‘permanently excited’ electric motor (like in…

1 HYUNDAI i10 1.2 MPi PREMIUM Accomplished all-rounder, with a good provision of neat technology, safety kit and space, plus an assured drive and an overall feeling of maturity. 2 SUZUKI IGNIS 1.2 SHVS SZ5 The only car here that’s more practical than the Hyundai. It’s more charming with it, although it’s also a bit rougher and less pleasant than the i10. 3 KIA PICANTO T-GDi GT-LINE The i10’s in-house sibling has better engines these days, including a decent three-cylinder turbo. Not quite as spacious but a bit more stylish. 4 VOLKSWAGEN UP 1.0 R-LINE 5DR It has gone tumbling down the class order now that the 74bhp engine has been deleted. Not as roomy as some, although smart. 5 TOYOTA AYGO 1.0 X-CLUSIV Plenty of youthful styling pizzazz here,…

THE BRITISH TOURING Car Championship is loved by fans for producing great racing – which inevitably creates plenty of drama and the occasional dash of controversy. Autocar will again back the series when the 2020 season finally resumes, so to whet your appetite for whenever that might be, here are five of the most dramatic title showdowns in the BTCC’s history. 5 Rydell collects for Volvo (1998) The BTCC’s 1990s Super Touring era is fondly remembered, but it produced very few title showdowns. The battle did go down to the wire in the classic, ultra-competitive 1998 season, though. Eight manufacturers took part, with nine different drivers winning races. Having clashed on track earlier in the season, Rickard Rydell (Volvo S40) and Anthony Reid (Nissan Primera) battled for the crown at…

SPECIAL FEATURE Fifty years of the Range Rover Richard Webber tells the story of this motoring icon by having the latest version meet the original – off road, of course FEATURE Toyota’s UK factory We visit the plant in Burnaston, a quiet success story of UK manufacturing INVESTIGATION Drink driving Just how big a problem is driving under the influence in 2020? EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Vauxhall Grandland X Hybrid4 Is Vauxhall’s first-ever plug-in hybrid any good? We find out USED BUYING GUIDE Mercedes-Benz W123 How to get arguably the archetypal Mercedes in your garage today SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p30…

MILEAGE 7275 I have been out and about in The Italian Job Innocenti quite a bit. Before you call the authorities, it’s all legit and I do have papers and all that. What I noticed is that the rear nearside tyre (although is that offside when it’s a left-hand-drive car?) deflates slowly. I did look for any foreign bodies in the Falken rubber, but no. Putting the compressor on it led to a bit of blow back. That’s the problem, then: the valve is leaking. I can manage that. I’ve also got a big job to report back on later, and I may finally be getting the spanners out to deal with another major issue.…

It took some decades for Ford to wake up to the fact that us Brits might like to look like Frank Bullitt once in a while, but it finally delivered in 2015 when it launched the first right-hand-drive Mustang. It was available in full-fat 5.0 V8 GT and economy-oriented 2.3T Ecoboost forms and clothed in a choice of coupé (called Fastback) and convertible bodies. Six-speed manual and automatic gearboxes were offered. Today, on the used market, transmission numbers are split 50/50, but the V8 easily outnumbers the 2.3T. Ditto Fastbacks compared with the convertible. Bullitt fanciers go for the 5.0 V8 GT manual, which has the requisite number of cylinders and goes harder and sounds better. The gearshift feels heavy and nicely mechanical, too. The downside is economy of around…

Who didn’t want to be TV’s Frank Cannon, a PI helming his gloopy Lincoln Continental around the West Coast in search of baddies? Don’t remember him? It was the 1970s, when the Mk5 Linc ruled the roost. We go on about running an old Rolls but what about something like this old Conti? It was knocked out for just £5000 – £5000 for a 1979-reg 6.6-litre V8 two-door hard-top with the brightest chrome and softest velour and, for all its six metres, as spacious as Harry Potter’s cupboard under the stairs. The bonus is that it came with a Haynes manual. Those DIY wizards don’t miss a trick.…

Spitfire: the name conjures up images of swooping around the lanes, silk scarf flying. Until, that is, the little car’s engine goes pop and you’re left at the roadside wondering where all that steam’s coming from. Best we get in that reality check early on. The thing is, a Triumph Spitfire is such a pretty little thing and so darned cheap (you can get a tidy runner from £3500 and probably less) that the temptation to throw down this magazine and buy one right here, right now might be overwhelming. Resist it. Instead, look around and, above all, take a knowledgeable and sceptical mate with you when you’re allowed to go out shopping again. Based on a shortened version of the Triumph Herald, the little two-seat convertible was launched in…

An expert’s view MARK PATTINS ON, ENGINUITY “The Spitfire is a pretty little sports car. Its problem is that it’s so cheap. Most people are unwilling to spend what it takes to put right all the rust that breaks out on sills, arches, floors, windscreen pillars… Restoring one properly is very expensive. It’s why you need to be wary of partially restored or bodged cars. Always take a magnet with you so you can identify body filler. Most parts are available either remanufactured or from breakers so you should never struggle to get what you need.” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE Coolant leaks that create an oil and water sludge around the oil filler neck, rumbles and misfires… Look, listen and feel for all of these. Check the condition of the…