Innholdsfortegnelse for February 3, 2021 i Autocar

THE FIRST NEW series-production Lotus for 12 years will arrive in 2021 as a Ferrari-baiting two-seater that will mark “a step change” for the British firm’s cars. Currently being developed under the Type 131 project name, the first prototype versions of the car will be produced this year at Lotus’s Hethel base, benefiting from a £100 million upgrade programme at the facility. The new car is due to go on sale next year, when it will briefly be the only series-production Lotus available, with manufacture of the current Elise, Exige and Evora due to end later this year. Lotus has yet to reveal any official details about Type 131, which was first revealed by Autocar, but outgoing Lotus boss Phil Popham told Autocar it “will have all the hallmarks and…

CAR PRODUCTION IN the UK dropped by almost a third in 2020 to its lowest level since 1984, due to the pandemic, and senior industry figures say that “significant investment” will be required to return car-making to its recent highs. Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show that 920,928 cars were produced in the UK last year, a drop of 29.3% on 2019 and representing £10.5 billion in value lost. An independent forecast predicts the recovery to reach about a million cars produced this year – far short of the generational high of 1.7 million achieved in 2016. SMMT boss Mike Hawes warned that any recovery in 2021 would be marginal and is dependent on how long showrooms in the UK and other key markets remain closed.…

THE SECOND ADDITION to the Volkswagen electric car family, the ID 4 SUV, is now on sale in limited-run 1st Edition form. Priced at £37,800 after the plug-in car grant, the new Kia e-Niro rival has a 201bhp rear-mounted motor that can propel it from 0-62mph in 8.5sec and a 77kWh (net) battery to give it a WLTP range of 310 miles. Four-wheel-drive and cheaper, less potent variants are expected later this year. Standard equipment on the 1st Edition includes 20in alloys, LED lights, a reversing camera, heated seats, a heated wheel, adaptive cruise control and a 10in infotainment touchscreen.…

IN THE PAST decade, the ability to customise a new car to the nth degree has become almost a given, and it’s a trend that isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Although 1950s-style two-tone paint jobs have all but died out, many manufacturers still give you the option of a different-colour roof panel, vinyl decals or some type of cladding to add a splash of visual drama. The problem with painting panels different colours and to some extent adding vinyl decals (go-faster stripes being a classic example) during production is the time it takes. For a roof panel to be painted a different colour, the bodyshell has to make one pass through the spray booth, its lower half masked off, and then another pass for the second colour. Typically,…

So slick are the cars that it’s easy to forget Alpina is barely out of nappies when it comes to sales volumes – especially when compared with BMW, the company with which Alpina has indelible historical ties and on whose products those slick cars are based. Take the least expensive and often most popular model in the line-up, the 3 Series-based D3. Between 2013 and 2018, Alpina sold 460 D3 saloons and 790 estates in the old shape. It’s an almost microscopic sum that makes those machines rarer than any mainstream supercar, but to Alpina, it represented a cornerstone of the firm’s revenue and meant a successor simply had to be built, even in the face of rapidly deflating demand for diesel power in Europe. And that’s what the ‘D’…

Among all the fresh engine options added by Jaguar as part of the big mid-life facelift of the F-Pace, one of the newest looks like it may figure little in the overall mix. Jaguar Land Rover’s electric-supercharged mild-hybrid 3.0-litre petrol Ingenium straight six replaces the car’s supercharged AJ-V6 petrol units. But with an equally powerful, significantly torquier and faster-accelerating P400e plug-in hybrid now available – as well as an updated V8-powered SVR, a new D300 straight-six diesel and several cheaper four-cylinder options – you might wonder if the P400 derivative is one more than the F-Pace needs. The P400 may be a 48V mild hybrid but doesn’t really drive like an electrified option: the starter-generator only ever turns the crank during engine restarts. Its power and torque feel like plenty,…

1 PORSCHE MACAN It takes a very good driver’s car – and a pricey one compromised a bit on poke – to beat the Formentor for driver appeal. 2 CUPRA FORMENTOR 2.0 TSI VZ2 DSG 4DRIVE A blend of qualities that nothing else like it for the money can really beat. Fresh and appealing. 3 VOLKSWAGEN T-ROC 2.0 TSI R DSG 4MOTION Not as practical as the Cupra or as dynamically versatile, but surprisingly good fun. 4 AUDI RS Q3 SPORTBACK Packs an almighty punch thanks to that five-pot engine but, Lordy, you’ll pay for it. Fast and wonderful to listen to, though. 5 MERCEDES-AMG GLA 35 4MATIC Pips stiff-legged BMW X2 M35i to fifth, but not by much. Plenty of luxury appeal, less driver appeal.…

The real-life Q is quite different to the one you see on the big screen. He seems less absent-minded and eccentric, for a start. And, as far as we can tell, his pens don’t contain any explosive devices. Yet Simon Lane, in his role as head of Aston Martin’s Q bespoke division, is in charge of developing cars as creative, bold and deceiving as anything MI6’s Quartermaster might produce. Having long offered a customisation service through the Works Tailored arm run from its Newport Pagnell plant, Aston launched the expanded Q division at its Gaydon base in 2012 with a licence to produce highly modified and bespoke models as demanded by its most loyal customers. Most premium car makers have similar operations, but what Lane believes sets Q apart is…

I’m supposed to be doing the interview, but the second I sit down in his office, Peter Waddell, a co-founder of Carzam, the online car supermarket that was launched in December, starts grilling me on my experience of buying one of his cars. Offence being the best defence, I blurt out that as a used car buyer, I prefer to see a car warts and all rather than, as Carzam does, preparing it so that it looks like new. Who knows what sins his company has brushed under the carpet? Waddell promptly launches a blistering attack on a rival online supermarket that does exactly what I’m suggesting. “They don’t bother fixing dents and scratches. They just show them to you!” he exclaims, pointing to a used car on its website…

Jenson Button to race in Extreme E Jenson Button will contest the inaugural Extreme E season for his own team. The 2009 Formula 1 champion, whose late father John was a leading rallycross driver, will run the JBXE squad in the new off-road racing series for 550bhp electric 4x4s, taking its entry list up to 10. The female driver with whom he will share his car has yet to be named. Ogier sets new Monte Carlo Rally record Seven-time World Rally champion Sébastien Ogier outduelled Toyota Yaris team-mate Elfyn Evans to take a record-breaking eighth Monte Carlo Rally victory. The Frenchman’s success in the season opener was his 50th WRC win. BTCC set for five more Goodyears Tyre maker Goodyear has extended its backing of the British Touring Car Championship…

COMPARISON BMW 128ti vs rivals You’ve read the first drive, now see if BMW’s new front-drive hot hatch can topple the Ford Focus ST and Renault Mégane RS DRIVEN Range Rover Evoque Plug-in hybrid technology arrives in Land Rover’s baby SUV INTERVIEW Adrian van Hooydonk So, about that grille… BMW’s design boss explains the company’s vision EVERY WEEK FIRST DRIVE Vauxhall Mokka-e Meet Britain’s funky-looking answer to the Peugeot e-2008 BUYING GUIDE Audi A8 Fourth-generation super-limousine could be yours for under £30,000 SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p40…

Range Rover Autobiography £42,000 You needn’t read the room so much as furtively glance around it for an indication of how dramatically attitudes towards cars of this ilk have shifted. The Range Rover name has long traded on its intrinsic link with lavishness and excess, but pull up outside Harrods in a leather-laden, V8-powered SUV today and you’re more likely to be met with tuts and frowns than a collective nod of approval from passers-by. But all that is by the by, because such cars are rapidly being phased out of existence, with their modern-day equivalents ushering in faux leather, recycled wood trim, downsized engines and even hybrid powertrains, so you needn’t feel so guilty at indulging in a spot of old-school decadence – especially if you steer clear of…

Alfa Romeo GTV £6400 It’s hard to imagine how much it pained this Alfa Romeo’s owner to write its for-sale advert after a joyful nine years and 32,000 miles at its engaging helm. The GTV is one of those rare objectively handsome cars that just about compensates for its shortcomings with lines you will never tire of admiring. This being a 20-year-old Alfa, we can’t entirely overlook those shortcomings (a drab interior, electrical quirks and the potential for scary-sounding cambelt failure). But the 1999 GTV we found packs the glorious 3.0-litre V6 and has been faithfully maintained by a specialist, so we would be happy to let heart rule head on this occasion.…

An expert’s view ALEX GRAY, TVR CAR CLUB “My ‘Sag’ had been put together for a customer to a very high specification. I was lucky to get it during the period when prices were at rock bottom. The two biggest pains with the Sagaris are that the engine needs looking after and the gearbox is very agricultural. People also tend to upgrade the ECU, because there’s the newer ‘MBE’ unit available. The car is very direct to drive and very responsive, but you need to be respectful when using it, because it has no ABS or traction control.” Buyer beware… ■ ENGINE The potential unreliability of TVR’s Speed Six engine is hardly a secret, but by the time the 4.0-litre lump was shoehorned into the Sagaris, its most glaring issues…

Lotus’s first series-production electric sports car will be “a Lotus to its core” with a focus on driver engagement, company bosses has vowed. The Norfolk firm’s new electric two-seater will be built in Britain and developed in partnership with Alpine. Lotus recently secured an agreement with the Renault Group’s performance brand for the joint development of an electric sports car on a new platform. The sports car twins will be the new Lotus two-seater and a successor to the Alpine A110. Their platform will be based on a core architecture that Lotus has already started to develop and is planning to use for a number of future electric sports cars. The new EV will form a key part of the bold revitalisation plan launched by Lotus after it was bought…

JAGUAR CLASSIC IS marking the 70th anniversary of the Le Mans-winning C-Type by hand-building eight new examples. The announcement comes after Jaguar won a copyright protection case in Sweden to prevent outside firms from creating C-Type replicas. The C-Type Continuation will be made authentic using archives and original scan data from the 1950s roadster, with the inclusion of disc brakes only used on racing versions. Each will use a 3.4-litre straight-six engine with triple Weber carburettors for 220bhp. No price is specified. Buyers will be invited to a 2022 “racing-inspired celebration event”.…

The Automobili Pininfarina Battista electric hypercar is currently undergoing final development testing before customer deliveries start later this year – and Autocar has had an early first taste of the 1900bhp machine. The on-paper performance figures of the four-wheel-drive two-seater are incredible. Along with that prodigious power output, the electric motors produce 1696lb ft and the car weighs under 2200kg. It promises 0-62mph in less than 2.0sec, 0-124mph in under 6.0sec, 0-186mph in less than 12.0sec and a top speed of “around 350kph” (217mph). To understand how those figures translate to a real car, we were invited to ride alongside former Formula 1 racer and Pininfarina test driver Nick Heidfeld at the Nardò Technical Centre in Italy. From the passenger seat, it is clear the £1.7 million Battista is a…

This year could be the tipping point for the UK new car market: the point where electric cars cease to become just a headline and move into the realm of viable transport for a significant proportion of the population. But what does that mean for the future of the British car industry and for the people who buy its products? In the latest of our Autocar Business Live webinars, we spoke to Alison Jones, the Stellantis senior vice-president and UK head of Citroën, DS and Peugeot, and Richard Parry-Jones, a former Ford chief technical officer and past chairman of the Automotive Council, to answer this question and more. Are customers buying into the total cost of ownership of EVs, rather than what people have been used to in terms of…

Two years ago, BMW axed arguably its most distinctive product. That product was the second-generation 1 Series: the only family hatchback that could be described as truly rear-wheel drive and, as if that wasn’t enough, the only one available with six-cylinder power. Its existence meant that if you shelled out for one of the top-ranking 1 Series models, you were getting something undeniably special for your money. BMW’s subsequent decision to switch the 1 Series onto the front-driven FAAR platform already serving the X1 SUV duly went down about as well as Porsche’s 2013 clanger of withholding a manual gearbox from the 911 GT3. In both cases, the business case was there but approval from enthusiasts was certainly not. Yet unlike the GT3, whose maker backtracked and now offers its…

Just Taycan. That’s what it says on the back of the latest battery-electric Porsche variant. Not Turbo S, not Turbo, not 4S. Just Taycan, because this £70,690 car is the simplest, although by no means the least appealing, of Porsche’s battery-electric saloon range. Shorn of a motor at the front, it is both rear-wheel drive and the lightest version of the Taycan, although these things are still relative. Even with the smaller of two available battery options, which is what I would have said our test had if I hadn’t known differently, it weighs 2050kg, so still the wrong side of two tonnes. But fitted, as this test car is, with an 87.3kWh usable (93.4kWh total) battery instead of a 71kWh (79.2kWh) battery, it weighs 2130kg. Which, for a five-metre-long…

MODEL TESTED 2.0 TSI VZ2 DSG 4DRIVE Price £39,830 • Power 306bhp • Torque 295lb ft • 0-60mph 5.1sec • 30-70mph in fourth 8.2sec • Fuel economy 27.6mpg • CO2 emissions 193g/km • 70-0mph 51.0m It is quite possible that the newest addition to the Volkswagen Group’s network of car brands, Cupra, has yet to grab your attention. If so, that may be because – until this week’s road test subject was launched, at least – it hasn’t done much differently from when Seat was deploying its Cupra branding. Until very recently, Cupra’s model range consisted of go-faster versions of mother-brand Seat’s Ateca and Leon series-production models, which, colour and trim apart, could easily have been Seat Ateca and Seat Leon Cupras without anyone noticing. But with the Formentor – a…

On an imagined hatchback handling spectrum that has circuit-ready specials like the Renault Mégane Trophy-R at one end and high-riding, dirt-loving, four-wheel-drive crossovers like the Subaru XV at the other, the Formentor belongs much closer to the former than the latter. It may have a slightly raised profile but it corners in creditably level and tenacious fashion, maintaining decent balance and composure even when pressed, and always settling and supporting its mass quickly. Composed and predictable handling makes it easy to be smooth and precise, and to carry speed without great effort. That the chassis isn’t particularly sensitive to attempts to manipulate it with load transfer, trail-braking or throttle application makes it similar to related VW Group equivalents such as the Golf R or the Cupra Ateca, but it also…

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There are places synonymous with the car industry’s rich history that are celebrated for their automotive links: think Detroit, Maranello, Wolfsburg and Turin or, in the UK, Longbridge, Dagenham, Crewe and Goodwood. The seaside town of Clevedon in Somerset is emphatically not one of those places. At least that’s what I thought, having grown up in Clevedon. This place near Bristol has a rich history, but mostly stemming from its popularity as a Victorian seaside resort. It has an award-winning pier, which has stood proudly since 1869 (aside from a 29-year period after it collapsed during a stress test in 1970…). Clevedon was also where penicillin was first mass-produced. But I had no sense ‘the gem of sunny Somerset’ was home to any motoring history. Except it was. And, of…

The Q Commission service is offered across the full Aston Martin model range, and boss Simon Lane says the uptake of it increases the higher you go up it. “With special cars such as the Vanquish Zagato series, about 60% go through Q for bespoke colour and trim work,” he reveals. The only limit is the cost, which is often set more by testing than materials. “We were asked recently about putting a full Alcantara interior into a car we don’t offer Alcantara for,” says Lane. “We’ve tested the upper part of the instrument panel for airbag deployment with leather but never with Alcantara, so we’d have to do that to put it into production. So that cost has to be borne by that customer or we need to find…

To be successful, an online car sales operation must prepare its cars properly. This fact hasn’t escaped Carzam boss Peter Waddell, who, with his business partner John Bailey, has spent £40 million creating a 14-acre vehicle preparation centre. Around 350 cars arrive every day and are first driven over machines that measure the tread depth of each tyre (4mm is the minimum allowed). The vehicle’s condition is then assessed and any dents, scratches and chips highlighted for rectification. Special scanners will soon be installed that will measure panel gaps and paint depth. Cars that fail to make the grade are sent to auction. The successful cars now go to the main area, which features 72 workshop bays and 12 MOT bays. Six ‘runners’ ferry parts to the mechanics so their…

It’s happened to most of us at some point: your colleague gets promoted and suddenly you have to adjust to your mate being your boss. Some people deal with the situation well while others struggle – which is why many firms like to recruit externally. Not Toyota. Jari-Matti Latvala celebrated his first rally as team principal with a one-two on the Monte Carlo Rally, courtesy of Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans. It could have been a podium lockout but teenager Kalle Rovanperä lost a place to a puncture on the final morning. “You certainly feel more nervous than you do as a driver,” said Latvala. “I was actually very surprised to be offered the job: I never imagined myself doing this aged 35. But an opportunity like this only comes…

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 7550 WHY WE RAN IT This is the world’s most famous sports car in (almost) its purest form. Just how much 911 do you really need? The Porsche 911 feels like a car that you know so well, but spend any time in one and, as the saying goes, you feel like you hardly know it at all. You know it’s fun, but you don’t realise how fun, or how it can spark life into even the most mundane and shortest of drives. You know it’s usable and surprisingly practical, but not that it’s usable for a family of four with a dog and some bags. And you know how well crafted and engineered it is, but you don’t realise just how great the attention to detail…

MILEAGE 103,683 Purely on the basis that every day I don’t drive my Mini Cooper I’m wasting my life, I have been using it pretty much all the time lately – despite the ice, occasional snow and sometimes fairly torrential rain. These aren’t frivolous journeys, I hasten to add. The Mini starts first time every time and then just bowls along. I need to make some time to give it a decent clean – prefer using it, though. Meanwhile, my BMW 320, which has been trapped behind an immobile Land Rover, is due for one of its first moves of 2021. It has been a while, because the Baby Shark was acquired for longer journeys, which I so rarely do any more.…

Before you splash your cash on that luxury SUV, pause, I pray you, to consider the worth of a good old-fashioned estate car based on a premium luxury saloon. Of these, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate is one of the longest-lived and most impressive. As with all the previous incarnations, this 2016-onwards pantechnicon blends a capacious and high-quality interior and a boot the size of Belgium with elegant styling and a comfortable ride. It’s great value when used, too. There were initially three diesel options: two different versions of the 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine (the short-lived E200d and impressive E220d) and a V6 in the E350d. Post-2018 cars added the diesel-electric plug-in hybrid E300de for terrific potential fuel economy and the punchy E400d straight-six diesel. The petrols included the four-pot E200 and…

The new Tesla Model S Plaid+ is the quickest electric car in series production, with its tri-motor powertrain making more than 1100bhp to send it from 0-60mph in less than 2.0sec and on to 200mph. Its claimed 520-mile range (on the US EPA test) is also far longer than that of any rival. Ushered in as part of a substantial update for the Model S and its Model X sibling, the ‘beyond Ludicrous’ Plaid powertrain is also available in more sedate standard form, but even that has 1006bhp to launch the saloon from 0-62mph in 1.99sec and the SUV (which doesn’t get the Plaid+ option) in 2.5sec. Uprated battery technology across the line-up is said to improve range and efficiency. In entry-level Long Range guise, the Model S cracks 412…

A GLOBAL SHORTAGE of semiconductors, which has disrupted vehicle production on a global scale, threatens to hit the car industry’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. More than a dozen car makers – including Ford, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (now part of Stellantis), Honda and the Volkswagen Group – have recently been forced to slow or temporarily halt vehicle production due to the issue, which emerged late last year. Semiconductors, or chips, are used for an increasingly large number of features and systems in new cars, but global supply from places such as China and Taiwan has dried up because of a lockdown-driven boom in demand for consumer electronics. Car makers are having to fight for supplies with each other and consumer electronic giants. The problem was compounded further because at the…

If you always liked big, mainstream saloons with great handling and a decent turn of speed, take a good look at this one because the breed is getting much rarer and even this former market leader won’t be around forever. Vauxhall’s D-segment Insignia has had a good life in the UK, amassing sales of around 300,000 units in a bit over a decade – even managing 8000-odd units in 2019 – despite much demand shifting to SUVs, and the premium marques have taken even more. However, Opel-Vauxhall has made it clear this platform won’t continue beyond the mid-2020s, when all of its models are due to be electrified, so this latest set of changes – bringing impressive and efficient refinements to powertrains across the Insignia range – is likely to…

There’s a new entry-level Supra and it costs usefully less than the existing 3.0-litre model because the straight six has been swapped for an inline four. Prices start at £45,995, rather than £53,035, and you can tell the two apart by the cheaper car’s 18in wheels (versus 19in) and, for the keen-sighted, the exhaust pipes, which are 10mm narrower in diameter. Naturally, the 2.0-litre engine alters the Supra’s vital statistics: 335bhp falls to 254bhp, 427lb ft drops to 295lb ft and the 0-62mph time grows from 4.3sec to 5.2sec. However, its BMW 330i motor is also responsible for dropping the Supra’s kerb weight by 100kg. It means that in its lightest guise, the GT-centric Supra weighs only 30kg more than a PDK-equipped Porsche 718 Cayman. The car is otherwise largely…

VERDICT For emergent brand Cupra, the Formentor may be just the right car at almost the right time. It’s precisely the kind of early offering to demonstrate the alternative style, everyday versatility and breadth of appeal that the firm can now aspire to conjure for a whole range of future models. The Cupra Ateca really wasn’t, and isn’t, any of the above. After something of a false start, then, this car seems to set a mould that Cupra can follow, or occasionally depart from, as it sees fit; and it’s a fresh and interesting mould that offers something to a whole range of would-be buyers. There is abundant real-world practicality here, as well as some luxury-level material richness and flourish, a striking sense of style and an appealingly pragmatic but…

It was over a year ago that I first suggested to the editor the idea behind this test. It was to pitch the most analogue version of Porsche’s most traditional offering against its most modern. This was more than just petrol versus electric, it was analogue versus digital, a rear-drive car with an internal combustion engine and a manual gearbox lobbed at an all-electric four-wheel-drive technology showcase without so much as a flappy paddle to cover its modesty. But then various things happened, a global pandemic among them. Porsche also found itself flat out just satisfying demand for two-pedal 911s and then, when the manual did come on stream, they all went to the US, which is by far the biggest market for such cars. And finally, when three-pedal 992s…

A late withdrawal from our shoot, the V8 Cygnet was Q’s take on one of Aston Martin’s baffling rebadged Toyota Aygos. That said, by the time Q had crammed the 430bhp 4.7-litre V8 and much of the running gear from a Vantage S into the city car shell, not that much of the original remained. “It was an idea that had been floating around in Q Advanced Operations for a while, that it would be funny to put a V8 engine in a Cygnet,” says Lane. “One of our very good customers, who already owns a Vulcan and a One-77, among various other cars, said he wanted us to do it. He knew the engineers well from our track-day events and knew how badly the engineers wanted to do it.”…

Every helmet tells a story for Dario Franchitti. The Scot, winner of three Indianapolis 500s and four Indycar titles, has kept almost everything from his long and glittering career, including most of the ‘skid lids’ he wore when karting as a kid through to his years as one of the best and most successful drivers on the US scene. “We joke about it,” says Franchitti, who recently shared the photo above on social media, featuring his prized collection of his own racing helmets. “We call it the ‘I love me’ room. But actually it’s now the ‘I love me’ building! Everything provokes a memory, whether it’s about a race or a friend, which becomes more important as I get older.” Franchitti never was your typical modern racing driver, because he’s…

I read in your review of 2020 (News, 23/30 December 2020) that Seat’s market share fell while other Volkswagen Group (VAG) brands’ sales rose. I’ve found Seat cars to be well made, well priced and better styled than their Skoda and Volkswagen equivalents. Seat surely has the youngest age demographic within VAG – a status other manufacturers are keen to achieve. I put this situation down to the removal of Cupra as a halo Seat product and its establishment as a separate brand. Much as the low-volume Cupra brand may have increased in value, the Seat brand has lost its attraction. Has BMW separated its M division, Ford its RS or Volkswagen its R? No. I doubt that VAG will choose to lose face by merging the Cupra brand back…

MILEAGE 1560 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if a coupé still has a place on today’s SUV-obsessed roads Purely anecdotally, it feels like people are buying fewer coupé models these days. The hard data from BMW backs this up: it shifted fewer 4 Series in 2019 compared with 2017 (although there are extenuating circumstances around Covid-19 and the fact that the previous version was coming to the end of its term). It’s a phenomenon that I feel needs to stop. The world would be a poorer place without coupés’ elegance and simplicity of design (and yes, I’m ignoring the grille on the 420d), not to mention the way they generally tend to be pretty decent to drive. Is it because people are worried that they’re impractical? Quite possibly. We’re…

Well, here’s an interesting idea. I’ll allow Stephen to explain: “We bought my wife’s DS 3 1.6 HDI 90 new for about £14,000 in 2011 and sold it today for £2800. Maybe we were lucky this 95,000-miler was no trouble (apart from an air-con pump) and not the slightest bit baggy or saggy; 55-60mpg and £20 road tax made for cheap motoring. She has replaced it with a dealer-demonstrator Mazda 3 for £19,000; it’s the first petrol she’s had in 20 years, so perhaps it’s really buyers like her who are turning diesels into bargain bangers.”…

Of all the misleadingly named special editions, surely the Dakar version of Mazda’s diminutive roadster is among the most tongue-in-cheek. Indeed, this low-slung, 115bhp, rear-driven convertible will be about as much use on the notorious desert rally raid as Mark Thatcher, but it does at least bring a natty chrome cockpit brace, bespoke 15in alloy wheels and a Momo steering wheel. Really, £1600 isn’t bad going for even a standard Mk1 MX-5 these days, and considering this seems a very tidy example of the breed (not to mention rare, given just 400 Dakar editions were sold), we reckon one lucky bidder got an absolute bargain.…

To understand why TVR’s will-they-won’t-they revival strategy is a source of such disquiet for many petrolheads, look back to the Sagaris, which served as the Blackpool sports car firm’s unplanned swansong and left such a pleasing taste in the mouth that any successor really must be delicious. That revival, you no doubt know, has been anything but a painless process, and the Sagaris remains the newest road-going TVR that you can buy (unless the new company sees fit to sell its sole production prototype of the long-awaited Griffith Mk2…). So, understandably, it commands strong money in all forms. As a result, you will struggle to find a tatty high-miler and can expect to pay at least £65,000 for a Sagaris with TVR’s fire-breathing Speed Six engine. If you can stomach…