Innholdsfortegnelse for March 17, 2021 i Autocar

When Jaguar first announced its stunning C-X75 concept car, just before the Paris motor show in 2010, the idea was to produce this £1 million-a-time technology flagship in partnership with Williams, building a maximum of 250 cars from 2013 in a factory built especially at Williams for the job. The concept had two small Bladon Jets gas turbines behind the occupants to run the generator that would power its electric drive motors, but when that idea couldn’t be productionised, the car was re-engineered with an extremely highly developed supercharged and turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder and seven-speed gearbox. Working with the car’s four motors, this yielded 888bhp. The C-X75 was capable of a 0-60mph time of 2.9sec, a 205mph top speed and an electric-only range of up to 31 miles. However, financial…

The new EV6 is Kia’s first bespoke production electric car and pairs a radical new design with unprecedented levels of performance for the brand. Revealed ahead of its official full debut later this month, the EV6 will spearhead a wave of new-era electric cars from Kia. Each will be badged EV followed by a number corresponding to its size. So the EV6 crossover is a mid-sized car, which leaves room below for compact SUVs, hatchbacks and saloons, and for larger SUVs at the top of the range. Kia will launch a further six bespoke EVs by 2027. Full technical specifications have yet to be confirmed but the EV6 shares its E-GMP platform with the recently revealed Hyundai Ioniq 5. This means it will have 800V hardware for charging speeds of…

MITSUBISHI WILL RETAIN a presence in selected European markets with its own versions of two models from the Renault Group, one of its Alliance partners, starting in 2023. The news follows months of uncertainty about the Japanese brand’s position in Europe, after it said last year that it will halt new European model introductions. Its two new models will be sold in left-hand-drive guise only and not offered in the UK, where the brand is transitioning to an aftersales-only set-up from the autumn. Mitsubishi’s two Renault-based cars are described as “sister” models and will use the same platforms and powertrains as their French counterparts, but with some “differentiations” to help tell them apart. It has not been confirmed which models Mitsubishi will sell, but the firm will continue to offer…

BMW’S NEW ELECTRIC flagship, the strikingly styled iX SUV, will enter full production at the firm’s Dingolfing factory in Germany later this year with a choice of two powertrains. The newly detailed, entry-level iX xDrive40 uses the same twin-motor, four-wheel-drive configuration as the xDrive50 range-topper but with power output reduced from 500bhp to “more than 300hp” (296bhp). It has been priced to match a “comparable” conventionally fuelled BMW X5 and will start from £69,000. Despite the power deficit, the less performance-oriented model is only around a second slower over the 0-62mph dash than the xDrive50, at “a shade over 6.0sec”, and is capable of the same 124mph top speed. The iX xDrive40 offers a claimed range of more than 249 miles per charge from its 70kWh-plus battery pack, whereas the…

The pandemic’s impact on the private hire industry has severely affected second-hand hybrid car values. Non-plug-in models have traditionally been the tool of choice for the likes of Uber drivers, thanks to the reliability and suitability for town and city driving, and this generated good demand and healthy prices for used examples. However, Covid-19 has resulted in far fewer people using public transport over the past year. Department for Transport figures show that all car usage – public and private – amounted to just 66% of a typical day’s worth on Monday 1 March 2021, compared with 102% on Monday 2 March 2020. Figures dipped below 30% during the first lockdown, which “decimated” the private hire sector, according to Cap HPI’s head of valuations, Derren Martin. He said prices of…

Here we go again: The Great All-Rounder, back for the fifth time. Or, as it would perhaps be more accurate to say, for the third. The first two Volkswagens of the R brigade were the R32 flagships of the Mk4 and Mk5 Golf, but what their thirsty 3.2-litre V6 engines and four-wheel drive gave in terms of personality and pace was rescinded in the form of nose-heavy chassis balance and flat-footed handling. Only the committed wealthy bought them. Even so, when the decision was made that the Mk6 Golf R should adopt the four-pot Golf GTI motor, it was of course derided. What we didn’t realise in 2010 was that this switch was an essential step in the Golf R’s journey towards becoming the most broadly desirable (and also the…

Like opening one of those brown envelopes from HMRC, climbing aboard the Volkswagen ID 4 for the first time is an ordinary act loaded with trepidation. Which seems ridiculous, I’ll admit. While this is only the second car after the ID 3 hatchback to be built under the banner of Wolfsburg’s ID electric sub-brand, the ID 4 is just another crossover, albeit one whose pebblelike curvature hints at something unusual. And as for being an electric crossover, lots of those exist already. Hyundai makes one, as does Ford, as does Vauxhall. So why the suspense? It’s because the ID 4, fresh to UK roads and tested here in £37,800 1st Edition trim, could do more than any other car to shape the market over the next decade, at least in…

MODEL TESTED 1.6 T-GDi HYBRID PREMIUM Price £34,455 •Power 227bhp •Torque 258lb ft •0-60mph 7.6sec •30-70mph in fourth 10.2sec •Fuel economy 40.0mpg •CO2 emissions 130g/km •70-0mph 54.1m Sixteen years ago, our correspondents sat in a press conference at the launch of the then new Kia Rio while execs announced Hyundai’s and Kia’s combined ambition to be one of the world’s top-five car makers. Easy enough to scoff at the time. One magazine’s headline ran: ‘Her name is Rio, and she’s crap.’ A decade and a half on, the Hyundai Motor Group is the fourth-biggest manufacturer in the world on numbers of cars sold between its Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands and, of all the top 10 best-selling car manufacturers, suffered the least worst sales hit from 2020’s pandemic. The past…

Being a taller, heavier SUV, the Tucson is never going to be the sort of car you’d relish piloting around a fast, technical track such as Millbrook’s Hill Route. And yet, for the most part, it composes itself very tidily indeed. Body roll is present, and while you can feel its weight shifting around through successive directional changes, the rate of transfer never feels alarming. Grip is largely good, and its electronic stability systems don’t feel overly intrusive when you do start testing the Tucson’s adhesive limits. Of course, push too hard through particularly tight corners and the Hyundai’s nose will plough on in a straight line – and it will do so quite suddenly if you’re really not careful – but such transgressions are easily corrected. Although the gearbox…

NEW PERFORMANCE SALOONS have become seriously expensive, haven’t they? If the near-£75,000 price of the new BMW M3 Competition has given you pause for thought in that respect, here’s some more: you can have an eight-cylinder performance version of the bigger 5 Series – one with a little more power, a lot more torque, four-wheel drive and a faster 0-62mph time than the M3, even – for nearly £4000 less than the full-fat 3 Series. Meet the excellent new M550i xDrive. And that isn’t the only option for super-saloon buyers willing to think just a shade more modestly than they might be used to and to take one step down the performance hierarchy in search of a better-value, more usable and more real-world, real-road-appropriate fast executive option. Mercedes-AMG has for…

Ten years ago, with then all-powerful Carlos Ghosn standing in the foreground to accept plaudits, Nissan revealed its revolutionary Leaf, a Ford Focus-sized hatchback and the world’s first modern mainstream EV. Its design and development had cost about £4 billion, Nissan insiders boasted, which was around double what they would have had to spend on a similarly sized conventional car. But, they said, their view of the future made that outlay well and truly worthwhile – and so it has proved. Reception of the Leaf was mixed. Futurists, early adopters and the eco-minded all admired the confidence of Ghosn and co in seeing where car engineering would need to go, but industry pragmatists were much less sure. Where were the customers for this car or the market forces that would…

SPECIAL ISSUE The best used cars for 2021 Ready to raid your piggy bank? We guide you through the classifieds and look into the future of the used car market COMPARISON Ford Mustang Mach-E vs Polestar 2, VW ID 4 Promising new SUV takes on its electric crossover rivals FEATURE F1 2021 preview We sit down with BBC 5 Live’s commentary team and look ahead to the new season EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Ford Puma ST It has impressed so far, but now the new fast Ford faces its toughest test FIRST DRIVE Kia Stinger GT-S Accomplished V6 sports saloon has been extensively revised. We rate it SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p14…

QUESTION I have a 1963 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud in need of some postlockdown recommissioning. Should I seek a specialist? Eric Tindall, Melton Mowbray ANSWER It’s worth giving your local garage a call. If they’re comfortable working on such a rare and irreplaceable car, they will make swift work of changing the oil, coolant, brake shoes and other consumables. But I’ve had a quick look around and your best option appears to be Paul Mackley Engineering in Carlton, near Nottingham, about 20 miles from you. If you look at their website, they seem to have a lot of experience with 1960s Rolls-Royces like yours so are better placed to spot any potential problems unique to your car. FP QUESTION I’ma doctor in need of an economical, comfortable and reliable automatic for…

Toyota Mirai £27,995 First things first: when it was new in 2017, this Toyota Mirai saloon cost £66,000, making its current £27,995 price rather tempting. The catch? It’s a fuel cell electric vehicle, meaning that unless you’re near one of the UK’s 15 or so hydrogen pumps, you will suffer from range anxiety and then some. But times are changing: there’s a fast-growing awareness of hydrogen’s value in the energy mix, while the UK is well placed to produce loads of it very cheaply. ITM, a British company active in the hydrogen sector, plans to open 100 filling stations in the next five years. It will need customers, of course, but on that point, there’s an all-new Mirai coming. Hyundai has also joined the party with its all-new Nexo FCEV.…

The reinvented Vauxhall Astra has been spotted testing on public roads in an unmissable camouflage, showing its new ‘Vizor’ front end and displaying a lightning-bolt motif that hints at an electric element in its powertrain. The Astra will share its EMP2 platform with the new Peugeot 308, so it will offer a choice of petrol and diesel powertrains alongside a pair of plug-in hybrid options, likely to include a 296bhp, four-wheel-drive range-topper. A full unveiling is expected later this year.…

More than a year after its unveiling, Volkswagen’s most potent series-production car yet, the 456bhp Touareg R, has gone on sale in the UK, priced from £71,995. The latest and largest addition to the R performance lineup uses the same hybrid system as the Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid, mating a 2.9-litre petrol V6 with a 134bhp electric motor and 14.1kWh battery for a 0-62mph time of 5.1sec and a 28-mile EV range. It’s capable of a combined 94.2mpg on the WLTP cycle and emits 67g/km of CO2.…

PORSCHE CREATED QUITE a stir recently when it announced plans to begin manufacturing nearly CO2-neutral synthetic fuel by 2022. Somehow, the magic of this evocative brand captures the imagination and focuses the attention, but synthetic fuel chemistry has been understood for almost as long as cars have been around, so what is it, what’s new and how is it made? To be clear, synthetic fuel isn’t ethanol, the type of alcohol in alcoholic drinks, made through fermentation, which is also used as a 5% blend in petrol and later this year 10% to further reduce CO2 emissions. As a product of fermentation, ethanol is produced biologically. Engines have to be made compatible with the corrosive effects of ethanol, whereas synthetic fuel causes no problems. The synthetic fuel that Porsche is…

The Tiguan R is what happens when you apply Mk8 Golf R fundamentals to Volkswagen’s big-selling small SUV. The 316bhp 2.0-litre motor, seven-speed DSG gearbox, go-faster interior and, yes, the same R Performance Torque Vectoring driveline: all transferred to something roughly 200kg heavier and whose centre of gravity is quite a bit higher. You can even have the titanium Akrapovic exhaust and wheels up to 21in in diameter, just to make it absolutely clear you’re not simply driving any old Tiguan. As for pricing, in like-for-like specification, you’ll pay around £6000 more for the Tiguan R than its Golf cousin, but less than you would for the entry-level Porsche Macan, which the VW comfortably outperforms on paper. It’ll hit 62mph in less than five seconds, which is also quicker than…

If you enjoy playing ‘spot the facelift’, this hybrid Kona is a good one to test yourself on. The narrow daytime-running lights are even narrower (if that was possible), there’s more plastic cladding around the nose and the front foglights are more rounded. Overall, it’s not what I’d call a beautiful car, but it is at least distinctive. Inside, there’s a fresh infotainment system – 10.25in touchscreen but mercifully with plenty of physical buttons directly beneath it – so it looks less like a Fisher-Price system. There’s a new digital dash as well. Plenty of technology is on offer: wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone connection is standard across every trim, and all bar the base Kona come with nav and Bluelink Connected Car Services. Impressively, this Ultimate trim…

Some people have a fish tank in their home; Tej Kohli has a car tank. The spotlit, part-glazed extension holds five of his most precious motors: a Ferrari 430 Spider, a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, a Rolls-Royce Ghost, a Rolls-Royce Dawn and a Pagani Huayra. The Pagani is Kohli’s favourite, which is why it’s illuminated from above by a large, sparkly light panel. In the garage block next door is a Rolls-Royce Phantom EWB and a Morgan Aero Supersports. Outside, in front of Kohli’s magnificent Henley-on-Thames home, with its manicured lawns, tennis court and curling gravel drive, sits a Bentley Mulsanne EWB and an Aston Martin DB11, finished in eye-popping Cinnabar Orange. Beside it is his son’s Tesla Model S, an 18th birthday gift. Out of sight, in pride…

Williams wheels out new FW43B Williams has unveiled its 2021 challenger, the FW43B, sporting a revised livery that the Formula 1 team says is inspired by its glory days. The online launch didn’t go entirely to plan, though: hackers forced Williams to abandon an event using an augmented-reality app. George Russell: no guarantees for 2022 Williams star George Russell says that Mercedes has made “no promises” about a switch to the title-winning squad for 2022, despite his stellar one-off drive in last year’s Sakhir Grand Prix. Both Sir Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are out of contract at the end of this season, and Mercedes-backed Russell is tipped to be in line for a promotion. Pirelli stretches rubber deal Pirelli’s F1 tyre supply contract has been extended for a year…

MILEAGE 7706 INNOCENTI MINI It was a taxing time the other day when not one, not two but three of my fleet came up for renewal. Time to raid the bank account, then. Well, when it came to the Flying Pig, 12 months’ permission to be on the Queen’s highway required a whopping 330 earth pounds. I got my blood pressure down by taking, and I quote, “responsibility to make sure the vehicle is taxed, even if you don’t pay a fee for the vehicle tax”. That was the situation with the adorable Mini cars, the Italian Job and Cooper, which cost nowt, due to their historical status and quite possibly their cuteness. Meanwhile, the Lorry has another four years to run before we’re home free.…

If you are attracted to the idea of an Audi Q7 but in your head are a little too dashing for all that sensible-knickers, seven-seat stuff, you could always splash your cash on the catwalk-friendly Q8 instead. The Q8 is a Q7 clothed in a coupé-inspired body, and there’s room in its opulent interior for only five. Squint and it could even be the Lamborghini Urus, of which it is indeed a cousin. Initially, you could have only a 282bhp 3.0-litre diesel V6 (badged the 50 TDI) or a 335bhp 3.0-litre turbo petrol V6 (55 TFSI). But Audi recently added two petrol-engined plug-in hybrids: the 375bhp 55 TFSIe and the 456bhp 60 TFSIe, both of which can do 28 miles on electricity. For the very dashing driver, there’s also the…

MITSUOKA LE-SEYDE There’s a four-cylinder S13 Nissan Silvia somewhere underneath all those running boards, chrome bits and spare wheels. Around 500 Le-Seydes were made, and Mitsuoka, the Japanese coachbuilder responsible, claims that all of them sold within days. There was a convertible version called the Dore, but it was based on the Fox-body Ford Mustang of 1978-1993 – not that you would know. Looking like the love child of a Morgan and a Buick, the Le-Seyde is best viewed from the rear. Inside, it’s stock Silvia – a lapse in creativity too awful for words. This automatic model from 1991 sold for £11,130.…

The Murano is one of those ‘if only’ cars: a large, family-sized SUV aimed at the BMW X5 that, if only it had had a diesel engine from launch, might have made a more positive impression on a sceptical British public. Instead, it arrived in 2005 powered by a large, thirsty petrol engine, albeit an exotic 3.5-litre V6 that it shared with the Nissan 350Z, admittedly producing 245bhp rather than 276bhp. It was a marketing howler but explained by the fact that, at the time, Nissan was on a mission to make more of its products available in Europe, whether we wanted them or not. What was good for the smooth, arrow-straight highways and low fuel prices of the US, it reckoned, would be good enough for the twisting and…

Ex-Jaguar design chief Ian Callum is reviving one of his best-loved designs for a range-extender hypercar that aims to fill the space vacated in 2012 by the stillborn Jaguar C-X75 project, with backing from a Swiss-based Hungarian entrepreneur. The car, costing “several millions”, will utilise top British design and engineering know-how and be built in the UK. It has been named the Kincsem (pronounced ‘kin-chem’) in tribute to a famed Hungarian racehorse that was brought to the UK in the 1870s and won 54 races from 54 starts, scoring its most momentous victories at Goodwood in West Sussex. The project’s instigator, industrialist Tibor Bak, wants to combine “British expertise and Hungarian verve” to create the new car, which will have a carbonfibre monocoque chassis and be propelled by four electric…

JAGUAR’S CLASSIC DIVISION is celebrating the seminal E-Type sports car’s 60th anniversary by offering an ultra-exclusive batch of launch-specification restored models. The E-Type 60 Collection comprises a pair of restored Series 1 cars – a coupé and a convertible – inspired by the two that were used for the E-Type’s famous public debut at the 1961 Geneva motor show. Named the 9600 HP and the 77 RW in reference to the numberplates of the two cars driven overnight from Jaguar’s Coventry base to Switzerland before the first press drives, the E-Types will be restored to original factory specification but with a select few subtle concessions to modernity. The 3.8-litre straight-six engine remains, for example, but features an uprated cooling system and electronic ignition and sends its 265bhp reserves to the…

Watt Electric Vehicle Company (WEVC), the Newquay-based niche vehicle firm that recently unveiled an all-new lightweight EV platform designed specifically for low-volume applications, has launched an £81,250 own-design coupé that combines the innovative new chassis architecture with styling reminiscent of a 1950s Porsche 356A. The car is designed as a flagship for WEVC’s new chassis system (called PACES, for Passenger And Commercial EV Skateboard) and to show that with careful development, modern EVs can reap the benefits of lightness that few volume battery-electric models achieve at present. The new car, officially called the WEVC Coupé, has already undergone 10 months of successful dynamic prototype testing and development. Advanced development will continue for several more months until work begins on the first 21 individually tailored launch-edition cars, to be built at…

Ten years ago, electric vehicles were mainly on the agendas of Nissan and a small group of start-up companies that included Tesla. Now the ‘legacy makers’ are catching up rapidly: Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Renault and Volkswagen are all significant players in the EV space. In parallel, new innovators have arrived to provide EV charging, such as Ecotricity, Gridserve and Instavolt, with little sign of the traditional oil companies as we adapt to new ways of refuelling our vehicles. Now that’s all set to change. According to BP, the share of oil in road transport is likely to peak in the late 2020s. Although it could remain at 80% in countries that continue as today, its use could fall to as little as 20% by 2050 in countries with net-zero…

Land Rover created the Discovery in 1989 to fight new rivals, and it has since proved not just capable but also very likeable. No wonder the concept hasn’t changed in five generations. The Discovery remains a blend of the rugged Defender and the lavish Range Rover: formidable off road but equally happy on the motorway. Plush but not posh. And for a price that, were people more rational, would have it outselling the Range Rover Sport and Velar. That status quo was skewed by the arrival of the rejuvenated Defender. By swapping the body-on-frame setup for the D7 aluminium monocoque used by the Discovery (albeit heavily beefed up), the Defender’s on-road manners have been transformed, while its interior feels like the Palace of Versailles compared with before. Where does this…

Few if any manufacturers pounced on the industry-wide electrification shake-up as well as Kia. In 2018, well ahead of the competition, it introduced the e-Niro crossover, which with almost 300 miles of range, solid ergonomics, surprisingly serious performance and canny pricing, quickly became the best all-rounder EV sensible money could buy. It was the brand’s very first class leader, no less. Now that others are catching up, Kia has decided the most effective way forward is probably not to go upmarket (although if you do want to do that, the new 4+ trim level for the e-Niro is worth investigating), where illustrious names such as Mercedes and Polestar lurk. Instead, it has extended the e-Niro range downwards by shrinking the car’s lithium ion battery pack from 64kWh to 39kWh, which…

Performance cars are defined first and foremost by how they drive. A Lotus feels delicate, simple and analogue to its core. A Porsche may be similar in some ways but will generally be more powerful, more idiosyncratic and more substantial for tactile feel. A fast Jaguar breathes with the road as it rides. A Ferrari is direct: it rotates underneath you. A fast Ford does that too, although in a very different way. So let’s define the modern BMW M car in the same terms. Tautness and precision are both essential dynamic character traits. From the large ones to the small, M cars are powerful but responsive and linear in all. They’re not necessarily the very quickest of their kind, although they’re typically overpowered to an extent. They need enough…

Kalle Rovanperä just missed out on a big record on the recent Arctic Rally Finland. He came within 18 seconds of becoming the youngest-ever winner of a World Rally Championship event – but he still has nearly two years to displace his Toyota team boss, Jari-Matti Latvala, from that benchmark. And Rovanperä did achieve something equally impressive: he became the youngest driver to ever lead the WRC standings, at the age of just 20. Colin McRae was 27 when he became the youngest-ever WRC champion in 1995, so the Finn has time on his side to make a very big impression in the history books. It doesn’t feel like that long ago that Rovanperä became an unwitting YouTube star aged eight by sliding an old Toyota Starlet around a frozen…

In search of a new Yeti “I’ve never understood why Skoda, usually so sure-footed, killed a car that was so excellent in size, concept, buyer appeal and name,” said Steve Cropley (My Week in Cars, 10 February). I couldn’t agree more! My work takes me out into the countryside most weeks and seasonally off-road down farm tracks. For years I had been trying to identify a suitable car for the role. My Ford Focus just wasn’t up it; although it provided a really steady ride on long journeys, once I got to a farm, I ended up walking miles to avoid getting stuck. I needed a car with more ground clearance but that wasn’t huge, as my driveway isn’t very long. I finally listened to a friend and started chatting…

MILEAGE 1450 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover if this best-seller continues to impress as the left-field family car Electrification aside, safety continues to be top of the agenda for the car industry – as it should be. So when it comes to commenting on the increasing number of safety assistance systems, many of them legally mandated, I tread carefully. Yes, I’m an Autocar journalist who might sometimes prefer an old-school car, but I’m also someone who is (mostly) open to positive change, and few can argue that ultimately such tech will help prevent accidents. Of course there’s a but, because I feel that so many of these systems are still flawed. While I’m going to talk about the Skoda Octavia here, it’s only fair to note that it isn’t…

BMW 520d Touring Many thanks to Michael for sharing his motoring life with us: “Covering 20,000 business miles per year travelling long journeys around the UK, I thought I had it sorted. With my high-days-and-holidays BMW Z3 owned for nine years and in the garage, I enjoyed my 2004 Mercedes-Benz C220d with 220k-plus miles on the clock until I replaced it with my 2010 full-service-history BMW 520d Touring showing 170,000 miles. “It was bought with a leaky turbo pipe and a few other small problems, now sorted for just £2500. I feel like a king travelling down the road in absolute comfort and with enough space for my dogs and speed to spare with good economy. Living in rural Dorset with everything 20 miles distant, how could I do better…

Seat Leon 1.8 20v Cupra R £2990 Should the Seat-owned Cupra performance brand ever find itself casting around for inspiration, it need only pop down to the company archives for the file marked ‘Mk1 Seat Leon Cupra R, 2002-2004’. Quick, fun to drive, well built, practical and good looking, this 221bhp Seat hot hatch was completely on-brand. Proving what a hooligan it could be, it even gave its sister car, the Mk4 Volkswagen Golf GTI, a punch on the nose (although, to be fair, that wasn’t difficult). Our find, a 2004 car that has done 130,000 miles, looks a little sorry for itself, but it’s nothing a good service and a wash and brush-up can’t fix.…

An owner’s view GORDON THOMPSON, NISSAN MURANO 3.5 V6 CVT “We bought our Murano 3.5 a few years ago. It’s a second-generation car on a 2009 plate. We bought it for its space and comfort. It’s really smooth and has been trouble-free but then we’ve looked after it. It’s loaded with gadgets, some of which I’m still discovering. Only recently, I discovered that if you press the reversing camera button twice, it displays a kerbside view so you can avoid marking the alloys. Spares can be a headache. For example, the windscreen wipers are a special size that you can only source through Nissan dealers, at a price. I’m no fan of the CVT gearbox, either.” Buyer beware… ■ ENGINE The 3.5 petrols can suffer head gasket issues, so check…