Innholdsfortegnelse for February 1, 2023 i Autocar

IT’S AUDI’S FIRST TRUCK. SORT OF… The Activesphere’s party piece is a highly advanced adaptable rear body section that allows users to carry sporting gear “James Bond style”, according to its designer, Charles Lefranc. At the touch of a button, the rear screen lifts and slides over the top of the car to create an open cargo bed reminiscent of a pick-up truck, complete with a pair of integrated bike stands (“roof racks destroy the aesthetic of a vehicle”, according to design boss Marc Lichte) and a full-height bulkhead section that slides automatically into place behind the rear seats to keep the elements out. IT’S A PROPER SUV “The skateboard of the car is very robust,” Lefranc says of the specially reinforced PPE platform. “It can take the beating when…

BENTLEY DESIGN BOSS Andreas Mindt has replaced his counterpart Jozef Kaban at Volkswagen. Mindt, who has headed Bentley design since January 2021, will be replaced in Crewe by Tobias Sühlmann, who already oversees Bentley’s exterior design department, having joined in late 2021 following stints at Bugatti, Aston Martin, McLaren and Volkswagen. Kaban, who was responsible for the VW ID Buzz, has been given the role of creative art director for VW. The highprofile job shuffle is a result of internal reaction to some of Kaban’s recent designs. It had been widely reported that one of his most recent creations, the 2021 ID Life concept, was taken back to the drawing board for a redesign after its reveal in Munich and VW CEO Thomas Schäfer is said to have asked…

THE EUROPEAN UNION’S new General Safety Regulations 2 (GSR2) are set to hamper the growing commercial success of the critically acclaimed Alpine A110 sports car. The new rules mandate the integration of certain cameras and sensors that enable active safety systems to be fitted on all models introduced now and on all existing models from July 2024. They have already cut short the European-market life of the Toyota GR86 sports car. The rules won’t drive the A110 out of production entirely, Robert Bonetto, Alpine’s vicepresident of engineering, told Autocar. However, they will limit European registrations from 2024 and force Alpine to look to export markets to sustain the car in the last two years of its life. Bonetto said: “Fitting the necessary equipment in order to meet the standard would…

Either they don’t understand the question or they’re pretending not to. I’m asking two Ferrari engineers which company made the simulator they’ve just shown in a video and told me lots about, having used it so much during development of the Purosangue (you can read my review next month), but they’re being coy. Eventually it becomes clear they would rather not say. And besides, they tell me, “at least half” of the simulator is Ferrari’s own work. I asked because simulation is an area shrouded in more mystery and secrecy than almost any other part of the car business, bar the advanced design studio stuff. The latest ‘driver-in-loop’ simulators give companies a competitive edge and offer millions in cost savings. And, as it happens, it’s an area in which the…

BRITISH PORSCHE ACE Harry King scored his first endurance racing victory in the Abu Dhabi 6 Hours after a nail-biting climax at the Yas Marina circuit. King started from pole in the Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R he shared with Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm and opened up a 20sec gap in the early stages of the race, before a safety car undid all his good work. At the final pit stops, the sister Herberth Motorsport 911 took the lead, but King closed it down, passed it and opened up a 17sec gap by the flag. That margin was needed, as the Pure Rxcing entry had picked up a 10sec penalty for passing another car off track. Once that was applied, the winning gap was just 7.226sec after six…

“It’s now a car to hustle, chase and lean on, capable of cornering genuinely hard and fast” Track-ready hardcore sports cars don’t typically have CO2 emissions listed among their key performance targets, but the new A110 R absolutely had to. Like many car makers, Alpine still depends on its domestic market for around half of its global sales, and not many domestic markets are quite like France. While the country’s ‘Malus’ CO2 tax adds about €40,000 to the prices of some rival sports cars, the A110, being small, light and efficient, is penalised to the tune of only around €3000. And while Alpine’s customers apparently said they would be willing to pay Dieppe for performance-enhancing value that they could easily touch, see and appreciate in a car like the A110…

MODEL TESTED 48KWH FIRST EDITION Price £31,995 Power 169bhp Torque 184lb ft 0-60mph 7.7sec 30-70mph 7.2sec Economy 3.1mpkWh Max DC charging speed 61kW 70-0mph 60.9m It’s a common playbook for emerging car manufacturers: launch with a product that might be a long way from the establishment on quality but it’s so keenly priced that it’s impossible to ignore. Then gradually ramp up the quality, build development know-how over multiple decades and gain consumer acceptance. The latest entrant to the UK car market is a little more impatient. The Ora Funky Cat isn’t playing the same value game as its MG 4 EV compatriot. The car was originally announced with a very attractive price, but Ora’s UK sales director told Autocar: “Once we saw the car and realised how high-quality the…

Tales of epic survival are spread liberally all around the Dakar. But one man in particular sticks out: Isidre Esteve. He was paralysed in 2007 in a motorbike accident in his native Spain, but by then he had already got the Dakar bug, having competed on a bike 10 times. Something as insignificant as losing movement in both his legs wasn’t going to stop him. So in 2009 he was back, in a car with co-driver Txema Villalobos. It’s fair to say that things didn’t go well, as Esteve explains: “We had electrical problems, so I spent 20 hours strapped in the car. Because I can’t move, it was really bad for my skin, and I got terrible blisters that took me one and a half years to get over.”…

“We want our products to be very functional, but attractive with it” It’s hardly surprising that Klaus Zellmer, chairman of Skoda for the past six months after more than two decades at Porsche, enthusiastically describes himself as a car guy. Anyone who has spent his working life rising through the ranks at the legendary German sports car maker (he was CEO of Porsche Cars North America for five years from 2015) is bound to fit that description. The more interesting question is why a 23-year Porsche man should be drafted into Skoda, which sits at the opposite end of the Volkswagen Group’s price and prestige spectrum – especially since one of his recent Skoda predecessors, Bernhard Maier, spent five years as Skoda’s CEO after a similarly lengthy Porsche stint. Zellmer…

INEOS SPECIAL Ineos Grenadier Bumper package includes exclusive Ineos news and an in-depth review of one of the most talked-about cars of the decade DRIVEN Rolls-Royce Spectre Surely electric wafting is a perfect fit for a Roller? It’s time to find out FEATURE Arctic lorry Here’s a new challenge for our road test editor: a Scania truck on ice EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Volkswagen ID Buzz There’s no place to hide as we dig deep into the UK’s cheeriest new car USED GUIDE BMW 3 Series We run the rule over Munich’s evergreen executive driver’s car SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p42…

“Is the lack of fanfare around the handling a deliberate trick?” FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if a vRS badge can make an electric car exciting Sometimes you get a subliminal sense of where a car is aimed at by reading the press bumf that comes with the launch. It’s like a politician’s speech: if he or she mentions ‘change’ 25 times in 30 minutes, you know there’s a transformation coming. Well, that’s what they would like you to think, at any rate… With the Skoda Enyaq iV vRS, it’s not quite so clear-cut. Sure, there’s a healthy dose of “sporty” and “athletic”, but more where the design is concerned rather than the chassis or suspension. The power gets a look-in, but not with any headline claims;…

It may be almost a decade old now, but the current Volkswagen Passat Estate is still a top choice if you’re after a classy wagon that’s good to drive, comfortable to ride in, decently refined and huge inside. Launched in 2014, the Mk8 looks and feels totally modern but has been around for long enough to have become tempting value on the used market. The petrol engines all have four cylinders and are badged TSI. They start with a 1.4-litre making 124bhp or 148bhp, rise to a 178bhp 1.8-litre and then culminate with a 2.0-litre packing 187bhp, 218bhp or 268bhp. There’s also a plug-in hybrid powertrain, badged GTE, which pairs a 1.4-litre turbo petrol engine with and an electric motor to produce a combined 215bhp. Expect an electriconly range of…

An owner’s view ANDREW DOYLE “I’ve owned my 2007 4.5 S from new. It’s been a terrific family car and we’ve done over 130,000 miles in it, including touring all over Europe fiveup. It’s been mostly reliable, although it has let us down with a couple of minor electrical issues. I’ve had it serviced regularly by Porsche and, to be honest, that’s cost a fortune over the years. However, it is great to drive and has that all-important Porsche feel to the interior. I’m not sure if I’ll ever replace it.” Buyer beware… ▪ ENGINE Plastic coolant pipes on 2003-2006 V8s can crack and weep. They were later changed to aluminium. V8 S 4.5s can suffer cylinder problems at around 70k miles. A tapping noise at idle could be piston…

“This secret new SUV is destined to become reality in around 2027” Autocar can reveal that Audi bosses are on the verge of giving the green light to a go-anywhere electric 4x4 SUV to take on the Land Rover Defender and Mercedes G-Class – a shock move for the German brand as it evaluates a range of bold new products to sit atop new-era EV architecture. The firm’s outlandish new Activesphere concept – a segment-straddling off-road super-saloon (see overleaf) – gives strong clues to Audi’s priorities in this segment with its overt focus on outdoor pursuits and rugged design cues and indeed it is set to make production as a tough, Allroad-esque luxury saloon. But this secret new SUV is a separate project, destined to become reality in around 2027…

Ford’s long-awaited Volkswagen Group MEB-based electric SUV has been caught testing on public roads just two months before a scheduled official unveiling. The as-yet-unnamed Hyundai Ioniq 5 rival was officially previewed last month, but only in a darkened silhouette image that gave little away beyond its basic proportions and distinctive LED headlight signature. It will be one of the first Ford models to be designed according to the ‘Adventurous Spirit’ ethos, to help Ford “connect emotionally with consumers who say they know we’re American but don’t feel we’re American”, said Ford’s Europe marketing boss, Peter Zillig. Here, we detail five key aspects of Ford’s electric SUV. FIVE THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT FORD’S IMPORTANT ELECTRIC SUV • EMPHASISING HERITAGE In line with a new Ford directive, the electric SUV has been…

“It’s an attempt to combine the past, present and future with coherency” Porsche has revisited its beginnings with this new design concept, created as one of “many” 75thbirthday presents the sports car company will be gifting itself over the coming year. The Vision 357 is a modern take on the 356, which in 1948 became the first production car to bear the Porsche name and went on to provide the framework for the iconic 911 – which itself turns 60 this year. The 357 evokes the rakish and narrow design of the 356, also featuring a modern take on its front end, a rounded rear and flared wheel arches. However, although it “liberated” itself from any regulations that apply to road cars, such as those concerning safety, Porsche opted not…

NO MATTER HOW hard it tries, the car industry struggles with finding a perfect or sometimes even a half-decent answer to the interaction between driver and car. The move towards touchscreens to reduce the complexity of myriad buttons as cars grew more complicated proved to be something of an own goal. Arguably, touchscreens cause as much distraction in a car as they were designed to avoid, but could they be improved by using head-up displays (HUDs)? Although plenty of premium cars have them, they’re still more of a gimmick, rather than a vital feature that arguably should be standard equipment, but what if some aspects of HUDs and touchscreens could overlap more? HUDs in cars have been around for three decades but few have progressed beyond the absolute basics of…

The organisers of the dormant Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS) have announced plans to first lend their expertise to the running of the “ultimate festival of automotive excellence” in Qatar this year and then to bring back the traditional event at the Palexpo exhibition centre in Switzerland next February. The organisers believe the new event can attract 200,000 visitors to Doha, the capital of a country that bills itself as the “most open” in the Middle Eastern region and is currently basking in the glow of a successful football World Cup. The festival will be staged between 5 and 14 October – coinciding with Formula 1’s Qatar Grand Prix, to be held at Lusail from 6-8 October – and is scheduled to run every two years thereafter. It’s part of…

“He whispered that Ribena made the engine run cooler” SATURDAY Isn’t it amazing how disconnected events form themselves into unexpected sequences? For a few miles today, I followed a lovely late-1990s Honda NSX in gold and black, identical to one under whose wheels I put 30,000 miles back in 1998. Later that day, out of nowhere, a friend started talking about Doug Nye’s superb 1986 book Cooper Cars, important to me because I grew up with the legend of Charles and John Cooper and their rear-engined racers. The father-and-son duo won 16 championship grands prix, took two constructors’ titles, won two drivers’ titles through Sir Jack Brabham and changed Formula 1 cars forever. The strange thing is it was John Cooper himself who delivered that NSX to me. In his…

Sébastien Ogier’s record ninth win on the Monte Carlo Rally pushes him one clear of Sébastien Loeb at the famous event. Below them, the roll call of winners includes other special stage greats, including one who some say was the best of the lot: fourtime Monte conqueror Walter Röhrl. The granite-faced German is lionised for the diversity of his career and his all-round ability on every surface. He won the Monte with rear-wheel drive, in a Fiat 131 Abarth (1980) and Opel Ascona (1982), during the seasons in which he was crowned World Rally Champion. Then he switched to Lancia and sensationally defeated the four-wheel-drive Audi Quattros on the Monte with the pretty 037, at the start of a season in which he helped the Italian manufacturer beat the German…

When we received an invite to try the Vauxhall Astra GSe, the new range-topper with mildly sporting aspirations, I must confess that I thought it was the electric Astra. It wouldn’t have been the first time that a Stellantis EV were better to drive than its ICE equivalent, so it would have made sense and been a strong statement. Actually, though, the Astra GSe is a collection of familiar elements, the powertrain being the 224bhp plugin hybrid one used by many other cars, including the Peugeot 308: a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine assisted by a 107bhp electric motor and 12.4kWh battery. In the Astra GSe hatchback, said battery is rated for an electric-only range of 40 miles, which means it incurs only 8% company car tax. The slightly heavier…

Nasser Al-Attiyah, Toyota’s lead driver, has a surprisingly swift answer to the question as to whether he would rather win a fifth Dakar or an Olympic gold in shooting, his other chosen sport: “Definitely the gold. I’ve already won bronze, so now I really push to win in Paris [in 2024].” It’s indicative of the drive that marks out all top athletes and reveals the inner steel that’s hidden behind the Qatari’s easy charm. Whereas Carlos Sainz is all nervous energy and 1000-yard stare when I’ve met him, Al-Attiyah is outwardly far more relaxed. Clearly fit, he looks at ease despite the pressure of his ‘home’ race and the favourite tag. Not that he’s having an easy time when I speak to him. “It has been really tricky with the…

As a tumultuous 2022 drew to a close, the move towards mass adoption of EVs in Europe was taking something of a battering. Instead of falling, battery prices were rising. Analysts suggested there could be a 400% growth in global demand for lithium by 2030, while attempts to open big new lithium mines in Portugal and Nevada, US, were being frustrated by environmental campaigners. The prices of EVs of the kind that replace a typical combustion-engine car were also being seen as a significant hurdle to uptake. In the UK, the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), a government agency, revised down its estimate for UK EV production in 2025 by around 25%. It now thinks just 280,000 EVs will be made here, down from its previous estimate of 360,000 units. The…

For beep’s sake I’ve long held Tesla in high regard for its ability to disrupt the car industry in a relatively short period of time, pushing the boundaries of both technology and range for EVs. Some entertaining applications such as those found in the ‘toy box’ (arcade games etc) on the screen are amusing and a win for anyone with children, especially when having to wait while charging. On this latter point, the Tesla Supercharger network is a gamechanger: convenient, incredibly fast and decently priced in the context of today’s electricity prices. I could no longer stand on the sidelines when my Renault Zoe’s PCP deal came up for renewal, so I jumped ship and opted for a Tesla Model 3. It’s everything I expected, which is mostly all good,…

Fantastic start to new era of F1 SORRY, FORMULA 1 in January? Yes, from 1954 to 1958, the season began in Argentina, four months before the European tour started. The nation’s first championship grand prix was historic because it was the first outside Europe, the first under the 2.5-litre formula (after two years of F2 cars having to be used) and fantastic to watch. Ferrari man Giuseppe Farina took pole and then shot into the lead, chased by Maserati’s local lads Onofre Marimón and Juan Manuel Fangio, while the Gordini drivers lagged badly at the back. After a poor start, Ferrari’s own Argentine, José Froilán González, “cleaved violently” through the field, then passed Farina for first. After 45 minutes, the heavens opened and drivers dived into the pits, the lead…

MILEAGE 13,340 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the latest VW ’bus has all of the charms of its predecessors To Wales and the kind of job the VW Multivan was made for: support wagon to a videographer, photographer and a couple of journalists looking to escape the sub-zero temperatures they had endured in some off-road buggies. As is often the way this time of year, when it’s light late and dark early, this was a two-day job. At yawn o’clock on day one, I was on a deadline to pick up Jack, our excellent young videographer, who I knew would be standing outside waiting with a similarly casual attitude to thick coats as most teenagers. Charm one, then: the VW has a heated windscreen, so I wasn’t made…

ALPINA HAS REVEALED its latest ultra-limited model, which will go on sale as the most powerful model the Buchloe-based firm has made. The new BMW Alpina B5 GT, on sale now from €145,500 (£128,410) and available in saloon and Touring estate bodystyles, is powered by a twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 petrol engine producing 625bhp and 626lb ft of torque. It surpasses the B8 Gran Coupé, the XB7 SUV and the standard B5 (which it replaces), which all produce 612bhp and 590lb ft, as the firm’s most powerful car. The saloon can dispatch 0-62mph in just 3.4sec and the Touring takes just 0.2sec longer. Power is managed by a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission. Alpina says the increase in power over the standard B5 is due to optimised air intakes and updates to…

Future Peugeot models will take their lead from the radical Inception concept in “challenging conventional silhouettes”, and now an official image has shown just how dramatically they will be reinvented. Peugeot’s electric line-up preview looks to comprise four low-slung cars – seemingly two hatchbacks and a saloon alongside a more mysterious model in the centre – and a trio of crossovers. These point to radically redesigned successors to each of today’s models. The influence of the new Inception concept – displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year – is evident in their rakish silhouettes and distinctive ‘claw’ headlight designs, but also because each previewed model looks to be defined by a silhouette that doesn’t obviously belong to any one core market segment. Speaking to Autocar…

What is the new Porsche 911 Dakar? That’s a question as simple to ask as it is complex to answer, for this car is so very many things. A consumer journalist might consider it a shrewd investment, because production is limited to 2500 units, all sold save China’s allocation, and those only because the order book hasn’t yet opened there. A staffer from Practical Off-Roader or some other made-up title might regard it as a brilliant new twist to the long since hackneyed SUV theme, while one from The Engineer might wonder how both front and rear suspension lifts were installed and how it was discovered that the car would be safe while fully extended at 110mph on sand. But probably most judgements will come from passers-by who may not…

There’s a strange convergence taking place at some of the world’s great performance car makers. The game seems to be to develop essentially the same car from starting points at opposite ends of the engineering galaxy, with some very entertaining, Mad Maxstyle freaks emerging as a result. At Lamborghini, on one hand you have the Huracán, which has been jacked up 44mm and cladded with rowdier bodywork to create the Sterrato, a supercar that believes it’s an SUV. On the other hand you have the Urus, which has had its air suspension swapped for steel springs that set it 20mm lower and been given widened tracks to create the Performante, an SUV that believes it’s a supercar. No surprise that the Performante is absurdly fast; it would have been even…

It’s 3 January 2023, and we’re in the middle of the Arabian Desert (an area of 900,000 square miles, which is actually bigger than Saudi Arabia itself) and experiencing the sort of weather that you would normally expect of a winter’s day in Bognor Regis. A Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ has just returned from a 416-mile stage, having been driven across the kind of terrain that gives NVH engineers nightmares and with another 356 miles planned for tomorrow. And before it leaves the bivouac at 7.30 tomorrow morning, a 90-point checklist needs ticking off by a team of mechanics who have themselves driven 250 miles across the desert from the previous night’s bivouac. It has rained heavily for 24 hours and the temperature is struggling to reach 5deg C.…

“You wake up, you get shaken around all day and you go to bed.” As far as job descriptions go, it’s nothing if not to the point. The speaker is Dennis Murphy, co-driver to Giniel de Villiers in car #205, and it’s fair to say that he ticks most of the South African clichés of a wadi-dry wit. If the mechanics are the unsung heroes of the Dakar, the navigators run them a close second, having a level of responsibility that can mean the difference between a win and a retirement. Park all your preconceptions about co-drivers in the World Rally Championship. Each stage in the Dakar is longer than an entire WRC event, and every single one of those stages is a step into the absolute unknown. They get…

1 The car is engineered to be leased for four-to five-year periods and then released for sale at 20 years. Servicing – vital in staying healthy for so long – is more intense, with 8000-mile oil changes and 25,000-mile transmission services. It gets rapid roll-through treatment at reworked dealerships. 2 At the end of its first lease period, the car is sent to a refurbishment facility. It gets new tyres and a new braking system, a coolant system power flush, a deep interior clean and a new-look front grille, side cladding and steel wheel covers. 3 In year 10, the car returns for a deep overhaul and Euro 7-compliance checks and repairs. It gets refurbished suspension systems with new bushings and dampers, more extensive styling changes, a new dash top,…

Trevor Hunt wishes for lighter car interiors (Your Views, 11 January). I would go further and ask for more colour. In the 1960s and 1970s, most (British) manufacturers offered interiors in a whole range of hues: tan, blue, green, red and more at all prices, even on the Mini. In particular, Vauxhall offered a wide choice of colours on the Mk1 Astra and Mk1 and Mk2 Cavaliers, including a particularly scorching burnt orange. I would have chosen that for my first company car, but by the time I was eligible for one, it was a Mk3 Cavalier, for which I could specify any colour I liked as long as it was dark charcoal. By then and for years after, all mainstream manufacturers were mostly offering just umpteen shades of unremitting…

MILEAGE 7615 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Can BMW’s second dedicated electric car live up to its range-topping billing? The need for something large to ferry my wife, two teenagers, two dogs and a bumper crop of Christmas gifts to my parents’ place in Somerset had me knocking on editor Mark Tisshaw’s door to borrow something roomy, and I was thrilled when he chucked me the keys to the BMW iX. Despite their hefty price tags, I’ve started seeing quite a few of these around and was intrigued to discover if the quirky looks were a way of livening up a mediocre car or a signal of real innovation. It’s easy to have your head turned by the gimmickry on the iX, and there’s plenty of it: the rose-gold trim, the…

Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder, which might have been writ large in Porsche HQ when it first launched the Cayenne to an incredulous world in 2002. It was Porsche’s first SUV and naturally, being a Porsche, it was expensive, it was ritzy, it was glitzy, it had pretty powerful engines and it was less than fuel efficient. What it wasn’t was low and sporty and particularly good-looking and, as a result, it attracted much opprobrium from both the press and Porsche aficionados for its funny face and slab-sided SUV-ness. No matter – the public liked it, the gamble paid off and this and successive generations of Cayenne have gone on to shake their money maker most handsomely for Porsche, such that no respectable middle-class driveway…

A road test in any other magazine might well be a short, subjective summary of a new car produced under almost any circumstances, but the Autocar road test is different. Specific, rigorous and detailed, it’s the closest examination we can give of any new model. It appears over at least eight pages and is close to 50 man-hours in the making every week. Most of what the road test process entails is designed to be strictly repeatable and fair. We benchmark standing-start and in-gear acceleration at a purpose-built test facility every week. We carry out both subjective and objective handling tests on both road and track, on the latter up to and beyond the limit of grip, so as to fully assess stability, drivability and limit handling appeal. And while…

Car companies sometimes find the way out when it’s too late. They introduce head-turning concept cars that promise great things when all is not well under the surface. These design studies occasionally reach production and successfully turn a brand around. Other times, an intriguing concept breaks cover shortly before its maker goes into a slump or shuts down entirely. Saab 9-3X 4x4 2002 In 2002, Saab predicted the trends governing the automotive industry in 2023 with surprising accuracy. The 9-3X 4x4 concept was Saab’s first off-roader, but it retained an unmistakable element of sportiness, accented by its swept-back design and its 280bhp V6 engine. It was a concept that could satisfy a thrill-seeking driver up a mountain pass and confidently venture off the beaten path once at the top. If…