Innholdsfortegnelse for February 22, 2023 i Autocar

“It will be the most expensive Dacia but still embody the same value-for-money ethos as the Duster” The Bigster is one of a trio of new cars coming from Dacia that will kick-start an ambitious push to expand its footprint in the crucial C-segment while reaffirming its commitment to accessibility. Expanding in this market (in which it currently sells only the Duster SUV) will help the Romanian value brand to build on its rapid growth in Europe. This will allow Dacia to better compete with similarly positioned rivals (such as Skoda and Suzuki) that cater to wider target markets with more expansive model ranges. Devised as a rugged but road-focused rival to the likes of the Peugeot 5008 and Skoda Kodiaq, the Bigster will be the largest and most expensive…

FORD WILL AXE 3800 jobs across Europe, primarily in Germany and the UK, as part of a dramatic costcutting programme. Ford of Europe boss Martin Sander said the company’s local workforce was being downsized in pursuit of a “leaner and more costcompetitive structure”. Ford’s European engineering operations are the most dramatically impacted, accounting for 2800 of the axed roles (1700 in Germany, 1000 in the UK and 100 elsewhere in Europe), although Sander emphasised that the company will retain 3400 engineering roles in the region. The other 1000 affected positions are administration roles, split across Germany (600), the UK (300) and other European countries (100). “Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre in Essex is set to be among the facilities most affected” Ford hasn’t detailed the financial implications of these job cuts.…

nsurance industry-owned car testing organisation Thatcham Research has begun its first research programme at its new centre in Nottinghamshire, less than a year after construction started. Based at Gamston airport, which Thatcham purchased in 2021, the new centre aims to ensure the organisation can keep pace with the near-30 vehicle platforms that it anticipates will emerge from new manufacturers in the next two years, in addition to the 15 or so that it expects to come from existing car makers – the smaller number owing to platform-sharing. The airport itself will remain operational (Thatcham in 2022 upgraded the main runway), but workshop and testing facilities have been created within the existing hangars and associated buildings. “Our current 18-strong team is still becoming familiar with the new site, which is a…

A NEW OPEN-TOP track-day car has arrived in the UK after more than a decade of development in Australia – and it’s road-legal. The first offering from the Spartan Motor Company is said to have lightness and simplicity at its heart. A tubular steel spaceframe, claimed to exceed current FIA safety regulations, features double-wishbone suspension controlled by pre-programmable semiactive Tractive dampers. The chassis is cloaked in a carbonfibre body that weighs less than 20kg and is redolent of the Can-Am racers of the late 1960s. Depending on options, a Spartan can weigh as little as 670kg. The car will be road-legal in the UK, and it offers a degree of configurability. Honda’s K24 four-cylinder engine, mid-mounted transversely, makes 275bhp in naturally aspirated form but can be fitted with a Rotrex…

Weeks after motor insurers were told not to undervalue cars when settling claims (see story below), some firms are being accused of writing off cars that until recently they might have repaired. The issue concerns motorists involved in an accident that wasn’t their fault, known as a non-fault accident. In such a case, a driver can ask for a credit-hire car to use while their own vehicle is repaired. Unlike a basic courtesy car, a credit-hire car can be a model similar to the insured driver’s vehicle. This makes it more expensive, a cost that’s borne by the other driver’s insurer, assuming it accepts liability. Rates agreed by most credithire companies have increased due to what they describe as “headwinds in the motor supply chain”, now ranging from £36 per…

MONDAY Not often I get aerated about the styling and aura of a car I’ve barely driven, but Genesis’s new GV60 electric SUV attracts me like few others. The styling reminds me of the best of Giugiaro’s classic shapes, when Giorgio himself was wielding the pen. Brief drives in the full-house Sport+ model and the calmer two-wheel-drive Premium have reinforced my impression of all-round excellence, so I contacted Genesis to arrange the loan of a couple of examples for some serious, long-distance driving. And since its test centre is near my place, I arranged to call and collect. I did this today, only to discover that, as the result of a diary disaster, I was exactly a month early. The frustration! Critics say I overuse the expression ‘hardly wait’ in…

BMW’s G42-generation M240i is a fine performance coupé, but there’s no question that its character lies more towards the grand touring end of the spectrum than the outright dynamism end. Four-wheel drive, an automatic ’box and 1700kg naturally make it lean that way. It also means anyone who wants their compact coupé to be more of an athlete is funnelled towards the forthcoming M2 – all £61,495 of it, in its fat-hipped, 454bhp glory (with, if you desire, a manual). But now there’s a middle ground, even if it might not appear that way. At a glance, famed Aachen-based tuner AC Schnitzer’s adjustments to the M240i seem to take the car too far in the other direction: too hardcore and uncompromising. That’s mostly due to the wheels. You may wonder…

MODEL TESTED E-POWER E-4ORCE AWD TEKNA Price £44,485 • Power 210bhp • Torque 387lb ft • 0-60mph 6.6sec • 30-70mph 6.0sec • Fuel economy 36.4mpg • CO2 emissions 148g/km • 70-0mph 48.5m The Nissan X-Trail has found itself in a slightly odd place. As the brand’s largest SUV in Europe, and one available with seven seats, it is natural to compare it to other seven-seaters such as the Skoda Kodiaq, Kia Sorento, Hyundai Santa Fe and even the behemoth Toyota Highlander. But that was never the point of the X-Trail. It was launched in 2001 as a fairly no-nonsense 4x4, and Nissan made plenty of noise at the time about the four-wheel drive system (two-wheel-drive versions came much later) and uncarpeted boot. The X-Trail’s mission remained much the same for the…

It’s been coming. Yet strangely, the moment that finally explodes the idea of hot hatches being in any way ‘junior’ arrives when I’m not behind the wheel but behind a grass verge. Stood here, trying not to cramp Luc Lacey’s style as he photographs an i30 N blasting over an off-camber crest, the latest red-hot Civic nailed to its back box before they dive downhill together. This is like something from the recent Top Gun spin-off, only ground-based in damp Middle England instead of high above the bone-dry desert of Kern County, CA. No vapour cones or sonic boom, instead beefcake bodywork and fat tyres generating a wall of roar as these not-at-all-junior cars draw in. Then come blipped downshifts – one automated, the other humaninstigated – before we hear…

““I’m trying to change the way we view automobilia”” As the electric era looms closer, how can the car enthusiast mark the passing of the internal combustion engine and, in particular, the legendary straight-six, V8 and V12 engines of yore? Easy – with an engine-based coffee table. Granted, engine tables are not everyone’s cup of cappuccino and, frankly, many of them look like someone just took a Ford Duratec out of a scrapped Mondeo and stuck a piece of glass on top of it. Not so, the engine tables sold by The Supercar Store. They include a table based on a Rover 3.5-litre V8 taken from a Land Rover, another on a 3.6-litre flat six from a Porsche 911 996 GT3 RSR and, my favourite, one based on a 2.0-litre…

You published two lovely and interesting letters about the Triumph 2.5 PI of 1969 in your 1 February issue. When I was in my early teens, this was a desirable car. I don’t think, though, that you can compare its inflated price of £23,895 to a modern car. This is only looking at the actual cost, but over the past 45 years there have been massive qualitative improvements in the cars we buy: equipment, tyres, suspension, fuel efficiency, crash protection and so on. Of further interest is the comment that you would now only get a Volkswagen Golf for the same inflated cost of the 2.5 PI, a large saloon. Well, the Golf covers 98% of the footprint of the 2.5 PI, and a 1.5 TSI model easily has 20%…

MILEAGE 9733 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if an electrified estate has a place in a world of crossover competitors I’m sad to report that my technical frustrations with the 308 SW persist. The alarm continues to go off randomly and the reversing camera is still raising issues. Thankfully, though, nothing has ruined the driving experience. I’ve long been sceptical of how good a driver’s car a plug-in hybrid can be, particularly with how that added weight from batteries and electric motors affects its dynamic abilities. With its 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, 110bhp electric motor and 12.5kWh battery, this Peugeot tips the scales at 1659kg. That’s around 300kg heavier than the lightest version, the 1.2-litre turbo petrol, so you would think the PHEV would be inferior in terms of…

“The hybrid system is described as being ‘even more advanced’ than what has been created for the new LMDh racer” Porsche will lay the foundations for the electrification of the 911 with an advanced new GT2 RS Hybrid – a model that will be the most powerful and fastest-accelerating roadgoing variant of the iconic sports car yet, according to company insiders. Due in 2026, the top-ofthe-line, limited-run 911, which is expected to cost upwards of £250,000, is being engineered with a newly developed hybrid drivetrain that will target “more than 700bhp”. This will be achieved using tech originally developed by Porsche Motorsport for the Le Mans 24 Hours-winning 919 Hybrid and further developed for its successor, the recently unveiled 963 LMDh racer. The new petrol-electric drivetrain is envisaged to be…

The UK will have a nationwide network of hydrogen refuelling stations operational at the end of this year, as plans by start-up Element 2 take effect. The firm, based in Skipton, Yorkshire, will begin with the opening of five sites over the next few months, followed by 30 more locations “operational or under construction” by the end of the year. “Then we should be able to say to fleet operators that we have a national network with about 100 miles between stops, which in a vehicle with a range of between 300 and 400 miles is not a problem logistically,” said Brendan Bilton, Element 2’s chief technology officer. The initial thrust is to service the heavy truck and light commercials/pick-up industry, but private cars like the Toyota Mirai, Hyundai Nexo…

SOME PHRASES USED in the automotive industry stick out more than others. For instance, ‘virtuous circle’ is heartwarming not just because it’s positive – as opposed to ‘vicious circle’ – but also because it hints at the satisfaction of getting something for nothing. Used in the context of efficiency (which is how engineers use it), this phrase suddenly became popular jargon, cropping up in conversation at about the same time as weight reduction was talked about more. It goes like this: reducing weight reduces the amount of fuel consumed and therefore the amount of pollutants emitted. Less fuel then has to be carried, saving more weight and therefore saving more fuel. The brakes can then be smaller, because the kinetic energy in the car is reduced, and smaller brakes weigh…

The XC40 is now such a common sight that it’s hard to believe it was introduced only five years ago. Volvo’s smallest SUV has quickly become an essential part of the firm’s range and made the V40 hatchback a distant memory. Now it’s being facelifted, but the changes are minor, because Volvo has been doing yearly updates since launch to keep it fresh: a new engine here, a trim level shuffle there. The powertrain offering in particular has been in constant flux: the three-cylinder petrol manual T2 and T3 came and went, the torqueconverter gearbox was phased out in favour of a dual-clutch unit and in 2020 all the diesels were axed. At the top of today’s range are the Recharge and Recharge Twin EVs. If you’re not quite ready…

“Look at the headline numbers. There are currently two billion vehicles on the planet. We can’t afford to have four billion in the future.” This is the sober assessment of David Lorenz, founder and CEO of Lunaz, a company that’s dedicated to converting existing ICE vehicles into greener BEVs. There’s nothing new in that, you might point out, but the scope and ambition of the Lunaz business model suggests that it’s more serious than most. Those who know the name will be aware of its EV conversions, particularly of classic Bentley, Jaguar and Rolls-Royce models, but these “upcycled EVs” are only one part of a business that also includes bin lorries (see right) and developing cutting-edge tech, as well as having a bold mission to radically reduce our addiction to…

FIRST DRIVE BMW iX5 Hydrogen Thought hydrogen was dead as a fuel for cars? Not according to BMW. We get behind the wheel of its new fuel-cell SUV FEATURE F1 season preview Will it be Max versus Lewis and Charles? Our experts give their predictions GROUP TEST Out of left field We compare Cupra, Genesis and Peugeot alternatives to the usual fleet suspects EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Toyota Hilux The unbreakable pick-up truck goes under the road test spotlight OUR CARS Kia Sportage It’s time to say goodbye to our SUV. Has it delighted or disappointed? SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p36…

MILEAGE 8988 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Can BMW’s second dedicated electric car live up to its range-topping billing? The iX has been back on the continent, where I racked up just over 800 miles in one week heading all over Belgium on Car of the Year judging duty. The journey allowed me to retrace large chunks of a route I took in the same car back in the summer, where a similar mileage resulted in ‘fuel’ costs of around half those I could have expected in an equivalent X5 diesel. How things change. My first brief charge was free. The middle of a Tuesday afternoon in early January is a rather good time to travel on the Eurotunnel. There’s a fast charger you can use for free while you wait…

Familiarity breeds contempt, they say – and some people feel that way about SUVs after their boom in popularity. In the current SUV market, there are so many colourless, familiar faces, but there is an antidote: the Cupra Formentor. Even today, the Cupra brand remains new and exciting for many buyers and the Formentor arrived in 2020 as its first dedicated product. Unlike the Ateca and Leon, this is a model you won’t see bearing a Seat badge. So to those asking “what’s that?”, the answer is a sharp and sporty, coupé-esque crossover, rather than a luxury SUV or rugged off-roader, and the performance reflects this. Apart from a pair of rather sensible offerings making 148bhp and 187bhp, pace is up there with hot hatches such as Volkswagen’s Golf GTI…

For a company that made some of the most innovative and intelligently designed road cars way back when, it’s sad to think that Bristol will for many people only ever be seen as a maker of rather crusty and fusty and slightly unfashionable cars. The Fighter tried to change that perception. It was the product of a new broom, whose injection of cash gave the tiny firm the wherewithal to develop a brand-new model. It was a gullwing-doored, twoseat supercar with 200mph-plus performance, to be made at the rate of 20 per year. As ever with Bristol, everything was to be of the highest quality, but function would still rank higher than fashion. As such, it would have the lowest possible drag coefficient but eschew any notions of downforce, and…

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…

The UK’s low-volume sports car industry has been given a lifeline after European Union law makers confirmed that firms may continue to sell petrol-engined cars in the EU after its 2035 ban. “This will for sure open more doors for us,” Neill Briggs, co-founder of BAC, told Autocar. Fellow firms were also buoyed by the news. The new EU rules, officially passed last week (14 February), effectively ban the sale of new ICE cars and commercial vehicles from 2035 by requiring a 100% reduction in CO2 emissions from new vehicles sold in the market. However, they also confirmed that manufacturers which register fewer than 1000 new cars annually will be exempt from the ban. This means that some of the UK’s celebrated marques – Ariel, BAC, Ginetta and Morgan, to…

The BMW X5 M Competition SUV and its more rakish X6 M Competition sibling will receive mid-life refreshes next month. The high-riding pair will also be the first M-tuned cars fitted with a mild-hybrid powertrain, each featuring a crankshaftmounted electric motor powered by a 48V battery. This supplements their predecessors’ upgraded 4.4-litre, twin-turbocharged V8 – on its own still delivering 616bhp and 553 lb ft of torque – with an extra 12bhp and 147lb ft. The new tech has been introduced to boost mid-range urge in an effort to keep pace with the Porsche Cayenne and Cayenne Coupé, the BMWs now being able to get from 50-75mph in 3.2sec in fourth gear. Top speed is limited to 155mph but can be raised to 180mph with the M Driver’s Package option.…

Exemptions for ‘micro manufacturers’ from the EU’s 2035 ban on new ICE cars has me thinking about which companies might make the cut. There are obviously niche players, many British, that are easily out of the rule’s scope, as we discussed on p10. But what of others? There are firms that have spent decades telling us how wonderful their engines are now frantically figuring out ways to convince us it never mattered, after all. Yet some could be on that ‘micro’ cusp. Selling 1000 cars in the EU isn’t the same as selling 1000 cars worldwide. And while the UK says it will follow EU regulations, our volumes don’t count. On a more prosaic note, this means British pensioners’ love for the Jazz has given Honda’s European division a headache,…

THE FIRST FORMULA E race in India was a cracker as a crowd of 25,000 turned out to watch on the streets of Hyderabad. Jean-Éric Vergne scored his first win in more than a year, DS Penske’s double champion fighting off a late challenge from Nick Cassidy. The Kiwi’s Jaguar-powered Envision Virgin entry had a 4% power advantage on the final lap, but Vergne’s experience still told. While that runner-up spot was good news for Jaguar, the works team suffered disaster when Sam Bird badly misjudged his speed into the hairpin and harpooned his team-mate, Mitch Evans. Bird was sincerely contrite over the embarrassing double DNF, and no wonder. Envision Virgin’s Sébastien Buemi was docked a penalty for an overuse of power, which elevated António Félix da Costa to his…

The new petrol X1 is a confusing and frustrating BMW. The SUV is pretty good at the sensible stuff – boot space, leg room, interior versatility and economy – but an anodyne engine, a clunky gearbox, infuriating infotainment and uninvolving handling mean it’s notably bad in many areas that are traditional strengths for the brand. BMW’s strategy for most of its EVs is for them to be closely related to ICE cars, hence the all-new iX1 is essentially just an electric X1. And by and large, replacing that sub-par engine and gearbox with a 66.5kWh battery and a pair of 188bhp motors does make it more pleasant to drive. A system output of 308bhp means it’s properly fast. In fact, a single-motor version would in all likelihood be sufficient (and…

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BMW’s M division has made some fabulous cars over the past half-century. But how would you define or create the perfect one? Two of our resident gearheads, who have driven most of them and coveted yet more, took six of the best out on the road and then sat down together with a notebook and a kettle. Here’s what they came up with… MATT PRIOR Well, you’ve driven a few and I’ve driven a few, and the dream M is basically the M1, right? JAMES DISDALE It’s a good start, isn’t it? In many ways, it’s nothing like those that followed it, what with it being partly designed in Italy and having its engine in the middle. But that engine is very M, and there’s a purity to its purpose…

No Cupra for old men I feel I have to take serious issue with the comments of Cupra CEO Wayne Griffiths in the Racing Lines pages of your 25 January issue. In particular, his remark that the audience at “normal motorsport events” is “all old men”. How very rude, disrespectful and ageist! And just plain wrong. I’m sure I qualify as one of the old men he seems to think are irrelevant to motoring in 2023, but the last two grands prix I attended (at Silverstone and Monza) were full of twenty- and thirty-somethings, as well as a lot of children. I am 73, have been driving for 56 years and passed one million miles around the end of 2013. I have been the registered keeper of 53 cars and…

Audi reborn with “a refreshing character” AUDI SOLD 1.6 MILLION cars last year and is recognised the world over, so it’s surprising to learn that it’s a young company. Audi made cars from 1910 until war broke in 1939. Come 1945, the occupying Soviets stole the assets of its parent firm, Auto Union, so execs had to go west and restart. With Europe in tatters, the new firm began making cheap, two-stroke DKWs; by 1964, the ‘economic miracle on the Rhine’ had put VW in a position to buy it. DKW’s F102 saloon hadn’t done well, so VW revived Audi for the F103, using the same body but a new, Daimler-designed four-pot. “One is repeatedly impressed by the strong pulling power with an unusual flexibility,” read our road test. “It’s…

MILEAGE 6007 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if one of the world’s best driver’s cars can also prove sufficiently easy to live with for it to still make sense I want to talk a bit about the A110’s seats this week. I’m one of those curious coves who believes that not only does a welllocated seat not require endless amounts of up, down, in, out and shake-it-all-about adjustment but also that the more ways you’re given in which to move a seat, the more opportunity is provided for it to feel not quite right. In certain very sophisticated cars in the past, I’ve driven myself almost to distraction with microscopic adjustments of lumbar support, seat squab length, side bolster support and so on. So I love the fact the…

An expert says RICHARD HACKETT, SLJ HACKETT “My father bought a Bristol from Tony Crook’s showroom in Hersham when I was a boy, and that started the affair for me. I then worked for Bristol Cars for over two decades. The Fighter is an exceptional car. It’s amazingly fast, easy to drive and beautifully made – it handles superbly. I think it’s actually got better looking as it’s got older, too. The good news is that it’s very dependable and most parts are still easy to come by. Prices are definitely on the up, too.” Buyer beware… ENGINE The front-mid-mounted V10 (from the Dodge Viper and modified by Bristol) is clever and reliable. It weighs just 239kg, which is remarkable for an engine that makes 525bhp and can just as…

Cars are complex machines, but some take that to a whole new level in the search to break new technological ground – or seemingly just for the hell of it. Sometimes that brings success and other times it results in failure. No matter what it was that made a car more complex than others, though, here’s our pick of the most finicky designs ever put into production. Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100) 1964 Any car labelled a ‘technical tour de force’ is likely to raise eyebrows when it comes to complexity, and that’s just what the W100 did. It had air suspension, twin heating systems and vacuum operation for the powered windows and central locking. On top of that, there was Bosch fuel injection at a time when carburettors were the norm.…