Innholdsfortegnelse for January 31, 2024 i Autocar

DACIA WILL TACKLE the punishing Dakar Rally next year in a radical bespoke race car based on its outlandish Manifesto concept. The firm’s new carbonbodied rally raider, engineered by Prodrive, is called the Sandrider and has been designed according to the same ‘no frills’ ethos of Dacia’s road cars – albeit with a greater focus on aerodynamic efficiency and off-road ability. It stays remarkably true to the Manifesto in its conception, wearing “only the absolutely necessary body panels”, for example, and featuring a modular dashboard that can be rearranged according to the needs of the race crew. It now has doors, though, for obvious reasons, and the chassis has been extensively upgraded and reinforced in line with its dune-bashing remit. Its 3.0-litre twinturbocharged V6, understood to be based on that…

Audi has started on-road tests of the new, third-generation version of its three-row Q7 SUV. Set for UK dealerships in early 2026, it will be one of the last combustion-powered cars Audi launches, because the firm plans to introduce only pure-electric cars from that year, on the way to phasing out ICE models completely in 2033. In its design, the new Q7 follows the upcoming new Q3 and Q5 SUVs by adopting Audi’s latest corporate front end, with an expansive new version of the octagonal grille, sleek, split-cluster LED light designs and a clamshell bonnet. Its straight-backed rear end and high roofline point to an emphasis on interior space and boot capacity. At this early stage, though, it’s not clear whether it will be tangibly larger than today’s model. The…

The UK last year built more than one million vehicles for the first time since 2019, with multibillionpound EV investment from major car makers putting the UK “back in the game”, said the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. SMMT CEO Mike Hawes said the total of 1,025,474 vehicles (905,117 cars, 120,357 commercial vehicles; up 17% year on year) was a “surprise”, especially given the supply chain issues that hampered car makers in 2023. Nissan built the most cars, with 324,893 Jukes, Leafs and Qashqais produced at its Sunderland plant. It was followed by JLR (238,422 units), Mini (184,996), Toyota (122,193) and Bentley (12,859). After the spike, the SMMT has predicted fewer cars will be produced in 2024, although a push from commercial vehicle manufacturers is forecast to take overall…

An affordable electric off-roader is now on sale in the UK, after Czech start-up MW Motors beat all the major manufacturers to market. The new Spartan EV 2.0 promises to match supreme yet easy-to-use off-road capability – already verified on test by Autocar (read about it in next week’s issue) – with onroad refinement from £49,995. That price excludes VAT, because it is homologated as a light commercial vehicle, its target audience being the agricultural, forestry, nature conservation, mining and extreme sports sectors. Although the rolling ladderframe chassis and G-Wagenesque bodyshell are familiar from Indian firm Force Motors’ Gurkha 4x4 and the battery is bought from China, everything else is the Czechs’ own work. Engineers took on board feedback from customers of the original Spartan EV – a conversion of…

A year ago, Carlos Sainz Sr broke his back trying to win the Dakar Rally. This month, at 61, the two-time World Rally Champion returned to the deserts of Saudi Arabia to claim his fourth victory on the epic two-week, near-5000-mile event, in a groundbreaking hybrid Audi. No wonder they call the great man El Matador. The multiple spinal fractures left us wondering whether Sainz was finally done with the Dakar. No one would have thought less of a man already ranked among rallying’s greatest heroes. To recover, recommit for a 17th Dakar and then win in a complex car that had proven too flawed for victory in 2023 is a monumental achievement. SAINZ vs LOEB It was the dream duel: Sainz versus nine-time WRC king and fellow rallying ‘galactico’…

Not everyone is good with numbers. Skoda’s engineers, I imagine, know their way around a calculator, but its marketing people? I’m not so sure. The Enyaq electric SUV has just been given a technical update (not a facelift, because it looks exactly the same), and the bigger-battery 80 model has turned into the 85. The name was a reference to the 82kWh battery capacity, so this new one has roughly 5kWh more, right? No. The battery stays the same, but it can supposedly do 15 miles more on a charge, thanks to a new motor that’s both stronger (282bhp, up from 201bhp) and more efficient. Further up the range, there are power bumps for the four-wheel-drive 80x (which becomes the 85x) and the sporty vRS. Those two also get faster…

An otherwise quiet off-season for Formula 1 was shaken up by the unexpected departure of Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, hitherto the third-longest-serving boss in the sport behind Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Mercedes-AMG’s Toto Wolff. Despite the revolving-door policy adopted up and down the paddock recently, the news came as a shock, because Steiner wasn’t just a hired executive – he was the heart and soul of his team. The former Jaguar and Red Bull man was in the US and running a growing composite business when he started the team from a blank sheet of paper. He came up with the concept of having a small full-time staff while sourcing as much as possible from suppliers Ferrari and Dallara, and convinced machine tools magnate Gene Haas to fund…

MODEL TESTED GT-LINE S • Price £76,025 • Power 378bhp • Torque 516lb ft • 0-60mph 5.1sec • 30-70mph 4.6sec • Economy 2.2mpkWh • Max DC charging speed 210kW • 70-0mph 52.1m Few new model introductions better illustrate the sheer scale of ambition harboured by up-and-coming car brand Kia than the full-sized, unashamedly eye-catching EV9 all-electric SUV. Becoming the Korean firm’s fourth zero-emissions passenger car, it is by some way its largest and most luxurious yet. It takes Kia into market territory where it has never dared venture before and allows it to square up to European premium brands on closer terms – and with the unmistakable confidence that it has been building since the launch of the Stinger executive GT in 2017. Kia’s familiar design appeal is at the…

MILEAGE 11,026 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT It took Nissan 11 years to give us a second EV. Was it worth the wait? Dear valued Autocar reader, I would like to formally apologise to you. In our 20/27 December 2023 double issue, I posited that range anxiety was a state of mind and it needn’t really exist for most people because most people don’t drive that far in one go. It was all just a case of being pragmatic, I said, and doing a bit of planning. I even went as far as describing myself as ‘blasé’ about range. I wrote that in a heightened sense of machismo and I have since been put firmly back in my place. You see, all of this grandstanding was done when I was mostly…

Clip its wings I’m amazed Matt Prior thought people had asked him whether his Genesis G70 Shooting Brake was a Bentley because he thought its nose resembled the latter brand’s Batur (Our Cars, 20/27 December). The reason is purely because the Genesis badge is about as close a copy of the Bentley badge as one could get. In fact, I’m amazed that Bentley hasn’t sued. Geoff Turner Wirral, Cheshire So should Bentley also sue Aston Martin, Chrysler, Hispano Suiza, LEVC, Mini and Morgan? – KC Phone moan I’m retired and drive for two charities. I was driving for one of these when, while stationary in a jam, I sent a text stating that I’d be very late for my next appointment – and fell victim to a vigilante cyclist taking…

Despite having a smaller, less practical cabin than its conventional rivals, the old BMW 1 Series (F20/F21) for many years featured regularly in the UK’s top-sellers list. That’s why BMW gave its last rear-wheel-drive hatchback the full works come mid-life update time in 2015 – a fresh look, some new engines and more equipment – rather than just a lazy lick of paint. Even so, Autocar wasn’t blown away, giving the new model 3.5 stars on the grounds of its “compromised practicality, mixed cabin quality and underwhelming, rear-drive handling”. We went on: “If you wanted a competent, balanced driving experience, you’d buy an Audi A3 or a Volkswagen Golf. You’re interested in a 1 Series because you’re willing to exchange any number of things for entertaining handling. And yet you…

MANY NOTABLE INNOVATIONS appeared on cars in the 1920s and 1930s. Among these were independent suspension, greatly improving ride quality; rear engine mounting, affording better rear traction and internal packaging; air cooling of engines, removing complexity; body streamlining, reducing aerodynamic drag and thus enhancing performance and efficiency; and more equal weight distribution, making for finer and more predictable dynamics. However, no car had embodied all of these – not until the Tatra 77. These were combined with the backbone chassis concept of prior Tatras (wherein the need for side rails was eliminated), which had been invented by the Czech firm’s chief engineer, Hans Ledwinka, with help from his son Erich and colleague Erich Übelacker, making the 77 “different in important matters” to anything else on Earth. Tatra’s impressively compact and…

“Our aim is to offer the sportiest model in its segment. It delivers a real sports car feeling” Porsche has revealed its second electric car: the all-new electric Macan. It will be launched in the UK later this year with the choice of two four-wheel-drive variants: the £69,800, 402bhp Macan 4 and the £95,000, 630bhp Macan Turbo. A direct rival to the likes of the Jaguar I-Pace and Polestar 4, the electric Macan will be sold alongside the petrolpowered Macan until the end of 2025, when the line-up will become exclusively electric. The E-Macan nomenclature used by Porsche during development has been dropped for the production model, which will be known simply as Macan. Originally scheduled for launch in 2023 but delayed due to software issues, the electric Macan is…

THE NEXT-GENERATION MG 3 will feature a full-hybrid powertrain, rather than a mild-hybrid unit, in a bid to maximise efficiency, reduce emissions and slash running costs. Sources indicate that MG does not intend the next 3 to be comfortably among the cheapest cars on sale, as its 10-year-old, pure-combustion predecessor has been. That car’s non-electrified naturally aspirated fourcylinder engine returns just 43.3mpg on the WLTP combined cycle while emitting 147g/km of CO2 – figures that are considerably bettered by its newer rivals and on which the new car is expected to improve drastically. The move to a substantially electrified powertrain means the new supermini will command a significant premium over the outgoing car. Autocar understands a starting price of around £21,000 is likely, cementing it as a rival to the…

LITTLE-KNOWN ITALIAN firm DR looks set to rapidly become a major mainstream player in Europe, having outsold MG, Alfa Romeo, Mini, Cupra, Tesla and Volvo in its home market last year. DR broke into Italy’s top 20 brands in 2023 when it sold 32,650 new cars for a market share of 2.1%, which represents yearon-year growth of 34%. That followed a 2022 in which it grew by a remarkable 193%, emboldening it to expand abroad into Bulgaria, France and Spain. DR was founded in the Molise region in 2006 by former Fiat dealer Massimo Di Risio (hence the name) with the objective of capitalising on the growing production of cheap cars in China. It initially rebadged Chery cars for the local market and has since also formed relationships with JAC…

VAUXHALL IS REVIVING the Frontera name for the chunky compact SUV that will replace the Crossland later this year. To be revealed in the coming weeks ahead of deliveries starting at the end of the year, the new Frontera is larger than its 2000s predecessor and will introduce the option of an electric powertrain. It will be launched ahead of the replacement for the larger Grandland, which will be the final Vauxhall model to get an EV variant. The new Frontera will be sold exclusively as a five-door five-seater but will take cues from its old namesake by adopting a chunkier, more overtly 4x4-inspired appearance than that of the Crossland. It will be, said Vauxhall, “a fun car with clever functional features” and “a high level of space and versatility”,…

I’m indebted to (and a little envious of) Richard Lane for his visit to Ansible Motion (p42). I’ve spent a good amount of time in simulators over the past decade – more than my colleagues, to the point that I’ve felt like I’m our sim correspondent. They do have more visual impact in person than they do in photos for you, dear reader. If we drive a real prototype car, there will be shots of it on ice, in a desert or at a track, as it throws up snow or sand or is chucked sideways by a heroic test driver. See a prototype car during simulated development and, no matter what it’s doing or where it virtually exists, it will always look like a big screen and some thick…

There are echoes of Volkswagen in its late-1990s pomp about its latest model: the ID 7. Longer even than the combustionengined Arteon fastback, this is a visibly substantial electric saloon that takes the Wolfsburg company into direct competition with uppermid-sized executive rivals like the BMW i5 and Mercedes-Benz EQE. When Ferdinand Piëch led Volkswagen to make the upscale Phaeton more than two decades ago, it served a rather different purpose: to make a statement and inspire a community of designs and engineers. The ID 7 is a rather more serious effort, but the ambition bound up in it seems similar. That’s not to mention the accomplishment it represents. With this car, Volkswagen really is beginning to master some of the key bits of technology with which it has been struggling…

There’s something oddly comforting about the Mercedes GLE. Maybe it’s related to the fact that it has been around, in one form or another, for a surprisingly long time. The first ML arrived in 1997, at the front of the premium SUV wave, but because it was meant to replace the ageing G-Class (which wasn’t quite yet a hip-hop icon), rugged bodyon-frame construction was used. That changed when the second ML arrived in 2005. With the BMW X5 and Porsche Cayenne around, only a monocoque and more carlike handling would do, and these new underpinnings were shared with the GL mega-SUV. Midway through the third generation, Mercedes changed the model’s name to GLE, positioning it more clearly as an E-Class for more adventurous types (whether reality or perception, it didn’t…

The new zero-emission vehicle mandate means folk like me, still clinging onto our ICE motors, are going to have to take a proper interest in electric cars. Which is why I find myself behind the wheel of one of the latest: a BMW i5 eDrive40 M Sport Pro. I’m taking it to Cheltenham, home of the famous spa waters and of Cleevely Electric Vehicles, one of the UK’s leading independent electric vehicle garages, where I hope to receive my EV baptism. The emergence of businesses like Cleevely is one of the fascinating things about the EV revolution. At the beginning, early adopters of the cars quickly realised most main dealers knew little about them and cared even less. With a passion for EVs, garage owner Matt Cleevely saw an opportunity…

MILEAGE 2987 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if Honda’s new SUV can take on the Nissan Qashqai while maintaining the charms of the Civic it is based on Having spent lots of time driving electric cars, I have come to really appreciate adjustable regenerative braking. Instead of using a brake pedal and wasting all of that sweet kinetic energy, most EVs have systems that allow you to slow the car by effectively reversing the e-motor when you lift off the throttle, in turn feeding a modicum of energy back into the battery. Often, such systems are controlled by paddles mounted on the steering wheel and, once you have got used to them, it’s amazing how much you come to rely on them – and how, in turn, being…

Matt Prior’s pleasant surprise in the new Mercedes-Benz CLE 220d Coupé when “traditional low-slung two-doors are now niche offerings” (First drives, 10 January) harks back to the day my wife and I acquired our CLK 230 Kompressor in 2001. It is indeed amusing to see how low it appears today against even mainstream cars, let alone SUVs. More to the point, it has a supercharged engine that has fine torque and just under 200bhp – more than sufficient, even today – and is, to everyone’s surprise, ULEZ-compliant. It has a capacious boot, with folding rear seats making it good even for hauling 6ft Christmas trees, while the rear seats are comfortable and even accessible through the large doors with frameless windows. Not a lot is new, it seems. Our CLK…

An owner’s view SALLY FITTON “We bought our 2017-reg 120d three years ago with 80,000 miles on the clock and have added 20,000 to it since, all without trouble. It has a full service history and we have it serviced every year. There are no rattles or knocks, the engine is quiet, the clutch is good and the interior is holding up well. It does 50mpg on a long run but much less around town. We had read criticisms of the 1 Series’ cabin and boot space, but there are only two of us plus our dogs, so it has been fine. Even when we have taken friends out, it has been roomy enough, although I can see why people might prefer a Golf or an A3.” Buyer beware… ENGINE…

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…

Lamborghini is well under way with the research and development programme for its first electric sports cars, which the firm says will tout blistering on-paper performance figures but put dynamic engagement and emotional appeal first. The Sant’Agata firm revealed the Lanzador concept last year as a vision of its first production EV, which is due on sale around 2028 as a high-riding four-door GT car with more than 1000bhp. Details of EV successors to Lamborghini’s more traditional supercars remain under wraps, but CEO Stephan Winkelmann says no electric Lamborghini will rely exclusively on lofty power and performance figures as a means of differentiation. He revealed that Lamborghini engineers “are testing a lot of electric cars” as part of the EV development process and hailed encouraging signs that the driving experience…

Stellantis has revealed an electric car platform that will accommodate batteries big enough for 500 miles of range and “extreme” powertrains allowing for 0-62mph in a mere 2.0sec. The new STLA Large is related to the STLA Medium platform that recently made its debut under the new Peugeot e-3008. It’s likewise “BEV-native”, but it can also accommodate hybrid powertrains and is compatible with front-, rear-and four-wheeldrive powertrains. The platform is designed for the largest cars in the Stellantis portfolio (measuring between 4.76m and 5.13m long), which the automotive giant said will take the form of crossovers, SUVs and lower-slung cars in the D and E segments. It will first be used for a pair of cars from Dodge and Jeep, understood to be the Charger muscle car and Wagoneer S…

WE’RE HEARING A lot about intelligence these days, mainly the artificial kind that may or may not mimic a human brain and has been described as an existential threat to humankind. On a less scary level, the word is also used to describe electronic systems aimed at collecting and using information, simply to make cars better. Supplier giant Goodyear and innovative engineering firm ZF have announced a collaboration involving two developments: Goodyear’s Sightline intelligent tyre system and ZF’s Cubix, a kind of software-based chassis control overlord. Sightline’s technology can detect an impending event, such as aquaplaning or that a wheel is about to lock due to lack of grip, through sensors in the tyre that can minutely monitor its behaviour. Existing systems like ABS sensors, which detect wheel rotation speeds,…

SAFETY RECALLS are both expensive and embarrassing, so it was particularly galling for one big car maker when it had to spend millions fixing a problem caused by crisp packets. It started when several customers complained that their new cars had jammed on the brakes automatically, for no clear reason. Luckily there were no accidents, but technicians couldn’t find a fault and were baffled. Engineers finally solved the mystery when a customer shared dashcam footage of it happening. An empty packet of crisps could be seen fluttering across the front of the car just before the automatic emergency braking system performed an emergency stop. It turns out the foilbacked packets used by certain snack brands had the same effect on the car’s sensors as the strips of chaff used by…

MONDAY Hooray! A good fast Ford has come my way. After the recent disappointment of the Kuga, I’ve been reacquainted this week with decent body control, sharp steering, zesty performance and genuine Ford-brand agility in the Puma ST, the fastest of the firm’s compact crossovers. It suddenly seems right that the Puma was the UK’s best-selling model last year, even if Ford lost its top-selling brand status to Volkswagen. It’s an interesting car, the Puma ST. It’s more practical than a simple hatchback yet also has a dominant, sporty character. It demands to be driven briskly: dawdle and its firm damping comes across as stiffness and its quick-acting throttle and brake pedal seem too sensitive. It had been a while since I had driven a car whose small proportions had…

Apart from their twin-turbo V8 engine formats and top speeds just a touch north of 200mph, the Ferrari F40 and Alpina’s new B5 GT don’t have a lot in common. For one thing, the German car is far rarer, being limited to just 250 examples, of which a mere 21 are UK-bound. But the pair do share one significant commonality, which concerns timing. The F40 was the final Ferrari brought to fruition during the life of Enzo and the B5 GT plays the same poignant role for Alpina, whose venerated founder Burkard Bovensiepen died in October, two months after the GT was launched at Zandvoort. For this reason alone, it’s a special machine. Sentimentality aside, the car was pretty special on track at Zandvoort too. Totals of 625bhp and 627lb…

Less than £10k When you look at this affordable bunch, there are strong grounds for concluding that you never need to spend more to buy an interesting car with plenty of life left in it. The only significant drawbacks will be outdated or no sat-nav (to which the solution is easy), potentially high VED costs and the possibility that eventually your car’s emissions could exclude it from some British and European cities. But you will, of course, be doing your bit for the planet if you look after said car and maximise the use of its manufacturing carbon footprint. To narrow the search to betterquality cars, we’re looking only at those that have done fewer than 40,000 miles. It’s a very juicy array. Ford Mondeo ST220 2003, 34k miles, £9995…

“We offer the imperfect world but perfect knowledge of it,” says Kia Cammaerts, a man possibly more informed than any other person anywhere in the world when it comes to the bottomless difficulties that car makers face these days. It’s the highly complex simulators built by the firm Cammaerts founded that many of them have come to rely on. BMW, Ford and Honda already use Ansible Motion’s engineering-grade dynamic driverin-loop (DIL) sims to develop new cars – there are 34 in the field – and during our visit to the Hethel headquarters (which is just across the road from Lotus), another squash court-sized sim is in build, destined for China. Even in gestation, it’s quite something to behold. With 32 PCs all operating concurrently in a real-time network, it’s a…

MILEAGE 3033 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if this new Avenger is finally the Jeep to crack Europe “Afine all-round package but one that, in the cold light of the Autocar road test, appeals more to heart than head,” my colleagues concluded in the 24 January issue. You won’t find a dressing room split here or any quibbles after the road test team’s collective three-and-a-half-star rating of the Jeep Avenger, even though I awarded it four stars on first acquaintance. Indeed, I found myself nodding along throughout my reading of the test, and that final line summarised the mood about this EV so well. The Avenger is that kind of car: one that against the clipboard can seem unremarkable and objectively does have shortcomings (in this case, hard plastics…

FEATURE From Lego to Renault Steve Cropley discovers how one engineer created a highly innovative new type of gearbox with plastic bricks ROAD TEST Lexus LM Has Toyota’s posh sibling brand really reinvented the limousine? FEATURE Life with an old Volkswagen Beetle The joys and the perils of owning an ageing classic car EVERY WEEK OUR CARS Jaguar F-Type We bid farewell to Jaguar’s V8. Just how much will we miss it? USED GUIDE Maserati 4200 Is this old-school high-powered Italian coupé worth the risk? SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p20…

Once a firm has gone to all the trouble of conceiving, designing and engineering a car, it needs to make a large number to pay off that cost. Occasionally, however, manufacturers have given us limited runs of very special cars, usually to preserve exclusivity for their uber-rich customers. So here’s our pick of the world’s rarest road cars. Duesenberg SSJ 1935 The SSJ was a short-wheelbase sporting version of the SJ, of which 36 were built. The SJ made 320bhp from its supercharged Lycoming 6.9-litre straight eight, but the SSJ dialled up 400bhp – an outlandish amount of power for a road car in the 1930s. Indeed, the SSJ claimed the title of the world’s fastest pre-war production car, leading to it being dubbed ‘America’s first supercar’. Only two were…