Innholdsfortegnelse for February 21, 2024 i Autocar

Volkswagen is studying internal design, engineering and manufacturing proposals for a return of the Scirocco coupé as an EV with 1970s-inspired styling and a possible dual-motor, four-wheel-drive R flagship. The proposed two-door forms part of discussions about a four-way electric sports car project that also includes a fourth-generation Porsche Boxster/Cayman, a production version of the Cupra Dark Rebel coupé concept and a fourth-generation Audi TT (see p10), a high-ranking insider has divulged to Autocar. They suggested it could be launched by 2028 if ultimately granted production approval by Volkswagen brand CEO Thomas Schäfer. The three-door Scirocco is envisaged to sit above the second-generation ID 3 hatchback, which is set to adopt the Golf name and be sold alongside a restyled ninth-generation version of its combustion-engined hatchback sibling when it appears…

AUDI IS IN an “intense concept phase” for the electric successor to the TT, experimenting with different silhouettes and soundtracks as it plots a replacement for the popular sports coupé, which retired last year. Set to be introduced “within five or 10 years”, the new EV will take a different name from the TT but occupy a similar position in the German firm’s range. Audi’s spokesperson for technical development, Daniel Schuster, told Autocar: “We are taking a blank sheet of paper to see what is the right ‘icon’. “It’s not just about looking at what we have now and saying ‘it’d be cool to make it electric’. It’s really about what would be a great addition to the range.” Schuster said it is important for Audi to continue to differentiate…

THERE ARE thousands of regulations for cars and they differ around the world. Sometimes the changes necessary to make a car legal in certain markets would be too expensive and make it unprofitable. However, one car maker found a clever way to get around a safety regulation: it cheated. The issue was a European law that insists you must be able to see the tail-lamps and rear indicators when the back door or hatch is open. This ensures that the car is still visible at night while changing a wheel, for example. If it’s a 4x4 model with an external spare wheel mount, makers will generally install a second set of lights lower on the bumper. But one 4x4 maker decided this was too much hassle and installed a strap…

’ve got a new Chinese-brand stereo amplifier at home. There’s probably I company in which one wouldn’t admit that, but I did have a (very old) British-brand amp before, talking to a couple of (very old) British-brand speakers. Then the amp gave out terminally and I wanted a replacement cheap and now, so I went to Amazon. I’m genuinely not proud. I wasn’t expecting much, but I didn’t need much. My plan was that it would live in the front room for a month or so while I rearranged the house now that the children have left, then once I’d saved up for something swankier, I’d move it to a newly rearranged shed, where all it would have to do would be spend years being dust-proof and loud enough to…

The new Mini Countryman is emphatically not mini. It’s the biggest Mini yet, in fact, and it looks it. It’s more like a Maxi Countryman. With that established, prepare yourself for an angry missive about how the brand has scandalously veered away from its roots and heritage. Except… well, it turns out that size really isn’t everything. Because in how well it embodies the renewed spirit and ethos of the Mini brand, building on its past and a sense of upbeat, optimistic fun, this car totally feels like a Mini. This is the third-generation Countryman, and the SUV has grown notably from the Mk2, which in turn grew notably from the Mk1. At 4433mm, it is 120mm longer than the 2016 car and more than a third of a metre…

The prospect of an electric Range Rover clearly has plenty of appeal, with more than 16,000 customers having stumped up hefty deposits for the forthcoming battery-powered British SUV. When it comes to new car catnip, the combination of imperious SUV luxury and the potential for zero emissions at the tailpipe is an irresistible one. Throw in a big dollop of fashionable restomod nostalgia and the results could be even more compelling. At least that’s what JIA is hoping. The small Oxfordshirebased concern made its name with tastefully updated and upgraded Jensen Interceptors and FFs, before turning its attention to the original Range Rover, creating the Chevrolet V8-engined Chieftain, and now it has created a fully electric version. As you would expect, converting an old Rangie to run on electrons isn’t…

Welcome to an Autocar group test designed by committee. If we had it solely our way, you would be about to read a group test between the BYD Seal, Honda CR-V, Kia EV9, Lucid Air, Renault Scenic, Toyota Prius and Volkswagen ID 7. Instead, of those, only the Seal, EV9 and Scenic are among the cars gathered at Silverstone one breezy February morning for a final round of testing for the 2024 Car of the Year (COTY) award. They are joined by the BMW i5, Toyota C-HR, Volvo EX30 and not quite the Peugeot e-3008 (that’s some Photoshop trickery on the opening spread, about which we will explain shortly). Autocar is a sponsor of COTY, the winner of which this year will be announced at the returning Geneva motor show…

The UK and Italy led the European new car market’s recovery in 2023 as the world emerged from the Covid pandemic and the subsequent supply chain disruption, while the US and Japan also bounced back significantly, Tesla set a new sales record and China’s BYD emerged as a global force. After three years of doom and gloom, a degree of normality returned to the global market, with every region finally recording sales increases again and firms like Toyota, Tesla, Mercedes-Benz and JLR rediscovering their mojos. Perhaps the most remarkable story is that of an EV becoming a global best-seller, the Tesla Model Y removing the Toyota Corolla from the throne after many years. As a sign of the change to come in the run-up to 2035 as electrification takes hold…

MILEAGE 5309 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the Clio is the heir apparent to the Ford Fiesta’s ‘default buy’ throne In my initial report on our Clio, I was pretty dismissive about its sporting credentials, disappointed as I was that its Alpine badging wasn’t matched by chassis or powertrain alterations. This disappointment stemmed from several sources. First, it’s just so lame when things appear to be what they patently are not. Fake exhausts and fake air intakes do not make your BMW X1 an M1. Second, the Alpine brand has enough cachet these days that a good number of people will know what the blue A stickers on the sides are meant to imply: Formula 1, Le Mans hypercars and delightful little sports coupés. Third, I have countless…

FEATURE Cayenne S to Kielder Hot version of Porsche’s big SUV now has a V8 engine. We test it on a run to the most fearsome forest in British rallying PREVIEW Formula 1 2024 Will Max win it all? Probably. But there’s still plenty to look out for, say our experts NEWS SPECIAL Geneva motor show The Renault 5 leads the returning motor show’s star reveals. We have full details EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Subaru Crosstrek Compact 4x4 is still an oddball as it enters its third generation DRIVEN BMW X2 and iX2 All-new baby SUV-coupé tested in hot M35i and electric guises SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p16…

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 reinvention of the Jaguar brand will not come before Land Rover’s EV line-up has taken shape” An electric version of the Range Rover Sport is due to be revealed later this year as a high-powered and highly luxurious rival to the likes of the Lotus Eletre and upcoming electric Porsche Cayenne. It is one of six EVs that JLR plans to launch by 2026 across the Land Rover and Jaguar line-ups. When ex-CEO Thierry Bolloré presented the company’s radical Reimagine transformation strategy exactly three years ago, the plan was to launch six electric Land Rover models and at least one electric Jaguar by that point. But the company has now reworked its electrification plan slightly to enable further development time and cater to shifts in consumer demand (see separate…

CHRYSLER HAS REVEALED a futuristic super-saloon as a preview of its upcoming electric car line-up. The American brand will totally reinvent itself for the EV era, ushering in highlevel autonomy, advanced connectivity and a bold new design ethos, as previewed by the new Halcyon concept. The canopy-roofed Halcyon is based on parent company Stellantis’s new STLA Large platform, which will underpin eight production cars by 2026, including a new Chrysler – likely to be an SUV in reality – in 2025. The marque hasn’t confirmed precise technical specifications, but STLA Large is designed to accommodate batteries sufficient for 500 miles of range and “extreme” dualmotor powertrains that can deliver a car from 0-62mph in as little as 2.0sec. In this application, the Halcyon’s 800V batteries – said to have a…

SOUND QUALITY IS something we may not notice until it’s not so good. Audio system manufacturers, and especially those making high-end systems, have faced difficulties in achieving decent-quality sound inside cars for years. In-car acoustics aren’t great, there are background noises too and the audio system designer has no control over the position, size and objects inside the space. It may seem as though a shift to electric drivetrains would make their lives easier but actually it doesn’t. UK manufacturer Meridian Audio, which supplies the likes of Land Rover, Jaguar and Kia, has produced a digital processing suite called Intelli-Q, designed to deal with the completely different challenges an EV poses compared with ICE. According to Meridian’s engineers, one of the challenges in producing quality sound inside a car is…

merican motorsport firm Scarbo Vintage has revealed the SV Rover – an outlandish off-road weapon that it claims to be “the world’s first street-legal hypertruck”. Available with either a mighty supercharged V8 engine or a battery-electric powertrain, it is the third car from the California-based company. It follows the SV F1, a tribute to the 1967 Ferrari 312 Formula 1 car, and the Porsche 911-derived SV RSR, which was the basis for Ken Block’s ‘Hoonipigasus’ stunt car. Said to “comfortably tackle technical off-road trails and traverse desert terrain at extra-legal speeds”, the SV Rover takes visual cues from the classic Land Rover Defender 90. It has a body clad entirely in carbonfibre and aluminium, huge flared wheel arches, thick underbody protection and a wheelbase significantly extended to accommodate a rear-mid-mounted…

MONDAY An interesting snapshot of modern media at work. There I was, driving along in the Audi with photographer Jack Harrison snapping routine at-the-wheel pictures for an Our Cars report (see p54). On a narrow, steep road behind the South Downs, with no warning at all, an ultra-rare Aston Martin Valour, one of the latest 705bhp, £1 million-plus, limited-run hypercars, burst out of a tight corner ahead, coming fast towards us. In a flash, Harrison dropped his regular camera, pulled out his phone and snapped a perfect picture of the Aston, a car we reckon must have been liberated from a customer test day at nearby Goodwood. Within minutes, the image was on social media. By the evening, it had garnered 40,000 views. It also completely changed my view of…

Given that BMW itself calls the 5 Series the “core and heart” of its brand, the arrival of a new one is going to be a much bigger event than yet another SUV. This all-new G60 version is the eighth generation of a model that has racked up more than 10 million sales in more than 50 years on the market, yet so far we have only known it by a different name: the BMW i5, a decent but not game-changing electric saloon offering. But don’t tar the entire 5 Series range with the same brush just yet, because it is as broad as any other out there at the moment. Depending on where you live, you can get four-cylinder and six-cylinder diesels (remember those?), a four-cylinder petrol and four-cylinder…

Not content with offering ICE and EV versions of its restomodded Chieftain, JIA has also developed a plug-in hybrid. Originally designed to meet the demands of North America, where big distances still hobble EVs but low emissions are rewarded in some places, it combines raucous V8 power with an incredible 100 miles or so of battery-only range. Our test car is based on an early-1990s US-spec ‘soft dash’ Range Rover that has been subjected to a full bare-metal restoration and a cow-heavy interior makeover. Under the subtly enhanced body (JIA’s moulded bumpers and side skirts give the barn-door Rangie a slightly softer look) is a 460bhp Chevrolet LT1 6.2-litre V8 that drives the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic gearbox, plus a pair of Yasa P400R axial flux electric motors…

The final stage of the Car of the Year voting process took place last week in Mortefontaine, near Paris, about a fortnight after our UK test. Here, the seven finalists were assembled in all different trims and versions for a final, final round of testing before the votes were submitted. This gave an opportunity to test the Peugeot e-3008 again next to its peers, plus the hybrid 3008 too. The e-3008 simply didn’t ride very well and felt so heavy, and despite being 500kg-plus lighter, the hybrid 3008 felt underpowered. The Renault Scenic just seemed more drivable and better sorted. A surprise curveball came from the addition of the non-i5 5 Series. Like the 3008, hybrid and electric versions of the new BMW share a nomination on the ballot paper.…

MODEL TESTED S • Price £84,400 • Power 468bhp • Torque 443lb ft • 0-60mph 5.0sec • 30-70mph in 4th 6.3sec • Fuel economy 22.9mpg • CO2 emissions 282-303g/km • 70-0mph 57.4m Where does the line between a heavy facelift and an all-new model start? Porsche can argue it both ways. Strictly speaking, the latest Cayenne is an updated version of the existing third generation (the ‘E3’) of what we all now regard as the original sporting SUV, est 2002. However, the scope of the changes is on par with what Porsche has, in the past, undertaken for full-generational model renewals. It means that while the engine line-up still consists of V6 and V8 layouts, these units have been meaningfully overhauled, as has the suspension and, most noticeably, the interior, which…

MILEAGE 5739 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if this electric fastback saloon can outmuscle the growing SUV market The ë-C4 X’s comfort levels are really impressive. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the most relaxing cars I’ve driven. Not only are the seats plush and comfortable, but also the cabin is well insulated from road and wind noise. Even on the most stressful roads (looking at you, London’s North Circular), the silent powertrain and easy-going steering make life much more serene. This has made my crack-of-dawn journeys from north London to the Autocar office in Twickenham a particularly easy task – and the French EV’s efficiency bolsters its pacifying credentials even further. On my 20-odd-mile urban commute, it regularly returns 4.5mpkWh. With the…

Uninsurable I’m on my fourth Range Rover over the last 20 years – an Autobiography that I bought in 2016 and has done only 50,000 miles. I read that thefts of Range Rovers have pushed up insurance costs considerably, and indeed my renewal quote was double. So I tried JLR’s own insurance offering, launched recently to help customers get reasonable insurance. I am 76, have a clean driving record and have no claims for more than 25 years. My car is stored in a locked garage here in rural Scotland and does only 5000 miles per year of social domestic travel. On the face of it, a very low risk. So I wonder why Land Rover Insurance wasn’t prepared to even give me a quote. I won’t be buying another…

Is the Vauxhall Astra GTC VXR the hot hatch bargain of the year? Just £5900 will get you a 2012-reg car with a full service history and 95,000 miles on the clock. That’s around £4500 less than the equivalent VW Scirocco R and £2500 or so less than a Renault Mégane RS 250. So you can buy one and have money left for fuel, insurance and servicing – but should you? In fact, far from being a one-trick pony in familiar VXR style, the front-wheel-drive GTC VXR is an impressively rounded performance coupé that’s as happy cruising the motorway as it is dispatching corners. It’s well built, surprisingly roomy front and back and brimming with kit. It doesn’t look half bad outside either, while inside you could actually accuse it…

Germany is not always associated with straying from the beaten track design-wise, but in fact designers from the country’s car makers have throughout the years dared to divert from the norm and given us some outlandish car designs. So here’s our pick of Germany’s most unusual car designs, from beautifully eccentric shapes to squirrelly design features. Mercedes-Benz 300 SL 1954 By the early 1950s, Mercedes had endured a torrid couple of decades and felt it needed to make a statement to the world that it was truly back in business. And so the world got Friedrich Geiger’s beautifully unusual 300 SL gullwing. Importer Max Hoffman promised 1000 sales in America alone, and the car was unveiled at the New York motor show in 1954, where its doors caused a sensation.…

2024 RANGE ROVER First electric Rangie must be hugely capable off road but peerlessly refined on it – not to mention a brilliant electric car, generally. RANGE ROVER VELAR Porsche Macan rival is set to be the first of a new family of compact SUVs built at JLR’s Halewood factory. RANGE ROVER EVOQUE Third generation of style-focused crossover will continue to play an important role as the entry point to the Range Rover line-up. 2025 LAND ROVER DISCOVERY SPORT Popular, family-friendly crossover makes the electric switch to go after the BMW iX3, Ford Explorer and Tesla Model Y. RANGE ROVER SPORT Punchy EV drivetrain should be a good fit for Gaydon’s sports SUV, which faces stiff competition from the Lotus Eletre. JAGUAR GT Big cat’s new era kicks off with…

The ID 7 Tourer has been revealed as a sleek electric estate that is intended to broaden the appeal of Volkswagen’s flagship EV and solidify its position in the executive market. Described by its maker as the “electric all-rounder of the new era”, the ID 7 Tourer will arrive in the second half of 2024 to take on the BMW i5 Touring and forthcoming Audi A6 E-tron Avant. Measuring 4961mm long, 1862mm wide and 1536mm tall, the estate is proportionally identical to the ID 7 saloon but is shorter, wider and taller than the next-generation Volkswagen Passat, for which the Tourer serves as an indirect electric alternative. It has a 545-litre boot, which is marginally smaller than the BMW’s 570 litres, but that rises to 1714 litres with the back…

The Dacia Spring will finally head to UK dealers in the coming months to become the nation’s cheapest electric car, following a substantial overhaul inside and out aimed at sustaining strong European sales volumes. The Spring was originally introduced in Europe in 2021 as a rebadged version of the Chinese-market Renault City K-ZE. Its low launch price of just €16,800 (£14,385 at today’s exchange rate) meant it quickly rose up the EV sales charts, and three years on, 140,000 Springs have been bought on the continent. However, the original Spring was not imported to the UK – partly because it was “lacking a bit of modernity”, in the words of Dacia design chief David Durand. Now, though, it has been heavily updated to rectify that, with major improvements to interior…

DOUBLE-CAB PICK-UP trucks are set to lose their status as commercial vehicles from 1 July, which means company car drivers will face a near-fivefold increase in personal tax bills. Currently, any pick-up with a payload of more than 1000kg (or 1045kg with a hard top installed) is considered a commercial vehicle, but HMRC is to ditch the payload-based definition and deem any pickup with a second row of seats as suitable for private use. Due to favourable VAT and benefit-in-kind (BIK) taxation, the UK is one of Europe’s largest pick-up markets. The Ford Ranger is the best-seller here, with a 45.5% market share in 2023. The most popular Wildtrak variant with a 2.0-litre diesel engine has a basic list price of £47,220, including VAT. Under the new rules, its 230g/km…

The big car makers often struggle to ‘get’ Formula 1. Take Renault. On the one hand, it has a storied history in grand prix racing as both a successful engine supplier and all-in constructor. On the other, it has yo-yoed in and out of the sport over the decades, proving fickle to the merits or otherwise of spending millions to go around in circles. Renault has contributed so much – and yet you’re often left wondering how long its patience will last until the next rattle/pram moment. This is generally a more stable time for F1. A strict budget cap and what is effectively a team franchise system make the investment and return sum less risky for car makers than it used to be. But none of them can bear…

can’t remember the last time the drive of a new car has entailed both full-tilt track driving on a grand prix circuit and serious off-roading. But this is the new Range Rover Sport SV, they thought it was appropriate, and I am inclined to agree. I first said the following about the Bentley Bentayga, and then probably the Aston Martin DBX, but I think Range Rover has moved things on again: it is the most broadly capable car in the world. On one hand, it can tow 3.5 tonnes, wade 900mm, has a full suite of systems to maximise grip on rough ground, and can raise its ride height. Then it can go on circuit and pull more than 1.1g of lateral grip on its all-season tyres. And in between…

“You sense that most of the budget went on making the interior as good as it can be” With so much fanfare around the new Peugeot e-3008, you would be forgiven for forgetting there’s a version that’s been made without any e numbers. Indeed, given it’s £11,200 cheaper and almost 550kg lighter, you would think Peugeot had been hyping up the wrong model. But as the new crossover has been designed first and foremost as an EV, this ‘standard’ version of the 3008 was always going to get second billing. It is being launched at the same time as the e-3008 and visually the two are as good as identical. The only changes other than that ‘e’ in front of the ‘3008’ on the bootlid are that the wheel arches…

First we watched the rise of Tesla and now we’re witnessing the rise of China. For us Europeans, these fully aware of what is at stake? From the UK perspective, I’m writing about an industry that has a turnover of around £67 billion a year and adds £14bn of value to the economy every year through £77bn of trade, as well as accounting for around 7% of the nation’s R&D spend and employing some 800,000 people. From an EU perspective, I’m writing about an industry accounting for 8% of GDP, 30% of R&D spending and 13 million jobs. The UK may no longer be part of the EU, but on this issue I think we face the same challenges together. It is very simple: strip out the automotive industry and…

MILEAGE 3210 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if this plug-in hybrid luxury SUV can offer the best of both worlds There are many challenges to owning a dog who suffers with poor mental health, but an unexpected addition to that lengthy list was the need to buy a pair of large crates to prevent him from attacking my other spaniel whenever they are cooped up together in the back of a car. The xDrive50e might disappoint with its lack of a seven-seat option, but happily the hybrid gubbins doesn’t eat too much into its fantastic load-carrying ability – with enough space to swallow the two crates with ease, along with my two kids and all of our gear for a long weekend away with extended family in Somerset.…

I particularly liked Matt Prior’s column of 7 February, but I do have what I feel is an important point to make. Yes, the Daewoo Lanos wasn’t a particularly great car (if he’s looking for bad, has he ever driven a Tacuma?), but as the business I was working for at the time had this franchise among many, I realised that there was a huge market for customers not particularly looking for a great car, just one that was reliable, affordable and most of all attainable. We sold countless Matizes for £80 per month to people who really weren’t looking for the last word in sophistication. What choice do these buyers have now? Legendary sales trainer Gavin Reckless once said to me: you drive your flash company car and look…

An owner’s view TOBY HARRIS “My GTC VXR is a 2013-reg model with 63,000 miles. I say ‘my’ but it’s been in the family for nine years and replaced our previous-model VXR, which, unlike the GTC, suffered terrible torque steer. It has been reliable, although we did have the gearbox refurbished. Second-and third-gear synchros on the GTC can fade. It got to the point where we were having to double-declutch to change from first to second! The bill was £1100 but now it feels like new. The clutch has never given any trouble and is fine. I’m a 31-year-old living near Bath and insurance is £560, which, given the car’s performance, I consider reasonable.” Buyer beware… ENGINE AND GEARBOX Regular oil changes are essential to preserve the timing chain and…

LAMBORGHINI IS ONE of the quintessential supercar brands and the Countach arguably its most famous model (it’s the only one the firm has ever reskinned a modern in tribute to) and undeniably one of the cultural icons of the ’80s. Not the ’70s, you ask? Well, the Countach has something of a split identity, and here we’re revisiting our 1982 test of the LP 500 S – one of the fat-arched, arrow-winged, cocaine-white later models loved by those of us who believe that pastel pink blazers and synth-pop are infinitely cooler than brown corduroy trousers and prog rock. Prefer ‘the purity of the original design’, huh? Not in Miami, pal. Supercars were a lot rarer back in those days. Whereas now there seems to be a new one every other…