Innholdsfortegnelse for March 06, 2024 i Autocar

MG plans to launch a sub-£20k electric city car in the UK by the end of next year, Autocar can reveal. Speaking on the sidelines of the new MG 3’s unveiling at the Geneva motor show (see box, right), product and planning boss David Allison outlined plans to expand the Chinese firm’s electric car line-up below the 4, hinting at a compact rival to the Dacia Spring. A concept for the new ‘MG 2’ already exists, revealed Allison, and it could evolve into a production car in less than two years. Speed is particularly important in this instance to enable MG to take advantage of the dearth of small, affordable EVs currently on the market. He said: “I think that it’s an area that no one has really exploited successfully…

When Renault’s new 4 crossover hits the market in a year’s time, its look and driving characteristics will be “quite different” from the new 5 revealed at Geneva last week, according to its chief engineer, even though it will use the same wheelbase and the same EV-dedicated platform. The 4 and 5 are the first of four recipients of the Ampr Small platform, a new design that uses the frontal structure of the Renault Group’s familiar CMF-B platform but has an all-new, highly versatile layout behind the firewall to accommodate different wheelbases and batteries of varying sizes. According to Vittorio d’Arienzo, chief engineer of the group’s small EVs, the platform will eventually be made in three wheelbases – one shared by the 4 and 5, a slightly longer one for…

Electric cars are being “forced” onto the market to buyers who don’t want them, according to Ineos chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe. He used the unveiling of Ineos’s first EV, the Fusilier 4x4, to call on British and European legislators to keep a much more open mind to other powertrain types beyond EVs and focus instead on the wider goal of reducing carbon emissions without pricing buyers out of the market and removing choice for them. He and Ineos Automotive CEO Lynn Calder also further detailed the Fusilier ahead of its 2027 launch. EV ADOPTION Ratcliffe pointed out that the US takes a different view to Europe in focusing on the wider goal of reducing the emissions of road transport towards net zero rather than legislating in favour of one particular…

Aston Martin is preparing to transform the V12-engined DBS into a bona fide supercar, more clearly distinguished from its V8-powered DB12 and Vantage siblings. New exclusive pictures of the supercar – which is tipped to revive the Vanquish name – reveal that it is based on the DB12 but with a wide-reaching visual makeover that points to its extra grunt: there are huge new vents on the bonnet to keep the 12-cylinder engine cool, a much wider grille and a chunkier lower splitter that hints at improved downforce. The rear end features a larger diffuser to improve aerodynamic performance, and the twin-exit exhaust set-up has been replaced by four tailpipes, nodding to the extra cylinders. A similar arrangement featured on the final-edition DBS 770, in which the V12’s output was…

JLR has told its dealer partners that they will no longer be transitioned to the agency model later this year, but instead continue with a revamped version of their current wholesale arrangement. The change to an agency, or direct sales, model would have given JLR full control of the car-buying process – be it online or in the showroom – and dealers, or ‘agents’, would have got a fixed fee for each sale. Direct sales allow car manufacturers to more closely control retail costs, develop closer relationships with their buyers and ultimately retain more of the revenue generated by selling cars. By contrast, under the wholesale model – which JLR is sticking with – companies sell cars to dealers, who are free to set their own discounts, which promotes haggling…

As alternative racing lives go, Romain Dumas’s takes some beating. At 46, the Frenchman has plenty of major gongs to mark a successful career by any measure: two wins at the Le Mans 24 Hours (with Audi and Porsche) and one each at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, Spa 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours. But he’s so much more than one of the most decorated sports car racers of his generation, thanks to the extracurricular projects that he dives into – and for which he is now best known. In a spirit that carries echoes of past master all-rounders such as Stirling Moss, Vic Elford and Mario Andretti, Dumas has enjoyed a wonderfully diverse repertoire. He has dipped into the World Rally Championship and the Dakar Rally, but it’s his…

One can make a case that it’s vans – and not the SUVs we’re plied with – that today come closest to mastering the art of the lifestyle vehicle. It’s why you find so many MPV owners, never to return to the SUV fold, eulogising the utility and surprising opulence of their boxy (and sometimes quite expensive) wheels. Playing into this is the fact that the ‘van with windows’ market has recently become more desirable and competitive than ever. Volkswagen has its charming Multivan; Ford’s Tourneo Custom has a panoramic roof; and the new Lexus LM, with its Mark Levinson sound system, goes up against the BMW 7 Series. As an established player in this area (one in which its foes Audi and BMW still have never so much as…

There’s much to say about the new G60 5 Series, but precious little about the diesel versions landing here. That’s because none of them will be, with BMW UK instead choosing to focus on the electrified models. As such, the entry-level offering is now the 520i, powered by a mild-hybridised 2.0-litre fourcylinder turbo petrol engine. With 202bhp and 243lb ft of torque, you always have plenty underfoot. Indeed, it gets from 0-62mph in 7.5sec, which is on par with the equivalent Mercedes-Benz E-Class, its biggest and longest-standing rival. More importantly, the 520i’s claimed economy is up to 48.7mpg, which makes it almost as frugal as the 51mpg-rated 530d of old. On the road, Munich’s B48 engine is generally nicely refined, offering adequate acceleration while letting the cabin remain suitably quiet.…

We like Kia’s new seven-seat electric SUV for its brilliant design, versatile interior and assured road manners – and now you can get a cheaper version that offers more range and better efficiency. So is the Air the pick of the EV9 bunch? Coming in at £65,025, it serves as the entry point to the EV9 line-up, and yet here the 99.8kWh battery actually offers more range: 349 miles, compared with 313. The big difference is the drivetrain: unlike the mid-level GT-Line and range-topping GT-Line S, the Air has just a single motor. Located at the rear axle, it develops 200bhp and 258lb ft of torque. This means that sprinting from 0-62mph takes 4.1sec longer, at 9.4sec, than in a dual-motor, four-wheel-drive model. While that might sound slow, the Air…

Kievari Rantapirtti, located about 30 miles outside Jyväskylä in the heart of Finland’s ‘1000 Lakes’ region, is occasionally referred to as the ‘House of Kalle’. Rovanperä, that is: the double World Rally Champion grew up just minutes away and honed his preternatural driving talents at the forest complex, on both its gravel tracks in summer and its frozen ice lake in winter. Now it’s my turn on that frozen lake – and I’m behind the wheel of a Toyota GR Yaris to boot. Ice is the perfect canvas on which to showcase the hot hatch: power hard into a corner, dab the brakes, turn the wheel, then hit the accelerator, using the throttle pedal to control the slide. So supremely balanced is the chassis of the GR Yaris that I…

MILEAGE 7240 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Volkswagen is looking to repeat the glory days with its massive family EV, but is it as easy to love as a bug? Irecently arrived at a launch in Somerset, where I was met by a journalist from another motoring title who wondered aloud, in good humour, whether there might be anyone on the Autocar team who had less of a need for a car like the ID Buzz. Fair point, I replied, but the fact of the matter is that – perhaps against the odds – this massive family EV is actually suiting me right down to the ground. My learned contemporary’s argument was founded on three crucial facts: I live in cramped, snarled-up suburban London, I don’t have children and I have…

I fully agree with Renault CEO Luca de Meo’s view that a predictable and simpleto-implement regulatory framework will help enormously to get the car industry to invest in the future (21 February). What would also help is a bit more creativity and daring in product development. There are products that no one from outside Europe is likely to offer (because they don’t fit foreign markets) that could stabilise a market share that European makers could defend. Low-cost vehicles (with a small battery and simple technology) don’t have to be wrapped in mini-SUV bodyshells. A shooting brake shape could reduce power consumption and increase range. Only Europeans drive small cars for long enough distances to make this useful. Vehicle category L7e (for 450kg-plus electric microcars) is a way to avoid all…

An owner’s view STEPHEN COOKE “We bought our Mégane, a 1.6 dCi, in 2018. It was a pre-reg, registered in 2016, so had been sitting around and had only 10 miles on the clock. That sounds like a recipe for trouble, but six years later it has notched up 39,000 miles and never put a wheel wrong. It’s in lovely condition. It’s in Signature spec so has 18in alloys, LED headlights and full leather trim. Being a 1.6 diesel it’s powerful enough, yet economy never dips below 50mpg even in Sport mode. I can’t fault it.” Buyer beware… ENGINE The 1.2 petrol and 1.6 diesel engines have a timing chain claimed to last the life of the car. The 1.5 diesel has a timing belt that needs replacing every five…

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…

Tesla’s long-awaited entry-level EV is finally set to enter production next year, giving the firm a foothold in the increasingly competitive sub-£25k sector. The ‘Model 2’, as it is known, has been on the cards for years. Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed development was under way as long ago as 2020, but it was not until late last year that the first details began to trickle out and the firm announced plans to start building it in 2025. Being developed under the codename ‘Project Redwood’, the secretive new model has a crucial role to play in helping Tesla defend its hard-won position among the world’s leading electric car manufacturers, having been knocked off the top spot in the final quarter of 2023 by BYD. In fact, giving shareholders a forecast…

AN ESTATE VERSION of the MG 4 EV hatchback is set to go on sale later this year as a replacement for the ageing MG 5 SW EV. The 5 was launched in the UK in 2020, but it is based on the Chinese-market Roewe i5, which dates from 2017, so is at a natural retirement age. MG has previously confirmed that its new EVspecific Modular Scalable Platform architecture, first used for the 4, will be rolled out across its line-up as it replaces its first generation of electric cars. As it does so, an extended version of the 4 is understood to be a more logical and costeffective successor to the 5 than an all-new model. Switching to the new architecture will make the new 5 rear-driven, rather than…

THE “RETRO-FUTURISTIC” shape of the new Renault 5 does more than merely remind people of the great days of the 1972 original, according to its designers. Group design boss Laurens van den Acker believes it gives the marque an iconic look and shape, with the same kind of long-lasting ability as the Mini, Fiat 500 or Porsche 911, and says “the 5 could go 20 years”. The adoption of the new shape was a highly pragmatic decision made by Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo when he arrived at the company in mid-2020. The concept was already complete in the design studio, having been created on spec by designers who realised that Renault needed to replace both the Clio and Twingo but couldn’t afford to do both. The new 5…

iat has previewed the new electric Panda as one of five radically styled concepts that look ahead to a range of new affordable cars due on sale worldwide by the end of the decade. The retro-futuristic City Car concept was revealed on the eve of the Geneva motor show, where the headline unveiling was Renault’s same-sized and similarly conceived 5, which will be a direct rival for the final version of the Italian car. The concept previews the first of Fiat’s new-era models that will be revealed in July as part of the brand’s 125thanniversary celebrations. It will be followed by one new car every year – described as “children of the Panda” (see p13) – until 2027. These models will share a common architecture: sibling brand Citroën’s cost-effective Smart…

BUGATTI’S NEXT HYPERCAR will use a mammoth V16 engine, the company has confirmed. Announcing that the new hypercar will be unveiled in June, Bugatti has revealed that it will swap from the W16 engine used by the Chiron and its Veyron predecessor to an allnew unit of a different shape. It will be the first production car to use such an engine since the ultra-rare Cizeta-Moroder V16T in 1991. Bugatti has not given any more details about the engine, such as its capacity or whether it has been developed in-house, but it did give a first taste of its screaming soundtrack in a short teaser video. The V16 will form part of Bugatti’s first hybrid powertrain, which the firm describes as “incomparable in every detail. It is a pure embodiment…

Well, this is a little embarrassing. In a week when I suggested that all drivers should be regularly reminded of their responsibilities on the road (in my column of 28 February), reader Phil Townsend wrote to suggest that I ought not to be overtaking cars doing 60mph on dual carriageways in my Ford Ranger Raptor (as referenced in Our Cars, 28 February) because its speed limit is also 60mph on such roads, owing to it being a light commercial vehicle. Light commercial vehicles – vans and so on – have different speed limits to cars, as you may know, and indeed as I knew. They’re the same as cars for speed limits up to 50mph, but as for national speed limit roads, they’re limited to 50mph on single carriageways (not…

The Passat has been in production for more than 50 years, during which time it has captured more than 30 million sales worldwide. It may not be as widely celebrated as the Golf, but its 1973 introduction preceded that of the hatchback by almost a year, making it the longest-lived car in the Volkswagen line-up. It’s important to point this out, because the new ninth-generation Passat seen here is most likely the last to be offered with combustion engines. As the recent launches of the similarly sized ID 7 saloon and ID 7 Touring estate have brought into clear focus, the future of Volkswagen is fully electric. Not that Volkswagen has merely updated the Mk8 Passat. The Mk9 is based on a heavily revised version of its predecessor’s platform, called…

The electrified version of the V-Class has been with us for a few years now, and like the diesel it has just been updated. While it isn’t the most natural option for families gallivanting about on transcontinental road trip holidays, it is well suited to the short, dull, formulaic assignment for which MPVs are often deployed: airport runs. Straight away it cuts a more urbane figure than the diesel V-Class. Near-silent running instils a sense of calm and means the EQV is better suited to the role of luxury transit. The driving experience itself is also more pleasant, not least because the EQV’s regenerative braking can be ramped up to the maximum for effective one-pedal driving or completely disabled for free-wheeling. In our air-suspended test car, Sport mode seemed to…

The 600e is a very important car for Fiat, and it has a lot to live up to. As the Italian brand’s second electric car, the compact crossover seeks to continue the trail blazed by the 500e – one of the cheapest and best-selling EVs in Europe today. It also marks the return of the 600 name after some 40 years and is the first all-new Fiat to be produced since the formation of Stellantis. It’s based on the vast group’s e-CMP platform, shared with EVs including the Citroën ë-C4, Jeep Avenger and Peugeot e-2008. Other shared components include a 54kWh battery pack, which with the 600e’s official economy of 4.0mpkWh in theory yields a range of 252 miles. Power comes from a single front-mounted motor that makes 151bhp and…

When the Mercedes-Benz EQB arrived in 2022, it filled a real market niche for an electric seven-seater. Even today there are precious few options: the only realistic rival is the new Kia EV9. It’s a sign that electrification really has turned the industry on its head when you compare a Mercedes and a Kia and the car from Stuttgart is the smaller, cheaper option. Cheaper, but still not cheap. While the EQB might have found white space in the market at its launch, it was hamstrung by its premium price, along with a disappointing range and charging speed. This facelift features a host of significant upgrades to address those points, using technology cascaded down from the recent wave of higher-end Mercedes EVs. The UK’s EQB line-up now starts with this…

“Renault’s CEO very conspicuously avoided talk of Geneva next year” In the end, it just about worked. The 2024 Geneva show, albeit tiny compared with the salon’s bumper years a decade ago, had enough about it to hold the interest of 1500 or so European hacks for at least most of the opening press day. Perhaps more importantly for the hard-pressed organisers, there seemed to be enough good quality supporting stuff going on, by way of hypercar and vintage car displays, art and model sellers, spacious restaurants and coffee shops, to entertain a decent proportion of the 200,000 guests optimistically being sought this year over five days. At the outset, cynicism was everywhere. One wag reckoned it was like a gigantic wedding rehearsal – good intentions but no guests and…

MILEAGE 7255 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if this electric fastback saloon can outmuscle the growing SUV market Having driven and liked the Citroën C4 in petrol guise, I was intrigued to see if the electric version could continue the trend, which meant borrowing Jack Warrick’s ë-C4 X saloon for a week. It was clear very early on that it was one of the most comfortable cars I’ve driven. But is it a good electric car? I’m not so sure. Initially, I was pleasantly surprised to find it had a very practical interior, with enough space to store all my office jetsam. For instance, the door pockets are cavernous and there’s even a coat hanger that pops out of the dash. It makes me think Citroën had high-mileage fleet…

DRIVEN Electrifying the desert Think finding an EV charger in the UK is tough? We ponder the challenges of electrifying the world by driving a Skoda Enyaq in the Sahara FIRST DRIVE KGM Torres The firm formerly known as Ssangyong has arrived. Will buyers notice this time? FEATURE Au revoir, Zoe We consider the legacy of Renault’s groundbreaking compact EV EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Volkswagen ID 7 Is new saloon really a Tesla Model 3 beater? We put it to the ultimate test USED GUIDE Alfa Romeo GT Italian style in a coupé shape for a bargain price: count us in SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p20…

The Car of the Year award is arguably the global car industry’s biggest prize. Every year, every model released the previous year is judged, before a shortlist of seven is drawn up. Then journalists from a number of motoring titles, including Autocar, come together to place their votes. This year, the Renault Scenic E-Tech won. Will it join the list of greats? Or will it join this list of eyebrow-raisers? Porsche 928 1978 Initially intended as a successor to the ageing 911, the 928 was heralded by judges for its 4.5-litre V8 engine, superb dynamics and surprisingly reasonable price. This unlikely COTY would be Porsche’s first and last to date, and indeed the first and last sports car to win. The 928 never did replace the 911: the two coexisted…

PEUGEOT’S HYPERSQUARE steering ‘wheel’ is on track to make production in 2026 after extensive clinics showed customers are ready for the step change in interior design and technology. The Hypersquare is a rectangular-shaped ‘wheel’ that Peugeot previewed on its Inception concept car in 2023 as the next evolution of the i-Cockpit concept introduced a decade ago. It will enter production alongside steer-by-wire technology, and the 2026 timing of its introduction, confirmed by CEO Linda Jackson, coincides with when Peugeot’s B-segment models – the 208 supermini and 2008 crossover – are due for replacement. “The next stage for us is going to be Hypersquare,” said Jackson. “We’re going to take and evolve the steering control. We’ve moved from a beautiful, round, little steering wheel, into a very ‘tech’ arena, which is…

THE RENAULT 5 has reached production largely unchanged from the concept car of 2021, much to the delight of its designer, Gilles Vidal. The Frenchman has now turned his attention to the 4 – which he also confirmed will make production largely unchanged in an exclusive interview at Geneva. Why go retro for the 5? “In 1972, when we first did the 5, it made a lot of sense, being created in the oil crisis. Today, we need to create accessible small electric cars. Because of its popular heritage, the 5 makes a lot of sense for a small EV for today and tomorrow. Not every car in history has the same potential after 50 years, but this resonates nicely, and it just felt right to do. But it’s not…

THE ACCELERATING march of progress must be giving product planners at car manufacturers a tough time. Car technology has never been in such a state of flux as it is now, and given lithium ion batteries only really became a commercial big deal in the 1990s, the sudden shift towards cars powered by them is extraordinary. But historical perspective as to what comes next is always useful. A close look at the single-cylinder engine of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen of 1885, for instance, reveals a crankshaft and internals exposed to the elements, something that’s unthinkable today. Given how fast things change in this business, chances are lithium ion batteries – which have drawbacks in terms of sustainability, energy security and cost – will be overtaken by another type of energy storage.…

BRITAIN’S TEST tracks and proving grounds are exciting places, used primarily by car and component makers to try to break bits of car before they reach the showroom. But they also often stage customer demonstration days, allowing potential buyers to try high-performance cars without fear of losing their licence. This can lead to some friction, especially if the drivers there on a jolly get in the way of the professional engineers trying to develop a car. The testers from one big manufacturer were particularly irritated to see that a supercar brand was running a test drive day at ‘their’ proving ground. They were even more riled when a snooty chap in charge of the customer experience told them to move over swiftly to allow the big V12 coupés to pass…

TUESDAY Back in the office after a rushed Geneva show, the burning topic remains: was it a success? My own view is that it most certainly was – in the sense that it was a day well spent. Of course, it was tiny from the point of news value, but we still came home with plenty. Personally, I returned with a certainty that the all-new Dacia Duster (especially the three-pot hybrid 4x4) perfectly carries on the good work of the outgoing car that had been largely unaltered since 2009. There’s surely one of these in my future. One of the ironies of this year’s show was that Fiat – whose fury at the way the 2020 event imploded so expensively seems as great as ever – actually added to the…

With so many EVs offering almost indistinguishable power delivery and driving characteristics, assessing them sometimes feels like a game of Top Trumps, merely comparing ranges, battery capacities, charging rates, number of motors, sizes of touchscreen and the like. But with the electric version of the new Mk3 Mini Countryman, let’s start with something far more subjective: how charming it is. Really, it’s lovely. EVs suit the Mini brand well. The upbeat, premium but friendly styling that Mini is aiming for meshes well with electric power. And with its spacious interior, retro design flourishes and infotainment that sit just the right side of cheesy, this family SUV shows great potential as the British brand accelerates its transition. That gives it considerable appeal. Enough to overlook some statistics that would be unexceptional…

An all-new car with an allnew design and an all-new powertrain on an all-new platform that will form the base of many new cars from the vast Stellantis group, the Peugeot e-3008 is rather important. Our glowing verdict when we met it last November? It’s fine. There were a few technical issues with that particular car that meant the ‘fine’ needed an asterisk, but now we’ve had a go in a more representative production example. The biggest question mark was the multimedia system, since it was not working in our early test car. It’s effectively the same interface we’ve experienced in various Stellantis models from the past few years. It’s extremely customisable, so you can work around some of the poorer design decisions (such as it not having a permanent…

The way Audi is operating at the moment is reminiscent of how it went about business in the late 1970s and 1980s, when boss Ferdinand Piëch encouraged his engineers to strive for perfection. Because after just two years on sale, the Q4 E-tron, which outsold every other Audi SUV in 2023, has been treated to a comprehensive update. The big news is that all versions now have a more efficient motor (as found in the new Volkswagen ID 7) on the rear axle. That means more power: 282bhp for both the singlemotor 45 and dual-motor 45 Quattro and 335bhp for the 55 Quattro, up from 201bhp and 295bhp. It also means improved range, with the entry-level car (which will go the farthest) up from 316 to 330 miles. That puts…

The modern Porsche 911 isn’t just an extraordinary car, singular, but an extraordinary range of cars. T You can have a regular rear-drive, road-focused 911 with a roof, or a four-wheel-drive alternative, or one without a roof, or one with half a roof, plus versions that are track-focused, or dominated by straight-line acceleration, rough-road ready… In all, there are 26 different 911s on sale today. Things were rather different when Porsche first set out to put the family name on a sports car, in 1948, when the son of Porsche founder Ferdinand, also called Ferdinand but known as Ferry, designed a two-seat mid-engined roadster at a sawmill in Gmünd, Austria. The mid-engined 356 prototype had a complex spaceframe chassis. Porsche still owns it. But when it came to turning that…

MODEL TESTED 450 SUV BUSINESS CLASS • Price £143,795 • Power 355bhp • Torque 590lb ft • 0-60mph 5.5sec • 30-70mph 5.2sec • Economy 2.4mpkWh • Max DC charging speed 166kW • 70-0mph 45.3m It’s a continuing quandary for the ‘legacy’ car manufacturers: how do you maintain your identity when there are no engines to establish it, and when the traditional rules of vehicle design no longer apply in quite the same way as they have done for 100 years? It clearly has an impact on model hierarchies, as they get frantically rejigged and renamed. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is a well-understood concept: a luxury limousine that’s equally suited to being chauffeur-or owner-driven. The electric EQS, while impressive in a number of ways, is more of a technical showcase and less…

MILEAGE 4204 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see whether a recent update has kept Audi’s flagship EV at the leading edge At last I have reached that thoroughly enjoyable state of familiarity that divides long-term testing and a standard intensive week-long road test with the SQ8 E-tron. I’ve developed the muscle memory to switch things on with reasonable deftness and I’ve learned to park my outrage at having to deactivate overzealous bits of autonomous interference, such as the speed limit warning, which unfailingly admonishes me for exceeding 30mph when I know from the GPS I’m doing 28mph, and the lane departure warning, whose only duty seems to be to steer the car where I don’t want it to go. After 4000 miles, I can now take this stuff on the…

Cat among the pigeons An outstanding and short-lasting recent lease deal on the new GWM Ora 03 meant a lot of cars were to be shifted. However, no insurance firm will cover an Ora 03, resulting in refusal of deliveries. This is a result of the name change, and people are rightly or wrongly trying to insure them as Ora Funky Cats, despite them being registered as GWM Ora 03s. This is recommended as the way to go by GWM dealers! Alex Acaster Via email GWM said: “We’re aware that some of our customers have reported limited options when it comes to insurance, and we’re actively working with key partners to understand the situation. For now, if customers are struggling to obtain quotes, we recommend getting in touch with a…

From its launch as long ago as 1995, Renault’s Mégane five-door hatchback fought tooth and nail with the likes of the Volkswagen Golf and Vauxhall Astra. However, by the time the fourth generation landed in 2016, Renault’s focus was beginning to shift, and far fewer were sold than earlier generations. It follows, then, that there are fewer examples on the used car market today than there are Golfs and Astras. Of course, that only makes the pleasure of finding a good Mégane sweeter still – not that the model needs much help there. The fact is that the Mk4 Mégane ticks a lot of the most important boxes for used car buyers. It is great value for money, with an approved used 40,000-mile, 2020-reg 1.3 TCe petrol costing only around…

AFTER 119 YEARS, the future of the Geneva motor show is uncertain. At its peak, it hosted more than 1300 firms and 660,000 people. But times have changed, to the great regret of industry figures and enthusiasts. Let’s cheer ourselves up by looking back at one of the finest Geneva shows: 1970, when ‘electrifying’ referred to the effect of multifarious new V8 coupés on petrolheads. Usually there’s a standout star of the show, but here it’s impossible to pick. However, “without doubt the most interesting technically”, we said, was the Citroën SM. Yes, a highly innovative, very complex, gorgeous GT with a Maserati V6 engine made by a financially troubled volume brand. Mad. “Whenever we plan a new car, we like to achieve the impossible,” explained new president Claude-Alain Sarre.…