Innholdsfortegnelse for April 24, 2024 i Autocar

THE ASTON MARTIN DBX has gained a touchscreen and is now available exclusively in top-rung 707 guise, dropping the lower-powered 542bhp version of its twin-turbo V8. The move to a one-engine offering comes in response to the success of the 697bhp range-topper, which accounted for around two-thirds of DBX sales in 2023 and is running at about 90% so far in 2024. Aston Martin has also removed the mild-hybrid straight-six DBX from sale in the Chinese market, citing rapid shifts in market demand for such powertrains. It has no immediate plans to offer an electrified variant globally. Due to begin deliveries in May with a 5-10% price uplift taking it to around £210,000, the revised DBX now has essentially the same cockpit arrangement as the DB12 and Vantage, doing away…

ABARTH HAS REVEALED a retro two-seat sports coupé to mark its 75th anniversary. The Classiche 1300 OT is based on the old 240bhp four-cylinder Alfa Romeo 4C and is described as a modern reinterpretation of the 1965 Fiat-Abarth OT 1300 race car, which claimed high-profile victories at the Nürburgring, Monza and Mugello in period. It “retains the essence of an authentic Abarth” by its carbonfibre body having 1960s-inspired cues – such as a roof-mounted ‘periscope’ air intake and a louvred rear window – and being decorated with a motorsport-like livery. The 1300 OT follows the similarly conceived 1000 SP special edition from 2021, which was also 4C-based. As with that car, which “sold out in record time”, just five examples of the 1300 OT will be made, starting soon. Abarth…

JUST OVER A quarter of a century since the automotive world got properly revved up by the prospect of hydrogen fuel cell cars (FCEVs), they still haven’t happened. They failed to take over the world in the same way that BEVs appear to be doing. But the same key FCEV players from back in the day are still quietly getting on with it. General Motors and Honda are two of those and both have a track record, Honda since the early 1990s and GM since the Electrovan FCEV in 1966. In February, Honda unveiled the production version of its CR-V e:FCEV plug-in, which goes on lease sale to customers in Japan and the US later this year. The FCEV is powered by a fuel cell system made by a GM…

SATURDAY, SUNDAY Goodwood always breeds nostalgia, and at this year’s Members’ Meeting, the pangs arose for me as race fields of 1960s 1.0-litre Ford-powered Formula 3 cars started screaming past. At the end of the 1950s, the 105E Ford Anglia’s new short-stroke 997cc Kent engine started beating the ever-available BMC A-series because its big piston area meant hot versions could have bigger valves, breathe better and make more power. This led in amazingly short steps to a fast Ford era that still echoes today. It encouraged firms like Cosworth and Holbay to put bigger, hotter engines into cars like the then new Lotus Seven. Then Ford made a bigger, stiffer version that became the basis of the famous 1588cc Lotus Twin Cam engine and sparked Cosworth’s FVA racing 16-valve –…

The new Porsche Macan Electric has an unambiguous but also potentially thankless assignment ahead of it. It needs to be The Porsche Macan, just powered by electricity. If only this was as simple as it sounds. For many, the existing, combustion version of Porsche’s junior SUV represents a classdominating spider chart of performance, space for the family, long-distance road manners and just enough fun to ensure you don’t regret passing up that Cayman build slot, not to mention residuals of a strength that makes King Kong look like the Sugar Plum Fairy. The Macan’s a rare thing in that it really does have no obvious weaknesses. But electric cars, we know, do have weaknesses. Excellent as many now are, there are compromises in terms of range, price or weight. It…

Mercedes-Benz decided to consolidate its development and spending on traditional ICE cars in favour of newstyle electric ones, leading to the demise of the C-Class and E-Class Coupé and Cabriolet models and a new CLE pairing to fill the void. The CLE Coupé arrived in the UK a few months back, and now we’re meeting the CLE Cabriolet on the picturesque island of Tenerife. Aerodynamics played a key role in the CLE Cabriolet’s development: the fabric roof was extensively tested in Mercedes’ wind tunnel to improve airflow over the cabin and reduce buffeting and wind noise inside. The soft top was tested at speeds of up to 155mph to ensure that even if wind loads deformed it at top speed, it wouldn’t twist or flex. The attention to detail seems…

Into the top five we boldly go. And what’s this – not a mid-engined creation to be seen? Surely some mistake. But no, not at all. Truth be told, the absence of supercars from the final quintet shouldn’t come as a colossal surprise given the criteria to which we’re working. If this contest was mostly concerned with undiluted excitement and raw synaptic delight, then the following pages would of course be drenched in high-octane products from McLaren, Ariel, Ferrari et al. But we’re looking at an altogether rounder picture here. Every car over the next few pages has both a deep-seated ‘rightness’ and a conceptual purity, plus decent usability, meaning they’re enjoyable more of the time. They are, to us, simply ‘super’ cars. This explains why, first thing in the…

Alan Gow, boss of the hugely successful Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for all but three of the past 34 seasons, is the personification of a decisive leader. He spends most of his time making clear, quick decisions aimed at improving what is widely acknowledged to be the world’s best car competition of its kind. For decades, his authority has been every bit as great as Bernie Ecclestone’s was in his Formula 1 heyday. Not that there are many other similarities between Gow and Ecclestone. Bernie was small, enigmatic and scary; Gow is tall and laconic, an Australian immigrant who arrived from a successful Melbourne-based motorsport career in 1990. He thrives on wisecracks and colourful language, and for all his word-is-law authority, he is a remarkably modest man. “People…

MILEAGE 6328 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if a bright future lies ahead for the Smart brand reinvented under Geely Have you ever known twins? It’s remarkable how similar they can be in many aspects that they themselves don’t realise – but also how different they can be. Take a pair I know. They are both very clever, have the same sense of humour and look, of course, very similar. Yet one works in medicine and the other, well, doesn’t. Clearly, the Smart #1 and Volvo EX30 aren’t identical twins. They look very different: one is a bulbous, contemporarily designed crossover marketed to premium customers, and the other is a sharp-looking raised hatchback, positioned to undercut premium rivals. Their interiors are also very different, with the #1 pushing Mercedes-Benz…

ON SALE 1 MAY ROAD TEST Volvo EX30 This small EV has been divisive, with plenty of potential but a frustrating user interface. Now it’s time for the definitive assessment FEATURE World of Volvo Gothenburg’s new attraction is like Disney World but for Swedish vehicles. We pay a visit MOTORSPORT Shed heaven The place where Jackie Stewart’s F1 winners were built has a new home EVERY WEEK FIRST DRIVE Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 New coupé gains high-performance variant with 442bhp straight six USED GUIDE Kia Soul Boxy crossover might not be stylish but it is a tempting bargain buy SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p18…

The wait is finally over. A car has been bought, collected and is on the drive/in the garage (see right). We have moved on past those Sports Utility things to the point where we almost ended up with a five-door hatchback. Instead, we have settled on an executive saloon: a Merc C-Class with a petrol engine and automatic gearbox. Here is the biggest takeaway from my latest tyre-kicking experience: some car dealers are just car park operators. Wander down the avenues of vehicles for sale, which might or might not have prices on them, and I guarantee the sales staff will know nothing about their stock, recently arrived from auction. Anyway, just like a car park. So much stock that is apparently for sale is ‘what you see is what…

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…

“For us, the electric powertrain is about offering uncompromised off-road ability” The new electric Mercedes-Benz G-Class is an “uncompromised” vehicle that can outperform its combustion-engined sibling when driving off road, according to its maker. Known throughout its development as the EQG, the 4x4 will be called the G580 with EQ Technology in production form. The lengthy moniker represents a shift in the naming strategy for electric Mercedes models (see box, right) and is intended to emphasise that the G580 was developed to be a G-Class that just happens to be battery-powered. The G580 is virtually identical in design to the recently updated G450d, with a subtle reworking of the engine grille and discreet EQ badges to set it apart. But there has been extensive work to maximise aerodynamic efficiency, including…

THE NEW CITROEN C3 Aircross has been revealed as an extended version of the C3, adding a third row of seats and the option of electric power for the first time. Twinned with the new Vauxhall Frontera, the second-gen Aircross adopts a straight-edged, two-box silhouette inspired by the 2022 Oli concept and, at 4.39m long, is slightly larger than its predecessor. The EV is likely to share its five-seat sibling’s 44kWh battery and 111bhp motor, but there will also be a mild-hybrid with 98bhp and a pure-petrol version that could undercut the £18k Dacia Jogger to be the UK’s cheapest seven-seater.…

Alfa Romeo boss Jean-Philippe Imparato has urged European politicians to focus on protecting jobs in the automotive industry rather than model names, following a spat that prompted a late rebranding of the firm’s new compact crossover. The Milano was renamed Junior just five days after it was revealed, following claims by Italian industry minister Adolfo Urso that the use of Milano violated an Italian law that geographical names can be used only for products that are produced in the region. The law is generally applied to products such as Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. The Junior will be produced at a Stellantis plant in Tychy, Poland. Urso’s claims followed comments by Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares at the unveiling of the Milano, warning the Italian government against offering incentives to Chinese and other…

The Vauxhall Grandland has been rebooted for its second generation with a bold new look as it moves onto a different platform, gains a thoroughly overhauled interior and offers the option of electric power for the first time. The new Grandland follows the latest Peugeot 3008 and 5008 in swapping from the PSA-engineered EMP2 platform onto parent company Stellantis’s STLA Medium architecture. In doing so, it has grown 173mm in length and 31mm in height, making it substantially larger than its predecessor. It will be offered with plug-in hybrid and mild-hybrid powertrains as well as in EV form. Taking inspiration from the Experimental concept Vauxhall revealed in 2022, it has also been extensively redesigned in line with the firm’s newera design language and with a focus on aerodynamic optimisation to…

Community car sharing clubs that aim to offer a cheaper but equally convenient alternative to car ownership for people living in remote areas are under threat by huge increases in the cost of their insurance. There are around 40 such clubs in the UK, many serving rural villages with fleets of fewer than five cars and staffed by volunteers. Members can book a car for as little as half an hour up to several weeks. Supporters say the clubs provide a much-needed service that is affordable and convenient and which helps decarbonise a community. Some have been operating since the 1970s, but in the past five years they have witnessed major rises in their insurance costs to the point that their viability is now under threat. Already this year, two…

Ash Sutton is a refreshingly uncomplicated chap. As the British Touring Car Championship fires back into life this weekend at Donington Park, the reigning champion has a singular target for 2024 that keeps him pumped: to become the first driver in the series’ long and storied history to stand alone as a five-time champion. “The number five definitely motivates me,” says the cheerful 30-year-old, who currently shares the record with rival Colin Turkington and past legend Andy Rouse. “It’s a tricky one, though. Say Colin beats me to it, for example: my mindset would have to move from trying to be the only driver to have the most titles to then going back to matching the record again. So for me, to go out and become the first to get…

Few facelifts are so literal. Aside from the slightly wider radiator grille and slick new headlights, the best way of identifying the 2024 A3 is by the Audi badge at the front, which sits a few centimetres higher than it did before. Job done, then? Not quite. Audi acknowledges that this fourth generation of A3 has been criticised since its 2020 launch for the finish and design of its interior, so the priority for its mid-life update was to give the cabin a quality and charisma boost. As such, it now has illuminated door panels (30 colours available), redesigned air vents with optional chrome surrounds, a smaller gear selector and a raft of new upmarket materials and colour schemes. Plus, the touchscreen now runs the latest generation of Audi’s infotainment…

The Eletre EV, the new face of Lotus, has arrived in the UK. It’s a hyper-SUV (their words) that was largely engineered in Germany, is built in China, and is the product of a company that has engineering, support and design bases in London, Warwickshire and, of course, Hethel, Norfolk – still home to Lotus sports cars and from where I collected this test car. This version is the S, the midpoint in the range, which has more equipment but the same 603bhp as the base model, from two same-sized electric motors, one at each end, giving it four-wheel drive. The range-topping R, to come shortly, has a bigger rear motor for a 905bhp total – and will be the car that will make our road testers’ inner ears queasy…

Are you tempted by one of our Top 100 new cars but put off by the cost of factory-fresh metal? We come with good news: by turning your attention to the second-hand market, there are plenty of bargains to be found. We’ve trawled the classifieds to put together a handy guide to sourcing a budget version of our best of the best, from the BMW 3 Series to the Maserati MC20 and beyond. Of course, some of our Top 100 stars are too new even to have a first-hand market, let alone one depreciated by previous owners. In those cases, we have swapped it for the next-best thing – or a wildcard alternative. Porsche 911 (991) The current-generation 992 has resisted depreciation remarkably well: the cheapest example we found in…

MODEL TESTED EWB MULLINER BLACKLINE Price £258,630 Power 542bhp Torque 568lb ft 0-60mph 4.4sec 30-70mph in 4th 6.2sec Fuel economy 18.3mpg CO2 emissions 296g/km 70-0mph 49.0m The Bentley Bentayga EWB – all 5.3m, 2.6 tonnes and, in topbilling Mulliner specification tested here, almost £260,000 of it – represents not only a good deal of steel, leather and knurled aluminium, but also a car that’s a good deal more significant for the brand than the somewhat prosaic Extended Wheelbase denomination might suggest. Outwardly, this is little more than an elongated version of Bentley’s best-seller. It features back doors that are 18cm longer than those on the normal Bentayga, as well as comfort-enhancing additions such as ‘postural adjustment technology’ and push-button door closures, à la Rolls-Royce. There are also some meaningful dynamic evolutions…

MILEAGE 8402 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the Clio is the heir apparent to the Ford Fiesta’s ‘default buy’ throne I’m always pleased to receive readers’ letters (unless they’re nasty…), and recently one arrived from a fellow Clio E-Tech driver. Jeremy and his wife live in rural southern France (oh, if only) and she’s a habitual buyer of Renaults. Having traded in her Kadjar, she got a new petrol Clio, thanks in part to Autocar’s commendations, then traded that for a hybrid model. She’s very happy with it, I’m told, not least because of its larger touchscreen. Funnily enough, it was the matt feel of the smaller touchscreen that bothered me, not its size, whereas the colleague with whom I swapped Clios opined exactly the opposite. But I…

WRITE TO autocar@haymarket.com China crisis looms Every week, Autocar introduces us to new cars from China. By all accounts, the best of these are well designed and good value for money. What would prevent me from buying one is the concern that China’s increasingly adventurist foreign policy, as directed towards Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and India, not to mention Chinese-linked cyber-attacks on the West, will result in trade sanctions or worse. Who would want a car for which spare parts can’t be sourced? Karl Cradick Via email Move over! Perhaps Rodger Spooncer should read his Highway Code again. It clearly states that after overtaking in the middle lane, you should move back into the first lane, not hog the middle one, which he says is acceptable (3 April) but is illegal.…

WHAT WE SAID THEN 23 APRIL 2012“The XF steers with unerring accuracy and even a little road feel, a rarity in this class. The overall handling balance is fine, too. It’s the deftness of ride and handling and steering that leaves the XF, to this day, our favourite car in the class to drive.” Coming after the ultra-conservative Jaguar S-Type, the Mk1 XF was a shock to those who thought the company could only produce clones of its old designs. Out went Jaguar’s familiar saloon profile to be replaced by something sharper, sportier and more coupé-like. Inside, the XF was even more luxurious than any Jag before it, sporting features such as the rising transmission knob and active ventilation vents that would delight showroom customers and set the tills a-ringin’.…

MERCEDES-BENZ 190E 1988, 50,000 miles, £5450 A great first classic, due to its hardy build and simple oily bits. This import is said to be “perfectly preserved”, with an interesting blue interior. It has an aftermarket immobiliser, so check it’s wired in properly. BMW 528i SE 1998, 73,000 miles, £3800 Arguably the peak of all 5s, with a creamy straight six, rack and pinion steering and low-key tech inside. This one needs fresh paint, but the owner has done plenty of mechanical work, suggesting it has been cared for. HONDA CR-Z SPORT 2011, 41,000 miles, £5750 If nothing else, this is an interesting choice that we probably won’t see replicated in future: an affordable hybrid coupé with a manual ’box. It’s a good steer, if underpowered, with an almost faultless…

Japan’s kei car class was created after WW2 for a country where space and parking was already at a premium, and by the early 1960s there was a raft of tiny vehicles on the market. Kei cars still exist, but over time their tax incentives have been watered down, and it might not be long before the segment disappears. Here are some of the class’s finest examples. Suzuki Cappuccino 1991 The Cappuccino is among the best-known kei cars here in the UK, because it was one of the few officially imported. It used a twin-cam, three-pot 660cc turbo engine, mounted up front to drive the back wheels. With light aluminium panels and 63bhp, the 700kg Cappuccino could deliver 0-62mph in 8sec and hit 93mph. When we road tested it in…

The all-new Mini line-up has been completed with the reveal of the Aceman, a raised, Renault Clio-sized hatchback positioned between the Cooper and Countryman. The front-wheel-drive Aceman, a star of this week’s Beijing motor show, will be sold solely with an electric drivetrain and will be built alongside the electric version of the new Cooper in China. From 2026, production will also take place in Oxford after a £600 million investment to upgrade the factory, safeguarding around 4000 jobs. Mini boss Stefanie Wurst has previously talked up the Aceman’s potential to be the brand’s best-selling model. The Aceman is built on an extended version of the architecture that underpins the electric Cooper. It is 4.07m long, 1.75m wide and 1.5m tall, which makes it around 20cm longer than a Cooper…

Maserati is deciding whether to move the next-generation Quattroporte onto an extended version of the new Granturismo’s bespoke platform, its chief engineer has revealed to Autocar. The seventh-generation luxury saloon was originally scheduled to arrive next year as Maserati’s first electric-only model. However, the Italian brand recently delayed it until 2028, due to “the need to take zero risks on the performance level”. Davide Danesin, chief engineer of the Quattroporte and Granturismo, told Autocar that development was around halfway complete before the delay, adding that it won’t be restarted from a clean slate but could make the switch to a new platform. The Quattroporte was previously understood to be based on Stellantis’s new STLA Large platform, which will make its production debut under Dodge’s new Charger Daytona muscle car. Asked…

Volvo will introduce mega-casting into the production of its next-generation EVs, due in 2026 – a move it says will greatly improve efficiency and create more freedom for future vehicle design and manufacturing. The firm says the advanced manufacturing process will be introduced on the next-generation EVs produced at its main Torslanda plant in Sweden. Although the manufacturer has given no technical details, this will tie in with the planned introduction of the SPA3 platform – which is a development of existing architectures and being used to signal the third generation of the firm’s bespoke electric cars. Erik Severinson, Volvo’s head of strategy and programme management, declined to comment on the first model to be produced on that platform. He said: “What I can say is that by 2030 we…

MAZDA IS RE-ENTERING the seven-seater market for the first time in six years with the CX-80, a luxurious new flagship SUV. The CX-80 is the first three-row Mazda in Europe since the 5 MPV. Closely related to the CX-60, it is the second model to sit on Mazda’s Large Product Group platform, with a 250mm-longer wheelbase and 24mm-higher rear roofline than its stablemate. Measuring 4995mm long, 1890mm wide and 1710mm tall, it is around the same size as the Volvo XC90 and Hyundai Santa Fe. With all seven seats in place, boot space is 258 litres, rising to 687 litres in five-seat format and 1221 litres with both rear rows stowed. The middle row can be specified as a three-seat bench or two captain’s chairs that recline up to 33deg.…

iminishing returns is something I used to understand well with cars. D It was a simple concept to grasp and it largely held true: the more you paid for a car, the better it was, although as they got more expensive, they got better more slowly. A £50,000 car was lots better than a £20,000 car, for example, but a £100,000 car wasn’t so much better than the £50,000 one and a £200,000 car was a smaller amount better again. Of course, there were exceptions and sweet spots across the market: cars that were never worth the money and some absolute bargains. But the basics were what they were for so many consumer products. You paid more, and got something better. A manufacturer had invested more, therefore the product was…

How much car do you really need? It’s a question Dacia has been answering quite expertly for the past decade by nailing the fundamentals and saving on the stuff that’s largely immaterial (soft-touch interior mirror, anyone?). It has resulted in cars that are almost uniquely fit for purpose. The outgoing Duster was a bit of a breakthrough in this respect, just tipping over the edge from ‘feels cheap, but at least it is cheap’ to being a genuinely good car at an unbeatable price. Dacia UK sent me one for a few days before the launch event of the new, third-generation Duster, and actually they could have given the old one a facelift with a more modern-looking interior and it would still be eminently recommendable. It’s a genuinely pleasant car…

Somewhat unexpectedly, the S3 has been updated rather more tangibly than the standard A3, although to look at it, you might be forgiven for thinking otherwise. The grille is wider, the badge affixed to it is mounted higher, there are new colour options, the headlights have four custom signatures and the rear diffuser has been reshaped. It’s not really a lot to get your head around. The interior modifications, following those to the A3, are more obvious, but it’s the revisions to the engine and drivetrain that most overtly differentiate Audi’s take on the Volkswagen Golf R, post-update. Output from the venerable EA888 turbocharged four has been ramped up from 306bhp to 329bhp, and torque is up to 310lb ft, from 295lb ft. Additionally, the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox now…

It has been five years since we last ranked our outright favourite new cars. Given one or two newsworthy things have happened in the automotive and wider world during that time, the idea was long overdue a repeat visit. Much has changed since 2019, of course – not least that we’ve unwisely made life twice as hard for ourselves: instead of a top 50, we’ve decided on a top 100. But since the focus here was on picking our favourites – go on, indulge us – that process provided as much fun as it did fights. Back in 2019, the Alpine A110 beat the McLaren 600LT Spider to the crown. So which car will triumph in 2024? Read on to find out… 100 Subaru Crosstrek That whole ‘fitness for purpose’ thing…

Every country has its car: Mini, Beetle, Fiat 500, Renault 5 – each bound up intrinsically with the heritage of its respective country of origin, and in certain cases nearly as long-lived. The US could claim a few, but it’s arguably the Ford Mustang that stands proudest as the automotive embodiment of Americana, with its fusion of affordability, cachet and performance propelling it to become one of the country’s – and the world’s – best-selling cars of all time. But who would think it had such a huge and fanatical following in the UK, where it’s been sold officially for only the past seven years? Some 800 cars turned out to celebrate the Mustang’s 60th birthday at the British Motor Museum earlier this month, which would feel like a commendable…

Four years after the Mulsanne retired and left an ultra-luxurious flagship-shaped hole at the top of the Bentley line-up, the Bentayga EWB has arrived to fill it. And boy does it fill it. Not, perhaps, in the sense of being a genuinely rewarding car to drive, or an especially romantic one, as the loping Mulsanne was, but certainly in the crucial matters of ride quality, isolation from the outside world, and a deep sense of well-being on the move, either on congested city streets or travelling at speed along motorways. Factor in this car’s all-weather capability, which extends to no trivial degree of get-up-and-go if ever you find yourself away from smooth asphalt, and you have one of the most versatile and complete cars in the world. Of course, the…

MILEAGE 5201 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the most important McLaren in a dozen years is as easy to live with as it is fun to drive Two things have happened to the Artura since last we met: one planned and good, the other neither of the above. So we will deal with that first. If you think we’ve had quite a wet start to the year, you don’t live in South Wales. To call the first quarter of this year quite wet is to call the Atacama Desert quite dry. We’ve been deluged, drenched and drowned relentlessly for months. And through it all, this low-volume, rather exotic, carbonfibre-shelled supercar has sat out in it. One morning, nicely aboard and about to set off somewhere, I extended a…

Mon Chery I was recently in Kazakhstan and saw a very smart and unusual SUV in a shopping centre. It turned out to be an RX from Exeed, a luxury offshoot brand of Chinese giant Chery. My wife organised a test drive for me and I was blown away by the car’s quality and refinement. Heated and ventilated leather seats front and back, heated steering wheel, wireless phone charging, head-up display, panoramic roof, 10-year warranty, free servicing… the list goes on. With an £80k interior in a £40k car, it was a genuine Range Rover Velar rival for half the price. I was excited to read in your 3 April issue that this same brand is coming to the UK as Omoda. I really think the Chinese are going to…

An owner’s view HOWARD GLASS “I have a 2.2d XF registered in 2013. I bought it from its second owner with 56,000 miles on the clock; now it has done 115,000. It’s the 161bhp engine that everyone says is underpowered, but I find it leaves everything behind. In any case, it averages around 43mpg, which suits me. I love the car, but it has had a few problems. The first was when it needed a new suspension strut. Shortly after, the boot ventilation seal failed, allowing water into the boot. It soaked a circuit board that cost £900 to replace! I do a lot of short journeys and the engine has lost power a couple of times. A 70mph run on the motorway clears the DPF. At the last MOT,…

IN THE LATE 1980s, the Eastern bloc’s communist governments realised their countries’ potential for car making and owning and strove to supersede their terrible old smokers with modern metal. “We’ve decided to increase our car production from 1.3m in 1987 to 2.5m by 1995,” said Valentin Morozov, the car industry’s first deputy minister in the USSR – the bloc’s domineering power and by far its biggest car maker, ahead of Poland (303k), East Germany (210k), Czechoslovakia (188k), Yugoslavia (171k) and Romania (120k). In 1989, Fiat became the first Western car maker to enter a joint venture with the USSR, planning to annually build 300k examples each of the new 1125 compact hatchback and new 1111 mini car. It was all part of the USSR’s plan to turn Elabuga (on the…