Innholdsfortegnelse for December 17, 2025 i Autocar

KARIN This 1980 vision of a ‘dream car’ had a curious prismatic design and the same central driving position as the ELO. Citroën at its most bonkers. XANAE This 1994 precursor to the Xsara Picasso had a curious lifted-saloon body and was meant to feel significantly roomier than the Xantia on which it was based, despite being a smaller car. REVOLTE The last attempt at a retro-futuristic 2CV had PHEV power and in 2009 was mooted to form part of the then burgeoning DS range. If only they had built it. OLI Stripped-back 2022 crossover went big on sustainability and affordability, using the same windows and bumpers at its front and rear ends. It also previewed the current iteration of Citroën design.…

Peugeot is considering a successor to the 508 SW estate as it looks to expand into segments beyond its current hatchback and crossover offerings. Asked about the prospect of an eventual replacement for the firm’s Skoda Superb rival, Favey said: “Why not? We had to stop the 508 because, as much as I dislike it, there was not enough demand to justify it remaining in the market. Now we are exploring what’s next after the SUVs and maybe there will be something that will make sense, even in that part of the market, later on.”…

Influential British car designer Gerry McGovern has parted ways with JLR after 21 years. Autocar broke the news of his departure at the start of December, just a week after new CEO PB Balaji – formerly the finance boss of JLR parent company Tata Motors – took over from the retiring Adrian Mardell. Sources at JLR told Autocar and Autocar India the British manufacturer’s chief creative officer had his position terminated with immediate effect and was “escorted out of the office”. As Autocar went to press, neither a reason for his departure nor the name of his replacement had been officially confirmed. A JLR spokesperson declined to comment when approached by Autocar. The news came as a shock to the automotive industry, given McGovern’s hugely influential position on the JLR…

THE OTHER DAY, a taxi driver openly admitted to me that he had halved the mileage on his Mercedes E-Class PHEV to about 100,000. He ‘clocks’ it annually so as not to trigger any warning flags come MOT test time. Taxi drivers might be the biggest culprits of clocking, because across Europe the E-Class had on average the highest number of erased kilometres in 2024 – 130,680 (81,200 miles) – according to data from vehicle history checking firm CarVertical. Clocking is illegal but poorly policed and lucrative enough that, when selling leggy cars, premium ones especially, many will risk it. Now the UK government has given clockers extra motivation with its new pay-per-mile tax, eVED, which is scheduled to come into force for owners of EVs and PHEVs from April…

MUSTANG GTD LETS RIP IN THE US Ford calls it supercar power with a Mustang soul. Find out what Matt Prior calls it when he drives the 815bhp muscle car in Palm Springs NEW RENAULT CLIO RATED The supermini has a shock new look but how does it drive? We reveal all THE ULTIMATE AUTOMOTIVE HEAD-TO-HEADS Golf GTI vs 205 GTi… Hunt vs Lauda… These and many more revisited EVERY WEEK MERCEDES-BENZ CLA EQ Cutting-edge new Tesla Model 3 rival laid bare in the toughest test AUDI Q6 E-TRON This SUV is a vital next-gen EV for Audi. But is it cut out for daily life?…

Any electric car buyer who is offered an extra 100 miles of range for less than £400 of extra cost is almost certain to accept. Typically £400 gets you about two-thirds of a metallic paint job or half a towbar yet, thanks to the way the UK’s Electric Car Grant scheme works, this is the scenario that buyers of the electric version of Citroën’s new C5 Aircross will find themselves in. By dint of its battery being made in France, the Long Range version of the ë-C5 Aircross qualifies for the full £3750 subsidy, whereas the Chinese battery supply of the Comfort Range model tested here condemns it to getting just £1500. Which surely gives this particular model some pretty dim commercial prospects. It can tell us plenty about the…

Even by the standards of recent years, 2025 has been a turbulent one for the car industry. For many automotive giants, particularly those in Europe, the number of different issues they’re having to address at one time has pushed them into panic mode and the hurried rewriting of long-term plans. A prime illustration of this is the rollercoaster that has been the electric vehicle market in 2025. At the start of the year, the growth in EV sales had started to stall due to increasing resistance from consumers. As a result, many car makers pivoted and committed to keeping combustion models on sale for longer. Meanwhile, governments set on increasing uptake were prompted to bring back EV incentives. In response, EV sales have hit record levels in the UK. There…

Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio The office bickering began with the first manufacturer on the list, but it was inevitable: how could anyone possibly agree on a ‘best’ Alfa? 33 Stradale, 75, SZ, GTA, 156, 147, 8C… There was no chance of us even agreeing a top five, surely. But while the debate rumbled on, Alfa coincidentally announced it was keeping the Giulia Quadrifoglio on sale for another year, and we were all so happy about it that we realised it was the obvious answer. spent a mad amount on its chassis and gave it a stonking V6 of Ferrari parentage. When not broken, the Quadrifoglio is amazing.” A reassuringly traditional and endlessly appealing Alfa that still stuns even in its old age – and one we now have extra time…

McLAREN ARTURA At the beginning of my firstfull lap of Llandow Circuit behind the wheel of the Artura in the summer, I had what can at best be called a ‘track limits violation’, cutting the corner onto the grass at the first chicane. It felt awful and sounded loud from behind the wheel but looked far less dramatic on camera. And, thankfully, there wasn’t a scratch on the car. Hurting my pride but leaving my reputation intact, it served to show just how shockingly quick the Artura is and how effortlessly its performance is delivered. It can and will catch you off guard if you don’t stay on top of it. The Artura, heavily upgraded and improved around a year ago, is as memorable and exciting as any supercar should…

Think of a large family estate car. You’re picturing a Volvo, aren’t you? Although the XC90 is the Volvo de choix for big families these days, the more traditional V90 estate still holds massive appeal, having only recently bowed out of production after nearly a decade. And not just because it’s one of the prettiest wagons around. The second car to use Volvo’s then newfangled SPA platform, it arrived as a long, low and sculptural model like no Volvo estate before it – and its strong Scandi-chic design still looks clean and fresh today. The by-product of its added kerb appeal is that it is not quite as utilitarian and practical as its breeze-block forebears – the sloping rear screen precludes the fitment of a third row of seats, for…

Giuseppe Minetti is looking forward to winter in London at the wheel of his 1973 Lancia Fulvia 1.3 S. “Winters here aren’t that bad but when it gets super-slippery, I’ll definitely take it for a drive. Because these cars were designed for loose gravel and uneven surfaces, it will come into its own. The Fulvia is front-wheel drive but is designed so you can get the back end drifting out. Its very skinny tyres help,” he says. If you hadn’t already guessed, Giuseppe is Italian to his boots and has owned more than 30 Italian cars. “Apart from two Alfa 156 GTAs that I owned, most have been high-revving models like the Fulvia,” he says. “I’ve had GTVs, an Alfa Giulia 105, which was stunning, four Alfa Spiders, six X1/9s……

Two new teams will join Formula 1 next season, both owned by world-famous car makers – one built up from scratch (Cadillac), the other a significant expansion of an established midfielder (Audi). This is an incredibly rare occurrence in the modern era – and it could hardly be more different from the last time multiple newcomers arrived. The global economy imploded in 2008, damaging the automotive industry particularly heavily – and this after a period of spiralling costs in F1. Motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, had to leap into action to ensure the series would survive. Having initially mooted a budget cap of around £140 million (half the outgoings of the biggest spenders) in January 2008, and presumably spurred on by Honda’s abrupt exit at the end of that season,…

The Lotus Esprit Series 1 has been reimagined with a redesigned carbonfibre body and a new V8 powertrain by a start-up consisting of former Hethel staff, almost 40 years after the sports car went off sale. The new Series 1 has been created by Chelmsford-based Encor, which plans to make 50 examples priced from around £430,000. Chief engineer Will Ives said the brief was to “refine” the classic analogue driving experience that made the Series 1 Esprit so popular in the 1970s and then pair it with modern technology to make it more usable today. He added that the car had been “improved in almost every way”. According to Ives, the team “wanted to respect the original but not be handcuffed by it”, admitting that “while we love the car,…

Peugeot is set to channel the spirit of the legendary 205 GTi hot hatch with the rangetopping performance version of the next 208. The French manufacturer has already revived the GTi performance sub-brand for a hot new version of its e-208 electric supermini – and now CEO Alain Favey has told Autocar that it will add more GTi models as it moves to put “great driving sensations” at the core of its brand positioning, which is likely to apply to the next iteration of the 208 hatch, due in 2028. The e-208 GTi is the latest entrant into the growing field of electric hot hatchbacks and will take on the Alpine A290, Cupra Born VZ and incoming Volkswagen ID Polo GTI with 278bhp, a 5.7sec 0-62mph time and a mechanical…

Mercedes has revealed the new, second-generation GLB as the chunky, sevenseat SUV sibling to the CLA. Familiar on the surface but all new underneath, the GLB is the second model to use Mercedes’ new MMA architecture for compact cars, which accommodates both pure-electric and hybrid powertrains. The new GLB is also the largest MMA-based model, with the smaller GLA crossover set to slot in underneath it next year. Stuttgart’s overhauled family crossover will face little in the way of direct rivals, being the only premium offering in this segment that’s available with either EV or ICE power and the option of seven seats. However, logical alternatives include the Tesla Model Y, Audi Q4 E-tron and Volkswagen ID 4. Other three-row electric SUVs are either much cheaper, like the Peugeot e-5008,…

THE VOLKSWAGEN ID Cross will arrive next year as the second of Wolfsburg’s new wave of affordable compact EVs – and we got our hands on an early version of the electric crossover. Unlike the ID 3, ID 4 and ID 5 EVs, which all share a very similar form language and silhouette, the ID Cross and its ID Polo sibling will get more distinct visual identities from both each other and other VW Group EVs on the same platform. ID Cross exterior designer Thorben Kochs told Autocar that “the idea was to create something super-stable and clean”, adding: “We call it pure positive. We want to be the nice guys, you know?” Inside, VW has returned to physical controls in response to customer feedback, with traditional door handles, four…

Toyota has finally revealed its flagship V8 supercar – due on sale in around two years as a storming, 641bhp rival to the Mercedes-AMG GT and Aston Martin Vantage. The GR GT – named for Toyota’s Gazoo Racing performance division – has been conceived as a “roadlegal race car”. Indeed, the road-going and GT3-spec racing versions have been revealed simultaneously, reflecting the fact that they were engineered in parallel. Together with the related but pure-electric new Lexus LFA supercar (see below), the GR GT duo form what Toyota calls a ‘trinity’ of high-performance flagships aimed at emphasising its engineering prowess and technical capabilities – honed on the race track. Japan’s answer to the Mercedes-AMG GT uses a new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 as part of a hybrid powertrain that pumps a…

You will read a lot about how the new iX3 is the first of a whole new generation of BMWs; how significant the company thinks its Neue Klasse (‘new class’) EV platform is; and how this is its first software-defined car. The R&D boss even called it a “masterpiece”, which I think is slightly overblowing a massmarket electric SUV. But beyond all the hype, just know that, first and foremost, the iX3 is a BMW that drives very well in the traditional BMW style. To the neue bits first, then. While most electric BMWs run on platforms shared with their combustion-engined stablemates, the iX3, upcoming i3 saloon and others will have this bespoke electric one, because their higher sales volumes make it worth developing them that way, even while outwardly…

Recently Suzuki has borrowed some models from Toyota: both its Swace and Across were plain rebadgings (of the Corolla estate and RAV4). Now Suzuki has returned the favour, giving Toyota the eVitara to stick its badges on and provide a leg-up in the all-important small electric crossover segment. From the outside, the Urban Cruiser is a butch thing, with a tall bonnet and beltline and slab sides. In fact, it looks like it could have been designed as a baby Land Cruiser, not a Suzuki. But step inside and you will wonder what’s hidden behind all that metal, because the boot is just 238 litres, and while knee room in the back is good, head and foot room are not. The 40/20/40-split folding seats do slide as standard, but even…

The new M2 CS is a special kind of fast BMW. Well, it certainly seems that way to me, if not quite to the other judges of our Britain’s Best Driver’s Car shootout, which you might have read recently (Autocar, 19 November). On that score, little more by way of autopsy seems necessary. Democracy can be cruel – as BBDC history has proven time and again for BMW M cars. A combination of ‘Cup’ tyres and changeable weather can be crueller still. My suspicion is that if all five judges had spent as much time in the M2 CS as I did, driving it up to and back from the Lake District so many hundreds of miles in better conditions as well as bad ones, it would have ranked higher.…

“A real Lotus is low, sporty and compact, with a stance that implies fine driving qualities” Car lovers know a true Lotus when they see one. The brand’s core values are among the clearest of any marque on the road, harking back nearly 80 years to the earliest days of Colin Chapman. A real Lotus is low, sporty and compact, with a confident stance that implies fine driving qualities. The exterior shape may not always be consistent with that of its predecessors (look at the differences between the Elan and the Esprit for evidence of that), but the styling always carries a delicacy that speaks of low weight, compactness, efficiency and a forward-thinking openness to new technology. From 1965 to 2022, every new Lotus embodied these values and was built…

JANUARY ◆ Eager not to do any real work, sorry, to liven up the annual Autocar Almanac, I fire up ChatGPT and ask it to come up with some satirical events that could possibly maybe happen in 2026. My AI colleague analyses everything Elon Musk did in 2025 for source material, before writing “think you can parody that? Good luck” and exploding. ◆ There is panic in the Jaguar design office when it’s realised the blueprints for the Type 00 concept were erased in last year’s cyber attack. Gerry McGovern’s hologram rallies the troops, insisting: “We can design something even better and make another advert that will be just as universally loved.” FEBRUARY ◆ Luca de Meo, new boss of the Kering fashion group, unveils plans to turn around the…

WHOOPS, WE LOST THE KEYS The car we would have kept forever There can be absolutely no debate about the winner of this award, not just because it received the most votes from team members who would have kept it forever, but also because one of its nominators actually did – sort of. “I went out and placed a deposit on an MX-5, so effusive was the praise of those who drove Autocar’s long-termer,” said Charlie Martin. “I’ve had it for a year now and can confirm it’s as brilliant as they said.” How’s that for peer pressure (and a statement of the indomitable influence of Autocar’s reviews)? Now we all must look on jealously as our colleague enjoys weekend after blissful weekend at the wheel of his own gorgeously…

AN OWNER’S VIEW SARAH HUGHES “I ran a D4 R-Design for three years and 60,000 miles. For a car of its size, the economy was strong, hitting high-40s on a motorway run. The comfort is the biggest selling point: I’ve never sat in a better seat. The Pilot Assist [adaptive cruise and steering] made motorway journeys easy and the overall interior design and quality are hard to beat. Nothing broke, although the Sensus infotainment did occasionally have a ‘Matrix moment’ where it just froze and needed a restart to clear. My biggest gripe was the gearbox; it was often dim-witted and hesitant when pulling away.” BUYER BEWARE… ■ ENGINE The high-output D5 (later B5) and T6 (later B6) use Volvo’s PowerPulse compressed air system to spool the turbos quickly, reducing lag.…

“It ticks all the boxes of what has been the brand’s DNA for more than 100 years” Citroën has previewed a potential return to making MPVs with the dramatic new ELO concept – a tiny six-seater described by the brand as a “house on wheels”. It’s an electric car that measures just 4.1m long yet hosts a novel three-bythree interior configuration with a McLaren F1-style central driving position. The driver’s seat features its own suspension, in the form of foam blocks inside its frame, and comes with a desk attachment for working on the go. The front passenger chairs, meanwhile, can be removed and stowed inside the rear row when they aren’t needed. The rear seats were inspired by the pop-out camping furniture stocked by French sporting goods retailer Decathlon,…

PEUGEOT COULD LAUNCH a new city car in the vein of the old 108 if the EU’s new ‘E-car’ category is successful in making such models viable again. The firm has previously been cool on the prospect of reviving its city car, which was axed in 2020 due to razor-thin margins. But now CEO Alain Favey has told Autocar that a return to the A-segment could be on the cards. “We’ve sold more than a million cars in the A-segment in the not so distant past,” he said. “So definitely if there is this new category that allows us to produce smaller cars at a profit, then obviously there will be a space for Peugeot in that area, as there was in the past.” Favey was referring to the E-car…

WHEN THE DISCUSSION around greenhouse gases from the transport sector really got going years ago, it was often said that the quickest way reduce CO2 emissions was not to change the powertrain technology but the fuel. Introducing a new model from scratch takes several years. Then add to that the ongoing debate as to which alternative to the internal combustion engine is best in the long term and the changeover period extends to decades. Some inroads have been made by blending biofuel with petrol and diesel, but petrol and diesel burned in the UK is still predominantly fossil fuel. Now, though, there is increasing interest in developing fuels for spark-ignition and oil-burner engines that are 100% fossil-free. Called ‘drop-in’ fuels, because they can be used without any ill effects or…

SOME MOT ADVISORIES I was really interested in your recent report about the cost of the MOT test (News, 12 November). I have a vested interest, as I work for a firm that supplies and calibrates MOT testing equipment. However, I feel this puts me in the ideal position to explain the situation. You may not be aware of the large investment a garage has to make to be an MOT testing station. To start, there are days and days of expensive DVSA training for staff, managers and testers. Then there’s the fitting of the equipment, which can cost around £30k-£40k, then the best part of £10k on building works. Then the garage has to cover the cost of calibrations every six months, testers’ training annually and ad hoc equipment…

Fresh from shaking up the executive EV market with its 500-mile range, lightning-fast charging and commendable dynamics, the new Mercedes CLA has gained a hybrid version to broaden its appeal in a market that’s still more than a little wary of electric propulsion. Mercedes hasn’t retrofitted an ICE powertrain into an EV platform, rather it developed the two options in parallel, because the new MMA platform underneath the CLA was engineered from the start to accept both – which is said to have kept any mechanical or packaging compromises to a minimum. That means that, aside from the mechanicals, some subtle exterior cues and the obvious absence of a frunk, the hybrid CLA is exactly the same as the electric CLA, inside and out – so what we’ve said about…

Picture ‘a Lamborghini’ and the brain drifts to visions of some vast V12-propelled supercar from another planet. The Sant’Agata flagships are monumental in both attitude and performance; in so many ways they embody the brand. But since 2003, the company’s commercial bedrock has always been found elsewhere. In recent times, the Urus SUV has taken up this critical role. These days, one in every two Lamborghinis is a Urus. But for nearly 20 years – since Audi took over – financial security was provided by a ‘junior’ supercar that combined 4WD with a sensational naturally aspirated V10 engine. Some variations on this theme were far better than others but, broadly speaking, were it not for the combined efforts of the Gallardo and its progeny, the Huracán, there is a fair…

You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack; you may find yourself in another part of the world; you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile; and you may find yourself in a stuffy photo studio waiting for the reveal of a new car; and you may ask yourself: “How did I get here?” No, you’re not David Byrne, frontman of new wave group Talking Heads (for those who may have missed the lyrical reference), but a motoring journalist on a car launch. It’s 5.30am and your alarm is blaring from across the room. You’re in a strange hotel somewhere on the outskirts of Paris, trying to will yourself into forward movement so that you have time to get some caffeine into your system before the…

BAUBLES SURVIVE AT the cat’s mercy, seldom-seen relatives devour your kitchen cupboards’ contents, Landostudded televisual treats aren’t Norrisbut Calrissian-themed and our road testing kit has earned its brief respite. Yes, it’s Christmas – and a chance to reflect on the 73 cars we scrutinised during 2025, poring over the resultant data in a Norris-celebrating manner. As in McWhirter, not McLaren’s. Cumulatively speaking, we tested cars totalling £9,247,376 this year, of which Lotus’s extraordinary Evija accounted for 26% alone. Weighing 276kg shy of 148 tonnes, with a 347-metre traffic jam-generating potential – assuming a Parisian parking gap separation factor – 2025’s ensemble was capable of relaying 32,175 miles of driving range. Our model diversity hallmark remained and test subjects ranged from the Evija to Peugeot’s humbler 208 (£20,245), yet none received…

MICROPROSE FORMULA ONE GRAND PRIX 1991, Commodore Amiga I stand by a claim that I made in a ‘Why I love…’ article earlier this year that Super Mario Kart is the greatest racing game of all time. But if you’re looking for realism, you can’t beat Geoff Crammond’s early 1990s masterpiece. Okay, realism is a relative term (compare F1GP’s blocky 3D graphics with today’s photorealistic efforts), but Crammond’s game was one of the first true F1 simulators, in which you could play a full season – practice sessions and all – and tiny set-up changes would profoundly affect your car’s handling. It even offered multiplayer action, although none of this online nonsense: play-by-mail allowed you to save games onto a floppy disk and post them to a friend. Glory days.…

MASERATI MC20 2021, 13,000 miles, £126,990 New, the mid-engined MC20 would have set you back at least £190k. So this 2021 example is superb value for money, but you won’t buy this elegant Italian supercar based on its price. You’ll buy it for its rich, bassy V6 and pseudo-GT drive. ABARTH 695 70TH ANNIVERSARIO 2020, 49,000 miles, £18,799 Much like the Fiat 500 on which it is based, there’s a horde of limited-edition 695s and the 70th-anniversary model is one of the best. It gets a rorty Record Monza exhaust, adjustable rear spoiler, striking two-tone paint and a limited-slip differential. ALFA ROMEO SPIDER VELOCE 2000 1991, 90,000 miles, £16,950 The excellent condition of this Spider reflects the significant funds spent on its upkeep. In the past five years, it had…

On Christmas Day, 1957, Denis Jenkinson, a correspondent for Autocar’s one-time sister publication Motorsport, set off for a quiet country drive from The Phoenix Inn in Hartley Wintney. Nothing too unusual about that, until you learn that the resulting loop of Hampshire was conducted in a Lotus 12 single-seater, as raced by Graham Hill in Formula 2 events that year. The car had been delivered on a trailer attached to a Ford Consul, driven from Hethel to Hampshire by Lotus chief Colin Chapman – and Jenkinson claimed to have topped 120mph somewhere just outside of Basingstoke before a driveshaft failure ended his jaunt some 30 miles into a planned 180-mile circuit. “The roads are so peaceful and people seem to be a bit nicer” Technically there weren’t any speed limits…