Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i CAR UK

Illustration: Avarvarii 1 TO THE POWER OF N Hyundai’s N division, after smashing it first time with the i30N in 2017, is growing rapidly. The i20N is already a winner in our book, and the new Kona N is the performance division’s first SUV. But the next step for N is the same as all other brands: electrification. The Ioniq 5 is a great starting point for a hot EV to excite the masses. 2 THE BEST INGREDIENTS Hyundai Motor Group’s 800-volt e-GMP platform is built for ultimate flexibility, with rear-and all-wheeldrive variants. And Hyundai has already been stress-testing eye-popping power outputs from it. ‘We will go almost up to 600 horsepower in certain models,’ Albert Biermann told CAR in 2020. 3 BEATEN TO THE PUNCH Kia has shown that…

We’ve had VW, Skoda and Audi using the VW Group’s new MEB platform to create the ID.3, ID.4, Enyaq and Q4 e-Tron – now Cupra goes electric by putting its own spin on the same shared componentry with its new Born. Are you sure it’s different? At a glance you could mistake this first production EV from the brand recently spun off from Seat for an ID.3 with some slightly angry-looking details. The waters are further muddied because VW offers copper trimming on the ID.3, depriving Cupra of what was supposed to be a USP. Anything different inside? Got a magnifying glass handy? The Born has a larger central screen than the VW (12 as opposed to 10 inches) and the centre console rises to meet the dashboard. And to…

The last one was a frontdrive four-seater, whereas Mirai II: The HydroSequel seats five and drives the rear Road tripping in a hydrogen fuel-cell car adds fresh piquancy to the range anxiety that blights all EVs. The UK’s H2 refuelling infrastructure is not so much patchy as bald, with just 11 facilities open to private motorists, concentrated around London, Swindon, Sheffield and Aberdeen. So when we were handed the keys to the new Toyota Mirai in Surrey for a 300-mile excursion we could have played it safe and headed up the M1, but instead headed due south. Why? Because we wanted a mini adventure, not 10 pages touring Britain’s industrial hotspots. We reckoned Crawley to Fawley would let us stress-test the fuel-cell tech, take in a mix of town and…

It is conspicuously good value. You could buy three Aston Speedsters for the price of one Ferrari SP1 Monza It can be hard to comprehend the point of a car like the Aston Martin V12 Speedster. Can one vehicle, even one as glamorous as this, ever justify a price tag of £765,000? Market reaction suggests it can - more than 70 of the 88 being built have already been snapped up by Gaydon’s nearest and dearest customers. So much for a pandemic-driven economic slowdown… If anything, this market is speeding up, with the McLaren Elva and Ferrari SP1/SP2 Monza also vying for collectors’ attention. At half the price of its British rival, Aston’s speedster appears conspicuously good value. And you could buy three for the price of one Ferrari SP1/SP2…

Regarding Gavin Green’s thoughtful and incisive comments about urban transport in the May issue, I don’t agree it’s an issue of car design. As Gavin points out, there have been cars designed to match urban transport requirements, but none have been successful, and the new Citroën Ami will probably join that list, as most people don’t want this sort of vehicle. It’s a zeitgeist thing and there’s no avoiding it, I’m afraid. I even indulged myself, buying a Mazda CX-3 two years ago, before recently coming to my senses and replacing it with a Seat Leon. A regular hatch with a whiff of sporty pretensions, but so much more satisfying than the Mazda, good at its job though it was. My other car is a Honda S2000, so I guess…

Icrest the brow of the hill in third, and inside my brain I say: ‘Oh. My. God.’ It’s just too perfect: perfect car, perfect weather, no traffic – and look at that sweeping, towering, blockbuster stretch of road ahead! Oh. My. God. Even as a journalist on a car magazine, moments like this are surprisingly rare. Within these pages we like to dress it up a bit – you know, sell the dream. In reality, you’re often in an Aventador while logjammed in traffic outside Aylesbury, or stuck behind a tractor at 20mph. We tend to gloss over all that. But today, I promise, the dream has become reality. I’m in a Ferrari Roma on the North Yorkshire Moors, the sun is just going down and the white lines are…

► Why is it here? Because there’s nothing quite as glamorous as an Aston 2+2 GT, and the DB11 is the latest in a long line of them. Just as pretty as its forebears and far faster, the DB11 is a great benchmark. Well, mostly great. The DB11 launched in 2016 but criticism of its dynamics led to this AMR version effectively taking over from the standard V12 in 2018, with a tweaked chassis, lighter wheels and an extra 30bhp (not that it was weedy before). ► Any clever stuff? The DB11 uses clever hidden aero to avoid a big wing. One sweet detail is the Aeroblade, which draws air into the car’s C-pillar and channels it through ducts to exit from a slot in the bootlid, creating downforce. ‘Curlicue’…

HELLO VOLVO S60 + CITROËN BERLINGO + GOODBYE MAZDA 3 + FORD FOCUS ST Alex Tapley We climb into the F-Type, pick our way through The Splined Hub’s bustling workshops, careful not to dent any long, delicate E-Type noses as we go, and head out onto near-empty Northamptonshire roads. The Splined Hub is a humming centre of Jaguar restoration excellence, with E-Types a speciality, based in Oundle, Northamptonshire. Director Oliver Winbolt is an incorrigible car and motorcycle enthusiast. Who better to help us decide if the F-Type, and our P450 coupe in particular, stands as a worthy successor to the E? The E-Type was never fitted with a V8, of course. Your options were a straight-six (please) or the Series 3’s V12 (nein danke). But the F-Type’s long been synonymous…

I could reel off a dozen things I’ll miss after 2030 when internal-combustion cars start to disappear from our roads. The pinging of a hot exhaust when you park up after a sustained blast. The gentle rocking of an engine idling in traffic when you’ve perversely switched off the stop-start system because you like the reassuring chunter that comes from a load of spark plugs playing war games under the bonnet. Even the filthy smell of petrol and the physical and mental challenge of trying to dribble in exactly £4 of unleaded because you managed to leave the house without your phone and wallet, but found a few nuggets down the side of the seat. Or maybe that’s just me (and if it isn’t, have you noticed how much harder…

Alex Tapley One of the incontrovertible truths about the Golf is that it is suited to any occasion. This current one, even in middling 1.5 eTSI Style form, is no exception. So it is ironic that a car pushing it to the margins is also from Volkswagen, and really isn’t suited to all occasions. The ID.3 is a Golf for those who find the Golf a bit too much of a rounded companion, and prefer something with more electric habits. And there are more of those customers. In some months, the electric one is outselling the petrol one, and it is easy to see why. The Mk8 Golf is a workmanlike upgrade while the ID.3 is essentially the Golf as concept car: what designers and engineers would build if the…

Alex Tapley When someone lends you a Porsche, you can’t help but be a glass-half-full kind of person. Life is good. The sun is always shining. But there are some glasshalf-empty moments. Or, more pertinently, petrol-tank-half- empty. The Cayenne S Coupe’s fuel consumption is pretty terrible at the best of times. For all Porsche’s brilliant work in creating EVs that appeal to petrolheads, and in encouraging the development of synthetic fuels that may at some point in the future help keep internal-combustion cars on the road in a more sustainable way, you can’t avoid the conclusion that these are sticking plasters on a gushing stump. Porsche can’t be solely blamed for depleting the planet’s reserves of fossil fuels, but for several decades it’s been at the centre of an industry…

HEEL TREAD SOCKS FOR PETROLHEADS From £10 With patterns inspired by the most iconic cars and racing liveries, Heel Tread is a brand for car enthusiasts who look beyond wheels and see art. From Le Mans, F1 and rally legends to quintessential automotive icons, it’s an ever-growing collection. Designed and produced in Portugal, they’re made using seamless knitting to create high-quality, comfortable and durable cotton socks. heeltread.com AUTOGLYM CAR CARE From £8 to £59.99 Flying Spares are now official stockists of Autoglym car-care products. Established for over 40 years, Autoglym has long been recognised as one of the finest product ranges for cleaning and protecting your car. From Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner, to High Definition Wax, Leather Cleaner to Perfect Polishing Cloths, Flying Spares now offer a comprehensive selection. www.flyingspares.com CLASSIC…

Kimera EVO37 Engineering house Kimera Automobili has modernised Lancia’s legendary 037 Group B competition car, making it into a limitededition road car. The gorgeous EVO37 still uses a Beta Montecarlobased body and a tubular spaceframe, but the exterior panels are now carbonfibre rather than Kevlar, and its four-cylinder engine is 2.1 litres and turbocharged instead of 2.0 and supercharged. Its 500bhp is sent to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual. Where do we sign? NEED TO KNOW What is it? A resurrected Group B legend Tech specs Engineering nous from Lancia rally heroes, molybdenum-coated spaceframe Aimed at? Getting misty-eyed over retro rallying What are the chances I’ll own one? Only 37 to be built, for about £400k a pop RML Short Wheelbase Maranello’s badges might be missing, but motorsport…

Eye-catching products from the word go, a personal approach to selling them and dealers that don’t look like dealers: Genesis, the luxury brand from Hyundai, is ready to show Europe what it’s been missing. But doesn’t all of that sound familiar? Would-be premium brands, even ones based in Europe, have been trying to do this for years. DS is a struggling minnow at present. Nissan decided to kill Infiniti here after the same approach as Genesis failed to achieve lift-off. Lexus is the healthiest of these premium brands from mainstream groups, and is currently growing – but, even so, has taken less than 0.4 per cent of the new-car market in Europe over the last decade. Still, Genesis is confident it can gain a foothold here. ‘We believe now is…

WEIGH IT UP Ford’s inserted the Mustang Mach-E’s 15.5-inch portrait-format screen on well-trimmed variants (the commercialfriendly Pro Lightning makes do with a more conventional landscape display) and includes bespoke features like an onboard scale that helps the truck gauge how much range you’ll have for the journey ahead. BACK IT UP Got a massive trailer to tow? Ford says the absolute baseline towing capacity of the F-150 Lightning is at least 3.5 tonnes. The dial to the left of the central screen allows you to engage Pro Trailer Hitch Assist, a feature designed to autonomously line up the towbar with the trailer hitch. PHONE IT UP Using your phone as a key is about as 21st century as it gets, with Ford’s truck companion app having the usual conditioning, charging,…

The figures sound too good to be true, but on the track the braking can pluck your eyeballs from their sockets ‘Don’t do it!’ Ah. Seems the Maserati minder in the passenger seat of the MC20 at the test track has read my mind. He knows that I’m about to reach for the button that switches off the last of the electronic safety nets. I grudgingly oblige. Although this isn’t the first Mc20 I’ve been in, it’s the first full production-spec version I’ve driven, and it’s still quite early in the day. But my intentions are journalistic, not recklessly thrill-seeking, as I’ve sensed that the mid-engined Maserati has more to give than the allegedly ambitious Corsa drive mode is letting out to play. It feels like I’m getting 40 per…

The first thing you want to know about the Rimac Nevera is how it feels to launch-control an electric hypercar with twice the power of a modern Formula 1 car. I wondered that too, and casually decimating the Bugatti Chiron’s world production-car standing-quarter record was very nearly the first thing I did in a Nevera. I was given mine on the runway of a quiet provincial Croat airport, its nose already pointing down the strip towards the cones that marked the end of the quarter-mile. Mate Rimac was there and quite happy for me to knock out a new world record with my first push of the throttle, so confident was he of the ease and safety with which his car will do it. That might have made for a…

► Why is it here? Ferrari’s gorgeous new 2+2 sits alongside, rather than above or below, the drop-top Portofino. They share similar spec and price, but as a lighter coupe the Roma promises to put the ‘sport’ into ‘Sports GT’. Ferrari claims as much as 70 per cent of the body and structure is different from the Portofino. No convertible gubbins means a stiffer structure and a 100kg weight saving, too. The Roma actually runs softer spring rates. ► Any clever stuff? A big change over the Portofino is the Roma’s transaxle, modified from the SF90’s. With eight gears, it’s 6kg lighter than the Portofino’s seven-speed ‘box. The Roma also gets Ferrari’s steering wheel-mounted manettino control (and, less successfully, touchsensitive pads to control infotainment menus). ► Which version is this?…

You know how they say never buy the first version of a new Apple product? Perhaps a similar golden rule should be applied to electric cars. The VW ID.3, the first model based on the VW Group’s entry-level electric platform and released last summer, had an unfinished edge. But every new MEB derivative launched since has bettered the previous version. The ID.4 is quantifiably more appealing than the hatchback, the Skoda Enyaq is more convincing overall than both VWs, and now the Audi Q4 e-Tron raises the bar for looks, perceived quality, driveability and performance. Surprisingly, the Q3’s electric counterpart even beats the pricey e-Tron GT on interior design and overall craftsmanship. The top-of-the-line Q4 50 e-Tron quattro also costs over £10k less than the base full-size e-Tron SUV, which…

Titanium conrods. A lightened and re-balanced crank. New pistons, revised combustion chambers and an all-new valvetrain. New intake and exhaust. New oil pump. The changes Ferrari has wrought on its 6.5-litre, naturally-aspirated V12 for this car, the 812 Competizione, are myriad and they are extensive. They yield numbers that are both modest – a 29bhp power increase; peak revs up by 600rpm – and absolutely astonishing: maximum power is now 818bhp at 9250rpm, and the engine’s limiter is pegged at a stratospheric 9500rpm. (The actual power increase over the 812 Superfast was nearer 60bhp, but the new, mandatory particulate filters choke half that advantage.) The 812 Competizione is a limited-edition, track-focused evolution of the Superfast. In line with Ferrari’s established practice of introducing innovative technology on limited-run flagships before cascading…

It’s been great to be out and about in the Disco again as the country has unlocked. As I’ve said before, it eats long journeys like the First Class cabin of a transatlantic jet. That’s not the only thing it gobbles up, though. The price of diesel has been climbing since the first lockdown last year and it seems my right foot has got heavier too, now I’m feeling ‘liberated’. The best economy I’ve seen in the last 10 months was 32.0mpg; the worst was this month at 28.2mpg. My price per mile has rocketed from 16.7p last summer to 29.1p now. Factor in that I got stung for AdBlue this month, and I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t just ‘Stay Home, Save Money’. The Sport is glugging 10…

Alex Tapley Try to summarise Mazda – the whole company – in one car, and you could easily end up with the 3. So much of what the brand currently stands for – nearly all of it good – is embodied in this clever, grown-up hatchback that, after 12,000 miles, I’m sad is leaving. It’s a gorgeous piece of exterior design and pretty smart inside too, save for the shin-dampening cupholders and easily blinded reversing camera. Yes, I’ve berated the engine for its limp power delivery but, after some changes in driving style, I’ve seen economy figures close to the official ratings in the last couple of months. And it seems Mazda has heard my spoilt-brat cries for more poke – the engine has had some tweaks and gets a…

Alex Tapley The Cupra Formentor is a likeable car in the not-quite-a-crossover-more-a-tall-hatch segment that defies pigeonholing. I’m all for this blending of genres: the Cupra feels less roly-poly than SUVs, a dash more practical than regular hatchbacks. I don’t quite know how to describe it, but I like what I see. After living with a Honda E for half a year, it’s quite a shock returning to the combustion fold. Our Formentor VZ2 has a startling 306bhp from its turbocharged 2.0-litre Golf R innards and the performance is as brisk as it sounds on paper, with 0-62mph in 4.9sec and a thirsty 29mpg average. I’m still learning to tune the acoustics via driving modes; this is not a nice-sounding engine, but in Cupra set-up it takes on all sorts of…

Alex Tapley You might remember comparisons drawn between the Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio and Ferrari 488 GTB. Sounds fanciful, doesn’t it, but not only is there truth in that, it’s something that also extends to the more humble Veloce. So how does a four-cylinder front-engined saloon feel a bit like a mid-engined turbocharged V8 supercar? Some of it’s sleight of hand in the visuals – suggestive stuff like the start button on the steering wheel, and long paddles fixed to the steering column rather than turning with the wheel. But there’s substance too: like the Ferrari, the Alfa’s steering is unusually rapid off-centre and strikingly light. The engine has a juicy swell of torque in the midrange (okay, all turbo cars do, bear with), and even the gearchanges have a similar…

1 ALPINA B5 TOURING Engine and handling of an M5, big boot, plenty of luxurious touches and bonus points for being ultra-exclusive. Yours for £97,500. 2 MERCEDES-AMG E63 S ESTATE Feistier and angrier, with a more charismatic engine than the B5. And even pricier, at £101,565. 3 PORSCHE TAYCAN CROSS TURISMO Porsche doesn’t want you to call it an estate, but it sure looks like one. Refined, capable and properly fast. From £79,430 for a Taycan 4, £140k for a Turbo S. 4 AUDI RS6 Brutish looks, well made and properly quick – just lacks the last degree of thrill. Will still take you up an Alp in no time. Get one from £93,950. 5 BMW M340i TOURING No such thing as an M3 Touring… yet. This will tide us…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WWW.WARRANTYWISE.CO.UK 0800 121 4801 2005 2005 The military fires the starting gun In 2004, year one of the DARPA (Defense Advanced Projects Agency) Grand Challenge, none of the supposedly self-driving cars makes it any further than seven miles into the contest’s 150-mile route through the Mojave desert. But in 2005 the Touareg developed by Stanford University and VW is the quickest of the five vehicles that completes the 132-mile route. Game on. 2014 2014 The dream of the self-driving GT Audi has produced a series of development mules, many of them A7s, to showcase and test its ever-evolving self-driving tech, with ever-growing processing power and ever more sophisticated algorithms. You can’t buy a self-driving Audi, but Audis come with some slick assistance that owes much to this…

A global microchip shortage has slowed the production of everything from games consoles to phones, and now it’s putting the handbrake on the car industry’s recovery from Covid. A lack of the crucial semiconductors – thousands of which are needed in a typical modern car – has caused production lines to stall and financial forecasts to be slashed, and will likely change the way in which car makers source these increasingly crucial components. Tesla boss Elon Musk describes the first quarter of 2021 as having ‘some of the most difficult supply challenges we’ve ever experienced’, a sentiment echoed by long-established mass-market car makers. The automotive sector is estimated to need 85 billion semiconductors this year – three per cent of the total chip market. They control and calibrate a huge…

HEAD OF ENGINEERING, BMW M DIVISION Illustration: Chris Rathbone ’I consider myself lucky every day – this job is never boring,’ claims M division engineering boss Dirk Hacker, his mile-wide smile suggesting he’s not lying through his teeth to deliver a nice corporate soundbite. That Hacker is where he was always meant to be can’t be in much doubt. His first car was a BMW, an E36 325i, and he still has it. He joined Bayerische Motorenwerke in 1988 and never left, progressing from chassis and stability control systems through complete vehicle engineering to M division, which he joined in 2015, just in time to work on the new-generation M3/M4 and, latterly, the CS version of the M5 (see page 88). A pig in scheisse? Oh yes. ‘I have a…

Resisting water has been at least as influential on watch design as measuring speed. So after last month’s maritime-inspired watches I make no apology for getting straight back into the sea with three very interesting and just-released new diver’s watches. Two feature novel materials, and one offers amazing value. Car-inspired chronographs will return next month, I promise. 01 | Tissot Seastar 2000 Professional From £895 Tissot is an old Swiss watch maker, now controlled by the Swatch Group, which also owns high-end brands such as Omega and Blancpain. This new version of its Seastar diver’s watch has a pro spec including water-resistance to 600 metres, a helium release valve and an indestructible ceramic bezel. tissotwatches.com 02 I Panerai Luminor Marina eSteel £7600 Watches may be small, but the metals and…

BMW claims its plug-in hybrids have some of the highest electric-only range on the market. So, to make use of that, it’s introduced a discreet bit of tech designed to help you maximise e-power where it matters most: built-up areas. Called eDrive Zones, it’s a simple addition to BMW’s OS7 infotainment, and essentially it activates electric mode for you. How? By using the car’s navigation system and a geofenced area. Geofencing is when an area is digitally marked with a border, and if you enter or leave the area it will trigger a change. In BMW’s case, the geofenced areas are city centres, usually where there are congestion or emissions charges in effect. When you drive your plug-in hybrid (such as the 530e we tested it on) into the zone…

I never quite got my head around Newton’s third law of motion at school, partly because our teacher explained it by saying, ‘If you push against a wall, it pushes back with the same force.’ I asked: ‘But how? How does the wall push back?’ ‘Well, it just does.’ At which point my younger self decided both sir and Sir Isaac Newton were talking nonsense. Which might have held me back a bit in my exams. Seems Bentley can also show a blatant disregard for the laws of physics, because this Continental is gleefully attacking Silverstone in a manner which shouldn’t really be possible in a 2.3-tonne GT. I’ve just turned into the mega-quick Maggots/Becketts esses at three figures plus change. Not only does the Bentley tuck its nose in…

Own a rear-drive 1-series with a straight-six engine? Lucky you. Got a few grand to spare? Then BMW tuning specialist Birds Auto reckon it can make your already fine car even better. BMW has switched to front-wheel drive for the current 1-series, or all-wheel drive for the hottest variants, but there are plenty of us who still favour the old layout. But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement. The Birds B-sports kit includes fresh springs and dampers, and makes the front track wider. This removes some of the slack the factory spec builds into the steering, making the M140i much more alert to the first degrees of steering angle. This isn’t some solid-sprung trackday special, however: the aim is an enjoyable set-up for everyday road use. To that…

Missed opportunity I read Gavin Green’s article in the May edition concerning the search for good urban transport. I found the solution to this 21 years ago when I bought my first BMW C1. It solves many of the downsides of car and bike ownership. It’s a scooter with a cabin that keeps out much of the weather and provides a high level of safety protection compared with any other two-wheeled vehicle. I commuted on one of these for over 10 years and then used it just for the fun of riding round on it. It filtered through traffic jams, reduced my commuting time by up to 50 per cent and protected me with its ABS brakes, heated seat and handlebars plus a four-point seatbelt to hold me in the…

► Why is it here? Porsche’s 992 Carrera already has a twin-turbo flat-six, so the Turbo S has gone turbo-tastic to stand out: it’s bored out to 3.75 litres and boosted to 641bhp. At £156k it’s the most expensive model in the 911 range (but still undercuts the Roma by 15 grand). ► Any clever stuff? Four-wheel drive and four-wheel steer, plus clever active aero, with a new, movable front spoiler and rear wing increasing downforce by 15 per cent. The S gets Porsche active suspension (PASM), active anti-roll (PDCC) and carbon-ceramic brakes as standard. ► Which version is this? Priced £22k over the standard Turbo, the S gets you an extra 70bhp, 7mph on the top speed (up to 205mph) and a 0.1sec advantage to 62mph. Like the Turbo,…

Olivier François started his own music label, is a published poet and has persuaded Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Eminem – among others – to star in his TV ads. In America, he’s known as the king of car commercials, and has been tagged the auto industry’s Don Draper, a reference to the charismatic lead in Mad Men. His wife is an Italian pop star. So he’s not your average brand-and-bluster car-company marketing boss. He’s head of Fiat, global marketing boss of FCA (Fiat Chrysler) and is working hard to make the new Stellantis car company – the merger of the PSA Peugeot group and FCA – a success. We talk by video conference, François from his home in Milan. He’s glad he’s working from home. ‘It is a bonus.…

Alex Tapley In a market full of character, the Ford’s all-round goodness leaves it in the shadows The Focus ST is quick, engaging, practical and even has a decent sound system. But although it’s a car I can recommend in a heartbeat, it’s not one I’d buy with my own cash. I’ll explain. The ST is a fine all-round performer. On B-roads and greasy tarmac, it skates on the limit of grip – but feels constantly adjustable thanks to its traditionally quick rack and taut chassis. It’s highly communicative too; put it in Sport and it’s easy to get an idea of just how much you can push. Even better is the Ford’s always-on turbo boost, which pushes the car forward in a way that feels much faster than its…

Jordan Butters Two promises about things I won’t do. First, I won’t go on about the weirdness of this hotted-up Volvo plug-in hybrid wearing a Polestar Engineered badge. Polestar, now a standalone brand and not just a Volvo sub-brand, is heading rapidly to full electric, but in the interim is still slapping its name on products conceived when that narrow mission wasn’t so clear. It just is. And second, I won’t go on about how tricky it is to make maximum use of a plug-in hybrid’s electric capability in a blame-dodging attempt to explain why I keep driving around with a near-empty battery. Rather, I shall make it my business to make maximum use of the electric capability. (Probably. On a good day. When I can be bothered.) The extraordinarily…

I tried to fight it. I really did. Tried to deny my true nature. Distracted myself with a series of premium SUVs and estates. But in the end I had to be true to myself, and come out as the kind of guy who, deep down, wants a seven-seat Citroën Berlingo in prosthetic beige. There are many ways to judge a car. The Berlingo clearly doesn’t score as highly on performance, material quality and desirability as the Audi SQ8 I ran last. But fitness for purpose is a simpler, nobler, more honest and frankly harder aim for a car maker. And if you have a family, and regularly need to transport a lot of people and stuff, I’d challenge you to name a car more fit for your purpose than…

Alex Tapley For an illustration of just how much of a mutant the GR Yaris is, look no further than the regular Yaris Hybrid. There’s a bit more going on than wheelarch extensions: the GR has its own three-door body (the normal Yaris is five-door only) with a roofline so much lower that its rear screen looks like RoboCop’s visor. You need to tilt your head if you’re a tall passenger in the back of a GR, and the boot is almost exactly half the volume (blame the rear suspension and all-wheel-drive gear). In fact, other than the lights and the mirrors, every one of the GR’s body panels is bespoke and made from aluminium or carbonfibre. Not to mention the structural, suspension and powertrain engineering the 60mm-broader bodywork covers.…

Alex Tapley Check out my chunky tyres. Look at the length of my loadbay. Marvel at my modes. The Sorento is about being big, comfortable and well equipped. The sort of thing we often think of as being a bit American, although if you were to actually put this car - the biggest Kia sold in Europe – next to the Telluride and Carnival offered in the US it would look very modest. I’m feeling the benefit of its comfort, size and kit. Together, they make the car fit well with my working life and family life. More bags? Sling them in the back! Need to unwind after a tough assignment? Its insulating ride will soon soak away any stress. Want to catch up on what’s been happening? The phone…