Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2022 i CAR UK

7-SERIES (E23) A Paul Bracq-penned masterpiece, showing BMW could do luxury and be an Ultimate Driving Machine. 7-SERIES (E65) The Bangle-era 7-series. While criticism has softened on the 5-series of this era, that’s not so true here. i4 BMW’s first EV co-developed with ICE car (4-series), just like i7 and 7. Also shares affinity for big nostrils. iX Elements of the i7’s interior (curved screen, two-spoke wheel etc) were pioneered by the brand’s oddball SUV. 7-SERIES (G70) The i7’s twin, the new 7 was designed alongside it. Boasts all the same tech and luxe, and is PHEV-only in the UK.…

Off-road Tesla chaser Our second look at a Wrangler EV. ‘Magneto 2.0’ has four battery packs inset into the chassis, 800-volt architecture and a racing-spec inverter. It’ll keep up with a Tesla Plaid... off-road, that is. 10/10 An electric Baja blaster? Sign us up Khaki throwback Army-inspired graphics, big steelies shod in knobbly tyres and a glorified tent for a roof: the ’41 Concept is like the good old days. Except that it’s the 4Xe PHEV underneath. 7/10 Unoriginal, if well executed Gah, my eyes! The D-Coder is a hideous demonstration of what happens with full and free access to the Jeep Performance Parts catalogue. Be thankful it’s just a concept. 2/10 Or if you’re eight years old: 10/10 Have cake, eat it New, plush Grand Cherokee…

A FITTING FAMILY RESEMBLANCE Another new BMW 7. In this case, the X7 SUV with a light facelift. Didn’t like the nostrils before? Tough – the designers have doubled down, making Munich’s biggest SUV fit with the new 7-series, as well as tying it to the upcoming XM hyper SUV. New M60i version bafflingly the same as the old M50i. NEED TO KNOW What is it? BMW’s ugly-if-brilliant Rangie rival, facelifted Tech specs New straight-six petrol, launch control for M60i, 23-inch wheel option Aimed at? Chipping away at JLR’s bottom line When can I get one? Now, from £81k, and an Alpina version is coming ANOTHER NOD TO THE PAST Even while it’s planning for its EV future, Porsche can’t help but wheel out the rose-tinted specs. The new Sport…

Nio is an EV brand shaking up the car landscape. Having fully established itself in its home market of China, it’s entered the European market, starting last year in Norway – Europe’s keenest EV market. Moves into Sweden, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands will follow. Don’t write it off as another Tesla clone, though. Nio is more than that, not least because of its Battery Swap Station, which introduces a different way of using an EV. It’s not a new idea, and has been tried by various people in the past, but Nio is the car company that’s making it work. As well as the ability to plug in and charge the conventional way, you can go to one of Nio’s Battery Swap Stations, where your part-drained battery is taken…

▲ PLUS Vastly more practical than hatch; enjoyable handling ▼ MINUS Too many touch-controlled functions; DSG only It’s a familiar formula, albeit with a slight twist. As with its predecessor, the Mk8 Golf R Estate drops the 2.0-litre turbo EA888 motor and fourwheel-drive system from the hatch into a more practical shell. The twist is that the estate now has a 66mm longer wheelbase. The boot is bigger than ever at 611 litres with the rear seats up, and those sitting in the back get an extra 38mm of legroom compared to the hatch. It’s astonishing how much you can cram into what is still a compact package. The longer wheelbase might make you expect less agile handling. However, aided by the rear diff’s ability to overspeed the outside wheel,…

Plug and play Love CAR magazine. Love the writing, the photography, the knowledge, the detail and the broad coverage. But I really am bored with the letters every month moaning about electric cars, about CAR’s coverage of EVs, and mourning the end of the petrol engine. Can we call time on these letters now, please? Across Europe and the United States, governments are pushing the shift to zero emissions. Car companies are making more and more EVs. CAR magazine needs to write about electric cars. It’s also what people want. Three of the top five most-read stories on carmagazine.co.uk in March were about EVs… Enough with the moaning letters. End of my moaning letter. Alan Melady Thanks Alan. We could ignore EVs – and become a bit like Steam Railway……

Gerry McGovern’s right: the new Range Rover Sport is a ‘vehicle of breathtaking desirability’. So says the voice in my right ear agreeing with the creative director. But Jiminy Cricket on my left shoulder is telling me that the third-generation Sport is the wrong vehicle for these times: slightly heavier than the outgoing car, with combustion engines posting high fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. It’s graced with vast engineering prowess claimed to make it drive on-road like never before while fulfilling all Land Rover’s capabilities off-road – but isn’t that over-engineering for a typical buyer? Welcome, dear readers, to my inner monologue. By the end of this feature I hope to have it resolved. In the meantime, join me for the ride – into an SUV packed with chassis technology…

If the 962 was one of the high points in Porsche’s unparalleled Le Mans history (it’s won the race 19 times to Audi’s 13), it might be about to start another. Porsche returns to Le Mans’ top class in 2023 with an alluring new prototype. Run in partnership with Team Penske, the V8 hybrid will race in the new LMDh class (Le Mans Daytona hybrid – as befits tradition, all classes at Le Mans must have confusing names) rather than the much-hyped Hypercar class, but parityof-performance regulations will give it a shot at overall victory. LMDh rules mean Porsche must use a spec chassis built by supplier Multimatic but may run its own powertrain and bodywork. It will battle Audi, Peugeot, Toyota and Glickenhaus – and, for the first time…

Alex Tapley Range Rover Velar P400eS Month 8 The story so far The end of eight months with plug-in midsize Rangie + Lovely to drive and a beautiful cabin -Disappointing fuel economy, horrid charging interface Logbook Price £61,770 (£71,315 as tested) Performance 1997cc turbocharged four-cylinder plus e-motor, 17.1kWh battery, PHEV, 398bhp, 5.4sec 0-62mph, 149mph Efficiency 109.9mpg (official), 34.6mpg (tested), 49g/km CO2 Energy cost 34p per mile Miles this month 1373 Total miles 7170 The Velar’s Hill Descent Control is locked to its lowest speed, 4mph, effectively becoming a massive dog lead to stop this off-road terrier dashing off downhill. And it’s a respectable hill: 200 feet of dried mud at Eastnor, Land Rover’s Gloucestershire proving ground. The Hakuba Silver metallic nose points upwards as we crawl over the crest, before…

Audi RS3 Launch Edition Month 2 The story so far Audi’s uber hatch, now in its third generation + Five-cylinder quattro goodness - £60k is a lot of cash for a Golfbased hatchback Logbook Price £60,460 (£60,460 as tested) Performance 2480cc fivecylinder turbo, 395bhp, 3.8sec 0-62mph, 174mph Efficiency 31.0mpg (official), 24.6mpg (tested), 205g/km C02 Energy cost 27.1p per mile Miles this month 752 Total miles 1340 Peak Father Ted is Dougal furtively eyeing a button in a plane cockpit that says ‘Do not press’, shortly before a mystery emergency. ‘Did you press the button, Dougal?’ asks Ted. ‘I did.’ The episode came back to me when a ‘Torque Rear’ button presented itself on the touchscreen with much ‘Do not press’ fanfare. Yes I did. It doesn’t say ‘Drift mode’, but…

Nissan Qashqai Tekna+ DIG-T 158PS Month 7 The story so far Third-generation Qashqai has clocked up many pain-free miles + Good compromise between the many roles it’s asked to fill - More reliable infotainment would be welcome Logbook Price £36,125 (£37,270 as tested) Performance 1332cc turbocharged four-cylinder, 156bhp, 9.2sec 0-62mph, 124mph Efficiency 43.8mpg (official), 37.6mpg (tested), 146g/km CO2 Energy cost 17.5p per mile Miles this month 2703 Total miles 17,355 Some card games, like snap, you get the hang of very quickly and easily. You can try to jazz it up with a flamboyant wrist action or a lot of shouting, but you reach peak engagement pretty soon. It’s always there as a fall-back – handy when there are young kids to entertain on a rainy day in Norfolk, say…

Faster? More expensive? Better, surely. The 2’s Performance pack will set you back £5k. It comprises manually adjustable Öhlins dampers (which are gold), gold seatbelts, bigger front brake calipers (four-piston Brembos, also gold), stunning four-spoke 20-inch wheels (the valve caps are gold) and a performance-orientated Continental tyre (not gold), rather than our car’s efficiency-chasing Michelin Premacy 4s. The PP-equipped test car you see here also wears splendid Magnesium paint and Polestar’s over-the-air power upgrade. For a further £1000 it lifts power to 470bhp and torque by 15lb ft to 502lb ft, and drops the 0-62mph time by three tenths to 4.4sec. If much of your driving is likely to be spent chasing range via efficiency, little of the above makes any sense. Driving style has a huge impact on your…

The CAR Hall of Fame immortalises the people, the ideas and the cars that changed – or are changing – the game. Submit your nominees to ben.miller@bauermedia.co.uk Talk about getting it right first time. When Ferruccio Lamborghini briefed Giotto Bizzarrini (the ex-Ferrari engineer with the 250 GTO on his CV) to create an engine to power Lamborghini’s first car, the man did good. The 350 GT grand tourer was a car born to settle a personal grudge and exceed the quality of any road car Maranello was turning out at the time. That was 1964; two years later the 60° quad-cam V12 (not least because Ferrari was using single overhead camshafts per bank) had been bored out from 3.5 to 3.9 litres and turned sideways to fit in the Miura,…

IN THE SPOTLIGHT The i7 is the all-electric version of BMW’s new G70 7-series, and it doesn’t care what you think of its design. No, really – the brand’s so confident about the premise, technology and superior refinement of its new luxury EV that insiders view the bold design as a challenge to be embraced by progressive early adopters and to hell with what anyone else thinks. ‘Everyone who chooses a BMW is not conservative,’ head of BMW design Domagoj Dukec tells CAR at the reveal of the luxury duo. ‘Go to a different brand if you want something else.’ BMW positions the new 7-series as a total reset for BMW’s luxury-car offering, echoing the controversial E65 Chris Bangle 7-series of 2001. Confidence and conviction are what’s needed to make…

FACTFILE POWERTRAIN 50kWh battery, 150bhp (est), single e-motor, front-wheel drive; combustion versions too CHASSIS Steel monocoque DUE 2023 A NEW BLEND The C4 and C5X have much in common – they’re both avantgarde hatchbacks with a slightly raised ride height to make access easy – but there’s a half-metre size difference between them. That gap is where Citroën can plug the new variant, surely set to be called C4X. Peugeot’s at it, too, with prototypes snapped by our spy photographers. A POWER CHOICE Under the skin, the C4X has great commonality with its sister car. That means it rides on the CMP platform, so it’ll offer the C4’s 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol engine and 1.5-litre four-cylinder diesel with manual and eightspeed auto ’boxes, as well as a battery-electric version. The 50kWh…

Illustration: Chris Rathbone I AS A CHILD LAMBORGHINI WAS ALWAYS SOMETHING OVER-WHELMING; UNLIKE ANY OTHER BRAND Sometimes in life and in business you’re faced with tasks that would appear impossible. Do you treat them as an overwhelming burden to battle or a challenge to be relished? Lamborghini’s new chief technology officer must fill the enormous shoes of his illustrious and much-loved predecessor and, what’s more, he’s faced with pivoting a marque inextricably associated with charismatic combustion engines to an electric future. And Rouven Mohr is enthusiastic about the challenges ahead. ‘I’m a guy that always likes to have challenges,’ says the 43-year-old German engineer. ‘I mean, if you continue only the existing story then up to a certain level it can be boring. We’re challenged by the situation of the…

THE SCEPTIC JAKE GROVES DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR HOW EXACTLY IS this meant to be a Smart? We know Smart for being innovative. The original City Coupe and the ForTwo that came after it were quirky and original. While the design wasn’t to everyone’s taste, the cars were masterfully packaged and introduced thrifty mild hybrids before the rest of the world knew what that was. The Roadster was a clever small sports car. This is just derivative. I know Smart under this new Mercedes/Geely joint venture wants to step away from its (mostly) one-trick-pony past, but making an electric SUV says Smart is very much following the herd, rather than forging its own path. And the fact the new car’s name really is meant to be pronounced ‘Smart Hashtag One’ is…

When you’re told an idea is ‘all new’ and you know it’s not, it tends to irk. Audi’s marketing department, revealing its Urbansphere concept, declared designing a car ‘from the inside out’ as ‘a completely different approach’. But dozens of designers have declared the same intent with 21st century concepts – let alone the Nissan Cube that made production two decades earlier. So, if the inside-out approach of the Urbansphere isn’t new, what is? Its size; the Urbansphere is Audi’s largest ever concept, trumping the length of the A8 L by 190mm. Or to take a more MPV-like comparison, the Mercedes V-Class LWB by 140mm, although the Urbansphere is a tad lower. Don’t call it an MPV, though. ‘We weren’t thinking in those terms,’ exterior designer Florian Liese says. Despite…

Jeep now has to navigate pollution regs that make traversing the Rubicon Trail look simple The voiceover booms out a question that you can’t help but feel contains heavy hints at the preferred answer: ‘Were you born to follow a path or were you born free?’ It accompanies images of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee fording a river and cresting a granite slab. I’m watching the commercial through a letterbox squint because the television is in front of a huge glass wall, backlit by the Texas sun. But even with your eyes tight shut, references to freedom in Jeep’s marketing for the fifth-generation Grand Cherokee would be hard to miss. Freedom from what? Ten years ago, it would’ve been from the nine-to-five and city streets. Buying a Jeep meant buying…

Mr Benn would understand. He, you’ll recall from your childhood, is the bowler-hatted gent who enlivens suburban mundanity by frequently popping into his local fancy-dress shop and popping out the back exit into another time and another place. Knight. Pirate. Cowboy. And when it all gets a bit much, back to the shop. Ditto Mercedes saloons, more or less, in my case. That time in Thailand when we hired a bloke with a W124 to drive us many hundreds of miles, stopping whenever we liked the look of a roadside cafe or a hotel, all for pence. Or that time in China and Mongolia, on the final leg of an E-Class drive from Paris to Beijing. And now Frankfurt, in the new EQE, with Barcelona FC and the entourage of…

Jordan Butters Genuine icons? They’re few and far between. Porsche has at least one, and so too does Land Rover. Its flagship, the luxurymeets-utility Range Rover, may be more than half a century old but it’s only now into its fifth iteration. Trends, corporate owners, rivals, Prime Ministers – they come and go yet the Range Rover remains; aloof yet desirable, aspirational yet practical, contemporary yet timeless. Tempting though it must be to consider your icon a creation beyond compare, Land Rover has resisted such complacency, and with good reason: the luxury SUV sector heaves with quality rivals and glittering debutants (here’s looking at you, Lotus and Ferrari). We know from our first drive that this new Range Rover is much more than a cut-and-paste exercise in marginal gains. Instead…

Avarvarii This is really happening. BMW may still be keeping its rebooted Batmobile secret, but CAR can reveal that finally one of its fantastic retro show cars – the so-called Hommage series – will make production. The real thing will be revealed soon, but for now we’ve put together everything we know to preview BMW M division’s 50th birthday present to itself. We’ll see the M4 CSL first: that is not this car, but it will provide its building blocks. No, the Hommage will be something quite remarkable: a rear-wheel drive, 592bhp work of art powered by a tuned twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six and weighing significantly less than the standard car. It’s inspired by the CS series of the ’70s, most especially the 3.0 CSL flagship that dominated touring car racing…

There comes a time in every longterm test of an electric car when you need a good old moan. Range is the obvious place to start, and our Enyaq is officially rated at 256 miles – but in deep winter we saw 199 miles at best. Which isn’t what you’ll ever do anyway, because with 20 per cent charge remaining the car will ask you to plug in. Call that 150-160 miles, then. Unless you’ve turned the heating on, at which point it’ll slice another 20 miles off. We tend to pre-heat the Enyaq too, so the kids climb into a warm car for the nursery run. Heating itself through at a standstill, five days per week, in the cold, plus Daddy’s hoon to daycare and back, means we seldom…

It’s firmer than the GR Yaris, but otherwise easier to live with WATCH THE VIDEO! HEAD TO THE CAR MAGAZINE YOUTUBE CHANNEL It’s happened again. In 2018 I ran a Hyundai i30N, this car’s bigger brother. I wasn’t sure about it to start with; the steering was a bit heavy, the exhaust a bit strident, the ride a bit firm. By the end, I didn’t want it to go. I loved it. I got off to a similarly lukewarm start with the i20N. I liked it; I just didn’t love it. Now, I don’t want to let it go. It’s been great. There are a few negatives. The 18-inch tyres provide enormous lateral grip but at the expense of feel and feedback. That was exacerbated by the heavy steering, which…

HOW DOES NEW GBU WORK? Updated monthly, GBU covers eight of 16 classes in each issue, and summarises all our class kings TOP 5 SUB-£400pcm EVs 1 POLESTAR 2 THE GOOD: Scintillating speed; sharp handling; Scandi style THE BAD: Cramped packaging; challenging charging THE UGLY: Lacks Tesla’s killer-blow charging network THE ONE TO BUY: Starts from £42k/£390pcm. Long Range Dual Motor is great but £48k/£450pcm 2 HYUNDAI IONIQ 5 THE GOOD: Original, ingenious, bold and feelgood – everything VW’s ID.3 isn’t, then THE BAD: Looks like a hatch; actually the size of an SUV THE UGLY: Quite weirdlooking – are you cool with that? THE ONE TO BUY: Base 58kWh SE Connect only option under £400pcm 3 MEGANE E-TECH THE GOOD: Renault turns its ho-hum hatch into a sharp-suited EV…

Tell us about your first car: ‘A Ford Escort Mk3 with nearly 75bhp. It was a slow car…’ What’s the best thing you’ve ever done in a car? ‘Track-testing the new Tecnica. I never drove a mid-engined car with this level of power in such a playful way.’ What achievement are you most proud of? ‘My first time in Lamborghini, with the launch of the Urus. It was a big step for the company.’ Tell us about a time you screwed up… ‘I mean, everybody makes mistakes. But I’m a positive guy. I’m happy about how everything’s worked out, though there are some cars I wish I hadn’t sold because the prices have increased…’ Supercar or classic? ‘I love supercars but I also love the feel and the smell of…

Porsche’s IPO seems almost certain to go ahead in the last quarter of this year. Speaking to CAR in advance of its annual press conference, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume confirmed that it ‘welcomed’ the fact that parent VW was considering selling some of it off. Given VW Group politics and the regulatory strictures on what execs can say before a flotation, that’s as close as you’ll get to confirmation that it’s happening. An IPO, or initial public offering, is a way for a private company to raise money by offering shares to the public. It’s a process that isn’t without risks (see panel below), although in Porsche’s case it looks like a win-win. With an enterprise value (a measure of its overall worth) of around €90 billion, Porsche will be…

Ferrari has every right to feel smug. The new 296 GTS with its retractable hard-top is the only plug-in hybrid convertible supercar on sale now. There’s no McLaren Artura Spider, and Lambo’s Huracan Spyder is clinging onto its V10. As with previous Ferrari hybrids, the focus is on power rather than economy; in this case from a 2.9-litre V6 and a single e-motor working together to make a manic 819bhp and 549lb ft. Ferrari should be particularly smug that, despite the GTS weighing 70kg more than the GTB coupe, the convertible can launch to 62mph in the same 2.9 seconds. As well as differences in aero over the rear deck, the GTS also benefits from being 50 per cent more torsionally rigid than the F8 Spider. It has all the same…

If the root of range anxiety is the idea that electric vehicles can’t go as far as petrolengined cars without stopping for a top-up, a test run by Mercedes’ electric EQXX suggests we needn’t worry for much longer. The sleek prototype achieved its 1000km (621 miles) target on a single charge, with range to spare. ‘Our team completed its mission to build the most efficient Mercedes in our history,’ chief technical officer Markus Schäfer tells CAR. ‘Internally we’re considering it our Mars landing to achieve this in the EV world.’ It shows how rapidly battery and e-motor tech is evolving. ‘The EQXX has a 100kWh battery, but it’s half the volume and one third less weight than the pack in an EQS,’ explains Schäfer. A slippery 0.18Cd drag coefficient, solar-cell…

Around town, the software is like Mr Bean conducting an orchestra, with some pronounced pauses Even on a grey April day, Lake Como is beautiful, the surface a shimmering aquamarine. But Como’s streets, which veer from congestion-choked to hyperactive with every traffic-light change, are yet to gel with the new Alfa Romeo Tonale. The compact SUV, due in the UK in September, initially comes with one powertrain: this 158bhp petrol/electric hybrid. Alfa’s first foray into electrification, it’s fiendishly complex. The engine is a 1.5-litre four-cylinder, with a high compression ratio, direct fuel injection at up to 350 bar and dual variable valve timing, to delay inlet valve closure to facilitate the engine’s fuel-saving Miller cycle. Uncommonly the petrol engine also has a variable-geometry turbocharger, to boost performance across the rev…

It starts with a key. All that technology, downforce, power, a decade’s worth of endurance racing dominance – you start it all with a stubby plastic-topped key in the dashboard. Twist it long enough for the six-cylinder engine to catch and settle into a flat, buzzy idle. Push the weighty clutch pedal, carefully hook first gear (an aluminium lever, tucked away to the right): we’re away. Through the goldfish-bowl screen, the Goodwood circuit unfurls, bathed in orange under a setting sun. And upon it, a high-speed conga of Porsche 956 and 962 Le Mans cars, stretching as far as the eye can see. As 40th birthday parties go, this is a pretty special one. There’s a good excuse for this shindig. In 1982, the formula for one of endurance racing’s…

THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT Alex Tapley Imagine if CAR challenged Adrian Newey, Gordon Murray and Patrick Head to each design a plug-in hybrid for a road-legal race series. We could call it Formula PHEV, and it would have two rules: the cars must be tax-efficient, and the final of this one-round series would be held on the roads of Yorkshire. Formula 1’s technical holy trinity would surely go bananas, even though their creations would have to be priced under £35k, allowing purchasing businesses to reclaim 18 per cent as a first-year capital allowance. CO2 would have to be below 50g/km because taxation makes a big step above that. And the electric-only range would preferably be above 40 miles, because then the company car driver’s benefit-in-kind (BiK) tax drops to just eight…

I was surprised by the requirement for a dealer visit at just 7k miles Alex Tapley Truly, the world has gone mad. We’ve trucked around for half a year in the Dacia Sandero, and I discover it’s lost less than £1600 in depreciation. This kind of residual value was the preserve of hot new Porsches in the past. Our TCe 90 supped fuel at 41.9mpg, which was mildly disappointing for a small rurallybased hatchback, but it required no oil or fluids other than screenwash. I was surprised by the requirement for a dealer visit at just 7k miles, but that was triggered by the annual calendar, not the odometer; Smiths Peterborough efficiently completed the inspection service while I waited, for the princely sum of £75. They also replaced my punctured…

Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Month 1 The story so far An American icon joins the CAR fleet + Smiles per mile through the (removable) roof already high - Capable it may be; practical it very much is not Logbook Price £53,800 (£55,800 as tested Performance 1995cc turbo four-cylinder, 268bhp, 7.3sec 0-62mph, 99mph Efficiency 24.4mpg (official), 21.8mpg (tested), 260g/km CO2 Energy cost 31.3p per mile Miles this month 1670 Total miles 2709 Prepping for doomsday is a real thing for some. And, if I were to start digging my own bunker and buying my own bodyweight in loo rolls and tins of baked beans, I’d want a Wrangler to traverse the apocalyptic wilderness – no question. No car is more capable, flexible or customisable. Defender? G-Class? Nah – far too bourgeois these…

Jaguar F-Pace 2.0D 204PS R-Dynamic SE Month 6 The story so far Jaguar’s best-seller provides luxurious, efficient transport in a subtle package, but this car feels like a Friday-afternoon job + Good looking, good value and fine-handling - Succumbing to reliability woes Logbook Price £48,500 (£52,940 as tested) Performance 1997cc turbodiesel four-cylinder, 201bhp, 8.0sec 0-62mph, 130mph Efficiency 42-45mpg (official), 37.9mpg (tested) 163-177g/km CO2 Energy cost 17.9p per mile Miles this month 765 Total miles 10,164 I wish I had better news on the Jaguar’s reliability. Unlike the incident a few months back where it threw a belt and ‘failed to proceed’, the current woes haven’t actually stopped me getting anywhere. But the big central touchscreen now regularly, randomly dies and springs back into life, sometimes after hours. While the car…

1 LOTUS ELISE (USED) THE GOOD: Lo-fi mass, high-fidelity handling; a true modern classic THE BAD: Don’t mention head gaskets THE UGLY: Prices climbing ever higher THE ONE TO BUY: S1 is the classic shape, and the car history judges most favourably, but don’t disregard the S2, particularly with the zingy, reliable Toyota engine 2 PORSCHE BOXSTER (USED) THE GOOD: Wind in your hair; soaring flatsix in your eardrums; sublime handling THE BAD: Not the most macho of sports cars, if that matters to you THE UGLY: Sub-£4k first-gen cars are out there but you’ve got to be brave THE ONE TO BUY: 981 series (2012-on) holds its value tenaciously; budget £25k+ 3 MAZDA MX-5 (NEW) THE GOOD: Closest thing to a modernday ’60s-era Lotus Elan; genius roof; fun THE…

THIS MONTH BEST SUB-£400pcm EV POLESTAR 2 Makes the transition to electric seem like a smart choice BEST £400pcm+ EV PORSCHE TAYCAN Now a bigger seller than the 911 – and you can see why BEST SUB-£400pcm PHEV PEUGEOT 308 So good to drive you can easily forget it’s a PHEV BEST £400pcm+ PHEV BMW X5 45e Smooth, soothing, practical, and rapid too BEST SUPERCAR FERRARI 296 GTB Plugging in hasn’t meant losing the magic. Far from it BEST FAMILY HATCH BMW 1-SERIES Yes, it’s gone front-wheel drive. Still fun, now has space BEST SMALL HATCH PEUGEOT 208 Premium-car feel and interior style in a teeny, chic package BEST SUV/CROSSOVER LAND ROVER DEFENDER Doesn’t ruin the original’s legacy. Adds lifestyle appeal NEXT MONTH BEST HOT HATCH TOYOTA GR YARIS Cult…