Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2022 i CAR UK

Porsche 911 GT3 Our 2021 Sports Car Giant Test winner and the CSL’s closest rival in terms of track-focused ethos, price and power. It’s an absolute hero of a car and manages to be vastly faster around the ’Ring. Good luck getting your hands on one, though. Audi R8 Performance RWD Audi’s ace supercar isn’t long for this world, but its scintillating engine and rear-driven balance make it hard to ignore after years of ‘safe’ quattro versions. If all of the UK allocation of CSLs go in a flash (which they will), be safe in the knowledge you’ve got a good ’un here. Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm An already fun performance car made even sharper with lightweight carbonfibre and a new bodykit, as well as more power and the rear…

YOUR LAP TIME WAGON Audi’s quietly-very-good RS4 (and its RS5 coupe sibling) has been given a personality injection with a new Competition pack. It has the same 444bhp V6 heart, but ceramic brakes, ‘dynamic’ steering programming and a rear diff are standard. Manually-adjustable coilovers and Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres are on the options list. NEED TO KNOW What is it? Audi’s more athletic estate Tech specs Optional coilovers, standard sports exhaust with more noise Aimed at? Setting new commuting lap records When can I get one? Later in 2022 for Europe; TBC for the UK YOUR CORPORATE CRUISER Most handsome BMW on sale right now? This facelifted 3-series has gotta be up there. The more angular face has been influenced by the 2-series and iX, and all engines now…

Two for one Car Culture Hot Wheels models get proper rubber tyres, better decals and more detail than lesser models, plus artwork on the boxes. This ‘Sakura Sprinter’ double act includes your own transporter. 10/10 Awesome details on the Mazda 787B An icon, but tiny Part of the Modern Classics collection, the E30 M3’s got to be one of the tastiest of this new lot to add to your collection. Details are spot-on, even if the wheels aren’t standard. 9/10 Love it. Don’t love the rims Future gazer Brag about owning a Valhalla before those who’ve placed an order for one even get the keys. This Aston’s part of the Exotic Envy series, with really neat rear light detailing. 6/10 Cool, if a little plain Supra-dupa Live…

PLUG INTO THE MATRIX All UK A8s get these digital matrix LED headlights. Backed by mighty processing power, their vast capabilities come from the 1.3 million micromirrors at their core ON REFLECTION Exerting an electrostatic field on the tiny mirrors shifts their position, up to a mind-boggling 5000 times per second. This enables a near-infinite array of light patterns THE LIGHT FANTASTIC The A8 is constantly switching light areas on and off to respond to its surroundings. It can also project graphical info such as directional arrows or hazard warnings too…

PLUS Precise handling and a lot of fun for a £44k two-tonne SUV MINUS A big car but not a huge boot In recent years the thoroughly sensible plug-in hybrid has gained a sub-genre: the oddly powerful plug-in hybrid. This tends to involve a front-wheel-drive hatchback or crossover gaining an electric motor that drives the rear wheels. They’re quick but tend not to be as good as you’d hope. Mazda’s new CX-60 is slightly different, as it’s based on a rear-wheel-drive platform. The e-motor is attached to the engine, and they both feed a transfer box that allocates torque to whichever wheels are most appropriate. With the e-motor taking up any slack in power delivery from the 2.5-litre petrol four, it’s a very responsive system, and total output is a…

Following the decidedly mixed response to the BMW iX’s exterior styling, you might think that the company’s M division would have prioritised an aesthetic overhaul when it came to the flagship 611bhp M60 version. After all, there’s nothing that a carbon diffuser and a set of bulging wheel arches can’t fix, right? Not so. BMW’s barely touched the design for this £112k performance range-topper. Instead, the performance is left to speak for itself. Along with that 611bhp headline figure, there’s also a scarcely believable 811lb ft of torque that hits home like an F/A-18 launching off the USS Ronald Reagan. They’ve achieved this 95bhp increase over the 50 xDrive model by sticking with the same 111.5kWh battery but tweaking the six-phase motors. The 0-62mph time drops by eight-tenths to 3.8sec,…

You don’t actually expect me to choose a winner, do you? [Ideally – BM.] Each of these three cars has a very different character, and they approach the brief in commendably different ways. Each is superb, and hugely desirable. What’s that? You’ve paid £5.25 and it’s our job to make a judgement? Fair point. Here goes. The Alpine in some ways is the most traditionally Lotus-like car here. It’s low in weight, small in size, a lesson in just-enough power and grip. The S version isn’t for everyone, especially at £10k more than the regular car, but if you value dynamics – or fancy the odd trackday – it does offer measurable dynamic gains over the beautifully compliant and chuckable standard car. The Alpine’s a different proposition to the other…

The MX-30 racked up over 2000 miles this month, taking in trips to Guildford, London, Southampton, Poole and Brighton. Many journeys were completed without needing to recharge on the go, but when I did need to splash-and-dash I obviously had the benevolent eye of St Lion, patron saint of electric cars, watching over me because all recharging was quick, queue-free and painless. There were a number of key features that collectively made these treks so effortless: brisk performance, quiet and refined cruising, engaging dynamics, phenomenal sound system and confidence-inspiring range indicator. But the Mazda’s adaptive LED headlights deserve particular credit. Murky-night-to-bright-day illumination comes as standard. But it’s the adaptive element of the lights, ensuring that optimal illumination in all conditions, that really elevates the lights to a higher level of safety…

If Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, then you should see our three-year-old daughter when the Enyaq’s infotainment system stops talking to Spotify. Or just freezes altogether. The only solution is to lock the car, walk away, and wait for a reset. It works for the Enyaq too… Then again, maybe this fault with the VW Group’s much-maligned infotainment system is not such a bad thing. Our daughter used to listen to a cute little mix of nursery rhymes, but one day heard Alice Cooper on the radio, got hooked, and now has a rock playlist headlined by Poison and Feed My Frankenstein, with everything from Ram Jam to AC/DC in between. BEN PULMAN Skoda Enyaq iV 60 Month 5 The story so far Skoda’s first electric car…

It’s a whopper; despite the carbon, the iX weighs more than an i-Pace ‘What’s the most important launch for BMW: i4 or M4?’ I asked CEO Oliver Zipse last year. ‘iX!’ he responded. ‘The i4 is close to the 3-series and M4, but the iX is something new and it launches our all-new Operating System 8.’ And that is why the iX has joined CAR’s fleet. It is currently BMW’s flagship electric car, and its first clean-sheet EV since the wonderful but overlooked i3. You only have to swing open the doors to see the evidence: the shadowy weave of the carbonfibre cage embedded in the aluminium spaceframe epitomises the iX’s sophistication. No Jaguar i-Pace (clean-sheet design) or Mercedes EQC (er… dirty-sheet design?) employs carbonfibre. Yet this iX – an…

HOW DOES NEW GBU WORK? Constantly updated, new GBU covers eight of 16 classes in each issue, and we round up all our class kings TOP 5 LUXURY CARS 1 BENTLEY FLYING SPUR THE GOOD: The definitive modern limo: effortless but rewarding when you’re in the mood THE BAD: W12 is fast but short on soul; hybrid V6 a bit lame. So go V8 THE UGLY: Attempting spill-free coffee-cup extractions from the leather-lined cupholders THE ONE TO BUY: The V8 starts at £163k and is our pick NEW ENTRY 2 RANGE ROVER THE GOOD: Masterful and hugely desirable reinvention of an icon THE BAD: Reliability remains a worry; EV version is years away THE UGLY: The D350 mild-hybrid straight-six diesel is sublime. Can you live with the guilt? THE ONE…

THIS MONTH BEST LUXURY CAR BENTLEY FLYING SPUR Epic interior; a joy whether you’re up front or in the back BEST GT FERRARI ROMA Beautifully balanced design, and a drive to match BEST HOT HATCH TOYOTA GR YARIS Cult car of the moment, with substance to match the hype BEST SPORTS SALOON BMW M3/M4 Bewitching front-end grip and balance. Utterly stellar BEST COUPE/CABRIO BMW 2-SERIES Pick the M240i version for a miniaturised M4 BEST SUB- £400pcm FAMILY CAR PORSCHE MACAN A great drive not just for an SUV but by any standards BEST £400pcm+ FAMILY CAR BMW 5-SERIES Still the de facto big saloon/estate choice BEST SPORTS CAR PORSCHE 911 If the GT3’s too hardcore, the Carrera is anything but NEXT MONTH BEST SUB-£400pcm EV HYUNDAI IONIQ 5 Looks like…

IN THE SPOTLIGHT No other acronym carries more weight within BMW’s M division. Munich’s athletic Coupe Sport Leichtbau cars have been winning championships, gracing art galleries and gate-crashing concours events ever since the first 3.0 CSL arrived as a homologation special back in 1971. BMW only ever brings out the name for very serious cars. Of course, wheeling out the CSL moniker makes sense this time round, with this heavily modified version of the M4. M division is in the throes of a rather off-the-chain (and what feels like three-yearlong) 50th birthday extravaganza, with birthday presents to itself being built, wrapped, given and unwrapped at a frankly alarming rate. The new, limited-run, £128,820 M4 CSL is one of them. Just 1000 will be built, with the UK being allocated 100…

THE BIG LEAGUES While the Eletre SUV tackles the luxury SUV establishment, Lotus needs something to take on the Taycan. The as-yetunnamed ‘Type 133’, earmarked as an ‘E-segment four-door coupe’, is just the car. Like the Porsche, Lotus is planning on making rear- and all-wheeldrive versions when it launches next year. PUZZLE PIECES Lotus is evolving into a pure EV brand fast, with the Emira its last combustion-engined car. In 2024, another SUV smaller than the Eletre will arrive to boost revenues as part of Lotus’s new range of ‘lifestyle’ EVs. An EV sports car is planned for 2025. Alpine will take advantage of the Lotus sportster for its next-gen A110. BRIT POWER Geely ownership means Lotus Engineering is moving to Wuhan in 2024, but there’s plenty of British DNA…

MATTHEW WEAVER NISSAN EUROPE’S VICE PRESIDENT FOR DESIGN ‘Look at me: I’m not a maverick,’ Mat Weaver gently protests, having spent the best part of 50 minutes outlining why Nissan’s design ethos is to challenge the status quo. Then he chuckles and adds: ‘There’s just something in the Nissan mindset that allows [experimentation]. I’m always waiting for the grown-ups to say no, but they never do.’ Weaver has been at Nissan Design Europe (NDE) since 2003, the year its facility in a converted British Rail depot opened on the Paddington canal. The London studio sired two of this millennium’s most influential cars – the original Qashqai and Juke crossovers – and the 49-year-old Brit helped shape both. During the first Covid lockdown, the gentle giant became vice president, Nissan Design…

Troubles come in threes. Already racing to transform to full electric inside a decade, the car industry has in quick succession been hit by Covid, then semiconductor shortages, and now the knock-on effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As Nissan boss Ashwani Gupta told the recent Financial Times Future of the Car conference: ‘Supply-chain crisis is the new normal.’ The three-pronged crisis has stressed the global interconnectedness of the car industry, its reliance on semiconductor manufacturers in Taiwan, and the questionable availability of raw materials for the batteries required for the electric cars likely to make up around half of global new-car sales within a decade. It’s also called into question the continued relevance of the ‘just in time’ production system, which only works if parts deliveries arrive on…

Steer-by-wire tech is back with a vengeance. After its first production outing in the Infiniti Q50 was universally panned, causing the brand to return to a conventional steering rack, Toyota and Lexus are trying with the new bZ4X and RZ450e electric cars. Here, it’s called One Motion Grip. The compact nature of the yoke-style steering ‘wheel’ that comes with it makes getting in and out easier as well as providing an unobstructed view of the dials. It’s the most visible part of a system that relies on software, sensors and a torque motor to communicate between driver and machine. There’s a significant amount of ‘redundancy’ (belt-andbraces doubling up) in the system. That – combined with the torque motor – means the steer-by-wire system is 10kg heavier than the standard one.…

NEW CAR MEETS REAL WORLD 300 mile test S owhat, exactly, is this new Volkswagen Multivan? From the paint, it’s clear that VW wants you to see it as the spiritual heir to the splittie, the Bulli, the Kombi, the hippy van or whatever you and your tribe call your favourite version of the long line of VW vans which began with the first Type 2 in 1950. They have been adopted and adapted by families and Nomadland-style solo travellers, those with ‘active lifestyles’ and those who do absolutely as little as possible ever since. But whatever your reason for using a commercial vehicle for personal ends, it usually comes with a subtle sense of satisfaction at gaming the automotive industry. You get the space and toughness and value of…

A quarter of a million pounds buys a lot of taxi rides in an LEVC black cab. So let’s not pretend this is planet-saving urban transport for people who like the look and feel of Land Rover Defenders but need an EV because they live in one of the most expensive addresses in the world and don’t want to fritter away their fortune on ULEZ fines. The Twisted T-VE is many things, but rational it is not. Fun, however, it very much is. Our test drive around Thirsk, North Yorkshire, where Twisted was established more than 20 years ago as a modifier of Defenders and Series-era Land Rovers, proves that. Founder Charles Fawcett takes me out for a drive first, partly to show me some good roads, but also to…

PLUS A big electric van that works. Your Amazon account goes green at last MINUS Usual EV charge hassles; weird regen system; no drift mode Transit vans aren’t sexy. But they are important. And Ford sells a hell of a lot of them – not least due to the pandemic sending home-delivery bananas. Given all this, it’s no surprise there’s now an electric version. This is not some kind of token sideshow, either. While Ford is as late to the e-van party as it was to electric cars, it has taken the time to do things properly. Most rivals feel like little more than jerry-rigged conversions of their combustion equivalents. Because they are. The Stellantis models, for example, use the standard diesel dashboard with most of the needles removed from…

BMW M140i PRICE £31,875 then, £17,000 now YEARS BUILT 2016-2019 POWERTRAIN 2998cc, 16v, turbocharged straight-six, six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive PERFORMANCE 335bhp @ 5500rpm, 369lb ft @ 1520rpm, 4.8sec 0-62mph, 155mph The ultimate incarnation of BMW’s trend-bucking six-cylinder hot hatch (the line stretched back to 323ti of the late-’90s) was a sister car to the old M240i coupe. Rear-drive, fivedoor manual is our pick. ► The expert’s view Kevin Bird of specialist Birds reckons the newer B58 engine in the M140i is more reliable than the N55 in the older M135i. He recommends sensitively upgrading the suspension, and a Quaife LSD. BMW 530d xDRIVE PRICE GUIDE £59,655 then, £32,000 now YEARS BUILT 2017-date POWERTRAIN 2993cc 24v turbodiesel straight-six, eight-speed auto, all-wheel drive PERFORMANCE 282bhp @ 4000rpm, 457lb ft @ 2000rpm, 5.6sec…

Giant test THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT 'Excuse me,’ says the woman driving a Mercedes, pulling to a halt next to us. ‘Is this the new Lotus Emira? My boss has just ordered one.’ ‘Sorry to interrupt,’ says the gent stepping out of his Range Rover, smartphone in hand. ‘Do you mind if I take a picture of the Emira? I’m thinking about joining the waiting list. My other car’s a Ferrari…’ ‘Hope you don’t mind, I’d just like a closer look at the Lotus,’ says the passenger of an immaculate BMW E30 3-series. ‘I’ve ordered one in green with a tan interior. He’s further up the waiting list than me, though,’ he adds, nodding at his driver with a smile. We’re on almost traffic-free country roads in the middle of nowhere.…

Creep forward in silence over a rocky patch or climb a steep trail and bird chirps fill the cabin A mericansjust can’t quit their Ford pick-up trucks. The Blue Oval has moved over 26 million F-150s in the States, making it the top-selling vehicle in the land of the free for nearly a half-century. It’s no wonder Ford hustled to offer an electrified version of its full-size best-seller, modifying the well-worn platform for the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Quick – give ’em a zero-emissions option before they fall for that new Chevy EV. Or a Rivian. A funny thing happened on the way to Ford’s electric truck. Despite the inertia of the ages, the new F-150 Lightning is, for lack of a better pun, shockingly good. Desperate to…

Since DS was spun off as an independent brand in Europe in 2015, Citroën’s posh cousin has delivered a mix of luxury superminis, crossovers and SUVs. But the DS 9 is the most ambitious of the lot. It wants to convince us that the idea a luxury French saloon isn’t the joke it was even five years ago. The 9 is built in China, where it’s likely to have an easier time than it will in the UK. Brits still love their German execs, and the DS faces a near-vertical uphill battle trying to persuade them to change their views. And being the first DS saloon since the legendary DS of the ’50s and ’60s, the 9 has boatsized boots to fill. DS’s UK team knows this. But it hopes…

First of all, you’ll spot that editor Ben Miller isn’t writing this update. You see, I’ve nabbed the 2’s plain black key from his grasp (he was distracted – more next month) and will be reporting on life in the Scandinavian hot seat for the rest of our tenure. And I’d like to start by asking you to take a closer look at this picture because it neatly captures this EV’s trump card: its brilliantly thought-through interior. Dressed in Charcoal Weavetech vegan upholstery with Black Ash Deco trim, it’s a sober, calm place to sit and a cabin bristling with clever touches. The choice of materials feels premium and contemporary, a smart progressive choice befitting this most sustainable of brands. The dashboard is delightfully/dangerously (delete as applicable) free of buttons…

It’s not often you see positive hand gestures directed your way while driving. Or, they’re not usually positive for me at least. But it turns out it’s a thing for Jeep owners to wave at each other, and a well-documented one – so much so that the brand’s loyalty scheme is eponymous with the practice (it’s called Jeep Wave). The done thing in the US is to flash a peace sign with your index and middle finger, but I’ve seen full-on waves over here. I’m still getting used to waving back, but I knew I was fully inducted into the club when I saw a clone of my car (brand new, orange, two-door, Rubicon) coming the other way and proceeded to flash and wave at it like a man possessed.…

No.7 Murray Walker, who died a year ago at the age of 98, had the misfortune to come into the public eye at a time when British sports commentators were figures of fun. From Mike Yarwood via Spitting Image to Rory Bremner, not to mention millions of schoolboys, the nation’s impersonators and satirists would take pot shots aplenty at Walker and the likes of Eddie Waring, David Coleman, Richie Benaud and John Motson. All of them were very good at their jobs, but were regarded as fair game because they were public figures with recognisable voices and the odd quirky mannerism. They literally were household names – Walker appeared in TV ads for the Austin Metro and, later, for Pizza Hut. Now, although the Sky and Channel 4 F1 commentary…

‘AMG is reinventing itself,’ says its boss, Philipp Schiemer. Turns out it’s reinventing itself as a maker of pebble-smooth, aero-intensive machines like Merc’s EQXX prototype. This is the four-door Vision AMG, a slick concept penned by Gorden Wagener and his team. It previews AMG’s post-2025 aesthetic. AERO IS KING Taking many leaves out of the EQXX’s playbook of aerodynamic supremacy, the crease-less Vision AMG hides some clever tricks. The wheel rims are segmented, popping out to cool the brakes, while both front and rear splitters extend, to provide extra downforce and cut more cleanly through the air. Merc’s most classic colour combo is in full effect here, with teal blue touches highlighting AMG’s continued F1 presence and its motorsport history with the Silver Arrows. LIGHT SHOW AMG’s classic Panamericana grille…

Tell us about your first car ‘A Lancia Delta 1.6 HF. It would cock its rear wheels when I was hammering it around Herefordshire. I miss it. The gearstick fell out in Paris once!’ What’s the best thing you’ve ever done in a car? ‘Driving a Prodrive-prepared Impreza on track. Overcooked it into a corkscrew and came out of the last curve on opposite lock. I had the option to brake and lose it or just hit the accelerator and come out in a glorious powerslide. I looked like a hero; I was just out of control.’ What achievement are you most proud of? ‘I like the way the team here provoked the industry a bit. That first Juke was met with gasps and they weren’t all positive.’ Tell us…

Two lines of arrowheads are superimposed atop the motorway tarmac, pointing the way through the darkness for Audi’s revamped A8. Light isn’t leaking indiscriminately sideways but is focused on my chosen path – until I tap the indicator. Smoothly the rectangle of light projected forward switches through 90˚ to cover the lane I’m moving into, then switches back again to extend forward illumination. Welcome to ‘directional lane light’, one of several groundbreaking lamp features introduced by the latest A8 (priced from £75,035), where new matrix LED headlamps crucially incorporate a digital micromirror device (DMD). This DMD technology, used for video projectors in cinemas, incorporates 1.3 million micromirrors, each a few thousandths of a millimetre long. Chip controlled using data from the A8’s camera and sensors, each of the tiny mirrors’…

A few days before writing this review I posted a picture of the VW ID.5’s interior on Twitter, commenting only on the price. At the time of writing there are 118 comments, all but three lamenting the lack of colour, interest or perceived quality. And those reactions more or less mirror my own feelings on the car as a whole. Not that it’s a bad model – in fact, there’s much practical stuff to like. All ID.5s come with a huge 77kWh battery pack, so even the range-topping, twin-motor GTX achieves an official 296-mile range. The entry-level Pro can go stretch for 313 miles. And it’s not like it’s an unpleasant feeling going that distance. It’s just dull, and at no point do you feel as though you’re riding in…

Pessimists feared the demolition of the BMW brand by a single product – aknockout blow to an already faltering image Shock, swiftly followed by scorn. That, it’s fair to say, was most of the world’s reaction to the XM Concept when BMW unveiled it late last year. ‘These kind of people want to be seen – they want to be noticed,’ offered Munich, by way of an explanation. ‘But not like this, please,’ countered the internet. Social media was withering in its criticism. Malicious tongues discredited it as a Skoda Kodiaq avatar deformed by a Russian Kamaz truck grille. Pessimists feared the demolition of the BMW brand by a single product – aknockout blow to an already faltering image. Professional design analysts diagnosed a brutal monster predestined to divide society…

LOTUS EMIRA FIRST EDITION V6 ALPINE A110 S PORSCHE 718 CAYMAN GTS 4.0 AFFORDABILITY WE SAY... Alpine the cheapest before options – but this trio all exceed £70k as tested £75,995 (£80,710 as tested) Representative PCP £913 (48 payments), £7.9k deposit, 10,000 miles per year, 5.9% APR Typical approved used value n/a (too new) £59,955 (£71,689 as tested) Representative PCP £632 (49 payments), £6k deposit, 10,000 miles per year, 4.9% APR Typical approved used value £57,500 (20k miles) £68,000 (£74,462 as tested) Representative PCP £771 (47 payments), £7.2k deposit, 10,000 miles per year, 6.9% APR Typical approved used value £57,690 (20k miles) POWERTRAIN WE SAY... Lotus and Porsche sound thrashy at low revs Engine 3456cc 24v supercharged V6 Transmission Six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive Engine 1798cc 16v turbocharged four-cylinder Transmission Seven-speed…

Ford Mustang Mach 1 Month 1 The story so far The most powerful ’Stang in the UK, with choice power and handling upgrades over the Mustang GT + Awesome V8 noise, gearbox, seats, sense of humour - £10k more than a Mustang GT Logbook Price £56,955 (£59,705 as tested) Performance 5038cc V8, 454bhp, 166mph, 4.8sec 0-62mph Efficiency 22.8mpg (official), 21.5mpg (tested), 284g/ km CO2 Energy cost 37.4p per mile Miles this month 733 Total miles 8799 Did you know the Ford Mustang is the most popular car to get a tattoo of? According to data gathered by American driver education resource Zutobi, more than 16,000 Instagram users have posted pictures of Ford’s pony car permanently inked into their skin – more than any other vehicle. (The same study suggests 44…

As anyone who’s ever hired one to bring not quite everything you need to build a new bed back from Ikea knows, a van has big controls, a big wheel, a big diesel under the bonnet and a big view out. It also has a big dashtop to accommodate three weeks’ worth of discarded Red Tops, a mountain of gently festering fast food packaging and, of course, assorted plumbing or electrical second-fix off-cuts. In most respects, then, the Caddy barely passes muster in its quest for proper van billing. But its windscreen does offer spectacular views out, and it boasts a greater diversity of stowage than you can shake a stick at, including the van-compulsory overhead tray in which forgotten snacks may moulder unmolested until ripe enough to move under…

Here’s an open letter to all car makes: everyone hates Lane Assist. Who wants their car to suddenly take control of the steering and swerve across the road, just because you forgot to indicate when switching lanes on the motorway? The tech is, I understand, a necessary evil, so at least the VW Arteon makes turning it off relatively painless. (The system defaults back to active every time you use the car.) It takes four button presses on the screen to dive deep enough into the menu to switch it off the long-winded way. But in a remarkable bout of streamlined common sense, VW’s engineers also make it easy: jump in, tap the button on the end of the indicator stalk, hit confirm. Done. MARK WALTON Volkswagen Arteon R Shooting…

I had no concept of warming a car up when I started driving. But it’s now routine, usually for six miles of 3000rpm discipline, so the Audi’s ‘RS monitor’ is a nice bonus. It show you how quickly water warms, that engine oil does indeed take six or so miles, but gearbox lubrication much longer. Most modern cars only get a water-temp gauge, or those graduated rev counters, both of which say ‘go for it’ far too quickly. The monitor’s tyre temperature screen is another neat feature. Once again the young me failed to appreciate the importance of warming tyres, especially on a wet road, and though it’s something I’ve learnt to feel, seeing green on screen is reassuring. BEN BARRY Audi RS3 Launch Edition Month 3 The story so…

For the last few months, I’ve been aware of an issue with the Cupra Leon, only it’s not as easy as pointing to something clear and obvious, like terrible air-con or capacitive controls. There’s something missing from the Leon experience, and this month I’ve worked it out. I just needed a Toyota GR Yaris to help me out. The Yaris is hardly premium inside and doesn’t bother hiding the cost-cutting hatchback on which it’s based. The Toyota’s stereo isn’t great either, and is more concerned with pumping out fake engine noise than music. The Cupra is by far the better car on motorways and the clearly most sophisticated inside. But what the Yaris nails and the Cupra misses is driver engagement. From A to B the Toyota is swift; but…

1 TWO-DOOR CLASSIC THE GOOD: The original icon THE BAD: Seats more functional than comfortable THE UGLY: Sought-after Suffix A models cost a fortune THE ONE TO BUY: Only sold with 3.5 V8. The best will cost more than a 2022 new model 2 RANGE ROVER (L322) THE GOOD: The model that brought true luxury to the party THE BAD: Expensive servicing THE UGLY: Often found languishing on driveways when running costs exceed budgets THE ONE TO BUY: Late model 4.4-litre TDV8, from £10k 3 RANGE ROVER EVOQUE THE GOOD: Still stylish THE BAD: Poor rear visibility THE UGLY: Tricky to park THE ONE TO BUY: 2014-2015 three-door SD4 4WD (£16k-£18k). The purest design together with the most robust drivetrain 4 RANGE ROVER SPORT SVR THE GOOD: Capable of 176mph…