Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i CAR UK

Ben Miller Editor We wait. And we wait a little longer. The genuinely sporty EV – lightweight, agile and tactile like the best combustion-engined exponents of the art – would appear to be in no hurry, and the same can be said of the affordable EV that won’t shackle you with an appalling lack of range. Solid-state batteries will, we’ve been told every couple of months for the last five years, ride over the sunset any moment now to deliver both: genuinely exciting electric sports cars and cheap EVs with proper range. It’s an intriguing paradox, car makers going to great lengths to explain the complexities involved while also talking like its arrival, fully sorted and ready to revolutionise the ‘motor’ car like few technologies before it, is a dead…

The wise ancestor The 2CV has to be up there with the Beetle, Mustang and 911 as an icon. In its 40-plus years on sale, it was all about comfort, practicality and no frills. The chic, thrifty parent Citroën's outgoing C3, always rather funky and colourful, enjoyed a surge of popularity towards the end of its life as prices were slashed to sub-Dacia levels. The time-travelling sibling Citroën design boss Pierre Leclercq tells us the Oli concept was designed after the e-C3 project started. Perhaps that’s why disappointingly few details are shared.…

JAME STAYLOR, VAUXHALL MANAGING DIRECTOR ‘I guess you could say I’ve never been further than touching distance from the Vauxhall brand since 1999,’ smiles the brand’s managing director. James Taylor has just described his early career days: a degree from Cranfield University, working in forecasting and sales for more than two decades, landing the top job in February 2023. Taylor is at the forefront of what’s being described as Vauxhall 2.0 under Stellantis. It’s a very different time to the General Motors Europe era. That ended when PSA bought Opel/Vauxhall in 2017 and little more than two years later the brands made profits for the first time in decades. And after one of the fastest turnarounds in automotive history, Vauxhall is making sharply designed and competitive cars for a market…

Despite the rise of the EV, synthetic fuel makers have gradually been building a case for prolonging the life of the combustion engine. If engines can run on CO2-neutral synthetic fuel, rather than fossil fuel, some of the environmental objections to their continued use are removed, and a lot of premature scrapping is avoided. Porsche and HIF Global recently announced they’re aiming to put their version on sale by the end of the decade, while Mazda has become the first manufacturer to join the eFuel Alliance, promoting the use of C02-neutral fuels. Promising signs for petrol and maybe even diesel road cars, but what about motorsport? Or is it inevitable that racing will have to switch to EVs? The indications are certainly promising. We took part in a two-hour endurance…

THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT Absolute objectivity. A spotless critical faculty unsullied by preconceptions. Walls of the mind, sky-high and solidly built, against which bias splatters like so much rotten fruit. This is the Zen-like state in which CAR’s crack (I said ‘crack ’) team begins each and ever y test. Ruthlessly cultivated with ice baths, weeks of lonely meditation high on Fenland mountainsides and long walks in wildernesses without wi-fi, it is the way. We owe it to the cars. We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to you. Except that we’re into cars, so that’s not quite how it works. Instead, like a cow’s hard-working stomachs, our minds have likely already absorbed hundreds of hours of press material, prev ious content and off-the-record discussions before we get any where…

1 Can-Am raises the bar If Porsche filmed a 911 Turbo origins story, the 917 would dominate the first 15 minutes. The legendary racer’s flat-12 wasn’t turbocharged when it won Le Mans in ’70 and ’71, but then new rules capped capacity at 3.0 litres and the 917 upped sticks to the Can-Am championship – where almost anything went, so long as wheels were covered and cockpits were open. Cue 1500bhp turbo madness, two consecutive titles and one lightbulb moment… 2 911 goes turbo Only four were made, but the Carrera RSR Turbo 2.1 is the first turbocharged 911, its huge KKK blower forcing recycled air from its exhaust manifold back into its air intake like junkies shotgunning crack. Never homologated, the RSR Turbo had to compete in the prototype…

As you look back along the 911 depreciation curve from the current 992 model, the expected gentle downward slope stops abruptly at the foot of a cliff-face in 1997, when the 993 was replaced by the 996. A plain, manual version of the 993 now fetches maybe three times as much as the equivalent later model. Can the 993 really be that good, or the 996 that bad? Should we all be buying 996s because they're criminally undervalued, or does that differential indicate that the 993 is peak 911, and the version to buy regardless of how the others are viewed? It’s odd how time changes those views. When the 996 was launched it was mostly lauded as a step-change over the 993. And Porsche itself saw the 993 as…

Never mind ‘996’, the biggest update in the 911’s 34-year lifespan could’ve had ‘666’ scratched into its windscreen as far as air-cooled diehards were concerned. The 996’s development was twinned with the Boxster to save budget, switched from air-to water-cooling to save the planet and debuted a slippery new shape that was more Palmolive than Porsche. Stuttgart was particularly proud of the 1997 car’s new headlights that cleverly combined indicators and lights in one unit, saving cash and time on the production line. Then everyone laughed and called them ‘fried eggs’. It’s partly why, today, no 911 is cheaper. But when Porsche celebrated the pivotal model’s quarter-century last year, it acknowledged that ‘together with the Boxster… the 996 secured Porsche’s continued independence’. This supposed runt of the 911 litter in…

Arriving in 2012, the 991 was as significant an evolutionary step as the 964 and 996. A far larger car than the outgoing 997, its monocoque construction relied heavily on aluminium for the first time, greatly increasing the 911’s power-to-weight ratio while enabling it to offer more interior space and house a wealth of new onboard tech. Many would bemoan the loss of the earlier cars’ modest footprint, a 911 USP that made placement on the road and driveability in town unusually straightforward for a sports car. But the 996/997 chassis was almost 15 years old by this point and the advances Porsche made with the 991 proved to be enough to silence all but the most ardent of refuseniks. The 991 was a superb car to drive, deftly straddling…

Porsche people have come to Laguna Seca Raceway, California, from all over. Ron Nudelman has driven his 1965 Porsche 911 the 3000-plus miles from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Jakob Pospieszynski has trailered his 993 C4S from Ontario, Canada. The car parks are packed with Porsches, mostly 911s, some stock, some lifted in the Baja style, some lowered for the track, many bearing number plates that double as shibboleths for Porsche engineering, model codes and eras – NEIN93, MEZGER6, SWB67S. Rennsport Reunion 7 has drawn them here, a four-day shindig that’s owned by Porsche and this year honours both the 911’s 60th anniversary and the mothership’s 75th. There’s racing from club level to pro, modern to historic, even vintage Porsche tractors duelling on track, plus music (the Doobie Brothers headline Saturday night),…

There are many reasons why the SVR shouldn’t handle, not least because it’s an SUV that sits high in the air, has permanent all-wheel drive and weighs north of two tonnes. Yet handle it does, as a recent CAR video shoot proved. The key is its supercharged V8 allied to the chassis’ adjustability, or how you can subtly play with the throttle and weight transfer to bend the handling to your will. Front-end grip is strong if ultimately susceptible to understeer (you guessed!?), but snap shut the throttle just before the dreaded push takes hold and suddenly you’ve got a rear end that’ll smear and slide and tuck the nose in. It’s adjustable when you simply power onto the throttle too, especially in Dynamic mode, which can send up to…

There are times when a car has to stop being about handling and 0-60mph times and showcasing new technology, and just get on with the job. This is where the Jogger excels. Whatever practical needs you have from a car, the Jogger ticks those boxes. Whether used as a support vehicle on magazine shoots, for frequent airport runs, or for carting the family and our paraphernalia around, it gets the job done. With five of the seven seats installed, on a recent trip to Anglesey to see family it swallowed our luggage, everything needed to keep a newborn child sustained for four days and still had enough spare room for my mother’s electric wheelchair in the boot, and returned 51mpg. JORDAN BUTTERS Dacia Jogger Extreme TCe 140 Hybrid Month 3…

The i7 xDrive60 has no closer rival than the Mercedes EQS 450 and it was fascinating to gather the electric duo together. They’ve equally sumptuous interiors. Traditionalists who abhor touchscreens will prefer the i7, but digital natives may lap up the Merc’s widescreen party piece. Where the vast i7 wins hands down is interior space (the BMW is 20cm longer, remember). I was gobsmacked how my head brushed the headlining in the back seats of the Benz, crimped by the sunroof. It almost felt barren in the back. Both cars are fabulous to drive. The Merc’s four-wheel steering makes the BMW feel more cumbersome; it’s an option our i7 doesn’t have. TIM POLLARD BMW i7 xDrive60 M Sport Month 5 The story so far The BMW i7 is big, bejewelled…

Volkswagen Multivan Month 8 The story so far VW helps the MPV live on, masquerading as a van + The most practical family transport there is - Still a bit too van-ish on long journeys Logbook Price £59,035 (£63,979 as tested) Performance 13kWh battery plus 1395cc turbocharged four-cylinder, PHEV, 218bhp, 9.0sec 0-62mph, 120mph Efficiency 156.9mpg (official), 41.5mpg (tested), 41g/km CO2 Energy cost 12.1p per mile Miles this month 1282 Total miles 12,896 The departure of the Multivan has ushered in a new era of discipline. For months it’s been an enabler, allowing me to pack whatever I liked for even the smallest, shortest of trips. But now it’s gone I’m facing a harsh new reality of packing light. Put it this way: two prams have been inhabiting the boot…

IN THE SPOTLIGHT ‘Forget everything you know about electric cars,’ says Citroën’s new head of marketing, Federico Goyret, as he stands on stage with CEO Thierry Koskas. And yet, as the covers come off the new ë-C3, it all looks rather conventional. It’s a small, boxy crossover with a modern if rather unassuming design, and only loose links to the expectation-raising Oli concept that preceded it. Nothing much in the way of real interest so far. But the room then is jolted awake when the price is announced. Nicolas Monnot, Citroën’s director of global pricing, smiles widely as he says: ‘I’m very happy to announce today that the launch price of the new ë-C3 when it launches next year will be €23,300.’ For the UK market, that equates to a…

FROM THE SHADOWS The previous 5008 (pictured above) was always outshone by its more compact 3008 sibling, which has sold more than one million since 2016. But the new version of the seven-seat SUV is going to be a different proposition: bigger, posher and available in pure-electric form. It will break cover in the second half of next year. UNDER THE SKIN The new 5008 rolls on the Stellantis group’s STLA Medium platform. Although conceived for electric cars, it also supports a 1.2-litre mild hybrid and plugin hybrid models. The extended range e-5008 gets a 98kWh pack and should be good for more than 400 miles. Smaller 73kWh, front-and all-wheeldrive versions will be available. STRETCHING OUT ‘More customers are looking for a big SUV than a seven-seater,’ says Phil York,…

Tell us about your first car…  ‘A hand-me-down Daihatsu Charade from my grandparents. Five-speed gearbox, yellow… It got passed to my cousin, and then it got stolen and used in a ram raid and got written off!’ What achievement makes you most proud? ‘I think it has to be becoming MD at Vauxhall. Having been here 20-odd years, to a degree it feels like the culmination of your life’s work.’ What’s the best thing you’ve ever done in a car? ‘Ice rally driving. You know when your life flashes before your eyes? That.’ Tell us about a time when you’ve screwed up… ‘Fleet loyalty rates for Vauxhall are always high, but over time you’re going to lose some accounts. When you lose one, you want to think about how things…

Ever played a video game so realistic you felt you were genuinely there? Modern screenplay is so fast and accurate that the gap between reality and the virtual world can seem very narrow. Never more so than when I sampled BMW’s M Mixed Reality, a project focused on developing virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality for future BMW head-up displays. I drove a real BMW M4 around a virtual racetrack. In the real world, I was driving on an empty tarmac apron with a co-driver next to me for safety reasons, but the headset I wore meant I could see barriers, bridges and gaming-style bonus tokens as I drove along, with nobody in the passenger seat. The headset is a 12-megapixel Varjo XR-3. Before setting off, there’s an installation…

After the sonic violence of the S/T in full flight, the silence as I kill the 4.0-litre flat-six and climb gracelessly from its bucket seat is profound. Taking a moment high on a wooded hillside, the sky is a brilliant and unbroken shade of blue. But I swear I can hear rain; the hypnotic pitter-patter of vanguard drops on lush forest floor. But no. The noise I can hear, together with the furious tick-ticking of the car as it cools, is that of brittle copper leaves tumbling to the ground, tugged from the trees by the mildest of autumn breezes. Nothing, not even the weather, is going to besmirch this pinch-me perfect day in October. Like the lumpiest of racing engines finally coming on cam, the 911 S/T has just…

Hard as it is to conceive, the 911 shouldn’t be a 911 at all. On its debut in 1963, the world’s most legendary sports car was called 901 and still would be today had Peugeot not objected following the 1964 Paris motor show. The French maker argued it’d been inserting zeroes between two other numbers since the 201 of 1929 and Porsche backed down, though not before 82 pre-series 901s had been produced, each with ‘901’ stamped into their chassis plates. Today – along with a further 150 pre-production 911s – these 901s are some of the most collectible early 911s of all. Subtle idiosyncrasies versus production cars include a slightly raised vent on the engine lid, a different rear number plate recess and seat trim with six rather than…

Across its seven decades and eight incarnations, the shape that perhaps best defines the 911 is the so-called G-Series. It’s a catch-all term that has come to describe all models built between 1974 and 1989, when the 911’s basic silhouette was significantly altered for the first time. Helping Porsche’s original premise to endure for a quarter of a century, the G-Series changes did much of the heavy lifting, excelling through a period when the relative shortcomings of early-1960s thinking were becoming ever more apparent In 1974, when the G-Series made its debut, the 911 was in peril. Now over a decade old, it was under existential threat from new, more innovative Porsche designs such as the more affordable 924 and more refined 928, the luxury GT famously conceived in order…

The 911’s rear-engined layout is all kinds of w rong. But it’s also its secret weapon. ‘With the rear-engine layout we have a unique concept,’ revered engineer August Achleitner told CAR at the launch of the 992. Achleitner joined Porsche in 1983, shaped several generations of 911, helped create the Boxster and fathered the mighty Carrera GT before retiring (mostly to drive his 911s). ‘Others could do a rear-engined car but they don’t; they don’t have the experience to do it,’ he continued. ‘To create the right dynamics you have to understand the layout. It’s not the cheapest but there are big advantages. It offers a lot of interior space, you can put kids in the back… In the mid-engined competitors, where do you put your things? The 911 has…

Mazda CX-60 2.5 Homura Month11 The story so far Eyes on the road, hands on the wheel + Driver monitoring keeps me focused… - …while driving me to distraction Logbook Price £48,170 (£52,020 as tested) Performance 17.8kWh battery plus 2488cc four-cylinder, PHEV, 323bhp, 5.8sec 0-62mph, 124mph Efficiency 188.3mpg (official), 34.5mpg (tested), 33g/km CO2 Energy cost 20.0p per mile Miles this month 2227 Total miles 23,479 If you’re the kind of CX-60 owner who has your head easily turned by attractive things as you drive, you’ll know the car reins you back in with a lot of beeping. Mazda’s driver-detection system insists you stay focused. Annoying as that noise can be, I know it’s right to insist I keep my eyes on the road and my hands firmly on the…

The older I become, the more infuriated and downright shouty I get about very small and insignificant things. Tourniquet-tight jeans. The ratio of air to crisps in a bag of Walkers. Concrete-and-steel car parks patently designed by someone who has never driven a car. Celebrity luvvies. What passes for music today. Suella Braverman’s humanity bypass. Tattoos. I could go on, believe me. And to this more or less endless list I can now add the ID. 5’s driver controls and interface. Much has been written about the ID’s woeful user interface, and I now know why. Software updates have reduced the laggy nature of the screen when you enter the car, but it still takes longer than you expect to get going – and that’s me going in to the…

Every so often the Tonale does something that makes me want to say ‘That’s so Alfa’ as if my car’s a likeable yet flawed character in a sitcom. For example, the fuel flap has a lock that’s opened via a button in the car, but there’s no such mechanism for the cover over the electric socket. ‘That’s so… Alfa.’ And the trip computer. It isn’t near the cockpit dials, nor the stalks – but instead buried on the main infotainment screen. Perplexing, and so Alfa. And that strange new noise every time I went around a corner. Tyres? Nope. Frosty air-conditioning had chilled the rubber seal around the steering wheel so much that it now squeaked at every turn. That’s so Alfa. CURTIS MOLDRICH Alfa Romeo Tonale 1.3 PHEV 280…

I’ve just been reading back over my previous long-term test reports on the Mustang before writing this final one and I’m now even more confused than I was when I first took delivery as to what it actually is. So here’s the most expensive (I think) series-production car Ford has ever offered for sale in the UK, priced perilously close to the equivalent Porsche (the Taycan being the best EV on sale, in my opinion); bearing the name of the definitive muscle car but sold as an SUV and with that breed’s disadvantages of mass and aerodynamics (factors critical to an EV particularly), but with the profile and practicality of a hatchback and thus few of an SUV’s advantages. It’s as quick to 60mph as a supercar but has the…

JG: ‘I don't get it – why change it so much when the old C3 hatch was such a popular car?’ LD: ‘The previousgeneration C3 was hugely successful for us! It’s interesting, really – when cars go on sale their sales tend to peak in the first year then drop around 15 per cent a year. But, with the last C3, it’s quite amazing as the numbers have remained pretty stable.’ JG: ‘But new e-C3 is shaped much like the previous-generation C3 Aircross, at least to my eye. Was that the aim here? Kill off the C3 as a traditional supermini and just sell something that looks like an SUV?’ LD: ‘I have to disagree. This new C3 is only 19mm longer than the current one,…

HYPER FORCE: NISSAN’S GT-R EV Nissan’s 90 this year. You’d have thought such a milestone would have prompted the long-awaited new GT-R. Instead we get this, the Hyper Force, a concept car and a kind of carbon-bodied IOU for an all-electric GT-R due 2028-ish. The qualities that made previous GT-Rs great are promised, including fiendishly clever all-wheel drive and huge power. NEED TO KNOW What is it? A battery-electric Godzilla in waiting I Tech specs Just over 1340bhp from a compact and lightweight solid-state battery, plus a cockpit that turns the car into a racing sim while you charge I Aimed at? Gamers with serious disposable income I When can I have one? Within the next five years, apparently FT-SE: TOYOTA’S ELECTRIC GR86 Hot on the heels…

The 300-mile test NEW CAR MEETS REAL WORLD I wouldn’t normally steal a glance at the speedo on track, but this time curiosity gets the better of me. Gulp: 171mph – the numbers burning bright white on the digital dash and still climbing. So this is what 1001bhp feels like. Spring-loaded, my eyeballs flick upwards and lock on to the apex as Vallelunga’s Kermit green armco stretches and blurs in my peripheral vision. Up ahead is easily the fastest corner on track and we’re coming in hotter than the bare metal gearlever on a Diablo Roadster left to fry in the midday sun. Curva Grande beckons. I lean on the brakes and 1.9 tonnes of supercar sheds speed like a parachute, tyres heaving, torque vectoring fighting to keep us planted…

In theory, the principles of nature/nurture should between them ensure subsequent generations carry on the brilliance of the previous ones. Genetics will do some of the work; learning at your parent’s knee takes care of the rest. But as countless generations of the British aristocracy have proved, there are often enough fall-outs to make an episode of EastEnders look like In the Night Garden. So Porsche is remarkable in ensuring that three generations (with the odd related interloper) cover the entire history of the company with not awrong ’un among them. Not one of them has ever gambled a crap hand on the world’s most profitable car company. Three Ferdinands, and more lately one Wolfgang, have dominated the landscape since Porsche was formed in 1931 and given the company the…

The first proper step-change in 911 design, fully 25 years since the car was launched, the internally coded 964 was something of a moon shot for Porsche. Launched into a global recession and offering a peculiar hybrid between innovation and tradition, this was a car tasked with hauling a recalcitrant 911 into the present without losing sight of its unique design DNA. What makes the 964 so desirable today, not least for the international army of modifiers harvesting clean examples for six-figure upcycling, is precisely that balance between old and new. The 964 offered vastly greater refinement, a significantly improved Getrag manual transmission and MacPherson struts and coil springs for better ride and handling. For the first time on a 911, all-wheel drive and a Tiptronic gearbox were also options,…

The crux of Porsche’s financial problem in the early ’90s was simple: too many workers making too few cars too slowly. Sorting out the mess required an entirely new approach – and some outside assistance from the other side of the world. Enter new boss Wendelin Wiedek ing, in 1992, who hired consultants McKinsey. At their prompting, Porsche managers were soon on a plane to watch Japan’s car industr y at work. T hey learned about kaizen, the process of delivering car parts to factories ‘ just in time’. T hey watched as Japanese workers completed tasks twice as quick ly as their German counterparts. Engineers from Shin-Gijutsu – a consultancy largely compr ised of for mer Toyota engineers – in turn visited Zuffenhausen to interrogate the Porsche production process…

Life’s about timing, and Rob Dickinson’s was impeccable. A Brit and a Porsche fan, he fell in love with California while touring with his band and moved there in 2003. A breeze-blown seed settled on fertile soil, Dickinson soon had the idea that would eventually flower into Singer Vehicle Design. Conditions were perfect. California, a hot-bed of car-design expertise and heavyweight engineering talent serving the motorsport and aerospace industries, also fizzed with the optimism and energy Dickinson needed to make real his vision. 964-generation 911s, some of them 20-year-old cars by 2009, were fast falling into one of two camps: cherished modern classic or tatty survivor. And as Porsche continued to evolve the 911 through 997 and 997.2, Dickinson, having experimented with G-Series cars, realised the 964’s time had come.…

If slipping a couple of turbochargers into the engine bay with the 991’s mid-cycle refresh was the ultimate example of stealth progress (‘Nothing to see here!’), then 2019’s 992 wasn’t far behind. It was an exercise in pragmatism; a car born of the need to safeguard the bloodline. Everything was more different than it looked, including the body; the 992 was 70 per cent aluminium versus 37 per cent. For me the media launch, based at the Valencia circuit in Spain, was surreal. Most attendees came and went after just an hour or two in the car. CAR was in residence for three days. I was on first-name terms with everyone, including the crews frantically valeting the test fleet. I covered hundreds of miles in the Carrera S on long…

Lexus RX 450h+ Premium Plus Pack Month 1 The story so far Fifth-generation version of the longest-serving Lexus SUV, now with plug-in power + Soothing, silent and serene - One long trip on petrol power and the mpg plummets Logbook Price £73,100 (£73,350 as tested) Performance 18.1kWh battery plus 2487cc four-cylinder, PHEV, 304bhp, 6.5sec 0-62mph, 124mph Efficiency 256.8mpg (official), 103.8mpg (tested), 26g/km CO2 Energy cost 8.1p per mile Miles this month 480 Total miles 4746 I’ve a soft spot for Lexus, which started over two decades ago when my grandad began a fiveyear flirtation with buying the first-generation IS saloon. Each year we’d go to a dealer, take a test drive, take home all the sales literature – and then nothing would happen. Until, at last, with the upstart…

There’s a radio, and CarPlay of course. But for me one of the great joys of driving is time out from the world – enforced meditation over miles and hours. A chance to breathe, to tune out, to just be. Hard agree? Then be assured a Range Rover is one of the very finest vehicles in which to just be. ‘Well, newsflash! Ben, dear boy, Range Rovers have been this way for generations,’ I hear you say. And you’d be right. But as too many brands have chased sportiness, so cars that truly waft have become, if not endangered species, then at least rare enough to feel special when you find one. Yes, this Range Rover gained rear-wheel steering, with a pre-dictably transformative effect on its manoeuvrability in tight spaces.…

DS 4 Rivoli E-Tense 225 Month 6 The story so far We get up close and personal with DS’s Formula E team as a final farewell to our 4 + Comfortable, quiet and feels properly premium - The Formula E connection still seems a bit thin Logbook Price £43,650 (£44,545 as tested) Performance 12.4kWh battery plus 1598cc four-cylinder, PHEV, 222bhp, 7.7sec 0-62mph, 145mph Efficiency 176.6235.4mpg (official), 51.3mpg (tested), 27-35g/km CO2 Energy cost 15.3p per mile Miles this month 2864 Total miles 8640 This is definitely one of my more surreal days. People with walkie talkies, high-vis jackets and very serious expressions on their faces have just let me onto the Formula E circuit at London’s ExCel centre without a chaperone. Cue a giddy nearfull lap of the track (where…

In this age of Pretacostarbucks we expect to drink on the go, and cupholders have become an important part of a car’s interior. Despite having the word ‘cup’ in its name, the Cupra’s cupholders are awful. There are two in the centre console, one in front of the other: the front one is too deep for a regular coffee cup, and every time you want to take the cup out of the holder you have to pinch the lid in order to get hold of it. This constant ‘is the lid going to come off and pour hot coffee in my crotch?’ jeopardy adds stress to any journey. The second holder seems to be sized for an Italian espresso served in a thimble and is half-hidden under the lid of…

Like a lot of cars, the Porsche Taycan has suffered from the supply problems that have engulfed the industry. Fortunately, Porsche is now back on track with its procurement processes, so if you order a regular production model direct from a Porsche dealer today, it should be with you in around four to six months. But if my friend Adam’s experience is anything to go, you need to be wary of how you go about ordering. He went down the lease route – not unusual for a company-car man – and opted for a firm called Select Car Leasing (SCL). That was back in early 2022 and he was advised it would be a year’s wait. Only… he is still sans Taycan. The date has now slipped to November 2023…