Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i CAR UK

Intriguingly, Lucid’s Aston Martin deal, announced last year, doesn’t preclude the company from working with other players in the same space. ‘We are allowed to do that – our technology is available to other companies,’ says Rawlinson. ‘We are 100 per cent committed to our partnership with Aston Martin but the deal is not exclusive, so we retain the right to supply the technology elsewhere.’ The Aston deal involves cash and shares. ‘We wanted to show our commitment to the partnership, and for us it’s a great investment,’ says Rawlinson, a petrolhead who adores his Lotus Elan. ‘It eases the cash situation for them, plus it’s us putting our money where our mouth is. ‘We've got 3.7% and it’s nice – I like being an Aston Martin shareholder.’…

‘They’re characters that happen to be cars, not the other way around,’ says Pixar production designer Bob Pauley, sketching out Cars lead character Lightning McQueen on a piece of paper. Nearby sits long-time collaborator Jay Ward (pictured right), these days Pixar’s creative director, chipping in a few anecdotes as we go. Both are car guys – Pauley owns a 1967 Volvo P1800, Ward’s collection includes an Austin-Healey and an air-cooled Porsche 911– so while both knew Cars had to appeal beyond the car niche, their knowledge ensured an almost unbelievable level of accuracy for the 2006 film. It’s not just them; Pixar hosts an annual ‘Motorama’ for employees. Similar attention to detail was invested in researching the landscape, with a road trip that informed backdrops and key characters too. ‘We…

You may have heard Jaguar Land Rover boss Adrian Mardell assert that the Range Rover is not Britain’s most stolen car. He’s right. But, according to the DVLA, the Range Rover Sport was fifth on the UK’s 2023 most-stolen list, with the Evoque sixth, and as a result astronomical insurance premiums are being offered to UK owners. The Range Rover insurance problem has become so dire that JLR has launched its own insurance programme to ensure customers can get covered, but it’s also expressed grievances over being unfairly singled out. According to JLR, this is an industry-wide problem that requires legislation change and police cooperation to solve. But what is JLR doing about its cars? Well, roughly £15 million has been invested into new security measures, with cars dating back…

Forget the Costa del Crime. British villains are increasingly choosing to relocate to the Algarve, according to a popular British tabloid. And if that’s true then there must be more than a few examples of the old Range Rover Sport SVR floating around Portugal ’s southern coast. The SVR was a proper thug’s car. Great to drive, it was chintzier than a footba ller’s wedding on the inside and boasted a supercharged V8 soundtrack on the outside – a nightmare when you were trying to fly under the radar on plod ’s dartboard, it did at least do a nice line in menacing. While Portugal might have become more popular with criminals, it’s also become more popular with legit millionaires thanks to its Golden Residence Permit Program that lets rich…

That previous generation of electric Minis? Forget it. Everything has changed. The new line-up is crowned by a Countryman that’s bigger than its predecessor, and available in petrol and electric forms. We’ve driven the range-topping versions of both, but it’s not the driving we want to talk about first. The new Minis capture your attention first and foremost with a wealth of digital talents, starting with the pizza-size centre display that is filled to the frameless rim with hi-res graphics. The circular touchscreen is the key interface. Its content can be individually arranged by swiping, zooming and touching on a vast selection of menus, widgets and apps. Areas are reserved for satnav, media, phone and climate control inputs, or one simple gesture is all it takes to activate the ‘toolbelt’…

FORD TRANSIT I VAUXHALL VIVARO I TOYOTA PROACE I VW ID. BUZZ A couple of years ago, a young family friend left the UK, looking for adventure. He travelled to Canada, bought a van and now his Instagram feed is nauseatingly idyllic: ‘Ooh, here I am waking up in the Rocky Mountains! Now a view of Banff Nationa l Park out the back doors! #vanfluencer #vanlife #iammoreinterestingthanyou.’ Scrolling through his images makes me realise two things: first, I made some poor life choices; second, vans are not what they used to be. Traditionally, vans were white and full of tools and they were the noble work horses for plumbers and electricians the length and breadth of Britain, and indeed many other countries. Now that’s changed: visit your local forest car…

Why is it here? The Vivaro represents the Stellantis group, so we could have had a Fiat, Peugeot or Citroën – apart from different grille and headlights, they’re all the same hardware. However, after the hugeselling Transit, it’s the Vauxhall Vivaro that’s Britain’s second best-selling van – and if you take the time to notice, you’ll see them everywhere. Any clever stuff? Our Vivaro Electric GS is fully electric, so there’s plenty of high-tech stuff going on under the skin, including a single motor driving the front wheels and regenerative braking system; standard among EVs, but quite a departure if you’ve spent decades driving diesel Transits. More noticeable on the surface is the GS bodykit, which includes front and rear spoilers, 18-inch alloy wheels and a go-faster rear wing. Which…

Tesla has always been clear – making cars is, for Musk’s marque, more a crusade than a commercial enterprise. Its Fremont plant has a display that perfectly sums up its mission statement about transitioning the world to sustainable transport: a 20th-century petrol pump next to a sleek 21st-century Tesla Supercharger, echoing the classic illustration depicting the evolution of primate to homo sapiens. Lose sight of the mission statement and nothing much Tesla does makes sense. Back in 2016 it could have sat back on the Model S and Model X and remained a niche, premium player. But no. Along came the Model 3, orders sky-rocketed and Tesla was wracked with growing pains as it evolved to cope. Its fourth car, the Model Y, has proved even more popular. But despite…

It’s been a tough night for Ford at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and now factory driver Harry Tincknell is preparing for the final stint in the sole surviving Mustang GT3 on its competitive debut. Dark shades shield eyes weary after just 45 minutes’ sleep, and Tincknell flinches when I shake his hand – it’s blistered from gripping the Mustang’s steering wheel at 175mph through Daytona’s heavily banked curves, then hustling it through the tighter infield that punctuates this 3.56-mile lap. Despite the pain, the fatigue and the journalist, the Englishman wears the pressure lightly, seeming as alert and relaxed as when we first chatted two days earlier. ‘Now we just need to bring it home,’ says the 32-year-old, shouting over cars that buzz past the pit garage. ‘Some big…

It’s inside that it starts to feel less ‘crafted in Turin’ than ‘provided by Jeep’ One final long drive gives me the chance to really nail down my thoughts on the Tonale – a car that, in short, feels like a missed opportunity. First the good: despite my efforts to remain objective, the Tonale’s looks give it an inescapable charm. In a world where crossovers are getting ever closer to a medium-sized, ‘dynamic roofline’ blob, the Tonale is striking and elegant. Its lines are considered. From the Scudetto shield to its alloys, and those triple-curved lights, the Tonale has a character and charm rarely seen. To an extent the romantic notion of Alfa remains intact when you start driving. In certain modes, its dials look just like the Alfas of…

You may recall Chris Chilton’s recent mixed experiences with a plug-in hybrid version of the CX-60. There was plenty he liked, but not the powertrain. So now we’re running another one, only this time it’s the 3.3-litre inline-six mild-hybrid diesel. Initial impressions are mixed – there’s that striking front end with its aggressive grille and high bonnet line, crisp and distinctive LED lights and sleek lines. It’s not exactly a mould-breaking or daring design, but it’s clean, unfussy and inoffensive. I’m not a fan of the 20-inch black wheels on our midlevel Homura specification, but frustratingly the silver variants are only available on the top-tier Takumi spec. Inside the cabin the CX- 60 lives up to its premium aspirations, with comfortable leather seats that are both heated and cooled; the…

Living with the A110 requires you to rethink every kind of cargo. The rear boot is 90 litres but the hatch is the size of an A4 sheet of paper, and a lot of the available volume is to the sides, out of sight. In the nose, the frunk is 100 litres but it’s a shallow tray, just big enough for two cabin bags to snuggle up together. This isn’t just an issue if you’re heading to the airport; even a supermarket trip requires a strategy. I’ve now learned to distribute my shopping into several bags, so I can tuck them into the nooks and crannies. Go on a really big shop, and you’ll find yourself distributing individual cans around the cabin too. Hmm, a rooftop box would be handy……

During my time with the Leon, on a very quiet news day, there were various ‘end of an era’-type headlines about the planned closure of the ‘iconic’ Watford Gap services. As is so often the case, when you read past the headline the story becomes less black-andwhite. Not so much a closure as some rebuilding. (Owner Roadchef plans a remodelled ‘hub’ with more EV chargers, if it can extend its lease.) Not so much iconic as confusing. (People think it’s near Watford, the one just inside the M25; in fact it’s 60 miles north of there, near the village of Watford.) In honour of its impending closure I drove there in the Cupra. And it turns out to be exactly what you’d expect from one of Britain’s oldest motorway service…

GIANT TEST WINNER 1 LAND ROVER DEFENDER THE GOOD: Reboot brings untold dynamic improvements wherever you drive THE BAD: Second-row access is a pain in the 90; expensive; 130 in particular is very big, so parking can be tricky THE UGLY: Alternatives to white steel wheels are offered. Why? THE ONE TO BUY: Range spans 90, 110 and 130 bodies, with significantly different dimensions but remarkably similar character and the genuine off-road ability that Land Rover always delivers so convincingly. Heart says petrol V8 90, head/wallet say diesel-six D250 110 2 PORSCHE MACAN GIANT TEST WINNER THE GOOD: Handles better than any other SUV. And some hot hatches THE BAD: Hardly an original choice – but then there’s good reason for that THE UGLY: Be patient – there’s an all-new…

When Aston Martin announced there was going to be a new Vantage, some questioned how a car famed for its brutish, old-school take on the sports coupe would translate into the electrification-dominated era of the modern performance car. After all, key rival Porsche is about to unveil anew hybrid and eventually an electric version of the 911, while if there is going to be a successor to the Audi R8 it will almost certainly be fully electric. So what will Aston’s response to these new challenges and opportunities be? We have an answer: the new £165k Vantage has zero electrification. It’s a move that may well be as divisive as it is emphatic. Every last one of the AMG-sourced 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8’s 656bhp is down to internal combustion. There’s no…

‘We try things and they fail. Life isn’t easy,’ said James Dyson of the demise of his electric car project. But where plenty have failed Lucid has so far survived; flourished even. Initially one of myriad EV start-ups that sprung up all over Silicon Valley, it soon established itself as stronger than most. Lead by Peter Rawlinson, the engineer who helped make the Tesla Model S a production reality, and with the superb Air saloon as proof of its technical proficiency, Lucid climbed from the primordial soup, grew lungs and legs and set about sprinting after Elon’s outfit. In late 2023 it delivered its 10,000th car (it delivered its first in late 2021). Lucid’s second car, the Gravity SUV, will go on sale later this year. Next year we’ll see…

ELECTRIC REVOLUTION Sounds impossible, but it’s coming: an electric sports car true to the spirit of Lotus. Mike Johnstone, Lotus chief commercial officer, said: ‘It’s our bullseye. Someone who’s owned an Elise or Esprit should be able to get into the Lotus Type 135 and feel instantly at home.’ ALUMINIUM CHASSIS Lotus is developing a Lightweight Electric Vehicle Architecture (LEVA) after the collapse of its collaboration with Alpine. Type 135 will be what we want: a low-slung coupe that keeps the midengine look by swapping engines for vertically-stacked batteries behind the seats. FACTFILE POWERTRAIN 66kWh battery, 470bhp single e-motor, rear-wheel drive CHASSIS Aluminium monocoque DUE On sale 2027 NORFOLK BORN AND BRED New-era ‘lifestyle’ Lotus EVs are being built at parent company Geely’s new factory in Wuhan, China, but sports…

Tell us about your car… ‘A brown ’72 Ford Capri with a crank sunroof bought from auction in San Jose. I couldn’t drive stick so the night before I learned in a buddy’s pick-up but I still stalled the Capri in the middle of an enormous intersection on the way home.’ What is your proudest achievement? ‘Personally it has to be my wife and two wonderful kids. In the film world I think Toy Story.’ Tell us about a time you’ve screwed up… ‘I banged up the family Pinto station wagon when I connected with a concrete post in a parking lot.’ What’s the best thing you’ve ever done in a car? ‘The nine days I spent on Route 66 with the Cars team. You can look at that stuff…

Tesla’s slightly baffling war against the familiar details of the traditional car continues.Speedos, handbrakes, mirror adjusters – all long gone from the physical realm. Now they’re joined by the stalks that used to project from the steering column of the Model 3. One stalk would operate the indicators. That’s now done by a pair of buttons for your left thumb. The top one is for turning left, the bottom one for turning right. Fiddly if you haven’t indicated before you start twirling the wheel, but you get used to it. But losing the other stalk is a bigger deal. That one used to be the drive selector. Like many an automatic, EV or otherwise, it gave a simple choice: R, N or D (or press it in for P), and…

Letter of the month Every year when you do your Used Car Stars feature, whether or not it includes a Mazda MX-5, I always come away from it thinking: yup, there’s nothing to beat a secondhand MX- 5. I’m now on my fourth, each one slightly newer than the last, but all recognisably the same general idea. I’m not saying it’s the best sports car in the world, and of course there are practical limitations. But in my circumstances – I have access to a van when I need to carry big loads – and on my limited budget, it remains very rewarding, and without the guilty feeling that accompanies a purchase that feels excessively selfish. Asking one car to do everything is asking a lot, and inevitably leads to…

The Turbo Study gets the look – whalet ail spoiler, moulded black rubber and all – but the muscle is exaggerated, the det ail crisper A decade ago, Singer founder Rob Dickinson considered winding up the business he’d built ‘reimagining’ classic Porsche 911s. ‘We’d done 13 or 14 cars, people were saying nice things and clients knew they were proper. But orders were trickling in, they were ferociously expensive cars to restore and we were losing money on every single one of them,’ he reveals. ‘In 2014 or 2015 I said, “Right, why don’t we give up?”’ Thankfully Dickinson did not give up. In fact, in the decade since, he’s doubled down, notably bringing Maz Fawaz onboard as CEO – a tech entrepreneur who ‘turned up in the car park…

Why is it here? As Britain’s best selling vehicle, the arrival of a completely new Ford Transit Custom is big news, and not only for heating engineers.The Custom is such a flexible, ubiquitous vehicle on our roads – from camper conversions to school minibuses – it touches the lives of a lot of people, and will find fresh uses with subsequent owners. Any clever stuff? The interior of the new Custom has been cleverly thought through. Examples include moving the passenger airbag into the roof, making way for a huge second glovebox in the dash; plus the Mobile Office pack includes a 5G modem and a tilting steering wheel for when you’re parked to eat your lunch – already nicknamed the Transit Table. Which version is this? The new Custom…

Why is it here? If you don’t want a Transit, chances are you’ll be looking at a van from the Stellantis/Toyota tie-up, which saw the development of the Citroën/Peugeot/Fiat/Vauxhall/Toyota vans, in a remarkable bit of intra- and intercompany cooperation, and/or an acknowledgement that the Ford is very hard to beat.They’re all mechanically identical, though the Toyota doesn’t offer an EV version, instead focusing on mainstream diesel options. Any clever stuff? It comes with keyless entry, parking sensors and a seven-inch colour touchscreen. One clever idea is the Smart Cargo system, which uses a bulkhead hatch and a lifting front passenger seat to increase the load length by 1.1 metres. Which version is this? The Proace comes with a short or long wheelbase and as a panel van or a crew…

Whatever the Tesla Model 2 is called and whenever it finally arrives, there’s a chance it might finally turn its maker into the last thing Elon Musk thought it wou ld become: a massscale globa l car manufacturer on a par with Genera l Motors or Hyundai at six or seven million cars per year, or more. Not that Tesla is exactly a minnow now. Its current share pr ice may be half what it was at its peak but it is still more than double that of its nearest rival, Toyota, which makes more than 10 million cars each year. Tesla has just been overtaken by BYD as the world ’s largest EV maker, but the 1.85 million cars it made in 2023 is still an increase of 35…

Range Rover Sport D300 SE Month 1 The story so far Sport offers luxe comfort with hints of handling ability + Ride comfort is simply superb - Graunchy door-handle motors Logbook Price £83,620 (£90,845 as tested) Performance 2997cc turbodiesel six-cylinder, 296bhp, 6.6sec 0-62mph, 135mph Efficiency 36.9mpg (official), 30.1mpg (tested), 200g/km CO2 Energy cost 23.1p per mile Miles this month 1892 Total miles 15,302 Despite all the talk of improved batteries and various manufacturers, including Mercedes and Nio, topping 1000km, or 620 miles, on a charge, there is still only one fuel for mega miles currently – diesel. When this Range Rover Sport D300 turned up, the tank’s range was showing as 604 miles and it’s subsequently been a consistently weird feeling within our EV-dominated world knowing that no matter what…

Volkswagen ID. 5 Pro Performance Tech Month 6 The story so far Not a car that is easy to defend when it comes to value + Effortless to drive - Characterless to own Logbook Price £55,580 (£58,330 as tested) Performance 77kWh battery, e-motor, 201bhp, 8.4sec 0-62mph, 99mph Efficiency 3.9 miles per kWh (official), 3.0 miles per kWh (tested), 0g/km CO2 Range 323 miles (official), 230 miles (tested) Energy cost 13.0p per mile Miles this month 791 Total miles 5624 I call it the how-much wince. It’s the simultaneous squinting of the eyes, the pursing of the lips and the sharp intake of breath that afflicts every enquirer when I tell them this ID. 5 costs just over £58,000. Using figures from VW UK’s own configurator, based on an annual limit…

Is the M3’s steering rack too quick? A chassis engineer at a rival German brand recently described it to me as ‘too much’. CAR’s Georg Kacher has previously described it as nervous too, though the de-restricted autobahn is his second home. It’s certainly punchy, feeling extremely sensitive to small inputs. When I tested the M3 saloon against the C63 a couple of years ago, I said the AMG rack had the ‘more relaxed and arguably more natural feeling fixed-ratio steering than the M3’. But the quick rack is also key to imbuing a 1.8-tonne estate car with such agility, and the M3’s chassis can keep up too thanks to monster bite at the front and a rear end that’s more than capable of following suit. BEN BARRY BMW M3 Touring…

While my GV70 is away having its SIM card and its occasionally recalcitrant air-con rebooted, Genesis having (for now) no dealerships which might sort these probably minor issues more easily, I have a temporary replacement in the form of a different GV70 Electrified. And it has aero wheels, which you often find on EVs, but not mine. It’s the size rather than the style of the rims which impresses. Shod with the same Michelin Pilot Sport SUV rubber but an inch smaller than my car’s 20s, and with a deeper aspect ratio, the previously praised ride and refinement takes another step up with a fraction less unsprung mass and a smidge more sidewall deflection. It’s marvellous. BEN OLIVER Genesis GV70 Electrified Month 4 The story so far Super-refined – especially…

HOW DOES GBU WORK? CAR’s road testers highlight what’s so good about the best cars in every class… and what could be better GIANT TEST WINNER 1 HONDA CIVIC TYPER THE GOOD: Feel, feedback, focus: a phenomenal full-sized hot hatch THE BAD: Nearly £50k for a frontdrive hatchback with barely any more power than before THE UGLY: Probably the last of its kind; good job it’s one of the best THE ONE TO BUY: There’s just the one model; expect to pay around £470 on a PCP with a £14k deposit 2 TOYOTA GR YARIS GIANT TEST WINNER THE GOOD: A modern-day rally homologation special THE BAD: Road noise like a death-metal gig; joke rear seats THE UGLY: Long waiting list due to high demand; now has optional auto... THE…

1 FERRARI ROMA GIANT TEST WINNER THE GOOD: Style, speed and sensuous lines; a car for, and from, a bygone age THE BAD: An age in which we no longer live, tragically THE UGLY: Baffling steeringwheel touchpads; strangled exhaust note THE ONE TO BUY: The cabrio. Arguably even more beautiful, until you sit in it, that is 2 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT THE GOOD: Epic interior; thumping performance THE BAD: Feels too big for UK roads, and can be uninvolving THE UGLY: Weirdly patchy air-con may spoil your summer by the Med THE ONE TO BUY: £230k GT Speed is the sharpesthandling Bentley there’s ever been; V8 also appeals 3 PORSCHE 911 TURBO S GIANT TEST WINNER THE GOOD: Hypercar-bothering pace, any road, any weather THE BAD: Only fun when you’re…

FIRST CARS: VW GOLF Mk4 AND AUDI RS4 (B5) ‘I did everything at VW Group in my early days, but I started with a wheel design on the Golf 4! Then, at Audi, I helped design the ’99 RS4 – that car’s in a museum now.’ LATEST DESIGN: SKODA KODIAQ Mk2 ‘It was never a topic not to do another Kodiaq – the market is still huge for this car. What makes a car a successful product or not? Whether it looks good.’ MOST IMPORTANT DESIGN: SKODA YETI ‘Technically I helped on the Superb Kombi [estate] of the time, but the first one I did fully was to productionise Thomas Ingenlath’s Yeti concept.’…

THE RABID, RACY ONE What did former Audi design boss Marc Lichte do when he was bored? Pen an IMSA-inspired version of the car he commutes to work in. The new RS6 Avant GT is the most potent and most aggressive RS6 model to date, deploying carbonfibre, coilovers and a confidence only Audi Sport can deliver. Decals optional, but it likely won’t appear on an influencer’s TikTok account without them. NEED TO KNOW What is it? Audi’s hottest RS6 ever I Tech specs Adjustable coilovers, carbon bodywork, retro wheels and IMSA GTO-spec (optional) decals I Aimed at? Wealthy car influencers I When can I get one? Now. Just 60 come to the UK, priced from £177k THE SMOOTH, SENSIBLE ONE It might look plain, but we actually…

VIRTUAL GEARLEVER When you put your foot on the brake pedal, the right-hand edge of the screen becomes a slider that performs the functions of the old gear-selector stalk.  THE SWIPE-FREE OPTION You can opt to go further and bypass the swipe. Instead, the car calculates whether your next move will be fore or aft, and you just need to use the pedals. IN CASE OF EMERGENCY If the screen packs up, there’s a fallback. In the roof, either side of the switch for the hazard warning lights, are manual buttons for P, N, D and R.…

Where the Audi RS3 sparkles, the S3 that’s positioned one rung below drives like Coke with the top left off – it just isn’t exciting enough. Mission for the new S3, due later this year? Shake the bottle and be more RS3- like, without trampling on big brother’s toes. We’ve come to Salalah, Oman, to test a pre-production prototype, and barely 10 minutes after I’ve hunkered down low in comfy sports seats the S3 already feels sharper and more energetic through huge sweepers that flow like a summer toboggan run over these barren mountainsides. Facelifts often bring nuanced improvements, but this is night-and-day stuff, with fundamental changes to everything but the looks, all topped off by Dynamic Plus mode, the calibration equivalent of cranking everything up to 11 and shredding…

If Dickinson credits California and the city of Los Angeles with the optimism, sunshine and hot-rod/custom-car talent to help make Singer happen, CEO Maz Fawaz says the UK has been just as essential in taking things next level. ‘England is to low-volume, high-value cars what Hollywood is to the movie business – the centre of the known universe for that kind of work.’ Today Singer employs 230-plus people in its Woodford Halse facility in Daventry (below). All its in-house bespoke components are engineered there and all 75 examples of the DLS were restored on site; the DLS Turbo commissions will be too. Singer’s activities in the UK began with the DLS, in collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering. When that project wound down, Singer offered many of the staff full-time positions.…

Why is it here? The Buzz is a van that crosses over from the commercial world into the realms of everyday car enthusiasm. Next to the passenger Buzz, it does look like a commercial vehicle, but next to other commercial vehicles it looks like a lifestyle accessory. It’s not as big as the others here – and at £50k, most builders would laugh at the thought of buying one – but for boutique businesses or as a leisure van, it’s very appealing. Any clever stuff? Based on VW’s modular MEB platform, it’s a clever skateboard chassis under the floor. Unlike some more powerful ID products, it keeps things simple, with one motor and rear-wheel drive. There’s a modern minimalism to the Cargo, making it easy to live with. We like…

With a wide price range and such a variety of powertrains, in truth these vans probably won't find themselves on the same shopping list any time soon. The ID. Buzz Cargo, in particular, feels like a vehicle that you’re just going to decide you want, no matter what the alternatives, and I’m sure few Buzz buyers compa re loadbay lengths with a diesel Proace before they commit. The electric Cargo is smaller than its competitors, yes, but it’s still much more practical than any passenger car or SUV, and as long as your journeys are short, the powertrain is smooth and enjoyable. It has an appeal that goes beyond the traditional van market, reaching those, like me, who like anything on four wheels. Of the four vans on our test,…

Tesla, on the evidence to date, can do it better. And China can do it cheaper. So how do Europe’s car makers compete? By plundering their back catalogue for cute design inspiration while also working flat out to compete on technology and price. If that sounds like a lot of hard work, well, that’s because it is. And in the new Renault 5 and VW’s imminent ID. 2, we’ll see the first fruits of those labours. There’ll be bigger, more powerful and dearer VWs launched in the next few years. But there won’t be a more important one than the ID. 2. The Polo-sized hatch, likely costing around the magic £25k mark, is central to VW’s biggest product offensive ever. It’ll be joined by a smaller, cheaper ID. 1 as…

‘Do you know of a way to make the right pedal do more to make the car move?’ editor Ben Miller asks me after a brief drive in my Astra GSe. I smirk and point out the fact there’s a Sport mode, but have to acknowledge it doesn’t seem to change much. ‘Not very quick, is it?’ asks deputy editor Piers Ward after he borrows the Astra. It seems there’s a snag to the performance version of the Astra: no performance. Yes, it has 40bhp more than the regular hybrid Astra. But it hasn’t gained any extra excitement, anything that feels like more performance. The way it delivers its power, to the front wheels via an eightspeed auto, is more annoying than exciting. The automatic transmission is far too slow.…

The name might be edgy and booming with excitement, but the cabin of VW’s all-electric bus is mighty quiet and peaceful. As well as an absence of engine noise, road and wind fluster are well suppressed, too. There’s also a lack of visual noise, thanks to the near total absence of switchgear. This is an unstressed, simple and happy place to sit, and the design reinforces this. Whether it’s ‘play’ and ‘stop’ icons on the accelerator and brake pedals or the smileys on door-card screwheads, a sense of quiet fun permeates the big people carrier. You climb up into the Buzz. I had assumed its raised height would make it easy for my nonagenarian mother to slide into, but unfortunately it proved impossible and we had to order a lower…

The RX features wireless Apple CarPlay, but its Android Auto connection is wired – and when said connection stops working, it throws all your Google Maps and Spotify access out the window, and even different cables and removing my anti-virus software couldn’t get phone and car to talk again. So our RX 450h+ went back to Lexus for a few days. Lexus managed to replicate my issue – proving I wasn’t stupid – and that was with a brandnew cable. The technical department reports that not updating your phone (not an issue here) or the cables (the issue here) is usually the root cause. It seems the real answer is for Lexus to upgrade to wireless Android Auto. BEN PULMAN Lexus RX 450h+ Premium Plus Pack Month 5 The story…

Audi SQ8 e-Tron Black Edition Month 1 The story so far Audi’s revamped flagship electric SUV + Refined but rorty drive - But it doesn’t go far on a charge Logbook Price £103,310 Performance 106kWh battery, three motors, 496bhp, 4.5sec 0-62mph, 130mp Efficiency 2.2 miles per kWh (official), 1.5 miles per kWh (tested), 0g/km CO2 Range 269 miles (official), 159 miles (tested) Energy cost 7.0p per mile Miles this month 861 Total miles 861 Nothing is more likely to get a reader swiping left than a big electric SUV from play-it-safe Audi. But you’d be wrong, dear readers: the following months are going to be box office. Pretty much everything about this SQ8 e-Tron (formerly known as the e-Tron S) is extreme: extremely good or infuriatingly bad. Let me explain.…

GIANT TEST WINNER 1 PORSCHE 911 THE GOOD: Style, like 911s, never goes out of fashion THE BAD: The base Carrera now costs almost £100k – yet that’s not enough to stop it being a clear class winner; road noise now up to 11 THE UGLY: 992 ‘wide body’ no longer the lithe sports car of old; canny options list pushes you to spend like a lottery winner THE ONE TO BUY: Carrera S with the PDK gearbox for £110k on the nose; the Sport Chrono package is bundled in, but you’ll still pay for the Porsche badges on the wheels to be coloured in 2 ARIEL ATOM GIANT TEST WINNER THE GOOD: A beautiful object as well as a thrilling drive; think of it as a modernised Lotus Seven…

1 BMW X5 50e GIANT TEST WINNER THE GOOD: Massive 67-mile official e-range; horizon-eating performance THE BAD: Hybrid hardware cuts into boot space to the tune of 150 litres; no seven-seat option THE UGLY: Not much now that the facelifted 50e model with more e-range and power is here THE ONE TO BUY: This one, for £81k 2 PEUGEOT 308 THE GOOD: Bravely avant-garde design; decent fuel economy; different THE BAD: Still persisting with the infernally small steering wheel THE UGLY: Interior layout looks fab but can be a stressfest to use day-to-day THE ONE TO BUY: Starts at £340 per month for the 130. Stretch to 225 spec with extra power and kit if you can 3 PORSCHE CAYENNE THE GOOD: Handling; driver focus; choice of body styles; 0-62mph…

GIANT TEST WINNER 1 PORSCHE TAYCAN THE GOOD: Still the best EV to drive; fast, responsive, fluid and even practical THE BAD: You can get better range and efficiency for less money THE UGLY: That Porsche options list can still drain your wallet THE ONE TO BUY: Choose your body style from saloon, estate or the borderline SUV-ish Cross Turismo. Prices start at £79k; the sensible Taycan 4S is £91k, sharper GTS is brilliant and Turbo just bonkers; top models cost upwards of £149,300 2 TESLA MODEL 3 THE GOOD: New lights, new colours, new aero and improved interior: it’s had a refresh, but remains good to drive and easy to live with THE BAD: That refresh hasn’t added the knobs and buttons that would reduce driver distraction THE UGLY:…