Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i CAR UK

Bar the new Grande Panda, unveiled in its production form at Fiat’s 125th birthday party in July, the rest of this new Panda family’s public outings have been strictly digital. And, except for one conceptual cabin render, exterior only. The potential five-strong Panda model line-up previewed in late February included the City Car concept, which we now know as the Grande Panda production model. There was also a camper, fastback, pick-up and SUV. All these concepts conveyed a family feel, united by chunky body proportions and a solid stance over their wheels, with graphically strong upright pixel lighting signatures at the front and rear, and near-horizontal clamshell bonnets. Bold branding elements were everywhere, from the more obvious all-caps FIAT logos debossed into the bodywork or backlit within the rear brake…

Just two years ago, Audi announced its plan to become an electric-only car manufacturer by 2029 – and it said it wouldn’t launch another dinosaur-burning model from 2026. But there’s been a change of heart. Demand for electric cars has dropped in many large markets. So much so that Audi is seriously considering closing its entire EV manufacturing plant in Brussels, threatening the Q8 e-Tron that’s built there and jeopardising the jobs of around 3000 skilled workers. The company is now poised to launch a range of new petrol and diesel cars, all of which it now expects to keep on sale until the European ban on combustion cars comes into force in 2035. New electric cars will run on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture (already seen on Audi’s…

Prelude means a great deal to Honda. It’s one of the company’s longest-serving badges, gaining a lot of affection in the 46 years since its debut. It’s always been sleek, sporty and technologically advanced. But it’s a name that has remained dormant for more than 20 years. So it was both a surprise and an honour when long-serving Honda engineer Tomoyuki Yamagami got the call to build a new one. Yamagami has worked in Honda’s R&D division since 1998, testing and engineering a wide variety of models before managing bigger projects like 2017’s tenth-generation Accord and the current Civic. ‘Being given the responsibility of developing such a car, I just thought to myself thank God I started working at Honda!’ he smiles, as he guides me around the Prelude…

Instead of having electric motors that drive axles, what’s so hard about getting them to spin wheels directly? Myriad benefits include much more direct control of individual wheels and faster torque responses. Ferrari has filed a patent for its own in-wheel motor, and the McLaren Applied division is working with Slovenian-based Elaphe Propulsion Technologies to further develop them for use in production cars. ‘The ability to control the drivetrain more sensitively enables you to start programming different characteristics into the drivetrain,’ says Stephen Lambert, head of electrification at McLaren Applied. ‘With this, we can introduce character that some might say is lacking from EVs.’ As well as performance cars, in-wheel motors allow for a greater degree of control and can limit slip when driving off-road. We’ve driven a ‘Reborn Electric’…

THE WORLD’S BEST WRITERS IN THE NEW CARS THAT MATTER This is hard to believe. For a car that seemed like a joke or dreadful misunderstanding when it was first announced, the MG Cyberster electric roadster is making a remarkably good job of blitzing the B974, the Old Military Road in the southern Cairngorms. An electric roadster from MG? Priced at more than £50,000? An electric roadster that seems to be named after a half-remembered Transformers character? Park your thoughts about the sensible combustion and electric cars that make up the bulk of Chinese-owned MG’s current line-up, and instead focus on the excellent MG 4 electric hot hatch, and the XPower version that didn’t quite hit the spot, but showed some ambition. Viewed through that prism, and bearing in mind…

Here’s the figure that tells you what you need to know about the new plug-in hybrid version of the Urus: the Lamborghini SUV will reach 125mph from zero in 11.2sec, or 1.3sec faster than the Performante. The Performante, you’ll recall, is the lower, firmer, wilder, track-friendly version of the Urus. So although the SE will soon be the only Urus available, as the Performante and S disappear from the range, the move to electrification is clearly not about Lamborghini going soft. The other key statistic is not yet available, but the SE will end up with one of those WLTP combined fuel economy figures, along with a drastically reduced CO2 output, that puts the Lamborghini on the right side of various tax and emissions restrictions, even though figures obtained on…

Too many manufacturers focus on acceleration times, but Alfa Romeo is chasing a different number: weight. The Junior’s 1590kg kerbweight is 200kg less than some competitors, 90kg less than a Mini Cooper SE and not much more than a combustion hot hatch. That weight wouldn’t have been possible with a twin-motor, all-wheel-drive setup, so the Veloce has been kept delightfully simple: one motor, front-wheel drive. It’s a win all round, as the extra weight of a more complex car would inevitably have harmed its energy consumption and range, and probably not for any real gain. The Junior, you’ll recall, was originally going to be called Milano, until a political row prompted a change of name to something that didn’t imply it was made in Italy. It’s being referred to as…

Suck, squeeze, bang, blow. Unleash the full motherlode in one of 2024’s obscenely fast EVs and that pithy description of a four-stroke combustion cycle feels like it’s been repurposed for the electric age, except it’s the driver doing the heavy breathing, not the car. It starts with a getready intake of breath and a here-goes-everything push on the right pedal, and ends with a dazed exhalation 200 metres down the road. We all know that even some ordinary EVs have been able to embarrass supposedly rapid combustion-powered heroes away from the lights for years. But it’s only recently that car makers have begun to market fully-formed electric performance cars for the enthusiast market. Cars like the Ioniq 5 N – the car that came out top of the ‘EVs for…

Imagine jumping back in time 20 years and telling your retro self that one of 2024’s hottest performance cars is an electric Hyundai that costs as much as a proper six-cylinder, rear-wheel-drive coupe from BMW’s M division (don’t say M2, which will be confusing). And the other is named after some long-dead Serbian inventor. Young you would think old you had lost a few marbles in the Time Tunnel. But here in the present, we no longer bat an eyelid at that kind of thing. Hyundai and Tesla both have enough brand credibility and engineering know-how to create fast EVs that are exciting enough to make even some die-hard petrol fans think about switching sides. Those drivers might have considered Tesla’s Model 3 Performance before, but the facelifted car is…

PRETTY MUCH ANY Mk1 Any rust-proofed Mk1 is worthy of your time – pretty, fun to drive, classy. Period colours preferred. GL had brown tinted glass, which might seal the deal for you. Mk1 CABRIOLET Built by Karmann and a machine of uncommon joy. Drop the roof, drive and turn that frown upside down. A real time machine nicknamed ‘strawberry basket’. GOLF RALLYE Aggressive, E30 M3 looks paired with highly effective all-wheel drive. A collector’s item, and for good reason. GOLF G60 LIMITED Awesome. Supercharging made for zero lag (the G60 could teach the new GTI a thing or two about throttle response) and the soundtrack alone is worth the outlay. Mk5 GTI EDITION 30 The Mk5 GTI made the Golf great again, and the Edition 30 made it better…

The Volkswagen Golf. It’s been with us for half a century now and has touched the lives of hundreds of millions of people. In an industry where style often matters more than substance, the original Golf was a paragon of product design, a car whose usefulness made it ubiquitous. And through eight generations it has remained the definitive compact hatchback, the car against which all comers in the segment, old and new, are invariably judged. Today’s Golf is of course bigger, heavier, more powerful and more complex than the original. But its DNA is unmistakable. As it has always been. ‘What’s it like?’ a journalist asked Bernd Pischetsrieder when in 2003 he revealed he had been driving pre-production versions of the forthcoming Mk5 Golf. The question momentarily flummoxed the Volkswagen…

HELLO PEUGEOT E-2008 & MINI COUNTRYMAN JCW + READERS TRY OUR BENTLEY + GOODBYE RANGE ROVER SPORT & MERCEDES EQE Let’s be brutal about this – the EQE is unlikely to go down in the record books as one of the great cars in the long history of Mercedes-Benz. It’s burdened by inelegant looks, numb steering and absolutely shocking brakes, and it’s not especially quick. This is not a list of positive traits lifted from How to Build a Car. Lots to dislike, then. But as my time with the car went on I found the dislike fading into the background. That sounds a bit like when your mate says, ‘no offence but…’ and then launches into a critique of your worst character flaws. The point with the EQE is…

I just got into a remarkably together-feeling 650,000km Skoda Superb taxi at Zagreb airport and was reminded again of the unfussy practicality and durability that makes us love this brand. Driver Sasha had put on half a million of those kilometers. I don’t plan to do the same in this Enyaq, but its fundamental qualities and effect on the driver are the same. It’s comfortable, spacious and easy to live with. So please keep that in mind while I pick a few holes in it. There are a few minor ergonomic irritations, like the row of physical switches taking you straight to functions like climate on the main screen, which are too easy to knock with your hand as you reach into the phone cubby below them, putting the hazards…

The SQ8 had a crazy five days piling on 995 miles, with return trips to the Ruhr valley and South Yorkshire. Getting the SQ8 onto a motorway, autoroute or autobahn revealed an ability to be economical at significant speeds. Cruising through France, Belgium and Germany at 80mph, the Audi returned 2.45 miles per kWh. With the UK’s lower limit, it clocked 2.65 miles per kWh to Rotherham and back. It’s aided by air suspension that lowers the body at speed, active grille closure, numerous underbody aero features and a dormant front motor at cruise. That said, reasonable motorway economy only makes my 1.7 miles per kWh urban average look even more tragic. Audi SQ8 e-Tron Black Edition Month 6 The story so far Audi’s e-SUV is a mixed bag but…

The Abarth 500e is a tiny tearaway of an EV, while our recently departed VW ID. Buzz is one of the largest, roomiest battery cars going. Chalk and cheese? Yes, but I find similarities too. Stylistically, each draws on its manufacturer’s heritage. Both are unthreatening designs laced with a streak of happiness, although the Italian tot is a push for any more than two passengers. I’m having to juggle family duties so I can prioritise shorter trips in the Abarth, where the VW could swallow anything we threw at it. Still, the compact dimensions of the 500e are much easier to park and I love the sheer chuckability that comes with downsizing from an MPV to a mini. Abarth 500e Turismo Month 2 The story so far We’re a few…

We have the wallbox, we don’t have the second home in Wales or Cornwall (yet?) and the family car is a crossover doing 10,000 miles per year, rarely in chunks much bigger than 100 miles at a time. All of which makes us ripe for electrification. That an EX30 is both almost affordable and a Volvo (the current family whip’s an XC40 with the petrol triple under its contoured, clamshell bonnet) isn’t doing the idea any harm with the primary decision-making element of the household, either. Does this imminent switch feel like a bold step into the future? Not really. The Volvo’s on a PCP, as the next car likely will be, which is reassuring given the recent spate of EV residual horror stories. And the XC40’s three-banger, while worthy,…

1 PORSCHE 911 THE GOOD: Exquisite blend of power, accuracy, excitement, style and usability, and new GTS integrates hybrid beautifully THE BAD: You have to look all the way down to #3 to see the affordable performance Porsche; 911 barely scrapes in at just under £100k THE UGLY: It keeps getting bigger and heavier THE ONE TO BUY: That basic Carrera is ace, and it’s hard to imagine you’ll regret it for a minute. But if you want more power and more trickery then Porsche has plenty of ways to take more of your money 2 ARIEL ATOM THE GOOD: A beautiful object as well as a thrilling drive; think of it as a modernised Lotus Seven crossed with a high-end sports bike THE BAD: You’ll need bike-style wet-weather gear if…

1980 Panda Mk1 Beloved of Italian farmers and architects alike, Giorgetto Giugiaro’s original Panda is a classic case of great function matched with ‘less is more’ design. 2003 Panda Mk2 Longer, wider and taller, the Mk2 was designed in-house with a more complicated silhouette. Wider 4x4 and sportier 100hp versions expanded the range. 2011 Panda Mk3 Designed by Roberto Giolito (also behind the Multipla Mk1), the Mk3 and was taller and more rounded affair. Spawned a jacked-up 4x4 plus mild-hybrid engine tech.…

Tell us about your first car… ‘A Subaru Rex kei car that I got from my parents. It wasn’t anything special, but it got me moving.’ What achievement makes you most proud? ‘My work with Prelude. The opportunity to be a large project leader of anything is only given to a very select number of people at Honda. I’m so grateful to have worked with all my colleagues – I feel lucky.’ What’s the best thing you’ve ever done in a car? ‘The first car I bought myself was a Mazda MX-5, which I used to drive while dating my girlfriend at the time. She then became my wife, and I used it to drive to our wedding. We still drive out to the same location where we used to…

The next big thing according to Bosch is the widespread adoption of ‘by-wire’ control technologies: steering, braking and acceleration systems that have no mechanical connection between the wheel or pedal operated by the driver and the function it controls. The engineering giant has positioned itself at the forefront of this new wave of technology, working with Qualcomm to develop more tech for the ‘software-defined vehicle’ of the future. That future will, says Bosch, involve more functions being handled by fewer chips. Bosch Mobility’s head, Dr Markus Heyn, says: ‘By 2030, the number of control units in a car could fall to fewer than 10. That means less installation space, fewer cables, less weight. In short: lower costs and greater flexibility.’ Lower construction costs should mean cars get cheaper to buy…

‘That’s it. I want one.’ We’ve gone all of 10 yards but just one cog swap in the Aston Martin Valour is all it takes to make everything feel right with the world. It’s the particular nature of the gearchange that’s important. Because it’s one manual cog swap, connected with actual metal to the rarity of a V12 engine, handily wrapped in a bespoke body and yours for the sum of £1.5m plus options. It’s a welcome poke in the eye of logic: Sense and Sensibility be damned, Leaving Las Vegas here we come. The Valour is Aston’s 110th birthday present to itself, with a corresponding number being made and, as is often the way with these things, all sold out. Based on the previous Vantage, the Valour has the…

Why is it here? Hyundai’s transformation from worthy but dull to worth-BMW-money came into full bloom with the Ioniq 5, an electric crossover that looks like a supersized VW Golf and shares many of its underpinnings with the similarly impressive Kia EV6. The Giugiaro-esque styling, which nods to Hyundai’s own ’70s Pony, still looks fresh. Non-N cars have recently been facelifted, but it’s not a big deal. Interior space is vast and the N model has almost four times the muscle of the base car. Any clever stuff? All Ioniq 5s are capable of bi-directional charging and get 800-volt electrics for speedy 250kW fills. But the new N version’s real party piece is its simulated manual transmission. You can either drive it like a conventional EV for maximum performance or use the…

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There’s a rhythmic pounding rumble that’s gently but persistently shaking the ground around me. It starts not long after I enter the biggest factory building I’ve ever been in, and it’s getting louder as I venture further in. It’s ominous, bassy and regular like an amplified yet distant heartbeat – and gives the impression I’m exploring a place that’s organic, rather than industrial. I’ve been given exclusive access to Volkswagen’s vast Wolfsburg facility as it celebrates the Golf’s 50th anniversary. Wolfsburg isn’t just Volkswagen’s headquarters but its constant, its keystone and a near-indestructible core for a brand that’s had to ride out considerable turbulence – plenty of it its own doing – over recent years. Diesel-gate-influenced strategies to electrify quickly have meant a lukewarm start for its ID range of…

Oh God, has it really come to this? I’ve come to the National Hot Rod and Custom Car Show at the Lincolnshire Showground for a trip down memory lane and I’m now standing in a field in the rain. There are about seven cars here, including a van covered in squirrels and a jacked-up Toyota Hilux called Hellboy. Rockabilly music is blasting from the big tent and there are families wandering around with pushchairs, making the best of it and wondering if it’s too early for ice cream. This is a shock. This is not how I remember things. The hot rod scene of my childhood seemed cool and subversive; it was reckless and a bit racy. It was all about glinting chrome engines, a sparkle of California sunshine, ZZ…

This month I swapped keys with colleague Jakes Groves to try out his new Smart #1. At £35,950, with a lot of gear fitted as standard, it seems like good value, and has a big dose of character. Jake’s been making mixed noises about it since it arrived, though, so I was curious to have a steer for myself. And after a couple of hundred miles… yes, he’s right: it’s a mixed bag. It also sheds some fresh light on my Avenger. It’s very gaudy outside, with a silhouette that suggests a complete lack of interest in dyanism, and headlights that look like the eyes of a newly discovered species of amphibian, but inside it makes more sense. It’s all curves, shiny white plastic and lots of space – such…

One of the things I love about the Clio is how it does it all. It’s great round town, it’s fun when you thrash it, but it’s also a good long-distance car. That’s mostly down to its magnificent 1.0-litre engine. Just as it’s surprisingly zesty when you wang it along a country road, this turbocharged three-cylinder is also astonishingly good at high-speed motorway work. Of course I never go over 70mph… but hypothetically I can tell you the Clio is happy to cruise at 85mph, never feeling overstretched or harsh, the six-speed manual gearbox giving it the long legs it needs to cruise all day long. A good interior is critical on a long-distance drive and here too the Renault scores highly, with comfy seats, lots of cubby-holes and cupholders…

ARRGGHH. Not long into life with a #1 and it’s clear the two of us are not co-existing well. I tried to set it up with the Smart app to unlock some bonus features, but no dice – and very unhelpful ‘just reinstall the app’ advice from tech support. The powered door handles pop back in just as you’re about to reach for them – why do that when the car is parked and unlocked?! The adaptive cruise is so paranoid that the closest follow distance is far enough for people to cut you up. The cherry on top? ‘BEEP BEEP BEEP. Fatigue warning. Please take a break.’ After just FIVE MINUTES at the wheel. All of this stuff is seemingly designed to help, but it just gives me a…

With a rich and varied car-owning history behind him, Gareth Morgan recently found himself in the enviable position of choosing a ‘pinnacle car’ – an indulgent purchase that’ll likely prove his four-wheeled high-water mark. He tried all the contenders, including the Continental GT, before buying an Aston Martin DB12 Volante. ‘I’ve had all sorts of cars, including 911s, an F-Type, an Audi RS5, a little Clio Cup and a Merc SL350, and I raced a Golf GTI,’ says Gareth, who’s been reading CAR since he was in his 20s. ‘Last year I decided I wanted a grand tourer. I test drove them all, including a Continental GT V8 coupe, which I loved. I also drove a Roma, which wasn’t going to work: tight on space, fiddly controls, a footrest halfway…

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: Very nice inside, so you’re wary of getting it muddy 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 THE GOOD: The new one is electric – and as impressive as the outgoing combustion version THE BAD: As family transport it has its shortcomings, especially boot space THE UGLY: If you want an engine you’ll need to be…

CARS | PEOPLE | SCOOPS | MOTORSPORT | ANALYSIS – THE MONTH ACCORDING TO CAR Fiat’s design chief Francois Leboine has form with this sort of thing. The Frenchman was head of concept cars at Renault when the new 5 was just an internal project. Unveiling it in January 2021, his former boss Laurens van den Acker gracefully gave Leboine credit for it, and the acclaimed 2024 production version remains very close to the original idea. Since leaving Renault for Fiat, Leboine’s been busy with what appears to be a similar job: reviving the Panda. This has involved a judicious amount of heritage mining of 1980’s boxy first-generation model, but also tapping into the 2019 Centoventi concept, while adding fresh new design twists and technology. ‘We tried to connect more…

FACTFILE POWERTRAIN 87kWh battery (est), twin e-motors, all-wheel drive CHASSIS Steel and aluminium monocoque DUE 2025 IT’S COMING The wraps are close to coming off the next Alpine. Sovany Ang, product performance vice president, says the new SUV and the recently revealed A290 hatch are ‘designed to give us a proposition to redefine the sportiness that we believe in at Alpine in EV. We are increasing the brand footprint beyond the two-seater coupe segment.’ SHARED TECH The new SUV will use parts from the Renault Group – most likely employing the CMF-EV platform used by the Renault Scenic and Nissan Ariya as a base. As it’s done with the A290, expect Alpine to do plenty of fettling to make it feel different; Alpine aims to give all its cars an…

SKUNKWORKS VIBES How do you keep your engineers entertained in down time? Let them play with the formula. With Polestar’s droptop 6 two years away from production, this one-off BST version is the car ‘turned up to 11’, according to boss Thomas Ingenlath. Shame it’s not being sold, then. NEED TO KNOW What is it? An in-house aftermarket Polestar 6 | Tech specs Swan-neck rear wing, forged alloys, race-spec aero | Aimed at? Giving us another look at the upcoming e-roadster | When can I get one? You can’t – not in BST form, nor even the regular 6, as all have been sold BUTTERFLY DOORS Regardless of what MG says, this Cyber GTS ‘concept’ will absolutely go into production next year as a hardtop companion to the Cyberster, meaning…

You don’t need a racetrack or an empty autobahn to make this Cayenne shine, but it helps. Where else might you relish the remarkable top speed of 171mph, which belies the vehicle’s 2190kg kerbweight, marvel at the awesome full-throttle fifth- and sixth-gear punch, or accelerate from zero to 125mph in a stellar 16.7sec? And yet maximum velocity and slingshot dynamics are not the overriding strengths of the new Porsche. After all, the 468bhp Cayenne S is merely 1mph less fast overall than the 494bhp GTS, and it only gets narrowly beaten to 62mph. The V6-engined 512bhp S E-Hybrid matches the GTS in the stopwatch duel, and the new range-topper is more expensive than either. It’s thirsty too. The Coupe version costs £1600 more than the SUV, but it is the…

I am sure that Ben Miller and James Dennison and your other road testers have absolutely spotless driving records (ha ha ha) but how does anyone get enough liability coverage in case something happens to your $3.3 million Pagani (the Utopia was driven in the June issue by James Dennison, just three month after Piers Ward drove the Codalunga in the March issue) or any of your other multi-million-dollar test cars? Do all your testers have as part of their contracts an agreement to sell their organs on the black market in order to pay the deductible portion of the test vehicle insurance policy? Peter Egan Before anyone can join the CAR team, we have to spend five years in a monastery in the Himalayas, whipping ourselves with birch twigs…

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Why is it here? The Model 3 made small EVs both desirable and affordable when it launched in 2017, but a slew of rivals have jumped into the arena since then so Tesla introduced a facelifted version, dubbed Highland, in late 2023. A new nose, better quality interior materials and controversial indicator controls mounted on the spokes of the steering wheel are the headlines. Any clever stuff? Rear-seat passengers get their own 8.0-inch display to control temperatures and watch Netflix, and drivers now have to shift between drive, reverse and neutral using an icon on the touchscreen (or the predictive shift feature). This range-topping Performance model gets a dedicated Track driving mode and drift option, giving drivers the scope to increase the understeer or oversteer. Which version is this? This is…

Three letters, one meaning – in theory, anyway. GTI stands for the ultimate Golf: intense, intuitive, involving, inspiring. Not necessarily the fastest but always the most fun. A proper driver’s car fused with a solid daily driver. Quick enough and always entertaining, relatively affordable to the present day (the word ‘relatively’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, granted) and a long-time B-road champion. But this reputation still draws largely on earlier vintages; cars like the Mk1 GTI. That car was small, light and expertly balanced… and an awfully long time ago. The best Mk2 GTI was the G60, complete with its unique zero-lag supercharger. The same concept was also featured in the very special Limited edition, of which only 71 units were made. The most remarkable go-faster Golf…

HEADQUARTERS Where Wolfsburg plant boss Dr Rainer Fessel and most of the admin staff have their offices. It’s a simple, tall and skinny office building that serves as a useful visual shorthand for VW whenever TV news shows want to talk about a corporate scandal. Those lucky enough to have an office on the upper floors are able to see over most of Wolfsburg. PRESS SHOP Housed in one of the oldest parts of the factory, which is still peppered with shrapnel from Allied bombing during World War 2. Around 2600 tonnes of steel passes through the press shop, and almost all of it is pressed several times into body and chassis parts ready for the assembly line via a metal press so large you and your family could live…

HOT ROD #1 In 1948 Bob McGee returned to California after the war and modified his 1932 Ford Roadster with a clean, minimalist look (below left). It appeared on the cover of the first issue of Hot Rod magazine and became an icon BUCKING THE TREND After featuring in Life magazine in 1957, Norm Grabowski’s ground-breaking roadster inspired the T-bucket craze. Originally called Lightning Bug it starred in a hit TV show, 77 Sunset Strip, and became known as the Kookie Kar OUT THERE Ed Roth, the LA artist behind the Rat Fink cartoon character, learned of a new material used by surfers called fibreglass. He hand-moulded the stuff to bring one of his cartoon monsters to life and called it The Outlaw A CAPITAL C When the T-bucket craze…

Looking back through my previous musings on the CX-60 you’d be forgiven for feeling I’ve been harsh on Mazda’s premium SUV. But despite its frustrating shortcomings in areas such as the choppy suspension and overbearing warning/safety systems, there are some areas which I really can’t fault. As mentioned previously, there’s not a thing I’d change about the interior, for one. But the real success story in our CX-60 is the 3.3-litre inline six-cylinder e-Skyactiv D diesel engine. Having previously run the 2.5-litre PHEV petrol CX-60 on the CAR fleet, the main reason for opting for another CX-60 back-to-back was to see if the straight-six diesel powerplant made up for the PHEV’s short-comings. And the good news is that it more than does. On paper, the PHEV looks to be the…

Controversy is never far away from the Mini Countryman. Bigger than ever, this latest version isn’t even built in Britain, this being the first Mini to roll off a production line in Germany. That sound you can hear is Basil Fawlty choking on his cornflakes. Now in its third generation, the first BMW-era Mini Country-man appeared in 2010, and since then has consistently been the car that gets chewed by fans of the traditional Mini. Will those complaints fade away over the period of our long-term test? It certainly has an appealing amount of punch. Being a John Cooper Works model, it’s the most powerful available, with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-charged petrol engine providing 296bhp and 295lb ft. It defaults to front-wheel drive but can flip to all-wheel drive when…

Our Stelvio’s standard 20-inch wheels look almost as good as the optional 21s, have a very similar five-hole design and saved us £750. But the Pirellis they’re wrapped in have a surprising amount of headroom considering no one will ever drive one off road. Upgrading to the 21s would help plug the gap, but probably not by as much as you’d think. The bigger wheels run a lower-profile tyre (35 vs 40) so the overall height is only 11.4mm greater, and half of that is below the axle line. The unnecessary ride-height inches don’t seem to hurt the handling, and given that the ride is already firm, sticking with the smaller wheels was definitely the right choice. Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio Month 2 The story so far Facelifted Stelvio super-SUV…

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 TOP 5 HOT HATCHES 1 HONDA CIVIC TYPE R THE GOOD: Feel, feedback, focus: a phenomenal full-sized hot hatch THE BAD: Now £50,050 for a front-drive 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; £529 a month on a three-year PCP with an £11k deposit 2 TOYOTA GR YARIS 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, even with some versions priced at £60,000 THE ONE TO BUY: Now…

1 PORSCHE TAYCAN THE GOOD: The EV that’s best to drive has been thoroughly overhauled and retains its top slot: still fast, responsive and fluid; now more efficient THE BAD: Info screen in front of the passenger is faintly ridiculous THE UGLY: Prices are all up THE ONE TO BUY: As before, three body styles to choose from: saloon, estate or raised estate. Prices start at £86.5k for the rear-drive basic Taycan; you can pay a lot more and get a bit more performance as you work your way up the range 2 TESLA MODEL 3 THE GOOD: The alternatives keep getting better, but the Model 3’s mix of range, driving pleasure and ease of use remains formidable THE BAD: Stop nicking the switches THE UGLY: That queasiness around Elon Musk…