Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2026 i CAR UK

With home delivery a booming business these days, we’re seeing lots of new names coming into the world of vans in search of a slice of that growing commercial-vehicle pie. But you might have heard of the company behind this all-new electric load lugger. Kia has decided to join the van party and it’s come ready to get stuck in. This PV5 is the first of several vans planned for the coming years, with larger PV7 and PV9s set to follow. There’s variety from the off, too, with two trim levels, two batteries, two lengths, two heights, a passenger version, refrigerated model and a box van due shortly, and a camper planned. Everything is new, underneath and on top, because the PV5 sits on a bespoke platform called Electric-Global Modular…

This one doesn’t quite have the zippiness and instant torque of the very good electric version I’m halfway up an Alp, heated seat on full blast, admiring the absolutely epic scenery near the Austrian/Italian border. There aren’t any glaciers nearby, but I’m beginning to wonder if Mercedes has made one by mistake with its new CLA hybrid. Perhaps I’m being a little harsh but, given the zippiness and instant torque of the very good electric version, this one doesn’t quite have the same oomph. Yes, this version with a (non-plug-in) 48-volt hybrid powertrain is meant to provide an alternative to the long range electric model, but surely the target market is people who can’t or won’t live with an EV right now, rather than people who like going weirdly slowly.…

If I thought the mound of rocks I’d just tackled was tough, that’s nothing compared to the heap I’m facing now. It looks more or less impossible. Deep breath. Focus. Go. And… it’s all fine. Breathe out. Relax. I’m driving one of the most capable off-road vehicles ever constructed, and it takes this sort of thing in its stride, which is more than I can say for my slightly dizzy, breathless self. I’m in a special limited-production version of the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster, aimed principally at rescue services around Europe. The regular Grenadier SUV and its Quartermaster pick-up offshoot are very adept on rocks, sand, snow and various other hostile environments. But even they would be stopped in their tracks by some of these boulders. This isn’t one of those…

Today there are only four companies building petrol-fuelled city cars for Europe: Fiat, Hyundai, Kia and Toyota. Manufacturers like to blame legislators for the dramatic drop in choice. They say it’s extremely tricky to fit in all the required safety equipment, and to squeeze in a suitably clean engine, without it all getting too expensive. They also thought the politicians meant it when they said we all needed to go electric, and quickly. But shouldn’t some of the finger-pointing be directed closer to home, as manufacturers eye up the bigger profit margins to be found by encouraging customers to buy crossovers and SUVs? The choice may be much diminished, but the quality has gone up; to paraphrase Blur, modern life isn’t all rubbish. The latest city cars are much better…

Boot volume: a plentiful 1630 litres. All-wheel drive. A kerbweight of 2550kg. More than enough room for the family and the dog. Which car am I talking about? It’s not the Range Rover Sport SV; it’s our BMW M5 Touring long-term test car. They’re both very big, very heavy and very roomy. The saloon version of the M5 that I ran for three months was an impressive machine but it never really felt drop everything special. Even now, having had months to ponder the question, I’m still struggling to put my finger on where exactly it came up short. But the Touring’s blend of pace and practicality fits my life better, and the whole car seems more impressive as a result. That’s not the only possible explanation. Maybe my time…

TOP 5 HOT HATCHES 1 TOYOTA GR YARIS THE GOOD: A modern-day rally homologation special that’s thrilling to drive THE BAD: Road noise like a death-metal gig; joke rear seats THE UGLY: Long waiting list, even with some versions now over £60k, although it starts at £46,045 THE ONE TO BUY: Now has optional auto but go for the manual 2 VW GOLF R THE GOOD: Superb Mk8.5 update makes this a seriously good and usefully quick all-rounder THE BAD: Pity the Mk8 wasn’t that already THE UGLY: Still not quite there with the infotainment THE ONE TO BUY: Estate is about £1.5k more than the hatch and more practical but not so sharp 3 AUDI RS3 THE GOOD: Want a five-cylinder hot hatch? Your choice is RS3 with four doors…

The luxury perceptions that underpin their badges allow the German big three to charge premium prices. But as Honda, Nissan and Toyota have painfully learned with their respective Acura, Infiniti and Lexus attempts to grab a piece of the action, cracking this profitable paradigm is very difficult. So why does Hyundai think its Genesis brand can succeed where they failed? A decade after Genesis was spun off as a standalone brand Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) president and CEO José Muñoz says the company now has a clear understanding of how to make it a true luxury name and the tools with which to make it happen. It starts with the product. Most Lexus models have been based on the same platforms, many of which are front-wheel drive, as their quotidian…

This is more like it. I’m on the A-397 in Spain, aiming towards Ronda, and having spent hours becoming increasingly worried that the new electric Alpine crossover is way too normal, I finally have an inkling that the fun I had hoped was lurking inside the A390 is coming out to play. As the road continues to climb, and with the A390 in Track mode, the driving experience starts to become more interesting. There are the beginnings of a sense of hidden depths to the Alpine as the nose dives in more sharply and the car rotates around a central pivot point, making use of the torque vectoring from the two rear motors. I try leaning on the power towards the apex and that helps as well. It doesn’t nudge…

Letter of the month Be more A110 I have been a reader of your excellent magazine since before I learned to drive. At that time, in the late 1960s and ’70s, I would dream of what I might drive when I was older. The Italians ruled the world then in terms of flair and engineering – their beautifully styled Alfas, Lancias and even Fiats had disc brakes, five-speed gearboxes and twin-cam engines – features rarely found in British cars. Your writers have come and gone but all have written beautifully in their different ways. And yet now when I receive the magazine, I do not rush to read it in the same way. It is not your fault, but modern cars no longer thrill me. Partly I imagine it is…

This is a fabulous crowd magnet. Park the Lamborghini Temerario in the piazza of a small Italian village, step back and watch what happens. First, a window pops open, then another, and one more. Someone appears in a doorway, shouts across the square to a friend, who is already on the phone to another friend. Within minutes the curious and the aficionados alike have started arriving, mostly on battered Vespas, adding to smartphone image libraries already brimming with photos of Ferraris, Maseratis and Lambos. Influencers appear, asking if they can pose in front of the yellow Temerario, filming each other to pocket music. School children join in. A shopkeeper forgets about her customers and saunters over to have a look. There’s a pram-pushing grandma minding two next-generation Lamborghinisti, the village…

The Ineos Grenadier is not a car you fall for immediately. In fact, if you were to climb out of a regular SUV and straight into a Grenadier, it would be bewildering at first. The fidgety ride, the noise – you’d soon be longing to get back in your Qashqai or Kodiak. And the Grenadier’s recirculating-ball steering – once experienced, never forgotten. It’s vague, it doesn’t self-centre, you need to make constant corrections… Ineos dealers must dread going on short test drives with potential customers. So our long-term test has been an opportunity to figure this unusual car out, and give it more time to make its case. What I’ve learned is that the more you ask of it, the more rewarding the Ineos becomes. Most 4x4s just bumble around…

The GTI Clubsport slots in the middle of VW’s hot Golf line up, splitting the difference between the GTI and R models. I’ve tested all three during this Clubsport loan period, and the conclusions I’ve reached are not quite what I expected. Take the base GTI. It’s only £2.5k cheaper than the Clubsport, and loses quite a lot of kit to achieve that saving – including peak power that falls from 296bhp to 261bhp, inch smaller brakes and the removal of the gloriously tactile microfleece interior trim. On paper, everything suggests the Clubsport upgrade is a no-brainer, but then the base GTI test car arrives on optional 19-inch alloys and adaptive dampers – and so is as directly comparable to the Clubsport’s ride and handling as it’s possible to be.…

A mildly meddled-with machine We should care more about the latest update to the long running, big-selling Astra, but even Vauxhall struggles to identify any significant differences arriving with this facelift. There’s an illuminated badge now, as part of a light-based front-end design. New wheels and colours are available, and there are some clever recycled materials inside. Stellantis is always looking for ways to squeeze more range out of the group’s electric models, with this one clocking in at up to 282 miles. Petrol, mild and plug-in hybrid options also remain available. World remains unmoved. A confusingly crowbarred-in crossover Kia’s European line-up is many things, but it’s definitely not short of SUVs. And yet here comes another one, squeezing in somewhere amid Stonic, Niro, Sportage and Sorento. The Seltos is…

If you’re playing a game of Guy Ritchie bingo, this new limited-edition Range Rover from Overfinch and Holland & Holland gives you an instant full house… specifically a manor house set in a few hundred acres. Not familiar with the distinctive look and feel of the film director’s many projects? Think East End gang boss meets tweedy shooting party, with a few car chases and explosions thrown in for good luck. The director of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and The Gentlemen, among others, also co-created the celebrated comic book series Game Keeper; he is the owner of the Ashton estate in Wiltshire and its neighbouring airfield; got married to Madonna at a castle in Scotland; has a strong sense of Britishness; and is among cinema’s leading glamorisers of…

Tough times in the car market call for innovation and bravery, not a retreat into caution. So says Alain Favey, Peugeot CEO. In his first few months in the job he’s unveiled a striking new GTI-badged electric hatchback and a concept car with steer-by-wire tech that will go into production with the next-generation of the 208 and 2008. Speaking exclusively to CAR, he said: ‘In this struggle to survive that everybody is sharing at the moment, the way out for a brand like Peugeot is being innovative. There is no future for a brand in Europe if it doesn’t keep innovating – because others will do it better or quicker. ‘If we continue to bring innovation that others don’t do, we’re really standing out from the crowd and you have…

There must be a catch, right? BYD can’t really sell a plug-in hybrid for about £5000 less than the UK cost of any other PHEV, can it? You’re right – there is a catch. Two, in fact. One is that it’s not very good to drive. The other is that to get a decent electric range from this plug-in hybrid, you need to upgrade to a more expensive version. It’s a rare misstep from China’s BYD, which has made a huge impact in Europe in the last couple of years, initially with its electric cars. They’ve been joined by plug-in hybrids, known as DM-i (dual motor, intelligent) in BYD speak. The ambition is to offer (traditionally expensive) PHEVs at the price level where European and Japanese rivals offer (usually less…

AS Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda tells it, the new GR GT wouldn’t exist without kuyashisa, a word that most closely translates as humiliation – the kuyashisa of rivals calling Lexus boring at Pebble Beach 14 years ago, of being routinely overtaken on the Nürburgring in the pre-LFA days, and the apparent European industry consensus that Toyota can’t challenge for outright racing victories with road based cars, even if the (exceptionally good) Lexus LFA did rack up class wins. Like the vanquished-Samurai trope, Toyota has retreated, regrouped and now returns with a clean-slate hybrid V8 sports car designed to give rivals a whupping on road and track they can barely comprehend. At least that’s the plan. The two-seat GR GT (GR for Gazoo Racing, of course) is unveiled at the Higashi-Fuji…

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Our host is smiling broadly. ‘Now I take you to the wow room. Are you ready for it?’ Suddenly I feel the pressure to respond appropriately. I mean, what if I find it all a bit underwhelming? ‘Oh, that’s very nice,’ in a flat Home Counties murmur, might not be quite the response he’s hoping for. And given our privileged access on this tour – including areas never before seen by a journalist – I’d hate to appear rude. ‘It has to be natural. Otherwise you ’ave to leave,’ he adds, chuckling. I need not have worried about a lack of excitement in Ferrari’s huge Endurance and Corse Clienti building (Corse Clienti being the umbrella term for this exclusive programme, which allows the lucky few to own and enjoy Ferrari…

Tucked away just a few miles west of Glasgow, the Bridge of Weir is a mix of flint walls, cobbled paths and quiet streams. The air in this village is still and quiet – well, aside from the bleeps and bongs from my Polestar. Here more than anywhere else, the 4 feels like an unwieldy UFO. The factory on the edge of the village has become a hugely significant player in the carupholstery world, supplying everyone from Volvo and Polestar to JLR and McLaren. The company is highly prized by an industry that values both luxury and sustainability – and I’ve come to see how it all works. While many other brands skipped straight to vegan, Polestar took a more pragmatic approach. As Polestar head of sustainability Fredrika Klarén told…