Innholdsfortegnelse for Awards 2025 i What Car?

These days, pretty much every motoring magazine has an awards issue. But just as there’s only one Oscars, there’s only one What Car? Car of theYear Awards – an event that’s been held since 1978. The ceremony takes place at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House on London’s Park Lane, with almost 1000 people who represent the great and the good of the car industry in attendance. Why do they come? Quite simply, because of you. Because they know that What Car? readers are their customers, and that winning a What Car? Award can therefore have a huge impact on sales. So, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your support. It’s not something we take lightly, and it’s why we invest so much time and money…

YOU MIGHT NOT have realised it, but BYD is a giant in the world of electric vehicles (EVs). It led global EV sales in 2024, outselling even the likes of Tesla, and it now has designs on the UK’s small electric SUV market. An understudy to the Atto 3 family SUV, the Atto 2 will be offered with two choices of ‘Blade’ batteries. This technology is BYD’s own development and presents an alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries, being produced without the use of the rare-earth metals cobalt and nickel. The first Atto 2s will use a 45.1kWh (usable capacity) battery, powering a 174bhp front-mounted motor for a official range of 194 miles. That’s less than the rival Hyundai Kona Electric and Volvo EX30 promise, but a bigger battery will arrive…

LIKE RECENT INSTALMENTS of Jurassic Park, Matlock and Star Wars, the new Toyota Urban Cruiser is a reboot of something that’s come before. But while the previous Urban Cruiser SUV was rather underwhelming at launch, its electric successor could be a box office hit. Based on the Urban SUV concept revealed last October, the new car is closely related to the upcoming Suzuki e Vitara; they share underpinnings, batteries and electric motors. Key rivals will be as numerous as screens in a multiplex cinema; the Urban Cruiser will compete with the Hyundai Kona Electric, Jeep Avenger and Smart #1, as well as the upcoming Ford Puma Gen-E (see p22). The Urban Cruiser is similar in style to the existing hybrid-powered Toyota Yaris Cross SUV, with likenesses including black body cladding…

WHAT WOULD YOU do with £9000? Save it, invest it or perhaps splash out on a posh holiday? Well, by buying the Vauxhall Grandland Electric instead of the Peugeot e-3008, that’s roughly how much money you’ll save and have left to play with. The reason we bring up the e-3008 specifically is because that car shares its underpinnings with the Grandland, due to Vauxhall and Peugeot being sister brands within parent company Stellantis. As a result, both of these electric SUVs have a 73kWh (usable capacity) battery, which powers a single electric motor that drives the front wheels. Officially, this gives the Grandland a range of up to 325 miles, although ascending to the upper trim levels knocks a few miles off. There’s also a 93kWh (usable) battery option on…

RACE ON SUNDAY, sell on Monday. That’s the reason so many car makers invest in expensive racing programmes, and the ethos helped to make household names of Ferrari and Maserati. Motorsport has also boosted more affordable models, including the BMW 3 Series, the Ford Mustang… and the Renault 5 (R5). The rally-bred R5Turbo of the early 1980s was a rather different animal to the meek, mild regular R5, and that wide-arched, powersliding beast provides the inspiration for today’s R5 Turbo 3E, which you’ll be able to buy in 2026. With its motorsport pretensions emphasised by yellow and white paintwork reminiscent of Renault’s works rally cars, the R5 Turbo 3E has been engineered by Renault’s performance car brand, Alpine. It can sprint from 0-62mph in 3.5sec – less than half the…

WHAT GOES INTO the melting pot that is the annual What Car? Car of the Year Awards? Well, there’s 12 months’ worth of new car launches, thousands of miles of driving on roads around the world – and several thousand more in the UK, where we pit the newcomers against their best rivals. We look at everything from comfort to costs, practicality to performance, and refinement to reliability. Then, we condense everything we’ve learnt into what start as reasoned debates between our testers and generally conclude with at least one proper falling out. Yes, tempers run high, but that’s only because we really care about offering the best buying advice possible. And picking 22 category winners and one overall Car of the Year is a tricky process, given the sheer…

MERCEDES-AMG A45 S Plus HOT HATCHES HAVE been steadily growing hotter over the years, and the Mercedes-AMG A45 brought things to boiling point when it first arrived in 2013. Fast forward to today and, far from simmering down, the latest A45 is the most scorching, scintillating hot hatch you can buy. It’s propelled by the most powerful four-cylinder car engine currently in production, with an astonishing 416bhp from 2.0 turbocharged litres. That’s all sent to the road via a quick-shifting eight-speed automatic gearbox and a clever four-wheel drive system, the result being a 0-62mph time of just 3.9sec – half a second quicker than the already rapid Volkswagen Golf R. Acceleration is relentless; the A45 surges towards the horizon as if pulled by elastic. Admittedly, the A45’s closest rival, the…

HOW THE WINNER WAS CHOSEN WE ASKED READERS to vote for the car they’re most excited about seeing in 2025, from a shortlist of 12 contenders. Each was promoted via our social media channels and newsletters, with readers voting through a dedicated website. Thousands of readers had their say – and these are the top three. 1 KIAEV4 IT WAS NECK and neck for first and second places in this year’s Readers’ Choice award in the early days of voting, but in the end Kia’s upcoming rival to the Polestar 2 and Tesla Model 3 garnered more than twice as many votes as the next most popular model. There’s plenty to be excited about, too, because the EV4 is based on the same underpinnings as Kia’s smaller EV3 – a car…

MG HS 1.5T Plug-in Hybrid SE MG’S BLOODLINE IS as twisting and complex as the Game of Thrones saga. That the octagonal badge is still part of the motoring landscape is as surprising as Jon Snow’s resurrection in the TV series. Yet here we are, and the brand has an ever-widening range of models that spans a small hybrid hatchback through to an electric sports car, with the eminently sensible HS family SUV somewhere in the middle. While the HS lacks the visual punch and visceral performance of the Cyberster sports car, it more than compensates with things that really matter to most buyers of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). Chief of these is price. In our preferred entry-level SE trim, the HS Plug-in Hybrid is the equal-cheapest PHEV you can currently…

VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT 1.5 TSI eHybrid 204 Elegance WITHOUT WISHING TO sound too much like physicist Brian Cox, space is continuously expanding. It can be difficult to believe, given how incomprehensibly vast it already is, but it’s true. Think of it in our language: at 4.7 metres long, the previous Volkswagen Passat Estate was already a big car, yet this new generation is even bigger. Professor Cox and his colleagues might scoff at that analogy, but that’s where our interest in space lies. And, aided by an overall length of more than 4.9 metres, the latest Passat – now available only as an estate – is extremely spacious inside. With heaps of head and leg room, front and rear, even a family of six-footers will be able to travel in comfort.…

BMW X7 xDrive40i M Sport (Ultimate Pack) ON TV’S GRAND Designs, it’s pretty rare to see folk building anything modest. The majority of houses featured on the show tend to be big, extravagant and beautifully constructed, these being values that logically align with the idea of a luxury home. The BMW X7, then, is the metal embodiment of the kind of houses on which Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud delivers his animated verdicts. An SUV as the best luxury car? Well, yes. Its height means you get a great view of your surroundings, as well as bringing high ceilings and masses of interior space – all the better for entertaining guests. The X7 has seating for seven, none of whom will have to suffer cramped quarters; even six-footers in the…

PORSCHE CAYENNE COUPÉ S AT A GLANCE, the £99,700 onthe-road price of the Porsche Cayenne Coupé S doesn’t look like a conspicuous bargain. That all changes, though, if you think of it as three cars in one. Your first 33-odd grand is the most mouth-watering, because this is the chunk that buys you a sports car. Yes, you could buy a Mazda MX-5 for that, but that tiny two-seater wouldn’t see which way the Cayenne went; 0-62mph takes just 4.7sec, thanks to a 468bhp 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine. And don’t think the MX-5 would quickly catch up in the twisties, either. Somehow, the 2.2-tonne Cayenne can bend the laws of physics. With a lower centre of gravity than the boxier regular Cayenne SUV, the Coupé S is astonishingly agile, with…

BMW M3 TOURING xDrive Competition THERE WAS A time when air forces required a different plane for every mission. Nimble interceptors for dogfights, longrange bombers for deep strikes, reconnaissance jets for spying on the enemy – each built for one job and one job only. But that approach was expensive, inefficient and, frankly, outdated. Enter the multi-role fighter – a jet small and agile enough to win a dogfight but powerful and advanced enough to dominate long-range missions. Much like a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, the BMW M3 Touring is a multi-role fighter – one you can park on your driveway. It’s built to handle every scenario you can throw at it – and it does so with devastating effectiveness. Need a practical transporter for an Alpine sortie? A…

WHAT DOES THE Tesla Model 3 have in common with an aeroplane? It’s the result of the belief of people with a seriously big vision. But while it was the Wright brothers who made the world’s first plane flight in 1903, my car is part of the end product of Tesla boss Elon Musk’s 2003 ambition to create affordable, mass-market electric vehicles (EVs). When you consider that the Tesla brand was launched seven years before the Nissan Leaf first went on sale, it’s easy to see just how way out there his aims were. Yet, 21 years later, I was able to buy a used Model 3 from a showroom under an approved used scheme for £31,000. That’s about the same price as a new Volkswagen ID 3 family hatchback,…

Mileage 3182 List price £48,695 Target Price £47,255 Price as tested £49,571 Test range 280 miles I MENTIONED IN my first report that, on paper, the BYD Seal offers many of the same qualities as the BMW i5 that I ran previously, despite costing around half the price. And after a month living with my new electric executive car, it’s clear that while there are certain areas where you get what you pay for, in others it does indeed deliver a huge amount of bang for your buck. You see, it’s an easier car to manoeuvre in tight spaces than the i5, just by virtue of it being smaller, yet this doesn’t translate into it being smaller inside. On the contrary, the Seal is actually more comfortable for a central…

Mileage 8188 List price £42,195 Target Price £40,543 Price as tested £42,845 Test range 234 miles TO MANGLE A quote from H G Wells, I’ve often regarded Tesla Superchargers with envious eyes across the gulf of a service station car park – especially when running low on charge in my Honda e:Ny1 late at night. Two things put me off risking using a Supercharger in those circumstances. First, uncertainty about which ones are available for use by non-Tesla electric cars (not all of them are). And second, warnings from a couple of What Car? readers that some e:Ny1s had stopped receiving anything other than a slow charge after being somehow zapped by a Tesla device. But, of course, we’re here to try out stuff like that as part of the reviewing…

DURING THE EARLIEST days of motoring, cars were reserved for the upper classes of society. Ordinary folk could only dream of owning one, until the Ford Model T arrived in 1909 and opened up motoring to the masses. Not long after, car makers clamoured to offer buyers untold variety at every price point, and that vast choice continues today – as demonstrated by these two used cars. Today, £7000 buys you a Suzuki Ignis – the diddiest SUV you can buy, and one with genuine off-road credentials if you choose the four-wheel-drive version. The front-wheel-drive model we have here, though, is happier on the Tarmac, despite its rugged looks. It goes up against a conventional small car in the shape of the Kia Picanto – in this case, in X-Line…

SINCE SEPARATING FROM Seat in 2018, Cupra has stood as the sporty foil to sensible Skoda within the Volkswagen Group. The new Terramar family SUV is Cupra’s largest model yet, being closely related to the new Skoda Kodiaq and Volkswagen Tiguan. It’s slightly bigger than the Cupra Ateca and serves as a de facto replacement for the Seat Tarraco. Naturally, Cupra also wants you to believe that the Terramar is sportier than rival family SUVs, so it inherits several styling elements from the brand’s pure electric Tavascan, including triangular headlights, a shark-like nose and aero wheels. Under the skin, it’s claimed to have been engineered to deliver a more engaging driving experience than its blood relatives, with special attention paid to power delivery, suspension and steering. But is this enough…

NEED AN SUV that can cross a mountain range, a desert or a battlefield? If so, the Toyota Land Cruiser will almost certainly end up on your shortlist. Over a period of more than seven decades, the Land Cruiser has built a reputation as an unstoppable off-roader, often found providing transport in the most challenging environments in the world. This new, fifth-generation model promises to carry on that tradition, but with a greater focus on on-road comfort and refinement. Previous Land Cruisers have felt pretty agricultural and uncomfortable in everyday use compared with most other similar-priced SUVs. Some other markets get the option of a bigger Land Cruiser 300 with a choice of engines, but in the UK we get only this ‘mid-size’ Land Cruiser 250 with one engine option:…

THIN, LIGHT AND wise. No, we’re not describing Mr Miyagi of The Karate Kid fame, but rather the philosophy that Honda has followed for its new 0 Series SUV. Destined to face rivals that include the Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron, Skoda Enyaq Coupé and Volvo EC40, the 0 SUV showcases the same boxy styling as the Space Hub concept car that was unveiled at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It’s the first in a new line-up of electric cars from the Japanese brand that’s due to go on sale before the end of 2026. While technical details around the new SUV are scarce, cheaper versions are expected to come with a single electric motor that powers the rear wheels and produces around 241bhp. Top-end versions, meanwhile, should…

THE NEW PORSCHE Taycan GTS is much like a remix of one of your favourite songs: it’s got all the fundamentals of the original (the already great Taycan electric car) but with some nifty new touches to make it that much more exciting. Joining Porsche’s refreshed Taycan line-up between the 4S and Turbo models, the new GTS is available in saloon and Sport Turismo estate guises. Like most Taycans, it has two electric motors, but the rear one is 107bhp more powerful than before, upping the maximum output to 691bhp (with launch control activated), or 597bhp in normal use. That puts it between the entry-level Audi S E-tron GT (up to 671bhp) and the RS E-tron GT (845bhp), to which it’s closely related. Both GTSs can sprint from 0-62mph in…

THE ABILITY TO multitask is a valuable skill that not everyone possesses. The Maserati GranTurismo coupé does; it serves up monstrous performance while remaining largely comfy enough for the long trips that its name suggests to be its forte. Can this also be true, though, of this convertible version? Like its sibling, the GranCabrio offers seats for four, but here they sit beneath a fabric roof. This can be lowered in around 14 seconds, at speeds of up to 30mph, so rain needn’t always halt play. The presence of the same 542bhp 3.0-litre twin-turbo-charged V6 engine under the bonnet as the equivalent GranTurismo Trofeo means you’ll want to play quite often, too; the 0-62mph time of 3.6sec matches the similar-priced Mercedes-AMG SL63’s, although the BMW M8 Competition Convertible is even…

ALTHOUGH THE BRITISH car industry isn’t quite as flourishing as it used to be, a huge number of cars are still built in factories around the country. According to official figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, more than 905,000 cars and 120,000 commercial vehicles were built here in 2023 (the latest full-year data available), with the automotive sector accounting for nearly 12% of our exports. So, which cars and vans are currently built in the UK? In most cases, this list features models that you’d be able to walk into a dealership and buy today. Some of them, though, are from smaller outfits that may produce niche products but are nevertheless well-established and respected parts of the UK automotive landscape. There are a few other British-built cars,…

NEW KIA EV3 Long Range GT-Line List price £39,495 Target Price £39,495 The EV3 is Kia’s dinkiest EV, but there’s nothing small about its official range of up to 375 miles. Can it punch above its weight and give larger family electric SUVs a black eye? RENAULT SCENIC Long Range Techno List price £40,995 Target Price £37,675 Our current favourite family electric SUV offers the longest official range here, a spacious interior and a generous equipment list, for a very keen price. It’ll be hard to beat NEW SKODA ELROQ 85 Edition  List price £38,650 Target Price £36,150 The excellent Skoda Enyaq’s smaller sibling promises a similar level of practicality, but at a lower price point. With the largest of its battery options, its 360-mile official range is competitive THE…

RENAULT CLIO 1.0 TCe 90 Techno WHILE THE REINVENTION of the Renault 5 (R5) is an exciting step in the French brand’s future direction, it doesn’t spell the end of the more traditional Clio any time soon. The fact that the retro-inspired R5 is electric and a step up in price from the slightly larger, petrol-engined Clio means there’s plenty of room in Renault’s line-up for both of these small hatchbacks to co-exist happily, catering for slightly different audiences. And that’s terrific news, because the Clio is too good – and too popular – to be put out to pasture just yet. The Clio is available as a hybrid that promises economy of up to 67.3mpg, but it’s the regular 1.0-litre petrol that we favour; it’s a fair bit cheaper…

LEXUS LBX 1.5 Premium Plus CYCLING IS A highly efficient means of getting from one place to another. An average human can travel at 15mph on a bike while putting in only the same effort as it takes to walk at 5mph. You can even cover ground more swiftly than a top marathon runner, without breaking a sweat. Bikes, though, are severely limited when it comes to carrying passengers and luggage, and few people would choose one for a long journey. A far less compromised means of getting about efficiently and comfortably, without leaving everyone and everything behind, is to use a Lexus LBX. As a hybrid, Lexus’s smallest model not only promises outstanding fuel economy but also delivers it. You can expect to average more than 50mpg in normal…

RENAULT 5 52kWh Techno RECENTLY, WE’VE SEEN the revival of a few iconic car names, and while some have caused quite a stir over how little the new model resembles its predecessor, the Renault 5 (R5) hits all the right notes. Better still, this modern interpretation of the original hatchback from the 1970s isn’t just a styling exercise; it has all the key components that you’d want from a small electric car. Renault’s entry-level batterypowered model certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been built to a budget when you’re sitting inside. Our preferred mid-range Techno trim has all the tech you’d find inside the R5’s larger Megane and Scenic stablemates, including a big, 10.3in digital instrument panel with a wide choice of layouts, and a 10.1in touchscreen infotainment system that’s one…

1 MINI Reliability rating 98.3% MINI TOPPLED Lexus from the top spot for reliability in 2024 with reliability ratings of 96% or higher for all five models reported on in our survey: the Mini hatchback, Mini Electric, Clubman, Convertible and Countryman. It had the lowest fault rate of all 31 brands included in the latest survey; overall, just 7% of Mini owners told us any issues had arisen with their cars. Mini was also one of the best brands for swift fixes; 43% of faults were resolved in a day or less, meaning minimal inconvenience for owners. All of the affected Minis remained driveable, and the most common faults were minor bodywork glitches, although there were a small percentage of reports of issues with electrical systems, including the infotainment. Although Mini…

HYUNDAI SANTA FE 1.6T Hybrid Premium DID YOU KNOW the Hyundai Santa Fe is named after the capital of New Mexico? It’s true, and it’s apt. Back at the turn of the millennium, this model was Hyundai’s first attempt at an SUV, and it became a big hit in the US. As any aspiring music artist knows, make it big in America and you’re en route to the big time. And, speaking of big, it’s fair to say that size is one of the key reasons why we picked this latest Santa Fe as the best seven-seater on sale. Of course, all the cars in this category have seven seats, but not all have seven roomy seats. The Santa Fe does. All seven of its seats are… crikey, what’s that…

SKODA ELROQ 85 Edition NO ONE COULD accuse Skoda of rushing things when it comes to the rate at which it introduces new electric vehicles (EVs). Its first, the Puck, was created way back in 1941, but then this wasn’t followed up until 2019, when we got the Citigo-e city car. There was less of a gap to the Enyaq SUV, but it was still a three-year wait. And now, a further three years down the road, we have the smaller Elroq SUV. The thing is, though, when you rush you tend to spill your coffee or stub your toe, whereas by taking its time, Skoda has got the Elroq absolutely right. It may be smaller than the Enyaq, but that’s reflected in the pricing, which starts at just £31,500.…

1 HYUNDAI IONIQ 5 N E-SHIFT HARRY HOUDINI MIGHT be considered the world’s greatest magician, but we reckon the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is every bit as magical – because while this electric hot hatch doesn’t feature a traditional gearbox, it fools you into thinking it does. By simulating the experience of an eight-speed paddle-shift gearbox, the e-Shift system aims to make an electric vehicle (EV) just as engaging to drive as a combustion-engined equivalent. The effect is as wondrous as finding a rabbit inside your favourite hat. Press the accelerator pedal to the floor and the virtual ‘revs’ will flare as you’d expect, and if you pull one of the wheel-mounted paddles, there’s a momentary pause in the power delivery as the e-Shift changes ‘gear’, as you’d experience with a…

THE NEW HYUNDAI Santa Fe, Kia EV3 and MG HS have all raised the bar in their respective classes in the past 12 months, as have the Skoda Elroq and Volkswagen Passat. In a different year, any one of them would have made a deserving overall winner, but in 2025 they’ve had the misfortune of coming up against the new Renault 5 (R5). When you drive the R5 and see the attention it gets, you realise there’s so much affection for its design that Renault could have penny-pinched on the engineering and still sold as many as it could make. But instead, it has clearly thrown everything at the car, with this resulting in something that offers a competitive real-world range and strikes a superb balance between comfort and driving…

Mileage 20,024 List price £58,879 Target Price na Price as tested £59,824 Test economy 25.6mpg REMINISCING WITH MY parents recently about a holiday cottage we used to go to, we resolved to return. And while there, I resolved to fulfil a childhood dream of driving on the nearby beach. Our alarms went off awfully early, then we all loaded into my Ford Ranger Raptor with a picnic. My dad’s freshly serviced bicycle was behind in the load bed; once we’d removed the front wheel, it fitted well beneath the rolltop. I was grateful for the Raptor’s heated seats and steering wheel as we set off from Cheshire to Black Rock Sands in north Wales with the sun just rising in the sky. The roads eventually narrowed from dual carriageways to…

Mileage 2112 List price £51,790 Target Price £48,790 Price as tested £53,825 Test economy 53.2mpg LIKE PETER PARKER discovering his latent superhero powers as Spider-Man, I’ve recently realised that I’m more practical than I’d thought. You see, after years of owning a toolbox with no idea how to use its contents, my partner decided that she’d like to liberate some space in her spare bedroom, and I was given the task of dismantling an old bed frame. So, I set to work with a hammer and an Allen key, and before long I was left with a pile of scrap metal, wooden slats and bolts to get rid of in the boot of my Cupra Formentor. I will admit to feeling a bit worried, because my car’s boot can officially…

Mileage 10,402 List price £51,550 Target Price £51,550 Price as tested £56,080 Test range 315 miles FOR MANY FAMILY car drivers, space really is the final frontier – the continuing mission being to balance available space with a range of paraphernalia that seems to grow faster than the universe itself. Over the four months I’ve spent with my Volkswagen ID 7 so far, it’s something that’s been frequently on my mind. But space is also why you see me standing in a car park with a telescope, because as well as enjoying the room inside the ID 7, I’m a fan of looking up at space. Fortunately, the ID 7 is pretty galactic in the back – so much so, in fact, that when I headed out with four friends…

STAR RATINGS TARGET PRICE The What Car? Target Price is the maximum you should pay for a new car and is researched by our crack team of mystery shoppers. Haggling for the best price with salespeople can be an uncomfortable experience, but it’s made much easier with our Target Price as a realistic figure to aim for. TARGET PCP Based on the Target Price figures set by our mystery shoppers, Target PCP is a fair monthly payment to aim for if you’re taking out a personal contract purchase (PCP) finance agreement at a car dealership. Most of the deals are over 48 months with a 15% deposit and an 8000-mile annual limit. Those marked with an asterisk are over 36 months and those with an apostrophe are over 42 months.…

‘By the time the Mk2 Leaf arrived in 2018, more brands were dabbling with EVs’ WITH SO MANY electric vehicles (EVs) to choose from nowadays, it can be tricky to see the wood for the trees. Things were different, though, when the Nissan Leaf first arrived in 2011. If you wanted an electric family car, well, this was it. It’s hard to overstate just how significant the Leaf came to be. It was the first mass-produced, purpose-designed EV. Its arrival was a defining point in automotive history, turning up as it did before the smaller Renault Zoe, and more than two years before the much bigger, pricier Model S made Tesla’s name in the UK. It quickly became a common sight on urban roads, its popularity buoyed by environmentally conscious…

LIKE LUXURY SCANDINAVIAN homes, the new Volvo EX90’s interior offers a minimalist look, yet a real sense of open space. But then, the latter isn’t so surprising; at just over five metres long, Volvo’s new electric SUV flagship is slightly longer than the petrol-powered XC90. Two versions of the EX90 are available, each with a 107kWh (usable capacity) battery and two electric motors for four-wheel drive. With 402bhp, the entry-level Twin Motor does 0-62mph in 5.9sec. That means it’s not quite as quick as the rival Kia EV9 AWD Dual Motor, but given the way it fires off the line and relentlessly gathers pace, it doesn’t need to be any nippier. If you disagree, though, the EX90 Performance has 510bhp and knocks 1.0sec off that time. Cornering performance isn’t quite…

FASTEST OR FARTHEST? With electric cars, you can have the quickest acceleration or the longest range, but never both at once. It’s all about picking the compromise that works best for you, and this explains the existence of the new Mercedes-Benz EQE 500 saloon. With a hearty 402bhp on tap, it’s comfortably quicker than the cheaper EQE 350+, at the cost of official range dipping from that car’s 429 miles to a less remarkable 386 miles – partly because the 500 has a smaller battery: 90.5kWh (usable) versus 96kWh. That range will still suffice for many, though, and it beats the 306-mile promise of the even faster AMG EQE 53, which has the same battery. The EQE 500’s range also beats that of the rival BMW i5 eDrive40 M Sport,…

HAVING A STRONG foundation on which to build a new product can lead to big success. What would the Super Mario Bros video game franchise be without its titular plumber, for example, or the Indiana Jones films without Harrison Ford? So, when it came to making its new small electric SUV, Ford wisely chose to base the Gen-E on greatness. You see, Ford’s petrol-engined Puma is a What Car? favourite. Our overall Car of the Year in 2020, it remains a strong choice in the class. And now its appeal has been broadened with this new electric version. The Puma Gen-E looks, as you might expect, substantially like its sibling. Only a different set of alloy wheels and a redesigned front bumper that incorporates a closed-off grille really set the…

NOT TOO LONG ago, a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) would be doing well to achieve an official electric range of 30 miles, but now a fair few of them can double that, and the Mercedes-Benz C300e is one of them. This is terrific news for company car users in particular; its 71-mile official range brings a low, 5% tax rating. If the C300e takes your fancy, this new Urban Edition version brings more good news: it’s £2000 cheaper than the previous entry-level trim, further reducing those tax bills. But is it the pick of the bunch? Well, things look positive straight off the bat, because this trim isn’t short of kit; it even packs such niceties as ambient lighting, a rear-view camera, heated front seats and wireless phone charging. The Urban…

MINI COOPER E Classic (Level 1) List price £32,000 Target Price £30,036 Mini sells two Cooper hatchbacks that look similar but are, in fact, completely different. This one’s the fully electric version NEW RENAULT 5 52kWh Techno List price £26,995 Target Price £26,995 New Renault 5 is achingly desirable and undercuts the Mini by thousands – despite having a longer range and faster charging. Is there a catch? DON’T WORRY: YOU haven’t picked up a copy of What Car? from 1973 by accident, although these two nameplates did start duking it out more than 50 years ago. You’ll doubtless know plenty about the Mini already. This British icon was originally built by a British company in (yep, you guessed it) Britain. However, after changing hands several times throughout the years,…

TOYOTA COROLLA 1.8 Hybrid Icon IF YOU’RE MAKING precise adjustments to a vintage timepiece, a jeweller’s screwdriver is what you need, whereas a sledgehammer is just the job for knocking holes in solid walls. You should always select the right tool for the job, and for everyday family transportation, that tool is the Toyota Corolla. Millions of people all over the globe would agree; in fact, the Corolla has been the world’s best-selling car for much of the past century, and it’s richly deserved. Toyota’s family car has never sought to be the flashiest, nor the most exciting, but – like an anvil – it fulfils its specific role brilliantly. For one thing, in these times of forcibly tightened purse strings, the hybrid-powered Corolla stacks up very well on costs.…

KIA SPORTAGE 1.6 T-GDi 48V 3 THE JOURNEY THAT Kia has made in the past 20 years is, quite frankly, remarkable. There was a time when you bought a Kia because you had to – perhaps it was all you could afford – but now it’s a brand known for making stylish, competitive and, above all, sought-after cars. Cars people want to own. The Sportage is a cracking example. Its striking, of-the-moment design sets it apart from other family SUVs, and the front running lights – arranged like huge, inward-pointing arrows – direct you so confidently towards the Kia badge that the car might as well be shouting, “Yes, I’m a Kia and proud!”. But don’t for a second imagine that the Sportage is style over substance, because it isn’t.…

KIA EV3 Standard Range Air THE FIRST ELECTRIC vehicle (EV) ever to win our overall Car of the Year award was a Kia. That was back in 2019, when the e-Niro came out of nowhere to prove that EVs didn’t need to cost a fortune to offer a long range and decent performance. Fast forward five years and Kia has moved the game on once again with another cracking electric SUV. The EV3 is fractionally smaller than the e-Niro (and its replacement, the Niro EV), but it’s still a surprisingly practical family car. Rear seat space is far better than in the rival Jeep Avenger Electric and Mini Aceman, and not far off what’s offered by the Skoda Elroq from the class above. The EV3’s boot is even more impressive,…

TESLA MODEL 3 RWD THERE’S MORE THAN one plastic interlocking brick construction toy available today, but while each product has its plus points, Lego is the one that every kid (or enlightened grown-up) yearns for. Similarly, when it comes to electric vehicles (EVs), Tesla is the name on everyone’s lips. And like Lego, Tesla deserves its enviable popularity – as the Model 3 effortlessly demonstrates. As an executive car, it ticks all the right boxes for anyone who seems to spend a lifetime on the road. It’s classy inside (the latest version brought a real step up in materials and build quality) and spacious for all on board. The Model 3 has notably more room for tall folk in the back than the BMW i4, for instance, as well as…

1 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT THE LATEST VOLKSWAGEN Passat is an exceptionally good all-rounder for safety. Its adult occupant protection score of 93% is the second highest of all the 41 cars tested in the past year, and it’s among the top performers for protecting vulnerable road users and for safety assistance systems that help drivers to avoid collisions in the first place. The Passat’s front bumper is wide and deep, and the structure of it is designed to make it less harmful to a smaller vehicle in a head-on impact. This, and the design of the car’s entire front end, help to lessen injuries to pedestrians and cyclists. The Passat’s active safety systems are as accurate as those on pricier models. The lane-keeping assistance works particularly well, picking up lane markings on…

BMW 4 SERIES 420i M Sport IF YOUR INFLATABLE dinghy starts losing air, you’ll cut the fun short and head to shore. When crisps lose their crispness, they’re nothing like as tasty. And we’ve all seen footage of the Tacoma Narrows bridge wobbling around in the wind before collapsing into Puget Sound. Yes, it always ends in disappointment when something isn’t as stiff as it needs to be. We’re talking, of course, about structural integrity. It’s key to the way a car handles, rides and feels, and the BMW 4 Series Coupé has it in abundance. This helps it to be the sharpest car in its class to drive. What’s remarkable, though, is that its drop-top sibling feels so similar without a metal roof between the windscreen and rear window.…

PORSCHE 718 CAYMAN GTS 4.0 ON MASTERCHEF, USING all the right ingredients in exactly the right amounts is what’s required if you’re to take the trophy home, rather than watching the final in front of the telly with a Pot Noodle. If the Cayman GTS had been cooked up in the Masterchef kitchen, Porsche wouldn’t just win; it’d be asked to become one of the professional judges. Every ingredient that goes into this incredible sports car is not only perfectly measured, but it’s also of the very best quality you can get. The 395bhp 4.0-litre engine is a particular highlight. With no turbochargers to potentially delay response, and with two more cylinders than more junior versions of the Cayman, it rewards with instant, explosive shove when you put your foot…

NOW THAT ARTIFICIAL intelligence is no longer the preserve of sci-fi, it can be hard to tell which images are real and which are the figment of a computer program’s imagination. And even before any of us had heard of ChatGPT, the photos in magazines were sometimes heavily manipulated with after-effects. For this year’s What Car? Car of the Year Awards, though, I wanted to get back to the pure art of photography – working with the conditions on the day to capture the shot, and relying on nothing more complicated than filters and colour adjustments to bring cohesion to the set. It wasn’t always easy – not least because of the time of year that our awards take place and the weather that comes with it. However, hopefully you…

THERE’S BEEN A bit of an uproar in some quarters over the way Ford has been bringing back or repurposing some of its most iconic nameplates – notably ‘Capri’ and ‘Mustang’ – for use on electric cars that have little in common with their illustrious forebears. However, it isn’t the only brand that has been digging into its back catalogue for inspiration; Fiat and Mini have been at it for years. Renault, too, is reviving storied names from the past as it expands its electric vehicle (EV) line-up in the post-Zoe era. And so far, the tactic seems to be working well for the French brand. The reborn Renault 5 (R5) small hatchback and Renault 4 small SUV – which in effect replace the pioneering Zoe – appear to be…

BACK IN 2007, at a friend’s 10th birthday party, his dad drove us all to the SnowDome in Milton Keynes in his new Nissan X-Trail. Six kids and one dad were packed into the car, with me in the third row. Given that this was the first time I’d ever sat in a third-row seat, the experience left me with a soft spot for the X-Trail that’s lasted to this day. I remember looking forwards, seeing the front row ahead in the distance, and thinking “How could a car be this big?”. Well, 17 years later, I now lead a lifestyle that really is suited to such big cars. You see, not only am I video production manager for the What Car? YouTube channel, which requires me to transport all…

IN PRODUCTION 2019-PRESENT PRICE FROM £15,000 OUR FAVOURITE VERSION P300e S WHEN SHOPS HAVE sales, you sometimes see eager customers literally falling over each other to get their hands on the most popular items before they sell out. That’s almost what it must have been like at Land Rover dealerships when the Range Rover Evoque made its debut in 2011, such was the appeal of this unusually handsome small SUV. Not surprisingly, Land Rover didn’t mess with the looks when this second iteration came out in 2019. However, it brought in new underpinnings, mild hybrid engine technology and an even smarter and roomier interior. The engine line-up initially consisted of three petrol and three diesel options, all with a 2.0-litre capacity. The petrols ranged in output from 197bhp (P200) to…

Audi A6 Sportback Price from £62,500 DATA FACT Matches the 502-litre boot of its Avant estate sister, with a starting price £1500 cheaper and an extra 21 miles of range in Sport trim. Mini Cooper Convertible Price from £27,050 DATA FACT Small soft-top uses exclusively 2.0-litre petrol engines and offers just 160 litres of luggage space. Renault 5 Price from £22,995 DATA FACT Small electric hatchback is shorter than a Renault Clio. Our favourite 52kWh Techno version has a 253-mile official range. Volvo XC90 Price from £63,790 DATA FACT Updated luxury SUV promises up to 235.1mpg in T8 plug-in hybrid guise, along with a nippy 5.4sec 0-62mph time. Gone but not forgotten The Leaf has finally fallen from Nissan’s electric tree p201…