Indice dei contenuti per June 19, 2024 in Autocar

PEUGEOT AND VAUXHALL could return to the hot hatchback market in the coming years with powered-up versions of their closely related electric superminis. Sporty reworkings of the Peugeot e-208 and Vauxhall Corsa Electric are now on the cards, after Lancia unveiled the 237bhp Ypsilon HF, which shares their Stellantis e-CMP platform and key dimensions. It remains to be seen whether either Peugeot or Vauxhall deems an electric hot hatch to be commercially viable, but the new Ypsilon (which revives Lancia’s long-dormant High Fidelity branding) has proved that the e-CMP platform can comfortably accommodate a more potent front motor and a performance-targeted chassis makeover. Abarth and Alfa Romeo have also recently revealed sporting versions of their e-CMP-based electric crossovers (the 600e and Junior) using the same motor plus a Torsen limited-slip…

APPLE HAS REVEALED new functionality for its next-generation CarPlay. The new system will offer much more personalisation of a car’s on-board displays and touts similar functionality to an inbuilt infotainment platform. The next-gen CarPlay system will make the leap from a car’s central infotainment display to all of its screens, including the instrument panel. This will allow it to control a far wider range of on-board functions, including the climate control, driving modes and driver assistance settings. Car makers will be able to tailor these new interfaces to a vehicle’s specification. For example, the climate control menu can be tweaked to show how many seats and climate zones a car has and buttons can be added for functions such as seat heaters. The new iteration of CarPlay also presents a…

MENTION REMOTE-controlled cars and thoughts immediately turn to the sort many of us have had fun with, like Tamiya or Kyosho. But behind the scenes at the movers and shakers in automotive firms like Continental, engineers might be talking about something quite different: full-size remote-controlled cars. Autonomous vehicle technology is not just about the infamous ‘driverless car’ concept. It also covers a whole range of things that are far less dramatic, such as park assist systems and, beyond that, the ability for cars to move themselves around for automated valet parking (AVP). The idea with AVP is that a driver turns up at the car park and leaves the car to trundle off and park itself before it returns later when summoned. Plans for this kind of system have formed…

Covid may have struck four years ago but car dealers and buyers are being warned of a worrying side effect: cars registered at the time whose equipment level didn’t match their official specification and are now entering the used car market, often undetected and incorrectly priced. Called ‘Covid cars’, these vehicles are victims of the global parts shortage caused by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Semiconductors, the brains behind everything from heated seats to wireless phone chargers, were the hardest parts to get hold of as phone, games console and computer manufacturers rushed to satisfy the surge in demand for their products from people confined to their homes. Faced with the possibility of limited supplies or even none at all, some car makers deleted many of the features that…

Britain’s ‘King of the Mountain’ will return to Pikes Peak this Sunday for the 102nd running of the great International Hillclimb. But this time, expat Robin Shute has lined up something entirely different for the 12.42-mile, 156-turn Colorado mountain sprint. Instead of shooting for his fifth overall victory in six years in his self-prepared Unlimited class Wolf sports racer, the Norfolk-born Pikes Peak specialist has accepted a welcome diversion to set new EV benchmarks with Hyundai. Shute will race one of two steroidal Ioniq 5 N TA Spec production racers, with Hyundai’s part-time World Rally Championship star Dani Sordo in the other one. Shute himself and fellow engineer Tim Whitteridge have led the development of the modified electric SUVs, which are run by former Indycar ace Bryan Herta’s eponymous squad.…

Yes, it’s another electric SUV out of China that is claimed to be smart, digital-first and sustainable. It has a big touchscreen inside and one of those light bars as well. Novel. The company behind it describes itself as a start-up led by a tech entrepreneur and it has European expansion plans that include the UK (right-hand-drive cars are due in November). In the bursting-at-the-seams medium electric SUV class that contains the Tesla Model Y, Skoda Enyaq, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and many, many others, Xpeng is going to need something a bit more eye-catching to draw people’s attention. It doesn’t help that its new G6 looks rather a lot like a Model Y with some slimmer lights. There are three versions: the single-motor Standard Range, single-motor Long Range and dual-motor…

Audi likes a special edition, so as the current generation of the A4, A6 and their various derivatives enter their final few months on sale, Audi Sport’s cannon is glowing red hot. We’ve recently seen Performance versions of the RS6 and RS7, there’s an RS6 GT on the way and the RS4 and RS5 got Competition variants last year. The latest are the RS5 Performance Edition and this RS4 Edition 25 Years – which, as the slightly clunky name suggests, celebrates 25 years since the first RS4 was launched. Of the 250 that will be produced, 50 are UK-bound. Like the original, it’s available in gloriously eye-searing Imola Yellow. You can have it grey or black as well, but you would be missing the point. The 25 Years is based…

Designing and engineering a car is one thing. Manufacturing and selling it is quite another. Cars are extremely costly and complicated things to produce – not least because the process relies on hugely complex supply chains and the vehicles themselves must be built to meet all sorts of legislative requirements that are often different in every market. Tesla is the only real modern example of a car maker that has been created from scratch and gone on to make a success of itself at any kind of meaningful scale. Until now. Ineos Automotive was created over a pint in a London pub by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who lamented the demise of the old Land Rover Defender and the absence in the market of anything like it. That was in 2016.…

MILEAGE 4543 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if this capable new crossover can be more than just a niche product Judging by the action-packed promotional videos I’ve seen, Subaru’s ‘lifestyle’ aspirations for this car amount to rather sexier outdoor pursuits – usually involving skis, sails or ropes – than a weekend’s fishing in the Home Counties. However, that was what my best friend Alex wanted to do for his 50th birthday, and it was in the depths of the countryside with the potential for the odd green lane, so the Crosstrek seemed the obvious choice of transport. It was fortunate that there were only two of us, because once we had stowed a weekend’s food, a couple of disposable barbecues, sufficient liquid refreshment, wellies and ancillary fishing gear in…

After 26 years, four generations and, at its peak, 114 sales every hour, the Ford Focus is to family hatchbacks what Warburtons orange loaf is to the UK’s diet. Even in 2024, a year before Ford axes the Focus permanently from its line-up, just under 24,000 were sold between January and May compared with around 25,000 Volkswagen Golfs. Quite rightly too, given that it remains the daily-drive darling of many enthusiasts for three key reasons: ample practicality, handsome looks and, crucially, class-leading driving dynamics. The current Mk4 car, manufactured since 2018, has a suite of chassis enhancements over the previous one that allow the Focus to maintain a dynamic agenda, despite growing over time (it’s around 150mm longer and wider, and 219kg heavier, than the first-generation car). These include a…

“THOSE WHO HAVE passed through the station at Sunbury [in Surrey] by train have obtained a glimpse of an immense area literally covered with cars, lorries and motor bicycles exposed to the weather,” we reported in January 1919. “The public naturally asks: why is the nation’s property neglected in this manner?” The “lamentable waste of public money, owing to neglect due to lack of foresight and organisation” that they had seen at Kempton Park was one of Britain’s many newly redundant armed forces depots. Around 7000 cars were awaiting their fates there, from the War Office’s total of about 12,000. There was actually plenty of demand for them, but anyone interested first had to obtain a special permit, travel to Sunbury, “wade through mud and mire” to reach the mostly…

Why go to the trouble and expense of creating two or more cars when you can create one and sell it with different names? That process is called badge engineering, and it has been employed many times over the years, usually for brands owned by the same manufacturer but occasionally by collaborating manufacturers. Here are some of the most obscure examples. Saab-Lancia 600 1980 Once upon a time, the Wallenberg family – one of Sweden’s most influential and controllers of Saab – realised they needed to replace Trollhättan’s venerable 96 model but lacked the funds to develop one. So they turned to another famous family, the Agnellis of Italy, who were happy to allow the Lancia Delta to be badge-engineered as a Saab. The 600 was almost entirely unmodified, even…

“The range-topping A290 develops 221lb ft for a Cooper SE-baiting 0-62mph time of 6.4sec” Alpine has entered its electric era with the A290 hot hatch, which majors on performance, agility and lightness. The Renault-owned brand’s debut EV preserves the spirit of last year’s outlandish Beta concept, with a wide-reaching design makeover that clearly marks it out from the Renault 5 on which it is based and emphasises its sporting billing. The A290 is the same length as the Renault hatch but its track has been increased by 60mm, endowing the muscular A290 with a wider stance in order to appeal to “stylists and performance enthusiasts alike”, according to Alpine. The exterior design contains distinctive details that play into Alpine’s motorsport heritage, such as the X-shaped motifs on the spotlights. Wider…

Audi has given its E-tron GT sports saloon a new look and a round of substantial technical updates to bring it into line with its recently upgraded Porsche Taycan sibling. Many of the changes mirror those on the Porsche, with which the E-tron GT shares its J1 platform, and include significant upgrades to the battery capacity, motor power and DC rapid-charging speed. Thanks to improved cell chemistry and a more compact cooling system, it has been possible to increase the capacity of the battery from a usable 84kWh to 97kWh while reducing the weight by 9kg. As before, the smaller battery that is available in the Taycan isn’t offered in the E-tron GT. The same changes have allowed the maximum charging speed to rise from 270kW to a peak of…

The fourth-generation BMW X3 has been revealed, touting a radical new look outside, a completely reworked interior and a heavily upgraded chassis – but sticking with petrol and diesel power. A new pure-electric X3 will arrive next year, previewed by the radical Neue Klasse X concept and based on an all-new architecture. But this latest model – due on sale by the end of the year – is evolved from the ‘G01’ car, which has been around since 2017. The fourth-gen version of BMW’s best-seller (with 350,000 global sales last year) still uses the rear-biased CLAR platform. However, it has been given a wide-reaching chassis overhaul in pursuit of “an even broader range of driving characteristics and added ride comfort”, project boss Martin Delitz told Autocar recently. The suspension at…

Chinese EVs imported into the EU are to be hit with additional duty rates as high as 38.1% as part of plans to level Europe’s automotive playing field. The European Commission announced it will apply the new proposed tax on top of the existing 10% tariff. Talks will now be held with Chinese manufacturers over the levy, and “should discussions with authorities not lead to an effective solution”, tariffs will begin from 4 July. The move follows months of debate over how best to stem the flow into the EU of Chinese EVs that are able to undercut local rivals by typically 20% as a result of huge subsidies from the Chinese government. EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has previously said: “Competition must be fair.” In documents released last week,…

Is the Tesla Model Y an SUV? If you were, say, an activist against urban-dwelling 4x4s, would you be inclined to put a narky sticker on the windscreen of one or pop a lentil into one of its tyre valves so that it would get a flat? I ask because the popularity of SUVs has hit new heights. Automotive data firm Jato Dynamics has announced that global sales of them rose 16% last year to 36.72 million, or 47% of all new cars sold. In many developed markets, SUVs are now the dominant models. And the Model Y is a big part of it. With sales up 64%, it’s the world’s favourite car, taking 1.22 million sales in 2023, easily outselling the second-placed Toyota RAV4 (1.08 million) and in the…

The Explorer is a new Ford like no other. The fact that it’s based on a Volkswagen architecture is remarkable enough, that it takes the place of the Fiesta on its production lines in Cologne perhaps more so. Oh, and it resets the notion of a mainstream, mass-market, family-sized Ford as a car that’s now electric and starts at £40,000. The Explorer isn’t just a new Ford, then – a significant enough event itself – but the boldest embodiment of an entirely new approach for the Blue Oval in Europe. The strategy has been to replace high-volume, low-margin models like the Fiesta and Focus with more profitable crossovers like the Puma and now the Explorer, ‘legacy’ model names being rebooted in the process. This isn’t a fringe manufacturer tinkering around…

The Renault Captur has gone under the knife, receiving a fresh face, a reworked interior and new infotainment to further enhance its appeal. Despite still being one of Renault’s best-sellers, the Mk2 Captur, launched in 2019, had been looking a little previous-generation of late. Enter new design boss Gilles Vidal. After a new design language was applied to the Clio, Scenic and Rafale, the Captur was next in line. What’s more impressive than the sharp new look, however, is what remains unchanged: the Captur’s strong value for money. Prices for the compact crossover start at £21,095, which is £500 less than before and undercuts many rivals, like the Ford Puma (£25,800), Hyundai Kona (£26,040) and Nissan Juke (£23,500) – a car that has also just been updated, albeit minimally. The…

Too good to be true? The price of some used cars can be. You can be browsing the classifieds and spot what appears to be a bargain – until you check what the vehicle excise duty (VED) bill would be. So this is a story about bargain luxury barges, lightweight sports cars and souped-up hot hatchbacks that get punished by value-ruining duty. But here’s the thing: so long as you’ve budgeted for that, you can bag some cracking bargains. And with a bit of effort, you can avoid the worst the DVLA has to inflict. The killer £735 tax band was in operation for cars registered between 23 March 2006 and 31 March 2017. Before then, VED tops out at £415, while after it’s £190 if a model is five…

AUDI 80 AVANT DIESEL When it was bought for £900, this 80 immediately broke down, but owner Martin Tiffin has since spent £15,000 on the car, giving it RS2 front bumpers and a 1.9-litre TDI diesel engine that has accumulated 300,000 miles during his ownership. Tiffin now loves his Audi so much that he has framed pictures of it and, when asked if he would sell it for something ULEZ-compliant, he simply replied: “I’d just convert it to electric.” LANCIA FLAVIA Current owner Steve Thoma found this car on eBay as a nonrunner after it had been sitting neglected for years, with the engine distinctly absent. But Thoma, who has had 16 Lancias, understood how to make it shine again, giving it a thorough respray in its original colour and…

Stop being so sensitive I was greatly interested by Matt Prior’s article on the automatic emergency braking function on the Kia EV9 he has been driving (Tester’s Notes, 29 May), not least because it brought the car to an unnecessary stop in the centre of Bakewell, near where I live. As I read on, I realised that Matt was experiencing the issues I also have with our Volvo XC40, which regularly decides to slam on the brakes to avoid collisions with a car driving past our house, but when we are reversing into the driveway with said car passing in front of us. I’ve also experienced the shock of the collision warning lighting up the dash when a truck is approaching on the opposite side of the road with plenty…

An owner’s view LEWIS SANDERSON “I’ve had a 1.0-litre Zetec Focus since 2019. It is a brilliant drive and handles the road well. It is very responsive on back roads and I can push the car, which allows me to feel truly part of the driving experience. It’s also very comfortable, with all the tech features and sporty interior trimmings. It’s economical on long journeys and parts are readily available and reasonably priced, so a trip to the garage or upgrading it won’t break the bank. But on the other hand, they are common as muck, labelled as boy racer cars and somewhat underpowered.” Buyer beware… ENGINE Wet belt failure is a well-documented issue and one that can quickly get expensive: one owner spent £15,000 sorting out the problem on…

Fiat is sticking to its promise to sell no more grey cars by offering the Panda in a range of “bright body colours”, including this dazzling yellow. Fiat has revealed the all-new, fourth-generation Panda as a retro, rugged urban family car with a totally new look and the option of electric power. Called the Grande Panda to reflect a footprint that is larger than that of its predecessor (see separate story), the new hatchback is closely related to the recently launched Citroën C3, with which it shares Stellantis’s value-minded Smart Car platform. Originally engineered for developing markets, that platform has been adapted for global models and can accommodate both internal-combustion and battery powertrains. The Grande Panda will offer both, most likely sharing the C3’s 124-mile and 203-mile electric systems, and…

Dacia is putting the finishing touches to its largest car to date, the Bigster, ahead of its launch next year. The chunky SUV has been spotted in public for the first time and, even with the camouflage in place, it’s clear that the production car’s design remains largely faithful to the concept unveiled in 2021. It retains the same 4x4-inspired blocky proportions and slim LED headlights, bearing a strong resemblance to the smaller Dacia Duster. Indeed, it is effectively a stretched Duster. It is based on the same CMF-B platform as the small SUV but has been extended to 4.6m in length. That is 0.3m longer than the Duster and makes the Bigster the brand’s largest car yet, placing it in the same sector as hot sellers such as the…

BMW’S M DIVISION has ramped up the power and performance of the M2. Due on sale in August from £63,360, the upgraded 2024 sports coupé receives a more potent version of BMW’s turbocharged 3.0-litre straight six, which has been boosted by 20bhp to 473bhp. Torque has also increased, by 37lb ft to 443lb ft at 2650-6130rpm. This lift in reserves gives the M2 the same power and torque as the manual M3 and M4, which aren’t offered in the UK. BMW claims it improves the 0-62mph time by 0.1sec. The standard M2 Coupé with the eight-speed M Steptronic torque-converter automatic gearbox now covers 0-62mph in 4.0sec and the optional six-speed manual model in 4.2sec. The styling remains largely unchanged, but the car now comes with an extended range of colours,…

SUNDAY A pall of sadness hangs over our family. The battered red Hyundai i10 above, bought by my son 14 years and 140,000 miles ago in a spectacular scrappage deal, is heading for the great recycling centre in the sky. This, at least, is what the apologetic local MOT bloke believes, but the car’s owner, who lacks his family’s penchant for chucking too much money at cars, reckons he can squeeze another year from the i10’s dissolving floorpan. When you drive the i10 you can see why he wants to. I haven’t driven the car for years, but because its owner tends to obstruct our other bolides whenever he comes to visit, I often need to move it out of the way – discovering (again) that the clutch, gearbox, steering…

Michael Leiters wants to take McLaren’s cars back towards its motorsport roots; to draw clearer and more evocative parallels between them and the racing machines for which it’s even more widely known. That sounds sensible, but the two years he’s had in the job of CEO is a short time in product development terms. Isn’t it too early to try to judge any Leiters effect? Well, perhaps it isn’t. The 750S certainly shows signs of a shift in priorities towards the wild, expressive and dramatic (see p46), and now we know that its little sibling, the revised Artura plug-in hybrid supercar, does too. ‘Revised’ might be the wrong term, actually. It feels more as if the Artura’s launch has been reset. Leiters came to the chair in Woking around the…

If Porsche’s upper-mid-range, gently warmed GTS derivatives have a fault, perhaps it’s that they can sometimes feel less like performance models in their own right and more like rebranded combinations of just the right optional extras. Glorified trim levels, you might say. Circumstance has seen to it that you can’t say this about the new Cayenne GTS, however. With the range-topping Turbo GT not being on sale in Europe any longer, this becomes the fastest non-hybrid Cayenne in the line-up. That fact could give it fresh interest from private buyers of more traditional tastes who don’t see the sense in carting around nearly 400kg of extra ballast in a Turbo E-Hybrid that they will seldom charge up – and seldom drive quickly enough to feel the benefit of 730bhp, in…

In 1974, the Lombard RAC Rally came through my local town of Cirencester. The drivers included Roger Clark and Stig Blomqvist. Everyone flocked to the route to watch. Fast forward 30 years to when my three sons were growing up and, rather than standing beside a road to marvel at the likes of Colin McRae and Richard Burns, they fired up their PS2s and got behind the wheel themselves. There are many reasons why UK rallying no longer draws big audiences, including the loss of Wales Rally GB in 2019, but could rally games be one of them? Fortunately, the sport is fighting back. In November last year, crowds descended on the Roger Albert Clark Rally to watch drivers tackling some of the UK’s best-loved stages. This August, international rallying…

MODEL TESTED COUPE • Price £246,655 • Power 740bhp • Torque 590lb ft • 0-60mph 2.9sec • 30-70mph in 4th 3.3sec • Fuel economy 21.8mpg • CO2 emissions 276g/km • 70-0mph 39.4m Asupercar as dependable and highly rated as McLaren’s 720S must have been a very reassuring influence at Woking these past few years, as the company has morphed around it. But the technically bold Artura is now with us in revised form, its troubled gestation and launch behind it; McLaren Automotive’s senior leadership team has changed widely since 2022 but now seems more settled; and the firm has been back to its shareholders for recapitalisation funding. Calmer waters should be ahead. And while Woking’s greater exploration of ‘luxury’ niches and ‘lifestyle’ vehicle concepts remains on the to-do list, it can…

MILEAGE 4800 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To celebrate the survival – and indeed evolution – of the proper sports coupé It’s very easy to criticise the new BMW M2. To say that it has a harsh ride, or that it looks ugly compared with the last one, or that it’s really heavy. And while it’s 119mm longer and 230kg heavier than the car it replaced, BMW has achieved exactly what it should have: the M2 is fundamentally improved over the last one. As for how it looks, if you remove all subjectivity from the equation and judge it as a successful or unsuccessful piece of automotive design, I’d say this is more a case of the former. It is well proportioned, undoubtedly looks like a BMW and, while it might…

Having enjoyed your feature on the most comfortable cars (24 May 2023), I would love to hear some opinions on affordable comfortable cars, as the article featured premium models. I’ve noticed that some car reviews tend to skip over ride quality, as it’s so subjective, but it would be interesting to rate each car on a scale of some sort on how the car rides over various surfaces. The UK roads are pretty appalling but particularly in my area. I sadly sold my Skoda Octavia vRS TSI Estate earlier this year, as I was finding less enjoyment in driving it due to the poor state of our local road network. How I managed to avoid tyre and wheel damage, I really don’t know. Since I sold the Skoda, I’ve been…

A road test in any other magazine might well be a short, subjective summary of a new car produced under almost any circumstances, but the Autocar road test is different. Specific, rigorous and detailed, it’s the closest examination we can give of any new model. It appears over at least eight pages and is close to 50 man-hours in the making every week. Most of what the road test process entails is designed to be strictly repeatable and fair. We benchmark standing-start and in-gear acceleration at a purpose-built test facility every week. We carry out both subjective and objective handling tests on both road and track, on the latter up to and beyond the limit of grip, so as to fully assess stability, drivability and limit handling appeal. And while…