Tabla de contenidos para March 04, 2026 en Autocar

The Audi Quattro is being reborn with a supercharged V8 in a new project by British start-up Audacious Automotive. It is the brainchild of Mac Zaglewski, a sculptor and classic car restorer. The first example of Audacious’s Quattro is a commission that is being produced with steel and aluminium coachwork, but a wider production run with carbonfibre bodywork is on the cards. The car is in essence a merger of the performance and engineering of the B7-generation Audi RS4, launched in 2006, and the styling of the Quattro. The RS4’s chassis, engine and electronics are being married up to a modernised bodyshell of a Quattro. The idea, Zaglewski told Autocar, is “an exercise of continuation, rather than modification”. He said: “It’s a question of ‘what if?’. If Audi carried on…

Audi’s new A2 E-tron hatchback is poised for an imminent unveiling, and new pictures reveal that it will feature a cabin that majors on physical controls. Current Audi cabins rely heavily on touchscreens and major functions being operated by haptic controls, especially on the steering wheel. While the brand has begun to reintroduce more physical controls into its cars, this test mule of Audi’s new entry EV shows that the firm is going one step further in bringing back traditional switchgear, consolidating progress made on other recent Audis. For example, the A2’s steering wheel ditches haptic sliders for the metal rollers introduced on the new A5. The EV also gets the same ‘steering wheel control unit’ as the new Q3, replacing traditional stalks. “Audi’s going a step further with physical…

Polestar is to move away from high-end models with limited markets such as the forthcoming 5 GT and instead focus on quick wins in big markets as it looks to establish itself beyond its start-up phase. The aim is to expand its line-up to cover up to two-thirds of the market with different models and bodystyles, setting it up to achieve its growth targets. It’s building on some solid underpinnings. In the eight years or so since Polestar was launched as a stand-alone EV brand, its vehicles have generally been well received, and it has fostered a strong, identifiable image that is the envy of some start-ups of a similar age. Key to its firm foundation has been not only Polestar’s Volvo beginnings but also the backing of Chinese car…

THE NEAR-DEATH of diesel has been one of the most dramatic changes to the car market in the past 10 years. It was the go-to fuel for premium and company car drivers, accounting for almost 50% of the market in 2016. Then came the fallout from Dieselgate, followed by the shift to hybrid and electric power amid the crackdown on CO2 emissions, and 10 years later diesel cars’ UK market share stands at just 5.5% (as of January). But near-dead is not completely dead, and diesel is clinging on, with Stellantis in particular in the news for restoring the fuel to some models, mostly in continental Europe. We in the UK aren’t being treated to the same expansion, but Stellantis did reverse a 2022 decision to dump diesels in favour…

GROUP TEST THE PHEV RENAISSANCE Best-of-both-worlds plug-in hybrid SUVs are back in fashion, but which is best? We put five leading contenders to the test ROAD TEST PORSCHE 911 CARRERA 4 GTS CABRIOLET Could this be the sports car that covers all bases better than any other? INTERVIEW WE MEET DACIA’S DESIGN CHIEF – AT 2000 METRES David Durand is inspired by the great outdoors. He shows us why EVERY WEEK USED GUIDE FORD KUGA Often overlooked SUV is now a great value buy, offering petrol, diesel, hybrid and PHEV power LIVING WITH A … VOLVO XC90 Is this big Swede ageing gracefully? We deliver our verdict on the latest T8 plug-in hybrid…

Ding! It’s yet another email inviting Autocar to the launch of some car we’ve never heard of. One might imagine this is the moment when everyone pretends to have urgent expenses to file but, despite the perceived homogeneity of many of the Chinese newcomers, I find trying something with which I have no previous experience whatsoever quite exciting. The latest subject is the Omoda 7. Think Hyundai Tucson or Renault Austral. It has been launched as a plug-in hybrid, but a 1.6-litre mild-hybrid petrol version is due soon. Okay, it doesn’t look particularly distinctive, despite supposed input from Chery’s German design studio. There’s a lot of Lexus RX in that busy side profile and ‘borderless’ grille, if not enough to call it a copycat. But look, it’s a PHEV with…

Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 ended 2025 as the UK’s two most popular electric cars, and the American company has comprehensively updated both in recent months. The Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive is the latest addition to its arsenal, aiming to make the saloon more accessible than ever. Originally planned to be called the Standard, the Rear-Wheel Drive is the new entry-level variant, sitting beneath the Premium Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive, the Premium Long Range All-Wheel Drive and the Performance All-Wheel Drive. At £37,990, it’s £2000 cheaper than the old entry-level Model 3 and fiercely undercuts most of its rivals. Nothing has changed on the outside, but Tesla has made several adjustments to performance, range and equipment to bring costs down. This car has a 332-mile range, down slightly on…

1983 A late change to outlaw increasingly lethal ground-effect aero forced most teams to hack their chassis into B-spec compromises, but Brabham’s Gordon Murray burnt the midnight oil to create the BT52. Cue BMW’s only F1 title. 1989 The return to atmo engines ended the first turbo era, but McLaren-Honda, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost kept on winning anyway. 1994 Williams was wrong-footed by a ban on driver aids such as ABS, traction control and active suspension. Benetton took full advantage. 1998 Unlike in 1994, Adrian Newey got it right. His first McLaren built to new narrow-track dimensions and on (terrible) grooved tyres afforded Mika Häkkinen the first of two consecutive titles. 2009 Downforce-slashing aero changes made for ugly cars and didn’t improve the racing much, but the new Brawn…

MILEAGE 2016 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Has this luxury EV improved enough since 2021 to remain BMW’s flagship? The BMW iX’s girth means reversing into parking spaces – which is, of course, the correct way to park – can be a challenge. So I’m grateful for the reversing cameras and sensors. Sometimes, though, you can’t beat a good old-fashioned mirror. Which leads to the question: to dip, or not to dip? As in, do you want your rear-view mirrors pointing straight, so you can line up your car against others, or dipped, so you can ensure you’re not about to clonk a kerb? It depends on the circumstances, of course, but when reversing into parking spaces I’m usually more concerned about ensuring I can see my path into the space…

MILEAGE 90,040 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see whether a modernised 2005 car can be better than a new one Gulp, deep breath: have I ruined it? To recap, I’ve been driving a 90,000-mile, 21-year-old BMW 330Ci (E46) for several weeks, knowing a budget allowed by its owner, eBay, to make some choice modifications, was coming. I wanted to give it a suspension refresh and stiffen the body without turning it into a harsh road racer. I buy quite a lot of parts from eBay already, and I’m not just saying this because this car belongs to the company. I’ve got a couple of old cars and a motorbike stored in the ‘My Garage’ section of its website, which is near-essential because it limits searches to parts that will fit…

AUDI S4 AVANT QUATTRO 2000, 64,000 miles, £13,990 Praised for its punchy 265bhp twin-turbo V6 and blistering all-weather performance, the S4 Avant is a fine sleeper and a true modern classic. Maintenance costs are high, but this car has been very well looked after and recently had its turbos replaced. TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 2.8D ACTIVE 3DR 2021, 73,000 miles, £39,000 You won’t find a more reliable 4x4 than this. Its torquey diesel four delivers plenty of grunt and, with high/low range and locking diffs, its off-road capabilities are sublime. This well-maintained short-wheelbase car comes with a 10-year warranty too. HYUNDAI i20 N 1.6 T-GDi 2022, 26,000 miles, £20,990 “A serious hot hatch with real dynamic polish” is how we summarised this WRC-inspired i20 at launch. It’s more mature and composed than many of…

The Fiat Grande Panda will spawn a hot Abarth spin-off – and it could see the performance brand return to combustion power. The Italian firm has only two models in its European line-up: high-performance versions of the 500 city car and the larger 600 crossover – both exclusively electric. However, both have struggled to find sales success. Despite expanding its potential reach with the launch of its first SUV, Abarth sold just 291 cars in the UK last year, down from 1027 in 2024 when the combustion-engined 595 was still available. Fiat has also faced faltering demand for its EVs and reacted accordingly by reverse-engineering the platform of the new 500 – originally designed as an electric architecture – to accept a hybrid powertrain. Meanwhile, the Grande Panda that arrived…

Aston Martin has announced plans to produce more expensive cars and to cut its workforce by 20% as it battles to slow plummeting profits and strengthen its financial footing for the year ahead. The Gaydon firm posted a 36% decrease in gross profit for 2025, having produced 10% fewer cars than the previous year – and among them fewer high-margin specials. Overall losses for the year stood at £493 million, compared with £323m for the year before, while debts climbed 19% to £1.38 billion – laying bare the impact of a challenging year that CEO Adrian Hallmark said “impacted our ability to fully execute on our plans”. Hallmark, who joined Aston in 2024 after six years leading Bentley, said: “Twelve months ago, at the start of my first full year…

LAMBORGHINI HAS cancelled plans to launch the Lanzador as a 1350bhp EV by the end of the decade. The model will instead arrive with a plug-in hybrid drivetrain. The decision has been taken because the pace of EV adoption has “slowed considerably”, said the brand. Autocar reported last year that the next-generation Urus, due in 2029, would no longer be launched exclusively with EV power but would instead be sold as a plug-in hybrid. This approach will now be mirrored on the Lanzador, a new launch date for which has not yet been confirmed. In a statement referring to a 2021 strategy that first outlined plans for full EVs to follow hybrids, Lamborghini said: “Following extensive analysis and ongoing dialogue with dealers and customers, it became clear that the pace…

A NEW MEGA-V8 is poised to race in Australia’s Repco Supercars Championship, with the engine developed in the UK by Swindon Powertrain. Swindon was appointed by Toyota’s homologation partner, Walkinshaw TWG Racing, fielding two Gen3 Toyota GR Supras on behalf of Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia. The 4969cc base unit is a substantially re-engineered Toyota 2UR-GSE V8, which first appeared in 2007 and has been used mainly in Lexus models. The series’ rules allow displacements of 5.0 and 5.7 litres, so Swindon Powertrain opted to increase the stroke from 89.5mm to 94mm by making a new crankshaft so the stroke matched the bore, to achieve the classic ‘square’ configuration. This meant the team met the rules without modifying the robust 2UR-GSE block. The induction system has been changed, too. Direct injection…

I don’t think it’s coincidental that Audi decided to let us drive this car so soon after revealing its technical details last month. If you’ve seen any reaction to its unveiling online, you may have noted some dismay that its kerb weight is 2355kg (hatchback) or 2370kg (estate). The recent BMW M5 elicited a similar response. Both are high-performance plug-in hybrids. It’s a big number, so there are preconceptions to dispel, and Audi thinks that actually driving the RS5 will do the trick. This is a direct a replacement for the RS4 but with a different name, because Audi briefly revised its naming strategy and this is a hangover from that. Maybe they had already made the badges. It’s as heavy as it is because making a PHEV is one of…

The application of an ‘Evo’ suffix conjures images of rip-snorting, rally-bred Lancia Deltas and Mitsubishi Lancers. Not so in the case of the new BYD Atto 3. The Chinese brand’s first UK car has been here for three years now, and in that time the EV market has moved on significantly: no longer is a 260-mile range competitive in a near-£40k family SUV, and it was starting to look stale next to newer models in the BYD stable. Thus there has been a major redevelopment, effectively making the Atto 3 Evo a second-generation car rather than a typical facelift. Chief among the changes is a swap from native front-to rear-wheel drive and an increase from 201bhp to 308bhp. The lithiumiron-phosphate battery’s capacity has been boosted from 60.5kWh to 74.8kWh, extending…

It wasn’t so long ago that the Cupra brand was introduced and we weren’t sure what to make of it. It grew out of Seat’s performance division, launching with fast versions of Seats, but then started offering cars with simple 1.5-litre engines as well. It seemed a bit directionless. Actually, it was a masterstroke, because Cupra managed what Seat never could, becoming the hipper, sporty, semi-premium brand of the Volkswagen Group with the margins to wash its own face. It exemplifies the art of the rebrand. So where does that leave Seat? Previously announced plans to turn it into an e-mobility brand are on ice, and instead Seat will for the foreseeable future continue as the group’s provider of affordable, largely combustion-powered cars, since that role has been vacated by…

Jack Harrison and I are barrelling into a storm in a borrowed Corvette, exactly as planned. If anything, the plan is working too well: there’s too much storm. Through the bleariness of a slender rain-streaked side window, we pick out the silhouette of a jack-knifed lorry on the other side of the motorway just north of Gretna. Only marginally easier to make out, as we make slow progress behind our own little bow wave, are gantries flashing yellow weather warnings. We settled on Scotland because we wanted geological conditions that could test the mettle of the new-to-Europe Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray. What we didn’t want was the apocalypse. But a 911 Turbo wouldn’t turn back now, would it? It might, you know. And in any variant of the current C8 generation…

Until quite recently, Geely has been something of an automotive shadow in the UK, a background entity known mainly for its ownership of a number of familiar car makers. Volvo, Polestar, Lotus and LEVC are among its portfolio of brands, and they have received substantial investment (with varying degrees of success). But in China, Geely is a prominent firm in its own right – it has been making cars there since 1998, and it appears to have more resources at its disposal than some small countries. Geely Auto launched in the UK at the tail end of 2025, aiming itself squarely at the mass market with a two-pronged BEV and PHEV approach. The UK business is currently building itself up, but back in China its HQ in Hangzhou employs 6000…

WHY WE RAN IT To check in on a car that we really liked and a brand that has gone rather quiet Nearly 12,000 miles after this surprisingly good-looking SUV was dropped off, the people from Honda have returned to reclaim it. So what have we learned in the intervening time? Well, first and foremost, it seems that I’m not the only one whose head has been turned by this oddly handsome machine. A number of people have commented – in a good way – on the Honda’s stylish design, which is just sharp enough to stand out from the largely generic SUVs that populate our roads these days. From its tidy diamond-cut alloy wheels to the grille that’s chunky enough to stand out without being offensive and the double-stack…

Cars that wear the ‘built in Britain’ tag tend to err towards being luxurious, expensive and/or sporty – think Aston Martin, McLaren and Land Rover, to name but a few. There are, however, a couple of reliable Japanese but British-built hatchbacks – one of them being the 10th-generation Honda Civic, a practical, fun-to-drive family car that was launched in the UK in 2017. Unlike earlier Civics, this one was conceived as a single model for all markets. As the US was and is the largest, the British-built Civic hatch would fundamentally be designed for our friends across the pond. Normally, this would fill us with trepidation, but it gave the Mk10 car an edge: the US’s preference for larger modes of transport meant this Civic was the biggest car in…

Question: when is owning one BMW 7 Series like having owned two? Answer: when you have owned the same one twice and discover that in between you selling it and buying it back, it has been completely restored. Vip Kukanathan is that lucky man. He first bought his 1989 BMW 730i SE in 2016, when it was showing 85,000 miles. He used it for four years, during which time he drove it in triumph to the south of France, and then, when the repair bills began mounting, parked it up for another two before reluctantly parting with it in 2022. So far, so not unusual: a lot of people buy big, leggy motors only to offload them when the bills bite. However, what happened next is extraordinary. Out of the…

THE LONG-AWAITED GMA T33 is finally edging towards production, with test mules of the V12 supercar being spotted for the first time. It has been four years since the British supercar maker’s second ‘volume’ model, after the flagship T50, was revealed. First deliveries were due to start in 2024 but were pushed back by delays – partially financial – to the 650bhp T50’s 100-unit run. However, a fresh £90 million of investment at the end of 2025, together with the significant revenues generated by a series of ultra-expensive special editions last year, have paved the way for T33 preparations to begin in earnest. The 607bhp T33 is powered by a Cosworth-designed, naturally aspirated 3.9-litre V12 engine that revs to 11,100rpm. It is paired with a six-speed manual gearbox. All 100…

STELLANTIS LOST £19.5 billion in 2025 as it overhauled its global product plan after “over-estimating the pace” of the shift to electric cars. The US-European automotive giant recently wrote down £19.4bn related to the cancellation of its US-based EV programmes, contributing to total write-down bill of £22.2bn. This, said CEO Antonio Filosa, reflected “the impact of previous poor operational execution”, a reference to life at Stellantis under his predecessor, Carlos Tavares. Tavares was dogmatic in his belief that EVs were the future. At the 2024 Paris motor show, while CEO of Stellantis, he said the firm wanted to be “on the good side of history” in transitioning to EVs. But the mood has since shifted globally, with EV adoption slowing and legislation changing, notably for Stellantis in Europe and in…

The government’s pay-per-mile scheme for electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which is due to start in two years’ time, faces a major threat from devices called mileage blockers that are easy to buy and to fit and freeze a car’s odometer, an investigation by Autocar has found. Pay-per-mile charging, officially called eVED, is scheduled to start in April 2028 as an extra tax placed on EVs and PHEVs to recover income lost from fuel duty, given these cars can run fully or partially on electricity. The tax will start at a rate of 3p per mile driven in an EV and 1.5p per mile driven in a PHEV and drivers will need to self-declare their mileage annually. Concerns are growing that when the scheme is introduced, drivers will fit…

When we arrived, Jeremy Clarkson was sitting behind his new £3000 aluminium designer desk, the one he’d been writing about buying in his Sunday Times column the previous day. To tell the truth, that desk was most of the reason why Matt Prior and I were there on that day. Clarkson had been writing about how, because farming was quiet and it had rained non-stop since Christmas, he wasn’t currently needed to run this or his other businesses (farm shop, pub, brewery, game show). He had thus been feeling bored and had turned to buying things and contemplating new hobbies. The desk was part of that. It was all discussed in Clarkson’s uniquely breezy and ironic column writer’s style, but what grabbed Prior’s and my interest – we’d both read…

 WRITE TO autocar@haymarket.com FAN OF THE DOORS I greatly enjoyed Illya Verpraet’s warm hatch test (12 February) but was somewhat disappointed that apples were compared with oranges by having a three-door Mini when the Fabia comes only as a five-door. I agree that Minis are more aesthetically pleasing in three-door trim, but the advantages in having five doors are worth bearing in mind. The boot is bigger and the doors are shorter, which is handy in tight parking places, plus there’s the convenience of not having to alight to let rear passengers enter or exit. I’m on my second five-door Cooper S, bought new last July, and it’s a pleasure to drive, although the new technology took a little while to learn. It just has the Level 1 extras, for…

We have had small electric hot hatchbacks like the Alpine A290 and large ones like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N but as yet nothing in the real heartland of Volkswagen Golf GTI-sized machinery. Cue the phrase: until now. To be fair, the lack of traditional family-sized electric hot hatches has been due to a near total absence of donor cars. Almost all 4.2- to 4.4m-long, five-door, five-seat EVs have been homogenised crossovers, in part because of the need to accommodate the depth of a battery pack. But a few years down the line, that just feels like an excuse. Where’s the creativity? The Kia EV4 was arguably the first electric family hatch in the traditional mould, and now Kia has decided to turn it into the first Golf GTI-sized electric…

Spare a thought for the Honda PR personnel on the UK launch of the new Prelude. Rarely did any of them enjoy more than a few minutes without being quietly pressed by journalists, this one included, as to the veracity of the official line that there really isn’t going to be a Type R version. The answer is still no, by the way. I find it an odd, somewhat forlorn approach by Honda. The Civic Type R has just departed after nearly a decade at the top of the class and that mechanical package in a sleek body is something that might tempt some people out of a Porsche Cayman with strong DC2 Integra undertones. Alas, the fifth-generation Prelude, which is now on sale in the UK from just over…

Formula 1 is back, but not as we know it. New rules, new cars, a new style of racing… So will the grand prix balloon keep rising on F1’s warm gust of ever-increasing popularity, or will it burst with a sudden pop? Among some people, there’s a palpable fear that F1 is heading in a self-destructive direction as a new age begins. BIGGEST-EVER RULES CHANGE The biggest F1 regulation shake-up since… the last one? We have heard it all before, surely, given how often F1 like a rules reset (see box, p51). Perhaps, but this time the changes are genuinely to a level that’s unprecedented. As new Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey put it: “2026 is probably the first time in the history of F1 that the power unit…

“To some, spending half an hour configuring a car sounds abhorrent” WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Is the absence of a rear screen a step too far in Polestar’s quest for premium appeal? Volvo’s EX30 inspired thousands of social media comments following its launch. People could not get over the fact that its door mirrors were adjusted via the central touchscreen; they could not shrug off the idea that a brand synonymous with safety would lower itself to such ergonomic depths to save a few pennies. On first acquaintance, we gave the car a rare two-and-a-half-star rating. This new Polestar 4 features the same user interface, with the door mirror controls buried in the screen menus. And yet it has something else entirely to talk about – or rather, it doesn’t…

MILEAGE 4002 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover to what extent this heavily VW-derived EV is really a Ford It was the closest thing I can remember to a completely wasted journey. I set off from home in Gloucestershire midway through a Sunday afternoon – when I could instead have been watching an absorbing Six Nations game on TV – in order to position myself in good time for an early Monday morning meeting in London. Such was the importance of this meeting that the sacrifice seemed justified, and so it remained until I reached the outskirts of London – to be dead accurate, that raised bit of the M4 just east of Heathrow airport. That was where I learned that (a) not only was this crucial London meeting now…

AN OWNER’S VIEW O’BAID CHAUDHRY “I love that the Civic comes so well equipped as standard, so there is no requirement – unlike with the German brands – for specifying extras such as cruise control and heated seats. The diesel runs very smoothly and very economically, and it has plenty of power for the real world. Maintenance on mine has been minimal, with only basic servicing required.” BUYER BEWARE… ■ ENGINE ‘Wet belt’ has become a dirty term with used cars, and the Civic is no different. The 1.0-litre is a lovely engine to drive, but the belt can fail as early as 40,000 miles, leaving a huge bill. If you replace it preventatively, budget £1200, but it could still go without warning afterwards. Turbos and the alternator are also…

‘The Voyage Perilous’: driving in 1950s London “Londoners drive abreast, packed nose to tail and side to side, and they have gradually evolved a complicated code of their own, as different from the Highway Code as contract bridge conventions are from the simple rules of auction. The selection of traffic lane, the right of way, all seems to be governed by bids, leads and responses. It is only by this queer but on the whole practical code that London traffic avoids bogging down completely in one solid mass.” This was the situation as Autocar found it in 1952, and not dissimilar to that which we find today in the capital. What is notably different, however, is that whereas London traffic is today strictly controlled, under constant surveillance and threat of…