Tabla de contenidos para March 2023 en CAR UK

How does the i Vision Dee (interi-or pictured above) fit into this pic-ture? Its exterior design, proportions and glasshouse is closely related to both the midsize Neue Klasse car and its 3-series cousin. The i Vision Dee also showcases plenty of wild technologies (an inte-rior that can change between 32 col-ours!), plus some features bound for the Neue Klasse, such as a full-width Head-Up Display (HUD) which runs across the base of the windscreen. Powered by micro LEDs, the ex-tended HUD aims to help drivers keep their eyes on the road more of the time. There are five levels to choose from, ranging from simple and driver-focused, all the way up to augmented virtual worlds beamed onto the windows. We’ve since had a demonstration of the system, and it’s pretty…

We are living in a new halcyon era of the Japanese sports car. Toyota has the petrolhead by the scruff of the neck with its GR86 and GR Yaris in Europe, as well as the GR Corolla in North America. Honda’s new Civic Type R is the instant classic we all hoped it would be. Hell, even Nissan has resurrected the Z car. But for the European and UK en-thusiast this surge of immensely tasty metal from the other side of the world comes at a significant cost. Safety and emissions regulations, combined with some huge price ris-es, are restricting sales so much that they could end up being seen on the road about as often as unicorns. Few cars illustrate the issue as neatly as the new FL5-generation Type…

THE SHRIEKING ASTON SEND-OFF This is the last we’ll see of Aston’s DBS Superleggera. The new 770 Ultimate benefits from a bunch of upgrades including a more aggressive bodykit and refinements to the suspension, steering, auto ’box and chassis. As the name (or rather, number) suggests, the V12’s been fed steroids, boosting power to 759bhp (or 770 metric horsepower). NEED TO KNOW What is it? Aston’s last DBS Superleggera I Tech specs Boostier turbo, windier aero, angrier face, leather...ier interior I Aimed at? Millionaires who want it all in one car I When can I get one? You can’t, as all 300 coupes and 199 Volantes are already sold out THE DRAMATIC PEUGEOT SHOWCASE Continuing Peugeot’s run of show-stopping concepts, the new Inception has a purpose beyond being a design…

Letter of the month Aim hire Your recent articles on the forthcoming Re-nault 5 brought back a fond memory of the previous version. I was working for Ford in Northern Ireland and had to visit UK Parts Operations in Daven-try for a meeting. I flew in to Birmingham air-port and went to the Hertz desk to get my hire car. A Ford Escort Mk2 had been booked. Sadly, when I reached the car it had a flat tyre, so I went back to the desk. They only had one other Ford, another Escort, but it turned out to have not one but two flat tyres! By now, despite my early start, I was begin-ning to worry that I’d miss the meeting, so I asked what else they had. Happily, they…

01 So, what exactly is this? In the mid ’80s, the BMW 3-series stretched in two opposite directions. First came the E30 M3: road-legal racer and all-time perfor-mance car icon. Around the same time that M engineers were finessing the M3, BMW’s Max Reisböck was building an estate proto-type from the bones of a 3-series saloon – aDIY project so accomplished that BMW green-lighted the 1987 production car. Six generations, almost four decades and one prototype later, BMW has finally joined the dots to create the M3 Touring – possibly the ultimate wheels for a family in a hurry. Like the M3 saloon, there’s a front end lifted straight from the M4 coupe and en-gorged rear arches, plus a unique rear end with quad exhausts and what appears to be…

I’m swapping a Kia family car for a £120k premium German SUV with 611bhp, a 3.8sec 0-62mph time and a massive 105kWh battery giving a claimed range of 348 miles. Feels like quite the upgrade. But is it? The Kia EV6 I bid farewell to in this issue could crack 62mph in 5.2 seconds, and I only ever used all of its performance when I wanted to give passen-gers a laugh. This new BMW iX M60 is an impressive technical achieve-ment and a very desirable thing. But when we’re already strug-gling to use the power main-stream EVs give us, and when there’s no difference in the character of the motor, its aural qualities or throttle response, can we really justify spending twice the price of an EV6 on one of…

The big test any long-term test car has to pass, in my little world anyway, is the long mo torway drive. The ones that take hours and sometimes need a rest stop en route. I visit family in Newcastle from my home in Peterborough regularly, mean ing that stretch of the A1 and A1(M) between Junction 17 and the Angel of the North is en graved into my brain. Every tree, pothole and even the weirdly abundant adult shops that used to be Little Chefs have a full-time residency in my hip pocampus, sadly. I think of that route as my pole vault test. Get over it with aplomb and a car’s in my good books until the day it goes back. Fail to clear the challenge and a car…

Electric car batteries work best between 20°C and 45, but recent sub-zero temperatures have meant the Born’s range has taken a serious hit. After firing up the Born one particularly cold morning, I found my range hovering at 180 miles with around 90 per cent battery capacity remaining – that represents the loss of almost 100 miles, or a third of the car's normal range. It’s enough of a cut to seriously change plans, and it’s one of the most problematic, unavoidable parts of EV ownership so far. Still, the ice-rink-like conditions did come with one benefit: they made the Born the playful, hot-headed EV its exterior promises. Squirrelly on turn-in, and positively wild on exit, this seasonal recipe of high-torque, low-grip (easy on the traction control) brought out the…

A few months ago ago I confessed that my last long-term test car, a DS 9, kept telling me off for not plugging it in, which I blamed on the charging port being at the wrong (back) end of the car. The CX-60’s is at the same end and it’s still a pain, yet I find myself plugging it in almost every day. That’s partly down to me using the car more – acrossover with a rear hatch and high driving position works better in my rural-ish location than a long, low saloon. And also because I’d rath-er whirr about on electric power than listen to the gruff naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine. So far I’ve managed to cover 34 miles a couple of times in EV mode, against a claimed…

That man Shakespeare said: ‘Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.’ Mauro Forghieri, who passed away in November last year aged 87, had his fair share of all three. For decades Ferrari technical director and mastermind of its motorsport programmes, Forghieri is considered a great engineer and a quiet hero of the sport. And with a yellow polo shirt and thick-rimmed glasses, as much a part of the iconography of Ferrari as Enzo Ferrari’s impenetrable sun-glasses and purple ink. Born near Modena, with an engineer father who worked for Ferrari’s racing team, Mauro trained under legendary engineer Carlo Chiti. When Chiti and colleagues walked out to form breakaway team ATS in 1961, Forghieri was abruptly promoted to head of Ferrari’s racing programmes at…

IN THE SPOTLIGHT  Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and BMW is piling it on in spades at the Consumer Electronics Show. The presentation is a blur of E30s, wind-breakers and high-tops – and movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is cur-rently talking on stage. Why? ‘Be-cause I’m old enough to know about the good old days,’ says the former governor of California, ‘and I know about cars, I love cars and friendship.’ Arnie is starring alongside BMW’s i Vision Dee concept, which teases the brand’s next generation of cars: the electrified, highly digital Neue Klasse. But to emphasise these cars are part of a much-loved lineage, it’s leaning heavily into the ’80s. Like the Terminator turning good, i Vision Dee is designed to give daunting technology a friendly face. The Neue Klasse…

i Vision Circular 2021 concept showed ‘secondary first’ car-making. Neue Klasse adopts this with more components made from recycled material, in cars easier to recycle at end of life . i4 If this is what BMW can do with an adapted combus-tion-car chassis, just think how good an electric 3-series saloon with bespoke underpinnings could be? 3-series The current 3-series is the car the first Neue Klasse model will effectively replace. But don’t worry, the 3 will still be alive and kicking for another generation, in PHEV form. 1500 The original New Class, named after its divergence from BMW’s past: smaller, punchy engines, independent rear suspension and a blueprint for rear-drive fun.…

BÉATRICEF OUCHER DS CHIEF EXECUTIVE It’s rather brisk in the boardroom of the UK headquarters of the Stellantis group in Coventry, but that’s not why Béatrice Foucher is chilled out. The DS chief executive is always like that, and often smiling too. Which is un-typical automotive boss behaviour. But then Béatrice Foucher is not a typical automotive boss, and she didn’t get the job through the fever-ish self-promotion and backstage lobbying others might indulge in. No, she got the job because Stel-lantis boss Carlos Tavares asked her to do it. ‘Why did he propose it to me? I have a product branding back-ground, an electric cars background and even a little bit of a marketing background. DS is a premium brand, but we had to start building it and move…

Zap-Map is a must for any EV owner. The app has been instrumental in mapping out every single charger accessible to the public, marking them by charger type, charging speed and what services and amenities are next to it. It’ll also (usually) tell you if the charger is busy or broken. More recently, it’s also flagged how you can pay and how much it’ll set you back per kilowatt – warning about those older charg-ers that still need accounts, or notifying you which ones can be done via a contactless card. You can pay to get access to a premium version that integrates into Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, or one with route-plan-ning capabilities. Now, though, it’s following the lead of various car makers who already provide a method of…

Giant test THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT I don’twant anything touched.’ Accord-ing to legend, those were the chief test pilot’s first words when he taxied to a halt after the Spitfire prototype’s maiden flight. Of course, it’s a tale too good to be true: what he meant was that he didn’t want any settings changed before he’d reported his ob-servations. But in the more romantic, apocryphal sense of the story, that’s how many of us felt after driving the previous Honda Civic Type R. The old FK8-generation (launched in 2017, retired in 2021) was sublime to drive, up there with the very best of all front-wheel-drive performance cars. It might have won a few more friends if it didn’t have such a right-up-in-yer-face design (like a Transformer mid-transi-tion from car to robot)…

Hello Lamborghini Huracan Evo Month 1 The story so far Can a simple, non-electrified Lamborghini still feel relevant? + Performance; presence; reversed ageing process - Potentially financially ruinous to run; a touch extrovert? Logbook: Price £165,656 (£216,806 as tested) Performance 5204cc naturally-aspirated V10, 631bhp, 2.9sec 0-62mph, 202mph Efficiency 20.6mpg (official), 18.7mpg (tested), 332g/km CO2 Energy cost 40.5p per mile Miles this month 126 Total miles 3532 The future of the supercar hangs in the balance. Half a century or so after its birth, the genre is facing challenges left, right and centre: from tighten-ing emissions regulations to so-ciety’s preference for taller, more practical models; from the politics of jealousy to the sheer cost of running one. Some say the outlook for mid-engined exotica looks bleak when electrification is re-wiring the…

It’s no reflection on the Skoda, honest. The complexities of who runs what and when have resulted in Ben Pulman, CAR’s lord of the long-term test cars, ringing to order me to swap my Skoda for a Lambo. Who was I to argue? Yes, in an extraordi-nary diversion around the VW Group, the Kodiaq is passing to Mark Walton while the keys to the spangly new Huracan kick-ing off this month’s Our Cars have come my way. I will miss the usefulness of the Skodiaq. Its impressive family-carrying capabilities, the easy-to-operate third row of seats and the common-sense logic percolating its interior. Praise be, it’s even got a sunroof. When’s the last time you opened up a sliding glass panel on a new car? It stirred memo-ries of my 1980s…

Audi e-Tron GT quattro Month 2 The story so far The more affordable of Audi’s two-car e-Tron GT range, with us for the next six months. Woof! + Looks; performance; colour; badge; range - Not a Taycan; not cheap; efficiency Logbook Price £83,285 (£93,575) Performance 93.4kWh battery, 523bhp, 5.4sec 0-62mph, 152.2mph Efficiency 2.89-2.93 miles per kWh (official), 2.6 miles per kWh (tested), range 282-286 miles (official), 228 miles (tested) Energy cost 27.0p per mile Miles this month 1920 Total miles 2015 A compass, a knife and some means of starting a fire are es-sential wilderness equipment. On a wintry trip that exceeds your EV’s range, four things are handy: a range indicator you can trust, the Zap-Map app, all-wheel drive and ace headlights. Weirdly, my own ineptitude engineered the opportunity…

It’s not just chips that are in short supply, as a cracked windscreen proved this month. Yet every cloud… The incident happened while I had a Defender 90 in for comparison, and Land Rover let it stay for a couple of weeks until our 110 was sorted. The kids loved it, as folding the front seats and climbing up into the back is an adventure when you’re under five. But when you’re nearly 40, waiting for the seats to whirr forward and then tunnelling into the back to sort seatbelts is a farce. And with a sliver of a boot, practical the 90 is not. The shorter wheelbase means the ride quality isn’t as good, but the dinkier size and weight, plus regular tyres to the 110’s off-road rubber, means…

HOW DOES NEW GBU WORK? Constantly updated, new GBU covers eight of 16 classes in each issue, and we list all our class kings TOP 5 BEST FAMILY HATCHES GIANT TEST WINNER 1 BMW 1-SERIES THE GOOD: Premium and practical; now available in GTI-alike Ti spec THE BAD: Purists droning on about rear-wheel drive THE UGLY: Can BMW spot a good-looking car, let alone design one? THE ONE TO BUY: 1.5-litre 118i M Sport at £31k/£400pcm; the all-wheel-drive M135i super-hatch tops the tree but also tops £41k 2 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF THE GOOD: Brain-out default choice still a solid all-rounder; ride, visibility, roominess THE BAD: Seat Leon a very similar package for a lower price THE UGLY: Getting caught publicly raging at the infotainment system THE ONE TO BUY: 1.5 TSI…

DOING THE SUMS FACTFILE Powertrain Single e-motor, 154bhp, 51kWh battery pack, front-wheel drive Chassis Steel monocoque Due 2024 Alfa Romeo is currently making decent money, and this new B-segment SUV aims to be another string to the profitable bow. Boss Jean-Philippe Imparato says being in the black means Alfa has more freedom to plan fan-pleasing models like the upcoming 6C sports car and a replacement for the Giulia saloon. SPLIT PERSONALITY The new SUV won’t be BEV only. Like the Avenger, Alfa’s small SUV is expected to have mild and full hybrid models for certain markets. ‘There are no guarantees the hybrid will be sold in the UK,’ says Imparato, ‘but Italy? I know that it’ll need some hybrid versions, too, but it’s the same Alfa Romeo whatever the engine.’…

Bentley’s hybrid heroes Crewe’s Bentayga SUV continues to top its internal sales charts, with the more recent plug-in and EWB models only making it more appealing. Around 65 per cent of Flying Spur sales in the UK are hybrids, too. 15,174 sales Plugging in works SUVs send Porsche soaring… The Cayenne and Macan are still the financial backbone of Zuffenhausen, making up more than half of all sales. Taycan limited by supply. 309,884 sales Will Macan surge again when EV is unveiled? …and Lamborghini too Lambo’s Urus accounted for 5367 of Sant’Agata’s sales – well over half. But Huracan numbers were also up, boosted by the Tecnica version. 9233 sales Up 10 per cent over 2021 Rolls is on a roll… Commissions at a new high according to the boss.…

Tell us about your first car… ‘I actually started driving tractors when I was 14. I used to live on a farm, so I used to drive them around. When I got my driving licence, it was very easy.’ What achievement makes you most proud? ‘The fact that I started working on electric cars in 2012. I was head of product planning [at Renault] and my boss moved me to the EV programme. He said it was “not a gift” to work there, but I think it was one of the best gifts they gave me. I love new tech, and it made me happy to be thinking in advance like that.’ What’s the best thing you’ve ever done in a car? ‘I had opportunities to ride in Clio Cup…

The 300-mile test NEW CAR MEETS REAL WORLD PORSCHE 911 DAKAR Onceis happenstance. Twice is co-incidence. Third time’s a pattern. Porsche’s habit of debuting new technologies first in a skunkworks prototype, out of sight, before developing it in the white heat of competition and then confidently firing it out to the world on its production cars is, like the arcing twin ruts that dance through the dunes ahead of us, undoubtedly a pattern. And an effective one. Before the twin-clutch gearbox and before Porsche’s 800-volt electrical architecture (forged into a state of blinding effectiveness during its me-ga-bucks stint in the World Endurance Championship with the 919 Hybrid before it found a happy home in the Taycan) there was four-wheel drive. Synonymous with Porsche now – we’ve been buying all-wheel-drive 911s…

The Apprentice is back on the box, with all its talk of brand awareness and cut-through. It’s easy to scoff, but that’s exactly the chal-lenge still facing DS eight years after it be-came a standalone brand. Maybe this car’s name change will help. The electric DS 3, like the regular DS 3, has lost its Crossback denomination. There’s also a different nose, a new infotainment screen and a bigger battery capable of more miles between charges. That new battery should fix the biggest issue with the old car. There wasn’t that much wrong with the previous E-Tense but the real range was probably 150 miles tops. DS reckons the new one should do nearer 250. On our 80-mile test route we used 40 per cent of the battery’s charge, so…

The BMW is first to fall. It’s comfortable and has the best interior quality but it’s just too dull to drive compared to the others. If an old rear-wheel-drive M135i/M140i were here, it would be a strong contender for a podium spot. The regular transverse-engined 1-series would still be our pick over a basic Golf or A3 but in the superhatch sphere both the hot VW Group cousins feel faster, more responsive and more agile on these challenging roads. Golf or RS3, given they use similar building blocks? For me, the Golf has more poise to its handling and better body control but the ob-structive, infuriating touch-control interfaces are a genuine reason not to buy. The Audi’s more usable ergonomics and glorious five-cylinder heart nudge it ahead, and into third…

The genesis of the Grenadier Legend has it that the Grenadier was dreamed up by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and some mates at the Grenadier pub in Belgravia in 2017. ‘The actual story started before the pub,’ he says. ‘I’d been in Africa on a week’s safari. My flight was delayed back to the UK, so I went to Maun [in Botswana]. I finished up having a curry with the guide, a good friend of mine, and the guy who ran operations for Wilderness Safaris. They had about 600 Land Rovers. He was just decrying what on earth he was going to do because Land Rover had just announced they were ceasing production of the Defender. What was he going to do? Get everyone to drive a [Toyota] Land Cruiser? Because…

Ford Mustang Mach 1 Month 9 The story so far Mach 1 costs £10k more than regular Mustang GT but still relatively good value at £57k + Everyone loves the Mustang: friends, strangers, and strangers it swiftly turns into friends - We have to give it back to Ford before too long Logbook Price £56,955 (£59,705 as tested) Performance 5038cc V8, 454bhp, 166mph, 4.8sec 0-62mph Efficiency 22.8mpg (official), 20.7mpg (tested), 284g/km CO2 Energy cost 37.5p per mile Miles this month 716 Total miles 16,555 I love the Mustang now, whole-heartedly and unconditionally. I either no longer notice its shortcomings or I just don’t care about them. But what kind of first impression will it make on three CAR readers? Two of them are steeped in V8 muscle-car lore, but…

Every once in a while someone comes up with an idea that makes you wonder why no one thought of it before. Like the roofbars on the Jogger. The centre section of each longitudinal rail unbolts, using a hex key from the glovebox, then re-attaches to become a transverse crossbar. It’s simple, it takes about five minutes to convert, and it not only saves on the cost of conventional accessory roofbars, it also lowers the height of the bars because you’re mounting them within the rails, rather than on top. The bars are profiled to be a little more aerodynamic but they’re still quite noisy, and I’m not sure they helped with my fuel economy (below 40mpg for the first time while I had them switched). Still, super-handy for transporting…

Kia EV6 GT-Line S AWD Month 7 The story so far Long-term test confirms this is the best Kia ever + Looks; performance; practicality; value, residuals - Year-long waits; minor design niggles Logbook Price £56,245 Performance 77.4kWh battery, 321bhp twin e-motors, 5.2sec 0-62mph, 114mph Efficiency 3.5 miles per kWh (official), 3.2 miles per kWh (tested), range 300 miles (official), 260 miles (tested) Energy cost 11.8p per mile Miles this month 341 Total miles 10,364 ‘I love this car,’ I wrote when in-troducing the Kia EV6 seven is-sues ago, and the intervening months haven’t brought any-thing to change my mind. Nor yours, it seems. In its short time on sale in the UK the EV6 has acquired the fervent online fanbase typical of cult cars but generally not, until now, environmentally…

THIS MONTH BEST SUB-£500pcm PHEV PEUGEOT 308 Design makes you look twice; actually worth a second look BEST £500pcm+ PHEV BMW X5 45e Smooth, soothing, practical, and rapid too BEST SPORTS CAR PORSCHE 911 If the GT3’s too hardcore, the Carrera is anything but BEST SUPERCAR FERRARI 296 GTB Plugging in hasn’t meant losing the magic. Far from it BEST SUV/CROSSOVER LAND ROVER DEFENDER Doesn’t ruin the original’s legacy. Adds lifestyle appeal BEST SMALL HATCH PEUGEOT 208 Premium-car feel and interior style in a teeny, chic package BEST FAMILY HATCH BMW 1-SERIES Yes, it’s gone front-wheel drive. Still fun, now has space BEST HOT HATCH HONDA CIVIC TYPE R Pricey, it’s true, but feels special enough to justify it NEXT MONTH BEST LUXURY CAR BENTLEY FLYING SPUR Epic interior; a…