Tabla de contenidos para November 2024 en CAR UK

Old Jaguar is all but gone. Production of the XE, XF and F-Type ceased in the summer and the i-Pace and E-Pace go the same way soon, leaving the F-Pace in production into early 2025 as likely the last ever Jaguar with an engine. When it goes the curtain will fall on a chapter that, by JLR’s own admission, didn’t work. ‘The last 25 years of playing the volume premium sector – it’s not been commercially successful. If anything it actually started to tarnish the brand,’ Jaguar managing director Rawdon Glover tells CAR, matter of factly. New Jaguar is beyond ambitious. From scratch, JLR will build an all-electric luxury brand selling cars at six-figure prices. The powertrain is all-new. (Not for new Jaguar an easier solution like Aston’s Lucid deal.)…

The most established name in the history of racing games, Test Drive first launched the same year as the Ferrari F40: 1987. That’s far earlier than Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport or Need for Speed. Over the decades, Test Drive’s formula has evolved, with the most recent ‘Unlimited’ games to wear the name digging deep into car culture. The Unlimited series helped popularise the open-world racing game; the first instalment, in 2006, gave you the island of Oahu on a 1:1 scale to explore. The follow-up did the same with Ibiza in 2011. A new one, then, is a big deal. Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown gives you all of Hong Kong island to play around in. You can tackle the neon-lit city streets or venture out into the mountainous heart of…

My Renault 5 was called Nemo. I’m not generally in the habit of naming my cars, but it was my first one, after all. A 1984 model complete with 1.0-litre engine, four-speed gearbox, cassette player held in with Sellotape, and a number plate that ended in ‘NMO’ – hence the name. Nemo cost me £50 when I bought it in 2002, complete with six months’ MoT, only a small amount of moss growing from the gutters, and a manual choke that required forensic precision if you wanted to avoid flooding the engine. White when new, Nemo had faded to the comforting greige of cotton underpants that have been washed weekly for a decade. It had character, that’s for sure. But then the Renault 5 always did. Fast forward 22 years…

Gravity? 739lb ft of torque appears to have met with it in a gloomy bar and paid it off Alpine driving is a fascinatingly three-dimensional affair. Familiar equations involving speed, radii and line are made more compelling still by the heavyweight gradients that threaten to painfully hinder your ability to gain speed or lose it, depending on whether you’re coming up the mountain or plunging down it. Just 20 minutes ago we began climbing the Susten pass in warm sunshine, the morning breeze through dropped windows ruffling our hair as the clanking cow bells made us smile. But things change fast up here, and as we join a slow-moving convoy behind a groaning Renault van, rain flecks the Bentley’s screen and the road is soaked. ‘I don’t know if I’ll…

Renault 5 Not France’s first car of the people, but one that made the idea of less being more a real fashion statement, and not just an economic necessity in tough times. Similar thinking had shaped the Mini. Ford Focus Mk1 Revitalised Ford’s fortunes in Europe with its interesting design and fantastic handling, the result of Ford assigning the job to its best brains. Rotten preceding Escort soon forgotten. Skoda Yeti Possibly the Czech brand’s smartest car ever, combining van-like space with car dynamics, quirky design and plenty of fascinating details. A true modern classic, and now a pre-owned steal. Renault Espace Mk1 Despite a few years of folks not really understanding what it was for, Renault’s boxy, swivel-seated party bus revolutionised family travel and didn’t feel as tragic as…

Luca di Montezemolo Appointed CEO at a young age by the tycoon Gianni Agnelli himself in 1991, Luca di Montezemolo – immaculately dressed, well educated and very well mannered – arrived a year after Amedeo Felisa. The latter was the marque’s long-time CTO and, in cahoots with di Montezemolo, architect of the ingenious fully scalable aluminium architecture that underpinned the highly profitable brandshaping 550/575/599/F12/812 V12s and the equally successful mid/rear-engined V8 bloodline that began with the F355. Opposed to an SUV, Luca also re-iterated just a few months before his departure his fervent belief that Ferrari must maintain exclusivity by staying under 7000 units a year… Sergio Marchionne Sergio showed up to meetings in baggy corduroys and a black sweater, a pair of buzzing phones in one hand and a…

‘The luck thing? Really there’s no such thing as good luck,’ Bruce McLaren once mused. ‘It’s good preparation and hard work.’ The late founder would surely be jubilant about the new W1, and beyond proud of the team behind it. Five years of planning and preparation, and tens of thousands of man-hours in the making, it’s the distillation of everything McLaren Automotive knows about making the world’s best driver’s car. And with a lineage that includes the Speedtail, Senna and Solus, McLaren’s knowledge banks in this niche are Wikipedia-like in size and value. The W1 is the next generation of ‘1’ car, and follows on from the F1 and P1 in Woking’s Ultimate range – vehicles at the very pinnacle of performance, technology and exclusivity. The letter W nodding to…

▶ NO, IT’S NOT MUCH LIKE THE ROAD CAR A bespoke spaceframe chassis is covered with a mix of steel and composite panels, so while the i20 N Rally1 Hybrid looks like the production car, even something as fundamental as the wheelbase is in fact different. The minimum weight for cars in this class is 1260kg. ▶ HYBRID POWERTRAIN  Rally1 cars combine a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine with a 100kW plug-in hybrid power unit that together produce over 500bhp. The hybrid unit weighs 87kg. Rather than push-to-pass, electrical energy is deployed automatically by pre-programmed engine maps. A 3.9kWh battery supplies the juice for just over 12 miles of engine-off running. Full electric mode must be used while driving in the service park. ▶ SEQUENTIAL TRANSMISSION The sequential manual five-speed gearbox…

I was struggling to sum up my time with the Avenger until I had a chat with my mother, who has also driven the Avenger over the last few months. Her verdict? It’s… adequate. She’s right. It’s okay. No more, no less. She reckons the exterior looks like a ‘plastic’ version of a ‘real’ Jeep, and has even more to say about the interior, and the lack of perceived quality: ‘There was no luxurious feel to it at all. The seats felt hard and inside it was very, very basic.’ Leg room is fine in the back and front while the infotainment (via CarPlay) is easy to use. But it feels too flimsy: ‘The doors just didn’t shut in a satisfying way with a proper thunk.’ I am more understanding…

‘You can’t make something more “for the drivers” than this, can you?’ smiles Ben Payne, Lotus Group’s vice president for design, as I climb into the central driving seat of the stunning Theory 1 concept car. ‘It’s as close as you can get to driving a Formula 1 car.’ The driver-focused cockpit feels fantastic but won’t see production, will it? ‘Obviously it’s business case- and price-dependent, but we’re at a point now where a combination of technologies can facilitate an improved experience here,’ explains Payne, noting that the demise of manual transmissions and mechanical steering and throttle assemblies make a McLaren F1-style cockpit more feasible than ever. ‘And in terms of weight distribution and visibility, you can’t get any better.’ The Theory 1 is a new electric concept car; carbon-tubbed,…

The French misnomer The Citroën SM is reborn. But as a, er… DS. We’ll give you a few moments to clean up the beverage you just spat out in outrage. DS is celebrating 10 totally glorious and success-filled boom years since officially splitting from Citroën by pilfering a Citroën model from that brand’s much more illustrious history. No, we don’t get it either – even if design boss Thierry Metroz says the SM Tribute concept will preview design details for ‘DS models that will come along at the end of the decade’. Who wants to tell him this actually looks more like a 21st Century Renault Fuego? Bagsy not us. The ugly duckling So unashamedly hideous is the Ginetta Akula to look at that almost all the photography we were…

‘Champagne lifestyle, lemonade pockets’ is an apt description for the newly refreshed 1-series, a posher-than-ever family hatchback that borrows much of the tech from BMW’s far more expensive cars. It gets the firm’s Curved Display that wraps a touchscreen and digital instrument cluster in one piece of glass, as well as an augmented-reality sat-nav, and lighting on the dashboard that changes colour with the driving mode and even flashes to stop you opening the door into traffic. Few small cars have an interior as modern or plush as this one. The Mercedes A-Class and Audi A3 can’t compete with this cabin. But as a BMW, it will always be judged chiefly on its driving manners, and they’re still very good on this all-wheel-drive M135. The engine is marginally down on…

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The billboards are impossible to miss. One reads ‘Tattoo Mick – Real Estate’ and displays a huge photo of Mick in all his inky glory. Another extols the virtues of a treatment for varicose veins. A liquor store promotes the local Pride Week. Another board address a plea to God… and on it goes, telling the story of modern America as vividly as any podcast, newsfeed or movie. Our transport through this huge and storied land is the huge and storied Toyota Land Cruiser. It may not be what you first think of in a US context – it’s perhaps more readily associated with aid agencies in Africa, farmers in Australia, drilling engineers in the Gulf – but it’s a big seller here. It manages to straddle many cultural divides…

BMW i5 eDrive 40 M Sport Pro Touring Month 1 The story so far A top-end electric estate should hit the family-transport jackpot… shouldn’t it? + Pace; cabin space; rolling refinement; practicality - Girth; weight; 230-mile range; nannying electronics; looks Logbook Price £78,450 (£94,995 as tested) Performance 81.2kWh battery, e-motor, 340bhp, 6.1sec 0-62mph, 120mph Efficiency 3.7 miles per kWh (official), 2.8 miles per kWh (tested) Range 301 miles (official), 227 miles (tested) Energy cost 11.5 per mile Miles this month 427 Total miles 427 In the grand Venn diagram of automotive life, the intersection between electric propulsion and traditional family estates is tiny. And if you want it to be ‘premium’ you’re down to a choice of one – the BMW i5 Touring you see here. Mercedes and Volvo, previously…

Mini Countryman JCW All4 Month 3 The story so far Hottest combustion version of the Mini SUV. Great when you go for it, less so when you don’t + Family-friendly Mini; drives well over B-roads - Vast; questionable styling: slurry gearbox Logbook Price £41,575 (£47,375 as tested) Performance 1998cc turbocharged four-cylinder, 296bhp, 5.4sec 0-62mph, 155mph Efficiency 35.3mpg (official), 33.5mpg (tested), 180g/km CO2 Energy cost 21.0p per mile Miles this month 1173 Total miles 7005 JCW. Three letters that are meant to signal peak Mini, to get the heart racing like you’ve just ingested the annual production of Columbia’s most infamous export. They’ve been used on Mini’s halo model since 1961 and complement the brand like Marmite on toast. Except in the case of this long-term test car, they’re tacked onto…

I really want to like the #1. For the price it’s fantastically well-equipped, smooth to drive and distinctive – three traits you don’t find in many sub-£40k electric crossovers. It’s a bonus that the #1 also happens to be more than quick enough, comfortable and spacious for passengers in the back, too. But life with the Smart didn’t start well and didn’t get much better. I could never get the Smart app paired with the car, limiting the infotainment. And, starting with the first journey, I was being screamed at by the fatigue warning’s eye-tracking, telling me I’m tired after just five minutes at the wheel. Four months later, that was still happening with almost every journey. I theorised that it may have had something to do with my eyes…

Audi was the first car brand to make a hero of the five-cylinder engine, promoting the layout on the basis of providing the economy of an inline-four with the refinement of a straight-six in its ’80s ads. But is that true? Most friction in an engine comes from the pistons reciprocating in the bores, so reducing the number of these (or at least their total circumference) will help with fuel economy. It won’t easily get you to four-cylinder levels, though, so Audi was indulging in some advertisement latitude there. As for the other claim, an inline-six has what we call perfect balance but a five only has perfect force balance – it has unbalanced couples of both primary and secondary orders. The primary can be mitigated by a balance shaft…

If you’ve never heard of Chinese brand Omoda, that won’t be the case for long. Omoda is owned by Chery, the car company that runs a joint venture with JLR in China and is also the country’s largest exporter of vehicles. The launch cars are compact SUVs – one petrol, one electric – priced from just over £25,000. Any qualms that Omoda’s quality might be lagging the competition will be eased for many by a £5000 saving over the equivalent Qashqai. More models are planned, and in five years Omoda will be challenging Kia in terms of sales, says UK head Victor Zhang. Such is the competitive zeal of the Chinese car industry, you wouldn’t take the bet. Already this year MG – owned by China’s SAIC – outsold Skoda,…

In a significant re-organisation of its design department, BMW has brought in ex-Polestar and Volvo hotshot Max Missoni and moved former BMW studio head Domagoj Dukec to Rolls-Royce. There’s a lot going on here, with BMW’s restructuring in part reflecting the trend shifts in design more generally (increased emphasis on digital and sound design, together with sustainability). But the Missoni/Dukec moves are particularly significant. Cerebral and original, with a deep understanding of high-net-worth individuals and their shifting tastes, Dukec should be a good fit for Rolls-Royce, though he’ll have to adapt to a tighter creative leash at Goodwood. And with Missoni in charge of BMW’s upper mid-size and luxury-class cars, a return to elegance looks assured. Dukec’s BMW design era has, since the 2019 Frankfurt show, been equal parts class…

Deep within the bowels of Dacia’s design HQ and its engineering offices, a cabal of the brand’s high-ranking executives regularly convene. Whether they’re assembling at the Renault Group’s Bond-villain-lairstyle Technocentre or at Dacia’s super-modern Design Centre in Bucharest, these meetings aren’t about anything suspicious. Quite the opposite, because this is the ‘design-to-cost supergroup’, the team that has kept Dacia’s cars consistently at lower prices than many of its competitors. And its members are utterly obsessive. ‘It’s a process right at the top level,’ says Patrice Levy-Bencheton, Dacia’s product performance vice president. ‘Normally, you would design a part and create a specification for suppliers to run to, and then pick the best part for the lowest price you can. But we do it the other way around – we set a…

Contrary to the way in which Ferrari is run in my Hollywood-affected head (murderous glances and Machiavellian moves behind dark glasses; dimly-lit offices thick with smoke and the ever-present threat of an outburst) Benedetto Vigna looks at peace with the world, happy in his work and content in his new role as Maranello’s lucky mascot… Two days prior to our conversation he made an appearance on my TV, beaming on the grid in the rapturous wake of Charles Leclerc’s unexpected win at Monza. A few hours later a Ferrari 499P won the World Endurance Championship event at COTA, Texas. Unbelievably it was the first time in history Ferrari has won two FIA world championship races in the same weekend. ‘That will forever be a historical date for me,’ smiles Vigna.…

In the beginning there was Colombo Post-war, Enzo Ferrari set about creating the first car to bear his name. He had in mind a brilliantly intricate but complicated V12 layout. Beautifully balanced and with smaller cylinders for a given capacity, the V12 would rev high and sound like nothing else. To get it right he went to Gioacchino Colombo, designer of the straight-eight 1.5-litre engine that powered Alfa Romeo to the 1950 and 1951 Formula 1 world championships. Ferrari’s very first car – the 1947 125 S – used a 1.5-litre V12, but it wasn’t until larger-displacement, higher-powered versions arrived that Maranello’s 12-cylinder began to make a name for itself. The 1962 250 GTO used a 3.0-litre V12 while the 365 GTB4 – better known as the Daytona (above) –…

The World Rally Championship desperately needs its Netflix moment, a profile-raising equivalent of F1’s Drive to Survive. But – according to service-park rumour – there’s a fundamental problem: the streaming giant thinks WRC lacks compelling characters. But what’s this? Toyota’s French driver Sébastien Ogier just lobbed a word grenade at Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville in the Media Zone. It’s the end of day one on the Acropolis Rally Greece, Hyundai is leading 1-2-3, while third-placed Neuville heads the 2024 championship overall. With just four of 13 rounds remaining including this one, the Belgian is oddson favourite to take his first title. Yet Neuville’s enviable championship position also means he starts first on Greece’s notoriously rough gravel rally stages, so his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid is playing road sweeper for trailing…

Skoda Enyaq Coupe iV vRS Month 4 The story so far Skoda EV makes a great daily: now to test its chops on a Euro road trip + Adds easy long-distance cruiser to its other talents - Would like better tyres and still don't love that grille Logbook Price £54,155 (£58,800 as tested) Performance 77kWh battery, twin e-motors, 5.5sec 0-62mph, 111mph Efficiency 3.9 miles per kWh claimed, 3.5 tested, 0g/km CO2 Range 336 miles (claimed), 265 miles (tested) Energy cost 8.7p per mile Miles this month 1404 Total miles 6872 I’ve never accepted an invitation from a car manufacturer faster. Skoda has supplied support cars to the Tour de France for 21 years now: around half as long as I’ve been obsessed with the race. I’m a cyclist, and I…

Jaguar F-Type 75 Month 6 The story so far The last of its kind – from a manufacturer at the crossroads once again + The noise; the style; the poise; the presence - The days of a raffish, dashing and accomplished Jaguar roadster are behind us Logbook Price £84,125 (£88,145 as tested) Performance 5000cc V8, 450bhp, 4.4sec 0-62mph, 177mph Efficiency 27.0mpg (official), 24.9mpg (tested), 238g/km CO2 Energy cost 26.0p per mile Miles this month 973 Total miles 4863 Maybe I’m at that age when a powerful rocket scratches a specific itch. Maybe I’m a pushover for a car with an excess of swagger and poise. Whatever the reason, the Jaguar made an impact on my daily driving routine like few other test cars I’ve had the privilege of running. No…

HOW DOES GBU WORK? CAR’s road testers highlight what’s so good about the best cars in every class… and what could be better TOP 5 HOT HATCHES GIANT TEST WINNER 1 HONDA CIVIC TYPE R THE GOOD: Feel, feedback, focus: a phenomenal full-sized hot hatch THE BAD: Now £50,050 for a frontdrive hatchback with barely any more power than before THE UGLY: Probably the last of its kind; good job it’s one of the best THE ONE TO BUY: There’s just the one model; £529 a month on a three-year PCP with an £11k deposit GIANT TEST WINNER 2 TOYOTA GR YARIS THE GOOD: A modern-day rally homologation special that’s thrilling to drive THE BAD: Road noise like a death-metal gig; joke rear seats THE UGLY: Long waiting list, even…