Table of contents for July 10, 2024 in Autocar

Honda will bring its new Prelude sports coupé to the UK with the goal of winning over younger customers through a focus on style, dynamics and a driver-focused interior. Set to be imported from the “mid-2020s”, the Civic-based two-door hybrid will be Honda’s sixth UK model line and the first Prelude sold here since the fifth-generation car was withdrawn from sale in 2001. It will also be the only front-driven coupé on sale in the UK, after cars such as the Volkswagen Scirocco, Hyundai Veloster and Vauxhall Astra GTC were retired several years ago and with the Audi TT now out of production. According to the firm’s CEO, Toshihiro Mibe, the new Prelude is intended to “embody Honda’s unalterable sports mindset” with a driver-focused chassis and engine set-up. The firm…

Ineos is delaying its second model, the Fusilier, over concerns about EV uptake and governmental automotive policies. The Grenadier’s smaller sibling, which was due to be launched in 2027 with the choice of pure-EV and range-extender powertrains, has been pushed back indefinitely because of “reluctant consumer uptake of EVs and industry uncertainty around tariffs, timings and taxation”, said Ineos. The company called for “long-term clarity from policy makers and a number of technology options” before the Fusilier will be a viable commercial proposition.…

NISSAN HAS BEGUN demonstrations of its latest-generation autonomous vehicle capability using a Nissan Leaf prototype equipped with technology developed in-house. The demos are showcasing progress in autonomous mobility, which the company plans to roll out commercially in 2027. The Leaf is fitted with 14 cameras, 10 radar sensors and six lidar (light detection and ranging) sensors. In the early days of autonomous vehicle development, over a decade ago, the technology was still at the ‘either/or’ stage. Would the better option prove to be all-seeing lidar, which potentially missed nothing but cost the earth, or could radar or cameras step up and provide a more cost-effective solution? As is so often the case, it seems the end game is to incorporate all three. And as lidar prices have tumbled from tens…

WE ALL KNOW the difference changing a set of wheels can make to the way a car looks, steers and handles. Yet this came as a surprise to a big car maker, which had to spend nearly €1 million to fix a ‘miscommunication’ between departments. The issue occurred when the firm wanted to speed up development of a hot hatch and contracted out the suspension tuning to a specialist. As the design of the car was still secret, the freelance engineers were supplied cars that looked like the standard model, fitted with the biggest alloys on the options list. The experts soon had the car handling as an enthusiast would expect and the chassis spec was signed off. Meanwhile, the styling department revealed the finished design, which included new-look alloys.…

With somewhat unfortunate timing from our point of view, the Fisker Ocean nipped into Autocar’s 100 Best New Cars list in April, just as its maker ran into terminal financial trouble. A few weeks on, nice though the Ocean is, it wouldn’t make it into our most-recommended cars list any more. Due apologies to anyone who pressed the button on buying one as a result of its 98th-place finish. Fisker finally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June and, as reported last week, at the same time stated that anyone who had bought an Ocean after 5 April was basically on their own in terms of its warranty or having any defects fixed. Eek. American magazine MotorTrend had just taken delivery of a long-term test Ocean – which, if you…

A paltry seven cars for a three-hour endurance race on a sunny Saturday afternoon didn’t sound much of an enticing prospect. Yet somehow the Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup for 1960s GTs at Snetterton turned out to be what I suspect will be one of the best races I will watch in 2024. Remember that hoary old cliché about only needing two cars to make a race? What a nail-biting finish. It deserved more entries, but it seems that the Norfolk circuit just isn’t the draw that it should be. I’m not really in a position to judge. It must have been more than 20 years since I had last trundled down the A11, so it felt novel to return for Motor Racing Legends’ Snetterton Classic meeting at the…

Although it reckons the Elettrica will account for less than a third of Junior sales amid weakened demand for EVs, Alfa remains committed to going all-electric. Product chief Daniel Guzzafame can’t see the European Union cancelling its plan to ban new ICE car sales from 2035 and said Alfa will be ready to meet that deadline, so long as its EVs match its ICE cars’ dynamic prowess. “We want to be electric the moment we can bring a true and authentic substitution in terms of the use of the car and the emotion it can transfer,” he said. The Veloce proves that this is possible, he added, batting away any suggestion that the adoption of new powertrain tech means the death of the brand as we know it. “We have…

A few weeks ago, we drove the new petrol-powered Mini Cooper. Its compact size and playful chassis gave it some real warm hatch appeal, which was subsequently dashed by an unexciting engine and an automatic gearbox with no manual control. I would love a three-pedal Cooper S, but we’re unlikely to get one, so why not go the other way entirely and ditch the mechanical complexity? No gearbox, no worries? The electric Cooper has now arrived in the UK in two forms: the Cooper E is the standard 181bhp, 36.6kWh, 188-mile version, and the Cooper SE is the more expensive 215bhp, 49.2kWh, 248-mile one. A UK launch event afforded the opportunity to try both models, which the international launch last month didn’t. Whichever one you go for, it’s striking how,…

Swapping oily powertrains for cleaner, simpler EV set-ups is becoming huge business. Depending on the scope of what sort of EV-swapped classic you’re in the mood for, there’s likely to be a shop out there for you. Some will sell you a fully restored car without an ICE motor to move it, others will build your dream car, and places like Oxfordshire’s Electrogenic are in one game only: powertrain. Set up just before the Covid-19 pandemic, Electrogenic started out with a mission to convert commercial vehicles from ICE to EV propulsion. But when the world changed overnight, so did Electrogenic’s plans. Steve Drummond, Electrogenic’s founder and CEO, remembers the switch well. “We hired our first people 10 days before the 2020 lockdown, and the B2C (business-to-consumer) business we had planned…

You might think that a track day represents the most easily accessible taste of motorsport for the enthusiast keen to get their foot down and tyres hot, but if you don’t fancy going round in circles, the UK’s wealth of hillclimbs offers another outlet for keen drivers. It’s not just the pre-war specials and record-setting Radicals, either: increasingly popular open days are inviting a fantastic variety of machinery, from daily drivers to Group B rally cars, to weave their way up these challenging courses. Shelsley Walsh in Worcestershire is the world’s oldest motorsport venue to use its original course and one of the most fearsome hillclimbs in the country. But it’s still accessible to all, with events such as the annual Hagerty Hillclimb, which was recently staged for the third…

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 5013 WHY WE RAN IT Is the intriguing use of a rotary engine a masterstroke or flawed genius? Discuss In a world of cookie-cutter platform sharers, it’s a miracle that this rotary-powered version of the MX-30 exists at all. Really, it has no need to. I can’t imagine the public were crying out for a range-extender and those who genuinely care about rotary power were almost certainly expecting it to be used in a high-revving sports car. So this is a car for people looking for something different. Certainly, there’s nothing else quite like it on sale. In fact, I’d argue it’s possibly the most unusual ‘normal’ car you can buy today. It’s a shame, then, that three months with it has made me realise why it’s…

De Meo for PM Your awards issue came out at exactly the right time. I was able to spend a Sunday morning reading about people defined by their actions, rather than facing more empty rhetoric in the newspapers in the run-up to the election. Excellent stuff. Alasdair Duncan Via email Ay’d go for a Toyota With reference to Simon Wyatt’s letter regarding his wife’s Lexus NX and Lexus’s 10-year warranty offering (26 June), I’d like to point out that the same is true of Toyota. In 2016, we purchased a one-year-old Toyota Aygo as a runaround and for our daughter to learn in. In October last year, it developed a rattle on idle. I booked it in with the supplying and servicing dealer, dropped it off and collected a loan…

If you bought an i3 when new, know that, like BMW, you were ahead of the game. This compact electric hatchback was comfortably the best contender in its class when it was launched in 2013, earning heaps of praise from Autocar, with a competitive official range of up to 205 miles, whip-crack acceleration that didn’t tail off in the motor’s upper reaches and bold styling that still hasn’t dated. That the i3 had such capabilities should come as no surprise, because an incredible amount of care was taken during its six-year development. It was hidden away from not only the media and other car makers but even other sections of BMW’s already secretive Munich R&D centre. The car was hugely controversial at the time, however, with some BMW engineers reputedly…

SKODA YETI 1 .2 TSI SE L DRIVE OUTDOOR DSG 2017, 51,000 miles, £13,780 The little Yeti finds a happy medium between hardy off-roader and nippy supermini. This car meets our brief perfectly; just check carefully for any glitches with the automatic gearbox. FORD MONDEO ESTATE 2.0 TDCi TITANIUM 2017, 49,000 miles, £12,400 The Mondeo Estate’s boot isn’t as capacious as rivals’, but is still more than large enough for your family’s luggage and a dog. This car lacks leather but otherwise fits the bill. BMW 220i GRAN TOURER LUXURY 2017, 38,000 miles, £13,995 This MPV won’t be to all tastes visually, but it is highly practical, being a seven-seater, and a fair bit better to drive than most of its classmates. Plus it has the stronger of the petrol…

Rodger Dudding invented something very simple that did something very useful: a ticket machine that helped retailers work out which customer was next. This and a flock of lock-up garages helped make Dudding, now 86, a very wealthy man. He has ploughed much of that fortune into a car collection in Hertfordshire. We dropped by to unearth some of its secrets… Lotus M250 concept 1999 The M250 is something of a tragic vehicle in the history of Lotus. This clay model concept car – one of just two made – was unveiled in 1999 and looks as fabulous today as it did then. It was planned to feature a mid-mounted 3.0-litre V6 good for around 250bhp and to offer proper GT comforts, all crammed into a lithe, 4137mm-long package. Lotus…

“When we do electric cars, we will produce them in the right way” Ferrari’s first electric car has already completed several thousand miles of on-road testing and company boss Benedetto Vigna promises it will be made “in the right way” to ensure buyers can “have a lot of fun”. The Italian firm has yet to disclose any details about what form its first battery-electric vehicle will take, but Vigna confirmed it will be revealed late next year before going on sale in 2026. Recent spy shots show what are understood to be Ferrari EV test mules using modified Maserati Levante bodywork and give some hints as to the form the final car might adopt. Whether it will be obviously comparable to the Levante in silhouette remains to be seen. Notably,…

Does it make less sense to put an electric powertrain in a sports car? “We believe with battery-electric vehicles, and particularly with battery technology, technological development is still ongoing on a daily basis. However, there were so many different requirements where we believed that the hybrid powertrain provided a better balance.” What has your team learned from this car that you will put into future Honda models? “We learned that the hybrid powertrain still has a lot of room for improvement, and that because we are now in the transition to full electrification, the hybrid powertrain still has a lot of potential to be utilised for different applications.” What more can you reveal about its target market? “In Japan, the Prelude was the most attractive car for taking [someone] out…

“It is said to keep its remarkably soft ride on rough roads but negotiate them even faster” Ariel has revealed its much-anticipated Nomad 2 performance off-roader ahead of its public debut at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. In typical Ariel fashion, the £65,000 newcomer (for which a queue of 80 potential customers had already formed before anyone outside the company had even seen it) is different from its predecessor in almost every mechanical detail except the filler cap and pedal box. However, it remains entirely true to the hugely successful original concept, of which several hundred copies have been sold from Ariel’s tiny Somerset works since 2015. The Nomad 2’s biggest mechanical change is the adoption of a 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine from Ford, similar in basic spec…

Smart could start building electric cars in Europe in a bid for increased efficiencies as it ramps up its global expansion plans and fleshes out its model line-up. After Fortwo production ended this year at Ineos’s plant in Hambach, France, all Smart cars are built in Xi’an, China. But with sales increasing in other markets and the rising costs of exporting worldwide, Smart is considering localised production to better cater to demand – with the added benefit of avoiding the EU’s new tariffs on Chinese EVs. Smart Europe CEO Dirk Adelmann told Autocar the brand’s ownership structure gives it flexibility to globalise its operations: “We have a parent company [Mercedes] based in Germany with production basically all over the world, but also [China-based] Geely with other daughter companies has production…

Porsche has recently enjoyed people describing the GTS as the ‘sweet spot’ in the 911 range. It has had more oomph and more reward than the Carrera but not the focus or harshness of a Turbo or a GT3. Imagine, then, the uproar when Porsche first said it was going to hybridise it, the online fury at the potential of a two-tonne, pluggable 911. Only it turns out that it’s neither two tonnes nor pluggable. It is, though, the most notable part of the 992-generation 911’s facelift (the 992.2, as Porsche people like to say). So far, we’ve seen details of the GTS and the basic Carrera (more on which later too), but the GTS’s part-electrification is the big news. Its engine is a newly developed 3.6-litre flat six, 0.6…

It’s a clear sign of just how highly Volkswagen continues to value the combustion-engined Golf against a brace of modern EVs that it has provided the eighth-generation family car with such a comprehensive list of mid-life changes. The face-lifted Golf driven here arrives almost five years after the Mk8 was first launched in the UK, signalling an extended model cycle for the latest incarnation of the long-running German hatchback, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Externally, it’s differentiated from its direct predecessor by redesigned headlights, which feature a more angular design and full LED operation across the range; revised tail-lights; new-look bumpers; and an illuminated front VW badge. Buyers can choose from five new alloy wheel designs and four new metallic paint colours as part of a widened range…

You wouldn’t have expected it, but the ID Buzz has gained a hot GTX range-topper. While not exactly constituting a performance makeover, the VW EV does get four-wheel drive, a hefty power hike and sportier styling. Existing with both short and long wheelbases (but to be offered only in SWB form in the UK), the GTX ups power and torque to 335bhp and 413lb ft – which is more than the new Golf R touts. Apart from some minor suspension changes, little else has changed under the skin. The boost in pace by itself will no doubt be enough to entice some, with the GTX SWB hitting 0-62mph in 6.1sec. Propelling almost three tonnes of metal with such ease certainly has its appeal, and that increase in power also raises…

In a workshop in deepest Oxfordshire, a Subaru BRZ is being restored to life. It’s a write-off – a Category N, which means it has sustained non-structural damage and can be repaired and returned to the road. So far, so ordinary, except the people putting this Subaru back on the road are veterans of the armed services with the scars – some physical, some mental – to prove it. They are beneficiaries of Mission Motorsport, a services charity that through motorsport helps those veterans who, in its words, are “hardest to reach” to build fresh careers beyond the military. Since it was founded in 2012, more than 2000 people have found work through its programmes. Its motto is ‘Race, retrain, recover’ – words that, in the case of the Scoobie…

MODEL TESTED 1 .0 ECOBOOST TITANIUM Price £25,900 • Power 123bhp • Torque 148lb ft • 0-60mph 10.8sec • 30-70mph in fourth 14.7sec • Fuel economy 42.6mpg • CO2 emissions 154g/km • 70-0mph 51.8m Ford has lately hollowed out its range of more affordable cars. Its reasons for doing this will need little explaining to regular readers. Demands by European legislators for new cars to meet ever-stricter safety and emissions standards have made it very tough to make money out of affordable cars – especially for companies like Ford that depend on volume to do so. Because when cheap cars suddenly aren’t so cheap, they don’t sell in the same numbers, and so the destructive cycle goes on. The demise of the Blue Oval’s perennial sales hero, the Fiesta, was…

MILEAGE 10,030 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Can an extra-long, diesel 4x4 justify a place in daily motoring life in 2024? Matt Prior texts me a couple of hours after I tried to call him. “I missed you. You’ll want something,” he says. Offended by his unwarranted(ish) cynicism, I reply that I only wanted to offer him a week or two in my Abarth 500e, because I know how much of a fan of small cars he is. “When do you need the Defender?” comes the blunt reply. Ah, now there’s a thought. I had completely forgotten you were running the van-backed 130, Matt, but now you mention it, I do have two sofas, some desks and a chest of drawers that need collecting. Oh, and I’ve got a couple of…

Your article ‘Who pledges what at the election?’ (News, 26 June) just showed how out of touch politicians are with regard to daily driving on UK roads. But then again, you would be if you were chauffeured around London (do any of them realise there is a UK outside London?) in a ministerial car with a police escort. What would have sealed many, many votes from the 20 million-plus drivers in the UK had clearly not occurred to them or their advisors: do what they do in Scandinavia. Having worked extensively over there, I am told that to get a government contract (I assume the equivalent of our National Highways), contractors have to work 24/7 to complete roadworks and the ‘overrun’ penalties are huge. Thus there are no endless lines…

An expert’s view GERARD McGOVERN “This is my second i3, and I’ve owned it for nearly three years. Throughout my motoring life, I’ve had many BMWs, most of which were M cars. I rate the i3 as one of the best cars I’ve owned. It’s a great mix of quirky and fun and genuinely puts a smile on my face when I drive it. The looks are not to everyone’s taste, but I think it could be released tomorrow as a new car and its design would still look fresh. The only improvements I would like are a true 200-mile range and an updated iDrive system. Otherwise, it’s perfect.” Buyer beware… AIR-CON The most common issue relates to the air conditioning’s compressor lunching itself, and because it’s used to keep…

NOTHING ABOUT THE 18 April 1924 issue of this magazine seems unusual. On the cover, a colourful painting advertising Wolseley’s new Fourteen touring car. In the leader, a plea for drivers to take extra care in the Easter holiday traffic. In the road test, a new four-cylinder saloon from Vauxhall. The main feature, a preview of the British Empire Exhibition, to be held at a grand new purpose-built stadium in Wembley. And in the news, the invention of the invisible death ray. Woah, hang on. What?! “To stop an internal combustion engine without any visible agency is the uncanny achievement of at least one British electric engineer,” we reported. “Clearly the value of this startling phenomenon lies solely in its use in war time. Accordingly, Mr [Harry] Grindell Matthews can…

Ferrari boss Benedetto Vigna believes that environmentally friendly e-fuels and hydrogen powertrains could have a future in its models – and he wants to use motorsport to develop both technologies. Vigna believes carbon-neutral fuel will “become more and more a reality”. He said: “We are working with partners for 2026 for carbon-neutral fuel in Formula 1 [as part of new technical rules] and usually technologies start out on the track and migrate to the road. We believe there is still a valid way forward for ICE cars and this is going to be supported by the development of carbon-neutral fuel.” Vigna was speaking as Ferrari prepares to unwrap a long-awaited successor to the LaFerrari hypercar, which is tipped to use a similar hybrid drivetrain to the 296 and SF90 supercars…

Volvo C30 (2006-2013) Inspired by the P1800 ES and 480, the C30 was a restrained but tasteful coupé that could be had with a 227bhp five-pot from the Ford Focus ST. Alfa Romeo Brera (2006-2012) This coupé combined compelling looks and a seductive V6 with a level of build quality previously not associated with Alfa Romeo. Volkswagen Scirocco (2008-2017) The Scirocco was sold from 1974 as a sleek, two-door reworking of the Golf. Its most recent iteration could be had in full-fat R guise. Hyundai Veloster (2012-2015) A short-lived asymmetric exercise in melding form with function, with a singular rear door and i30 innards.…

At Platts of Marlow, a Ford retail dealer that will celebrate 100 years in the Berkshire town in 2025, they are contemplating life without new Blue Oval cars. “Even now, there’s such a limited range of Ford models left to sell,” said Jim Platt, company chairman and son of the founder. “Once we had as many as 30 but now we’re down to five. “The Fiesta, which used to account for 50% of our sales, is no longer made and the Focus will soon be dropped. These are the models we can sell to private, retail customers. Fortunately, we can still offer them the Puma, which is our best-seller.” Platt said the absence of a wider range of alternative models means his new car sales are down by 30%. Fortunately,…

BMW M5 Flagship 5 Series is BMW’s most extreme yet, packing a 717bhp V8-engined plug-in hybrid powertrain. That means a 3.5sec 0-62mph sprint despite a 2400kg kerb weight. AUDI RS E-TRON GT Feisty range-topping Performance variant is Audi’s most powerful car yet, with a mighty 912bhp. It can hit 62mph from standstill in just 2.5sec. ALFA ROMEO 33 STRADALE The Italian marque’s final combustion supercar packs updated versions of the Giulia Quadrifoglio’s 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6. Alfa is also offering it with an electric powertrain. Just 33 will be made. ASTON MARTIN VALIANT A track-focused reworking of last year’s Valour and commissioned by Fernando Alonso, the Valiant packs a 734bhp twin-turbo V12 that’s mated to a six-speed manual gearbox. ZAGATO AGTZ TWIN TAIL Inspired by the Alpine A220 Le Mans racer,…

UPMARKET CHINESE BRAND Denza plans to enter Europe with its Z9 GT, despite new EU tariffs on Chinese EVs. European product boss Yi Sun told Autocar that majority owner BYD (Mercedes has a 10% stake) was in “discussions with potential dealers” to import the 14-year-old brand’s EVs. Investment in the project is significant, he confirmed. “BYD wants to be global, so we have to present ourselves in all major markets,” he said. Denza recently started building right-hand-drive cars for Hong Kong. Its line-up currently consists of the N7 SUV, N8 SUV and D9 MPV. The Z9 GT, a 952bhp shooting brake, will be the first in Europe, most likely followed by a rebadged Fangchengbao 5 off-roader.…

MONDAY Can motor industry bosses draw cars? Sir William Lyons could certainly visualise Jaguar’s now-classic creations, but I wouldn’t view the current CEO crop as artistically inclined – or I didn’t until I came upon a booklet bearing the byline of award-winning Renault chief Luca de Meo. Entitled R5, La Belle Histoire, it’s his story of “three years at the heart of a project that has changed Renault”, if my Aussie schoolboy French serves. It tells how the new CEO noticed a stray R5 model – passed over because Renault “didn’t want to get into retro design” – during his first visit to the design studios. He decided on the spot that this car could reconnect Renault with France. De Meo has since sketched his own interpretation of the R5…

The weight of expectation dangles ominously from the fearsome jaws of Alfa Romeo’s serpent mascot. Make no bones about it: of all the cars charged with revitalising the Italian brand’s fortunes over the past few decades, this fashion-first but family-friendly B-segment crossover must surely – surely – be the one that does it. But to succeed where so many have valiantly failed in an attempt to dramatically swell the company coffers, not only does the Junior Elettrica have to be a pretty decent EV – touting all the requisite range, efficiency and charging speeds to put it on a par with its increasingly numerous rivals – but also, first and foremost, an Alfa Romeo. It’s logical, then, that our first acquaintance comes at the extensive and highly varied Balocco proving…

Seven-seat electric cars have been in short supply. Other than a handful of fairly short-range, van-based options, the Mercedes-Benz EQB had the market to itself for a few years, until the recent arrival of the bigger (and much pricier) Kia EV9. Now the Peugeot e-5008 is joining the fray. Based on Peugeot parent firm Stellantis’s new STLA Medium platform, the third-generation 5008 comes as a 1.2-litre petrol hybrid, a 1.6-litre petrol plug-in hybrid (with an electric-only range of 48 miles) or a full EV, which is where the e-5008 name comes in. The launch model has a 211bhp front-mounted motor and a nickel-manganese-cobalt battery of 73kWh capacity. A version with a 98kWh battery and a 73kWh one with an additional rear motor are due in early 2025, with ranges of…

Since the ID Buzz’s arrival in 2022, drivers have wondered why VW decided to launch it with just five seats despite the considerable footprint. The firm has now rectified that by introducing a long-wheelbase (LWB) version. The LWB measures 4962mm, an increase of 250mm over the short wheelbase (SWB). The sliding doors are now longer and some more metal has been added between the C-pillars and the rear wheels. The additional space is more evident on the inside. The LWB comes as standard with seven seats in a 2/3/2 configuration, while a 2/2/2 six-seater or a 2/3 five-seater can also be selected. With the seven-seat option, the third row of seats can be removed completely to create a 1340-litre cargo space – an increase of 219 litres over the SWB.…

Logic doesn’t really apply in the rarefied world of Italian sports cars. It’s a domain of passion and desire; you don’t buy a Ferrari for sensible, practical, logical reasons. As company boss Benedetto Vigna puts it: “People buy a Ferrari because when they buy a Ferrari, they have a lot of fun.” Appreciating how Ferrari ignites such illogical desires is key to understanding the absolute business logic behind the firm’s new E-building, one of the most significant additions to its Maranello factory in decades. But first there’s a bit of logic-defying misdirection you need to grasp. The new building is where Ferrari’s first electric car will be assembled, and where its e-motor, axles and battery packs will be produced. So, taking a logical leap, you might think the E in…

MILEAGE 3349 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Lexus has pinned its hopes of UK sales growth on this new compact crossover My first chance to give the LBX a proper run was fittingly to Mollie’s Motel and Diner in Oxfordshire, often billed as an automotive destination of sorts. Only away for one night but with a toddler in tow, my first step was fitting everything into this compact car – Lexus’s smallest yet. It’s still proving easy, despite the boot’s loading lip, to chuck everything in without having to resort to using the back seats too, which has been a pleasant surprise. As I’ve mostly been in town and the suburbs so far, I’ve been doing gentle driving and found the three-cylinder petrol engine quiet and easy, and naturally there has…

USED SPECIAL Britain’s best value used car Want to get the absolute most for your money? We’ve worked out the biggest bargains on the market today FIRST DRIVE Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 Hot twin-turbo, straight-six version of swanky new coupé reaches the UK REVEALED Red Bull RB17 F1’s top team has made a hypercar you can buy – and we have all the details EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Skoda Superb Estate Will the big-booted newcomer live up to its name in our toughest test? USED GUIDE Ferrari 612 Scaglietti An Italian Bentley Continental GT for just £50k? Where do we sign? SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p16…

Divorce is a traumatic event that can be made far worse by one half taking the reliable vehicle and leaving the other with a Mercedes A-Class that is a constant occupant of the local garage – at least it was before being written off in a bizarre road rage incident. Its replacement needs to be no older than from 2017 and have fewer than 55,000 miles, an automatic gearbox, heated seats, folding mirrors, leather upholstery and enough room for a dog cage. It also needs to be ULEZ-compliant and in a particular colour. A fancied Mini Countryman doesn’t seem big enough for the dog and a desired Audi Q2 that can take the cage is somewhat over the budget of about £13,000. Right, let’s go shopping. Increasingly I’m of the…

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…