Table of contents for April 27, 2022 in Autocar

The new Lexus RZ 450e is the Japanese premium marque’s first bespoke electric car, serving as a spearhead for a new family of dynamically oriented EVs. Available to pre-order now ahead of deliveries beginning at the end of this year, it is a similar size to the best-selling NX. However, Lexus bosses are keen to emphasise that it is not intended as an electric successor to or replacement for that SUV, which only recently entered its second generation and gained a plug-in hybrid option. The electric RZ will no doubt command a premium over its combustion-engined sibling, but Lexus’s European boss, Spiros Fotinos, would only go so far as to confirm the brand is considering the cost of “other BEV-relevant vehicles” in this segment when determining pricing. The RZ is…

THE DEPARTMENT FOR Transport has confirmed planned changes to the Highway Code that would allow drivers to watch TV while travelling in a self-driving car. The wording would apply specifically to in-built display screens, and using mobile phones ‘at the wheel’ would still be illegal – because they pose a greater risk to safety, according to the DfT. The proposed changes come as part of a move to facilitate the roll-out of self-driving cars. The Highway Code was previously updated to reflect that “while an automated vehicle is driving itself, you are not responsible for how it drives and you do not need to pay attention to the road”.…

PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING is on the table when it comes to how cars will be powered in the not too distant future. Although batteries may be the favourites for now, interest in carbon-neutral synthetic fuel has been revived in the past year or two, with Porsche one of its leading cheerleaders. Some synthetic fuel processes have the potential to kill two birds with one stone, not only producing carbon-neutral fuels but also removing CO2 from the atmosphere at the same time. One of those is the production of methanol created by triggering a chemical reaction between sustainably produced hydrogen and CO2 in the atmosphere using a process called Direct Air Capture (DAC). Canadian company Carbon Engineering has been doing this since 2015 and says it’s in the process of establishing…

A nother spot of bad news for MPV lovers as the Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer disappears from sale. MPVs (multi-purpose vehicles), the cars that we used to call people carriers (which was a bit weird, because what else are cars for?), have had a tough time of it recently, mostly because people are buying SUVs (sport utility vehicles) instead. That’s certainly the Citroën’s problem. The existence of the C5 Aircross and now also the C5 X is cited as a reason why there’s no more seven-seat C4 Spacetourer, whose demise follows the (presumably less grand) five-seat C4 Spacetourer, which went off sale three years ago this week. Citroën certainly isn’t alone in this. Take Volkswagen, whose range is so complete that it provides a useful barometer for these things and…

The first real attempts to clean up tailpipe pollution and the resulting smog came in the late 1960s in California. After a famous Los Angeles smog incident in 1943, it was established in the early 1950s that exhaust gases and LA’s topography had combined to cause the problem. California was the first to establish laws to clean up the atmosphere, which governor Ronald Reagan signed to create the State Air Resources Board and the 1967 Federal Air Quality Act. Classic car enthusiasts might remember the 1975 model year was a turning point for emissions control, when European car makers had to throttle their engines to pass US pollution laws. For example, the Opel GT coupé (which was a popular car in California at the time) had a 120bhp engine, but…

CAR MANUFACTURING IN Britain and the rest of the world is reeling from a series of shocks: Brexit, Covid-19, the semiconductor shortage and now the war in Ukraine. During a recent Autocar Business webinar with Stephen Norman (former boss of Vauxhall), David Bailey (business economics professor at Birmingham Business School) and Mark Brickhill (CEO of parts maker Klarius), it became clear that just-in-time manufacturing remains the only real option for a business model for building cars but changes are definitely needed. What are the discussions in boardrooms at the moment? SN “In terms of getting around the bottlenecks, I would’ve thought that there were two main discussions. One of them is: how do we bring in the components in a quicker way? How do we avoid the bottlenecks, whether it…

Gunther Werks’ headquarters is white and clean, spacious and cool. What adorns the walls depends on which area you’re in: some car stuff, of course, but also expensive bottles where customers receive their cars and sci-fi models elsewhere – an apparent enthusiasm of Peter Nam, founder of both Gunther Werks and a company called Vorsteiner, which makes wheels and highend carbonfibre components. There’s an element of cartoonish fantasy to Gunther Werks’ cars, too – although technically they don’t make cars. You buy a stock 993-series Porsche 911 Carrera 2 (1994 to 1998) and they take it and remaster it, creating the 993 Speedster Remastered by Gunther Werks – the sort of naming convolution that keeps intellectual property people happy. But let’s call it the Gunther Werks Speedster. And let’s call…

Of the endless 992-generation 911 variants, the Targa 4 GTS is the one you’re least likely to see. For one thing, it’s expensive: £126,000 compared with £111,380 for the rear-driven Carrera GTS and £102,710 for the Targa 4. At only five grand less than the GT3, the Targaplus-GTS combo doesn’t come cheap. For another, and GTS-grade or not, most people pining for an open-air 911 experience will gravitate towards the Carrera Cabriolet, which suffers no notable drawbacks stemming from the loss of the coupé’s solid roof panel and doesn’t require coming to a standstill to lower or raise the roof (part of the Targa’s artful deck extends beyond the car’s footprint mid-action so necessitates stopping). Most of all, though, you should question the wisdom of giving the heaviest, most GT-flavoured…

The Mach-E GT’s body control and brakes hold up well enough during fast circuit driving, but its battery doesn’t. Our test car managed four laps of the MIRA dry circuit before its performance level dropped appreciably, presumably as a result of too little cooling for the battery pack. Ford could argue, quite reasonably, that it doesn’t see this as a track-day car, and GT customers may agree: but when rival EVs don’t suffer the same problem, it’s noted as a black mark. The car’s torque-vectoring tricks, which prove fairly effective on the road, don’t work as well at the limit of grip, when the car’s front axle generally runs wide before the rear one can pivot around it. The GT can be coaxed into oversteer on a trailing throttle, but…

MGB ROADSTER 1962-1980 Price £5000-£30,000 Much nonsense is talked about these by people who’ve never driven one: they’re lovely old cars. Comfortable, too. Don’t confuse a B with a Caterham: it rolls on corners and isn’t quick. But it’s sporty in its own way, has one of the best exhaust notes going, and if you buy well, it’ll be strong and faithful. And you’ll be part of a large, like-minded community for which lots happens every summer. ONE WE FOUND 1973 MGB ROADSTER, 66K MILES, £5750 VAUXHALL CASCADA 2013-2019 Price £6500-£11,500 Okay, another wild card. But if cruising is your thing, this Astra-based open four-door has considerable style, if you can forget the everyman Griffin badge. Just tell yourself it was also made as a Buick, one of the last…

FEATURE Freelander at 25 We salute the Land Rover that sent its sales volumes soaring, changed perceptions of the brand and spawned the Disco Sport DRIVEN Mazda CX-60 We drive Mazda’s new flagship – and its first plug-in hybrid FEATURE High-mileage heroes These mega-mile motors just go on and on (and on). John Evans tries some EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Mercedes-Benz C300e The plug-in hybrid C-Class that can seemingly do it all meets our testers EARLY LOOK Lexus RZ 450e We get an early taste of Lexus’s first bespoke electric car SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p10…

MILEAGE 5250 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if this family EV has the versatility to be Volkswagen’s new people’s car When you’re on a journey in an electric car, there’s nothing better than to be able to glance down at the range indicator after you’ve been driving for an hour or two and think “Wow, look how much range I’ve got left”, as opposed to “Flippin’ heck, where’s all the range gone?” In my ID 3, it’s usually the former. Not only is the car now starting such trips with a longer indicated range on a full charge than it was over the winter, but that figure also drops at a reassuringly linear rate (unlike in some rivals), even at a 70mph cruise. The current range of around 205…

Nearly 30 years on from its launch, some of us still aren’t over the emotional impact the Fiat Coupé had on us at the time. If you were afflicted – and many of us were – it can still move you now, maybe even towards your cheque book. The good news is that, for such an audacious and individual and potentially collectible car, prices are still comparatively low. It looks like no other, for starters, and love it or loathe it you can’t ignore it. For years, Fiat’s best cars echoed Italy’s unquestionable and deeply ingrained loves of life and art, and this eye-catching beauty/beast seemed to take its influence from the art world to elevate itself into the rarefied category of mobile sculpture, a realm normally inhabited by cars…

WANT TO OWN one of the finest front-wheel-drive cars of all time without breaking the bank? We’ve got you covered. The Integra Type R was among the first cars with Honda’s sporting motif to come to Europe, and what an arrival it was. A genuinely groundbreaking car, the Integra Type R first landed in UK dealerships in 1997 after two years of being on sale in its native Japan. It didn’t take long to see why the car had so many fans in its home country. It was powered by a naturally aspirated 1.8-litre VTEC petrol engine with hand-finished intake ports and high-compression pistons, which contributed to an output of 187bhp, 131lb ft and a redline of 8700rpm. Drive was managed by a five-speed close-ratio manual gearbox. This, in tandem…

Everybody is entitled to a day off. But what do car designers do when they’re not designing cars? The qualities and expertise needed to design cars lend themselves quite easily to many other objects, it turns out – and not just other four-wheeled metal ones. And some car designers even prefer their non-car work. So stick on your best polo-neck sweater and grab a macchiato, because we’re about to reveal all. Giorgetto Giugiaro Watches Giugiaro was born in 1938 and named Car Designer of the Century in 1999. The Lotus Esprit, Mk1 Volkswagen Golf and Mk1 Fiat Panda are three of his most famous car designs. As well as designing firearms, Giugiaro also turned his hand to watches. In the early 1980s, Seiko asked him to design a collection of…

The seventh incarnation of BMW’s flagship 7 Series saloon, on sale from November, is the largest and most luxurious version yet and includes pure-electric models for the first time. A minimalist three-box silhouette with familiar proportions characterises the overall shape, but to give it the visual impact to suit its elevated positioning, the upmarket four-door has a bold new exterior design. “We wanted to give the new model a more striking appearance,” said 7 Series project director Robert Kahlenberg. “Customers in our largest markets are generally younger and demand a more contemporary look than perhaps what we’re used to in Europe, where the average age of buyers is higher.” The illuminated front grille is even bigger than before and the separation of the headlights, with the LED running lights positioned…

LEXUS HAS NO plans to become an SUV specialist, despite its first two electric cars being SUVs and the success of the NX, and is considering a vast array of bodystyles for its future EVs. European boss Spiros Fotinos said that while it “can’t ignore the demand for SUVs” globally, Lexus hasn’t written off plans for more traditional, lower-slung cars in its future line-up. He pointed to the large SUV, saloon and supercar EV concept cars that Lexus revealed late last year as a statement of intent. “We’re clearly working on alternative body types that would allow us to not only offer a wider range of vehicles but also meet the growth ambitions we have for Europe,” he said. As for whether this diversity could extend to an electric successor…

The second-generation Volkswagen Amarok has been redesigned from the ground up in an engineering programme aimed at giving the popular pick-up truck greater accommodation and load-carrying ability than its 12-year-old predecessor. Set for UK sale before the end of the year, it has been developed in partnership with Ford and as such shares its chassis, suspension and drivetrains – as well as key elements of its body, interior and electrical architecture – with the new Ford Ranger. Both trucks are based on the T6 ladder-frame chassis, a box-section steel structure conceived by Ford but modified with input from Volkswagen, according to Lars Krause, marketing boss of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV). He said: “The new Amarok is a much better pick-up than if Volkswagen had done it alone. The same goes…

Land Rover is readying a radical new range-topping version of the Defender to take on the Mercedes-AMG G500 4x42 – and it could be the long-awaited spearhead for the dormant SVX sub-brand. Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations division (SVO) planned to launch the SVX brand for the most extreme reworkings of series-production models and to sell them alongside SVR and SVAutobiography cars. The first model in this family was to be the 518bhp V8-powered Discovery SVX, but that was cancelled in 2019, with Land Rover telling Autocar the badge would live on for other, unspecified models. JLR design boss Gerry McGovern had earlier suggested it would “arguably” be appropriate for future Defender models. Now, as a heavily modified Defender prototype takes to the Nürburgring Nordschleife, it seems the SVX…

European car industry bosses are believed to be locked into at least two months of intense negotiations with European Union officials over the final shape of the proposed Euro 7 pollution regulations. According to one industry insider, car makers are facing the possibility of having to both significantly increase the cost of future internal combustion engine cars and slash the production of cheaper and smaller models. City cars and superminis could be priced out of the market by the demands of Euro 7, potentially leading to plant closures and significant redundancies, insiders say. Indeed, some manufacturers have gone on the record regarding the issue already, with Nissan saying that it won’t produce new engines to meet the fresh regulations. It fits with the firm’s plans around electrification but still is…

Shell is working on new formulations of battery fluids as a key component in the development of lighter, longer-range and more affordable electric vehicles. The world’s biggest supplier of automotive lubricants is using Formula E racing as a test bed for its new E-Thermal and E-Transmission Fluids, including developments in direct cell cooling systems, which are tipped to leapfrog established water-glycol indirect cooling systems, in an attempt to become the industry standard. “With direct cell cooling, the OEM can design a more compact battery with a higher power density and the overall benefit of power to weight is better,” said Chris Dobrowolski, Shell’s associate technology manager for E-Fluids. In direct cell cooling (also known as immersion cooling), individual lithium ion cells inside the battery pack and the busbars and connectors…

ADAM CARROLL CALLED on his vast experience to fend off fellow pro driver Jules Gounon to win a thrilling first race of the 2022 British GT Championship at Oulton Park in Balfe Motorsport’s new Audi R8. Team-mate Shaun Balfe started from pole position but plummeted to sixth on the first lap, only for a series of penalties for rivals to push the car back up the order once he had handed over to Carroll. Frenchman Gounon took over from amateur team-mate Ian Loggie in Ram Racing’s Mercedes-AMG and challenged Carroll in the final laps, but the ex-Jaguar Formula E racer held on to claim victory. The second 60-minute thrash on Bank Holiday Monday was complicated by a midrace downpour that forced a stoppage and a final 25-minute sprint to…

The idea is a simple one: make a more premium and desirable coupé out of a family hatchback. That’s what Hyundai set out to achieve in 2018 with the launch of the i30 Fastback, a sleeker, fivedoor version of the i30, trying to replicate the success that Mercedes-Benz has achieved in morphing the A-Class into the CLA. However sleek it might look and interesting the proposition might be, the idea hasn’t really set the world alight and prompted a whole raft of imitations from rival firms (when they all start making their own, you know you’re really onto something). Yet it remains a stylish option and a welcome niche in a sea of similar family hatchbacks. The i30 Fastback was refreshed just over a year ago and the range simplified…

MODEL TESTED GT AWD Price £66,280 • Power 480bhp • Torque 634lb ft • 0-60mph 4.2sec • 30-70mph in fourth na • Economy 2.4mpkWh • CO2 emissions 0g/km • 70-0mph 43.1m Back in 2020, while Ford was still whetting appetites and building interest in its first series-production EV, the Mustang Mach-E, you might remember that it made a bit of a splash – and plenty of smoke – with a one-off, four-wheeldrive ‘demonstration vehicle’ called the Mach-E 1400. Driven at various events that year by drift ace Vaughn Gittin Jr, the car’s mission was “to showcase the art of the possible for an electric car”. With seven motors and nearly 1400bhp, it certainly did that. Compared with prototypes, of course, production cars are born more out of the arts of the…

AUDI A8 4.2 TDI 2005-2009 Price £5000-£12,000 Once nominated as the ‘Best car in the real world’ by Autocar – the exact judging criteria for which have been lost in the mists of time – the brawnier D3-generation A8 TDI remains a hugely capable way of covering distance. Lesser A8 diesels use a 3.0-litre V6, which feels slightly strained under rapid progress, but the larger V8 never breaks sweat. Launched as a 4.0-litre engine, it was upgraded in 2005 to the more muscular 4.2, which combines 322bhp, 479lb ft, 39.2mpg and a 5.9sec 0-62mph time. While this era produced plenty of brawny diesels, the V8 TDI’s standard Quattro drivetrain makes it superbly capable in slippery conditions. There are few better ways to tackle a wet motorway at speed and in…

We’re up with the gods today, halfway to the top of a Welsh mountain, and we’ve got some moody, blustery weather to suit. Luckily, we’ve also got an offering of which those gods should wholeheartedly approve – and, funnily enough, it’s come along at just the right time. Fifty years ago this year, a momentous chapter opened in the history of British motorsport. In 1972, driving a potent little saloon that had already built up a tidy little international rallying pedigree, Roger Clark and Tony Mason became the first all-British driver and co-driver pairing to win the RAC Rally for more than a decade, and they did it in a British-made Mk1 Ford Escort RS1600. They wrote their success on stages all over Britain, of course, but some were very…

Since the invention of the wheel, man has always put the horse before the cart. This continued with the invention of the horseless carriage, putting the engine in front of the passenger space. Now, more than 120 years later, most cars are still designed with this layout. I’ve been really disappointed with the layout and styling of EVs. They all seem to follow the same shape as ICE cars. Designers have made a few of them a little different, such as the BMW i3 and Jaguar I-Pace, but they don’t seem to be making the most of the freedom that electric propulsion affords. I decided to write about this because of the picture of the Ola car in the 30 March news section. This little Indian design shows that EVs…

Ford GT40 racer for the road THE FORD GT40 is one of the most iconic racers ever, but did you know it was also sold for road use? The Slough factory built 31 lightly modified Mk1s; and mere months before the GT40 earned immortality by defeating Ferrari at Le Mans, we sampled one along with famous racer Innes Ireland. “It’s a very fine road car, more docile and practical than might be imagined. The suspension is surprisingly resilient, and there’s complete freedom from roll. It’s almost relaxing,” we discovered. At Silverstone, we were stunned by how blasé Ireland seemed and indeed how the car never felt fast, despite apexing Stowe at 90mph. “We had no apparent slides or other excitements, and the process assumed an exact rhythm devoid of drama…

MILEAGE 7117 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To keep tabs on the career of Skoda’s popular seven-seat SUV offering As is so often the case, this tale of woe begins innocuously. An orange symbol illuminates on my Skoda Kodiaq’s digital cockpit, warning me that one of the tyres has fallen below the required pressure. Hoping that nothing serious is afoot, I head over to my local petrol station and hook up the rear-left tyre to the machine. I swear it never takes this long; it should be just a matter of moments before I hear the confirmatory beeps. I look up and, to my confusion, the PSI figure on the machine’s screen is actually falling, not rising. Have I done this wrong? Surely nobody can do this wrong. I try holding…

An expert’s view DAVE GIBBONS, UK FIAT COUPE CLUB “I bought my first Coupé 20v Turbo at auction in 1997. The styling and performance were like nothing else at the time. It was my everyday car for 10 years and then I started modifying it with a larger turbo, extra cooling, uprated brakes and suspension. There are several modification options available, with over 400bhp possible, although unmodified cars are much more in demand. Given the age, rust has become the most important issue to check, and original paint might need a refresh due to fading or lacquer peel.” Buyer beware… ■ ENGINE Engine failures are rare but not unknown, due to lack of attention to the oil level, or from the outer auxiliary belt failing, which causes the cambelt to…

Ferrari is going after the McLaren 720S Spider with a new open-top version of its 296 GTB plug-in hybrid supercar that brings 819bhp and “class-leading levels of driver engagement”. The silhouettes of the coupé and new 296 GTS convertible are nearly identical, but the retractable hard top – similar to that used by the SF90 Spider – is stowed in a new bay inside the engine compartment, behind the seats. This means that the 296’s rear deck has been reworked, with resculptured buttresses and a more prominent step between the roof and the distinctive ‘aero bridge’ that spans the width of the car. There’s also a new window at the bottom of the engine cover and the rear screen is adjustable to ensure cabin comfort at high speeds with the…

MERCEDES-AMG HAS LIFTED the veil on the hottest version of the new C-Class yet, the C43 4Matic, as the first car to use a 48V mild-hybrid version of the performance division’s 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine. Available in saloon and estate forms, both again with traditional AMG styling flourishes, the C43 has been comprehensively reengineered for the arrival of the new engine, which replaces a turbocharged 3.0-litre V6. Employing an electric turbocharger and a belt-driven starter-generator to boost reserves under full load, the engine develops 201bhp per litre, lifting the output of the C43 40bhp beyond its predecessor to 402bhp. Torque has decreased by 15lb ft to 369lb ft, however. Drive is channelled through a nine-speed automatic gearbox with a Race Start function and an AMG-specific four-wheel drive system with…

LAMBO LOOKS BACK The new Tecnica is the latest entry into Lamborghini’s best-selling model line in history. As the 20,000th Huracán left Sant’Agata last week, the firm revealed some interesting statistics from its cheaper supercar’s eight years on sale: there have been 12 road and three track variants, 29% have been convertibles, 32% have gone to the US and more than 60% have been worked on by Ad Personam. BRZ FOR A C4 PRICE You thought the new Toyota GR86 was cheap (p9), but chew on this: its virtually identical US-market sibling, the Subaru BRZ, has just been priced up from the equivalent of £22,200 over there – or to put it another way, about what you would pay for a 99bhp Citroën C4 here. It even gets a limited-slip…

The EU has arguably long been playing catch-up in terms of tailpipe pollution regulations, having been more concerned with fuel economy. The US, led by California, has been doing the opposite. Californian pollution laws arrived in 1975, but the Euro 1 pollution regulations didn’t come into effect until 1992. By today’s standards, they were pretty lax, but they did result in the introduction of catalytic convertors and unleaded petrol, albeit 17 years behind California. Euro 2 arrived in 1996, but the main effect was a big reduction in the generous allowance for CO levels. In truth, the EU was more interested in reducing CO2, and after the Kyoto Protocol, it required car makers to lower the average CO2 output of their new car fleet by around 4g/km (or 2%) per…

Although engine oil changes will be less frequent in an EV future, it will be a progressive decline over decades well past the 2030 deadline for new petrol and diesel cars. Plus, there will still be demand for conventional oils long after that. “One thing to remember,” said Chris Dobrowolski of Shell, “is that we aren’t just giving up our conventional business overnight.” So as the new car market shifts to EVs, Shell will rebalance its refining capacity and blending facilities in favour of E-Fluids. For example, its E-Transmission Fluid is very close to current transmission oils in its chemical make-up, so the basic industrial plant will continue in production. What Shell will need to invest in is cleanliness and filtering during the process, because electric motor fluids are less…

SATURDAY A simple, all-pervading feeling of joy, because the driving-for-pleasure season is now properly under way and the weather is playing ball. Today was Ford’s Mustang Day, so we headed for Caffeine & Machine, the Warwickshire drop-in centre for coffee-drinking car-lovers, conveyed smoothly up the Fosse Way by a Mustang Mach-E GT (the gofaster version of the Blue Oval’s first fully electric model, road tested on p30) that I had borrowed for the occasion. Take an interesting car, find an attractive destination populated by people you like and it’s hard not to have a good time. The news from the wider world may be dire – what with wars, shortages, inflation, price hikes and non-stop political chicanery – but severaldozen V8 Mustangers (who had probably turned down the heating and…

The Duster is the ultimate example of Dacia’s ability to tap into relevant market segments with affordable, practical cars. Launched in 2018, it was updated last year with a sharper design, better efficiency and a spruced-up interior. Now Dacia has added the crème de la crème of Dusters: the Extreme SE. This plays to its desire to be seen as an outdoorsy, adventure brand. Plus, not many customers opt for the base trim, so Dacia believes it makes sense to feed the upper end of the Duster market, adding a specification based on its highest trim level, Prestige. The special edition receives 17in black alloy wheels, exclusive Urban Grey paint and grey and orange detailing on the door mirrors, front grille and roof bars. Inside, the orange theme continues on…

Prices for new cars are soaring for a number of reasons – rising material and energy costs, supply chain restrictions and increased equipment levels among them – and on top of that, most buyers are having to wait months between placing an order and taking delivery due to heavily delayed production schedules. The second-hand car market can provide welcome respite. There are budget-friendly ‘pre-loved’ alternatives to every new car on sale, so you could pick up a gem for a fraction of the price, and in a fraction of the time, it would take to configure and collect a factory-fresh model. But a knock-on effect of more expensive new cars is – you guessed it – higher demand, and higher prices, for used cars. So you need to be extra…

DODGE RAM SRT-10 2004-2006 Price £10,000-£115,000 It’s big and it has an 8.3-litre Viper V10, five seats, cupholders, all-wheel drive and stripes in case you’re worried about not being seen. There are many varieties of American pick-up and more of these Rams (and Ford F-150s) on sale here than you might expect. ONE WE FOUND 2005 DODGE RAM SRT-10 QUAD CAB, 74K MILES, £31,500 LINCOLN MKX 2015-NOW Price £15,000-£22,000 If you fancy a properly rare SUV and don’t mind left-hand drive, consider a Lincoln MKX. It’s a Ford Edge relative, comes with heaps of kit and is tastefully shaped. The earlier generation usually has a 3.7 V6, later editions a 2.0 or 2.7-litre Ecoboost motor or a V6. From 2019, it was renamed Nautilus. Great value. ONE WE FOUND 2014…

CITROEN SAXO £3000 This Citroën Saxo has been comprehensively overhauled specifically for rallying, gaining Bilstein suspension, a hydraulic handbrake, a 1.1 gearbox with Tran-X limited-slip differential, uprated front brakes and an eight-point bolt-in roll-cage. The previous owner has spared no expense, even adding a fibreglass bonnet and Perspex windows. Yours for £3000. PEUGEOT 106 RALLYE £7450 This Phase 1 Peugeot 106 Rallye is powered by the French firm’s punchy 1.3-litre engine, with 100bhp at 7200rpm. The model’s strengths were its chassis and steering, and a 826kg kerb weight meant few hot hatches topped it in the turns. This one has several new parts installed and an extensive history but needs a quick repaint. AUDI QUATTRO £48,000 The four-wheel-drive Audi Quattro is a rally icon that took almost every gong going, including two…

Suzuki clarifications In reply to the letter from ‘Streaky’ (6 April), I would like to explain and clarify the following points. Firstly, limited sales of the Suzuki Jimny passenger car in the UK ceased in 2020. The 2021 launch of the Jimny Light Commercial Vehicle gave the opportunity to continue satisfying more private as well as business customers who are happy to own a two-seat model. With production for several regions globally sourced from one factory, UK demand remains above the available production capacity. The 1.5-litre engine is the most suitable for the Jimny, which is designed primarily to be highly capable for rural and off-road use. Secondly, the newly developed Automated Manual Gearbox, or AGS, introduced for the Suzuki Vitara Full Hybrid, enables the driver to enjoy both the…

Good things come in small packages, they say – and the Suzuki Swift has for a number of years been a case in point. Today’s third-generation version continues the long-standing Swift themes of being fun to drive and budget friendly and it throws the option of hybrid technology into the mix, so it’s well worth considering as a used buy. As well as giving the Swift a total redesign for the Mk3 version, the Japanese firm pulled out all the stops to make sure it was just as dynamic as the previous car, which was widely praised for the way it drove. It helped that the new car was based on a brandnew Heartect platform, which promoted lightness and rigidity. As a result, the latest Swift weighed 120kg less than…

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…