Table of contents for May 11, 2022 in Autocar

The Mini line-up has gone automatic-only as global supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine force a halt to manual gearbox production. The firm told Autocar it sought to simplify its offering “to secure maximum production output to meet increasing customer demand” but has not yet confirmed if it is a permanent move. The cheapest Mini 3-Door Hatch is now priced from £18,815 – £1400 more than the manual variant.…

ALTHOUGH MUCH OF the chat surrounding the new 7 Series has focused on its looks, BMW’s electric drive technology continues to evolve underneath that controversial skin. The first global model from launch will be the i7 xDrive60 BEV powered by BMW’s existing fifthgeneration eDrive package, with elements of it, such as the regenerative braking functions, tweaked further to eke out even more efficiency from the drivetrain. The fifth-generation eDrive is based on drive motor-generator technology that does away with permanent magnets in the rotor (the spinning part of the motor) and the rare earth metals they are made of. The price of neodymium oxide, used to make the high-powered magnets, more than doubled back in 2019, and because 90% of the supply comes from one source (China), moving away from…

Embattled Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers has stepped down from his leadership and board roles after less than two years. However, he will remain in an unspecified role with the company until the end of July, helping to ease the handover to his successors. Amedeo Felisa takes the roles of CEO and executive director immediately and Roberto Fedeli becomes chief technical officer. The Italians previously worked together at Ferrari, from where 76-year-old Felisa retired as CEO in 2016 and Fedeli left the role of chief technical officer in 2014. Each is a close ally of ex-Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo, a close business associate of Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll. It is unclear if Felisa’s tenure will be long-term, given his age, although Stroll described him as “young at heart”…

New car prices have risen by 6.6% to an average of £42,054 across all brands since the start of 2021, new data from What Car? shows – and car buyers are experiencing far higher cost hikes in reality, due to the sharp reduction of discounts. A combination of production slowdowns due to shortages of parts, hefty increases in the prices of raw materials and electrification has forced car makers to increase prices in the past few months, hurting those looking to replace older cars. However, some brands, including BMW, Dacia, Land Rover, Nissan and Suzuki, have pushed their prices much higher than the 6.6% average, the What Car? data shows. Meanwhile, the monthly financing and leasing fees for some customers have as much as doubled as financial support from car…

STOFFEL VANDOORNE’S BEST result from his two appearances in the Monaco Grand Prix for McLaren was a forgettable 14th in 2018. But the Belgian’s largely miserable and all-toobrief Formula 1 career is a fastshrinking memory, especially after the recent Monaco ePrix. At the most famous street track of them all, the Mercedes-EQ driver played it cool to walk away with the Formula E win that every driver desires more than any other. Not only that, but Vandoorne (who did win in Monaco in GP2 in 2015) now also leads the world championship standings. Jaguar’s Mitch Evans was targeting a third straight Formula E win following his Rome ePrix double and led Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein from pole position, with Vandoorne starting fourth behind DS driver Jean-Éric Vergne. But Evans was caught…

Aston Martin used to have a strategic need for a V12 Vantage, but that need can no longer figure quite so keenly, and that might at least partly explain why the company has just called time on this extra-special bloodline. The V8 Vantage was sensationallooking, enticingly sweet-handling and alluringly attainable when it arrived in 2005. Even after its V8 had grown from 4.3 to 4.7 litres, though, it was never that fast. It was the allimportant baby Aston: a feeder-series sports car that was always eager to please, with a chassis of powers so far in advance of those of its engine that it simply demanded more grunt. So when the V12 Vantage came in 2009, justice was done, it making 510bhp. However, these days, thanks to the turbocharged engines…

Aretro revival for the 1980s Peugeot 309 might seem a solid bet with design trends as they are, but the odds of that happening just got longer with the UK debut of this Mk3 Peugeot 308. It’s one of those half-new ‘all-new’ cars, using a widely revised version of its predecessor’s platform (although the car is longer and lower now) and updated versions of its 1.2-litre turbo petrol and 1.5-litre diesel engines, but also having two new petrol-electric plug-in hybrid powertrains and an electric derivative coming in 2023. Only evolutionary it may be, but the 308’s design is still pretty striking and appealing, all slim-featured and sharply defined, with what still seem likeably compact dimensions, despite that modest growth spurt. It’s quite roomy in the front but still short enough…

There can’t have been a more surprising hypercar event in recent years than the plan announced last year to merge Bugatti and Rimac into a new company, with Mate Rimac as CEO and Porsche as the key technical partner. At the time, there were few specifics about the merger’s purpose, although it had been clear that the Volkswagen Group was reluctant to invest the billions in new Bugattis for the EV era. Mate Rimac’s key mission, it turns out, was to get much better control of model development costs. “On a car-by-car basis, Bugatti is very successful,” he says. “People would be surprised how profitable each one is; I certainly was. But it has been less successful in developing cars. It cost them more to create the Chiron from the…

AUDI TT 1998 Groundbreaking 2+2 on Golf components helped shift Audi’s image from that of ordinary saloon maker to design-led company. Schreyer calls the styling “uncompromising” and is proud the concept and production model were so similar. VOLKSWAGEN GOLF IV 1997 Everyman Volkswagen shows Schreyer’s lifelong liking for simple architecture: he felt the previous two Golfs had blurred the lines of the original Giugiaro-designed car. The Mk4 represents a return to the logic of the original, maintaining its classless appeal. VOLKSWAGEN NEW BEETLE 1994 Born when Schreyer proposed fitting an electric two-seater fun car project with a characteristically shaped greenhouse and recalling the car that baby boomers had loved decades earlier. Did much to restore VW’s US presence. AUDI A2 1999 Initiated by Ferdinand Piëch and designed to create a…

Three British Touring Car Championship titles in just six seasons. At 28, Ash Sutton is something of a modern-day racing phenomenon, which makes him a worthy recipient of Autocar’s Motorsport Hero award this year. Especially as, among the many remarkable things about him, he’s not even a full-time racing driver. “I have a simulator business that I run Monday to Friday,” Sutton explains of the company that he started just as the world was locking down in the face of the pandemic and demand for virtual racing systems was about to explode. “It’s manic at the minute. Business is going from strength to strength year by year. Eventually it will be at a point where I can take a step away and let the reins out a little. That’s the…

THERE’S A DISTINCTION here that Land Rover makes but most people don’t. Rather than use the term sport utility vehicle (or SUV), some senior Land Rover people refer to the new Defender as a 4x4, pure and simple. In a world chock-full of SUVs, crossovers, Xs, Scouts, XCs and whatever else tall hatchbacks are being called, that’s rather refreshing. You know exactly what Land Rover means without it having to expand further. In 1986, a television advert ran for the Land Rover, before it was even called the Defender, showing it leaving a road and fording a river, the driver attaching a winch to the front and the car hauling itself up the wall of a dam. Patrick Stewart egged the voiceover. “It’s worth remembering that nothing… but nothing… gets…

WHAT BETTER CAR to give our Best All-Rounder award to than one that’s in about four segments at once and somehow manages to be a compelling option in all of them? At first glance, the Cupra Formentor is a crossover in the mould of the Toyota C-HR and Volkswagen T-Roc. With that come butch looks, relatively generous interior space and a slightly raised ride height to aid loading children or luggage. However, it equally appeals to SUV sceptics. Look closely and it’s more of a tall estate than a tall hatchback. Step inside and you can drop the seat all the way to the floor for maximum touring car vibes or jack it up if you prefer a lofty driving position. So the Spaniard ticks the hatchback, estate and SUV…

AS MAKERS OF EVs come up with outrageous power outputs, everlonger ranges and in some cases eye-watering prices, you might expect Skoda – very much the maker of sensible family cars – to do things differently. And so it has, not by skewing any aspect towards the extremes but by doing almost the opposite: opting for a sensible, middle-ground compromise. As with so many things in life, that’s where lots of us operate. We get up, we get through the days, we live, laugh, love, like it says on that sign in somebody else’s kitchen, and we call it a day. And we need a sensible set of family wheels to accompany us. Step forward, then, the Skoda Enyaq iV, designed by people who understand the way the world works.…

How long must I wait? I’m strongly considering placing an order for a new BMW M135i, but I’m hitting a brick wall at both my local dealer and BMW UK when it comes to lead times for build and delivery. I’m aware of the current chip shortage in the industry and that BMW is possibly also being impacted by the atrocities in Ukraine affecting the supply of wiring looms. However, I don’t buy it that no one in BMW has up-to-date information on estimated lead times. I only want a rough idea. I work in a large global business and detailed MIS [management information system] is central to any organisation – how it operates, forecasting revenue, cash flow etc – and I therefore find it astonishing that BMW isn’t giving…

Victory in Europe! “ON 8 MAY 1945, after five years and eight months of bloody strife, peace came to Europe,” we rejoiced. “It is a time for thankfulness; for congratulation upon magnificent achievements which no one can yet see in full perspective; for celebration – and for looking forward. “The shackles cannot be cast off overnight, but there is a great comfort to be obtained from the reflection that conditions must now improve, as every day and week passes, towards a life in which families are reunited and amenities are restored. “New car production for priority purchase has passed the talking stage and petrol coupon books have been prepared. Restrictions on motoring will remain for some time, but their days are numbered. “The part played in bringing us to VE…

MILEAGE 6859 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if Lexus’s first EV can compete with the established premium electric SUVs There’s no denying that the charging network in the UK is better than it ever has been. There were 30,290 public EV chargers installed around the country at the time of writing, according to Zap Map, and about 7500 of those were installed in the past 12 months for an overall increase of 33%. Why, then, is it still so hard to find one that works? During a recent photoshoot, our Lexus UX 300e was in desperate need of a quick boost. From our not particularly remote snapping location, we travelled 12 miles to the M4 Chieveley services, which housed the closest chargers. On arrival, we saw that both chargers…

Whether it rallied its way into your heart or hooked you during Baby Driver’s opening car chase, the Subaru Impreza WRX is an icon. Like the original, the second-generation example is without a doubt a future classic. If its awesome looks and incredible performance have you in a trance, then get one for reasonable money while you still can. Arriving in 2000, the Mk2 Impreza was popularly dubbed the Bugeye, due to its odd headlight design. The WRX (available as either a saloon or an estate) has a five-speed manual gearbox and a 2.0-litre flat four making 215bhp, while the WRX STI (exclusively a saloon in the UK) has a six-speed manual and a 261bhp version of that engine, plus quicker steering and a limited-slip front differential. Four-wheel drive is…

EIGHT YEARS AFTER the BMW i8 first went on sale, it’s still as eye-catching as ever. It was the second model to appear under the firm’s i sub-brand, following the BMW i3. Both introduced class-leading electrified technology, but while the i3 is the more practical choice as a daily driver, you could also make a case for the stunning-looking i8 being your everyday car. It isn’t just the model’s dramatic exterior styling that offers a wow factor. The i8’s powertrain, innovative when launched, provides a delicious combination of pace, fuel economy and grand touring capabilities. There’s no fruity V6. No stonking great V8. Instead, a modest 228bhp three-cylinder 1.5-litre engine drives the rear wheels, while a 129bhp electric motor supplies power to the front. It sprints from 0-62mph in 4.4sec…

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…

The third-generation Range Rover Sport offers a host of powertrains including a V8, promises low-speed agility and highspeed poise from a new fourwheel steering system, and features an overhauled interior with Jaguar Land Rover’s latest Pivi Pro infotainment. The latest Range Rover Sport was developed alongside the fifth-generation Range Rover, revealed last year, to ensure consistency within the Range Rover family but also, crucially, enough distinction between the two models. JLR design chief Gerry McGovern said the latest model “redefines sporting luxury” and described it as “modern, relevant and progressive”. Reflecting on the model’s impact, McGovern called the Range Rover Sport “the first of its breed in 2005, heralding a new vehicle with Range Rover luxury and sporting character”. He added: “It created a new vehicle segment and was the…

G4 Challenge recce Having Sport in its name didn’t make Land Rover’s shock new Cayenne rival any less of a bona fide continent crusher, as we found out in 2005 on a hot, challenging recce from Vang Vieng to Bangkok for the formidable G4 Challenge. Speedway champ duel A dirt oval: surely the venue of choice to determine whether the fastest version of the best 4x4 by far was worth its salt. Of course, it didn’t struggle one jot, but more impressive was that it kept up with world speedway champion Tai Woffinden – for a few seconds… Firepower feud One of the world’s best-established off-road firms battled one of the biggest names in sports cars when the Sport SVR faced the Cayenne Turbo in a £200k, 1100bhp clash. The…

MORE GENESIS, HYUNDAI and Kia models will be developed in Europe for Europe, according to Tyrone Johnson, who heads R&D in the region for the three brands. “We’ve been so successful [in our European operation] that we’ve been given more to develop on our own,” he said. Ultimately, the move means more bespoke models just for Europe, but also the team leading development of some global models, such as those under the Hyundai N performance sub-brand. Last year alone, Johnson’s team had 30 projects on the go, including the Kona N, the i20 N and the Elantra N, which was developed in Europe but destined for the US. Since taking on the role in 2018, Johnson has consolidated a number of European test sites. Now, its main facility is the…

Meanwhile, American EV start-up Fisker has enlisted the services of ex-Aston Martin special vehicles boss Dave King to develop a new four-door drop-top sports car with a world-leading range of 660 miles. CEO Henrik Fisker – also an Aston alumnus – told Autocar that the secretive Project Ronin is being developed at the firm’s Magic Works special vehicles base in the UK for a 2024 launch. It will feature a tri-motor powertrain good for 0-60mph in less than 2.0sec, a vegan interior, active aero and styling influenced by historic British sports cars.…

BENTLEY SALES AND PROFITS UP AGAIN Bentley remains well and truly on its A-game, following its best-ever financial performance in 2021 with a strong showing in the first quarter of 2022. Standout figures include a 162% year-on-year increase in operating profits to £144.6 million, a 35% year-to-date sales increase and a huge boost in revenue per car from £157,000 to £181,000, making for a 21% return on each car sold. CEO Adrian Hallmark said the figures “suggest even more promise for the transformational years ahead”, during which the British brand will launch a new EV every year from 2025 to 2030. LEXUS LOOKS BEYOND CARS FOR HYDROGEN Toyota is one of just two brands with a hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric car on sale, the Mirai, but is sibling marque Lexus…

“Skoda doesn’t really want your business.” That was the response given to me by an apologetic Skoda salesman by way of explanation for the “astronomical” lease price that he was about to quote me to replace my two-yearold Octavia Estate. Like many people, I got pulled into personal leasing around seven years ago, when hidden discounts made it highly cost-effective to essentially rent a car. The Octavia is perfect for our family, and our past two cars have been estates in 1.5 TSI SE Technology guise. The payments have crept up. The first one in 2018 (after a very cheap Superb) cost us £5605 over two years. The current one is the new Mk4 model and will have cost us £7031 over the same time frame, following a list-price rise…

MONDAY I’m not quite sure how the classic Lotus business is supposed to survive the retirement of super-specialist Paul Matty after 46 years of unswerving dedication to the marque. Far from being a mere businessman, Matty has often been Lotus’s most effective ambassador, keeping the flame burning while successive Hethel management teams were busy mishandling things (a phase now thankfully ended). Over the years, Matty has built a vital global spares manufacturing network that sustains rivals and clients alike. Typically, he has laid watertight plans for it to thrive in the years ahead: Clive Chapman’s Classic Team Lotus has bought the entire business and will base it in a new emporium at the Hethel home of Lotus’s greatest grand prix cars. Matty regards this as his biggest success in five…

Because the roofline on the ID 5 – the ninth (yup, ninth) entry into Volkswagen’s SUV portfolio – slopes towards the rear more than that of the otherwise nearidentical ID 4, it’s treated as a brandnew model. Much like the closely related Audi Q4 E-tron Sportback and Skoda Enyaq iV Coupé, each also a more rakishly styled variant of a conventional mid-size electric SUV. Got it? Let’s crack on. The ID 5 offers from launch two single-motor, rear-drive powertrains (one with 172bhp and the other with 201bhp) and, in the range-topping GTX model driven here, a dual-motor one that’s good for 295bhp and 0-62mph in 6.3sec. A 77kWh battery is standard across the line-up, providing official ranges of between 304 and 323 miles. Volkswagen is at pains to muffle any…

MODEL TESTED LIMITED EDITION Price £19,650 Power 71bhp Torque 69lb ft 0-60mph 15.6sec 30-70mph in fourth 29.2sec Fuel economy 58.2mpg CO2 emissions 110g/km 70-0mph 45.6m The city car is dead. Long live the city crossover. The Toyota Aygo X is a rare new entrant in the beleaguered city car class. We are forever being told that the A-segment, to use the industry term, is a tough one. People shopping for the smallest cars expect a low price, but these ‘cheap’ cars still shouldn’t embarrass their makers in NCAP tests or scupper their emissions targets with their unhybridised powertrains. No wonder, then, that Citroën and Peugeot have thrown in the towel by selling their stake in the factory in Kolín, Czech Republic, where they were building the Citroën C1 and Peugeot 108…

When 18-year-old Mate Rimac bought a worn-out 1984 BMW 323i for entering local drag races and drift competitions, he had no idea that it would make him famous and become the germ of a huge technology business. It was just for fun. When the engine blew, he entertained ideas of replacing it with a BMW V8, but a lack of funds, an interest in electronics and a keen awareness of the exploits of Croatiaborn electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla encouraged him to try fitting an electric motor from a forklift instead. “Twelve years ago, electric cars were a joke, made for people who don’t like cars,” says Rimac. “People called our car a washing machine.” But it was fast and got faster. With the help of friends, Rimac built seven iterations,…

David Richards’ desire to “put something back” has taken him into motorsport governance for many years, but his involvement took a big step forward in 2018 when he became chairman of the renamed Motorsport UK, the body that runs four-wheeled motor competition in this country. His self-imposed brief was to cut bureaucracy, widen awareness of the sport, streamline regulations, stem the decline in licence renewals and address the technical challenges faced especially by grassroots motorsport. Much has been achieved. Formula 1 at Silverstone has been secured and the longsought legislation to close public roads for motorsport events has been enacted. Licensing classes, names and charges have been updated, regulations have been simplified and several ailing championships are now run in-house by MSUK. But the difficulties of Covid intervened, admits Richards,…

GUY PIGOUNAKIS COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, MG NEW CAR SALES were almost f lat in the UK last year, due to the well-publicised chip shortage, but there was one mainstream maker in particular that bucked the trend: MG. Its sales rose a phenomenal 66% over 2020, from 18,415 to 30,600. For commercial director Guy Pigounakis, the man overseeing this success, it’s déjà vu: he was part of the team that launched the MGF in 1995, before spending time at Hyundai and retailers. Now MG is a different, Chinese-owned world in which Pigounakis has a growing list of happy retailers, an impressive electric sales mix (a third) and plans to diversify into car-sharing. It would be easy to dismiss MG’s success as an anomaly, due to it not suffering from constricted supply, but…

“It can be placed millimetre-perfect at any speed and at practically any skill level” PORSCHE WINS PERFORMANCE car test shock! No one was surprised when the 911 GT3 came out on top in our annual Britain’s Best Driver’s Car contest, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of decent opposition. It saw off the Ariel Atom, which had won two years on the trot and was in with a very serious shout to make it a hattrick. A near-1000bhp Ferrari and our favourite Lamborghini for a long time were forces to be reckoned with, too. Weissach has been on a roll lately. The closer the death of piston engines comes, the more determined Porsche GT boss Andreas Preuninger and his team seem to be to go out with a bang. The…

FULLY FOUR YEARS have passed since we dispatched Matt Prior to California to report on the then trailblazing new Tesla Model 3. Yet despite the flood of alternative electric saloons that have arrived in its bug-eyed wake, the American EV remains as compelling as ever, and particularly for company car drivers. A benefit-in-kind tax rate of just 2% lays the foundations for its appeal in this regard, but this isn’t unique to the Model 3: all EVs attract this low rate (the Polestar 2 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 are just two that you might also consider). What makes the Model 3 stand out is its ability to keep going and going during daily use. In Long Range guise, its WLTP range is 360 miles on a single charge, although the…

CAN A CAR that’s built in quantities of 50,000 per year really be a dream car? It can be when it’s one of these. There’s a good reason why the Chevrolet Corvette is built in such large numbers, selling more units per year than Porsche will make 911s and Jaguar will make F-Types combined, with a few other sports cars probably in that total too. It offers a proper sports car driving experience at very old-fashioned money. And this time around, in eighth-generation form, the Corvette has evolved to give customer appeal right around the globe, rather than just in its US home market, where its muscle car roots have always appealed. Its engine is now in the middle, there’s a dual-clutch automatic gearbox, the dampers are adaptive and, to…

WE COULD HAVE given the small car award to the Fiat 500 simply by virtue of it being small. It may sound like a low bar, but so many makers of supposedly small cars forget about that. As subsequent generations of cars get bigger and wider, and hatchbacks get replaced with equivalent but slightly larger SUVs, it’s heartening to see that Fiat still values compact vehicles. Our roads aren’t getting any wider, and the 500’s dimensions are as useful on Turin’s streets as they are down an English country lane. As the world goes electric, an SUV more conveniently hides a bulky battery pack, but the new 500 shows it doesn’t have to be that way. The 500 shows the direction for small electric cars (and therefore small cars in…

“It costs less today than Volvo’s first V60 PHEV did back in 2013” EVEN THE STAUNCHEST critic of EV technology can’t deny how quickly it’s advancing. Nearly a decade ago now, the very first plug-in hybrid executive cars to the UK market came at very high prices. They offered up to about 30 miles of lab-tested electric-only range, but if you got close to 20 from them, you were doing very well indeed. Electric-only range has since grown steadily, and it has done so while the lab tests judging it have got significantly tougher. The very latest PHEVs to the market come with electric-only range well in excess of 50 miles and the best of them return almost exactly what’s advertised, at more competitive prices and in as broad a…

It would be nice to think car makers were really committed to helping reduce emissions, but the evidence is to the contrary, as they continue to launch large hybrid and petrol/diesel SUVs offering poor battery range, high CO2 output and poor fuel economy. Even the move to EVs is producing portly cars boasting rapid 0-60mph times but poor economy, as evidenced by the BMW iX (2510kg, 6.1sec and 3.4mpkWh). My lightweight and quick BMW i3 Range Extender (1440kg, 7.9sec and 4.4mpkWh), with the bias towards battery power supplemented by a small petrol engine to avoid range anxiety, should have been the way forward. I therefore can’t help thinking your assertion that the i3 “set the ethos for future BMW cars” (‘i-Opener’, 13 April) is somewhat wide of the mark. I…

MILEAGE 7515 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the market’s best-value SUV, now refreshed, still embodies the Dacia ethos of functionality with affordability I boast about the Duster all the time. Friends are getting bored with this; I can see it in their eyes. But every time the dark blue Romanian diesel 4x4 and I take a trip together, the essential refinement surprises me again, and these impressions are made pretty trustworthy by my contact with some of the Duster’s higher-born rivals. The other thing that gets me is how amazingly close this mid-range Comfort model gets to an ideal specification, showing the truth of Dacia’s beguiling mantra: everything you want and nothing you don’t. It’s a pleasure consulting the configurator, getting to ‘Interior’, and seeing again that the…

An expert’s view KEVIN KNIGHT, SCOOBYCLINIC “The 2001-2007 Impreza WRX and WRX STI saloons were and still are iconic Subarus with lots of character. However, as they’re getting old now, some have been badly modified and lived a hard life. With this in mind, it’s best to look for as near a standard car as possible unless it has been modified professionally. The Bugeye and Blobeye WRX STIs are two of Subaru’s best creations, thanks to their 2.0-litre engines that will take 400bhp with the correct turbo and mods. They also come with a six-speed gearbox that we’ve run in race cars at 750bhp without issue.” Buyer beware… ■ ENGINE Check for oil leaks from the 2.0-litre engine’s cam covers and the sump cover. Cast hypereutectic pistons on the 2.5-litre…

The best-selling cars are never the most exciting ones. Most drivers don’t care about engineering or heritage. In fact, to many, a car is a purchase like a fridge. Sometimes, though, a car successfully makes the leap from a tool to an object of passion or even a cultural icon – and owners feel that they’re members of an exclusive club. Here are some of the cars that have achieved cult status around the world. Teslas The newest car cult is Tesla. Early adopters swooned over the Model S, rightly observing that its pace and range made it a game-changing EV. As the company grew, more climbed aboard, many swearing allegiance to EVs in general and Tesla in particular. They even have their own exclusive (for now) charging stations where…

You developed this in parallel with the latest Range Rover. Why? “It’s about accentuating the qualities of both. It’s to understand the commonality but also recognise things that don’t work to be shared. For example, the big wheels, flush glazing and seamless model look is shared stuff. But the windscreen angle of the Range Rover Sport has to be sportier than the Range Rover.” What was the main challenge with the third-gen Sport? “How do we modernise a model that is instantly recognisable? We have something iconic with the Range Rover Sport yet have to make it so much better.” How do you avoid models looking too similar – for example, the Range Rover Sport and the Velar? “We have to make sure there’s a family resemblance. We never hold…

Bentley has unveiled an extended-wheelbase version of its marketleading Bentayga SUV and officially labelled it the marque’s new flagship, a status previously held by the Mulsanne limousine, which ended production in 2020. The new model, called EWB for Extended Wheelbase, is stretched by 180mm and has all of its extra space in the rear passenger compartment and extra length in the rear door. Sold only with a twin-turbo petrol V8 “for the time being”, it ushers in a suite of trim, paint and styling changes, the most obvious of which is a new vertically slatted grille. The EWB also introduces a new rear steering system that both reduces the turning circle and enhances high-speed stability, a refinement that first appeared in Bentley’s Flying Spur saloon in 2019 and more recently…

The new management structure at Aston Martin will enable the company to work in a different way. Chairman Lawrence Stroll said: “We want to have almost complete capability to do what we want in-house. “Amedeo Felisa and Roberto Fedeli have a great deal of experience in electrification, working on the first electrified Ferrari and then in Amedeo’s case joining an EV tech company as CEO and in Roberto’s case going to BMW to develop its first EVs. “I don’t think anyone is more respected in the field of electrification, and we bring in a team to support them, as well as promoting from within our excellent team, to accelerate that. “We’re diligently working on an Aston version of electrification, on top of having the option of using Mercedes’ high-performance AMG…

So that’s that: Tobias Moers’ time as CEO of Aston Martin has ended. I wonder whether in time, as the saying now goes, “recollections may vary” about the whys and hows. Summaries of the state of Aston Martin already vary. Moers streamlined and made its production lines more efficient, so good has come from the past two years, but the list of motivated and talented people who are no longer on the company’s payroll by their own choosing is both long and telling. Ultimately, for the likes of you and me, it will be hard to judge Moers’ tenure, because so few cars have been heavily influenced by him. From talking to friends and colleagues in the industry, I gather that Moers and Aston Martin didn’t feel like the right…

THE VOLKSWAGEN GROUP is confident that its supply issues will ease in the second half of 2022, as its global scale and spread of production facilities enable it to weather the storm that has afflicted car makers since the pandemic began. As a result, the firm has confirmed its business outlook for 2022, predicting a surge in demand later this year. Its first-quarter report did also say, however, that it remains cautious of the effects of the war in Ukraine and any further Covid flare-ups. Sales revenues in Q1 rose by 0.6% to €62.7 billion for an operating profit of about €5bn. The average price paid for a car from all volume-selling group brands increased. Seat, Volkswagen and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles widened their margins, with Skoda only failing to do…

We’ve been here before. The Tonale is the latest makeor-break Alfa Romeo, the one that’s going to turn the brand’s fortunes around and thrust it back into the hearts and minds of mainstream car buyers. Well, that’s the idea. The 156 was a minor success in the 1990s, but the 159, despite its gorgeous looks, couldn’t keep it up. The Giulietta loped along, but the Giulia and Stelvio have been as much commercial flops as they’ve been critical successes. And the less said about the 4C the better. As much as we love the Giulia, a traditional saloon with fabulous driving dynamics, it wasn’t the right car for the era. This time, Alfa Romeo is at least looking in the right direction. A premiumflavoured crossover with exclusively hybrid powertrains and…

Genesis was criticised for offering only diesel and petrol cars when it arrived in Europe a little over a year ago. The GV60 answers that, the brand’s first EV falling into the market’s most relevant segment. The Hyundai-owned marque is trying to do things differently with the aptly named Genesis Difference. The focus is not just on the cars but on the overall experience, including fixed pricing, a five-year care plan, and home car delivery and collection. This GV60 shares its E-GMP platform with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6, which means its chief traits are the same: a flat floor, good efficiency and 800V electrics for 350kW ultra-rapid charging. There are three versions: Premium, Sport and Sport Plus. Premium, as tested here, has a single motor at the…

Mate Rimac, the distinguished winner of Autocar’s Issigonis Trophy for 2022, has never worked in anyone else’s car business and has been running his own automotive company for only about a dozen years. Despite this, Zagrebbased Rimac Automobili is on a seemingly unstoppable trajectory to become Croatia’s biggest company very soon – progress that will involve moving most of its 2500 staff to a brand-new headquarters, the country’s biggest building. The driver of this extraordinary expansion is Rimac’s illustrious status, acquired at seemingly impossible speed, as Europe’s go-to provider of advanced electrification solutions for manufacturers of both small and large cars as they forge into the zero-emissions era. Rimac already counts many of the world’s most important volume car makers – plus premium marques like Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche…

Famous people achieve their star status by finding something at which they excel, then practising it at the highest level to the exclusion of everything else. Jim Clark was brilliant at winning motor races, but he never designed a car or managed a racing team – and nobody would have expected him to. David Richards, winner of this year’s Sturmey Award, Autocar’s most personal accolade, has an entirely different way of working. In a long career, he has amassed a wide variety of difficult and diverse successes, and he continues to be active and effective in many areas when ordinary people might think they had done enough. In his twenties, Richards was organising international motorsport events for clients who had already spotted what would soon become his lifelong ability to…

“When I started in February 2019, we thought the biggest topic was Brexit,” says Stellantis UK group managing director Alison Jones. “It was to be a massive change not just for us but for everybody in our industry.” Except Brexit was just the first in a series of huge changes that would rock the whole car industry. Next came Covid, then the accelerated shift to electric cars and the semiconductor chip shortage that continues to cripple new car supply. All that would be more than enough for any car company boss to navigate, but Jones was also in the process of setting up a new car group following the merger of PSA and FCA. Jones had moved from being in charge of the Volkswagen brand in the UK to leading…

Gordon Murray, the distinguished winner of Autocar’s Mundy Award for Engineering, was always destined to become an engineer, even though neither he nor his family realised it in his early years. Born in Durban, South Africa, Murray lived until he was 15 in modest circumstances: a family of four in a small, single-bedroom flat. Money was so tight that conventional toys were out of the question, so aged eight or nine, young Gordon’s idea of fun was to mock up spaceships and submarines with creatively arranged blankets and dining-room chairs and then invite neighbourhood friends to enjoy them. He soon became known as “the inventor on the block”. When he won a course of drawing lessons in a school competition, his teacher spotted an obvious technical ability (his sketchbooks were…

It’s no wonder that SangYup Lee, design boss at Hyundai and winner of this year’s Autocar Design Hero award, can’t decide which is his favourite car that he designed. “It’s always a difficult question when you’ve been involved with the Continental GT, Camaro, Corvette and Flying Spur,” smiles Lee. “I would say it’s whichever car I’m working on: when you’re proud of a car you’ve designed, it’s difficult to keep challenging the status quo. How do you move on [to the next car]? Sometimes you have to forget what you’ve done before and challenge yourself at a new level.” Lee has worked on 15 brands in eight countries over 25 years. Now as chief designer for Hyundai and Genesis, he’s overseeing the creation of 50 production cars at any one…

Caffeine & Machine, winner of this year’s Autocar Award for Innovation, is based on an idea that its founders admit is very simple. “The thing people say,” says Dan Macken, who with Phil McGovern opened C&M in an abandoned roadside pub in Warwickshire late in 2018, “is that they can’t believe someone didn’t do this years ago.” However, if you’re inclined to label C&M as merely a roadside coffee stop, you’re very wrong. It started that way, but it has expanded continually over three and a bit years to become a genuine cultural centre for car and bike lovers that can take 500 people and 200-plus cars at a time. It’s open 14 hours a day and needs 90-odd staff, because they work three shifts on the busiest days. Set…

OUR CONTEST TO determine the finest affordable driver’s car (that is, one newly on sale and costing less than – gulp – £40,000) was a slimmed-down but varied affair. A Volkswagen Golf R with more power than ever and the ability to overload its rear axle with torque was probably the pre-match favourite, but who would write off Ford’s vivacious and entertaining Puma ST? The nimble-footed agility of the Fiesta ST with some extra, back road-friendly suspension travel thrown in could have been ideal for our Aberdeenshire test route. BMW’s 128ti, billed as a front-driving hot hatch for purists, was expected to give competition for any would-be winner, too. The same applied to Cupra’s Leon 300 – something of a Golf R understudy on paper, so could it pull off…

YOU MIGHT IMAGINE it would be tough for a panel of judges to agree to give an award to a new car that only one of them has actually driven. But when that car is the successor to the brilliantly entertaining Toyota GT86, when that one judge is entirely convinced of its claim and when there’s so little dissent in the virtual meeting room and so much nodding and anticipatory grinning going on, you know what? It’s not that hard. The Toyota GR86 is our Best Fun Car of 2022 on the strength of some road driving and plenty of fast lapping at the Parcmotor Castellolí circuit in Spain (which is blessed with plenty of enticing, sweeping, third-gear bends, as it happens). We will drive finished production cars on the…

IT’S ONE THING to move the game on with a car that costs well over £100,000, quite another to do it with a car that’s supposed to be vaguely accessible. Starting at £40,000, the Kia EV6 isn’t a cheap car, but it’s not a money-no-object supercar either. While it would be an exaggeration to say that the EV6 brings supercar elements to a family car, it does go further than most rivals to make everyday motoring feel special. The styling isn’t for everyone, but the short bonnet, low scuttle, unusual profile and wild details make it stand out and draws comment everywhere. The distinctive, innovative feel continues in the cabin, which uses the extra space and flat floor afforded by an EV platform to great effect. It manages to feel…

ADDING AN EXPENSIVE plug-in hybrid powertrain to a big, practical workhorse that we’ve long rated for its metal-for-the-money value might seem like a risky tactic, but it has actually made the Hyundai Santa Fe something of a rarity. This is a full-size family SUV that keeps its seven-seat layout even if you have it in company car-compatible plug-in hybrid form, and it retains a sub-£50,000 price tag. If you need a business car that will keep your tax bill down during the working week while also doing wonders with the family at weekends, the Santa Fe’s case is now stronger than ever. All of the things that have made this car such a sensible buy for so many years still apply, but here Hyundai has brought the Santa Fe right…

BMW MAY NOT be designing the most elegant machines in its 106-year history, but the quality and breadth of them sometimes feels untouchable. Who else is building the greatest super-saloon of at least the past two decades and the only car that truly challenges the mass-market inroads that Tesla has made into the premium EV class? In the M5 CS (“a mighty driver’s car produced with gimleteyed discipline”, per our five-star road test) and electric i4, BMW has both bases emphatically covered, and those aren’t the only successes they will be celebrating in Munich. The iX is an electric flagship of sometimes spellbinding refinement to go along with its class-leading drivability, yet in the new 2 Series Coupé there exists an unapologetic antidote to the lack of romance in any…

DRIVEN BMW XM Our first taste of the first bespoke M car since the seminal M1 will be of a high-powered plug-in hybrid SUV FEATURE Making EVs handle The secret tech that will make electric cars sideways heroes FEATURE Jaguar XJ220 Famous supercar turns 30 this year. Andrew Frankel traces its impact EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Mercedes-Benz EQB GLB seven-seat SUV has turned electric. Read our definitive verdict OUR CARS Land Rover Defender No car is more in demand right now. Here’s how life with one really was SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p18…

MILEAGE 5612 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out whether Audi can retain its premium appeal in the EV age recently borrowed editor Tisshaw’s Q4 I E-tron Sportback for a week. It was the last of the medium electric SUV class I hadn’t already tried, so I was keen to complete the set and compare with my impressions of its siblings. It used to be that the hierarchy between Skoda, Volkswagen and Audi was very clear. VW was the happy medium, classless and suitable for almost everyone. Skoda was the value option, while Audi felt (and was) more expensive and would be the first to introduce new technology. With the MEB-platform cars, that distinction is far less clear. In many ways, the Q4 E-tron feels like the car the VW…

Is there a car with a more recognisable silhouette than the Jeep Wrangler? Few come close, but there’s more to the large SUV than its fashion icon status. The current, fourth-generation model is one of the best off-road machines around and its initial high price has fallen into a more attainable area on the used market. First introduced in 2018, the current Wrangler was given a design refresh outside and inside compared with its predecessor. In addition, it gained new LED lights, enhanced infotainment and extra safety kit. It also continued to be available in two- and four-door bodystyles. Driving the Wrangler is a mixed bag. Quite simply, it’s among the toughest and most capable offroaders you’ll find today, with front and rear Dana 44 axles for improved rigidity, Tru-Lock…