Table of contents for October 02, 2024 in Autocar

THE BUBBLE CAR is officially back, with the arrival in the UK of the Microlino, Swiss firm Micro’s fashionfocused city-slicker rival to the Citroën Ami. At 2519mm long, 1473mm wide and 1501mm tall, the Microlino is close in size to its cubic French competitor, even if it costs at least twice as much: the entry-level version is priced at £16,990. That buys the shortrange Microlino Lite, which has a top speed of 28mph and weighs less than 425kg – courtesy of a small 5.5kWh battery – so it conforms to L6 quadricycle rules and can be driven in the UK by a 16-year-old with a moped licence. The standard car, which is priced from £17,990, has a 56mph top speed and a larger 10.5kWh battery for a claimed 110 miles…

A lmost a year since JLR apologised for severe parts delays and promised improvements at its new logistics hub, customers are still experiencing issues. Last November, JLR CEO Adrian Mardell said the firm was “really unhappy” about problems at its then new Global Parts Logistics Centre in Leicestershire. It had been reported that some 10,000 cars had been off the road awaiting parts due to delays at the new distribution hub. Mardell promised the company would fix the issue and said customers would begin to see the benefits during the second quarter of this year. In February he said the firm had begun to resolve the backlog but cautioned it would take time for dealers to repair the affected cars. In April, two months after the update, JLR customer Robin…

LOST IN THE PAST Just a few hours ago or, so it seemed, a few minutes ago, I registered for the most wonderful, satisfying, engrossing, fact- and enjoyment-filled collection of motoring happiness the world has ever seen: the Autocar Archive. No, I’m not on the payroll, just a regular car guy who has relived a few motoring memories, looked up family car tests and generally consumed as much screen time as is healthy for one day. Never mind: tomorrow beckons with a call far stronger than that of a mere siren. Francis Samuels East Renfrewshire SWEDE VINDICATION Like John Broadley (18 September), during the past few months I’ve been mulling over a new SUV, specifically an Audi Q5 or BMW X3. After 12 years of very enjoyable BMW ownership, and…

No other current model epitomises Ferrari quite like this one. At least that’s what the manufacturer itself thinks of the new 12Cilindri, a sleek grand tourer with a V12 in its front, driven wheels at the rear and two seats inside. Replacing the 812 Superfast, the new 12Cilindri is tasked with doing a similar – but not quite the same – job to that of its predecessor. They called the 812 ‘Superfast’ because it was meant to be a GT car with shades of hypersports car, but the existence of the SF90 means Ferrari has opted to relax its new coupé’s sporting remit. The 12Cilindri is supposed to be a more rounded tourer, which I don’t think is a bad thing. Depending on conditions, the 812 could feel hairy. The…

Cupra describes its new Terramar as a sporty SUV with a bold look and a new generation of hybrid engines. See the issue here? That could describe quite a lot of new cars, and looking at this one, it’s not immediately clear where it sits in Cupra’s range. The Ateca is pretty old now, and compared with the Kia Sportage, Peugeot 3008 and Renault Austral, it’s quite small and poky. So the Terramar has all the latest powertrains and digital tech and is a size bigger to fit growing families. Or, viewed a less charitable way, it’s an angry-looking Volkswagen Tiguan. Is that really something the new car market was missing? The Terramar uses the latest MQB Evo platform, which means you can choose any sort of engine from a…

There are going to be more than a few references to PPE in this week’s road test, but not because we’re about to tell you about face masks. PPE in this case doesn’t stand for personal protective equipment but for Premium Platform Electric, the all-new architecture that underpins the equally new Audi Q6 E-tron. It’s an important one for Audi, this, because the Q6 is the first completely new model from Ingolstadt since the Q4 E-tron in 2021, and the first car to use this new platform that was developed together with Porsche and will form the basis for a slew of new models, including the Porsche Macan, the Audi A6 and other cars that haven’t even been announced yet. The Q6, as the name suggests, sits right in the…

“That probably would have made a 2003 Corsa buyer’s head explode” WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out if this supermini still deserves to be a staple of British roads s you may have read in Matt Prior’s feature A about his road trip to some of the UK’s lesser-known car museums last week, there’s a general consensus at Autocar that the Vauxhall Corsa is something of an underrated car. There’s a pretty high likelihood that you drive past at least one every day, it being as common as a give-way sign or a postbox, but most of the time you will just look straight through it. This supermini was the thirdmost-popular car in the UK last year, falling behind only a pair of crossovers – the Nissan Qashqai and…

Back in the mid-2000s, Fiat was on the brink of extinction as a result of dwindling sales and a model line-up that lacked any real appeal. Fiat’s boss at the time, Luca de Meo, played a masterstroke: he called on design legend Frank Stephenson, who was behind BMW’s similarly conceived Mini revival, to pen the 500. The result? Fiat’s salvation. The 500 turned the tide for the ailing marque, which sold more than three million examples of the car between 2008 and 2022. No wonder de Meo’s going down the retro route again, as CEO of the Renault Group. The cheeky 500 was unique for not only its looks but also the endless customisation Fiat offered. Trawl through the classifieds and you will find examples finished in baby blue, mustard…

A ndretti is one of the world’s top motorsport firms, has attracted star technical staff, promises to bring along General Motors as its engine supplier and is prepared to stump up the $200 million entry fee – so naturally Formula 1’s response to its application has been ‘jog on’. It’s a situation that has stupefied outsiders, and the polar opposite of how things were in the 1980s, when the inspiring brilliance of Ferrari, McLaren and Williams was juxtaposed by utter incompetence from a whole scrum of tiny teams. The peak of this F1 tin-pottery came in 1989, when no fewer than 40 cars were entered (double the 2024 total), despite the maximum permitted on a starting grid being 26. This meant that not only would some cars fail to qualify…

The new DS 8 will be launched next year as a segment-straddling luxury flagship charged with reinvigorating the French premium brand and kickstarting its electric era. The high-riding fastback will spearhead a totally overhauled line-up for DS, which is working to electrify each of its cars and increase its share of the market, 10 years on from its foundation as a stand-alone brand. The new range-topper has been conceived as a replacement for today’s DS 9 saloon and will arrive at a crucial moment for the marque, which is still struggling to get a foothold in the European market. To the end of August sales were down 33% year on year across the region, to 26,173 cars, and fewer than 800 of those were sold in the UK. The flagship…

Last month, Tata Motors said it would build electric cars with JLR in Gujarat, India, that would be exported globally. The resulting models from both firms will arrive next year and use JLR’s EMA electric platform. Soon after that announcement, Ford revealed that it would restart production at its previously mothballed Chennai facility. Rather than trying to revive its ill-fated Indian market push, Ford said cars built there would be exported. Reports suggest they would most likely be electric and destined for Europe. Perhaps the biggest EV exporter, however, will be India market leader Suzuki, which said its first electric car, previewed by the eVX concept and to be unveiled in January, will be shipped from the country to both Europe and Japan. So with the world’s automotive players worried…

BYD DESCRIBES THE impact of EU tariffs on imported Chinese EVs as “temporary damage” and anticipates it will be the best-positioned Chinese brand in the coming years thanks to local production plans and a flexible powertrain offering. The brand, which has grown rapidly in Europe over the past two years, is due to open a new factory in Hungary by the end of next year, and another in Turkey soon after. These will allow it to build Europeanmarket cars in Europe and avoid the substantial tariffs imposed on Chinese-manufactured cars by the EU. Speaking at the launch of the Seal U DM-i plug-in hybrid, the first PHEV to join BYD’s European and UK line-up, special European advisor Alfredo Altavilla (pictured) told Autocar the brand was not happy with the tariffs…

I was interested to read about Charlie Martin’s financial woes with his Fiat Panda 100HP, because his experiences almost exactly mirrored mine (Our cars, 18 September). The Panda 100HP is a great little car – fun to drive, light controls, happy in town or on your favourite B-roads. However, when bits wear out and you discover that many of them are specific to the 100HP, the gloss can fade a little. In the year I had mine, I spent vast sums improving it, particularly on suspension parts to get it through the MOT. I’m not sure I’d like to work out the total I spent… As my mechanic said, standard Panda parts are plentiful and cheap but 100HP parts are not. And some are virtually unobtainable (I’m looking at you,…

“For the driver, the principal joy of this new GT Speed is the handling improvement” For the past 40 years, ever since the highperforming Turbo R single-handedly revived a moribund Bentley marque, Crewe’s car company has made a speciality of offering cars that seem far too refined and luxurious for their supercar performance. Or viewed another way, cars that seem far too practical for their exalted position in the automotive firmament. These capabilities were especially well expressed in the groundbreaking Continental GT of 2003, a car whose dynamics at the time easily equalled those of far less usable front-engined Aston Martins and Ferraris. They were further emphasised in 2019 when a third-generation GT adopted the Volkswagen Group’s MSB platform (shared with Porsche), which enabled bigger wheels and brakes, lots of…

In the world of eccentric Japanese car makers, Mazda is perhaps the most unpredictable and wilful. Take the Pathfinder XV-1: a Series 1 Land Rover knock-off, only even more goggle-eyed, especially when painted Kermit green, as many were. In the 1960s, a tiny run of these 4x4s left a Mazda plant in what was then Burma. Even today some Mazda execs won’t believe the XV-1 really existed unless you show them physical evidence. If the XV-1 was at least functional, the Parkway 26 was the oddball concept that made production. With a glasshouse to rival that of The Shard, this three-tonne, 25-seat minibus was hauled along by, of all things, a gutless two-rotor Wankel. To make progress it had to be caned so remorselessly that two 70-litre fuel tanks were…

Hyundai Ioniq 5 N vs Porsche Taycan I know what you’re thinking: we’ve really lost the plot this time. A Hyundai taking the fight to a Porsche? Surely not. One of the cars you see here is built by a manufacturer steeped in high-performance tradition and bears a badge that sits at the top of most brand analysts’ ‘most wanted’ lists. The other has been engineered by a firm that not that long ago was best known for its sensible model line-up, affordable pricing and lengthy warranties. Worthy? Yes. Desirable? Erm, nope. Simply put, never the twain shall meet. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find a mixture of depreciation and bold ambition that means the two protagonists here have more in common than you might think, making them…

MILEAGE 1823 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To find out whether an EV still appeals without the bells and whistles There are few sounds in the world more likely to make you sick to your stomach than the horrible, hackle-raising crunch of another vehicle making contact with yours – particularly if you’re an innocent bystander, like I was. I was on my way to the office, listening to a favourite podcast while waiting at the traffic lights for some new roadworks not five minutes from my home, when the Ford Transit flatbed in front of me suddenly started rolling backwards… straight into the previously unblemished nose of my shiny new Peugeot, despite the accompaniment of my blaring horn. The driver of the truck, to be fair, couldn’t have been more apologetic…

AN OWNER’S VIEW CHRIS ELSTON “My 500, Florence, is much more than just a car: she’s part of the family. I’d wanted a 500 for a while, as they’re so full of charm and character, and two years ago the opportunity arose. “Every drive is a pleasure and I quite often find myself just driving with no destination in mind, or taking the long way around. “Beyond regular servicing and maintenance, I’ve not had any scares with large repair bills. It’s been very reliable, but even if something untoward was to happen, I’d not hesitate to sort it because I wouldn’t want to be without it.” BUYER BEWARE… ■ ENGINE The radiator coolant reservoir can crack and deprive the engine of coolant. Keep an eye out for any sign of…

In-wheel motors (IWMs) have been around since the world got serious about electric propulsion. GM’s Autonomy of 2002 concept was an FCEV with a skateboard chassis propelled by IWMs. GM had working demonstrators, including a Chevrolet S-10 pick-up with IWMs driving the rear wheels plus a single motor at the front. For the past 15 years, Protean Electric has worked on nothing else. Since we first reported on the Farnham-based company back in 2017, it has continued to develop the technology and amassed extensive knowledge along the way. The latest Gen 5 Proteandrive IWM (PD18 Gen 5) has completed a validation programme and, claims the company, sets a new industry standard for IWMs, producing 1106lb ft and 138bhp and weighing 39kg. Two motors in a front-or rear-wheel-drive configuration give peak…

Two decades ago, drivers were being encouraged to swap to a cleaner way of fuelling their cars. Liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, came with generous tax incentives, slashed running costs and an expanding network of pumps at which you could top up. But now the government grants are long gone, the number of LPG-friendly filling stations is declining, aftermarket conversions are disappearing and just one car maker offers factory-fit LPG systems. Has LPG had its day? Dacia doesn’t think so. The Romanian car maker, which offers a Bi-Fuel powertrain as an option for its Duster and Sandero, says it’s still good business, making up around 10% of its total sales. “We’re sticking with LPG because it’s perfectly in line with what Dacia customers look for: easy, simple, efficient and affordable…

SHOOTOUT ASTON VANTAGE vs RIVALS We called the new Vantage “spectacular” and “riveting” in its road test. Now the showdown: can it defeat the Ferrari Roma and Porsche 911? FEATURE THE GRAND TOUR FAREWELL How Clarkson, Hammond and May changed the car landscape forever. FIRST DRIVE RENAULT 5 Much-anticipated EV supermini is months from UK showrooms – and we have our first go behind the wheel to see if it lives up to all the hype. EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST CUPRA BORN VZ Sporty version of the well-liked VW ID 3 sibling comes under scrutiny. MY CAR AND I FORD CAPRI Owner tells tales about his coupé, including driving without brakes……

The Subaru Forester enters its fourth decade and sixth generation next spring with this revised model, mostly picking up where the old one will leave off once current stocks run dry. Buyers – and there are lots of them who buy Forester after Forester – like the “safety, durability and capability” of the car, says Subaru. These are “rather unsexy” characteristics and owners are “not exactly young”, but the cars are nothing if not dependable. Of the 1.6 million Foresters Subaru has sold in the US in the past 10 years, it says 1.5 million are still on the road. This new model, then, aims to deliver the same but better. It’s built on the Subaru Global Platform, which, owing to details such as using 27 metres of structural adhesive…

We’ve lost count of the number of Chinese brands coming to the UK, invariably offering us electric crossovers that look like they were styled by AI and named after a photocopier. Leapmotor International appears to fit the stereotype, but for one crucial difference: its majority owner is Stellantis. Thus it has a readymade dealer network, potential customers will be reassured by familiarity and it can harness economies of scale in distribution. Leapmotor defines its brand values as affordability (it says the T03 gives A- and B-segment buyers access to electric power, although the Dacia Spring does exist already) and cutting-edge tech that takes the hassle out of your daily life. Demand for small cars remains as strong as ever in Europe, yet the supply is drying up, as car makers…

The mostly straight-faced imbuing of its flagship limo with comical gluts of propulsive force is not an activity Mercedes has ever shied from. Many times AMG hasn’t even been needed to apply the finishing touches. Take the old S600L, whose V12 made 590lb ft, even in 2003. Nevertheless, one might look at the specification for the very latest in this lineage of extroverted S-Class models and wonder if Mercedes has started to lose its zeal for such projects. After all, the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 in the S63 before you makes ‘only’ 664lb ft, which isn’t a vast uplift on the two-decade-old S600 and certainly isn’t a headlinemaking figure. But hold on: there is the second half of the car’s name to consider. ‘E Performance’ alludes to the plug-in hybrid nature…

“Are you going to the Petersen Museum?” was invariably the reply when I told people I was going to Los Angeles for the first time. I’d actually been sent over for a different job entirely, but clearly I needed to make the time. You don’t even need to get inside to realise it’s something special, as the flowing ribbons of steel that make up the spectacular façade beckon you inside. Named after its founder, Robert E Petersen, a publishing magnate and serial car collector, this museum was set up in 1994 in an old department store, then heavily renovated in 2015. There are 11 major exhibitions on at the time of my visit, and the top floor, where the tour starts, hosts just three of them, so who knows how…

MILEAGE 9412 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT A switch from FWD to RWD brings better range, efficiency, drivability – but what about everyday appeal? Since you-know-what, beginning with B andending in rexit, passport stamps in Europe have become a thing again. I’ve filled at least a page this summer with ones at Folkestone and Calais that show a picture of a car to denote my method of arrival onto the continent. The iconography could do with being updated from what looks like a Volvo 850 saloon mixed with a DeLorean, and I’ll offer up the Polestar 2 as the new template for it, given how much time I’ve spent crossing the ‘car border’ via Eurotunnel this summer. The latest trip was for the family summer holiday, into Normandy. My recent visits…

A car doesn’t have to be sporty to inspire affection. Take Neil Levio’s 1966 Volkswagen Beetle, for example. It’s hard to imagine a more functional, massproduced car, except that if you look closer you’ll see it has been subtly modified to make it, at least in Neil’s eyes, more interesting, individual and attractive. “I wanted to make it look older than it is,” explains Neil. “For example, a 1966 Beetle should have different wings with the indicators on the top rather than in the headlights, as they are on my car. Also, at the back it has the ‘W’ decklid, which is the earlier one.” More obviously, inspired as he was to own a Beetle by the Herbie films of his childhood, Neil has also fitted colour-coded whitewall tyres and…

CITROEN 2CV 1987, 28,000 miles, £9500 Cheap, cheerful and quirky, the cute 2CV is a timeless classic and a rare find these days, and this example of the simple and practical Deux Chevaux is in fine fettle. Serviced recently with plenty of new parts fitted and four new tyres. Bon voyage! MORRIS MINI SUPER DE LUXE 1963, 39,000 miles, £14,995 The Morris Mini is a motoring icon that revolutionised its class, with its transverse engine and gearbox freeing up more space inside. This De Luxe model has been cared for by its current owner since 2002 and has been slowly restored to its former glory during their ownership. FIAT 500 F 1966, 42,000 miles, £15,999 The uber-small original 500 is another icon, and this one couldn’t be more authentic. Its 599cc engine…