Table of contents for December 18/25, 2024 in Autocar

The DS N°8 signals the start of a new era at the French brand in which it will pursue a bold new approach to how it designs, engineers and markets its cars. A high-riding fastback in the mould of Peugeot’s 408 and e-3008, the new flagship arrives at an important time for struggling DS. The French firm is looking to rebuild sales after a 25% drop to 35,000 units in Europe during 2024 – and to hit crucial profitability targets by 2031 or risk being axed by parent Stellantis. Inspired by the Aero Sport Lounge concept from 2020, albeit significantly toned down for production, the N°8 is the first model to adopt DS’s new naming strategy. This is similar to that of French fashion house Chanel, which sells the N°5…

OVER THE YEARS, a few high-performance cars have emerged with monster whale-tail wings boasting various degrees of downforce. Quite often the pressure they exerted was impressive if not necessarily mind-boggling and often they were intended more to neutralise lift than create positive downforce. But these days, high-end sports cars have become faster than ever and, with it, the potential for aerodynamic downforce has increased. For example, Porsche recently announced a new Manthey kit for the current 911 GT3 RS. A collaboration between the Porsche Development Centre at Weissach and Manthey, it’s aimed at on-track driving and the numbers generated are more than a mere nod to motorsport technology. At 177mph, the modified aerodynamics of the GT3 RS literally produce a tonne of downforce: 1000kg. Equally impressive is how the car…

While the V8 Temerario has two fewer cylinders than its predecessor, it has a larger engine than its V6 rivals, the Ferrari 296, McLaren Artura and Maserati MC20 – and Winkelmann suggested that size advantage, plus the attractive aural bonus of a 10,000rpm redline, will be a significant selling point for Lamborghini’s new entry-level model. He said: “When you buy a Lamborghini, it’s about the fulfilment, usually, of a dream or a childhood dream, and therefore it’s a very emotional decision. And what we have to always be capable of doing is to have a balance between achieving the desire of our clients and, on the other hand, having a lasting business case for the company.”…

Would you judge somebody by which brand of phone they use? Or by who made their TV, or fridge, washing machine or dishwasher? I think not. I’m not even entirely sure I know what make my fridge is and I see it more frequently than I see my family. I know how I got it: the old one broke and I found a used one, advertised by a nice elderly couple nearby. That part, the human side of things, I remember well, but the brand name on the front? Despite seeing it several times a day for the past decade, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a Bosch. Hold on: I’ll check… Yes, it’s a Bosch Classixx, to the fridge enthusiast presumably a name synonymous with keeping food cold and having…

FEATURE TESLA CYBERTRUCK It looks like the future and took ages to enter the present day. But was the long wait for this space-age EV worth it? Mark Tisshaw finds out PREVIEW 25 CAR THINGS FOR 2025 From the biggest automotive talking points to the must-see car events DRIVE SKODA ELROQ This is what future Skodas will look like. We drive its new Kia Niro EV rival EVERY WEEK LIVING WITH A… AUDI A3 SPORTBACK We welcome the most unusual of modern cars: a diesel hatchback OUR CARS PRIOR’S BAJA BUG What has our man been doing to his modified Beetle in his shed?…

The HR-V crossover is Honda’s European bestseller by a mile – 17,761 sold across the continent so far in 2024, including 7404 in the UK. So it’s understandable that this latest update is a conservative one aimed at keeping the car up to speed against a broad spectrum of newly revised rivals such as the Peugeot 2008, Renault Captur and Nissan Qashqai. In fact, visually, the refresh amounts to little more than a new grille (now squared rather than rounded), a reworked front bumper, sharper headlights, a bit of shaping worked into the body (especially at the sides) and the addition of a new range-topping trim, Advance Style Plus, which adds a panoramic roof and funky alloy wheels. That’s the model we’re testing here and it starts at £37,995, although…

WHEN YOU CONSIDER its price, positioning and dynamic priorities, the Citroën ë-Berlingo tested here stacks up relatively well against dearer crossovers and SUVs that replaced MPVs in buyers’ affections. The fresh-faced electric Berlingo (you can also buy a diesel-engined one) sports a new 52kWh battery that promises up to 220 miles of range – 20% more than its 50kWh predecessor – and a new 134bhp motor driving the front wheels. The soft-edged ë-Berlingo retains mild-mannered driving dynamics, being cushioned and pliant in most settings. There’s fuss and fidget at higher speeds and plenty of jounce and head toss on rural back roads, however, and inevitably plenty of body roll in faster cornering. In urban environments, it’s very easy to pilot: the steering, while somewhat vague off-centre, is more precise near…

Take advantage of our Christmas o? er and buy a gift subscription from just £37.49, saving £27 on the shop price. Crafted exclusively for those who live and breathe cars, Autocar is the present that will rev up their festive season. TIME-LIMITED CHRISTMAS OFFER ENDS 30 DECEMBER Order today Call 0344 848 8807 quoting X24STPA Visit www.themagazineshop.com/X24STPA/aca See great offers on our other titles at themagazineshop.com TERMS AND CONDITIONS This is a UK-only offer; for overseas offers, please visit themagazineshop.com/X24STPA/aca or call +44 (0) 1604 251 461. All savings are based on the UK cover price of £4.99 and are correct as of November 2024. Please allow up to 35 days for delivery of your first issue. Direct Debit rates are valid for one year, after which they are subject…

There has never been as much choice on the used car market as there is today. The almost overwhelming variety of options produces great value in many corners of a multifaceted market, and oversupply makes depreciation a car-buying dreamer’s friend. What we’ve got here is a mix of models for those dreamers: cars that are decidedly more practical, some off-season convertibles costing less than you might pay next spring, cars that you may have forgotten altogether and cars with depreciation that mirrors their ferocious acceleration. And to finish, some Christmas indulgences that are more affordable than you probably first thought. Summer breeze for a winter song PORSCHE 718 BOXSTER 2016-NOW “Our idea of drop-top heaven” was Autocar’s summary of the 718 roadster, and Weissach’s slice of open-roof nirvana is now available…

The British Grand Prix, 1995, into the closing stages. For once, the cards have fallen in Johnny Herbert’s favour. Damon Hill has bungled a pass on Michael Schumacher, leaving both the Williams and Benetton in the Silverstone gravel. David Coulthard in the other Williams had been a pest and got past, but a pit-lane speeding penalty has now knocked him back. Herbert leads. After everything, the operations, the setbacks, the endless physio, the constant pain… It’s been seven years since he mangled both feet and nearly lost one in that damned accident. Now here he is, about to win his home grand prix. But as usual, he’s distracted by the sheer effort of simply driving. “I was literally screaming in the car,” Herbert recalls today. The toe that “got chopped…

A VOLVO AMAZON If Celebrity Race Across the World can start in the Amazon, so can we – although Volvo’s US-friendly saloon isn’t actually named after the South American river and rainforest. Volvo originally wanted to call it Amason, but it was changed after a trademark dispute with motorcycle firm Kreidler. The intention was to reference the Amazon female warriors from Greek mythology. Anyway, it’s claimed the warriors inspired the name of the river, so I reckon we’re all good. And if you think that’s overly tenuous, you may wish to stop reading now… B VOLKSWAGEN BRASILIA VW has a long history of making cars in Brazil, including the production of a string of local-market models. Named after the country’s capital and using an air-cooled flat four, the Brasilia was developed in…

You don’t have to be a billionaire car collector to own a fancy garage. For around £60,000, you can have one clad in Siberian larch, with Royal Oak supports and equipped with smart LED ceiling lights, while a 4.8kW solar roof feeds a 15kWh battery and a 7.5kW wall charger. It’s the brainchild of electrician Calvin Buxton, founder of Nottingham-based Ecolution Hubs. “My company specialises in garden and golf simulator rooms,” he says. “We found ourselves increasingly installing domestic EV chargers, so I had the idea of creating a dedicated EV garage powered by solar.” Ecolution Hubs recently completed its first garage for a client with a Porsche Taycan. Photocells detect his car’s arrival and trigger the garage’s ceiling lights. These and the solar energy system can be controlled from…

The Alisea isn’t a new Pagani model but rather a Zonda tribute from Turin’s Istituto Europeo di Design, and I think it’s a far worthier follow-up to the seminal hypercar than anything from Horacio’s own team. Cadillac’s Opulent Velocity is one of many long, low luxury cars that just needs to be built, as does the ludicrous Nilu from Koenigsegg’s exdesign boss, which had the same impact on me as the Zonda did in ’99. Finally, I don’t care if it has a DS or Citroën badge – can we have the SM concept just as it is, please?…

Driving somewhere for Christmas? Many of us will be, but we’ll probably soon expect to settle somewhere warm and familiar among friends and relatives. And, as usual, we’ll most likely enjoy the festive victuals and relentless revelling a little too much. Ninety-one years ago, The Autocar’s long-standing columnist The Scribe (whose contributions over the years were actually the work of half a dozen different writers) had a different view of Christmas. His best festive season involved a longish car journey to a welcoming hotel. A gastropub, in modern parlance. He described his destinations as being “for motorists who think so much of their tummies that they introduce it only to deserving places”. And judging by his discussion of accommodation standards and prices, he expected to stay a while. According to…

Maserati threw a party and we were all invited – but only a few of us managed to get in the door. The MC20 was never in our car park for more than 10 minutes before someone came up with a ‘legitimate reason’ for needing it that evening. “I’ve got urgent business on the other side of the Brecon Beacons,” they would say, or “I left my wallet at the end of the Stelvio Pass.” Nonetheless, some unlucky hangers-on were left out in the cold. Rachel Burgess would have put the Italian supercar through its paces but for the lack of Isofix mounts: “The legal implications of my three-year-old sitting in his child seat attached with a seatbelt meant it was a no-go.” Jack Warrick had no such moral qualms,…

No nominations needed for this one, really: it’s all about which keys spent the least time in the locker at the end of the Autocar desk. And to the surprise of precisely nobody, it was the hulking diesel Volkswagen Touareg that was most often pressed into service to attend far-flung new car launches, visit family in distant, unheard-of locations like ‘Belgium’ and ‘Glasgow’ and haul rowdy, sprawling families around the UK’s motorway network. I asked Verpraet why this would be the best car to drive to Mongolia and he said: “Because I did it. Well, not to Mongolia exactly, but I did drive it over 2000 miles around Europe. I had my gripes with the VW, but it did it reliably, comfortably and reasonably economically.” Murray Scullion was similarly complimentary,…

The Abarth 500e landed a few votes here, too, but we’re running low on Acid Green confetti, so we will quickly summarise its nominations: “Enjoy it too much and you’ll find yourself on the forecourt for longer than you’re on the Tarmac,” said Warrick, who quickly tired of its 37.3kWh battery and 80kW maximum charging rate. Bryce was similarly conflicted: “Its regenerative braking stops you from driving it smoothly. But it’s like a tennis ball: small, fast and agile.” And Prior overlooked its pitfalls to nominate it for this award, “but ‘loved’ might be overstating it”. It’s the Jeep Avenger Electric that we’re instead asking to join us on stage now. Things seemed rosy for the tiny Polish-American SUV: it looked great, was priced attractively and was named Car of…

AN OWNER’S VIEW GREG DURRANS “I bought my FF last year and since then it has travelled 5000 memorable miles to weddings and to France for a family holiday. I’m aware that the gearbox and power transfer unit are the main points of concern and have set aside funds to deal with them if they fail, but so far I’ve only had to replace a tyre. I keep my FF on a trickle charge to look after the battery too. It’s a proper thoroughbred V12 and it has loads of space and a really engaging drive. It’s definitely a keeper.” BUYER BEWARE… ◼ DRIVETRAIN The power transfer unit, which controls the FF’s complex four-wheel drive system, is prone to failure due to fluid ingress, typically caused by a faulty crankcase…

RENAULT CLIO £18,395 Sorry, guv’nor, but you’ll be taking the trolleybus to your job at the factory, ’cos even a 1959 Austin Mini costs twice what you’ve got. If you can wait until 1966, our road testers can sell you a Fiat 500F with a rapid 0-60mph time of… hahaha – yeah, as if. There’s a lovely 83bhp Vauxhall Corsa waiting for you in 1993, though, with a tape deck as standard, albeit basically nothing else. MERCEDES-BENZ GLC 300 £59,530 You’ve clearly done well for yourself, but in 1950 you could have afforded little better than an Austin A40 Devon – four cylinders and four wheels, just like your posh SUV, only with seven times less power. In 1963, you could have stepped up to a Vauxhall Cresta (sadly still…

GOT A STORY Email our news editor will.rimell@haymarket.com “It will have unique parts and tuning to make it suitable for track days” Volkswagen is readying a “lighter and purer” Clubsport version of its flagship Golf R – a car described to Autocar as the most capable and powerful Golf ever produced. This will be the first time VW’s Clubsport name has be applied to anything other than a Golf GTI since it was launched with the car’s seventh generation in 2016. Conceived as a sibling model to the latest GTI Clubsport, the new range-topper is aimed at making the latest incarnation of VW’s four-wheel-drive hot hatch an even faster and sharper proposition for the road than today’s model. It will also feature unique components and tuning intended to ensure it…

The DS 3 crossover is next in line to be replaced by a radical electric model, design chief Thierry Métroz confirmed to Autocar. Asked about the model, which has been on sale in its current guise since 2018, he said: “Yes, the next project is the DS 3.” He declined to provide further details but hinted that it could use the STLA Small platform, which will offer battery capacities ranging from just 37kWh to 82kWh, and power outputs starting from 94bhp. Métroz said: “The big advantage of Stellantis is you have STLA Small, STLA Medium and also STLA Large. We have the opportunity to use [all three] of these platforms.” The car’s name will also change to DS N°3, following the N°8.…

Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo “wants” to make the reborn Renault Twingo in right-hand drive but making the business case to do so is “a challenge”. The Twingo will go on sale in left-hand-drive markets in 2026 priced from less than €20,000 (roughly £16,600) and derived from the firm’s new Ampr Small architecture. De Meo said that while the car has been engineered for right-hand drive, the company still “needed to find a business case” for it to do so. The clincher could be a deal with Nissan, which is in talks with Renault to build its own city car derived from the Twingo, much like it is using the Renault 5 as the basis for the next Nissan Micra, which will be engineered and built by Renault. “In…

ASTON MARTIN’S LONGawaited Valhalla supercar will enter production in just a few months – with a hefty power advantage over its main rivals from Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren. The news that the mid-engined hybrid supercar has more power than first promised, and the highest torque figure of any Aston model yet, was revealed when the firm released full production specs ahead of customer deliveries starting in the second half of 2025. Early details pegged the AMG-sourced hybrid V8’s output at 1000bhp, but with homologation now complete, Aston has bumped that figure to 1079bhp to make it more powerful than the Lamborghini Temerario, McLaren Artura and Ferrari 296 GTB hybrids. In fact, it’s not far off the 1139bhp pumped out by the V12 Valkyrie flagship. The 4.0-litre AMG flat-plane-crank V8 contributes…

Lamborghini has no plans to follow Aston Martin and Bentley by delaying its first electric car – but it will keep its three new hybrid models on sale for as long as possible. Boss Stephan Winkelmann told Autocar that he is confident the firm’s previously outlined electrification strategy – which includes launching an electric four-seat GT by the end of the decade – is “the right one”, because when it comes to launching EVs, “it’s not about innovation: it’s about coming at the right time”. He said: “When we decided to do the first step of our strategy, to have all the line-up new and hybridised, this was a big effort for the company. “For the last four years, we have worked very hard on this and now we see…

THINK OF IT and Mercedes-Benz’s Immendingen proving ground has got it. And if you haven’t thought of it, it’s probably got it anyway. Opened in 2018 on an ex-military training ground an hour south of Stuttgart, Immendingen is like a 520-hectare Disneyland for car development. Coupled with a rise in digital development, this facility is allowing Mercedes to have a far more productive approach to testing cars by having on one site so many of the different environments a car will face around the world. Some 80% of all car development can be done on this site and it’s the only place in the world where you can drive on a Chinese highway straight after passing through a French motorway toll booth. On the former, the automated driving systems are…

It has been a burning question for years: when mortality finally catches up with Bernie Ecclestone (as it must, even for The Bolt), what will happen to his car collection? This collection has been the Formula 1 version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for decades: we all knew it existed, we all knew where it was (stored in a very secure hangar at Biggin Hill airport) and we even knew most of the special cars it contained, but no one was ever invited in, the cars were only rarely glimpsed in public when Bernie deigned to allow it and certainly no one beyond a handful had ever seen them all together in the metal. Until this month. Finally, aged 94, Bernie has answered our question: the Ecclestone Collection is up…

Another week, another old model name dusted off by a manufacturer looking to add a spot of retro recognition to a new EV. This time it’s the turn of the Vauxhall Frontera, a model that was popular in the 1990s, back when SUVs still had to look all rugged to make you believe they could credibly go off road, even if they couldn’t. On a scale of revived model names bookended by the Renault 5 (styling and ethos faithful to the original) and Ford Capri (the only similarity is the name), the Frontera falls somewhere in the middle. Like the original, it’s a slightly boxy high-riding hatchback aimed at a family audience, although there isn’t really any shared design DNA. A more relevant predecessor to the new Frontera is the…

The artist formerly known as A4 has now landed in the UK. Despite the name change, the lineup remains familiar. You can have the A5 as a saloon (which is actually a hatchback) or as an Avant estate and it’s powered by a choice of 2.0-litre petrol and diesel engines. A pair of plug-in hybrids will follow in the spring and there’s a sporty S5 with a good old (well, actually quite modern) V6 petrol. We will have a full road test of that in a few weeks. A compact executive saloon and estate may not be very zeitgeisty, but this remains an important model for Audi, making up 8.9% of the brand’s total global volume. This new generation represents a suitably thorough update, with an evolved platform, an aerodynamic…

RECENTLY, I DROVE the Terramar in Denmark (Autocar, 2 October), where Cupra’s fiery, Spanish take on the Volkswagen Tiguan was supplied with the plug-in hybrid powertrain, which wasn’t ideal. As we’ve established in the VW Golf and Passat road tests, that PHEV drivetrain is quite a remarkable thing, with more than 70 miles of electric range, but its unwilling power delivery just doesn’t gel with Cupra’s claims of sportiness. Cue this 2.0-litre petrol version with 261bhp and four-wheel drive. Cupra brought a left-hooker on Spanish plates to a recent UK drive day for us to try, and I can confirm that this simpler version fits Cupra’s vibe much better. Sporty SUVs remain a curious concept – the Cupra Leon Estate does everything better for less money – but the Terramar…

Mark Tisshaw Who likes someone enough to get them that Ferrari out there in the car park? That’s the one we all really want… Matt Prior It’s Christmas. If you’re going to buy somebody something for Christmas, money no object, why not buy them a Ferrari? And it’s festively red. The coupé, however, isn’t a new car, but the Spider is, and I think I’m right in saying it’s replacing the coupé to become the only Roma. Given that (a) it’s such a good car in coupé form and (b) Richard likes it so much, I thought it was the perfect car for him. Is it not the best Christmas present? Like, ever? Steve Cropley Is that the first time you’ve been given a Ferrari, mate? Richard Lane Sadly, yes……

‘Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul,’ reads the T-shirt of GBMCC chair Kevin Bazeley. Many members balance out their sports bike with a sensible EV on a day-to-day basis, perhaps reinforcing the quote. Bazeley drives a Skoda Enyaq vRS, and there are numerous Polestars and Teslas among club ranks. Treasurer Stephen Blurton drives a Nissan Note but dreams of a Citroën DS 23, while member Sean McAllister has a company Skoda Superb Estate (in petrolhead-pleasing green) and is a proud Festival of the Unexceptional addict, recently co-buying a 1990s Rover 200 for both next year’s event and an ambitious Euro trip afterwards. Proof that four wheels can move the soul.…

Three of you – Prior, Page and Phillips – get some Lego and each make a sports car, said the bosses. You’ll have 90 minutes. Write about what you’ve done (you can read these over the page). And then, Prior, you need to pick a winner. Unbiasedly. With skin in the game, I couldn’t be unbiased, so I decided to open it up to the office for judging. A Concours de Lego, if you will. Well. What a mistake that was. Believe me, I know the pain, Felix Page, of receiving no first-place votes and even one fourth place in a competition of three for your BMW ‘E30’ M3-alike. I’m glad you told us what it was meant to be, but I’m not sure it helped. There are shades of…

DIMENSIONS TECHNICAL LAYOUT Steel spaceframe chassis with a driver top and centre within a roll-cage. Mid-mounted longitudinal engine driving all four wheels via live axles. Suspension via leading and trailing arms front and rear respectively. POWER & TORQUE THE SMALL PRINT Power-to-weight and torque-to-weight figures are calculated using manufacturer’s claimed kerb weight. © 2024, Haymarket Media Group Ltd. Test results may not be reproduced without editor’s written permission. For information on the Digatron, visit monsterjam.com and jcb.com. Huge thanks to all those involved from JCB, Monster Jam and Monster Jam University. JCB DIGATRON MONSTER TRUCK On-the-road price £300,000 (est) FITTED EQUIPMENT Standard Power steering, hydraulic brakes, pit-to-truck radio, access ladder ACCELERATION 0-60ft 1.83sec ENGINE Installation Mid, longitudinal, 4WD Type V8, 8849cc, supercharged, methanol, wet sump, Holley EFI Made of Alloy…

I’ve just bought an example of the least sporty small sports car of the 1990s. More than that, I’ve paid massively over the odds for it. And I wasn’t really looking for one either. But these are the risks when you start searching for low-mileage survivors from eras now gone. And a spectacular survivor this Mercedes-Benz SLK is too, because it has done only 5100 miles from new, all of them with one owner. It was found by performing a website search that I’ve previously scribbled about, the parameters being cars that are more than 10 years old, have done fewer than 25,000 miles and are petrol-powered. Input these on Auto Trader and of the 454,000 cars listed on the day of writing, some 2800 fall into this category. Arrange…

Like many waterfowl, ducks are migrating birds – but some recent new arrivals on UK shores will have even seasoned twitchers very confused. Because reports suggest that you might just find a new species of duck in the UK. If, that is, you know where to look: the dashboards of Jeeps. I should mention we’re talking plastic ducks here. That’s because a relatively new phenomenon has begun in which Jeep drivers – or Jeepers, as some like to style themselves – gift plastic ducks to the owners of other Jeeps. Don’t worry: you’re probably not alone in finding that odd. Ducking Jeeps – please be careful how you say that – has become hugely popular in North America. Find a Jeep of any type, age or condition over there, and…

THE SCRIBE WOULD have loved our car choice for this trip, and after our day-long journey of around 400 miles punctuated by visits, interviews, photo-stops and one satisfyingly fast charging session, so did I. It’s a fair bet that any contemporary £120,000 luxury saloon would have done this job, but our Mercedes-Benz EQS 450+ Business Class saloon had attributes that moved it from excellent to nigh-on perfect. The first advantage is its special look: it stands apart because of its packaging and thus its sleek, simple, ultra-classy shape. The compact EV powertrain allows a short nose (with three-pointed star mascot blessedly back in place) that means much of the 5.2-metre length can be dedicated to cabin space. The luxurious, top-quality interior is so good that even if a few top-end…

Keeping a car for a few months gives us time to uncover hidden buttons, cubbies and attributes that aren’t immediately obvious on a first drive. You know, the sorts of things a YouTuber would label “the features you’ll never BELIEVE made it to production” with a few of those shocked-face emojis. Burgess, for example, was pleased to find a ‘reduced alarm mode’ function in the Volvo V90, which makes the cabin sensors less sensitive to movement and stops the car screaming its head off when on a ferry. We found a couple of secret strengths in the BMW M2, too: Jonathan Bryce said its drift mode “is a quirk the car doesn’t need and will quite likely never be used” but nevertheless “I’m glad that it’s there”. And Attwood sheepishly…

Objectivity be damned: it’s almost always a sad occasion when a low-loader arrives to snatch away your wheels. A few months at the helm is long enough to build a real rapport with a car, and we’ve had to begrudgingly hand back the keys to some real corkers this year. Alfa Romeo’s Giulia Quadrifoglio hasn’t even left our fleet yet but, such is the impression it’s made on the team, we’re already dreading saying goodbye. “It feels like the sort of car I could drive forever,” said Prior, before putting his headphones back on to continue listening to a recording of its rasping V6 on loop. For keeper Scullion, it’s the “fluency of ride and the potency of its engine” he’ll miss most, although the fact it “looks the dog’s…

HONDA E:NY1 I wanted to really like the e:Ny1, because I loved the E, but it was about as unremarkable as cars get to drive. Shame. Still, I enjoyed a surprisingly large amount of space in the back when catching a lift from a colleague, so it lands the Beats Walking Award. MT FORD RANGER RAPTOR This year’s Best Supporting Raptor Award (sorry again) goes to Ford’s silly, shouty pick-up truck for just being the most useful vehicle we ran in 2024. It really can take on anything – even (just about) the width restrictors on the way into Richmond Park. FP DACIA SANDERO STEPWAY Most days, I spend eight hours staring at mag pages on a screen, so this all-you-need-and-nothing-you-don’t hatch wins the Digital Detox Award for giving my…

In almost all of its iterations, the Porsche 911 has always been the supercar you can drive all day, every day. The latest proof of this comes not in the shape of Anthony Sandach’s 1988-registered Carrera 3.2, which has done a solid 170,000 miles, but his father’s 1985 B-reg. His dad bought the car in 1990 when it had already done 150,000 miles (it cost him £9000) and today it’s showing 250,000. “Look after a 911 and it will run and run,” says his son. Anthony bought his Carrera four years ago at the start of lockdown: “I paid the deposit but it was a year before I could get my hands on the car. It’s the last of the old series before the 964 [generation] arrived in 1989, so…

FERRARI MONDIAL T 1990, 51,000 miles, £49,945 This example of Maranello’s off-the-wall four-seater is said to be in “immaculate condition”. The seller has just spent £5k on a new cambelt, cam seals, fuel pipes and more. It comes with a full service history and has covered a reasonable mileage. LOTUS EXCEL SE 1990, 79,000 miles, £17,995 There’s plenty of visual drama from this wedge-shaped, recently serviced Excel. It had a new cambelt and new tyres and the twin-cam four-pot should sound sweet, too, thanks to a stainless steel exhaust fitted last year. It sailed through its latest MOT with no advisories. RENAULT ALPINE GTA LE MANS 1991, 43,000 miles, £55,150 One of just 26 UK-registered Le Mans GTAs, this stunning special edition is a fine example of Renault Alpine’s V6-powered…

Renault’s striking 5 Turbo 3E concept car will enter production in 2026 as a modern interpretation of the storied Turbo and is said to be the “ultimate hot hatch”. The electric 5 Turbo 3E will be based on a bespoke platform and employ next-generation in-wheel motor technology. That will give it more than triple the power of the original, which went out of production in 1984, and make it the most powerful production car in Renault history. Speaking at an exclusive Car of the Year preview of the new car, product boss Bruno Vanel promised the 5 Turbo 3E will deliver an “outstanding driving sensation, something completely unexpected” that is “agile like nothing else” as a result of its innovative drivetrain. The new model was previewed by a 2022 concept…

The next-generation Alpine A110, due in 2026, will be lighter than combustion-engined rivals despite adopting an electric drivetrain, according to Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo. He told Autocar that the company has made a “not rational” decision to “invest a lot of money” in a bespoke electric sports car platform for the next A110 and its derivatives – including a likely 2+2 version called the A310 – but it has “looked at Porsche for inspiration” in how to successfully build a sports brand. De Meo said: “The next A110 will be lighter than a comparable car with a combustion engine but with no compromise in performance.” He added that making the bespoke architecture is objectively “a completely stupid decision” due to the likely return on investment in pure sales…

The original Mazda MX-5 can now be powered by batteries using a new conversion kit supplied by British firm Electrogenic. This swaps the NA-generation roadster’s four-cylinder petrol powerplant for a single electric motor that puts out 160bhp and 229lb ft – up from the 128bhp and 110lb ft of the original in its most potent guise. A 0-60mph of “around six seconds”, down from 8.5sec, is claimed. Battery packs totalling 42kWh – mounted under the bonnet and in the boot – yield a range of over 150 miles.…

MAKING A HYBRID HYPERCAR “We have a lot on our plate. For the last four years, we’ve fully concentrated on renewing the entire line-up, which is something that for a company of our size is a really big task – and we have a lot of our plates still to be filled. For what’s coming next, we have a lot of ideas but not everything we can put into reality.” LAUNCHING AN ELECTRIC URUS “We are very flexible in terms of a decision. We don’t want to rush this, because the Urus SE [hybrid] has a new beginning, and therefore we are not in a hurry to decide what to do next.” CHINA’S LUXURY CAR MARKET COLLAPSING “The Chinese car market is the biggest worldwide, but in terms of luxury…

Last year, signing off here, I reckoned “big stuff” would happen during 2024, and indeed it did. What was especially fascinating was that, for all we think we know about automotive progress, many of the key events were far beyond our ability to predict. Who’d have thought the values of used electric cars would fall so far that even the Porsche Taycan, one of the best EVs going, would be shunned as a trade-in because values were uncertain? Who’d have thought Jaguar would bow so quickly out of selling cars in the UK, leaving a two-year void? Or that it would leave its enviable 102-year heritage quite so far behind in pursuit of Reimagination? Who’d have thought our (admittedly new) national government would need to see plans for the actual,…

WRITE TO autocar@haymarket.com NOTES FROM SPACE I read Kris Culmer’s piece on Saturn (From the archive, 27 November) with fond interest, having worked for the company between 1991 and 1993 in Detroit and Spring Hill on the plans for exporting to Europe. Some of his comments were spot on. Manufacturing costs were very high and a lot to do with the plastic body panels. The cars were noisy, mostly due to the metal timing chain on the 2.0-litre engines, and the trim inside was very hard and felt cheap. European exports never got off the ground due to there being no hatchbacks, no diesels and no 1.2-litre or 1.4-litre petrol engines. Some of the things he wrote about need a bit more detail, though. Yes, Saturn had fewer business partners…

Reaching price parity between petrol and electric cars has been a long-held industry goal – one that’s achieved the same sort of near-mythical status as solid-state batteries or the TVR Griffith reaching production. So this Vauxhall Frontera is a significant thing because prices for the Electric and Hybrid both start from £23,495. And given the public is used to thinking that EVs should cost more, that perhaps leaves this petrol-sipping version with much to prove. The Frontera Hybrid sits on the same Smart Car platform as the EV but trades the electric motor for a 1.2-litre three-cylinder, which is supplemented by a 28bhp electric motor mated to the six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. Drawing from a 0.898kWh battery, it’s the classic 48V system, there to help at low speeds, fill in…

The suggestion that BMW might quietly drop the 320d from its showroom line-up and not instantly bonfire the 3 Series’ commercial fortunes would have seemed ridiculous a decade ago – and yet it has come to pass. With the 2025-model-year update, the last remaining 3 Series diesel has been banished from Britain. The remaining versions are the 320i, with its mild-hybrid petrol four; the six-cylinder M340i; and the plug-in hybrid that has replaced the 320d as BMW’s darling of the company car fleet, the 330e. The PHEV’s battery has almost doubled in terms of usable capacity, making it the most meaningfully improved version this time around. This doesn’t bring any hikes in power or performance, but electric-only range jumps to as much as 63 miles, depending on your chosen equipment…

In the past 24 hours, we’ve had a one-of-660 Audi RS6 Avant GT delivered to Autocar HQ, Toyota has announced a run of laudably hardcore GR Supras and Alpina has been in touch to ask if we would like a go in the dreamy, last-of-the-line B3 GT. We appear to be living in the midst of a special-edition bonanza (no prizes for guessing why), and it’s an excellent thing. One day, most of these cars will have shed their ridiculous price tags and be spectacular used buys. The ‘special edition’ is a familiar ploy for shifting old metal, but do it well and icons can be born. It will be particularly interesting to chart the RS6 GT’s value trajectory. We’re talking about a £180k estate here – one with manually…

STEVE CROPLEY My choice would be an MG Cyberster, the two-wheel-drive one, because in a longish motoring career it would be a completely new experience. I like most of what I’ve read about the performance and characteristics of the car so far. I also rate its UK-styled shape, and it strikes a great balance between sportiness and daily practicality. My time with an MG 4 means I’d trust its reliability and durability. MARK TISSHAW I went to Tokyo at the start of the year with a mate, and we did Tokyo Street Kart. Google it. You get given a go-kart, which you then drive around the streets of Tokyo in among all the normal traffic. It’s as mad as it sounds and, Japan being Japan, other road users treat you…

It’s Christmas Day but the power’s off! No problem, at least if you have a Genesis GV60, Electrified GV70 or Electrified G80. These models are among a slowly growing number of electric vehicles with V2L (vehicle to load) capability, a system that converts the DC current used by the car’s traction battery to AC to power something external. Handy. To access the AC current, you plug a dedicated adapter into the car’s charging port and, into its other end, a gang extension socket into which you plug your devices or appliances. The V2L system does the rest. On Genesis models, the system will support a 3.68kW charge – higher than the power supply in the average home and more than enough to power a plug-in oven, a microwave, an illuminated…

“Laid flat on the broad breast of the Atlantic, farther west than Mull, farther west than the Dutchman’s Cap, lies Tiree, the Treeless Island.” Those words open A Winter in Tiree, a short autobiographical story by Scottish explorer Isobel Wylie Hutchison published in 1924. Back then, Christmas Day was still decades from becoming a public holiday in Scotland, and on Tiree children would bury their noses in schoolbooks as on any other day. Hutchison, a visitor from Edinburgh with modern sensibilities, had other plans: “For the first time, Father Christmas visited Tiree. Perhaps the treelessness of the island had hitherto prevented him from landing, for the first thing we had to do when we heard of his proposed visit was to send post haste all the way to Mull for…

Normally, an interview with a car company CEO is a highly co-ordinated affair, something that will have been weeks or even months in the planning and then carefully choreographed in its execution. Yet there was Denis Le Vot, the Dacia CEO, sitting at a trestle table along with two colleagues in a makeshift conference room that had earlier hosted the overflow guests from the breakfast buffet, rain battering against the windows and making the decor inside feel even more dated. He was there for a two-hour speed-dating-style ‘interview session’, alongside multiple other brand representatives, approachable by and accessible to anyone who wanted to ask anything about the cars assembled for Tannistest. In case you didn’t know, Tannistest is a large annual comparison event that enables Car of the Year jurors…

“You’re going to catch some air,” says Tristan England, driver of the JCB Digatron Monster Jam truck, the subject of this year’s Christmas road test. This was unexpected. If you’ll excuse the behind-the-scenes indulgence, sometimes we get a brief go in a Christmas road test vehicle, sometimes an extended run, but often – if it’s, say, the Space Shuttle – no go at all. Our first nose around the Digatron was in JCB’s test and demonstration quarry in Staffordshire, which is full of sharp immovable objects and very much ‘no go’ territory. But, suggested JCB, if you can come to the broad expanse of Monster Jam University, that can be amended. I expected to arrive there and be given a short pootle around a yard. Instead, as I pull on…

Monster trucks have come a long way since the 1970s, when they were lifted regular trucks wearing some kind of agricultural tyre. Today’s truck is a piece of precision engineering that straddles a number of forms of motorsport. The engine is straight out of a drag car, yet has to run longer, more durably, and sometimes at 90deg to the road. And it won’t get a rebuild for 20 hours. The chassis and suspension are as beefy as a military or agricultural vehicle’s. But the steering system attached needs to respond quickly, accurately and predictably time and again. Even if the driver has just failed to land a double backflip. Then there’s the driving environment, which is one of the harshest in motordom. Sure, some rally cars will go faster,…

Every Christmas they’ve been given the book, the gloves, the slippers… So this year why not give the car enthusiast in your life something to blow their novelty socks off: a garage. No, not a cheap pre-fab with a single light bulb; instead, a ‘gallery space’ in which they can display their motor (more likely motors), perhaps with a lounge area, a bar, maybe even a turntable that rises and falls so they and their friends can admire their latest wheels from all angles. Right now, eight car enthusiasts somewhere in the world are contemplating Christmas with their own, even more ambitious and impressive gallery spaces, both above and below the ground. They’re clients of London-based architect Jonathan Clark and a division of his architecture practice Garage Deluxe, a business…

I enjoyed applying BMW’s emerging Neue Klasse design treatment to my visions of its future models, resulting in instant improvements over some of its recent design disasters. I’m hoping Alfa Romeo shares my vision for its next hot saloon, and although I was miles off with my prediction for the Ferrari F80, it was interesting to draw some inspiration from the 499P Le Mans racer. The new-era Espace was a little more fantastical, but who doesn’t want to see Renault follow the 4 and 5 with a boxy VW ID Buzz rival?…

Given that it’s become a full-on phenomenon, Jeep has predictably embraced the ducking trend – while also attempting to ensure it remains a spontaneous, fan-driven movement. In 2022, Jeep brought what it claimed to be ‘the world’s largest rubber duck’ to the Detroit motor show and it has also handed out plenty of plastic ducks and related merchandise. And with the trend slowly coming over here, the firm’s UK arm is trying to help cultivate the trend – while keeping some distance. “It’s something we want to progress, but part of the joy is that it’s grown organically,” says Jeep UK boss Kris Cholmondeley. “Our job isn’t to drive and control it: it’s to make it easy. The beauty is that this is happening by customers, not us, and we…

1 Which classic Ford nameplate from the 1960s was controversially revived for a new electric crossover this year? 2 British EV start-up Nyobolt based its 1246kg sports car prototype on which 1990s legend? 3 What is the only Jaguar model currently on sale? Abroad, at least; there are none left here. 4 The Tesla Model Y was the world’s best-selling car in 2023, but what was second? 5 In May, it was announced that the Geneva motor show wouldn’t return. In which year was the first event held? 6 Which mainstream car brand’s name is cleverly hidden within its logo? 7 Toyota and BMW formed a partnership in September to develop what? 8 What was the codename given to the development mule for the 2007 Aston Martin DBS? 9 How…

Could it have been anything else? If Volkswagen needed reassurance that it had done justice to the legacy of the legendary Type 2 bus, indisputably among the cheeriest and most bohemian vehicles ever created, the ID Buzz’s victory here must surely suffice. “We’ve long heard electric cars and skateboard architectures will make for more creative car designs, and the ID Buzz is the first car to really show what can be done,” reasoned Mark Tisshaw. Charlie Martin agreed, even if “you could accuse it of many flaws”, explaining: “It’s one of few cars we’ve run this year that comes from a place of joy, and we desperately need more happy stuff like it.” And Jack Warrick was pleased to discover that “its massive grin was matched by everyone who saw…

Smart clearly had designs on victory in this category with the name of its quirky electric crossover, and indeed Tisshaw found the #1 a hot topic of conversation: “Specifically, what’s that little fox thing doing dancing around in the corner of the touchscreen the whole time?” But it was the Abarth 500e that really set the Neighbourhood Watch group chats ablaze, with its bilious paint and synthesised exhaust sounds. Over to Culmer: “Literally everybody looked and pointed or commented about the lurid colour, and they all laughed when I turned on the fake engine noise.” After a few days behind the wheel of the retro pocket rocket, Attwood concurred: “It was very yellow, was brilliant in many ways and would then do something utterly daft.” As its keeper, I can…

The FF of 2011 to 2016 represented a revolution for the Prancing Horse, being the first Ferrari to accommodate four full-sized adults and their luggage and the first to feature a four-wheel drive system. Hence the badge: ‘Ferrari Four’. A replacement for the 612 Scaglietti, the eccentric FF was unusual in its positioning. We had seen flamboyant four-seat Ferraris before in the 400i and Mondial, but back in the early 2010s every car that came out of Maranello was developed and released with deft product planning in a bid to score a hit with the rich and famous, with scant concern for such trivialities as boot space and all-weather utility. Compared with the likes of the 458 Italia and 599 GTB, this stunning Pininfarina-penned hatchback was much easier to imagine…

Inflation has been a subject on everyone’s lips in 2024, not least with regards to new car prices, which we were recently told had risen 129% over the past 15 years. Goodness gracious! Now, with the few gaps in Autocar’s digital archive having been filled, the possibility of taking a long-term view is intriguing. Working out an average price of the cars featuring in our weekly road test (which admittedly is probably skewed towards the higher end of the market) since World War II reveals that car prices remained fairly flat until the 1980s, when they suddenly soared and have since maintained that trajectory. Of course, that the average road test subject cost £1016 in 1950 doesn’t tell us much, because it seems an absurdly small amount of money today.…