Autocar

The Model Y proves driver safety technology can be effective without being overbearing Moving cars around the car park at Autocar HQ on a weekday morning can be a stressful start to the day at the best of times. Unfamiliar cars in tight spaces between concrete pillars before your morning coffee has kicked in is tough enough; throw in the beeps and bongs many modern cars make and you've got a sensory challenge to overcome on top. "Hi, I'm Deepal," said an AI-voiced Changan as I entered it, which

Dissatisfied with your various dalliances? Perhaps the time has come to settle down with a true 'lifer' Against a backdrop of global and economic uncertainty, many of us are searching for something we can rely on. Something such as a 'forever car' - all the motor you will ever want or need. It may have future classic potential. It may be simple and easy to maintain. It may promise to be as reliable as a Swiss watch. It may just make you feel better about life. Whatever it is or does, a forever

'Op Snap' is on the rise as drivers gather their own footage of wrongdoing - but we must proceed with caution The ubiquity of video surveillance has recently given us the glorious nickname ‘Clicky Ponting’, bestowed on a player from Saltburn Cricket Club who was accused of ingloriously clicking his fingers to mimic the sound of a ball making contact with a bat, to dupe umpires into giving batters caught out. He was suspended by the club as the North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League beg

The Mazda MX-5 1.5 is still a brilliant sports car, but what other affordable cars let you experience the joy of ICE? Sad news this week: the 2.0-litre version of the Mazda MX-5 is dead. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, because it had been cut from price lists on the continent a few years ago. Mazda doesn’t sell very many EVs, so every gramme of CO2 counts and those extra 13g the 2.0-litre put out over the 1.5 were 13g too many. The removal of the 2.0-litre isn’t as disastrous for the MX-5’s credi

Dealers will be shifting as many new cars as they can as the new '76' plate comes in Dealers will be focusing all their efforts on shifting new cars in September, offering bumper deals, including, in some cases, double-digit discounts. So where does that leave nearly new vehicles, whose chief attraction is their new car feel at lower prices? We compared the prices of three nearly new cars chosen at random and advertised by car supermarket Motorpoint with their new equivalents, whose prices have

CLA 45 goes electric with supercar-baiting pace, choice of saloon or estate and 416-mile range The new Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 is as powerful as the outgoing C63 – yet £34,000 less than the plug-in hybrid super-saloon. Pricing for the new performance model will start from £66,750 in saloon form, with the Shooting Brake costing £1000 more. Notably, it's also on a par with the price of the previous CLA 45, despite having made the switch from a four-cylinder petrol engine to a tri-motor electric power

Long-running – and long-absent – coupé poised for a comeback as GR's new entry model Toyota is poised to bring back the Celica for an eighth generation, more than two decades after the last version went off sale, as an entry model for its new GR performance brand.  The sports coupé is set to return as part of chairman Akio Toyoda's ambition to resurrect the "three brothers" - his affectionate nickname for the Supra, MR2 and Celica. With the Supra revived through a partnership with BMW several y

Lotus has released an official image of the supercar's rear – and Autocar has imagined what the rest of the car will look like New ICE supercar will be built alongside Emira at Hethel and offer choice of powertrains Lotus will also offer a V6 version of the new Esprit supercar, along with the already-confirmed hybrid V8, as part of a pledge to keep to the lightweight ethos of the brand, the company’s CEO has said. Lotus has set a target weight of 1.5 tonnes for the V8 version of the car, whi

Too fast? Too furious? Not yet, says this ambitious Supra owner with Veyron-baiting ambitions If you want something badly enough for your birthday, it's often best just to buy it yourself. That's what Reece Atherton did, only it wasn't a pair of socks he bought but a Toyota GR Supra 3.0. "Two of my mates have one, and when I saw them, I thought I just have to have my own," says the 28-year-old. The manual version was tempting but Reece instead opted for the eight-speed automatic. "I like the fl

Bentley's electric era begins next month with the debut of the 370-mile Torcal - but we've had an early ride The rear passenger door motors itself noiselessly closed. Here we are, in the back seat of what company CEO Dr Frank Walliser has described as “perhaps the most considered car” in the 107-year history of his employer: the new Bentley Torcal. The wheels beneath us begin to turn - gently, smoothly, but not without an accompanying soundtrack. And in an instant we become among the very first

Jaecoo sibling brand's first UK-bound electric car goes big on standard kit and interior space Chinese newcomer Lepas is going after the Volkswagen ID 4 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 with its first UK-bound EV, the L6. The electric SUV has a 65kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack that yields a range of 279 miles between charges and can be topped up at up to 120kW. That allows a 30-80% refill in 22 minutes. The L6 is powered by a single front-mounted motor that puts out 214bhp and 203lb ft of torque, g

Trekking into cold forests late at night is worth it when you get to see fantastic cars at full tilt It's a wintry night and I'm perched on a Welsh mountaintop, about 500 metres above sea level, somewhere near Llanidloes. Darkness fell some time ago, and it took the last remnants of the day's limited warmth with it: the temperature has now dropped to the wrong side of zero. I walked a few miles to find this spot, trudging through the Cambrians to find a vantage point that looks just right. In t

Capacitive buttons are a bugbear of many modern interiors – but also an innovation that simply didn't work Who signed this off? You might well ask, as once again you accidentally trigger a capacitive button on your car’s steering wheel. It is a prime example of when the customer voice, engineering curiosity and financial targets become misaligned.  Jeff Bezos is credited with using an empty chair in Amazon board meetings to represent the customer view. A superb mindset, because all too easily d

A stylish drop-top that's fun to drive and easy to live with? No-brainer - but get in before winter Eyeing a convertible for summer? You won't find a lot on the new car market: waning profit margins for niche models and the popularity of crossovers mean the drop-top market has... dropped off. A few stalwarts soldier on, such as the Mini Convertible. But with prices nearing £30,000, why not consider its predecessor, which you can now pick up from about £3000? When the fourth-generation Mini arri

New updates bring a small bump in power and torque for the 1.5 MX-5, plus extra kit from the 2.0 The 1.5-litre Mazda MX-5 will receive a small bump in power and new kit, the brand has confirmed after it pulled the range-topping 2.0-litre from the UK market. The MX-5 will now put out 134bhp and 114b ft in 1.5-litre form, a mild increase of 4bhp and 3lb ft. Nonetheless, it remains far off the performance potential of the now-axed 2.0-litre, which put out 181bhp and 151lb ft.  Mazda is keen to emp

Big rollout will include a Europe-specific small SUV, a new i20 and much more Hyundai Motor including its premium Genesis division has promised to launch 41 new or refreshed models in Europe by 2030 as it commits to a region that other Asian brands have begun to deprioritise in the face of Chinese competition. New models will include a region-specific small electric SUV, a mid-sized electric SUV and commercial vehicles, Hyundai executives told analysts at the firm’s annual investor day on 26 Au

EX60, EX90 and ES90 upload hazard data to the cloud, pinging other connected cars close by A new software update has given the Volvo EX60, EX90 and ES90 the ability to alert drivers of other such Volvos to animals by the roadside. It uses the car’s sensors and cameras to detect larger animals, such as deer or sheep, in order to warn drivers before they may have spotted such hazards themselves. The car then uploads the positional data of the hazard to the cloud, which pings other EX60s, EX90s an

Aggressive sales targets were meant to give the UK a head start on EVs, but that hasn't panned out What is the future for volume car manufacturing in the UK? Toyota, BMW (via Mini) and Nissan are in a tricky situation right now. As in Germany, build costs are high compared with eastern Europe or China, meaning margins are tight. For BMW and Toyota the decision now is whether or not to spend big to adapt the factories to EVs, as Nissan has already done in Sunderland and JLR has in Halewood and S

It's the ultimate EV test: two weeks of autoroute-bashing with the kids and the dog. How did we do? Electric cars are ideal for short commutes, but the prospect of endless charging stops made me nervous of the trek to south-western France for a family holiday – particularly with a long-suffering dog aboard. However, the BMW iX3's claims of more than 400 miles made it far more realistic, and I decided to mitigate my mileage by taking an overnight ferry to St Malo. The plan was to blast down to P

Sailing-themed super-saloon is a 10-off collector special from Alfa's new special projects arm What to do with Alfa Romeo? It’s a storied and beloved brand, but due to various factors – not least the notable absence of any convincing new products – it’s not doing the numbers. Clearly it needs some good new cars, but for the time being there is also a more entertaining option: lean into making ‘few-off’ models. That’s the idea behind Bottega Fuoriserie, which loosely translates to ‘special proje