36
‘Bought an early original Range Rover once. Needed six turns lock to lock’
Issue 6407 | Volume 304 | No 4
NEWS
Land Rover PHEVs Evoque, Disco Sport go plug-in 6 Audi A3 saloon Sporty new four-door here in July 8 Mercedes’ battery bonanza Bold new battery tech 10 Ferrari’s first EV All-wheel-drive two-seater tipped 13 Car sales Lockdown fa l lout and what’ll happen next 14
TESTED
Skoda Octavia New estate makes upmarket move 18 BMW M8 Competition 616bhp coupé on UK roads 24 Lamborghini Huracán Evo RWD Entry level i s best 25 Vauxhall Grandland X Hybrid4 ROAD TEST 26 Road test rewind How the 2007 Ford Mondeo fared 32
FEATURES Range Rover at 50 Today’s meets a special original 36 Drink-driving probe Why is it still such a big killer? 48 Toyota’s UK success story Inside l ine at Burnaston 50 Best of (not) British Our top UK-built overseas cars 54 Sir Stirling Moss Steve Cropley looks back on his l i fe 59
OUR CARS Volvo S60 You can sum up i ts interior in one word 64 Mazda 3 A rare drive, to get vital medical supplies 65
EVERY WEEK Jesse Crosse Why e-boosters may now kill the turbo 15 Steve Cropley Ideas to beat the lockdown hebetude 17 Subscribe Save money and get exclusive benefits 34 Damien Smith Race achievements of Stirling Moss 56 Motorsport round-up WRC: Opel to replace Citroën? 58 Your Views Does the world need a VW T-Roc cabrio? 62 Matt Prior There’s talk of a new scrappage scheme 82
DEALS
James Ruppert Imagine owning a car. Crazy, r ight? 66 As good as new Tips on buying a used Discovery 5 69 Spied in the classifieds Sub-£1k trio , plus GS Birotor 70 Used buying guide How to nab a Mercedes W123 72 New cars A-Z Key car stats , from Abarth to Zenos 74 Road test index Track down that road test here 81
I M AG ES
M OTO RS P O R T
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THIS WEEK
ROAD TRIP SPANS RANGE ROVER’S 50 YEARS 36
VAUXHALL GRANDLAND X HYBRID4 RATED 26
SIR STIRLING MOSS REMEMBERED 59
❝WE ALL STOP TOO EARLY. I MADE A MISTAKE. I SHOULD NEVER HAVE RETIRED❞ SO SAID STIRLING MOSS TO PETER ROBINSON AT HIS 1976 RACING RETURN AT BATHURST 17
FIRST DRIVE: SKODA OCTAVIA ESTATE 18
Please note, all UK tests and features in this issue were created before the government’s current Covid-19 restrictions on movement.
COMMENT
LOCKDOWN OR NOT, THE ROAD TEST GOES ON
THE ROAD TEST editor doesn’t get asked to write this leader column very often. The occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Autocar road test, 18 months ago, was one of my most recent. Now, when it feels like we’re living through a period of historic upheaval, I’m writing to reassure. Because, while it’s not quite the same as it normally is, the road test must go on as best it can – and it will. We’ve cut the usual eight-page template down a little bit this week, removing the empirical data that clearly can’t be generated from the confines of our various kitchens and spare rooms but keeping everything else. We’ve come up with a six-page format that, we hope, still constitutes a wide-ranging and authoritative verdict on a new car. It’ll run until the current restrictions on movement are lifted, or the collective memory of the road test desk runs out of impressions of interesting new cars to conjure up – at which point, toasters it is.
For the two pages we’ve saved, meanwhile, we’ve come up with a retrospective feature in which we revisit an interesting old road test every week. There are some very cool ones to come and I hope reading them lifts your lockdown mood. Writing them is certainly lifting mine, and making me very eager to get back behind the wheel. Here’s to that. Matt Saunders Road test editor matt.saunders@haymarket.com
Date: 09.Apr 2020 00:00:03
BERNIE ‘ELON MUSK? I LIKE HIM, HE’S A DICTATOR’
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