Mason Gibbons

Sporty styling, blistering performance, sore back? A motorway journey in a new performance-inspired SUV has our tester crying out for a return to the old days Argh. That’s it. I’m tired of swearing. Last week, I got into a Cupra Ateca , the ‘SUV with the heart of a sports car’.  I gave it the benefit of the doubt but, reader, it turns out I dislike this car. Within 200m, I had sworn about its ride quality. Within two miles, I’d had to shout over the road noise. And 70 miles of testing later, with a drive to Oxford and then Birmingham and back still to cover, I was contemplating parking it and taking my family’s 15-year-old, 110,000-mile Seat Ibiza instead.  Then I remembered that the Ateca has adaptive dampers, which would perhaps round the edge off the worst aspects of the ride, if only I’d have thought to put them in Comfort mode.  But, of course, they’d been in Comfort mode all along. It’s a car that takes a question nobody asked, and fails to answer it.  ...

At less than £10,000, could this 2009 Jaguar XFR be the ideal hot rod in executive clothing? Jaguar XFR, £9990: Where do we sign? This 2009 XFR has 90,000 miles on the clock and a full service history.  Its 20in alloy wheels are described as being in “mint condition” and it has two new front tyres and a new battery. It also has a new coolant expansion tank, a common requirement on this model.  So it’s set fair for some 503bhp japery, but before we slide into those black, electrically powered leather seats and turn up the volume on the upgraded Bowers & Wilkins sound system, we best do some checks.  Such as listening for timing chain rattles when cold, supercharger rattles when warm, and water pump noises and leaks whenever. (It usually lets go at 60,000 miles.) Then, at the back and with the 5.0-litre V8 engine running, we’ll check the colour of the exhaust smoke: right-hand pair of pipes goes to the right-hand cylinder bank, and vice versa. While there, we’ll ...

Our first test of the new Corolla on UK soil keeps the good news coming for Toyota's new British built hatchback Things aren’t all bad in the UK car industry, this all-new Toyota Corolla a case in point. It’s a British-built family hatchback, which, on first impressions earlier this month on Spanish soil, revealed itself to have true class-leading potential. A car we should grow to be quite proud of then, and some comeback, too. Remember, this new Corolla replaces the Auris, which was about as uninspiring a car in the class as you could imagine. That car one hand on the wooden spoon in a segment that’s 15-20 models strong, rather than jostling for gold.We went into great detail on the background to the new Corolla and its dynamic make-up on our recent first drive, which you can read here. Our test car here is also in the range-topping Excel trim, our Corollas sharing a cabin design, trim and spec sheets. So what’s new for this second appraisal for the Corolla back on home soi...

New Forease+ adds a roof to earlier open-top concept, and will make public debut at Geneva show next week Mercedes-Benz ’s Smart city car division has revealed an updated speedster version of its Forease concept car , dubbed the Forease+, ahead of its public debut at next week’s Geneva motor show . The revised two seater, first unveiled in open-top guise at the 2018 Paris motor show, receives a reinforced fabric roof that fits over its cabin, providing protection from the elements for its occupants, together with other subtle styling revisions. Like the original Forease, the new concept is based on the Smart EQ Fortwo cabriolet and is intended to underline Smart’s “uncomplicated solution to urban mobility” with a pure electric driveline and compact dimensions. Changes over the standard Smart Fortwo cabriolet include a shallower windscreen and prominent domes at the rear behind the seats for added roll over protection. The new roof, described as a hard shell cover in a text...

Tesla on Thursday announced that the base Model 3, the $35,000 electric car that buyers have been waiting for since the mid-size model was announced in 2016, is now on sale. Tesla revealed the Model 3 Standard Range has an electric driving range of 220 miles, can accelerate to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds, and tops out at 130 mph. With a mandatory $1,200...

New Forease+ adds a roof to earlier open-top concept Mercedes-Benz ’s Smart city car division has revealed an updated speedster version of its Forease concept car dubbed the Forease+ ahead of its planned public debut at next week’s Geneva motor show . The revised two seater, first unveiled in open-top guise at the 2018 Paris motor show, receives a reinforced fabric roof that fits over its cabin, providing protection from the elements for its occupants, together with other subtle styling revisions. Like the original Forease, the new concept is based on the Smart EQ Fortwo cabriolet and is intended to underline Smart’s “uncomplicated solution to urban mobility” with a pure electric driveline and compact dimensions. Changes over the standard Smart Fortwo cabriolet include a shallower windscreen and prominent domes at the rear behind the seats for added roll over protection. The new roof, described as a hard shell cover in a textile fabric, is designed to be removable. It is ...

Firm launches electric saloon's long-awaited standard spec - and switches to purely online sales The long-awaited ‘entry-level’ Tesla Model 3 has now gone on sale in the USA, with a US $35,000 (£26,000) starting price and a 220-mile range – at the same time as the firm has moved all of its sales online only. Company boss Elon Musk has long promised that the electric saloon would eventually be offered in a Standard-sped, and it is now available to order on the company’s website, along with a new mid-range ’Standard Range Plus’ model designed to bridge the gap to the current mid-range, long-range and Performance models. Musk said the standard Model 3 was “an incredible car”, citing a top speed of 130mph and a 0-60mph time of 5.6s. He noted that it met the same safety standards as the existing car. The car doesn’t come with Tesla’s full Autopilot driver assistance systems, but Musk said buyers will be able to upgrade their cars at a later date. The standard interior comes with ...

Every Formula 1 team set its fastest time of 2019 pre-season testing so far on the penultimate day of the final test, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc setting the fastest lap

A new addition to Hyundai's crossover lineup may be coming to the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. Last Thursday, the Korean brand teased the Tucson N-Line and said we'll learn more about the racier crossover in the very near future. That leads us to expect a debut in Geneva next week. However, this should not be confused with the full-boat Tucson N that's...

Porsche Classic tackles many restorations, but recently, a special 911 arrived for an overhaul. The car is a 1984 911 Carerra 3.2 and it's truly a one-off sports car. It was originally built for Tilman Brodbeck, who was the executive assistant to Porsche CEO Peter W. Schutz. At the time, Brodbeck wanted to experiment with something different when...

Ten years ago, Audi graced its halo sports car with a hallmark engine: the 5.2-liter V-10 mill that made 525 horsepower. Today, Audi honors the a decade of the V-10 with a new special edition car: the R8 V10 Decennium. Recall, the Audi R8 first entered production for the 2006 model year powered exclusively by a 4.2-liter V-8. Three years later...

Bugatti may have a show-stopper in store for the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. On Sunday, the luxury brand teased a modern re-creation of the iconic Type 57SC Atlantic coupe on its Facebook page and has since released more teasers throughout the week. A teaser comes as the company celebrates its 110th anniversary this year. Just last week, Bugatti...

Ferrari exhaust problems caused Charles Leclerc's on-track stoppage and the delay to Haas driver Romain Grosjean's running on the penultimate day of Formula 1 pre-season testing

Pierre Gasly says he was left "a bit shaken" by his crash on the penultimate day of the Barcelona Formula 1 testing, describing the incident as one of his biggest

This past May, a Dutch coachbuilder brought designer Niels van Roji's gorgeous Tesla Model S shooting brake design to life. Next month, it will touch down in Switzerland for the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, but alas, there's a unfortunate twist. The coachbuilder responsible for production has closed up shop, according to an Autoblog report last...

Formula 1 as a business is "pretty immune" to any issues that might arise from Brexit, according to CEO Chase Carey

The Peter Stevens-designed Dendrobium D-1 XP-2 All-electric British supercar receives aerodynamic tweaks in pursuit of 200mph British start-up Dendrobium has announced that former  Lotus chief designer Peter Stevens has made design tweaks to the firm’s D-1 electric supercar .  Stevens, known for designing a number of British sports cars including the McLaren F1 and Jaguar XJR-15, has made “small but beneficial changes” to the D-1, resulting in the new XP-2 concept.  With a target weight of 1750kg, Dendrobium says the fully carbonfibre XP-2 will “rewrite the rules for the hypercar ownership experience”. Stevens said: “My small changes to the D-1 to create the new XP-2 were inspired by improving airflow of the car, as well as visually enhancing the drama of this exceptional electric hypercar.” The XP-2 retains the striking styling of the D-1 on which it is based, with wide air channels between the two-seater cabin and wings to improve aerodynamic efficiency, and ...

Lifted Volvo V60 Cross Country lands in the UK in D4 diesel guise. We see how well it fares on British Tarmac The last time we got our hands on Volvo’s new V60 Cross Country, we happened to be in the north of Sweden, just south of the Arctic Circle. Not exactly the warmest place on Earth, then; and in late January, with snow and ice covering the frozen roads, and the temperature dropping as low as -30C, it’s not exactly the ideal environment to put a new car through its paces, either.However, despite the harsh conditions we still had our suspicions that when the jacked-up estate car made its way to the UK, we’d find it to be a refined and impressively comfortable family wagon. Now, on what is an unseasonably warm February day in Suffolk, we’re finally able to put that hypothesis under the microscope.It’s worth pointing out at this point that the particular strain of V60 Cross Country being examined today is different to the one we encountered out in deepest, darkest Scandinavia. W...

Good city cars are small, practical and easy to drive around town, but the best in class also have bold designs, plus peppy engines that make them fun to drive. These are the ones Autocar recommends City cars are getting better all the time. The days of cheap-to-buy runabouts that aren't particularly well equipped but are easy to drive and practical for their size are long gone. Our list of the top ten best city cars is stuffed with perky little cars designed to be practical and good around town, but mixes those traits with appealing designs, quirky colour choices and generous standard equipment levels. In some cases, they even outdo their bigger supermini counterparts by being great fun to drive when the occasion allows.   1. Volkswagen Up The Up may be the smallest car on offer in the Volkswagen range, but it doesn’t miss out on all the hallmarks that the marque is renowned for. It may not be revolutionary in the segment, but the Up beats its closest rivals on fini...

Charles Leclerc's morning benchmark stood unbeaten on the penultimate day of Formula 1's second pre-season test at Barcelona, as a hefty Pierre Gasly crash halted Red Bull's running

The 89th running of the Geneva International Motor Show gets underway on March 5 and organizers have confirmed over 100 world or European premieres. More than 70 exhibitors will be present, too, including all your favorite performance and luxury marques plus a number of newcomers. Approximately 700,000 visitors are expected to cross the floors of...