Table of contents for 1863 in Auto Express

WELCOME to 2025, which is going to be another fascinating, transitional and controversial year. Giving 10 members of our team carte blanche to pick out their motoring wish for 2025 neatly illustrates that, with the wide range of topics covered including a predictable focus on different power trains and the move towards electrification, through to design trends and the new tax threat to the pick-up market. No matter where you look in the motoring world, there’s something going on. I also wonder if 2025 is the year that road user charging finally takes a big step towards reality. With the switch to electric taking ever-increasing chunks out of fuel duty revenues, at some point a government will have to decide what comes next. Petrol cars will be on the road…

WE’VE seen the concept and know the platform, but only now have we finally got our first look at Citroen’s new C5 Aircross in prototype form. The mid-size SUV, which is due to be revealed this year in both all-electric and hybrid forms, will top the current range and offer the same attributes as its popular predecessor, majoring on interior space, comfort and versatility. The prototype spotted testing looks geared towards maximising interior space, thanks to a boxy back end, long wheelbase and large rear doors. Although we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the final exterior design, Citroen’s recently revealed C5 Aircross Concept has given us a clear indication of what to expect. This includes a three-element headlight design, a more three-dimensional body shape and a clever…

MERCEDES-AMG has released the first images of its bespoke flagship electric SUV that will serve as a rival to the Lotus Eletre and Porsche’s forthcoming electric Cayenne. It’s currently destined for some cold-weather testing near the Arctic Circle, alongside the performance division’s four-door GT, a potential Porsche Taycan challenger. AMG’s as-yet-unnamed electric SUV has a relatively traditional two-box shape rather than an ultra-sporting fastback design, and a relatively long bonnet – in stark contrast to the EQE and EQS AMG SUVs currently in production. The heavy camouflage does a good job of hiding the finer details, but there is likely to be a very large blanked-off grille panel using AMG’s signature ‘Panamericana’ pattern. The new AMG.EA architecture will underpin both the electric super-SUV and super-saloon. Expect the chassis to make…

A FEW weeks before the covers came off the all-new Hyundai Ioniq 9 at the 2024 Los Angeles Motor Show, Auto Express was treated to a sneak peek at the brand’s new flagship in a windowless studio (Issue 1,859) somewhere in West Hollywood, California. So secretive was this preview, we were asked to sign a fairly hefty nondisclosure agreement, and had our phones and cameras taken away. Hyundai was taking no risks while ensuring its new Volvo-fighting halo EV avoided the usual pre-reveal leaks. But to give us a greater sense of what’s to come, we later boarded a bus to Hyundai and Kia’s California Proving Ground. Here, we’d get a chance to sample the Ioniq 9 on a variety of roads, albeit in a heavily camouflaged pre-production model. This,…

PRICING for the Lyriq, Cadillac’s challenger for the BMW iX, has surfaced online. It’s already available in a few European countries, and is expected to start from £75,000 in the UK. The Cadillac will be offered with one 520bhp powertrain, all-wheel drive, a 0-62mph time of 5.3 seconds and a claimed range of 329 miles on a full battery. Two trims will be available, Sport and Luxury, apparently for the same price. A key difference is the grille pattern, plus Luxury models have silver 21-inch wheels while Sport cars get dark satin rims and some darker exterior accents.…

UNINTENTIONALLY or not, the Polestar 4 has done a fantastic job of raising the profile of what was already a much-discussed and rapidly growing brand, because before a single example had hit the streets, so much had already been said about ‘the car with no rear window’. But there is much more to this car than that. The fourth model to arrive from the Volvo spinoff, the Polestar 4 is a premium electric coupé-SUV, with the Porsche Macan Electric its most direct rival. However, we expect potential buyers may also be considering everything from low-slung saloons such as the Audi A6 e-tron to practical mid-size SUVs like the Tesla Model Y. The Polestar 4 starts from £59,990, which is a few thousand pounds less than the A6 e-tron’s base price…

WE can’t all be morning people, as my two kids regularly demonstrate on the school run, but if you’ve got to be up and about early on a wintry weekday, the Polestar 2 makes life that bit more bearable. Aside from its ‘EV-standard’ pre-conditioning features that mean car windows are defrosted and cabins warmed ready for departure, the Polestar scores on the purity of its tech as a ‘ground-up’ electric model. In the morning, for example, it means you can jump into a preheated car, simply nudge the drive selector forward or backward, and be on your way with a dab on the accelerator pedal. What a contrast with the all-electric Peugeot 3008 which has followed the Polestar onto our fleet; that car is built on a platform designed also…

ALTHOUGH we would always recommend wearing gloves when doing muckier jobs on your car, there will inevitably be times when you get your hands and arms grubby. Besides the commonly found tough dirt such as brake dust and oil, substances including greases and the special coatings used on our cars are designed to resist being removed. This means normal soap won’t be up to the job of shifting them off your skin without a lot of scrubbing. A dedicated workshop hand cleaner uses special ingredients to help dissolve the type of grime you’ll encounter when fixing a car. Besides the detergents that dissolve the dirt, some will also include small particles, which add a scrubbing effect, plus conditioners that will prevent your skin from drying out. Which of these six…

VOLKSWAGEN is preparing for a comprehensive overhaul of its ID.3 hatchback in 2026, promising a new look, a revised interior and big technology leaps in terms of efficiency and battery performance. This is part of VW’s rejuvenation programme, which starts with a late-2025 launch of the new small car possibly called ID.Polo. The renosed ID.3 will then follow, using a modified version of the MEB platform. VW’s development boss Kai Grünitz told Auto Express: “We will bring a re-skin for the ID.3, with a completely new design language going back to where we originally came from, and return to what Volkswagen is known for.” His comments reference VW’s design head Andy Mindt, whose first all-new model will be the Polo-badged production version of the ID.2all concept. Our exclusive images show…

REPORTS from Japan say its second and third largest car makers – Nissan and Honda – are in talks about a merger as they struggle to find a competitive edge in the challenging global market. The two firms agreed to co-operate on EV projects last March, as a response to the twin threats of a booming Chinese car market and slower-than-anticipated consumer demand for battery-powered vehicles. It’s believed that an official statement will be made shortly on the prospects for a merger, but reports suggest it could be a difficult pill to swallow for the Japanese government because it would be likely to result in significant domestic job losses under any rationalisation plan. Nissan is also part of an alliance with Renault, a relationship that would also have to be…

We get to see a resurgent Jaguar come back to life I DON’T know how much of a hope this is going to be, but I’d love nothing more in the motoring world for 2025 than for Jaguar to look like a company with a bright future. The furore around the branding change is out of the way, and reaction to the Type 00 concept car is at least mixed, which is what the designers said they wanted. Not everyone loves it, but there are plenty of people who do. And now we’ve seen the actual concept, rather than the sketches Jaguar bafflingly decided would be the best way to introduce its brave future, I’m excited to see how that translates to the four-door GT production car that will be…

LET’S kick things off by addressing the elephant in the room. Yes, the car you see here has a Capri badge on its nose, but no, it’s not a raspy, two-door coupé from the seventies. This is, instead, an electric SUV based on the same platform as the Volkswagen ID.5. It has about as much in common with its namesake as a squirrel does with a great white shark. But no matter, this strategy certainly hasn’t prevented Ford from selling Pumas by the bucketload – so for the sake of this review, we’ll assess the Capri at face value and critique it for what it is. Regardless, you might (quite rightly) baulk at just how much our test car costs. Prices start at a whisker over £48,000, but without a…

HONDA E:NY1 I’M preparing for a house move, so the e:Ny1 has been helping me to palm off all the tat I no longer want on unsuspecting friends and family. However, it’s become clear that the Honda’s boot is really rather small. At just 344 litres, it’s way down on some of its electric SUV rivals, such as the Hyundai Kona Electric (466 litres). Add a few boxes and a couple of bags and it’s bursting at the seams, meaning multiple trips are often needed. PETE BAIDEN TESLA MODEL 3 I REMEMBER playing one of the Model3’s touchscreen-based games when Tesla first brought the model to market in 2019 and being only marginally impressed. But things have moved on considerably in six years; there are now loads more options than…

FIRST TEST Laser Liquid Transfer Pump Price: £26.25 Rating: Contact: lasertools.co.uk BULK-buying automotive fluids such as oil and coolant makes financial sense, but manhandling large containers when filling can see all your savings end up on the workshop floor. Some of the biggest online retail sites are awash with battery-powered pumps that can also be used with fuels, but the quality of these is variable. That’s why we were pleased to see Laser Tools has launched a version in the hope of finding something that will last longer than a few fills. At first sight the Laser 8954 looks much the same as its online rivals, but there are differences in detail that set it apart. Before you start pumping, you need a couple of AA batteries, rather than the more…

THE problems facing the car industry keep stacking up: new competition from China, Government pressure to go electric, threats of tariffs, and a customer base that’s as confused as it is cash-strapped. It’s enough to make even the most balanced car company board member retreat to the executive washroom, bury their head in the monogrammed Egyptian cotton hand towels and have a good, long scream. While hair is being torn out in meeting rooms throughout the automotive world, opportunities are presenting themselves for the canny car buyer. Makers still need to sell cars–these vehicles will be rolling off the production line regardless, and if customers aren’t biting, there’s a pressing need to sweeten the bait. That’s why we’re seeing increasingly tempting finance offers and some serious price-cutting on brand-new cars.…

THANKS to rapid developments, the cheapest electric cars are now within the reach of more drivers than ever before. To help you find the best zero-emission bargains, we’ve rounded up the 10 cheapest electric cars on sale in the UK. There’s a wide variety on offer here, as well as our 2024 Car of the Year. 1 Dacia Spring Prices from £14, 995 THE Dacia Sandero has been at the top of the UK’s cheapest new car list for a very long time. Now, in the age of the EV, it’s the turn of the Dacia Spring. For a mere £14, 995, you can have a brand-new, fully fledged electric car. In order to keep the price small, pretty much everything else about the Dacia Spring is on the small…

ARTIFICIAL intelligence could be the latest weapon in the battle to eradicate drunk or drugged driving, following the first ever trial of new technology designed to help police catch and charge offenders. The tech works using the same mobile ‘AI cameras’ currently being deployed to clamp down on drivers using mobile phones or not wearing seatbelts. However, this time the system’s cloud-based algorithms are analysing video data to look for indications a driver might be impaired. Unlike with mobile phones or seatbelts, where photographic evidence is sent to police officers for later action, if the AI algorithms think a car may be driven by a potentially impaired driver, it will be flagged immediately to police waiting a little further down the road. Officers already have the powers to stop any…

HONDA’S upcoming Prelude will receive the latest ‘S Shift’ technology, which the firm says simulates “the sound and feel of quick automatic gear changes”. Technical details of the S Shift system haven’t been revealed yet, although we know it’ll work in tandem with the compact coupé’s hybrid powertrain. Honda’s hybrid system in the Civic hatchback is paired with a CVT (continuously variable transmission) and we expect to see an adaptation of this, where virtual gear ratios will be able to deliver a more traditional driving experience. Honda has also given us our first look inside the new Prelude with its latest announcement, showing a close-up of the ‘S Shift’ mode. Other brands have looked into simulated gears for EVs recently. The all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 N can deliver virtual ‘e-shifts’…

“A new battery allows for up to 62 miles of electric running, which means a theoretical 350-odd miles pergallon” THE BMW 3 Series has been the company car driver’s benchmark for more than four decades. Ever since its inception, it’s been the default choice for those who’ve climbed the corporate ladder and want to show off their status with the famous white, black and blue badge. Yet with the electric car’s recent dominance in the fleet market, BMW had to do something serious to keep its saloon stalwart competitive. With an all-new 3 Series still a year or so off (Issue 1,858), that meant tweaking the formula with a second mid-life facelift – simply to tide over the G20 generation before its successor is ready. So last year, BMW announced…

THIS is the new Caterham Seven CSR Twenty, a model that celebrates 20 years since the launch of the sports car maker’s CSR chassis. Two decades seems like an awfully long time in automotive terms, but for a car that has existed with only incremental changes for almost 70 years, a significant overhaul in 2004 is actually quite a recent update, relatively speaking. Back then, Caterham’s plan was to retain the original Seven magic but bring it bang up to date. Following two years of work, which introduced a variety of aerodynamic, chassis and ergonomic improvements, the result was a car which offered a lot more sophistication without diminishing the excitement in any way. Certainly cause for an anniversary celebration, then. It’s arriving at an exciting time for the brand,…

WHAT WE WOULD CHOOSE MINI ACEMAN Our test car had the Level 1 pack, which adds lots of kit for £2, 000. This includes a head-up display, a panoramic sunroof, keyless entry, a Harman Kardon stereo, heated front seats and adaptive LED headlights. ALFA ROMEO JUNIOR We’lladmit that the £2, 200 Sport Pack isn’t really necessary, but it adds a pair of Sabelt front seats. They hold you in place brilliantly and make you feel more at one with the car during enthusiastic driving.…

IT’S important to make clear, given that I’m threatening to smash the ID. Buzz with an inflatable hammer, that I love this car. From its cheery face to its practicality and relaxed driving experience, there’s a lot to like. But then, there’s the infotainment. Or, indeed, anything to do with the onboard tech. We’ll start with the ridiculous voice activation that self-triggers, like an annoying child that feels left out of conversation. It’s not even the same word or phrase that triggers its interruption; on multiple occasions I’ve tried repeating the same sentence, but by this stage it’s sulking at being told to go away, so won’t then respond. It butts into conversation more often than my kids, with the semi-cheery, semi-smug “What can I help you with?” often prompting…

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FOLLOWING a few years of stagnation, the pace of change in the dash cam market has really picked up. Two of our favourite brands have launched new products with unique and innovative selling points. The Kenwood DRV-A610W is tiny, but offers 4K image capture. It’s also the only set-up we’ve tried that has a waterproof rear camera, which means it can be mounted on the outside of a vehicle instead of in the rear window. MIOFIVE’s new S1 Ultra isn’t as small and has a conventional rear camera, but the feeds from both front and back record in 4K. Rival Vantrue’s Nexus 4 Pro has three recording views, with 4K from the front plus 1080P from the rear and interior. The Kenwood is a great choice if you want a…

OWNER VIEWS ON THE UK’S BEST CARS VOLKSWAGEN’S Tiguan Mk2 was only replaced by the Mk3 at the start of 2024. The second-generation car seen here was launched in 2016, with VW introducing infotainment upgrades and revised styling in 2020. However, the updates weren’t enough to stop the crossover from coming pretty much near the bottom of the table in our 2024 New Car survey. The VW isn’t a lost cause, though, with owners ranking it sixth (out of 50) for cabin storage, eighth for rear legroom and 14th for seating versatility, while a 19th place for practicality and boot space is also a reasonable result. But after those few highlights, the Tiguan didn’t manage many scores in the top half of the table, with owners’ disappointments including 46th for…

NO need to panic just yet, but there are only 60 months to go before you’ll be banned from buying a brand-new petrol or diesel car. For around 125 years, retailers have happily and legally sold them to motorists. And, in turn, governments of all colours have collectively made trillions out of them thanks to VAT, road fund licences and other money-for-nothing taxes. But from 1 January 2030, it comes to an end. This, in the minds of our misguided ruling politicians, is considered progress. Their message to you, dear paying customer, is broadly this: five years from now, you can have any new car you like–as long as it’s an electric vehicle. “EV ACRONYMS CAN DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD. THEY OFTEN HINDER RATHER THAN HELP THE ELECTRIC CAR…