The Richard Porter Review: 2018 Volkswagen Polo

WHAT IF you fancy a Golf but don’t need a car that size? That’s where the Polo comes in. It’s the Golf you can drive between meals without ruining your appetite — and they’ve just come up with a new one.

What’s it like? Well, quite like a Golf except not quite as nice looking, being blighted by a weird double line below the side windows that from some angles looks stuck on and from others resembles light accident damage. But in most other respects, it’s Golfy. The doors close with a warm and reassuring thud. The little slide wheels that modulate air flow from the vents have a crisp and delightful click at each end of their travel. The clutch pedal has a clear and defined stop at the top and bottom instead of hanging limply from its bracket.

No other mainstream car maker sweats these little details as well as Volkswagen. The former VW overlord Ferdinand Piëch once observed that if you give the glovebox a nice soft lining, customers will think: “Wow, if they’ve done that in here, what must the inside of the engine be like?” Well, the truth is, it’s like the inside of everyone else’s engine. This is all a sleight of hand to make a car feel reassuringly well engineered.

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Surveys suggest that a Toyota or a Honda will probably be more reliable, and I’m certain there are other car makers that put just as much effort into safety, but the immediate feeling you get when you sit in a VW, whether for the first time in the showroom or for the 1,000th time after you’ve owned it for three years, is of quality and strength.

This new Polo is straight from that playbook and the act doesn’t drop on the move, because all the key controls operate with a silken smoothness that suggests each is lubricated with a gossamer-thin layer of the very finest and most expensive oil. For a small car, it’s extremely polished and refined. The ride is good and there’s a sense that everything has been carefully and considerately damped down with rubber and foam. If you’re the sort of helmswright that likes to fling a car about a bit, you’ll note with disappointment that this feeling extends to the handling, which is safe but a little soft and unexciting. For normal people in normal driving, it’s of no concern.

“When big, stuffy companies attempt stuff like the deal with Beats it comes off as unconvincing, like Jacob Rees-Mogg in a baseball cap shouting: ‘What ho, youths! Do you like rapping music?'”

This particular Polo’s engine is more interesting, having three rather than four cylinders, which bestows on it a nice, high bibbling sound, like the noise you might make by blowing air between flaccid lips in an attempt to amuse a baby. It’s not loud but it is noticeable and quite amusing as a result. Three-cylinder engines can be a bit rough and buzzy because of their inherent imbalance but VW has somehow smoothed this away, leaving only the funny noises and, since there’s a little turbo, a surprising gutsiness. The motor brings personality to what would otherwise be quite a prim and starchy car.

It’s certainly more successful than the attempt to bring zing to the matronly Polo formula with its Beats trim level, named after the bass-heavy, red-cabled headphones company. The centrepiece is an uprated audio system, operated through an extremely glossy and impressively responsive touchscreen. It’s a nice bit of kit and one that hooks into your phone through Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

The other Beats trimmings are less impressive, comprising an off-centre stripe up the bonnet and roof, a B badge on the door pillars and some light-coloured plastic for various parts of the interior that, on the one hand, is a welcome relief from the usual black and, on the other, is a bit too reminiscent of a 1970s hearing aid.

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I guess VW is trying to impress young people but when big, stuffy companies attempt stuff like this it comes off as unconvincing, like Jacob Rees-Mogg in a baseball cap shouting: “What ho, youths! Do you like rapping music?” Anyway, while many young people can stretch to a pair of £200 headphones, far fewer can run to a new car, especially when the Beats, even at entry level, costs £15,680 or, as tested with metallic paint, more power and a few other options, an alarming £19,020.

That is a lot of money for a Polo, no matter how thuddily its door shuts and how inky and silken its touchscreen. In fact, it leads me to ask: if you want a small VW, are you sure you need a Polo? It’s not even that small any more, being larger in every dimension than the Mk 2 Golf from the 1980s. Perhaps you’d be just as happy with the splendid VW Up!, which is a genuinely small car, features all the thunk’n’click superficial quality we want from a VW, and can be had from just £9,320. Heck, for £13,750 you could have the tremendous GTI version.

No, no, you say, I need a bit more room. Which is fine, but if you’re willing to spend the upper teens on a new car, or delve into whatever monthlies that means on a finance or lease package, have you considered asking what deals your VW dealer has going? By which I mean, instead of a slightly shrunken Golf, why not just get a Golf?

Richard Porter is script editor of The Grand Tour and the man behind Sniff Petrol.

Jeremy Clarkson is away

Head to head: VW Polo vs Ford Fiesta

	VW Polo Beats 1.0 TSI 95 PS	Ford Fiesta Zetec 1.0T EcoBoost 100PS
Price	£16,980	£15,895
0-62mph	10.8sec	10.5sec
Economy	62.8mpg	65.7mpg
CO2	103g/km	97g/km
Boot capacity (seats up)	355 litres	292 litres

 

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The post The Richard Porter Review: 2018 Volkswagen Polo appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/richard-porter-review-2018-volkswagen-polo/

The Richard Porter Review: 2018 Porsche 911 Carrera T

THERE WERE, until recently, 22 versions of the Porsche 911. Yes, 22. Carreras, Targas, Turbos, GTs: it’s quite giddying just how much Porsche has been able to spin from one basic car. From soft-topped Miami prowlers to double-hard hammers for attacking the nord face of the Nürburgring, the 911 range seems to have got it covered.

Porsche, however, thinks differently — it has just introduced variant No 23. Confusingly, in performance terms the Carrera T sits below the Carrera S, which in turn is below the limited-run 911 R, thereby proving that the alphabet, as well as engine placement, is something Porsche prefers to do backwards.

In fact the T is pretty much at the bottom of the range, being based on the entry-level 911 Carrera. However, it costs £7,685 more because it comes with some items to please the keen driver that aren’t available on the standard Carrera, including lowered sports suspension, a limited slip differential and a sports exhaust as standard.

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Aimed at the committed helmsperson, the T has also been on a weight-saving programme that replaces the interior door handles with fabric straps, sees thinner glass in the rear windows and forgoes some of the normal soundproofing. Also, unless you say otherwise, it comes without a stereo or back seats, although there’s no charge if you’d like them included. Normal thickness glass is also a no-cost option, if your desire for saving weight isn’t as strong as your fear of being shot with a pellet gun.

Total weight saving over a basic Carrera is 5kg. Frankly, you could achieve the same effect with a couple of trips to the gym. Porsche notes that if you were able to add some of the T’s tech upgrades to a standard Carrera it would weigh 20kg more, which still isn’t a lot and rather exposes the folly of believing that this car is some kind of lightweight, mountain pass monster for the committed driver.

As a result, Porsche purists will be disappointed by the T, not only for the false promises of its diet but also for the characteristics it shares with all latest-generation Carreras. Its engine, being muffled by turbochargers, does not give off much of the dry metallic whirr that makes old flat-six Porsches so appealing. Nor does it give you the satisfaction of chasing the power band in the upper rev range because, again thanks to the turbos, it pulls immediately and mightily from any engine speed.

And because the T, like other current-generation 911s, has electric rather than hydraulic power steering, its wheel no longer wiggles constantly on the move nor allows the waxing and waning of its weight to give you constant feedback about the state of the surface beneath the front tyres. No, between the half-hearted weight saving and the loss of some rawness and character, the purists will not like this car. Which is a shame because, viewed dispassionately, it’s tremendous.

“Porsche has somewhat mis-sold the T as a sort of hardcore, purists’ missile rather than embracing its true purpose as a cracking all-rounder”

Let’s start with the ride, which is an underrated part of a performance car because one with some give in its suspension will make better progress down an interesting road than one that’s unbearably firm. The 911 Carrera T understands this and the ride is superb, better than many hatchbacks. Of course, that also makes the car nicer to live with, as well as more fun when you’re spearing through the Black Mountains. Don’t assume that grip and handling suffer as a result, because this is a delightful car in which to attack bends.

The lightly loaded front end finds grip that would have eluded older 911s and you get that tremendous rear-engined weight shift coming out of bends so that as the road opens up, you squeeze on the power and the car squats down on its back tyres and fires itself towards the next corner while a front-engined car would still be flapping about for traction. It’s fast and stable, though that diff also means it will wiggle its hips if you’d like it to. Even the steering is better than that of most modern cars, being slack-free.

The 911 Carrera T is wonderful to drive hard. The thing is, thanks to that bubble-wrapped ride, the comfortable seats and a general user-friendliness that has become the mark of regular 911s in recent years, it’s also a delight to drive softly. Fact is, anyone can make a car that’s satisfyingly sporty, but to combine that with ease of use, good visibility and moderate practicality is a real trick.

For this reason you’ll need the stereo so you’ve got something to listen to in traffic, and the back seats, since you’d want to drop the kids at school before taking the B-road route to work. Anyway, where other two-seat 911s have a roll cage back there, the T looks daft with nothing but a carpeted void. This is a car you could and would use every day. I might suggest you’d make it really everyday with the optional, and excellent, PDK paddle-shift gearbox but the seven-speed manual is so delightful I’d stick with that.

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Unfortunately, Porsche has somewhat mis-sold the T as a sort of hardcore, purists’ missile rather than embracing its true purpose as a cracking all-rounder in the best tradition of low-level 911s, giving you a few extra tasty treats such as the trick suspension and diff that make it nicer to drive, without any trinkets you don’t need. It’s not sparse, but there’s a pleasing simplicity to it, right down to the seats that are wrapped not with leather but in cloth, striped like a 1980s banker’s suit. It’s all you need, and nothing you don’t.

It’s not the lightweight racer Porsche disciples might have been hoping for but if you’re thinking of breaking your 911 duck and you want the right blend of driving pleasure and everyday usability, this is the car.

Richard Porter is the script editor of The Grand Tour. Jeremy Clarkson is away.

 

Head to head: Porsche 911 Carrera T vs BMW i8

	Porsche 911 Carrera T	BMW i8
Price (retail)	£85,576	£112,000
Power	365bhp	269bhp
Weight	1,500kg	1,535kg
0-62mph	4.5sec	4.4sec
Economy	29.7mpg	134mpg
CO2	215g/km	42g/km

 

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source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/richard-porter-review-2018-porsche-911-carrera-t/

Grey McLaren Senna

2019 Bentley Bentayga

2019 Bentley Bentayga: 10 Facts You Should Know

 

10. First SUV

Walter Bentley founded his company, Bentley Motors Limited, in 1919 to build fast cars. They won LeMans in 1924, ’27-’30, and again in 2003. The new Bentayga is their first SUV 100 years after the company started and, true to tradition, it debuted as the world’s fastest SUV, electronically limited to 187 mph.

 

9. New V8 Option

For buyers who don’t need twelve cylinders, the Bentayga V8 S was unveiled for the 2019 Model Year. Just like their other V8 models, it is easily distinguished by black grilles and a muscular exhaust note. The 4.0-liter twin turbo engine makes 542 horsepower and 568 lb-ft of torque, which is distributed by the same AWD system as the W12 models.

8. Mulliner Edition

If you want your Bentayga to stand out from the crowd, Bentley’s Mulliner division is ready to make your dreams a reality. HJ Mulliner was a custom coachbuilder at the turn of the last century. Their creations of leather and wood are coveted by collectors around the world. Bentleys featuring their work were such in demand, that Mulliner was brought in-house in 1959.

7. Fly Fishing

You don’t need a beater truck to enjoy fishing. Bentley offers a bespoke Bentayga that is ready for the river. It arrives with four leather-lined rod holders and a burr walnut tackle box. If you enjoy making your own lures, and vise and tools are also along for the ride.

6. Falconry

If you prefer feathers instead of fish, the Bentayga Falconry is ready for your birds of prey. Artists at Mulliner created a desert motif for the dash using no less than 430 pieces of wood. Behind the second row of seats is a master flight station in piano black wood. Binoculars and a GPS tracker are stored alongside, and Bentley offers additional hoods and gauntlets for your animals.

5. Apple Watch Control

Most luxury cars have integration with your smartphone, but the Bentayga takes it to the next level. Owners of an Apple Watch can control the climate control, seat massages, and every aspect of the entertainment system.

4. Breitling Dash Clock

One of the more popular options in the Bentayga lineup has to be the Breitling Tourbillion timepiece. It is set into the dash and mounted into a winder to make sure you are always on time. The electric winder rotates it counterclockwise at regular intervals, and it is an elegant dance between the clock and the car. If you need more Breitling in your life, it will add $130,000 to the window sticker.

3. Offroad Ready

Automotive engineers have been pushing for 48-volt electrical systems for years. The Bentayga is among the first to utilize it in suspension control. It allows the triple-chamber air system to react faster than the competition, while also offering 9″ of suspension travel when you hit the trails.

2. Naim Optional Sound

The Bentayga has triple sound insulation to give you a library-quiet ride. So if you want to enjoy the best audio ever offered in an SUV, the optional Naim system has a 21-channel amplifier rated at 1,920 watts. One subwoofer receives 300 watts, and the remainder is spread among 20 speakers that blanket the cockpit in reference-quality audio.

1. Tons Of Towing

The first Bentley to offer a receiver hitch, the Bentayga is rated to tow 7,716 lbs. So you can head to the lake with a boat that is equally as impressive as your car collection. The sight of a Bentley at your local home improvement store is enough to catch anyone’s attention, but just imagine towing your Supersports to the track for a double dose of Bentley action.

Tell us which one of these facts you like or dislike in the comments below and stay with us for all your Bentley news.

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2019 Bentley Bentayga: 10 Facts You Should Know

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The Clarkson Review: 2018 Audi A8

IS THERE anything on God’s green earth quite so drool-inducingly dreary as leasing? James May recently visited an exhibition on plywood and I think that’s up there. So is Jane Austen. And so are the BBC’s regional news programmes. But leasing? That’s in a class of its own.

I spoke the other day to a man who has leased his new car. He was explaining how he doesn’t have to pay for new tyres and how it’s an unlimited-mileage deal and when I woke up several hours later he was still telling me how he simply hands his car in one day and gets another. And here’s the kicker. When I asked him what car it was, he didn’t even know.

Sometimes, I get the impression that manufacturers these days are no longer terribly interested in the cars they make. They are just seen as three-dimensional drivers for the financing department. General Motors today? It feels to me like a mortgage broker, and the cars it makes are nothing more than giveaway ballpoints.

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I’ve never leased a car, for two reasons. First of all, I’m from Yorkshire so I was always taught that I should never be a borrower or a lender and that I should only ever buy something when I could afford it, using money I’d earned.

Second, I wouldn’t want to drive a leased car because I’d know all the time it wasn’t mine. Oh, I’m sure it would make financial sense to use the capital to generate more and utilise the option of cheap money from elsewhere, but when I meet people who talk this way, I feel a sometimes irresistible urge to plunge a letter opener into their left temple.

When you take delivery of a new car that you’ve saved to buy and dreamt about, there is such a joyous sense of occasion. Choosing the first track you’ll play on its stereo. Being careful not to use too many revs for the first few miles. Setting up the interior so it’s how you like it. And then, crucially, having a sneaky over-the-shoulder glance at it after you’ve parked up at night. Nah. Leasing a car? It’d be like leasing a dog.

That said, I wonder what would happen if I needed to buy a large executive saloon. A captain-of-industry barge. A Mercedes S-class or the like.

“The screen gets covered in greasy fingerprints … Never trust a man who has cleaning equipment in his car. There is something wrong with him”

The trouble with cars such as this is that the only people who can afford to run them can certainly afford to buy one new. Nobody wants to buy such a large, thirsty and complicated car second-hand. The risks of an expensive out-of-warranty failure are too great. These cars, then, depreciate like a grandfather clock that’s been pushed from the back of a Hercules transport plane. You could lose maybe £50,000 in a year, and being from Yorkshire that would cause me physical pain. I’d want to plunge a letter opener into my own left temple.

The only sensible solution — apart from buying a smaller car —is to lease. To let the company that made the damn thing take the financial pain. I’m told there are some very tasty deals around. Friends talk about how they’ve leased a BMW 7-series for 3p a year and how Jaguar is now giving away XJs with packets of breakfast cereal. And if that’s all you’re interested in, then go ahead and choose the cheapest deal.

The car you end up with will be big and comfy and full of animal skins, and you’ll be fine. What’s more, the dealer will be obsequious and Uriah Heepish, which is always a joy. I love nothing more than watching a car salesman genuflect before a customer’s magnificence.

However, what if you see the car as something more than an irritant in the profit-and-loss account? What if you have four-star coursing through your arterial route map and you love the smell of burning Castrol in the morning? What if you’re all of that and you’re forced by social niceties to have a boss-mobile, then what?

Well, that brings us neatly to the Audi A8. I had been told by the aforementioned May this was the new benchmark in Freemasonry comfort, that the pitter-patter and jiggliness of Audis in the past had been banished and replaced with a creamy brilliance.

He’s wrong. It’s quite comfy in the front — I can see what he means when you’re sitting there — but in the back, which is more important in a car of this type, it’s far too crashy, especially over potholes and those speed humps that look like rubber but aren’t.

That said, it’s a bloody nice place to sit. In the back you can have an optional iPad Mini-style display on which you can choose the colour of the interior lighting and so on, while in the front you have a virtually all-glass dashboard. There are almost no buttons at all. It’s all touchscreen stuff and if you like that, it works very well.

I don’t like it. Because the screen gets covered in greasy fingerprints and in bright sunlight you can’t see a thing. So you have to keep a duster or a chamois leather in the door pocket. Which marks you out as a dullard. Never trust a man who has cleaning equipment in his car. There is something wrong with him.

To drive. Well, what can I say? It’s quiet and refined and not so fast you are frightened or so slow you think it’s broken. The model I tested produced 145 carbon dioxides and 282 horsepowers and the price includes half a tank of fuel. Audi doesn’t give you a whole tank because it’s massive. Filling it would cost about a million pounds, but on the upside, you can go more than 700 miles between trips to the pumps.

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That’s one USP. Another is the four-wheel-drive system. Most of the time you don’t need it, in the same way that most of the time you don’t need insurance cover for fire damage. But then the day arrives when you do . . .

Big rear-wheel-drive cars are hopeless when the weather’s bad. The Audi isn’t. And it’s well made, and with its enormous new shiny mouth, it’s striking too. I’ve always said that if I were in the market for a big business bruiser, I’d have the BMW 7-series, but I think this Audi has it beat.

I appreciate of course that you will actually pick whichever car comes with the best leasing deal because if you want a car of this type, you are in business so you’ll understand what the salesman is on about. You may even become a bit aroused when he says “APR”.

I still maintain, though, that no one who buys a vehicle of this type is that interested in cars. It’d be like going on a cruise liner because you enjoy sailing. If you do enjoy driving and you want a big car, get a BMW 530d. If you just want somewhere nice to sit after a hard day in the office, the Audi’s fine.

Tweet to @JeremyClarkson Follow @JeremyClarkson

Head to head: Audi A8 vs Mercedes S-class

	Audi A8 50 TDI quattro	Mercedes-Benz S 350 d AMG Line
Price	£69,100	£72,705
Power	282bhp	282bhp
Torque	442 lb ft	442 lb ft
0-62mph	5.9sec	6.0sec
Top speed	155mph	155mph
Economy	50.4mpg	52.3mpg
CO2	145g/km	139g/km

Write to us at driving@sunday-times.co.uk, or Driving, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

The post The Clarkson Review: 2018 Audi A8 appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/clarkson/clarkson-review-2018-audi-a8/

2018 Range Rover P400e PHEV review

THE RANGE Rover is the forerunner of the modern generation of SUVs. Launched in 1970, it was aimed at gentleman farmers who wanted to carry their shotguns in the back, rather than hay bales, and needed a more civilised vehicle than the Land Rover. Since then it has gone global, as well as aspirational. The quintessential off-roader is used by everyone from rappers to royals.

Recently, however, diesel vehicles have hit a pothole. Sales in the UK were a third lower in December compared with the year before, and heading down. Norway, Belgium, Holland and France are all clamping down on diesels, imposing higher taxes and restrictions on driving into city centres.

As a result, the 4×4 you see in the picture is being rolled out ahead of schedule. The Range Rover plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (succinctly known as the RR PHEV) is Land Rover’s first plug-in electric vehicle, and it’s an impressive debut.

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It’s rechargeable and has a petrol engine, which means you can drive without range anxiety. If you plug it in at night and your commute is no more than 15 miles each way, then you can travel using silent electric power, filling the tank only for long journeys. Its official fuel economy is more than 100mpg — better than a Toyota Prius.

It’s a Chelsea tractor without the guilt, plus it’s cheap to run. The first year of vehicle excise duty — what used to be called road tax — is £15, compared with £1,200 for the closest-performing diesel Range Rover. More significantly, there’s a potential monthly tax saving of about £830 for company car drivers.

True, the PHEV doesn’t qualify for all the same benefits as cheaper hybrids — the £2,500 plug-in car grant, for example, applies only to vehicles costing less than £60,000 — but it is exempt from the £11.50-a-day London congestion charge.

To drive, it’s a hoot. A smooth, eight-speed automatic gearbox feeds power to all four wheels, and a 114bhp electric motor assists the 296bhp petrol engine. From standstill it reaches 62mph in 6.8 seconds, a shade quicker than its turbocharged diesel counterpart, with a top speed of 137mph (against 135mph for the diesel). At the lights, it beats most internal combustion engines — a party trick that, during my test drive in California, left American drivers open-mouthed.

The petrol-electric system is managed by a computer and the driver can choose from two modes: Parallel Hybrid (the default) and EV (electric vehicle). In Parallel Hybrid, the computer juggles the two power sources to favour the clean stuff when it can.

On longer trips, there’s a “Save” function to keep electric power in reserve for part of the journey — for example, when entering a city. The driver’s display shows power drain and regeneration as you work the pedals.

“It’s luxury meets eco-friendly, the child of a love affair between the Countryside Alliance and the League Against Cruel Sports”

There’s a port in the front grille to recharge. It’s easy enough, but it doesn’t charge as quickly as a Tesla. The shortest time is 2 hours and 45 minutes, for which you need the right 32-amp wall box. With a domestic plug it takes 7 hours and 30 minutes. (Land Rover says it doesn’t need to charge as fast as an electric-only Tesla because the vehicle has a back-up petrol engine.)

Inside, it has all the usual Range Rover comforts. The driving position is high up, with a commanding view of the road and surroundings — a great place to be for long journeys or in traffic. The Autobiography version has what the company calls “executive class seating”, with massage and recline functions that exceed airline standards of comfort.

Because the PHEV is part of the new 2018 model range, it also offers an improved infotainment system, with twin 10in touchscreens, and wider seats, made possible by the relocation of the controls to the doors, Mercedes-style.

So what’s not to like? It’s luxury meets eco-friendly, the child of a love affair between the Countryside Alliance and the League Against Cruel Sports. Yet with all of those good points, there has to be a downside — and there is. The hybrid petrol-electric powertrain is clever but it’s not yet perfect. The prototype I drove was still rough around the edges.

Land Rover says the PHEV has been subjected to the same rigorous tests as its other vehicles. Maybe so, but the steering isn’t as precise and the ride at times felt crashy. The regenerative braking also means it lurches a little as you step off the throttle. These are problems Land Rover says are being fine-tuned and the finished version will be polished when deliveries begin in March.

Let’s hope so, because for upwards of £80,000 for the base model you’d expect it to be every bit as good as a conventional Range Rover. Buyers will need to be reassured they’re not being used as guinea pigs for an experimental technology. In theory, bigger, more powerful vehicles such as this are better suited to battery-powered and combined-electric engines (though paradoxically they have been slower to get them than smaller cars) but the jury’s still out.

Under the skin of the Range Rover PHEV

 

There are some obvious limitations. The diesel Range Rover can tow as much as 3½ tons, a ton more than the PHEV. The latter also has to carry the extra weight of the 13 kWh battery that powers the motor.

The company says it has no idea how many people will buy the PHEV. “It could be 10, it could be 10,000,” according to one senior executive. Its market research has thrown up a mixed picture.

On the one hand, the Range Rover’s natural habitat is the countryside, where owners are more likely to have off-road parking and outdoor sockets. If you live in a flat or on a city street with no driveway, then charging it overnight is less practical.

On the other hand, country folk may be less concerned about diesel than urbanites, living as they do among agricultural vehicles. They may also be put off by other concerns, such as how the PHEV’s complicated drive system will cope off-road; whether the battery will withstand cold conditions and be prone to fade; and whether the electrics will survive, say, a swollen river.

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Land Rover is keeping its fingers crossed. Porsche already offers a plug-in Cayenne, and other luxury plug-ins, such as the Bentley Bentayga, will be rolled out later this year. Volkswagen’s plug-in Golf GTE hatchback has sold out in Britain, partly as a result of production bottlenecks but also due to unexpectedly high demand.

In the medium term, at least, plug-in technology seems to be popular, offering the advantages of electric driving without time-consuming recharging on long journeys. The future for diesel, meanwhile, is uncertain. It may never recover from Dieselgate and its aftermath.

In Los Angeles, where I tested the new Range Rover, clean air regulations have rolled back the smog for which the city was once famous. The contrast in air quality compared with Britain’s most polluted streets is obvious.

Jeremy Clarkson is away

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source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/2018-range-rover-phev-review/