2019 Skoda Scala review

SUVS ARE so ubiquitous these days that you may have assumed your next car has to be a high-riding soft-roader. But what if I told you there’s a cheaper, better-handling, more fuel efficient and every-bit-as-spacious alternative?

Excited by the prospect? Well, it’s nothing new — the family hatchback has been a thing for decades. You may have heard of examples such as the Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra or VW Golf. Yeah, now you’re with me.

It’s fair to say the Skoda Scala’s predecessor was easy to overlook, though. The inappropriately-named Rapid was bland inside and much the same to drive.

However, the new Scala is an altogether more upmarket proposition, and one that could genuinely tempt buyers away from more established rivals.

That said, where the Scala is a little more ordinary the competition is the way it drives. That’s not to say it’s outright bad — its steering is light but precise, there’s decent road-holding and solid body control, all of which inspire confidence — but a Golf is more comfortable and a Focus is more fun.

Lowered sports suspension can be added as an option, with the choice of firmer or softer dampers, but as the Scala is no sports car, you’re best off saving your cash. You might want to spend it instead on Skoda’s optional active cruise control and lane assist systems, which will accelerate, brake and steer to keep you in your lane automatically.

When it comes to engines, avoid the 94bhp 1.6-litre diesel, unless you’re doing lots of miles and want to benefit from its good fuel economy. It’s noisy and sends lots of vibration through the pedals and wheels.

The 1.5-litre 148bhp petrol is much smoother, not to mention quicker, but pushes up the price too far. The engine to go for is the 113bhp 1-litre petrol, which offers the best blend of performance, economy and smoothness.

Ignore the sports suspension option — the standard setup is comfy enough, and the Scala is no sports car

And between Skoda’s six-speed manual and seven-speed automatic gearbox, we’d save money again and go with the former. The auto is fine when cruising but tends to hesitate when pulling away from junctions, and hunts around for cogs when asked for quick bursts of acceleration.

The exterior of the Scala is more interesting to behold than that of the old Rapid, but inside is where it’s clearly a step up. There are soft touch plastics on the dashboard and doors, piano black and chrome accents and switches that feel substantial. It’s not quite Golf-good, but it easily rivals a Focus or Ceed.

Where it’s better than all three (perhaps until the new Golf arrives later this year) is infotainment. Entry-level cars get a small 6.5in colour touchscreen but it’s worth upgrading to mid-level SE trim for its 8in version.

The screen sits atop the dashboard, near the driver’s eyeline, and its logical menus with shortcut buttons and bright, crisp graphics are impressive.

Range-topping SE L models are blessed with even larger 9.2in screens, built-in sat-nav and Virtual Cockpit digital dials, but the 8in system will be enough for most.

Indeed, the mid-level system also comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so having built-in sat-nav isn’t a necessity, while wireless smartphone charging and remote access via an app is standard across the range. It’s worth adding those digital dials as an option to SE trim if you can stretch to it — they look superb, are really easy to read and give the cabin even more of a lift.

Leaving infotainment to one side, of the S, SE and SE L trim options, the SE remains our pick. It comes with 17-inalloy wheels, air-con, cruise control, rear parking sensors and passenger seat height adjustment. Skoda even throws in its front door-housed umbrellas.

Unless you do lots of miles, avoid the diesel and go for the 113bhp petrol engine instead

The Scala also has space on its side. The driver gets a massive amount of manual seat and wheel adjustment as standard (electric adjustment can be added as an option) while head and leg room around the front seats is also plentiful.

More impressive is the space in the back, where three adults can sit side-by-side in relative comfort, but two will have loads of room to stay comfortable on long journeys. Storage space around the cabin is great, too, with no less than 26 litres of cubby space.

The good news continues in the boot, which at 467 litres dwarfs its rivals’ efforts. It isn’t just big — it also has a low load lip, great access and loads of Skoda’s traditional ‘Simply Clever’ touches such an adjustable boot floor, nets, hooks and a 12v socket. If you need more room, the rear seats split 60:40 and lie almost flat, while an electronic tailgate can be added as an option.

So before you hurry out any buy that small SUV, make sure you’ve considered both the humble family hatchback and this Skoda Scala. It’s the more sensible option, and you’ll want to keep the engine and trim choices in check, too

All of which means you’re unlikely to win any admiring glances. Cool, it is not. But you’ll have the satisfaction that it undercuts its rivals on price while coming with an impressive list of standard equipment, a smart cabin and acres of space.

Find out how much you could save on a Skoda Scala at carwow.

 

Skoda Scala rivals

Ford Focus (click to view at carwow)
Price: £18,305 — £25,805

Kia Ceed (click to view at carwow)
Price: £18,600 — £27,490

Volkswagen Golf (click to view at carwow)
Price: £19,270 — £28,800

The post 2019 Skoda Scala review appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/first-drive/2019-skoda-scala-review/

2019 Overfinch Range Rover review

FOR 35 years Overfinch turned Range Rovers into pumped-up, plumped-up versions of themselves. Imagine Popeye after a can of spinach. Then the company went bust, presumably because there weren’t enough oligarchs or footballers in 2010 to sustain a company selling big SUVs that drove like runaway cathedrals. Now — a sign of the times — the company is back.

These days Overfinch does not shoehorn muscular American V8 engines under Range Rover bonnets — once its stock in trade. Land Rover — which makes Range Rovers — installs steroidal engines of its own.

So the new Range Rover “reimagined by Overfinch” has a factory-made 5-litre supercharged V8 producing 518 brake horsepower, and you’d have to be a special kind of impatient to think it needs any more.

Besides, a modern car engine is governed by a digital brain that talks constantly to the gearbox, the stability control system and myriad sensors. The slightest tampering is going to throw up a warning light. The full-on tantrum that would result from the car discovering it had a 5.7-litre Chevrolet engine doesn’t bear thinking about, which is why Overfinch has been entirely sensible in leaving it alone.

It has been similarly prudent with the chassis, mindful that Land Rover has a multimillion-pound development budget and it doesn’t, which is why the suspension is as it left the factory.

In all technical aspects, it seems Overfinch has not so much “reimagined” the Range Rover as simply imagined the horrible, dripping driveway ornament that could result from messing with Land Rover’s carefully developed hardware and sensibly decided to step back from the tool cabinet.

There’s a new switchable exhaust that brings some crackle and roar to higher revs, but otherwise this Overfinch is a standard 2019 Range Rover Autobiography. With 23in wheels — an inch larger than any that Land Rover offers.

Well, now, hang on, you might think: new wheels and a fruitier exhaust is not much to justify a £205,000 price tag, when the standard Range Rover in Autobiography trim costs about £103,000. But Overfinch has made significant changes to the bodywork. Some will regard them as appealingly distinctive, while others, admittedly, may see them as, for want of a better description, bling.

There are new bumpers, a new grille, shiny exhaust tips, a bigger roof spoiler, vestigial side-skirts and new door-mirror cases. The look is very much carbon fibre with a glossy exposed weave.

Inside the cabin, Overfinch customers can request soft, diamond-quilted leather or ostrich skin. The company will do its best to accommodate other options, for customers hankering to have a different animal peeled and applied to the inside of their car.

As with other luxury products, the emphasis here is on “heritage” and “branding”. The carbon-fibre bumpers are made by the Prodrive racing team, some of the other trimmings come from the place that supplies carbon fibre to McLaren, the leather is of the finest grade from the Renfrewshire outfit Bridge of Weir and the badges on the bonnet are made in Birmingham’s jewellery quarter, just as they are for Aston Martin.

ll seems well with the world when you drive a Range Rover, and the Overfinch doesn’t spoil that feeling.

Before you say, “Hold on — I don’t want any of those things,” remember that some people do, and that’s what makes reviewing this car so difficult. Sizing up a vehicle for its performance and practical qualities is straightforward. You can tell people if a car has flabby handling or a wheezy engine or if there’s not enough space in the boot or in the back.

But this Overfinch is, in all those respects, just like the much cheaper Range Rover it’s based on, and the 2019 Range Rover Autobiography is a lovely car. It’s quiet, it’s comfortable, it’s plenty quick enough and, like all Range Rovers, it feels rather special, thanks to the combination of a high floor, a lofty roof and huge windows. You feel secure and commanding at once, as though you were standing on a balcony looking out across a city.

No other SUV manages this, and it’s what makes these big beasts so appealing. All seems well with the world when you drive a Range Rover, and the Overfinch doesn’t spoil that feeling. What makes it different is the trimming, which is a matter of taste — and harder to review.

It’s easy to sneer at what Overfinch does, but about 250 people a year in the UK alone disagree and happily spend the cash to have a Range Rover that stands out on Kensington High Street. They’ve probably got a second Range Rover for Dubai. And, oh, go on, then, one for the place in Miami.

That, apparently, is the world of Overfinch customers. They wouldn’t have an off-the-peg suit or a generic yacht or a house built to someone else’s plans. And they wouldn’t have a car that looks like every other Range Rover in Monaco.

This is where the new generation of Overfinch differs from its forebears. Those overengined nutter Rangies of old felt as though they were designed for adrenaline junkies. The new generation seems to be designed for people who want to make it clear that they’ve got something out of the ordinary and the cash to pay for it, which probably says something or other about where the money is in Britain today.

Anyway, if you’ve got it and you want to flaunt it, here’s your car.

Richard Porter is script editor of The Grand Tour.

Head to head

Overfinch Range Rover vs Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG

	Overfinch Range Rover	Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG
Price	£204,000	£143,305
Power	518bhp	577bhp
0-62mph	5.1sec	4.4sec
Top speed	140mph	137mph

The best cars launching in 2019

2018 Range Rover P400e PHEV review

The post 2019 Overfinch Range Rover review appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/2019-overfinch-range-rover-review/

2019 Citroën C5 Aircross review

THE LATEST Citroën gives a glimpse of the problems facing the car industry. It’s not that it’s a bad car. The C5 Aircross is what buyers want these days — a family-friendly SUV that’s not too pricey, is roomy inside and has a decent turn of speed. It’s ideal for manoeuvring in town, with light steering and a tight turning circle.

A sensible choice, then? Yes, but because it has arrived on Citroën’s 100th birthday, it’s a gauge of how far Citroëns have come in the past century — and it hasn’t all been progress.

André Citroën started a company in his name in 1919 to create Europe’s answer to Henry Ford’s bestselling Model T. The fabulous Citroën Type A had a water-cooled four-cylinder engine, seating for five and a steering wheel — an improvement on the rudders fitted to early cars.

The modern Aircross has a water-cooled four-cylinder engine, seating for five and a steering wheel. Compared with the advances made in computing, spaceflight and medicine, the car industry looks as though it’s spent the best part of a century in a layby, waiting for roadside assistance.

In some respects it may even have reversed. The Type A could be bought as a saloon or as a sporty soft-top called Le Torpédo. The Aircross has an optional sunroof (£990). True, there have been remarkable improvements in how cars are made. A century ago they were bolted together by men in brown coats. Today Hyundai’s Ulsan plant in South Korea, the world’s most prolific, makes 4,000 cars a day. Automated assembly has brought cars to the masses.

To compete with such economies of scale, independent car companies have merged into global conglomerates. Citroën is part of one that includes, as well as its French sister company Peugeot, Dongfeng Motor Group in China, CK Birla in India and Vauxhall in the UK. It shares components with Toyota. Fiat is in an international alliance that binds it with Chrysler and Jeep. Skoda jokes fall flat when you know it’s another offshoot of that global giant Volkswagen.

The problem is that, in this process of consolidation, design flair seems to have been lost. What happened to the wonderful, eccentric ideas that car makers came up with to make their products stand out?

Citroën built its reputation on being inventive. In the Second World War, when it was forced to build military vehicles for the Nazis, it came up with an ingenious plan for sabotaging them: putting the notch on the dipstick too low, so drivers failed to realise they were out of oil and the engines seized up.

After the war Citroën’s 2CV gave French farmers a cheap alternative to the horse. Its shark-shaped DS — the choice of French presidents and pop stars in the 1950s and 1960s — featured patented hydropneumatic suspension so smooth it was dubbed the magic carpet ride.

The Xantia Activa rewrote the rulebook with its clever cornering system — and 25 years on it still beats every other road-going car in the so-called elk test, a measure of a car’s ability to dodge obstacles.

The Citroën C5 Aircross comes with a Gallic dual-tone horn, but that’s the extent of its je ne sais quoi.

True, the company hit a sticky patch when financial problems forced it to surrender to a takeover by Peugeot in the mid-1970s; and in the 1980s militant trade unionists shut its factories. But in its day Citroën pioneered front-wheel drive, disc brakes and directional headlamps.

Now, if you buy a Citroën Berlingo, you’re buying a Peugeot Rifter or a Vauxhall Life Combo. The Aircross is a Peugeot 3008 and a Vauxhall Grandland X.

It would be unfair to single out Citroën. Most manufacturers have succumbed to mergers, and then relied on lifestyle gloss to paint over regimented designs — even once fiercely independent British marques such as Rolls-Royce. The result is that when you choose your new car, there’s a good chance it’ll be very like your neighbour’s. Even the names are confusingly similar: Kona, Kodiaq, Kadjar, Karoq, Kuga, Captur.

As car sales fall across Europe, manufacturers may want to reflect that the decline may in part be happening because customers are wise to this. Car makers still talk about their brand DNA and heritage, but the truth is that component-sharing has put an end to much of that.

Will the next generation of car buyers remember that Citroën’s name once illuminated the Eiffel Tower, or that it dominated rallying? If not, then what’s to differentiate its cars?

Enthusiasts in search of individuality are more likely to flick through the pages of a classic car magazine in search of something quirky and fun — hence the boom in that market. Even the Austin Allegro’s ridiculous square steering wheel looks intriguing in the face of modern uniformity.

It’s true that improved production has made cars more reliable. In consumer satisfaction surveys, even the worst models score 75%. But all that really says is that people are not dissatisfied. It’s not surprising that, when the time comes to buy a new car, some urban owners decide they have fallen out of love with the automobile and instead switch to public transport or Uber.

The C5 Aircross is a perfectly decent, honest SUV, and worthy of four stars by comparison with what else is on offer. There’s a nice version with a fizzy 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine and eight-speed auto box that’s ideal for zipping about city streets. The Flair version has a Gallic dual-tone horn, but that’s the extent of its je ne sais quoi.

The sporty exhaust tips are fake, like the side vents. It’s so rigidly mass-produced, the starter button is on the left of the centre console, positioned conveniently for driving on the right, but not for those in the UK.

It starts. It drives. It’ll carry your children in safety. You can “personalise” it with different wheels or roof colours.

But it isn’t torpedo-shaped. It doesn’t have a holder for your Gauloise. It’s made by reliable Euroworkers, rather than French Bolsheviks who’ve left out half the components. It’s less likely to break down en route to the Côte d’Azur. And you won’t feel like Sacha Distel or Catherine Deneuve when you get there.

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Head to head

Citroën C5 Aircross vs Volkswagen T-Roc

	Citroën C5 Aircross Flair PureTech 180 EAT8	Volkswagen T-Roc R-Line 1.5 TSI 150PS Evo auto
Price	£28,325	£28,455
Power	178bhp	148bhp
0-62mph	8.2sec	8.4sec
Top speed	134mph	127mph

The post 2019 Citroën C5 Aircross review appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.

source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/2019-citroen-c5-aircross-review/