Rapid VW Golf R400 spied for the first time, could arrive next year with 395bhp 2.0-litre turbo

VW will take the hot hatch game up to a new level when the German brand launches a production version of the Golf R400.

will take the hot hatch game up to a new level when the German brand launches a production version of the Golf R400. The fastest Golf yet has been spied for the first time undergoing final development testing in Germany.

First unveiled as a concept at the Beijing Motor Show last year, the Golf R400will become the most powerful hot hatch on the market having been given the green light for production by VW development boss Dr Heinz-Jakob Neusser.

Set to feature a heavily revised version of the 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo used in the standard Golf R, the pumped-up R400 could arrive as early as next year.

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Although there is little to mark the R400 prototype out from the standard R model, look closely and you’ll notice beefier brakes hiding behind larger alloy wheels. A wider front track and fixed rear spoiler are also clues that there’s some serious power beneath the bonnet.

If the production model is to follow where the concept left off, VW will extract a further 100bhp from the 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo. The power hike is likely to come from new set of pistons, a larger intercooler and new exhaust, with 395bhp and 450Nm of torque the expected result. However, it’s worth noting VW also has access to the 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine from the new Audi RS3, which is now compatible with the MQB platform the Golf R is based on.

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What is certain, however, is that the four-wheel drive system and six-speed DSG automatic gearbox from the Golf R will remain in place. The popularity of the DSG gearbox in the Golf R means it’s likely to be the only transmission option in the R400. Headline performance stats from the concept are 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 174mph, we can expect a similar line in blistering pace from the production version.

It’s not yet known whether the R400 will be a series production model or built in limited numbers, but given the near-production ready look of the prototype, a debut at the Frankfurt Motor Showin September could be on the cards.

Now read our in-depth review of the new Audi RS3, one of the most powerful hot hatches ever.

Final report: Brilliant hot hatch is set to leave our fleet… but not if our man can help it

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Volkswagen reveals the VW Golf R 400 concept at Beijing Motor Show 2014

VW has unveiled a new Golf R 400 concept, at the Beijing Motor Show .

. The concept marks 40 years since the VW Golf was first launched, with VW claiming it ‘reflects the sporty potential of the model series.

The car boasts  a power to weight ration of 3.4bhp  per kilo - "racing car figures," according to Volkswagen member of the board of management, Dr Heinz-Jakob Neusser. And he dropped a hint that the car could make production at some stage when he said: "What we have to do now is build it."

Retaining the iconic Golfshape, the low slung concept rides on a new 19-inch alloy wheel design and sits 40mm wider than the standard model. At the front there’s a more menacing bumper design with carbon effect inserts, while a high-gloss black radiator grille with yellow R detailing has also been added. The subtly flared wheel arches are also said to be inspired by the 1988 Rallye Golf G60.

Based on the standard Golf R, the concept features the same 2.0-litre TSI engine but it has been heavily revised to produce 395bhp and 450Nm of torque – up from the standard model’s 296bhp and 380Nm output. Power is put down via a six-speed dual clutch DSG gearbox and permanent Haldex all-wheel drive system. The performance boost is enough to slash a second off the sprint from 0-62, now complete in 3.9 seconds. Top speed has also increased to 174mph.

At the rear, new warp-around motorsport carbon effect splitters merge with the protruding diffuser and two central exhausts pipes replace the quad tailpipe setup on the standard Golf R – harking back to the design of the 2002 Golf R32. A black roof and carbon fibre mirror caps complete the extreme look.

The motorsport theme is continued inside, with Alcantara and carbon leather bucket seats. The seats, steering wheel, door cards and floor mats are also trimmed in decorative yellow stitching. A glossy carbon fibre finish has been applied to accents on the dash and centre console.

For all the latest from the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, click here.

Sporty-looking Honda Civic Coupe unveiled in Los Angeles, but it won't be coming to the UK

The new Honda Civic is set to arrive in the UK in 2017, available as before in hatchback and estate guises.

is set to arrive in the UK in 2017, available as before in hatchback and estate guises. The US, however – typically a far bigger market for saloons (or 'sedans') – will be able to get a saloon version of the Civic as well as this new Honda Civic Coupe.

While it's unlikely to make its way over here, the Civic Coupe does give British buyers a good idea of what's coming with the next-generation hatchback model. It's also been confirmed that the new car will be built at Honda's plant in Swindon, as part of a £200million investment.

The Coupe is based on the same platform as the other cars, but takes its inspiration from the concept car shown at the New York Motor Showearlier this year. The Civic Coupe will be available in the US from March 2016.

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The Civic Coupe features a bold grille, in line with those on the recent Jazzsupermini and HR-Vcrossover. The sloping roofline and distinctive rear lights complete the futuristic look and mean the new Civic should represent a big improvement over the slightly awkward-looking current car.

As it's for the US market, the Civic Coupe won't feature a diesel engine, so duties are handed to a 2.0-litre i-VTEC engine, as well as a higher-powered turbocharged 1.5-litre unit.

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The interior of the Honda Civic Coupe should reflect well on the next-generation hatchback and saloon models – featuring soft-touch plastics and a more intuitive layout. It will be packed with kit, too, including the Android-based touchscreen infotainment system, auto lights, LED daytime running lights and climate control as standard.

Keep an eye on our coverage of the 2015 LA Motor Showfor more details on this car as it's officially unveiled...

First report: Bright red load carrier scrubs up well, and is proving a hit with all the family

5

Ford hopes to battle the BMW X3 with its classier, greener Ford Kuga SUV due on sale at the end of 2016

Ford revealed its US-spec Escape SUV at the LA Motor Show in November, and three months later the car has appeared in Europe with Kuga badges on the back.

badges on the back. The car was unveiled at the 2016 Mobile World Congress, with the brand releasing a suite of pictures – along with official engine and spec details – at the same time. The new SUV will also be shown at this year's Geneva Motor Showin a week's time.

Headline news is that there’s a new SYNC 3 infotainment system, as well as updated styling and a new 1.5-litre diesel designed for improved efficiency. The interior has had a nip and tuck, too, to help the Kuga rival premium SUVs such as the BMW X3and Audi Q5.

The newcomer gets a bold two-bar grille, tweaked LED daytime running lights and all-new front bumpers, complete with repositioned foglamps. At the rear it benefits from new tail-lights and a revised bootlid. The top-spec model’s twin exhausts and fake diffuser remain, as do the bumper-mounted rear lamps.

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Buyers get a choice of 17, 18 or 19-inch wheels, plus a new Copper Pulse colour option. Overall, it’s a better resolved design, reminiscent of 2008’s original.

Inside, Ford says the dashboard has been crafted to offer a more ergonomic design, although it doesn’t look that different from what has gone before. The screen is bigger and there are fewer buttons for the air-con and audio system, while the centre console has been cleared up with an electronic parking brake.

All auto models now also feature steering wheel-mounted paddles for improved driver enjoyment. Ford’s Adaptive Front Lighting system will be available on the Kuga, too. This reads the road ahead and can adapt the lighting style to match speed, steering angle and distance from the car in front. Boosting the SUV’s safety credentials are Intelligent four-wheel drive, torque vectoring and ‘Curve Control’, as well as Cross Traffic Alert and Active City Stop auto braking.

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Under the bonnet, the big news is the introduction of a more efficient 118bhp 1.5-litre diesel, which Ford says delivers 64.2mpg and 115g/km CO 2 emissions. While it doesn’t replace any other engine, it should prove a fleet favourite, sitting under the 148bhp and 178bhp 2.0 TDCi units. Two 1.5-litre turbo petrols will also be offered.

The new Kuga will sit among five new or redesigned Ford SUVs due in the next three years. It joins the updated EcoSportand all-new Edge, and will go on sale by the end of 2016, priced from around £20,000.

New Ford SYNC 3 infotainment system

Alongside the revised Ford Kuga, Ford has announced the European arrival of its SYNC 3 infotainment system. It’ll debut on the Mondeo, S-MAXand Galaxy, then appear in the SUV later this year.

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Ford says the set-up lets drivers control their connected devices “with more conversational voice commands”. Owners can simply tell their car “I need a coffee” or “I need petrol”, and the navigation system will direct them to the nearest and most appropriate facilities.

SYNC 3 is compatible with apps including Spotify and AccuWeather for local forecasts, and it can even install updates via your home WiFi. The user experience is simplified, with fewer steps required for the system to function, plus processing power is increased. Ford has also added Apple CarPlayand Android Auto. All SYNC 3 systems get an eight-inch touchscreen, with familiar pinch-to-zoom functionality. It launches here in the summer.

What do you think of the new Ford Kuga? Let us know in the comments section below...

Renault's new Ford Focus challenger has made its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, with sporty GT version also shown

Revealed to the public for the first time at the Frankfurt Motor Show , the stylish family hatch has been given a comprehensive update over the previous model and features Renault’s latest look with a large diamond logo sitting between slim headlight clusters and distinctive C-shaped LED daytime running lights.

Renaultis having something of a design revolution lately, and the new Meganehatch is the latest to benefit from the French brand’s latest family look.

The curvy design shares cues with the recently-revealed Talisman and Espace, but also falls in line with the latest Renault cars that are available in the UK like the new Kadjarcrossover and popular Cliosupermini.

At the back, the rising waistline and slim rear windows meet the unusual rear lights that stretch across almost the full width of the rear of the car. Top-spec models will boast an LED light signature to top things off.

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The new Megane is 25mm lower than the previous model, as well as being 47mm wider at the front and 39mm wider at the rear. It makes the car look much sportier and more purposeful than before, and should help it compete with design-focused competitors like the SEAT Leonand Audi A3. The wheelbase is 28mm longer, too, which will make the car more spacious for both front and rear passengers.

Lead designer Laurens Van Den Acker told Auto Express he wanted the new Megane to be “aspirational”, with the brand benchmarking its new family hatchback against high-quality rivals like the Volkswagen Golfand Peugeot 308.

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A variety of setups are expected to be offered inside, with the entry-level car making do with a conventional dot-matrix central display and higher spec cars getting a choice of seven or nine-inch portrait touchscreens – as well as a segment-first head-up display. Graphic-style digital dials are also expected to remain, along with polished aluminium steering wheel paddles for the optional automatic gearbox.

“This is a serious segment”, Van Den Acker told us. “The new Megane should be seen as a D-segment sibling rather than the Clio’s brother.”

Renault has openly acknowledged that quality was one of the main criticisms of the current car, and will hope to build on the success of its Clio and Captur with its all-new family hatch.

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Isabelle Marchand, director of perceived quality at Renault told us: “We wanted to place the new Megane at a very high level of quality. Quality starts at the beginning – it cannot be an afterthought.

“We started with the Clio and each model is a step-by-step progression. The Megane project has been on-going for more than three years.”

In addition to the expected Expression and Dynamique models, Renault has confirmed it will launch the new Megane with a sportier GT trim. The blue car in the pictures takes its inspiration from hot Renaultsport Meganes, with 18-inch alloy wheels, a honeycomb grille and body-hugging sports seats, but will be made available with a range of efficient petrol and diesel engines instead of the current RS’s 271bhp 2.0-litre turbo.

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Speaking engines, we expect the outgoing petrol and dCi diesel units to receive some major tweaks, although all-new units could also be on the cards. Later on, a hot Renaultsport version will arrive, with up to 300bhp from a turbocharged petrol engine. Three-door coupe and more practical Sport Tourer estate versions will join the range some time during 2016.

Get all the news from the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show.

Ford has its sights set on performance version of the Ford Kuga to complement the luxury Vignale model

Ford has hinted again that it is considering giving its Kuga some added spice.

Ford has hinted again that it is considering giving its Kuga some added spice. The facelifted Ford Kuga model was unveiled at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show, and executive vice president Raj Nair admitted the company was observing the trend for heated-up crossovers with interest.

An Abarth 500Xis on the way while SEAT has admitted it is looking into the possibility of an Ateca Cupra, so a hot version of the Kuga would seem a logical range expansion for Ford.

“We’re seeing a little of that in the US with the Explorer Sport and Edge Sport,” Nair told Auto Express. “A little bit more horsepower and a little more crisper handling is certainly something that we are seeing.”

But any warmed up Kuga model is unlikely to wear the ST badge currently sported by the Fiesta and Focus. “We have certain aspects of a performance criteria for an ST, although it’s not that we couldn’t get the vehicle there,” said Nair. “But it might not be what the customer is looking for."

Get more of the top news stories from Geneva 2016 here...

We drive the Renaultsport Megane 275 Trophy, Renault's hottest hatch yet

5

RE: Aston Martin Vulcan - official!

Wednesday 25th February 2015
Aston Martin Vulcan - official!

You wait ages for one track focused Aston... First details and pics of 800hp Vulcan ahead of Geneva

Geneva is always a motor show swarming with exotic new cars and 2015 will be no different . Alongside its ownand a glut of other super/hyper/megacars, Aston will display the Vulcan to the world. Might be quite a busy stand that one...

Anyone else see Caterham AeroSeven?

There isn't a full technical specification as yet but those details that have been announced are fairly extraordinary. The trusty V12 is now at 7.0-litres and makes over 800hp, with power transmitted to the road through a Xtrac six-speed sequential. Multimatic is responsible for the all carbon construction as well as the Dynamic Suspension Spool Valve adjustable dampers. Carbon ceramic brakes and Michelin race-spec tyres are also included in a very serious mechanical spec.

So serious, in fact, that the Vulcan complies with all relevant FIA race safety requirements. Even though it won't race. But owners will get the full motorsport experience with Aston's "extensive and detailed programme of intensive track driver training." Involvement from Aston Martin Racing will see customers learn their track craft through simulator training and circuit time with road and race Astons. Those events will begin in 2016.

'Extreme performance' promised - no kidding!

Now obviously, this wouldn't be an Aston story without some comment on styling. The Vulcan has been designed entirely in-house by Marek Reichman, said to hint at the next generation of Aston sports cars. There are certainly hints of thehere so perhaps something less extreme will be on the road sooner than we think.

For now there's not an awful lot more to add about the Vulcan. We're promised performance data and further technical details closer to a track debut later in 2015 but with something additional surely due at Geneva. As for sales, the Vulcan will be available through Aston's VIP programme with 'infinitely flexible' colour and trim options. Looks pretty good just like this actually! 24 will be built in recognition of the brand's efforts in 24-hour racing at Le Mans, Spa and elsewhere and the price will £1.5m, plus local taxes. Offshore account holders best stop by that Geneva branch en route to the show...

RE: New Aston sports cars - what we can expect

Monday 21st December 2015
New Aston sports cars - what we can expect
'Sophisticated' DB11 launched in March ahead of 'scalpel-sharp' Vantage and 'bad boy' Vanquish
As we get closer to the launch of the new Aston Martin DB11 at the Geneva motor show in March, Aston is starting to talk more about how it will differentiate its core model from the Vantage below and Vanquish above in the all-important sports car range.

Expect many more DB10 hints in future Astons

It's been said many times on here that the current range, although still head-turning, is pretty hard to separate. Aston agrees, especially betweenand. Customers lured to the dealer were "cross shopping" between the two, Aston CEO Andy Palmer told a group of us journalists at Gaydon recently.

His plan therefore was to assign each of the new cars an incredibly detailed 'proxy' customer, in the DB11's case 'Philippe', a cultured financier who lives in London, loves the theatre and is so self-confident that he might even wear a bowler hat.

This might sound whimsical but it gave Aston a clear idea of how to design the cars. "When we came to the natural compromises we have to make, rather than talk about what Marek [Reichman, head designer] and Ian [Minards, chief engineer] would prefer we could talk about what Philippe would like. Would he prefer a beautiful drop-away roofline or a bit more space in the back?," Palmer said.

PistonHeads talked to Reichman about these imaginary customers and came away with a clearer idea of the cars themselves. The DB11 is the sophisticated one, rather like ol' Philippe himself, according to Reichman. "I can tune it for the track if I wish but most of the time I won't." he said, slipping easily into the Philippe persona.

Vulcan influence will also be evident

You'll be able to spec of lot of the same technology from high-end Mercedes-Benzes too, thanks to Aston's arrangement, not only on V8 engines but also electrical architecture. Again, this appeals to Philippe. "He's probably stepped out of his Mercedes S-Class daily drive. It drives itself more or less and if you want you can have that on your DB11," Reichman told us.

The Vantage guy is cockier, American, very techy and works in Silicon Valley. "He's never overt but a bit more hedonistic," said Reichman, who didn't name him. If he does wear a suit he probably pair it with trainers. In club-land he'd be a member of Soho House rather than joining Philippe in the RAC or Travellers Club. As a result the Vantage is "much more dedicated to purist performance, a scalpel," Reichman said.

As to how the Vantage will look, he says it'll have similar proportions to James Bond's. The grille won't be entirely in "shadow" as it is on the DB10, but it won't be far off. "You'll probably have to search more for the grille on a Vantage thank you do for the DB11," he said. The DB11 face is "much prouder" he added. As to how it drives, we're told that our Vantage proxy buyer will "accept a little more of a harsh sound, a bit more feedback of the engine and feedback from the gearbox, because it's about driving".

Bring on Geneva 2016!

Then there's, expected to be the last of the trio to arrive. "It starts at bad boy and gets worse," Reichman says of the Vanquish's driving demeanour and particular the noise. The customer for the most powerful of the three sports cars is quite the character. Again we weren't told his name, but he's in Germany and has an "insane amount of confidence", according to Reichman. He wants the most extravagant wing, the widest wheels, but won't buy a Lamborghini "because everyone will look at me and say, tasteless", says Reichman. Styling-wise, Reichman points to thelimited-run hypercar as a clue.

You'll hear plenty more about the DB11 when it launches in March ahead of sales toward the end of next year. Until then, Philippe, if you're reading this (of course he's a member), we hope the bonus is good.

RE: Aston and AMG: it's official!

Thursday 25th July 2013
Aston and AMG: it's official!

Technical partnership confirmed between the two, V8s are guaranteed...

So the rumours were true; Mercedes-AMG and Aston Martin will collaborate on future models. An announcement today confirmed a letter of intent has been signed on a move 'towards a technical partnership'.

Coming to an Aston near you soon...

A partnership that initially seems more advantageous to Aston rather than AMG. It's no secret that Aston Martin urgently requires new powertrain technology, a 6.0-litre V12 and 4.7-litre V8 not suited to selling vehicles in markets with stringent emissions laws. This latest agreement will allow Aston Martin to launch a new generation of models incorporating 'cutting-edge technology and newly-developed V8 powertrains'.

It's not as if AMG doesn't have a few V8s in its stable. Whilst the 6208cc unit that thunders away in theisn't long for this world, the 5.5-litre twin-turbo found in the S63 (and nearly every other Merc) would surely be a perfect fit for the larger Astons. Moreover, the naturally aspirated, cylinder-deactivating 420hp variant, as found in the SLK55 , could presumably work in something like a V8 Vantage.

The proposed deal will also give Aston access to 'certain components of electric/electronic architecture'. Along with the mention of cutting edge tech, it can be surmised that a hybrid powertrain is probably on the cards. Aston has recently displayed its abilities, although a conventional hybrid appears likely in the immediate future. Furthermore, this should allow Aston to upgrade its rather dated infotainment technology.

A more efficient Aston, still with a V8? Sounds good!

So what does AMG gain? Today's announcement outlines that Daimler AG 'will own a stake of up to five per cent non-voting shares in Aston Martin depending on the progress of the agreement'. But with both engineering teams working together, a transfer of skills between the two is surely inevitable also.

AMG's head Ola Kallenius commented that the deal is 'a real win-win for both sides' and 'proof of AMG's technological and performance expertise'.

Ian Minards, Aston's Product Development Director, added that working with AMG whilst remaining independent 'points to a very bright future for the company'. Indeed it does!

As yet, there aren't any firm details on how the partnership will progress. We'll be sure to share any news as soon as it arrives.

Review: 2016 Volvo V60 Cross Country

Although the concept isn't new, lifted wagons that bridge the miniscule gap between cars and crossovers represent a hot segment.

Although the concept isn't new, lifted wagons that bridge the miniscule gap between cars and crossovers represent a hot segment. Americans have essentially given up on wagons, but we're more than interested once they are gussied up with all-wheel drive and some butch styling.

Enter Volvo's V60 Cross Country, the Swedish brand's latest foray into this niche within a niche, albeit one that has had some serious staying power over the last couple of decades.

If it's Volvo solidity and style you're after, but you need (or at least want to look like you need) to venture into the woods, the V60 Cross Country is your default choice.

What is it?
Conceptually, the V60 Cross Country is pretty simple: Take one rather stylish wagon, add all-wheel-drive, jack up the suspension, and slap on some rubber fender flares. The idea turned Subaru around in the 1990s, so why shouldn't Volvo get in on the game?

Volvo has been here before. Almost 20 years ago, the automaker debuted its first V70 Cross Country, a moderately more rugged-looking version of its standard all-wheel-drive wagon. Today, Volvo currently has four off road-ish offerings: The XC60 and XC90, both of which are clearly classified as crossovers, and the XC70 and V60 Cross Country, which are more readily identifiable as lifted wagons. Notably, the XC70 will ride into the sunset after the 2016 model year, leaving the V60 Cross Country to carry the torch.

The V60 Cross Country technically arrived halfway through the 2015 model year as a 2015.5, and it returns with only a handful of detail changes for 2016. Just one powertrain is on offer: A 2.5-liter turbocharged five-cylinder mated to a six-speed automatic and standard all-wheel-drive. The five-banger is an old unit that lacks the sophistication - and the fuel economy - of the brand's newer Drive-E turbocharged four-cylinders.

Our particular tester came loaded up with the extra-cost Platinum package, including a number of collision avoidance features, as well as rather less-than-rugged 19-inch alloy wheels wrapped in tires suited more for the school run than a jog into the Rockies.

What's it up against?
Naturally, the V60 Cross Country squares off against the model that really defined this segment: Subaru's Outback. The Volvo may cost more, but the Subaru isn't really lacking anything on paper.

Pop over to the Audi dealer and they'll show you the A4-based allroad. As slick as the Audi is, it's actually rather old - its basic design debuted in the fall of 2007. A new allroad is on the horizon.

How does it look?
Sans cladding and lift, the basic V60 wagon is a shapely five-door with a low roof line and a number of distinctive cues that make its lineage obvious. Take that, jack things up, and slap on some plastic and you have the Cross Country. Most visual are the V60's characteristic tall tail lamps, which snake from the top of the tailgate down to the bumper with a unique LED pattern.

Other highlights include a honeycomb-like grille that neatly hides one of the collision avoidance sensors, CROSS COUNTRY badging stamped into the rear bumper, and dual tail pipes that scream performance rather than off road ability.

We liked the optional 19-inch alloy wheels on our tester, at least in terms of their appearance, but we thought the LED running light strips integrated into the front bumper were a little tacky. Additionally, the V60 Cross Country's pseudo cladding is definitely more for looks than protection; those silver rocker panel "guards" won't protect the body panels from much more than tall grass.

And the inside?
One thing Volvo has always done well is interiors, and the V60 Cross Country is no exception. Lacking the upscale flair of the brand's latest designs - like the XC90 - the V60 is nonetheless still a pleasant place for whittling away miles.

Its blocky dash features good ergonomics despite a plethora of buttons on the center stack. A big, high-resolution screen sits at the top for Volvo's Sensus infotainment system. Generally user-friendly, its map display offers some 3D imaging and particularly astute voice recognition - and that's a boon given that, well, navigating the navigation is a pain thanks to the lack of a touchscreen or a separate controller. Moving about the screen requires tapping particular radio preset buttons. From a tech standpoint, the V60 needs a hardware upgrade - stat.

On the other hand, we did like the configurable LED screens that compose the V60's instrument cluster. Although the choice of graphics can skew toward gimmicky, the screens do a nice job of conveying lots of information in a clear manner. And, unlike Sensus, the screens are controlled by just one twist-knob and one button.

Curiously, all V60 Cross Country models include Volvo's heavily-bolstered sports seats (wrapped in gorgeous saddle colored leather in our tester), despite the model's complete lack of zippy pretensions. Hugely comfortable over the long haul, the front seats are the place to be. Rear seat room for adults is snug, although little ones do at least have their own perches thanks to the optional built-in child booster seats.

On the materials front, the V60 Cross Country is something of a mish-mash of nicely-grained soft-touch surfaces on the dash and doors, glossy (optional) wood trim, nothing special leather, and thin plastic adorning the center console.

But does it go?
As we said earlier, the V60 Cross Country boasts Volvo's lame-duck five-cylinder motor, an engine the automaker now only mates to all-wheel-drive models of this platform. Opt for a front-wheel-drive S60 sedan or V60 (non Cross Country) wagon and you'll net the brand's new turbo fours. But you can't buy a FWD V60 Cross Country.

Despite not being the freshest thing in Volvo's lineup, the 2.5 does get up and go with authority, its automatic gearbox quietly slipping between all six gears. Mid-range punch is just a tap of the throttle away. Still, this little five-banger reveals its old roots by vibrating at idle and generally grumbling its way around with less refinement than Subaru's six-cylinder or Audi's turbocharged four, let alone Volvo's Drive-E lineup.

The V60's fat-rimmed steering wheel, like its bolstered thrones, hints at a sporting nature that isn't really delivered. Steering effort is high, but an over-boosted feel to the tiller doesn't make you want to carve corners. A variable steering setup that lets drivers choose between three steering hefts is optional, however, it wasn't fitted to our tester.

The V60's tall stance means it leans more in corners, something we don't necessarily feel to the same degree in the Outback(versus the Legacy) and the allroad (versus the A4). Moreover, our tester's stylish 19-inchers gave it a clomping ride over rough pavement, the result of lots of wheel travel combined with stiff, small sidewalls. Stick with the standard 18s, which still look good and add a much-needed degree of compliancy.

Generally, the V60 Cross Country is more at home on the highway, where it settles into a relaxed demeanor. Little wind and road noise penetrates the cabin, allowing for the Harman/Kardon audio system to truly shine.

On the fuel economy front, we measured 22 mpg in mixed driving, a hair below the 23 mpg suggested by the EPA's test. The EPA rates the V60 Cross Country at 20/28 mpg, city/highway, which is about par with the allroad and the Outback 3.6R.

Leftlane 's bottom line
Definitely not lacking in Volvo-ness, the V60 Cross Country represents a comfortable and stylish way to bound across a boulder-strewn path. But at nearly $50,000 as-tested, and not really offering any statistical advantages over a loaded ($37,000) Subaru Outbackor ($46,000) Audi allroad, the V60 Cross Country becomes a tough justification.

We like it, but we could like it a whole lot more.

2016 Volvo V60Cross Country base price, $41,000. As tested, $49,775.
Platinum Package, $3,650; Climate Package, $1,550; Blind Spot Package, $925; Metallic Paint, $550; Wood Inlays, $400; 19" Wheels, $750; Destination, $940.

Photos by Andrew Ganz.

Aesthetics

B

Technology

B+

Green

B

Drive

B-

Value

C+

Score

B-

Review: 2016 Volvo V60 Cross Country Reviewed by Andrew Ganz on April 15 We test out Volvo's stylish take on the high-riding wagon. Rating: 2.5

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Op-Ed] GM cuts Volt price, but questions linger

[Op-Ed] GM cuts Volt price, but questions linger
It's a saying as old as the car business itself: Price sells cars.

As it turns out, that's still the case when the cars are powered by coal - I mean, magic hopes and emission-free dreams.

After Nissan jump-started sales of the Leaf with a $6,400 price cutearlier this year, GM's decided to follow suitwith the Chevrolet Volt, which will now base for $34,995 plus destination. There's a $7,500 federal tax credit to bring the price to well below 30 grand. That's the price range where most family sedans are sold, so, thanks to the American taxpayer, the Volt is suddenly a considerably more attractive proposition.

The problem, of course, is that many people believe that the Volt is subsidized twice by the American taxpayer: Once with the straight-ahead $7,500 incentive, and again by the fact that General Motors has been accused of losing as much as $49,000 per Volt at the old price.

Not that the Volt has ever really sold at sticker price.

A wide range of incentives, lease programs, and sweetheart deals has made sure that perhaps none but the very first Volts really sold for $42,000 or above. It's possible to argue that this $5,000 price cut is really just a forthright reflection of what's going on with real-world transaction prices.

Let's get back to that every-Volt's-a-born-loser thing, however: Does GM lose money on Volts? If so, how much?

Last year, the Christian Science Monitor published a defenseof the Volt's potential profitability. It has to be noted, however, that with total Volt sales in the 40,000 range over the vehicle's life, each Volt is "born" with a $30,000 price tag on its toe before a single penny of the $10,000 in batteries and electronic components is added --- or before the cost of building the rest of the Volt, which has to equal or exceed that of building a similarly configured Chevrolet Cruze, is considered.

No matter how you twist the numbers, Bob Lutz and other GM figures have admitted that the Volt isn't a money maker at the old full retail price. Which isn't a problem from a corporate standpoint. Most automakers have some sort of loss leader to generate showroom traffic and/or burnish the brand image, whether it's the $9,995 Nissan Versa that made headlines a few years ago or the Lexus LF-A that probably isn't a money-maker even at $400,000.

The Volt doesn't need to make any money if it helps Chevrolet sell more Cruzes or Sonics. The same thinking has traditionally been used to justify the continuance of the Corvette program even in economic hard times where that sporting icon can't make the numbers.

The problem, honestly, comes when one considers GM's' status as a primary beneficiary of both government largesse and election-year politics. It doesn't take any leaps of logic or evidence to paint the Volt as a luxury car with a production cost in the $60,000 range, being sold to upper-class eco-yuppies and doubly subsidized by taxpayer cash in an era where critical programs are going unfunded and veterans' hospitals are short of equipment. Call it the Obamacar: a feel-good "American techo-triumph" that runs on South Korean batteries (that are, at least, finally assembled in the United States) and greenwashes a national electric infrastructure that largely depends on the burning of coal.

If you accept that point of view, then every Volt on the road represents a double swindling of the already-hard-pressed working American, a massive tax grab that diverts money from national defense and health care to upper-middle-class toys with "ice"-colored, Apple-wannabe center display stacks. It's a program that's long since overstayed its welcome and it should be permanently retired. Even if every potential Volt buyer in America immediately turned around and bought a Toyota Priusplug-in, at least the United States Treasury wouldn't be directly funding their acquisition, right?

A more positive way to look at the situation is that the Volt keeps some American workers employed and it serves to introduce a few thousand people a year to the concept of a long-distance hybrid vehicle with a domestic badge.

Furthermore, if GM's past history is any guide, maybe the current Volt is like the Pontiac Fiero - ugly, underperforming, prone to sudden ignition - and the Volt to come will be like the final Fiero GT - sleek, delightful, desirable, thoroughly perfected. Let's just hope that GM doesn't spend too much of our money on the process, and let's hope that they don't kill the Volt the moment it turns out to be a great car, right?

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Fiat introduces more powerful 500 Turbo for 2013

Fiat is expanding its 500 lineup with a new Turbo model for 2013.

Fiat is expanding its 500 lineup with a new Turbo model for 2013. The turbocharged Cinquecento will be positioned between the standard 500 and the high-performance Abarth model.

Aimed at driving enthusiasts, the Fiat 500Turbo comes fitted with the same 1.4L MultiAir
used in the regular 500, but a turbo boosts power to 135 horsepower and 150 lb-ft of torque - improvements of 34 and 52, respectively. The 500 Turbo's lone transmission choice is a five-speed manual.

In order to handle that extra power, Fiat beefed up the 500 Turbo's mechanical components, including larger half shafts and stronger constant velocity joints. Fiat says those improvements also help to reduce torque steer.

Other performance goodies include a high-performance brake system with larger front rotors, a sport-tuned suspension borrowed from the 500 Sport and a throaty exhaust system.

The 500 Turbo is easily recognizable by its unique front fascia, which extends by 2.7-inches to make room the the engine's turbocharger. Other cues to set the Turbo apart include larger lower air inlets, twin "nostrils"� to feed air to the car's intercoolers and Gloss Black headlamps and parking lamp bezels.

That sinister look is repeated out back with a liftgate-mounted spoiler, new taillamps with Gloss Black bezels and two-piece rear fascia with with a black-accented rear diffuser.

The 500 Turbo rides on a set of 16-inch aluminum wheels with Nero
(black) painted pockets.

The interior of the 500 Turbo features sport-styled seating, leather-wrapped shift knob and steering wheel with contrasting silver stitching and a gray and black "seating and interior environment."� Two leather interior treatments are also available - a black on black scheme as well as a two-tone black on red.

A premium Beats by Dr. Dre audio system will also be on the 500 Turbo's option list. The system boast six speakers plus an 8-inch dual-voice coil subwoofer with trunk-mounted enclosure and
eight-channel 368-watt amplifier with Beats Audio digital sound processing algorithm.

The 2013 Fiat 500 Turbowill arrive in showrooms this fall with a starting price of $20,200, including a $700 destination charge.

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One in three EV owners in Japan wouldn't buy another

A new report finds that nearly a third of electric vehicle owners in Japan would not purchase another EV, highlighting the challenges facing the technology the world over.

According to a report published by research firm McKinsey and Co., about one in three EV owners in Japan say they would not purchase another electrically powered vehicle. Respondents said they felt "seduced" by allure of electric vehicle technology, but were let down by high electric bills and general lack of charging infrastructure.

"Until prices drop to the point where the level of mass-market uptake stimulates infrastructure development, manufacturers must learn how to build customer loyalty to broaden the market for EVs," study authors Axel Krieger, Philipp Radtke and Yoshi Takanuki wrote in the report.

Dave Sullivan, manager of product analysis at AutoPacific Inc., says that EV owners have also grown wary of getting stuck with an outdated model.

"EVs are looked at more like a piece of technology and they don't age well," Sullivan told The Detroit News . "Mobile phones get obsolete quickly and EVs appear to suffer a similar fate, leaving consumers feeling like they have tape deck when all of the cool kids have an iPod."

Although McKinsey's study focused on the Japanese market, the same troubles discovered in the report could be dogging worldwide EV sales. In the United States, only about 50,000 electric vehicle have been sold, representing just a fraction of overall sales. EV sales have also failed to take of in Europe.

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Op-Ed: Do governments dream of electric sheep?

Seven years from now, carmakers in the European Union will have to meet a fleet average of nearly 58 mpg.

Seven years from now, carmakers in the European Union will have to meet a fleet average of nearly 58 mpg. We're not talking CAFE-style measurements, either: The requirement is actually based on carbon dioxide emissions. The EU lawmakers say that the technology already exists to meet the requirements.

There's just one problem: the automakers disagree. They'd thought that electric vehicles would make meeting the requirement easy, but EVs aren't working like they were supposed to.

An articlein the provides a long list of manufacturers retreating from EV production with the haste and lack of decorum typically associated with the French Army circa 1940. From Audi to Toyota, electric cars are being canceled, "scaled back," or left on the drawing boards. The hoped-for improvements in battery storage technology simply aren't happening, and there's no clear indication that they will happen soon.

The year 2020 may not seem right around the corner to most of us, but for auto manufacturers who need to make production plans for that year within the next 48 months, it's close enough to incite a general sense of panic. Even the traditional European model mix sold by most manufacturers, which is heavy on small diesel-powered hatchbacks and light on V-8 hypersedans, won't come close to meeting the requirements with any known engine technology. If BMW put one-liter diesels in their entire lineup, they'd still end up paying millions of euros in fines.

Having watched their electric-vehicle bets swept off the table by the battery problems, companies like Peugeot and Mercedes-Benz are placing their next round of chips on everything from compressed-nitrogen hybrids to the always-popular but never-practical fuel-cell technology. Volkswagen is betting on micro-sized diesel-hybrid drivetrains powered streamlined microcars that bear an uncanny resemblance to a medical suppository. If there was a supplier with a magic bean factory somewhere in Europe, presumably there would be at least one multi-billion-dollar corporation making press releases about sustainable magic-bean-driven automobiles.

To the American observer, particularly one who does not subscribe the notion that the Western world needs to drastically reduce its consumption of fossil fuel so there will be more available for China to use to build its industrial base, the whole exercise borders on the ridiculous. What's the point of creating standards that are seemingly designed to be impossible to meet?

The end result of the regulation will be a double whammy of higher transaction prices for cars; the technologies required to make the 95 g/km standard will be crushingly expensive and the cars that can't meet the standard will cost thousands of dollars more than they would otherwise. The increased cost of new cars will ensure that older, higher-consumption, higher-polluting vehicles stay in use for years longer than they would if reasonably-priced alternatives with a moderately decreased CO2 emissions rate were available. Surely the system is broken, right?

It's never a sound idea to automatically assign malice as a motive to governments when incompetence is also plausible, but in this case I think there's a strong case for doing so. The brain trust in Brussels isn't stupid enough to think that the rate of oil extraction will slow for a microsecond if every car in the EU manages to run on solar power. Nor are they blind to the chilling effect that higher prices have on vehicle sales.

I would suggest here that the sole purpose of the 2020 regulations is to increase the cost of driving and therefore increase the competitiveness of centrally-controlled mass transit alternatives. The fact of the matter is that private automobile ownership is almost universally preferred by free citizens throughout the world. They will work and sacrifice to have it. They will jump through legislative hoops and submit to crushing tax burdens. Even dedicated urban dwellers who can't bear the thought of living anywhere but New York or Paris or Tokyo would, given the choice, have a car to take out of town on the weekends. Every morning, the freeways of Chicago and other cities comes to a dead halt while trains speed past on tracks laid in the median - and every morning, those same commuters choose to sit in traffic again rather than take the train.

The dream of private car ownership is nearly as universal as the desire for food and shelter, and it's considerably more universal than the desire for self-governance, universal health care, or representative democracy. Maslow's pyramid has a BMW balanced on its peak and a Renault Twingo parked in a mid-level garage. Since the end of World War II, the European governments have done everything imaginable to break their populations of the automotive habit, from rapacious gas taxes to Byzantine licensing schemes, and still the showrooms are full of buyers every year. Something, clearly, must be done.

Viewed in that light, the 2020 regulations make more sense. Unless there really is some sort of magic-bean solution deployed in the next few years, compliance with the new round of EU directives will directly result in an increase of new-vehicle transaction price and a corresponding decrease in new-vehicle purchases. This will lead to an increase in used-car prices. That, coupled with the aggressive inspection-and-taxation programs of which Euro governments are so fond, will cause a nontrivial number of people to drop off the long tail of the car ownership chain. They'll go from masters of their own destiny to readers of the bus schedule. Their job opportunities, social plans, and life experiences will now be bound by the realities of mass transit. The fuel they would have burned will be burned somewhere else, and the planet will suffer the putative consequences identically. Nothing will change.

The few people willing to speak in support of this kind of regulation will tell us that fuel-economy rules spur innovation. History disagrees. The implementation of CAFE brought us the X-car and the Ford Explorer, in that order. The preoccupation with carbon dioxide found in Euro regulations forced millions of people to switch to diesel-powered cars, with their attendant carcinogenic risks. The most popular fuel-saving car in North America, the Toyota Prius, is in no way a product of legislation or regulation. It's simply an efficient vehicle that operates reliably. The next revolution in efficiency and reliably, when or if it appears, won't be driven by the motion of a bureaucrat's pen. It will be created by the mind of an engineer, and that engineer will neither be hurried nor delayed by the rules of 2020.

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Fiat, Abarth team up for 695 Edizione Maserati

Fiat's performance-oriented Abarth division has announced that it will launch a production variant of the Fiat 500 -based 695 Tributo Maserati that made its debut as a concept at the Geneva Motor Show last March.

In its transition from a show car to a production car the pint-sized Abarth has changed its name to Edizione Maserati. A thorough knowledge of Italian is not needed to decipher that the name means Maserati Edition.

The 695 Edizione Maserati was developed by following the same recipe that created the 695 Tributo Ferrari three years ago but this time prepared with Maserati ingredients.

"Sportiness with elegance" was the guideline given to the brand's engineers as they were designing this car. It is based on the Abarth 500C and is only offered in a shade of red called Pontevecchio Bordeaux, a color borrowed directly from the Maserati catalog.

The car sits on model-specific 17" rims mounted on performance tires. The rims feature what the brand calls a Neptune design that was inspired by Maserati rims and the center caps are adorned with Abarth's famed scorpion logo.

The seats are upholstered in Poltrona Frau leather with "695" stitched into the headrests. A commemorative plaque on the dash lets the passengers know that they are not sitting in a standard Abarth 500C.

The Maserati Edizone treatment is not merely aesthetic: the car's 1.4-liter turbocharged T-Jet four-cylinder engine has been pushed to 180 horsepower and 184 foot-pounds of torque, a noticeable increase of 40 horsepower and 33 foot-pounds over the standard Abarth 500C.

The four-banger is linked to an electronically-operated manual gearbox designed by Abarth's racing department. Shift paddles mounted behind the steering wheel come standard.

Thanks to the uprated engine the Edizione Maserati sprints from zero to 62 miles per hour in less than 7.5 seconds and goes on to a top speed of 140 miles per hour.

Abarth has fitted the car with a Record Monza exhaust that emits a deep growl above 3,000 rpms. The exhaust pipes are hexagonal, a design inspired by the exhaust pipes typically found on Maseratis.

Only 499 examples of the Edizione Maserati will be available throughout Europe.

Pricing information was not released.

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Governments pushing EVs prematurely to take credit later [Op-Ed]

"The electric car is not dead," GM's North America chief Mark Reuss said at the Automotive News World Congress last week.

World Congress last week. "We'll get there. We will see the day when we have an affordable electric car that offers 300 miles of range with all the comfort and utility of a conventional vehicle. We're talking about a transformation here. And transformation takes time."

Reuss is absolutely right. So how can GM's electric car strategy be so wrong?

When Steve Jobs first introduced the iPod in 2001, the $400 device was widely criticized by tech pundits for being too expensive, putting it out of reach of shoppers considering a $100 Sony Discman or a $200 Rio MP3 player. Despite its high price tag, however, the iPod offered a unique value proposition -- it featured far more capacity, better battery life, and faster data transfers than anything else on the market. It became a high-end niche product that eventually spawned less expensive models.

It was a similar story with the first cell phones -- most people couldn't afford one, but there was undeniable value there for those who could. Likewise for digital watches, home laser printers, and microwave ovens. As absurdly expensive as the first plasma TVs were, they were untouchable in terms of all the characteristics that make for a good television -- color reproduction, contrast, clarity, and form factor. The same can be said for the $20,000 4K-resolution TVs announced at CES this year.

This is a natural pattern for new technology -- it generally emerges at the high end and slowly moves down-market. This is usually true in the automobile business as well - think stability control, torque vectoring, blind spot warning, adaptive cruise control, and so on. But something very strange is going on with the emergence of electric vehicles. Most of the attention -- particularly from mainstream automakers -- has been on the low-end of the market. Even more perplexing is the fact that these entry-level economy cars are priced like midsize luxury cars.

Take the Chevrolet Voltfor example. Based on the Cruze compact sedan, the Volt rides, handles, and has the interior capacity of a $17,000 car with a couple thousand dollars in additional options. Having driven a Volt, I can assure you it doesn't perform like a $40,000 car -- by any measure. It also lacks the amenities of the cars it's priced against (think Lexus ES300h, BMW 328i, Acura TL). Even after the available discounts, it's simply not a good deal. To add insult to injury, taxpayer-funded GM loses money on every $40,000 Volt it sells.

Similar criticisms can be levied against the Nissan Leaf, which, on top of sharing most of the Volt's faults, has the additional distinction of confining its owner to a comfortable 30 mile radius. Not to be outdone, GM plans to launch its Spark EV in 2013, which is perhaps the worst value proposition yet. A $32,500 version of a $12,000 car, it will be the most overpriced EV ever made.

The question, then, is why are so many companies -- especially GM -- scrambling to release these grossly overpriced plug-in electric compact cars? Trying to shoehorn expensive electric vehicle technology into entry-level economy cars makes absolutely no sense, unless you think about it from the perspective of governments, who have inserted themselves into the EV equation by subsidizing the purchase every electric car to the tune of $7,500 to $10,000.

The eggheads at the EPA and Department of Energy are smart enough to know that the electrification of the automobile is inevitable -- eventually. Electric powertrains promise to be considerably more reliable than what's under the hood of traditional cars, and anyone who has driven a Tesla will tell you that nothing beats the electric driving experience. Filling up a 300-mile battery for $5 -- even at California energy prices -- is pretty appealing, too. Battery prices are on a slow but steady march toward affordability, and future breakthroughs could someday accelerate the pace. All of this bodes well for EVs in the long term. Rather than sitting back and watching the tide come in, governments have decided to try their hardest to make you believe that it wouldn't happen without them.

Currently, the only reasonable value proposition in the EV segment can be found at the top of the price spectrum, which is no doubt where electric car development would be focused for the next several years if it wasn't for government meddling. Without any rebates, the $92,000 Tesla Model SSignature might sound expensive, but if its 265-mile EPA range suits your lifestyle, it's a credible alternative -- in terms of performance, luxury, size, and styling -- to the $95,000 Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG or BMW M6Gran Coupe.

With so much money for EV subsidies coming from middle-class taxpayers, automakers find themselves obliged to attempt -- albeit in vain -- to create an everyman EV. It would be terrible optics for governments to subsidize electric cars if the only EVs on the market were high-end luxury cars like the Model S, even though such cars are the only EVs that make sense today.

What's more, this entire line of thinking is based on the false assumption that a few thousand EV sales can put downward pressure on batteries, the most expensive component of any electric car. The truth is, sales of Volts and Leafs won't do anything to affect the global price of lithium batteries. It would take massively higher sales numbers to put any more pressure on prices than is already being applied by the consumer electronics field. That will never happen with the current price of these vehicles, making the whole situation a classic catch-22. Tesla's Elon Musk has pointed to a "weak Moore's Law" whereby battery prices fall around 8 percent per year. Prices are already dropping pretty much as fast as manufacturing technology will allow, and there's plenty of demand from existing industries to drive that progress.

Tesla expects to be able to sell a 250-mile range sub-$45,000 entry-luxury sedan in 2016, an ambition that is supported by the math. If an electric rival to the BMW 335i or Mercedes C350 is possible in three years, we just might see a viable electric rival to the Chevy Malibu or Nissan Altima by 2020. By 2025, a purely electric Spark or Nissan Versa might make sense. It's still unclear when or how the charge time issue will be resolved, but there is a lot of a promising technology on the horizon.

Nissan is clearly becoming hesitant about its current EV strategy, openly admitting the Leaf's poor sales have been a disappointment. Ford is dithering on EVs, and Toyota is positioning itself to take losseson the Rav4 EV, offering $7,500 in manufacturer rebates in addition to the up to $10,000 in government subsidies (federal and state). Meanwhile, with its impressive next-generation hybrid tech (found in the RLX and NSX), Honda continues to be very conservative in its approach to electric propulsion, focusing on slowly transitioning to the technology as it begins to make financial sense. Granted, there's also the Fit EV, but Honda is only expecting to sell 2,000 of them over three years, in a bid to please bureaucrats back home in Japan and to comply with California's mandate that every carmaker must offer at least one zero-emissions model.

On the other hand, GM appears to be doubling down on its strategy, having announced yet another non-starter, the Cadillac ELR. While a real electric Cadillac -- think CTS-EV -- would have made sense as the original platform for Voltec technology, a $60,000 version of the already overpriced Volt does not. Does anyone really think Cadillac would have a Cruze-based model if it wasn't for this EV silliness?

While former GM executive Bob Lutz recently admittedit would have made more sense to build an electric Escalade than to make the Volt, the current GM leadership appears to be staying the course. Of all the automakers, GM's strategy is by far the most concerning due to the amount of public dollars involved. Taxpayers lost tens of billions of dollars on the GM bailout, and it seems very likely that the drag the Voltec program put on GM's balance sheet translated into a lower stock price at the time the Treasury sold it shares. Also taking into account the hundreds of millions of dollars lost by would-be Volt battery supplier A123, the "embedded subsidy" in every Volt is massive, and the U.S. federal government is actually considering increasing the per-car rebate to $10,000. At the same time, GM and its dealers are taking steps to widen their losses even more, by offering $299/month Volt leases in some markets. To put that into perspective, a lease on a $40,000 car would normally cost over $600/month. A 50% loss is hardly a business model.

In their never ending quest for relevance, the U.S. federal government, the Japanese government, California, and other mega bureaucracies have done what they do all too regularly -- distort the market and oversee the malinvestment of hundreds of millions of public and private dollars. Worst of all, when useful EVs are affordable to average people 10 to 12 years from now, they'll boastfully take the credit, and most people will probably believe them, setting the stage for the next big waste of your hard earned dollars.

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Marchionne confirms future for Fiat-Tata joint venture

Although little known in the U.S., Fiat has another major joint venture outside of Chrysler that involves a shared dealer network and joint manufacturing - with none other than Indian automaker Tata Motors.

Fiat and Tata have been joined in a 50:50 joint venture for some time now, with the goal to share manufacturing costs and help promote the Fiat brand in India, but so far things haven't gone according to plan. Despite the shortcomings, especially for Fiat, Sergio Marchionne says that the partnership will continue, albeit with some changes.

According to The Economic Times , Marchionne told reporters, "The terms will change, but the project will keep going ahead." The changes will be needed due to the fact that initial goals and sales figures were a bit too lofty, particularly for Fiat as the "joint" dealer network consists of Tata dealers that tend to favor selling their own products over the Italian counterparts.

Indian industry experts believe that the partnership can still hold value to both companies, but Fiat needs to establish its owner dealer network and do a better job of developing a brand image in the Indian market if it wants to survive.

In the last three years the partnership has not turned a profit, but the rate at which it is losing money has decreased with each subsequent year.


References
1.'Fiat to continue...' view

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J. Lo's Fiat 500 commercial misleading, disingenuous? [Video]

Although the commercial on most people's minds right now when they hear the word "Fiat" likely involves an Italian model in a skimpy dress , it wasn't long ago that Chrysler signed up the help of actress and singer Jennifer Lopez to sell their 500.

While hiring J. Lo may not seem like a bad idea in and of itself, problems arise when the commercial starring her (which is heavily based on telling a narrative about J. Lo's life while the actress supposedly drives down the streets of the Bronx, where she grew up) turns out to be a bit of a lie, as TheSmokingGun points out in detail.

TSG did a little digging around, uncovering the fact that J. Lo refused to visit the Bronx to drive the car she is depicted as driving in the commercial. As it turns out, Fiat actually filmed J. Lo driving inside a Fiat 500back in Los Angeles, then used a body double to do the filming in the Bronx. The footage was then digitally overlapped and made to depict J. Lo as the driver while supposedly reminiscing about her alleged childhood in the Bronx.

While the idea of a body double for a driving scene isn't necessarily unheard of with high-profile stars, it's the combination of that and the message of the commercial that has many up in arms about the misleading angle of the ad.

Fiat issued a press release when the commercial, which is ironically titled, "My World," first debuted. The press release goes on to say that "[J. Lo] is seen driving a Fiat 500 Cabrio as she travels through the streets of Manhattan to the Bronx where she grew up." The release continues, "The new ad explores her personal take on how life in the New York City borough continues to inspire her to be tougher, to stay sharper and to think faster."

So given the narrative, the fact that the commercial doesn't actually feature J. Lo as the driver because she refused to drive in the Bronx makes it a bit disingenuous, to say the least. The uproar over the ad was fueled even further by the fact that many point out that J. Lo actually grew up in a very wealthy family in an upscale neighborhood, not experiencing the Bronx as the commercial depicts with its overly stereotypical images of kids playing in the water from an open fire hydrant, Catholic school girls playing double-dutch, African Americans playing basketball, girls listening to and practicing hip-hop music and more.

Given Chrysler's recent success with "Imported from Detroit" themed ads that depict "real Americans" in the streets of Detroit, an arguably misleading ad like this could potentially do harm to the brand and break trust. Then consider Fiat's current oversupply of 500sdue to lower demand than anticipated, and the negative press couldn't come at a worse time.

The commercial in question can be viewed below:


References
1.'Bronx cheer for...' view

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Diesel Audi TT Roadster Ultra proves you can have your fun and 65mpg

4

Audi's hottest TT spied on the road, expected to get tweaked version of RS3's engine with over 350bhp

Audi 's stylish third-generation TT is about to become less of a poser and more of a bruiser, as our spies have spotted the hotter RS variant on test ahead of its 2016 launch.

is about to become less of a poser and more of a bruiser, as our spies have spotted the hotter RS variant on test ahead of its 2016 launch. It should receive well over 350bhp from a 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo engine.

It'll share the same storming powertrain as the new RS3mega hatch, but power could be upped further to move it away from the current 306bhp TT S. Four-wheel drive will help it fire off the line, and the 0-62mph time could even dip below the magical four-second mark.

Image 7 of 8

At a quick glance this car looks like a run-of-the-mill TT in disguise, but look closely and you'll spot a few key differences. There's a beefed-up front bumper with revised air intakes, the familiar RS oval twin exhausts, RS brake callipers and vented and drilled brakes. We expect the finished product to get a less-than-subtle rear spoiler like the old TT RS.

In terms of pricing, we can expect the TT RS to kick off from around £45,000 - a £6,000 increase on the TT S. There's every possibility of an RS Plus model in 2017, with power edging towards 400bhp and a near-£50,000 pricetag.

Read our review of the old Audi TT RS Coupe here...

New Ford Fiesta ST200 gets a power boost up to 197bhp, plus fresh paint and alloy wheels for the Geneva Motor Show

The new Ford Fiesta ST200 has been revealed at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show .

. It's a more powerful version of the hot supermini, and gets a power boost to 197bhp for its 1.6-litre turbocharged engine.

The standard Ford Fiesta SThas 180bhp and the ST200 version gets 10 per cent more power than that. It means there's 197bhp on tap as well as 290Nm of torque. The 0-62mph sprint takes 6.7 seconds, 0.2 seconds faster than the standard car. Plus, it will go on to a top speed of 143mph.

Image 2 of 16

The ST200 the most powerful production Fiesta ever, and Ford has tweaked the gear ratios to improve in-gear performance as well, working with the car's overboost system that adds extra power and torque for up to 15 seconds. Like the normal ST, the ST200 also gets a torque vectoring system, 3-mode stability control, quicker steering and lowered suspension with special damper settings.

The ST200 comes in an exclusive 'storm grey' exterior paint colour, with black 17-inch alloy wheels, red brake calipers and extra trim for the interior. This includes special part-leather Recaro front seats with silver stitching, new seatbelt designs and illuminated scuff plates.

Image 4 of 16

The Fiesta ST200 will start to be built in June this year, with deliveries later in the summer. There are no details on price yet, but we expect it to cost around £1,000 more than the equivalent Fiesta ST, which would set it at just over £20,000.

It faces stiff competition from Ford's tuning partner Mountune, however, which offers a £599 (plus fitting) upgrade for the standard Fiesta ST that boosts power to 212bhp and cuts the 0-62mph time to 6.4 seconds. It's available without voiding the car's manufacturer warranty, too.

There are no details on the ST200's economy figures, but there shouldn't be too much difference from the standard ST's 47.9mpg and 138g/km efficiency. We'll have more details when we see the car in the metal on Ford's Geneva Motor Show stand very soon.

Get all the latest news from the 2016 Geneva Motor Show here...

Racing' upgrades add more power to the already feisty Fiesta, but they could invalidate your Ford warranty

'Racing' upgrades add more power to the already feisty Fiesta, but they could invalidate your Ford warranty

More practical Fiesta-based five-door Ka set to offer low running costs with ‘true Ford DNA’

Ford ’s new small car, the Ka +, will arrive in the second half of the year to do battle in the growing ‘value’ supermini sector.

+, will arrive in the second half of the year to do battle in the growing ‘value’ supermini sector. It'll replace the old Fiat 500-based Ka with a more practical body.

Although the Ka+ was first revealed as a concept in 2013, Ford engineers have tweaked the styling and interior to give it a more European flavour. Under the skin the new five-door only model sits on the current Ford Fiestaplatform with a similar wheelbase and 4,000mm length.

“The B-car value segment is exploding,” Ford of Europe boss Jim Farley told Auto Express, “Sales have doubled in the past few years. So we’re replacing Ka with Ka+ to compete in that segment" - competing with cars like the Hyundai i10.

“Don’t just think of it as a cheap car,” said Farley, “It’s very roomy, will have very low cost of ownership and it’ll have the driving dynamics of a Fiesta.”

Although Ford hasn’t released many details of the new Ka+, it will share engines with the current Fiesta but will likely do without the most powerful Ecoboost turbo petrols.

However, a new Fiesta is due to arrive in 2017, allowing Ford to position the car further away from Ka+ – so expect it to be bigger and more upmarket.

“This new car enables us to explore a more emotional Fiesta,” Farley told us. And when asked to explain what Ford means when it talks about producing more emotional cars, Farley said: “We want to give the mainstream customer the feeling of a speciality car, like the Ford Mustangor Focus RS, because it will have a strong personality.”

Inside, the Ka+ will be available with luxury features like a 4.2-inch infotainment screen in the centre of the car and a 2.3-inch TFT display between the main instruments. It’ll also get climate control and a leather steering wheel.

With prices set to start at around £8,000 – not far from Vauxhall’s Viva– top-spec Ka+ models are unlikely to cost more than £10,000. And to keep costs down, the car is likely to be built (and sold) in a developing market, with Ford’s plant in India the most likely production site.

Although Ford was clear to point out that the Ka+ is a one-off model with no immediate plans for anything other than a five-door car, Jim Farley responded to questions asking about the potential of other budget Ka models by saying, “We’d never say never. It’s a huge market with lots of customers out there.”

Get all the news from the 2016 Geneva Motor Show...

New Ford Fiesta RS rumours persist. The car could get 4WD and 250bhp

The prospect of a Ford Fiesta RS remains with Ford executive vice president of global marketing, sales and service, Steve Odell, hinting that Ford RS will gain a higer profile in future .

. That could eventually mean a hot Fiesta RS to join the new Ford Focus RSin Ford's hot hatch range.

Speaking on the eve of the 2016 Detroit Motor Show, Odell said that: “The RS brand is really valuable. People race it. People collect it. I believe there is room to expand.” He refused to elaborate on exactly which (if any) models would gain a flagship RS derivative. If the RS range is to expand then surely the Fiesta must be high on the list of models set to get an RS version.

Auto Express reported that Ford had plans for a Fiesta RS early in 2015 after company bosses strongly suggested to us an RS model was on the horizon for this generation of Fiesta, before the all-new model appears in 2017.  “The current Fiestahas another two- and-a-half years before it’s replaced. We’ll update the ST within that period, and after that there could be something else,”  said Tyrone Johnson, senior vehicle engineer for Ford Performance, at the time. Johnson’s hint tallies with Ford’s strategy of introducing RS models towards the end of a car’s lifecycle, and suggests a 2017 launch for the Fiesta RS.

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Ford Fiesta RS: rivals, specs and performance

The Fiesta RS would fall in line with the brand’s plan to build 12 globally developed performance models by 2020, it’s tipped to take on the Audi S1and forthcoming VW Polo R, and will join the new Focus RSat the most extreme end of the hot hatch spectrum.

Our exclusive image shows how Britain’s best-selling car could be transformed into a boy racer’s dream, complete with a trio of gaping intakes, bonnet vent, blistered arches and big wheels with a wider track.

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The most interesting changes are expected to take place under the skin, where the Fiesta’s front-wheel-drive layout could be swapped out for four-wheel drive, boosting traction significantly. It would also mirror Audiand VW’sstrategy with the powertrains of the S1 and Polo R, and draw closer links with the RS-badged Fiesta WRC car.

As for power output, Peugeothas already proven it’s possible to extract 270bhp from a 1.6-litre turbo, so expect the Fiesta to stick with its 1.6 EcoBoost engine, but tuned to at least 250bhp.

While Ford no longer financially backs the Fiesta WRC effort, it maintains a technical relationship with the M-Sport team, so will look to it for tips on building a reliable, highly tuned, small-capacity turbo engine and converting the Fiesta chassis to all-wheel drive.

Ford has flirted with the idea of a Fiesta RS in the past, when it introduced the Fiesta RS concept at 2004’s Geneva Motor Show, but the business case fell apart. However, it’s believed that with the global success of the current Fiesta STand two confirmed petrolheads at the helm of the company – Jim Farley (chairman and CEO, Ford of Europe) and Raj Nair (Ford group vice president, global product development) – the project is more likely this time around. As always with Ford, price will be key.

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The ST’s success has been underpinned by its £17,395 starting figure, so the RS should undercut the S1 by kicking off from about £22,000.

And don’t expect it to be a stripped-out track special, as Johnson explained: “It’s not hard to build a car that’s extreme in one direction; it’s getting the whole package right that matters.”

Johnson also offered some interesting insight into the hierachy of Ford’s performance car product plan. “There will be three categories that each of these 12 cars will fall into,” he said. “Enhanced technology – models like the Fiesta ST and Focus ST. High performance – things like the F150 Raptor, MustangGT350R and Focus RS. And then Ultra high-performance, which is the Ford GT.”

We asked if a new Fiesta RS could fall into the second bracket, and he smiled, saying: “Theoretically, it’s a possibility.”

Do you like the sound of a hot Fiesta RS? Let us know in the comments below...

Ford reveals Apple CarPlay tech for SYNC 3 system at CES, plus more plans for autonomous cars

Ford will be on the offensive this year, with the Focus RS , GT supercar and Edge SUV among the UK debuts.

SUV among the UK debuts. Plus, the Blue Oval will also be releasing brand new tech in the form of its 'SYNC 3' touchscreen infotainment system and expanding its autonomous car testing fleet.

At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES)in Las Vegas, Ford boss Mark Fields announced a handful of updates for the third-generation SYNC system. It'll bring a host of new features, including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity, plus the ability to check fuel levels and other data from a smartphone app.

It'll even be able to connect to smart home devices – so you could ask it to turn the lights on at home, and with the right tech installed in your house, the lamps will be on when you pull up on the driveway.

Fields also announced that Ford will be tripling its autonomous car fleet this year, taking the number of self-driving hybrid test vehicles being used across the US to 30. He did not address rumours of a partnership with Google, but hinted that chatter about Ford's autonomous tech should probably be disregarded.

SYNC 3 is already available on some models in the US, but it's expected to debut on this year's Edge SUV in the UK after its launch in the summer. It will then roll out across most of the range, with the Kuga, Mondeoand Focusthe next recipients.

The redesigned interface is clearer and easier to use, according to Ford. Most models fitted with it will likely be offered with both a capacitive touchscreen and buttons. But the biggest selling point will be full integration with your smartphone, allowing music streaming, full location services and improved voice recognition on the move. We'll get our chance to try Ford's new SYNC tech when we drive the new Edgelater in the year.

Get all the latest from CES 2016 here...

The ever-impressive VW Golf R super-hatch with a 605-litre boot. What's not to like?

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Manual version of MINI JCW hot hatch saves you money - and adds to the fun

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MINI's small crossover revives Park Lane special edition, gets distinctive styling add-ons and extra kit

Not to be outdone by the huge variety of new metal at this year's Geneva Motor Show , MINI is unveiling a new special edition of its Countryman compact crossover.

compact crossover. Set to go on sale in July, the Park Lane edition gets a raft of exterior and interior changes to add desirability.

Named after the location in Mayfair, London, MINI's Park Lane special edition first saw service on the original Alec Issigonis-designed car in 1987. Exterior add-ons for the Countryman include a two-tone paintjob: Earl Grey metallic paint is combined with Oak Red for the roof, mirror caps and body stripes on the bonnet and doors.

Additional aesthetic upgrades over the standard car include 18-inch alloy wheels in a dark grey hue, and the MINI ALL4 exterior package which brings silver trim for the front and rear bumper apron and side sills. Park Lane emblems also feature around the car, while LED foglamps and indicators also feature.

The interior features new silver and grey trim across the dashboard and centre console, while the Carbon Black trim on the doors complements the look. The Countryman Park Lane is available with an extensive array of optional equipment, including the firm's popular Chili Pack.

The special edition can be had with the firm's range of four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, in either front or optional four-wheel drive. The 189bhp turbocharged Cooper S variant can also be had with the treatment. Prices are unconfirmed as yet, but we'll hear more from the Geneva show.

Two families, two weeks: how will the new MINI 5-door fare in our practicality test?

Week one: The Wilson family
Darren, Dawn, George (14) , Harry (9)
My family has grown up with MINI s.

s. I tested my first One11 years ago, when my elder son, George, still needed a child seat and buggy. Then I ran an original Countrymanand appreciated all the extra space and practicality (and those pumped-up looks). So I couldn’t wait to get behind the wheel of the new five-door Cooper. Could it really retain that magical MINI fun factor and still free up space for my rapidly growing boys’ legroom? You bet – and then some.

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To be honest, my entire family was won over purely by the look of the car as soon as I pulled up outside our house. The chrome grille, metallic blue paint with a white roof, bonnet stripes – rarely have I seen them so excited. They didn’t even notice the two extra doors to begin with!

This illustrates how clever MINI has been in generating all the extra room and boot space while retaining the hatchback styling. And on the road? My wife Dawn loves the low driving position and the feeling of being ‘grounded’ while cornering, although she does have to keep checking the speedo as she feels like she’s driving too fast. The car is also a very stylish way to deliver the hats she makes as part of her millinary business.

Both my boys rave about it, too, as it ticks the ‘cool’ box for them. George actively asks to be dropped off at the front of the school and can fit his lanky legs (and a couple of guitars) in the back, while Harry likes the rear styling and throaty engine noise.

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I was hooked on the very first drive home from the office. The letterbox-shaped windscreen still reminds me of the original MINI. It’s like ‘driving in widescreen’ – and I absolutely love it!

Week two: The Hope family

Graham, Seema, Isla (5) and Erin (2)

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Darren couldn’t have been more effusive in his praise when he handed over the keys to the five-door, but I have to be honest – I had reservations about how it might cope with my family.

My two young daughters Isla and Erin don’t travel light, and we’ve been used to estatesand SUVs in recent times. Could we really cope with something much smaller, albeit now with a family friendly five-door layout?

I needn’t have worried. Sure there were one or two compromises to be made, but with a little planning we made our time with the MINI work well – and of course, just like Darren, dad loved driving it.

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Our first challenge, of course, was to fit the girls’ child seats. Initially I was sceptical we’d be able to squeeze Erin’s swivelling Maxi-Cosi Axiss and Isla’s Kiddicare booster in, but by moving the front seats forward and angling the kids’ seats precisely through the rear door openings, we were off to a decent start. Securing the seats themselves was straightforward enough – casings around the Isofix points made locating them easy.

The next issue was boot space – would the MINI’s 278 litres be sufficient to accommodate Erin’s Bugaboo buggy, which travels with us everywhere, and Isla’s scooter? Again, no problem. They fitted in comfortably, although admittedly there wasn’t an awful lot of room left when we made our weekly trip to the supermarket – some of the shopping had to sit in the rear footwell.

To be honest, though, that was no big deal. Because once we had all our gear in situ, the MINI proved itself more than capable of ferrying around a young family. Getting the children in and out on a daily basis was no great chore, and predictably Isla loved how it looked.

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Sure, using the MINI to go on holiday might be a challenge, but for regular day-to-day use? It’s absolutely fine.

And the real highlight? Well, for me it was simply looking forward to every journey on account of how enjoyable it is to drive – even when you have to rein things in as the kids are in the back. Great news, then, for the dads of the UK. Here’s an affordable car they can look great in and drive spiritedly – plus still move their family from A to B. Perfect!

The Magic of MINI: special feature

First UK drive of the new MINI Cooper 5-door, which offers extra practicality over the 3-door

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Honda's sporty new Civic design marks a step-change from the current model's divisive styling

The current-generation Honda Civic is getting a little long in the tooth, and is due an update next year.

is getting a little long in the tooth, and is due an update next year. The current car will be replaced by a sleeker, more stylish model - a concept of which was revealed at the Geneva Motor Showearlier in the year. Now, though, our spies have spotted the production car undergoing testing on the road.

As you can see in our spy shots, the car loses the current version's high back, instead featuring a lower roofline with a steep rear screen. The bonnet is much longer than before as well, and it looks like the new model will get a sportier front bumper - a toned-down version of the one on the concept car.

At the back the central twin exhaust pipes from the concept remain, suggesting that this could be a quicker Type S model. You can just about make out the new taillights as well, which are also inspired by the concept's boomerang-shaped rear lamps.

Auto Express was granted an early interview with the chief designer of Geneva's concept to find out more about the upcoming 10th-generation hatchback.

While the HondaCivic concept car you see here is strictly for modelling purposes, it gives us a good idea of how the new model will look when it hits showrooms in February next year.

Principal designer, Diasuke Tsutamori told Auto Express: “This prototype is already on a very close level to mass production. When you see the final car, you will probably think it’s still the prototype.”

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It’s a stark departure from the current car, which has often been criticised for its divisive styling. At the front, you’ll notice the short overhangs and large air intakes, as well as all-new LED headlamps that give the car a fresh look. Unfortunately, the green foglights don’t meet current EU legislation!

Along the side there’s a sculpted line that runs the length of the car, breaking by the rear door handle to emphasise the rear haunches. A high bootlid and that familiar visibility-sneering spoiler finish it off, but Tsutamori insists that the now one-piece rear window will make manoeuvring infinitely easier than before.

“The current Civic has two weak points”, he said. “One is the rear visibility and the other is the high stance from the rear view.

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“These two points were eliminated with the new design. We have lowered the rear spoiler and reduced its thickness. The window is now just one sheet so you do not have obstacles limiting your rear view.”

New 10th generation Civic Type R 'under consideration'

Distinctive C-shaped LED rear lights mark out the car at night, while the dual exhausts are likely only to feature on the most powerful Civic Type Rversions. And while Tsutamori and his team wouldn’t confirm a hotter 10th-generation car, he hinted that such a car is under consideration.

“You can take it as a fact that this Civic hatchback already has enough material and talent in order to make a Type R out of it”, he said.

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It takes its inspiration from the US-market Civic Coupe, adding a pair of doors and a useful hatchback at the rear. It certainly looked the part in our Frankfurt studio, though the true test will come when it sits alongside mainstream rivals on UK and European roads later down the line.

Tsutamori told us: “We knew we needed to create a striking and stand-out exterior design that challenged conventional European styling. The result is a marriage of distinctive and sporty design, rewarding driving dynamics and versatile practicality.”

Improved practicality and versatility for the new Civic

As this car is a prototype, Honda has left out a few key components. If you’re wondering what it looks like inside, you’ll need to wait a little longer – this car doesn’t have a dashboard or even seats. We therefore can’t comment on interior design, quality or even headroom, for our model’s doors were firmly locked.

That said, like Tsutamori insisted earlier, the new car will offer practicality and versatility on a par with its closest rivals. The new car is 30mm wider, 20mm lower and 130mm longer than the current car. Bosses assure us the large wheels and long wheelbase of the prototype will remain, hinting at a sportier yet roomier family hatchback.

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“The decisive factor is the human being. We believe the amount of space in this car is absolutely sufficient in order to fulfil that requirement. Practicality is always key in our design.”

The show car is without engine either, though Honda has confirmed the production car will be the first in its range to feature the new 1.0 and 1.5-litre VTEC turbo engines, along with a heavily revised 1.6-litre i-DTEC diesel.

It’ll be built at the brand’s manufacturing facility in Swindon, UK, and confirms a £215m investment in new technology and processes that will be in place when the car goes into production later this year.

Get all the latest news from the 2016 Geneva Motor Show here...

New Volkswagen Golf GTi will have up to 325bhp when it hits the UK in 2019; our images show how it might look.

Each and every Volkswagen Golf to date has been flanked by a hot GTI version, with the current car pumping out as much as 286bhp in flagship Clubsport form.

form. The Mk8 will be no different, and the GTI is likely to feature a new 2.0 TSI engine with as much as 325bhp.

The new hot Golf, which is due shortly after the standard car, in 2019, will get a significant power hike, with even the entry-level model producing in the region of 260bhp. There will be a more powerful Performance Pack car with 300bhp, as well as an evolution of the Clubsport version with 325bhp.

Our exclusive images reveal how the GTI could look, although it’s likely to be subject to subtle changes given the new details portrayed in our pictures. Yet expect all the usual sporty styling cues – like the beefed-up bumpers and red detailing, along with the trademark tartan seats.

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This being a GTI, all versions will be front-wheel drive, and with a choice of six-speed manual or DSG auto boxes. However, the DSG won’t be a rehash of the old six or seven-speed units, but the world’s first 10-speed twin-clutch set-up.

It’s a similar size and weight as the current seven-speed DSG, and designed to work with the Golf’s MQB architecture, and is being engineered not only for snappy shifts and a sporty feel, but to cut fuel consumption significantly. Capable of handling up to 550Nm of torque, it’s set to be used in the Mk8 Golf GTI, Golf GTDand Golf R; lesser models will make do with the more cost-effective seven-speeder.

VW has been dropping hints about the look of future sporty Golfs, and the common thread is more aggression, while retaining classic GTI cues. In 2013, the Golf Design Vision GTI Conceptwowed the Wörthersee tuning show in Austria with its bigger wheels, sculpted body and sharp, exaggerated nose.

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Then, at the same event in 2014, the brand unleashed the 395bhp plug-in hybrid Golf GTE Sport concept, which continued the angrier design theme and applied it to an even lower-slung coupé body shape with bonkers gullwing doors. Our images show how the new GTI will take the Mk8 Golf’s conservative silhouette and pump it up with a deeper front bumper housing C-shaped LED running lights, lower side sills and a rear diffuser with a pair of Coke can-sized tailpipes. The trademark red pinstripe runs the width of the grille and into slimmer LED headlamps, underscoring the red GTI badge.

And we may not have to wait long before VW shows its cards. Rumours abound that it will present a new concept at January’s Consumer Electronics Showin Las Vegas. This technology demonstrator, possibly with a full electric powertrain, could also give a big clue towards the styling of the Golf Mk8 (rendering below).

So the various versions of the new GTI will look sharper, be faster and use far less fuel – and that’s not entirely down to the more powerful engines. VW is expected to use innovative new steel-polymer sandwich tech for selected body panels, cutting weight for those components by as much as 30 per cent. By sticking thin sheets of steel either side of a polymer core, the weight of the Golf’s bonnet, for example, can be reduced by 2kg or so. Carbon fibre is still much lighter and more rigid, of course, but costs much more.

With the GTI family covering so much more of the hot hatch market than before, the big question is where this leaves the even hotter and traditionally four-wheel-drive Golf R. The word from Wolfsburg is that there are several options, all explored in recent concept cars.

The most obvious option, and current front runner, is to use a version of the highly strung 395bhp 2.0 TSI engine from 2014’s R400 concept, with four-wheel drive and a 10-speed DSG box. An R400 version (spotted below) of the current Golf is expected to go on sale in 2016, so the next Golf R could take things even further, extracting around 420bhp from the turbocharged four-cylinder.

Other alternatives include fitting the new twin-turbo 3.0-litre VR6 engine, showcased in 496bhp form in 2013’s Golf Design Vision GTI concept. It would be a popular move with US customers who still value cylinder count and cubic capacity, but could be seen as a regressive step by bosses in Germany.

The third and most radical idea is to use the plug-in hybrid powertrain from the Golf GTE Sport concept. This combines a 295bhp 1.6 TSI engine derived from the Polo WRC rally car with two electric motors on the rear axle for a total of 395bhp and 670Nm of torque, and gave the concept 0-62mph in 4.3 seconds and 141mpg economy.

Whatever VW chooses, one thing’s clear: a hot hatch power war is in full swing, and with its trio of GTIs, producing a minimum of 260bhp, plus a ballistic Golf R in the pipeline, the brand has all the firepower it needs to see off the competition.

Generation Golf: a history of the VW Golf GTI

Volkswagen invented the hot hatch with the original GTI nearly four decades ago, and it’s been setting the standard in this market pretty much ever since. We look back over the seven generations of high-performance Golf to give you an idea of what the new Mk8 model will have to live up to when it hits showrooms in 2019...

Mk1 (1977-1984)

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Where it all began. Only 34 left-hand-drive models sold in the UK in 1977, weighing 810kg each and using a 110bhp 1.6 engine.

Mk2 (1984-1992)

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Built on success of Mk1 with a 112bhp 1.8-litre. UK sales peaked at 17,193 in 1989 – nearly 50 per cent of all Golf sales at the time.

Mk3 (1992-1998)

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Started with an 8V 112bhp 2.0-litre engine, but 150bhp 16V version of the same engine in 1993 cut 0-60mph time to 8.3 seconds.

Mk4 (1998-2004)

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Made big strides on refinement and safety, but slated for its dull styling and stodgy handling. Peaked with 178bhp 25th anniversary.

Mk5 (2004-2008)

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A serious return to form, the Mk5 had a 197bhp 2.0-litre turbo, more distinctive styling and multi-link rear suspension.

Mk6 (2009-2013)

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Heavily revised version of the Mk5 was another hit. With 207bhp it was no powerhouse, but it continued to outhandle rivals.

Mk7 (2013 to date)

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New MQB platform opened up a world of tech, while 227bhp Performance Pack brought electronic front differential and bigger brakes.

Now read our long-term test review of the Mk7 VW Golf GTI here...