Audi A4 Allroad

It’s an estate that thinks it’s an SUV! The A4 allroad follows in the footsteps of the larger A6 allroad by equipping a plush family car with the ability to tackle the rough stuff. But do the dubious modifications bring anything new to the table and more importantly, can they justify the significant price hike?

The formula is fairly simple. Take an SE-spec A4 quattro Avant and raise the ride height by 37millimetres, giving it just 20 millimetres less ground clearance than the more rugged Q5. Then add an off-road ESP system and finish it off with more utilitarian plastic wheel arches and rugged bunpers.

Joking aside though, the beefed-up looks are a success – giving the allroad a road presence that the standard Avant simply can’t muster, without attracting unwanted attention from the anti-SUV brigade. Take a closer look and Audi has also worked hard on the finer details which give this car a personality all of its own.

There are real stainless steel guards, to stop you crunching your underbody components on uneven ground, and the boot is full of useful nets and dividers. So whether your boot’s full of shopping or more extreme outdoor equipment it won’t be bouncing around in the back. And for the style conscious out there, the new optional 18-inch 10-spoke alloys look spot on.

As we’ve come to expect from Audi, the interior is a fantastic place to be. However, we wouldn’t recommend the colour combination of our test car unless your staying strictly on the tarmac. The light cream carpets were muddy within minutes, while the grainy wood trim was somewhat out of keeping with the car’s fundamental character.

Audi’s new iPod-inspired colour screen looks great, while the new dash-mounted eco-driving display is genuinely useful. Not only does it tell you which gear to be in, it warns you if the rear air conditioning is on when there are no passengers in the back, so there’s no excuse to waste fuel.

To boost its green appeal further 2.0 TDI also gets stop start, which works well, but is a bit aggressive on restart, sending vibrations through the cabin. But the diesel engine really suits the allroad’s workhorse nature, offering plenty of refined mid-range torque while keeping cabin noise to a minimum.

But the most impressive, and perhaps unexpected improvement is its ride. Historically German cars are setup to have a very firm, sporty ride, which is fine on the super-smooth Autobahn and during hard cornering, but pretty uncompromising on Britain’s scarred and rutted A-roads.
The allroad is different. Its raised ride height allows the suspension more travel, making the ride a softer and more supple. Quite simply it’s the best riding A4 you can buy.

And when you turn off the roads and hit the tracks, the allroad doesn’t disgrace itself either. It’s no proper SUV, but the offroad ESP system, as featured in the Q5, works well at keeping you moving in slippy conditions and it won’t bottom out unless the terrain gets really tricky.
Audi has a very precise target customer for the A4 allroad, and if the German firm has done its research right, the 350 examples it plans to sell in the UK in the remainder of 2009 will turn Audi a tidy profit.

A standard A4 Avant SE costs £26,000, whereas this 2.0-litre TDI allroad costs nearer the £30,000 mark. Audi also expects most customers add around £9,000 worth of options, so when you consider the relatively small development costs of this car it clearly an extremely shrewd move from Audi.

Audi Q7

These are the pictures which prove Audi never sleeps!

The testers were out late at night in the revised Q7, but our photographers were ready for them.
They bring you these pictures, showing a more aggressive front and rear fascias. These hint at S-Line trim, as do the model's large alloy wheels pictured here. To finish off the facelift, the trademark LED running lights and taillights have been updated.

The model isn't due in showrooms until 2011, but buyers interested can expect a starting price similar to that of the current £37k Q7.

World Car of the Year

The new VW Golf has swept the board to claim the title of World Car of the Year 2009. The announcement was made at the New York Motor Show today, confirming the German hatch had beaten the other two finalists – the Ford Fiesta and Toyota IQ – to the crown.

A total of 59 jurors from 25 countries across the world, including Auto Express’ own Mike Rutherford, chose a top ten from a shortlist of 51 cars back in January. That list was then shorted to just three after all ten hopefuls were graded individually in categories such as value and environmental impact.

Former winners include the Mazda2 in 2008 and the Lexus LS460 the year before that.

New Astra Unveiled

It’s the shock of the week – this is the first official picture of Vauxhall’s new Astra! In a measure of the desperation that the company faces, this image of its new compact family car has just arrived at Auto Express without any warning at all, completely out of the blue!
The new Ford Focus rival has finally broken cover in five-door form – although there’s also a striking three-door variant and a Sport Tourer estate version on the way too.

As you can see, it’s clear from this image that it’s taking much of its inspiration from its big brother, the Insignia. It boasts a sporty look with a low nose and high tail, mixing a sleeker version of the Insignia’s nose along with the same stylish kick along its flanks.

Set to go on sale before the end of the year, the new model will be based on troubled parent company General Motors’ Delta platform – which recently made its debut on the Chevrolet Cruze.

Longer by 100mm and wider too, with a 2.7m wheelbase (up 86mm), the new Astra will protect its occupants better in the event of a crash and will offer more space inside than the current car. It will also take a leap forward on quality, with more stylish version of the Insignia’s cabin.
There will be a host of new small fuel efficient engines too, including a 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol turbo and a range of 1.3, 1.7 and 2.0 litre CDTi turbodiesels, with Ecoflex versions boasting CO2 emissions of less than 120g/km.

The flagship Astra VXR three-door will boast a sporty look with a coupe-style body and a diffuser-style rear bumper arrangement. It will get a 270bhp version of the current 2.0-litre turbo engine.

Other variants will include a Sport Tourer estate model which will boast class-leading boot space thanks to a body that’s some 20cm longer than that of the five-door hatchback. The Astra range will also spawn a new seven-seater Zafira too, going on sale in 2012.

For the full low-down on the new Astra plus first official pictures of the Insignia VXR performance variant, make sure you get your copy of Auto Express, on sale April 15th.

Holden Barina three-door

Holden's light car, the Barina, has been perhaps the most obvious manifestation of what some regard as a back-sliding syndrome afflicting the local manufacturer's imported product range.
The basic problem is not so much the car's South Korean origins as cost-cutting and the age of the design. This is a car that first saw the light of day here in Australia as the Daewoo Kalos back in 2003. That makes it six years old -- and the rest of the VFACTS Light car segment has moved on...

This reviewer recalls driving the Daewoo Kalos way back when and -- relative to its competitors -- it wasn't too bad. Whether time has dulled the memory or it really is a case of the segment progressing in leaps and bounds in the interim, the Barina appears to have regressed. Other than late last year's facelift and safety upgrade (albeit worthwhile), very little about the Barina has changed in a positive way since it was (re)introduced with a Holden badge in 2005.
Even the facelift hardly improves the Barina's looks.

Take for an example the gearshift. Its action is woeful and the first to second shift is slow and sticky, with the engine not winding down on the overrun. Plus the whole setup is further diminished by the shift lever, which is as elegant to use as a quarter staff.

Refinement and build quality are two more major sticking points in the Barina. Interior plastics are hard and tend to squeak as they rub together over bumps and around corners. Some of the switchgear, like the indicator stalk for example, feel 'click-clack' cheap. At least, unlike the Daewoo Kalos, the Barina's interior vinyl doesn't 'pong' atrociously.

There's no left footrest and the clutch take-up of the road test car was so high that we had to adjust the seat some way back from the wheel, making it a stretch for both the steering wheel and the gearshift. In this position, there's negligible room for rear-seat occupants.

There's what you might call adequate headroom in the rear for average-sized adults, but access to the rear is not at all easy in the three-door car. It's about placing the left foot in the footwell and using both hands to drag oneself in through the tight space between B-pillar and driver's seat before pirouetting on the foot already in the footwell, lifting the other foot behind and collapsing awkwardly into the seat. Alright for kids, but not so graceful if you're an adult.
And heaven knows how you would cope if you're a young mum attempting to lift a wriggling toddler into a child seat.

As already mentioned though, the interior space is otherwise fairly commodious. That spaciousness probably comes at the expense of luggage capacity, since the rear compartment is not huge by even the standards of other Light cars.

The seats are firm and flat for the most part. There was no anticipation they would be anything marvellous, but they actually did a fair job of holding the occupant in place during cornering and supported the driver properly -- although they're still not what you would call comfortable for a longer trip.

At 10.06m, according to Holden's specifications, the Barina's turning circle is marginally better than that of the Ford Fiesta's, but the Ford is also ever so slightly longer in the wheelbase.
The Barina's steering, while not up to the benchmark set by the Fiesta, provides some feedback. Response is a bit slow, but the handling, once the car commits to the corner is not bad and the overall grip is pretty good.

It's a bit throttle-sensitive in its handling and tracks through a tighter arc with the power off, but doesn't feel twitchy at any point. As far as a dead basic and cheap car is concerned, it's relatively secure in its dynamics. In fact, the car is closer to neutral than expected.
There's some body roll in corners, but it's bearable.

At open-road speeds, the steering seems just a touch vague. There's some general wind noise and some vibration from the engine, but nothing much else from the road.
That changes once the car leaves the freeway. The audibility of the tyres picks up on any sort of bitumen country road, but it's possibly a general sound insulation problem, rather than the tyres themselves.

The Barina is like a return to the good (bad) old days of Korean NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) -- and a far cry from the latest products of the country such as Kia's Cerato, Hyundai's i30 and the Renault Koleos. In particular, the Holden's engine, which has a throaty sort of note at lower engine speeds, is pretty thrashy above 4000rpm. It just doesn't encourage harder driving.

While it has the sort of user-friendly torque that allows you to change up at low engine speeds on the flat, it's short on power for tackling hills. It struggles to maintain speed on quite common grades around the suburbs and, on one hilly section of country road, would not accelerate in third gear above 4500rpm (approximately 80km/h road speed) with the foot flat to the floor and only the driver on board.

We were wondering whether the problem lay with the five-speed manual transmission's gear ratios, but the final drive and gearing are actually configured for lower-speed running relative to the engine revs. That helps the Barina muster enough grunt to spin a drive wheel away from a standing start on dry bitumen and the in-gear acceleration on the flat seems constant across the rev range. However, as stated, throw a hill the Barina's way and it just seems to resign itself to plodding.

In respect of vision, there's good and bad. The Barina's headlights are actually quite effective on high beam and adequate on low beam, but the C-pillars in the three-door body are an unfortunate hindrance to reverse-parking. Backing the Barina involves more guesswork than similar manoeuvring in a Holden Ute on the Carsales Network test fleet the week before -- and utes are notoriously annoying to back.

The Barina is just possibly the worst car tested in recent memory for lousy field of vision -- and this is a car that stands a 50/50 chance of being driven by mothers up to the local school to pick up the kids.

It's not just a bollard in a carpark or another car you might collect as you're backing.
Much has been written about the Barina and relatively little of it positive. We approached the car with an open-minded view, but this car has disappointed by being everything light cars once were... And hopefully won't be again.

Ford Mondeo

So here it is – our overall champion of 2007... the Number One car in the UK. The new Mondeo is the most crucial model for some time from Britain’s biggest car maker. And we are delighted to report it proves conclusively that the family car’s obituary, written with the rise of the compact executive sector, is premature.

With its third-generation model, Ford has come bursting back, injecting vitality and desirability into what had become a stagnant breed. Glitzy and brimming with self-confidence, it’s not as brave as the Iosis concept from which it drew inspiration, but it’s crisply styled yet practical and eye-catching, without being ostentatious.

And don’t forget that building a car in this class is one of the most challenging tasks in the entire motoring industry. Make a coupé look good and you have a hit on your hands, but here the brief is far more complex.

The Mondeo has to be all things to all men. A commuting hack one minute, a family hauler the next, able to cut it in the company car park and the multi-storey, plus on every road from traffic-choked urban streets to remote rural routes. The Mondeo delivers effortlessly, performing with aplomb everywhere. It steers beautifully, rides with a composure and smoothness that’s absent from even the best German executives, handles tautly and has a great range of engines. It’s also vast inside, rivals VW’s Passat for quality, is clearly laid out and with its great refinement and comfort levels takes the sting out of everyday driving. Its sheer adaptability, and all-round excellence, have won it this award. The Ford Mondeo represents a new breed of family car.

M's the word for hottest X5 and X6

It's M for mighty! Following in the wheel tracks of the M3 and M5, BMW has set its M Performance arm to work on its off-roaders – and the result is two of the fastest, most powerful SUVs ever: the X6 M and X5 M.

On sale in October, both are powered by a newly developed 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 that produces 555bhp and an incredible 680Nm of torque from a mere 1,500rpm. That’s enough to rocket the 4x4s from 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds and on to an electronically limited top speed of 155mph – or 171mph if owners specify the optional M Driver’s Package.

Standard transmission is an uprated six-speed paddleshift auto, which cuts the ignition briefly for extra-fast upshifts. Launch control is also fitted.

Both cars get an intelligent 4x4 system that varies power distribution to improve cornering, along with air-suspension, adaptive dampers and speed-sensitive steering. Also standard is a dramatic bodykit, 20-inch alloy wheels and M badging.

Low fuel economy and high emissions mean owners need deep pockets: both cars return 20.3mpg combined and put out 325g/km of CO2. Prices have yet to be confirmed, but the X5 M is likely to cost £60,000-plus and the X6 M in excess of £70,000