Mercedes-Benz E-Class CDI BlueEFFICIENCY

Another mental marker has popped into my head – 500Nm of torque. That’s 369 lb ft, but 500 is easier to remember and it’s a number the high-end Germans seem to cluster their diesels around.
A quick glance at the stats in the back of the book reveals that the 3.0-litre V6 TDI in the Audi A4 makes 500Nm of torque. The BMW 330d makes 500Nm too – a 3.0-litre straight six diesel. And so does this new diesel engine in the E-Class, the E250 CDI.

This is a remarkable engine. It’s only a four, that’s the impressive bit – it’s the same 2,143cc unit fitted to the single-turbo C200 CDI and C220 CDI. But in this application, it has twin sequential turbochargers running at full puff. Good.
The lag-free slug of torque is deep and fine from tickover, and slings this relatively big car forward at an eye-widening rate. It’s almost bizarre. You would never expect it, given the quite loud, dull drone of the four-pot – it’s almost as if a silent 5.0-litre V8 has been slung in the boot to help out.
It dispatches 0-62mph in 8.2 seconds and returns 47.1mpg on the combined cycle. That’s an impressive combo and makes this the engine of choice in the new E-Class – it’s clean too at 154g/km, so road tax is only £150 a year.
Oh, and one more mental marker for you: specific torque output is 233.2Nm per litre. If you can think of an engine that beats it, send us a postcard.
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Mazda 3 i-stop

Time for some science for piston heads. When this Mazda 3’s engine is stopped, the car’s new i-stop system – the company’s first crack at stop/start – knows which piston is in the best position to restart quickest. It’s the one in the combustion stroke phase, where air and fuel are in the cylinder and ready to be ignited. Sensors pinpoint which cylinder that is, before the mixture is sparked and ignited, forcing that piston down first and firing the engine into life faster. It’s like placing bike pedals just past noon, making it easier to push down and move off.
You might think that’s the most pointless factoid ever, but Mazda is justifiably quite proud of that kind of detail. And it makes a difference. When you press the clutch, the engine takes just 0.35 seconds to get going. By comparison, BMW’s stop-starters take 0.7secs, because the starter motor has to churn the engine in a conventional fashion. If you’re first at the lights and you’re determined to use your stop/start, that speck of time is significant.

The problem is keeping it stopped. If you want to run the aircon or wipers or de-misters, it’ll only switch off for a few seconds or sometimes not at all. Despite having a second battery to run the starter motor, i-stop is reluctant to do its thing unless you switch everything off. We tested the car in 25° heat, selecting a 20° cabin temp, and it could only manage about four seconds before calling on the engine again. That’s not good enough in less-than-strenuous conditions, but it’s a problem we’ve experienced with other makes of car.

And then there’s the engine itself: a naturally aspirated 2.0-litre with direct-injection. Not the obvious choice for a stop/start system, which would usually be fitted to a diesel or smaller petrol. Trouble is, i-stop works most efficiently with a direct-injection engine (because less fuel is wasted in the restart process), and Mazda only has two of those on its books – this one, and the 2.3-litre

from the CX7. Diesel is incompatible with i-stop in its current state, due to a lack of spark ignition and an extra phase to its combustion cycle. The 2.0-litre manages 41.5mpg and 159g/km – not bad, but it doesn’t feel substantial enough (consider that a BMW 120i with a conventional stop/start system hits 44.1mpg).
Yes, it’s an interesting system, and the speed of the restart is impressive, but i-stop doesn’t quite make sense with this engine. Mazda is working on a solution to that diesel problem and is designing some smaller direct-injection engines too. Only when that happens, and when it works better with the air-conditioning, will i-stop really start to shine.
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Mercedes-Benz B-Class driven

Mercedes-Benz B-Class driven-Prices £24,170

Apparently, the new B-Class is the ‘most significantly changed Mercedes-Benz model ever introduced’. A bit of PR puffery, or a coded admission that the outgoing car wasn’t up to much? Whatever, the new B is officially a Very Big Deal indeed. Why? Because Merc’s new compact car platform underpins it, and will sire not just the new A-Class, but also a mini-SUV, a small coupe and something else that is currently tbc (a cross-over thingy?) There is – quite literally – a lot riding on it.
Proof of this comes in the extravagantly mustachioed form of Daimler-Benz CEO Dr Dieter Zetsche, who has gatecrashed the car‘s Vienna launch to invite TopGear on a personal test drive and discussion. We’re flattered. Dr Z is one of the industry’s biggest hitters. German chancellor Angela Merkel is probably never off the blower bemoaning the Eurozone crisis, yet here he is for some TG face-time.
Initially, there are seven different new B-Class models, in various states of trim, powered by two all-new, direct-injection, transversely mounted, turbocharged engines (a 1.6-litre petrol with either 122 or 156bhp, and a 1.8-litre common-rail diesel with 109 or 136bhp). A six-speed manual is standard, and there’s the option of a DSG automatic (both also all-new, the double clutch being the correct approach for front-drive Mercs, but not rear-drive, according to Dr Z).
Other top-line highlights include the arrival as standard of another new Mercedes Assist safety system, this time called Collision Prevention Assist (isn’t that what the brake pedal is for?). A radar-based set-up which issues visual and audible warnings, it also primes the brakes for maximum attack (“a costly innovation”, says the boss, “[which] we compare to the ESP in the first A-Class, and it didn’t take a moose to get us there this time”).
The chassis, of course, is also all-new, as is the multi-link rear suspension, and the electro-mechanical steering (with its on-demand power assistance, it’s part of the B’s suite of eco measures alongside start/stop and brake energy recapture). “This is the most significant thing Mercedes has done for some time,” the boss reiterates, as we set off.
Is the new B a looker? Not really, but buying a compact people carrier for its shape is like hiring Wayne Rooney to write a thesis on Nietzsche. In silver and on the right wheels, it looks fine, jetting in the body-side crease that enlivens the CLS, and generally looking a lot less apologetic than the outgoing model.
It’s also impressively aerodynamic: in full beardy Eco trim, its drag coefficient is 0.24Cd, with 0.26Cd the norm in the range. This emphasis on aero was trendy back in the early Eighties; now, it’s all about the quest to reduce emissions and improve efficiency. And it’s worked: the B180 CDI with DSG delivers a claimed 64.2mpg and 116g/km of CO2, while the B200 CDI takes things just over the 120g/km barrier.
If you have kids or have ever had a dodgy back, or indeed both, you will appreciate the B-Class’s ‘H’ (for hip) point. In fact, a decent ‘H’ point is one of the reasons you’d get a car like this, and there’s something perversely thrilling about effectively walking into a car‘s cabin. But I also like sitting ‘in’ a car, as opposed to ‘on’ it, which is where the new B-Class is a huge improvement over the old, mainly because the unusual (and costly) double-floor system has gone, and the seats are mounted 86mm lower. Behind the wheel (the same as you’ll find in the CLS, coincidentally), it no longer feels likea small Routemaster bus, either.
In fact, it feels like a compact but substantial Merc: clear dials, premium materials, funky air vents, and the same easy-to-use instrument topography as in bigger Mercs. The multi-media and nav display is now sited in a screen that sits above those air vents doing an uncanny impersonation of an iPad. It’s bright and airy, with seemingly infinite headroom, with or without the panoramic roof.
Roomy in the back, too, with seats that can slide backwards and forwards, and fold in the usual bewildering ways, although the middle seat on the rear bench isn’t up to much, and with five people on-board, luggage space is squeezed. The new B’s packaging is future-proofed, however, for electric and fuel-cell derivatives, which are being worked on right now.
On top of the available SE or Sport designations, the options list is dense with costly possibility: you can choose between Chrome, Sports, Exclusive or Night packages, and much of the available kit has come from bigger, posher Mercs. A £50k B-Class? Insanity, obviously, but a distinct possibility.
It’s perfectly nice to drive, especially in punchy B200 CDI Sport form. Although its centre of gravity is lower than before, it’s still not that keen on being pushed beyond its comfort zone, a situation the vagaries of the electro-mechanical steering don’t do much to help. But that comfort zone is now very comfortable indeed, and it rides sweetly – even on the bigger wheels and firmer Sport suspension settings – and muffles road and wind noise effectively. The pokier diesel is better than the petrol version I tried, simply because of its fatter mid-range torque envelope, and though the new manual ‘box is very good, the DSG is better.
Crucially, the whole package vaults the B-Class forward. The old B felt like an afterthought, one of those cars you sensed even Mercedes felt slightly sheepish about. The new one feels just like a big Merc, only smaller. With prices starting at £21,290, the premium Mercedes charges is now at least easier to justify, though we’d still encourage you to shop around. This is a tight segment these days.
Source : car reviews and Auto News at http://autocarsfans.com

Audi R8 V10 R-Tronic

Audi R8 V10 R-Tronic-prices £99,575

Audi hasn’t transformed the R8 by adding a pair of cylinders. Not like Porsche transforms the 911 by adding a pair of turbos anyway. No, the R8 V10 is basically an R8 V8 that’s faster, a little grippier, and better equipped.
Which means it’s the perfect everyday-use supercar. A Gallardo (with which the Audi shares an engine) is too noisy to be more than a special-occasions car. And if ‘everyday’ includes the British winter, well you won’t want to be getting by on 2WD.
The 525bhp engine has an astonishing spread of power, pulling hard from low in the rev range and getting pregressively and implausibly stronger all the way to an 8,700rpm red-line.
And the magical, predictable, transparent handling of the V8 car isn’t messed up by the extra power. This is a car that always seems to be on your side.
The launch price looks high, but at least it doesn’t need any extras. The R Tronic and the carbon-ceramic brakes are both a waste of money unless you want to do track days. And actually this isn’t a track-day car.
It’s too civilised for that.
Source : car reviews and Auto News at http://autocarsfans.com

Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.4 TB 170 HP

Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.4 TB 170 HP-Price £20,795

The Alfa Romeo Giulietta is a far better car than the 147. That may be no great revelation – the 147 has been knocking around for a full decade now, and has long been usurped by younger, lither rivals – so here’s a bigger one: the Giulietta might just be the best car that Alfa has built in its 100 years of existence.
But it isn’t a better Alfa.
Sounds nonsensical? Stick with us. While the Giulietta does all the proper, grown-up car stuff – build quality, refinement, economical engines – better than just about any of its predecessors, it comes at the expense of Alfa’s essential… Alfaness. Character. Passion. God-give-me-one-now-and-to-hell-with-the-residuals desirability. The Giulietta is an easy car to admire and like,
but not one that grabs you lustily by the man-parts.
It must be conceded that we don’t have the ideal conditions in which to fall helplessly in love with the Giulietta on our early test drive. As we arrive at Alfa’s Balocco test facility, just off the Milan-Turin road in northern Italy (Mi-To, reads the sign pointing to the motorway), rain is falling with a weight and ferocity that suggests someone’s done something massive to upset Him/Her/Them Upstairs. A Golf remains a Golf no matter what the weather, but an Alfa somehow requires big blue skies and shimmering warmth. Shallow, perhaps, but hey, it’s an Alfa. Shallowness is somewhere near the top of the CV.
Through the rain, our white test car looks every inch the big brother to the Mito. Normally we’d steer clear of discussing aesthetics at any great length, because (a) you have eyes and (b) someone keeps casting Kirsten Dunst in films, so clearly taste must be subjective. But Alfa has always relied on visual oomph to sell cars, so forgive us a few demi-objective points. First, the Giulietta is massively colour-dependent.
Those sharp creases down the bonnet simply become lost in darker shades, making the front end look too tall and shapeless. Secondly, though you’ll have spotted the resemblance to the new Megane and Astra about the rear-end profile, the Giulietta’s is a far more subtle backside, the cutaway swage lines taking a lot of the bulk out of what could look like a fat arse. The jewellery is gorgeous, the LED rear lights tracing a lazy, unwinding delta towards the central badge, the handle-free rear door as elegant as ever.
But, for our ha’pence worth, that big upright grille lacks the intrinsic elegance of the Brera and 159′s slinky front end. OK, the Giulietta looks a lot more distinctive than the Audi A3, its most obvious rival, but is it properly beautiful? For us, not quite. Not yet.
Same story in the cabin. Nice, but not irresistible. There are flashes of loveliness in here. The row of ‘horseshoe’ switches below the central control panel are soft-touch and beautifully damped, the vents on the centre console slimline and classy, and the leather looks like it would taste of finest Argentinian fillet if you licked it. Just a few more flashes of originality would have raised the Giuletta’s interior to proper ‘need one now’ levels, but too much of it is over-familiar: the steering wheel switches are straight off a Fiat Punto, the plasticky glove-box door seems to have been nicked from a Doblo van. Of course, all premium manufacturers indulge in a degree of parts snatching from their cheaper cousins, but it all depends on where you hide ‘em: the Giulietta’s borrowed bits remain too exposed.
Right. Enough navel-gazing. With the rain now reaching such ferocity that it can’t be long until the ground bursts open like a split balloon, or simply floats off into the Mediterranean, a sodden little lump of Italy bobbing towards North Africa, we sweep out of Balocco and in search of sunshine, lakes and a decent road.
We find the latter… and the Giulietta’s fizz. It might not be genuflectingly beautiful, but it doesn’t half drive well. The Giulietta sits on an all-new modular platform that will underpin a whole bunch of future Alfas and Fiats, and gets aluminium multi-link rear suspension. Alfa admits the 147 sacrificed too much comfort in the pursuit of sportiness, and says this set-up strikes a better balance.
And, by jove, they’ve cracked it. With the ‘DNA’ switch – the button that allows you to adjust dampers, differential settings and throttle response on the fly – set to sharpest ‘dynamic’ mode (an action which also causes a nice little G-meter to pop up on the satnav screen, making us very happy indeed), it’s sublime, deliciously supple and controlled. As far as it’s possible to tell on drenched roads, it clings on nicely, but can be easily coaxed into cheeky, controlled wet-roundabout slides.
There’s an almost organic quality to the Giulietta’s steering that makes your A3 feel lifeless, your 1-Series feel over-brittle. On a good road, it’s everything an Alfa should be. Fun.
Unfortunately, such dynamic loveliness does draw attention to the Giulietta’s surprisingly soulless engine. We’re driving the 167bhp version of Alfa’s 1.4-litre four-pot petrol engine, which features Fiat’s clever new ‘MultiAir’ variable-valve tech. Until the 235bhp Cloverleaf edition turns up later in the summer, this is the most powerful Giulietta available. There’s a detuned version of the same engine available, too, packing 118bhp – essentially the same engine we’ve driven, and admired, in the new Fiat Punto – and a pair of diesels.
Objectively, grown-uppedly, the top-spec petrol is excellent. It’ll do 0-62mph in under eight seconds, which is frankly quicker than a good-sized hatch with a 1.4-litre engine has any right to be. Equipped with stop-start, it’ll manage 49mpg and just 134g/km of CO2: impressive figures. Yes, things are a bit dead below 2,000rpm, but it hardly feels like a tiny petrol engine with a fat turbo attached: power delivery is smooth and progressive, the boost barely noticeable.
So what’s the problem? In noise and character, it’s soulless: a modern Euro-spec turbo four-pot, all gentle turbo whirr overlaid with a dull drone at high revs. It doesn’t fizz round the rev gauge with intent. In the A3 or Golf, we would regard this as a fine engine. But in an Alfa – a brand that should sweat, bleed and occasionally urinate petrol – it doesn’t quite fit. It wouldn’t take much to inject a bit of soul, a hint of exhaust crackle would do it, but for now you’d be better off with the bigger diesel.
And that’s the problem. By mature road-testy criteria, the Giulietta is a fine car. Rear passenger space – always a gripe in the 147 – is now on a par with the five-door Golf, and the boot is of a decent size with a nice flat loadspace. At speed, it’s very nearly as quiet and refined as the A3. Great, brilliant, but it leaves us just a bit cold. Would you sell your family pets to the local kebab vendor to pay for one? Meh.
You could argue, quite fairly, that we’re trying to both have and eat our Battenburg here. We spend years moaning about the unreliability and flimsiness of Alfas, and then as soon as they build a solid, refined car, we moan that it’s characterless. The Giulietta is now a genuine Golf and A3 rival, and, though prices are yet to be confirmed – Alfa has announced only that the Giulietta will start at around £17,000 – it should be competitive. But if you want something that’s like a Golf, we’d guess you’ll still buy a Golf. Alfas have always catered to the more petrolheaded market, but this one doesn’t. Not quite.
Alternatively you could argue, again quite fairly, that our eyes have got it all wrong: that the Giulietta is the most desirable car you’ve ever seen. Maurice certainly would. Maurice is possibly the most excited elderly man in Europe. At the end of our test drive, we park up the Giulietta in a sodden town square on the banks of Lake Maggiore, its waters frothing and foaming as if Godzilla is soon to rise in apocalyptic rage. Maurice comes literally skipping from his little grocery store, clapping and clasping a Giulietta brochure as he splashes through the rain.
“Bella, bella, bellissimo,” he chants hypnotically, stroking the car and beaming like he’s just downed a morphine smoothie. In a conversation that could generously be described as bilingual, and more accurately as ‘pointing and repeatedly shouting’, we establish that he has achievement the purchasement of a Giulietta that commences its arrival upon the second Saturday of the May-month. Bought a Giulietta – 1.4-litre, 118bhp petrol in white – without having driven it or even seen it in the metal, just a couple of photos on the internet. Yowch. That’s commitment.
For us, right now, the Alfa Romeo Giulietta just hasn’t reached that level of desirability. The Cloverleaf – which will arrive in the summer, packing meatier visuals and, with any luck, a more engaging powertrain – should help matters. Until then, we’re impressed, but not in love.
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Volkswagen Scirocco GT 2.0 TDI

Volkswagen Scirocco GT 2.0 TDI- Prices £20,009

Difficult to buy anything these days without some sort of phony justification, isn’t it? That big leather sofa you just bought? Well it was half price, so you had to. And that flatscreen telly? You’d lost the remote for your old one…
So how do you justify buying a quick petrol coupe in a high-ish tax band, at a time when the economy is flat on its arse and you can barely afford loo roll?
Easy, just put a diesel in it. Which is what VW has done with the Scirocco, therefore making it more accessible to more people. OK, so shoving a diesel in a desirable car is nothing new, but we’re pleased one made it into a Scirocco – our Car of the Year 2008.
You get all the gorgeousness of the petrol version, with just a little less guilt and a few more notes in your wallet. Some might say that the ‘Roc should stay pure to petrol, and that giving it a diesel somehow dilutes its brand.
It doesn’t. It’s obviously not as quick as the 2.0-litre TSI, which don’t forget is just a Golf GTi in disguise, but it’s just as sharp and certainly not slow. Throttle response is about as instant as it gets in a diesel, and it pulls quickly and cleanly through the gears – feeling more powerful than its quoted 138bhp and 236lb ft.
Yes, the driver in you will probably always want the petrol. But just remember, this one’s 500 quid cheaper, two tax bands lower and cheaper to run. What more justification do you need?
source : car reviews and Auto News

Aston Martin DBS Carbon Black driven

Aston Martin DBS Carbon Black driven-Prices £179,500

The irony of ‘special edition’ supercars is that you end up with a car less special, statistically at least, than if you’d specced it yourself.
To wit: simply sticking to visual options – wheels, paint, leather, – there are some 31 billion possible combinations (we’ve done the maths) should you choose to configure your DBS to the last detail. Many do, some with disastrous consequences. For better or worse, you can be fairly sure your magma red DBS with cream-on-purple seats is unique.
The DBS Carbon Black is not unique. It is, however, rather stunning. Maybe it’s a ploy by Aston Martin to save taste-challenged DBS owners from themselves.
Though mechanically identical to the, ahem, normal DBS, the Carbon Black gets an enormous amount of very shiny black stuff as standard: a bespoke black paint job with a ‘metallic twist’, black gloss wheels, a black-on-black-on-black interior, and side strakes rendered in carbon fibre.
The effect is magnificently sinister. If you find the DBS over-jewelled, with too many bells and whistles ruining the elegance of the DB9′s original lines, step this way. It looks like a stealth jet, although this quality is impeded somewhat by the cortex-shattering V12 soundtrack.
Don’t trust yourself to do a decent job of speccing your DBS? The Carbon Black provides a vital service. But be prepared for the day you pass an identical DBS on the street. Oh, the shame!
Source : car reviews and Auto News

Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk VI

Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk VI-prices £22,000

With the incoming Focus RS monopolising REM sleep for most of our hot hatch devotees, the Mk VI VW Golf GTI might have slipped unnoticed onto our streets this summer. But it won’t for two reasons. The first is that it is very good. The other, that it’s been styled in the way that an RS aficionado would approve of. That he might have done himself, in fact, through mail order catalogues and Superglue.
Volkswagen has taken the truly excellent Mk V GTI and tweaked it in various vital respects. The engine is slightly lighter, but provides more power with better economy. It now has a limited slip diff to better harness that extra power, and an adaptive chassis that does comfy, not so comfy, and sporty at the touch of a button. The exhaust note is also astonishing and surely unprecedented in a 2.0-litre German hatchback.
So far so good. Positive progress. But the new GTI has also been restyled in a fashion that seems intended to deprive the aftermarket modders of much in the way of Sunday afternoon fun. New grille, headlights and fog lights at the front, new side skirts and wider, symmetrical exhausts at the rear. The wheels have also had their inserts painted black. None of this looks bad per se, but it’s all a teeny bit like a first date in Nandos. Mind you, the Focus RS driver is in the Chicken Cottage.
Source : car reviews and Auto News