New Volvo XC90 and Audi Q7 ace Euro NCAP safety tests

Volvo's new XC90 and the Audi Q7 are among the latest cars to be awarded a full five-star safety rating from Euro NCAP

The new Volvo XC90 and Audi Q7 have both received top marks from Euro NCAP in its latest round of safety tests.

Volvo's new large luxury SUV scored particularly highly for adult protection, with Euro NCAP's testers noting that the XC90's standard autonomous emergency braking system was capable of bringing the car to a halt before a collision occured in all of its tests, hence earning maximum points.

The XC90 also scored 100% for its safety assistance systems, which all feature as standard. The Q7, meanwhile, marginally beat the XC90's score for child protection.

Also receiving a full five-star rating was the Renault Kadjar, Ford Galaxy and S-Max, Volkswagen Touran and Toyota Avensis.

The new Mazda CX-3 and Mitsubishi L200 were also tested, and both scored four stars. Euro NCAP says both cars were let down because they do not feature a full range of safety systems as standard. The L200 doesn't offer autonomous emergency braking, while the CX-3 only offers the system as an optional extra.

In a statement, Euro NCAP said: "Good occupant protection still is the back bone of a top rating in Euro NCAP, but the availability and performance of avoidance and driver support systems, that will ultimately pave the way for highly automated vehicles, is becoming increasingly important."

See the Volvo XC90's crash test video below.

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New Aston Martin DB9 special edition celebrates Bond

Aston Martin DB9 Bond Edition costs £165,000 and is on sale now

Aston Martin has created a new special edition of the DB9 to celebrate the firm’s appearance in the upcoming James Bond film Spectre, for which Aston has made a bespoke model called the DB10.

The DB9 GT Bond Edition is based on the DB9 GT, which is the last hurrah for the DB9 before its replacement, the DB11, arrives next year.

A total of just 150 examples of the DB9 GT Bond Edition will be produced. The mechanical specification of the car is shared with the standard DB9 GT, so power comes from a normally aspirated 540bhp 5.9-litre V12 engine. The 0-62mph time is 4.5sec and the top speed is 183mph.

The Bond Edition gets bespoke 20in 10-spoke gloss black alloy wheels, bright aluminium for the bonnet vents, grille and side strakes, a front splitter and rear diffuser made from carbonfibre, and special grey brake calipers.

Inside, there are sill plaques with the 007 logo and Bond-themed embroidery. A whole host of special accessories are also being offered by Aston to go with the car, including luggage and a special Omega watch with an Aston strap.

The car is available to order now priced from £165,000. 

Read Autocar's farewell to the Aston Martin DB9

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2016 Kia Sportage revealed ahead of Frankfurt debut - new interior pictures

The fourth-generation Kia Sportage has been revealed and will move upmarket to fight the Nissan Qashqai and Honda CR-V in Europe

The fourth-generation Kia Sportage has been revealed with a brand new look ahead of the car’s official public debut at this month’s Frankfurt motor show.

The new Sportage gets totally new styling at the side and rear, although the biggest changes are at the front. The headlights are no longer integrated into the grille, as they were on the third-generation Sportage, but now sit higher up on the side of the bonnet. This leaves the now familiar Kia nose, which features on the majority of the company’s range, with a stand-alone grille.

Read our Kia Sportage prototype first drive here

It also gets a larger lower grille, with a silver coloured kickplate on the lower edge. The foglights, which complete the front-end styling, sit in a larger cluster than before.

At the side, the Sportage retains its traditional SUV-like styling but has a marginally more raked profile than before. The wheelarches are more pronounced, while it also gets a sharp line running along the side doors.

The company says the look at rear of the car is inspired by the 2013 Kia Provo, with a strong line running horizontally across the bootlid between the two tail-light clusters. The indicator and reversing lights are much lower down than before and sit in a separate cluster on the rear bumper

The new model is also likely to get a significantly upgraded cabin over the old version. UK Kia boss Paul Philpott said this was partly as a result of feedback from owners of the current car.

“We recognise that for a more demanding audience issues such as interior quality, refinement and ride and handling are essential,” he said. “All of those aspects have been addressed. We have done this because of what our customers have told us.”

There will be one design of interior, although the size of the infotainment screen is set to differ depending on specification. It will come with a greatly reduced number of buttons on the central console. Kia has also said the cabin will feature a “rich material quality” to improve perceived quality, while it will come with technology already found elsewhere in the company’s range, such as wireless phone charging and a system that helps when reversing into traffic. Top-level trims will feature high-end audio Harman Kardon stereo systems.

Details of the full engine range are set to be announced at Frankfurt, but the Sportage is set to come with a brand new four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine. Several of the units from the similarly sized Tucson, from Kia’s sister company Hyundai, are also set to be carried over, including the 113bhp 1.7-litre diesel and two versions of the 2.0-litre diesel, in 134bhp and 181bhp formats.

Paul Philpott, Kia UK President and CEO, Q&A

How much will the Sportage cost?"We will not reveal pricing or specification until closer to launch in February next year, but while we want to remain competitive in our sectors, we will have to reflect the fact that there is a lot of new technology and features in the new car – so undoubtedly there will be a premium over the outgoing model."

Are you planning to expand the Sportage into a wider family?"The compact SUV segment is growing all the time but we feel with new engines, new transmissions and a stunning new face that it will continue to grow in its marketplace. We are looking at possibilities in other parts of the growing SUV market and we will deal with those opportunities in due course."

What are the engine plans? Could there be a plug-in variant?"Our R&D team have plans to launch 22 eco-variants in our range by 2022 – so you never say never, but there will be no plug-in at launch."

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Be fashionable and buy a banger

After years of extolling the virtues of buying cheap used cars, I've found it’s suddenly become fashionable

The car market can appear confusing sometimes.

The other day, I read that everyone is switching to brand-new cars on easy-peasy PCP payments while, at the same time, everyone else is buying more bangers than ever. That’s the car buying world according to the car price peeps at Glass’s - and they may well be right. 

So on the one hand, there are car buyers switching out of bangers into new cars because it’s easy, while on the other hand, the banger market, such as it is, is booming. This is unusual.

What usually happens is the resultant oversupply of old rubbish either depresses prices or clogs up salvage yards. However, Glass’s has the stats to back up its claims. Apparently, the average auction price for a decade-old car in January 2013 was £725, but in June this year it was £875. So enough new buyers are entering the market to soak up the extra volume, but why? 

Now I’ve been banging on about the supreme good sense of buying used for rather a long time. It is actually 25 years since I gave the practice a name, which disappointingly is not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary.

We don’t need to look at stats but can just let our eyes drift to Autocar's ‘Bangernomics best buys’ section. There we have the proof that you, dear Autocar reader, have been doing the banger thing as a matter of course for some time, and very successfully, too.  

For its part, Glass’s cites improving economic conditions, rising confidence in people to buy and run cars at the entry level and the continuing improvement in the quality of older cars.

“We see many bangers going through auction in excellent condition at very reasonable prices and, for many people, they make extremely sensible purchases,” Glass’s says. That could be me talking, except I’d not necessarily recommend you buy these sorts of cars at auction. You could come a cropper. 

I think Bangernomics is, finally, a bit fashionably hip right now. Although modern cars are more dependable, they either work or they don’t. Once they stop, it’s as victims of Silicon Valley syndrome, and it’s going to take a costly garage geek to sort it out instead of a cheaper bloke with a hammer. So I don’t know if Bangernomics now needs a 
‘best before’ date, or we just learn to 
live with a sudden ECU-related expiry. 

Which brings us back to PCPs. Owning a car before it suddenly expires makes sense. Except that instead of shelling out those first few instalments, buy a late-1990s Japanese car for buttons and begin your Bangernomics journey with pride.

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2016 Kia Sportage 2.0 GDi 3 auto review

Kia has developed a better-mannered, more sophisticated Sportage for 2016 This is a drive in a somewhat unfinished prototype of the all-new Kia Sportage, which goes on sale here next February.We’re here to witness - and take part in - some hot weather testing in California’s Death Valley, which is the car makers’ go-to location when consistently searing temperatures are needed in order to exercise a car’s cooling systems - for both powertrain and cabin - to limits unlikely to be seen by any Sportage sold over here.Britain’s liking for the current Sportage is a fine demonstration of the ingredients that are priorities for many car buyers. It looks stylish. It’s good value for money. It’s on trend, being a crossover. And it’s safe to buy from its relative newbie maker because it comes with the back-up of a seven-year warranty.That it’s stylish and fashionable have a lot to do with why it has become Kia’s best-selling model and, unusually for a value brand, sits close to the top of the range. If you’re a marque pitching cars on value, it’s more often the models at the lower end of the range that sell best.And yet the Sportage is actually rather an average machine. It doesn’t do anything badly, but it doesn’t do much especially well, either. Had it looked nondescript, it’s highly likely that it would have been an also-ran. So the style of the next Sportage is very obviously vital to this crossover’s continued success.Not that we’re much wiser about how it will look today, because the prototype we’re driving is artfully disguised with glassfibre and a vision-dizzying body-wrap.

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2016 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Cabriolet revealed

Plush open-top S-Class will reach the UK early next year, with a 577bhp S63 variant crowning the range

Mercedes-Benz is promising supercar-like performance, an opulent driving experience and unmatched levels of interior luxury with its S63 4Matic Cabriolet - the 577bhp twin-turbocharged 5.5-litre V8-powered, four-wheel-drive model that spearheads its new S-Class Cabriolet line-up. 

Pictured here ahead of a planned Frankfurt show debut, the 2110kg four-seat rival to the Bentley Continental GT Speed Convertible is claimed to hit 62mph in 3.9sec, placing it ahead of many performance-orientated open-tops for off-the-line accelerative ability.

The car, which also produces 663lb ft, returns 27.2mpg and CO2 emissions of 244g/km.

As sister model to the new S-Class Coupé, the S-Class Cabriolet is the sixth and final member of the S-Class line-up. It is the first four-seat luxury drop-top model from Mercedes since the 112 series, which ceased production in 1971.

The S-Class Cabriolet adheres closely to the look established by the S-Class Coupé. The two share the same front-end design, including optional LED headlights encrusted with Swarovski crystals for the indicators and daytime running lights.

To accommodate what is described as the largest fabric roof applied to a current production car, the cabriolet adopts a new windscreen with greater rake and a more substantial frame for added rollover protection.

The multi-layer roof can be opened and closed in a claimed 20 seconds at speeds of up to 37mph.

Developed in Mercedes’ new wind tunnel, the car promises a drag coefficient of just 0.29. Double-glazed side windows and a butyl outer roof layer are claimed to provide class-leading noise suppression.

At 5027mm long, 1899mm wide and 1417mm high, the cabriolet’s dimensions mirror those of the coupé.

Inside, the two individual rear seats are electrically adjustable. Options include Mercedes’ turbulence-reducing Aircap system, which extends out of the windscreen header rail. Airscarf neck-level heating is also available.

The cabriolet rides on a modified version of the coupé’s platform. A revised aluminium bulkhead behind the rear seats supports the automatically extending roll bars, while reinforcement within the floorpan adds rigidity.

The cabriolet will come with the choice of two petrol engines from the start of UK sales early next year.

Included is a 449bhp twin-turbocharged 4.7-litre V8 in the S500 Cabriolet. It drives the rear wheels through a standard nine-speed automatic gearbox. No performance figures have been revealed, but combined fuel consumption of 33.2mpg is claimed, with average CO2 emissions of 199g/km.

Although not yet confirmed, Mercedes-Benz also plans to add a 621bhp twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre V12 to the new S-Class Cabriolet line-up in a plush S65 Cabriolet.

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2016 Toyota Prius confirmed for Frankfurt motor show

Fourth-generation Prius will be the first model to be based on Toyota's new modular architecture

Toyota’s fourth-generation Prius will make its debut at the Frankfurt motor show, the company has confirmed.

These pictures taken of the car last month on a marketing photoshoot reveal a look that's been heavily inspired by the Mirai hydrogen model. 

The new Prius will go on sale in the UK early next year and face competition from a new generation of family-orientated hybrids from the likes of Hyundai and Kia.

Underpinning the next-generation Prius is Toyota’s New Global Architecture (TNGA). Unveiled in March of this year, the new modular platform is essentially a kit of “lighter, more compact” components which will be used for a range of front and rear-wheel drive vehicles from the Japanese manufacturer.

Toyota says the new architecture will make its models stiffer and lighter, as well as allowing it to mount engines lower down. The result should be cars that ride and handle better and provide improved safety and better fuel economy.

As well as the added benefits to drivers, the manufacturing costs associated with building cars on the new platform are understood to be dramatically lower. Investment in a TNGA-based car is around 40% lower than on a similar model from 2008. It’s understood that the money saved by the new platform will be re-invested in new vehicle technologies, which could include autonomous driving systems.

The first early-stage Prius test mules were spotted as far back as 2013. They appeared to show that the new Prius would adopt a more conventional instrument cluster than the all-digital unit used by the current third-generation car.

More recent spy pictures of the interior, however, confirm that the new Prius will still use an all-digital array, but will feature updated software and graphics. A sleeker centre console design can also be seen, alongside a larger central screen for the infotainment system.

Powertrain options for the new Prius have yet to be revealed, but it’s expected to be offered with an evolution of today’s hybrid set-up, which combines a 1.8-litre petrol engine with an electric motor to produce a combined 134bhp and up to 76mpg. Power is channeled through a CVT. As with today’s car, both conventional and plug-in hybrid options will be offered.

Speaking to an Australian news website last year, sources close to Toyota were quoted as saying the company was targetting a 10% improvement in fuel economy - suggesting the new model will be capable of returning up to 84mpg.

The same source also claimed the next-generation Prius would come with nickel-metal hydride batteries as standard, but a lithium ion battery pack would be optional. 

Given the versatility of Toyota’s new platform, it’s safe to assume that a replacement for the larger, seven-seat Prius+ will be planned for later in the car’s life cycle.

The new Prius will enjoy only a few months of sales in Europe next year before new rivals begin to fight for hybrid supremacy. Among the new generation of models is a dedicated Hyundai hybrid, which has already been spotted testing and will go on sale in Europe by the end of next year. A concept car previewing this model is expected to be seen at the Frankfurt motor show.

Hyundai’s sister brand Kia is also planning a dedicated hybrid model and has pledged to have its car on the road by the end of next year.

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Toyota reveals new next-generation vehicle architecture

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