Archive for the ‘New Models’ Category

The New Audi RS6 – Less is More

Posted: December 8, 2012 by The Car Spy in Audi, New Cars, New Models
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Are the ‘Horsepower Wars’ finally over? The latest version of the RS6 from Audi suggests that the one-upmanship game being played by BMW, Mercedes and Audi in their seemingly never-ending quest to out-do each other’s powertrain outputs may be coming to an end.

In the past 10 years or so each of these manufacturers has unleashed a crushingly powerful, mile-munching, express-train of a road car that had the equivalent power output of a Formula One car from the 1980’s. When the Lotus Carlton was launched back in 1990 the motoring world went slack-jawed when it found out that this road-going family saloon produced 377 hp and had a top speed of 177 mph. Today those figures might be considered ‘mid-range’ for a super-saloon when close to 600 hp has become the most recent benchmark.

The question is this – do we really need that heady amount of horsepower in a car these days especially on the UK’s increasingly congested and restricted road network? Quite frankly we do not. The horsepower outputs of an M5, E63 or RS6 would very rarely be tested to the limit and certainly only a very brave person would attempt to reach the car’s top speed on a German autobahn. You know the feeling you get when a particularly lethargic person pulls out in front of you while you are gunning it in the fast lane on the M25? Imagine that happening at a 160 mph. Even in Germany there are idiots on the road.

The outgoing RS6 (C6 generation) produced a hefty 579 ps from its mighty 5.0 litre V10 engine. The new twin-turbo 4.0 litre V8 powered model produces 560 ps but is quicker. Zero to 62 mph takes only 3.9 seconds and torque output is up to 700 Nm from 650 Nm from the previous model. Let’s hope it sounds nicer than the outgoing V10 too. Not that it sounded like a tin full of rusty nails but the lovely growly, snarl from the original C5 generation RS6 was missing. Never mind about the car’s top speed and number of horses under the bonnet, what noise does it make while it goes about its business? Very important in our humble opinion.

Of course there is a lot of pressure on manufacturers to make their cars ‘greener’ these days and with increasingly onerous EU regulations on emissions it is likely that there will be a return to smaller engines possibly no larger than a V8 and more than likely a turbo-charged V6 will become the norm. Power outputs might go down even further as a balance between optimum performance, emissions and fuel consumption become the main criteria for car designers and engine builders.

Transmissions are getting a lot more complex too which is not always a good thing in our experience. Some of the new boxes have taken away the driver involvement you can achieve with a six-speed manual gearbox. Now we are told the ‘brain’ controlling the transmission is much cleverer than we are when it comes to changing gears especially as there are now up to eight to choose from (there is even talk of 10-speed autos arriving soon). It might be clever but it doesn’t know how to have a good time and is more concerned with saving the planet and keeping those nasty emissions down.

The new RS6 comes with Audi’s latest 8-speed Tiptronic transmission with Sport and Manual modes so at least you can pretend there are no fascist computers in charge. You also get Quattro all-wheel-drive with sport differential plus the choice of riding on adaptive air suspension or good old-fashioned steel springs. The new car is likely to be at least as good as the outgoing model when it comes to grippy road-holding – which is very good indeed.

Amongst the headlines of the Audi Press release it was written large that the new RS6 will achieve up to 28.8 mpg (combined).  That is pretty impressive considering that cars like this are never intended to make infrequent visits for fuel refills. This is because the 4.0 litre V8 has a little trick up its sleeve – it doesn’t use eight cylinders. Well at least not all of the time anyway. When you pop down to Waitrose, take the kids to school and drive to work in heavy traffic you will be mostly using four cylinders. Only when you have a chance to blow away the cobwebs and find yourself a decent stretch of empty road will you enjoy the full complement of eight cylinders. It would be even cleverer if Audi has made the car sound the same as the glorious V8 when it is using only four of its pistons. We look forward to finding out soon!

How much does it cost? Well the quoted OTR price is around £77000 which is comparable to its nearest competitors and if you want a car that will keep up with a Porsche Turbo then it is never going to be cheap. Having said that the car comes with a very comprehensive spec and only by adding bits that you probably don’t need off the options list will you start bumping up the price even further.

So there you have it. The new RS6 is lighter, has a smaller engine with fewer horses, runs on four cylinders and uses less fuel than the car it replaces but is faster with more torque and even more fun. So less really is more it seems.

For further details of the new RS6 or any other model in the Audi range give The Car Spy a call on 01732 760699 or email sales@thecarspy.net.

The New Porsche Cayman

Posted: November 30, 2012 by The Car Spy in New Cars, New Models, Porsche
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When we recently announced the launch of the new Porsche Cayman on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/thecarspy) somebody asked if this was the new Boxster Coupé. Sometimes the obvious can be blinding but the chap had hit the nail on the head without any of us noticing.

The Cayman is most certainly the Boxster Coupé but that does not lessen the importance of this car in the latest Porsche line-up. In fact this is not only going to be one of their most successful cars ever it is likely to secure the company’s long term financial future.

Consider this – Porsche have a dilemma with the 911 these days. It has become an expensive sports car lately. Go to the Porsche on-line configurator and see how easy it is to spend more than £100k once you start adding some basic options to your entry-level Carrera.

Not many people would argue that the 911 is one of the motoring world’s true icons. The word ‘icon’ is much banded around these days to describe the most mundane of cars that will soon be forgotten but the 911 has been around for a long time now and is much loved or at least respected by almost everybody that likes cars.

Yes the 911 has never been a cheap sports car since its inception but as the world in general became a little more affluent over the years the Porker inevitably became a very popular choice for those who wanted to splash out on a flash car for once in their lives. And a good choice it was too. Superb build quality and reliability came with the package and it was for a long time the only ‘super car’ you could run as a daily commute. How things have changed.

Today there are a lot of cars that offer the same levels of performance as a 911 (forget the Turbo for now) for far less money. They are even built just as well too. One of them just happens to be produced by Porsche itself and it is called the Cayman.

When Porsche first introduced the Cayman to the world in 2006 it was immediately labeled as the ‘poor man’s 911’ because driving anything other than a 911 singled you out as a wannabe Porsche owner. This is something that has afflicted Porsche over the years. If the company had been dependent on the success of the 924, 944 and the 928 it would have died many years ago. The 911 brought home the bacon and essentially that one model was Porsche the company.

So the Cayman, just like the Boxster was seen as a very capable car but only created to fill a gap in the market that Porsche thought it needed to fill. Porsche are like a lot of car manufacturers these days and the pressure to cover every market segment from school-run SUV’s to high-performance super-saloons is considerable. It is a dangerous strategy because a company needs very deep pockets to cover the development costs and it needs to get the product just right. This is why Porsche has a back-door relationship with VW/Audi.

Six years later however and the Cayman is coming into its own. The car has always been a threat to the success of the 911 from the start but Porsche were careful to make sure that the Cayman did not step on its big brother’s toes by keeping power outputs a smidgen lower. The trouble is though Porsche could not make a poor-handling car if it wanted too and the Cayman has always been a class-leader. Only Lotus comes close in offering such sublime grip and poise around a track. It was even whispered that the Cayman was a better all-round proposition that the 911. It was also a lot less money – in fact today it is an absolute bargain.

Recessions tend to focus the mind when it comes to parting with our hard-earned cash. Consumers still want their toys but they don’t want to pay a lot of money for them anymore and it likely to stay like this for some time to come. The 911 is still a highly desirable car even though purists might say it has lost a bit of its personality which has been diluted by excessive use of electronic aids and modern technology. The ‘drive-by-wire’ steering system is much debated in the press and often criticised for detaching the driver’s senses from the car. However it is a subjective topic and it won’t put a lot of people from buying the car once they have driven it. It is just the price tag that makes us grimace.

The Cayman starts at £39694 and the S version starts at £48783 and you even get a complimentary driving course at Silverstone to show you how good the car is. The car is stiffer and lighter than the previous model and still comes with the superb flat-six ‘boxer’ engine in 2.7 or 3.4 litre sizes offering 275 and 325hp respectively. Performance is more than adequate offering a 0-62 mph time of 5.4 seconds with the Sport Chrono option in the 2.7 version and the 3.4 S scorches to 62 mph in 4.7 seconds. Top speed is academic these days but suffice to say you would not be far behind a £100k 911 Carrera.

The point is that in a time when buyers are looking for value for money the Cayman is a rising star. It is no longer the ‘poor man’s 911’. It is in fact the best Porsche you can buy today and you would not be embarrassed to own one. More importantly for Porsche it is their bread-winner for the future.

For more information on the new Cayman or any other Porsche model give The Car Spy a call on 01732 760699 or email sales@thecarspy.net

The New Jaguar XFR-S

Posted: November 29, 2012 by The Car Spy in Jaguar, New Cars, New Models
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“Grace, Pace and Space” – for anybody old enough to remember or possibly somebody who is good at automotive history this phrase will refer to one thing only and that is a Jaguar motor car.

Sir William Lyons coined the phrase which became the cornerstone of the company’s design philosophy all of the time he was in charge from the 1950’s.

Ever since then every model produced by Jaguar has had elements of those three words in their DNA but on the odd occasion the bean-counters (or whoever the paymaster might have been at the time) over-ruled design sentiments which led to a car such as the X-Type. The X-Type was never really a bad car as such and was based on the very capable Ford Mondeo running gear and chassis. However, it was not really graceful, full of pace or generously endowed with bags of cabin space.

Thankfully today with deep-pocketed TATA very firmly in charge the company is going some way to reviving the very principles that William Lyons set as the boiler-plate for every Jag to come out of the Midlands factory.

The XF, XJ, XK and the latest F-Type are making their mark on the world and the current soaring profits of the company are a testimony to their efforts to produce a genuinely very good line-up of cars.

The XF has been leading the way for the company in terms of popularity in global markets and is very much seen as a viable alternative to the traditional class-leading variants from BMW, Audi and Mercedes. However to really compete head-on in this category a company needs to have a very comprehensive choice of powerplants and trim levels to appeal to every likely purchaser in this segment of the market.

BMW has its M5, Audi has the RS6 and Mercedes has put its AMG badge on the E-Class. All of these cars are extreme manifestations of their much less powerful siblings but nonetheless provide that all-important ‘halo-effect’ on the rest of the range. Jaguar of course has its ‘R’ badged XF and in spite of its all-round good capability it needed that little extra bit of testosterone to properly mix it up with the German boys.

Enter the XFR-S developed by Jaguar’s specialist ETO division.

Jaguar claim this is their fastest, most powerful and agile sports saloon ever and the headlines are as follows:

The familiar supercharged 5.0 litre V8 now produces 550ps and torque is an earth-spinning 680Nm. The company claims that fuel consumption and emissions are unchanged from the ‘R’ version which is a bonus.

The 8-speed ‘Quickshift’ transmission encourages to propel the car from zero to sixty in 4.4 seconds and the top speed is electronically limited to 186 mph. Performance is not lacking in the XFR-S so a big tick in the ‘Pace’ box.

The five doors and leathered roomy cabin offers enough elbow-room for four over-sized night-club bouncers without creasing their tuxedos so we can put a big tick in the ‘Space’ box.

20″ Alloy wheels, suspension upgrades and bits of carbon fibre help to keep the big cat firmly planted in its tracks and the overall look of the car is one that suggests a ‘don’t mess with me’ hint of aggression in the design. In fact some might say it looks a bit ‘lairy’ for a Jaguar especially with the not very discreet bootlid spoiler on its rump. Depending on your point of view the ‘Grace’ box might warrant half a tick on this occasion but two and half out of three will give the late Sir William Lyons something to smile about. His Jaguar is on the way back.

For further information about the XFR-S or any other Jaguar model give The Car Spy a call on 01732 760699 or email sales@thecarspy.net

Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Roadster

Posted: November 15, 2012 by The Car Spy in Lamborghini, New Cars, New Models
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One way to get your hair dried quickly after a shower is to buy the new Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Roadster. Take off the two-piece carbon fibre roof, stick it in the front luggage compartment, jump in, fire it up and get to 60 mph in 3 seconds. By the time you get to the top speed of 217 mph your hair will be nicely blow-dried. Price? From 300000 Euros plus taxes and should be on sale in Europe from Spring 2013. Start forming an orderly queue for one of the most desirable high-performance roadsters ever made!

For further details give The Car Spy a call on 01732 760699 or email sales@thecarspy.net

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The New Lexus LS

Posted: October 26, 2012 by The Car Spy in Lexus, New Cars, New Models
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A 1990 H-plate Lexus LS 400 passed by the other day and it gave pause for thought. Are there any cars on the road, apart from a Lexus, that can still retain their showroom looks after 20-plus years? There are dozens of mollycoddled classics of course kept in dry-storage but they don’t count especially since they have had fortunes spent on them and only come out when the sun is shining. At a push you could say that the Mercedes SL of that period could qualify but there are enough tatty examples around to suggest that even the mighty Merc may not quite be as bullet-proof as a Lexus.

So in just over twenty years Lexus has established itself as a producer of the world’s best-built cars with a very large cupboard-full of silverware to prove it. And very modest they are about it too.

The LS model is currently in its fourth generation, known as the XF40, the latest incarnation of which is about to be launched in the UK with prices starting at £71995.

In spite of its towering build-quality the LS has never from a design perspective been likely to stir the loins of any car-buff. It is conservative to the extreme and you can almost imagine the designer chappie being locked in a room full of images of the Mercedes Benz S-Class being told, in a polite Japanese way of course, to come up with a car that looks very much like it. Just don’t copy it.

However, each generation of the LS has seen a gradual progression from S-Class design cues to shades of BMW 7-Series but interestingly getting ever closer to a larger version of their (better-looking) GS model.

The latest model will still satisfy the old LS die-hards who seek anonymity from their daily ride but it certainly looks a lot more individual than previous versions with its new ‘spindle’ front grille. This gives the car a much more aggressive ‘angry’ face that grabs attention which is a first for an LS.

There are three models in the new range: The LS 460 Luxury, LS 460 F Sport and LS 600h Premier priced from £71995 up to £99495. When you consider that whichever LS version you choose it will come with a standard specification that does not require an ‘options list’ then the car is very good value indeed. If you specify a new 7-Series, A8 or S-Class to the same level as the LS then make sure you leave enough space on your cheque book for six figures.

Lexus has pushed the envelope too this time by adding an F Sport version to the range. So the first time there is a ‘sporty’ LS to tempt those who like their Lexus to come with 19″ Alloys, Brembo brakes, sports suspension and a myriad of ‘F Sport’ goodies to spice up their life.

The whole LS range will feature a neat climate control system called ‘Climate Concierge’ that will heat or cool each individual occupant of the car by using infra-red sensors – spooky but very clever.

The LS 600h L Premier is even fitted with an ‘Advanced Pre-Crash Safety System with collision avoidance assist’. This is supposed to help you either avoid or lessen the impact of an accident should you find yourslef in that unfortunate position. Since it is unlikely that this feature would not be part of a road test review we will just have to assume that the anti-crash system that works erm…very well.

The 600h does is fact have one optional extra which is a night view system available at a cost of £1515. This includes a camera which will display night-vision images on a 12.3 inch display that will highlight hazards outside of the direct beam of the headlights. Presumably this is where the Advanced Pre-Crash Safety System comes in useful while the driver is staring at his night vision screen instead of keeping his eyes on the road ahead. Sorry Lexus, this is technology over-kill and just plain daft.

Lexus has not published any performance figures for the new LS range yet but with 328 bhp from the 4.6 litre V8 petrol powerplant and 439 bhp from the 5.0 litre V8 hybrid drive system the cars should perform more than adequately for the typical LS buyer.

The question is whether Lexus has done enough to tempt customers from Audi, BMW, Mercedes and of course Jaguar with their successful XJ.

Well if you are the sort of person looking for value for money, you like lots of toys in your car and more importantly you like to be a little different from everybody else then the answer has to be yes. You can also be assured that your LS will still look as good as new in twenty years time too!

For further information regarding the new Lexus LS give The Car Spy a call on 01732 760699 or email sales@thecarspy.net

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