Renault’s Google integration is a gamechanger

Forget clunky infotainment. Renault’s openR link puts Google Maps, Google Assistant and Google Play right at the heart of your driving experienceAsk most car buyers what puts them off switching to an electric vehicle and range anxiety usually tops the list. Ask them what frustrates them most about modern cars in general, and a fiddly, confusing infotainment system tends to come a close second. Renault has taken both of those concerns head-on with its openR link multimedia system, which has

Visiting his collection is like traveling through time and a must for all Citroën fansThe company-owned Citroën Conservatoire in Paris has serious competition.Over the course of 40 years, French enthusiast Henri Fradet has patiently and diligently put together a spectacular collection of over 120 post-war Citroën models. They’re housed in a museum named CitroMuseum located in Castellane, a small town in southern France. 
Fradet prefers low-mileage, unrestored cars and h

Join us for a look inside Autostadt, the Volkswagen museum located next to its giant Wolfsburg factory, and one of the world's best car museumsLocated in the shadow of Volkswagen's Wolfsburg factory in Germany, Autostadt is essentially a theme park devoted to cars.Spread throughout the 70-acre site are pavilions devoted to each Volkswagen Group brand, along with exhibitions to learn about the history, culture and impact of cars – and with plenty of opportunities to try them out. And there&

Autocar recommends the future classics you should snap up before collector status sets inPredicting which cars will achieve classic status five or 10 years from now is a dark and uncertain art.
What are the key factors? Scarcity, for one, and reputation for another. If a car is rare and widely reckoned to be one of the best of its type to drive, it’ll probably reach classic status.
Beauty is another factor and so too is significance; a car that changed the game in its sector is bound to be

We’ve seen many cars on the big screen and TV over the years.
Some make it to the end of a movie or season without a single scratch, while others are rolled down cliffs, blown up or piled into walls at speed, evoking the question “did they use a real car?” (and often destroy a large amount of money) Or was it a replica? Or some other type of car, different from the real thing?
Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell whether the car used was real or fake, but in this gallery, we

Hyundai subsidiary prioritises brand prestige over fast European market growth, but can it ever match Lexus?What defines success for a car company? Sales, profits, happy dealers, happy customers, brand awareness: these are all attributes that go into what we would consider a healthy automotive business.
All of which makes judging the success of Genesis quite difficult. It's now five years since Hyundai's premium brand launched in the UK, but rather than a brand with five years of exper

Combustion-engined 208 will continue for the foreseable – but CEO expects EV to become more popularPeugeot will keep the current 208 supermini on sale with petrol power well into the future, with CEO Alain Favey confirming the new electric e-208 will be sold alongside the ICE car rather than as a replacement for it.
"We will continue to offer the 208 in its current form to cover the part of the market that will still not be EV and will still require some ICE or hybrid solutions," he s

MPs accused of wanting to "make car use more difficult" over proposal for 20mph default limitMPs are considering adopting a default 20mph speed limit across England - but critics have argued they are being sidelined in the debate and claim the evidence supporting similar schemes is flawed.
Earlier this month, the Transport Select Committee invited road safety experts to discuss evidence about 20mph limits and explore whether England should follow Wales in reducing the standard restricted speed l

The automotive world was in a dither last week when rumors surfaced that EV startup, Lucid Motors, hired AlixPartners, a financial consulting firm, to well, consult. Since the arrival of AlixPartners often portends a company’s bankruptcy filing, tongues got to wagging.Lucid’s leadership quickly offered denials, and it should be noted that AlixPartners does more than help organizations prepare for bankruptcy filings. After a day or two of denials, things appear to have calmed down an

During nearly 20 years of documenting interesting junkyard machinery, I've written about a half-dozen discarded examples of the original Ford Maverick (plus four of the Maverick's Mercury-ized siblings). None of those cars had the Grabber trim package, disappointingly, but now I've found a genuine Grabber in a New Mexican boneyard. The Grabber package was available for the 1971 through 1975 model years. If you want to get respect for a restored Maverick at a traditional American car show (featur

Reborn A2 will be revealed this autumn, but new pictures showcase striking resemblance to the originalAudi is gearing up for the reveal of the new A2 this autumn – and a prototype has now shed the majority of its camouflage, revealing a strong resemblance to its ancestor.
The electric crossover will evoke the spirit of the supermini in both function and form, as Audi revives the name after a two-decade hiatus.
The German firm officially confirmed the revival of the A2 at its annual me

Polestar's first EV, the 2, is Scandi-cool on wheels and now a £12k bargainAppearances can be deceptive.
The Polestar 2 might look like a high-riding saloon but it's not. It's actually a hatchback, so it's more practical than its closest rival, the Tesla Model 3, yet sleeker and more handsome than a Model Y.
Buyers here have certainly cottoned on to this Scandi-chic EV's charms, to the extent that the UK is its largest market. As a result, there is an abundance of used examples, starting f

Smart returns to its city car roots with tiny new #2, due next year as UK's smallest electric carSmart is putting the finishing touches on the new #2 ahead of its unveiling at October's Paris motor show.
The replacement for Smart's signature model, the Fortwo, marks the brand's return to its roots after launching a range of electric crossovers – including the #5, its largest model yet.
Due in UK dealerships next year, it has been designed to offer what Smart calls "uncompromised urban

Genesis Mint concept was revealed in 2019
Korean premium brand could channel 2019 Mint concept as it explores possibility of a plush small EVGenesis is open to launching smaller electric cars in the future as it continues to expand its range.
For now, its smallest is the 4.5m-long GV60 crossover, which leaves plenty of room below it.
It has experimented with a smaller model in the past with the Mint concept in 2019.
Now it's investigating future segments that it could enter i

Fleet operators are increasingly looking beyond manufacturer partners to keep their vehicles on the roadCompany car downtime dropped to a six-year low in the first quarter of 2026, as fleets diverted work away from franchised dealers amid ongoing pressure on repair lead times.
Data from Epyx's 1Link Service Network platform, which manages service, maintenance and repair bookings for 4.9 million company cars and vans, shows vehicles averaged around 1.5 days off the road for workshop visits i

Factory closures, model cancellations and job cuts on the cards as firm races to rebuild marginsThe Volkswagen Group is facing one of the toughest battles of its recent history as it scrambles to reduce costs and stay competitive in the face of Chinese rivals, while satisfying the demands of its heavily unionised workforce in Germany.
Company boss Oliver Blume came clean to staff last week about the need to cut as many as 100,000 jobs – around one in seven of its global workforce and 50,00

The new T-Roc has some best-selling shoes to fill, can it beat its rivals and do it again?A comprehensive waiting party for the new Volkswagen T-Roc would include upwards of 30 rivals, depending on at which point you stop your tape measure.
The small (although not the smallest) crossover market is perhaps the most burgeoning of all: its population is split between internal combustion, electric and hybrid competitors, and it's proving to be a merry hunting ground for fresh Chinese manufactur

Dacia Duster model was procured on Verpraet's very first press trip
The Jeep M&Ms are nice and I like my Polestar bottle - but gifts don't mean five-star reviewsThere’s an uncomfortable truth in motoring media that isn’t talked about very often: there are a lot of freebies going around. Some of them are necessary, of course. We can’t test a car properly without spending a decent amount of time in it, so it does mean getting a ‘free’ car for the week.
It’s

We take a look at the great cars that America has missed out on over the yearsUntil China took over in 2009, America was the world’s largest car market.This meant that all car makers did their level best to get a piece of the action. But there have long been substantial differences between the American market and those in Europe and Asia. And those differences tend to account for why certain models were never sold there.
But it does mean that America misses out on great vehicles like the B

A journey back in time to some of the UK's most excellent car companies, sadly now deceased
Car-making is hard.Profitable car-making is a whole lot harder, and for proof you only need take a look at the failed British car companies we’re looking at here.
Some were born close to the dawn of the car, when bicycle-makers saw money in the new-fangled horseless carriage. But it wasn’t easy. Car-making at the start of the 20th century was like internet projects at the end of it - plenty tr

Seven years of ownership has taught Peter Dietsch how to live with a '90s Italian supercarThe odometer in Peter Dietsch's right-hand drive, UK-registered Lamborghini Diablo reads 83,000, but that's kilometres, not miles.
Bizarrely, while the speedos in most pre-1999 Diablos were calibrated in both MPH and KPH, as required by law, their odos always displayed the distance the car had travelled in kilometres. That's why, when I ask Peter how many miles he has done in his, he replies, rather confusi

Racers blasting beyond 300mph never gets old - but there's much more to UK's most famous drag strip
If you like extremes, you'll love Top Fuel drag racing. Some numbers: 0-343mph in 3.6sec, 11,500bhp, fuel consumption of five gallons per second... To these can now be added '60' - as in 60 years of Santa Pod Raceway (1966-2026), the drag mecca in Bedfordshire. Or is it Northamptonshire? Both councils claim it but then nothing's normal in this sport, including Keith Bartlett, the Bernie Ecclestone

Why has the electric Ferrari attracted so much ire? It all started with a missing olive in 1987It's hard to pinpoint the precise moment when the continuous chipping away of nice things began. I think you could make a case that Robert Crandall is the poster boy for the movement - which you could call shrinkflation, or enshittification, or something else, as you prefer - because of what he did as American Airlines CEO in 1987.
Crandall realised that removing one olive from each salad served to pas

Kei car-based cutie escapes from Japan as Honda’s latest EV ventureThe Honda Super-N, along with the Renault Twingo, is one of the green shoots appearing in the scorched earth that was the previously thriving A-segment. Fun, affordable small cars have had a tough time with legislation and profitability, leaving them neither much fun nor very affordable. As battery prices are coming down, though, there’s now hope that A-segment cars can return as EVs.With the £18,995 Super

Kei car-based cutie escapes from Japan as Honda’s latest EV ventureThe Honda Super-N, along with the Renault Twingo, is one of the green shoots appearing in the scorched earth that was the previously thriving A-segment. Fun, affordable small cars have had a tough time with legislation and profitability, leaving them neither much fun nor very affordable. As battery prices are coming down, though, there’s now hope that A-segment cars can return as EVs.With the £18,995 Super

You can now get a sleeper train between the capitals of France and Germany. We decided to find out if it was easier to driveGermany's oldest drinking water reservoir is only a few metres behind me.
And because I'm a sucker for big bits of engineering, and old bits of engineering, I would love to walk around the dam - even though I'm terrified by large bodies of water in places they're not meant to be.
But I have no idea it's there. We're about to enter the small hours, my Kia EV4 Fastback is acc

We conclude our coverage of the Jeep Wagoneer today, and close out a series that began in February. Last week, we reviewed sales and pricing details for the SJ Wagoneer in its long run from 1963 to 1991. Today we take a look at the same information for other types of Wagoneers Jeep offered to various levels of success from 1984 through today. It seems that since the '80s, Jeep pretty consistently underestimated the attachment owners had to the SJ Wagoneer, yet overestimated the draw of the Wagon

Subscription fatigue appears to be reaching its zenith and select automakers seem to have noticed. Stellantis, which owns Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler, has announced that it will soon be making numerous connected services free for 10 years.
Free trials are nothing new. In fact, they’re an essential component in helping automakers rationalize the pivot to connected features. Nobody would want to pay for formerly standard equipment as part of recurring fees.By making them temporarily free,

What happens when a die-hard Volkswagen enthusiast ditches premium gas for a used EV? In this episode, our friend Gwon explains why he left his 20-year history of driving VW GTIs, GLI and Alltrack to buy a 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Limited Edition for almost half the price of a brand-new one. 
We dive into a 6-month owner review, admire the Gravity Gold Matte paint, and put it side-by-side with the VW ID.4. We compare trunk space, the 800-volt versus 400-volt charging architectures, and wh

Even the most progressive politicians have a breaking point. For San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, that point was provided by brain-dead robotaxis turning the Fourth of July holiday weekend into a total traffic nightmare.Lurie, who famously pushed for San Francisco to become a ground zero for emerging vehicle technologies, is changing his tune. The mayor has officially sent a formal letter to the California Department of Transportation demanding a significant overhaul of the state's autonomous