Car review

Jaguar takes a typically sporting approach with the F-Pace, but it isn't quite enough to better its sibling, the Land Rover Discovery Sport A wary toe. That’s how the introductory line suggests Jaguar is entering the SUV arena, and the reasoning is sound enough: were Jaguar more confident it could sell an SUV, it would have tried it years ago.There are reasons why it hasn’t, of course. This is a company that – although written large on the radar of UK car buyers and enthusiasts – is a minnow alongside the German firms that its cars rival. Their products sell by the hundreds of thousands and contribute to sales of more than a million a year for each company. Jaguar sells fewer than 100,000 cars a year in total. Or has, until now.The F-Pace is the car that’s meant to change that. It’s a car that puts the future of Jaguar estates under threat but it’s also one that, frankly, no executive car maker can be without – even one that has a separate arm dealing entirely in executive SUVs.There’s an argument that this is one of the reasons for Jaguar’s SUV tardiness. Will a Jaguar 4x4 nick sales from a Range Rover 4x4? It’s a possibility but, as the VW Group does with Volkswagen and Audi (and Skoda and Seat too), it’s a chance you take. And seemingly those at JLR have viewed the risk in the same vein, with the smaller Jaguar E-Pace joining the range to take the fight to the BMW X1 and Audi Q3, and an electric-powered i-Pace to rival electric SUVs like Tesla's Model X.At least you get the profit either way, rather than somebody else. And the F-Pace’s ethos is wilfully different, on paper and in the drives we’ve had so far, from anything else that rolls out of a Jaguar Land Rover facility. It’s a Jaguar, which means it’s a sporting SUV, we’re told – as much as one is possible.It’s a tall car with a modicum of off-road ability, but for those who like driving. That’s always a slight contradiction, but ever since BMW launched the X5 in the late 1990s, it’s one we’ve managed to get our head around.We’ve tried most F-Pace engine variants so far in one way or another, including the F-Pace S in both petrol and diesel variants, but the one tested here counts most: the 2.0-litre diesel that will constitute the biggest number of sales.

Mazda supermini continues with appealing old-fashioned qualities David Cameron in Number 10 and Cheryl Cole atop the charts; Russia waging war on Ukraine and a review of the Mk3 Mazda 2 featuring on the front page of Autocar. In some ways, summer 2014 feels like ancient history; in others, it’s like nothing has changed at all.The third-generation Mazda 2 came out more than a decade ago now, and yet it's only just left us. In that time, other superminis have bloated in size, gained smaller turbocharged engines and been stuffed with ever more technology. Meanwhile, the little Mazda has remained resolutely old-school.Add to that the shaky future of some of its rivals, and rather than becoming dated, it could be argued that the Mazda 2 is now a more uniquely enticing product than ever.For 2023, the Mazda 2 was facelifted a second time, with new bumper and wheel designs, new colour options, and an unusual blanked-off grille on some versions. In the past few years, it's also gained an updated multimedia system to keep it fresh, and mild-hybrid powertrains to ensure it's not taxed out of existence.Range at a glanceThere's not been a diesel Mazda 2 for a while now, but there's still a good amount of choice, with four variants of Mazda's own Skyactiv-G engine, a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol. It comes in 74bhp, 89bhp and 113bhp forms. Only the 89bhp version can be had with an automatic gearbox, and manual versions of the 89bhp and 113bhp versions get mild-hybrid assistance, called E-Skyactiv in Mazda speak.There are four trim levels to choose from (named Centre-Line, Exclusive-Line, Homura and Homura Aka), all of which provide a comprehensive specification list. You can expect at the minimum air conditioning, a USB port, hill-start assistance, cruise control, alloy wheels, rear parking sensors and an 8.0in touchscreen infotainment system complete with sat-nav, a DAB radio, Bluetooth and smartphone mirroring.VersionPowerSkyactiv-G 75PS74bhpE-Skyactiv-G 1.5 90PS89bhpSkyactiv-G 1.5 90PS Automatic89bhpE-Skyactiv-G 1.5 115PS114bhp 

American EV start-up stunned on debut with the Air saloon; now it has applied the same principles to a seven-seat SUV To say that the Lucid Gravity is extremely spacious might seem trivial, given that it’s a seven-seat SUV.It’s not trivial, though, because the car industry has produced its fair share of inverse tardises since moving to EVs – big cars that make you wonder where all the space has gone. Take the surprisingly cosy Porsche Taycan, all those rear-driven electric BMWs with no frunk and the Renault 5, which looks and feels like a small car until you park it next to a Clio.Packaging batteries, motors, inverters and other magic boxes is quite a different game to doing the same with engines, gearboxes and fuel tanks, necessitating a change in mindset for the world’s automotive engineers.Tailoring a car around a big monolith of a battery is something at which Tesla is better than any of the ‘legacy’ manufacturers, because it has always started from a blank slate with few ICE preconceptions. And it’s no surprise that Lucid is just as adept, given the number of Tesla defectors in its ranks – not least strategic technical advisor and former CEO Peter Rawlinson.

Nascent Chinese brand expands B10 line-up with range-extender plug-in hybrid This is the Leapmotor B10 Hybrid EV, the nascent Chinese brand’s new C-segment SUV that uses an innovative range-extender powertrain to offer the feel of an EV, without actually being fully electric. Leapmotor already sells the B10 – and its C10 big brother – in pure electric form in the UK alongside its T03 electric city car. Backed by European car giant Stellantis, Leapmotor is now launching an assault on the family SUV market with its clever REx technology. It’s not dissimilar in set-up to the Mazda MX-30 R-EV and Nissan Qashqai e-Power, whereby the wheels are driven by an electric motor, and the engine is used as an on-board generator to charge the battery. It’s a rare configuration in a burgeoning segment, but does the B10 Hybrid EV have the credentials to take on the current crop of established electrified family SUVs?

The Sandero represents basic motoring done well, for those who really want it The bombshell has been dropped. Riding on the crest of a wave of global growth, Renault's budget brand, Dacia, arrived in the UK. And it brought with it a product to shake up the market: the inexpensive Dacia Sandero. Now to measure the impact crater. Is the Dacia as appealing as the idea of it? Will it suit the roads and drivers' tastes of one of the most mature and idiosyncratic car markets in the world? Is it likely to inspire a super-low-budget supermini class of its own? Or will the unavoidable concessions of a low-cost supermini prove unpalatable, and render the Dacia an irrelevance to the likes of us?