Car review

It has tech to spare, but is the EL6 any good in the competitive electric family SUV class? We should start here by pointing out that you can’t buy the Nio EL6 in the UK. Not yet, anyway.However, this Chinese electric car brand has already started selling cars in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and a UK offensive is highly likely before the end of 2024, with the 4.85-metre-long Nio EL6 SUV set to be one of the launch models.Read on to learn more about this tech-laden family electric car.

Is the RS6 still the landmark performance estate car? There is no uncompromisingly large, outrageously fast and supremely usable performance estate car quite like the Audi RS6 Avant.Something clearly changed at Audi Sport headquarters during the genesis of the no-holds-barred Performance edition.It was evidently better understood than it ever had been what people really want from a modern fast estate car - and how far the design and dynamic mission statement of this iconic, do-it-all, any-weather driver’s car could be pushed as a result.It had clearly been realised that while RS6 buyers may feel they need space, versatility and Audi-brand on-board technology, they want something that feels much less tempered by everyday practicality. Something a little wild and unhinged.In the standard C8-generation RS6, they certainly got a fast Audi that looked the part. Now, as the car nears the end of its life, it is only offered in Performance trim wherein its mechanicals have been dialled up to a wicked-strength extent.With this fourth-generation version, the RS6 tore into its 20th anniversary. Having dallied briefly but memorably with turbocharged V10 power a decade ago, the RS6 Performance retains the turbocharged V8 engine type that has helped to define its character for a while now. It also retains the permanent quattro all-paw driveline that has had equal influence in the casting of its character and place in the world.And yet the list of new technology that’s ready to reinvent the dynamic abilities of this all-encompassing version is long. Mild hybridisation has been introduced to boost the car’s socially responsible fuel efficiency, and four-wheel steering adopted to keep pace with rivals such as the Mercedes E63 AMG S and BMW M5.There is plenty that promises to make this Audi ’bahn stormer even better than its predecessors. Stand by to find out exactly what it all amounts to.The Audi RS6 line-up at a glanceThe RS6 is available exclusively as an Avant estate, and, since the end of 2022, the RS6 Performance has been the only offering in the line-up, with the regular car dropped owing to the imminent retiring of the ‘C8’ generation model.Prices start at just over £110,000, with the Carbon Black model adding an £8950 premium. The range-topping Carbon Vorsprung car starts just shy of £130,000.

Kia’s talismanic European-built SUV builds on the company's latest design direction The Kia Sportage lived a fairly quiet life to begin with as a car known to few outside of Asian markets.But ever since it became one of Kia’s first European-built models in its second-generation form, and then led its company’s transformation into a design-centric brand in its third, the Sportage has taken on special status for the company that makes it.Peter Schreyer’s distinctive ‘tiger nose’ third-generation design drove the car to a level of UK- and European-market popularity unknown to Kia in the early 2010s, which the subsequent fourth-generation version built on.And now, with the Sportage’s status as Kia’s best-selling car in the UK, Europe and the wider world assured, comes a fifth-generation version that looks ready to mix things up all over again.Rather than protecting and subtly evolving the looks of its golden goose, Kia is innovating: using the most powerful sales platform it has to disseminate its latest corporate design language that will roll out across its model lines and showing a strategic boldness that only commercial success can grant permission for.This language, entitled ‘Opposites United’, will evidently trade the neat appealing features and lines of Kia’s old philosophy for something even more impactful – but will it be as successful in driving sales?It certainly has enough competition. There are tens of rival SUVs on offer from rival manufacturers. But its main competition comes in the form of the Skoda Karoq, Ford Kuga and Nissan Qashqai. Kia Sportage range at a glanceThe Sportage range includes petrol engines with and without 48V mild-hybrid assistance, as well as full-hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains, with part-time all-wheel drive effectively available on all but the very cheapest models.

A new breed of 911 pays homage to the Paris-Dakar-conquering Porsche 953 The Porsche 911 Dakar needs little introduction. It is the most significant reinterpretation of the factory-built, road-legal 911 rulebook since the engineers at Weissach took a 996-generation Supercup race car and made it fit for public consumption.That little experiment took place nearly 25 years ago and the resulting model is one of which you may have heard. The now iconic 911 GT3 was named in reference to its motorsport-derived DNA. The subject of this road test spells out its source of inspiration even more unambiguously. It was in 1984 that Porsche won the 7500-mile Paris-Dakar Rally using a transmogrified G-Series 911 with 270 litres of fuel capacity and a manually locking centre diff and permitting nearly 300mm of wheel travel, though the 3.2-litre flat six in the back was largely unchanged from the road car’s.It was known as the 953, and as well as surprising all and sundry by being the first dedicated sports car to win the world’s most gruelling rough-road race, it paved the way for the more famous (and similarly Rothmans-liveried) 959 Paris-Dakar. It is now celebrated by the 911 Dakar, of which 2500 units will be built.This unusual, potentially very special model arrives at a time when Porsche is expressing itself more freely than ever, at least so far as the 911 is concerned. The latest GT3 RS has to an epic extent redefined the capability of the track-day 911, while the Porsche 911 S/T melds the precision of a hardcore RS with the road manners of a garden Carrera. Want a 911 Turbo shorn of its front driveshafts and with three pedals? With the 911 Sport Classic, you can have that too. At a glance, the Dakar’s underbody armour, Cayenne-rivalling ride height and all-terrain tyres would seem to mark it out as a 911 for dusty trails and muddy tracks. And it will handle those like no series-production 911 before it. But there’s also a sense that its unique modifications could make it a rewarding, engaging road car that’s easier to exploit and live with than any of its range-mates. Could this be the case? Let’s find out.The range at a glanceModelsPowerFromCarrera380bhp£97,000Carrera 4380bhp£103,000Carrera T380bhp£107,700Carrera S444bhp£110,000Carrera 4S444bhp£116,000Carrera GTS473bhp£122,000Carrera 4 GTS473bhp£128,000Turbo573bhp£159,000Turbo S641bhp£180,600GT3503bhp£146,400Dakar473bhp£173,000GT3 RS518bhp£192,600Sport Classic542bhp£214,200S/T518bhp£231,600Porsche carves an extraordinarily broad range out of the core 911 proposition, and the Dakar is the most unexpected of them all. It is the most expensive model not crafted by the motorsport experts in the GT division, who develop the GT3 et al.

Lexus steps back into the full-blown luxury sphere with a rather unconventional limousine rival If the sight of the new Lexus LM makes you wonder why anyone would spend six figures on a van-like ‘luxury mover’ large MPV, it’s probably because you’re simply not ‘hyper-affluent’ enough. For a few minutes at least, just try to be a bit more Jeffrey Bezos.Imagine that you travel almost everywhere by private jet - except when travelling by road. You are used to top-level luxuries in every corner of your life, and time to yourself is among those you value highest (cue the violins...).So what you experience on the inside of a ‘limousine’ is far more important than how it looks, how it drives, or what it says about you. Would you not prefer one that you can step in and out of even more easily than a black cab? With enough room inside it to genuinely repose; with blinds and cabin dividers allowing you to shut out the world, as well as the driver up front? One with seats and tables like your Gulfstream - but with the digital tech to beat it?The 200 or so deposits that Lexus UK took for this car after opening the order book in 2023 suggest you just might. Likewise does the rise of so many companies offering aftermarket luxury conversions on the likes of the Mercedes V-Class, and even the Volkswagen Multivan (which itself uses a passenger car platform, of course).Like ’em or not, the ultra-high-end ‘VIP shuttle’ luxury MPV is set to be a growth area for the car industry over the next few years. So just how much is there to like?