What Car?

August is usually a quiet month for new car launches, with many manufacturers effectively shutting shop and sending staff on holiday. However, this time our events diary was anything but empty, with five of the UK’s most popular cars being either refreshed or replaced entirely. That list includes mainstays of the UK best-sellers chart, such as the Nissan Qashqai and Volkswagen Golf, alongside slightly more recent additions in the form of the Hyundai Tucson and MG HS. But it’s another car that’s changed most of all; it’s even got a new name. ‘Audi sees electric and combustion-powered cars co-existing for some time to come’ Well, sort of. Instead of directly replacing today’s A4 line-up, Audi has merged it with that of the A5 and used the latter name. This is part of a…

THE SPIN-OFFTV series Angel ultimately outlived the hugely popular supernatural drama that spawned it: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now the Audi A5 is about to do the same to the long-running Audi A4. Since it was introduced in 2009, the A5 hatchback (previously dubbed Sportback) has been the sportier foil to the more formal-looking A4 executive saloon and Avant estate, with the three cars virtually identical beneath the surface. Now, though, after three decades on sale, the A4 is at the end of the road – as a combustion-engined car, at least. You see, Audi wants all of its electric models to have even numbers, and when the A4 returns as an electric vehicle (EV), possibly in 2026, it’ll be as a rival to the Tesla Model 3. The two-door coupé and cabriolet…

August is usually a quiet month for new car launches, with many manufacturers effectively shutting shop and sending staff on holiday. However, this time our events diary was anything but empty, with five of the UK’s most popular cars being either refreshed or replaced entirely. That list includes mainstays of the UK best-sellers chart, such as the Nissan Qashqai and Volkswagen Golf, alongside slightly more recent additions in the form of the Hyundai Tucson and MG HS. But it’s another car that’s changed most of all; it’s even got a new name. ‘Audi sees electric and combustion-powered cars co-existing for some time to come’ Well, sort of. Instead of directly replacing today’s A4 line-up, Audi has merged it with that of the A5 and used the latter name. This is…

THE SPIN-OFFTV series Angel ultimately outlived the hugely popular supernatural drama that spawned it: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now the Audi A5 is about to do the same to the long-running Audi A4. Since it was introduced in 2009, the A5 hatchback (previously dubbed Sportback) has been the sportier foil to the more formal-looking A4 executive saloon and Avant estate, with the three cars virtually identical beneath the surface. Now, though, after three decades on sale, the A4 is at the end of the road – as a combustion-engined car, at least. You see, Audi wants all of its electric models to have even numbers, and when the A4 returns as an electric vehicle (EV), possibly in 2026, it’ll be as a rival to the Tesla Model 3. The two-door…

CHANCES ARE, IF you try to think back to when family SUVs started to really take off in popularity, the car that springs to mind is the Nissan Qashqai. It’s the car widely credited with starting the family SUV trend more than a decade ago, inspiring countless rivals on the way, not least the Kia Sportage, Seat Ateca, Skoda Karoq and Volvo XC40. In an effort to keep these rivals at bay, the Qashqai has been facelifted, gaining a much larger front grille, sleeker headlights and clear lenses for the rear lights, along with a few new paint colours and wheel designs. Entry-level Visia trim has been dropped, but a new midspec N-Design version has been added, and that’s what we’re testing here. N-Design adds distinctive body-coloured wheel arches and side skirts,…

THERE IS A saying that you wait ages for a bus and then two come along at once, and in this instance we have another freshly updated family SUV – the Hyundai Tucson – hoping to divert your attention from the Nissan Qashqai on the previous page. Granted, it isn’t all that long since either of these cars first went on sale, but the timing is highly coincidental. While the Qashqai has received an eyecatching new front grille, the Tucson already had one – which might explain why the exterior remains largely the same as before. You get revised bumpers and fewer (although individually larger) ‘jewel’ daytime running lights on either side of the grille, but you’ll have to look inside to spot the biggest changes. There’s a new steering wheel and…