Now, the firm is doubling down on its efforts to correct this pricing mis-step with another added incentive: zero deposit finance (either PCP or HP) with an added £750 finance deposit allowance. It’s again only on offer until the end of June, but does make the Swift Sport a much more competitive proposition.
For those choosing a four-year PCP, the Swift Sport can be had for monthly payments of £258 a month, with a final payment of just under £6,000. Again, no cash needs to change hands when doing the deal.
The payments can be chipped further, to £199 a month, for those able to add a £2,530 deposit to Suzuki’s £750. Again, the final payment is £5,943, and the APR for both deals is 5.9 percent. The annual mileage cap is 8,000 miles.
Prefer HP instead? With the £750 deposit, the price is £368 a month over four years, and the car is yours to keep at the end of it. Add in your own £2,954 deposit and prices are reduced to £299 a month.
Buyers can choose from five colours, one solid and five metallic, and all of them are free: there’s no extra cost for picking metallic. Also standard is sat nav, DAB radio, climate control, 17-inch alloys and all-round electric windows.
It’s been a bit of a drawn-out process to restore the Swift Sport’s pricing competitiveness, and there’s no promise this will continue once June is out, but it’s now more appealing than it was: if your heart is set on a new Swift Sport, do a deal in June to make sure you secure the extra-value deal it was once renowned for.
This is the Ferrari SP38: the latest creation from Maranello’s One-Off programme. Designed by the Ferrari Design Centre and based on the running gear of the 488 GTB, the transformation is so comprehensive, it looks like an entirely new model.
The bespoke supercar was handed over to one of Ferrari’s most loyal customers at Fiorano, where it was immediately put through its paces in a series of hot laps. On this evidence, the SP38 is unlikely to be locked away in an air-conditioned garage – this one is for driving.
Ferrari afficiandoes will notice a few subtle nods to the brand’s heritage, including a bumper lip reminiscent of the 308 GTB, along with a tip of the hat to the F40’s rear wing in the form of the rear spoiler. Note also the louvred carbon fibre engine cover, which replaces the rear glass in honour of Ferrari’s 40th anniversary icon.
Further highlights include wafer-thin inset headlights, reolocated daytime running lights, and a profile that’s more wedge-shaped than the 488 GTB. The client – who is said to have a “deep passion for racing” – must be delighted with the result. To quote Altabani in The Italian Job, it’s a pretty car.
Public debut at Villa d’Este
Ferrari hasn’t confirmed whether any mechanical changes have been made, but we’d expect the SP38 to retain the same twin-turbocharged 3.9-litre V8 engine as the 488 GTB. In standard guise, the engine produces 661hp, but this can be increased to 710hp in track-focused Pista specification.
Sadly, there are no images of the Tailor-Made interior, so we’ll have to wait until the upcoming Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on 26 May for the full public reveal.
Ferrari’s One-Off programme is open to Maranello’s best and most important clients, and available via invitation only. A car such as the SP38 can take years to create and involve a great deal of input from the client. The final price is undisclosed, but you should bank on spending a few million pounds, should you get the call from Ferrari.
The Kia Sportage SUV is the firm’s best-selling car in the UK, occasionally even breaking into the British top 10 best-sellers chart. To ensure momentum is maintained, Kia has treated it to a mid-life facelift.
As is the way these days, visual tweaks are modest. They’re limited to new front and rear bumpers, tweaked headlights and tail lamps, plus a fresh set of 16-inch, 17-inch and 19-inch alloys. There are, however, five new paint colours, and a swish gloss black hot-stamped radiator grille for GT-Line models.
Inside, Kia has fitted a new steering wheel and instrument cluster, updated the upholstery and, again for GT-Line cars, launched a choice of either black and grey two-tone leather seats, or black leather with red accents. New infotainment systems comprise either a 7.0-inch touchscreen system or a slicker-looking ‘frameless’ 8.0-inch setup.
That’s the stuff you can see. Beneath the surface, much more has changed. Indeed, there’s an entirely new diesel engine in the model people buy most of: the 1.7-litre CRDi is no more, with Kia’s new 1.6-litre CRDI ‘U3’ powerplant replacing it.
Kia says this is the cleanest diesel it’s ever made. It’s offered in either 115hp or 136hp guise, with the more potent model offering all-wheel drive and a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox alongside the standard front-drive six-speed manual model.
The headliner is the new EcoDynamics+ 2.0-litre ‘R’ diesel mild hybrid. This uses a 48-volt battery to extend the engine-off time, and make restarts almost seamless thanks to an integrated mild hybrid starter-generator unit. Kia says that, under the new WLTP fuel economy test regime that all new Sportage comply with, CO2 emissions are reduced by a decent-sounding 4 percent.
There’s also more safety stuff, such as smart cruise control with stop and go functionality, driver alertness monitoring and a bird’s eye-style Around View Monitor parking camera.
Last year, Kia sold 131,000 Sportage across Europe, accounting for 1 in 4 of its sales. It delivered nearly 40,000 in the UK, which is a third of its volume. Dealers will be watching confirmed prices and launch details with interest then, ahead of the car’s British roll-out in autumn 2018.
Amazon’s Prime Now service is designed for shoppers who find next-day deliveries just a little bit slow. If you want something and you want it within two hours, you’ve got it, providing you live in the right postcode and have signed up to Amazon Prime.
But forget toothpaste, dishwasher tablets and ice cream, because now, for the first time, you can arrange a test drive of a new car via Prime Now. There are a couple of catches – which we’ll come to in a moment – but after a sign-up process, the vehicle will be delivered to your home or workplace.
It’s the result of a collaboration between Amazon and Volvo Car UK, which follows the introduction of the company’s new Care by Volvo subscription-based ownership package.
For now at least, the service is limited to the Volvo V40 and is only available in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh, but we’d expect it to be widened to include other cars and locations, should this initial roll-out prove successful.
Delivery to your door
Jon Wakefield, managing director of Volvo Car UK, said: “At Volvo Cars, we aim to make people’s lives easier. Our ‘Prime Now test drive’ offer does just that, allowing potential customers to try our V40 on their terms and in familiar surroundings.
“We’re proud to team up with Amazon to deliver this unique initiative, the first of its kind in the UK and the latest in a range of offerings from Volvo designed to take the hassle out of running a car.”
Having signed-up and selected a time-slot, a ‘fully trained operative’ will deliver the car to the door, before accompanying the prospective customer on a 45-minute test drive.
Should the customer be interested in purchasing a V40, they will be directed to their local Volvo retailer, which will be music to the ears of dealers up and down the land, fearful that this venture could cut out the middleman. Test drives will be offered on a first come, first served basis over the following weekends:
London: 9-10 June
Birmingham: 16-17 June
Manchester: 23-24 June
Edinburgh: 30 June-1 July
Customers living outside the eligible areas are invited to visit their local dealer for a test drive. How very old-school.
The new Vauxhall Corsa GSI opens for ordering in July 2018, and although we still don’t know how much it will cost, we do know the engine it will use: a 150hp 1.4-litre turbo petrol.
This helps the warm hatch accelerate from 0-62mph in 8.9 seconds, onto a top speed of 128mph. The new Corsa GSI also boasts a healthy 162lb ft of pulling power between 3,000rpm and 4,500rpm, and if you leave the short-ratio six-speed gearbox in fifth, it will accelerate from 50-70mph in 9.9 seconds.
All of which doesn’t sound so bad when combined with claimed economy of 47.1mpg, and CO2 emissions of 139g/km – and these comply with the latest Euro 6d-TEMP standards, too.
Due in showrooms in September 2018 (just in time for 68-plate registrations), the Corsa GSI uses the same chassis as the Corsa VXR hot hatch; you can even option the 215/40 18-inch lightweight alloys offered on the 210hp VXR.
It also has optional leather Recaro seats inside, plus a GSI bodykit with sculpted bonnet and rear spoiler, chrome tailpipe and red-painted brake calipers. The Vauxhall IntelliLink system is standard, incorporating both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Environment secretary Michael Gove will today launch a new Clean Air Strategy, which aims to cut deaths from air pollution. The plans are a key part of the government’s 25-year goal to leave the environment “in a better state than we found it”.
Air pollution is Britain’s fourth biggest cause of premature death, after cancer, obesity and heart disease – claiming 50,000 lives each year. The European Commission is also taking the UK government to court for breaching EU air quality rules.
The finer details of the Clean Air Strategy have yet to be announced, but domestic fuels (such as log-burning stoves), ammonia emissions from farming and micro-plastics (from vehicle tyres and brakes) are top of the agenda. A ‘personal air quality messaging system’ is also proposed, to inform those living in polluted areas when to take extra precautions.
The headline aim is to ‘halve the number of people living in locations where concentrations of particulate matter are above the World Health Organisation guideline limit of 10 ug/m3 by 2025’.
A “transport-shaped hole”
The plans have, however, already drawn criticism for not going far enough – and laws and restrictions around cars are at the core of the complaints. Greenpeace campaigner Paul Morozzo said: “There’s a transport-shaped hole in what we’ve seen of this strategy so far.”
Mr Morozzo continued: “To be a proper clean air strategy it would need concrete plans on clean air zones to tackle dangerous pollution from diesel cars, yet there’s no detail following the government’s latest ticking off from the High Court. Further, to achieve clean air in the UK we have to get diesel cars off our roads as fast as we can.”
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas called the plans “underwhelming”, comparing them with “taking a water pistol to a wildfire”.
Michael Gove claimed air quality had “improved significantly since 2010”, but was still “making people ill, shortening lives and damaging our economy and environment”.
More details on the Clean Air Strategy will be announced later today, so check back for further updates.
Unless you’ve managed to avoid the news for the last three years, you’ll know that the long-running ‘NEDC’ emissions and fuel economy testing regime has come under criticism. The huge gulf between the results from the official figures quoted online and in brochures, and the performance of cars in the real world, was no longer acceptable.
The new Volvo V60 could be yours for £299 a month
The car industry has devised an answer. First introduced in September 2017, the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Testing Process (WLTP) has been designed to recreate the conditions drivers actually experience more closely.
Combining a laboratory test with a new on-road ‘Real Driving Emissions’ test lasting two hours, buyers should have more confidence in the figures provided for comparison on fuel economy and emissions.
Volvo is now ahead of the curve. It has become the first manufacturer selling cars in the UK to have every model across the range complying with the new WLTP rules. This includes all petrol and diesel-powered models, plus the collection of hybrid vehicles offered by the Swedish brand.
Set to apply to all new registrations from the 1st September 2018, only new cars homologated to meet WLTP standard will be able to be sold in the European Union. Although manufacturers will be able to sell a limited stock of cars tested under the old rules, compliance with WLTP is a must for major players.
Basically, cars that aren’t WLTP-compliant by September will be barred from sale in the UK. Hence the significance of Volvo’s achievement, nearly five months ahead of schedule.
Volvo has already committed to a programme of ensuring all new Volvo models offered from 2019 will feature some form of electrification, along with plans for 50% of all products on sale by 2025 to be fully electric.
Of course, with a model range focussed on a core of premium SUVs and estates, and with powertrains shared between many products, Volvo has arguably had a slightly easier task to ensure WLTP compliance than other manufacturers.
This should still take nothing away from the fact that Volvo can lay claim to being the first, and adds pressure to other brands to ensure their new cars meet the 1st September deadline…
Regular servicing and maintenance is essential if you want a happy and healthy car, but it accounts for a significant chunk of the overall running costs. Missing a scheduled service is a false economy and could lead to problems further down the line. But what is the cheapest car to service? A study by Servicing Stop, an online car servicing provider, has named the top 10 cheapest cars to service – and the top 10 most expensive. We’ll start with the cheapest, with the results presented in reverse order.
10. SEAT Mii: £210
Servicing Stop analysed the data of more than 250,000 online bookings to identify the makes and models with the cheapest service price year-on-year. Buy a SEAT Mii and you can budget for around £210 to cover the cost of servicing on an annual basis. With the Volkswagen Up and Skoda Citigo absent from the list, this might be one reason to choose the SEAT over its siblings.
9. Vauxhall Adam: £208
Oly Richmond, CEO and founder of Servicing Stop, said: “Many motorists think about the cost of the car when purchasing a new or second-hand model, but often the running costs go forgotten about. You could end up spending twice as much every single year by purchasing a more expensive vehicle to service so make sure to do your research in advance!” Buy a Vauxhall Adam and not a SEAT Mii and you could save yourself £2 a year. Don’t spend it all at once.
8. Toyota Aygo: £207
It’s one of the smallest cars you can buy, so it’s logical that it should come with equally small running costs. Launched in 2005, the Aygo was the result of a joint venture with Peugeot and Citroen, with the second-generation car arriving in 2014. The Peugeot 108 doesn’t make the top 10, but there’s a slot for the Citroen C1 further up the table.
7. Citroen C4 Cactus: £205
We’ll come to the C1 later, but in the meantime here’s the Citroen C4 Cactus. Production started in 2014, with an extensively facelifted version launched earlier this year. The C4 Cactus doesn’t tend to perform well in reliability and satisfaction surveys, but at least it should be cheap to service.
6. Alfa Romeo 147: £201
If you thought this list would be full of dull and worthy vehicles, here’s something to warm the cockles of your heart. Based on the results of this study, the Alfa Romeo is the sixth cheapest car to service in the UK, at an average cost of £201.
5. Citroen C1: £197
Here’s the Citroen C1 we promised you, which is the first car to slip below the £200 mark. Admit it, you’re still thinking about the Alfa, aren’t you? Either that or you’ve disappeared to search for 147s on Auto Trader.
4. Ford Kuga: £195
Crossovers and SUVs are all the rage right now, and here’s one that won’t cost the earth to service. The Ford Kuga is good to drive and offers excellent value for money when new, but feels dated when pitched against some newer rivals.
3. Nissan Pulsar: £180
If you’re after a hatchback with limo-like levels of rear legroom, the Nissan Pulsar is the best choice. Although production will end this summer, the Pulsar is a likeable five-door hatchback with the added bonus of being cheap to service.
2. Ford EcoSport: £176
You’re unlikely to buy a Ford EcoSport for its styling, but at a cost of £176, at least you won’t be spending a fortune on servicing.
1. Peugeot 106: £158
Everything’s relative, isn’t it? You can buy a perfectly serviceable Peugeot 106 for anything between £200 and £400, which means the cost of a service could be as much as 50 percent of the car’s value. Buy a 106 with a fresh MOT, give it a good service, and if it provides a year of cheap transport, job’s a good’un.
10. Ford Transit: £363
From the cheapest we move to the most expensive, starting with this: the Ford Transit. Sorry, Servicing Stop, but we thought this list focused on cars not vans. Anyway, a Transit should cost £363 a year to service.
9. BMW 6 Series: £366
You don’t need to read between the lines to work out that the more expensive the car, the more you’re likely to spend on servicing. Not only is the BMW 6 Series a depreciation nightmare, it’s also rather expensive to service.
8. BMW X5: £368
As is the BMW X5. But, if you buy a large SUV, you have to be prepared for expensive running costs. If not, buy a Peugeot 106.
7. Jaguar XK: £371
And, in the great scheme of things, £371 isn’t a huge amount to spend when you have something like a Jaguar XK gracing your driveway.
6. Chrysler Grand Voyager: £373
If you value space and the comfort of your six passengers above all else, the seven-seat Chrysler Grand Voyager is a fine choice of MPV. Don’t bank on cheap running costs, mind.
5. BMW Z Series: £379
Servicing Stop has lumped the Z3 and Z4 into a ‘Z Series’ category, with the study revealing a servicing cost of £379.
4. Porsche Cayenne: £382
Nobody has ever bought a Porsche Cayenne expecting low running costs, so a servicing cost of £382 will come as no surprise. You can lower the cost by using a reputable independent Porsche specialist.
3. Volvo XC70: £404
Into the top three, where we find the Volvo XC70. The jacked-up estate car went out of production in 2016, with Volvo focusing on fashionable SUVs, but you can buy a new V90 Cross Country.
2. Jaguar S-Type: £406
The S-Type is the second Jaguar to appear in the top 10 most expensive cars to service, at cost of £406. Which leaves us to reveal the most expensive car to service, according to this study…
1. Porsche Boxster: £426
It’s the Porsche Boxster. Oly Richmond said: “Our most expensive car to service is the Porsche Boxster which comes in at more than £400, still cheaper than the dealers but more than two and a half times the cost of the Peugeot 106 service and repair bill.”
Wheeler Dealers returns this week for an incredible 15th series. The car restoration show – which airs on the Discovery Channel, Monday nights at 9pm – has been broadcast since 2003, and host Mike Brewer promises this time he’s “absolutely nailed it”.
We catch up with Mike to learn what’s in store for Wheeler Dealers, including the cars featured in the 2018 season. He also gives his unique take on buying, owning and driving classic cars: “the only hobby in the world that’s free”.
Video: Mike Brewer on the new Wheeler Dealers
Wheeler Dealers has been on air for 15 years now. What’s the secret of the show’s success?
The DNA of the show has never changed, and we’ve kept it accessible for the home mechanic. We always say to the audience: “This is how you can tackle these problems”.
As ever, series 15 features a very eclectic range of cars. Talk us through the highlights.
We decided to really stretch the boundaries this time, given that Wheeler Dealers is made for a global audience. We’ve got a Jeep Grand Wagoneer, for example, which was the first luxury SUV: eight years before the Range Rover. Among others, there’s also a beautiful Alfa Romeo Spider, an amazing 1972 Lancia Fulvia, a Datsun 510 – a real hot-property car – and an Opel GT. There’s something for everyone.
What budget did you set for buying cars in this series?
It’s always difficult to set a budget as the market for classic cars has shifted considerably. People say “Why don’t you go back to buying those £1,000 Triumph Spitfires?”. The answer is simple: they don’t exist. Classic cars have undergone a renaissance since 2008, with prices increasing 10-15 percent year-on-year. That Triumph Spitfire is now an £8,000 car.
I try to keep the cars affordable, but it’s nice to have some glamour – such as the Austin Healey 3000 – now and then.
The 2002 Mini Cooper S MC40 you restore in episode seven is among the newest cars featured. Does fixing up a modern classic present different challenges?
People assume a modern classic will be easier: plug a computer in, reset a few codes and there’s your car serviced. That’s not necessarily true. This episode shows how you can tackle a 100,000-mile service on the Mini, including the supercharger: a job that would cost £1,500 at a BMW dealer. We do it for £90, using all original parts. I’m hugely proud of this one.
You also take on a project Porsche 924 in episode three. Did that bring back memories of your first ever show?
It did. Wheeler Dealers was the first car restoration show, and it all started with that car. Now when you switch on the TV there are over 50 car restoration programmes. Having another Porsche 924 shows the programme hasn’t changed in 15 years. The jobs are different, but fundamentally it’s still about me buying a car, handing it to my mechanic, fixing it up, driving it and selling it.
What is Ant Anstead like to work with? He’s clearly a perfectionist when it comes to cars…
Ant had been a huge fan of Wheeler Dealers so he knew exactly what to do. When I hand a car over it could have huge problems, but Ant has an amazing enthusiasm for everything I throw at him. He’s also a great orator, helping simplify what can be very complicated jobs.
Is the show still based in California?
Yes, we’re based in Huntingdon Beach. It’s a fantastic place: the sun shines 360 days of the year, the cars are rust-free and LA is the car capital of the world. I’m constantly being asked by the audience to visit Australia, Germany, Canada, Italy, the UK… many other places around the world. It all comes down to time and budget, but I’m keen to make it happen.
Will we see another series of Wheeler Dealers Trading Up, the spin-off show where you traded your way from a $2,000 banger to a supercar?
That was a phenomenal show. It revealed to people how they can play the global car market. In the second season, for example, I ended up with a Ferrari 348 that owed me just a couple of thousand dollars. We travelled around the world, so during one year I only slept in my own bed nine times. It was challenging, but I’m certainly up for another one.
Do you have any tips for viewers on what makes an enjoyable – and profitable – project car?
If you want to get into classic car restoration, fill your library before you fill your garage. Knowledge is power, and you should know exactly which car you aim to buy. Secondly, join an owners’ club. You will find out what to look for and gain an army of contacts who can help you. Somebody in the club may have a car for sale, too.
Lastly, if you’ve got a problem that you can’t fix, go online and see if somebody else has. There are plenty of videos, including the Wheeler Dealers archive. We have over 700 jobs in our database, across 170 shows. Take your time and you’ll find this is the only hobby in the world that’s free. Buy the right car, fix it up in the right way and I guarantee you’ll make money.
What car do you drive and what’s your dream classic?
I drive a 1982 Porsche 911 SC and absolutely love it. It puts such a huge smile on my face every time I’m behind the wheel.
Can I pick two dream classics? The first would be a 1964 Mini Cooper S, the same car that Paddy Hopkirk drove in the Monte Carlo rally. At the other end of the spectrum, I’d have a 1929 Bentley 4.5-litre ‘Blower’. It’s everything that British engineering was, and still is. Driving one – pulling bugs out of your teeth and feeling like you’re one of Barbara Cartland’s Bentley Boys – is an amazing experience.
Freshly famous for being Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding car of choice, the Jaguar E-type Zero is an original classic that’s been converted into a fully electric sports car by engineers at Jaguar Land Rover Classic – and if there’s demand, eco-conscious classic Jag fans will be able to buy one in the future.
Fully engineered by classic experts, the E-type’s classic six-cylinder XK engine has been replaced by an electric motor, batteries and control systems, giving a 0-62mph time of 5.5 seconds and a real-world driving range of 170 miles.
The E-type Zero is thus not only faster than an original E-type, it is also almost 50kg lighter, despite the heavy batteries. And visually, there’s been not a single change over the original car – this is a pure electric conversion that Jaguar could in the future offer as a service.
“Our aim with E-type Zero is to future-proof classic car ownership,” says Jaguar Land Rover Classic director Tim Hannig. “We’re looking forward to the reaction of our clients as we investigate bringing this concept to market.” He’s even released a telephone number (+44 (0)203 601 1255) – and an email address (info@classic.jaguar.co.uk) for those interested in having their E-types converted.
Jaguar believes those living in cities could be particularly interested in the conversion, as authorities crack down on older combustion engine cars. As 2040 nears, it will allow classic cars to still be driven despite tough new environmental legislation.
The fully-restored E-type Zero is a 1965 Series 1.5 car, originally built in 1968. The firm purchased the car with the intention of creating the electric car concept – and Hannig adds it is a fully-reversible conversion, ensuring the originality of the car can remain.
“We have integrated the new electric powertrain into the existing E-type structure, which means a conventional engine could be reinstalled at any point. We think this is essential as it ensures a period Jaguar remains authentic to its DNA.”
Although the concept car has a prototype interior, with TFT insturments and a central infotainment touchscreen, Hannig adds that the original E-type instruments could also be retained. “The only change needed would be swapping the rev counter for a digital battery display.”
Jaguar E-type Zero: technology
The electric powertrain in the E-type Zero produces 220kW – a figure that Hannig adds is capped to provide “the optimum driving experience”. The lithium ion battery pack takes the place of the engine; the single-speed electric motor replaces the classic E-type gearbox. Other key parts, such as the rear differential and final drive, are retained, as is all the car’s suspension and other moving parts.
Because the electric tech is similar in weight and dimensions to the original petrol engine, Jaguar hasn’t needed to change anything in the car’s setup, “simplifying the conversion and homologation”. Weight distribution is unchanged and “it drives, handles, rides and brakes like an original E-type”.
The 40kWh battery takes around six to seven hours to recharge, and Hannig believes this won’t be a problem due to the car’s proven 170-mile driving range: classic car owners typically use their car for a day at a time, then return it to a garage where the charger can be located.
The E-type Zero would also be more reliable than an original car, and be less demanding to drive. It’s on show this weekend at the first-ever Jaguar Land Rover Tech fest, a future technology showcase, at Central Saint Martins in London.
The new Suzuki Swift Sport has already had a launch price cut of £1,500, following the firm’s eyebrow-raising announcement that it would cost a steep £17,999 from launch on June 1.
The Kia Sportage SUV is the firm’s 
The new Vauxhall Corsa GSI opens for ordering in July 2018, and although we still don’t know how much it will cost, we do know the engine it will use: a 150hp 1.4-litre turbo petrol.
Environment secretary Michael Gove will today launch a new Clean Air Strategy, which aims to cut deaths from air pollution. The plans are a key part of the government’s 25-year goal to leave the environment “in a better state than we found it”. 
Freshly famous for being Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding car of choice, the Jaguar E-type Zero is an original classic that’s been converted into a fully electric sports car by engineers at Jaguar Land Rover Classic – and if there’s demand, eco-conscious classic Jag fans will be able to buy one in the future.
