Motoring: Peugeot’sintelligent’ sports utility vehicle, page84
YOU won’t need to ‘bend zee knees’ quite so much when Peugeot’s smart new 3008 (right) hits the road early next year with a makeover that gives it the look of a sports utility vehicle.
As well as a high-tech dashboard and ‘intelligent i-Cockpit’ and plenty of performance, it’s offering more leg, and even elbow room.
After its official launch at this year’s Paris Motor Show in September, UK order books for the family runaround will open in November ahead of first deliveries in January, with prices from £20,500.
Available in a range of 1.6 and 2-litre diesel engines and 1.2 and 1.6-litre petrol variants, it’s pitched to take on rivals such as Volkswagen’s new Tiguan.
First photographs emerged as Carlos Tavares, chairman of the managing board of the PSA Group — comprising Peugeot, Citroen and DS — was named in the annual Autocar Awards as winner of the Issigonis Trophy in recognition of his work.
The trophy is named after Sir Alec Issigonis, creator of the Mini, one of Britain’s most iconic cars. MASERATI threw a starstudded party in London on Thursday to launch its new Levante 4X4 in Britain.
It revealed that the Italian sports utility vehicle will be priced from £54,335, rising to £60,285 in Luxury or Sport trim and £61,185 for a Levante Zenga Edition in Zenga Luxury silk trim. The launch party, at the capital’s Royal Horticultural Halls, was hosted by Lisa Snowdon with celebrity guests including music stars Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Alex James, Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock and actress Olivia Grant, with music provided by Amber Le Bon and Becky Tong. SIMON SAUNDERS, the founder and boss of British sports car firm Ariel, believes we are going through the most game-changing period in automotive history.
He predicted that children of today, who think their smartphones are the coolest things on the planet, will look back fondly to the days when you had to drive yourself — after filling up first with an explosive and dangerous substance called ‘petrol’.
Saunders’ firm in Crewkerne, Somerset, builds ‘back-to-basics’ sports cars with a frame-like exo-skeleton and has an engine deal with Honda.
There are some ‘very exciting’ plans for new high-tech cars in development, he says.
Saunders spoke out after he was honoured in the annual Autocar Awards — the motor industry’s ‘ Oscars’, which I attended on Wednesday — for his company’s ‘ innovative and determined’ approach to carmaking. He won The Sturmey Award named after Henry Sturmey, who in 1895 founded Autocar, the oldest car magazine in the world.
Saunders’ Ariel Nomad (pictured), a no-holds-barred £30,000 car that looks like a Mad Max beach buggy on steroids, was one of six cars to collect an award in recognition for earning a five-star rating in the Autocar road test.
Powered by one of Honda’s 235 bhp 2.4 litre K24 4-cylinder i-VTEC engines, this tubular pocket-rocket sprints from rest to 60 mph in just 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 125 mph. MORE than two million UK drivers over the age of 50 believe they are ‘not fit to be on the road’ and fear they would fail a driving test if forced to re-sit it.
And nearly a third (29 per cent) of older drivers also worry that they would fail the basic theory test, says a new report by specialist insurance firm Rias, as part of its Drive Fit campaign.
Seven out of ten older drivers believe people should be allowed to drive into old age without the need for a mandatory refresher course, which some experts are now calling for.