3 HRS AGO - Different but the same: the Alpine A110, A110 S and Life110 assemble for action The original Alpine A110 achieved a rare five-star road test rating. Now there's a more focused, more powerful A110 S or an aftermarket-bred, fine-tuned Life110. Which is best? Yes, it’s convention to test a group of cars that are differently shaped, but this isn’t a normal group test. At least they’re a different colour. What we have here is a five-star car in the shape of the (dark blue) Alpine A110, a slightly flawed but brilliantly refreshing small French two-seat sports car with a bespoke aluminium platform and a Renault Sport engine in its middle to drive its back wheels. We’ve said an awful lot about the A110 already but, to recap, it’s a revelation. Weighing just 1103kg (in Pure form, or 1123kg as the Légende), it has agility in spades, while the ride over poor surfaces is doubly impressive. What we particularly love about it is its lack of convention; Alpine knows a great driver’s car doesn’t Collapse

18 HRS AGO - With a long-rumoured (and heavily delayed) TVR revival on the cards, are the older ones now dinosaurs? To drive a TVR Griffith today is to experience that moment in your time machine when your hand slips on the lever and accidentally transports you back farther than you intended to go. I know this car was built this century and, from its number plate, so do you. But that’s not how it feels. It doesn’t even feel like a child of the late 20th century, despite its design dating from the early 1990s. The ’80s? Nope. The ’70s, then? Try again. This car might have the look and performance of a reasonably recent sports car, but its heart and soul seem to have been wrought in the 1960s. So why didn’t we say so at the time? Well, we all know humans who bear their years spectacularly well and those that do not, so why not cars? Truth is, the Griffith is no longer a snarling, edgy sports car with quasi-supercar performance. Now it’s just a nice old thing, a favourite uncle who’ll sit you down Collapse

21 HRS AGO - Mazda adds cylinder deactivation to petrol SUV, alongside minor revisions to cabin and refinement Mazda has given its CX-5 another mild revision for the 2020 model year, including efficiency tweaks to the petrol variant.  The Ford Kuga rival now benefits from cylinder-deactivation tech for the 163bhp Skyactiv-G petrol engine, although it's added on versions with the manual gearbox only.  The new system, which shuts down two cylinders under light throttle loads to reduce fuel consumption, is claimed to give an 8% reduction in CO2 emissions when measured on the WLTP cycle. The Skyactiv-G unit is an older engine than the Skyactiv X unit found in the 3 and CX-30, so it doesn't feature the spark-controlled compression-ignition technology. Other tweaks include a revised navigation display for the infotainment screen, intended to enable clearer operation, and extra sound insulation has been applied to improve cabin refinement.  The CX-5 has already benefited from several updates since its Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Seat’s only MPV is removed from price lists at the end of the month, but its Volkswagen counterpart will continue for short period Seat’s long-serving Alhambra MPV will end production at the end of this month after a decade on sale, the company has confirmed. The Ford Galaxy rival has been produced at the VW Group’s AutoEuropa plant in Portugal since the first generation launched in 1995. It’s also been produced alongside the near-identical Volkswagen Sharan for the same period. Despite the Alhambra’s production coming to a close, Autocar understands Volkswagen will continue producing Sharans for a limited period once production restarts after the coronavirus pandemic. That car will only remain on sale until the end of 2020, however. The large MPV market has long suffered at the hands of SUVs, with a growing number of seven-seat options available including Seat’s own Tarraco. However, the space and versatility the Alhambra offered meant there were enough sales, from large families, Collapse

1 DAY AGO - New car output fell 0.8% in February but a prolonged shutdown will bring about a much steeper drop British new car production fell only slightly in February, but the SMMT has warned of a much sharper drop in output as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Figures released today by the SMMT, the UK motor industry's body, show that 122,171 new cars were built last month, a drop of 0.8% compared with January. The fall has been attributed by the SMMT to “slower demand in key global export markets”.  Reduced demand from the US and Asia meant new cars built for export fell by 3.1% to fewer than 95,000 units, despite a 3.6% increase in units shipped to the EU.  However, the figures were bolstered by a resurgence in domestic demand, which climbed by a significant 7.8%, with 27,172 cars built for the home market. Overall, new car production in February fell 1.5% year on year.  The SMMT said the figures come “at a time of unprecedented challenge for the UK and its automotive industry”, as Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Mirror Motoring's Colin Goodwin says the quiet and refined Peugeot 2008 is very good looking and quiet on the motorway with little wind or engine noise - and can give you up to 62mpg Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Initial four of 20 limited-run cars completed before coronavirus forced temporary factory closure The first four Morgan Plus Four 70th anniversary roadsters have rolled off the production line at the company's Malvern factory, ahead of customer deliveries later this year. Limited to just 20 uniquely specified cars, priced at £60,995 each, the 70th anniversary marks seven decades since the model's 1950 debut. It also celebrates the switch from the steel ladder chassis it has always used to the new CX bonded aluminium platform, which has already launched in the Plus Six and is set to be used in the new generation Plus Four. The four cars were completed before Morgan closed its factory for one month in order to help fight the spread of Covid-19, making it the first time it had closed for an extended length of time since World War II. READ MORE: New Morgan Plus Four arrives with BMW power, new chassis The 20 cars, painted platinum metallic in honour of their “platinum” anniversary, have Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Chevrolet’s V8 engine has 31bhp more power than Ford’s and, crucially, more character We compare two brawny, V8-engined old-school muscle cars, to see which best suits a UK buyer Whichever good ol’boy it was who first bawled the phrase ‘There ain’t no replacement for displacement!’ way back when – almost certainly from beneath the wide brim of a Stetson, rye whiskey held aloft – he probably had a point at the time. If you wanted to go faster, you needed more cubes. But in the age of smartphones and cryptocurrencies, it’s a bit of a quaint notion. There are, after all, countless other ways of making a car shift along more quickly, such as hybridisation and turbocharging, or perhaps using clever lightweight materials so that what displacement you do have can work a lot harder. And yet, there really is no replacement for displacement. Nothing else comes close to the soaring soundtrack of a great big atmospheric engine, and nothing matches the frantic power delivery – the kind that Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - We run through the latest new car registration data to see which models are flying off forecourts What's hot and what's not? The SMMT's new car registrations data reveals all, and we've been studying the most recent figures to find out Britain's best-selling new cars.  The figures shown for each model are the most recent year-to-date sales numbers available. We'll be updating this list monthly. 1. Ford Fiesta - 9210 It's hardly a surprise to see Ford's supermini in the top spot, because it has been the UK's best-selling new car every year since 2009. What is surprising is that demand for it hasn't slipped following a radical line-up reshuffle last year that brought its entry-level price up by nearly £2000. Clearly, the Fiesta's ability to blend efficiency with dynamism and charm is still a winning formula for a large portion of UK buyers.  2. Ford Focus - 8051 There's success for the Blue Oval in the hotly contested family hatchback segment, too. When we tested the Focus in 2018, Collapse