BMW 530d SE Gran Turismo

BMW’s pursuit of niches barely visible to the naked eye continues with the 5-series Gran Turismo. Based on 7-series mechanicals and sharing all its gadgets, the 5 GT is a high-roofed hatchback, with lots of space for rear passengers and their luggage. BMW says it mixes the rear legroom of a 7-series with an SUV’s more commanding seating position and additional headroom. Throw in a dash of swooping coupe roofline and the refinement and luxury of a grand tourer and you have the 5-series Gran Turismo. Or a complete dog’s dinner…?

I’m confused. This BMW 5-series GT sounds like a fancy MPV to me…

The 5 GT sales pitch is certainly complicated. Think of it as an MPV the size of Belgium, a rival to Mercedes R-class, an MPV that’s the size of Holland. The BMW is infinitely better looking though. It only has two rows of seats compared with the R-class’s three. This configuration allows for a more swooping roofline, which, coupled with shallower side glass, makes the 5 GT look a lot sexier than the van-like R-class.

The bluff front-end is very imposing. BMW suits deny it’s identical to the new 5-series’s face, ‘though there will be a family resemblance’.

Nominally the Gran Turismo is part of the 5-series family, which means a price around £5000 more than an equivalent saloon’s. The base 530d SE GT costs £40,810, some £13k cheaper than a 7-series.

Under the skin, the GT shares much with that big limousine, including a massive 3.07m-long wheelbase. The suspension design – double wishbone front end, multilink rear with self-levelling air suspension – is shared with the 7 and the next 5. As are the gadgets: adaptive damping (Dynamic Drive Control), faster Integral Active Steering with rear-wheel steering, Head Up Display, Night Vision and a myriad of safety systems.

And the engines?

The 5 GT goes on sale in the UK this October, with a choice of three engines. The 535i runs the blown 3.0-litre petrol six, but BMW has pared the previously twin-turbo unit back to a single twin-scroll turbo, while maintaining peak outputs of 306bhp and 295lb ft. The 535i GT is claimed to manage 31.7mpg and 209g/km of CO2, with a 6.3secs 0-62mph time. The other petrol engine is a 407bhp twin-turbo V8, delivering 25.2mpg, 263g/km and 0-62mph in 5.5sec. Both cars are limited to 155mph.

We drove the 530d GT, running BMW’s highly evolved 3.0-litre diesel six now producing 245bhp. Press the start button and the diesel’s thrum and subtle pulse can barely be noticed above the air-con’s roar. The engine purrs around town, then roars into life when you press the throttle, with nearly 400lb ft kicking in from just 1750rpm. It feels every bit as powerful and punchy as 0-62mph in 6.9secs suggests, although it manages 43.5mpg. That equates to 173g/km of CO2, right in the middle of the company car tax bands, despite the 530d’s top end performance.

Volvo C30 BEV electric car (2009)

We've just driven Volvo's first electric car – the C30 BEV. It's a prototype for a battery C30, and shows what you can expect on sale by 2014.

Volvo calls it a rolling laboratory but for an early mule, it's impressively well finished. All four seats are present and you climb in to face a very normal looking C30. That means cramped but classy. Am I the only one who's a sucker for the largely useless but cool floating centre console?

The dials are replaced by a large speedo with a battery charge meter, while the tacho is ditched for a dial showing how much energy is coming in and out of the lithium ion battery. Volvo is working on a pair of batteries, where the fuel tank would sit and instead of a propshaft.

Our C30 BEV in fact has one up front in the engine bay, alongside the Brusa electric motor. But it feels wieldy and not too heavy, as I select Drive and pull away.

On the road in the Volvo C30 BEV

It's also bloody quiet: the C30 BEV is far more hushed than other electric cars I've driven. We immediately climb a hill and the electric Volvo accelerates easily, with the gusto of a 1.6 petrol. Our car is fully charged, however, and performance decreases as the battery depletes. Still, Volvo claims a real-world range of 70-100 miles - or 180 miles in fake Euro lab conditions.

Floor the throttle uphill (very ungreen) and there's some axle tramp from the front wheels. 'We're fixing that,' promises a Volvo EV engineer sitting alongside me.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the C30 BEV is the switchover from power to coasting. The regenerative braking is imperceptible, with little of the vicious braking some electric cars deliver. It makes for a smooth driving experience. And one that's naturally, eerily calm and quiet.

Volvo claims the C30 BEV weighs just 100kg more than a 1.6 diesel DRIVe, so it handles just as well as a regular hatch. And ours is nose heavier than the eventual production ones, with their batteries centrally contained in the wheelbase for near neutral 56:44 front-rear weight distribution.

Mazda 3 MPS (2009)

Not that long ago, Mazda’s 3 MPS was the hot hatch king – well, with 256bhp it was the most powerful front-wheel drive hatch you could buy, if not the best to drive or look at. Now it’s back with an aggressive restyle, plus a whopping extra…sorry, old habits and all that. No, it’s back with exactly the same 256bhp and 280lb ft torque, the same 155mph top speed and the same 6.1sec 0-62mph dash.

The same power? With a Focus RS prowling the streets?

Yes indeed, but the old car always struggled to transmit its ample power to pavement, so Mazda has instead focused on finessing everything else. There’s revised power steering, sportier shocks and springs, a beefier bodyshell that ups torsional stiffness by 41%, while torque steer is better-quelled by clever electronics to modulate torque delivery, plus a limited slip diff and taller gearing.

And the looks?

Watching the old MPS whizz past was much like watching wallpaper paste dry on a wet winter Sunday – it was drab with a capital Zzz. The new car is far more eye-catching with pronounced bumpers, a chunky rear spoiler and sideskirts plus an Impreza-style bonnet scoop. In fact, it looks quite a lot like an Impreza – elegantly brutal from some angles, plain old gawky from others.

How does it drive?

The 2.3-litre turbo four is tractable from very low revs, but the real thrust is delayed to 2600rpm, at which point you get a proper kick in the back. Post-5000rpm it’s a little breathless, but generally the ratios are well judged to land you back in the powerband.

The ride’s firm and road noise is high (but both are better than the Civic Type R), the brakes are strong, the steering accurate and light.

BMW X1 xDrive20d (2009)

The new BMW X1 is the German car giant’s fourth addition to its 4x4 range, so although the original X5 might have been beaten to market by Mercedes’ M-class, since then the company has always been one SUV step ahead of its homeland rivals. The X3 was launched in 2004, but Mercedes and Audi have only recently launched the GLK and Q5, and as yet there’s no sign (and perhaps there never will be) of either producing a rival for the oddball X6.

Now BMW has the new X1, a compact SUV that won’t have a direct premium adversary until the new Range Rover LRX and Audi Q3 are launched in 2011. CAR has just driven the new BMW X1, so read on for our full verdict on this baby BMW 4x4.

I presume the BMW X1 has the usual array of four- and six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines?

Not in the UK. BMW customers throughout the rest of the world can pick petrol power – there’s a choice of unleaded-supping 2.0-litre four-pot or a 3.0-litre straight-six – but only diesel engines will be available here in Blighty.

There are three variants on other, all 2.0-litre lumps, but various tweaks and a different number of turbochargers spirit up different power outputs. The range starts with the single-turbo 141bhp/236lb ft 18d, a more powerful 20d variant offers 174bhp and 258lb ft, and the top-dog twin-turbo 23d engine – previously the reserve of the sportier 1-series – has 201bhp and a fulsome 295lb ft.

Just diesel power for the new X1? I suppose you’ll tell me next that you can have this 4x4 with rear-wheel drive?

Yes, we will. The 18d and 20d come as standard in sDrive guise, BMW-speak for rear-wheel drive. Four-wheel drive (xDrive) costs £1280 more on the former, £1305 on the latter, and on both adds several tenths to the 0-62mph times, 14g/km to the CO2 figures and worsens the official figures by nearly 5mpg. The 23d comes as standard with four-wheel drive.

Kia Sportage 2.0 CRDi First Edition (2010)

The new 2010 Sportage is the first fully modern Kia, we reckon. The first styled wholly under chief designer Peter Schreyer (he of Audi fame), who's only now making his influence felt after four years in charge of styling the Korean cars.

So take note of this new Kia Sportage. It's the most comprehensive look yet at the new face of Kia. Tiger-snout grille? Check. Crisp, almost Germanic surfaces? Yep. Complex headlamp graphics, Audi-esque LED day running light ticks and chrome tinsel to move Kia gently upmarket? Those too.

The new Sportage launches in the UK with the range-topping 2.0 CRDi First Edition, available only as this well equipped £20,777 diesel 4wd. Joining the range in November 2010 will be a 1.6 petrol and a smaller, 1.7-litre diesel - both available with front-wheel drive.

So what's the new 2010 Kia Sportage aimed at?

Think Nissan Qashqai. This is Crossover Central, a market that's leapt to a fulsome 8% of the total UK retail market worth 130,000 sales a year. There's much respect at Kia for the Qashqai's market saturation and they aim to repeat its rich mix of engines and transmission options. No +2 version though. In the fullness of time expect a downsized petrol turbo Sportage and even a hybrid option.

For now, we're stuck with the 2.0-litre diesel in 4wd guise. It's loaded with kit. The only option is an auto transmission (we're testing the manual), but this First Edition comes with leather, climate control, reversing camera and Kia's new market-leading seven-year/100,000-mile warranty.

Ford Fusion Hybrid (2010)

Before we get too confused, I’d like to make just one thing clear: we’re not talking about the UK Ford Fusion here – the Fiesta on stilts that’s driven only by OAPs. No, this is the US Ford Fusion, the large four-door saloon, and we’re testing it in hybrid guise.

Shouldn’t it look a bit more, well, futuristic?

Admittedly the Toyota Prius’s styling feels more radical and perhaps more in keeping with the cutting-edge tech within, but then looking ordinary is probably part of the point here: the Fusion isn’t attempting to attract early adopters, it’s trying to convince traditional families that a hybrid can work for them, too. Still, it does look a bit plain, like a 1990s Aussie Ford Falcon with a Saab-like mask grafted to the front.

What’s it like inside?

It’s very comfortable (especially with our car’s optional leather seats) and spacious both in the front and the back, and most of the plastics have that feel-good squish, not the unyieldingly brittle surfaces we’ve previously experienced in Ford’s US products.

Shame that the auto gearstick moves from P to D with such a cheap-feeling snick, and that the hybrid system cripples the boot: it’s already disappointingly small, then you realise that the hybrid system’s sandwiched up against the rear seats, so you can’t drop them – we failed to get a medium-sized adult mountain bike in there, and we removed both its wheels and seat!

How does it drive?

Very well. It’s amazing, actually, how different the Fusion feels compared with UK Fords. The DNA is just completely unrelated, yet, just as our Fords work brilliantly on our roads, so this Ford works brilliantly in the US. The Fusion is more of a relaxed, Merc-like experience than its sporty-but-supple Brit cousins. The steering is nicely weighted and progressive if slow, the chassis very supple if a tad rolly, the responses of the throttle and brake pedals somewhat sleepy. But in California’s 25mph zones and on the lazy rolls and coarse surfaces of its freeways it is perfectly judged.

Is the hybrid bit any good?

Yes, it’s excellent. You can sit at a standstill with the air con and stereo blasting and the engine will remain resolutely inactive – take note, Prius. Better, it will trickle through stop/start traffic in electric power too, though we never came close to managing the claimed 47mph on battery alone. All in, we averaged 39.5mpg – not bad for a 5-series-sized saloon with 156bhp, or 191bhp with the electric motor included. Pleasingly, it also came close to matching Ford’s own claims: our 32.9 US mpg not being too far away from the 41/36mpg city/highway rating.

VW Touareg 3.0 Hybrid (2010)

When the original Mk1 VW Touareg was released in 2002, CAR Magazine drove it across North Africa and even let the real Tuareg tribespeople have a go in it across the Sahara. Now our own Georg Kacher has had a go in the latest hybrid version.

4x4=bad, but hybrid 4x4=good?

This is the first VW to use the same hybrid technology as the Porsche Cayenne. The big VW has the same Audi-sourced 3.0-litre supercharged petrol V6 from the S4, supplemented by a 46bhp electric motor.

The parallel system allows the usual hybrid party piece of two miles of silent wafting up to 30mph, but also works at high speed, decoupling the petrol engine under a trailing throttle at speeds of up to 100mph. This clever tech silences the usual hyrbid critics, who often gloat that most hybrid systems are useless during motorway cruises.

VW Touareg Hybrid: the new oily bits

The new Touareg is more than just a cosmetic facelift. Underneath, 47kg has been saved from the suspension largely through substituting aluminium for the previous car's steel. Further changes include wider front and rear tracks and 72 extra litres in the boot. The cabin has also been stretched, updated and redesigned, creating a more functional, better equipped place to sit.

On the road, VW's engineers have provided us with a car that is almost unrecognisable compared with the last model. Body roll is minimal, with pitch and yaw all but eliminated due to chunkier anti-roll bars. Equally, early understeer and brake dive have been culled. Steering is still on the light side, but is more direct and easier to moderate than the previous generation.

Yet the system is far from perfect; the eight-speed auto can be hesitant and jerky, with the brakes feeling artificial and spongy when trying to combine both mechanical and regenerative deceleration. The fundamental switch between electric and petrol motors can on occasion prove jerky.