Auto Express 1587

WHEN I met up with Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer this week (Page 14), he’d had a pretty torrid time. Financial results were not what he, or the markets, wanted, resulting in a drop in share price for this newly floated company. “I’ve had better weeks,” he admitted. While Aston had been courting publicity in the run up to floating, the attention when things haven’t been going so well has seemed even greater. Maybe that’s a typically British thing – areas of the mainstream media sometimes don’t seem to want to see British success. What has disappointed me most is the amount of vitriol that has been aimed personally at Palmer – and by one of Fleet Street’s supposedly more respected titles, too. Sure, when you put yourself up there,…

John_McIlroy@dennis.co.uk @johnmcilroy ● We experience new Defender’s off-road ability for the first time ● But it’s the new 4x4’s ability elsewhere that really impresses THE all-new Land Rover Defender isn’t just one of 2019’s most eagerly awaited cars; it’s one that enthusiasts have been dying to see for nearly a decade. It’s expected to be revealed at next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show – but Auto Express has been allowed behind the scenes at JLR’s Gaydon test base to sit alongside engineers in a late prototype. Of course, the Warwickshire facility isn’t the only place where Defender testing has taken place. Indeed, the engineers present – whose focus is on the durability side of the project – inform us that development mules have racked up a combined total of more than…

John_McIlroy@dennis.co.uk @johnmcilroy ● Geely’s stake in Smart plus new platform to help boost range VOLVO is looking to expand its range of SUVs to include a smaller model, below the XC40, and a larger flagship that would sit above the XC90 at the top of the line-up. The Swedish marque posted record sales volumes of more than 340,000 vehicles during the first half of 2019, helped by the addition of its smallest current SUV, the XC40. This was despite profits taking a slight hit due to tariffs and tighter margins in declining markets. Now Volvo boss Håkan Samuelsson has admitted that the firm may consider adding further types of car to its line-up. He told Auto Express: “Our strategy has been growth, but not through adding pure volumes. We have…

Steve_Fowler@dennis.co.uk @stevefowler ● We ride with CEO Andy Palmer in Aston’s first electric car, and meet an ancestor “Lagonda will be an all-electric marque, reborn by EV pioneer Palmer, who helped launch the Nissan Leaf” ASTON Martin hasn’t been too coy about why its new all-electric Rapide E exists – it’s a test bed for the return of the Lagonda brand. Only 155 Rapide Es are going to be made, with Aston’s CEO Andy Palmer a potential customer, too. So it only seemed right that when the brand invited us for an exclusive ride around Silverstone’s Stowe circuit in a Rapide E prototype, it was Palmer sitting behind the wheel. We’d arrived in a 1981 Lagonda (see panel right), a car that signalled the brand’s seventies rebirth. “Lagonda’s a bit…

IT was at the Lord Mayor’s Show in London back in 1977 that I fell in love with the Lagonda. The stunning ‘Wedge’ designed by William Towns, even today, still looks like nothing else. But until this week, I’d never driven one. So it was after a sleepless night that I headed to Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell to collect the concours-condition Lagonda, perfect with its Cheltenham Beige paintwork and magnolia leather interior. The angular doors don’t open as wide as you’d think (and there’s not much room in the back), but slipping behind the single-spoke wheel was like going back to the seventies, faced with flush buttons on the dash and LED readouts in the instrument binnacle. Its electrics were famously fragile, and so it proved with our…

Vauxhall names price for Corsa supermini THE new Vauxhall Corsa (above) will cost from £15,550, with the first cars due to be delivered in January. Four trims and three engines are available to buyers. All models come as standard with alloys, a seven-inch infotainment system, a flat-bottomed leather steering wheel, LED headlights and daytime running lights. Prices rise to £25,990 for a top-spec 1.2 petrol car. Judges rule on phone use behind the wheel DRIVERS may only be convicted for using a mobile phone if two-way communication is being performed, a court has ruled. Approving the decision to overturn the conviction of a man who used his phone to film behind the wheel, High Court judges ruled that Section 41D of the Road Traffic Act 1988 only prohibits drivers from holding…