Table of contents for November 2018 in CAR UK

‘WE KNEW WE HAD TO HIT HARD, OR NOT GO BACK TO THIS MARKET’ PIERRE-PAUL MATTEI remembers the do-or-die feeling as Peugeot began conceptualising the new 508. ‘Frappe fort! Hit hard!’ recalls the design manager. ‘We knew we had to hit strong, to make something different, or we shouldn’t go back into the [market] segment. It was a global ambition, a conviction, from the designers to the engineers.’ And this 508 does indeed redefine the rules for the brand’s flagship saloon. In a discipline where millimetric differences are considered significant, Peugeot sliced centimetre after centimetre off its new car. The team spent 18 months honing this smaller package, assessing how every revision would impact interior space, how to accommodate key components, the occupants’ ability to see out, boot volume and…

Upstaged en France Arrive at a French fuel station with six ferociously expensive supercars and, naturally, the Senna will go all but unnoticed descends , as will the GT2 RS 911 and the Ferrari Pista, as everyone on the Alpine A110. And then, what do you know? In pulls a lady driving a spotless V6 Alpine A310. Tim Pollard pressed his French into action to arrange the upcoming twin-test… Sports Car Giant Test 2018, p88 Enzo woz ’ere Like your eldest – having returned from university and – then an ill-fated stint in London trying to pay Shoreditch rents taking residence in the box room they last occupied as a child, it up ’s fair to say Ferrari’s outgrown its home town. But amid the ’ modernisation and the expansion,…

Kia Proceed Kia has finally stripped its family car range of unnecessary punctuation and transformed the Pro_Ceed three-door hatch into this svelte Proceed shooting brake. It’s meant to be a more stylish alternative to a regular Ceed estate and, as such, is only available in Kia’s top-end GT Line or the new warm GT specification. Three petrols and a diesel will be available, with the GT coming with 201bhp (is that even classed as warm these days?), a seven-speed DCT, Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres and stiffer springs. Despite the roofline, Kia says the Proceed has 50 per cent more rear space. If it drives as well as the regular hatch, sign us up. NEED TO KNOW > What is it? The most stylish Ceed yet > Tech specs 201bhp…

RICHARD PARDON FERRARI’S LATEST handling tool is about intentional and unintentional loss of traction – supporting plenty of the former, to make your driving way more fun, without letting it progress into the latter. Or, in layman’s terms, a crash. Ferrari has used extremely clever traction control systems for years, with Side Slip Control having found a home in some of Maranello’s most extreme cars since the 458 Speciale, followed by sideways superstars including the 488 GTB, F12 tdf and now the 488 Pista. SSD, in short, manipulates the limited-slip diff to allow a certain amount of slide to happen naturally. Dynamic Enhancer supplements that by adding in some braking. The goal of Dynamic Enhancer is to ensure more predictable on-the-limit handling, reducing the likelihood that you’ll find yourself having…

IF I COULD pause real life I’d hit the button right now. The view through the panoramic, vaguely Group C windscreen is split at the horizon into two contrasting worlds: above, the unbroken blue of a serene September sky; and below a speed-blurred streak of hot Grand Prix circuit. Pinch me. The McLaren and I have made our best fist yet of the Hungaroring’s first four corners: brake-bursting turn one, endless two, interlinked three and the blind-on-entry, over-a-crest rush of four. In third gear through daunting turn four everything’s just so, the car smearing out to the edge of the track with just the right balance of front/ rear slip. And we surge on into the rest of the lap, happy like cats up to our ears in cream. Thing…

STYLISH BUT NOT fashionable. Upmarket but not flashy. Modest but not humble. Techy but not nerdy. These are the fine lines trodden by the new estate version of the Audi A6, and quite possibly by many of the people who will be drawn to it. Offering vast interior passenger space, a practical rear end, all the kit you can find on the more expensive A7 and A8, and some punchy powertrains, it poses serious questions about why you’d look at any other type of car. But does it do enough to distinguish itself from the key rivals – the Mercedes E-Class, the BMW 5-series and the Volvo V90? Possibly not. While its handsome looks, tech-heavy interior and all-round quality are very impressive, it’s up against a bunch of excellent and…

THERE’S A HIGHLY evolved enthusiast scene for the previous-gen Jimny – a car that went on sale two decades ago and to this day remains in a class of one: a tiny, ladder-frame 4x4 with proper off-roading talent, at the expense of on-road manners. But now there’s a new one. Or perhaps a very heavily updated one, since that chassis retains its design, albeit strengthened with extra bracing to improve torsional rigidity. This two-door seats four, but only if you don’t need boot space, because its 377 litres of volume is only available with the wipe-clean, plastic-backed rear seats folded flat. With perches vertical the luggage room drops to nearly nothing. Still, ferrying friends isn’t really on the agenda here. Jimny is built to appeal to professionals who need its…

SIMON THOMPSON NISSAN 370Z A face only a mother could love? Hardly; it’s growing old gracefully. The Z’s a modern performance car icon complete with wide, low stance and half a century of heritage. Facelift in 2017 injected yet more Botox into the near-ancient Z, with this GT model benefiting from 19-inch rims and a couple of luxuries. Is the engine the heart and soul? It’s why you’re here. A free-breathing 3.7-litre V6 designed to be exercised close to its redline, there’s a progressive spread of power and a bassy wail all the way to the top. Least gutsy engine here, though, so you have to really thrash it if you want to get a wriggle on. And in bends? Ballet dancer or bricklayer? Impressively precise steering, while the well-balanced…

THE ALPINE IS A REMINDER THAT YOU DON’T NEED A LOT TO HAVE A GOOD TIME NO HOT HATCHES, no super saloons, and definitely no SUVs. That’s the mantra for CAR’s 2018 Sports Car Giant Test, because as talented as the Ford Fiesta ST or Lamborghini Urus might be, when faced with a proper performance car their compromises just won’t cut it. Instead, we’ve whittled this year’s most talented newcomers down to just six absolute standouts. The shortlist starts with a feelgood story, that of the Alpine A110, Renault’s reborn little sports car. A one-time collaboration with Caterham, this £50k French fancy could’ve been a disaster, going the way of the underwhelming Alfa 4C. Instead the lightest, least powerful car here is a joy, with just enough power to test…

Audi has just celebrated the eight millionth car using quattro technology BEFORE QUATTRO, AUDI produced sensible front-wheel-drive family cars. Then came Audi’s first all-wheel-drive model, now known as the Ur-Quattro – from the German for the original, the granddaddy. Suddenly those once-staid four rings became synonymous with crushing performance, with technological superiority, with the flame-spitting excitement of Group B rallying. Like the Lancia Delta Integrale and Subaru Impreza that followed, the Audi Quattro became the relatively affordable dream car of its day. The rallying roots might seem dim and distant, the technology much altered, but the success story continues: Audi has just celebrated the eight millionth car using quattro technology. This month’s Icon Buyer celebrates the evolution of quattro. There’s the seminal Ur-Quattro with its longitudinal five-cylinder engine and locking…

GOODBYE MONTH 7 PEUGEOT 5008 THERE IS NO better way of reviewing a car than living with it day to day for six months. I took ownership of my 5008 not thinking I would enjoy living with an SUV, but the Peugeot joined the family and flourished. The seven-seat 5008 sits on the border between SUV and MPV, and in GT trim is quite luxurious – and not cheap: nearly £37,000 including the metallic paint. Ours is a 2.0-litre diesel with a six-speed auto ’box: an excellent combination for the high miles and often heavy loads that are typical of my driving life – sometimes family and luggage, sometimes mountains of photographic gear, often both. In my 12,000 miles with the 5008 it’s ploughed through the Beast from the East…

ALEX TAPLEY MONTH 3 BENTLEY BENTAYGA THE COOL, TECHY interior of Audi’s Q7, suitably optioned, is a nice place to be. But a Q7 doesn’t smell like a Bentley, and neither does the Audi prompt a little smile every time you open the door, catch the illuminated flying B badges projected on the rain-lashed car park tarmac and step inside. The Bentley difference? Careful use of fine materials and an all-consuming attention to detail, according to Darren Day, who designed the Bentayga’s interior. ‘Our interiors start with the flying B logo as their inspiration, which brings a symmetry,’ he explains. ‘Allied to that we have our wonderful natural materials, which we use in a natural way – you can have the loveliest leathers but if you don’t use it on…

‘WE WERE ANNOYED by this notion that we’re all going be riding around in white boxes,’ smiles Renault senior design VP Laurens van den Acker. ‘I’m not saying we won’t – for most of us, 90 per cent of the time, that will be the reality – but we won’t only be doing that. I like to think there is hope for design, even in this new world. Who wouldn’t want to be driven in this? Tell me this is a white box!’ There’s nothing like a deadline to set minds racing and change in motion. But when CEO Carlos Ghosn announced that a Renault robo-taxi would be a reality by 2022, you can’t imagine van den Acker and his design team were very inspired. Isn’t the ride-sharing, electrified, connected,…

1 The Megane RS comes again, with feeling This is the very welcome Trophy version of the Megane RS. Power climbs to 296bhp and torque to 320lb ft should you opt for the twin-clutch gearbox (295lb ft on manuals). That’s a useful increase, courtesy of a new exhaust and a trick new turbo running ceramic bearings. 2 Chassis upgrades to suit? Oh yes. The Trophy gets the more committed of Renault’s two suspension tunes – Cup – as standard, then builds on that to up the track-readiness. The Trophy recalibrates the Cup’s Torsen mechanical LSD to more aggressively sniff out traction on corner exit. 3 And the good stuff keeps coming The Trophy gets the Cup’s optional bi-material front brakes (steel discs on aluminium carriers) for fade-free braking and a…

> IN MY job, you tend to be a technology optimist by definition. On the cusp of this knowledge society, supported by AI, job profiles will change and companies and individuals alike will have to adapt. > IF WE keep that mindset, I believe there will be an explosion of new areas to be explored within the realms of technological possibility. > WE’RE SUDDENLY talking about AI in such an aggressive way. We were watching movies back in the ’90s like Stephen King’s Lawnmower Man thinking we’re going into a robotised world, but then for 20 years it went quiet. > WHY HAS it come back now? Because a couple of things have happened and one is absolutely crucial: computing power. We’re using AI to develop autonomous cars – if…

HIP HOP LEGEND DMX may not have written the lyrics ‘X gon’ give it to ya, X gon’ deliver to ya’ specifically about BMW’s burgeoning range of SUVs, but it does seem to have acted as a spur to BMW to keep adding more models to its X line-up, and to keep making those vehicles bigger and more complex, all in the cause of feeding the kayak and mountain bike fantasies of the world’s wealthier citizens. When the first X5 arrived nearly 20 years ago it was an outlier, a Range Rover rival from a company more used to battling the E-Class. Now it sits temporarily at the top of a range that doesn’t miss a digit from 1 to 6, with the even larger X7 just months away. The…

LIKE STING BRIEFLY pretending to be some sort of punk rocker because that was the way to get noticed in 1977, the Fiat 500X has now abandoned even the faintest suggestion that it’s the off-road version of Turin’s retro city car. No longer available in all-wheel-drive form in the UK, the facelifted X is now a better car, thanks largely to the arrival of two new engines. They are both newly developed turbocharged petrols: a 1.0-litre triple and a 1.3-litre four, making 118 and 148bhp respectively. The triple comes with a sweet six-speed manual gearbox, the four with a so-so six-speed DCT paddleshift auto that’s overly-keen on changing up early. You can also get a tweaked version of the old naturally-aspirated 1.6 petrol four, but the diesels still available elsewhere…

IT ALL STARTS off pretty well with Audi’s new Q3. First impressions are great – it’s a handsome car that updates the previous Q3 to bring it in line with Audi’s latest family look. Minor details like the blocky scrolling indicators and the fact you can spec the same alloys as the RS6 Performance are cool. But ultimately it’s far from striking or ground-breaking, just very nicely done – no more, no less. The cockpit is chock full of Audi parts-bin buttons and switches, and that’s pretty much the best mainstream parts bin anyone could go rummaging in. The climate control is from the A3, the touchscreen is similar to the new A6’s, minus the haptic feedback, and thankfully there’s only one central screen, not two. If you go for…

Do the Continental > VIA EMAIL Around Europe in a Bentley Continental? Epic story and great pictures in October’s issue! Interesting to read that the Continental shares its platform and no doubt other oily bits with the Porsche Panamera. Maybe in return the nice people at Bentley could share their dashboard software with the poor relations in Stuttgart. This summer we enjoyed our own trip through France to the Pyrenees in our Panamera E-Hybrid Sport Turismo. The car was utterly sublime, but Porsche clearly spend a bit less than Bentley on their software. So when the speedometer dial switches to km/h the more legible digital readout annoyingly stays in mph. But I see from the photo of the Bentley’s dashboard that both sensibly change to km/h. My dealer says this…

HIT FOR SIX I followed your advice in the ‘Does it Work?’ feature on GTI Superdrive on Waze in the October issue and took a drive along the B1176. What a great road – made better for being nearly empty and with Test Match Special on the radio... Simon Hull VOLVOS OLD AND NEW Great grandpa (with all-wheel drive) and great grandson (with only two). Bob Lawrie REALLY SURREAL Spotted these two lovely old Morgans outside Salvador Dali’s house in Cadaques, Spain. Jonathan Woolley PIC-A-NIC BUS-KET Ran across this 1930s White bus ferrying tourists around in Yellowstone National Park. Large, but smaller than most American SUVs. Herb Riband BRAND EXTENSION Is this the ultimate in bad taste or just a Mafia wedding car ? Panamera Limo spotted in Cefalu, Sicily.…

ON THE FACE of it, it’s just a compact saloon. And traditionally a pretty expensive one at that. But, by dusting its practicality with a little race-bred rear-wheel-drive dynamic magic, BMW’s 3-series has always added up to more than the sum of its parts. Practical yet perky, versatile but keen to oversteer, the 3’s been making late-night airport runs and early morning commutes fun since 1975. And now, to see off Alfa’s Giulia, a recently revised Mercedes-Benz C-Class and an unlikely challenge from those plucky Swedes, the all-new G20 3-series is here. There are no carryover parts from the old car – this is a new-from-scratch 3-series and, hearteningly, it’s put being great to drive right at the top of the to-do list. Sure, semi-autonomous driving tech and smart infotainment…

WRITHING THROUGH hilly country less than 10 minutes away from Clermont-Ferrand, Circuit de Charade is enough to give even seasoned racing drivers the shivers. Opened in 1958, the highly technical track even hosted the French Grand Prix for four years in the late 1960s and early ’70s. It was modernised in 1989, effectively cut in half, and is now home to heritage motorsport events, driver training and, most crucially, tyre testing. There’s a special link between Michelin and Charade. The track is close to Michelin’s HQ in Clermont-Gerrande, and its gruelling cambers and tight corners make for a strenuous tyre test facility. Jerome Haslin, a test driver for Michelin, says: ‘Michelin doesn’t own the Circuit de Charade, it’s owned by the region. But we do have a special relationship with…

SIMON THOMPSON MONTH 5 BMW M5 RIDING alongside a stunt driver in a BMW M5 is such fun. OH GOD I FEEL SICK! The way you spin round, lurching from side to side, it’s so exhilirating. STOP THE CAR, I FEEL SICK, I FEEL SICK! The constant surging and braking, turning your stomach like a cement mixer full of breakfast. OK STOP THE CAR, HERE IT COMES! I’m here to learn, and already – after just three minutes in the passenger seat – I’ve learned I really don’t want to be a stunt driver. Unlike Matt Sherren. Sherren is an experienced British stuntman who was recently in action in the latest Tom Cruise film, Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Like two previous instalments of the M:I franchise, Fallout features a cast…

AC SCHNITZER SPORTS SUSPENSION FOR xDRIVE BMW 3- and 4-SERIES £1561.38 + fitting BMW tuners AC Schnitzer claim this upgraded spring and damper set-up will improve body control and banish excess bodyroll. A slightly lower ride height also gives a sportier appearance, while retaining ride comfort. ac-schnitzer.co.uk 01485 542000 CLASSIC ADDITIONS INDOOR AND OUTDOOR CAR COVERS Prices vary Classic Additions supplies a range of high-quality indoor and outdoor car covers. The standard-fit range includes the bestselling Super Soft Stretch indoor (pictured) or Ultimate outdoor covers. After something bespoke? The custom-made indoor and outdoor covers are fully tailored to the shape of the car and handmade in the UK. classicadditions.com BEST OF THE BEST WIN YOUR DREAM CAR Tickets from 85p Since 1999, BOTB has been providing petrolheads with the opportunity to…

PEUGEOT’S NEW E-LEGEND Concept is an electric, autonomous show star inspired by the 1968 504 Coupe. It shows what a 2025 production Peugeot could look like and what features it could offer. There’s the connectivity and big-screen infotainment typical of show cars, but there’s also a much greater emphasis on dynamism and desirability than has been the case with recent Peugeots. It’s an electric, autonomous concept car designed to appeal to car enthusiasts – mission accomplished, we’d say. Overall dimensions are close to the new 508’s – the concept is slightly lower and shorter – and the wheels are a plausible 19 inches in diameter. It’s a two-door four-seater with frameless windows and a glasshouse that closely resembles the classic 504’s. The elegantly concave flanks blend into muscular wheelarches, while…

CONFIDENCE breeds success. But this summer Maranello wasn’t exactly swimming in the stuff, as its Formula 1 team squandered the fastest car on the grid and the storied car maker reeled from the sudden loss of chairman Sergio Marchionne. Ferrari and FCA share prices wobbled in the wake of Marchionne’s passing (on July 25), not helped by comments from new CEO Louis Camilleri that the plan he inherited was both ‘aspirational’ and faced ‘risks’. Boosting investor confidence was therefore the primary objective as Camilleri took to the stage at Ferrari’s Capital Markets Day in September, even if it looked for all the world like the main event was the unveiling of the new SP1 and SP2 Monza barchettas – the first cars from Maranello’s new Icona programme. With his crowd…

The SUV concept Lister LFP (2018) Bought by Andrew and Lawrence Whittaker in 2013 to turn out continuations of the ’50s race cars, Lister has a new tuning division that’s done this to the Jaguar F-Pace. It’s claimed to develop 670bhp and reach 200mph. Expect to pay £140k. The devilish F-Type Lister LFT-666 (2018) Lister’s 666bhp take on the 5.0 V8 Jaguar F-Type features carbonfibre bodywork, modified suspension and new wheels under extended arches. They’ll bolt the bits to your F-Type, but they’re also building 99 complete cars at £140k each. The supercar Lister Storm (1993) Arguably the last truly new Lister was this brutal supercar, created to compete in global GT racing under previous owner Laurence Pearce. A handful of 2+2 road cars were built, propelled by a 7.0-litre…

The MEB platform will be used in 27 VW Group electric vehicles by 2022 1 THE TRANSITION HAS BEGUN The first-generation ID, built on the new MEB platform, will be made alongside the eighth-generation Golf, using the MQB platform. Petrol, diesel and electric will all be constructed under one roof. Transition could take more than one generation. 2 THE GREAT UNKNOWN VW is on a steep learning curve with lithium-ion batteries: it’s not only developing them but also mass-producing them. Each has around 2500 components when connectors, cooling ang management g systems y e are included. For Euro-built cars, battery a tery p oduc production on con i co entceneda at Braunschwe at Braun hw g, able ig, tbl makma 500 e500kary 3 UNDER THE SKIN, IT’S STILL BIG LUMPS…

Another autonomous pod? Look a little closer. Along with the cameras and radar, there’s something that looks a little different. Wait, are those eyes?! That is correct. JLR has been working on this as part of the huge self-drive test programme it currently has in progress. That’s mostly about flooding Milton Keynes with Range Rover Sports with Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous capability (the car can drive itself but the driver needs to be ready to take over), but also includes more radical ideas like these ‘virtual eyes’, which look at pedestrians the way a driver would. Why do I want a self-driving car staring at me? JLR points to research that says 63 per cent of pedestrians are worried about safety when crossing the roads of the future,…

THE CIVIC HAS been many things over the years, but the best ones have all been hatchbacks and the worst ones saloons. The last saloon that made its way to Britain was a particularly grim hybrid that set back the cause of electrification by several years, and made innocent bystanders wince at its ugliness. Some still can’t sleep. This time around Honda has done the safe thing, which is also the smart thing, and could well prove to be the successful thing: the new four-door version (they’re not even calling it a saloon) is as much like the current hatchback as you could possibly get. Which is to say that both of them are coupe-shaped and low, yet wonderfully roomy inside, with loads of luggage space. The boot is accessed…

EXIT THE CLS SHOOTING Brake, enter the new AMG GT 4-Door. Seems like a fair exchange in the upper reaches of the Mercedes model line-up. The sort-of estate version of the feisty coupe was always an agreeable oddity, whereas the four-door version of the high-performance GT coupe has a very clear USP: tackle the BMW M5 at its own game. The super-powerful, super-fast, super-expensive four- or five-seater market is starting to look a little crowded, with the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid already established, the BMW M8 Gran Coupe on its way to join the M5, and Audi set to keep turning the dial up until the A7 becomes the RS7. If you’ve understandably succumbed to the considerable potential for confusion as to what the awkwardly named GT 4-Door actually…

FEW CARS HAVE such a zeitgeisty moniker as the Lexus UX, the Japanese luxury marque’s most compact of SUVs. Think not of ‘user experience’ but of ‘urban crossover’. It’s one size smaller than the RX, and is clearly angling for a piece of the BMW X1/ Volvo XC40 action, although it’s so lacking in height and the usual crossover ruggedness that if Lexus wanted to talk about it as a hatchback few would quibble. Like the Mercedes GLA and Infiniti QX30, it’s right on the border. The crisply creased steel and aluminium bodywork is striking rather than pretty; its shapes are designed to condition the airflow for efficiency gains. Under the skin there’s no diesel-engined option. In fact, the UK doesn’t even get the petrol-only UX200 – instead we receive…

‘DID YOU CHANGE the tyres?’ laughs Lamborghini design boss Mitja Borkert as the Aventador SVJ slews sideways and he throws on a half turn of lock, first one way and then the other like he’s mixing cocktails at a swanky hotel bar. ‘It feels like it’s on Pirelli Cinturatos!’ he says, referring to the skinny, balloon-like CN12 rubber the Miura wore, as he saws at the flat-bottomed wheel, just managing to keep the car off the grass. But not for long. The Aventador is wide and heavy, and even the quick-thinking four-wheel-drive system shuttling torque to the front wheels can’t neutralise the sickening yaw of a car that seems magnetically attracted to the crash barriers. Reset. Fortunately, we’re saved the sound of a third of a million quid’s worth of…

THE 911 HAS ARRIVED IN THE DIGITAL AGE EVEN FASTER AND MORE FUN TO DRIVE AND STRAIGHT DOWN to business. There’s virtually no familiarisation required before you drive the new 911. It may be the most technically advanced version yet, designed with one eye on a likely future hybrid, but the 992 generation is very much the car we’ve known and loved for decades now. It looks like a 911, feels like a 911 – and drives like a sensationally good 911. Sliding into the driver’s seat feels like putting on your favourite shoes: familiar, comfortable, ready for action. The primary controls are still in exactly the same position; the throttle response still keen to get going. The most obvious initial dynamic difference is the boost in power and torque,…

THE GT2 RS COULD PROBABLY BLUFF ITS WAY ONTO A LE MANS GRID ‘IF THE NÜRBURGRING is number one, Circuit de Charade is number two,’ says Jackie Stewart, who won at Charade in 1969 and ’72. ‘It’s difficult to learn, some corners are very similar, there are fast corners, slow corners, steep downhill and uphill sections. You cannot make a mistake: there’s no run-off and just off-track there was black stone, razor sharp. I remember seeing Helmut Marko in hospital after he was hit and lost an eye.’ The rocks are gone now, the Clermont-Ferrand circuit shortened to 2.47 miles from the five Stewart raced, but it’s still a fearsome place: cut into a volcanic landscape that makes you wheeze just walking over it, narrow at nine metres wide, and…

SIMON THOMPSON MONTH 6 KIA STINGER I CLIMB OUT of the Volkswagen Arteon, hand the keys back to Ben Pulman and he looks down to ask what I think. This is going to require some diplomacy. I tell my fellow editor-at-large that I get the Arteon, I really do. Let’s say you’re on a company-car scheme and you’ve got mid-30s budget to spend. You might look at the default BMW 3-series, and see you can get an M Sport four-cylinder petrol auto for a whisker under £35k. The Arteon, arguably, is similarly smart, and far less ubiquitous; I tell Ben P it looks great, especially with the spangly mustard paintjob. When he parks it on the drive, people must think he’s a success. I mean all this sincerely. His 2.0-litre…

ALEX TAPLEY HELLO MONTH 1 MAZDA 6 AN EXPENSIVE SESSION of regression therapy might dredge something up from the distant recesses of my memory, but I think I’m correct in saying that I’ve never driven a Mazda 6 before. It’s existed for all of the 11 years I’ve been connected with CAR and yet it’s somehow passed me by. I suspect I’m not alone in having to double check exactly what it is; so subtle is its styling, so unremarkable its presence on the road, that there could be several parked in your street without you really noticing. So I’m approaching my time with the Mazda 6 Tourer completely fresh – no preconceptions, no history to taint my views. Ours is a 2.5-litre petrol estate in top GT Sport Nav+…