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Mark Torok says his love affair with Skodas has, at times, got a little out of hand.

“There was a stage in my life when I was buying Skodas like other people buy groceries,” he admits.

The Skoda enthusiast has amassed a collection of more than 70 cars for what he calls his ‘Skoda orphanage’, many of them dating from the company’s transition period in the 1990s.

The oldest is a 1973 S110 DeLuxe that Mark rescued from a scrapyard in the Czech Republic. The newest is a 2006 Skoda Superb V6 that he saved from re-export to eastern Europe. His favourite is an original ‘stretched Passat’ Superb of 2002.

Mark says: “In the UK, people’s interest in Skodas stops at the Estelle and starts again with the Skoda Fabia and Skoda Octavia of the 2000s. Sadly, the Favorit and Felicia in between are trapped in that no man’s land of obscurity. That’s where I come in.”

Mark’s Skodas live barn-find style in assorted farm buildings but his aim is to get them together under one roof. For the time being, the main thing is that they are safely hidden away from the scrapyard.

Remarkably, most of them require just basic recommissioning and a good wash. Skoda can trace its origins to 1895 when it was founded as Laurin & Klement. It made its first car in 1905 and was renamed Skoda in the 1920s. A succession of well-regarded models followed until progress was interrupted by World War II. The firm barely recovered under communism and, by the 1980s, ‘Skoda’ was a byword for unreliability.

With the fall of communism and the arrival of new partner Volkswagen, things began to improve and a succession of impressive new models including the Favorit, Felicia and Skoda Fabia helped prepare the ground for the brand’s revival.

“My grandfather was the biggest Skoda fan going and got me hooked on the company,” says Mark. “It’s been fascinating seeing the firm develop and grow. I often wonder what he would make of it all now.” He says the UK scraps and wastes cars far too quickly and believes there’s never been a more important time to secure vehicles such as his Skodas for preservation: “People say I am wasting my time but my girlfriend Victoria says they are not thinking in the fourth dimension, as Doc Brown does in Back to the Future. She says I am creating a treasure trove that will delight future fans of the Skoda marque.

“The doors to my orphanage will always be open to any unwanted Skoda. I will be to Skoda what the Schlumpf brothers were to Bugatti!”

Britain has a new car show, guaranteed to be more colourful and diverse than any so far listed in the UK’s busy calendar.

The first-ever Petrol & Pride meeting, aimed at combining the car passions of members of the LBGTQ+ community with those of their allies in the British automotive industry and anywhere else, was held on Friday at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, the mammoth motoring complex that’s also home to JLR and Aston Martin.

The idea sprang up earlier this year when an annual list of LGBTQ+ ‘trailblazers’ was published by Attitude magazine. Publisher Darren Styles and editor Cliff Joannou noted a rising number of car companies in their list and wondered whether their input could make a car show.

Bentley comms director Wayne Bruce grabbed that idea and came up with a plan to stage the event at the BMM, an easily found venue with plenty of parking and its own obvious attractions. He obtained the necessary permissions, co-opted Bentley’s events team Goose (organisers the Silverstone Classic) into his gang and scheduled Petrol & Pride to be held for the first time on a sunny Friday afternoon in July.

Attitude and others publicised the event and word also spread widely via social media. Even so, no one really knew how this thing would play out. True, around 180 cars had been pre-registered, but how many would actually show?

The answer was that they all did. The sheer success of the thing took the organisers by surprise. Cars of all kinds, prices, ages and pedigrees – and especially of all colours – started streaming through the Gaydon gates shortly before mid-day, the appointed opening time.

By early afternoon, the allotted 200-car parking space was filled, with more needed on surrounding grass. The front row was reserved for a rainbow array of colourful 21 cars (three each of the spectrum’s constituent colours), with the last space reserved for a bronze-orange Bentley Continental GT (the official colour is Orange Flame) driven in by Bentley’s CEO, Frank-Steffen Walliser – one of various car company bigwigs lending support.

Bentley also brought along an extravagantly decorated Flying Spur to mark the inauguration of this new event, while Lister boss Lawrence Whittaker (who also runs Warrantywise) arrived in a magnificently wrapped Jaguar LFT-666 coupé for the occasion.

Colourful decor and bold signwriting was everywhere, matching the cars and the apparel of attendees, and the warmth of the sun matched that of the happy crowd – who were all invited to visit the museum’s 400-car collection as part of their attendance.

A count-up of attending car-company models showed that the event had won support from Alpine, Aston Martin, Bentley, Dacia, Genesis, Jaguar, Land Rover, McLaren, Peugeot, Renault, Rolls-Royce, Volkswagen and more – all of them keen to stress the importance of diversity and inclusiveness both to the success of their businesses and the satisfaction of their employees and customers.

There were several prize winners: the butchest car was a 991 Porsche 911 GT3 (with a satanic-looking matt-grey Pontiac Catalina as runner-up) and the gayest car was a Mk3.5 Volkswagen Golf Cabrio in an almost overwhelmingly bright shade of Futura Yellow (with a tiny Lotus Europa as runner up).

But the programme-ending best story award was grabbed by a pair of blokes who had just finished rescuing and reviving an old Vauxhall Frontera from a local garden – on grounds that it didn’t deserve to die – and had given it a vivid set of orange wheels to celebrate its new lease on life.

They had only just managed to squeeze it through the MOT test in time for the event and took the big prize to warm applause. Like so many tales on that sunny afternoon, it was an inspiring story of car love and optimism.

Car makers from Hyundai to Volvo are offering up to £3750 off new electric cars as they wait for the arrival of the UK government’s new Electric Car Grant (ECG).

Announced earlier this month, the ECG has been introduced as a way of stimulating EV sales in the UK, following a period of stagnation since the previous government’s Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG) was pulled in 2022.

The new ECG, backed by £650 million of government funding, will yield a discount for qualifying cars of either £1500 or £3750, depending on their environmental impact. 

To qualify, car manufacturers themselves must meet science-backed emissions targets, while the individual model lines must start at below £37,000 in entry-level trim.

Which discount a model receives is determined by how much CO2 is emitted in an EV's production, assessing the energy used in vehicle assembly as well as battery manufacturing. Threshold levels have yet to be made public.

While any manufacturer can apply for their car to be included in the scheme, it's thought that, due to this criteria, cars produced in Asian countries, such as China, South Korea and Japan, will not be eligible for the ECG.

This would include cars from Hyundai, MG and GMW – all three of which have already launched their own equivalent discounts, likely pre-empting that their cars will be denied access to the ECG.

Below are the discounts already being offered by car makers as they await the results of the ECG applications.

Alfa Romeo

The Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica – the Italian marque’s first EV – can now be had with £1500 off its list price. This leaves the Polish-made compact crossover retailing for £32,405.

GWM

Chinese firm Great Wall Motor has launched a £3750 grant for the Ora 03 hatchback. The MG 4 EV rival, which was previously named the Funky Cat, now costs just £21,245.

Hyundai

Hyundai is matching the government's incoming ECG by offering a discount of £3750 on its new Inster hatchback, bringing it down in price to £19,755. The prices of all its other EVs – such as the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and Kona Electric – have been slashed by £1500.

MG

Geely-owned Chinese brand MG has launched a discount of £1500 on its 4 EV hatchback and new S5 EV crossover. This brings down the price of the pair to £25,495 and £26,995 respectively.

Leapmotor

Stellantis brand Leapmotor has mirrored the government’s grant with two separate discounts. The Dacia Spring-rivalling T03 city car receives £1500 off, leaving it at £14,495, and the C10 SUV is discounted by £3750 to £32,750.

Skywell

One of the biggest discounts comes from the UK importer of Chinese brand Skywell. It's offering £3750 off its BE11 – the only car it sells in the UK – on top of a £6000 dealer contribution, meaning the £36,995 SUV can be driven away at £27,245.

Volvo

Volvo has lopped £1500 off the price of its EX30, EX40 and EC40 EVs. With that discount, the EX30 starts from £31,560, the EX40 from £44,760 and the EC40 from £50,410. No discounts are offered on the EX90 or ES90, though.

Autocar’s Drivers of Change awards will return on 13 November following a successful launch earlier this year and this time will champion diverse talent in the industry.

Held in association with the SMMT at Stellantis's UK headquarters in Coventry, the second edition of Drivers of Change will celebrate new talent from across the industry – individuals who are either apprentices or in the first two years of their career.

The goal of Drivers of Change is to celebrate the automotive industry as a place where you can have a thriving career irrespective of your background and to promote the industry as a great place to work for those from all different backgrounds.

In the second edition of these awards, Drivers of Change: New Talent, that can be as simple as having started and made an impact in a first role in the industry - having joined, for example, from a background that is typically under-represented in the industry. 

We encourage you to spread the word and consider nominating anyone from your wider organisation – no matter which sector of the automotive industry – who meets these broad criteria and has a compelling story to tell. 

Entries are now open - submit your nomination here.

There will be no specific categories in which to enter and anyone named on our list can call themselves an Autocar Driver of Change. Earlier this year, 40 individuals were named in the inaugural Autocar Drivers of Change for their work mainly in DEI initiatives, in a ceremony at the SMMT headquarters in February. 

This forms part of a refreshed calendar of events at Autocar. Each spring we will continue to host Autocar Great Women, which every other year will celebrate Rising Stars. Drivers of Change will follow a similar cadence in this new autumn slot, where it will remain in future years. 

The boss of General Motors Europe says the UK is a key market for the firm’s continental ambitions, and it will finally bring Cadillac models here “soon” – with more brands promised to follow.

GM established its new European arm in Zurich in 2021, with a plan to bring an all-electric line-up of cars to market. So far that has materialised as just the €79,000 (£68,000) Lyriq SUV, which arrived in 2023 and is currently only sold in Switzerland, France, Sweden and Germany.

In the UK, GM’s presence amounts to the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, hybrid E-Ray and track-focussed ZR1, but CEO Pere Brugal, speaking to Autocar for the first time since taking the helm, said it would not be long before the Lyriq will arrive here, given that right-hand-drive production cars were completing final testing in Ireland.

He added: “We have a plan for these to come. It is one of the [markets] that we’re focusing on right now. It’s coming close.”

When that car does arrive, it will be joined by another model, said Brugal, because GM wants to arrive in the UK with more than just one mainstream offering.

“We want to make sure we launch not only with one model portfolio,” he told Autocar, speaking at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed. “We want to make sure we launch with at least a two-model portfolio.”

Brugal wouldn’t confirm what the second car would be, but the most likely option is the Optiq premium SUV (pictured below). That model is due on sale early next year, suggesting that a possible entrance to the UK market could coincide with its launch.

Following this, Brugal said, the plan was to bring even more models to the UK market. Asked if the likes of the Chevrolet Equinox and Blazer were part of the plan, he replied:“We have a lot of close relations and collaboration with our headquarters in Detroit. That’s where we discuss what are the global trends, what do customers want, and then also what are the region-specific needs.

“We look at our links from a global perspective, and then we decide which are the programmes we’re going to bring to Europe.” 

Brugal added that the key to bringing an even wider portfolio of GM cars to the UK and Europe quickly would be down to legislation, given that some cars sold in the US, for example, could not be sold in Europe given the disparity in emission regulations and safety standards.

“If the regulations between the US and Europe harmonise, it will make our life easier," he said. "We will bring a lot of benefit to the final customer, because that will increase the range of options.”

Europe could even get its own bespoke GM model, said Brugal. While not yet confirmed, the possibility is being considered given the different wants and expectations of buyers in different markets.

“We craft cars that we don’t have in the US, but we have them in other markets," Brugal said. "We have cars that are specific for the South America region, and we can have cars that are more of an Asia or China portfolio.

“Not all of them are available in the US, and not everything which is available in the US is available for China customers or European customers. 

“In the future, can it be that [we create a] car that is [just] for Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan or Korea Maybe it can be.”

In the near-term, each brand that comes to the UK will have a separate retail strategy, he said, and not be grouped under one GM umbrella – like JLR, for example.

“We don’t envisage a future where we’re going to be mixing Cadillac with Corvette,” he said. “Corvette has its own DNA, and it’s going to be staying as a standalone brand. Cadillac has its own entity as well."

As such, they will be sold in different ways. For example, while Corvette will continue to be sold via dealer partners such as Arnold Clark, Cadillac will instead use an online-based agency model supported by “experience” pop-up stores.

Brugal added: “We have two business models for Cadillac. One is a traditional distributor model, that’s the one we will use for the smaller markets, such as Ireland or Norway. But when we think about the big, big markets in Europe, we are going with a D2C [direct to customer model].”

Asked why he decided not to use a traditional dealer model, Brugal said: “Our D2C is focused on creating impact and explaining who we are as a brand and making sure that people understand the brand and explore the car.” He added that aftersales will be provided by partners.

The new Citroën ë-C5 Aircross has gone on sale, priced from £34,065, undercutting key rivals such as the Skoda Enyaq by £5000.

The SUV was revealed in April with a bold new design language and the option of electric power for the first time, as the French brand renews its assault on Europe's crucial crossover market.

The new C5 also goes on sale with combustion-engined power from £30,495. That starting price is £2000 more than the car it replaces and puts it in the same bracket as rivals such as the new Mazda CX-5 and Nissan Qashqai.

The range starts in base You! trim, which includes a 13in touchscreen with built-in navigation, wireless phone charger, adaptive cruise control and 18in alloys.

​Pricing tops out in Max trim at £35,775 for the ICE model and £39,345 for the EV. This adds premium materials, a larger head-up display, heated front seat and steering wheel, electric tailgate and a heatpump for the EV.

Prices for the EV could drop by as much as £3750 if the model is eligible for the UK government's new electric car grant - eligible cars will be named on 11 August.

Based on parent company Stellantis's new STLA Medium architecture (as used by the Peugeot 3008 and Vauxhall Grandland), the second-generation C5 Aircross is the flagship of an overhauled Citroën line-up and sits above recently refreshed and renewed versions of the Ami, C3 and C4.

At launch, the C5 Aircross is offered as either a 143bhp hybrid (which pairs a 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine with a small electric motor) or a 207bhp EV with a 73kWh battery giving 322 miles of range (or 321 miles in Max guise).

After launch, two other powertrains will be offered. One is a plug-in hybrid set-up that pairs a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with an electric motor and a 21kWh battery for 193bhp and 53 miles of engine-off driving. The other is a 227bhp EV that uses a larger 97kWh pack to offer 421 miles of range.

DESIGN

As promised to Autocar by designer Pierre Leclerq, the production version of the new C5 Aircross stays true to the bold concept car that was revealed last year at the Paris motor show. It retains the minimalistic two-box silhouette of the previous C5 Aircross but features a wide-reaching focus on aerodynamics in a bid to increase efficiency.

It's bigger than the Mk1, having grown 150mm in length to 4652mm in order to facilitate a substantial 60mm increase in wheelbase - "almost all of which is in the rear leg room", according to Citroën.

Citroën has exploited the more substantial footprint to create what it calls a 'C-Zen Lounge' inside, where "occupants are seated as if in a living room".

The dashboard in particular has been designed with influence from traditional living room furniture, with distinctive foam fabric padding that is reminiscent of a sofa and available in a choice of light or dark colours. The ambient lighting can also be configured in eight colours.

At the centre of this new dashboard is an expansive 'floating' touchscreen that Citroën says is the largest yet fitted to a Stellantis car. It largely replaces physical controls but has been designed for ease of access on the move, with fixed status and control bars, programmable widgets and direct access to the climate control.

Smartphone mirroring and a 10in digital display are equipped as standard, and drivers can use the 'Hello Citroën' voice control function to control various in-car functions - with AI support from ChatGPT.

A head-up display – 30% larger than that of its predecessor – is available in the top Max trim 

Meanwhile, the 'Advanced Comfort' seats have been upgraded to give "a level of comfort never seen" in the C5 Aircross, with thick lower padding on the backrest and bolster and an upper portion that "wraps around passengers' shoulders like a shawl". The side bolsters are now electrically adjustable, too.

In the back, passengers are said to have 51mm more knee room and 68mm more head room than before, plus extra adjustability courtesy of a backrest that can be reclined between 21deg and 33deg - "adding to the sensation of travelling in comfort class".

Rear passengers can also make use of a pair of cupholders in the centre console, together with a pair of USB-C charging ports.

The increase in footprint also makes for a much bigger boot: there are now 651 litres of load space behind the back seats – almost 150 litres more than in the Nissan Qashqai. That rises to 1668 litres with the seat folded.

There's a 75-litre hidden space beneath the boot floor, too, where the EV's charging cable can be stored.