Monday News Snippets #11 - Developments from the weekend and beyond

One Liners:

• The Grand Tour will come back for Season 3 and then never again – it is alleged.
  
• Aston Martin must be happy with their AMG-sourced V8 as they’ve added a request for inline 6 hybrids as well.
  
• Nissan says a Navara to rival the Ford Raptor Ranger probably maybe (almost certainly) on the cards.

1) McLaren finally replacing the F1

They call it by the codename BP23 and it’s also known as the Hyper-GT but what it really is, is a high speed automotive dart with that iconic 3 seater configuration that made the Mclaren F1 the one-time quickest car in the world. So the new car gets a top speed of 391kph, a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain and a sticker price of R30mil. Sounds about right.

2) Renauld Kwid auto launched in SA

And by Auto we mean ‘automated’, not ‘automatic’ as it is in fact an automated manual as opposed to fully automatic. It’s a five-speed system, operated via a rocker-dial, potentially on the lurchy side but we’ll give our opinion once we’ve driven the thing. You can pick one up in Expression (R126,900), Dynamique (R136,900) or Dynamique AMT (R146,900) all with the same SCe 1-litre engine, and good for 50kW and 91Nm. Thereby skipping the pocket rocket box quite spectacularly, not that you care.

3) Peugeot and Opel align to make cars in Namibia

The PSA Group, now custodian of the Opel brand since GM’s recent meltdown, has gone into a joint-venture with the NDC (Namibia Development Corporation) to start an assembly plant in Walvis Bay. They’ll be assembling fresh Pugs and Opels from the latter half of 2018 with a planned output of 5000 units per year. That figure will be made up of (similar) Opel Grandland X and Peugeot 3008 SUVs.

4) The next Volvo XC60 coming to SA in 2018

Volvo’s winning streak shows no sign of abating as the brand launches the second coming of its junior sibling to their XC90. Styling is similar, good. The range is made up of petrol and diesel derivatives (no hybrid just yet), is exclusively all-wheel driven and comes in three different trim levels.

Pricing:

5) You can now buy a Jaguar E-Pace

Jaguar’s E-Pace has just recently been unleashed on South African showrooms starting at R601,578 for a base model 2.0 (110kW) diesel all the way up to a flagship petrol-powered First Edition. What is it again exactly? Think of it as Jaguar’s Evoque, and keep in mind that it will contend with BMW’s new X2 and you’re right on the money. (Take a deep breath for pricing below)

Pricing: