Latest news with #mildhybrid
Auto Express
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Auto Express
Car Deal of the Day: get a big Nissan Qashqai for less than a little Nissan Juke
Fuel-sipping mild-hybrid petrol engine Spacious family car with large 504-litre boot Only £170.95 a month The Nissan Qashqai is a go-to SUV for many Brits, and it's easy to see why with deals like this. Through the Auto Express Find a Car service, is offering the British-built family car for a minuscule £170.95 – that's stonking value, but it gets even better. At that price, it means the Qashqai is currently cheaper than its little brother Juke by around £15 a month. So, that's more space inside and more power for less cash. Advertisement - Article continues below To get the ball rolling you'll have to fork out a very reasonable £2,312.41, and this is a two-year deal with a 5,000-miles-a-year cap. Bumping this up to 8,000 will cost you just under £14 extra a month, should you need to. Naturally, for this kind of money, you're not getting the top-drawer luxurious model. Still, this Acenta Premium has all the essentials covered and more, with kit such as a 12.3-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a rear-view camera with parking sensors, LED headlights, and dual-zone climate control all coming as standard. Powering this bargain Qashqai is one of Nissan's efficient 1.3-litre turbocharged mild-hybrid petrol engines. With 138bhp and 240Nm of torque it's a decent enough performer, and the six-speed manual gearbox is pleasant to use. It's an easy car to drive, too, and feels safe and predictable on the move. The latest Qashqai's interior feels solidly made, plus it's easy to get comfortable behind the wheel. Interior space is excellent, with wide-opening rear doors to make loading children and all their stuff just that little bit easier, and boot space is great at 504 litres. The Car Deal of the Day selections we make are taken from our own Auto Express Find A Car deals service, which includes the best current offers from car dealers and leasing companies around the UK. Terms and conditions apply, while prices and offers are subject to change and limited availability. If this deal expires, you can find more top Nissan Qashqai leasing offers from leading providers on our Nissan Qashqai hub page... Check out the Nissan Qashqai deal or take a look at our previous Car Deal of the Day selection here…
Auto Express
26-05-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Express
Audi Q5 Sportback 2025 review: stylish looks can't hide its flaws
The Audi Q5 Sportback does nothing its predecessor didn't, and despite more tech and a nicely-judged mild-hybrid system, these good bits are offset by a cabin that's lacking in material quality and efficiency that seems at the mercy of the car's added overall weight. If you're in the market for a diesel-powered fastback SUV of this genre, then it does the job better than most; we're just getting a little bored of this type of compromised bodystyle – and the disappearance of some rivals suggest customers feel the same. Advertisement - Article continues below Only a few months after the launch of the all-new and critically important Audi Q5, we're behind the wheel of its more streamlined Sportback sibling. Unlike the first generation Sportback that was gestated well after the base SUV's launch, this time around the pair have been designed and engineered in unison. This is obvious with the new car's svelte roofline that seems more at one with the overall design. It's not often that this form of coupe/SUV mash-up looks particularly resolved, but Audi's done a great job here, despite the somewhat gawky forms on the front end. In the UK, you'll be able to specify your Q5 Sportback with one of three engine choices to begin with, made up from the four-cylinder diesel we're driving today, a turbocharged four-cylinder petrol and top-spec SQ5 with a turbocharged petrol V6. There's no longer any large-capacity V6 diesel as we saw last time around, but there will soon be a plug-in hybrid model to round out the powertrain options. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below View Q5 View Q5 View Q5 View Q5 Beyond that lowered roofline, and the very slight benefit to the centre of gravity that comes with it, the Q5's chassis and interior are identical between bodystyles. In terms of the chassis tech, all are quattro all-wheel drive and have a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, and the SQ5 and diesel Q5 feature a 48V mild-hybrid system. This streamlines the engine's low-speed operations by powering the wheels at parking speeds and facilitating extended start-stop functionality. The e-motor's also able to help the engine out at low-rpm, giving the car a touch more pep at low speeds. Advertisement - Article continues below The example here has a few added goodies, including adaptive air suspension and 20-inch wheels, and this combination does a pretty good job of isolating bumps and feel, riding with a comfortable yet still connected feeling as Audi does so well right now. The diesel engine, however, is somewhat more lacklustre, as it's just not quite powerful enough to make short work of the new Q5 Sportback's not inconsiderable weight. With a driver on board this is now a two-tonne car, and while electric cars consistently weigh that figure or more, the strained and rather breathless 2.0-litre diesel struggles to overcome it in the way EVs generally don't. At 7.4 seconds to 62mph, it's not slow on paper, but it does feel like it's making considerable effort to hit those numbers, with a grumbly and rather unpleasant engine noise accompanying acceleration. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below The gearbox is well suited to the powertrain, though, and when the engine's not called upon for hard acceleration it fades into the background unobtrisively. This would be grand if the Q5's efficiency was impressive, but we found it a challenge to keep over 38mpg on our mix of country and motorway miles, despite official figures being more like 43-46mpg. Advertisement - Article continues below In handling terms, the Q5 does a good job of finding a balance between comfort and control. As mentioned above, the combination of reasonably sized 20-inch wheels and air-springs is a good one, but we can't guarantee this would be the case on the larger 21-inch wheels or the standard passive suspension. Sit inside the Q5 Sportback and you'll note that space is fairly reasonable, with second row legroom and shoulder room no better than average, and not brilliant for the class. If you're in the market for this Sportback bodystyle this is probably of no real concern for you, but we still don't quite see the point of the restricted headroom and limited rearward visibility when the standard SUV bodystyle looks so similar. The boot is a good size below the parcel shelf at 515-litres, but that sloping roofline doesn't leave much space above it for bulkier items. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below Audi's comprehensive tech layout, and its giant single pane screen, does actually work better in the high-riding Q5 than the lower-set A5 and A6 models. The view out isn't quite as restricted up front as you don't feel like there's a cliff-face of digital screen to look over. However, this also draws your attention to the fact that while the interior looks pretty fancy, in terms of build quality and materials, things have taken a backwards step – or even two… The touchpoints are fine; the steering wheel is nice and thin, the stalks and volume knob present. But there's been a pretty substantial downgrade in materials on critical elements like the air-vents, door handles, centre console stack – we could go on. This isn't something obvious on all new Audi models, as the recent petrol-powered A6 has a much finer interior, but compared to rivals – be that the usual BMW X3 or new-age models like Polestar 3 – the Q5 just doesn't cut the mustard. Advertisement - Article continues below Other bits like the gloss black plastic are quickly scratched, while the centre console's pretty horrible grey plastic trim and the unfinished plastics around the base of the windscreen are just not good enough for a car that starts at over £50,000 and can extend right up to £80,000. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below The digital interfaces also have their compromises, as while big, we found the main touchscreen a little tricky to use when diving deeper into its capabilities. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, but you'll still need to exit the system in order to complete more complex climate or driver safety changes. The good news is the annoying ADAS systems are easily de-selectable. The driver's display also lacks personalisation, as the Virtual Cockpit's ability to show a full map display is no longer available – instead you're left with a collection of fine white-on-black lines that make up the rev counter or speedometer, with the bulk of the digital space left solely for, well we're not really sure. The Q5 is not by any means a bad car, and the technology and powertrains on board are good. But, the standards to which this Audi's cabin is both packaged and built is not quite good enough to suggest it as a stand-out against its rivals – whether they have a sloping roofline or not. Model: Audi Q5 Sportback TDI Quattro Price: £58,160 Powertrain: 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo diesel, plus 48V mild hybrid Power/torque: 200bhp/400Nm Transmission: 7-speed auto, all-wheel drive 0-62mph: 7.4 seconds Top speed: 140mph Economy/CO2: 43.8-46.3mpg/169-160g/km Size (L/W/H): 4,417/1,900/1,619mm On sale: Now Share this on Twitter Share this on Facebook Email Labour hints at major luxury car tax U-turn to boost EV sales Labour hints at major luxury car tax U-turn to boost EV sales Is pressure from retailers and car makers finally cutting through with ministers? Mazda has killed off the electric MX-30, and we can't say we're surprised Mazda has killed off the electric MX-30, and we can't say we're surprised The MX-30 EV has been axed, but the Japanese brand will have another crack next year when it launches the all-new Mazda 6e saloon Car Deal of the Day: this Tesla Model 3 won't break the bank at £271 a month Car Deal of the Day: this Tesla Model 3 won't break the bank at £271 a month Tesla's Model 3 is a global best-seller – but it doesn't cost the earth to bag one. It's our Deal of the Day for 23 May
Telegraph
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Dacia Duster review: cheap and cheerful – but so much more besides
My first acquaintance of the new, third-generation Duster came in January and was largely positive, but the model tested was one of the more expensive in the range: the £26,745 Extreme Hybrid 140. Then just as I was speculating whether a cheaper, mild-hybrid model with a manual gearbox might make even more sense, the firm's UK PR department offered me a longer test with that apparently lesser model. Not much lesser, as it turned out, since the test car supplied, while having the desired manual gearbox and mild hybrid three-cylinder engine, was in the penultimate trim level, Journey, with a starting price of £23,030 plus bronze metallic paint. Nevertheless, this is probably the best all-round Duster drivetrain; the TCe 130 mild hybrid is the first Dacia to benefit from parent company Renault's 1.2-litre, three-cylinder engine with assistance from a small battery. The petrol engine operates in the Miller cycle; the intake engine valves remain open when the compression stroke starts, effectively giving a larger expansion ratio than compression ratio, which provides greater fuel efficiency. It is offered with a six-speed manual gearbox and is available with front- or four-wheel drive and costs between £21,245 and £25,945. The maximum torque is 170lb ft, with a top speed of 111mph, 0-62mph in 9.9sec, a WLTP Combined fuel consumption of 51.4mpg and CO2 emissions of 124g/km. The chassis is based on that of the current Clio introduced in 2019 by Renault, with strut-based front suspension and a twist beam at the rear. It's old tech, but still good to go. The first Duster was launched in 2010 as an SUV version of the Logan saloon. With a decent specification at budget prices, it immediately took off despite its weird looks and has sold 2.2 million through what is now three generations. The first cars were ungainly, but the second and now third generations have been a huge improvement, although thankfully it hasn't increased much in size along the way. With its stereotypical rugged 4x4 looks, the new version might look huge but at 4,343mm long, 1,921mm wide with the mirrors folded and 1,657mm tall with the optional roof bars, it's not actually much bigger than the previous model, just a lot better looking. Snow debut The loan coincided with the 2025 Car of the Year drive-off in early January. The Duster had been my choice to take the award before this loan car had been discussed, but in the end the electric Renault 5 scooped the prize. Driving across the top of France and into Belgium for the final drive-off along with all the other European jurors was interesting because it snowed quite hard and I only had front-wheel drive; four-wheel drive with dedicated winter tyres would have been more reassuring. Locals equipped with winter tyres dogged my bumper as I cautiously slid my way to the circuit. It was also unnerving because the Mettet circuit is located down a long slope which was covered with compacted ice and snow; I made it, but only just, with the front wheels spinning hard and the car sliding sideways. And the journey was ultimately pointless, because the 2.3km circuit was a foot deep in snow and virtually unusable. Just as well I had had experience of all seven shortlisted cars during the UK jurors' drive-off at Silverstone just before Christmas. A dash back to the DFDS Dunkirk to Calais ferry (thanks for that DFDS) resulted in an average of just over 60mph at just under 50mpg. Considering the speed and temperature, that was pretty good. Does cheap motoring feel cheap? In a way, yes. The Duster is clearly built down to a price and not all the plain hard plastics are there to attain what Denis Le Vot, Dacia's chief executive, calls 'essentiality'. While the unpainted grey plastic body cladding in a material called Starkle might consist of 20 per cent reused polypropylene, they look suspiciously like the lower body panels of the original Renault 5 back in the early Seventies. Inside, the instrument binnacle is far too large for the graphic displays so there void is filled by superfluous horizontal illuminated lines. Some of the moulding marks are clearly visible and the seats, while tolerable over long distances, aren't the last word in comfort or support. The central touchscreen is just as you'd find on the most modern cars, just not as good; it lags, doesn't always recognise the touch of a finger and the radio function has not worked for approximately half the time. Over-the-air updates revive its functions for a while, but disappear again within days. The Journey trim provides Apple Carplay and Android Auto connectivity alongside a fistful of modern Automatic Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) driver aids; these, as you'll probably know, are a mixed blessing. In this application, the automatic braking function is terrifyingly abrupt and the lane centring system corrupts the steering so that the wheel squirms in your hands on even the straightest of roads, especially if you try to avoid the potholes. Fortunately, you can switch off most of it with a double press of the Perso button, which is one of the best and most simple ways of circumventing these mandated Nanny State monitors I can think of. The next adventure involves more foreign travel. In the meantime, the Duster is proving itself a solid if unspectacular workhorse, as I pound the motorways of the UK between jobs. The facts On test: Dacia Duster TCe 130 Journey Body style: five-door B-segment SUV On sale: now How much? £23,030 (range from £18,745) How fast? 111mph, 0-62mph in 9.9sec How economical? 51.4mpg (WLTP Combined) 48.6mpg on test Maximum power/torque: 127bhp/170lb ft
