Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i BBC Top Gear Magazine

@jack_rix @rixjack jack.rix@bbctopgearmagazine.com Awards season… aka that time of the year when I realise that despite some gale force headwinds, it's been a cracking trip around the sun for new cars. Especially if you had a lucky streak on the scratchcards. Yes, by the time you read this Rachel Reeves will have delivered her motorist bashing budget, EV demand is lower than anticipated, the SUV is ubiquitous… but choice has never been wider or deeper. Rewind two weeks and I'm pulling up the roller door on the mammoth hangar 113 at Bicester Motion and in they come… all 17 award winners for the cover shoot. A heavy EV contingent (quite literally) spanning the full gamut from impossibly cute Lego brick (Dacia Hipster), all the way to a purple EV Rolls-Royce……

We are told by lawmakers that cars must go electric. We're told by carmakers that making small electric cars is not cost effective. So they must be ultra basic (Citroen Ami / Dacia Spring) or very trendy (Renault 5 / Hyundai Inster). But by blending Japan's genius kei car rules with augmented engine noise and cosplay gearshifts, Honda's brought back the entry level warm hatch. It's spacious, fun (enough) to drive, and it makes a standard parking space feel roomier than the Albert Hall. Honda, we beg you to avoid the mistake of the cute but expensive e: price this where we can all reachit. And then build us a Type R version too. “Honda's brought back the entry level warm hatch” Don't get me wrong, I love the idea…

What is it? Russia's supercar. Named after the doomed Russian backed Marussia F1 team, the brand obviously hoped for motorsport pedigree to launch its mid-engined 300bhp V6 911 rival, allegedly good for 190mph. Did they actually build any? Several B1s and B2s (the only difference was styling) were built and could move under their own power. Marussia claimed it had secured orders for the B2's entire 500 strong run in 2012, and that must've gone to its head because it also began trumpeting a followup family SUV model. Still want that Purosangue? Where are they now? Both Marussia models sank without trace, and thanks to Russian economic sanctions (and a complete lack of recognised pedigree) a Marussia comeback is about as likely as Nikita Mazepin becoming Formula One world champion.…

What is it? The modern Puma is the bestselling car in the UK – from £26,580 for the 1.0 EcoBoost Hybrid. But there's also a Ford Puma from 1997–02. It doesn't cost £26k. Why are we interested? Because you get to be that person that says “not that Puma – the original” at parties. The 3dr coupe based on Ford's B platform. So… it's the same but not? Not at all. The old one is a front wheel drive three door with four seats. The new one a FWD, five, five. What should I buy? The newbie is much safer, better at doing real life and likely not rusted through. The old ones cost £2,000-6,000. But they're perky and fun.…

CORBIN SPARROW Was it a car? Was it a tricycle? Was it an overinflated jellybean as the popular nickname suggested? Whatever it was, the Corbin Sparrow was ahead of its time as a lightweight, three wheeled electric commuter pod. Doesn't look too dissimilar to the bird it shares its name with, either. BUICK ROADMASTER SKYLARK Buick first used the Skylark name on a glorious limited run convertible version of the Roadmaster in 1953. The Skylark cost over $5,000 - just over $60,000 in today's money - but did also feature the excellently named Buick Fireball V8. HUMBER HAWK The Humber Hawk was a four door, four cylinder Brit that was produced in various guises between 1945 and 1967. The Mkland Mkll were actually rebadged prewar Hillman 14s, but giving a…

Despite slimmer sidewalls and tweaked suspension which reins in a noticeable chunk of the standard car's pitch and dive, it can't be caught out. This is serenity on a different plane to any car in history. No Bentley or Maybach isolates you so completely from not just the road itself, but the outside world. You're hermetically sealed against the drone of a truck, the buzz of a scooter, the chirrup of a siren. Wind. Rain. Changes in season. It all just bounces off the Spectre inconsequentially. You're cradled loftily high in an exquisitely stuffed armchair, peering through a much narrower glasshouse than the Cadillac – this is a coupe, not a liftback saloon. But the sense of being so safely cocooned away from the stresses, noise and interference of the…

Our reigning Electric Car of the Year delivers again! To be honest, were it not for its ever so slightly cooler and ever so slightly less useful sister car – the Renault 5 – winning Car of the Year in 2024, it could have scooped the top prize. It's that good. We're still searching frantically for a chink in the R4's armour. Styling? OK it's not as cool as the R5, but compared to 95 per cent of EVs it's a shot of concentrated joy and sunshine into your eyeballs. Space? There are larger cars in the world, but for every day, modest family duties its longer wheelbase, bigger boot and extended rear legroom are just right. Handling? A Ferrari F80 will show it a clean pair of heels, but…

The Kia PV5 is an electric van with a Lego-like modular construction, meaning endless possibilities. Refrigerator unit? Pickup bed? Ice cream van? Anything is possible. For now, let's focus on the passenger version with five, six or seven seats. Think of it as an ultra roomy estate car, or the VW ID.Buzz's worst nightmare. Why? It arguably matches the VW for design (albeit future fresh, not retro cool), edges it for efficiency and smashes it on price. That last one can't be overstated – the five seat PV5 Passenger is over £20,000 cheaper than its German opposite number. You get a choice of two battery sizes, offering 183 or 256 miles of range, all use a single motor FWD setup which makes 160bhp in the 71kWh version or 120bhp when…

You'd think multimillion pound hypercars would be the complicated ones. But you'd be wrong. Those kinds of cars have development budgets – and eventual prices – that allow for the unique. It's ubiquity that's difficult. Cheap is hard. And that's where Renault's sister company Dacia has been nailing the value for money aspect of modern motoring to the wall. The Bigster is one of those cars. Yes, it's essentially a longer, roomier Duster, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It has the same characterful look as all modern Dacias, confident rather than flash, and it has the right mix of practical and usable, takes to heart a kind of rugged pragmatism that's hard to ignore. Yes, it uses a mix of Renault bits, but never feels like it. And…

OV says the big red button on the steering wheel. Overtake. Fireworks graphics explode on the screen and the Alpine lunges forward, feeding every possible electron to its three motors. I'm reluctant to wee on its visual or metaphorical fireworks, but… it has a pedal to do that. Bar the visual fireworks anyway. So the OV button is trivial, even if emblematic of Alpine's racing activity. Mind you racing cars aren't meant to be fun. Just to go fast. Powerful electric cars often meet the exact same criticism. Quick yes; good time companions not so much. Alpine's history in road cars concentrates on just two things: souped up people's cars (including the original R5) and lightweight specialist sports cars. The A290 is a creditable modern hot hatch, there's one box…

September is the big sales month in Britain. That month in 2024, BYD, Jaecoo, MG and Omoda between them sold 11,000 cars in the UK-half of VW's sales. By this September, those Chinese sales had climbed to 37,000 in total while VW grew only slightly to 25k. And that's before the upcoming onslaught of Leapmotor, Chery, Changan and higher end brands including Nio and Denza and IM and others. So, yeah, the Chinese look like winners. Politicians and European industry leaders complain about the local jobs they cost, but the public here just want well priced and sanitary cars. Meanwhile back at home the Chinese high end carmakers are taking chunks out of BMW, Audi and Mercedes so the Germans have lost a lot of what was a cash cow…

Bugatti-Rimac is shedding titles faster than Andy Windsor lately. In August, the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut stripped the 0–400kph–0 record from the Rimac Nevera, and then the Yangwang U9 Xtreme had the audacity to go faster than the Chiron Super Sport in a straight line (see p92). Is there no respect for your elders? Bugatti clearly isn't overly concerned given it has something waiting in the wings with lower drag, less mass and 200bhp more than the 304.77mph Chiron Super Sport, which could snatch back the trophy. At which point Yangwang will probably ladle another 1,000bhp on its quad motor U9 and try to up the ante. Point is, these shenanigans are all well and good, but ultimately futile in the face of low hanging electric horsepower. Which is why the…

“We're off to drill some seriously deep holes, a special drill bit encased in the Jag's boot – it's less than a foot across and looks like the Devil's tungsten carbide coated coffee grinder. Some responsibility, this. We're on our way to the front line of Britain's new energy age. Welcome to Cornwall. “Originally based in Germany, the rig is a leviathan. And it's going to drill a hole – from a Cornish industrial estate opposite a tyre fitters and a scrapyard – that dives 4.5km deep. “That's 14 Shard skyscrapers. Can't help thinking our drill bit is a tad small for what they've got in mind, but it'll be fine. Surely? They're the experts. “It turns out we've brought down a baby drill bit you can contain in a…

GO TO TOPGEAR.COM FOR EX TENDED TG GARAGE REPORTS, AND TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE £78,700 OTR/£93,362 as tested/£870 pcm WHY IT'S HERE: Does this most modern saloon have a place in modern Britain? DRIVER: SAM PHILIP THE FAMILY SALOON IS AN endangered species. Just 20 years ago, over 1.5 million Mondeos and Vectras roamed UK roads. Today, neither Ford nor Vauxhall offers a saloon in Britain. Nor Toyota, nor VW, nor Mazda. In 2024, BMW UK sold almost three times as many X5s as 5-Serieseses. So, does the big family saloon still have a place in modern Britain? If any saloon can save the saloon, it could be this one. On paper, the 550e looks to have all the bases covered. The plug-in hybrid powertrain mates BMW's 3.0 twin turbo straight…

GO TO TOPGEAR.COM FOR EX TENDED TG GARAGE REPORTS, AND TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE £37,260 OTR/£39,850 as tested/£615 pcm WHY IT'S HERE: Does the EX30 deserve all the accolades? DRIVER: VIJAY PATTNI IT'S 2025, AND THERE'S AN APP for that. Want to know exactly when to run off for a pee during a movie? There's an app for that. Want to simulate stapling stuff without wasting staples? There's an app for that. What about if you want to control your car? Yep, there's an app for that too. The Volvo Cars app lets you control a limited number of functions on your, that's right, Volvo car. We've got a luminous yellow EX30, so that's the Volvo car that pops up on our screen. (There's a dedicated Volvo EX30 app too, but…

GO TO TOPGEAR.COM FOR EX TENDED TG GARAGE REPORTS, AND TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE £47,570 OTR/£50,160 as tested/£842 pcm WHY IT'S HERE: Because this is exactly the crossroads so many of us live at: need space, want fun, can't be bothered with an SUV DRIVER: CHARLIE ROSE THE CUPRA LEON ESTATE ISN'T shy about what it wants to be: a practical family wagon on the one hand, a bit of a rascal on the other. Three hundred and twenty eight bhp, a drift mode and a rather flatulent exhaust, with a 620 litre boot for the boring stuff. Before you think that opting for the estate over the hatch puts you at a performance disadvantage, think again. It's got the same VW Group 2.0 TSI and DSG gearbox at its core, but…

Honda Element From £8,000 It was a bit of a myth that you could hose out the interior of the Element. If others have done that it'll likely be looking like Bran Flakes underneath, but get a good one and the stain resistant seats and plastic flooring will be a godsend. Jazz Crosstar From £29,005 Hopefully your kids aren't yet embarrassed by their parents, because the Jazz has more than a whiff of old age about it. Honda does make a song and dance about the Crosstar's 'Water Repellent Upholstery’ too, which probably isn't helping. OUR WINNER Ineos Grenadier From £62,495 The Grenadier is a workhorse. Its rubber flooring and water resistant Recaro seats should last until the offspring are old enough to be out on the town. At which…

THE TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 250 IS A BIG, CAPABLE AND brilliantly boxy return for one of the world's most hardworking off roaders. And now, there's a little one! Meet the new Land Cruiser FJ, revealed here ahead of a mid 2026 launch. It deploys the same excellent boxy design aesthetic as its bigger sibling but on a slightly shrunken wheelbase. So where the big boy LC comes in at 4.9m long, this one's 4.5m. That's about the same as a LR Defender 90 with a spare wheel slung on the boot door. Toyota says the front and rear bumpers are removable, because these things actually get used around the world. It's able to seat five, and has been vigorously tested (read: likely pushed to destruction) so it retains what Toyota…

BLOW THE BUDGET THE 1950s WAS QUITE A DECADE. There was plenty to worry about, like the Suez crisis, Korean war and the threat of nuclear apocalypse. But the postwar tech boom also brought passenger jets, power steering and the Citroen DS. And it was the decade that the world fell in love with scuba diving. French adventurer Jacques Cousteau – whose book and Oscar winning film The Silent World brought his underwater escapades to millions – wore a diver's watch by Blancpain. The Fifty Fathoms took its name from its rating: 50 fathoms, or about 91 metres, a cutting edge depth in the early 1950s. After the 1950s, new materials such as synthetic rubber gaskets and helium escape valves pushed water resistance to previously impossible depths – as far…

No one likes change, particularly not when something's working fine, so the fact that from the start of next season Formula One is undergoing the biggest technical overhaul in the sport's history, off the back of this otherworldly season, brings with it both excitement and scepticism. The new rules mean the cars will be lighter (down by 30kg), narrower and shorter in wheelbase and width, with the aim of making them a bit more nimble. Aerodynamics get a big shake up – less downforce (-30 per cent) and less drag (-55 per cent) meet moveable front and rear wings, that allow switchable high downforce and low drag modes. More strategic distraction or a flurry of overtaking possibilities? We shall see… The power units are also changing: the V6 hybrid internal…

Estates are cooler than SUVs… it's a fact. Every bit as spacious, better looking and slipperier. They work with physics, rather than fighting against it because they are cars enlarged in the horizontal, not vertical, and no estate demonstrates this more clearly than the Audi A6 Avant – the most relentlessly capable wagon launched in the past 12 months. We live in a choicy era. You want some butter? Salted or not? Spreadable? Low fat? Plant based? Clarified? And so the A6 follows the zeitgeist – whether you're an EV believer or prefer petrol, diesel or hybrid, there's a version for you, and because the e-tron is spun off a totally different (PPE) platform from the combustion models there's very little compromise whichever way you lean. The Avant has a…

Chronic hypercar fatigue has been officially recognised by the UK Health Security Agency for the first time in 2025. Symptoms include apathy, mild to acute outrage and severe memory loss. Honestly, can you picture or distinguish between a Giamaro Krafla and a Garagisti & Co GP1? Or a Capricorn 01 Zagato and De Tomaso P72? We all adore stupidly powerful and wild looking cars, but there seems to be a new one launched every other week. Most are trying to reconnect with that most prized of words in our AI-infested reality: analogue. As ‘normal’ cars become smarter and more connected, so they seem to distance themselves from the human operator. So, the new ‘hyper’ is something of a regression. Everyone is rushing back towards manual gearboxes, normally aspirated engines with…

Renault hasn't just been combing through its back catalogue to create funky electric hatchbacks and crossovers in recent years. In fact, in January it showed us the magnificently retrofuturistic Filante Record 2025. Taking inspiration from the 9.1-litre straight six powered 40 CV des Records from 1925, as well as the eight cylinder Nervasport des Records from 1934 and the streamlined, jet-engined Étoile Filante from 1956, it won't just be a rolling lab either. As the name suggests, it is to be Renault's latest record setting machine and plans to set new high scores for “power consumption and range with an 87kWh battery”. But even if it doesn't break a single record, it'll still prove that electric efficiency can be properly cool. Heck, just look at it. Sandeep Bhambra, director of…

“To lose one… may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness.” In Wilde's script, it was parents. For Jaguar Land Rover, it was, at various times of the year, its brands. Yes, both. Jaguar sales ended in the UK and most other places. That's a deliberate reset before the new electric super GT, previewed by the Type 00, arrives in 2026. Just before the Type 00 unveil there was a car-free 'new brand’ advert, kicking up an astonishing kerfuffle that stretched to breaking point the maxim that all publicity is good publicity. The ads androgynous actors in coloured lycra infuriated all the woke-averse gammons. Odd really, since most of them are old enough that in their youths they'd have been wigging out to early 1970s glam…

SCAN HERE FOR FULL REVIEWS OF EVERY NEW CAR 7/10 VAUXHALL FRONTERA ELECTRIC £22,495 PANDA AND INSTER TOO TITCHY for you? Similar money can bag you a 4.3m long SUV with electric power too. Vauxhall's entire car lineup offers an EV powertrain, all of which get the £1,500 government grant, and the new Frontera arrives with a bunch of free charging offers to lure you in. The car is played with a very safe bat, and doesn't possess the design of its Citroen C3 Aircross twin, but buyers can do worse. SD 8/10 VOLVO ES90 SINGLE MOTOR £69,760 WHILE AN SUV MIGHT BE THE default choice for the (upper) middle class family these days, there's something compelling about a well executed high end saloon. The ES90 is a sublime place to sit…

£65,870/£69,335/£609 WHY IT'S HERE: Is living with a rugged American icon in the UK charmingly adventurous or a recipe for discomfort? DRIVER: ELLIOT WEBB TIME TO TAKE THE PRE-MODDED Jeep to the Yorkshire Dales for a family getaway. The excitement of a four year old seeing a luminous green Jeep was overwhelming, even before he saw the ‘Sky One-Touch Power Top’ retractable roof. Sounds like it's from a CBeebies TV show, great for picking apples from low bearing trees. Mix that with the excitement of finding out where the “fire steam” – to quote the little one – is created to show off the 2.0-litre turbo'd 4cyl petrol engine, needed to lug around two tonnes of green steel. Bootspace is low compared to rivals, but the split side opening tailgate is…

£68,045/£71,816/£725 WHY IT'S HERE: Is this souped up Buzz a top spec EV worth saving for? DRIVER: JACK RIX WOLFSBURG, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. After years as the design darling of minted families everywhere who need something very spacious, with loads of seats, that's kind to the air quality at school drop off… the ID.Buzz has its first real rival in that space: the Kia PV5 – our new Family Car of the Year. A proper, purpose built EV van with all the space of a Buzz, that drives just as well and looks pretty funky in a futuristic rather than a retro way. Currently, the range is down slightly on the VW, and its interior perhaps isn't as colourful, but you can have one, with the bigger battery and fully…

Dear TopGear, I have two incredibly messy, incredibly middle class children who absolutely adore houmous. In fact, I can't get them to stop eating the stuff. I've even tried taking away their crudites, but now they're just devouring it with their hands and it has totally ruined my car's interior! What should I do? Florence, Surrey Our hearts bleed for you, Flo. They really do. Nobody wants their family crossover to smell that strongly of garlic. Well, perhaps they do at times, but we can't imagine it's that pleasant for the early morning school run. If your two little ones simply can't be weaned off the blended chickpeas any time soon, you'll need to get yourself a car with wipe clean upholstery. We can't imagine the budget is that tight,…

DESIGN OF THE YEAR Contain yourselves: the Hipster is officially still just a concept. But it's got our attention and bagged the TopGear Design of the Year award. Look at the size of it – a mere 3m long and 1.5m wide, but there's room inside for four adults and the boot can swallow up to 500 litres. It's a claimed 20 per cent lighter than Dacia's electric Spring – that would make it just 750kg – and aims to halve the carbon footprint over its life cycle compared to the best EVs currently on sale. The Hipster addresses another significant issue: even cheap electric cars are still too expensive to work as mass mobility solutions. Dacia has decided it's time for a big shift in priorities, and positions the…

Why is the Land Rover Defender Octa our Off Roader of the Year? Well, it's a Defender with a 626bhp V8 that loves to fly through the air. Congratulations and good night. I need to say more? Hmmm. Well, it's a Defender. So, it looks fantastic, feels high quality and manages to have a really appealing sense of fun without tripping over into contrived nonsense. And it has a thumping 4.4-litre twin turbo V8 sourced from BMW that performs brilliantly. Land Rover says it'll crack 0–60mph in 3.8secs. And the jumps? Well, this might not be an everyday consideration for most of us. Yet the concept of a performance SUV that's inspired by Rally Raid and the Dakar is a lot more, um, sensible than one focused on lateral g…

VW'S HORSEPOWER SUBSCRIPTION In August, VW (the ‘people's car’ – hah!) proudly announced it would start selling ID.3s with 228bhp motors… but you would only be allowed to enjoy 201 of those horses fresh from the factory. Unlocking extra zip would cost £16.50 a month, which also upped torque from 195lb ft to 229lb ft. A company statement noted “paying more for higher power is nothing new” but the meanness of artificially neutered horsepower and adding yet another paywall to our already subscription infested lives is easily VW's dumbest idea since those touch sensitive temperature sliders. And Dieselgate. GORDEN WAGENER, MERC DESIGN BOSS With the cabin quality reputations of VW, Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari and more deeply in the toilet, it seemed the industry was correcting course and bringing back buttons.…

Is Renault singlehandedly saving the supermini? The all electric 5 is now out in the world and brightening up our city streets, and it's about to be joined by the all new sixth generation Renault Clio. With its combustion engined rivals dropping faster than Faithfuls in the fifirst few weeks of The Celebrity Traitors, it's a delight just to see a new Clio, and we've already had confifirmation that it'll hit UK shores in 2027. There'll certainly be no missing it when it does rock up either. While Renault's EVs are doing retro design right, the Clio has been gifted a dramatic and modern face with all of the diamonds up in its grilles. There's a slightly coupe-ifified rear end with a twin-deck rear spoiler setup, and the lights at…

MASSIMO FRASCELLA Design director, Audi Frascella was at Land Rover, as head of exterior design for all the superb and tight-lined current generation. Then last year the Italian was named design boss at Audi. These things take time to show any fruit. This year we know how smart Audi's appointment has been. The excellent Concept C brings us back to the heyday of Audi design, when simplicity and clean, solid forms were a radical sort of clarity. When cabin materials were consequential. When it was obvious an Audi was an Audi, with no needy ‘emotional’ extras. That doesn't mean he'll do retro. But if he evokes the truth of the first TT or A2 when the spiritual successors launch, he's smashed it. ROBERT KUBICA Racing driver Once upon a time,…

I have many happy memories at Blyton Park, near Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. These range from trying to tame the mighty, maleficent Porsche 997 GT2 RS to flying off the end of the back straight in a Glickenhaus SCG 003 racecar as Jim Glickenhaus himself looked on. Not my finest hour. Anyway, it's a great little track but most would concede this narrow, flat and short loop is a million miles from the towering challenge and fever dream mania that surrounds Suzuka circuit in the Mie prefecture of Japan. One of the great racetracks. Today though, these two locations are linked by a very special car. An incredibly rare competition model that was last driven in anger around Suzuka at the opening round of the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship in…

REPORT 3 AUDI S3 The Audi continues to entertain. It has a wide operating window from Comfort up to Dynamic Plus, with tangible steps to suspension, powertrain and the feeling of focus and agility. Which is great. But also means finding the sweet spot to programme the Individual setting is taking some time! JB REPORT 3 DACIA BIGSTER This month the Bister has been used as a support car for various photoshoots, airport runs, moving people and things. Itís big enough to carry a decent amount, itís comfy enough to do long trips, and itís small enough to be useable in town. Having a narrow but capacious car these days feels like luxury. TF REPORT 7 POLESTAR 3 I'm liking Polestar's overall direction of travel. Time recently spent in a…