2 HRS AGO - Suzuki has removed all non-hybrid variants from its UK line-up, while only existing orders of Jimny 4x4 will be fulfilled Suzuki’s UK line-up is will soon be exclusively hybridised, with non-electrified variants of all models down to dealer stock only and the Jimny 4x4 now no longer directly available to order.  The future of the compact off-roader was already in question after Suzuki UK said it would only be sold “in very limited numbers throughout 2020” at the start of the year. A brand spokesperson has now confirmed that “once existing and limited number dealer allocations to customers are fulfilled over the next 4-5 months” it will be officially axed.  As previously rumoured, there remains a possibility that the model could be brought back into the market as an N1 class commercial vehicle in future, with the removal of the rear seats to enable a load bay alongside other homologation alterations. However, this is yet to be confirmed.  The Jimny’s fate is largely down to the Collapse

8 HRS AGO - The diesel fist delivers its mighty punch while wrapped in an Alpina-lined silk glove The headline stat is 538lb ft at 1750rpm. There’s also 350bhp at 4000rpm, but it’s the torque that moulds the brawny character of the new D3 S, endowing it with the sort of low- to-mid-range punch that proves performance-based diesels really do have some life left in them.The latest hot diesel-powered Alpina is based on the already potent BMW M340d xDrive. Like the four wheel-drive donor car, it comes in saloon and Touring bodystyles – the latter of which we drove briefly on the Bilster Berg club circuit in Germany.As is Alpina’s way, the styling changes are subtle. The D3 S gets a front bumper extension, the firm’s signature turbine wheels and a reworked rear bumper valance that houses four round chromed tailpipes. It’s not much, but it’s enough to visually differentiate it from the more aggressively styled M340d. Even at a quick glance, you know it’s an Alpina.The same is true inside, with its Collapse

14 HRS AGO - British autonomous transport innovator is recognised for its class-leading technology “Focus on goals and learn fast – even if it means failing fast,” says Aurrigo boss David Keene when asked to summarise how his team of 30 men and women based in Coventry can take on the might of Waymo, Uber and every car manufacturer in the field of autonomous driving. “We’re a speedboat to their oil tanker and we have to use that agility,” he says. “We don’t have the budget to work to theoretical possibilities. We have to laser focus on realities. It’s why our autonomous vehicles have been real-world testing around the world already – in controlled environments such as airports to move luggage, and old people’s residential homes. Now we’re all ready to commercialise our products.” While car makers might have bigger goals than developing autonomous baggage-handling dollies, it’s easy to imagine how such a business might scale up if the protocols being set by Aurrigo were adopted globally – and how Collapse

15 HRS AGO - Autocar readers voted Mercedes' dependable hatchback the best second-hand buy of the last ten years Usually, it takes a long, storied history for any used car to claim this crown. This year, we asked you to help us choose the best used car from the past decade to keep things more recent, and the truth of the matter is that there is an awful lot of love for Mercedes-Benz’s smallest and most affordable model. The A-Class is fashionably compact and accessible for the simple reason that it is around in fairly considerable numbers. It is the PCP car of choice for so many company and private drivers, so the boom time to buy the recently retired ones is always right now. But which one? With the Mk3, the model that marked the A-Class’s switch from mini-MPV to bona fide family hatchback and our winner here, the high-spec models are infinitely adjustable when it comes to suspension and gearbox. It’s even possible to go down the AMG rabbit hole, when a potent 2.0-litre petrol will do things a Collapse

15 HRS AGO - Woking's V12 masterpiece is the car Autocar's readers want to drive above all others For this award, we asked you which car you’d most like to drive before you die. You looked at the 50 cars we’d put on a shortlist, carefully considered their respective engineering merits and their influence over the wider car industry. You mused on design, technology, significance. And then you picked the one with the 6.1-litre naturally aspirated V12 in its middle. Fair play. Same here. Driving a McLaren F1 properly was on my wish list, too. Then, last year, came the 25th anniversary of the F1’s Autocar road test. McLaren graciously said it would again oblige Autocar with access to an F1 for a day, by the end of which we’d been allowed to drive it so hard and for so long, its rear numberplate melted. Given the F1 still feels so impossibly special, so rigid, and with such huge engineering integrity and performance, I can barely comprehend how it must have felt more than a quarter of a century ago. Collapse

15 HRS AGO - The man in charge of Bentley has taken it from troubling losses to a healthy operation and record profits "I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a self-made recession.” So says Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark on the car maker he took over on 1 February 2018. Two years and five months later, we have named him the winner of this year’s Editor’s Award for the person most responsible for the success of their company. Leaving a high-flying job at Jaguar Land Rover, Hallmark knew he was walking into that rarest of things: a luxury car manufacturer that wasn’t generating profits by the bucket load and was in fact loss making. “The company had been through four years of investment in a new generation of cars with a new Continental family,” he says. “It was a radical overhaul. Every nut, bolt and washer was changed, with no carry-over. The W12 engine is the symbol of that. It’s a ground-up new W12 engine. Not even a piston carries over. There was radical change everywhere, including the Collapse

15 HRS AGO - We take a ride in the Honda Jazz Crosstar EX compact SUV, available from £22,635 with a 1.5-litre four-cylinder, 108bhp engine - the latest in a line of cars that have appealed to older generations Collapse

16 HRS AGO - Join us as we name the automotive industry's most influential figures, companies and cars Welcome to the Autocar Awards 2020, sponsored by InstaVolt. Normally the Autocar Awards takes place in a large room with lots of people but this year the ceremony is an online-only special. Read about this year's winners here So join us as we name not just some of the finest cars of the year but also the people who made them.  We'll be naming the winner of our prestigious Issigonis Award, which recognises extraordinary achievements by those at the top as they steer the motoring industry, as well as the Editor's Award, which goes to goes to someone the Autocar team judge to have had the biggest impact on their company’s success this year.  Also on the roster are the Mundy Award for Engineering, the Sturmey Award and the Lifetime Achievement award, and we'll also be honouring this year's best cars, be they game-changers, used heroes or simply brilliant driver's cars.  The Autocar Awards Collapse

17 HRS AGO - Autocar's Goodwin tries his hand at the tricky skill How hard can it be to turn a £20 sheet of aluminium into a front wing of a rare car? We find out Apparently, there are over 100 billionaires living in the UK, 72 of them in London. Any one of them could have afforded to buy the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that went under the hammer at an RM Sotheby’s auction at Monterey in August 2018. A GTO sold earlier in the year for £52 million, the most money ever paid for a car. It’s amazing, but here’s food for thought: if that Ferrari were to receive a bump that dented its front wing, there are far fewer than 72 people in the UK with the skills to repair it. One of the few is Grace Roaf. This 22-year-old hot rodder and drag racing enthusiast is an apprentice at G&A Fabrications, a traditional panel beating and fabrication business hidden away behind a former Texaco fuel station in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. It’s a small workshop, a bit untidy and short on space, but magic happens here. A Collapse