Renault Group sells Avtovaz

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  Audi’s new Digital Matrix LED headlights will revolutionise safety, greatly reduce fatigue and stress in driving at night and even be able to communicate with other drivers, according to the car maker. However, a number of  Audi 's more radical ideas - such as OLED tail-light clusters displaying warning symbols and the headlights projecting a variety of warning symbols onto the road surface - are held up by complex homologation laws across the globe. The most striking of the various new light technologies revealed at a technical presentation last week at the company’s Ingolstadt headquarters is already an option on the new  Audi A8 . Costing around €1800 (£1520) in Germany, the Digital Matrix Headlights (DMH) are based around a new Digital Micro Mirror device that houses 1.3 million micro-mirrors. These mirrors measure just a tenth of the width of a human hair and can be rapidly switched into two distinct positions.  Inside the headlight, the light f...
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Land Rover Defender 90 2022 long-term review

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 It’s no revelation to say that even this ‘baby’ Defender is a big car. It’s 4.3 metres long (before you factor in the spare wheel), 2.1 metres wide (mirrors out) and, give or take, two metres tall – enough to be at risk of a serious clonk in restricted car parks.

What has taken me by surprise, though, is how quickly you get used to those dimensions. Every time I clap eyes on it, I think again how absurd such a large car is for outer-London life; yet bum on seat and threading around even the most congested spots, I’ve rarely had to give a second thought to any compromises on where I can go or what I can do.

I’ve found the same phenomenon with other large Land Rovers. It takes about a week to adjust and then instinctively you start to know where the corners are, adjust to the steering and slightly laggy throttle and make use of what must be some of the best- adjusted brakes in the business – all from an imperious seating position just a bit higher than that of almost anything else on the road. In short, you become at one with the car.

This is worth noting because I’ve had a few emails from would- be buyers who’ve turned up for a test drive and been put off by the experience; dwarfed by the dimensions when stationary and then overwhelmed by them when on the move. Funnily enough, I still look at Defender 110s and think much the same, but my experiences here tell me that, with time behind the wheel, good times are likely ahead.

The main watch-out is that spare tyre, which looks so good that I once parked it at a golf club and came back to find someone looking to see if they could take it home with them. Thankfully they thought I was as rugged as the car and left in a hurry, although that might have had more to do with the locking wheel nut and the weight of a full wheel being enough to make a bodybuilder sweat.

It lengthens the car by 26cm, but you have to remember the height at which that extra length sits. Many a time I’ve used the reversing camera to park bumper to bumper only to hop out and find the spare wheel overhanging another bonnet – the automotive equivalent of invading someone’s personal space.

Likewise, if reversing against a wall or line astern with a rear-parked SUV, you have to remember that the camera is set up more to show you where your car ends, not its spare tyre. You learn to make allowances, but it presents a potentially costly risk if you get it wrong.

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  It’s no revelation to say that even this ‘baby’ Defender is a big car. It’s 4.3 metres long (before you factor in the spare wheel), 2.1 metres wide (mirrors out) and, give or take, two metres tall – enough to be at risk of a serious clonk in restricted car parks. What has taken me by surprise, though, is how quickly you get used to those dimensions. Every time I clap eyes on it, I think again how absurd such a large car is for outer-London life; yet bum on seat and threading around even the most congested spots, I’ve rarely had to give a second thought to any compromises on where I can go or what I can do. I’ve found the same phenomenon with other large Land Rovers. It takes about a week to adjust and then instinctively you start to know where the corners are, adjust to the steering and slightly laggy throttle and make use of what must be some of the best- adjusted brakes in the business – all from an imperious seating position just a bit higher than that of almost anything else ...
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