Birmingham has been named the most prevalent area in the UK for ‘crash for cash’ scams in new figures released by the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB). 

A crash-for-cash incident is an insurance scam where fraudsters deliberately involve themselves in road traffic collisions in an effort to secure financial compensation from another party. 

The study showed that Birmingham postcodes B25, B34 and B8 made up the top three high-risk areas, while Bradford’s BD7 and BD3 districts complete the the top five. 

The IFB analysed 2.7 million motor insurance claims made across the UK over the last 15 months and found more than 170,000 that could be linked to alleged ‘crash for cash’ incidents. 

Postcodes in Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester, London and Luton were deemed key hotspots for the scam, which can range from fraudulent paperwork and vehicles being damaged behind closed doors to intentional road collisions with innocent drivers.

The IFB says that gangs are behind thousands of crash-for-cash incidents, making millions of pounds from fraudulent claims. 

“These criminal gangs are often highly organised and put lives at risk. The amounts that they fraudulently claim can be huge, and can impact on the motor premiums paid by honest motorists,” said James Dalton, the director of general insurance policy at the Association of British Insurers. 

“With more vehicles on the roads as we emerge from the pandemic restrictions, so the potential targets for these criminals increases. This is why it’s so important for all motorists to be on their guard.” 

Induced car collisions at roundabouts and busy junctions are a common crash-for-cash technique. The IFB advises drivers to keep a safe distance in traffic and to stay alert for any unusual driving behaviour to avoid collisions.

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Groupe Renault CEO Luca de Meo remains committed to his plan to develop Alpine into an EV-only brand – but is exercising caution, due to his experience splitting Cupra from Seat.

De Meo joined Renault in January 2020, following four years leading Seat. In 2018, he confirmed plans for Cupra to become a standalone marque, starting with a hot version of the Seat Ateca, before launching the Cupra Leon and the bespoke Cupra Formentor.

Comparing that experience with his plans for Alpine, de Meo was quick to downplay suggestions that it will become a ‘premium’ marque.

He said: “I don’t like to use the word premium at Renault, because I’ve been working for a premium brand, and I know how difficult it is to create a premium brand from scratch.

“It’s not only about doing good cars, it’s about everything: technology, distribution, reputation in different segments, residual values etc.”

Plans for Alpine to become an EV brand were confirmed last year, and this week Renault officially retired the Renault Sport moniker, pledging to use the Alpine name for future performance versions of its volume cars.

However, precise plans for a product roll-out have yet to be confirmed, beyond a recently confirmed partnership between Lotus and Alpine to develop a successor to the revered Alpine A110 coupé.

“Alpine is a brand where we want to invest,” said de Meo. “We put Formula 1 at the middle of the project because it gives that credibility, but it’s also a brand that can call for a premium in price on a technical basis.

“We will turn Alpine into a pure-electric brand to demonstrate that emotional electric cars are possible. And if you’re able to do emotional cars, then people are normally ready to pay. That’s the idea.

“We will use platforms we have in-house, because we can stretch to an adequate level of performance for a certain level of credibility. And when we don’t have a platform, we might work on partnerships like the one we have with Lotus for the successor to the A110.

“I believe in the project. I define it as a mix between a mini Ferrari and a mini Tesla. Let’s see if we’re able to make it happen.”

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Ahead of customer deliveries getting underway in the coming months, Mercedes-Benz has introduced two new trim levels for its new EQA electric crossover. 

Previously, the electric version of the GLA was available to order exclusively in £44,495 EQA 250 guise, which sends 188bhp and 277lb to the front axle, but now a pair of four-wheel-drive options with more power have been added.

Priced from £48,495, the new EQA 300 4Matic adds an extra motor on the rear axle for a combined output of 225bhp, while the top-rung EQA 350, priced from £49,995, takes the total output to 288bhp. 

Each is available in a choice of three trims – AMG Line, AMG Line Premium and AMG Line Premium Plus – and shares a 66.5kWh battery pack with the entry-level car for a range of 264 miles. The entry-level car comes as standard with cruise control, a reversing camera, adaptive high-beam assist, a multifunction sports steering wheel and a raft of driver aids as standard, while AMG Line brings bespoke styling elements, 20in alloy wheels, artificial leather sports seats and aluminium interior trim. 

The front-wheel-drive EQA 250 is capable of 0-62mph in 8.9sec, but the two new additions to the range cut that sprint time to 7.7secs and 6.0secs, respectively 

The battery capacity is 66.5kWh (usable), with a WLTP range of 265 miles promised (a longer-range variant with a claimed 311-mile range will arrive later). A maximum DC charging rate of 100kW is quoted, allowing for an 80% charge in around 30 minutes. An 11kW AC charge can take it from empty to full in just under six hours. 

Mercedes-Benz EQA: unique exterior design and cabin

The brand’s entry-level EV is one of six EQ models to be launched by 2022, including a seven-seat EQB sitting directly above the EQA. 

Using the latest GLA crossover as its base, the EQA features a number of unique styling details to mark it out from its conventionally powered sibling. These include the now signature ‘black panel’ EQ radiator grille, plus unbroken lighting strips at the front and rear. 

The front has the standard full-LED headlights connected via a fibre optic strip across the front fascia. At the rear, a completely different tailgate design from the GLA, which moves the numberplate  down to the bumper, enables the tail-lights to merge as a single-piece light bar. Mercedes claims these features ensure a “high level of recognisability both in daylight and at night”.

Distinctive wheel designs not offered on ‘standard’ Mercedes models are also available at up to 20in in size. These are bi-colour or tri-colour designs, with some featuring rose-gold-coloured or blue detailing. A competitive drag coefficient of 0.28 boosts aerodynamics and therefore range. 

Changes made to the interior of the GLA to create the EQA are less extensive than those on the outside. Fundamentally, the basic layout is unchanged, but there is now rose-gold-coloured trim inserts on the vents, seats and key, plus additional trim backlighting. A fully loaded Edition 1 spec brings special leather with blue fabric perforations, too.

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Ford’s most potent take on its family hatch has a fine engine at heart – 21 October 2020

Engines in fast hatchbacks are curious things. Today’s turbo technology means we can now prise huge power from their necessarily small capacities and install them in relatively affordable packages, so we tend to forgive them their faults. So what if they have a peaky delivery and sound rubbish? For that much power, and for this much money, what did you expect?

Which is just one more somewhat unexpected reason why I’m finding myself getting on with this Focus ST so well. Under its bonnet is anything other than just another hot hatchback meat-and-two-veg lump of high-output, forced-induction mediocrity. In this application it is actually quite brilliant.

Context is everything. This engine is also offered in the Mustang coupé. In that car, and despite it being presented in a more powerful state of tune, you cannot help concluding that this is the engine you have to have simply to keep your tax and fuel bills under control, when the thumping, thundering V8 is, of course, the motor you would choose in a heartbeat if only you could.

In the Focus, it provides no such dilemmas. There’s plenty to like here, most obviously its sound, which has such a characterful edge you can find yourself wondering if there are five cylinders under the bonnet rather than the claimed four. There are not.

But I like also that it’s not a very stressed motor. It has 276bhp, which is a little down on the 300bhp par for this kind of car, yet it comes from a somewhat bigger capacity of 2.3 litres rather than the 2.0-litre norm. And far from this being evidence of Ford not being on top of its game, it simply indicates a different, more subtle and more effective approach. Because while, yes, it has less power than the acknowledged leaders of this field, the Volkswagen Golf R and Honda Civic Type R, it actually has more torque than both, and when you accelerate it is torque, not power, that you feel. And it has a higher compression ratio than these rivals, so there’s less lag, too.

Subaru‘s first electric vehicle, a Europe-bound SUV built on a new EV platform co-developed with Toyota, will be given the name Solterra.

The C-segment SUV, due to go on sale in 2022, is twinned with the recently revealed Toyota bZ4X concept. The two machines are being jointly developed as part of a wider partnership between the Japanese companies.

Subaru says the Solterra name is a fusion of the Latin words for sun and earth and has been chosen “to appreciate mother nature and further advance the form of coexistence with it”. Japanese media had previously reported that the car could be called the Evoltis.

The Solterra will be similar in size to the existing combustion-engined Forester. It will use the bespoke EV platform that Subaru partnered with Toyota to develop, known as e-TNGA.

The architecture is designed to be highly adaptable to allow for vehicles of different lengths and can be used for front, rear and four-wheel-drive layouts, thanks to the ability to fit motors to both axles. It can also accept multiple battery sizes. Toyota is planning to develop six EVs on the e-TNGA platform.

Beyond the use of the shared platform, Subaru has released no further technical details of the new EV.

Earlier this year, Subaru displayed an electric concept car at a technology briefing in January (pictured), and it’s expected that the eventual production EV will take styling cues from it.

Subaru’s first EV is a major step in its electrification plans. The firm has recently introduced mild-hybrid versions of its Forester, Impreza and XC and is aiming for at least 40% of its global sales to be either electric or hybrid by 2030.

Subaru had previously planned for its first electric car to be based on an existing model built on its own Global Platform, but it changed that concept due to its new partnership with Toyota.

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In this week’s round-up of automotive gossip, Toyota lifts the lid on its platform partnership with Subaru, Audi explains the A6’s mixed identity and more.

Toyota’s platform partnership

Why did Toyota partner with Subaru to develop the new e-TNGA EV platform? “From a purely strategic perspective, this is a world in which to go it alone with new development is fundamentally wrong,” explained product and marketing boss Andrea Carlucci. “We’re looking for scale, and we’re not the only one. We can develop, of course, but the benefits of joining forces are obvious.” He cited Subaru’s affinity with four-wheel drive as one of several reasons the firm was an obvious EV partner.

Hyundai’s practical Kona

Hyundai’s new Kona N promises rapid pace and precise cornering, but R&D boss Albert Biermann was keen for the performance crossover to retain a focus on practicality. “When the engineers presented the first prototype to me, they had already lowered the body almost 30mm,” he recalled. “I said: ‘Hey, guys, wait a minute. We already have the i30 N and Veloster N [hot hatches]; this one should really be a hot SUV, and the versatility is important.”

Audi’s mixed identity A6

Audi’s latest E-tron concept is a saloon with a coupé-like roofline, à la A7, yet was given the A6 name. The development chief for its PPE platform, Johannes Arneth, explained: “We really wanted to stress that it belongs to the A6 model family. The A7 is a very successful derivative of the A6 family, and it’s independent enough for its own name. But with the derivatives that could come later, the A6 seemed to us to be the more logical choice.” Arneth also strongly hinted that the A6 E-tron will offer an estate bodystyle, which the A7 never has done.

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The brief was simple. An email to all the journalists on Autocar: pick your favourite racing driver of all time. 

What we didn’t expect was quite the repertoire of answers that came back. Covering most eras and a vast spectrum of the sport – from Formula 1 to club racing – it just goes to show how varied motorsport and its followers are.  For once, there are no wrong answers: it has led to many discussions and a fair amount of incredulity but, in the end, it’s all about personal choice.  

Do you agree with us? Would you go for someone different? Let us know in the comments below. 

David Llewellin

You know how the post race/stage interview goes by now, don’t you? ‘Oh, it was tough out there’, or ‘we got the win but it was hard work’ – all of it delivered with the sort of dour and downbeat delivery that suggested they’d just spent the last few hours cleaning the toilets in a nightclub after a particularly busy Friday evening rather than flinging some of the most exciting motorsport machines around the the fastest circuits or down rutted forestry tracks.

Not so Welsh rallying wizard David Llewellin, who’s smiling, garrulous and slightly wide-eyed interview style always gave the impression that he couldn’t quite believe his luck; that here he was, a farmer from West Wales, being paid to drive rally cars as fast as they would go. This infectious enthusiasm made an instant impression on my younger self, my increasing fascination with the sport coinciding with Llewellin’s rise through the ranks of rallying.

With his trademark moustache, Dai (as he was always known) shot to prominence in the Metro 6R4, taking the car’s first international win in the 1986 Circuit of Ireland. That victory proved that behind the smiles and the quips delivered in those lilting Welsh tones (‘Hannua Mikkola, eh? I reckon he could drive a wheelbarrow quickly’), Llewellin was properly fast, beating both the aforementioned 1983 world champ Mikkola and established domestic aces Jimmy McRae and Russell Brooks.

That year also brought some big crashes, including launching the Metro off a 60ft drop and barrel-rolling it to destruction as he hounded Mikkola in pursuit of a debut home win on the Welsh Rally. Yet even as he stood stageside in the driving rain, wrecked 6R4 lying in the valley below him there was that trademark mischievousness in his interview with the BBC’s Steve Rider. “The boys have just rolled it back on its wheels and dragged it out for me to take home (pause for a beat, smile). In a box.”

The following couple of years of Group A machinery saw him thrillingly and valiantly wrestle with the underpowered, naturally aspirated Audi Coupe Quattro. No it wasn’t a fire-spitting Group S1, but it sounded great to my 10-year old ears, wailing away as Llewellin squeezed out every last drop of performance from its five cylinders. He couldn’t stop McRae racking up the final two of his five British titles, but he came close, his fast and committed approach allowed him to beat the Scot’s far more muscular Ford Sierra RS Cosworth on more than one rally.

Then in 1989 Dai finally got his hands on a car worthy of his talents – the Toyota Celica GT-4. Against an admittedly weakened field (Malcom Wilson and Colin McRae were in attendance, but their powerful Sierras were two wheels short of total traction) he swept to two consecutive British crowns. Although mechanical maladies meant that success on his home round of the WRC eluded him in his title-winning years, his efforts ensured he gained a well-deserved, full-time shot on the world stage in 1991.

The Gordon Murray Group (GMG), founded by the eponymous British car designer, has detailed a bold £300 million, five-year expansion plan that will result in the Surrey-based firm substantially diversifying following the launch of its pioneering T50 supercar.

Central to GMG’s growth will be significant investment into its Design division, which is in the process of developing a “revolutionary, lightweight, ultra-efficient electric vehicle architecture” designed for urban-oriented passenger and commercial vehicles.

Official details remain under wraps, but Murray told Autocar this will take the form of “a highly flexible EV skateboard designed to form the basis of a B-segment vehicle – a little SUV with a compact delivery van derivative, for starters”.

It will be less than four metres long, so likely to be comparable in size to the Volkswagen e-Up, although Murray stresses that it will be “a practical small car rather than a tiny city car”, suggesting that it will bear minimal resemblance to the tiny T27 that he designed a decade ago.

Elsewhere, GMG will develop a ‘super-light’ facility that will seek to “progress weight and complexity reduction of both vehicle architectures and manufacturing processes”.

Another facility at its research and development base in Dunsfold will build frames for use in GMG vehicles.

GMG has appointed Richie Sibal, formerly of McLaren and Lotus, to head a dedicated electronics division, which will focus on developing EV powertrains for car makers and technology companies.

Despite the enhanced focus on electrification, Murray has pledged to follow the T50 supercar with a second V12-engined model, before a “very noisy” hybrid.

The T50 itself remains on track to enter production later this year, and its exclusivity, premium orientation, styling and dynamic focus will be principles carried across to future GMG models.

Also announced by GMG are a series of additions to its leadership team, principally the appointment of ex-Lotus chief financial officer Phillip Lee as group director, group CFO and CEO of the Automotive division.

Q&A Gordon Murray, founder and CEO, GMG

Do these plans involve your iStream manufacturing principles?

“Most definitely. We believe the EV era provides new iStream opportunities, using patents we already hold for integrating the vehicle’s battery into its structure. The advantages we’ve discussed are all still there: minimal stamping, low investment, green technology and great flexibility.”

I was on a radio station recently, sticking up for people who want to buy anything they pleased as a vehicle to use in a town or city.

Apparently, SUVs are incredibly daft cars on the whole and even worse in urban areas. Whatever happened to freedom of choice? The bottom line surely is ULEZ compliance, and that’s why the UK is experiencing the curious phenomenon of old righthand-drive petrol cars being shipped over from near-diesel-free Japan. For the time being, at least, petrol is back.

You may or may not be interested to know that the import of choice is quite often some old Toyota Picnic for a few grand. Meanwhile, a bigger budget will go in the direction of a colossal, never-officially-imported-here Nissan Elgrand eight-seater.

For instance, I found a 2007 car with a 3.5-litre V6, 60,000 miles and every power extra known to man, including xenon lights and fully reclining seats, for a mere £9995.

Then there are the real weirdos, like a seven-seat Yaris. Yes, really. I found a 2017 Toyota Sienta with a 1.5-litre hybrid powertrain, making it as futureproofed as anything can be. It would be perfect for driving your extended family around town and, even with fewer than 20,000 miles, could be yours for just £16,995.

Just by way of a warning, don’t go by the seller’s description or even an advertising website’s information about ULEZ qualification: make sure by visiting Transport for London’s site and querying its registration there.

This can bring you to appreciate the latent beauty of a 2006 Vauxhall Astra 1.8 SRi that you can buy for less than £800. Granted, it has done 100,000 miles, but it also has a full MOT and is ready to work in the city and be fairly fun on the open road.

The thing is, though, looking too much at Japanese import sites leads you to stumble across some absolute gems. Something that may not be ULEZ-friendly, but who cares? How else are you going to get a pristine 1993 Jaguar XJS 4.0 with 44,000 miles? This one is apparently as good as new, with a solid underbody, and all for £15,950. Imagine trying to sort out a UK-market car with almost 30 years of grime on it. Now this is a proper city car. Buy what you love.

Tales from Ruppert’s garage

The all-electric Kia Soul EV is once again eligible for the government’s plug-in car grant (PiCG), following a price reduction of more than £5000.

In March, the government lowered the price cap for eligible electric cars from £50,000 to £35,000, meaning the distinctively styled crossover – priced from £37,545 – was only available at its full list price. 

Now, a significant reduction in the Soul’s entry price to £34,945 means buyers can once again take advantage of the financial incentive, which is down from £3000 to £2500, meaning the on-the-road cost is £32,445.

The move follows Kia’s recent introduction of a new mid-range variant of the Soul’s e-Niro sibling. The ‘2’ Long Range pairs the entry-level 2 trim package with the larger 64kWh battery pack and 201bhp motor from more expensive variants, making the maximum 282-mile range available below the grant threshold.

The Soul remains available exclusively in First Edition trim and with the larger 64kWh battery pack, though it is anticipated that this will make way for a more conventional range structure in the near future, given it has been on sale for more than a year. 

Kia is preparing to introduce its first bespoke electric car, the EV6, later this year. Priced from £40,895, it will not be eligible for the grant in any form yet detailed, and Kia has given no indication that it plans to offer lower-priced entry-level models. 

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