Anything goes

A Dodge Mito or an Alfa Romeo Nitro, sir?

Mark Tisshaw — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:43:00 GMT

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne may be a very powerful, very intelligent and forward thinking man but his comments about Alfa Romeo and Dodge have left me well and truly baffled.

“The level of competition between these two brands is tremendous because they are both going after the same customer,” is how Marchionne described the relationship between two of the brands he oversees.

Is he serious? The last time I looked at the European Dodge line-up, it featured some rather agricultural brutes such as the Caliber and Journey. Perhaps the one defining characteristic you think of when it comes to Alfa Romeo is the universal good looks across the range. This, respectfully, is not a statement you would attribute to Dodge.

Marchionne goes on to say that Dodge is the American muscle car and Alfa Romeo is the European muscle car. With cars like the SRT-10 and Ram, I would not disagree with the Dodge comments here. But Alfa Romeo is not a muscle car maker. Yes, the 8C is big and powerful, but its styling is certainly not that of a true muscle car.

As one of our forum posters pointed out, when was the last time your car buying decision came down to a Dodge and an Alfa Romeo? I would bet you could probably count the amount of times this situation has occurred on one hand.

At this stage, the idea remains just that, an idea. When you start playing around with the core values of brands such as Alfa Romeo and Dodge then the whole thing will probably end in tears.

I trust Marchionne to make the right call here and I’m sure common sense will prevail. Dodge and Alfa Romeo similarities end at the fact they are owned by the same parent company.

I mean, can you really picture yourself driving an Alfa Romeo Nitro on UK roads?

Technorati Tags: Dodge SRT-10, Dodge Nitro, Dodge, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Alfa Romeo 8C, Sergio Marchionne

Merc 190E - The ultimate recession wheels?

Vicky Parrott — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:25:00 GMT

Some of you may remember thatI bought a 1991 Mercedes 190E 2.0 Auto back in October last year at the same time as our online contributor Mike Duff was running a 1993 W124.

Well, his E-class may have been sold on long ago but my 190E is still running well. In fact, having just celebrated a successful MOT pass I’ve totted up the figures and realised that the much-loved Merc has set me back £985 for the last eight months of motoring. Doesn’t sound particularly cheap, but when you consider that includes £450 of fuel and £210 of tax, it’s not bad at all.

It hasn’t been hassle-free. A dodgy fan switch caused some embarrassing moments in traffic and £80 of repairs, and earlier this year the right front ball joint and bushes needed replacing at a cost of £200.

But given that the car cost £620, has now covered 128,000 miles (only 3000 by me) and is still a pleasure to drive I reckon that’s value motoring – particularly in the knowledge that those costs cover me for the next four months tax and 12 months MOT.

If the 190E continues its current performance I reckon I could get a full year and 6000 miles covered for less than £1500, despite some time spent wielding a spanner.

So there’s your answer to the credit crunch: buy an old Mercedes and ride out the recession in something that’s more retro-cool than Bakelite and is cheaper to run for 12 months than it will cost you to buy factory-fit sat-nav.

Technorati Tags: Mercedes 190E 2.0 Auto, Mercedes 190E, Mercedes, recession

The man who must save Toyota

Peter Nunn — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:08:05 GMT

Who would be in Akio Toyoda's shoes right now?

Just last week, Akio Toyoda took to the stage in Tokyo not just as the new chief of Japan's mighty Toyota Motor Corporation, but as a man with a mission.

Toyota, not so long ago was locked on this seemingly unstoppable path to the stars, one that ultimately saw it overtake GM to go world number one.

But now it's all gone south, Toyota's in the red and it's Akio's job now to get it all back on track.

His idea: to break with the formula that saw Toyota simply pile on more sales, more profits year after year and switch to the more measured 'customer first' policies of the past. To divide the world into regions and produce cars that are exciting, that people 'really want to buy.'

Fair enough, you'd say. As far as Europe's concerned, this means a 'distinctive business model for Toyota in the region so we're not lost in the crowd.' At the heart of this will be hybrids, and more of them.

Akio, a personable, 53-year old car loving exec, still faces a welter of problems, though, not least the fact that Toyota has a ten million unit global capacity but plans this year to do 'only' 6.5.

Juggling that equation while preserving jobs, cutting costs and getting Toyota back to profit (probably not before 2011) won't be easy. And GM's announcement yesterday that it's pulling out of the NUMMI plant in the States that Toyota and GM have co-shared since 1984, will only add to the headache.

Then there's the personal side of it. Being Toyota chief is a tough call at the best of times but when you're Akio Toyota, the grandson of the founder of the company, and your father is Shoichiro Toyoda, president between 1982-92 and one of Japan's top industrialists, the pressure, shall we say, does not go away You're constantly in the spotlight and have been nearly all your life...

Still, Akio's deal with Aston Martin to collaborate over the iQ-based Cygnet shows how he's already thinking outside the box. For what it's worth, I think that's a masterstroke for Toyota but a huge question mark for Aston.

Character building could be one way to describe the next couple of years for Akio Toyoda, perhaps Japan's most famous car guy since Soichiro Honda, as the hard graft of reviving the colossus that is Toyota gets under way. Let's wish him well.

Technorati Tags: Toyota, Shoichiro Toyoda, Akio Toyoda, Soichiro Honda, Aston Martin Cygnet, Toyota iQ, NUMMI

Indian boost could be just what Jaguar Land Rover needs

Mark Tisshaw — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:42:00 GMT

It’s been good to see the news that Jaguar Land Rover has been launched in India. With all the doom and gloom surrounding the British manufacturer, it’s refreshing to see it is still able to expand and expose itself to some growth markets where the big bucks can possibly be made.

Although the Indian luxury car market is very small, making up just one per cent of sales, this still represents a very large number of people in a country with a population of more than one billion.

I appreciate that the prices of Jaguar and Land Rover cars will be well out of reach for the majority of the Indian population, but those who can afford a £30,000 plus car may well swing towards JLR because of the involvement of its owner Ratan Tata.

Tata seems to have captured one end of the market perfectly with the launch of the Tata Nano, which received more than 200,000 applications for its lottery ballot. The luxury end of the market is likely to prove a sterner test, but Tata seems a trusted and loved man by many Indians.

Jaguar and Land Rover are still prestigious names in any market. Jaguar has excelled itself recently with the excellent XF, as well as the XFR and XKR performance models. Markets such as India and China should no longer be considered under-developed in car terms and boundaries between eastern and western car tastes, standards and acceptability are becoming ever smaller.

And I doubt Jaguar Land Rover would be willing to take a risk in any new market right now if it didn’t think it could be a success. As Jaguar CEO David Smith said: “The luxury car market in India is very small, but there is a huge opportunity there. It is growing fast and we expect it to grow fast over the next 5 to 10 years.”

With Ratan Tata saying last week that JLR has lost £280 million and more job cuts could be on the horizon, the Indian boost could be just what JLR needs to drag it out of its current financial woes.

Technorati Tags: Jaguar Land Rover, Jaguar, Land Rover, JLR, Jaguar XF, Jaguar XFR, Jaguar XKR

Making plates for Nigel

James Ruppert — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:59:00 GMT

Whatever you go looking for this weekend, please don’t come back home with a personalised reg plate. I know it’s a free country and all that, but really a plate that purportedly spells your name, indicates your hobby or broadcasts your sexual preference is only for vapid, feeble minded exhibitionists.

I had thought that economic meltdown may have wised everyone up to the sheer folly of these silly follys and resulted in them being worth buttons. Not a bit of it.

Channel 4 sent me details of a documentary that is out in early July. Whereas other hacks get first drives, or are contacted by major news organisations for their informed opinion of the industry, I get the lightweight documentaries. They offered me a preview DVD of UR S0 V41N, but I really could not face it and here’s why.

Retired satellite communications engineer, Nigel Mills (48), the proud owner of the perfect Nigel number plate, ‘N1GEL’, originally missed out on buying it at auction when it sold for £78,000. Years later, with much deeper pockets he bought ‘N1GEL’ for almost £80,000 in a private deal. It is now estimated to be worth around £100,000.

Like Nigel Mills, Nigel Walker (53), the owner of N2GEL, attended the original auction of N1GEL and missed out. A modest accountant from Nottingham, he settled on ‘ N2GEL’, costing around £700. Over 10 years later, N2GEL is now reported to be worth around £50,000.

Nigel Blackburn is a gold bullion dealer from Birmingham. He owns six number plates that are deemed to be worth over £200,000 in total. His most prized, exclusive plate is ‘AU1’, the number plate sported by Goldfinger in the James Bond movie. Nigel Blackburn also attended the same auction for N1GEL, but missed out as under bidder.

Nigel Dobbie is an intelligence consultant from Gloucester. He picked his plate – BLO3 JOB - with the help of his girlfriend. Shortly after buying it, he received a call from the DVLA withdrawing the sale on the basis that it should have been on their banned list.

After weeks of wrangling, the licence authority finally conceded on the basis that Nigel agreed to take responsibility for ‘any offence caused’ by the plate.

Shoot me now, please.Technorati Tags: Cherished plates, personal, numberplate, number plate, N1GEL, N2GEL, DVLA

The sword swinging over JLR

Mike Duff — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:42:00 GMT

When times are tough and jobs are on the line the financial statements released by big companies gain a scary relevance.

None more so, from the perspective of Britain's beleaguered motor industry, than Tata Motors' announcement that it has effectively already lost £281 million through its recent acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover. You can read the full story here.

Of course, times are tough all over, but Tata Motors' relatively small size (by the standards of global automakers) means that it's corporate pockets are considerably less deep than those of its major rivals. Cuts have already been made at JLR, and now bosses at Tata are warning that more jobs are likely to be shed sooner rather than later.

All of which makes the brinkmanship between the government and Tata over loan guarantees seem even more reckless. A previous agreement for the state to give JLR a £340 million guarantee unravelled after it emerged that the government was attempting to impose conditions that would have included the right to choose JLR's chairman and partial control of how the money was spent. (It's worth pointing out that the government's 'Automotive Assistance Programme' has yet to pay out anything, to any company.)

Nor has JLR seen any significant benefit from the government's other motor industry lifeline, the much-vaunted scrappage scheme, for the simple fact that anyone splashing £30K-plus on one of the company's products is singularly unlikely to be trying to part-ex a banger against it.

With thousands of British jobs at stake, this is a dangerous game for both sides to be playing.

Technorati Tags: Jaguar, Land Rover, Tata, Automotive Assistance Programme

Common sense prevails on road pricing

Mark Tisshaw — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:55:43 GMT

I don’t think there would have been too many people who predicted the announcement from new transport minister Lord Adonis that road pricing was to be scrapped. And I also don’t think there will be too many people who aren’t breathing a huge sigh of relief that the policy will be taken no further.

Reading some of the comments made from Lord Adonis, I think he has admitted that the scheme would have ended up costing motorists a lot more than they are paying now, which most people probably knew already.

It’s his comment: “This is not the time to be putting that (road pricing) before the British people,” that interests me the most. Clearly Lord Adonis thinks that taxing people more, which is what inevitably what would happen, won’t make a strong case to recession-affected Labour voters at the next election.

It’s nice to see that in our clouded political system, common sense can still prevail. It was the current chancellor Alistair Darling who first proposed road pricing in 2004 during his stint as transport minister.

Fuel duty is already eye wateringly high, as is the cost of taxing a car, so any extra charges were not going to go down well with the British public.

The government now seems to be listening to the concerns of the motorist, which can only be a good thing. A 2007 online petition opposed to road pricing was signed by more than 1.7 million people, a number Labour simply couldn’t ignore.

Initial scrappage signs also show it to be a success, so lets hope Labour continue to listen to the concerns of the motorist for however long its government lasts.

Technorati Tags: Labours, Lord Adonis, road pricing, general election, government, Alistair Darling

Twitter - a new way to keep in touch with Autocar

Mark Tisshaw — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:16:00 GMT

Twitter has been all the over news recently. The micro-blogging social network site has been used to organise protests (both at the G20 in Britain and more notably in Iran), run a US presidential election campaign and even let us know when Jonathan Ross is having a bacon sandwich.

Autocar is now up and running on Twitter, too. You can catch up with all the news, first drives, videos and blogs from our website, as well as read our thoughts on the car industry as a whole.

It’s also an opportunity to let us know what you think. Ask us a question, or comment on one of our “tweets”, and we’ll try and give you some feedback. It’s an interesting place to have a debate or let us know what you think about the movers and shakers in the car world.

We’re aiming to post links to all new content that appears on our website so it’s a great one stop shop to look at what’s going on in the car world.

Already we’ve been shown where to pick up a S65 AMG number plate for £400, asked why there is no open air motor show in the UK and told where we can pick up some cheap toy cars.

It’s easy to get involved with Twitter – just sign up, start to follow us and you’ll be kept up to date with all the latest from the motoring world.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Autocar, SL65 AMG, toy cars, Iran, Jonathan Ross, G20

Can electric sports cars deliver as promised?

Jim Holder — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:11:00 GMT

The big brands were out in force at the unveiling of the government’s £25 million electric car trial initiative, as grateful to be basking in the associated publicity of being involved as they were for the cash incentive on offer.

But among the successful bidders was a group of car companies to which it meant a whole lot more to be involved – not least because very few people would of heard of them, and even if they had, as in the case of the well-known Westfield company, they were unlikely to know the details and extent of their electric car plans.

Delta Motorsport, Lightning Car Company, Westfield Sports cars and Ecotricity cars were all chosen to be part of the scheme because the government was convinced that involving sports cars in the project will help persuade the public that electric cars can be exciting and exotic.

Read the news story here

It’s a brave move to put £2.5 million of government money into these niche companies, but I can understand the logic. Looking at the projected performance figures and the pictures of the cars, it’s clear they should turn heads wherever they go over the next 12-18 months of the trails.

However, there’s no doubt that the government’s investment brings with it big pressure. All of these cars are prototypes, and it would be severely damaging to the companies involved – and the government’s PR machine – if they didn’t perform as intended or, worse still, proved unreliable.

They represent the best of British entrepreneurial spirit, but do you think they can deliver?

Technorati Tags: electric cars, Delta Motorsport, Lightning Car Company, Westfield Sports cars, Ecotricity cars

Car configurators - a pauper's playground

Mike Duff — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:31:00 GMT

I've been fascinated by online car configurators since they first appeared and became the digital equivalent of poring over a table top of car brochures.

It's no surprise that Rolls-Royce has launched an early colour-and-trim version for the forthcoming Ghost. Manufacturers know that nothing is better than a good configurator at turning 'what if' dreams into 'maybe I could' reality.

There won't be many Ghosts bought on impulse, but I guarantee that Rolls will make a few sales after millionaires have spent a happy half-hour working out their ideal spec.

But configurators also speak to the inner geek like almost nothing else, offering a chance not only to see how the optional alloys look, but also to engage in a mind-bending exploration of the further reaches of vast modern equipment lists.

Did you know that BMW charges £330 if you want to specify your 3-series saloon with split/folding rear seats?

Then there's the configurator equivalent of looking up rude words in a dictionary - discovering just how much it would cost to tick every box and to put every extra onto a car.

That's how I know it's possible to spend £30,560 on a Mini Cooper Works cabrio, £43,095 on a BMW 320d or an astonishing £53,425 on an Audi TT RS Roadster.

Juvenile, but fun.

Technorati Tags: Rolls-Royce, Rolls-Royce Ghost, Mini Cooper JCW Cabrio, Audi TT RS Roadster, BMW 320d, configurator

Will the Rolls-Royce Ghost be worth the money?

Ollie Stallwood — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:22:00 GMT

Despite the fact there seems to be more Rolls-Royce Ghosts on the road than there are MOT’d MGBs on their way to the scrapyard, it may come as some surprise that the former isn’t actually on sale yet.

Because of this neither I, nor any other journalist, have driven the finished Rolls-Royce Ghost yet, although I am willing to guess that it will be a very good car. Combine decades of Britsh luxury know-how with German quality and technology and it seems unlikely they will get it too far wrong.

However I still can’t get my head around the estimated price: £170,000. For a luxury saloon. I can understand the Phantom’s pricing as it transcends normal boundaries and competes against little else, bar the ridiculous Maybach, but this?

The Ghost seems to be aligned a little too closely to more down-to-earth executive cars like the Mercedes S-class and BMW 7 series. Again, I need to stress that I haven’t seen it yet and am sure the quality of the Ghost is exquisite, but let’s put things into perspective.

The S-class, especially following a recent facelift, is an incredible automobile, still managing to be the best in segment. It is packed with pioneering technology and even if you go for the 518bhp S63 AMG it will set you back almost £80,000 less than the projected figure for the Ghost.

Will the Ghost be £80,000 – or rather the price of a new Aston Martin Vantage – better? It quite possibly will. But Rolls seems to be going into unchartered territory with this car, looking to tempt a new type of buyer, who wants something subtler and less extravagant than a Phantom, with a less grandiose presence and low-key looks.

Trouble is, they’ve also got to be looking to spend £170,000 on a new car.

Technorati Tags: Rolls-Royce Ghost, Aston Martin Vantage,

Chasing the Ford Focus RS

Steve Sutcliffe — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:23:00 GMT

On paper, and to begin with, sticking a 300bhp Focus RS on the same piece of road as a £15,750 Renault Clio seemed like a complete waste of time. And money. And petrol.

And yet…when we did so, it was anything but.

The Focus, as you probably know, is a sort of four-wheeled equivalent of the second coming. It’s so quick and so composed, it’s already taken care of what is arguably one of the greatest performance cars of the modern era; the Nissan GTR. When we compared the two recently we found the Ford to be more fun, more civilized, half the price and damn near as fast as the GTR in real world conditions – assuming you have some sort of a conscience and aren’t prepared to drive like a lunatic just to make a point.

So the idea of comparing a car that’s good enough to put one over the Nissan GTR with a Renault that has two-thirds the power, well, like I say, to begin with it wasn’t my idea of fun.

Watch the video by clicking here

But the moment I climbed into the little Renault and drove it with vim at a few corners, I knew the RS had competition. It’s so well balanced and so unfeasibly nimble and agile, you can drive it like an absolute maniac and still get away with your mistakes.

And so we decided, let’s take them to the hill route at Millbrook and see if the Clio – in controlled conditions, with nothing coming the other way – could keep up with the Ford if its driver was sufficiently unhinged.

Road test chief and all-round tasty wheelman Matt Prior drove the RS while muggings here got the keys to the Renault. We agreed that Matt would drive as fast as he could but with all the Ford’s various traction and ESP systems still engaged. I was allowed to turn the traction control off on the Clio, a small but important advantage over the crests and jumps at Millbrook.

Although it became blindingly obvious from the moment we set off that the Clio wasn’t as pokey on the straights or up the hills – of which there are quite a few on the hill route, amazingly – it wasn’t completely destroyed by the Ford in a straight line, either. Which meant that under brakes and through the corners I could, so long as I was prepared to drive like someone with a brain the size of a cumin seed, actually reel the RS back in.

The Clio’s relative lack of weight and its extra agility meant that, if pushed, it could corner harder and stop faster than the Ford. And that was a very big surprise indeed.

When we reached the end and parked up my hands were pretty much welded to the steering wheel, and my heart was about ready to burst. The Renault had got airborne at least twice and gone sideways a lot more than I’d planned. But after three miles it was still nailed to Ford’s back bumper, and the expression on Matt’s face when he climbed out said it all. He looked disgusted, and amused, and confused, all at exactly the same time.

The Clio had blown both of us away. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.

Technorati Tags: Ford Focus RS, Renault Clio, Nissan GTR, Millbrook, Steve Sutcliffe, Matt prior

Full scale dreams

James Ruppert — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:23:00 GMT

I’d like you to look at some smaller cars this weekend if you can. Here’s a chance to buy the car of your dreams, which will not only be affordable, but also easy to store and park.

Grown ups like us may refer to them as scale models, but really they are toys and bring back wonderful memories. Plus they look wonderful on your mantelpiece and they are so much better than some tarnished carriage clock or vase full of dead flowers.

So imagine my delight when I went to a car boot sale last week and found a trestle table full of Corgis. Buried among them was an Ecurie Ecosse transporter. I last saw mine in 1969 and goodness knows what has happened to it since then.

So here was a wonderful opportunity to plug a gap with one of the most iconic toys, sorry, scale models of the last century. I could just imagine pushing my model Lotus up the ramp, then making the required hydraulic noise as it raised into position.

I must point out that the transporter needed some work, so much so that I was going to finish it in my own racing colours, puce/heliotrope orange. It wasn’t mint and it wasn’t boxed. “Twenty quid,” said the seller. Eh? How about those Minis? £8 and £7.

Matey behind the stall said it was a fair price based on 10 per cent of their retail value. Yes, but these are bottom of the toy box awful. So just like real cars then, toys are only worth what someone is prepared to pay and I was not prepared to pay £10.

I always thought if the box was missing that was it, and if the paint was chipped then they were virtually scrap. In toy terms. Indeed, I said to the bloke that I had a 1970 Whizzwheels equipped Marcos and would he do a scrappage allowance against the transporter? He told me to bog off.

Another table had some Matchboxes on them, again in shocking condition and again fortunes were required. This is a car boot in field, not a genteel toy fair.

Where then can I buy a less than perfect and unboxed toy car or commercial vehicle for sensible money?

Technorati Tags: Matchbox, Corgi, Mini, Ecurie Ecosse

Is Koenigsegg right for Saab?

Chas Hallett — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:05:47 GMT

We’ve all now had 24 hours to reflect on the fact that GM has finally off-loaded Saab to Koenigsegg the Swedish supercar maker backed by Norwegian money.

But my nagging doubt remains: is this really the best route for Saab?

You can see why the Swedish government is so keen on domestic ownership and you can also see the attraction to GM. The fact remains though that building 18 billionaires’ playthings per year is rather different from making money out of what should be a company making around 200,000 cars per year.

Admittedly Koenigsegg has been dealt a good hand by getting the next Saab 9-5 for virtually nothing and all of the GM technology it’s made with on the cheap. There’s a 9-4SX off-roader on the way too and the next 9-3, based on the Astra, should be a decent Audi A3 rival. But there’s a lot more to making money out of cars than just having good products. Ask Jaguar.

Whether Koenigsegg has the sophistication and savvy to run a global car brand remains to be seen.

Just looking at Chrysler tells you that private equity and car makers aren’t usually a happy marriage, Because if Koenigsegg doesn’t get it right the next generation of Saabs will surely be the last.

What's your guilty pleasure?

Ollie Stallwood — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:22:29 GMT

Staring at the sorry-looking prototype MG SV that is being put up for auction I felt compelled to laugh mockingly. It looked nothing more than a sad V8-powered nail that was driven into MG Rover’s coffin.

And then something strange happened – I realised I really want one of these cars. Even Autocar’s First Drive of “Britain’s answer to the Porsche 911” couldn’t recommend shelling out the £82,950 to get one on your drive.

It got me thinking about cars that for some irrational reason you would buy if your lottery numbers came up this Saturday, and you’ll probably be one of the only people who would.

The MG SV isn’t very good-looking, the wheels are too small, it was chronically overpriced, crude, and by today’s standards, underpowered. Why did MG give it carbonfibre panels and 375bhp, when a plastic body and 450bhp would have been cheaper and probably a lot easier?

See the latest MG news, reviews, and video

Prototype MG for sale

Who knows, but if you want something different, this is the car – dare I say a British supercar that was wheeled out just as the UK car industry gasped its last breath. It’s so poignant it’s almost romantic. And after a while those looks even start to grow on you.

And the best bit? Consider for a moment Porsche’s approach to getting more performance from its cars: variable-vane turbos, “dynamic engine mounts’, direct injection. And what did MG consider for the SV? 1000bhp from “factory-approved” nitrous kits.

All this amounts to a car that I would happily own, as long as I had plenty of money to buy a couple of Porsches too, of course.

Technorati Tags: MG, SV, Porsche