To make up for the dreary news discussed in our earlier post, we can report this item.
Opel will export cars to Tunisia and Morocco. It seems to me that it would be a good idea if Opel could have a stab at the markets that GM denied it: Canada, the US and Australia. It might interest you to know that Opel already have a presence in South Africa. It would seem to me that selling cars in N Africa is a positive step but not a very positive step.
What are we to make of the news that Opel will not be exhibiting at the Geneva Salon in March? The announcement came on 16 January, just over six weeks before the show opens to the world’s media.
The official justification from new owners Groupe PSA is that “If there is no new product, then the brands won’t be there”. The under-performing PSA premium brand DS will also not be represented at Palexpo; that’s a distraction I’ll not pursue further.
The corporate excuse is unconvincing. The Grandland X has only recently gone on sale, likewise the Insignia GSi, drearily named but interestingly specified.
Even in the belt-tightening Tavares era, it wouldn’t be beyond PSA’s means to Continue reading “The German Patient’s Geneva Sicknote”
This is a small extra review of the state of the art in crossover D-pillars.
The list includes the Audi Q7, Ford Edge, Volvo XC90, Borgward BX7, Buick Envision, VW Tiguan and Mitsubishi Ground Tourer concept.
Occasionally I trawl randomly among the newsroom pages of various car manufacturers. What did I find this time?
The first marginally interesting snippet involves MG Cars. Despite it all, they are selling more and more cars albeit not many more cars.
“More than 4,440 new cars were registered by the iconic MG Motor UK brand in 2017, an increase of around 6% year-on-year, according to the latest data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) released today (4th January 2018). In December alone, MG Motor UK achieved 100 additional unit sales over 2016 figures, thanks largely to the roll-out of the new MG ZS Compact-SUV. ”
Another thing I discovered was that Continue reading “Breakfast In Bath”
Apart from contributing more than a few inventions of enormous importance and automobiles of superior significance, Fiat have also established themselves as true masters of the counterproductive facelift.
Italy unquestionably is a country of immense creative energy. More to the point, it is one of the hotbeds of automotive design and style, not to mention: taste.
And yet few marques have so comprehensively struggled to give its products a stylistic boost halfway through their respective productions runs as Fiat has. So much so, in fact, that describing any facelift effort as ‘Fiat bad’ acts as a fixed term denominating a particularly ill-advised attempt at refreshing a car’s design.
So, in order to Continue reading “Fiat Nox (I)”
Have you noticed the overuse of the word “professional”?
It’s applied to high-spec products where there is little obvious reason why a “professional” might want or need anything different than everyone else. Apple sell a tablet labelled “Pro”. We have one at home. It works like my ‘phone except it can’t make calls. Chevrolet or GMC trucks may presently Continue reading “A Detail For Sunday: 2017 Ford Ranger”
Sunday mornings often kick off with a headache.
Here’s a minor one. What is this vehicle? Either everyone will recognise it or no-one will. I certainly wouldn’t.
If you want another clue you must Continue reading “Mystery Vehicle (solved)”
Suspending his disbelief, Driven to Write asks whether Citroen’s claims for their Advanced Comfort® programme are worth their weight in hydraulic fluid.
Last October, Citroën announced a heavily revised C4 Cactus, intended not only to boost the fortunes of the established (and fading) model, but also to replace the moribund C4 hatch. As we know, in so doing, Citroën abandoned the original car’s distinctive and pleasingly unaggressive style, reverting to a less polarising, yet also more generic look. More grown-up, as the gentlemen of the press might put it.
Views on the car’s visual transformation have already Continue reading “Hope Springs”
The other day we were talking about the Renault 16 which led us to the Renault 21 which…
…led me to look for one for sale. Finding one I noticed the unhappy design of the nose cone, the plastic mask around the headlamp and containing the upper grille aperture. Here (below) are some other cars which demonstrate an attempt at rethinking the way the front fascia was handled.
One of them really works – the Ford Sierra is utterly industrial design. And have you noticed the Dacia Duster uses the same concept but eschews the body-colour for the lamp panel? In fact the elegance of the concept is hidden by the Duster’s other fussy details.
I have done this theme before, I think – the new bit is Continue reading “So Lay Upon the Riven Meads the Sullied Rags of Hope”
Scanning through the ANE website I noticed what I thought was a case of mistaken identity.
The title of an article was about the incoming Audi A7, but, in my haste, my brain registered that the accompanying photo was of a Vauxhall Insignia Grand Sport. Closer inspection revealed that my mind was playing tricks on me, but looking at photos of each car from the front three quarters made me feel better that it was a (fairly) easy mistake to make.
A longer look makes the distinction a lot more obvious, and the Insignia looks more Continue reading “Insignia – A Poor Man’s Audi A7?”
You wait decades and three motoring ‘big beasts’ relaunch at once.
Every movement has its icons and given where we are now I think we can probably describe the current SUV contagion as a movement. In terms of icons, the holy trinity of sports utility vehicular worship appears to consist of the Jeep Wrangler, Land Rover Defender and Toyota Landcruiser. Just outside, but banging rather conspicuously at the door is Mercedes with its interloper G-Wagen.
The original Willys MB Jeep is known to all – man, woman and small dog. Created as a military vehicle during the second World war, it entered full-scale production in 1941, going on to Continue reading “Three Lions”
To save this village we must destroy it. And similar logic applies to the next Jaguar XJ. Altered to be saved.
That is the common theme to reports from this, this and this source but not this one***.
Join these dots: It has worked well for Tesla, this big, five-door luxury car idea. Lexus has been able to sell hybrid V-8s since 2008. Land Rover has been competing for the top-drawer luxury market for at least twenty years or more. Five doors and luxury are not strangers to each other. Sales of conventional luxury cars are not what they were, not unless the Panamera nameplate is involved.
In particular, the current XJ whose sales appear to be in the low thousands. Twenty one years ago the XJ sold 10,000 units annually – not stellar, not terrible. Today even those kinds of numbers aren’t sustainable. Those were the dots. On the basis of this kind of background, Jaguar have decided that they simply must Continue reading “Jurors the Dawn, Dusk and Midnight Silently Attend”
An encounter with the Ka’s more glamourous cousin has prompted Driven to Write to seek the word on the Street.
The 2002 Ford StreetKa was first shown at the 2000 Turin motor show as a concept, but its roots go back to 1996, when Ghia presented the Saetta, a teaser for that year’s Ka hatchback, but also the StreetKa’s direct forebear.
Seven years: Why did it take Ford so long to Continue reading “Hello Neighbour”
Sometimes there are cars that seem not to merit a whole day to themselves, especially not a Sunday. This is one of them: the 2011 Lancia Thema nee Chrysler 300.
It featured recently as one of my lame “guess the car” teasers. Did you know that this vehicle (as a Chrysler) has been in production since 2011? Or more, honestly, since 2004**? That makes this quite a coelacanth. The Thema left Lancia’s catalogues in 2014 though. The Chrysler version still soldiers on somewhere. Continue reading “A Photo For Monday”
This morning I came across two of these on my drive to work. Long forgotten in my mind, once I’d recalled them as being Toledos (should that be Toledi? maybe not), I realised how good they looked in today’s traffic.
The Mk2 Seat Toledo preceded the more popular Mk1 Leon hatch to market in 1998 and remained in its catalogues until 2004. Styling was attributed to Giugiaro and it does look credibly like one of his from that era. It was built on the same PQ34 platform as the Mk4 Golf/ Bora, Audi A3 and Skoda Octavia.
Everyone loves the styling of the Mk4 Golf, and I have to say I was always partial to the original Leon – it having echoes of the Alfasud – but this is a really nice small saloon (4-door notchback, if you want to be precise) with the rear pillar blending smoothly into the rear wing and boot panel. If I could criticise it, I’d say that Continue reading “A Toledo Triumph”
Recently I failed to challenge the DTW readership with a “mystery car“. I might has well have taken a photo of the car’s badge you guessed it so soon: Renault 16. What’s so good about them?
Normally one must track a 16 down at a car show or find one for sale if you want to view an example. Seeing such a car by chance is an event and one I didn’t have much time to savour, alas. These photos (above) got into my iPhone in under three minutes, something of a pity as the car merits careful examination – three minutes is just not enough.
Despite the impression ** given by this article here DTW actually likes the Renault 16 so it’s pleasant to be able to Continue reading “A Sixteen For Sunday”
No sticklers for current affairs are we, (spin cycles etc…) but given that it’s my first dedicated 2018 post, I thought I’d confound expectations. Mine, as much as yours.
Earlier this week, Autocar’s reverse-cassandra, [this analogy doesn’t entirely hold water, but bear with me] spoke to Ford Motor Company CEO, Jim Hackett, obtaining assurances that the American car giant has no intention of following General Motors out of the European car market. “I have in my hand a piece of paper…”, Steve Cropley didn’t quite say.
What he did however was to Continue reading “Those are the Headlines – Happy Now?”
We have a chance here to examine the implications and otherwise of Citroën’s announcement about a forthcoming large saloon.
Our good friends at Autocropley reported this the day before yesterday but the message only turned up in my in-box yesterday. I opened the link with trembling fingers. First, there will be a new flagship saloon which Citroën would like us to see as “distinctive”. In line with Citroën’s current self-identity, the car should be laden with technology and be a design that is comfort led. Making this possible is the Chinese market where saloons still thrive.
We should see the car in 2019 or 2020 which means they are working on it now. And should someone from Citroën chance upon this article, please ensure the car has a decent ashtray and manual transmission plus a properly large boot. Linda Jackson, reports Autocropley, says the car will Continue reading “If There Could Be a Sign, if There Could Be A Sign”
Our final retrospective waltz in this series lands in 1957.
1957’s Sweet Smell of Success was an unusual film for its era, made by a director better known for lighthearted comedies, casting its two leads against type and portraying a seedy, rapacious twilight world behind the gloss of celebrity culture. In that respect, it was a very modern film, but it was one the public were not quite ready to accept. Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 2017: Sweet Smell of Success”
How are the papery ones doing? I had a look at the Audit Bureau of Circulation’s nice website to examine the state of the UK car magazine market.
The UK periodical industry owns and runs the ABC as a means to provide an independent (from one publisher) source of data on readership. That is then used to justify ad rates on the basis of the circulation of the journals seeking to sell space. The ABC describes itself as follows: “We deliver industry-agreed standards for media brand measurement across print, digital and events. We also verify data, processes and good practice to industry-agreed standards”.
Much of the information provided by ABC is by subscription. The basic data is accessible if you Continue reading “Permanence Amidst The Vales and Dales”
It it takes a lot to bring one of the most revered models in automotive history to the brink of extinction. Yet this generation of Mercedes SL’s got what it takes.
Despite having possessed neither quality in ages, the Mercedes Sportlich-Leicht has been a car for the ages, and, on certain occasions, even age-defining. The original 300SL was one of the first motor cars ever to be described as a classic and remains exactly that.
Its Pagoda (W113) progenitor still ranks among the most elegant vehicles of all time, establishing the concept of the European open top boulevardier. The indefatigable R107 SL acted as proof of life of the sophisticated European convertible from 1971 to 1989 and became a fashion statement almost a decade after its launch. The SL to eventually succeed it, dubbed R129, turned out to be both icon and swan song to the highest German product design values.
23 years later, the SL is still with us, but has lost any sense of relevance. The former benchmark has become an obscurity, which cannot Continue reading “AUTOpsy: Mercedes-Benz SL (R231)”
Ah 1967: The Summer of love. Sgt. Pepper. Twiggy. Bond.
But leaving popular culture aside, the mood music was more sombre. In the UK, land speed record holder, Donald Campbell died attempting to break the water record on Lake Coniston in his Bluebird K3 jetboat. While back on terra firma the advent of the Road Safety Act set a maximum permitted blood alcohol level, allowing breathalyser tests to be performed on drivers for the first time.
Across the Atlantic, the National Transport Safety Board was created to Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 2017: Reflections in a Golden Eye”
My mobile telephone acts like a visual notebook thanks to its lousy camera. Here are some notes.
Apart from its capacity to capture images, my telephone isn’t better than my actual notebook (a Silvine spiral bound item). The photos turn out like Kodak prints – brown and flat. I hate them. What I’d like is a fast, very small printer capable of producing colour-fast images on self-adhesive paper (5×4 cm) so I could Continue reading “Notebook”
The last “mystery” car proved entirely unmysterious, partly because DTW’s readership includes ex-owners and people with uncanny memories and powers of observation.
It’s time to take the oven gloves off. All I can say is that it’s rear-drive. I’ll get back when I feel you’ve twisted long enough in the wind.
Just how flexible is Tesla’s battery technology? Why aren’t they doing more with it? Why?
The Tesla Model S has been on sale for quite a while now: Since 2012 (USA) and 2013 (EU). By all accounts it is a pretty decent vehicle. We have issues here with its appearance though. I’ve always maintained that it’s too conservative a shape in relation to the technology under the skin.
It may very well have been a design that would have been almost contemporary in 2007. It’s now 2018 and the car still looks the same but 2007 is now a really long way back. Actually I don’t even think it would have looked good in 2007 either. There were several much more interesting designs around then that didn’t scare the horses. Water under the Zoobruecke. What I want to ask here today is how one can Continue reading “Hercules’ Shears”
Driven to Waltz writes into 1977.
Whether it was Liz’s Jubilee, BL’s annus horriblis, the death of Elvis, the first space shuttle flight or the beginning of the Star Wars juggernaut, 1977 was a year of transitions. Even the music business reflected this, with Fleetwood Mac’s cocaine and divorce epic, Rumours topping the album charts while David Bowie (now off the white powder) offered the icy sheen of Low, a record which suggested a future (if not necessarily the future).
Meanwhile the auto business was still trying to make sense of a drastically altered set of realities and perhaps beginning to Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 2017: Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow”
Generally I prefer to avoid memoirs of car ownership except en passant. I will try to do so here when having a small look at the afterlife of the 1984 Buick Century.
The reason I am in any way concerned with a car like this is that for a year and a half I owned such a vehicle, almost exactly like the one in the main photo. It differed only in that it had plate sized-rust patches on both front doors.
As minds work in peculiar ways, I can’t say why the one with which I identify myself opted to exhume the recollection of my former charge. It did so. Having summoned the memory, my mind then decided to wonder idly if a person could be so lucky as to Continue reading “Abatements, Rebatements and Staynade Colours”
The waltz continues its overdue retrospective sweep through 1987.
By the mid-80’s the Japanese car companies were beginning to really give the European car business the willies, with the UK’s Car magazine bewailing their advent in luridly melodramatic terms. With Honda’s existing midliner being Accorded viable 3-Series rivalry status, Minato-Tokyo prepared a fresh salvo into the hearts and minds of their European rivals with this third generation Prelude.
Utilising the core body structure of its 1982 forebear, the ’87 car’s smoother, softer style and lower nose (made possible by the engine being canted back 18°) lent it a visual grace its predecessor slightly lacked, but its distinctly three-volume silhouette meant its styling appealed more to US eyes than to those here in Europe. Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 2017: ‘Oh the Eastern Sea’s So Blue’”
Dateline: Thuringia, summer 2038. Internal combustion engines have been phased out across the EU for almost a decade now. However, their use has not been eliminated entirely and much as one can still ride a pony and trap or a stream train, one can still enjoy the petrol-driven experience.
Thuringia is one of Germany’s many attractive regions, famous for the Thuringian Forest, JS Bach’s birthplace, fine mustard and sausages. Another reason to go is the possibility to enjoy five days of driving classic cars from the Eisenach Automobile Museum hire fleet.
Visitors can Continue reading ““Duermete niño, duermete ya, que viene el coco y te comerá””
I realise it’s an old and oft-discussed issue, but I have experienced VW shooting itself in the badge.
I was recently loaned a brand new VW Golf Estate for the day whilst my Octavia of similar form was in for its 10k oil-change. I have frequently read over the past few years how the differential between VW Group’s brands has blurred, but this is the first time I was presented with an opportunity to witness the phenomenon so directly. And, although I should not have been, I was a bit taken aback at the experience.
I’ve always kept the view that the Golf is a bit special. A cut above. Very cleverly set aside from Continue reading “[Badge] Engineering Failure: VW”
It’s been a while since we did one of these, and while today’s candidate might appear a little tenuous at first sight, look beyond the scudetto and there are chevrons galore.
First shown at the 1983 Geneva motor show, the Delfino was an attempt by carrozzeria Bertone to update the classical luxury gran turismo after almost a decade of decline. Alfa Romeo’s relationship with Bertone was long-standing, but had entered a prolonged period of stasis, with Portello forging a closer relationship with Ital Design when they were not Continue reading “Cars That Could Have Been Citroëns – 1983 Bertone Delfino”
It’s another new year. What was happening 20 years ago?
At Gaydon, Rover’s engineers worked on the R55 (to be sold as the R40). Predictions suggested a vehicle with rounded windows like a 1992 Nissan Micra and an upright chrome grille with main body surfaces akin to the 75. Rover expected the launch to be in 1999 when the last of the Honda-based Rovers would be phased out.
Interestingly, it was expected that the R40 would be sold only a year from 1998 and that a mid-size executive car would Continue reading “Fly Me Down To The Moon”
Continuing DTW’s meta retrospective, we dial the time machine back to 1997.
1997 was an eventful year (weren’t they all?) which in a series of reversals for establishment-Britain saw the Chinese regain control over Hong Kong, and the dominant Conservative party lose power domestically following an 18-year run. In Paris that autumn, Princess Diana died in a car accident, the Hale-Bopp comet had its initial sighting, and oh yes, the Titanic sank again.
But if the number of débutantes profiled over the past twelve months is any indication, 1997 proved a good deal more fecund a year from an automotive perspective. Nevertheless, some stories remain untold, which leads us to the point of today’s exercise. Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 2017 : Things Can Only Get Better!”
Recently I received a very interesting e-mail from a certain Kelley Montieth (Mrs) from the Global Central Bank.
The message informed me that due to a banking error, 893 million euros remained unused from a sewage development project in Alice Springs. Mrs Montieth said that (I quote verbatim) “IF I COULD RETAIN THIS MONEY FOR TWO DAYS” on behalf of the Global Central Bank I would Continue reading “Falling Off the Carousel”
In a series of articles, Driven to Write gives 2017 the meta treatment.
It’s normally customary at this time to reflect upon the just-departed year, its themes, its happenings and how these events might offer some guide to the coming one, but my DTW colleague-in-arms has already covered that. No, what I am offering today (and over the coming days) is to all intents and purposes a series of retrospectives on a series of retrospectives. Well after all it’s Driven to Write you’ve blundered upon, what exactly were you expecting?
Over the past 24 months, I’ve chronicled various (arguably?) significant cars, marking their various anniversaries and have found it to be a rich seam. After all, it’s pleasing to Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 2017: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
As a person with a strongly archival temperament, it was disturbing for me to read Citroën’s announcement that the firm intended to auction part of its historic collection.
You can see the catalogue here. It took me about a week to gather the courage to take a look. Sure enough, I found a few cars I’d really like to have and can’t actually afford. The GS with its perfectly intact interior must be museum quality. Some of the others are peculiar: not that cheap and not that special. Once out in the open they will quickly Continue reading “Not So Suddenly We Heard a Sound”
This car took the prize for being the most interesting vehicle I saw on a day trip to Mulhouse.
I expect the ink won’t be dry before someone can identify it. Still… what is it? I don’t mean the red car.
Where in the world…
…were Chryslers and Fords made in the same factory between 2011 and 2016?
What links these four disparate vehicles?
1996 Chevrolet Cavalier
Driven To Write 
