chrome – Driven To Write

What’s This?

Fewer are the classic cars of Dublin. While I saw no Volvo 240s, no W-123 Mercedes and only one Saab 900, I saw several of these things:

One parked up right in front of me as I tried to decide upon my New Year resolutions. The vehicle served as family car: two bulky child seats occupied a heck of a lot of room in the back, defeating the car’s space.

I took a chance to look over the car in detail when the owner had popped off to do some shopping. I noticed the odd way the gutter is handled. Like the W123 it’s actually quite complex and non-intuitive. It is as if they had never seen one of these before and Continue reading “What’s This?”

Reflections On Chrome

Like Now That’s What I Call Music, this has become a series. I find myself peering closely at window trim as I walk about.

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The Peugeot 308 has better window trim than the Bentley Continental, which you wouldn’t expect. Only a brightwork obsessive would note that. Here is an example of the difference colour and trim make to a car. It’s a 2014-onward Peugeot 208. Small black cars aren’t that common, are they? Twenty years ago they were almost entirely unavailable which is why that Citroen Madame (?) we showed here was so unusual. Continue reading “Reflections On Chrome”

Reflections On Chrome IV: Bentley Continental

It’s not often a Bentley parks anywhere near me. Look what I found.

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For a car costing as much as this one, this is not very good. It’s not as if the car is especially visually busy. It is a two-door car so there is not much going on to distract one from this kind of cheap detailing. Now you can accuse me of petty jealousy. However, I don’t aspire to this kind of car. Even if I had millions more pennies in my bank account than I actually did, I still wouldn’t want to drive something this wide and this uninteresting. Continue reading

Reflections On Chrome III

As I walked to the train station I saw this car parked up: the 2016 Kia Ceed.

2016 Kia Ceed. It might be the GT. Anoraks, can you help?

Naturally I noticed the brightwork on the window-frame. Then I realised the colour had a daring, cheerful character. And finally, the geometry of the car is very, very good indeed. Judging by the richness of the interior, the owner went down the options list until the biro ran dry. This sort of car is the direct equivalent of a 1985 Ford Capri with the 3.0 litre engine, leather and electric windows. I really liked it. Continue reading “Reflections On Chrome III”

Reflections On Chrome II

This could have been a Picture for Sunday. Instead it’s more about materials and form.

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Background: the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee (which is what I think this is) appeared on the world stage as a derivative of the Mercedes W-166 platform which also made its way to showrooms in 2011. That’s news to me. Did Mercedes license this? The whole of the Grand Cherokee Wikipedia entry reads like it has been airbrushed by someone with corporate interests so I have my doubts. Continue reading

Rarities: 1971 Toyota Crown

On my way to the Sommer’s Car Museum in Naerum, north of Copenhagen before Christmas, this caught my eye.

This is a car which bears close scrutiny. It has distinctive high level indicators and running lights, set over a nicely demarcated lamp-and-grille assembly. Continue reading “Rarities: 1971 Toyota Crown”