A lively Autocar chat spans EV charging practicality, hot Renault and Audi engine debates, and the appeal of car-based “van” derivatives. They weigh in on dual-outlet home chargers, arguing they’re niche due to cable length and supply limits, while load-balanced single chargers usually cover multi-EV households. Columns cover the Renault 5 Turbo 3E’s Lego-scale build by engineer David Collins, plus Audi’s five-cylinder ending and the shift toward four-cylinder hybrids. Later, they discuss Citroen’s Enterprise-style car-to-van trims, modern equivalents, and the tax/MOT gray areas—ending with design philosophy and the Renault Twingo’s “star quality” approach.
In this week's Autocar podcast, My Week In Cars, Steve Cropley and Matt Prior discuss Audi's plan to end five-cylinder engine production, Westfield's problems, a Lego version of the Renault 5 Turbo 3E, and real vs digital instruments.
There's more too, including your correspondence, and detail of a special offer which gives you SIX issues of Autocar for just £6 if you click here.
"listener is brought to you in association with Anderson, our sponsors, makers of design-led premium home EV chargers. If you visit Anderson-EV.com you can see their entire range of chargers"
Anderson is a company that makes home chargers for electric cars. They’re sponsoring the show and the hosts talk about what kinds of home charging setups are practical.
Anderson is mentioned as the sponsor and as a maker of design-led premium home EV chargers. The episode is discussing how home charging hardware is set up and what options exist for multiple EVs.
"Tom from Surrey writes to us to say, and you can write to us too, listen at AutoCard at haymarket.com who says, on the recent pod the topic of double outlet home chargers for electric cars came up. came up. My somewhat expert view is that they'll probably remain incredibly niche and not very useful."
A double-outlet charger is meant to charge two electric cars from one home charging setup. The point here is that most people don’t really need it, and the home’s electrical capacity can make it hard to add.
A “double outlet” home charger is designed to charge two EVs from one unit (or one location) rather than installing separate chargers. The discussion focuses on why this is often niche—most people don’t need to charge multiple EVs at the same time, and electrical limits can restrict installs.
"A standard tether charger has a cable six to seven meters of length, so Tom and most separate cables are five meters long, with about a meter either taken up with the drop from the charger to the driveway."
A tether charger has the charging cable attached to the wall unit. Because the cable is a fixed length, it can limit how you park your car to reach the charge port.
A tethered (tether) EV charger has the cable permanently attached to the unit, rather than using a separate plug-in cable. The segment uses cable length to explain how a dual-outlet charger can restrict where you can park.
"...t a meter either taken up with the drop from the charger to the driveway. With the average car being four ..."
The Dodge Charger is a big, powerful car with a sporty look. People talk about it because it’s meant to feel fast, but it can also be wide and long. That can make parking and driveways a real consideration.
The Dodge Charger is a large American four-door muscle car known for strong straight-line performance and a bold, classic body shape. It often comes up in conversations about big, powerful cars and how they fit into everyday life like driveways and parking. That kind of practical “will it fit?” discussion is why it may be mentioned in a podcast.
"...ur respective auto car columns, starting with the Renault 5 Turbo 3E. Can you suddenly afford one, Steve? I can. Well..."
The Renault 5 E-Tech Electric is an electric car that uses the Renault 5 name. It’s designed to be a modern EV while still looking like it belongs to the Renault 5 family. The podcast is talking about whether people can afford one and what’s available.
The Renault 5 E-Tech Electric is a modern electric version of the classic Renault 5 name. The podcast references it alongside other Renault 5-related models, suggesting a discussion about how the brand is bringing back the “5” identity in electric form. It’s likely mentioned because it’s a recognizable name returning as a current EV.
"It's a sports car based on, well, it looks like a Renault 5. It looks like a Renault 5, but it's space framed up and right, got 550 horsepower"
A space frame is a strong skeleton made from metal beams. It helps the car feel solid and stable, especially when driving hard.
A space frame is a structural chassis made from a network of tubes or beams, designed to be stiff and lightweight. In a performance EV like the Renault 5 Turbo 3E, it helps support handling and packaging of components.
"...it's lovely little thing. Looks a lot like a fat Renault 5, you know, modern one. And we have discovered a g..."
The Renault 5 is an older small hatchback car. People often remember it for being compact and having a recognizable shape. The podcast is connecting it to the newer Renault 5 look.
The Renault 5 is a classic small hatchback that’s widely remembered for its simple, compact design and distinctive look. In the podcast context, it’s described as a “lovely little thing” and compared visually to a modern Renault 5, implying the conversation is about design continuity. That makes it a natural topic when discussing how older models influence today’s cars.
"But I was pointing out to him that next year is the centenary of Volvo. And if he bought it, if he built a really good looking realistic 244, he might even interest the Swedes in it."
A centenary means a 100-year anniversary. The speaker is saying the timing could be perfect for a Volvo-themed build because Volvo is reaching 100 years.
A “centenary” is a 100-year anniversary, and here it’s used as a timing hook for a potential LEGO build of a Volvo 244. It highlights how car milestones and brand history can influence what enthusiasts choose to model or celebrate.
"For the Renault 5, he's built, you know, roll cage and interior and all sorts of stuff. Impressive."
A roll cage is a reinforced metal framework installed inside the cabin to protect occupants in a crash and to stiffen the chassis. It’s common in track-focused builds and motorsport-style conversions. In this context, it’s part of the fabrication work for the Renault 5 project.
Concept
armature system
"...there's a sort of armature system that you can build which supports a car of those proportions pretty well universally and it's the exterior that you find yourself thinking about because he knows how the structure goes together now."
An armature system is like a skeleton or framework that helps you build the car’s shape. It supports the body so you can work accurately. The speaker is saying the builder now understands the structure well enough to adapt it to different body styles.
An armature system here refers to a universal supporting framework used to build or support a car’s body shape and structure. The idea is that once you understand how the structure goes together, you can apply it across different body interpretations while keeping the underlying geometry stable. It’s essentially a fabrication/structure-first approach.
"The Renault 5 in its old fashioned form had a four cylinder turbo, I guess. It did. Metro 6R4 had a V6. Yeah."
The Metro 6R4 is a famous rally car from the Group B days. It’s known for having a V6 engine, which is different from the turbo four-cylinder idea being discussed. It’s used here to show how rally rules led to different engine choices.
The Rover Metro 6R4 is a Group B-era rally car known for its unusual V6 engine layout. It’s mentioned here as a contrast to the Renault 5’s “four cylinder turbo” idea, and to highlight how different rally regulations and engine choices shaped what manufacturers built. The key point is historical engine variety across rally homologation eras.
"I can remember being rather bemused by the thought of a five cylinder engine because it didn't seem like the right
number of cylinders."
Most cars use 4 or 6 cylinders. A 5-cylinder engine is less common, and Audi’s version is known for a distinctive feel—kind of punchy and characterful.
A five-cylinder engine is an unusual configuration compared with the more common four- and six-cylinder layouts. Audi’s use of a five-cylinder turbo in certain models is a big part of its character—often described as having more “edge” than a four-cylinder, while still being lively and torquey.
"it had quite a lot of low end torque, but it revved well."
Low-end torque is the “push” you feel when you start accelerating, even at lower revs. It’s why some cars feel quick off the line without needing to rev.
Low-end torque is the twisting force available at lower engine speeds, which makes a car feel responsive without needing to rev high. The speaker contrasts it with smoothness and notes that the five-cylinder setup still delivers strong torque while revving well.
"So the next RS3, four cylinder hybrid instead. Plug-in, presumably. Yeah... they thought it would be a little bridging technology until everybody got used to running EVs."
A plug-in hybrid is a car that has both a gas engine and an electric motor. You can charge it like an EV, but it can also run on gas when the battery runs low.
A plug-in hybrid (PHEV) combines a conventional engine with an electric motor and a battery you can charge from an outlet. The key point in this segment is that the speaker expects plug-in hybrids to remain relevant longer than originally planned, as some drivers prefer having an engine plus electric range.
"And the Rafale hybrid... behaved a hell of a lot of the time by, like an EV, you know, when you're in town and all that."
The speaker describes a plug-in hybrid behaving “like an EV” in town—meaning it likely runs on electric power at low speeds and during stop-and-go driving. This is a key real-world advantage of PHEVs: you get EV drivability where it matters most.
"the boss of Renault are inclined to refer to PHEVs as fake hybrids because nobody plugs them in."
A PHEV is a car that can run on electricity, but it also has a regular gas engine. You’re supposed to plug it in to charge the battery. If you never plug it in, it behaves more like a normal hybrid or even mostly like a gas car.
PHEV stands for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. It combines an electric drive system with a conventional combustion engine, and it can be recharged by plugging in. The key point in the discussion is that some executives criticize PHEVs as “fake hybrids” when owners don’t plug them in regularly.
"one of the old boss of Citroen, Vincent Covey once said that they have data about the amount of people who plug them in and it is not very many."
Citroën (spelled Citroen in the transcript) is referenced via a former boss, Vincent Covey, who reportedly had data showing few people plug in their PHEVs. This supports the broader argument that charging habits determine whether PHEVs deliver on their promise.
"the fuel computer showing 46 MPG and we had not in any way held back. We just cruised it."
MPG tells you how efficiently the car uses fuel. Here, they’re saying the car still got good fuel economy even though they weren’t trying to drive in a super careful way.
MPG is miles per gallon, a fuel-economy measure used for combustion engines (and sometimes for the fuel portion of a hybrid’s operation). The speaker is highlighting that even with limited charging, the car still returned a strong MPG figure while cruising normally.
"There's not, there's no panic, is there? I can remember the previous ones and everybody got really out of shape. Yeah. But it's because it's two quid a liter. And everybody's like, I mean,"
They reference fuel being “two quid a liter,” which is a shorthand for a significant per-liter price increase. Large fuel price spikes can trigger panic buying, more conservative driving, and political/economic pressure.
"But, but he was responsible for the startup of Westfield. Westfield was the name of his, the first house that he bought with his Mrs. And after he got married..."
Westfield is a company that makes kit cars—cars you build from parts. They’re known for making cars that feel race-inspired but are legal to drive on the road.
Westfield is a UK kit-car manufacturer best known for producing lightweight, street-legal cars with strong motorsport roots. The segment links Westfield’s origin story to Chris Smith and then to a factory visit where they drove a kit-form “street legal racer.”
"LNA, Accel, Visa, GSA, AX, BX, Saloon and Estate and CX were all available in this trim."
The Citroën BX is another Citroën model from that era. The speaker is using it to show how many different cars could be converted into the Enterprise work version.
The Citroën BX is another model mentioned as being available with the Enterprise commercial trim. It illustrates the strategy of offering a van-like work variant across multiple Citroën model lines.
"LNA, Accel, Visa, GSA, AX, BX, Saloon and Estate and CX were all available in this trim."
The Citroën AX is a small Citroën model. The point here is that Citroën could turn even small cars into a commercial “Enterprise” version.
The Citroën AX is one of the small cars the speaker says could be offered in the Enterprise commercial trim. It’s an example of how broadly Citroën applied the “car-to-van” concept across its range.
"It seems like the best of both worlds while saving costs for the manufacturer in terms of tooling and production for a bespoke van such as a Billingo or dispatch."
The speaker argues that a car-based commercial trim can save money because manufacturers avoid expensive tooling and bespoke production required for a dedicated van. This is a key business reason behind why “Enterprise”-style solutions can be attractive.
"tell. Oh, people had taken the plate off? No, the plate is still there, so they're MOT-ing it as a car-based van, but it's got rear seats, and the rear seat belts are still in place, and the rear seats are technically still in place"
An MOT is the UK’s official safety/roadworthiness test for cars and vans. If your vehicle has rear seats and seat belts, the tester may need to check that those parts work and are secure.
In the UK, an MOT is the annual (or periodic) roadworthiness test for vehicles. The discussion here is about how the test rules change when a vehicle is registered and configured as a car-based van versus a car, especially around whether rear seats and seat belts must be checked.
"that can't be right. 2019, Jimny, somebody wants 37 grand for. Really? It's brand new, it says... 20 grand for one that has 40,000 miles on 2021. That's more like it."
The Suzuki Jimny is a small off-road 4x4. Here they’re talking about how expensive some “new” or very low-mileage ones are, and whether that price makes sense.
The Suzuki Jimny is a small, boxy 4x4 known for its off-road ability and simple, rugged design. In this segment, the hosts are discussing unusually high prices for “brand new” or low-mileage examples and how that compares to what you can buy for the money.
"The LJ10 had a K-Class sized 359cc air cooled two stroke inline twin cylinder engine."
A two-stroke engine works differently than the more common four-stroke. It can sound different and may smoke more, especially if it’s not running perfectly.
A two-stroke engine completes its power cycle in two strokes of the piston (instead of four in a typical four-stroke). Two-strokes often have a different sound/feel and can produce more visible exhaust smoke, especially if not tuned or maintained well.
"there are people who are busily trying to inject star quality in their cars. I mean, you just, you've just been driving the Renault Twingo."
The Renault Twingo is a small car made for city driving. It’s known for being cute and easy to live with.
The Renault Twingo is a small city car from Renault, often praised for its compact proportions and playful design. Mentioning it here supports the argument that you can still create a car with strong character rather than “safe” styling.
Concept
designing for a must-have group (polarization vs demand)
"If you, right, you might design a car that some people don't really love. But actually, if you're designing it well enough that there are a group of people who must have one, yeah, then that's better than designing a car that nobody hates."
The point is: a car doesn’t have to please everyone. If enough people really want it, that enthusiasm can make the car successful.
The segment argues that it’s better to design a car that some people don’t love, as long as there’s a group that feels compelled to own it. That “must-have” group can become vocal and drive demand, even if the design isn’t universally liked.
"Uh, no, no, because I think the embargoes for both of those cars lift... Why not talk about it?..."
An embargo is a rule that stops journalists from posting their reviews until a set time. It’s common with new cars so everyone can talk about them at the same moment.
An embargo is a media restriction that prevents reviewers from publishing their impressions until a specific date. Car launches often use embargoes so multiple outlets can publish around the same time, creating a coordinated “reveal” window.
"So we know what the range of the Alpine is like in winter, the A290. It's problematic, isn't it?"
In winter, electric cars often don’t go as far. Cold weather uses extra energy, so you may need to charge more often.
EV efficiency typically drops in winter because batteries and cabin heating require more energy, and tires may have less grip. This can make real-world range worse than the advertised figure, which is why winter range is a key buying consideration.
"And then in the boot, this must be somewhere else, but I've not seen it before. It's got a 5050 spit boot floor. So if you've got the cables stored underneath the boot floor, but you've got some bags in, you don't have to take everything out to lift up the boot floor"
This is a trunk floor that’s split into two sections. It can make it easier to reach things stored underneath without having to unload all your bags.
A 50/50 split boot floor means the cargo floor is divided so parts of it can be lifted or configured independently. This can help you access storage areas (like cables) without removing everything from the trunk.
"He's like, I wanted this hazard warning switch. It's a round red backlit switch in a sort of translucent red plastic. It looks,"
The hazard warning switch is the button you press to make all the turn signals flash at once. Here they’re talking about whether it should look fancy or be cheaper.
The hazard warning switch turns on the car’s emergency flashers. In design discussions, it can become a cost-versus-features debate—like using a premium-looking, backlit switch versus a cheaper one.
"[3434.8s] yeah, we'll start with Steve's question. How was the Aston Martin Valhalla?"
The Aston Martin Valhalla is a high-end supercar from Aston Martin. People talk about it because it’s built to be fast and feel very performance-oriented.
The Aston Martin Valhalla is a modern, track-focused supercar from Aston Martin. It’s known for its lightweight design and high-performance engineering, and it’s often discussed as a “next-gen” Aston Martin halo car.
"[3514.6s] was a car with a terrible gearbox and no brakes. And the fact that Colin Chapman might have been
[3523.3s] involved in welding the chassis together had absolutely no appeal to him."
Colin Chapman was a famous car designer behind Lotus. People connect his name with making cars lighter and more focused on performance.
Colin Chapman was the influential founder of Lotus and a major figure in sports-car engineering. He’s strongly associated with lightweight construction and innovative design ideas that shaped how many Lotus cars were built.
Select text to request an explanation
Hello, welcome to the AutoCard podcast My Week in Cars with Pry here. Steve Cropley over there.
Hello Stephen. How are you going mate? Really good, thank you mate, pretty good. This podcast
listener is brought to you in association with Anderson, our sponsors, makers of design-led
premium home EV chargers. If you visit Anderson-EV.com you can see their entire range of chargers
and they have a concierge service who'll look after you all the way through. I think at the
moment actually they have an offer with Intelligent Octopus Go which will give you
something like six months or 4,000 miles free motoring. You can sign up to the right tariff
which Steve Cropley has not yet known anything about. Not quite. Oh but I must say there must be
people who are thinking about electric issues, mustn't they? Because of the... Because of everything.
Because of everything. Because of this and that. Mr Trump, straights of warm moves and all that.
As we speak, yes, why don't you go to the place that I closed and get it yourself.
Tom from Surrey writes to us to say, and you can write to us too, listen at AutoCard at
haymarket.com who says, on the recent pod the topic of double outlet home chargers for electric cars
came up. My somewhat expert view is that they'll probably remain incredibly niche and not very
useful. Let's assume somebody really needs to charge multiple EVs on the same night and the
vast majority of never will. It's already possible to install certain brand separate home chargers
and load balance them across a single 32 amp 7 kilowatt supply. Most people on a standard single
phase domestic supply, 60 to 100 amps, won't be allowed to install a charger with a dual 7 kilowatt
output anyway. Actually, that occurred to me afterwards, because I've got a 7 kilowatt
out charger on mine, but I couldn't put another one in. I don't think on my 100 amp supply.
No, I don't imagine. A standard tether charger has a cable six to seven meters of length,
so Tom and most separate cables are five meters long, with about a meter either taken up with the
drop from the charger to the driveway. With the average car being four to five meters long,
a dual outlet charger really limits your parking options. So it really only works for one of
those classic new build double garages with a slim brick pillar between the doors in front of
which you can neatly park both EVs. For most other driveway types, separate home chargers
that can be load balanced across a single supply make much more sense, but even then your output
will be limited to more like 3.6 kilowatts if both are charging. So you get about 18 kilowatt
hours, 60 to 70 miles of cheap overnight energy in each car on any night. However, in my experience
of running a two to three EV household with a combined 25,000 miles a year, having a single
seven kilowatt charger isn't the issue. Most people think it will be. Yeah, he's right. Do you
think you would need more than? It just crossed my mind because I have rather foolishly positioned
our charger in a place where you can't just come out of the house and pull the pump out of the
socket out of one and bung it in the other one because I've, for the very reasons Tom's talking
about the length of cables, but that's my stupidity. It's just a matter of, you know,
shifting your backside at about 10 o'clock and going and doing the other one. Yeah, or you could
have one that splits into 3.6. Yeah, I think you could just charge two bit slower from the same
charger. Yeah, but I think, I think he, I think he's right. I mean, Tom was Tom Callow, isn't
that? He's, he's, he is an EV expert. We've had him here for, you know, to, to talk to us as an
expert. So I guess he knows what he's talking about. This week, Steve and I are going to be
talking our respective auto car columns, starting with the Renault 5 Turbo 3E. Can you suddenly
afford one, Steve? I can. Well, how is that? I can. They cost 135 grand, I believe, and there's going
to be, I think they're going to build 1900, isn't it, or something? Yeah, so what is it? It's a
sports car based on, well, it looks like a Renault 5. It looks like a Renault 5, but it's
space framed up and right, got 550 horsepower and it's got wheel motors and so on and does
your, your North to 60 in the standard three and a half seconds unit. Yeah. But it's lovely little
thing. Looks a lot like a fat Renault 5, you know, modern one. And we have discovered a gentleman
called David Collins, who has built one, one 12th scale one out of Lego, which means that
if I were able to persuade him to let me have his plans, it's his own design in Lego. It's not,
I could build one and that would be a fair bit cheaper than forking over 135k I haven't got.
Yeah. Does it look good? Yeah, because the car itself is quite square, blocky, isn't it? And
that tends to suit Lego models. He's done, he's previously done a really nice looking Metro
6R4, which is online in fact, it's on his, on his Instagram. What's his name? David Collins.
But I think he's, oh dear, it's something like Devin Bricks. Devin Bricks, that's the man. On the
Instagram. He is an engineer. This was my first proper Lego creation that I designed in 2020,
my favorite 80 sports car, the Toyota Mark 1 MR2. Yeah. Oh, that looks good. Because a lot of Lego
cars, David, it doesn't work for Lego, so he hopefully won't mind me saying,
a lot of Lego cars look like they have been crashed. Well, he, I spoke to him this morning,
he had a, he had a reason for this. And he said that what he'd taken quite a lot of trouble,
particularly with the Renault, to, to make sure that it had smooth surfaces and a lot of them,
because they're built for kids and people who don't really know what they're doing,
they have to be strong, they have to be reinforced inside. And he is a civil engineer who spends
his days, you know, engineering bridges and drains and God knows what. So he
understands about this stuff and he's, he's been able to do it better than them.
Yeah. I mean, I've got the 6R4 in front of me. It looks great. Yeah. It looks like a Metro 6R4
on a trailer. Yeah. That's really cool. It is. That's really cool. His next project, he says, is
going to be a bit exotic. He's going to be a Volvo 244 estate. Interesting. Which he just seems to
have a particular liking for. He was going to make it into a slightly wacky one. But I was pointing
out to him that next year is the centenary of Volvo. And if he bought it, if he built a really
good looking realistic 244, he might even interest the Swedes in it. Never know. He might do.
Sorry. My laptop requires a restart, apparently. Have you started getting this on your laptop?
On your laptop? Yeah, sometimes. You got this enormous thing propping up like that? Have you
seen that? No. No. No. It's a thing. I need to, the reason I'm in the office today, Steve, is one
to talk to you, but also to go to ID and say. And do a bit of windy. You just, yeah. But yeah, he's
done an XR3i, which looks very good. And it's towing the 6R4 on a trailer in his latest post.
He's a smart guy. I think he puts a fair bit of time into it. But you know, I just don't know how
you, where you start, you know, because you've got to build all the gubbins underneath, don't you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's built for the Renault 5. Excuse me. For the Renault 5, he's built,
you know, roll cage and interior and all sorts of stuff. Impressive. So it's good. Impressive
stuff. There's no pics online of the 5 yet. Will there be by this time next week? Or have you
got a pic of it? Yeah, it'll be the top of my column. Excellent. Yeah, I should have thought
of that, shouldn't I? No, that's right, man. We'll put it. We've got some. We've got some. We'll
put them where you can, where you can see them. If they're not on David's Instagram by this time
next week, not by this time next week, by this, by the time this podcast. Our man Ben has got them
right now. Yeah. Well, I look forward to that. So the plans, how are the,
is he got plans for them? No, he just, he just does it. He just does it. I think there's a,
he's, he's learned, he was telling me he's learned about windscreens and wheel arches and
there's a sort of armature system that you can build which supports a car of those proportions
pretty well universally and it's the exterior that you find yourself thinking about because
he knows how the structure goes together now. Yeah. It'd be quite interesting to do that, wouldn't it?
It would be. I think it would be. Offer a plan up and see how people,
yeah, see how people interpret it for the different body works. Yeah. Body shots,
would be. What a cool thing. What a very cool thing. What engine?
No, I'm trying to think if there's a segue into my next question. I'm not sure there is.
The Renault 5 in its old fashioned form had a four cylinder turbo, I guess. It did.
Metro 6R4 had a V6. Yeah. Neither of which is a 2.5-litre Audi five cylinder,
although the Group B rallying regulations did include a five cylinder turbocharged engine.
Yeah. What is the latest on Audi's five cylinder?
Well, I've killed it. Have they done it? Have they officially done it?
Well, sorry. You can buy one until 27. It's in the S3.
RS3 as well. RS3, beg your pardon. And both the Saloon and the
hatchback, lift bank, whatever they call it. Yeah. And yes, hatchback, we call it,
hatchback. Yeah. And that's a bit of a shame because I can remember being, I was around,
believe it or not, 50 years ago when they launched this thing. And I can remember being
rather bemused by the thought of a five cylinder engine because it didn't seem like the right
number of cylinders. But soon as we tried it, notably in the 4x4 Quattro with turbo and a
couple of hundred horsepower, 220 or whatever it was, it was great. And I always love the fact that
it was sort of raw a bit more than a four cylinder engine. But it wasn't as sort of smooth as a
six, which I took to be a bit of a virtue. And it also had, at least in the geysers that I drove,
it had quite a lot of low end torque, but it revved well. So I'll be sorry to see it go.
But you can see why they want to replace it with a four cylinder hybrid.
Is that the plan? I think so. Because I spoke to the boss a month ago or so,
and he said he hadn't, it was still up for decision at board level, but it
would clearly cost a lot of money to do. It doesn't pass Euro seven until they spend money on it.
And I think there has been a decision. There's just too much money. It's a shame in that
Audi TT RS, that had a five. That was a really nice five. My dad had a 90 with a
five. That was nice. And they've always been, I've always liked them from a Quattro through to
the Audi RS3s. Have you owned one? Never owned a five? No, driven a few, but not,
no, never owned one. I must say a TT RS strikes me as a, be a nice car to own now.
If you're looking for sort of peak petrol type car. Yeah. Yeah, not too much stuff. No, in one.
No, and still reasonably compact and so on. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be a cool thing. Did we
love them at the time? I'm not sure whether we did, did we? I suppose they were always
pitched against a Porsche Cayman, weren't they? And yeah, it was, it was a bit of a sub Porsche
car, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah, they're quite a, I don't know why they've got a good looking car too.
Yeah. Shall I have a look at what they cost? Yeah, why don't you? I don't know. I'll have a look
at what they cost. If you can, you can move your fingers fast enough, mate. I'm not sure whether
I can. I own a five cylinder in the Volvo. This is my multitasking going really well in the Defender.
Oh, of course you do. But it is a diesel. So, yeah, so will it. I think I will soon own
a five cylinder, a three cylinder inline two, two inline three cylinders and a flat four. Wow. And
what's the Africa twin, a V-twin? A V-twin. Yeah. And a single in a scrambler, but it doesn't really
take out. And I think, is that, am I confusing myself? Oh, and the Imp has got an inline four,
but laying on its side. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, third point, yeah. And then a couple of spare
engines. If anybody needs an Imp engine, by the way, do raise your hand to me up, as they say,
because I have one available. Right, come on. TTRS, 40 grand, 36. Boy, it's still some money,
33. Yeah, there's, yeah, they aren't there, 30 plus by the looks of it. So they're not,
out of, they're not, yeah, they're not cheapest chips. Pretty reasonable weapon, I think.
Yeah. I don't think they'd be quite good for me. Make you happy. Yeah. Yeah, I'm quite pleased about
those. Yeah, I could quite like one of those. So the next RS3, four cylinder hybrid instead. Plug-in,
presumably. Yeah, or maybe not. Actually, I spoke, when I spoke to them
on the RS5 launch, which is a plug-in hybrid, they, they were coming around to the idea that
plug-in hybrids would be around for longer than they'd originally anticipated. Yeah. Because I
think they thought it would be a little bridging technology until everybody got used to running
EVs. And now they're like, actually, there are a number of people who just like having an engine.
Yeah. And the possibility of a longer range. And therefore, we'll keep plug-in hybrids going for
maybe 10 years, I think they thought, rather than another 10 years. I was in the company of our
former editor, Mr. Holder, on the way to France and back yesterday. And we went in a Rafale hybrid,
plug-in hybrid, which is the Rafale being the big sort of executive chariot. Right. And
that behaved a hell of a lot of the time by, like an EV, you know, when you're in town and all that.
And of course, when you're cruising it down a road at 130km, 80 miles an hour, you,
there's too much else going on for you to be aware of whether it's electrical or
motor. It was quite a car. Yeah. And it was interesting. Jim was talking about how the, the
boss of, boss is of Renault are inclined to refer, refer to PHEVs as fake hybrids because
nobody plugs them in. Yeah. Yeah. And that's their, that's part of their beef against them. They
think, yeah, I mean, that is a more honest car is a, is a hybrid hybrid. Yeah. Yeah. I suppose
that's true. Yeah. I think one of the, the old boss of Citroen, Vincent Covey once said that
they have data about the amount of people who plug them in and it is not very many. No. And that is
the problem, you know, but they, but they get low tax rates on company car
things. So people tick the box and go, well, I better have a plug-in hybrid. Yeah. And then
just run it around. Drive it like a car. Yeah. Like a combustion car, which is not,
because theoretically, right, they make quite a lot of sense to them. They sort of do. Yeah. Well,
this car, yesterday, you know, just station run every week. And then at the weekend,
you go and visit ground and you plug it and you run on the engine. Yeah. This car had
a total range of about 630 miles and, you know, in electric and fuel when we departed the UK
with a, you know, full tank and all that. And it did. We charged it electrically both ends,
so 80 miles each, so each tire of 70 miles each time. But we got back with the
the fuel computer showing 46 MPG and we had not in any way held back. We just cruised it.
Oh, you know, what you can get away with plus a bit. And it was smooth, quiet, economical.
It was good. Yeah. And then during the week, if you're on your daily commute,
you'd run around leaving your own. Yeah, you would make a lot. I mean, I know.
I know people don't plug them in, but they do make sense. They make a lot of sense. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. How was the journey? Which one? Third front, some back. Oh, good. Yeah. Good fun. Yeah.
We were doing a job we can't quite talk about yet, but it was, but it was very smooth, quiet.
Seemed quick as well, because there was a bit of a hold up going out because I think we were at
the fag end or the beginning or something of the school holidays, but on my back, we just
drove straight on. It just felt like not much different from a fairly long trip through Blighty,
really. And you know, Jimmy's a good company. Good company as well. Yeah. So it was good.
Enjoyed the view. Lovely place. We're in Normandy and nice there. Lovely roads, plenty of space.
Amazes me that you just got to cross a channel and suddenly you're in an environment with all
this room, all this lovely, beautiful road spaces. There's a lot of space, isn't there?
I got a lift over to a colleague's house earlier because I had a car delivered,
but then the delivery driver was going to pick up something else from somewhere nearby.
I said, oh, I'll run you over and I'll come into the office anyway. And I was not very far from my
house, but I was on roads I hadn't driven on before and they were quite quiet. And I was like,
I did not know these were here. I quite like doing that. I should do that more often. Get out and just
find places near me that I didn't know existed. Yeah. I've done the same at times, but just
riding around on my motorbike and found something within a 10 mile radius I didn't know was there.
Mind you, we're in a just, I think possibly accounting for the low traffic is the fact
that we're, you know, people are starting to be slightly concerned about the availability of
petroleum, aren't they? Yeah. And also, yeah, also Easter holidays as well. Yeah. Because I've been
in, yeah, I've driven around the last couple of days and it does feel like there's,
that it is considerably quieter than usual. Yeah. I think it's going to be interesting time this
next month. Yes. Somebody said that 90% of our oil doesn't come through the straight formings anyway.
Is that right? Yeah. So it's not like there's going to be.
There's not, there's no panic, is there? I can remember the previous ones and everybody got
really out of shape. Yeah. But it's because it's two quid a liter. And everybody's like, I mean,
I could panic, but I'm not panicking that much. No, maybe there's a limit. Do what they say,
go on the train. Yeah. But I mean, good. If it's, if it's calm, that's perfect. Because, you know,
because if 90% doesn't come through it, there's plenty. Yeah. Because if somebody said to you,
you know, over the next week, you're going to have to save 10% of the fuel you normally use
would be easy enough, wouldn't it? Pretty simple, mate. Yeah. Yeah. I could manage that. I could
walk to the shop. And that's quite a long time to walk to the shop, much if I could do that.
Get someone else to walk to the shop. I could get someone else to walk to the shop. If I did
walk to the shop, Steve, I would be, there's a segue, I would be walking into Bista,
which has recently been the base of Westfield Sports Cards.
Yes. However, what's going on at Westfield Sports Cards?
Well, they were taken over three years ago by an excellent bloke called Nigel Trillick,
and a crew and a team, and they, you know, were full of hope and so on, and created some new cars.
And so they do Westfields and Cheswell Sports Cards, you know, the Cheswells were the
356, 456 replicas, which were previously based down in Somers near the coast, near Cheswell Beach,
I suppose, somewhere, weren't they? Okay, I don't know. They were, yeah, that's right. Yeah.
But anyway, sadly, it's, he's discovered that the market is very soft indeed, and
they had to stop trading. And he wrote me this regretful letter saying, and I got the feeling
that they'd seen it coming, stopped trading without doing anything illegal, which is what
people who stop trading often do. They trade too far and they're, you know, they're,
but anyway, he wrote soon after saying our, our sort of sensible closure seems to have resulted
in some interest from new investors. Oh, interesting. And he was quite hopeful. So
it looks as though Westfield might finish up with new backers. I got a lot of time for Westfield
because it was my first sports car. I had one many years ago bought from Paul Matty.
It was a pre litigation one. You remember, there was a big punch up between Caterham and Westfield
because Westfield were making a copy of the, in fiberglass. Yeah. I mean, it looked, it looked
basically the same. Yeah. You know, and then at some point,
brand known, took them to the cleaners and there was a big punch up and Westfield were
required to change the lines a bit, not much, but a bit. You can tell, can't you? If you are
a car person, like pre or not, pre or not, pre lit. I looked at a pre lit Westfield when I
bought my, I guess I had one too. And I bought one that was not pre lit in the end. Okay. I bought
an SE as they were called. That was my, was that two liter? No, 1700 crossflow. Okay. Nice
engine. Really nice engine. I think when mine was a 1600, it was the same donkey, but not expanded.
Yeah. And okay. I mean, mine might have been 1600, but they told me it was 1700.
The thing I remember most is, because in those days, I was mad enough to go everywhere,
summer and winter, blah, blah. And I can remember driving down the M5 with ice on both sides of
the windscreen. So I had to reach over the top of the windscreen to kind of scrape the ice away
because there was, the car was open and it was just, there was, there was just no way for the ice
to dispel. Yeah. Yeah. I liked, I mean, I liked my Nivella soft spot. Yeah. So it would be,
it would be nice when it, if they were picked up. Oh, indeed. Yeah. Absolutely. Did they do a,
they did a Lotus 11 look like as well? They did. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. But did they do that
more recently too? Or did that? I think there were two batches. There was a,
that was a bloke called Chris Smith, wasn't it? Pretty good racing driver. Yes. Classic racing
driver. And in fact, I bought a Lotus 6 from him later. Oh, did you? Quite a famous Lotus 6,
and it stupidly didn't keep it. But, but he was a good, good driver. And he, then he, he had a bit
of a, a bad off, you know, Lotus 18, a single seater. And that, that sort of stopped his racing
career. But, but he was responsible for the startup of Westfield. Westfield was the name of his,
the first house that he bought with his Mrs. And after he got married,
somewhere in a black country, I think. Well, if we're going to take a short commercial break,
let me tell you about the 15th of January, 1986 issue, which I've just looked up now, Steve,
which has got Westfield has a strong racing heritage and now has diversified into producing
a street legal racer in kit form. Doug and I visited the factory and drove the car.
Oh, wow. What a good looking car this is. Is that the 11? No, it's not. It's a,
I'll let you have a look, look at it. It's Q-plated. I don't know what it is underneath, but in it,
Doug talks about Lotus 11 lookalikes. Although the two cars as in his car and a Lotus 11 are
actually as different as Chalkers cheese under the skin. Three years ago in Dudley,
his very well-developed GRP-bodied Westfield 11's one and ready market. And in two full racing
seasons, they've become the backbone of Britain's kit car club racing championships.
Oh, that looks nice, doesn't it? Yeah. So this is a,
this is a something like a Chevron, sorry, B19 and Lola T210.
And he, Chris Smith liked, he had a particular weakness for Chevrons. And I think in later
life, he bought the rights to the Chevron coupé car. That really lovely looking little sports
racer. Oh yeah, that's good looking car. But then he died. But I'm not sure what happened to the
rights to it, but he, he was, he, he was a good engineer. He bought, he made things work.
Yeah, well, we look forward to hearing stuff in the archive. There it is. There it is. Yeah.
Listener, you can find the archive at themagazineshop.com. Actually, if you look at the show notes for
this episode, it has a link in the show notes to a special offer for listeners to this podcast.
Six issues of the magazine, four, six pounds. Pretty good access, I believe, to the archive.
131 years old this year. And we need people to take up this offer because then the
shiny bums at the Colt, who aren't at the Colt face like you and me will,
will conclude that it's very, very effective commercially. They will. I would like to think
that they will, that they will think it is a good idea for us to carry on doing this. What do you
think? There are mini chocolate eggs, mate, in the kitchen area. There's this wonderful piece
of info just comes through. It's just ladded. Yeah. So I have a slightly distracted by this.
Who's given them to us? You know? Well, it appears to be, it appears to be an actual
enterprise by our own company. One word. Grab a few, but please be mindful of making sure
they're enough to go around. Oh, Geister. How nice. Crikey. But anyway, yeah.
This podcast is brought to you in association, by the way, with our sponsor Anderson, makers of
design led premium quality, high BV charges. If you visit them, Anderson-EV.com,
I'm going to do exactly that. Six months free charging, claim over 4,000 free miles when you
switch to intelligent octopus go on any order placed after the 1st of March, 2026.
And they have the courts charger from 695 pounds for homes with 7 and 22 kilowatt electricity,
11 color options. That's a lot of color options, isn't it? The A3 has 13 color options.
I wonder if they chuck in chocolate eggs at all. They might well do, mate. They might well do.
If you ask the concierge, if you get in touch with them and see if they have any Easter specific
offers, the packet of mini eggs, mind you, I don't know. The prices of, have you seen the
prices of mini eggs these days? No, no. Honestly, they're prices of Easter eggs and eggs,
mini eggs and everything in general, prices of chocolate in general.
Oh, because it's got a short supply. No, not really. It's just shrink flation,
isn't it? And the general forgive the phrase in shitification of the world. That's why.
It's just that nothing could be fun anymore, can it? No, of course not.
Except the fact that actually you and I have chocolate mini eggs on every floor of the building.
Indeed. If they're still there by the time we finish recording.
Yeah, we're going to sprint upstairs. Yeah, let's just bring this podcast to a close,
shall we, so we can get back up to the kitchen. This is a, I'm liking this particular storeroom.
This is storeroom two, a recent discovery, isn't it? It is, because there is a beeping
going on in our normal storeroom. Yeah. Which I have alerted facilities to,
but because of the appeal of chocolate mini eggs, it is still beeping a week and a half after the
last, alerting them to it. I don't know where the beeping is coming from. Probably some fire system
that's, that would, well, it shower us as we get in there. Yeah, I just, yeah, it's got a weird sort
of, it's clearly not battery operated because it's been going for a long time, but it's going off
for a long time. But anyway, so yeah, Steve and I are in, is this the business media storeroom?
Seems to be. I think. Yeah, we've got copies of campaign magazine. Disgustingly well organized,
isn't it? It is the sector magazine. It seems to be saying regeneration and something up there,
renewal. Yeah, so. Regeneration and renewal. Yeah, you know, it's one of our titles.
Wind power monthly, I think we published. Yeah. Management today, I can see it. Yeah, so we're,
anyway, yes, we're in business media storeroom, rather than our normal store. Third sector magazine.
Yeah. And we might return to the automotive storeroom at some point. Yeah, when the beep
goes away. When the beep stops. Somebody else off of the Instagram has written to us,
actually, or maybe it's just off of the Twitter or whatever. Anyway, AutoCart at haymarket.com.
Welcome to part two. If an a car based a van has written to us to say this is a niche query,
but I was hoping it would open an interesting discussion, as I think it may well do. In the
80s and 90s, Citroen offered a timeline, trim line, sorry, named enterprise, which was basically,
have you seen this letter, Steve? Yeah. Okay, a basic commercial version of the regular passenger
car with no back seats yet retaining regular doors and windows. They were cheap and simple to make
yet were a different product to the standard car marketed separately. The key detail here,
and if that is not wrong when he says niche, is that they offered this on almost their entire
range. LNA, Accel, Visa, GSA, AX, BX, Saloon and Estate and CX were all available in this trim.
My question is, do you think modern car companies should rethink how commercial vehicles are designed
or thought of Citroen's enterprise trim line seems such a simple, cheap solution of offering a
desirable van to customers, van inverter commas, but retaining all the benefits for car? It seems
like the best of both worlds while saving costs for the manufacturer in terms of tooling and
production for a bespoke van such as a Billingo or dispatch. It almost goes back to the whole
phenomenon of gardeners and painters and decorators using August state cars instead of vans.
I run an Instagram account about all about the car drive van and I'm fascinated by the decline of
the sector in the last decade. There's a small resurgence recently with an unofficial commercial
version of the Twingo as well as new releases such as the Dacia Spring Cargo. For example,
Vauxhall could offer a commercial version of the Corsa Astra, Astra Estate, Mocha E, Frontera and
Grandland bidding off the combo in Vivaro while retaining larger vans such as the Muvano and
perhaps a Tipper. Customers would receive a product that's pleasant to drive and looks good,
but also has load space and is more desirable. Car-based vans are also known to be more appealing
for large company fleets such as energy providers. Cars are efficient, more efficient and lighter.
Fascinated to hear your opinions as I do think Citroen would really did really have something
offering so many cars as commercial versions. Perhaps they were more tailored to France than the
UK and that's why the year the idea hasn't really caught on. So yes, car-based van on the Instagram
would be the account. Yeah, I can remember a whole load of sort of fiesta-sized things with
the rear window blocked off and all that, but that was a bit more conventional and what he's
talking about. I think this sounds like some sort of tax dodge for a law that's gone.
That's what I wonder. Yeah, Toyota had a Corolla van very recently, didn't they?
I think that was cheaper to tax as a company car, cheaper than a conventional company car,
but probably still not as cheap as an EV, maybe? Because don't you pay a flat rate for a van
that you take home? There is a sort of modest company car tax payment, isn't there?
I was going to say it's a £400 a year, but I don't know if that's still the case or not.
In terms of commercial vehicle taxes, you need a certain payload for it to be as a commercial vehicle,
didn't you? Did I? No, I think you did. It's just because you've written
2,000 other columns in the meantime, it's cost-possibly floated away. It's slipped my mind a
bit, but that Corolla, we ran one, Jack Harrison, our photographer ran one as a long term.
It was a good car, wasn't it? Great, yes. People loved it.
Actually, they didn't take the back seats out. What they did is they folded,
actually, maybe they did take the back seats out, but some car-based fans, and I know this
because I looked at some MOT garage forums the other day, MOT testers forums, some of the car-based
fans, instead of removing the rear seats, because I think if you have usable rear seats, it's not a
van, so you can't register as a van and therefore you get taxed on it as a car. But what they did is
they put a metal plate, boot floor, effectively over the entire back of the van, including folded
rear seats, so then the rear seats are stuck in a folded position. I see. And there were some MOT
testers on the forums going, what do I do with this? Because it's got rear seats, but I can't
tell. Oh, people had taken the plate off? No, the plate is still there, so they're MOT-ing it as
a car-based van, but it's got rear seats, and the rear seat belts are still in place, and the rear
seats are technically still in place, but obviously I can't raise the rear seat into position to test
whether it all complies with the standards it locks into place and the seat belt works and everything
What should I do in this occasion? Because if there are no rear seats, as on,
I think I'd MOT the A2 the other day, and I'd taken the rear seats out because I wanted to
carry some stuff, and then I took it for an MOT, and it just says on the note, one of the rear
seats isn't in it, and that's okay. But if they're in it, I think they have to test them. So then
somebody has to go, I think one of the other testers just said, look, I think I'd just say,
walk away. I couldn't do it. Yeah, I couldn't test it. But yeah, that's sorry, I'd digress,
that Corolla was a good car. He was, yeah, one of my sons is on his third feet at Doblo. Oh really?
Oh yes, and it's because the car drives like a car, he likes the fact that it's, you know,
we're forever whinging about hard plastic, he likes hard plastic, because if something goes
wrong, he don't like to speculate on what it might be that goes wrong, but you know, the car is,
you can hose it out pretty much, but it still rides well, steers well. Good little car,
a little bit lighter than the car version too. Is that a car based van, sorry, is that a
van based car rather than the van being a car based van? That's interesting, isn't it? I
know you're asking. Now you're asking. What's it called? Doblo. Doblo. There are two versions,
there's a short one and a kind of so-called Maxi. Oh, is there? And he's got the longer wheelbase
because he can just fit his motorbike in the back of it. This says it uses the Stratas platform.
Oh, okay, is that right? Can that be right? I suppose so. Well, so quick on this, how do you
operate? I'll spend the next 15 minutes finding that out. It's not that right. It's the third
generation, also called Persho partner, Vauxhall Combo. On sale 2023 to present,
platform is the PSA EMP2 platform. Okay, it's a modern platform, isn't it? That is a modern platform.
I think he might be the generation before that. I think he might be around the sort of 17s and
18s. So the latest, so this EMP2 is underneath the C4 Picasso and on the Persho 308 and the Persho 408
apparently. Okay. If he's in the previous one, then that is the FCA small long wheelbase platform,
which you'll spot on me. I don't know why I didn't just listen to you. There is a Punto underneath
it because I had a guess. So the platform was used for some, I didn't know this, it was on the Fiat
Grande Punto, which was unveiled in 2005 and won an auto car group test not long thereafter.
And that's why I remember because I wrote as shot by, no, that's not, no, I just remember that.
Shot not far from Brill on the roads. One of the roads I occasionally take home,
which goes between Tame and HMP Bullingdon, I think actually, and it's just, there's a road
on the court with, there's a left hander, quite a nice thing. Left hander that made a good cornering
shot. Anyway, I digress again. So that is the developed during the GM Fiat Alliance. The
platform was also used for some Opel models, including the Opel Corsa D&E. I don't remember
that. Who knew that? Who knew? Who knew? So yeah, maybe that, but anyway, what was the question?
Well, no, we were just talking about how the fact that he had these Dobblos and he liked them because
they were car-like, but very durable. Yeah. And that was, we still had our Berlingo lurking about,
and I thought the Berlingo was the answer to everything. And he left his most recent Dobblos
in our gaff for a while. Well, he went on holiday and I just gave it a trundle around the place.
So Paul, to discover it, was actually a better steering, better riding car than the
Fiat Berlingo. Really? Sorry, Citroen Berlingo, which is, as you will, you know, was a shock to me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, tragic. I've got over it. What would make the Suzuki Jimny, wasn't
there? Yeah. Because the Suzuki had sold their allocation of, no, hang on, they couldn't sell
any more cars, Jimny cars, because CO2? Yeah, I think there was a pollution problem. Yeah. So
they introduced it as a commercial vehicle by removing the rear seats. How was it? Yeah. And
putting some stuff in. It's still ridiculously expensive. There's one for sale around the corner
from us and that, honestly, it's all the money it is. When they night nearly 30 grand when they
eventually sold them and they still go from much to the same. I'll bet you they're in the 20,
so I bet they are. Brand new off of the internet right now. Somebody wants 35. No,
that can't be right. 2019, Jimny, somebody wants 37 grand for. Really? It's brand new, it says.
Probably owned by Jeremy Clarkson. So pre-registered, new, pre-registered Suzuki Jimny. So where does
2017? That must be not true. So there's basically still, as far as I can tell,
new pre-registered ones around. I wonder what reg plate they're on.
I wonder what year they were registered as. But anyway, they're 35 grand. And what,
can you see a 25,000 mile or a 30,000? Yeah, let's have a look. Let's have a look at one that's
actually got some miles on it. Because, I mean, like, that's bonkers to pay. Crazy, isn't it?
Yeah, when you consider what you can buy for, I've buy a brand. Quite, if I didn't have a
four by four, I would quite fancy an early one, or an SJ as a green lane. Yeah, a weapon. Yeah.
20 grand for one that has 40,000 miles on 2021. That's more like it. Yeah. But even that's pretty
strong. Because I didn't think they were that much more than that new. No, really. That is a
compact SUV with 40,000 miles, 173 grams per kilometer. That was the problem, presumably.
I think way back in the day, you know, when the K-Car was just being discovered and all that,
I think there was even a two stroke version of the Suzuki four by four. Yeah. But I think,
I mean, it goes back to 1975 or something. But I seem to remember the clouds of smoke and the sort
of ring ding ding stuff. The LJ10 had a K-Class sized 359cc air cooled two stroke inline twin
cylinder engine. My sort of distant memories are so much better than the, you know, what the
hell I had for lunch. Yeah. But I think that's, I was speaking to an engineer about this. We went
for a coffee a few weeks ago, and we were talking about photos of, I've probably talked about it
on this podcast, which is how bad my memory is, of seeing photos of a motorway from, I think he
sent me one. Here's a, here's a photo of a motorway from like the late 1980s or early 1990s,
probably mid 1990s. And I reckon I could still now go through and identify every single car
pretty much. Yeah. I remember looking through it and saying to him, oh, is that a Vauxhall
Carlton GSI 3000, sort of six cars back? And he went, yeah. And I think that Golf GTI there has
this particular thing that was only available on X number of Golf GTIs. And if you went to the M25
now, took a photo of it, sent me the picture and asked me to identify all of the cars in the picture,
I might struggle. Yeah. Well, I would. I would definitely. But then I was with a bunch of
people who included, yesterday, who included three or four car designers, and they were
standing around in a little clump saying what, that the reason for this, they were talking about
Chinese car design. And one of the, one of the things they said was that rather than
clinicing these designs to see who loved them, what they did was to clinic a design
and go with the one that didn't offend anyone. So they didn't, what they didn't want to do was
alienate anyone. Yeah. They were quite happy if it, if you didn't love it. But as long as you
you sit down, it's all right. That's a bit grim, isn't it? Maybe it's, maybe it's a, it really is.
But is that, is that just the way of things? Or, I don't think so. I don't think so because there
are people who are busily trying to inject star quality in their cars. I mean, you just, you've
just been driving the Renault Twingo. I think that's a really lovely little car. Yeah. Lauren's
Van Dunnecker, the head of Renault Design, who was really, I don't know, he works for the company,
but he was really effusive about it. He said, I think the proportions, and I'll quote him as
directly as I can remember off the top of my head, the proportions are perfect. Yeah. It looks like
a bonbon, you could eat it. Yeah. And he's right. It's spot, it does look spot on. I, I, I've only,
I didn't, haven't been close to one for very long, but I found it knock my eyes out that car.
Yeah. And isn't there the argument, I don't know when it was last made, but I remember
somebody saying it, I think, and Peter Robinson quoting it in an article.
If you, right, you might design a car that some people don't really love. But actually,
if you're designing it well enough that there are a group of people who must have one,
yeah, then that's better than designing a car that nobody hates. Yeah. Because, you know,
because you've, that you've then got a call of people get, I must have one of those because
the way that car looks. And they, they, they become vocal about it. And yeah, I know, I think
it's absolutely true that, but yeah, this group, this clump of people yesterday were,
was suggesting that there was just this big difference between the way things were done in
Europe and they were, they were European and they were desperate for to continue that way,
because that would be the point of demarcation, even if, even if Chinese quite pleased about it.
Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Interesting. And they, they said, you know, they were looking at the,
the way various Europeans have concentrated pretty hard on injecting star quality into cars in the
recent last few years. And they, they presumed that that was the way to go, particularly since
the Chinese didn't see the need for it. And that would always be a point of point of difference,
which badly needed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Couldn't be. Well, as cars become more similar,
I suppose design based, is more important than ever. Yeah. Should we talk my column a bit,
which is not unrelated. Well, there's a few things of yours. Also, you, I mean, you,
we haven't, we haven't heard you on the, on the, on the Aston, have we?
Uh, no, no, because I think the embargoes for both of those cars lift.
Why not talk about it? I mean, last week's pot, maybe I didn't talk about it last week.
Don't think so. They lifted, but maybe I didn't talk about them. No, no, I think you,
you probably shut it down by me, mate, which is a, no, not at all. Not at all.
We just wrap it on to me. If we get rid of it. I think about the Twingo first.
Well, the Twingo and the Aston, they're the, they're the big star quality offerings in this
issue that we're talking about. Well, as a, as a, as a, as a, I think in this issue, no,
they're already out. They're in, they're in the mag. Yeah, they're in the, that's it.
As we speak, they're in the mag. Yeah. Um, yeah, we should have, but no, I know,
but we should have talked about it last week, but didn't talk about it last week. But anyway,
you can find them in the magazine or online right now. The Twingo is great, I think. Well,
I was with one of our colleagues and, and he said, I think the Aston Valhalla and the Twingo,
he said, they're the best two cars I've driven in the last 12 months. Wow. And I thought,
you know, I might not argue against that actually. I think that's pretty, that's a pretty,
I mean, you could argue it if you wanted to, but it's not an uncontroversial thing to think.
I don't think. No, no, no. So the Twingo's, the Twingo's great. We talked around it,
didn't we? Cause we talked about how many, how few parts they put in it. And then I spoke to
the Peugeot CEO who said that he didn't love the way that they'd, he wouldn't develop cars in that
fashion. But anyway, the car is good. It doesn't feel like they've taken that many parts out of it.
It doesn't feel tinny and light and thin or cheap. It feels good and fun. Yeah.
Beautiful surfaces, I think, when they come. Yeah, really, really cool. Your, your conclusion
in your story, I've read, I've read both of these stories this morning. So for once I'm briefed.
Oh, so you've picked up the magazine. Yeah. Yeah. And, and the, the conclusion that I enjoyed most
in the, for the Twingo, was it, you use the word joy, joyous, whatever it is. And that,
I mean, it takes a bit to get a hack to say such a thing, doesn't it? Well, it's just because they're,
I mean, they're not, it's bright inside and out and bubbly and nice. And it's just clearly designed
with, and engineered with somebody who wants to put a smile on your face. Yeah. Yeah. And that's
the rare thing, isn't it? I think it's so much is about. And I don't, look, if it's saving people
200 quid a month to buy, I don't know, if you buy a JQ five instead of a Range Rover revoke,
when you think it looks close enough that you don't care either way. Yeah. And it works out.
I don't know how much cheaper to run a JQ. Half price. Half price saves you, I don't know,
300 quid a month. Yeah. 400 quid a month. Who knows? Who knows? It's cheaper. And as a result,
you and your family have more time doing things. Yeah. That you can afford to do. You spend more
in your local farm shop, you spend more in your local pub, you do more activities together.
Who is to say, because we've had some letters about, you know, is it morally better to buy European
car and keep buying things local and stuff like that? It's really difficult to draw a more,
as we talked about a bit, I think the other day, really hard to draw a moral argument on that
point of view, isn't it? Because, because, well, it's 400 quid or whatever it is,
£6,000 a year of my money. And now I can spend it really locally. I can do, you know, I can go to
a farm shop rather than a supermarket, you know, I can do all these other things. So you're doing
more good, not less. So I do more good, not less good necessarily by outsourcing the money you
would spend on a car elsewhere. So I don't, so it's hard to make a moral judgment either way, I
think. Well, I think it goes back to the point we were talking, we often talked about, which is
there are no absolutes, people make their own decisions. And that's okay. Yeah, exactly.
But anyway, Twingo, I thought was terrific. Were you okay with the range, 163 or something?
Yeah, we drove it in Ibiza, which is in spring, and it's quite low speed, and it's quite up and
downhill, which is not a bad thing for an EV either. So it was doing five and a bit miles per
kilowatt hour, which is pretty good. Pretty good. The range is said to be 160 ish miles,
but none of the ranges of those small city cars is great. I think only a Hyundai Insta has a longer
range of 200 plus, all of the stuff at that sort of price, at that sort of level. Renault says it
will probably go on sale at less than 20 grand. Actually, it'll definitely go on sale at less
than 20 grand, unless something longer happens between now and then, which is possible. I think
it goes on sale starting next year. So we know what the range of the Alpine is like in winter,
the A290. It's problematic, isn't it? It's unlikely to be here only daily if you do
serious mileage, but that's okay. It's a city car. If you're the sort of person who had a Hyundai i10
and a big company car, and the i10 was only ever for short journeys,
even though you could use it for longer journeys, you never did. Well, then the Twingo would fit
perfectly into that sort of thing. It's got five doors. The old Twingo has only ever had three doors,
it's got individual rear seats that slide independently of each other, which is fine. So
you can get really comfortable. You could get four people in it. And then in the boot,
this must be somewhere else, but I've not seen it before. It's got a 5050 spit
boot floor. So if you've got the cables stored underneath the boot floor,
but you've got some bags in, you don't have to take everything out to lift up the boot floor
to get to the charge cables. You can just shovel it to one side a bit and open half the boot floor
and then get to the cables or whatever you've stored underneath the boot floor,
which is quite a nice idea. And it's just good fun. Little cars do seem to
cause good ideas, you know, cleverness to come out. I like that a lot. Yeah, and they've clearly
just gone. They want to put fun things in it. And then Lawrence Vanden Aker was saying, he was on
the event and he was saying, look, we started having arguments about what we could do and what
we couldn't do even before we started designing the car. He's like, I wanted this hazard warning
switch. It's a round red backlit switch in a sort of translucent red plastic. It looks,
it looks really cool. He said, I really wanted it in there. But of course, we've got to have
the argument that it costs whatever it costs more than a boring one. And you might go, well,
that's not very much. But actually, we might need, we might be making 100,000 of these a year or
several hundred thousand of them spread across three or four cars over the next 10 years. It's
like the cost of it ends up enormous. And you just constantly having these arguments and these
discussions of trying to bring a car to market for, you know, you want to sell it for under 20,000
euros. You know, it's got to be this big, but you know, it's got to compete with all these cars
that are made in a place you can't compete with. And yet somehow be more fun. And, you know, so
just like we have just stuff arguments all the time about, and some of you win and some of you
don't. Yes. But I think with the Twingo, most of them, important ones, they've won.
How do you do, you've been in a panda, haven't you?
Yeah, not a lot. What do you, is it, is it a fit?
Is it? It feels bigger to me. Is it? Yeah, I think it is bigger. Yeah. Yeah.
It's pandas on the... But that does the same ingenuity thing, doesn't it?
Yeah. I wonder if a Twingo feels more fun somehow than a panda? I don't know.
Because it's not as tall, perhaps? Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe the panda feels quite... I like to it.
But maybe it does feel a bit more utilitarian than a Twingo. The Twingo feels more...
But I like the idea of the choice that they just seem so interesting, those two, to me.
Yeah. But I think this is going to be the last of the retro meadows. And then next,
they're going to start work on, because we've had the five and the four and the Twingo.
Yeah. And now they like, now that's probably the reborn icons we'll do, and they're going to start
next, working on the espass and the scenic scenic. Quite difficult to produce an espass that
doesn't do what the old espass did. Yeah, that's what I said to the
Gaffer, whose name temporarily escapes me. He was there. Can't believe? Yes, yes.
Yeah. Yeah, France? No, not France, but I can't believe. No, I'm from the Oath. Anyway, Mr.
Canberle. Mr. Canberle. You know, what do you... Is it an MPV? Because MPVs are not such a
thing as they were, weren't they? Yeah. They're not as big a market as they were,
they're not as desirable as they were. And even though they're a very luxurious car these days,
they're not. They don't sell in big numbers. No. And yet an espass, is an espass, do you really
want an espass to be a... Fabrice Canberle? Fabrice. Do you really want an espass to be an SUV?
Yeah. But I think that I've not seen it and I don't know, but I wonder if there is some kind of path
between the two where like a bit like maybe a Peugeot 408, it's a taller than normal saloon.
But I think they might get into Ford Capri trouble if they use the name espass on SUV.
Oh, interesting. People would say, hang on a minute. Where's the thing with the lovely needle nose and
all that stuff? Yeah, the enormous glass area and a clever construction. Yeah. Because Ford
have taken, I wonder if Ford would make that decision again to call the version of their
version of the ID4 or a version of the ID4 a Capri. Because they have taken a fair bit of flak over it.
I don't care myself. I've enjoyed the car, but I think they have taken a, you know, must irk them,
particularly the dealers, you know, people walking past the window saying that's never a Ford Capri.
It's interesting. Yeah, that's interesting. I'd like to know that. Yeah. Yeah. If a dealer would
like to write to us. Yeah, that'd be interesting. AutoCar at Haymarket.com. So have you got time
to talk to us about this? I'm going to do it on Saturday. Oh, okay. Because we'll be back this
Saturday with your questions answered. But let's talk about it. Well, my question is,
yeah, we'll start with Steve's question. How was the Aston Martin Valhalla?
We'll begin with that. And then we'll carry on AutoCar at Haymarket.com if you would like to
write to us. Or you can find Steve's email address and my email address at the end of our
respective AutoCar columns, which you can find in the magazine, which you can buy on the news
stands where it's been available weekly since 1895, or go to AutoCar.co.uk and you'll find
all of the details there. But the subscription offer is in the show notes for this episode.
I'm not going to read it out because I don't remember it. But there is a specific web page
that it will direct you to. And I suppose if you're really busting to, you can just go into
the archive and look at the recent issues bob up anyway, don't they? They do. Yeah, they do.
And there's lots on Westfield and all things besides. Yeah, I do.
You don't think you should, there's very few cars you think you should have kept, don't you?
No, you are quite happy to let that happen. No, when they've gone, they've gone.
Occasionally, I think that was a stupid decision. I mean, the Lotus 6 would be one, but
I didn't fit it really. And it was a slow car. And Jonathan, my son, used to drive it and think it
was a car with a terrible gearbox and no brakes. And the fact that Colin Chapman might have been
involved in welding the chassis together had absolutely no appeal to him. Fair enough, fair
enough. I had my Westfield for about two years, I think. I quite enjoyed it. And I think I got
the best. I used it well and I was happy when I sold it. You were probably the right age and all
that. Were kids around at that stage? No, I sold it when I bought my first house. So it was the
right time for it to come and go. I needed the money for a deposit for a house and I'd enjoyed
it and it was fine. Yeah, it was perfect. Yeah. Anyway, Steve and I will be back on Saturday with
your letters and we'll be back next Wednesday with a My Week in Cars. I did get some correspondence
from the farrier the other day saying, how am I going to keep up the two podcasts a week? So
if you can't, we label the weekend one's bonus. Just go straight through to the next Wednesday
as you prefer. It's okay. If you can't keep up, it's all right. It's okay. Thanks,
Steve. See you in a few days. See you that year.
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