Electric car chargers are the devices you use to charge an EV’s battery. This episode’s sponsor is talking about chargers that are meant to be higher quality and nicer to live with.
The BMW i3-S is an electric BMW hatchback variant. Here, it’s the older car the writer owned before switching to a Renault 5, and they’re comparing how much cheaper the newer car feels for similar equipment.
The Renault 5 E-Tech Electric is a small electric car meant for city driving. In the podcast, someone says they switched from another electric car and is surprised by how good the Renault 5 feels. It’s basically a modern electric take on the Renault 5 idea.
“Buying experience” means how smooth the process is when you’re trying to buy a car. In this letter, the writer says the paperwork/IT side was messy and made delivery updates confusing.
This is about the computer systems used by the company that handles the car finance. The writer says the app and systems were out of sync, so it looked like the car wasn’t delivered even though it was.
The Lotus Elise is a small, lightweight sports car made by Lotus. Here it’s mentioned as the car Sam already has, and he’s looking for a second car to go with it.
The Volkswagen ID Polo is a rumored/“forthcoming” small electric car in Volkswagen’s ID family, positioned as a compact EV alternative. The discussion frames it around matching the Elise’s size and being an EV that could work for European touring.
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is an electric van. It’s meant to be roomy for families or groups, similar to the older “Bus” idea. The podcast brings it up because they’re comparing it to other new electric Volkswagen models.
The ID Polo GTI is a more performance-flavored version of Volkswagen’s upcoming ID Polo electric car. “GTI” usually means it’s meant to feel more fun to drive than a regular model.
The Volkswagen Golf is a small everyday car, usually a hatchback. The podcast mentions it while comparing it to other Volkswagen models and how big they are. It’s included because it’s one of Volkswagen’s most common, well-known cars.
The Volkswagen ID.3 is an electric hatchback. The podcast is saying Volkswagen may have improved it after earlier problems with similar electric models. It’s mentioned because it’s an important step in Volkswagen’s electric lineup.
Charging speed is how fast the car can take electricity from a fast charger. “50 kilowatts” is the power level, and higher numbers usually mean you can add energy more quickly.
The Toyota Yaris iA is a small Toyota car with a trunk, so it’s a sedan rather than a hatchback. The podcast mentions it because the host was trying to recall the exact model name from earlier. It’s basically a compact Yaris-style sedan.
The Toyota GR Yaris is a sporty version of the Yaris. It’s designed to be quick and fun to drive, like a small performance car. The podcast mentions it because they were trying to recall whether the car they discussed was the GR Yaris.
If a car has been off the road for decades, it often needs more than just a quick fix. Things can seize up, fluids can go bad, and rust can get worse—so getting it back on the road usually takes real effort.
The Mitsubishi Endeavor is an SUV model. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as part of a discussion about a project and whether it’s realistic. The key point is that it’s the vehicle being considered in that question.
The Shelby Cobra is a classic sports car built for fast driving. It’s known for being light and powerful, which is why people still talk about it today. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because of interest in Cobra models and their history.
The AC Cobra MkIII is a sports car made to feel like the classic Cobra. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because someone wrote about a Cobra coupe and the MkIII is part of that Cobra story. It’s basically a Cobra-style car built in later years.
Term
cam rear end
They’re describing a special mechanical setup in the car’s rear/engine area that involves a cam (a rotating part that controls timing). The exact design isn’t fully spelled out here, but it’s meant to sound like a standout engineering detail.
The Shelby Daytona Coupe is a sports car connected to racing history. The podcast mentions it while comparing it to other Cobra-related Daytona references. It’s included because the Daytona name is strongly tied to performance and competition.
The Ford Cougar is a Ford model name that the podcast mentions while talking about older cars. It’s grouped with other Ford models to compare how the lineup worked. The key point is that it’s part of Ford’s past model history.
The Ford Explorer is a mid-size SUV meant for everyday driving and carrying people or cargo. The podcast is referencing it in the context of older Ford model history. That’s why it’s being mentioned—because it’s a familiar, long-running SUV.
The Ford Capri is a classic Ford coupe, meaning it’s a sporty-looking car with two doors. The podcast mentions it while talking about older Ford models from a similar time period. It’s included because it’s a famous name from that lineup.
The Ford Cortina is a car model that Ford made for many years, and it was especially common in the UK. The podcast is talking about it as part of Ford’s older lineup around 1970. That’s why it comes up—because it’s a key name from that era.
The Ford Fiesta is a small, everyday car. The podcast is talking about whether there’s a new Fiesta. It’s mentioned because it’s a well-known Ford model in the compact-car category.
The Ford Bronco is Ford’s rugged SUV meant for off-road use. The hosts are saying they saw lots of them in the U.S. and that you can get different versions with different styles.
The Jeep Wrangler is a famous off-road SUV. When they say the Bronco is a Wrangler rival, they mean they’re competing for the same kind of buyer who wants a tough, customizable 4x4.
The Ford Crown Victoria is a large sedan that was commonly powered by a V8 engine. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because people have raced V8s using the Crown Victoria. That’s why it comes up—because it’s a big, powerful car people still talk about.
I can’t tell which car “7” refers to from the snippet alone. It might be part of a longer model name or a reference to something else. If you paste a bit more of the line, I can explain the correct car.
This is a BMW 3 Series coupe. The “330” is the model, and the “Ci” points to the coupe version. The listener is saying it was a really nice car to live with and drive.
Engine oil is the liquid that lubricates the engine so parts don’t grind against each other. Changing it on schedule is one of the simplest ways to help a car last.
The drivetrain is the set of parts that gets power from the car’s power source to the wheels. If it feels “spot on,” it usually means the car accelerates and moves smoothly.
The Chevrolet C10 is an older-style pickup truck. In the podcast, it’s being used as a long-term test vehicle, so they can see how it drives and holds up over time. It’s a well-known truck model that many people modify or restore.
This is the car’s screen for menus and information. The point being made is that the text and controls are hard to read and use quickly, especially when you need to react fast.
CAP safety scoring is a safety rating system used to judge cars. The host is saying future rules will likely require real buttons or knobs for important functions so drivers don’t have to hunt through screens.
A “loose connection” means a plug or wire connection inside the car wasn’t fully connected. That can make a system act up, then work again after it’s fixed.
“Protocols” means the rules for how you’re supposed to use the car’s controls. Once you learn the right button presses and screen steps, it feels more straightforward.
In this context, “pre-flight checks” is a habit of doing a quick setup routine before driving, similar to how pilots check systems before takeoff. For cars, it usually means adjusting key controls (like screens, mirrors, or driver settings) so you’re ready and not distracted once you’re moving.
The BMW i5 is an electric car based on BMW’s 5 Series size. The podcast mentions it while talking about how some comfort or control features work. It’s essentially a mid-size electric sedan.
The BMW M2 is a smaller, sportier BMW made by BMW’s performance division. Here, they’re talking about how big it is compared with other BMW M cars, and how it’s grown.
The BMW M3 is one of BMW’s main high-performance models. In this discussion, they’re using it as a comparison for size—saying earlier M3s felt smaller than what came after.
Kilos here refer to vehicle weight, which strongly affects acceleration, braking, and handling. In general, a heavier car needs more power to feel quick and can feel less nimble than a lighter one.
The BMW M Coupe (E36) is a sporty BMW coupe from the E36 era. It’s meant to be more fun to drive than a regular coupe. The podcast brings it up when discussing what small BMW performance cars exist.
“Transverse” means the engine sits sideways in the car. That layout affects how the car is built, which can change how roomy or bulky it feels from the driver’s seat.
The Alpine A110 is a small, light sports car made by Alpine. People like it because it feels nimble and fun to drive, not heavy or difficult to place on the road.
The Citroën AX is a small, light car. In this segment, it’s mentioned because it’s much lighter than the Alpine they’re discussing, which changes how the car feels to drive.
A fulcrum is the point where something pivots. The idea here is that if you sit near the car’s pivot point, you feel less of the car’s up-and-down rocking when it moves.
Curb weight is basically how much a car weighs when it’s ready to drive, but without people or luggage. It can change a bit depending on what fluids are included in the measurement.
The drag coefficient is a number that describes how “slippery” a car is through the air. Lower is better, because the car needs less effort to keep moving.
Frontal area is how big the car looks from the front. A bigger front makes it harder for the car to push through the air, especially at higher speeds.
Term
CD
In this context, “CD” is shorthand for the drag coefficient, the aerodynamic number that describes how much air resistance the car creates. The host implies that tire width and shape can influence Cd, which then affects real-world efficiency.
LIVE
Hello, and welcome to a bonus episode of the AutoCar podcast with Pry here, properly there.
Hello, Stephen.
Hello, mate.
Where we are going to talk about your letters, your questions, not all questions, actually
some of just letters.
You can write to us autocaratamarketer.com and this podcast is brought to you in association
with our sponsor Anderson, and they're at Anderson-ev.com, makers of premium quality
design-led electric car chargers.
John Penlebray writes to say, I've just picked up my Renault 5 to replace a BMW i3-S, and
I can't believe it's outstanding value, nearly £10,000 less than my i3 was four years ago,
but it's stuffed with equipment.
Brilliant car, can't say the same about the buying experience, Renault and their finance
companies IT systems are terrible, and then my Renault app still says the car has not
been delivered to the dealership, even though it's got the car, but I'm glad you're pleased.
It's usually the other thing, isn't it?
It says you've got it in the oven.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah, but, well, I mean, I'm glad you like the car.
On the subject of the previous gen i3, we've had letters to Sam in London from James in
Sweden, whose wife bought him a trailer, do you remember that?
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
And from Tom Callow.
I think he signs himself the bloke who bought it.
Yeah, James in Sweden, the one his wife bought him a trailer, and Tom Callow.
Sam in London needed something to complement his Lotus Elise, which was around four metres long.
How about, says Sam, the forthcoming Volkswagen ID Polo, or if he can wait a few more months,
the ID Polo GTI, both are smidgen over four metres.
Based on early previews, it seems Volkswagen have learnt from the ID3 slash four missteps
and potentially made a great, small EV.
Tom Callow says, why doesn't he buy a BMW i3?
Yeah, well, that's a special car.
Tom's a bit of a long time EV expert, isn't he?
And he did a lot of miles in i3s, I think.
But a little bit short in a range, you know, I think.
Yeah, it might be.
50 kilowatt charging speed, aren't they?
I think.
Yeah.
And they, I think Sam in London was going to be doing some European tours, was he?
Yes, yes, yes.
So maybe, maybe.
I guess if you plan well enough, the thing about Tom is that he's, you know, I've heard him speak.
And, you know, he made some presentations quite regularly a while ago.
And he's very good on making preparations where he carries things, you know,
he knows where to charge in his head and all that kind of thing.
I remember now, because I couldn't remember the name of the appropriate Toyota Yaris
last week, and I was like, is it Yaris GR?
I'm sure it's a Yaris GR, and I was looking it up and getting, of course,
the latest four-wheel drive Yaris, which is not very long.
I mean, it's probably four meters long, but it's probably too much money
because I think Sam's
one of Sam's requirements, it was affordable, I think.
Yeah, they're not.
I mean, it depends on your take of affordable, doesn't it, really?
But anyway, the Yaris GR MN is the car I was trying to remember the name of.
And that would be compact.
I don't know how much or how little they are, but that would be quite special.
Yeah, would see the right number of people and who never break down and all that kind of thing.
Yeah. Perfect.
And also, I've just been
a friend of mine. Hello, Dave, sent me a picture earlier of a car
which is sadly now sold.
This advert has now been removed.
It was a Citroen AX, 59,000 miles, has just had a load of work done to it.
Petrol four speed, 1987, recently put back on the road after, you know,
after having some rust bits fixed and things like that.
The car had been off the road for 20 to 25 years.
This is as much I know about the history, but it had the original book pack.
I've just
solid in all the solid in a lot of the places, various panels cut out and replaced,
blah, blah, blah, and the bloke could just put it back on the road
and was effectively sort of done with it, because I think that's his hobby.
Yeah, people would.
How much do you think people want for a car like that these days?
Two and a half, I don't know.
Yeah, well, I spoke to Charlie and our office earlier and I showed him the pictures
and I said, how much do you think people want for a car like this?
And he went, I'll probably five.
I was like, yeah, I could believe that as well.
This guy wanted 1100 pounds.
Gee, I know, so I'm sold already.
But I just think that is.
Yeah, it's one of those.
You just think, I mean, if you have space and you have 1100, you might as well.
Because if you went, if you took it to Festival of the Unexceptional
and parked it up with a foreground thing in the window,
you'd have sold it in the day.
Yeah, indeed.
And in the meantime, you'd own it for a month and drive it around.
You probably have 1100 quids worth of fun.
Yeah, great time.
So Sam in London, maybe keep your eye on the classifieds and just pick up something.
Yeah, and then just that would be a fun car.
Wouldn't it? I remember them very fondly.
Yeah, even the I used to like the Boggo ones, you know, the four speeds.
Yeah, this was a really, but they weigh nothing.
So it's not like they're slow, is it?
No, no, no.
Jason had a 1.140, I think it was called.
Yeah.
And it as because they gave you free insurance when you bought one.
And it was great.
Was that they said something?
There were 800 and something the weight, weren't they?
They were nice little engine.
Right. Yeah.
Peter Taylor. Hello, Peter.
I found your Cobra AC Cobra Coupe article most interesting and wish the endeavor well.
I can't help wondering how viable the project is.
The motor industry is littered with false optimism and broken promises.
And I wonder if this may be another will see, hopefully, within my lifetime, says Peter 97.
Well done, Peter.
So yeah, have you seen that Cobra Coupe?
Picks off. Yeah.
I like the look of it.
I drove the prototype of the Roadster, which is called various things, depending on where it is.
I think it's AC GT Roadster in the States, where Shelby owns the Cobra name.
And over here, it's a Cobra.
Is it so it.
That that Cobra that that Shelby owns with a lovely extraordinary cam rear end.
You know, oh, like the not the Cobra Coupe Daytona Daytona.
Yeah, is that it? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's a car. I remember very fondly.
Yeah. Is it super performance make those ones or?
Yeah, they were.
I think they were you could buy them.
I'm not sure you could buy them.
I think imported through Nigel Hume in Dorkingway.
And now I think his son runs the place.
I think didn't know that.
And you can.
Yes, because they also bring in that.
What's that little Spartan, which is that little two seat Roadster?
Richard Lane had a good timing.
But, yeah, no, I mean, and then there's AC, which is AC.
As as as was as it has to list.
Yeah, and I drove the prototype.
I thought it was pretty good of the Roadster.
Well, it looked it looked very professional, really nicely put together.
Yeah. Yeah. I think. Yeah.
Because they've had ups and downs, haven't they?
You know, sometimes the cars have been a bit.
Not perfect, but this looks like a real renewal to me.
Yeah, I I I would I'd love it to do well.
Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah.
Paul Hampson in Cumbria says,
let's get this straight for strategy out as outlined in the 27th of May edition
is to have a range of five identically sized crossovers.
The focus now becoming a crossover, the Bronco European sized as a small medium
crossover, the existing and very geriatric Cougar, and presumably the Explorer
and Capri, which given they're both only a couple of years old, will need to stay
in production to satisfy contract contractual arrangements with Volkswagen.
That would be like Ford's 1970 range consisting of the Cortina and four
other identical but differently named cars.
This sounds like an announcement to keep shareholders unions and dealers off their backs.
Well, is the real agenda to retreat from Europe altogether?
I mean, I doubt that.
But how do you feel?
How are you feeling about Ford, Steve?
Well, I feel better about them because I those two, the top end cars,
the the Capri and the Explorer are big cars.
And, you know, certainly bigger than a than a Puma.
So are we get so are we getting a different Bronco than they have in the states?
Oh, yes. Are we getting like the Broncos sport?
I think we because there's two Broncos on there.
Yeah, I think the car that they're planning here is not.
Even related to the to the the Bronco of.
That you that you get in America, it's just a use of the name, I think.
Right. I think.
I wish I you get confused by Ford and their their naming, don't you?
Because they've taken a lot of flack when you think about it.
You know, think about how they were sort of caned over the use of Capri.
Even though it was the fourth use of Capri. Yeah.
Somebody wrote to me, I wrote that there was a fourth use of Capri.
Somebody said, wrong, mate, it's the fifth.
Oh, really?
Apparently, there's been some other Capri that I didn't know.
So I don't know.
But I don't think these are these are five identical cars by any means.
I think Ford have simply decided that SUVs are what people want.
They need badly to sell cars.
And they're going to have a selection of.
They're going to have two big ones that they think are going to be
satisfactorily different.
And I think the Capri and the Explorer are pretty different.
And the.
You know, the little car is drawn by Ben.
Yeah. Ben, some of you, our design designer.
That is lovely car. The thing on the on the cover.
God, I found myself reaching for the wallet over there.
Yeah. And is that what we are saying is a new fiesta?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
And and the the the boss of Ford here is.
Not denying that it might they might use the fiesta name to you.
You know, he's there have been all these.
Remarks about how he's well aware of the appeal of the name and so on.
He's not confirming anything, but he knows that it means a lot.
Interesting.
We tend to find out, don't we?
Because when Ford was going to reuse the name
Capri, it appeared in a lot of.
We knew about it, not officially.
Yeah, we seem to know about it a long way in advance.
It's not. Yeah, there were.
It's not like we were surprised by it, were we?
No, I think that isn't there some licensing of the name that goes on or something?
Or are they?
I've just forgotten how we found out about that.
But it was sort of on the.
It was in the mill for months or many years, several years.
I think I was going to write about this in a column and say.
I said I saw an awful lot of Broncos in America the other month when I was there.
Like loads, at least as many.
Did you like them? Did they look good on the road?
Yeah, they do. And they have a lot of in they have a lot of different looks.
I mean, because you can you can have them in.
There's the Broncos sport, which you don't see so many of them.
That's a bit more of a tame version.
But then the proper Bronco, which is a Wrangler rival.
They do they do they can make it look like a lot of different things.
You know, you can have a sort of cityish looking one.
You have a proper rugged looking one at the same time.
And they look they look great.
And did we write a story
that the Wrangler was not quite as popular as it used to be?
No, I think probably the Broncos given it quite a hard time.
Yes. The question is, what took them so long?
Because clearly there's a market for I don't know how many they sell,
but it's got to be 100,000 plus a year of them.
You know, but I suppose everybody was monopolised by this electrification.
You know, the.
The just the kind of
brain strain caused by that is as we look back through
car history, I'll bet you that we'll see a kind of bump where
the creation of cars of other types have been has been disturbed by.
People sort of saying, oh, God, what are we going to do about electric cars?
And you I go back so far.
I can remember the the way that the Arab oil embargoes in the late 70s
messed up car design.
They they sort of disturbed car design for a generation.
And there really lots of stopgap cars were built.
Yeah. Yeah.
Interesting. So in this week's mag, I've written about the.
A on V. Oh, yes, yes.
I read this, yeah, which I pass, which I'm afraid.
Pass me by completely.
Somebody saw one in the baseball.
You foolishly went on holiday and they launched a car.
Well, yeah, a car was launched when I was there and I checked.
And the week I the week that we reviewed the car about two days away,
I went to Star Speedway in New Hampshire and watched a load of V8s
be raced around on a Ford Crown Victoria, one mate race championship.
What a great thing to see.
And anyway, so I don't feel bad about it.
No. And actually, on the very day it was launched,
I was at Fenway Park, watching the Boston Red Sox versus the Yankees.
So I'm OK with missing it.
But but for the first time in my life,
somebody has launched not just a new car, but an entirely new brand.
And I haven't known about it until four days after the launch.
You know, those cars went on sale on June the 1st.
And then somebody said, have you seen that A on V in the basement?
And I went, what's that?
What's one of those?
But your point, the point that you've made in this column,
is the big one, I think, which is.
People, the marks like this cannot all prosper.
They can't all, can they?
It's the sort of it's almost like the Uber model when it comes to taxi driving.
You just flood the market and you'll put enough people out of business
that some of what you do sticks. Yeah.
And it seems that, you know,
what do they call A on?
A on. Yeah.
Yeah. They're, you know, they're part of GAC, which is
a state of Chinese state owned fifth biggest manufacturer in China.
Make 2000000 cars a year.
They've got a joint venture with Toyota.
They've got a joint venture with Honda.
Not all of these brands, there were so many of these brands,
they weren't all stick around.
No. But some of them might, you know, still be there in 10 years.
And but they'll have done the.
And the struggles, the struggles of the rest will have
will have created a sort of competitive atmosphere for everybody.
So I, I presume the
I mean, it's sort of shrewd if it's it's pretty ruthless, but a shrewd.
Yeah. Because people battling to stay alive.
Do you know, come up with ideas and procedures and strategies and so on
that that can also improve the ones that will survive?
It's really interesting to see. Yeah.
But I wonder if in 10 years time, you'll see these
somebody, a car will appear in the classified and you'll go,
God, I don't even remember that being on sale.
No. This kind of little.
Not that I'm suggesting the A on V will be one of those.
It might be the most popular car.
Yeah. But also it needs something.
You know, the JQ7, because it's a TV range.
Right. Yeah.
It's so it's got something to be memorable for and they don't all.
Do they know any stretch?
No. And that that the thing that was works to for me,
particularly with the JQ7 is that it just falls easily on the eye.
You know, one drives past and you sort of think, oh, that's good.
Yeah. And and it looks even though the grill is such an extraordinary thing,
the the rest of the cars, sculptural, is quite familiar.
And you and you and you're accepting of it, aren't you?
And the other thing, I suppose they could do the name.
Yeah, which makes me wonder why Aura didn't stick with Funky Cat.
Yeah. Well, it's interesting.
I was talking to the steering committee about that.
Yeah. And she liked Funky Cat because it was.
Well, it sticks out.
And she's when I told her what he got told it's got changed to something.
Oh, isn't it like something O3, isn't it?
It's just got a very boring. Yeah, it's a very.
She was deeply disappointed by that.
Yeah. But didn't they sell something like 12 when it was called the Funky Cat?
And I think if I if I quote your column as accurate as I as accurately as I can.
If you tell somebody you've bought a Funky Cat,
somebody will think there goes an idiot.
Did I say that?
I think you said something like that.
Yeah. Oh, dear.
Small potato shaped car called Funky Cat.
Actually, maybe potato shaped was that was something else.
But anyway, I think the round headlights were good on that.
I still see them and think can you still are they around?
Oras. Yeah.
I don't know.
The gosh, wouldn't that be interesting that, you know, the I suppose
that's the next thing we need to be watching for is the is the disappearance of some of these cars.
Yeah, the GWM Great War Motors.
They sell the model range.
They sell the Havel Jolly on Pro, the P O E R 300 pick up the power 300.
And that would appear to be the limit of the GWM range for now, just those two.
So no more Funky Cat or whatever it became.
Well, I mean, I wonder how many Funky Cats there were on the.
Yeah, not sure the residuals will be all that strong.
I wonder, I wonder, let's see, probably are you going to have a peeping auto trader?
Yeah, let's let's do it.
Let's do it.
But then also use GWM Funky Cats for sale on auto trader.
You can get a 2023 car.
With 10,000 miles on it for 9695
OK, how much will they need?
They seem to be about 10 grand.
They all seem to be about 10 grand.
I would have to have been 2532325
Let's have a quick look at the old.
Let's have a look in the auto archive,
which you can find at the magazine shop.com.
Have you been in the archive this week?
I have now.
I can't remember why I was I was looking for a bit of.
Some sort of.
Oh, it was just doing it on my own account.
I was trying to look up the race history of the BRMV 16,
which was the car that turned out for the first post war Grand Prix
with King and Queen, President and all that.
And it over and it blew up on the grid or something.
And, you know,
Farina or someone drove away in an alpha.
So a funky cat of how old is that?
Three years old.
I know there's one here for 10700 pounds.
9000 miles on it, it is two years old.
And it's nine.
Yeah, nine and a bit.
Was it nine? Oh, no, sorry, 10000 pounds.
The first edition or a funky cat in November,
2022 was 32000 pounds.
Oh, I mean, do you remember Felix Page
had our deputy editor had one as a long term or any.
I don't remember him spending a lot of time praising it.
I mean, it worked.
But it's fine. I mean, it's a car.
Yeah. But that's the thing.
Look, you could buy a three year old car with 10000 miles on it for ten grand.
That is a third of the price it was when it was new.
Yeah, amazing.
And GWM is still a going concern.
So you can still get it looked after.
It's got 100 and seventy horsepower.
It's got a 48 kilowatt hour battery
with an official range of 100 and ninety miles.
I mean, pretty good.
And probably a bit of bargaining, given that they're the the demand doesn't appear
to be strong for them for the second time.
And you could probably turn up with eight and a half, you know, reddies
and the the owner of the vendor might have to talk to you.
Yeah, might. Yeah, might consider might consider your options.
Boy, what was I yacking on about?
Oh, the A on the.
Yes. And so I mean, some of them will stick,
when they some of them will stick and some of them won't.
But they need I think they will need to give you a reason.
That's I think you put your finger on it already
because the aura seems to have gone off, gone, departed.
Just Baru. Shall we?
Let's do a little letter here from an anonymous person
who says about the BMW 330 CI that I was running a while ago.
He says, what a very desirable motor car.
I have a 2004 BMW 320 ES TD compact about 80,000 miles.
I bought it in 2007 with only 11,000 miles on it.
I've maintained it diligently and carefully changed the engine oil
and filter every year is a lovely thing to drive,
does 50 miles to the gallon at auto barn speeds or hacking around town.
Highly recommended. Yeah, good job.
Well, it is a good shout.
They they seem to be able to make things last.
Don't they BMW and they I mean, your cars are a great example.
They also make you one.
I mean, you know, when they've had a few some lived a few summers
because I thought that was outside.
You parked outside your gaff. It just looked lovely. Yeah.
I was I kept on looking at the bonnet height, which is so low,
you know, knowing that there's a beautiful six underneath it.
And also those flared arches.
But it was not they look good.
Yeah, I think also proper driving position and all that one.
Oh, yeah, yeah, completely.
And it still felt very modern and all that at 90,000 miles on it.
The drivetrain just felt spot on. Yeah, you wouldn't you wouldn't know
it was anything other than a new car, really. Yeah.
Richard Whitton says in the magazine, have you seen this one?
It's this week's letter of the week as we speak.
He says, I hope Steve Crockley has his best spectacles on
if he's going to be driving a lead motor C10 as his new long term test car.
He may also need similarly equipped passenger and to drive only on wide roads.
Taking a test drive in the C10 this week, I found the digital screen
all but unreadable with a very tiny font in light gray on a light blue background.
Many, many choices were on the far left hand side of the screen.
So impossible for me to see when we came to a narrow lane.
I asked the salesman how I could fold the mirrors.
He spent five minutes trying to do it on the screen and eventually gave up.
He turned to me and said, it's possible.
This model doesn't have that facility.
Anyway, I've been driving for 45 years and I've never needed to fold my mirrors.
After another three minutes, he did manage to find a further slider
that apparently had to be moved to allow the mirrors to be folded.
Yeah, this year when cap safety scoring will require physical controls
for certain essential functions in future.
Some cars today go far beyond simply inconvenient and into dangerous distraction.
Says Richard Whitton. Thank you, Richard.
Well, it's interesting, isn't it?
The the C10, my C10 departed for a couple of days
because the air con went wrong, you know, on that day that when,
when the basically Britain caught fire, the air con conked
and the people who sell lead motors here were concerned about it
because it's a new car on the market and they wanted to see what had gone wrong.
It was just a problem with a loose connection.
But the thing is it's just come back this morning and I'm glad to see it back.
I like it. It was a good car. It it I've got limited.
I can see where people are coming from when they get confused by the screenery.
But you soon learn it and the way you adjust the
mirrors is via the these two little buttons on the steering wheel,
which are once you learn what the protocols are, it's all right.
And I found the the only issue is is that there's quite a lot of stuff
that you need to disable to, you know, to stop being,
you know, interfered with while you're driving down the road.
But but I find the the screen stuff reasonably intuitive.
But I have got used to it and there is a routine.
The missus gets a bit cheesed off because we sit in the car,
start to commence, and there has to be a routine.
There has to be a button pressing routine.
We've talked about this before as the pre-flight checks.
I think you had called it before.
Yeah, I get I do sometimes get frustrated
that to Richard's point about the size of fonts and stuff like that on the screen.
Yeah, I wonder if they don't have enough old engineers on staff.
Yeah, who say no.
And and also why this stuff isn't adjustable, even in a something like a BMW i5
or whatever, you know, that where the temperature is adjustable via the touchscreen.
Yeah, it would be nice if that was bigger,
because when your hands moving around because you're driving anyway,
but also put a bigger font on it or at least the option like my like my Mac has.
If I just go down to the bottom of this slide bar and I just drag the bar bigger.
Yeah, I can change the size of the icons.
I can change the size of the font.
Yeah, make it easy or possible to do that.
I mean, I don't need to do it on the move.
I need to do it once.
Make it possible, at least, that I can make the icon the size that I want.
I reckon this is the stuff they'll do in the next generation.
You know how we've seen so many Chinese cars develop quickly.
Haven't we?
You know, the I think of the MG4 out of came quite a good car.
I had one as a long term, I enjoyed it, but it was a pretty austere interior.
And and and then, lo and behold, out comes the next model and all of the.
All of the things that you would point to as major foibles were gone fixed.
And by the way, there were some hard buttons and.
You know, I think you're right that that we need to be able to adjust fonts,
but I'll bet you we'll get to that.
Yeah, I mean, this doesn't doesn't help for the people,
generation of people who just bought a seat in.
But yeah, but I think it's coming.
Yeah, really.
I really think it is.
I was surprised how pleased I was to see this car come back.
It's a bit of a whale.
You know, it's a it's a like small cars and it's absolutely as big as I would
ever want a car to be because it four point eight.
OK. Funny, though, isn't that size?
You know, we I was thinking the other day four meter is small.
Five meter is very big.
Yeah. And it's strange, as we said, it's not that much between.
Yeah, I find another sort of secondary bit in my column this week
was about the size of the BMW M2. Oh, yeah.
I kind of still think is a small car. Yeah.
But actually, it's bigger than the M3 was in
2010 or 11, whenever that was, when we decided it was too big.
So we needed the one M coupé. Yeah.
And that was introduced, which has morphed into the M2
because it went from one M coupé.
Then there was the M2 competition, whatever it was.
And then there's this three series based M2. Yeah.
Which is now a big available with four wheel drive.
It's got 480 horsepower.
It's 1800 something kilos.
It's 1870 mill wide and it's 4.8 meters long.
So actually, we need another small BMW M car.
As you said, yeah, there isn't one.
No. Well, unless you use a from a transverse based platform,
yeah, which is not really.
We were out on the weekend in our Alpine A110
and some bloke went past us in an M2.
And I was talking to herself about, you know, I was saying that.
Isn't that another excellent, another small sporty car?
And of course, it looked like a bleeding block of flats.
Yes, I got a letter.
I haven't asked him if I can read it out, so I won't say who he is.
But he said, random question for you, as I imagine you,
I was experiencing both cars.
I've had my A110 for coming up to a year.
Fancy a change.
Will I be making a silly decision in an M, a latest M2?
Do you think I just fancy something new?
What are your thoughts? And I said, well, I quite like them.
You know, you should have a go.
He said, actually, I went out for a test drive today.
By far, the thing that resonates most is the size of it.
I was impressed with it as a car.
Didn't feel as large or heavy as the brochure would suggest.
But compared to the Alpine, it felt so bulky and cumbersome.
Drove the same route back and back in both cars.
And the Alpine is just a joy, even though the M2 is.
Yeah, even though the M2 is cheap.
But for me, I can't convince myself it's worth the swap.
Yeah, interesting.
He's stuck with it.
Well, if it is, it is so interesting, the Alpine does.
Even though it's it's not that light, really, you know,
we're talking about AXs that weighed 800 or something.
And the Alpine weighs 1,100.
But I bet there's 79 something on there and Citroen AX.
Yeah.
Do you reckon it starts with a seven?
Yeah, it might be.
Oh, let's go.
Certainly. Anyway, sorry, you carry on while I look this up.
Well, it's just.
It's it does feel small and you and you.
I just love the way you sit in the center of that car as well.
You know, it if it goes up and if it if it pitches, you know,
you're in the middle of it, you're in a fulcrum.
Yeah.
So you just never seem to get displaced much in the cars.
Yeah.
Now, according to the internet, but it depends how you wake up.
Wait, because it is a bit different from here and there and the other.
Yeah, depending.
And, you know, they've they've weighed them differently over time,
depending on how much fluids they've got in them and things like that.
And they call them curb weights or not curb weights.
And these days, you add 75 kilos for various bits and bobs.
Anyway, the AX was very economical, largely because of its excellent aerodynamics
for this class of car, drag coefficient of 0.31.
And the very light curb weight of for the base version, 640 kilograms.
God, how amazing.
That's wild.
It's kind of big, fat motorcycle, isn't it?
Three and a half meters long.
Yeah, our yeah, three and a half meters long, one point five meters wide,
1300 mil tall and tiny tires.
So that, you know, that frontal area problem with that cars with fat tires have.
Yeah.
You know, it's often reflected in the CD, isn't it?
So if you've got your 155 tires or whatever they are, what I think.
Oh, man, cleaves through the air.
I mean, you see them now and again, don't you, in Southern Europe?
And they still look great, I think.
Anyway, that brings us to the end of this weekend's bonus pod.
Steve and I will be back on Wednesday with our normal podcast,
but it's not quite a normal podcast because we're going to be talking
about the auto car rewards, which is brought to you in partnership with Siemens.
That is going to happen on Tuesday night next week.
And all of the winners and all the stories about all the cars will be
in the magazine and online on Wednesday, the 10th of June.
Don't miss it, as they say. Stay tuned, as they say.
We'll talk about the winners, I think the car winners on Wednesday,
but then we'll talk to some of the people.
Winners on Tuesday night.
And then we'll talk about that the week after.
They'll have interesting things to say, I think.
Yeah. Thanks, mate.
See you soon. See you Wednesday.
About this episode
Steve and Matt kick off with listener letters: one swaps from a BMW i3-S to a Renault 5 and praises the value, but rips into Renault’s app and finance IT for wrong delivery status. EV and small-car debates follow, including pairing an EV with a Lotus Elise and discussing charging speed and range. The show then ranges across niche used-car finds, naming/branding confusion, and touchscreen and safety-scoring gripes—ending with more listener ownership stories and spec talk.
In this bonus episode of the Autocar podcast, Steve Cropley and Matt Prior have your correspondence. What four-metre long car is special enough for our listener? Will the AC Cobra Coupe be viable? What is Ford's strategy?
There's much more besides too, as our pair basically randomly run off at the mouth about cars. But do give it a listen. And give the magazine a read, too; there's a great listener offer if you click the link here.
