Less meh - 16 September 2025

Welcome to The Motoring Podcast, your weekly discussion of motoring news. This episode 649

on Tuesday the 16th of September 2025. Hello, I'm Alan.

Hello, I'm Andrew. And this week you'll hear about the continued fallout from JLR's woes.

In the new car news, you'll find out what happened in Munich. And in points of interest,

you hear how perhaps those visiting Scotland need to learn about tea.

But first, we leap into follow-up, and it is to do with JLR. The fallout continues,

as we said last week, as we said the week before. There is no quick end to this, everybody. And

anyone suggesting otherwise, whether it's from the company or outside, is completely

delusional. And it appears that reality is beginning to hit home, even within JLR

themselves, as they have come out just today with an announcement that is the 16th of September,

with an announcement saying that they won't restart until at least the 24th of September at

the earliest. Honestly, I think at best they might have a little bit of partial.

They are not going to be up and running. Don't forget again, this is the same

type of hack that hit M&S that hit co-op. These companies did not bounce back

within a couple of weeks. These companies bounced back in months.

And there's a much less complex business to bounce back with. Retail isn't exactly simple,

but it's much, much easier than manufacturing and global manufacturing as well. This is a

serious thing that's happened to JLR. And I'm not even sure that

I don't think they're letting on just how serious it actually is. And those of us who

deal with this kind of stuff. I'm not sure they're in the stage of acceptance of how serious this is.

Although this week and in this statement, they do appear to be gaining some awareness.

And the language they are using is much more contrite. And I am pleased to see that because

previously it's been quite bullish, quite know everything's fine. No, no data taken, nothing,

nothing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And now this time it's like, we're really sorry for all

those affected because we have to remember JLR is one of the largest, if not the largest OEM

employer in the UK, but also supplier wise, it is the largest in the UK. So there are hundreds

of thousands of people affected by this. And that has caused some politicians as well as the

unions to call on the government to give financial support to JLR and their suppliers. Now I personally

difficult, I do not want anyone associated with JLR, whether it's in the supply chain or whether

it's working for them directly to be affected in any way, because of JLR's own mistake. And

let's be honest, it is their own mistake. Or that their IT suppliers mistake as well. Let's not

pretend it's all in house because I'm sure it isn't. No, no, of course, but they have responsibility

for this issue. Yes. And I reckon they're going to have a very hard time getting something from

their insurers because this was a known issue. Yeah. They are going to have to demonstrate

really very well that they were taking steps to avoid this. And that maybe because they are a

multinational complex organization, things did not happen overnight. They've had six months,

they've been worn for six months. But that's a different matter. You and I both know large

multinational companies, very complex beasts, it is very difficult to roll something out,

even quickly is like 18 months. But it kind of bugs me that the big organizations like this

feel that they're in a position where they can just go and ask for taxpayer money and get it.

More taxpayers money. Yeah. In the case of JLR. And I'd say the same in the case of Nissan as

well. So please don't think this is JLR. This is me picking on them. It just bugs me.

I'm not on board with why should we be bailing out their own mistake.

But like I said, and just to reiterate in case anybody missed it, I don't want anyone who is

nothing to do with the decision making to be affected by bad decisions made by the company.

It's one of those greater good challenges, isn't it? Yeah. Because you don't want,

you know, so if somebody works for a supplier who's been working good faith,

who's worked really hard and delivering exactly as they should and all of that stuff,

then it sucks that they're the ones who will suffer. And I will bet you that the people

at the top of JLR will suffer very little indeed. They'll still have fine big salaries coming in.

What I hope comes out of this, not just for JLR, but for the car industry is they learn

some humility and they learn that they do not know the answer to things and that they actually

do need to listen to experts and they do need to listen to departments that aren't necessarily

the ones who are driving a future vision. They're not the sexy ones. I know I'm a dreamer.

I know I'm optimistic and I in this front and you and I have both been in enough companies

where this will never, ever happen. How much easier would it make our jobs? Exactly. Well,

I might not have a job going in and cleaning up after.

It'll make my job much easier, it'll be a bit harder for you guys.

Anyway, there will be links in the show notes to one article from AutoCard describing

what the problems are. There will also be, if you happen to be an AutoCard business

subscriber, there will be an article going into further detail about how JLR are losing up to,

it is alleged, £5 million per day, hence why there is the call for helping with furlough

and such things. So do check out the links in the show notes as ever.

But if they pay it back, if they drill. Yeah, yeah.

Right, new news. MG, it's good new, no it isn't. No, it's not. The current generation of MG3 has

been through the Euro end cap crash test and it has not done great. I mean, overall it's done fine

because it has lots of active safety systems. But actually when it comes to the passive safety

of what happens when something does actually crash, then it is a little bit worrying that the

seat latching mechanism failed causing the driver's seat to twist during the impact.

What's something that's never happened in 28 years of testing?

Yes, so it was a poor score for protection of the driver's right femur. As you say,

Euro end cap said it has never witnessed a failure of this kind. It's 28 years of crash

testing. The good news here is that MG has said, okay, we're going to do some design changes

and we're going to reinforce all that latching mechanism. They promised that in August and that's

come through. But Euro end cap also found that the driver's head could bottom out through the

airbag. In other words, the face firework that has already bruised the heck out of you in front

of your face wasn't actually enough to stop you then headbutting the steering wheel.

The head's protection is only adequate. If it doesn't do the job it's meant to do,

how is that adequate? I don't know. I am merely repeating what's here. I think that's

practical. I think this whole situation, as you outlined it at the beginning, underlines

a large problem with the scoring. This is something that's been going on for many years that we've

talked about now. If you are so focused on active and digital safety, irrespective of whether it

works on the public road or not, and you still give something a good enough score when it fails

basic infrastructure safety, that should not happen. Exactly. Both of those changes

to dial back a little bit and then I will accelerate through what Andrew just said.

The seat and airbag changes by way won't be applied to any threes that have already been delivered,

as it is. If you've got an early one... Don't crush.

Good luck. Good luck. That said, Eurorank has said it's reported the

faults to type approval authorities so that they can decide whether or not to issue a recall.

Think those crossed they do. Hopefully they do, actually.

Spokesman for MG Motor UK told AutoCar, and this neatly sums up, I think, and reiterates

what Andrew said, based upon a specific concern ranging the Euro NCAP test regarding a mechanism

in the driver's seat which did not affect the overall safety rating. It did not affect

the overall safety rating. Something is wrong with this test, people.

Achieved by the MG3 Hybrid Plus, MG is proactively investigating this and working closely with

the relevant authorities. Please do fix it and fix it on the ones that have already

been sold and are out there. That just seems the only reasonable thing to be doing.

Just feels like it's a basic, easy win.

It is. Well, if you think about it, do you remember a similar thing? Was it the

Suzuki Slario when the AutoCar testing discovered that you could brake the pedal under hard braking?

It was Lewis Kingston who actually did it. Suzuki almost immediately put a stop sale on them

and then went back and replaced the pedals across every single one that had been sold in the UK.

Because that's what a grown-up company does.

It is. It values its existing customers because it hopes for them to be continuing customers.

Yeah, totally. Speaking of which, new smaller, affordable, possibly less safe cars, Andrew?

Possibly, possibly, possibly. Well, last Friday the EU Commission met with the European car industry

on an annual event that they do, depending on where the massive car show is or the motor show

is this time it was in Munich, more on that, in the second part of the show. However,

because the car industry was hoping and was making very loud noises about,

could you push back the 2035 Ice Band, please? Because we're struggling with that.

But also there's this other thing that we'd like to do, which is bring in a small

car class, a bit like the K car from Japan. Could you do that?

However, President Ursula von De Leyen has said, no, we are sticking with the 2035,

although they are going to review how that happens between now and then,

because they have made some adjustments in flexibility on how that stuff works

previously, but they are dead set on 2035. And then she has made very clear that electric vehicles

are the future. But she then did say, we quite like the sound of this sort of K car class,

because we want something that is electric, we want some for environmental is what they

talked about it. So electric, they want something that's affordable, because even the

EU politicians have got it through their skulls that people don't have a ton of money.

When you look at the days here is number one or two every month in Europe,

yeah, that should set off alarm bells across the continent that people don't have tons of cash.

So therefore they are looking for affordable vehicles that they can get hold of.

That's not to say that they should doesn't actually have other

qualities that you want, by the way, yes, it's just that they do it at a price point that is very

attractive to many. And it's also the size wise of things because that is increasingly

becoming an issue on our smaller roads in Britain, Europe is we do not have these massive wide

freeways going through cities. We have smaller, smaller roads because we have something called

history. And we have based our cities built around history and how we used to get around

hundreds of years ago. Americans cannot understand this simple concept.

But I'm really excited if we can, if we if there is going to be a sort of K car thing.

I'm really excited by that about what can be achieved, because it's also talking about

the efficiency of a vehicle. And we've how long have we banged on about and we know

friend of the show near Khan. I hope you have got your crayons very sharp near

because it sounds like you're going to need them.

This is a perfect near project.

Yes, absolutely. Can you can you reshape the European car industry for us, please?

Don't worry, you've got a couple of weeks.

And we are on board what he says is like, let's go for efficiencies, go for lightness,

let's go for because if it's lighter, the positives are so much more because

if it hits something else, or a or a vulnerable road user is so much better than three tons of

it's so much less bad, less less bad, it's not better.

Yeah, sorry. It's three tons of SUV or a van or something like that, obviously,

because physics, it still is a thing. I'm sorry to break it to everybody.

You just wants to ban all the SUVs, but it's not packaging is an issue.

Yeah.

Anyway, e-car is what Ursula van der Leyen wants to call it for the whole environmental,

economical and European-ness of it. So you can bet that European supply chain will be somewhere in

the package that's proposed as and when.

Oh, they demand it must be built in Europe. She's already made it clear it must be built in

Europe. Yeah, because they've realized they need to protect the European car industry.

Everybody else is right from protectionism and to be honest, the EU has always been

right from protectionism. It's just we in the UK have sucked at it.

Yes. Talking about sucking at things, do you want to talk about Volkswagen because,

oh boy.

I've also been having a tough go of it.

Only for the last 10 years, Alan.

I know. There's all sorts of reasons about serious cash issues and all sorts of stuff

like that, but there's nothing to substantiate those really.

Well, apart from the 32 billion plus dollars they had to have shelled out because of

the diesel gate and then and then and then and then.

Yeah, ID.Golf. I mean, I don't think the naming is possibly part of the challenge.

The ID.Golf and the ID.Rock, which is an electric version of a Golf and an electric

version of a Turok have been delayed. The Golf was originally meant to come out in

2028. It's been postponed to 2029 and the T-Rock was supposed to come out in 2029.

That's been postponed to 2030. That's really quite significant because those are very,

very important models for Volkswagen.

Oh, monstrosly.

Globally, monstrosly important.

Yeah.

At the same time, they have their own battery subsidiary called Powerco.

They would really, really like a financially strong partner.

Yes.

Want it? Partner in electric battery subsidiary must be strong and handsome and preferably not

on their knees.

So, yes, there's lots of that kind of thing coming along.

Now they're going to flip it around.

The ID.Rock will come first in summer 2030.

That will be the debut of a new SSP platform they're calling it.

And then the ID.Golf will come along a little bit later.

There's some other models shifting like ID.3s and Cooper Borns moving from

Svickau to Wolfsburg to Breach the Gap and all sorts of things like that.

But there's basically an awful lot of reshuffling of the cards going on at Volkswagen.

Yeah. We have said for many, many years, we don't understand how they have continued to

operate apparently.

I think that's caught up with them.

With the face that they have and unfortunately the shift in strategy that they made to go

to the ID sub-brand.

It was super hurried.

Yeah. It was so hurried that it never had a chance to succeed in the way that

they needed it to or one would expect from Volkswagen.

It was not as planned out and given the time to mature.

Yeah. I keep pointing this out really is that the IDs, certainly the early IDs,

which caused and created a reputation for the IDs.

It wasn't that they were bad.

It's just that they weren't good.

And there were some really nitpicky things, cost saving things, which really peeved

owners and potential owners.

Stuff like you only get two window switches and another bot to decide whether those window

switches work the back or the front.

Stuff like that.

Just simple, simple things.

It's just really annoyed customers.

Well, not illuminating them.

Not illuminating the temperature thing at the bottom slide.

That was so silly.

It was that kind of thing.

The factual fundamental bones of the vehicles is pretty good.

Shall we move on to something a bit chirpier?

Yes, I will.

I will.

Now, we've held on to this story for quite a while because we just haven't had

the space in the show.

But this is back from-

But we've always liked it.

Yes, we have.

So that's why-

It's about because we like it.

It's back from the 29th of July and is Motoring Research article linked in the

show notes that is titled,

BMW invests one million in EV chargers at UK national parks.

They have installed up to 135 charging points in the national parks across Britain.

And we like this so much because whilst one could perhaps suggest that this is a

cynical marketing ploy,

if it is the fact that it is putting out electric charging points in quite

remote areas, because let's not forget if it's a national park,

it's a remote area.

Places that it's hard to put them.

Yes, it's still a good thing.

Okay.

Not only that, but they have also invested in other projects that are to do with

national parks that aren't anything to do with sticking in a charge point

that they can go, oh, look, we've put more chargers or something like that on some

advert or marketing blurb.

They haven't done that.

They've done it in other parts of the national parks that help the national parks

be more for us and be more enjoyable, more accessible, be more educational,

because there's some stuff that's to do with the kids and getting them on board

and things like that.

We've kept this on board because we think that's a really good initiative

and we hope more manufacturers actually do this sort of thing across the country

in areas that are tricky to get to.

BMW could have spent this million pounds on a television advert

or online advertising or whatever else.

We only cost about £50,000 an episode, so it's okay.

They could have saved some money.

Yeah, yeah, if you want to do that.

But instead of that, they've done something which is actually meaningful

and will have a lasting legacy, not just the new chargers, but just generally

club pages and things like that.

Not only that, this has saved us having to look at their fungly EVs on TV and on the internet.

So there's another way for the rest of it.

Absolutely.

And though it's cynical though that we both are and we really are,

we do applaud this and well done BMW.

Oh yeah.

No, this is genuinely...

Just to show that we do acknowledge when somebody does something good,

even if we could choose to be cynical about why they did it,

we are still choosing to promote this and go well done.

We get annoyed when all we hear is us moaning, by the way.

And I'm sure it's the same for those of you out there.

We just don't want to be non-stop moaning.

Yeah.

Yay.

Good thing.

Well, do you want to do another good thing?

Yeah.

Falkirk based Alexander Dennis, the bus manufacturing company,

they have introduced a repairing service for its Enviro 400 diesel buses.

Now, you probably don't know what an Enviro 400 diesel bus is.

No.

I could not tell you the name either.

But you'd recognize one if you saw it.

It's a relatively modern double deck of buses that we see around all sorts of towns and cities

in the UK and sometimes going between the towns and cities in the UK.

Their new initiative called AD Repower, which must have taken a whole minutes to come up,

is going to actually start running out proper trials in 2026.

The idea is that they're going to have essentially a plug and play new drive

trade for these buses.

So you'll be able to whip out the diesel-y bits of an existing bus and stick in a motor

and some batteries in the place that the diesel-y bits have come out of.

And voila, for only a mere rumored £200,000, you now have an electric bus.

If you think £200,000 sounds a lot, that's nothing compared to how much new bus costs,

whether electric or otherwise.

It has a number of benefits, meaning that, first of all, operators then get essentially a new bus.

The mostly a new thing, sure, brakes and suspension bushes and stuff like that will probably need

to be updated.

They get a system which they can fit themselves.

They buy it and are much in the way that bus depots quite often just swap engines

between buses.

They'll be able to just swap these straight in to existing buses as part of a maintenance cycle.

I once have done that, the operators, of course, get all the benefits,

all the tax benefits of having an electric vehicle.

They end up with the ability to operate them in more places because this is an electric vehicle

and loads and loads of other benefits like that to operability and to just generally

being able to deploy their buses.

And buses regularly get engine swapped anyway.

So this is nothing new really.

It's kind of cool.

As I'm saying, it's actually the first to do this.

They're big competitor rate bus introduced new power about a year ago,

which is a similar product, a similar idea.

So let's see what happens with these.

Well, I think that means we've made it to the end of the first part.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, Andrew.

That is the end of the first part, which means this is guilt minute,

the quick break in the show where we ask for a tad of financial support,

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I just want to take a small moment to also thank new patrons

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Thank you very much.

Thank you all, you're lovely.

Right, now on to, well, for new new carnies,

we're going to do the Munich Motor Show.

There wasn't enough really to do a special edition

because we toyed with the idea and then life became difficult.

Yeah, sorry.

In a variety of ways,

which meant that it really wasn't going to happen anyway.

But then when we investigated it,

we'd have struggled to have made a half an hour show, I think.

I think so, to be honest.

Sounds terrible, doesn't it?

But we've sort of introduced so much as we go along.

It's a bit meh, honestly.

Well, I'm less meh than Andrew's,

but that's pretty much part of the course.

Well, that's just the usual, isn't it?

It's a bit.

So what we've got in front of me anyway

is a motor research summary coverage.

Yeah.

And I think what we're going to do is

kind of click through their slideshow

and be variously abusive as we go.

Do you know what?

For those of you who might have the video,

why don't I just share this window?

People do sometimes say,

wouldn't it be nice if you could do that?

And so for a change, let's do it.

So as a treat to the patrons of a certain level?

Yes.

There we are.

Right.

The biggest treat of all was that they only

get to see a little bit of our faces

and form more of a shared screen.

Where's the start?

Well, this starts with BMW iX3.

Sorry, I thought that was the mocha.

No.

Okay.

I see it, yes.

The iX3 that they've shown has a sort of

rabbit-y-beaver grille, which is sort of

inset into, yes, a rather mocha and voxel-like visor.

What's a newer classa, isn't it?

Newer classa look.

Yeah, that's a new platform,

but of course it's named over the classic.

So they've gone for a smaller grille, which we like

because the previous design philosophy

was very much here's a grille with a car attached.

It's mercifully not like an XM, okay?

The rest of it is kind of...

Mer.

I see it, but I wish there were eight inches less height.

With eight inches less height, this would be a really

quite good looking.

Yeah, just it's bland.

It is on it.

Yes, indeed.

It's just, yeah.

I mean, I mean, it's not full of slashes and swoops

and creases and I applaud that, but it's so beige.

But it's all illuminated, Andrew.

Oh, great.

They've illuminated the right grille.

Lovely, lovely.

And the places where you used to get chrome

and natural shininess, you get lots of

illuminators.

Smashing.

Wonderful.

It's, I mean, let's face it, it's better than some of

BMW's recent design language.

I'm sure it will be a lovely thing to drive.

I'm sure it will be incredibly economical.

And I'm sure the dials will drive you insane.

Yeah, they will, but it just aesthetically,

it is a bit of a dog's dinner.

The idea is nice, but I think what's actually

had to come out in the realities of packaging

is have really sort of trashed it.

It feels like they've gone so far

in the other direction to how they've been recently

that they've taken out all personality.

I think they started doing that a while ago.

I say that as someone whose father has bought BMW

since the early 1980s, okay.

Loads of people my age want to own a BMW,

I don't because it's what my dime drove

in the way that many of you don't want

fords or voxels, sir.

Rotom shade.

My word.

No, I'm not, sorry.

That's, it's, it's one of those that you see.

No, no.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for your peasantry, people.

Don't take that the wrong way.

Click on to the next one for our patrons,

because I think...

Do you want the motor rad?

I'm going to talk about the motor rad,

which is a electric scooter,

which harks back to the covered scooter

that they had back in the early 2000s,

which was...

The C1, mate, the C1.

Tudor, Adam Tudolane was,

before I left Twitter,

he was refurbishing and doing back up one of those

as a remarkable project.

Yeah, this is very cool.

Yeah, and this is along those lines,

but it's a bit more tactical

because it's not got a roof

and it's got top mounted spots and things.

But I love the idea that they haven't forgotten that

and it is an option

and an idea,

because I do believe personal mobility

in a small scale is a way we need to go.

That is not a step backwards, I don't feel.

No, on BMW, because of course,

they've got a motorcycle side as well,

which we never talk about because we're a car show,

then that sort of all-round mobility

is part of their heritage.

I always say I like it whenever they roll out

some of these concepts

because they kind of make it through,

but I love the fact it's more of a sort of

Dakar scooter.

That's really what it is.

I mean, it has got a literal roll cage

and it has got top mounted spots.

So I'm not sure what market they think they're putting this into.

I'm not sure those top mounted spots

are going to make it to production,

whatever they're doing,

but I do think it is a cool electric scooter.

Yeah, I think of the aerodynamics.

Yeah, there's a couple of collabs from Mini,

but I think they're mostly irrelevant to be honest.

It's just having something for the show, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah, I'd say so.

The next important thing, of course,

is that we're talking about the ID.Golf and the ID.Rock,

because I hate myself every time I say those.

There is the ID.Polo, however,

which isn't going to be the ID.2.

It's been shown in a kind of

camouflaged way as sort of art cars.

It's polo. It's electric. It's polo-sized.

I think if you sort of squint and sit back

and try to look your way through the camo,

I think it's going to be quite a handsome,

good-looking little car to be honest.

There's also showed a GTI version as well,

with some nice wheels,

and again, there's some wraps,

so we don't really know what it looks like,

but again, it's looking to come through

in the summer of 2026,

so we've got some really good little

feel-good cars coming through.

Other thing they show is the ID.Cross concept.

If you see that in silhouette,

if you see that on side profile,

you go, oh, look, the Citroen Aircross.

It is, because it's even got the bits on the back.

It might as well be called the ID.C3 Aircross concept.

Yeah, it's pretty homogenous.

On the other hand, the same base,

the Cupra Revalve is going to be the one of the Spanish versions,

sportier version of the ID.Polo.

We have another version to come along,

and Skoda will show you off the epic.

Well, hang on before you move to that,

because obviously, when we do this show,

we've got several,

typically for something like the Minio Comercio,

we've got several different articles

that we look at to give us a broad view of this.

And we've not included it in the show notes,

but you can find it yourself.

But if you look at the AutoCar article

that is all the new cars at the 2025 Munich Motor Show,

the one thing I will say is that the Cupra Tindeya concept

is very much, and no one else is looking at this at the moment.

I'm sorry, Patriots, on this one.

I should have thought about this before.

I'm sorry, if I'd known,

I would have made sure I'd have had this.

Yeah, that's my bad.

However, for as much as I have just attacked BMW

for previously having lots of swoops, slashes, creases in their car,

this thing is the epitome of swoops, slashes, creases,

unnecessary lines, and extravagant design in a mad way.

I think it looks fabulous, because I think it's a concept.

So it's slide six, by the way, as you're going through.

And I think it just looks ridiculous,

but it does remind me of some of the cars

that Cooper have had previously.

It's a little bit out there, but it is caught people's imaginations.

And I think this is just a more expressive version of that

that wouldn't necessarily make it to the road in that format.

It's expressing itself in the form of a more interesting Lamborghini Urus,

is what it's doing.

Well, it's not using the famous Volkswagen door handle,

because it's only a concept.

Yes, because it's only because it's a concept.

But I just wanted to mention it, because I thought it was one of the few very

interesting cars, because it was a bit out there.

I felt so much of the Munich Motor Show was very safe.

There's a lot of flavours of Volkswagen.

It's in Germany, what do you expect?

That's going to happen.

And I understand that, and I'm not naive.

But so many of the other things that came across like a lot of the...

We're not going to mention most of the Chinese cars that are in the link in the show notes,

but do flick through the slideshow to check them out.

There's an awful lot of AI designs and car.

I was going to say, and you'll just check them out and click through them very quickly,

because they're all just so generic.

They're very much, oh, Chinese SUV styling.

There we go, it's electric as well.

And it's almost become a design language in itself.

It's like a niche now, isn't it?

But you're about to go onto it, but I don't think Skoda are doing that.

No, I like the Skodas.

And I generally like the Skodas right the way across the board,

because they are less of that.

As you put it, AI design language, they're less generic.

They're a bit more interesting.

And we're being really harsh on Chinese brands.

Some of the Chinese brands we don't get here like Zika and stuff aren't doing that.

They are doing the interesting design language.

But what we're getting from BYD, what we're getting from GWM and these people is,

as you say, that sort of genericism.

There's nothing wrong with them.

They are perfectly good cars.

They will get you from A to B with a minimum of fast, one lot of comfort,

and they're perfectly well built.

They're fine.

But they're just about as interesting as a food mix.

Whereas I like the way that Skoda have one of the few car companies that seem to have played

with the front end in an interesting way rather than just blank off a grill or something like that.

They've actually put different materials or different colors through it.

And it just looks like someone's given it some thought rather than they've gone,

oh, hang on, we forgot about the grill.

What do we do?

And that makes me feel bad about what we've just said about the GW,

where they actually went to the effort of doing something different.

Yeah, yeah.

Unlike, I mean, we'll see the Mercedes and just a click or two.

Let's not even mention the Renault Clio because it's pretty ugly.

Just awful.

Andrew doesn't like the Marker GSE, so I'm not allowed to talk about it.

But the GLC with EQ technology, one, I hate the name, and two, what is that?

Alan, what they've done is they've taken an ICE GLC because doing something different

scares buyers.

This is the thought process.

I know.

Which is true because Mercedes tried to do something different.

Some of that is true.

Yeah, but it was poorly executed as well, let's be fair.

And to show it's electric, they have decided that they will light the entire grill up.

And you said, if that doesn't do happy little animations, I'm going to be really

disappointed.

I mean, I think it's idiots.

But I want some show from that.

If you're going to do that, at least, I mean, that would be like Faraday Future

and having something with motion or something equally pretentious.

But I don't want that on the front of a car because it's going to put off whoever's in

front or someone who's driving towards it.

No, but don't worry about that because inside there's a floating hyper screen

which can turn itself into a 99.3 inch display.

So you're going to be so distracted that you're not going to be able to tell

people coming towards you and you're laying are distracted as well.

Yes, quite, quite.

Volvo brought the ES90, which is allegedly a saloon, although it seems to be a sort of

crossover really considering how much metal is on the side of it.

Because they've got history of the EX, EX70 and stuff like that.

It's a saloon like a Paul Star 3.

Why did they not put plastic cladding on the wheel arches and things like that to go?

Look, it's a bit jacked up.

You could have an EXC70, couldn't you?

I don't know.

We've discussed Volvo lately.

I'm just worried about them.

So worried.

At the minute Volvo seems to have lost its way.

Yeah, and then if you do click through, continue to click through the

Merchant Research article, there is a shed load, as we just said before,

of Chinese vehicles that were brought across.

Some are more interesting than others.

Your mileage may vary.

Leap motor, though, they revealed the B05, which is a hatchback.

However, you have no chance of looking inside it because they blacked out the windows

and made sure the doors couldn't be opened.

I think they'd prefer you called it a B05 as opposed to a B05.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, that's probably right.

It's apparently sized to rival the VW ID3 type.

We have no idea about details of specs or anything like that.

And I'm not sure that Leap Motor know any ideas about the specs the way that they have.

Made sure no one could see inside it.

Slightly surprised at that, given it's yet another competitor in the Stellantis

pool of EVs and stuff sold by Stellantis dealer.

Also in the show notes, because we've come to an end of Munich,

like we said, there was not enough for a full special edition.

There will be a link to a video from Auto Didact who was at the show and he managed

to interview several designers from various manufacturers, as well as those who teach design

in Germany.

And he gives an interesting perspective on vehicles, but also he talks positively and

so do others about the, because we mentioned this last week in New New Car News,

the Audi Concept C that we just didn't get really.

But many people are very happy about it.

I wonder though whether people are happy about it because

it was a return to a more mature design.

And if they look back on it again in six to 12 months, they'll go.

It was whatever.

But at least it wasn't what they were doing before.

Yeah.

Anyway, should we move into points of interest?

Yes, let's.

As ever with points of interest, we start off with Lunchtime Read.

This week's Lunchtime Read is actually from LinkedIn.

I'm so sorry, everyone.

It's actually a piece on LinkedIn written by Mark Smith, editor, writer,

motoring journalist and presenter and generally person, talking about going to buy a car from

a dealership.

And he's pointed out that he's bought one car from a dealership in the last 25 years

of being a motoring journalist and that they had to go back and buy another car

from a dealership recently.

Well, he's wanted to go buy a car from a dealership recently.

And so he's written a piece called Why All Car Journalists Should Go Mystery Shopping?

Because I think he was a little bit taken aback in many ways by the fact that in some

aspects car dealerships have not moved on a lot in that 25 years.

No, some of the cliches and some of the what you hear and you go, oh,

they can't be that bad.

You can't, it can't be that bad.

It's not like that.

And having experienced a few elements of this myself,

I was totally on board with what he wrote and obviously it's linked in the show notes.

And so do go read it.

But it is lucky dip, frankly, when you go out there and you try and get a car.

Yeah.

And there's a lot of people, the comments are quite interesting.

There's quite a lot from other motoring journalists and stuff.

And people pointing out that the small independents are generally better.

And to be fair to him, also Mark does not name the bad names.

He doesn't know.

He deliberately does not.

It's a really well and fairly written and praises give what praises do and all these sorts of things.

Please don't take it some kind of...

It's absolutely opposite of some kind of hit piece on car dealerships.

It's not.

It's an interesting read and it's not some kind of hit piece or anything like that.

No, no, no.

List of the week.

Yes, list of the week is from Top Gear and it is titled Hall of Fame Slash Shame.

33 of Alfa Romeo's greatest hits and misses.

Now, I know normally we do not put a worst of list out there.

And I don't think this is a worst of list.

This is just...

This is primarily the love of Alfa Romeo,

but acknowledging that they've not always been successful.

I prefer to see this as generally a list of some of the most interesting Alpha

Romeo's for whatever reason.

Yes, I like that as well.

Bearing that in mind then, Alan, you go first.

Oh, it's so difficult.

It's 33 here.

And the reason I say the most interesting ones is because I have a real soft spot

for a lot of the ones which are marked miss and I would own one.

For example, on Alpha 75, I would own.

That's not my choice because my choice overall, if somebody said,

Alan, go out, pick an Alfa Romeo that you would want to own and enjoy,

I would choose an Alpha Sz.

Okay.

That's the 1989 in Monster 1.

It's like a brutalist car design with its six-up square headlamps.

I love the front end.

I have always struggled with the rest of the car.

No, love it.

I mean, it's essentially a 75 underneath.

I know I'm in the minority here because if anybody mentions it,

particularly crayon-wielding people, then it's just, no, it's absolutely fabulous.

And cool.

I love how it's unapologetic.

It is unapologetic in how it is.

And like I say, if I just look straight on at the front end, I love that vision that it gives.

But after that, I sort of go, that's a bit.

What about you then?

So I'm going to be rude about your choice.

Okay.

You can just scroll just a fraction down to the 155 V6 Ti,

which is the touring car 155 because, oh my word.

I mean, that's...

It's not a lot less brutal, is it?

Come on.

No, but it's a bit better resolved, I would argue.

I would disagree with the word resolved.

If you could make that road legal, I'd be very happy.

The one for...

I thought the 155 was cool.

I mean, I think you have to be...

There's a kind of rumor with these things that you have to be my kind of shape anyway,

that supposedly I'm the right shape.

Or wasn't it just things are offset and stuff like that as well?

It's a little bit of that, but also the fact that you need to weave stubby legs

along back and long arms and that pretty much fits me.

It is a wonderful list.

It's a lovely reminder of where Alfa Romeo has come from.

And it's also nice to go back in time before I was gray to look at...

So that's a long time ago, everybody, to look at the DTM Alpha 155.

Yes, anytime.

Happily look and listen to that.

Anyway, Alan, right.

Do you want to take us now to Scotland

and how some people need to learn how to take their tea?

Well, yeah, I found this while I was looking on the STV news, to be honest.

I found this story about whether I'm asking whether or not tourists should put a tea plate

on cars when driving.

And it says when driving in Scotland.

It's not all tourists though.

It's not all tourists.

Really, it's aimed at people with an experience of driving on the left-hand side of the road

or driving right-hand drive cars.

Somebody's come up with the idea, well, you could sell this kind of magnetic

or this just sticky tourist plate that you could put on so that you could just

highlight to people that maybe they should just...

You're maybe not as familiar with driving on the correct side of the road as us natives.

Take care near this person.

It's a bit like the P sign that some people use after they've just passed their test.

And it's one of those things where you think, oh, all right.

And they think, well, actually, is that a good idea?

And they think, well, it's downside to it.

Well, the downside is it makes it, everybody's aware you're a tourist,

so they thought you probably got valuables and a car and they can break in.

And all sorts of nasty people from south of the border.

Think of that sort of thing immediately, whereas on the other hand,

those of us who live around the A9 and go, oh, goodness me, another one.

Another one, great.

Another one if I can rob it.

Another one.

No, because we don't do that because we're nice.

We just go, oh, another idiot that's going to sit at 30th and 60th road,

when someone must actually live here and actually to get places and reasonable time

and stuff.

The hills are very pretty, but please, can we stop looking at them and just concentrate on driving?

Yes, there are labors that you can stop and admire the views.

You see, when there's a big queue behind you, pull over, goodness sake.

Passing places are for your side of the road, too.

Italian camper van drivers.

Andrew has been in the car with me in situations such as this and he's aware how it goes.

Soon we'll be starting the personal helicopter podcast, because that's what Alan's going to need.

All flying car thing is ridiculous until you are stuck in a queue

behind and four Italian campers doing 30 miles an hour.

Yes.

There are pros and cons for this.

I can see how the idea came up.

However, when it did, no one in the group of people who asked it went, yeah, but...

But the thing is, right, if you've not slept your way around the north of Scotland,

you'll appreciate that a lot of people are ready as it is.

Stick signs in the back going, we're sorry, we're American or we're German

and this is a rental and we're not used to this.

So really it's replacing those.

I'm 50-50 on it.

If it makes people feel a little better, if it gives us a sort of consistent way of going,

oh gee, let's get...

Does it not just give you an idea, oh right, I need to bully this person completely?

Be honest, Alan.

Yes, a little bit, okay.

Okay, yes.

Maybe I'm being too...

Yes, I'm clearly being too cynical.

It will be interesting to hear people...

I do think there should be rules.

Discuss this and actually come up with reasons why it is good apart from,

oh well, at least we know type thing.

You know, what benefits will it actually bring?

I'm not sure it will bring much benefit on top of people will know.

Yeah.

Is that enough, though?

Is that enough?

It actually is.

Okay.

Don't forget everyone, but between now and next week,

give us any feedback and share your thoughts on the show at motoringpodcast.com on Blue Sky,

at Motoring Podcasts on Instagram and Facebook,

and on the contact page at www.motoringpodcast.com, the hub of all our activities.

Remember, you can support the finance team by a page and please leave a review on

the region of Apple Podcasts, YouTube or however your podcast app will let you do such a thing.

Andrew, aside from semaphore, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

Mostly semaphore.

Yes, best way to get in touch with me.

Well, the wind's so bad at the moment I won't see it.

Best way to get in touch with me is if you search for correct windscreen on Blue Sky.

Failing that, if you prefer LinkedIn, you can find me under my full name there.

And Alan, if people like to get in touch with you personally, what's the best way for

them to do that?

Blue Sky is about the best where I'm at.

ATP Bradley, that's B-R-E-D-L-E-Y dot B-Sky dot social.

We'll be back, as I said, very soon.

Until then, I've been Alan Bradley.

I've been Andrew Clues.

And safe motoring.

Less meh - 16 September 2025

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