Munich Motor Show, 94mpg Audi A2, saving the Euro car industry

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Hello, and welcome to my week in cars,

the AutoCard podcast with Pryer,

Steve Cropley there, morning, Steven.

Morning, mate, how are you?

I'm very, very well, mate,

because there is loads to talk about this week.

Really, you may not know this,

whether you won't know this,

but Steven and I haven't seen each other for two weeks, three weeks.

Quite a long time.

Yeah, quite a long time.

Quite a long time.

So we've got loads to catch up on

and also it is the Munich Motor Show this week,

which we've got stuff to tell you about.

We've also got our columns for the past two weeks

to discuss, so there's loads going on, basically.

But before all of that,

I have to tell you that we have teamed up

with a sponsor, Anderson EV,

an all British company that makes and sells

top-quality home chargers for electric cars.

And, Steven, I think we can all agree

that, apart from the car itself,

what the happy EV owner needs most

is a top-quality home charger.

That's very true, and I prove it by everyone.

But apparently there's a new piece of information

just come out from Anderson to the effect

that if you are an octopus energy customer

and you buy an Anderson EV

or you buy the Anderson EV charger

and convert to octopus at the same time,

you can get yourself a free 5,000 miles of charging.

So apparently you have to do the deal

between now and the end of the year,

but it sounds like a handsome deal to me, that.

But...

Yeah, I mean, that is almost,

well, I mean, depending on your use case and everything,

it could be anything up to a year's charging,

almost, couldn't it, 5,000 miles?

Yeah, well, I reckon, yeah.

Pretty good going.

Very good.

Steve, we have a letter.

Bart, 44 male UK size 11 feet,

owns a Cooper-born Anacleo 182 cut to say,

regarding poor driving standards,

which I think we talked about on the pod the other day,

maybe as I came to you last time,

there was somebody doing 35 miles an hour

regardless of the speed limit from memory.

That was it, that was it.

I honestly believe, says Bart,

that we should all have to retest or requalify

minimum every 10 years apart for our driving.

I love cars, unlike the art of driving,

it is a skill and not just a right.

I see too many people aimlessly driving about middle laners,

doing 45 and a 60, 40 and a 30,

taking up two parking spaces,

in-considerate parking,

poor lane discipline, roundabouts, motorways,

not indicating, not stopping.

There's a bit of a rant, says Bart.

He acknowledges, he's gone into one.

Watching films on their phones, holding their phones,

even though you know they've got Bluetooth,

being obstructive or just not aware of surroundings.

I work in an industry

that I have my competency tested regularly.

This includes driving.

I got my license at 17

and have never been questioned since

as to whether I'm still any good.

I don't also have a problem

with having to have your eyes tested either.

I don't know how you do it,

but I do agree, I think.

It's just some kind of,

because we work and we both have to have training

to remind ourselves how to sit in a chair,

in our daily lives, don't we?

How to pick up something,

how to sit in a chair,

what fire extinguisher does what,

and these are things you have to do in your workplace.

So the idea that you pass your driving test

and never have to do anything again for maybe 70, 80 years

is a bit daft, I think.

It is a bit daft.

And I don't know how you do it.

And it doesn't, I don't know

whether it has to be a pass-fail thing,

just some kind of refresher

that you have to sit in front of a screen

or sit in front of a piece of paper and go,

yep, I've done that.

I've ticked that.

Somebody has reminded me

why I move into the left-hand lane

once I've finished overtaking.

What point on a roundabout

I click the indicator from one side to the other?

I don't think it's,

I don't think it's a bad idea.

No, it's not a bad idea.

The only difficulty I suppose you see

is that people have kind of queued up around the block now

just to get a driving test, aren't they?

So God knows what sort of organization

you would have to set up to do it.

But if it was something,

I mean, I hesitate to say something voluntary

because not many people would do it, I suppose.

But it certainly, it does seem to be extraordinary

that as you say that we get taught out of sitting in a chair

but nobody has any kind of an opinion

on how well we do for the next,

behind the wheel for the next 50 years.

Yeah, it's been a while

since I read the highway go.

I will confess.

Me too, yeah.

And it's what we do.

This is what we do for a living.

And it still is pretty,

I have taken the theory driving test mocked once

because you can practice online before you pass your,

before you actually do it, can't you?

And when my children and friends' children

were passing their driving tests,

I thought, well, I'll have a go at that as well.

I've done okay.

I don't quite know how it's possible

to fail it lots of times as I know some people have.

Yeah.

How have you not?

How is it?

Anyway, anyway,

I suppose we all have a different interests,

don't we, I suppose?

But yeah, it wouldn't be a bad idea.

I don't think it would be a bad idea.

Just every few years to go, yeah, okay.

I've just reminded myself on a few key things.

Oh, no doubt, yeah.

As we speak, you are about to head

to the Munich Motor Show.

By the time this podcast comes out,

you'll have been there and you'll have seen things.

Yeah.

In the magazine this week published today,

this is Wednesday, the 10th of September,

so Munich things will have happened.

There will be some things, some stories in the mag already.

The others will be online by now.

What is there?

What is there to see?

Do you, is a new Renault Clio?

Yeah.

I think in a way that the new Renault Clio

is very important to Renault

and it's, the main thing that the new Renault Clio does to me

is make it crystal clear that Ford were utterly stupid

to kill the Fiesta when they did.

It's gonna be a conventional little car.

It's gonna be perfectly modern

and all that's gonna have the same powertrains

in Britain as before, so petrol and petrol hybrid.

But I'd, and it'd be two to five percent improved

in every direction, a little bit bigger,

but I don't think it's gonna stop the traffic

in the way that some of the stuff that will be there will.

There's a Volkswagen ID cross,

which is an electric crossover.

Yeah.

There's the, the BMW iX3 is there actually,

which people are saying, so somebody I saw the other day

said this is the most important BMW ever.

Yeah, I thought, is it?

I looked at the pictures.

You know when, when the, that Neuer class car came out,

the first concept came out, I looked at that and thought,

oh, that really is a fresh, that is a fresh look at BMW.

And this is supposed to be

the first Neuer class production car,

but it looks a little bit like the previous ones.

It does a bit, doesn't it?

It looks like an X Mercedes, that doesn't make Mercedes.

It looks like a BMW X model.

Yeah, it does.

So I was a little bit disappointed with the styling,

but electric range, greater than 400 miles, I believe.

So it'll be a good car.

And I think I've got a lot of time for the way

BMW do their EVs, but I just wish this looked

a little bit less like all its previous.

Versions.

I mistakenly say Mercedes there,

because two seconds ago, I was looking at a new Mercedes,

GLC EV, which is they've, they seem to be melding

the separate EQ models into something

that actually looks like the standard range,

which is, I think it's different platform,

but it looks a bit more conventional

than a separate EQ, whatever model,

which I don't think is a bad idea.

No, I'm not, I had quite a soft spot for the EQ,

bigger EQ models.

The saloons.

Yeah, I quite like that.

I mean, they are a bit soap bar-ish and round,

but they do look quite good.

Yeah, Peter Stevens word was always,

it looks like a potato to me.

But I think they were a bit better than potato, to be honest.

But, yeah, but you can see the sense of it.

I mean, they're really worried, aren't they?

That stuff from Ola Kalanius,

the boss of Mercedes recently,

about how the chase towards zero emissions

was gonna put the industry into the wall

and honestly it's quite scary.

So it'll be interesting to see

if anything comes up about that.

He's bound to stand up and say something, I would think.

Yeah, there are some new Chinese EVs, as you would imagine.

I wrote a column on this last week.

You did.

Yeah, because of what he said,

also because Bill Ford said something

not dissimilar, didn't he, during his chat with you?

Yeah, he was a bit softer than he was, yeah.

And he also admitted that Ford needed to have a,

was it the phrase, more robust product line up

in Europe in particular.

Yeah, your translation of that was excellent, a lot better.

A lot better than, yeah.

Well, it's, yes, I mean, only because we've been,

I don't think Ford's line up is bad,

but we have become accustomed to them being

the choice for mainstream enthusiastic car buyers.

If you are interested in driving for 25 years

and you are buying an ordinary family car,

you would look towards a Ford

because they're the nicest to drive

and the most fun to be around.

Yeah, and we've, we've just...

And I'm not sure that's the case recently.

We've directed people a lot towards,

you know, suggested to people that they should look

at the Fords, haven't they, just for the,

you know, the steering and the brakes

and the ride on them.

So on, yeah.

Yeah, but with my sort of, my point about the column was,

if, you know, legislation is pointing towards

supporting

people into

GPVs, which quite often are Chinese built.

And I don't see in the UK, it's funny,

you and I have both been overseas

for the past couple of weeks.

When you go to a different country,

I went to France, loads of French cars in France,

not many Chinese cars in France.

In the UK, I don't get the same sort of sense.

If you go to Korea,

80, 90% of all the cars you see are Korean.

You've got to Japan, all the cars are Japanese.

If you go to America, all the cars are American.

Let's show you quite get that in the UK

and whether that's because our,

we're used to our car industry being foreign owned

or not, I don't know.

But if you're saying to a UK buyer, right,

here is a car with an Nissan badge,

does happen to be built in this country.

But by the way, here's a car with a Chinese badge.

It's still built in the EU.

Do they have any kind of

responsibility either way?

Should they know?

Should they care where their car is made

and should they make a buying decision based on it?

Or actually, does their responsibility primarily lie with,

I've got X amount of pounds to spend on a month

on getting a car that is good enough for my family.

And that's that.

And I don't, given that that's where the average buyer

in the street will think,

given that legislation is probably not going to soften

to do the European car industry any favours per se,

if the European car industry needs to sort itself out

and survive as Ola Clenius thinks it's at risk of not doing,

probably has to do it on its own, doesn't it?

Well, I think so.

I think so.

Particularly, I think the UK is the extreme case

of that, isn't it?

I mean, we, our, it's quite true though that as you say,

you go to France and there's lots of French cars and so on.

But, but I was in Sweden and there were quite a reasonable

number of poll stars involved those about not many Saabs.

I was sorry to see.

Yeah, shame on it.

I saw one yesterday and I thought,

and it's now at the stage, isn't it?

Where you see as every Saab you see,

peaks your interest, which is, I mean, it's nice to see them,

but it is a shame that it is at that state, I think.

But we killed that, we, you know,

that very business of just choosing a car that works,

killed our major manufacturer, didn't it?

Which was, you know, BL and all the names

that were attached to it, you know, Rover Group and so on.

The cars weren't well enough made

or they didn't suit enough people.

And so we all started to buy VWs and that, you know,

VW Group cars and that's just what people do

and you can't blame them.

Because, you know, the other point is always made,

is that we don't care about fridges,

we don't care about mattresses,

we just buy the one that makes sense.

And I think that's what consumers do.

It's all right.

Yeah.

It doesn't make, you know, there's,

I think it's nice if people try and support

the local industry if they care enough,

but we can't try and invest them with a load of guilt

because they don't.

No, and if it's the second most expensive thing

you're gonna buy and you're gonna pay

X hundred pounds a month for it to say,

oh, you should really buy something British

when actually somebody will look around and go,

well, I could do that or I could spend,

I don't know, five grand a year less, you know,

doing, which actually I could spend,

which actually would be very useful for my family.

Thanks very much.

Yeah.

You know, on something, if I don't care

where it's from and it's good enough,

it's not, I don't know, it just feels to me

like it's not necessarily their responsibility

to look out for.

There's also, I suppose there's also the case that,

the fact is that the, you know,

the cars retailed in the UK,

that means that there's a retail staff

and a retail profit and the car will be maintained

in the UK, so, you know, it's not all bad.

No.

It's, it'll always be debated,

but I don't believe in trying to make people feel guilty

for what they buy.

No.

Tell me about Sweden, mate.

What was the, what was it like?

Well, I went, it's kind of, I was there for a week.

A week car point of view.

Yeah, yeah, I was there for a week

and I was, I love Sweden,

it's a really lovely, calm place,

but at least the bits I go to.

But, I kept on looking out for interesting cars

because that's what we, you know,

it's just a reflex.

This is what we did.

And I didn't see a single,

sorry, I saw two interesting cars.

One, I just happened to be standing on a street corner

waiting for the steering committee

to come out of a makeup shop, I think it was.

And a bloke came along in an old Volvo,

you know, sort of B18 or Ramazan

or one of those, that's that shape,

conked, you know, stopped the car's seats to function.

And he just was there in the middle of the traffic

leaning against the boot lid,

looking totally cheesed off.

And then along came a bloke in a Citroen 2CV

and drove alongside him and waved to him

and said, is everything all right and all that.

But they were the two interesting cars

I saw out of some tens of thousands in Sweden.

It was really interesting.

Yeah.

But normally they, these days,

you don't see a great variety of cars, I don't think.

It's, I'd like to see some more Saabs,

but then, you know, that's silly.

Yeah.

I saw a couple of Renault Fives, new Renault Fives.

Oh yeah.

In rural France looked really good, actually,

and they're out there, and there's not,

I don't, I don't have the numbers,

but I think ruralist France is not the biggest EV market

in the world.

No.

But they looked, they looked in keeping, in place,

you know, they looked good, I thought.

Actually, a mate of mine popped in here last week

and he's got one as well.

Ah, what's he think?

Loves it, yeah, really likes it.

Yeah.

It's, it doesn't do his full mileage

because he sort of runs from home counties

up to Manchester once a week.

So he has a new Lotus, actually,

which will do that job in one hit.

So the five is for slightly more local journeys,

but yeah, he's only just got it really enjoying it.

And I sat inside it and jumped in and thought,

oh my God, the build and the feel inside

is really first rate, isn't it?

It's a lovely piece of design

and the, you know, the trim and the fit and finish

is really pleasant.

No, they've done well.

We're going to swap cars.

You need to go in this, in the one I've got.

I do, yeah, and you need to go in the Morgan

at some point, don't you?

Yeah, yeah, I see why I can fit, yeah, great.

It's got a really roomy footwell that Morgan.

Ah, good.

That's super three, listen, if you don't know,

but yeah, it's got really well spaced pedals

and while the driving, the seat position is fixed,

but the pedals move backwards and forwards.

And the steering has got quite a big range of adjustment.

I like that idea, yeah.

I'm off to the Watergate Bay Sprint in the Renault 5.

Thank you.

Couple of weeks, or probably a week,

from a week and a half from when we,

it's just a day, but a bit of a chance

to bolt up a piece of closed road in Cornwall,

because Cornwall doesn't have a motor racing circuit at all.

The closest circuit to Cornwall is Castle Coombe,

which is crazy, isn't it?

It is really, isn't it?

Yeah.

But they could do with some kind of ferry across to Wales

and then they might be able to open up Pembury.

Yeah, Pembury has that one.

Yeah, yeah, that would be handy.

What's going on with your Dattier Duster?

Well, it, I can't remember whether I told you

the full tale, I went-

I've read it, but you haven't,

I haven't seen you for you to tell it.

Short story, I took it to be washed to the usual place

I go, they had some new staff there,

somebody who didn't know any better

and just made a mistake,

put my key in the ashtray of a silver Vauxhall next to me.

The owner of the Vauxhall,

whose car was finished, drove away, gone, goodbye.

Nobody knew who she was, lady, Vauxhall Mocha.

They did it on, it didn't drop out of his pocket,

he did it on-

No, no, no, it was just somebody put it down there,

thinking it belonged to that car.

And then obviously, suddenly there I was,

keyless, steering locked.

Luckily the steering committee had the spare key,

came over, we sorted it out short term,

but I hate not to have a spare key.

So I set out to try and recover the thing.

I went to the cops, they said,

very sorry we can't help you because of data protection.

This turns out according to a letter we've since had

to be nonsense and they could have identified

that we have this woman's number plate.

So it would have been possible for them

to know her address and so on,

give her a ring and ask her to drop the key off.

They didn't do it.

But a very sensible person in my local Dacia dealer,

where I went to get a spare key,

said, why don't you try the local Voxel dealer,

she might well be on the-

On the list.

She was on the list,

an extremely good bloke called Matthew in the

service department rang her up,

consistently rang her up.

She, it took quite a bit of ringing to get through to her

because I think she might have been away

or she might have thought that this was some-

Yeah, some spam call or something.

But eventually we got through and the key came back to him

and he handed it over and I gave him a bottle of Scotch

because of that.

However, the bad thing I think was the cops

not knowing the law and the, also I found myself,

I was rather sour about this,

I found myself wondering if a policeman with access

to A&PR number plate recognition had had this happen to him,

would he have been so fastidious about not looking it up?

It's not right.

No, it's a slightly un-

Anyway, the problem, I know I have three keys because-

Oh, you had ordered a spare already.

Which is not inexpensive.

No, it's actually less,

I put in the mag and then I was told

that it was gonna be three weeks and 350 quid.

It turns out to be two weeks and 180 quid.

Okay.

And I'm happy with that.

And whoever buys a dacha in a distant day

that I sell it will have three keys.

Will have plenty of spares.

I don't have a spare for my A2, my Audi A2

and I need to get one.

Yeah.

I'm very careful, but still I should get one.

Yeah.

I should get one.

It's a worry to-

I think cars of that age,

you can probably get them at like Timpson's,

can't you, I reckon?

I think you can probably get them done cheaply.

It's about the transponder, isn't it?

Yeah, I think so.

Because the thing is for the dacha,

I have to go back and they have to recode the key.

Right.

Because the key talks to a transponder in the car.

But maybe the A2 isn't like that.

Did you plug it?

This is one of these things

that you wouldn't have imagined saying 25 years ago.

Do you take the key and put it into a slot?

Or is it a keyless-

Oh, it is a key in the slot.

It is a key in the slot.

Yeah.

Amazing things.

I like it.

Yeah, I like it.

I feel it in my pocket.

Somewhere to put a key when you get into a car

that is secure, doesn't rattle around,

doesn't fall on the floor, doesn't do loads of things.

Actually, I don't feel it in my pocket

because your gaff in which we are recording this

is so obviously free from car thieves

that I left it in the car.

Well, that's very bold of you, mate.

I'm sure it's fine.

It is also, listener,

you should be aware, nine o'clock on Sunday morning.

So I think it is not a lot of passing traffic right now.

I have a vague memory of Hall Skolls,

the former Manchester United footballer,

leaving his Chevrolet Captiva or something.

One of the, whenever Manu was sponsored by,

left it defrosting outside of a morning

and somebody drove off with it

at the point that it was sitting outside his gaff,

having its windows thawed while he had a cup of tea in the morning.

That is the risk of that sort of thing.

How's that going to go from there?

The Duster and, oh, in part two,

mate, I'm going to tell you about the A2

because I don't think I've written it in my column.

I haven't written it in my column.

Yeah, we'll do it in part two.

I did a little economy run in it to the other day

because I said I might do one soon.

I did one.

One here.

Yeah, I'll tell you in part two.

Should we have a break now? Let's do that.

Listener, thank you for your feedback,

which we asked for in the third anniversary episode last week.

Very useful. It's still coming in as we speak, but broadly,

carry on.

Not too many new car reviews.

People don't particularly want, do they?

They say we can go online and get that.

So we don't need to get that.

It's in the mag.

Yeah, so not too much on that.

But lengthwise, 45 minutes to an hour

seems to be acceptable.

Yeah, so very good.

Yeah, so thank you for all of your letters

and hello to the person who listens to it in the shower

over the course of a week.

Picking up from where he left off the day before.

You must say the sort of affectionate stuff

that we've had, the sort of friendly responses we've had.

Do give your strength to go on, don't they?

Don't they just? Yeah, don't they just?

So let's take a short break to say this is My Week in Cars,

the AutoCar podcast, brought to you in association

with Addison EV, makers of top-quality EV home charges,

every one of which carries a seven-year warranty.

That's it. That's the commercial break.

Hey. Done.

I should also mention the AutoCar archive,

themagazineshop.com,

Ford slash AutoCar for all of the magazines

that we have published since 1895.

We did have. Are they all there?

Which ones?

Are they now all there or are they still a couple missing?

I think that we work away on it all the time.

Chris Kalmer does.

And I think we're very close to being full now.

I think if you rounded it up,

because there's about 6,000 plus magazines,

I think it would be 100% if you even took it

to a decimal place, I think, and rounded.

Sorry, mate, I interrupted you there.

Oh, no problem.

No, I was just saying that did you catch the bloke

that in fact, a couple of people who said,

just in case you're having trouble with the suits,

I've reactivated my AutoCar subscription

and I've also subscribed to the archive

as a result of Mr. Pryor's relentless...

Relentless plugging and all of it.

So we had a videographer a few years ago

and he said, mate, I know you hate doing calls to action

in the videos.

He said, but they really do work.

There is a difference between the videos

in which you do it and the videos in which you don't.

So please do do them.

So ever since then, I've been, okay, I better do them.

No, you're good at it though.

You know, I've trouble with this,

but you sort of drips off the tongue.

Well, I don't enjoy doing it.

I enjoy asking for things.

But listen, if you happen to be near a device

where you could like, subscribe, rate, review,

whatever this podcast, that'd be great.

And I do recommend the AutoCar archive to you.

I do recommend Addison EV to you, actually.

British design, British built.

I mean, why not?

They look great.

You can have a cable inside or outside,

seven-year warranty.

Yeah, talks to your telephone.

Talks to your Wi-Fi, does that a thing?

You can turn it on and off from wherever you may be.

It's a very good thing.

Jeremy Smith writes to us to say,

I was listening to you and Matt on the podcast this week

and note your concerns over Geely and Lotus.

I'm struck by the comparison

with Geely's handling of SMART,

which used to belong to Mercedes-Benz

and now totally belongs to Geely.

Is that right?

Or is it still some kind of joint venture?

And then they finally bought it all, didn't they, I think?

This has moved very far from its origins

under, let's say, its origins when Geely first took control

and seems to be successful,

although there is a new two-seater coming, I believe.

I didn't know that, but that's cool.

Yeah, in fact, it's in the mag this week.

Oh, is it?

I was pleased to see that

because I bought a sort of a gray market

SMART in the beginning.

I saw you did, yes.

And I saddled the misses with it for quite a long time

until she hit a badger with a thing.

Right.

Didn't do the front suspension much good.

Oh, no.

But that Tritium safety cell or whatever they called it

was badger's resistant, I take it?

Yeah, it was just the front suspension that was...

Yeah.

But...

I'd like a Roadster, a Coupe,

Coupe Roadster, whatever they were called.

They're really turning into something important now,

aren't they?

But I think I saw this gentleman's letter

and it's, I sort of got the point

until I saw the car they've just produced,

which is very much in character with the original.

So maybe he'll feel better when he has a look

at what's coming in in Munich.

Yeah, he said so maybe the...

Yeah, so Jeremy carries on.

Perhaps that was the plan with Lotus.

The move of SMART into mid-market SUVs

was surely a safer bet than moving any non-premium brand,

even a high-profile one-night Lotus

up into the rarefied and rare luxury EV sphere.

Maybe it's less of a step for Jaguar,

I really, really hope so.

Thanks, Jeremy.

Yeah, so I think...

I don't know whether SMART's making any money or...

No.

Not, but more than Lotus.

Julie, you're having a few problems, aren't you?

Yeah, because Polestar's not making any money.

No, Polestar's in strife though.

And the new...

The Lotus is undoing well.

And it's the Volvo EX90.

Some people have told me that early ones

are not without some...

Issues.

Oh dear.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I don't know how early they were.

Yeah.

Thank you, Jeremy.

On the subject of Lotus...

Oh God, I'm gonna do another plug, Steve.

There's a...

A mirror turbo SE versus Alpine 110 video

up on the AutoCars YouTube right now.

And a twin test in the magazine written by Ilya.

A110 is still pretty special, isn't it?

Always, but yeah, I'm glad you think that, really,

because I'm still happy with mine.

Mine's just a bog-o one.

But I still think that's quite a good car.

The only issue is, you know, I've got this corrosion issue

in the wings, but it's being fixed.

It was a mistake.

It was a terrible cock-up with a...

That's really bad.

I mean, it's just like...

Why not use aluminium fastenings or plastic fastenings?

It's not like we don't.

Well, I learned about galvanic whatnot reactions

when I was in high school, didn't I?

Yeah, well, I didn't do it at high school,

but they did tell us at university.

Yeah, and it just...

Oh, maybe we did, because we had to put nails in saltwater,

painted, wrapped in zinc, plain, yeah, in single-size GCSE

and just see what happens after the course of a week

or two weeks and see how rusty the nail goes.

So, yeah, we did do it, then.

So, yeah, it's not like we don't know.

If you missed it, listen,

they basically use steel clips within an aluminium body

for the wheel arch liners on the A110 as a result.

I think it was just some of them.

Hello, really.

But anyway, my car's about to go and get fixed.

And, you know, after that, I'll keep it forever.

Yeah, yeah, I got a note the other day from a mate of mine

who said he was going to buy one and watch it.

Which version should he get?

And I looked at the range,

and the range seems to be now.

You can have the 250 horsepower, which you have.

You can have the higher power, but still with...

So, a subtle suspension.

Is that right?

He seemed to think there was a model

which had a bit more power but the subtle suspension.

I think so.

But when I looked at the brochure now,

it seems to be not the case.

But that it's now base or GTS or R.

Oh, OK.

I think they are reducing...

I mean, it's reaching the end, isn't it?

And I guess they just make fewer.

But we've been out and had lately, and, you know,

it's so enjoyable, really, just quiet when you need it to be quiet,

noisy when you'd like it to be noisy and lovely, you know,

just does all very versatile sports car, I think,

and all the stuff people tell you about the boot being too small.

Those are not really...

No, and it doesn't,

because it's got a bit of space behind the seats anyway,

hasn't it, a little bit, tiny bit or not?

Not really, no, you're thinking of the Lotus.

I think, but there's boots for an Afton there and they're all right.

You can get... We've never had any trouble.

You get stuff in the front, can you?

Oh, yeah, yeah, quite good size.

Yeah, and the boot doesn't get from memory.

The boot doesn't overheat like some...

No. ...meat engine sports cars.

The boot can get pretty toasty, can't it?

Yeah, can.

It's not too bad from that point of view.

Let's talk two wheels.

Let's talk...

I don't know if this is Sweden or not.

Let's talk two wheels again and then four wheels.

Why do you want to Harley-Davidson, Steve?

Oh, dear.

I've... Sorry, listener, we're going to break briefly.

I had a Harley. I had a Harley 1200 Sportster.

I remember. It looked good.

Yeah, it did and I foolishly sold it

and as soon as I sold it, I missed it.

It's a pretty crude old machine, but lovely old V-Twin

and torquey and quite well made, I thought.

Anyway, there's one for sale in our neck of the woods at the moment

and really quite old, 1340 soft tail.

Just there it is, you know?

And I'm just thinking, you know, perhaps I'll do it.

Because I remember I first set out to buy one of these things

and rode around the block and I thought,

this is agricultural equipment, but actually it's a very tempting

and sort of satisfying old thing.

People talk a lot of nonsense about Hardys.

People who don't know them.

Yeah, I rented one.

Oh, of course you went long way, didn't you?

Yeah, California.

So I went from San Francisco down to Los Angeles

and then back again.

So that's hundreds of miles.

Yeah, it was, yeah.

What was the model, do you remember?

It was a road king?

Yeah, something, it was quite a new one.

It was a new one, but it was a bagger, as they call it.

So it's a big cruiser, but it had a fairing, had a radio

and it's 330, 40 kilos, something like that.

I picked it up in San Francisco.

I'd been on a launch of a new car

and then we'd had offers to drive a couple of cars

elsewhere in California.

So I thought, well, I'll take the opportunity to go between

What a brilliant idea.

San Francisco.

And so I picked it up in the afternoon,

stayed halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles

that night, carried on the next morning,

drove a couple of cars there for two days

and then came back.

Riding a Harley-Davidson across the Golden Gate Bridge

and being paid to do it is one of those things

when people say, what did you do with your job?

Well, that's one of the things I did.

But it was cool.

It was, I really, it was, I don't know, people's,

I posted some pictures of it and so people were like,

oh my God, they're terrible, they're awful.

It wasn't, it was amazingly comfortable

and it really suited the location.

Yeah.

That was the thing.

I spend quite a lot of time

on the Indian motorcycle configurator.

Yes.

That and the Morgan Super 3 configurator

and the Caterham configurator are my go-to's

on that sort of thing every time I'm on deadline.

Euro.

And what about a Toyota Alphard?

Oh, well, we were just, after the debacle of the keys,

you know, we set off for London and just thought,

right, we'll have a bit of a wander around in Marlebone

and enjoy this particular place we go to for breakfast.

And we were walking along Marlebone High Street

and there was this bloke in a black Toyota Alphard.

Which for the uninitiated is what?

Well, it's a, it's an eight seat, I think, MPV,

which has got the most remarkable, post-23, sorry,

you even, you need to, it needs to be the latest model.

If you look at the pre-23 models, they're a bit ordinary,

but the latest one is an absolute outrage of Chrome.

Yes, it is.

You've just looked it up.

No, I've just looked it up.

I've forgotten just how much of an outrage of Chrome.

That face is, that face is what?

Something out of one of the Star Wars follow-ups.

That's, it's got that sort of masked face thing going on.

That's extraordinary.

It is amazing, isn't it?

When you look at the previous model,

which is, you know, a big MPV, but rather conventional,

something went off in the Toyota Design Department

to make them do that.

Yeah, the 2004 Alphard looks very ordinary.

Yeah.

And the new one is out of that.

Over the top finish.

Yeah, I mean, fantastic.

But it also looks, I had a peep inside

because the driver of it was sitting there

waiting for one of his customers to show up.

He was very proud of it.

And it was very luxurious inside.

And, you know, he was, but I was thinking,

gosh, this is, this is Rolls territory.

This is, I hope it rides well.

And, you know, it's mechanically quiet and all that

because the, because the look of it is outrageous.

Really is.

That is excellent.

So you fancy a road trip in Monday?

I do.

Driver or passenger?

Both.

Both, probably.

Yeah.

Both.

I wonder if they have.

Yeah.

They can do a little one and do it,

do some kind of road trip.

Yeah, might try.

Yeah.

I'll come with you, mate.

We can record something in,

we can record while we're in it.

Excellent.

And share the driving somewhere.

And that'll be.

What a laugh.

That'll be a good thing.

I did a road trip last,

so a couple of things still to talk about.

First of which this will be in the mag at some point.

I think.

I went down from here down to

Petersfield to visit my folks the other day.

And I was taking the A2 and it was a

bank holiday Monday, I think.

Yeah.

And I thought, right, I'm gonna bring it

at the A34, the other side of the M40.

And then I'm gonna drive down to Petersfield and back.

I know that's about 160 miles,

but I'll measure it on the trip.

I'll reset all the trip computers

and I'll sort of calibrate the trip computer

and I'll see what kind of economy I can get.

Doing a bit of slipstreaming on the A34,

but also I've got to go from Petersfield to Winchester

and on the A272, both ways.

And that's.

So that's a driving road.

Cross country road.

Yeah, so it's not.

Anyway, I'll see what it does

because it's about time I reset the trip computer

and see what I could get out of it economy-wise

since putting on the 15-inch wheels

which have higher profile tires.

They're a bit narrower.

They're efficient grip tires.

They're a premium tire.

So I'll see what it can do, mister.

So driving at sort of 50 to 60,

not loads of trucks on the road on a bank on a Monday,

but there's a few buses and coaches and trucks

that you can just not anti-socially

or dangerously sit behind,

but just to take some of the wind effect

off the front of the A2.

If I told you it did 94 miles to the gallon on average,

would you believe me?

I would, I would, but it's a fantastic piece of shit.

I mean, I just, I was blown away with that.

And I calibrated it by filling to,

filling till it clicked stop and go one more click

after a few seconds.

And it gave a very, very similar refueling click

both ways.

The cars, according to the sort of GPS on my phone,

the car's speed overreads by about two miles an hour.

It says 62 when you're doing 60.

And according to like Google Maps,

if you work it out, the trip it reckoned was 159 miles

and the car thought it was 156.

So it's pretty close either way.

And I think if you allow for a tiny bit of error,

it's done anything between 93 and 95 to the gallon.

That's just fantastic.

So I'm going to have a go pumping up the tires,

taking everything out of the inside, cleaning it

and turning off the air con and everything all the way.

Because I didn't, the climate control was on

most of the time.

I'm going to, we'll do a video on it

and see if I can get a hundred to the gallon.

On a proper, not for half an hour on the M40,

but on a proper stretch of road.

Maybe that trip or something like it.

But I was so impressed.

I think it's superb, isn't it?

It's really good.

I mean, that's just, and it's a bog standard 1.4 TDI.

And as a reminder, that car cost me 500 pounds.

It's just mad.

It is.

And on the subject.

That'll never, that'll never leave, will it, that car?

Well, I was going to keep it for a year and sell it

and write a story going, look, you know,

this is how you can be paid to drive a car

because it's cost me 2000 pounds to drive for 1500 miles

and I've sold it for two and a half.

But it's done 6,000 miles already.

It's, I drive it all the time.

And Mrs. P drives it a lot, yes.

Because otherwise she'd be driving a Defender,

which is her car.

Yeah.

And actually the, which she loves,

but the idea that it can do 80 plus to the gallon

without trying, rather than 27.

It's quite a compelling argument,

as it turns out.

A compelling argument, absolutely.

One more thing to tell everybody

is that the government has updated the rules

around restoring and modifying cars.

Did you see that?

I did.

Well, I see you wrote about it.

I wrote about it, yeah.

It's, I'll run through it.

I've read the regulations, so you don't have to.

But actually, if you are going to restore or modify a car,

you may still want to, just in case.

So previously, if you were restoring a car to original,

you didn't have to tell the DVLA about it.

Even if you were buying like a heritage shell on an MGB

with a brand new chassis.

As long as that chassis was to original specification,

you didn't have to tell the DVLA.

And if you were making radically altered vehicles

before, there was a points system that you had to,

so if you were changing both axles or whatever,

or you were changing an engine and gearbox,

if you wanted to maintain your retain,

sorry, your original car's registration,

then you had to amass eight points

coming from a few points from steering,

couple of points from engine, couple of some gearbox.

But five of those points had to come from

the original chassis or a new chassis

to original specification without any modifications.

And if you made any structural or chassis monocoque changes,

you should have let the DVLA know,

and it should have been given a Cuban number plate.

That didn't always happen.

However, some owners of old cars,

I know a guy who had a Riley who said,

we have a problem that we would like to fit seat belts

to this car, but if we put reinforcing plates

in the B and C pillars and fit seat belts,

then an MOT tester can say,

well, that's a chassis modification,

report it to the DVLA,

and then it loses its original registration,

which is a silly state of affairs.

So they've updated the whole thing

because Resto Modders would make chassis changes without.

Like if you buy a GTO engineering Ferrari 250 short wheelbase

or what looks like a 250 short wheelbase,

it hasn't modified chassis from a different Ferrari,

should have a Cuban number plate, doesn't.

So there were all kinds of things going on

where cars were not getting amended

when they should have done.

And there was an uneven situation.

It was a bit of an imbalance, basically.

So anyway, they've gone through this whole thing.

The rules were inconsistently applied.

So the new regulations make it easier for restorers,

builders, modifiers to get what they wanted

and which many already did,

which is to retain the original registration

rather than be allocated a Q number plate.

So if you were restoring a car

to original specifications chassis or monocoque,

you didn't have to tell the DVLA about it before.

Now, under a section called repairs and restorations,

if you have a new chassis,

you have to tell the DVLA

by filling out a vehicle parts statement,

but that should be the end of that.

So if you fit a heritage shell

like Sam R. Farrier has done, hello Sam.

He actually is already on the road,

but if he bought it now,

he would have to tell the DVLA he's got a new chassis,

but that's it, done, ended.

Still carries its original registration.

And actually, if you build a new classic

from scratch or parts,

like those recreation jaguars or Austin Healy's or whatever,

you can now register those as the original

much more easily than you could before to,

but that's a very niche limited case.

Other alterations come under a section

called repair and restoration.

So previously, some of those could have been viewed dimly

by the DVLA, but thankfully don't.

So you don't need to tell the DVLA about repairs to a chassis,

replacing or widening wings,

adding or removing a roll cage or fitting seat belts,

which is good.

So you don't need to tell it.

If however, you want to change the chassis or monocoque

and you are making structural modifications,

capital S, capital M, inverted commas,

that's a section in the new regulations.

The DVLA must be told,

but there is a much smaller chance

you'll have to change to a Q number plate.

Structural modifications can include altering the chassis,

cutting roof pillars, removing a roof,

removing an integrated roll cage,

modifying load bearing members or subframes,

or making holes within 30 centimetres

of suspension, steering, braking,

or seat belt mounting points.

You still have to tell the DVLA, but they don't mind.

So most rest domes would like to do something like that

if they don't already.

And there are like gray areas

like my Volkswagen Beetle,

or a Barha bug, which has new wings, new bonnet.

I would argue under the old regs,

none of that was structural

and therefore not a change to the monocoque.

But actually 911, Porsche 911 Resto modders

will remove body panels,

replacing with carbon body panels.

They are structural components though.

So it's a bit of a gray area before.

I mean, DC-ming on an MGV or a Mini,

does that never actually count it as a structural mod?

But probably should have done.

So now doesn't matter.

So nobody's getting penalized for doing those things,

which is actually sensible.

It seems to be,

finally, if you change the fuel type,

including making it an electric conversion,

that now also counts as structurally modified

even if they don't make any chassis changes.

And actually a lot of Resto modders

don't electro conversions,

don't make any chassis changes.

And the idea was one

because they don't wanna lose the registration previously

and also it meant it could be converted back

should only want to.

The V5C will be changed to reflect the new fuel type,

but in most cases,

you will still pay tax the car's original rate.

For classics, that's probably nothing

because they're historic vehicles anyway.

But there are people who fit electronic powertrains,

to Land Rover Defenders

because farmers who generate their own electricity

can actually save themselves money within a couple of years.

But they will still have to pay tax.

For example, a post 2001 converted Defender

would still be taxed at 300 grams per kilometer

rather than zero emissions.

So Q number plates still exist

for those whose car, whose age or identity is in doubt.

But that will basically apply to ever fewer vehicles.

And from what I understand,

people seem to think that it's a pretty sensible set of regs.

That's good.

Yeah.

But there's more at gov.uk slash vehicle dash registration.

Oh, well done for investigating that mate.

Because it is important.

Really important.

Yeah, and it feels like it's,

it feels to me like people have listened to the consultation.

Yeah, we knew it was going on, didn't we?

There was talk for ages about it.

And it's nice to see a proper outcome.

Yes, yeah.

And it just, I mean,

people want to improve an old car

but not have to have a Q number plate.

They don't want to, you know,

everybody wants to retain the original registration for it.

So why not make them, you know,

why not go, well, fine, okay.

We'll just let you do it.

Yeah, that's what you all want to do.

And it's, you know,

this is not happening to loads of cars at any one time, is it?

So why not make it straightforward

and level the playing field?

Yeah, so why not indeed?

Pretty, pretty happy about that, it would appear.

That, I think, mate, brings us to...

We're kind of up to date, are we?

We're up to date, yeah.

Amazing.

Unless you've got any other business report.

Nothing that I can think of and...

No, well, I've got to let you go

because you've got to go to the Erepreto anyway.

Better go and jump on the old thing though, yeah.

Yeah, I will see you this time next week.

In the meantime, our large thanks

to our sponsor, Anderson EV.

Well done, man.

You can discover all you know about setting up

your own charging point at Anderson-ev.com.

Did we mention the seven year warranty?

I think you did.

Do we?

Oh, I'll do it again.

Yeah.

Enjoy Munich, mate, I'm not there, you are.

But there is, listener, by the time this comes out,

I will have voiced over a short YouTube video.

Maybe not that short, I don't know,

but a YouTube video of all of the Munich unveilings.

You'll find Steve's stories plus everybody else's stories

over at autocall.co.uk.

Oh, yeah.

Your chat, Autocall Meets Bonus Podcast

coming in a couple of days' time

from your chat the other day.

Oh, with Carl Ludwigson.

Yeah, yeah.

I haven't spoken to you about that yet

because I haven't seen you,

but good fun and good chat, I imagine.

Yeah, yeah, it was, I mean, he's a remarkable man,

you know, author of 70 books.

But I asked him the killer question,

have you ever written a pot boiler?

The answer turned out to be no.

But that is coming this Saturday,

September the 11th through our 13th,

14th, 13th, 14th, one of those two.

So listen out for that, it's in a few days' time.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for your continued feedback.

Autocall at haymarket.com.

Yet another address slash URL slash whatever,

but you can find us if you search for Autocall.

Thanks, mate.

See you soon.

See you next time.

Bye.

This winter, know what your vehicle needs

before it needs it.

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