Charging logistics and EV costs kick things off, with gripes about needing multiple home chargers and a Northern Ireland tariff letter that makes EV electricity look far pricier than expected. Fuel prices and station profiteering get a side rant. The crew then digs into McLaren Artura ownership and early software/fire issues, plus why track instruction at Palmer Sport makes the car feel easier to “get.” Later: speed-limit “bongs,” ministerial road-policy criticism, and a deep dive into “software-defined vehicle” vs what actually matters (ride/handling). The show ends with plans for a Morgan Super 3 and advice on writing motoring books via the Sedgwick Trust.
In this week's episode of the Autocar podcast, My Week In Cars, Steve Cropley and Matt Prior come together to discuss the McLaren Artura, software-defined cars, a BONG that Cropley likes, guilt about buying a Chinese vehicle, and Prior reveals that he's buying a new car.
There's more too, including your correspondence, and detail of a special offer which gives you SIX issues of Autocar for just £6 if you click here https://www.themagazineshop.com/ACD/PODCAST/
"Two cars outside on the charge... One of them's charging... it's neither of them's mine, but it does strike me that the demand for double charges in certain people's houses..."
They’re talking about plugging an electric car in at home. If you have more than one EV, you may need to charge them at different times so you don’t have to keep swapping cables or waiting for one car to finish.
The discussion is about charging electric cars at home and how households manage charging schedules. It highlights the practical need for multiple chargers or faster setup when more than one EV is in the driveway.
"Marcus Roller, I think, about electric tariffs across the water made me wince. I thought I would check the cheapest EV or non-EV rates were in Northern Ireland."
An electric tariff is just the electricity price plan from your energy supplier. Some plans charge less at certain times, like late night, which can make EV charging cheaper.
Electric tariffs are the pricing plans utilities use for electricity, often with different rates by time of day. For EV owners, the tariff structure can make charging overnight much cheaper than charging during peak hours.
"The standard cheapest tariff is 39.1 pence per kilowatt hour. There is only one supplier who does an EV rate at night."
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is how you measure electricity usage. When you see “pence per kWh,” that’s the price for each unit of electricity your EV uses while charging.
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a unit of energy. EV charging costs are usually quoted as pence per kWh, so your total charging bill depends on how many kWh you add to the battery.
"We have two electric cars, a Skoda LROC and a Renault 5 eTEC, which is absolutely brilliant, so seven hours isn't enough time to charge the LROC, let alone both."
Renault 5 e-TECH is an all-electric version of the Renault 5, designed around modern EV packaging and efficiency. The discussion uses it to illustrate charging constraints—how limited time can prevent charging both EVs to the desired state of charge.
"...when he was head of, head of something at JLR at the time, wasn't he? [619.2s] There was a, was he basically the engineering chief at JLR? [623.5s] Must have been it."
JLR is short for Jaguar Land Rover, a big car company that makes Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles. The discussion is basically saying he used to be a top engineering person there.
JLR stands for Jaguar Land Rover, the British automaker group behind Jaguar and Land Rover. In the transcript, the speaker connects Nick Collins to a senior engineering role at JLR, which helps explain his background and influence in product development.
"...they've got now one button that you can push to select the ADAS, advanced driver systems that you want to have on, which ones you want to have off..."
ADAS means “driver-assist” technology. It uses sensors and computers to help with things like speed control and lane guidance, and it can also warn you about hazards.
ADAS stands for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. It’s the umbrella term for features like adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping, and automated safety alerts that rely on sensors and software to interpret the road.
"[1055.2s] depending on gradient and how far out of town you are.
[1058.3s] And every time it went down to three degrees, it tells you with an ice warning,
[1062.4s] it goes beep and tells you that there's an ice warning."
An ice warning is a driver alert that activates when the outside temperature drops to a threshold where black ice is likely. It typically uses the car’s temperature sensors and may trigger an audible beep and a message on the instrument cluster.
"There's a story I've just read about this week where they've, and Stylantus have written down 23 billion quid's worth of stuff that they've spent. That's for killed models, isn't it? Yeah, for models they are. But the 9 billion is just money that's been spent on incentives..."
Volkswagen Group is the big company that owns several car brands. If they talk about writing off money, it usually means they’re adjusting plans because certain cars aren’t selling as expected.
Volkswagen Group is the large parent company behind multiple car brands, including Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and Bentley. When the group “writes down” or adjusts financials, it often reflects changes in demand, product plans, or costs tied to specific models.
"Volkswagen Group, Porsche Bentley and stuff? There's a story I've just read about this week where they've, and Stylantus have written down 23 billion quid's worth of stuff that they've spent."
Porsche is a well-known sports-car brand. Here it’s being mentioned because the parent company is dealing with money tied to certain car models being stopped.
Porsche is a Volkswagen Group brand known for sports cars and performance models. In this context, it’s mentioned alongside other group brands as part of the financial impact from “killed models” and write-downs.
"There's a story I've just read about this week where they've, and Stylantus have written down 23 billion quid's worth of stuff that they've spent. That's for killed models, isn't it?"
A “write-down” is when a company admits something it invested in isn’t going to be worth as much as expected. In car business news, it can happen when they stop making certain models.
A “write-down” is an accounting adjustment where a company reduces the value of assets or investments because they’re not expected to deliver the planned returns. In auto terms, it often happens when programs are canceled (“killed models”) or when costs and demand outlooks change.
"But the 9 billion is just money that's been spent on incentives to get people over the line, so that they don't have to pay a fine, which would have been even more."
Incentives are financial or policy measures designed to encourage customers or companies to act in a desired way—here, to “get people over the line.” In auto policy discussions, incentives can reduce the effective cost of buying or meeting regulatory requirements.
"Let's take a very short break to tell you about our sponsor, [1549.8s] Anderson-EV.com. [1551.5s] If you go and have a look at their excellent charges, they will offer you a concierge service, which will sort everything out from start to finish."
This is the sponsor’s website for EV charging. They’re saying they’ll help you arrange everything for your home charging and include some free charging as part of a deal.
Anderson-EV.com is an EV charging provider mentioned as the episode sponsor. They’re positioned as offering a concierge-style service to handle the charging setup end-to-end, plus a promotion for free charging miles.
"If you go and have a look at their excellent charges, [1555.3s] they will offer you a concierge service, [1556.9s] which will sort everything out from start to finish."
In this context, “concierge service” means someone helps you with the whole process of getting an EV charger set up, so you don’t have to manage every step yourself.
A concierge service in the EV-charging context means the provider handles the process for you—planning, paperwork, installation coordination, and follow-through. It’s meant to reduce the hassle of getting a charger installed.
"It's painted, mine is painted to match the building it's on, [1583.2s] and with paint that seems very similar to the paint that's on a car, [1587.3s] you know, they give you a swatch and all that."
A paint swatch is a sample used to match a vehicle’s (or a surface’s) color. In automotive terms, it’s part of the process to get the new paint to visually blend with existing paint.
"who said he has a mate who has an Audi A2 and he's fitted some Bilstein dampers and suspension and stuff, which I believe has improved it,"
Bilstein makes shock absorbers (dampers). Changing them can make the ride feel more controlled and less bouncy, especially if the original dampers are worn out.
Bilstein is a well-known suspension brand, especially for shock absorbers/dampers. Upgrading dampers can improve ride control, reduce bounce, and make the car feel more stable—often at the cost of a firmer feel depending on the setup.
"it's just always going to be a moment
like the Yamaha RD 350, you know, that kind of...
Yeah, it feels like that to me."
The Yamaha RD 350 is an older Yamaha motorcycle that many people love for how it feels and sounds. The speaker is saying it’s the kind of bike that leaves an impression.
The Yamaha RD 350 is a classic 1970s two-stroke motorcycle that’s become an icon for its character and sound. Here it’s referenced as a bike that creates a lasting “moment,” implying a strong emotional appeal rather than just specs.
"I'm going to pick up my Morgan Super 3. Oh, fantastic."
Morgan is a British car maker known for quirky, classic-style cars. The Super 3 is their three-wheeler roadster, and the speaker is talking about their specific example and how they’ve been living with it.
The Morgan Super 3 is a modernized take on Morgan’s classic three-wheeler formula, built around a lightweight, open-top roadster concept. In this segment, the host is picking it up and discussing how it was specified and used on a long-term test.
A long-term test is when a publication keeps a car for an extended period to evaluate real-world ownership factors like comfort, reliability, and day-to-day usability. It’s different from a short review drive because it captures how the car behaves over time.
"The latest version, it was... What is it? Heron White, I think. And it was specced largely by Felix Page, our deputy editor."
When a car is “spec’d,” it means it’s been configured with specific options, trim choices, and equipment. In this case, the speaker says the latest version’s specification was largely chosen by Felix Page, highlighting how option selection shapes the car’s feel and features.
"[1904.8s] More than I can afford, but that's quite good value. [1908.9s] Because they hold their value extremely well. [1910.6s] Yes."
If a car “holds its value,” it means you can usually sell it later for a relatively high price. That usually happens when lots of people want that model and there aren’t many of them.
“Holding value” means the car retains a high percentage of its purchase price over time. For expensive cars, this often reflects strong demand, limited supply, and brand desirability, which can reduce depreciation risk.
"mate, people just... Every March, they phone us up and they say, can you service my car?"
“Service my car” means taking it in for routine maintenance. It’s like regular checkups and replacing things that wear out so the car stays reliable.
“Service my car” refers to scheduled maintenance work—typically inspections, fluid checks, filters, and replacing wear items. The timing matters because some maintenance is mileage-based while others are calendar-based, and scheduling can create bottlenecks.
"[2116.9s] the brakes work and all that.
[2118.8s] Quick shifter and so on.
[2121.5s] You know, it's got that rather,"
A quick shifter helps you change gears faster. It briefly interrupts the engine for a split second so the shift happens more smoothly and quickly.
A quick shifter is an aftermarket or factory feature that helps you shift faster by briefly cutting ignition or fuel during gear changes. It’s commonly used on performance cars to reduce shift time and keep the engine in its power band.
"[2140.7s] I was speaking to Alaphabe,
[2144.6s] the CEO of Peugeot.
[2146.4s] The actual CEO of actual Peugeot about your car"
Peugeot is a well-known French car brand. When the CEO is mentioned, it usually means the conversation is tied to the company’s current direction or a special car/launch.
Peugeot is a major French automaker, part of the Stellantis group. CEO-level mentions usually signal that the speaker is talking about a high-profile car or brand event rather than a casual ownership story.
"[2158.9s] He's, because he was at Volkswagen Group
[2160.5s] and Citroen and he was at Europe car
[2162.7s] and he's, so he's moved."
Citroën is another French car brand. Mentioning it alongside Peugeot and Volkswagen Group is about the person’s career history in European car companies.
Citroën is a French automaker known for distinctive design and comfort-focused engineering. Referencing Citroën alongside Peugeot and Volkswagen Group suggests the CEO has experience across multiple European brands.
"Yeah, and that cut their development time down to 100 weeks for the Twingo."
“Development time” is the total schedule from early concept work through engineering, validation, and readiness for production. Shortening it can reduce costs and help a company respond faster to regulations and consumer demand, but it can also increase risk if testing and refinement get rushed.
"because you had such a history
with the original V-Twin, didn't you?
I liked the V-Twin, yeah,"
A V-twin is an engine with two cylinders arranged in a V shape. It usually has a distinctive feel and sound compared with engines with more cylinders.
A V-twin is an engine configuration where two cylinders share a “V” shape. It’s commonly associated with a distinctive sound and character, and it can be used in motorcycles and some niche cars.
"If a supermini is the perfect supermini,
it gets five stars.
I think it would be so..."
A supermini is a small everyday car, usually a hatchback. It’s meant to be easy to live with—so the speaker is saying a perfect one would get the highest score.
A supermini is a small, mainstream car segment (typically hatchbacks) designed to be practical and efficient for everyday use. The speaker uses it as an example of a “brief” a car can perfectly match to earn top ratings.
"[2408.1s] I think last bit in your column.
[2409.8s] The Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust.
[2412.8s] What's that about?
[2413.8s] Well, it was a thing...
[2414.9s] Do you remember we talked about the fact that I was going to do this?
[2418.3s] Go to...
[2419.1s] The Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust is a body
[2423.0s] that aims to encourage people who would like to write a motoring book"
The Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust is a group that helps people write car books. In this part of the podcast, they explain what it does and that it supports successful motoring authors.
The Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust is an organization that supports and encourages people to write motoring books. In the segment, it’s introduced as a body that helps aspiring authors get started and highlights successful writers they’ve gathered for an event or initiative.
"Please do not tap me on the shoulder and ask me
what the horsepower figure for the 2009 Hyundai i10 1.2
is, thanks very much."
The Hyundai i10 is a small car meant for city driving. “1.2” means it has a 1.2-liter engine, and the joke is about someone asking what power it makes.
The Hyundai i10 is a small city car, and the “1.2” refers to its 1.2-liter engine. In this segment, the host jokes about asking for the horsepower figure, highlighting how even basic specs matter when you’re trying to understand a car’s performance.
"In a software-defined vehicle, software becomes the primary driver of differentiation and value creation."
It’s a car where the important behavior is run by software. Instead of everything being fixed at the factory, the car can get new features or improvements later through updates.
A software-defined vehicle is one where key functions are controlled by software rather than fixed, hard-wired electronics. That means features can be added, changed, or improved over time—often via remote updates—so the car can evolve after purchase.
"The problem is all these contaminants build up on the timing belt and can cause the timing belt to slip or snap or break."
The timing belt keeps the engine’s moving parts in sync. If it slips or breaks, the valves can get out of timing and the engine can be badly damaged.
A timing belt synchronizes the crankshaft and camshaft so the engine’s valves open at the correct time. If it slips, snaps, or breaks, valve timing can be lost quickly, which can lead to severe engine damage.
"It's a bigger engine, 1.5. It's a 1.5 without a turbo."
A “turbo” is a device that boosts the engine by pushing extra air into it. Because it runs under higher heat and pressure, keeping up with oil changes is especially important.
A “turbo” (turbocharger) forces more air into the engine, allowing more power from a smaller displacement. Turbocharged engines can be more sensitive to oil quality and heat management, so maintenance history matters.
Select text to request an explanation
Hello, and welcome to the AutoGuard Podcast, my week in cars with Pry here, croppy there
Monique Steven.
Morning, mate.
How's things?
Pretty good, I think.
Good.
Not raining.
Nothing gone wrong.
Two cars.
Two cars outside on the charge.
Yeah.
And they're not both charging together, are they?
One of them's charging.
You've got a three in there.
One's getting done.
Tell you what though, it's neither of them's mine, but it does strike me that the demand
for double charges in certain people's houses, you know, people with a few cars in the household
are becoming necessary because otherwise you've got to get up at 10 o'clock and go and change
over.
Yeah, absolutely.
We've got a letter about that somewhere in the inbox, which I might do in a different
pod in a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks time.
This podcast is brought to you in association with Anderson on that subject.
If you visit Anderson-EV.com, you can find out the full range of charges.
They're a sort of premium design-led home charging company, but at the moment they'll
offer you six months free charging as over 4,000 free miles with the intelligent Octopus
Co.
From orders placed after the March the 1st.
Nice British people.
Yeah.
You can write to us autocaratheymarket.com as the letter writer did about the double
charging thing, but also David Thacker has written to us to say, Marcus's letter last
week, Marcus Roller, I think, about electric tariffs across the water made me wince.
I thought I would check the cheapest EV or non-EV rates were in Northern Ireland.
The too long, don't read version, is that we're being robbed here.
The standard cheapest tariff is 39.1 pence per kilowatt hour.
There is only one supplier who does an EV rate at night.
They charge at 17.16 pence per kilowatt hour from 2 a.m. to 9 a.m. and then 35.88 p per
kilowatt hour the rest of the time plus a 12.3 pence per day standing charge.
We have two electric cars, a Skoda LROC and a Renault 5 eTEC, which is absolutely brilliant,
so seven hours isn't enough time to charge the LROC, let alone both.
Actually, this is the letter I was talking about.
So it cost me £16.19 to charge the LROC from 20% to 80% if we were in the mainland.
That would be £3.71.
Yeah, gosh.
Perhaps I should concentrate on what the same mileage would cost in petrol to make myself
feel better.
Yeah.
Regardless, David Thacker.
Yeah, probably, David.
That might make you feel better as I've just filled up my A2 at £1.80 a litre.
Yeah.
Boy, how are the service stations full?
Oh, fine.
Yeah.
I mean, no, who's going to be, who's, I mean, you know, yeah, all fine, all fine.
Everything is normal, I think, except for, I had to, so I was on my way home from the
airport the other day and I got a sort of emergency phone call, so I had to just, I
just had to go back home to, everything's fine, by the way.
Yeah.
I was just like, oh, crikey.
Okay, fine.
I'm on my way.
I'm coming.
Don't worry.
And I had to, so I had to stop to get petrol on the M40, Oxford Services, and I think it's
over £190 a litre for diesel.
And somebody else said they've seen over £2 for a litre, which is just...
It also smells, isn't it?
All these people, you know, in the financials, they're already saying, so-and-so expect to
make a big profit out of this.
Well, you know why?
Yeah, it shouldn't really be allowed.
Surely the profit margin should be the profit margin.
Yeah.
It's just, it's not a, it's not a bleeding charity.
Yes, quite.
If one owns a McLaren Artura, Steve, listen, Steve and I are going to talk about our respective
auto car columns for the next half an hour to an hour.
If one is going to buy a McLaren Artura, will you enjoy it?
Well, the Mrs has a friend who has got an Artura, and he's very pleased with it, and
you know, it's all done all the right things.
But we were talking the other day, and he's done, he's had it for two years and, or nearly
two years and 15,000 miles, and I think, and he feels that he never really got his arms
around it.
And it just occurred to me that I suddenly saw the reason why Jonathan Palmer and Palmer
Sport at Bedford have got seven cars, and it is because anybody that goes there can
drive an Artura faster in better conditions and under better instruction than they would
ever be able to drive a car they owned.
So I've said to this bloke, get yourself over there mate, because you can, you'll be able
to do, you know, sort of 170 down the straight or something and you, and somebody will be
sitting in the passenger seat telling you get on with it.
Is he going to do it?
I think so, yeah.
I rang up JP just to say, what do you think?
And mainly to find out how these Arturas had gone on, because you remember that it was
a car that was struck some difficulties with, I think software difficulties in the early
days.
Well, the very early ones, there was a cancelled press launch two days before it was due to
happen.
We got a phone call going, actually don't come.
And then the rearranged one, they had what is euphemistically referred to as some thermal
incidents, which means fire.
And then things have been very much sorted out since.
And I think, yeah, the car now, but Jonathan Palmer says the car's good, doesn't he?
He does.
He said, yeah, we're about to, I think we're about to be passed over, oh no, it's just
a bizjet.
We've had a load of B-52s this morning.
No, Jonathan Palmer, that's the reason I rang him, just to find out how it's been.
He says, fantastic, you know, as good as any routine cars you like.
He says there are times when their cars do 200 miles a day on the circuit, all flat out.
So that means he's got a 20,000 miler already, and he reckons that they'll keep them for
three to five.
So this, you know, we're going to finish up with, here's our tours, we're going to
have done, I suppose, 50,000 or 60,000 miles flat out.
And although he keeps, as we know from having been there, he keeps them very well, that's
a mighty performance, I'd say, for a full-on performance car like that.
Yeah, because it's a proper supercar, isn't it?
I mean, it's the six turbocharged hybrid dual clutch gearbox, carbon fiber type, two
seats.
And he says, really fast car, you know, and he's a hell of a judge for a fast car.
He's a pretty tidy driver still, isn't he?
The thing he says works is there's minimum driveline trouble, gearbox and driveline trouble,
because they don't have a clutch, and people who aren't used to powerful cars can slip
or burn out the clutch and so on.
But everybody, I mean, it's difficult to cock it up.
You don't have to use the, there is a launch control, but you don't need it, as we know,
they are rupped anyway, off the line.
So no, it's been a rather big success, and I think McLaren must be pretty pleased.
Yeah, you'd think so.
Are we going to find out at some point what's going on at McLaren slash, what are they called?
4-7.
Thank you.
Yes, I think there's actually-
When do you know?
Well, just that this bloke, Nick Collins, who we know from several other guys, first ran
across him at Ford when he was involved in a Fiesta replacement program that didn't
actually happen, because they decided to just change the Fiesta a bit and keep doing it.
Then he went to JLR, then he went to this business called 4-7, which is funded from
the Middle East by Irani, is it?
Something like, isn't it?
Yeah, something like.
And 4-7 got amalgamated with McLaren, so that it's just a bigger organization with a lot
more engineers and a whole bunch of planned new models, including SUV, I believe.
Remember McLaren always used to say, I'll tell you one thing we're not going to do,
and that's build an SUV.
Yeah, I remember very distinctly seeing a PowerPoint slide, probably, in order to
with a bunch of pictures of models on, and they were like, this is how we make money.
We make a few, I forget how many thousand it was, but they were like, this is the cars
we make, this makes us a profit.
I don't think they're making anything like that number of cars, and certainly not that
kind of profit, which maybe is why they need.
But so Nick Collins is in charge of this, and I think we have a plan somewhere in the
works, I think it might be James Atwood, who is soon to meet Nick Collins and have a
yarn to him, literally in the next few days.
So a story is about to reveal all, but I fear it's neither you nor me that's going to do
the meeting.
I wouldn't mind, I must say, I mean, he's a nice guy in Nick Collins, but in the previous
meetings I've had with him, he's a bit reluctant to tell you the contents of his bank balance,
or his inside leg measurement, he's kind of, there's a little bit of what do you want to
know for stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, classic tractor enthusiast, though, I think.
Is he?
I think so.
I think so.
I remember talking to him about that at the Auto Car Awards once.
He won one of them.
He won one of them, didn't he?
Yeah.
Yeah, when he was head of, head of something at JLR at the time, wasn't he?
There was a, was he basically the engineering chief at JLR?
Must have been it.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah.
I didn't know that.
I've forgotten.
Well, that makes him a better bloke, doesn't it?
Well, doesn't it?
Yeah, it doesn't it.
If you are in a Toyota CHR Plus, which we talked about briefly last week, and it makes a noise,
I might be in a rare position of about to disagree with Steve Gropley.
What happens in a Toyota CHR Plus?
There's this, I've got a, I'm spooked by the number of times speed limits change these
days.
And there's a, there's a, there's a single little beep that peep almost in the CHR Plus
that just tells you when you've, when the speed limit has just changed.
And you just, and, and I was driving this car around in sort of lower Sussex, I think.
And it's one of those places that's quite populous and, you know, full of little towns
with, that are all run by retired bank managers who do those, those kind of civil radar trap
things.
You know, everybody hates speed and there are loads of different speed limits that vary
all the time.
And, and this thing would just kind of go beep at you and say, hang on a minute, mate,
you might be speeding.
And I found that useful.
And I made these, I said to the steering committee that I, that I thought this wasn't
a bad idea.
And she said, nonsense, mate, you know, I've heard you go up in the air, we're about
bongs in cars all the time.
But so she said, you know, if it wasn't in the car and you could put it in, would you
do it?
And I think I would.
And this is not the bong that tells you that you are speeding.
This is the bong that tells you that the speed limit has changed.
Yeah.
You've just passed a sign.
You know how when the speed limit changes, you, I learned this in one of those licensed
jobs where you have to go and speed awareness course.
The thing I learned was that when you see the speed limits of speed limits are on both
sides of the road, that means the limit has just changed.
Yeah.
And that was news to me.
Actually, I shouldn't have been, but it was.
And that's the moment when it just goes beep at you, but it only does it once.
How much of a beep is it?
Well, it's, it's, it's almost, I sort of wonder whether anyone else in the car can hear it.
It's so, so slight.
Yeah.
And, and you can turn it off, but I have found it useful.
And if it were off, you would, you would genuinely turn it off.
I think I would turn it on.
Yeah.
Does it do as most of them tend to do?
This is one of, one of my frustrations about it.
One, one of my biggest frustrations just leave me alone.
My second frustration is that they quite often get it wrong.
Well, that's what I pulled out somewhere the other day and it said that
this limit was 20 or in it, in it wasn't, it was, I think, well, I was on a motor, maybe
I was coming out of a motorway service and it said the speed limit was five and I was
coming onto the eighth, maybe I was going onto the A34 or something from a service station.
And it was just like, did it bong a lot though?
It kind of, it was a, actually, there was a, I think I was in an MGS nine, which is a
new seven seat plug-in hybrid, they have got, we talked about it last week to me, they've
got now one button that you can push to select the ADAS, advanced driver systems that you
want to have on, which ones you want to have off, but you can only push that button when
the vehicle is in park.
So if you've already set off, that's annoying, so you have to stop or put up with it.
But it's just, it's the, it's the false positives that really wind me up more than anything.
I mean, it all annoys me a bit, but it's the, it's the, it's the ones where it gets it very
wrong.
If it gets my goat the worst, yeah.
Well, I can see why I'm saying, if, if I didn't strike a, a time when it was wrong,
so I've possibly got a better opinion than I would have, if it's, if they're starting
to get them right more often, that's good.
Yeah.
That's all right.
So going down the M40 or M4, there's been some kind of a previous hold up, you know,
with a 40 limit and it's still there in the, in the, in the navigations brain and that
gets on your nerves, doesn't it?
But so far, it's, it seemed to work, you know, I just, I think I must have been in a good
mood or something.
The one that gets me about a travel law is some users of sat nav systems such as ways
or Google maps, they really need to learn the difference between police cars and traffic
officers.
Yeah.
Because it'll say police ahead and I think, is it going to be police ahead or is it just
that bit between the M4 and the M40 on the M25 where the traffic officers, so highways
officers sit because that's, they are not the same thing.
But that's the user's fault, isn't it?
Oh, yeah.
100%.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's not the fault of the system at all.
That's somebody going, I can see a car that has some bright yellow on it.
It must be a police car.
It must be a police car.
Yeah.
And just, just, I'm sure nobody listening to this podcast falls into that category.
But you just think it's not, that wasn't, I mean, not that I would ever have to cause
to worry.
No.
On seeing a police car.
Anyway, frankly, obviously, don't write in.
Autocorotamarket.com, if you do want to write in is the address.
When we were talking about that, Steve, I was searching whether GSR2 regulations have
to have a, so they have to start with a bong that will read the speed limits.
That's the latest general safety regulations too for new cars.
So they have to default on startup to having a speed limit reader.
But I don't know if it has to have the speed limit change bong or not.
For some reason, I thought it did.
But I also think I've driven cars recently and when it hasn't, where it hasn't had them.
Well, I would have thought this Toyota would have the latest system.
Oh, it must have, yeah.
And that was, you could turn everything off except this one little peak noise.
So you couldn't turn that off at all?
You could turn it off, but I sort of impetuously left it on.
Well, I think, yeah, I think I probably would turn it off.
I can't imagine a bong I would turn on willingly.
Well, the thing is, you're possibly more attentive and generally smarter than I am.
No, I think I'm probably grumpier than you are, mate.
I think I'm probably generally more furious.
So that BMW 330 CI I have at the moment, I did a run into City Airport the other week,
sort of really early in the morning, and the temperature was about three degrees when I left my house.
And then it went down a bit, then it went up a bit, then it went down a bit, then it went up a bit,
depending on gradient and how far out of town you are.
And every time it went down to three degrees, it tells you with an ice warning,
it goes beep and tells you that there's an ice warning.
I suppose in that 330 it did it, I don't know, four or five times on the journey.
Of course, you must have been on there.
Well, I decided it didn't bother me, but that's a 20-year-old car, 21-year-old car.
And in fact, the model line is older still.
And I thought, it's hardly really annoying ADAS, is it really?
I mean, once every half an hour on a two-hour journey, if I could cope with that.
And it's telling me something useful, isn't it?
Isn't it interesting how accurate they are, though?
I mean, I've been driving along somewhere, probably towards your place,
and I've talked to herself in her car, which is in Cooper S, I'm in Ford,
and you can have a chat and, you know,
incidentally, what the temperature is comes up,
and it's amazing that within a degree or two, they're the same, you know?
Oh, really?
It's really precise, isn't it, that two cars can measure the temperature so accurately?
Yeah, I'm never sure how accurate they are.
By the time you get, sort of, heat soak through,
especially in a big combustion engine vehicle,
if you're getting heat soak coming through to wherever the temperature gets it will break,
heat coming through, and sometimes if you leave a car in the sunshine,
just the general, you know, the metal heats up, because it's in the UV,
and how much difference that makes.
Because sometimes you get in a car on a hot day and think,
I'm not sure it's that hot, but maybe they...
It does seem amazing that...
Yeah, with all the breeze going on and then, sort of,
late need of evaporation and all that kind of stuff,
that the ambient can be measured,
but it does strike me that it's normally pretty good.
Yeah, normally pretty accurate.
Yeah, what is next?
I think it is...
Let's talk about...
Let's quickly...
I think this is an...
and another thing in your column.
We talked about the transport slash roads minister.
Oh, I was, you know, I was in a lather of him, wouldn't I?
It's just...
I think it's the people who choose who ministers are going to be.
28-year-old bloke, never worked in industry,
does not even... he's the roads minister.
You would think he would, therefore, need to know about roads,
and he doesn't even have a driver's license.
And that struck me that the bloke's not going to be able to get one either,
even if he wants one, because...
because, one, he won't be able to get an appointment for the next nine months
to get tested, and two,
if it gets out that he's going to take his test,
you can bet the bloke's from the Daily Star will be up the road,
watching him get tested.
Watching him do it, yeah.
So, it just seems...
I mean, what's next?
A minister of education who can't read, you know?
Are we...
Yeah, I did...
It was so funny when I saw this, I did Google it quickly,
and there is... I saw an opinion column somewhere that said,
ah, well, it's not necessarily a bad thing,
because here's somebody who thinks that private transport
is not the default choice.
But then it also said that, you know, our towns are built around,
you know, maybe he'll understand that towns don't need to be built around cars
and access and stuff like that.
Actually, the way to save a town centre in my experience
is to have free parking near it.
And when you look at town centres and high streets that are dying,
it's because you can't just stop and park there.
I mean, I know it's my job, I know it's my thing,
I know it's my enthusiasm,
but cars are better than other stuff.
They're just better.
Right, fine, if I went into London last night
and taken the car, it would have been stupid,
and I wouldn't have done it.
But for the most...
It's where you are, and then you get in it,
and it goes to where you want to be,
and you can take all of your stuff,
and then you get out the other end,
and then when you're done, you get back in it,
and you go back to where you are.
So, from a convenience point of view, it is best.
It doesn't matter what you do with public transport,
a private vehicle will always be better,
because it starts exactly where you are,
and it goes to exactly where you want to be.
At the time you want, and if you want to go from work,
then I'm going to go...
When my lad was playing ice hockey,
he, in Oxford, and I was working in Twickenham,
I would get in my car in Twickenham,
I'd drive to Oxford, or I'd drive to Bister, pick him up,
go to Oxford, he'd play ice hockey,
and then I'd take him...
There was a time when he was going to school in Birmingham for a year,
and I'd take him to Birmingham and go home.
I could do all of that in a car,
exactly when I wanted it, exactly when I needed it.
Those journeys, respectively, would have been pretty much impossible
to do on public transport,
especially with a six-foot bag and a six-foot stick.
So, if we know that the car is the most convenient for most people,
why don't we find a way that we can do that
without harming the environment and without making cities bad?
Why don't we just work it out that we go,
well, that's the optimum way of doing it,
that's the most convenient, so that's going to be the one
that gives people the most time to spend where they want to be
with their loved ones at work, boosting the economy,
doing all the things they want to do.
So, why don't we just make it so that we can do that
without harming the world around us?
This bloke, after all, is supposed to be representing us, the people.
He's supposed to be sort of,
he agrees in the wheels for us.
It's not a matter of coming up with some new system.
I felt so strongly about it.
The thing that was worst about this fellow, though,
was just his supercilious attitude.
He was doing lots of stuff about this being a partnership
between the government and the car industry,
and he was being asked for something very specific for very good reasons,
i.e. the fact that 18 million quid or something had been
unnecessarily spent by people trying to obey the ZEV mandate,
and the industry was saying, please bring this review forward.
You've promised a review, you could do it now instead of next year.
Save us 9 million quid.
No, it's only a billion quid, sorry.
Stylantus wrote off, like, no, hang on, who wrote off
Volkswagen Group, Porsche Bentley and stuff?
There's a story I've just read about this week where they've,
and Stylantus have written down 23 billion quid's worth of stuff that they've spent.
That's for killed models, isn't it?
Yeah, for models they are.
There is not a market for.
But the 9 billion is just money that's been spent on incentives
to get people over the line,
so that they don't have to pay a fine, which would have been even more.
What the industry was saying to this bloke is that you've promised a review.
The likelihood is that you will change the law.
In Canada, they've already presumed, they've already proved that you can do
one of these reviews in five or six months.
If you started now, you could give us a result by mid-year, soon after mid-year.
Why don't you do it?
And he just stood there and said,
a review has been promised in 2027,
which means they'll get around to changing the law in 2028 if they change it.
If they change it.
It's just obtuse.
It's just obstructive, horrible.
I'd love to know what the bloke really thinks.
When he's sitting in front of a telly with his feet on the sofa,
what does he really think?
Does he think he's doing a good job?
Surely not.
Shall we get him on?
Yeah, it'd be great, wouldn't it?
Yeah, come on the pod.
Let's take a very short break to tell you about our sponsor,
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I did a thing the other day with my...
What did you do?
What did you do?
Which was, I didn't phone him up and ask him about the leading tariff,
but the thing I did do is give it...
It's painted, mine is painted to match the building it's on,
and with paint that seems very similar to the paint that's on a car,
you know, they give you a swatch and all that.
So I gave it a little rub down, it cleaned it up,
Oh, really?
Lovely.
Very nice.
Bravo.
What was I going to say?
Sorry, I...
No, no, no.
I can't remember what I was going to say,
but was I going to say something about charges or not charges?
I can't remember, no.
I can tell you exactly what was on the road 35 years ago,
when I walked past it,
but I can't tell you what I was thinking several seconds ago.
I tell you what,
I definitely want them to come up with some sort of home charger
where there are two outlets rather than one,
because I could definitely...
Yeah, you could use that, couldn't you?
And I think the Mrs E is going to finish up with an EV of some kind.
Interesting.
Not sure yet.
She's still reluctant, but I can't...
There are fewer and fewer good reasons for the reluctance,
that's the thing.
And that would be for all journeys?
Because I suppose at some point,
if she doesn't want to take her car,
because it's too far on the battery range,
you have other vehicles.
Yeah, we've got the Duster,
which stands us in for...
And that, every time you fill it up, it says 645 miles, you know.
Yeah, and that's quite compelling, isn't it?
It's great.
Yeah, the A2 does say something like 700 and something
when I fill it up.
It's ridiculous, that car.
For a petrol car, that's amazing.
So I was speaking to somebody earlier today,
hello Dan, who said, oh no, yesterday,
who said he has a mate who has an Audi A2
and he's fitted some Bilstein dampers
and suspension and stuff,
which I believe has improved it,
which is quite interesting.
You're going to do it?
Well, I'm going to speak to him about it,
because it needs new dampers anyway.
I told you this the other day.
You were talking about the lack of a leak, isn't it?
Yeah, the lack of a leak,
because there is nothing to leak out anymore, I think.
I think I have a...
I think my motorbike probably wants new dampers too,
because it's a bit springy.
And they can do...
You get really nice stuff for an Africa twin.
You can get really trick,
Dakar-like rally suspension,
and it's quite expensive.
Sounds like it needs doing that.
Yeah, but I think a new...
But he's a keeper, that bike.
Oh, 100%, yeah, yeah.
Because they're just so special.
You know, lots of bikes just fade away,
especially Japanese...
One of the things that used to infuriate me
about having a few Japanese bikes
was that you would buy one,
and then 10 months later it would be superseded.
Oh, really?
Yeah, because...
It just didn't turn...
Not in quality, it just didn't turn over.
Well, it'd be as if Mark III would come out.
Right, right, right.
And the clutch cable wouldn't fit anymore.
I see.
Whereas I think a Honda Africa twin,
original Honda Africa twin,
it's just always going to be a moment
like the Yamaha RD 350, you know, that kind of...
Yeah, it feels like that to me.
James Hillier, who is a TT racer
and Dakar racer,
and I did a Suzuki Swift Sport 750
motor club race with him a few months ago,
he's got one, which is pretty cool.
And he was like, yeah, no, they're great bikes.
They are for superb bikes.
And there's a place in near Southampton
called Rugged Roads,
which is a bit of a specialist in that sort of thing.
And you can get, as far as I can tell,
anything you want.
As far as, you know, as far as I can tell on it,
you just get...
You can get the works.
If you want any part, they will sell it.
Yeah.
And I bet a new damp would be a lovely feeling to you.
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, I should probably do the front and rear.
At the same time.
Yeah, but should do it all at once, really.
But you could, if you want,
I think one of the trickiest rear shock units
is like 1200 quid, which is...
Yeah, I don't think I'll do that.
But there are grades on the way up.
I don't think I need anything quite.
But imagine how plush it would feel.
I bet it would feel...
I bet it would be amazing.
I bet it would.
So, at some point, I will do that.
But at the moment, I'm just keeping it ticking over.
Yeah.
Because I ride it a lot in the summer.
You do, yeah.
Should we talk about...
Yeah, I'm going to talk about...
I may ride it slightly less in the coming months
because at some point in the next few weeks,
I'm going to pick up my Morgan Super 3.
Oh, fantastic.
Brilliant, brilliant.
I sort of sensed that this was in the background.
Tell us everything.
Tell us everything.
Well, I ran that long-term at last year.
Yeah.
The latest version, it was...
What is it?
Heron White, I think.
And it was specced largely by Felix Page, our deputy editor.
Nice colours, nice scheme, nice options on it.
You can get heated seats, various trims and things like that inside.
And I was at Bister Heritage's scramble, I think, in October.
And I saw Dan, one of the sales guys there,
and he was talking about it.
And he said...
That car?
Yeah, he's saying, how are you finding the car?
I was like, great.
Really, really like it.
Really terrific.
And, you know, my family think it's great,
and they'd love to have one and blah, blah, blah.
But, you know...
He said, well, I mean, we'd sell you one for X thousand pounds.
And I thought, oh, that sounds...
I mean, that sounds...
More than I can afford, but that's quite good value.
Because they hold their value extremely well.
Yes.
Anyway, so I went away and I've been talking about it
and thinking about it since.
And, yeah, just a while ago, I went,
yeah, okay, if you can do us one.
And actually, is the...
Because it was at the factory last time I saw it,
the sort of metallic olive green car
that was AutoCars' road test car.
It was a press demonstrator.
Right.
For a long time.
It's got the amber wind deflector.
Oh, yeah.
That's in there.
They're advertising, too.
That's famous, that car.
Yeah, it's the sort of dark...
Yeah, darkish, dark green...
Yeah, with the screens, I remember.
Yeah, it's a good-looking car.
I was like, I mean, is that available?
And they said, I mean, it could be.
That's...
It's had a life, but it's been very well looked after
all the way through.
So as I talk to you, it is, I think,
in the workshop having a bit of titivation.
And then, I mean, I imagine everybody's
wants their car now, don't they?
That's the thing.
So I said to them, look,
I'm not in any rush to fit it around other stuff
because I don't want to be that person.
I remember going to Ariel and saying to Tom
when he was there.
And he was used to saying,
mate, people just...
Every March, they phone us up and they say,
can you service my car?
And I said, why can't you do that in December?
Because now everybody wants their car serviced
all at once.
So I should have pushed the button on it earlier,
but I didn't have space available
and everything else.
It's still going to need a bit of a reshuffle
down the garden.
But at some point, the Super 3 will arrive.
So do you have, I mean, next month or something?
I'm hoping within the next month or so.
Yeah.
I'm away a bit.
Logistically, there's some faffing about to do
because I'm away for a couple of weeks.
And then, so I could pick it up before,
could pick it up afterwards, whatever.
But yeah, it'll arrive.
Oh, that's exciting.
I am excited.
Fantastic.
So you'll be away and then you'll come back
and then you hope you knew your car?
Well, I mean, yeah, I think probably,
yeah, I mean, probably the most sensible thing would be
that it was around when I came back.
But I mean, either way.
Oh, that'll be a, what a summer.
I've got a lot of stuff already.
I do have, I saw somebody last night.
She said, I was telling her about it
and she said, haven't you already got,
like, some cars?
I said, yeah, I've got four.
What on earth?
Why on earth would you want another one?
And show me it.
So I showed her a picture of the super three.
Oh my goodness.
What on earth is that?
Why?
Why would you want another?
Why would you want another car?
And why would it be that?
You'll have a great time.
Yeah, I think it'll be cool.
Also, it'll be, the thing is,
you drive it all weekend and never see another one.
That's a sort of, I love that idea.
Yeah.
And you make friends in it.
Everywhere you go, people like it.
And people who aren't into cars like it,
people who like motorcycles like it,
everybody realize it.
It's amazing how many sort of thumbs up and nods
you get from motorcyclists.
Oh, definitely.
So.
Oh, I can't wait just to see it.
That'll be, but that is a famous car.
I'm sure it is.
It's a nice spec, I think.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's a nice spec.
But it's in, you know,
I think it's in some of their brochure shoots
and things like that.
So it's, so I think you'll find that it's,
it's fame.
It's famous.
Well, that's good.
I'll take it.
I, you know, this 205 X rally car
that's being built for me, the 205.
That gets shaken down on our,
on our local airfields this week.
Oh, really?
By the folks building it to see whether
the brakes work and all that.
Quick shifter and so on.
You know, it's got that rather,
over the top green,
that has been officially,
christened that the color has been
officially named by a friend of mine,
Chernobyl green.
Harsh.
But it's good looking car.
I was speaking to Alaphabe,
the CEO of Peugeot.
The actual CEO of actual Peugeot about your car
two days ago.
Good God.
He's a good bloke, isn't he?
He was in the UK for a while.
Yeah.
He's been around.
He's, because he was at Volkswagen Group
and Citroen and he was at Europe car
and he's, so he's moved.
Which I think is probably,
I mean, I don't know,
sometimes the CEO has just been at the same company
all the way through, haven't they?
Yeah.
But yeah, he's moved around some various stuff.
I thought he was great, actually.
I did talk to him for,
the interview will be in the mag at some point,
but also I'm going to see if the audio,
the slight difficulty is it will need cutting up,
because we were talking about some things
which are embargoed for a very long time,
because we won't see for another year.
Okay.
So we can't talk about that sort of stuff.
So we'll, so,
but if there is some usable audio in it,
I'll cut it out,
because it's interesting to hear him talk about,
I think last week I was saying that Renault
had used this base in Shanghai
that they have to find suppliers
that could give them much quicker answers
on pricing and supply and stuff like that.
Oh, indeed, yeah.
And that cut the...
Sort of end of the week stuff.
Yeah, and that cut their development time down
to 100 weeks for the Twingo.
Amazing.
And somebody said to him,
look, you know, would you do that?
He said, why would I want to do that?
I don't, is it going to save me any money?
Who knows?
And also, why would I want to outsource
all of that stuff for China
when I'm in charge of a European car company?
And my responsibility is to make sure
that this is a European car company in 20 years' time.
Interesting.
Really interesting.
Something slightly philosophical chat about
the fact that even if I could save a few quid,
should I just save a few quid?
Yes, or should I stay here?
Or should I actually stay doing
what I'm supposed to be doing?
Been here for 200 years, making various stuff.
Wouldn't it be nice if we were still here in another 20 years
as a European focus?
Big decisions, aren't they?
They are, because you've got to give somebody
a reason to buy your car
if you are a European car maker,
because the Chinese manufacturers are arriving,
giving you a very good reason to buy your car,
which is, they're cheap.
And they are underwriting their supply chain
for that to be possible.
But also, Stellantis is going to start
building Leap Motors
within its European factories.
But I guess on their own terms,
with their own...
Yeah, I said that.
I said, look, if a Leap Motor
is built in a Peugeot factory,
where does it stop and end?
He said, that's it.
They just build Leap Motors in our factories,
but there is no platform sharing.
It's a simple production thing.
You're not going to have the same platform
that underpins a Leap Motor plus a Peugeot 208.
He said.
Well, if he finds himself in the UK,
I'll take him for a drop in my car.
I think he'd be thrilled, mate.
I think he'd really like that very much.
I can't wait.
He was getting ready for a passenger ride
in a T16 205 when I left for the airport.
Get out of my league.
But this Morg, mate, that's just lovely.
That's so correct for you, too,
because you had such a history
with the original V-Twin, didn't you?
I liked the V-Twin, yeah,
and gave it a very good road test score.
I think I gave it five stars in the road test,
which are probably...
Well, is it generous,
or does it fulfill the purpose?
Because the road test is supposed
to test a car's fitness for purposes.
Basically, if it fulfills its brief perfectly,
then it gets five stars.
That's the idea.
If a supermini is the perfect supermini,
it gets five stars.
I think it would be so...
And I think I can make a very good case
that objectively a Morgan 3-wheeler,
Super 3, whatever, does fulfill its purpose exactly,
because what's it meant to do?
Make you smile.
Does it do it?
Yes.
Does it do it better than any other car?
To sort of, you know,
to knock off a star because a mirror's vibrate a bit
or something, that's just so...
That's just so pedestrian to do.
I think five stars was right.
Absolutely.
So next bit in your column, then.
I think last bit in your column.
The Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust.
What's that about?
Well, it was a thing...
Do you remember we talked about the fact that I was going to do this?
Go to...
The Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust is a body
that aims to encourage people who would like to write a motoring book
to get on and do it,
and what they did this time was to gather a load of their successful authors
to gather at the Haggerty Clubhouse,
which is in the middle of Best of Heritage.
And if you were aspirant,
if you know somebody that would have an idea
but didn't know how to go about it,
you could go and listen,
meet and also listen to these successful authors being interviewed.
And it was just about all the things that you worry about,
like, you know,
can an ordinary person like me really do it?
How long does it take?
How much do you have to write every day?
How do I know there's a good idea behind it and so on?
And the thing about the Sedgwick,
the people who run the Sedgwick Trust
is that they can give you an opinion.
They won't necessarily be able to say yes or no,
but they can say,
it sounds good to me, mate, you know.
But I think there can be a few quid in it
for somebody that needs to do some research,
and, you know,
where they can possibly help you find a publisher,
you know, the publisher is all important.
Some people self-publish, of course,
and that is another thing that they can advise about,
because you don't necessarily have to turn it into print and paper.
You can publish online these days,
although most people's,
at least in the age group,
they're tended to be oldish folks like me,
they tend to prefer to have something that you can hold in your hand
and read in the bath and all that.
But it was good.
It was just a meeting of friends.
There was a lot of good advice.
There were very successful people.
There's one absolutely top bloke who brought a lot.
His particular love is De Deans,
and he's the sort of world expert,
and he's produced several books on the De Deans.
And because they're so beautifully designed
and beautifully researched and just superb objects,
even though I don't really mind about De Deans too much,
I still thought the book was fab,
and the thing that topped it all off was that he gave away copies to the likes of us.
Oh, really?
You know, so right here on this desk is a copy of his De Deans book.
Oh, fantastic.
The one there that's called The Tricycle,
that's one of his.
Brilliant.
And I've always been interested in veteran tricycles.
I mean, that's really mad in that, but I am.
It's a fast way to die, incidentally.
You know, no brakes and no stability.
Yeah.
Dear, oh dear.
There is a, at the Morgan factory,
there is an early Morgan three-wheeler vehicle, isn't there?
With the tiller on it, I think, to steer it,
and it does look perilous in the extreme, I've got to say.
I love the story of HFS Morgan.
The story, can you hear the pigeon hooting down there?
I can hear the pigeon hooting down the chimney.
Listen, that's what you're wondering.
It's not a B-52 going ahead, overhead unusually.
It is a pigeon.
It is a pigeon up the chimney.
But HFS Morgan apparently built his first car
because he lived on the other side of the Malvern Hills from the...
From Great Morgan.
...connovation.
Yeah.
And he just thought, what the hell, I need some transport.
Yeah.
And then he built that and his mates, his neighbours said,
can you do one for me then?
Great, isn't it?
I love that.
I love that.
Oh, I love it.
That's just a fantastic story.
So on the book front, Steve, if I'm thinking about it...
Yeah.
...your advice is, don't.
But what would I...
What should I do?
And how long is it going to take me?
I think you would be wise to...
If it's a motoring book we're talking about,
I think it would really make a lot of sense to talk to these people,
the Sedgwick Trust, because they have got a lot of match practice.
Michael Sedgwick was one of the world's greatest motoring writers,
wrote books and features.
Very erudite, knowledgeable bloke, much liked.
And the Trust was established to try and encourage people to do things
at the standard that he did.
So they know a lot.
They've got good contacts, they've achieved a lot,
and they could probably give you good advice.
But the idea...
It's two things.
The idea has to be fab.
And the publisher, you either have to self-publish
and understand the costs, and they can advise about that.
And how are you going to sell it, incidentally?
The De Deen book I'm talking about, I believe,
is sold by the...
You know, self-published and sold by the author,
and he's done it successfully.
Oh, really?
So it can be successful, but you've got to have a good idea.
Did they talk about...
Did some of them say how long they spend, how long they...
I mean, I should have asked Jeremy Clarkson about this
when we spoke to him the other day,
because it's something I'm interested in
when I talk to other journalists.
I'm aware it's sort of talking shop in a bit too...
Yeah.
But how does it take you to write your column?
It depends how I'm feeling,
but it can be half an hour or two hours.
But some people can take two years over it.
They can spend a year on the research.
Oh, really?
It just depends on...
It's rarely done to be an earner, I think, by these people.
So they...
I mean, they don't want to just go backwards financially,
but usually.
But I don't think they see it as a passport of riches.
The long and short of it, for people like us,
you write your column and it goes into magazine
and online and all the rest of it,
and it will be read by 50,000 people.
If you write a book on the...
You spend six months of your life or a year
of your life writing a book about the Ford GT40,
it will be read by four or 5,000 people,
and you might finish up with a couple of grand
in your pocket at the most.
And it's not...
It's something you want to do rather than you've driven
to do by the bank manager.
Yeah.
I think it's different for Jeremy Clarkson
because he can launch a set of Jeremy Clarkson shoe laces
tomorrow and they'd be successful.
Very true, and they would...
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he also is famously quick at writing, isn't he?
He's just one of those instinctive writers.
Yeah, he said...
I read a thing that he said the other day.
Oh, it was in that column,
which is while you got in touch in the first place
and said he was saying,
well, you know, I've got newspaper columns to write,
but they don't take nearly as long as the editor thinks.
Because I tell the editor they take.
He's so clever.
Honestly, he's so clever that book.
Yeah, but our news writers turn out stories very quickly.
They do.
And I can do a news story reasonably quickly, I suppose,
but I don't know, columns take me a while longer.
Yeah.
Well, I have to...
Well, I mean, the good ones...
Well, maybe the good ones do.
Yeah, sometimes the decent ones just fall out.
Very quick, yeah, but I don't know.
Sometimes they want a day.
It's the thing that you're about to attack.
The thing we do every few weeks,
subscribe are extra.
Oh, yes.
That can be a bit of a brain stretch at some time.
It can, but it can also be as I...
So, yeah, if you subscribe to the magazine,
listener, we will send you an email every Friday,
which is written by a staffer,
which is a piece of bonus free content exclusively for subscribers,
and it's called subscriber extra.
I've got to write this week's and a small confession.
A couple of weeks ago, mine was due,
and I got an email going,
have you written that yet, prior?
And I had forgotten.
And it took me about 20 minutes.
And it was fine, I think.
It's all right, but it would be nice to spend longer with it.
Usually, you do get something much better.
But it is...
And longer, and more considered than a 20 minute.
But it is intriguing, even for us.
You know, one of the things I love about this is,
you're almost a passenger in the process, aren't you?
Because sometimes you can labor over it,
and it can seem difficult.
And other times, it will just fall out.
And you read it back, and you think,
that's all right.
That's all right.
Yeah.
Yeah, I had cause to read a lot of my columns back.
The other day, I sort of went through,
spent an evening reading most of them from the past year.
And I thought, actually, these are okay.
A lot of these.
Some of them aren't, but some of them are okay.
And if they're not,
I've got another one in seven days' time.
That is the nice thing.
Imagine working for a weekly or a quarterly,
and writing a column,
and not being totally happy with it.
And having to wait another month,
or another three months,
before you can do it again.
That would be...
I love the feeling that you...
It's so weird, this business.
You think...
It hangs over you for a while,
and you think, oh, God,
I've never got to write a column.
Oh, God, oh, God, you know.
And then, somehow, when you sit down to write,
you feel good about it.
Even when there's a pigeon hooting.
Even when there's a pigeon hooting.
Can you have any distractions on at the same time?
If you had music on, or something,
or if there was somebody mooching around the room.
I can work perfectly well,
when there's lots of yahooing in the office.
Oh, really?
But I prefer...
Well, it depends who's yahooing.
If it's our editorial colleagues,
somehow I feel fine about that.
But sometimes we are condemned
to sit across from a bunch of commercial types,
ringing out folks on the phone
and talking about a lot of disjointed crap
that I don't understand.
And I find that out of footing.
Yeah.
And they tend to have very little notion of, you know,
that a little bit of...
A little bit of peace and quiet.
Peace and quiet is good for the editorial post.
Yeah, it seems to be the whole...
those big red-ear defenders that people would wear
to signify that they were concentrating on writing,
and you preferred not to be disturbed.
They're always accompanied by an expression, aren't they?
You know, the person puts them on,
and they also get this kind of rather sort of clouded expression.
Yeah, because I am now at work.
I'm now at work.
Please do not tap me on the shoulder and ask me
what the horsepower figure for the 2009 Hyundai i10 1.2
is, thanks very much.
Can I borrow your Ford Prefect or something?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, my column this week,
which I wrote before coming over here,
is about a software-defined vehicle.
And what that means.
Oh, I liked it. I liked that.
I thought...
Was it all right?
Yeah.
Because it was a bit...
I didn't know where it was going at first,
because it was somebody asked on this event,
somebody asked this sort of team at Peugeot,
because they were...
Well, anyway, there's some stuff I can't talk about.
But anyway, they were saying,
you know, is so-and-so vehicle a software-defined vehicle?
And there was this proper French...
You know, the term Gallic shrug could have been invented
exactly for this sort of...
I mean, if you want...
I mean, what's that?
But what does that mean?
Yeah.
And they just clearly don't care.
They clearly go,
well, it's got software in it.
Yeah.
But it's a car.
But other people, as you've said in your column,
other people make a BMW in particular,
make a fuss about it.
And I was at Volvo the week before,
with learning about this new SUV,
the EX-60, which is an electric.
And they're very big on the fact that it's software-defined.
But the line in your column,
which is fantastic,
I would encourage anyone to read it,
is the bit that where you say,
this is, you know,
there I was out in this I-X3,
a car with passive damping, passive steering.
What was it?
Passive?
Yeah.
So it's got passive dampers.
It's got coil springs.
It's got conventional anti-roll bars.
Yeah.
It's got electrically power assist steering,
but it's connected to the wheels.
It's not steered by wire.
No.
It's electric, so...
So it's mechanical.
So you are...
The throttle response is mechanical,
and the braking feel is by wire.
But fundamentally, the bits underneath it
that I thought were the best bits of the car
were how it drove,
were how it rode and handled.
That's all passive.
All of that.
It's just hardware.
It's not software at all.
And our friends...
That was a really good point, I thought.
Yeah, our friends at Car Design Research said,
because I just searched through my emails
and I've got one from last year,
they said understanding what this tangibly is
and how it actually adds value
is at best murky,
is what they say about it.
But then I also got a note.
When I was talking about the I...
When I was talking about the IX3,
I got a note from a colleague who does
who is in that business,
and he said it refers to a paradigm shift
where the vehicle's core functions and features
are no longer hard-wired
and are physical components,
but are instead controlled, enhanced,
and updated through software.
This decouples hardware
from functionality-enabled continuous innovation
over-the-air updates
and rapid deployment of new services
throughout the vehicle's life cycle.
In a software-defined vehicle,
software becomes the primary driver
of differentiation and value creation.
I don't quite understand.
But it strikes me that I think,
and some manufacturers love it as a phrase
and a thing,
and others are just like,
well, it's just something we do.
Of course, it's not software.
Yeah, yeah, I suppose it's about
which bit you like the most.
I mean, the thing that we find ourselves
talking about all the time
is how it steers, how it rides,
how it goes around corners,
how it absorbs individual bumps,
is a damping nice and all that,
and that seems to be a mechanical fun.
Yeah, but maybe we're unusual in doing that,
maybe actually for the most part.
Customers don't think that way.
Maybe, but I think the customers
that we're trying to talk to
who are a particularly enlightened group
I think they think like us, surely.
Yeah, but what I thought was interesting
is somebody had put it to this panel
of engineers and designers and executives
and said, is this a software-defined vehicle?
And they were just sort of struggling.
I don't know.
I mean, what is one?
And then the bloke asked a question.
I don't know.
Oh, I love that.
I don't know.
It's just what we've been told
about some other cars recently.
Do you feel that way?
Interesting day.
Must have been funny.
Yeah, good.
It was really interesting day of doing stuff.
So there's some things I can talk about from the day.
So Peugeot has introduced,
or Stellantis has introduced a new engine,
three-cylinder engine, the Turbo 100,
I think they call it,
and it replaces their wet-belt engine
because that engine did have some problems
as wet-belt engines can do.
Yeah.
Where contaminants get into the...
Part of the problem is fuel can get into the oil
and then that can lead to build up on the belts.
And the idea of a cam belt moving in oil
was kind of a good idea in the first place
because it reduces friction.
So when they were under great pressure
to meet emissions targets and improve fuel consumption
and make an engine more efficient
and make it quieter,
some bright spark and somebody at PSA
as it was at the time and somebody at Ford as well
have also done it.
Different engines, not the same family of engines.
They went,
well, let's put the cam belt in oil
and then it will be lubricated
and it will move much more freely
and therefore we can meet emissions targets more freely.
We will use less fuel.
It's quiet, happy days.
The problem is all these contaminants build up
on the timing belt
and can cause the timing belt to slip
or snap or break.
And also those contaminants can break down the belt
which can then clog up some of the oil.
The oil filter.
Yeah.
And then that deprives the engine of oil
so you can end up with pretty catastrophic failure.
Peugeot have done two things in the past.
They said, well, one, we changed the type of oil that we use
and if you use the right kind of oil
and also we changed the material that the belt is made of
and we have reduced the number of problems
by 90% in that engine.
So if you've got one of those engines
and you use the right belt
and use the right oil
and you change it as when you should do,
it's fine.
It's going to be fine.
However, they have also introduced a new engine
which now has a timing chain.
And I said, well, what about the problems that
you put the belt in to get around
which is that chains are less efficient
and also they're noisier.
There's a reason you didn't want to use a chain last time.
They said, well, in the last 10 years,
chain technology has moved on to the extent
that actually now a modern chain is much better.
So they...
Great little engines, that's a thing.
Yeah, so now they're pretty good.
Trust me when they...
Both of those ran into trouble
because I've enjoyed them both so much.
So the Peugeot and the Ford Triples.
Yeah.
But it was a matter of particularly affected engines
that weren't very well maintained, didn't it?
Yes.
You know, if you changed your oil
and did everything they told you, you were okay.
Yeah.
So I think it's presumably a wet belt triple
in the Super 3, is it, I guess?
Might be, yeah.
So it's a chain I'll find out.
But anyway, I'll look after it.
But that's...
Isn't the Super 3's a normally aspirated version?
It's a bigger engine, 1.5.
It's a 1.5 without a turbo.
Yeah, so it's the Fiesta ST engine with no turbo on it?
Yeah.
Maybe it's not a wet belt engine.
I don't know.
I've got a feeling it'll still be wet.
I don't know, crikey.
What do I know about that?
I mean, we'll find out.
It'll...
Well, I'm sure you'll change the oil.
Well, I'll better look after it
because this is the sort of car that one's looking after, isn't it?
I think it will be great.
It's not like the A2 which was bought as an MOT failure
and is just meant to be...
Apart from the fact I've just spent two grand having it at service,
but it was meant to be...
But it has been a glorious success that car.
Bottom line, a glorious success.
It's been phenomenal.
I mean, give us that figure again.
You said that you'd saved...
4,000 quid versus the landing.
Versus using the Defender for the past year.
On the mileage it has done.
That's a win.
Yeah, isn't it?
It has to be.
And it will go on as well.
Well, yeah, I think so.
I mean, I can't see why those cars...
Well, we were talking in the other week about one that's done 600,000 miles.
I can't see why it can't just be run indefinitely.
There's a car at my local gym that I go to
that I've seen being parked outside and it hasn't moved,
I don't think, for about six weeks.
And it's a little smart roadster...
What did they...
Was it smart roadster coupe?
They called it or something?
Yeah.
The little sporty version.
Yeah.
Keep looking at that and thinking that needs to be saved.
Yeah.
That would be...
Yeah, I think it's surprising that it's not more loved than that
because I think they're a little bit of a commodity now, aren't they?
Yeah, I think so.
I think gearboxes are still funny, but...
But the people who love them say you can live with it.
Yeah.
We had a smart here.
In Italy, it was the little saloon car, the two-door.
And the gearbox, the missus who used it a lot didn't love it,
but she got on with it until she hit a badger.
Oh.
Did that do for it?
Was that a shape of both parties?
No, I think it sort of mangled the front suspension a bit.
Oh, okay.
Poor old badger.
Poor old badger as well, mangled him.
That brings us to a gruesome end to this week's podcast.
Thanks to our sponsors Anderson.
If you visit ansan-ev.com, you can find out about all their charges and their offers,
which at the moment include 4000 miles slash six months of free charging with intelligent
octopus go.
I can hear an aeroplane overhead.
What is it?
I can tell you that that is a Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules of the US Air Force.
Which is probably bound for Lionham or Fairford.
Yeah.
Well, it took off from Fairford.
So I don't know if it's doing...
There seems to be a few things doing laps at the moment.
And there's...
Well, there's an RAF Voyager heading into Bryce Norton from Bordeaux.
It's all kicking off overhead.
Yeah, there's plenty happening in there.
Yeah.
Steve and I will be back in...
Actually, we may be back this weekend, actually, with a Q&A over your letters.
But there's various interviews and bonus podcasts coming up on Saturdays.
We're here every Wednesday with the regular My Week in Cars.
Thanks, mate.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Just one last question.
Are you going to put some pics of this morgue online?
Not until I get it, I think.
Oh, okay.
I think I'll wait until I've picked it up.
But it's the rotus.
I mean, I could put the rotus pics up.
No, I'm...
I could put the rotus pics up.
Oh, this is a big day.
Yeah, I'm...
Yeah, I mean, I'll sit.
Yes.
Brilliant.
More to come.
More to come.
Thanks, mate.
Good stuff.
See you next time.
Cheers.
Cheers.
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