Square wheels, Audi makes a Land Rover, retaking the dining room

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash?

Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies.

Try it at Progressive.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates.

Potential savings will vary, not available in all states.

This is Joe from Vanta. In today's digital world, compliance regulations are changing constantly,

and earning customer trust has never mattered more.

Vanta helps companies get compliant fast and stay secure with the most advanced AI, automation, and continuous monitoring out there.

So whether you're a startup going for your first SOC2 or ISO 27001, or a growing enterprise managing vendor risk,

Vanta makes it quick, easy, and scalable.

And I'm not just saying that because I work here.

Get started at Vanta.com.

Hello. Welcome to the AutoCar podcast, My Week in Cars with Pryha.

Steve Croppley over there. Hello, Steven.

Afternoon, mate. How are you?

Very, very well. Thanks, mate.

Shall we talk about Anderson, our sponsors?

Indeed.

Just last week, I had a message from them saying that they have extended their offer to give My Week in Cars listeners a discount on their order.

But not only that, until the end of November, they have doubled it to £100.

That's not bad at all, is it?

Very good. If you visit Anderson.ev.com, and you can find out about all of their charges, which are very well priced.

You can just buy the charger alone, or they do do a full concierge service, fully fitted for just over £1100.

And if you just give them a call and say, My Week in Cars, they will give you £100 off and take care of the whole lot.

That's great. Well, I had that, of course, a couple of years ago, which means I've still got five years of warranty to go.

And they looked after me like a prince without, you know...

And that was not thinking you were a motoring hack.

No, I was just...

You phoned up and said, Yeah, very good.

It was great.

You can write to us, listener. AutoCar at haymarket.com is how to do that.

I've got a couple of letters here.

Tony Wood writes from Somerset to say that I've enjoyed the conversations about the economy of Matt's Audi A2

and a letter you read where a listener had turned into playing the economy game because the roads were so busy.

I've been doing this while I drive as I do 25,000 marseillais mostly in my reasonably quiet motorway commute.

For the past eight years, my companion has been a 2013 2-liter diesel Ford Mondeo, more on Ford in a bit, listener.

The trip computer is a bit optimistic, but the best I've seen for my 38-mile M5 drive home has been 72 miles to the gallon.

That's pretty good for a 2-liter Mondeo, isn't it?

Yeah, a big-ish car.

Yeah.

Travelling at the speed of lorries, but not slipstreaming.

And I've dragged a tank full of diesel to almost 900 miles twice, which I calculate to 62 miles to the gallon.

Excellent.

Really good.

Thank you, Tony.

Regards from another motorcyclist, says Tony Wood in Somerset.

Tom Power also writes to say, 20-something years ago, it's nice to be reminded of the Audi A2's strengths via Matt's updates.

Tom had one as a company car, his first company car when he started selling cars in 2001.

Oh, really?

He said, not the coolest car, but he graduated to an Audi A3 and then a TT with a V6 engine.

They were good.

I think it's of the A2's and Christian cool myself.

I think it's probably a cooler car than it was.

Given I'm now a 50-year-old man, I'm not sure I'm the person to be deciding what's cool or not.

But I think you contributed to the cool.

I was thinking about writing a column about cool cars once.

I remember the very good journalist and very nice man, Russell Budgin, wrote about cool cars once.

And I was probably in my mid-20s, so I might have had a vague idea of what was cool and what was not at the time.

But I never wrote about it.

And then I started thinking about writing about it the other day.

And I thought, I'm not sure I'm the bloke to write about what cars are cool or not anymore.

I think that time may have passed.

Well, people tell you, they don't they?

Yeah, I think so.

That's helpful.

I wonder if the phrase cool is slightly changed in meaning.

Possibly.

In the past quarter of a century, too.

Yeah.

Really.

Anyway, Tom says...

It's a very useful word.

I use it a lot.

Too much, probably.

But anyway, Tom says, taking the average cost of diesel at £1.42 against the 72 miles to the gallon,

which is kind of what I get typically out of the A2, that calculates to 8.8 pence per mile.

Tom says his Honda ENY1, which is an electric compact crossover type thing, SUV crossover type thing,

has done 13,000 miles at an average of 2.7 miles per kilowatt hour.

While that is disappointing efficiency compared to his expectations,

the overall cost has been 2.7 pence per mile.

All charging has been done overnight on a low tariff costing £337, except for one charge, a publicly of £15.

My analysis gets more interesting, or dull, says Tom.

That's interesting to us, Tom.

You're with friends here.

If we consider complete cost of ownership,

I bought the Honda on a 25 month PCP for £207 a month with the total cost of £5,500 for 8,000 miles a year.

I'll return the car to Honda at the end of it.

Now the maths equates to £35.8 per litre,

totaling everything with two years insurance and everything else is a further £980,

so the cost per mile is £41 pence per mile, which is not bad going, is it?

No, not.

Not bad going.

But...

Cost of the car, Jack.

But as a result of that, I did a small set of numbers myself, bearing in mind...

On the A2?

On the A2.

Bearing in mind I paid £500 for it because it had no MOT.

It has needed a wheel bearing and a new fan motor at a combined cost of £65 for the two.

It has required, I think, about £1100 worth of fuel,

and I've insured it for £200 and taxes £35 and blah blah blah.

Anyway, I worked out that roughly if I sold it at some point in the past couple of months

for, I think, about the £2,000 that an A2 goes for,

my mileage cost per mile would have been nothing.

Or I might have been paid perhaps a penny a mile to drive it.

However, I'm not going to sell it.

I'm going to keep it.

So that's that.

Well, even in five years time, the figures will still be good.

They should still be all right, shouldn't they?

Yeah.

I love the idea that if you have the space and you have the time and you get lucky,

you could buy a car, drive it for a bit, sell it.

And it's cost you nothing.

I mean, imagine what the train into and out of London would have cost.

Oh, indeed.

In the past.

Also, just the enjoyment of it.

It's such a sweet car.

I just parked next to it, auto machine.

Yeah.

What have you come over?

You're in the five.

The Renault, yeah.

The Renault five.

The Renault column.

Because Steve and I will be doing that over the next, I don't know,

45, 50 minutes to an hour, whatever.

It will be the three of us.

Oh, yes, the three of us.

We are joined today.

You can't see, but I'll grab a picture to put on the socials.

We're joined by my cat in the middle of the table.

The ginger and white.

Who likes you very much, Steve?

He heard your voice and he came toodling down.

He woke up from his snooze to come down into a cold part of the house.

Well, he is a cat.

A beauty.

He is a friendly friend.

I mean, I did have a friend once who said, I don't like seeing all of

your pictures of your cats and dogs on social media.

Just stop it.

It's ridiculous.

Exception, Matt prize cat.

Is that Mitch?

Yeah.

What's happening with Ford in Europe?

Well, I was reading the various pieces that are being written

about the new, the challenges that face the new boss of Ford.

Who is an engineer by trade.

So he's not even, didn't begin life as a business man.

But when you look at the things he's got to do,

he has to somehow sell the existing EVs for a profit,

then now make it currently making a loss by Ford's own admission.

He's got to deal with the fact that the focus went out of

production yesterday or today.

And there's a hell of a large group of people that you're going

to be redundant.

He has to find a new set of, you know,

some more Ford like cars to sell, you know,

in the European market and various other challenges.

And it just seems like a big one to me.

The one thing I like is that there's a suggestion in the air

that what they might do is extend the deal they do at the moment

with VW to use.

VW underbits for a fiesta.

You know, there's this new thing called the Polo ID Polo.

Yes.

And that could make a fiesta.

Oh, interesting.

They might get a bit of punishment.

Electric only fiesta.

Yeah.

They might get a bit of punishment for it being a VW underneath.

I think the Explorer and the Capri are different enough to seem

like Fords anyway.

So I quite welcome the idea.

They just think they need a fiesta.

The life for Ford without a fiesta is just barmy.

It's really unthinkable, isn't it?

Yeah.

So the Capri and the Explorer are on a Volkswagen platform.

Yeah, they're both ID Fords.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

But I took a bit of a trip through the Midlands and here and there

the other day and seemed very Ford like to me.

So I mean, I suppose if you're a purist, you don't accept that,

but it seemed like a Ford and I was glad to be in a Ford

and it was a good trip.

We went to the place where Henry set up Ford.

Ford was the first non-American outpost of...

Sorry, Manchester was the first non-American outpost of Ford

in something like 1909 or something.

Pretty early.

Oh, early days.

And made Model T's there and all that.

You interviewed Bill Ford, didn't you, at the Goodwood Festival Speed?

Yeah, a little while ago.

And I remember the phrase he used then was all the wording

he used, more robust.

Yes.

Talking about the European product.

Yeah.

He didn't hide from the fact that they weren't doing as well

as they should do.

Yeah.

And it's not...

Is there an acceptance that they're not going to do any better

than they are at the moment with the cars they've got

at the moment?

They need new and better products to do that.

Yeah.

They need to replace the Cougar and Apuma pretty soon

because they're both well along in their lives.

And the existing EVs aren't really good enough

because the Mustang EV is a...

Sorry, the Mackie is an interesting thing to have done

but it's not a seller.

A bit funny on our roads anyway, I think.

So it's all to do.

It's all to do.

Replace the SUVs, cope with the fact that there's no focus.

Find a new Fiesta.

Cut the costs of the EVs that they're selling in the meantime.

Really hard.

Yeah.

And I just think that when people...

We say this a bit.

People...

I say this a bit.

People don't think necessarily about brands

but they do have memories and they do have awareness.

Yeah.

And they know what a Ford, Fiesta, Focus,

Mondeo, Cougar, probably Puma even is.

But do they really know and understand

what an Explorer or a Capri is anymore?

No, I think not.

And I don't...

I have to rake around the head

to sort of remember the names.

Yeah.

Whereas, you know, in the olden days when we all talked

about Sierras and things, we just...

Yeah.

And I sort of think, well,

contrarially, there are manufacturers who have arrived

and who are selling a lot of cars

and people don't know anything about them.

Yet they're selling a lot of cars.

Yeah.

But I suppose they're just doing that

because they're really cheap

and Ford can't make cars at those kinds of prices.

Yeah.

I think that's very much the case.

I was just on the way over here.

I kept on clocking the number of J-Cousins and motors.

Yeah.

And you wonder where...

I found myself wondering how the people got on term,

got to know about the cars.

Yeah.

Because there's been some press advertising lately,

but it isn't...

It's not been prevalent, has it?

No.

You know, it's just...

It's all about price.

I think it is.

Yeah.

I suppose because this is a bit of a business

fleet country, you know,

the fleet manager knows and that's enough.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Lots of people must run them as a company.

Yes, and there must be other just private buyers

who just go and lease something

and just think, what is there?

Yeah.

And they go online somewhere

and it says we can have one of these

for £200 a month.

And you go,

Well, that's quite big.

Looks all right.

It's got a space inside.

Looks a bit like an evoke from the back.

Yeah.

And it does.

Where do I sign now?

They do.

Have you seen on the back of these J-Cousins,

they've got these weird number plate holders

that have little...

They seem to have like five,

four or five tabs along the top and bottom.

Yeah.

Holding the number plate in place

and it just looks a bit naff.

It just doesn't look very...

It doesn't look very good to me.

So that's a clip.

Is it those things?

I was wondering what they were.

But I just see them

and I just think that doesn't look that nice.

No.

And I don't know why there is.

And some...

Mind you, I see a few Teslas

which don't quite seem to have

the back number plate straight.

No.

And I don't know what it is about.

Well, a lot of them use double-sided,

powerful double-sided tape just to hold them.

Oh, really?

And I've had a few over the years,

one or two number plates fall off

because it's just this double-sided tape.

So I suppose these Chinese marks

are being a bit more thorough than that,

but unfortunately it's not pretty.

No.

Not the best-looking thing in the world.

We could do with the Fiesta, couldn't we?

Oh, need a Fiesta.

I mean, just seeing a row of healthy ones

in a used card joint, you know,

it gives me a little frizzle somehow.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Crazy, isn't it?

Shall we talk what happens to model cars?

You must have some model fords in your collection.

Well, I do, but yeah,

but the thing that has happened

is the steering committee has issued

an edict to the effect

that the dining room in our house,

which has been photographed once or twice,

and is, as you know,

pretty chock-a-block with my junk

because I colonized it after during lockdown.

She has issued an edict

that the household requires

to have the dining room back.

I mean, I did think

it would make a nice dining room.

This room would be nice as a dining room.

Great as it is as a podcast studio

and study and office.

It would make a good dining room.

It would indeed make a good dining room.

And it did, used to.

And so there's, you know,

there's models and stuff everywhere.

And I suddenly felt the thinking,

what on earth am I going to do with all this stuff?

And I think we need,

somehow we need a happy home

for discarded models.

I couldn't imagine throwing the stuff

that I've got away,

but I don't particularly want to,

you know, bundle it all up

and sell it on eBay either.

No.

I'd like to, you know,

find a,

what we need is a model bank somewhere.

I don't know.

Anyway, just a random thought.

So is there nowhere that you could have them

elsewhere in your, in your home?

Probably, but.

About some like,

cabinets in the garage

or something like that display cabinets in the garage.

Yeah, maybe.

It's difficult, isn't it?

Because you...

The garage is already full of junk too.

Yeah.

It's a problem.

Also, Mike,

a personal query on this,

what's going to happen to the My Week in Cars podcast studio

when it comes to your house?

Will we still be able to use

the dining room?

I think we'll be permitted to use the dining room table.

We'll be allowed in briefly.

Will the acoustics remain

as dead and as good as they are?

I think so.

Because there's a lot of stuff around

that would absorb a lot of motoring books

and things like that,

which can absorb sound.

I think there will be some shelves

that provide acoustic.

OK.

And there's some curtains in there

that do a reasonable job too.

I don't know if it's my age.

I don't think it is

because I've asked other people about this.

And I don't know if it's the tendency

for pubs and restaurants

to just have more and more shiny surfaces.

But it's just...

I just want more carpets and curtains

so that when I go to a pub or restaurant

I can hear people.

Yeah.

Because I just find the din

more and more

and infuriating.

No, it's true.

I just start becoming a grumpy old...

grumpy old git or whether I'm just...

or whether it's a thing.

But when I go to the local near here

they've got carpets and curtains

and some soft furnishings

and it's fine.

But I went out the other day

to a place in London

with hard surfaces everywhere

and it was just like...

I can't hear the bloke

three feet away from me.

Yeah, hard floors seem to do it.

Yeah, they do.

They're wooden floors.

Yeah.

Anyway, sorry, listener.

That is petty gripe of the day.

I wonder if a listener can hear

Midge purring because he's...

Well, it's funny.

There's a bit of a purr, isn't there?

There is, but it's funny.

We did that drive in the A290

out in the other week.

Yeah.

And I've had emails from people going

couldn't even tell you were in a car

until quite late on

when we got onto the concrete motorway section.

Yeah.

There was the old click

wasn't there from, I think,

some people heard a click

from the turn indicator

when we were changing lanes and things.

Yeah.

It's got a bit of a clippity-clop sound,

doesn't it, think?

Yeah.

Renault?

Indeed, yeah.

Renault seem to have done something

that other manufacturers have not quite,

which is pull on the old part strings

of memories of cars

that people know and love

in a way that other European manufacturers

have not done yet.

Yeah.

Yeah, they've been quite...

Were you writing about that this week

or have I just read it somewhere else

on the website today?

We were in a conversation about it.

I'm trying to think...

Was it in the office?

Somebody else was holding forward about that.

Yeah, maybe.

I seem to have read it.

Maybe...

Oh, I think I've read it on our website,

Autocard.co.uk, listener,

this morning about Stellantis.

Yeah.

And it's doing something.

It means...

Stellantis wants to do something

because it is aware...

Oh, yes, it's because we're going

to come onto a thing

that you've driven in a minute.

Yeah.

You've driven a partial...

Yeah, that's it.

Well, nearly did, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's right.

It's...

And I think it's interesting

to clock the reaction

because some people admire them

for doing it.

Other people say it lacks...

What would the word be?

Bravery or whatever,

they're just doing what they did.

But I think the level at which

it's been done with the Twingo,

the Renault 4 and the Renault 5

is very impressive.

Yeah.

And they're modern cars to me.

Yeah, they've...

Why aren't they modern?

Yeah, and I think if you...

If they've been making a Renault 5

since they stopped making the Renault 5,

it may just look like that.

And that's the...

What else was I thinking that of?

In that it is...

It does look like a 5,

so I suppose is it retro from that point of view

or would they argue that it isn't?

They just argue that,

well actually, if you just continued the lineage

like a Porsche 911,

that's what it would now look like.

I think that's what Laurence Van den Akker's feeling is,

that it's the car that would now

be around if the Renault 5 had continued.

And I reckon he's pretty much right too.

Renault 4, I don't see

old Renault 4 in the new Renault 4

so much, excuse me so much,

but even that little rear window

is quite evocative.

I haven't driven a 4, I should do.

I haven't driven a...

Yes, there's a few new cars I haven't driven.

I think you can make it pretty accurate.

What you're expecting is what you'll get.

It's what I will get.

I think, listen, we're going to take a short commercial break.

This part is going to be a bit shorter than the recent ones

because I haven't written my column yet.

Well, I say that,

but we'll probably just start

rabbiting on in the second half.

I think there's a few things to talk about.

Meantime, Anderson EV,

makers of premium

home electric car chargers are

running an offer all the way through November

where you get £100 off your order

if you mention the My Week in Cars podcast.

And their chargers are great.

Anderson-ev.com

for more details

of all of their line-up, all of their range,

their excellent warranty,

several different designs, all good-looking,

and they will look after you all the way.

They are very good people.

I feel really good about this because

if it wasn't working,

they wouldn't bother, would they?

No, well, yes.

Exactly.

Also, while you're online, visit

themagazineshop.com

if you want to go to the page specifically

about AutoCars Early Bird Christmas

offers which will get you 20%

off on top of

other existing

offers.

So you can have

13 issues for £31.99

of this magazine digitally

and that includes full access to the 130-year

and 3-week-old AutoCars archive.

Yeah, not to be missed.

Not to be missed. And the physical archive

now lives

up at the British Motor Museum.

Yeah, it does.

Yeah, I think

as from, what, a week or two ago?

A week ago. And they're going to do the same

with our sister, MagWattCar.

Oh, yes, they are, aren't they? Yeah.

Yeah, so that's good. That is good news.

And by the way, if you're really

into archives,

Glasgow Sports Car now, of course, are

online as well, aren't they?

Of course, yeah, fully digital.

So if you're desperate to know

about the current situation

of the Reliance Cemetery

or something, you can look it up. It's great.

And if you have a bit of time

to spare over Christmas,

I recommend losing yourself

in the AutoCars archive. It is a great way

to lose an afternoon with a sherry and a mince pie.

Indeed. And yes, if it's a gift,

so if you leave this podcast

playing in the vicinity of your loved ones,

if it's a gift,

what you can do is you can sign up for a subscription,

but also we will send you a card

that you can then give to the recipient

on Christmas Day. Perfect.

Which is very good. And it's a hell of a present.

If I didn't have one already,

I'd be lining up for one. Yeah, if we didn't get one,

it would be on my Christmas list.

We didn't get one.

Brian Morris writes to us

autocartathaymarket.com

and you can too. Do you remember, Steve,

that Martin

Morris wrote to us a couple of weeks ago

about

his Ferrari Portofino

and the

slight mick-taking he'd had from his family

and friends about it because they decided

that he was an old man

and driving a Ferrari.

Apparently not.

Brian Morris says,

life is not a rehearsal and all the other platitudes

to cover this are all well and good, but Martin,

please obey your own conscience and stick with it

and enjoy the car well you can. Best wishes

from an 80-plus-year-old who hasn't quite

aspired to your lofty heights, but does enjoy

his Audi S5 TF5 Coupe

with gusto.

More,

Alexander says, thoroughly enjoyed the letter from Martin Morris.

Only 75, I am too young

to meaningfully comment, but I will anyway

and say good on you. Ignore the disgust and the disdain

from others. Shame on them. There have always been

miserable people telling you what you can and can't do.

I've always liked, this is

Alexander's. This is a point of yours.

You don't like people

being told what to do.

I hate people telling people what to do.

Just a bunch of your own business.

I've heard you say it a few times.

Who does like being told what to do?

Well, no one.

And I mean, Blokes earned it. Why shouldn't he have it?

Why shouldn't he have it? Yeah.

And also depending, there are ways of telling people

what to do and why not today.

But anyway,

I've always liked good cars and would love a

Portofino Spider, but even if I could

get into it, my wife thinks I wouldn't be able to

get out again, says Alec.

As it is, the sight of me

getting out of my Mercedes E400D

Carriolet, Rexony Street cred

I ever had. I did own a 1964

Jaguar E-Type 3.8 Roadster

when I first met my wife in 1973

and you could pick up E-Types for a song

then. Marta's letter was the highlight

of the week's magazine for me. Thanks, Alec Sanders.

Thank you, Alec Sanders. Yeah, well done.

Good letter and quite right to. Yeah.

Every word with you totally on every word for that.

Tell me about this Peugeot

Polygon concept.

Yeah, Polygon though.

I think Peugeot

or Stellantis I guess

are pretty conscious of the

just what you talked about earlier, the fact that

Renault have done well

recently with

progressive little cars and they

see the need to

do something better with the

208 which is their own

Supermini.

So they've shown this car which

made it pretty clear to us that

many of the

styling elements will go into the

2027 Peugeot 208

but they've taken

at the same time

shown us

something called Hypersquare

which is a new steering

wheel

that is the

sort of

outwardly visible

emblem of a BYY steering

system.

And I went to look at the

concept, didn't get to drive it

because there was a deluge in Lisbon

where we were and they just weren't

prepared to take it outside.

So it's a different type with this

Hypersquare wheel

which does a lot of things

including

improve the structure and the

crashworthiness of the

front end because obviously there

isn't a great big steel shaft

and it also

allows

very widely variable

steering ratio so

when you're doing

3, 5, 7 miles an hour

the steering is very tall indeed

so when you're maneuvering between other cars

you don't have to move your

hands on the wheel at all if it is a wheel

it's actually a rectangular thing

but you can see it in our pictures

but

when you do a reverse park

for instance

you just move your

hands sort of 90 degrees

each way and you've done it

it's amazingly good

so

this is coming, this is apparently

going to be offered in the very 208

we're talking about

and I think it's going to be a bit of a good thing

they let us

drive it but not at speed

so the thing that I would

I've always been concerned about

where steering feel and steering accuracy

you concern

when you're in a sort of 70 mile an hour

sweeping bend and there's

very little lock required

but you want to sort of feel

the cornering force and put the

steering loads all the way

as you go faster you want it to load up a little bit

don't you?

and I'm not sure that it does that

so that's yet to be found out

but they've got a year of tuning ahead

and they know the problem

so it will be very interesting to see what they do

good

I thought it was bold though because

Renault

Peugeot have already

got into that i-cop it thing

the low wheel

and so on

they quite often say

it's very successful we've sold 7 million cars with i-cop

but that doesn't necessarily

mean 7 million people who love it

I always think

the figure was 13

and also they said

the thing they did point out

is that 308

Peugeot

repeat business is 73%

and they say that that

must mean that

various people have had i-cop it

cars before and approved them

it's not a bad point

i-cop it is a small

low slung steering wheel with a

kind of half

it's got a flat top on bottom

isn't it? yes

and you look over the top of the wheel

to the instruments rather than through the middle of the wheel

that's the thing

I didn't get on with it

first iteration which was a 208

but I did get on with it in a 308

maybe it's

something that suits the fuller figure

I think they've made it better

since introducing it

they say so

what do they say is the benefit of it

well that

they also say that it's

small wheel

so agility

they can and those cars

also have fairly tall

quick gearing but not as quick

as this new system

and they also

just talk about visibility

they reckon you can see the instruments better

but I think it's

a way of doing something different

and I guess the idea with this new wheel

is you don't have to take your hands off of

not at all

in fact it feels funny when you do

because the other one

there's a sort of imbalance

it feels natural to grab

with both hands

and also in the little

port holes there are four port holes in this

rectangular thing that you grab

and there's switch gear

inside the holes

so your thumb's there already

and it can just move and turn something

on or off

it isn't bad

I found myself thinking that

they'd

done a good thing and they'd also

done something that no one else

has done

especially at the low end

low price

so

it's still to improve itself

but we'll see

I

use a wheel

that shape on a playstation

but I think

I never have to move my hands off of

quarter to three

doing that

and also I'm fully focused on driving

that would be all I was doing

and I sort of think in a car

I'd wait to see what I think of this

for real

but there is a reason

round one's

work because you can

and you'll see people do it

resting their arm on top of the wheel or just holding it by the bottom

there's something about

when it turns

and if it doesn't have to turn any more

than 90 or 180 degrees

maybe it is different

what frustrates me about

cars that don't have round

steering wheels and it happens in sports cars quite a lot

the sort of flat bottomed bit

is that you go to grab it and it's not where you thought it was

and it just then puts

a

load onto your

what do they call it

your different bits of mental capacity

and you're trying to do several things at once

if you can just take something out of something

so somebody doesn't have to think about it

they just do it

yeah, that's what I find

it's worse on say

it's probably worse on a racetrack

if anything and the car starts to move around

and you think oh I'll just grab the wheel there

and you think the wheel's not there so now I have to think about

where the steering wheel is

whereas actually I would just have held it

without thought

if it was just the shape

would normally be

I just think ergonomically it's answering a question

that nobody

I don't see why it has to be changed

I get it in a racing car because you need

visibility over the top

because you've probably got the wheel quite close to you

and that gets in your view

and it might get in the aerodynamic stream

and then also you want it flat at the bottom because it clears your body

but in a car

a family sized car

you don't have those constraints

as a rule

but I haven't tried it

so I'll wait to see

it'll be interesting to see what you think

if you don't like it you don't have to have it

so what's the plan that you can have a steer by wire

it'll be an option I believe

and then

in all but the poverty models

interesting

and it's obviously

I started talking about post office

spec to the French guys

they looked

confused

what's the other phrase that we use

a cooking model

poverty model and cooking model

better I think about

the cooking model

what is the cooking model anyway

it's a bit like the cooking

apple isn't it

it's the cheap one

not the quality one

is Audi

making a Landrave

well that's the plan

and

because I'm

skeptical of

some of the

Audi design of the past

I found myself

of the recent past

I don't like those potato shaped big SUVs

I agree you get into trouble

with the owners who are very happy with them

oh yeah but lots of people like them

I've

got not exactly a stand up

but I've been sort of pinned against the wall

by people defending the Q5

for sure

but

it suddenly crossed my mind

that I was wandering around some car park

and I encountered this

lovely short

68 plate or something

short wheelbase

Jeep Wrangler

I know I've rattled on too long

about Wranglers but this was white

perfect so

it just looked lovely

and I suddenly made me think

there's other ways of doing SUVs

4x4s than

defenders

you know

and also the other thing that came to me

at exactly the same point was it

Massimo Fumarola

no not Fumarola

Massimo

the boss of

Massimo Fumarola

was the guy from Morgan

I do

oh dear

Frascala

yeah

I just looked at that at exactly the same time

as it came to you

his wife was a designer as well

and I thought of her

so the name came to me

but the thing is

he's now the boss of Audi Design

and he's already produced that

rather wonderful concept car

that everybody admires

is it not the new TT?

well they say not

we say it is

interesting to see who's right

I mean they've made it

so it would imply that

they must have a rough idea wasn't it

but it looks pretty TT-ish

not in that it looks like a TT

but it's got a TT

proportionally it looks like a TT

I reckon

I tell you what's interesting about that car

if you look at the front of it

the frontal features are very similar

well not similar but they

they steal

a bunch of the Jaguar

Concept 00

interesting

those verticals and the hidden headlights

suddenly that car

the Jaguar looked

completely modern

and sort of extraordinary

but two things have happened

Audi have come out with a car

that is about to hit production

and looks like it

and Bentley in mean time have produced

a concept car

but they did a bit of stuff

about the future of the saloon

and the side profile of their car

looks like Concept 00

on the side so suddenly

the things that were

new about the Jag when we saw it a year ago

whenever it was

aren't quite so new and it all

it all moves on so fast

I was very happy

when we spoke to Ian Callum the other week

and I gave him a quote

that another designer had told us

that design should be challenging

and he sort of thought about it

and as he talked about it more

he became more and more

vocal in his disagreement

with the thing and in the end he said

no actually I pour that

of course it doesn't have to be challenging

because if it's challenging and ugly

I think the idea was if it's not

challenging you'll get bored by it

with that designer's thinking

he said but if it's ugly

you might still get bored with it

but now you're bored by something ugly

he is a lover of beauty

isn't he?

there was a time when Jag was

straplined and it was only a brief amount of time

I think

it was around about when the

F was either the F type or the XE

or something like came out

and I remember sitting down in a press conference

and they do the videos as they do

of showing the thing and it said

Jaguar fast beautiful cars

but what more could you

how better would you want to sum up that

for me?

what do you make fast beautiful cars?

what was wrong with that?

maybe there was just some

probably some people in the agency

needed to justify

another large bill and said they moved on

but anyway not the TT

is the TT and

oh yes so now they're making not a Land Rover

yeah and I

I think

Massimo is just the bloke to do it

because he was around for the defender after all

so he knows

he was Jerry's

well I think he was the boss

of Land Rover Design and Jerry was something

further upstairs do you remember

so

I think he knows all about it myself

yeah

what's

sorry I'm just slightly distracted

by the cat moving around

and sitting down to give himself a lick

when do we know when will we see

this car because beyond your column

I don't know that they're making a Land Rover

what are they?

I think it's just something in the wind

it would be several years away

and it's supposed to be something

more properly off-roading than their

defenderish

not your defender

not quite as good

as that but

something that does the

does the job of the existing defender

the new defender

so a sort of

pretty expensive I guess

I don't think

it's not worth getting out of bed for them unless it's expensive

no that's true

because they're the earners aren't they

or they have been intrigued by that

because who's

buying one of those

people who tow stuff I suppose

yeah

I think the Audi

image can extend far enough

to be a

you know a bit of a tough car

I remember the all-road

a very popular car

I really like those

and terrific the originals

have still got very good

residuals I believe

I really like those

Octavia Scouts

and sort of cross country Volvo's

I just think they're just about

right you know what I mean

they would deal with potholes

and gravel car parks

they're a little bit lifted aren't they

so you don't scuff it

the Volvo's I like

the bigger Volvo

cross country Volvo

yeah I was a big fan of those

yeah I'm just looking at a picture of that

Audi from the side now

it does look like

if they were going to sell another TT

that's what it would look like

a strong case surely

for a car like that

because the TT was a success

I think somebody asked

at that motor show it was

revealed or just after

didn't somebody ask Gordon

Wagner of Mercedes what he thought

and he said he thought the interior

looked dated

like it came from the 90s or something like that

to which everybody went yeah

that's much better

why are you saying that's a bad thing mate

because that seems to be

yes no there aren't massive screens

everywhere that's all right

do you remember that car when we did the

that 90s

collection of cars on the air

field a while ago

and we had a original TT

and what a joy the interior was

must have cost them a fortune in that interior

remember you went on about the

the switch gear

you push them and they pop out of the dash

and then you turn them and as you turn them

lights come on

extra lights come on to show you how many

how hot your heated seat is

and that's just joyful

but those switches

must cost

a fortune

and his

period of putting more money

into the cars than they actually justified

but the company was making money at that point

it must have been, wasn't it

were there just fewer headwinds back then

sorry that's a terrible

non-businessy

a few headwinds

was selling cars in Europe

more profitable than it is today

well for a start

they didn't have this

onrushed Chinese cars to worry about

and therefore the pressure on prices

so yeah I think it was easier

and

Audi was doing well

and they could afford it

it was good

I do Skoda still makes 8.5% profits

yeah isn't that interesting

I read that a few hours the other day

good luck to them

you've just been there

I've just been, yes I said how do you do it

and he said well one we make cars in the Czech Republic

which is

cheaper than making them elsewhere

and

there's a bit less legislative

stuff to have to go through

but also I think they're just

I don't know

they kind of

dropped the latest tech a little bit further down the line

do they then

maybe they spend a bit less on R&D

than some of the group

companies

there must be a lot of stuff that's already proven

that comes to them

and I suppose they get

I don't know how these things work mate

it always strikes me that it all just comes out the same pot

you're all part of the same big company

so to say

well we make money because

actually we make 1.1L to 1.6L petrol engines

for the group and then we get paid for that

you think yeah but

you're paying

the same household as paying itself

so I don't quite

isn't there

a part of

certainly in the Piesz days

when he liked to set them

against one another so that they would all

be more competitive and the VW

blokes were determined to do better than Audi

and all that sort of thing

I mean it's alright

if it's a fair fight

but if you think well actually

they're getting our technology which we had to spend loads of money on

three years ago

and they didn't

I don't know if you might

yeah you would

I suppose

this is a

store of excuses

I see today

you haven't written about this, Mitsubishi might be coming back to Europe

the UK in fact

not Europe

it'll be

interesting one for the town

the market town that's closest to where I live

is Sirenchester and it used to be that

Mitsubishi was a big employer

and a big noise

in the town and now it's gone completely

so

it'll be a sort of funny

Mitsubishi for us

there are Renault's aren't there

I can remember Luca De Mayo the departed

boss of

Renault saying that he was

to

do whatever he could to make

facilitate a cooperation

with Mitsubishi

and

this may be

the offshoot of something that he

was involved in

was it

is it still part of the

I think there's still a relationship

because it was the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance

but I didn't know if it's still what or not

well you know there's

now saying because there's a change

of people at the top of these

various companies they're now talking about

reviving the

Renault-Nissan

and there is still

that car

the micro which is

recognizably a version of the Renault-5

I mean it's probably

hurtful to the designers

and offensive to the people who

run Nissan but

you can see that just in the

you know the window shapes

and the angles of this and that

you can see the relationship between the Renault-5

and the micro

what Mitsubishi's do you want

in the UK?

I haven't got a clue oh well I suppose

I'll tell you what I would love

do you remember that dopey little

car

called the Dangan

which

it was a K car

with a 600 cc

I think it was

600 cc supercharged and or turbocharged engine

right

and it produced from 600 cc

it produced about 60 horsepower, 70 horsepower

something like that

rev to 12.5 or something

and Mitsubishi had

one or two of them in this country

and we used to queue up to borrow them

and borrow it for a few days

and just paste it up and down the place

and then give it back

so I am now looking at the Mitsubishi Dangan

Dangan ZZ something like that

that's how I see it

yes the 15 valve 3 cylinder

548 cc

that looks

oh my goodness it really crams it in under the bonnet as well

when you look under there there's a little intercooler

and everything is crammed

it's tiny

it was a bit of a joke

it wasn't a relative

of the

because it looks a bit

maybe it doesn't look that similar

I just wonder if a later one was a relative

of the Daihatsu Kure

although Daihatsu had a relationship with Toyota

I think they did didn't they

maybe they still do in fact

but the other Mitsubishi's of course would be

you'd like to see

you know

gallant

sort of wacko gallant

that would be something for me

how are they going to make

money out of bringing cars back to the UK

in the current car market

what's going to sell

because it's a big investment

isn't it to revive dealerships

I know they've got some outlets

because they're still selling parts

in this case

I think I saw in that

story that there was something like 20

service dealers around the country

and I suppose if

they set them to selling a few cars each

it would be

good business but

it didn't sound

it sounded like another one of those

sort of slightly fag in businesses that

you don't really

understand what holds them up like a Zuzu

yeah it's going to be brought

back in under the

stewardship of international motors

which currently oversees UK sales

of GWM great war motors

Zuzu, Subaru and X-Peng

yeah

so they sort of sweep up

the sort of any other business

type cars don't they

likely candidates according to our story include

the Eclipse Cross which is effectively a restart

Renault Scenic

the Outlander Plug-In Hybrid

which actually previously did really

really well because

Plug-In Hybrid company car tax

really suited them

and they were one of the few PHEVs

on the market at the time

they suddenly had a massive boost in PHEV sales

Outlander sales

that's it of course it did

Frank Kroll

President and CEO of Mitsubishi Europe said

our upcoming models represent the very best of

Mitsubishi Motors core technologies in performance

four-wheel drive and much more

four-wheel drive could be a place where they

remember they did the Shogun

they did a whole load of Shoguns and they were

they were much loved for a decade or two

actually weren't they

there was a great big

diesel three-litre

diesel with a slusher on the

automatic and

pretty good tow car I believe

in fact I used one to tow

a caravan one time

really your caravan did

no mate

it was a caravan called

a car light and it was a kind of

Rolls Royce of caravans

and we took it to a sprint one somewhere

in Somerset

steering committee driving our Lotus of these

and me with the

this Shogun and caravan on the back

and we arrived

typically late in the

camping site and I had

less than no idea how to set this thing up

but there were

loads of old blokes that

go to these events and you know

the events on the weekend and they arrived by Tuesday

the previous

pinch all the good sites

and I arrived and just walked

off to these fellas all sitting in deck chairs

under the trees and said

couldn't give us a hand to set this thing up

and old men came from

every point of the compass with

spirit levels and chocks and

delighted to show how useful they could be

and 20 minutes the thing was

set up as though it was born there

so you're not a big caravan

holiday bloke

I'm not

are you?

we used to when I was a kid we did

we haven't done it since

I sort of see the appeal

because the times that

we did do it we pitched up

we usually went for

these farmers fields where there's

only six or eight other

campers and there's lovely

space and breeze

and vistas

so I'm not knocking at it

I borrowed a motorhome a few times

and I would

do it and I've talked about

maybe getting a

camper or a motorhome or something

or

I think if the Defender was a 110

I'd more likely make it

a

camper-ish kind of vehicle

just too short really a 90

I did have to

sleep the night in one outside

York Hospital once for a very boring

story but it was not

the world's most comfortable night I've ever had

let's put it that way

somebody else was inside having a worse time than me

so that was fun

I'm not going to complain

but yeah I just think a 110

you could set it up

with a bit more room to stretch out

actually the old MOD Land Rover

ambulances

make quite

cool

smallish campers

there was one at Bista Heritage

on show one of the few scrambles

ago and it had a motorbike in the back of it

and then I thought well that's ideal

because you can set up camp but you don't have to de-camp

when you want to go to the

local town

you can ride off and then come back

at the end of the day and you've still got your base

set up

I think the answer is to swerve the

the ablutions

the things that start having

a bathroom

and a bog on board

that just seems to me to be

rather grim

I'd rather

they do make the process as ungrim as

possible these days with cassettes and things like that

but there is certainly

an element of dealing

with things

but yeah

this is when the word hotel

comes in front and centre

Ove's interview, loud and clear

well from thinking this wasn't going to be a very long pot

we are 53 minutes in

so I suppose we'd better sort of

start wrapping it up

again

even the cat's had enough

listen thanks for staying with us

for so long

have you been into the archive this week Steve?

no

no I don't think I have actually

I haven't had a cause to yet

but the week is young

it is so I may do

thanks to Anderson EV

our sponsors

of this pod

Anderson-ev.com

that's what you need

you'll find out all of the things they have

because basically there are loads

you can find out how highly rated they are

on trust pilot too

you can find out about their octopus

go tie ins

which give you a certain amount of free miles

so it's 5,000 free miles

so the concierge service which does it

all the different designs they have

the warranty they have

the fact they're designed and built in the UK

the fact that they're a premium

and nice people on the end of the phone

Anderson-ev.com

for that

for your

other needs we've just uploaded

as I speak

a voxel mokka GSE video

but we're quite a long way ahead of this pod this week

so by the time this podcast comes out

our next

video will be just about you

and I am pretty sure

that is going to be a

Porsche 911 GT3 RS

with

Mantai

modifications is that the word

but it's like an addition that Mantai

which is a German based, was a tuner

got bought by Porsche and now they do official

track focused

stuff. And you've driven this? No mate Richard Lane

unsurprisingly

well he is an expert

I didn't hear

anything about it except just

a little text from our videographer going

I'm filming some GT3

RS tomorrow and I said who's that with

knowing what the answer would be

oh it's with Richard

so yeah that's

the plan is that that is live

tonight

as this podcast is released so

about 5pm

on the 26th

and then only one more week until

the first

of the Christmas

double issues the two Christmas double issues

not doubles for us

no for this pod

yeah we're just going to do them all

yeah we'll just carry on all the way through

Christmas and the new year

I'd be lonely I wouldn't know how to handle it

if I didn't do a pod

we do need to

have a couple of diary sessions I think

because we already hope

we've got a special guest lined up for our

whichever issue is

one of the Christmas issues

which would be really interesting

I think but also I've got a couple of jobs

coming up which we need to

filling around

but we'll do that

but meantime listener you don't need to worry about that

we'll just be here every week on

your channel

no auto car meets weekend episodes

imminent but there will be again

soon at some point

we'll do some interviews talk to some

industry people and we'll be

back with those

meantime thanks very much see you soon

music

Hi, this is Joe from Vanta. In today's digital world, compliance regulations are changing constantly,

and earning customer trust has never mattered more. Vanta helps companies get compliant fast

and stay secure with the most advanced AI, automation, and continuous monitoring out

there. So whether you're a startup going for your first SOC2 or ISO 27001 or a growing

enterprise managing vendor risk, Vanta makes it quick, easy, and scalable. And I'm not

just saying that because I work here. Get started at Vanta.com.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching

insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy

to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at

Progressive.com. Progressive Cagulty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential

savings will vary, not available in all states.

Square wheels, Audi makes a Land Rover, retaking the dining room

About this episode

Honda ENY1

Volkswagen ID. Polo

Land Defenders

Alfa Romeo Sprint

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from My week in cars: the Autocar podcast