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Hello and welcome to the AutoCar Podcast, my weekend cars with Pry here.

Steve Cropley over there. Morning, Stephen.

Morning to you, mate.

This podcast is as ever brought to you in association with our friends at Anderson, the makers of design-led EV home chargers.

And up until the end of January, they've extended their offer there where if you sign up to Intelligent Octopus Go tariff,

when you buy one of their chargers, you can claim 5,000 free miles, which is about 100 pounds worth of free charging.

We popped over last week, didn't we, Steve?

We did, it was good.

It was good, yeah.

A nice bunch on it.

They are a nice bunch.

And we saw some of their latest designs of chargers, and we've learnt some stuff which we didn't know.

So we'll be dropping that into the pod over the next few weeks during these sponsorship announcements, I guess.

But the thing I like, they're sort of metal made, aren't they?

They're aluminium made rather than plastic, so they look very durable.

They seem very durable.

And they do come with a seven-year warranty, so more on that next time.

Yeah, the one factor that I liked was the one about, do you remember Charlie, one of the blokes in charge over there,

told us that on Christmas Day, two people bought a charger.

Two people went online and ordered an Anderson charger.

As you go to Anderson-EV.com, you could do the same.

Not necessarily.

You don't have to wait until there's Christmas to do it.

But, yeah.

I mean, I don't know, what do you do?

Does somebody give you a little voucher and go, ta-da!

I've made you a little voucher.

I will buy you an Anderson charger.

Yeah, or maybe it might be the forgotten Christmas present.

Oh, God, I'm about to go and see so-and-so.

For lunch, I'd better order one before we go there.

Yeah.

I've given you an EV for Christmas.

I'm now going to order you a charger.

That's it.

Cool, though.

Nice.

I like that.

We have a letter.

Autocartatheymarket.com is how you can write to us.

And Philip General has done that to say, Ilya Vaprayat's article about tires,

which was a why I love column in the magazine,

reminded me of an important and often overlooked considering when selecting car tires,

says Philip.

Back in September 2000, I bought a one owner, 205,000 mile Mark V Golf GTI,

now with 265,000 miles on the clock and still going strong.

Fair play.

The only issue to be rectified with a car was, I incorrectly thought at the time,

two rumbling, noisy rear wheel bearings.

The noise level in the car was very intrusive and unpleasant.

It subsequently transpired that the bearings were fine,

but the tires with a high decibel rating had been fitted to the car.

Those were consigned to the bin and in the intervening years,

two new sets of tires with a lower decibel rating have been fitted to the car,

allowing me to enjoy the driving experience as Volkswagen originally intended.

Gosh, that's a thing.

Really noisy.

Yeah.

Didn't you have noisy tires on?

I did.

I can't remember why.

Yes, the Mini.

That's right, the Mini.

The Mini, it sort of wore, the rear tires wore in a strange way

and they did sound like wheel bearings.

I was convinced, just like a man here, that it was the wheel bearings

and the dealer said, they all do this, mate.

They all do this.

I think it's to do with the Cooper S because it's got big tires and low profile.

Was it the way they wore down as well?

Yeah, the pattern changed.

It sort of feathered in this weird way that, anyway, it was a happy solution

because, you know, nothing mechanical, which is good news.

Tell me about, well, Steve and I, listener, are going to be talking about our respective

AutoCars columns and a little bit more besides.

Tell me about the £80,000 Bentley Bentayga.

Oh, dear.

Well, you know how it is.

One is always thinking about cars to own or not own.

And I just got thinking about the Bentayga because I think one passed me in the traffic

and it looked nice.

And I was talking to an expert in the business who was saying, actually, I've just learned

from the status of people that keep the best records of the way cars depreciate and so on,

that the Bentayga is and will continue to be the lowest appreciating luxury SUV there is.

And, you know, what's more, they're reasonably good value.

So I started looking at them eventually, yeah, inevitably.

And so did he.

And we came up with this car for sale in sorry, £80,000.

I mean, £80,000 is a hell of a lot of money.

But, you know, if you've if somebody paid 160 for it, not long ago, and it's still in

substantially the same condition, it doesn't seem so bad.

How old was this car?

It was 2019.

OK.

30,000 mile, 36,000 mile.

Yeah.

But the important thing was that it was still covered by the Bentley approved warranty,

which meant that you get two years of free servicing.

And there's a really substantial mechanical warranty.

So if the gearbox falls out, they put it back, you know, that sort of thing.

So, you know, in my dreams, I just thought, wouldn't it be interesting concept to have

a clear out and buy a car like that?

Not going to happen, but.

And the thinking being, it is done the worst of its devaluing.

And actually, over another two to three years, it might not lose very much.

No, no, I think not.

They that seems to be the forecast that it's going to it's going to keep its value, you

know, as long as you you would have to keep the car pristine.

But I do like, you know, our friends suggestion that it is the it is a Bentley that you could

use as a daily, long as you, you know, don't too much spend too much time in the Tesco

car park.

Yeah.

Do you did you talk about whether large SUVs depreciate more or less than saloon cars of

the same value?

No, I wish I had actually that.

That's interesting, isn't it?

I think I think everything luxurious does take a bit of a trip south immediately, doesn't

it?

Yeah, but then they stabilize, especially a car like that, which has been around for

really quite a long time and still looks much the same.

And I must say they, you know, there was a lot of conjecture about what a Bentley SUV

should look like and people were not particularly flattering about their styling, were they?

But no, I've got used to it.

I like it.

It's funny, isn't it?

I'm seeing the first time that you've ever clapped eyes on a Porsche Cayenne when that

was launched in the whenever it was late 90s or something like that.

And that I am now used to the way that car looks.

But I seem to distinctly remember thinking it was horrific at the time.

And then they look at it and go, yeah, fine.

It's a car.

Not bad.

Yeah.

It's all right.

It's a car, you know, isn't it?

It's it must frustrate the people who design them because they've been looking at the car

in design for three or four years and they're thoroughly used to it.

And then they let it loose on people like us and we all sort of say, oh my God, what is

that?

What were you thinking?

And three or four years later, we think, oh, not too bad.

Yeah.

Because I don't I don't know what a mini an original mini.

I don't know whether that's a good looking car or not.

Do you know what I mean?

I don't know.

I don't know if it's well designed, styled or otherwise.

I know it's a it's a brilliant package.

But because I've always I've always seen them.

Yes.

Just always known them.

They've been ever present.

I have no idea whether they're a good looking car.

I think I like the look of them, but I don't know if they're a good looking.

No, it's very good point that I suppose that really is a is a function dominates form type

of car, isn't it?

You know, they started off wanting wanting it to do all the things it does and, you know,

found a way to give it a, you know, a wardrobe set of clothes.

But nowadays, I think they look great.

I've just written a why I love column about V8s.

And again, I don't, I was never conscious, the first conscious of hearing a V8 the first

time I heard one.

I mean, I know I like them, but it would have been, I don't, it would have been nice to

be aware the first time it was ever heard like, I don't know, some Beethoven symphony.

You know, I've always just heard them through my life.

Wouldn't it be amazing to be the person in the room when it was first heard and that

would be.

Yeah.

When, when they switched it on in 1930 or something.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, yeah, I looked it up.

So it was 1904.

And the first ever V8 lay on something or other for, for a company called Antoinette.

And his name was, oh, let me look it up because it will just be in my recent documents.

He was a French engineer and he designed them for use in boats and planes and cars as well.

And it was for the engine maker Antoinette.

And it was Leon Livavassil.

Well done.

And he, yeah, but can you imagine just hearing that for the first time?

Yeah.

That would be.

It sort of happened to me as a kid because my, we had some pretty crude cars when I was

a really little kid.

And then my grandfather acquired this, what was always known to us as a Ford V8.

And it did sound, it was a flathead, you know, the Sidewacker and, and they, they've always

sounded a bit special anyway.

And it was fabulous.

And even driving around at the age of eight, you could still tell that it had this special

power envelope.

Yeah.

It was good.

There is something about a V8.

There really is.

Yeah.

People have been saying to you, Steve, that's no Capri.

Oh yeah.

My new long-term is a blue Ford Capri.

And I'm just, you get impatient with it really.

I mean, it isn't, it isn't anything like the Capri we most recently remember, but the

thing I keep on thinking to myself at least is this is the fourth time the world, the

word Capri has been used on a Ford.

There was, there was a console Capri and there was an American Capri.

It might have been a Mercury, but Mercury and Ford.

Anyway, this is the fourth time.

It's not, it's not as if the, they're sort of trampling on anything's grave.

And in any case, it's a far better car than any Cortina based coupe than I ever ran across.

So I'll just be a bit impatient with that.

I wish the car could just be assessed on its merits.

It's not the perfect car, but it's awfully good.

I'm, I'm enjoying it.

Big, it's big, big and high.

Hmm.

Based on a VW disguises the VW and it's reasonably well.

Yes.

As you know, because when I drove it last week for the first time and I, yeah, there's,

there is a bit of Ford-ness about it, isn't there?

Yeah.

Places.

Lumpy ride, I think.

They've tried to do their body control thing and slightly overcooked it.

I think perhaps for the condition of the UK roads in winter.

Yeah.

But I like the way it rolls along and it's, it seems to be pleasantly economical for

a big EV.

So happy enough, really.

Do they do themselves no favours by resurrecting old names, but not resurrecting classic designs?

I don't know.

People keep on saying if you, and I've done it myself, if you cover up the bottom two feet

of that car and just look at the outline, we're looking at it out of your window because

we're in your, in your gaff.

And you could, you could see the Capri very plainly.

It's just that it's two feet too tall.

Yeah.

There is about the, what was that, the ABCD pillar, I suppose, isn't there?

And that back window, there is an element.

Yeah, that curve.

That level of curve is, is Capri-ish, isn't it?

Capri-like.

I think the guy that designed it, I've forgotten his name, but we had a bit of correspondence

soon after it came out and he's a bit disappointed about the, the way people have treated it

because I think he was quite pleased with the, with the way they were able to change it

so that it looks nothing like an ID4.

You wouldn't VW ID4.

You wouldn't know that it was not VW under this.

No, you wouldn't, would you?

No, you wouldn't.

So I feel a bit sorry for him because it's, what he's done is a pretty nice piece of work.

I wish they'd done something about the, the instruments which are both in the VW and the Ford,

rather crude, I think, some nice graphics is just this kind of slab screen in front of you

which looks a bit cursory compared with the trouble that's taken elsewhere in the car.

Do you know when it comes to platform sharing on EVs, whether, like the associated electrical

gubbins like inverters and stuff like that, whether they scope to move those around?

Because I'm just aware that when you platform slash architecture share a combustion engine

car, your hard points like where the engine sits is pretty much settled.

So actually if you're trying to design things for two different brands where you've still

got to, you've still got to put the lumps in the right places to clear the engine and

so on and so forth.

But I wonder if you get more flexibility with that.

I think given just this, this MEB platform that I'd be amazed if they were not very specific

about where things had to go in all the dimensions, all the tracks and wheel bases and things like

that are the same.

So it is, I think under the ski, the art of it is to disguise where it came from but

use as much as possible under the skin.

Is there a boot at the front?

No.

Okay.

That's full of stuff.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Shame really because it's got a big high as you see looking at it from here.

It's got a big high bonnet line.

But on the other hand, it has got a big boot in a vast rear.

Yeah.

So I can't complain about the accommodation.

No.

On the subject you just mentioned of winter roads in the UK.

Steve from Somerset writes to say, road liable to flooding yet another disregard for the

motorist.

You're either admitting you've designed a road badly or that a problem has arisen that

you can't be bothered to fix.

So now it's my problem.

And that is the only subject of road liable to flooding signs that you see everywhere.

And I've seen actually having since noticing since being told this, I've noticed a few

and I think why should I accept that the road is just when it rains, this road may just get

covered in water.

Why is that?

No.

Road flooded.

I can accept road liable to flooding.

So Steve, I do not.

Yeah.

That's a good point, isn't it?

It's a good point.

I always get cheesed off with this being a bore and a zealot.

I get cheesed off with the use of liable.

Liable to me is responsible for.

So you're liable for the upkeep of your roof, of your house.

But a road likely to flood strikes me as a bit more likely.

Yes, would be the more likely thing.

But the road, the sign writers and road men, there's just in love with this word liable

and using it wrongly.

Yeah.

There is also, by the way, that sign is on basically the A303, which is really the road

to the West Country.

Oh, my word.

That's terrible.

But I think there was a bit on the M40 at one point.

I think they have now sorted it, but there was a bit down south of High Wycombe where

it said, you know, carriage liable to flooding.

Gosh, that really is reprehensible, isn't it?

Yeah, isn't it?

Wow.

But there's a dual carriageway not far from here where there is a permanent sign that

says failed road surface.

Like, well, why don't you build up a permanent sign?

Why don't you permanently fix the road?

But this time of year is bad.

But I drove from here down to Basingstoke and Alton and back last night and some of the

roads, mate.

I know it's a difficult time of year because it rains a lot and then it freezes and yadda,

yadda, yadda.

But I just, there are potholes within five miles of this house that if I hit them on

a motorbike, I would probably come off.

Yes.

No question.

They are enormous.

And I'm a bit tired of it really, mate.

There must be a lot of damage being done every day because you and I, you know, you're in

the land or the Audi or something, and I'm in the duster or the Raptor and we're pretty

protected from the crags on the road.

But yeah, because the Audi's got the Audi's narrow and it's on 60 profile tires or 55 profile

tires.

So they're pretty, I hope, fingers crossed, you know, unburstable by potholes, but I mean

anything low profile.

People with 35s and things, boy.

Yeah.

It doesn't matter.

Think about it.

No, it does not.

We are not in the UK going to get to range extended Mazdas.

Why not?

Well, the European boss of Mazda, as I read it, I just had my nose in automotive news,

has decided not to bring in these two range extenders.

They're produced with Chang'an, I think, so they're cooperative cars.

But I've just been driving around in this Leap Motor a couple of weeks ago, which was

a Leap Motor C03.

Will that be right?

There were two, weren't there?

Did you drive two?

Yeah, there was a B-Segment and a C-Segment car.

C10.

Yeah, C10.

But what was the other one?

B10.

Oh, gotcha.

OK.

But the C10 that we drove was a Reeve, they don't call it that anymore, you know, a range

extender.

REV.

Electric vehicle.

Oh, OK.

They're now calling it a hybrid EV instead.

But basically, it's the car, which is an EV, but it's got a generator motor that sits

in the same engine bay and charges the battery when necessary, and the battery there for

a bit smaller.

And never drives the wheels.

Never drives the wheels.

And you plug it in as you would plug in any other electric vehicle.

Yeah, so if I were to plug it into your charger outside, you could leave here with 90 miles

of electric and 500 miles of petrol.

Oh, quirky.

So you could go to Edinburgh if you want.

And given that it's a lighter battery and a smaller battery with all the advantages

that brings and petrol is plenty available and so on, I just like the concept of range

extenders and I'm going to try and lay my hands on one of these Leap Motor ones and

try and do pretty serious mileage and find out the truth.

They say two things that the battery only mileage isn't particularly good and that

the if you drive a long distance with the charge motor going, you don't get particularly

good MPG button.

I still think be able to do 600 miles nonstop and get out with the things showing 45 MPG

is not that bad.

No, I think that's all right.

And it's just, you know, most of the time you would just charge it and drive it.

Yeah, maybe even you would daily drive it.

Even from here to the office, what are you from the office?

About 70 miles. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

So we would just we would just you could go back and forth in one.

Yeah. And at some point on the way home, it might fire up the engine just to bring me back.

Yeah. Or you might if you're able to elbow aside those blokes from what car you might be able to use.

I have, listen, we have a carpark downstairs in the basement.

It is not huge and it is not only ours.

It's shared between two car magazines, plus the management who have some spaces, obviously.

I was about to say shiny bums.

So anyway.

And we have a number of yeah.

Anyway, I've given up me.

Yeah, me too.

I just parked over the road.

Yeah, it's just it's just easier.

Yeah. By the time I've walked from the multi-story, I might as well, you know, but I could it might take me.

I might have to move four or five cars anyway.

So I've just I just go over the.

Interestingly, one of the reasons that you and I could, you know, get on quite well,

I think is the fact that we both appreciate that one of the advantages of life,

modern life is not is avoiding needless competition with other people.

And and, you know, getting down there in the basement and trying to jockey first

for some crappy charging point, you know, just yeah, I cannot be bothered.

Well, yes.

Yes, as soon as you arrive, you know, is this what is this?

Tascar, long term.

Can you are you allowed to park here?

I'm just like, I can't be bothered.

I cannot be bothered.

And I'm usually there early enough that there is a spot in my preferred car park.

Yeah. So.

Where was I?

Sorry, mate.

Oh, so I think Mazda has also withdrawn the MX 30, the little.

Rotary range extended.

Yeah, that's a shame.

But just just for interest sake.

Yeah, we had one, didn't we, for all that?

And I but I was a hundred percent reliable.

Right, OK.

I bet it was it was probably pretty juicy, too, wasn't it?

I think so. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Tended interesting thing to do.

Interesting car and a good looking car and a really nicely finished car inside as well.

Probably light, was it?

Oh, I couldn't tell you.

Because the engines are very.

Yeah, I think you're probably right, actually.

Yeah, I think you're right.

Made an interesting noise.

It sounded like somebody running a power drill next door.

Oh, really?

Yeah, somebody, you know, when they have one of those sort of how much

kind of noise, a very low from memory, I think.

I think that's how I explained it at the time.

But having said all of this, the the Mazda, the medium,

what is it, the the family sized Mazda SUV?

Got it.

CX-5, CX.

Shall I just?

So MX 30 weighs approximately sixteen hundred to seventeen hundred kilos.

Not bad.

I will plug in hybrid actually fully electric.

That's fully electric with the range.

It's the plug in hybrid.

Seventeen, 1750.

So not right.

So the mid-sized Mazda SUV.

This is terrible.

And I should know this.

I saw a picture the other day of a motorway that was shot in something

like the 1980s or 1990s.

Yeah.

And I was looking at the cars on the road and I thought to myself,

I bet I can identify more of those cars than if you showed me a picture

of a motorway today.

Yeah, I mean, they were they were even though this is this is my job.

It's just I felt very bad about that.

But so there's the CX 30, CX 60, CX 80 and CX 5 arrive summer 2026.

Apparently, how big, how big are you thinking?

The CX 5 is the car that I was reading about.

And then the thing is they're about to have

a big win, really big win with that because because there's a demand

already and also it sells out of its socks.

And and I think they were just looking to doesn't

our right to study to have the previous generation CX 5.

That's yes, I think so.

Family wagon.

Yeah, that's right.

583 litres of cargo volume, 15.6.

It's funny.

This is what manufacturers.

So the CX 5 is coming soon.

If you go to Mazda's website and look at the CX 5,

the standout things that it wants to tell you,

all new Mazda CX 5, the things it thinks are important to tell you,

583 litres of cargo volume up to 15.6 inch centre display,

100 plus apps built in 2000 kilos to capacity.

Those are, it thinks, the four standout things that you want to know.

I don't care.

But it's interesting that this this piece that I was reading,

the

says the reason they were going to have a big win is because

that they've already made five million CX 5s since 2012.

But in Europe, they reckon they're going to be

they've sold eight hundred and sixty thousand in that time,

right, you know, getting off from a lot for a matter.

And they expect to do two hundred thousand.

I think it is next year.

Well, so in Europe.

Yeah, so it's going to be it's going to be a winner.

But what does it come with?

What does it come with? What does it come with?

Blah, blah, blah, technology you can trust.

Space that adapts to your life, confidence on every drive,

stay informed, designed to stand apart.

Yeah, but what's it powered by?

Tell me what it's powered by.

Comfort, flexible cargo space, Google built in my Mazda app.

No technology, three sixty monitor smart break support,

enhanced driving experience.

Here we go. E Skyactive G petrol engine,

two wheel drive or four wheel drive, Euro six compliant.

Mild hybrid technology.

It takes quite a long time to go down,

scrubbing down of the features before it tells you that.

Yeah. So.

But they strikely is a good proposition.

Yeah, that would be a very straightforward car for a lot of people, went it.

And they they always work, don't they?

Yeah, six year warranty.

Yeah, that's the last the last thing they tell you.

It's got a petrol engine.

Yeah, well, I suppose it's

it's it's tantamount to a secret.

Yeah, I suppose. Yeah, keep it under your hat.

Great. Yes.

Pictures of it

pictured somewhere in Europe by the looks of it.

Looks like it's wearing black.

It's got that red paint, which is very nice, but with black wheels.

I don't love black alloys, I must say.

No, I started out went through a phase

when I thought black wheels were really good

because they were bold and sporty and all that.

And now I, in fact, I'm in the process of paying money

to get the the 14 wheels that I've inherited with my Peugeot 205 GTI.

Yeah, sent them off to the to the powder coaters to be white instead of black.

Oh, really?

That's good.

And it's the car staying green.

The car staying the sort of loud green it is.

No, I'm absolutely busting to see it now.

Yeah. Well, I'm going to come back in a minute

and tell you about a car I drove on black wheels.

But first, let's take a commercial break to remind you, listener,

that this podcast is brought to you in association with Anderson,

the design led home premium EV charging maker.

They're made in the design and made here in the UK in Bedfordshire.

And they come with a seven year warranty.

You can have a tethered.

One has got the cable hidden inside it, or you can have one with a socket.

Didn't I say something about new houses?

They have to be socketed rather than cabled.

Is that right? Yes, I think so.

We'll be talking about that.

Yeah, not quite sure why that was, but they seem to have to have a socket.

Yeah, yeah, rather than a plug.

Oh, it's just in case you had a car when an EV that didn't use the same plug

that basically all EVs now use.

Yeah.

But anyway, more on that another time.

We'll bring you some more Anderson snippets as time goes on,

but they sponsor this podcast and we like them very much, Anderson-EV.com.

They have a concierge service and they will look after you very, very well.

They're in good heart and they've had a really good 2025.

They did. Yeah.

Didn't they like a double in sales at some point in the half way through last year?

No, it's all percolating for them, isn't it?

Yeah.

And also, I want to tell you about the AutoCar archive, the magazine shop.com

for the full 130 plus year AutoCar archive.

We've been selling magazines weekly since 1895.

And you can read them all.

You took some back issues, archive issues up to the British Motor Museum

last week, didn't you? Yes, our our official sort of printed archive

for both AutoCar and what car now repose at the BMM in Gaiden.

And we there were a few issues missing

and we sort of collected them up for various sources.

And I took, I think, the last up to be to be, you know, added to the

to the collection by their archivist.

It's it's properly curated.

They've got actual professional archive types up there who know what they're doing.

Indeed, to the likes of us.

Yes, who do not?

Yes, the magazine shop.com for slash AutoCar.

You can subscribe to print and or digital and you can have just archive only,

I think, or you can get their offers.

Go to the magazine shop.com.

You can find it and I recommend that you do exactly that.

I was in the archive.

What was I looking at last week?

Can't remember, but I was looking in the archive.

I was searching how to spell XJC.

Oh, that's why, whether it had a hyphen or not.

Yeah, I think not from memory, but the text search function.

He's unbelievably good, isn't he?

It's got that because these files were all scanned into the archive

effectively as pictures.

They were painstakingly done.

Somebody turned the page, pushed the button to take a photo, turned a page,

pushed the button to take a photo.

But there is scanning software which can read all of that text.

And so when you search it, it comes up as

even some of the old ads are cool, aren't they?

Yeah. Some of the old adverts.

The last thing I looked for was I was having some

yarn with somebody about what I regard as the kind of McLaren F1 of 1898,

which is which is a Leon Bollet tricycle, very, very fast for the time.

You see him in the Brighton run.

You've probably been probably asphyxiated by one as it went past.

And.

Yeah. So look at that.

So I just I just banged in Leon Bollet.

And of course, you know, there's 38 references that immediately bob up.

It's great. It is a good thing.

Yeah, we recommend it to you.

Welcome back to part two of My Week in Cars.

And let's do a letter from Andy Sherer.

Hello, Andy.

Having read Steve Cropley's column this week and listened to the pod

where he comments on the ride quality of the Bentley flying spur lamenting

the fact there isn't a compact car with similar levels of refinement.

I can't help feeling this is where Citroen or maybe more specifically DS

have a great opportunity.

Citroen is always known for its excellent ride quality due to the hydraulic

suspension system, but the last truly compact car, which used it, was probably

the GS, the BX, Xandia and C5 weren't quite what I'd call compact, says Andy.

Surely the DS brand was the perfect opportunity to return to that value,

incorporating some luxury interior elements with large car ride capability.

The suspension system with modern control capability.

It used to be possible to incorporate the suspension in cars like the GS.

So surely it could be done now, even if a premium price was required for profitability.

Not quite compact, but the big disappointment I feel about the DS5

when reading the initial reports was that it had a firm ride.

The opposite of what a DS traditionally stood for.

Maybe there still is a chance for DS to really differentiate itself.

Yeah, I think it's all true.

But I mean, the hydrogen pneumatic disappeared for economy reasons, didn't it?

And also, I think, sadly, we also found, although it was very good at

levelling hydrogen pneumatic and it still is, if you're riding one now, it's amazing.

But the secondary ride, the rumbles, the high frequency bump,

it's not brilliant at that and modern steel suspensions,

especially those with adaptive dampers, have just moved on.

And I think you'd be surprised, even in something fondly remembered

like a CX or a GS, GSA, wouldn't be as good as we thought.

I think it would be very level and I do love it.

I had a Zantia for a while, thought it was terrific.

And I think they did them up to the C5, didn't they?

There were two, do you remember, there were two versions of the fairly recent C5

where you could either get a steel suspension or a hydro.

Oh, interesting.

And but I think that was just political.

You know, they they didn't want to say with the launch of this new car,

the C5, we've killed Hydro and you matter, so that we was fading away.

But I think the truth is great for levelling, great for primary ride,

but not as good as you'd think for not the standards we accept now.

It's funny, but life moves on.

That's a trouble. Yeah, it'd be interesting to see if anybody would

because of, you know, try introducing a new suspension system,

because other there are cars with air springs on there.

And there are sort of limited supercars, hypercars,

which have some fairly fancy crosslink suspension.

Yeah, that's that that Land Rover, that six D has got sort of crosslinked.

Is that air or is that hydraulic?

That's hydraulic, isn't it?

Don't know in the oct, I think in that octa that there is one outside.

I think they call it six D suspension and I have a feeling that it runs.

Oh, no, there's too many cars made too much stuff to look it up.

I'm going to look it up for this pod next week.

Yeah, but it is it.

I think the trouble we've got is that the combination of tires,

modern tires, modern dampers and and and insulation between suspension and body

has got to the point where.

The previous, you know,

effective systems aren't as good as we think they are anymore.

Is it it's a drag?

I don't know if you I'd ago I owned a Porsche 911 fondly remembered.

1988 model.

Very sad to sell it had to sell it because the stone tiles on my roof in my house

started to fall in and it became some stone tiles.

Anyway, we borrowed it back 10 years later and I drove around in this car and thought,

oh, really? Yeah, it just wasn't.

It was perfectly nice, classic car.

Yeah, but it wasn't the car we remembered.

Oh, and the same went for a Ferrari I had,

which which had this rather poverty stricken interior and and no poke.

You know, I remember I went to visit the bloke, the owner,

in a in a Ford Fiesta one litre S I triple.

Yeah, good car, good car and and and drove the Ferrari for a bit.

And the car with equal poke, better gear change, nicer brakes, better ride,

better visibility, more comfortable seats.

It was the Fiesta. Yeah.

And that's life.

Yeah, I did think I never did it for reasons I can't remember,

but I did pitch and they were like, yeah, we should do that feature.

And then it fell away.

I was proposing we do 308 versus 308,

which is new, but Peugeot 308 when that was introduced versus Ferrari 308.

Take them to Myra or Milbrook and put them through the road test

numbers and see which was the faster, more capable, better braking, etc.

Etc., etc. car and probably would have been a cooking Peugeot.

Do you think? Oh, no problem.

I think it would be no brainer.

It would be.

It's a sort of sad thing to do.

That's the only trouble. That's the other thing, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah.

Do you remember the greatest

the the the sort of the story that started all comparisons

was in the 60s when car and driver in America got hold of a Ferrari GTO.

So a 250 GTO robot racing car now worth 15 million quid.

And and did a comparison with a Pontiac GTO,

which was a three eighty cubic inch muscle car.

And that was that even then that was interesting because they were really

I think the Pontiac was quicker. Yeah.

And I don't think it was quite a good run.

Yes, yes, I can believe.

What should we talk next? Oh, yes.

Black wheels, I went to a place called Kent Heritage Works last week

to drive a series three Land Rover Resto mode,

which they fitted with a Rover V8, which has had some tweaks.

So quite a pokey engine.

Apparently, that makes it quite.

Spiky through the standard manual gearbox.

They fitted a four speed auto gearbox to it.

Because if you fit a newer auto box, you probably lose the ability to have

that sort of two or four wheel drive high and low range stuff

that you got on the old series Land Rover's fitted a fairly old spec gearbox.

And then sort of Resto modded it up with defender brakes at the front.

Freelander two brakes at the rear, because then you get an electric

parking brake, which is so they can get rid of the handbrake lever inside,

which frees up a bit more footwell room and just done a really nice

restoration modification job on it.

But it ran this dark blue paint called Admiralty Blue,

which is then matched to black wheels.

But it looks terrific, actually.

And the guy who runs it, Cliff, who runs the place, was saying,

actually, the builders and mechanics here were saying, actually,

they thought it should be on white wheels.

But he said, no, I decided it should be on black wheels.

And it does look like these knees are a great thing.

And what's the company?

Kent Heritage works near Tumbridge, Wales.

And they restore cars and do some modifications

mostly to land old Land Rovers and Range Rovers.

But then every now and again, they will build a car for their own fun

in and around the other stuff.

What do you mean, you know Land Rovers really well.

Would you would that would that have been a car that would suit you?

Yes, it suits.

It suits somebody who has got a big house somewhere

and you want a tender for the summer months.

It's that sort of it's that sort of thing.

It's under £200,000, which I think is.

I know it's I know that's a lot of money,

but for rest of modded cars built to a really professional luxury standard,

you sort of go, oh, yeah, OK, I can see how you could.

I can see how that costs that much.

And I'm a bit surprised it's not more.

Do you know what I mean? When he said it's £195,000.

I'm like, oh, I was almost I was almost expecting more

just because that's the mad way of the world.

He says then it looked great.

I thought it looked really nice. Yeah, I mean, it is.

It's it's an absolutely immortal shape, isn't it?

The Landy that was the series three with the, you know,

where the body is a bit more modern and a bit more space inside.

You can see the appeal.

Yeah, I think I've always been surprised about by Land Rover.

Circles, though, is why the.

There hasn't become there hasn't been a popular four cylinder engine

that they drop in because the V eight. Oh, it sounds.

The V eight is is a is a good idea.

And it sells well and all this.

But we would think that if a two litre forward in one of those

would still cope with the original gearbox and you the overdrive would be right.

And, you know, it just a bit more affordable, a bit more.

A bit more sensible in a way.

Yeah, bloody great beard. Yeah.

I think I'd still have the bloody great beard.

But yeah, I guess it would suit something like that would suit me.

But actually, I think an old series Land Rover would kind of suit me

if I had the space and time for one, because it would be that kind of thing

that you could on a summer's evening, if we're going to go out for a walk

or a picnic, you can just go, well, we'll just roll over in the,

you know, to the one of the nearby villages with a roof down.

In an open old Land Rover.

And I think that would be quite a cool thing to do.

Just isn't it great in this country, even now, the ownership of a Land Rover,

like yours outside, there are still places where you can drive

just a mile further up some byway than the dog walkers can make it with their

forward focuses and you could be anywhere.

You could be and yet you can be you can be sort of no more than three or four

miles from some thriving connovation.

But it is the countryside. It's great.

It's the real countryside.

Landies do that.

And people like them, don't they, as well?

I mean, we did a photo shoot of this car and I was going back

as a force between two car parks and a pretty leafy part of the world.

And if you were doing that in a Lamborghini Urus,

people would be pretty tired of you pretty quickly.

Yeah. But actually, just rolling back and forwards, even in quite,

quite a loud old Land Rover, people just look at it affectionately

and want to know what it is. What's in it?

What's it like? What you do? How that looks great?

There's a real, yeah, affection for them.

There isn't. There isn't.

What would you call that car if you were to put it in a class?

Because when we have new car.

Comparison tests or when the industry makes a new car,

they put a car in a little niche.

They go, well, this is a subcompact electric SUV crossover.

This is the medium sized family car.

This is compact executive. This is this. This is that.

We went to somebody last week and he said,

I've brought the dog car because his other car was in for servicing.

I think the public have different classes of car than the industry does.

So true. Station car.

Yeah. School car. Yeah. School run car.

Yeah, absolutely. And they're.

They're more on it than we are, you know, when some of the

some of the dafter classes that not so much auto car, but others use,

you know, the sort of medium compact

estate or something or other. I don't know what else.

You know, but if if somebody says, well, our

our friend was talking about a what was it about a 12 year old

five series or 520 I estate one. Yeah.

Yeah. And that was the perfect dog car.

Yeah. And it will be for another 12 years, I would imagine.

Yeah. And other people just have a car, don't they?

And they don't give a monkeys about what class or whatever it is at all.

I know somebody who has a Volkswagen up GTI.

Also on the shortlist at the time was an Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

Decided, no, probably use the up more frequently, enjoy it more often,

could take it anywhere, not be, you know, could park it in places.

And probably enjoy driving it just as much.

Still pretty quick across the country, too.

You know, between here in Oxfordshire and, you know, the wealth coast.

Yeah, probably Zippo over there really nicely.

Yes. Yeah.

So yeah, I mean, anyway, that's I wrote that up in subscriber extra

last week, which is something listener that you can

will you would receive if you subscribe to HMS Auto Car,

which is an email arrives every Friday, an extra bit of content.

It's just an extra column, isn't it, in a way?

And Richard Bremner writes really nice ones about.

What's the title of it?

But it's a it's about a classic, isn't it?

Yes, it's it's chance to be about some

some car we haven't thought of very much that he tends to find

he's addicted to low mileage versions of interesting cars, isn't he?

So because he is chatting to him about this the other day,

because we were in the pub and.

And he was talking about the the joy of low mileage, fairly old or not old,

but, you know, 15 year old cars is is that you're reminded of

what the car exactly what the car was like when it was new.

Yes. You know, I think he's just bought a car.

I think probably shouldn't blow the gaff because he's going to tell us about it.

But it is a it's a British sports car, 40 years old,

and it's done 9000 or 10000 miles.

I think wow.

And the reason he's bought it is because

to be reminded of exactly what that car was like for the new car buyer.

Really interesting.

So I think he's going to hold forth on that.

Yeah. Oh, good.

Not next week, though, because I have been.

Oh, you're in the hot seat.

Are you? Yeah.

Do you know what you're going to write about?

Absolutely no idea.

When will you when will you know the deadlines Thursday, isn't it?

I think when do you when is it Thursday morning?

You'll think about it probably.

Yeah. Well, I've got a bit of a trip to make after we stop talking.

So I'll probably I'll probably reflect on it going down the road.

OK. Can you tell me where you're going on it or not?

No. OK. All right.

Let's not let's not dwell on that.

Just just a I mean, it turned him out to a chore.

Well, I can tell you I'm I'm about to go and see a BMW motorcycle dealer

because I'm negotiating the purchase of a 400 cc scooter to ride around in London.

Oh, I see. Oh, actually, yes, of course.

There is another bit in your column I haven't mentioned yet, which is.

I was just going about. I've labelled it term oil means bargains.

Yeah. Yeah. But the trouble is bargains.

We already know that 2026, according to the industry, is going to be

a bargain year because there's there's low confidence for people who

investing in expensive cars, tariffs all over the place.

But but I was just reflecting on this confidence thing because.

I mean, I'm trading in one bike for another bike and the

the price to change is probably about two grand and even the two grand.

I'm sort of thinking, should I do it?

You know, we'll should we keep that two grand in a mattress?

And and. Imagine what it's like if you're somebody who.

Is trying to decide whether to commit for a, you know, a top end Audi or something.

It's just must must be quite difficult, I think, for people selling.

The kind of cars that nobody really needs.

Yes, I have heard that with some specialist car makers.

Yeah, they've just said things are difficult in the UK, but particularly,

you know, that we are not selling very many cars here at the moment.

And yes.

Yeah. This is where I suppose people are sustained by their

by their waiting list.

You know, Ariel always have nine months or something, whatever it is.

And you know, if it falls to seven months,

because a few people start to worry, it's still not the end of the world, I imagine.

Yeah. And the

the average age of the car in the UK is getting older.

It is. And it may get older again before it.

I wonder if it may get older again before it bottoms out.

If you like. Yeah.

Yeah, it's a picture in your column talking of old versus new cars,

which I really like.

Tell me. So it's a tell me about it.

The two cars pictured together as an our plate, Dutton with a Dutton

was a was a kit car from, well, 70s and 80s.

I think other people know better than me.

But it was you drove one.

Yeah, years ago.

Not I mean, just a space frame car.

A bit of a catering style

machine, but with a slightly crude styling,

but recognisable for the nose nacelle in particular.

But there was one parked at Bista Heritage the other day,

and the owner had quite deliberately parked it alongside some blokes McLaren.

And it and I was standing there with a steering committee.

I mean, we're looking at these two cars and I said, look at that.

They this McLaren is a lovely car and everybody would want one.

But it's it's actually rather anonymous compared with this very singular

50 year old kit car that it had.

You know, umpteen body chain,

there are probably three or four different types of engine.

And you could see it had been raced and it there was some crash damage on

or sorry, probably raced damage on the front would have been fiberglassed in

and nobody bothered to quite paint it.

And but they and it had a big roll cage.

Yeah. And the but the overall effect was that it was

a real lived in warrior of a car.

Yeah. And and I just love the way something that started out as

I mean, I remember being a bit scathing about Dutton's back in the day.

But this was a distinguished car. It looked really good.

I'd love to talk to the owner.

Yeah, I haven't seen your picture.

I 100% agree with you.

Because what do you reckon is going on with that?

It's got this sort of interesting air scoop.

I was trying to try to figure out if there's a V8 in there.

But I oh, that'd be interesting, wouldn't it?

But the exhaust pipe looks a bit slight for a V8.

Yeah, it does, doesn't it?

Let's have a quick check of I'm going to check its MOT status

and see if it tells me what kind of car it is.

Can I do that? Will that tell me what engine it is?

I don't know.

There's a or a tax check might do anyway.

Anyway, while I do while I do that,

why don't you tell me if you were going to

take one of those cars, somebody said, right,

you can take one of these cars away from it was at Bistair Scramble, January.

You can take one away.

It will live in your garage for a for a year.

And when you go to the garage, it will work and you'll have all of your other cars,

you know, as they all your other forms of transport exactly as they are.

It'll be in the garage.

You'll go to the garage.

You can fire it up, blah, blah, blah.

This scramble in twenty twenty seven, you can just bring it back.

That's it, you know, that you just take one away for a year.

So did a nice year with it.

I think you have a year with one or the other.

Which would it?

Which would it be?

Well, when I had a bit of a run on early Porsche 911s,

I'm a bit nine eleven blind because there are so many of them.

And they they've got a bit big for me now.

They're probably rude to say that limousine, but they're a bit big.

But the little ones, the early ones, two point twos and two point fours.

First ones I ever drove, they've they've got.

They've got soul to me.

And there were there were some lovely ones at Bistair.

So I think I'd probably choose a nice two point two S

or something like that and just orange, you know, plaid seats.

This take off, you know, take that away for a year.

Drive it around in the summer.

Give it back and give it back more than the Dutton.

Yes. More than the Dutton.

Oh, yes, I think so. Yeah.

Dutton or McLaren?

Well, my heart, in a way, would say Dutton because I.

I.

Cars of that McLaren potential

and and they're just they're just a bit beyond me now.

I don't I don't use the performance.

And I like things that, you know, they're a bit of a shouty four cylinder engine

and lots of noise and wind around your hair and all that stuff.

I mean, the reason I'm so keen on this Peugeot, although it's a tin top,

it is going to be crude and I like crude.

The tax check says that this is a 12 97 C C Dutton.

Oh, so that sounds like a Ford, does it?

Yeah, maybe 1977 car with a one point three.

Yeah, it's got engine.

It's got something like that.

And those two, yeah, those two.

Mudge, Mudgey, the tax check also says it's yellow and it's absolutely not yellow.

It's a bit of blue and a bit of so.

Do you think what do you think they use it for trials or?

Well, I found it.

I banged it on some rubber into into Google and there was a bit of

Instagram of it doing some track day or race or something like that.

So I mean, it was it was being driven at proper noise.

Yeah, it's got a noise test past sticker from some track day.

It's done. Excellent.

I think that would be quite good fun.

It's on some mini light wheels.

It's got your photos right.

Very good, mate, because you can zoom in and it's on those.

Yokohama, I can see it's on, you know, Yokohama.

So proper tires, proper tires.

Yeah, I just admire that.

I think it's well owned, as we say.

Yes, exactly. Yeah, I really I really like cars like that.

I hope the owner, God knows whether we could ever hear from the owner.

But it'd be very interesting to know about its its recent background, wouldn't it?

Yeah, and those that twin air scoop on top looks fab, doesn't it?

It does.

It's got these sort of butterflies on the start

that look on the on the on the beginnings of the tubes.

I don't know if they're real or do you think that's just for a fact?

I kept wondering, but it looks like something you'd find at Santa Pod,

doesn't it? Yeah.

And there's also it's also got some stickers.

It's it's it must have done a load of track days

because it's got lots of sort of noise test past stickers on the windscreen as well.

Well, that's a great thing.

We'll put that. Listen, we're going to put that on.

Well, we'll put it on Instagram or X or whatever.

We'll put it on your feed.

We'll put it on when this pod comes out.

We'll put it on.

I just noticed that in the over the rear wheel arch,

because presumably the weird the rear tire sticks out a bit too much,

that there is some aftermarket wheel arch extension from some car

or other has been screwed onto the back wheel arches to the MOT man has said.

Actually, I'm seeing a bit too much too much tire there.

All right, I'll tell you what I'll do is I'll just buy a couple of spats

that I don't know what they're from.

I wonder what they are from.

And I don't think that looks great, mate.

I would I reckon that's so much fun.

It's a resourceful person's car, isn't it? Yeah.

And I will bet you that it's not too bad as well.

Well, I don't know how do I know?

But but, you know, they were low and rowdy and yeah, yeah, good luck.

It's a it's it's a it's lived a good life.

It's lived a good life.

Owner, if you're listening right to us, let us know what it's like.

Tell us what the car is and what it's like to drive.

That brings us to pretty much the end of this week's podcast.

All I have left to tell you is that it's brought to you in association

with our sponsors, Anderson, if you sign up just got till the end of January.

So not very long left.

If you sign up and buy one of their charges

and you sign up to the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff,

you can claim five thousand three miles worth of charging.

Seven year warranty built in the UK, Anderson dash E V dot com

of a concierge service who will look after you.

Did they say they were just they'd taken on more people to answer the phone?

If you when you ring them up, they they don't like leaving you waiting on the phone.

Yeah, that's what David Martell, the boss said.

We don't like people hanging on.

Yeah, that's a great thing.

It's really great, isn't it?

So if you phone up, you can expect somebody to pick up the phone.

It's got a great little rear wing on it as well.

It's such a overly intrigued.

It's actually there's a bit of there's a bit of I thought this might engage you.

Because you're right up my street.

This sort of this sort of thing.

Yeah, this is because it's funny.

You sort of stand back five hours and it just looks healthy, doesn't it?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And Steve and I are off on some stuff, which we'll tell you about in the next week or two.

There is a new video on the AutoCart YouTube,

which Sam Phillips has presented about a one off Bugatti, which is really interesting.

It's in it's built by Bugatti's new bespoke division.

They've got an even more bespoke division than the, you know, they're all pretty bespoke, aren't they?

But it's sort of on as Ferdinand Pieck.

So it's in a it's in a a spec that he would like.

And it looks a bit like an original Veyron, but isn't.

Do we know who the owner is?

No, I don't.

I don't they normally usually keep that fairly under wraps.

It's probably 10 million euros or 10 million quids worth of car.

But anyway, there's a vid over on the AutoCart YouTube as we speak.

So don't miss that, Steve.

Thanks, mate. See you soon.

See you next time.

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That's no Capri! Turmoil means bargains; kit or McLaren?

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