The trustiest Landie, the Manosphere, Aston F1, buying a Tesla?
My week in cars: the Autocar podcast
The trustiest Landie, the Manosphere, Aston F1, buying a Tesla?
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58:58
Term
electric
Electric cars run on batteries and electric motors instead of gas engines. They are cleaner for the environment and can be quieter to drive.
Car
Volkswagen Golf 7.5 1.4 TSI
The Volkswagen Golf 7.5 1.4 TSI is a popular small car with a turbocharged petrol engine that gives good power and fuel economy. It's a common car in Europe and known for being practical.
Car
Audi A2
The Audi A2 is a small car that was made to be very light and fuel-efficient. It used special materials to save weight and was designed to use less fuel.
Car
Porsche 911 (996) Carrera 4S
The Porsche 911 (996) Carrera 4S is a sports car known for its powerful engine and all-wheel drive. It was the first 911 to have a water-cooled engine, making it different from older models.
Car
Nissan R32
Term
internal combustion engine
An internal combustion engine is the kind of engine that burns petrol or diesel inside the car to make it move.
Term
Nissan Leaf
The Nissan Leaf is an electric car that was one of the first to be sold to many people. It can drive on electricity instead of petrol.
Car
Renault 5
The Renault 5 is a small car that was popular many years ago and now has a new electric version that runs on batteries.
Brand
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo is a car company from Italy that makes cars that are fun to drive. They now have an electric car that still feels like a typical Alfa Romeo.
Term
ZEV mandate
The ZEV mandate is a rule that says car makers have to sell a certain number of cars that don't pollute, like electric cars, even if not many people want to buy them yet.
Term
subsidies
Subsidies are money or help given to car companies to make it easier or cheaper for them to sell certain types of cars, like electric ones.
Term
zero emissions
Zero emissions means a car doesn't pollute the air when it runs. Electric cars are examples because they don’t produce smoke or gases from the exhaust.
Term
EV sales
EV sales means how many electric cars are sold. It shows how popular electric cars are becoming.
Car
Land Rover Freelander 2
The Land Rover Freelander 2 is a smaller SUV made by Land Rover. People say it is more reliable and trustworthy than some of the bigger Land Rover models, so it is good for getting you where you need to go.
Term
EV
An EV is a car that runs on electricity instead of gas. It uses batteries to move, so you charge it instead of filling it with petrol.
Brand
Leap Motors
Leap Motors is a company from China that makes electric cars. They might build cars in other countries to make it easier and cheaper to sell them there.
Brand
Stellantis
Stellantis is a big company that owns many car brands you might know. They make cars in different countries and work with other companies too.
Concept
tariffs
Tariffs are extra taxes you pay when you buy things from other countries. Car companies sometimes make cars in the country to avoid paying these extra taxes.
Concept
incentives
Incentives are like rewards or discounts from the government to help companies or people buy or make certain things, like electric cars.
Car
Alpine A110
The Alpine A110 is a small sporty car from France that is fun to drive because it is light and has its engine in the middle of the car. It mixes old-school style with new features.
Concept
platform
A platform is like the base or frame that many cars are built on. It helps car makers use the same parts for different cars to save time and money.
Car
Renault 5 Turbo 3
The Renault 5 Turbo 3 is a fast and sporty version of a small French car called the Renault 5. It has its engine in the middle and uses a turbo to go faster.
Part
pedal box
The pedal box is the part where the gas, brake, and clutch pedals are attached, and it can be changed to make the car feel more responsive when you press the pedals.
Part
Weber carburetors
Weber carburetors are parts that mix air and fuel for the engine, helping it run better and respond quickly when you press the gas pedal.
Part
cams
Cams are parts inside the engine that open and close the valves, helping the engine breathe better and making the car feel quicker when you press the gas.
Term
revving
Revving means making the car's engine run faster to make a loud noise, usually when the car isn't moving.
Concept
group driving tours
Group driving tours are when a bunch of people drive their cars together on a trip for fun.
Concept
restomod
A restomod is an old car that has been fixed up and improved with new parts to make it work better and be more comfortable, but it still looks like the original car.
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Hello, welcome to the AutoCar Podcast, my week in cars with Pry here.
Crop me there.
Hello, Steven.
How are you?
How's it going?
Very well, mate.
Very well.
I need to tell you about our sponsor, which is Anderson.
Visit Anderson dash EV dot com.
They are makers of design focused premium home chargers.
And I think if you go at the moment, you can sign up to an intelligent octopus go tariff,
which gives you, I'm looking at you, Steve thinking, have you phoned them?
No.
Oh, okay, fine.
I need to.
You can sign up to a particular tariff, which gives you money off your bill.
Basically, it's several thousand free miles.
It's really sensible idea, which is, I suppose, why the sensibleness has eluded me.
That's part of your mind.
Steve and I are going to be talking our respective AutoCar columns in this week's issue of this podcast.
I'm just scrolling through a bunch of letters now.
You can write to us autocar at haymarket dot com.
Steve and I are going to have a letters special again on Saturday where we answer some of your correspondence,
which is a shorter episode going to run this week because there's no auto car meets pod.
We've had two interviews recently with David Deron, who is the design director at Datsya,
who Felix Page, our deputy editor, sorry, met last week and James Cameron,
of Mission by the Sport, a week before.
But we do not have, well, we may be talking to some people, might we?
But it's not nailed on.
So we're going to run a letters special on Saturday.
So autocar at haymarket dot com if you want to write to us.
But basically, I've got a bunch of letters, mate, and I need to know which ones to read out now
and which ones to read out on Saturday.
I think what I'm going to do is Ollie, who says in response to Calle's email,
who wrote from Finland last week, and Jeremy Clarkson's comments on where the cars lose their soul
because they're electric.
Surely this depends on the type of car and the engine in the first place.
I think that if we're talking everyday cars, the engine are really the highlight.
In my experience, my old Golf 7.5 1.4 TSI would have been no worse for being electric
as you pointed out about your Audi A2.
However, the character and soul of my old Porsche 996 Carrera 4S with a Dansk exhaust
or my previous Mark V Volkswagen Golf R32 would certainly have been diminished
if combustion had been replaced with electrons.
This is why we're seeing high performance manufacturers continue to develop internal combustion engines.
That's where the sense of soul really matters in my opinion.
Because of that, there's much more nuance to this topic than the blanket opinion shared by some people.
Yeah, well, I think that's true.
And also, it's moving so quickly.
You know, we remember when, you know, an electric car was a fairly ordinary Nissan Leaf,
not long ago, not very much range, bit of a, you know, colorless car.
And then along came stuff like the, you know, the Renault 5 and, you know, even the,
well, of course, the Hyundai, the sort of mad Hyundai.
I think five and six ends.
And stuff like that.
I just think it's, they're moving our way.
They're fine, you know, they just needed to get stuff on the market.
Now they're doing it better.
Yeah.
It was somebody at McLaren applied tech or whatever that company is now called
because it's independent, isn't it?
They'd spoke to you about the phases of EV-ness.
Yeah, they were going to be, one, was just making them in the first place.
Yeah.
Back to propagating them and then three starting to get into the phase of people talking to
the enthusiasts.
And I think that sort of moved up the scale a bit because honestly, we're not buying
EVs as quickly as some people would have liked us to.
No, I was at an event this very morning, SMMT thing, thing called SMMT Electrified.
And somebody stood up and said how pleasing it was to, you know, that there's now an
electric Alfa Romeo and it's not a bad car.
You know, he said it's not everybody's absolute cup of tea, but it's, you know,
steers nicely, behaves fundamentally like an Alfa.
And I think it's all, we're getting there.
We're getting there.
We just got to wait a bit.
That's all.
Tell me about this event, Steve.
How was it?
It was good.
It was the idea was to summarize the state of EV, I guess, sales in this country.
And they're pretty parlous state.
The big problem is we've got this thing called the ZEV mandate, which requires manufacturers
to sell more cars than they are comfortable than there is a natural demand for.
So Mike Hawes, the CEO who's absolutely top bloke and always makes a good summarizing
speech, his killer fact, as far as I was concerned, was that last year, manufacturers
spent 11 grand per car in the way of subsidies.
I guess that means, you know, giveaways and extra advertising and just deals.
And if they'd missed the target, they would have been in for 12K per unit.
So they did, they'd only that's a fine.
Effectively, is it the 12,000 pound per car for falling short of your, whatever it
was last year, 28 or something percent of zero emissions.
And his point was that there's no money in it.
And people are fast reaching the point where the, the DOS that they've got to, to subsidize
or to sort of keep going the way the government wants them to keep going is running out.
And plenty of people, you know, there are three or four company reps made the same point.
But what they, they, they very cleverly produced the minister responsible for all this stuff
who is a bloke who's been in parliament for two and a half years.
And he's been the minister for seven months.
And he was Kier Mather.
That's it. Kier Mather.
That's a fella.
And he, he really got on my nerves because 28 year old bloke, very good politician.
You know, sort of clever guy.
But what he did was to practice the art of politics on us, not, not actually do anything.
So what he did was talk about partnership and, you know, what a wonderful job the government's
done so far, list of achievements, talked about frankness and talked about a partnership
between government in the industry and how important the industry was and all that kind of thing.
And the big thing in the room that everybody asked for was a review of the ZDB mandate,
which was getting uncontrollable.
And going in years ago, the government promised a review in 2027 to begin later this year.
So there will be a review of whether or not the trajectory that they've drawn makes sense
because it reaches 80% in 2030.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
And everybody was saying, look, this can't work.
It cannot work.
We don't know anybody that reckons it can work.
And meanwhile, the game broke.
He just battered everyone away.
He did it nicely.
He did it in a politician's way and he left with this, with this kind of comment about
how he hoped that he hoped that they could that we could all see that the government was playing its part.
And I became furious.
I wanted to sort of leap up and say, look, you so and so can't you see the system is busted?
Yeah.
Why don't you bloody fix it?
Why can't you see it?
Why can't you not see it when the industry counts?
Is it because the industry is untrusted?
Or is it more ideological than that?
Well, they seem to be obtuse to me.
The Canadians had a system like this and changed it.
The Europe had a system like this and not quite the same, but they had a more punitive system and changed it.
Everybody else who's fairly expert in this said that it can be changed at four or five months notice.
And here are these people thinking of another word, but people saying, well, we'll get to it this year
and we'll give you a decision next year.
And meanwhile, that's another year of billions down the drain while people struggle to sell up to an unattainable market.
It's a really bad business.
Because if you don't meet those regs, if you don't meet those numbers, a fine inverted commas is effectively a tax.
Because it will be passed on to the customer in the first place.
Eventually, you just go, well, I really want a combustion engine car.
Well, we can't sell you one because that'll put us over the thing.
Well, what if I give you 12 grand more?
Well, OK, fine.
Then it just becomes a combustion engine tax, doesn't it, rather than a fine?
A fine implies it's a fine for a manufacturer or so and so.
But the money's coming from somewhere.
It's probably coming from the bundle eventually.
Of course, it was so frustrating.
And you know, he kind of blindly stood there and good-looking young bloke were very plausible.
But if you examine what he actually said, it wasn't worth a damn.
It was not worth, you know.
So, a worthy morning that Steve spent in town today.
Well, it was good to catch up.
What else happens at the thing?
Well, they do various roundtables.
There were people talking about their difficulties.
And there were, you know, lots of different points of view, I suppose.
There was discussion of how the charging point people are going.
They're about 70% as good as they should be.
As well as public charges.
But everybody in the car industry was rather sort of sniffing.
Because the point about the point is that if the charging point industry doesn't achieve its targets,
there's no penalty at all.
No.
So they just, you know, do their best and blow it on.
And mind you, some of their problems is connection with the grid, you know, which is another government issue.
Yeah.
But I feel frustrated because to have gone from nothing in 2012 to 25% of EV sales in 2025 is a major achievement.
And yet, because we're not up to 20, 28% on whatever it is, it's seen as a failure.
And that is iniquitous.
It's wrong.
Do they feel, do they, do, does, do governments all over the place, not just here,
think that if they don't insist on keeping it going somehow, the, just the enthusiasm for it will go out of it.
And it will become, EVs will become Beta Max to VHS.
Or if they think that it is far enough on and liked enough and that the future is definitely,
is there still any hesitance in government that EVs are the future?
Because they fear if they back off that customers will just go.
No, I don't think so.
Everybody that was a, was a car company rep.
There was a very eloquent lady from Volvo, the UK managing director of Volvo.
She, she made it clear that they're on this path anyway.
They're on the, they're on the, not only the path of, of, of launching parts of EV models,
but also making sure that everything's recyclable and that, and that factories,
net zero manufacturer and all the rest of it, that it's a path they're on anyway.
She, she was making the point and others not quite as well.
She made it best for the industry, which is just that we're doing it.
We want to do it.
Then the, the objective is net zero.
Mike Hawes was good.
He said, look, we're on a course to net zero.
And that is un, you know, unalterable.
But what happens on a journey is that sometimes you're sat and have,
reroutes you around a difficulty.
And what we have now is a difficulty.
We had COVID, we had problems with, with, do you remember computer chips?
So we conduct a supply and stuff.
And we, you know, they're just, isn't, you can't force people to, to buy cars.
They don't want, you have to, you have to, what's needed is far less stick
and a fair bit more encourage.
Yeah.
And it's just pace of change, isn't it?
You've got to get, and why would, yeah, they do report to us.
So why is it not going at the pace that suits the public rather than a pace
that suits somebody else?
Yeah.
I had to take my car into Bista the other day, for a fix, and I hadn't been
to the MOT station I was going to use before.
So I just thought, I'll look it up on Google Maps and see where it is exactly
in town.
It's about five miles away.
And as Google does, it suggests how to get there.
And it said in the car, it would take me eight minutes.
And it said on public transport, it would take me an hour and a half.
I thought, well, I know which one I'm doing.
And but then I thought, I'm pretty sure that my county council, which is
Oxfordshire, you know, was trying to dissuade me from using a car.
And I looked up a document from a couple of years ago that said it would discourage
people from making private car journeys, tried to reduce private car journeys
by 25% by 2030 and encourage active travel such as cycling and walking.
I'm taking a car for an MOT so I can't actively cycle or walk to take
my car for an MOT even though Google did suggest that I might want to do
so when I asked it, would it be greener to take my car for an MOT
if I walked to the test centre?
It went, yeah, that would be a much better idea.
That would be a much greener idea.
Anyway, I was like, well, where is it?
So are they not fixing the potholes around here?
Because actually they like the stick and not the carrot.
How are they trying to get me out of my car, apart from just making it
more expensive and not fixing the roads?
There is a feeling.
I must say, I mean, perhaps this is paranoia, but I do get the feeling
that kind of minimum efforts are being made in order to punish us.
Yeah, and I don't like being a conspiracy theorist.
It sits uncomfortably with me.
But I become, you know, have I become a ranting nutcase?
You would think there'd be enough earache in the council officers these days
because more and more people, you know, I wrote the other day
about doing two tires in one, and I've had really quite a lot of mail
from people saying, here's what you do.
You know, here's the website where you complain.
This is the procedure to complain.
So there must be people merrily doing it.
I didn't bother because I just not.
Yeah, but there are a lot of forms and can you do this?
Can you send that photo?
Can you prove that nobody's written it before and make it as hard as possible?
Make it as difficult as possible.
Yeah, we've had correspondence about me saying that if you do this
and that and the other.
But it's all, yeah, it's just all a little bit tied into a general feeling of.
Yeah, being a fashionless, I think, yeah.
Yeah, optimism seems to be in short supply somehow.
But luckily, the thing that I was just thinking about this
was I pulled into your rather excellent driveway and parked next to your B.M.
No, I didn't park next to your B.M.
Because you very kindly left me a spot.
I left your spot next to the other.
I'll slide your gaff.
Yeah.
Well, I thought you'd have bags and microphones and stuff.
So when I pulled up earlier, I thought I'll park out the way
so you can.
That's really nice of you.
No, it's not at all.
It's not at all.
But the thing is, even despite despite all, you know,
the wind winds raging outside.
It's a rather horrible day.
We're going to run out of light in a minute.
But I'm still looking forward to driving home across Cotswolds.
They cannot beat.
I'm afraid they can't beat the pleasure of driving out of me.
They can take everything.
They cannot take your freedom.
As they said, I mean, they sort of can really, can't they?
But it warms your heart when you spot a car dealer
whose business is dedicated to a particular model above all.
Yeah.
Which one?
Which one?
Well, there's a there's a dealer near us that sells almost entirely
Freelander twos, sort of 13 plate, 10, 12, 13, 14 plate.
And their place, it just happens to be right next to a new farm
shops just opened up in a village of Crudwell, rather unfortunate
name, but there is a similar to Snotland in New Isles.
I love some.
I love some, I love some terrible place names.
So a big, big fan of them.
It's a place up north that we used to shoot near.
Is it on the North Yorkshire malls called Fry Up?
Oh, fabulous.
I think it's on, I think it's near Kirby Moreside, I think.
The wallops are good, aren't they?
Oh, yeah.
No, the wallop, middle wallop and the other one.
Is there how many?
Well, I don't know.
Nobody walked over.
How many?
Yeah.
Somebody, I remember we worked with somewhere else.
Somebody's favorite, it was an arty, a designer whose favorite
was someplace near Manchester, allegedly called Cowpat Hobble.
Oh, really?
That sounds good, doesn't it?
That does sound good.
That does sound good.
There is a very good street name in Bista that I bought
past earlier.
I'm just going to have to look it up because I don't want to get
the wrong way around.
But anyway, this, so he sells Freelander 2s.
Yes, he sells Freelander 2s.
He really believes in them.
They're in reasonably good supply.
They, he particularly deals in the ones that use the 2.2 transit
diesel engine, which he says is a, you know, would take you
10 times around the world.
Oh, really?
And is that a Puma engine?
Is that or is that not a Puma engine?
2.2 diesel.
Was that in the later defenders too?
I suppose it was.
Yes, I think so.
Yeah, good engine.
Yeah.
But he says the running gear is good too.
And the thing that particularly attracted my attention, oh,
sorry, this is a bloke called John Getty's who runs it.
And I was meeting up with one of my sons for a coffee in this
farm shop, which is right next door.
And I just got talking to this bloke because he was in the
throes of selling a Freelander to someone else, you know, a
bloke on Saturday morning.
And we just got into a conversation about it.
And I just remembered that, do you remember Land Rover owner
the magazine, the LRO?
I do.
Yeah, I do.
They used to say that the Freelander 2 was the most reliable
Land Rover, you know, in all the stuff you could buy all the
discoveries, all the defenders, all the Range Rovers.
The Freelander 2 was the one that would get you there.
And, you know, John Getty's has obviously made the same
decision and he had about 12 for sale.
It's just unusual to see one car on the front.
And they went from about three and a half to about eight,
I think seven and a half.
The bloke I bought my defender from kept them as courtesy
cars.
And he said the same.
He said they're terrific.
Oh, Freelander 2s?
Yeah, Freelander 2s, yeah.
He said, you know, they just, they are the most trustworthy
things that we deal with.
Yeah.
He was not a terribly trustworthy bloke as it turned out.
But on the Freelander 2 front, I will take his word for it.
Yeah, I will take his word for it.
I think if, no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have one now.
You wouldn't have one now, I suppose.
I don't suppose.
I think I would.
I don't need one now, that's the thing.
But if I did, I could, I could.
But you could imagine somebody with, you know, a few little
kids and needs to do a bit of towing and...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And if you've got, if you live out in the sticks and you
pull a horse trailer around or something like that,
I reckon that'd be quite good to take.
There's still quite nice inside.
It still looks okay, I think.
But, you know, it carries its age well because the cars I was
looking at were 12 years old.
Yeah.
No rust as well as I could see.
He, he was, I think he'd made, another side of the business
was, was doing, you know, classy interiors for defenders,
but, you know, old defenders like yours.
So he could give you a leather and leather quilted interior.
Well, I mean, it's not beyond doubt that I might do something
like, because I want to put a soft top on it at some point.
Yeah.
I don't, I mean, I'm, I mean, I worry about what to do car wise
with some other stuff at the minute, which might take the
budget for that away.
But I could, I could well, I'd like to do it.
It is.
It's the most interesting bits of the, bits of the gig.
I think.
Yeah, yeah, it is.
And motorcycles.
And motorcycles.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Yeah.
Shall we talk about, have you got anything to say motorcycle
wise or not?
Not really.
No, I just looking forward to the, I'm so lily livid.
I need it to be good weather.
I'm the same.
I'm the same.
I don't want to get wet anymore.
No, I've not ridden yet this year, but because my MOT is in
for, my MOT, my Audi is in for some repairs to get it through
its MOT.
But there's a plan.
I might start.
Well, my, but one of my boys has just bought a new boys.
Sorry.
They're 40.
They're always boys.
They'll always be boys.
Yeah.
Well, I think of that.
My mom says that about me and my brother and we're 50 and 55.
So yeah, crazy, isn't it?
Yeah.
But about nice.
Yeah.
But the thing is the older ones just bought a new motorbike
and a Suzuki and he, we've got a bit of a plan to month or
so to, to go and do a little, you know, probably overnight
or two day tour of World War one, you know, just, just slip
across a channel and nice might be good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now I'll take my, my trumpet speedmaster, you know, sort of
old blokes bike and he'll take his, rather flashy Suzuki.
So that, that, that Trump triumphs got no fairing or is it
got like a little wind fly screen or something?
It's got a screen.
It's a bit, it's sort of Harley-ish in that it's got, it's
called a speedmaster.
So it's got, it's, it's a cruiser.
Oh, okay.
Oh, okay.
So, but, but quite a quick, quick cruiser.
And then of course they, it's light.
So it had light for the, for what it is.
So it has quite well, good brakes, good talky.
Yeah, that's nice.
I'm looking forward to it.
Yeah.
I should ride more this year, I think.
Yeah.
Well, presumably some good weather must be coming.
Must be at some point.
You'd think, you'd think 23 minutes.
Shall I do a little commercial break now and come back
with a letter?
Go on.
Let's do that.
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I think when we went to see them, they said they're going
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What's the other one?
The other one's a Leap motor, which is about to take over
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Yeah.
Oh, I see.
I just fancy, it's a brand we don't know anything about.
Yeah.
And it hasn't been praised to the skies, but it seems quite,
you know, it's a usual thing, well-made car.
I think their attitude to options is you get everything.
There's a Stellantis brand, isn't it, Leap Motors?
Interesting because Stellantis owns the majority business
outside China and they own 20% of the business inside China.
So there's, if Leap Motor want to establish a factory in America
or the Midlands, for that matter.
Yeah.
To reduce tariffs or take advantage of incentives or whatever.
Yeah.
They would be in the driving seat.
So it's quite an interesting company.
The cars are sort of okay.
I think it's not going to be the greatest car I've ever had,
but refined, I think.
And anyway, the thing I was getting at was because we're going
to have two electric cars, we could probably do with a two
electric socket.
So I was going to ask her that.
Oh, interesting.
Because she comes home from work.
Yeah.
I come home from work.
We both got to depart tomorrow morning pretty early.
Who gets the gig?
Who gets the gig?
Or do you have time to switch over at 11 o'clock at night
for where you're going to bed?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I just, I think there's potential to...
There's the potential to forget that sort of thing, isn't there, mate?
I think occasionally we sort of, there are conversations
happening in this house.
Who's fed the cat?
Did you feed the cat?
I didn't feed the cat.
I thought you were going to feed the cat.
Well, I didn't feed the cat.
Where is the cat?
I haven't seen him.
Oh, he's upstairs, mate.
I saw him before I came down.
Oh, so he's around.
Yeah, he's not on holiday this week, which is, he's just
upstairs lying down.
At some point, he'll hear your voice when he wakes up and
he'll pop on down to say hello.
Excellent.
Looking forward.
But he's enjoying his...
Sorry, let's know this is a bit on the side.
He's quite enjoying...
When I'm away at work, he goes to visit next door.
Yep.
And he has quite a nice time.
Excellent stuff.
So I think he gets lots of treats next door because he keeps
sitting right by his food bowl with that sort of expectant
look on his face.
Why are they not, you know, why are they not treats in this
bowl?
Why is there normal bowl?
I think, yeah, I think he gets quite spoiled when he
goes on holiday.
Let's do a second letter from Matt Lyons, I think.
I've got a lovely choice coming up for my next car
change, which is a little way off, but I'm excited about
the next generation of electric cars.
I want to do your view on what we know so far about
these upcoming releases.
We need a sensible mid-side SUV.
Have you seen this letter or not?
Don't think so.
No, because you were busy.
You were busy this morning when I was out walking around
waiting for a car to go through its MOT.
We need a sensible mid-sized SUV for family duties in
the school run.
I've shortlisted Volvo EX60 and BMW iX3 in recent years.
Great choice.
Great choice, isn't it?
I think, yeah.
In recent years, I've owned a Polestar 2 long-range
dual-motor and a Volvo XC40 recharge dual-motor,
currently driver dual-motor Polestar 4.
So you can see I am a fan of Volvo and Polestar.
Last year, feeling that my wife shouldn't miss out on a car
of similar quality to my own, after a reasonable amount
of nagging to choose a premium car.
This is him nagging his wife, by the way, not the other way around.
She finally settled on a BMW iX1.
I then proceeded to massively overspec the car in terms
of performance and optional extras, but she's really
enjoys the iX1 as do I when I get to drive it.
As a second car, mainly for shorter regular journeys,
shorter regional journeys and more driving enjoyment,
I've shortlisted a Longbow Roadster, Alpine A110 EV
and a Caterham Project V.
With these three cars, I think we're moving into a new era
of electrification where manufacturers have managed
to reintroduce driving enjoyment.
Batteries have come light enough and the technology
and fast enough to support the development
of electric sports cars.
I've never owned a sports car before, so at 48,
this will be a proper mid-life crisis.
I'd be interested to know your thoughts on my options
and hear your recommendations, particularly in relation
to the sports cars.
For obvious reasons, they haven't been released yet.
What can you tell us about them?
Says Matt Lyons.
What do we know?
What do we know so far?
Well, the only thing we know about him...
You've seen the Longbow, haven't you?
You've been to...
Yeah, I went to a launch for it.
It's a fairly long way from production, I think.
It's what they produced is a prototype,
a very credible design and the shape,
of course, but I think it'll be quite a long time
before they're in production.
They'll be...
I think they've already got some backers who've ordered cars,
so the first dozen of them are under considering construction,
but I wouldn't...
Don't hold your breath.
I wouldn't be banking...
It wouldn't be...
The same goes for the Caterham.
I think they've gone really quiet on that car.
Yeah, so what I understand of the Caterham
is that the development work has been undertaken in Japan,
pretty much exclusively.
It is a slightly different looking and...
From what we've seen?
From what we saw before.
It's now 2 plus 2.
I think it's a little bigger.
I think it'll be a little heavier than was initially proposed,
but I think it's, again, it's some way off.
The Alpine, there's a story in the magazine at the moment.
Yeah, on the website, I think, yeah.
So, certainly online.
Yeah.
I haven't looked under the platform a lot.
You know, David Pook, who does a lot of work on Alpine's A110s and the A290.
He's had a look in sort of close detail at the pictures.
That platform is going to be able to accept...
He said it's basically an evolution, I think, of the current platform.
They will put the electric gubbins.
I'm glad he used that phrase, because that's a word I use.
And I didn't know that engineers also said electric gubbins,
effectively where the engine in gearbox would be now.
Right.
So that's probably the one that will appear first, I would guess.
And I think Alpine are going to offer it in combustion and EV forms.
So it would look like the car they may still never...
Yeah, probably.
I guess an evolution thereof, I guess.
Because it was...
It was pretty fresh, doesn't it, to me?
I met the boss of Alpine at RetroMobile just a few weeks ago,
and he was talking about how the platform was going to be the same one
that was under the Renault 5 Turbo 3.
Yes, that's right.
And that seems to be at odds...
Because the shapes are different.
Yeah, but the thread that's also accompanying the one we're now talking about
is that Alpine have somewhat abandoned their thinking
about going to America with an EV SUV.
Because nobody in America...
Because nobody wants it.
Or the barriers will be...
Yeah, the barriers are different.
There was a...
Yeah, I spoke to Gurnet Dolna, who's the Audi CEO last week, week before,
and he said, we used to get a £7,500 grant to sell EVs in the United States,
and that has become obviously an X% tariff or whatever on anything we sell.
And some luxury car taxes have been taken away or something as well.
So we went from being incentivised to sell EVs
to effectively being incentivised to sell stuff with...
Not incentivised, but to not be penalised to sell stuff with engines.
So selling EVs got more expensive and selling stuff with engines
also got a bit more expensive, but some luxury car taxes got removed.
So it's just become a place if you thought you were going to sell electric cars there.
Yeah, not.
You're not, probably, for the last two years.
That was sort of this SMMT thing.
Really?
They talked about the US having abandoned a structure for the sale of EVs,
and they said none of us would want that.
No, but is there an argument cars should sell on their merit?
And whether you choose a petrol one or diesel one or an electric one?
I mean, I know there would be people who would construct that argument,
that you don't incentivise or disincentivise any of the public besides what they want.
Why not?
Yeah, I mean, that does seem...
Those of us that sort of believe in fundamentally democratic structures,
I can't see why not.
No, it sounds good.
I mean, if I wanted a 5,000 horsepower circular saw, I could do that.
Why would I?
The thing that we've failed to do, though, is attack the other side of this gentleman.
Oh, yes, sorry, yes.
I went to see the Volvo EX60, deeply impressed by that car.
I found myself thinking...
In fact, I had an interesting discussion with one of their engineers about this.
It's about a 50, late 50s to 70-ish grand car in this country.
And I was saying to him, this has got a fabulous high-five.
The top-end model has got a fabulous high-five of 28 speakers.
It's got all the AI you can eat.
It's got fabulous, I think, interior and so on, beautifully made.
Is this a sweet spot for cars?
If you spend more, if you go up into the hundreds and hundred and twenties,
do you pay a lot?
Presumably spacious enough, isn't it?
It's spacious, yeah.
Just the right size.
I mean, it's a really strong competitor for the BM, which you know about.
I drove overseas, but the road testers have driven in the UK
and are deciding on the road test verdict score over the last couple of days
as we speak, and they were deciding whether it was four and a half or five stars.
It's a good car, and that's on the Neuer class of platform,
which is pretty good, pretty sound.
I think that's an exciting choice, those two cars.
Yeah, it's a good choice.
And there's a Benz in there, isn't there, the GLA, is it?
Is it a GLA or GLC or GLP or another GLC or something?
GLC, I think.
I don't sound like old man yelling at the clouds.
If you put a picture of a motorway from the late 1980s in front of me,
and I did this with an industry colleague, an industry mate the other day,
and I went, I could recognise all those cars, by the way,
is that a Vauxhall Carlton GSI 3000 back there?
He said, yeah, absolutely is.
And also, I think that's a Golf GTI, something, something in addition.
If you put a picture up of a motorway with 300 cars on it today,
I would not be able to identify them all.
No, it's a tough one.
The nomenclature gets me too.
GLA, GLC, GLD.
Yeah, because I'm not going to embarrass myself by saying what I think,
because it will be wrong.
But anyway, yes, there is a Mercedes in that sphere.
But those three cars are pretty new.
Yeah.
They're space efficient.
They're, you know, very nicely made.
They're all around them.
It seems to me that our correspondent has got a really lovely decision to make,
but I wouldn't imagine what it would be like to make the decision for him,
because I think it's going to be very personal.
I found myself thinking, I was so impressed with this Volvo,
and the people that made it, I thought, God, I could have one of these.
Yeah.
And that would be the first Volvo, apart from the P1800,
that I've ever, you know, remember the old coupe.
I saw one today, mate.
Did you?
Yeah, in classic, in the classic collectives workshop.
Oh, of course, yeah.
A really, really, really good-looking one.
And somebody got into the trouble of getting those little moose yellow shields
that look like the Ferrari shield made up and applied to the wings.
It looked like the new car is the GLC is that size.
There is a new GLA, which is going to be related to the CLA,
which is the fancy one that has an almost 500 mile range.
But there was also a GLC, which is starting at around 60 grand.
And that's the IX3 rival.
I think that's a really...
But that's new as well.
Very interesting battle area.
I'm going to...
I want to see what the lads think, you know, stormy and co-think of...
Matt Saunders and co-think of...
Think of those.
Of those, because they're damn good cars.
I drove a Kia EV9 GT yesterday.
What is it?
500 horsepower.
You know, the EV9 is the big six or seven seat.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It's five meters long.
It's not a rival for those.
But it's become Kia's most expensive car at £82,000 for a Kia.
But the other thing is, you get in it and drive it and go,
yeah, I can see how Kia charges £82,000.
It's not...
I mean, all cars are wildly expensive to me these days,
but it's not...
Ten years ago, somebody said...
If ten years ago, somebody said,
oh, Kia's going to introduce an 82 grand EV.
You'd go, it's going to be ridiculous.
Don't be absurd.
I was looking...
On another errand, I was looking at a Denza,
which is the BYD premium model yesterday.
Yes, so it is.
And the interior of that is superb.
I mean, it's lovely.
You look in it and you sort of think,
oh, yeah, I can see 60 grand here.
Yeah.
Or more.
But I do wish, I just hope they won't leave us all behind
because I don't want to...
I suppose I could see myself signing up for a Volvo EX60
because I was so impressed.
But as long as it drives well, I didn't drive it.
I was driven in it.
Good car.
Bloke was superb driver.
He drove like I would hope to drive one day.
You know, one of those.
But I don't want to be left behind.
No, but I...
You don't want European industry to be left behind or...
No, I just don't want to be left behind by the prices.
You don't personally want to be left behind.
Over the prices.
You know, if the Kia centre of gravity is going to move up
and up and up, you know, the other day...
They still sell a decanto, I think, so we're okay.
But it's...
Yeah.
I mean, I'm just...
Especially because borrowing money is not as cheap
as it was five years ago.
No, no.
I mean, which is why people could...
Well, I suppose that's why now we're sort of struggling
to sell as many cars as we should do
and cars are getting older.
Yeah.
In part.
But it makes me, you know, it makes me want to go home
and hug my Datsuduster.
That's a good idea.
Which is probably 10 grand.
Yeah, I sort of interrupted your thread
because you were going to say,
would you buy an EV for your household?
I think I would.
There's a...
I'm not sure the steering committee is quite with me yet
because she's more range anxious than I am
because she hasn't found...
Has gone through the business of getting used
to finding public charges and so on.
But I'm about to...
I'm about to go to Cornwall and inspect
the two F5...
Oh, cool.
...GTI.
Because it's nearly finished.
And I'm going to go down there in the Ford,
in the electric Ford and...
I just won't see a problem.
I just know I won't.
I'm going to take one of my mates.
Yeah.
I'm coming round to it and I like the way they drive.
Yeah.
Doesn't...
The thing is, every time you say something like that,
you find yourself thinking,
oh, God, there'll be people who think you're,
you know, you've abandoned the great cars of the past.
Absolutely haven't.
Hmm.
You're going down to see your own Peugeot 205 GTI.
Yeah.
Which I believe has got a...
Because of the pedal box,
because of the Weber carburetors,
because of the cams,
I think it's going to have spectacular throttle response.
But...
And lightness again.
It looks great.
Oh, God, I can't wait.
But...
I'm excited to see it.
I'm really excited to see it.
Yeah.
Well, I'm going to go around and about in it.
Hmm.
But it would...
Yes, I would.
Yeah.
Well, in fact, I think in the column that's out,
I've sort of confessed to...
I've still got this itch over the Tesla Model 3.
Yeah, a three.
Because I admire their space efficiency.
You know, lots of people...
I admire their lightness.
I admire the poke.
The car has been out since 2017, you know?
Hmm.
In America, I think probably 18 here.
But still a good car.
Still looks modern.
Yeah.
Even the originals.
Hmm.
And quite a big market in them.
You know, the prices aren't strong, so...
No, they had a change of standard colour,
I think, last year,
because the white was the no-cost option colour.
So loads of them are ordered in white.
So now, for the first time, I think Tesla was saying,
well, we do actually need to start thinking about residual values,
because we do have a network of retailers
who've got to take these cars back in and sell them again
and operate finance on them and keep them affordable
for the people who are buying them new.
So we've got to keep the residuals a bit higher.
And I think they introduced...
It would be quite nice to see them...
Yeah, suffer the same problems as everybody else.
Because I think rather...
Yes.
...stuck up about that.
Yeah, and I think they changed the standard colour from white
to metallic grey, I think.
Oh, really?
I think.
Certainly on the Model Y.
I'd forgotten.
I'd not picked up on that.
I think the Model 3.
Yeah, I'm not sure it was a big...
I'm not sure it was a...
I can just see.
I don't know whether it would be small enough for herself,
that's the only trouble,
because she just likes small cars,
and so do I, for that matter.
Yeah.
But, you know, just earlier in the chat,
you were talking about how there's a bit of car stuff up in the air.
I feel the same.
It's just...
It's barmy, isn't it?
I don't know why.
Because...
No, because also, Mike,
you know you talk about a state of grace with a car collection.
I'm almost pretty much apart from...
apart from this little temptation somewhere else.
I'm pretty much there.
But I can't.
And if they all worked,
I've kind of got everything I need.
Yes.
Really.
Yeah.
Same for me.
But...
The temptation will be something you might reveal in a while.
Yes.
I won't talk about it yet, but soon.
Should we talk?
My column's a difficult one to summarise in a pod,
because it's just a bit...
Well, you were talking about ownership of state cars.
Well, yes, but you haven't read my column yet.
Have you heard of a thing called the Manosphere?
No.
No.
Have you heard of a bloke called Andrew Tate?
Yes.
Yes.
Not the world's nicest.
No, no.
Bit of a grim bloke.
Yeah, bit of a grim bloke.
Bit of a grim thing that they all about, which is...
It's very masculine.
It's a bit misogynistic.
It's pretty...
It's sort of adjacent to the alt-right and stuff as well.
There's quite a lot of people involved in that area.
They make a reasonable amount of money.
Personally, after doing it, it's influencing this thing.
And some of them spend it on swimming pools, big houses, fast cars.
So, basically, my kind of thinking is that if you've got a group of people, it's probably
more visible now than ever.
Because unpleasant people or people who do unpleasant jobs have always had a lot of money
and spent them on fast cars.
But it's never been so obviously visible that actually, do you see a really flash car and
think, through association, I don't know if I'd want one of those?
Yeah.
Because there's so many times I see a Lamborghini being revved in the middle of a city just
sitting there going, right, and I just think, oh, that's so utterly cringe.
Or these people who go on these sort of big driving, these group driving tours where they
all drive like absolute chumps.
And I just think...
Because the Lamborghini Rufoto is a brilliant car.
It's so exciting.
It's so good.
It's got a great engine, but it's a proper driver's car as well.
But if I had all the money, would I really want to be seen in one?
I don't know.
And I wonder if that is a new phenomenon or not, or a more obvious phenomenon or not.
And I wonder whether manufacturers feel it.
Worry about it, yeah.
Yeah.
Remember the time in the mid-2000s where Burberry was worn by a sort of, I don't know if it's
an offensive phrase or not, but what we call chabs at the time.
It was a real thing.
And Burberry stopped using that check pattern on most of their products to try and lift the...
And it worked.
They lifted the product away from the association.
And I wonder if you sort of are offering...
I'm not saying...
While looking cars, whether you think...
Actually, maybe it doesn't.
Maybe it's such a...
I do regret that so many people who can do it just buy great cars because it's a car
to qualify.
And one of the things we're always doing, I mean, you've done it recently.
You go to Maranello and you see the trouble taken by to engineer this beautiful car.
And it might just be going to sell to somebody whose sort of assistant rings up the dealer
and says, my people tell me I should have one of these today.
And there are people who just buy the car as a qualifier and there are a few people
who buy the car because it's a beautiful piece of machinery.
I remember in my youth, there was a bloke that I knew who just saved and scrimped and had
three jobs, worked in a pub, and what he wanted to do was buy a Lamborghini and he did it.
And it was...
And he didn't have anything else of value.
He didn't care about having anything else of value.
He just had his Lambo and he bought it because he just loved the car and the company.
And I found that inspirational, much better than somebody who, as I say, just says, my
people tell me I should have one of these.
So I think it's an issue.
Yeah.
And I wonder if people are buying a few more Resto mods or keeping some older supercars
on the go because they just would rather be seen in them or not or anything.
But maybe it doesn't bother manufacturers at all.
I mean, the most outlandish cars, I suppose, are sort of series production cars are probably
built by Lamborghini and they're having a pretty good old time with it, aren't they?
I think they are.
Yeah.
So he's arrived.
The cat has arrived.
So sorry, listen, if you are aware of any rushing on the microphone.
Just kind of sit in the middle of the table and that'll be fine.
Me, Mark, Steve, why don't you tell me about, I've lost my thread now completely.
There was, oh, Aston Martin's Formula One travails at the weekend.
How did it go for them?
What was the opening round of the championship?
But we'll be this...
When's the next one?
The next one's China this weekend.
Oh, OK.
So that will have been, by the time this pod comes out, they'll have had another go.
Yeah.
But the thing is, the thing I just find it far more interesting following the sort of
contortions of a bunch of really fantastic people, which Aston Martin is competitive
all the rest of it.
It's more interesting than just knowing that Williams will be two thirds of the way down
the field all the way through this year.
And so I'm just going to read everything I can about Aston Martin because I find it
interesting.
And as you and I met Adrian Newey, he's a fantastic bloke.
And in fact, we met Laura Stroll, didn't we, as well?
And I just don't believe these people won't make it right.
And Honda, for that matter, Honda.
But far as I'm concerned, still the best makers of engines in the world.
Yeah.
So, you know.
Yeah.
And now I don't know very much about modern formula.
So stop me if I'm talking nonsense.
But I always like what Honda tend to do, which is take a group of young engineers and say,
go on, there you go.
How about it?
And they do sort it out.
And sometimes they have teething problems on the way.
But as somebody good said, in fact, Mark Hughes, my favourite F1 reporter, works for motor
sport, but never mind.
The thing he points out pretty regularly is that Honda provided the power for Red Bull,
who won serial.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
But didn't they have some problems or when they were chosen to work with McLaren?
Early on.
Early on.
And in the end, they sorted out and became a great thing.
Yeah, I just think it's correct.
What got me, somebody who does watch it a lot more than me was saying the other day that
the vibration issues they were having was because they'd sort of redesigned the car.
And that engine hadn't exactly been intended to sit in the car as it was redesigned.
But I also think if you know Adrian Newey is coming to start, well, you know he's going
to want to change it.
So why don't you just wait until he's...
Yeah.
Why don't you just wait until he's there and then do it when he gets there?
Yeah, I do.
But I don't quite understand.
I don't.
Well, also, it all started a few months behind everyone else.
Yeah.
I think they're going to make an intriguing recovery through the season and I'm looking
forward to just hearing all about it.
Yeah, me too.
I want a Lanzodia.
So do I, mate, because he's, you know, keeping it going for the middle-aged folks.
And I'm all for that.
42 or something?
Yeah, something like that.
Yeah, something like that.
I'm all for the middle-aged fellas carrying on.
Right, right.
Tell us finally, part two of the podcast has started, by the way, the commercial break
finished some time ago.
Did I talk about the archive?
I was in the archive the other day because I was looking up the Kia EV6 GT and some
other technical stuff about.
Anyway, themagazineshop.com, you can find all your archive needs 131 years of it.
It's great.
Yeah, I was in the archive looking up Volvo P1800 because one of the things I did while
I was in Sweden in Gothenburg was make the acquaintance of an excellent bloke who runs
there, who's in charge of the heritage.
And he was talking about how their next year is their 100th anniversary and I was cooking
up a plan that I haven't actually quite put to the locals yet.
But I think it would be, Volvo here has a classic collection, a small one.
I thought it would be fun to borrow something like a Volvo 244, you know, the absolute staple
Volvo.
Drivers of Sweden get involved in there.
They're going to have a parade around Gothenburg.
It would be great to drive a right-handed 244 around Gothenburg.
That would be very good.
That would be excellent.
I would be able to interest the boys from Klaskin Sportscar in there.
I reckon.
Well, that brings me to the final point of this podcast.
Steve, what's going on this week slash month slash at the moment in Klaskin Sportscar
that you want to talk about?
Well, I've just, they do these.
They obviously produce a monthly magazine, but they also produce special issues all the
time.
And then, you know, they'll do a Rolls Royce special and a, you know, BL special and a
Porsche special and all that.
But the thing they've done that really gets my attention is this is a sort of sixties
ultimate thing that they're calling the sixties ultimate buyers' guide.
And if you, it's a hundred, 200 pages near enough, 197 pages, and you just sort of leaf
through it.
And the, and every page is a joy.
You know, if you want to read about Lotus Land, there it is.
If you want to read about the early 9-11, there it is.
If you're worried about the Tri-Spit Fire, you know, all those, all those cars that you
think, that make you think, think back to a kind of carefree life where you had no money
and lots of, lots of aspirations to own.
This is me, not you mate.
Oh, sorry.
Well, I have aspirations to have some of those.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Well, MGBs, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've thought about it.
It's just a lovely thing.
And they've got, I really admire the staff of Classicals Portscott.
They've got this fantastic way of, you know, producing these inclusive publications.
They, you know, there's a, there's a sort of club atmosphere.
Yeah.
And a lot of work goes into those things, doesn't it?
It does.
You know, I mean, any classic buyer's guide requires a lot of, a lot of, a lot of research
into.
Got to find the experts.
Yeah, talk to the experts and find out what goes well and what doesn't go well.
And there's sort of, you know, nub it down into something digestible.
It's.
And they're, you know, they're so good at it as well.
They, they sort of live and breathe it.
Most of them drive something like that.
They do.
You know, there's a bit Al Clements and he's dopey MG magnet.
We're always talking about it.
Great.
Love it.
That brings us to the end of this week's My Week in Class.
You can, oh, you're up over the next few days.
I can't remember.
I think I'm going to try and revive one of my motorbikes because I'm, my under seven
fifties is it's not ill.
It's just not going to know sparks at the moment.
So I'm going to try and revive it, give it a trip around the block on the weekend.
That's about it really.
I can't remember what I'm doing next week, but I am hoping to have a bit of a catch up
because I've got various things to write and no time.
I haven't had a lot of time lately.
I'm driving.
I think I can say I'm going to be driving a Renault Twingo.
Oh, that'll be good.
Is it in France?
No, I think further away.
It's still in Europe, but I don't think in France.
I'll be very interested in that because it'll be so interesting to see how they all fit
together at Twingo four and five.
Yes, exactly.
Yes, exactly.
Because it does feel like there could be some overlap between them.
Mind you, I wouldn't have felt that way if somebody was talking about a Twingo and a
Clio and a, the old Clio remaining on sale in 2005, whenever it did.
I'd have gone, yeah, I can see how those do three fit together.
So maybe it'll be all fine.
Yeah, they're pretty good at it, aren't they?
Oh, I'll be very interested in that.
Just also, will it look nice?
I mean, it looks nice on a showstand.
Yeah, it does.
Yeah.
I don't know if I can, I don't know.
I can't remember when driving impressions are okay to talk about.
It might not be next week.
It might be the week after.
Still, progress.
Progress.
And then a couple of weeks after that, I can tell you about the Aston Martin Valhalla
production.
I mean, production started already, but they need more of them to reach customers because
they need the money.
Below two challenges.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But there's a news story about the challenges coming out soon because I've been speaking
to a couple of their bots on the launch as well, asking the questions you would expect
as in, how do you turn this around?
Good answers?
Yeah, very much so.
Yeah, very much so.
I mean, to remember back in the days when Andy Palmer was the CEO and the plan was 15,000
cars a year with seven model lines.
It's much more modest now.
They've got four cars in the sort of standard production range, plus the Valhalla is effectively
five.
It's limited, but it's limited to a thousand cars.
So it's not that limited.
And they think that if they lift the transaction, the average transaction price, make more specials,
persuade more customers to buy the Q bespoke options, then at six and a half to 7,000 cars
a year, they did five and a half thousand last year, so not a massive increase.
Then that becomes, as he said it, a very successful business at six and a half to 7,000.
You can see how they can get there.
I don't see how they get 15,000, but you can see how they get 7,000.
And if they've done the numbers that they cut their cloth accordingly, I think they're reducing
staffing costs.
That does sound like a good plan, doesn't it?
Because we keep hearing from Porsche that the other way forward is to go with the valuable
models and not have quite so much sort of stuff hanging around to lower in the range,
hence the demise of the electric box terms.
Interesting.
So more on that in the coming weeks.
Meantime, you can find my column, Steve's column in the magazine, which you can get on the newsstands.
Or you can subscribe to the magazine at themagazineshop.com.
And we're at Autocard.co.uk and on YouTube and on all the socials all the time.
Thanks, mate.
See you next time.
Around about now.
This is usually the bit in the radio ad where you drift off.
You half listen, your brain wanders home.
Not to the house itself, but to what it could be.
That thing you've been meaning to sort.
The room you always shut the door on.
The brown lampshade that came with the house seven years ago.
And when you decide right, today we do, B&Q has everything you need to get started.
Tools, paints and yes, even the lampshade.
You can do it when you be and cue it.
Need anything from Tesco?
Snacks.
And milk love.
How about discounts on the holidays abroad?
Don't forget fruit and veg for our school.
Free nappies for premature babies.
And the quiet hour in store to shop in peace.
Can I get £2.50 cinematic us on Tuesdays?
We know you need more than just groceries from us.
We do all this because every little helps.
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About this episode
The hosts dive into the evolving landscape of electric vehicles, discussing industry challenges like the UK’s ZEV mandate and government policies impacting EV adoption. They explore upcoming electric sports cars, including the Longbow Roadster, Alpine A110 EV, and Caterham Project V, and debate the merits of mid-sized EV SUVs like the Volvo EX60 and BMW iX3. The conversation also touches on the cultural impact of car ownership, the influence of the 'Manosphere' on automotive trends, and Aston Martin’s Formula 1 efforts. Personal anecdotes about classic cars, motorcycles, and EV home charging round out a thoughtful, wide-ranging automotive chat.
Original notes
In the latest episode of the Autocar podcast, My Week In Cars, Steve Cropley and Matt Prior talk about the trustworthy Land Rover Freelander 2, the potential effect of The Manosphere on luxury car appeal, Aston Martin's F1 troubles, whether Steve would buy a Tesla, and whether the zero emissions vehicle mandate needs an urgent rethink.
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