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Hello. Welcome to the AutoCard podcast, My Week in Cars, episode 156.

Which means, because Steven and I don't take any holiday, so hello, Steven.

Hello, mate.

This is the third-year anniversary podcast for My Week in Cars.

Welcome, listener. Welcome, Steve. Hi.

Hello, mate.

Before we start, I should probably tell the listener the fact that we have sponsored this podcast,

or our friends at Anderson EV have sponsored this podcast.

Did you know, Steve, they're an all-British company that makes and sells top-quality home chargers for electric cars,

and I think both of us agree that, apart from the car itself,

what the happy EV owner needs most is a top-quality home charger.

Absolutely no doubt about it. I am the customer.

I have got one. Two years of ownership means that there's five years of warranty still left.

It's got, they carry seven-year warranty.

It fits on my old barn, but it would fit.

If I were to have a much newer and flasher house, it would work there, too.

It talks to my Wi-Fi. It allows me to control it from the telephone.

I can read what I've consumed, you know, offer a television, sorry, a telephone readout,

and it's perfect. It's got a good charging cable, which cleans itself when I roll it up,

and all's right with the world.

And you don't have to have the charging cable that rolls itself up inside if you don't want to,

because there are a number of styles and designs available.

Yeah, you can just have a plug.

Yeah, and it looks, I mean, they're a premium service as well.

They look after you very well, my understanding is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Listener, you can find out more at Anderson-EV.com.

Steve, we've had a letter.

Yeah, should we start with a letter, because it's a slightly unusual pod this week

because it is a third anniversary celebratory edition.

So we're going to look back a little over the last three years.

We're going to look forward quite a lot as well, because that is the auto car way.

But Gareth Tarr from Chertsey writes to us to say,

in the recently published book Sir William Lyons on Jaguar,

based on a speech the company's founder made in 1969,

he is quoted as saying,

exciting as it has been, the main objective as a business is to make profit.

This is quite good because this looks backwards and forwards in the same letter.

So it's a message this. Thanks for this, Gareth.

Well done, Gareth.

In your report on JLR replacing the retiring Adrian Mardell

with PB Bellagie in News 13th of August,

you make much play of the fact that both are former CFOs

as if shock horror finance professionals are incapable of running large companies,

although you do acknowledge the profits made under Mardell.

The reality is that a 2022 survey of FTSE 100 companies

by recruitment agency, Robert Half,

identified that 42% of CEOs have a finance or banking background.

Other surveys have shown similar results.

If the country's top 100 companies are following Sir William Lyons objective,

should we be so surprised that JLR have chosen finance professionals as a leader?

That's disingenuous. I'm afraid that is disingenuous.

Gareth, I know Gareth.

He buzzed around Brooklyn.

Sir William Lyons was an exceptional human being.

He would design the cars.

I mean, find me a top FTSE 100 bloke that goes out there and designs the products.

He was the heart and soul of the products.

That was the point.

Sure, he knew he had to make money,

but he also made money by pricing them in a most unusual way,

well below the expected prices and the prices of competitors.

So what he was was heart and soul, a car man.

He might have understood about the P&L.

In fact, he did undoubtedly, but he was all about the cars.

I think Gareth himself would know that.

Is there a hint of sniffiness?

Do you think about the fact that JLR have appointed a money person in charge?

Or do you not think that that's a thing?

Well, I think given that there's so many challenges ahead that are expensive

and they're not making any money from Jaguar at the moment selling cars and so on,

there must be a big financial control aspect.

In fact, the fact that Mardel himself, a money man, was appointed,

indicated that in the reign of Bolleray, the bloke before that,

there was room to be concerned about the money.

So I don't think it's a surprise.

And also, Mr Balaji has been at Tata a long time.

He comes right from the center of the company.

It just implies that they want to keep tight control on whatever's done.

But he does sound like a sort of open-minded man.

His first utterances have been really good.

So it's sounding okay so far.

When does he start? Is it November?

I think it's officially November, but he already said some stuff, didn't he?

I think he probably couldn't sleep for the noise of the Indian media

thundering on his front door.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So he had to come out and say something.

Come out and say something.

Yes, because Hall Mouse was there.

We were on Zorticaar, India, banging on his door.

How about it?

Yes, give us some words.

It's interesting, isn't it?

Lotus and JLR have both recently appointed somebody from the mothership,

as to speak, to sort of take control of the keeper.

Coincidental, I'm sure.

But it feels like both companies have just gone,

okay, we want somebody from each queue.

Mind you, Lotus has still got Mr. Fong in charge.

The person that's come in to replace Matt Wendell as Chief of Europe,

he's still sitting below the CEO who is Mr. Fong.

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

And he's been around for a few years now.

I'd love to know what he thinks,

but it's pretty hard bloke to interview, I believe.

Well, we should keep trying.

Haven't met him.

You have?

Yeah.

He said hello and moved on.

I was just going to say, did you like him?

But that doesn't give you much opportunity to...

He was perfectly nice, hello.

What should we talk about, Steve?

What should we talk about?

We've got an hour to fill.

Listener, we would normally talk about our respective AutoCars columns

and a bit more besides.

We're going to do a bit of that,

but also we've got...

Well, the past three years...

I suppose a bit of reflection on this.

The past three years and the next three years,

I suppose we've got to think about.

Because this is episode 156 in a series of eight to ten,

which was first mooted by our former editorial director.

Came up with the idea.

Yeah, Jim Hawker.

Yeah.

Hello, Nauts.

Yes, and here we still are, three years later.

The thing that...

There's a number of surprises, aren't there?

I thought that it would be a chore for a start.

And I found that it is great fun.

Yeah.

It's great fun.

I like meeting you once a week.

Same.

And it's usually in nice peace and quiet of your annex

or my dining room.

Yeah.

But also, I think you get generously treated

by the listeners, don't you?

You know, we get a fair bit of feedback.

People talk to you when you're out and about.

You know, you can't walk around Bista these days

without people asking you about the pod.

Yeah.

And that's pretty good, isn't it?

It's great.

Yeah, I really love that.

And there seems to be...

And I don't know whether this is the case

with everything Autocard does.

I think that the readership...

the core readership of the mag

and the core listenership to the pod,

I think there's quite a big synergy

between what we want of a better phrase,

between the two.

I think we are talking to very similar kinds of people

in the pod and the mag.

And I don't think that's necessarily true

of everything we do online

or everything we do on YouTube.

Yeah.

But I think podcast and mag, there seems to be,

we do talk to a core of similar minded people.

Yeah, it's been a real learning curve for me.

The thing that is...

I still don't really listen to pods too much,

but it amazes me how people do it.

Because when we started doing this,

people said to us,

of course pods are over the hill now,

you know that, do you?

And we've just had these gently improving audiences

all the way, haven't we?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

And one hopes it'll continue.

Yes, I like...

Because listen, every month I have to do a monthly report

on...

Well, most of the staff will write

some part of the monthly report

on magazine sales or YouTube

and which stories have done well,

which social stories have done well,

all the kind of, you know, just to tell the bosses

how things are going.

And I'm responsible for filling out the bits

on video and podcasts.

And the podcast bit is always nice

because the numbers are always green every time.

They go, how's it gone this month?

And I go, better than last month.

Yeah.

It's the, yes, it's terrific.

Yeah.

Unexpectedly terrific.

Yeah, indeed.

Did you expect to be doing it three years later?

I didn't.

Oh, good God, no.

I didn't have no idea.

But the...

I think you would, as long as...

If I were talking to somebody else

who had a podcast idea,

as long as they had a strong idea,

I must say I would encourage them to give it a go

because our...

I mean, we're lucky aren't we?

Because in essence,

what we do is write a couple of columns

and then rattle on about them afterwards, don't we?

I mean, sometimes that moves around a bit,

such as today.

But mostly we've got current stuff to talk about.

I mean, especially you,

because you've always been in the, you know,

yesterday or probably in some Ferrari

and the day before that, you're in some Bugatti.

And that's powerful stuff.

Not many people can do that.

Well, you're very kind.

Yeah, it's a bit...

Mind you, August is pretty quiet

from the old supercar front, mate.

Ferrari taken an entire month off.

They shut everything.

Well, I mean, pretty much all of it leaders, doesn't it?

I think manufacturing-wise,

they just all shut down and disappear.

They're Germans as well, don't they?

No, do they?

Yeah, so, yeah, listen,

if you have read the magazine

over the last few weeks

and you've looked at the first drive section,

actually, it's a...

If you run like a niche car company,

like a Resto Modder or something else,

there are...

And you think,

what I could really do with

is to PR a story well

and get it out in the media.

There are very good times to do that,

one of which is August

because there's not a lot else going on.

And the other one would be

just sort of late December,

something like that,

because people are still reading

and consuming like normal,

but there are fewer

Chinese crossovers to shout about.

So actually, if you are launching a...

I don't know, a niche car,

I think you get a lot more bang

for your buck this time of year

in terms of publicity

if you want your name in the press.

Yeah, and the most read issues

are the ones through and particularly

after Christmas, aren't they?

Everybody's off.

They dream about the 10 days off

and when it comes, they think,

oh my God, what am I going to do now?

They tend to look online

and read magazines and so on,

and we find that our

circulations go up, don't we?

It's great.

Do you have good ideas over Christmas?

Sometimes.

I find on holiday, I do.

I find...

because it's a relatively relentless business

as you know, you know better than anyone.

You...

You know, when your brain's a bit vacant,

you start to think, don't you?

My problem is, you know,

sort of relaxing somewhere

and then having an idea

and forgetting to write it down

so that all I remember

when I attain consciousness

or stop somewhere where I could write...

I did have a good idea.

It's unbearable, isn't it?

I now keep a notes page on my phone

which specifically is for column ideas

and I just think if I have it

I must write this down immediately

and if that's three o'clock in the morning

and I just wait, fine,

I will grab my phone and write it down

and if I'm driving, I will stop

because it's ridiculous.

I can have an idea and think,

oh, I must write a column about that

or I must put something in my column about this

and maybe I'll be 20 minutes from home

on the M40 when I have the idea.

By the time I've got home,

I'll have forgotten it

which is just...

so you've just got to...

you've just got to find somewhere

to stop but write it down straight away.

And if you don't, it's a disaster.

When you have the idea

you can actually hear the first sentence, can't you?

Or even the first few sentences

if you don't write them down, you're done.

Mind you, I have had the experience

where I've actually done it,

found a piece of paper, written the thing down

and then looked it in the light of day

half a day later and thought,

well, that's a lot of cobblers.

Yeah, I've done that.

I've also done that

especially if I've had a glass of wine first

when you wake up and go,

that was ridiculous.

What on earth were you thinking?

Yeah, what were you on, mate?

Yeah.

But yeah, Christmas and...

over Christmas and New Year,

I'll quite often think of more stuff

than normally

because sometimes I'll get to Wednesday, Thursday morning

when I'm supposed to file my column

and I've got a blank page and a cursor

clicking away and I just think,

I don't know.

I mean, something's got to...

something's got to come in surely.

It's about the lack of pressure, isn't it?

Because you...

because it is a funny job to be in, isn't it?

In essence, there are times when

you're required to just sit down and have an idea.

Okay, off you go.

Yeah, go and have an idea.

And you do because you've got to

because somebody's waiting,

tapping their fingers, waiting for it to land.

So you've got to have one

but it would be much...

it is much easier when there is less going on.

Right, now here,

I know we're going to look forward mainly

but a couple of questions.

What is the best car you've driven in three years?

I don't...

So somebody asked the other day,

what's your favourite car of the moment

or whatever?

And I often think this.

Is it...

is me saying something like a Morgan Super 3

or a Toyota GR86

or...

I'm really...

I know it's not the world's

most complete car

compared to some of its rivals

in terms of refinement and stuff

but I really like the Ineos Grenadier.

But am I sitting here

being like a film reviewer going,

you should watch this four-hour German black comedy.

It's just like...

people just going,

what? I just...

I just want to know if the New Jurassic Park's any good, mate.

I feel a bit like that sometimes

when I am recommending weird cars

but...

but I do have a soft spot for the...

for the really weird...

you know, the unusual stuff

that has a real purpose

and serves that purpose very well

even at the expense of the other things that it could do

and it doesn't do.

Yeah, but fitness for purpose

that can leave it completely unfit for other purposes

unreasonably unfit for other purposes.

Like driving a Morgan Super 3

I went for a walk last night

because...

I mean, you know, it's a nice late summer's evening

and there won't be that many more.

So I thought I'll take the Morgan over

drove it for about 20 minutes each way

to then have a stroll along the river

and I was thinking on the way back

let's get a bit chilly.

Actually, this car was brilliant

for this specific journey

but much more than this

in the wrong conditions

and it would be...

I mean, I'm going to run one for...

I'm going to run it as...

well, I am running it as my daily for a few months

there will come a point where it may be unpleasant

but I don't care

because I love the things that it does do

which is provide real entertainment

and gratification

and involvement at 20 miles an hour

which is what you end up doing too often.

And there's no attempt

to sort of fudge things, are there?

You know, they're not going to give it a roof for you

or anything like that.

No, exactly. No, it's never going to get a roof.

The steering's always going to be really unassisted

but really quick

and direct

and when you drive on a motorway

you know, if you capture a tram line

you know, one of the truck grooves or whatever

a bit wrong and there's a crosswind at the same time

it can get a bit hairy, you know

but it's such a joy.

I love that, that focus, don't you?

Yeah, and so I will accept things

being not great.

You've got the temperament for that though, mate, haven't you?

You've got...

You're not sort of naturally a winger

Well, you're not.

So you ask me, I think, really?

No, no, no, I'm getting better at it.

I'm getting better.

You put...

No, but you sort of...

You just deal with things.

You're good at things.

Well, there's that.

Yeah.

I like the story about that focus is

it goes back to Ariel and Simon Saunders.

I can remember early on in the days of the Atom saying to him

you're not going to offer a roof of any kind, are you?

And he said,

no, we've drilled some drain holes in the floor.

Yeah, I like that attitude very much.

Yeah, it's probably actually the Ariel, maybe the Nomad 2

because the Nomad 1 is from too long ago

to be my favourite car of the last couple of years

but the Nomad 2, I just love those.

They've got that long travel, easily breathing suspension

so they ride well.

The body is allowed to move around

but it's all really beautifully controlled as it does it

and the last time I drove one was around Sweet Lamb in Wales

which is not really fair, is it?

Because it's the perfect place for a car like that.

Did you drive it on the road, though?

Not then.

I have driven one on the road

and I really enjoy them on the road

because you see the wheels moving up and down

but you stay completely calm and flat.

I think they're comfortable enough

but recommending one is...

It's a niche within a niche, isn't it?

It's the people who really want and enjoy those.

That's the same as saying have a Ferrari 296.

That's a rarefied atmosphere as well.

And I find modern supercars too low to the ground.

That's the fundamental beef that I have with them

is their size and lowness

in that they are desperate to scrape their bodies all the time.

Oh, it's a high curb.

Oh, here comes a series of bumps on an undulating road.

The width too is a scary one, isn't it?

Yeah, the width is an issue

and that really puts me off a lot of them.

And I don't think I'm alone there actually, mate.

There'd be a time when we'd stick a Ferrari on the cover

because that would be the guaranteed...

Not exclusively to Ferrari,

it could be a Lamborghini or a high-end Porsche or whatever.

I'm not sure that you would necessarily...

There came a point in magazine sales

where sticking a supercar on the cover

went from the thing you absolutely must do

to something that actually if there was a fast Ford

or an Audi or something instead,

you might do that.

It probably would do that these days.

Yeah, it is amazing the way things have changed, isn't it?

I must say.

What about you, mate?

Best car of last three years or thereabouts?

It's hard to...

This is a tough one for me.

In three years, I've really got to like the body of EVs

and I think the cars that I've enjoyed,

even though they're not flawless, are pole stars actually.

The three and four, I think they're trying to remember.

I get my threes and fours confused, but...

Me too. Which one's got no rear window?

The four, I think, has got no rear window.

I think the three's the one I like.

The three's the big SUV-shaped,

slightly SUV-shaped thing, is it?

Is it like a Velar?

Right. Well, in that case, it's the four I like.

I don't miss the lack of a...

Hang on.

I don't miss a rear window at all.

Hang on.

Couldn't care less.

I'm going to look it up.

Luxury SUV is the three.

Right.

And it looks at risk of offending pole stars designers.

No, it hasn't got Range Rover Velar proportions quite.

It's got a bit less bonnet and a bit more...

It's a bit lower and sleeker, but it's a big luxury SUV,

is what they call it.

Yeah.

So the four is lower and has the...

That's the one with the geely bits under, isn't it?

What, the four?

Yeah.

Yeah, there's something...

Yeah.

Now, you see now, I should know this, Steve,

because this is literally my job.

Well, the Polestar four is an electric SUV coupé.

But actually, I mean, coupé, well, you know,

I mean, there's coupé-ishness to the...

Yeah.

The thing about the four is that it's got a...

The rear head of rail is...

To give it more rear headroom,

the rear head of rail is behind the occupants' heads, isn't it?

Right.

And then that occupies the space effectively

where a rear window may be.

Yes.

So then they have a gently sloping roofline

because you don't want one...

There's a certain angles of back window,

which are not very good aerodynamically.

Yeah.

A very smooth teardrop-y effect is good aerodynamically

or a cut-off one is not bad,

but quite a lot of the angles in between are not good.

So they've got quite...

So it's got a head of rail behind the rear passengers' heads

to keep rear headroom,

but then it's also got a slightly sloping...

gently sloping roofline,

which means there's not a lot of space for a rear window,

so it gets a camera instead.

Right.

And that's the one...

I think that the reason I like them

is because they set out to be modern and they are.

Yes.

And I like classic cars a lot.

You know, we're going to talk about the fact

that I got into quite interested in MGC the other day,

which is a bit of a crude old thing,

but I'm really my heart's in the modern stuff.

And it's what I like about the Alpine really,

although that already feels a bit like the A110 that we have,

but at least it's light and fairly modern.

Because of my age, I think,

and sort of general cumbersome nature,

I'm more interested in accessible cars

and cars that I can easily understand, really.

I don't...

I'd like to think I could own a Ferrari,

but I don't see it happening.

But the other thing, of course,

the thread of the last three years is the people we've met.

You know, because we did James May,

we did Monkey,

what's his name?

Chris Harris.

And Richard Hammond.

But the one that stands out for me is Adrian Newey,

who miraculously gave us a ring and said,

you know, you were talking about doing the pod.

Well, if you come round here in the next few days,

we'll do one as I leave Red Bull before I join Aston Martin.

And that was amazing.

It was.

I was expected right up to the minute we were sitting

in Red Bull reception for that to go,

for somebody to go,

actually, that's not going to happen.

Yes.

But we seem to catch Adrian.

He wasn't allowed to work in Formula One, was he, at that point?

No.

Because he had signed for Aston.

So he wasn't allowed to work in F1?

Yeah, I think they were making him...

They were delaying his arrival at Aston Martin,

but he didn't want him knowing all the secrets.

I suppose, yeah, if he had been at AutoCart

and he had signed for a different magazine,

we'd have kicked him out the door and said,

right, you're now on guard and leave.

You may do some road test updates online.

We'll get you to do some review updates,

but that's basically it.

But yeah, he was still going into the office

and doing stuff.

But yeah, we seem to catch him at a point away from

Formula One PR.

Let's put it that way.

It was amazing, wasn't it?

Yeah.

And the thing is, he turned out to be a completely

straightforward bloke, I thought,

who made every effort to answer the question

and who even read motoring magazines.

I remember him telling us how he was a product

of the motoring magazines his dad bought

when he was greatly influenced by the fact

that his old man messed about with MiniCoopers in L.A.

Do you remember that?

Oh, yeah.

And he just carried on.

He also got into the Tamiya radio control kits,

but he became cheesed off with them

because they weren't sophisticated enough

so he built his own.

Built his own?

Yeah, that was, yes, that was...

It was a bit of a good moment.

That was a good moment.

Yeah, that was a good moment.

You said a minute ago,

and I don't know how much time we want to talk about this.

There's the new stuff.

Yeah.

The poll stars, the...

Where do we...

Where does AutoCar and this pod,

the brand in general, for want of a better phrase,

how do we pitch ourselves going forward?

How much do we cover the new stuff?

How much do we cover the weird off-the-wall stuff?

Because AutoCar has to cover everything.

Yeah.

Once upon a time, that was quite easy

because everything was quite limited.

Yeah.

And it was all heading in the same direction, wasn't it?

And it was all heading in the same direction.

And now I think the market is diversifying quicker

than I ever imagined.

I did...

I think I did right at one point.

Look, there's going to be boring everyday cars.

That may not be boring, actually,

but there'll be, you know,

there will be the stuff.

And there will be the interesting stuff.

And those two may differ quite widely.

And I wonder if they are differing more widely

and more quickly than I had expected.

Yeah.

Well, it is...

I mean, it is no secret to anyone that's listening to this,

I guess, that we have a wider field to select from

than we ever did, don't we?

And...

But I suppose what we have to try and do is judge

people's new cars on their results.

You know, you look at the legal situation that obtains

a legal and financial situation

and you look at people's solutions to these challenges

and you try and choose the ones that work

within an envelope that says we also should, you know,

try them all.

But maybe you give emphasis to the ones that work best.

It seems to me at the moment that there's a big debate

about, you know, engine noise or no engine noise.

That seems to me to be so implicit in...

You know, we've had letters.

We were talking about it earlier, weren't we?

We've had letters from people saying,

well, you don't really do what I expected anymore,

so cheerio.

And that is very, very sad indeed,

because we don't like that at all.

And there's a part of you that thinks,

well, hang on, perhaps what should we have done

to satisfy that person?

But the trouble is he just needed more V8s.

There aren't any.

No, there are not.

And in fact, we have done features

on which V8s you can still have.

So I mean, those features are there.

They are.

Yeah, they are there.

But yes, the first drive section is not full of them

like it used to be.

But maybe one thing that we could be doing

is making more of the driving challenge

of the latest EVs, for instance.

You know, one of the things I regret

is that I have foolishly not organized

to drive an Alpine A290,

even though I'm interested in Alpenes

and I have a Renault 5 as a long-termer.

And from what I hear from you,

first out and others,

is that it's a pretty decent little hot hatch.

So maybe we need to stress that kind of thing

and pounce on the cars of that elk that come along.

Yeah.

But part of AutoCars Remit, I think,

is to be saying,

you know, driving remains fun.

It does. In the Renault 5, I have fun.

I really do.

So we...

I don't know how we...

Maybe we need to up the, you know,

scatter a few more adjectives around,

get a bit more animated about it.

Well, the cars are getting better, aren't they,

in terms of...

So as Hyundai said,

currently it's asked of the last people

who are being talked to by EVs,

generally, as a rule.

So they introduced the Ioniq 5N

and the 6N is soon to arrive.

And the A290 has sort of rejuvenated

the idea of the hot hatch back.

The hot hatch is back, I think, you know,

in terms of the A290.

So we're...

We've got a report on all of these things,

but we are perhaps at a...

We have been through a couple of years

and the cars have been less interesting to drive.

And also,

some of the more interesting cars to drive

are being legislated out of sale.

Yeah, there's been a lot of that.

So it is a...

It is a patch, I think.

But there is some very good stuff arriving.

I suppose the thing that we...

One would say to the life-long car enthusiast,

I always talk about auto cars

being for the life-long car enthusiast.

And I suppose you would encourage people to believe

that this may not be the perfect era

compared with the one that produced

the first Golf VR6 or something.

But this is just an era

and there'll be another era

and it'll be better or worse than this.

But you just got to live with it,

live through it as it were.

That's what I do, anyway.

I'm never going to give up my enthusiasm for cars

just because the cars may not suit me

quite as much as they did before.

Yes, and the next...

Lots of used cars about anyway.

Well, that's the other thing,

is that those other cars still exist.

Your Carrado VR6s.

I saw one on the motorway the other day

and I got very excited about a Carrado VR6

coming past me, as you might well imagine.

I thought that was...

What was I in?

What was I driving?

Maybe I was in that Audi Q7.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, the one, the V12?

The V12 TDI, yeah.

Which there will be a story about

and some other stuff in the magazine in the coming weeks.

That has looked more and more a freak,

I've made that thing.

Yeah, doesn't it, just?

V12 diesel.

I mean, what a cool thing, but also...

What was the damage for that, you know?

What would it cost?

I think they were 100...

What now, as a classic?

Oh, I don't know.

There aren't many around.

Do you reckon it'd be 40 or 50?

Yeah, probably.

Let's have a quick look on AutoTrader

and see what it says.

But there was a...

This one had what they called

the concept interior, do you remember that?

Yeah.

Which had sort of

a teak-convenient boot floor

and seat backs and stuff like that.

Which I have a feeling somebody said

was a 40 grand option

and the car was maybe

100 and something at the time.

So it was a real...

I don't know, I don't know how many of those cars came to the UK.

I would think not very many.

But I will have a look.

We've been nattering on me.

It's probably about time that we did the half-time break

in which, listener, you will not go away to a break

but you will hear me

tell you that this is the AutoCart podcast,

My Week in Cars,

and it's brought to you by Anderson EV,

makers of top-quality EV home chargers,

every one of which carries a seven-year warranty.

Good stuff.

British designed, British built.

Recommend them to you.

I can also tell you that AutoCart

is running its drivers of change

scheme?

Program?

There's a word I'm looking for.

There's a word I'm looking for and I can't

because I'm a journalist but I can't think what it is.

If you're in the first two years

in the motor industry of any kind

then you're making a difference

then drivers of change is for you.

Or if you are in the industry yourself

and you know somebody who is

then you can put them forwards

and it's going to be an event in November.

I think it's at the Stalantis HQ

in Coventry where we will also

I believe be handing out

a gong to the

oh there's one TDI V12 for sale

in the UK according to AutoTrader

for the company

that is making the biggest difference

and promoting young talent.

Audi Q7,

6-litre TDI V12 tiptronic

151,000 miles.

It's quite a lot.

It's a 2011 car so that's pretty

it's pretty straightforward.

24,989 pounds.

It's not bad is it?

25 grand for a

6-litre V12?

Four former keepers

service history, MOT till July next year

HPI clear

500 horsepower, 6-litre TDI

Quattro, Audi infotainment

with sat nav, 6 CD auto

changer, multimedia interface

dual zone climate control

over 100,000

pounds new

believed to be one of 44 models

sold in the UK

and I don't know how many of those are still around

What miles is on the car you've got

or have had?

I think like 27,000

I think it had

maybe it always been an Audi

which retains it

but I think it's always been

low miles.

Cool thing.

24 to the gallon which is not

amazing. The thing I like best is that

you're I mean we suppose we shouldn't

blow the gaff on this story too much

but I mean it'll confuse people

anyway but

if you

your original choice for

this feature that we're going to be

running is

was a Tesla.

I was thinking of bringing a Tesla base to this feature.

I was sort of arguing

I was

you can make an argument about this stuff however you try

my argument is

this is the most significant car of the past

25 years.

And so

yeah I could have made a case

I'm very happy to

I'm very happy to argue whatever

case you know

whatever case I have at the time.

But it did start something extraordinary. I mean that's

the Roadster or the Q7. The Roadster.

The Roadster did. Yeah it did.

But you're a fantastic argument

which I hope is

in the story that's forthcoming. I hope so.

Yeah. You're

you argued like a damn politician.

Well I thought about it carefully.

Who was it?

Well

it's a premium car right and

what cars have had

greater success in the past 25 years

than premium cars. In

turn of the century Audi

BMW, Mercedes were selling

I don't know 500,000 to a million cars

800,000

cars a year each. They would each expect

on a good year to do

nearly pushing 2 million

now. Most of that growth has been

caused by the SUV

as well. And the Q7

was Audi's first SUV

and

6

over 50% of all cars sold at the SUVs

in most markets these days

and also I mean they're not all

not all Q7s

V6 TDIs but

what a significance

the Volkswagen Group

and other companies since

the diesel gate scandal has had

on the car market since

2015-2016. Yeah I know

I think it was

brilliantly argued. If you want to encapsulate

yeah

this quarter of a century into

I have to feel I was slightly spoiling the feature

which is due in the magazine very soon

must be a couple of weeks, mustn't it?

Yeah that happens

late September I think

this very day has sent us some

instructions about further input

further writing that we need to do

yes that we'll do when we get home

did I forget to mention anything else at the half-time break

that I should have done? No I think you've done a fabulous job

if it was a half-time break

well it sort of was yeah we've picked up from where we left off

autocartatheymarket.com

is how you can write to us

and actually we'd like you to

write to us

with the answers to

some questions. Oh yeah we've got three questions

haven't we? Tell me what they asked

well the

here we are at the end of three years

the pod seems

to be perfectly healthy but we

would like to think we could make it healthier

and even more relevant

so one of them

concerns the name it's been for three years

it's been known as My Week in Cars

but we do wonder sometimes

whether it should be just called the autocar

podcast because it is all about

autocar we represent

autocar it is an autocar asset

autocar autocar autocar

should it be the autocar podcast

opinions please

I wonder how many people just call it the autocar podcast

well I think a lot

I'll bet you a lot

and then

excuse me then there's the matter of

length you know we started off

ruthlessly

keeping this thing to half an hour

didn't we and then well we were supposed to

I was told very specifically half an hour

not more than 35 minutes

definitely not more than 35 because the data analytics

says there's a

drop in listenership

where people get home from their commute

or their dog walk and you can see

that X number of people listen for 34 minutes

and actually

that then starts to take off so

we did see that didn't we

we did see that a bit it's harder to see

the analytics for that

right now I'm not sure

I'm not sure it's still the case

but it did happen to be back then

and does it matter

well we love to hear from

people about that

and the other one is we

I am conscious

that you do much more reviewing of cars than me

I do a bit you do a lot

and I just wonder whether we

should make more of your reviews on this pod

because

I always want to hear you rattle on about cars

we don't talk too many

reviews do we

anyway those three things

AutoCar at Haymarket.com

is how you can contact us

listener or you can find

Steve

Steve's email address and my email address

at the end of our columns in

the magazine you can write to us

they will drop into our inboxes

and without being too rude

about it

relatively brief answers are

helpful

yes well because

let me just

sorry this is

man opens page on computer

which is not a great radio

I understand but if I open the

AutoCar inbox

as it is we do we really do try to

see all of it

Steve your wifi is not playing pool with this

here it goes 61,912

unread emails

and that's unread

and we try to

read all of them

we see them all

some of them are very obvious that you

don't want to answer

there's one at the top for example

which says

which is from somebody in PR which says

hi Lewis will you be joining us

there's no Lewis

on this magazine

there's another one

press releases

go unread

an email from you

listener

we will try to find

for example Tony Griffiths

writes to say

this has arrived

four hours ago

writes to say

could you please tell me what a cooking model

is in regards to all Tony Griffiths

I can tell you what a cooking model is

Tony

I first came across it when I started

reading car magazines when I was a kid

and I thought what does a cooking model mean

it means ordinary

like cooking apple isn't it

or cooking sherry

just means the stuff that you would

not special

that's what it is

it's sort of basic

basic thing

so that's in the inbox

but listener if you

maybe put podcast in the subject title

that would be

helpful then we'll see it

much more likely it's it

or if you do have a copy of the magazine

which you can find on the newsstands

as it has been for the last 130 years

then you can write to Steve

or me directly and it will arrive

in our own inboxes

and we're much more likely

although still not guaranteed

because quite a lot of

Chris who monitors this stuff

is pretty good at passing things on

he should be running the country actually

yes he should be

he's very helpful

here is another one

in the spirit of looking forward

what would you like to happen next year

in the next pod year

in the next

in the motor industry

I would

like

I would

like government to say that

GSR2 is optional in the UK

but you don't have to have steering assist

defaulting to on

or speed limit bongs defaulting to on

when so often they are wrong

and that grinds my gears

as the phrase goes

and that is

what would I like

I would like

acknowledgement that

cars are quite a good way of getting around

actually and rather than

rather than governments

national telling me that we shouldn't

I would like an acknowledgement that

actually they're really useful

there's a lot more people

trying to go places than they used to be

UK

productivity is not very good

and part of the reason for that is because

people spend so long sitting going nowhere in traffic

and actually

maybe we need to build a few more roads

to go places and the idea that

roads just generate traffic

well one that's the point

is that you

it's not surprising

when the population

is 20% bigger than it was 20 years ago

and you're focusing it on the south east

because that seems to be where

most of the money is

people have to live and work there

because that's where the jobs are

so if you are increasing the density of people

give them the opportunity to go places

what a good one

is what I would like to see

what I'd like to see from the car industry

I think

I think we might get it too

I think we might have passed a threshold there

I just want to see

a

positive outcomes to both the Jaguar

and the Lotus question

particularly the Lotus question

I am willing to believe that

despite

ups and downs

and some

not

don't be rude

I'm not sure that everybody

working on the Jaguar job

is doing a brilliant job

I think the actual

the designers and engineers I'm prepared to trust

but Lotus worries me

because I do not see

how

I just don't see it in the eyes

of the gily people

that Hethel has

got the future that we thought it did

and I also don't know

whether

people who think they know what a Lotus is

reckon that that's an emeer

and so on

so

wrong cars, wrong place

wrong

wrong mission

really that's

who's buying

100,000 to 150,000

pound big EVs

yeah nobody

I mean not enough of people

I suppose

I would think that if you were Jaguar

you would having said which

nobody says that these

big Lotus are bad cars do they

no not at all, not at all

I don't know if I was talking to you about this

the other day on the pod

those interiors

have nothing to fear from

anybody south of Rolls Royce

Bentley I think

that would be

that would get Jaguar's attention

because they need to do it as well

yeah

but the trouble is

I just don't know anybody

who's in the market for those cars

no I do

no

hello Jason I do have a mate who does have

the Lotus SUV

is that the emeer or is that the

because there's the saloon

in the SUV isn't it

but anyway there was

that was here's your company car allowance

of X100 quid a month

how are you going to fill it

and he just basically went to a bunch of dealers going

this is what I've got

this is what I've got can you get me a car

and a Lotus dealer said yeah

we can get you a car for that

I think the alternative might have been

something like a Range Rover Sport plug-in

or something because it's got to be

a largely electric whatever

whatever he has

but that's the market for those cars

is he pleased

yeah he likes it

yeah it's a good thing

and yes has the range

you know has the range he needs to go from

sort of home counties up to Manchester once a

once a week you know

I just wish someone had come over

the horizon and

Lotus and it was just

a nice open face convincing person

and say don't worry

we've got it in hand and here's the shape

of the future

and it's not I just don't

see it happening

so

my slight problem

with this week Steve is that we didn't

really have

because listener I'll tell you a secret

we haven't written the columns that this

pod is talking about because it's the third

anniversary pod we are not going to talk

about what we usually talk about

which is our columns and I was thinking

to myself will we fill an hour

if we've got no columns to talk about

how's this going to go

we've done 50 minutes so fast Steve

I haven't actually asked you about the one thing

on my running order which is driving

an MGC which you did recently

that's the

literally the only thing I have

effectively on my running order 50 minutes in

I haven't asked you about it yet

well funnily enough it was

a surprisingly

instructive experience

I was coming back from the

Aston Martin

gathering at Gaiden that I went to

and talked about last week

and I was driving along

and pulled up on the verge was a bloke

in an MGC or

what I thought was an MGB

and as I went past I realized

that it was somebody that I

slightly knew from a

you know from Prescott I think

so I pulled up

and went back to see what I could have

and two things that happened to him one was

he'd been trying to creep along

to get home

on the whiff of an oily

rare because he didn't have much fuel

and he couldn't go into a filling station

because the battery was so sick

that he knew that if he turned it off

as they would require him to do in the

service station

he wouldn't turn it back on again

and the car made up at the decision

for him by conking

running out of fuel

but luckily because

I was in the Raptor

and I've got this

conceit about carrying spare fuel

and a little

set of jumblies

so we were able to get it going

in a matter of moments and he said

and I was rattling on about how I like MGCs

I like the notion of them

a three litre six cylinder engine

in a little skinny body

he said we'll drive it home

because we were both heading 15 miles further south

so I did

and it was good, it was surprisingly good

it was completely different as you can imagine

from the board

and eyeing him in the Ford behind me

you know taking up most of the road

but

you know it's a little skinny car

and your bum's on the floor

as I like

and it was an overdrive version

and they've got

three litre

extremely low tune engine

loads of torque

pulled well

like the noise

so I enjoyed it and it was

kind of

instead of paying 60 for a Healy

you pay 20 for one of them

and I thought this is good

I've always liked the MGB

the MGB

was very well packaged in its day

it was much roomier than

sports cars were supposed to be

you know shamed and E-Type

for instance

particularly good leg room

and so

I enjoyed it and scratch an itch

never driven one before, now I have

would you have one?

just about

I don't know

the steering committee here always says the same thing

you know

what would be the role that this fifth car

would fulfil

and there is a point where

you can't see yourself

reusing it and that would be my problem

but if I were looking for

a British sports car

I would give it a go

it was interesting I went to a track day

with the Alpine few

a couple of months ago

there was a bloke there with an MGC

and he was telling me this tale about how

when the car was launched

the company got

stated the front

tyre presses wrongly

so that

everybody adjusted the tyre presses

to what they thought were the correct ones

and of course it understood very badly

the tyre wall deflected

but there were kind of eight PSI

I don't know what they should have been about

so apparently if you pump them up

correctly they handle a bit better

I mean there is still this

mighty overhang from a long engine over the front axle

but

seemed an interesting car I liked it

yeah I've always liked the idea

of them

and that sort of struck me as a

changed up at 2.5 and off it goes again

yeah the idea of

they all struck me as very usable

classic because there's so much

there's so many bits you can still get

for them you know you can replace

the entire thing with effectively new bits

if you really wanted to

there is a new shell isn't there

yeah Margie I hear

that they are because they are still

made from the original tooling

that they require some work

so he says Sam

hello Sam who I know

who's gone

yeah he said it had a heritage shell delivered

then sent it off for a restorer

to put the bits from his old car

into the new shell

he said it took some

yeah it's going to take a little

we need to strain it a bit first

this new shell

but it looks terrific

and it's just such a usable

classic

it was good I just liked

the

this bloke's difficulties

took me back to my own

bouts of incompetence

when you know as a

younger person when you know

running out of fuel and the batteries

yeah we've all been there

we've all been there

what is left to talk about

five minutes left are we just about there

you've got a bigger

list than me of things that we were going to discuss

in this pod

I've got written down here

the future but

the thing that I have got written down here

is a bit of humility and a bit of gratitude

I mean we

this thing has done, has amused

you and me

far more than we ever expected

and it is only

that can only have happened because of the support

we've had from

all the people who listen

and it would be silly

to say we were deeply grateful wouldn't it

100% yes

I can't believe they let us do it

do you know what I mean

at some point

somebody is going to turn around and say

stop doing that

stop wasting your time doing that

get on with your work

why are you just sort of mooching across

you know quite a nice drive

to sit with one of your mates

and chat for an hour

and then go over again

why are we paying you to do that

actually that is part of it

as well as all the joy of

you know

the evidence we have that some people

enjoy this

it's the drive to here and there

with this

weird paraphernalia

that we carry to

it is useful testing time

I've come over in an LP in A110 today

and I haven't driven one for some time

is it a GT?

no it's a

sorry it's a GT

so that's

the 292

whatever they are

mine's a 250

and it's good fun

good

yes what is there else to say

well we have to thank our sponsors

Anderson EV

you can discover all you need to know

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at anderson-ev.com

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and I think we seamlessly read the script

every week don't mistake

you wouldn't know it was any different any week

we've had compliments about that haven't we

good on you Keith

and that

yes I think, oh I mentioned the archive

Autocuz 130 years old this year

the digital archive has been online

for a little while and it is amazing

if you haven't subscribed

go and have a look and in fact

if you haven't subscribed but you're thinking well

I would like a little

taster of a look before I do

by a copy of the magazine

and chris calmer writes

from the archive page

and I believe that page has a little qr code

and

you can click that qr code and you can

read the feature he has written about

free of charge and we do occasionally put up

archive features

for naut as a little taster

but it's just

is a joy in it

actually the thing I ought to do is

have a way through the MGC stuff

I'll bet you there'll be 60 pages on the MGC

there'll be loads

there'll be full tests

what was the car that we were looking at

I think it was Ford Capris we were talking about

probably a year ago

and I started having a look through the archive at the Capris stuff

my goodness

you can find every test of not just

because there's not just the standard Ford

there's all like the

aftermarket, broad speed

racing stuff

so that's at themagazineshop.com

the magazine

is on the newsstands

as it has been weekly since

1895 I can't say every week

because if I say every week somebody will write in

actually there were a few weeks

during the 1970s

and there were paper shortages

so there's some very very few magazines

were not published

mostly

you would say if you rounded it up

you would be quite confident in saying 100%

at the time

the website is at

autocard.co.uk

YouTube has got a Bugatti W16

Mistral

review on it at the moment

then actually that's published

two days after this recording

so it's actually been up there a while

but I recommend it to you

it's a sort of ode to the W16

it's about to depart

sounds good

we need to get him on here

so yes

anyway listen

thank you so much for three years

we'll be doing it for at least another three

thank you

it's been super and we'll carry on

for as long as they let us

see you next week

Acast

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