YOUR VIEWS
Issues for autonomous cars Steve Cropley asked: “Who cares if their driverless car is a Mazda or Maserati?” (My Week In Cars, 5 July.)
Autonomous cars will have lots of benefits and issues, but badge snobbery won’t be one of them. Brand snobbery exists in all walks of life with consumer products.
The pressing issues will be for, say, the emergency services and professional drivers. Will manufacturers be able to turn off the drivetrain in a stolen car? Will the ambulance service be able to clear traffic for an unfettered run to an accident or sick person?
The biggest issue for me is that my grandson, who is two years old, will not experience the thrill I had in getting up early on a weekend and driving for the sheer joy of the freedom. Enjoy it while it lasts. Via email Depreciation deprecation
The Audi SQ7 is a very impressive car, but I take issue with your claim that your long-term test car has “strong residual values” (Our Cars, 5 July). Its price with options was £95,160. Assuming a discount of about £5000 (available via various brokers), a similar new one could be on your drive for £90,000. After nine months and 15,000 miles, your car is worth £56,572 as a trade-in, making depreciation £33,428 – or, put another way, about £120 per day. If that’s a strong residual performance, what would you class as a poor one? Via email Our test car had optional extras totalling a somewhat unlikely £25,000. A great way to test the options list for value but not realistic for most buyers – and catastrophic for residual values. Carefully specced, an SQ7’S residuals should slightly eclipse the class average – JH Turbo or not turbo? Why does Vauxhall feel the need to put a ‘Turbo’ badge on the back of so many of its cars? Does it think we
are still in the 1980s and this will give some extra showroom appeal? Almost every engine from every manufacturer, petrol or diesel, is a turbo nowadays. Bournemouth The word still provokes a certain primal urge among those of us of a certain vintage, Andrew – MB Fill in the Census In addition to the deceased car brands mentioned in Richard Bremner’s article ‘I’ll be back… perhaps’ (7 June), there are also the small manufacturers no longer with us. I would like to mention the FBS Census V6, which was the brainchild of my neighbour Andrew Barber, who is now flight engineer on the Airliner hybrid airship.
This sports car was designed by Andrew and his partner Robin Hall, who both had pedigrees with Lotus, Ricardo, Rover and others. Intended to sell as a complete vehicle, it rivalled the Lotus Elise and Mazda MX-5 and was priced at £26,000 in 2002.
The car was powered by a Ford V6 and designed by an Italian student from Coventry University. Only eight were made. In addition to Andrew’s pristine car, several are still in the US. Via email Don’t hurt small businesses
In response to Andy Wood’s letter about adding vehicle excise duty to the cost of fuel (Your Views, 5 July), my daily driver is a Land Rover Defender 130 tipper. I use it because I’m a tree surgeon. I have little say in my choice of vehicle because the requirements for my job are critical.
More duty on fuel only stings small businesses like mine. I agree in principle with Andy’s idea, but not when he says it depends on your choice of vehicle and how it is driven. I’m always towing a chipper or trailer and, as such, rarely exceed 20mpg as it is, so any extra on fuel hurts. Additionally, there is all the fuel we use in the chipper and chainsaws. Bewdley Don’t have a cow, man
Does Shirley Rodrigues, the deputy mayor for environment and energy, not know that in a statement in the Hindustan Times in 2006, a United Nations food and agricultural organisation report stated that livestock, including cows, are responsible for 18% of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming?
That’s more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together. Can she tell London mayor Sadiq Khan this? To help the environment, all cows going to Smithfield Market must be dead. Via email Indeed. The last live cattle were taken to London’s Smithfield Market in