Letters: you hail our 700th issue
Far from ready
All electric by 2030? I don’t think so. James Taylor’s Our Cars reviews of the Mini Electric just rearm how far off we are from having a viable alternative to fossil-fuel power. Three recharges to drive 250 miles, an additional couple of hours in transit, driving in Green+ mode with a feather foot to preserve range, struggling to find a recharge point and then tech hassles getting an app to work to allow payment. None of this sounds very appealing, and if this is the future for the cheaper end of electric vehicles, there will be no early adoption from me. Cars are meant to be a convenience and (to some) a pleasure to drive; these lower-end vehicles are anything but that.
David Loveland
At half the price, yes
Having been fortunate enough to drive the Aston Martin DBX on its launch day (as a previous customer), I have to agree with your 300-Mile Test verdict in the September issue. It’s just gorgeous in every way. Sadly, once kitted out, this car will approach £200k – and that’s almost double the price of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo and Range Rover Sport SVR, which are both fantastic too.
As gorgeous as the DBX is, it’s not worth twice as much. My husband and I both have SVRs, and swapping them next year will be interesting. Could we swap two for one? Probably not.
Rob O’Hagan
The missing link
I read with interest the interview with Ralf Speth (Insider October 2020), on how he has developed the JLR brand. One area that seemed to be missing was reliability. In almost all car reliability surveys JLR products seem to be near the bottom.
As they are selling cars that can retail for £100k+, perhaps this area needs further development to grow customers for whom reliability is important.
Paul Doherty
It’s complicated
The Maserati MC20 (October issue) is a beautiful car but I was concerned by your reference to a phone app for checking fuel and oil levels, tyre pressures and the like. Remember when you simply checked a dipstick for oil or pressed a button to zero the trip instead of running through sub-menus, taking minutes instead of mere seconds?
I often wonder how much of this technology is actually used by the majority of drivers, or is it just for pub bores showing o¢?
Neil Davey
We’ll be delighted if the Maserati system turns out to be brilliant. But similar systems on too many other cars don’t inspire optimism. CO
Electric can wait
Your review of the Ferrari Roma (October issue) didn’t disappoint. With
superb photography and locations plus the best-looking Ferrari for a generation, how could it?
The Roma ticks all the boxes and it’s most definitely on my wish list for when the price of used versions drops to a more affordable level. In the meantime, we have Ferrari’s imminent SUV to look forward to.
While superb cars like these continue to appear, some of us, at least, can afford to ignore the government’s push towards an EV future.
Chris Sheldrake
Thanks Chris, glad you enjoyed the story. That’s you and me both patiently waiting for depreciation to bring the Roma down to something like a price I could a ord! If, by then, Ferrari could make the exhausts louder and the infotainment a little less ba ing, that’d be ideal. BM
He’s got chills
I loved the 700th issue. The sense of history, drama and justifiable pride in CAR’s unparalleled intellectual and photography chops meant that the issue was one long chill in the spine for me.
I came away slightly disappointed that you crowned F40 as your best ever car – it smacked of motoring journalists living on a different plane altogether. Designing a good car with unlimited resources is easy. I would have appreciated a win for the Elise or even the 205.
Talha bin Hamid
The Elise very nearly won. BM
The thrill is gone
In the years since my enthusiasm for the car was born I have owned 28 cars and have driven more than 200 different cars, among them Porsches and Ferraris. I have driven countless miles over much of Europe and Africa.
But, sadly, I have experienced a massive and frightening decline in the quality of driving and of trac enforcement, which has become an industry of fines. I have also seen a decline in the understanding of how cars work. They have, for some, become financial products.
I fear that what CAR proposes – the dream of the supercar, the thrill of a great drive, the premium experience – is no longer achievable.
My enthusiasm for cars has gone. I now drive a Mazda CX-5. It’s pleasant – no more, no less.
Jose Luiz Curado
What you need is a Lotus Elise – that’ll put the spring back in your step, without costing a bomb. CO
It’s okay to be wrong
Congratulations on the 700th edition of CAR. The writing has been consistently strong and it’s generally a thing of beauty. Recent photography and graphics have really stepped up the game.
I would never dream of buying a car without checking that you approve.
But there are two related qualities that for me have distinguished the magazine over the decades.
The first is eccentricity. It’s no coincidence that you identify the reverence which LJK Setright still inspires.
The second is being prepared to have a point of view. It’s both endearing and honest that Gavin Green thought the F40 a dud in 1988 but now considers it the greatest car he has ever driven.
I hope that these attributes are still evident if you and I both make it to edition 1000.
Philip Rodney
Lifer
I have bought and read with pleasure every copy to date since that first issue of Small Car and Mini Driver in 1962. Every copy was saved and stored, boxed in my garden shed, until some low-life broke in and stole them all.
Over the years there has been so much to admire about CAR above and beyond all other automotive publications but for me the one abiding virtue has always been the determination to ‘tell it like it is’ without fear or favour and bugger the consequences.
Your erudite reviews and road tests have often guided my car choice and I took delivery in 1972 of the first Citroën GS in the North East on your recommendation. I still eagerly await your publication dropping through my letterbox – I wonder if you at CAR realise how much your magazine has embedded itself into the lives of petrolheads like me.
John H Patterson
The truth about the table
Congratulations on 700 issues. I’ve been a subscriber since Mrs Fraser ⊲
sent them out from her kitchen table (did she really?) and the late TRUCK too.
I still have my first edition, which a kind neighbour bought for me (at 2/6d!) in July 1966 featuring two red GTOs on the cover. I have lusted after one ever since – the Pontiac, not the Ferrari. If and when the time comes to give up the many car magazines I buy, CAR will be the last to go. Some issues I like better than others but it’s being kept up-to-date that’s important – as well as the writing, the photography and the cars, of course.
Chris Silver
Kitchen table? Absolutely true. CO
The world’s in reverse
I’ve read well over 400 of your 700 issues but, when I saw that the new
Nissan Z is not coming here and the Ford Fiesta ST will be outsold by its ugly taller brother, I wondered if my interest in cars – and CAR – is ending. Then I drooled over the F40, 205 and E30 M3 – more of this please.
Peter Vaughan
Good times
It was a delight to receive the 700th special issue, and to be transported back to great CAR moments and contributors. I purchased my first issue of CAR in September 1978 – with Aston Martin’s wedge Lagonda on the front cover (‘Right On, Aston...’) and driven by
Mel Nichols as the centrefold – and still have a (nearly) complete set of CAR from that date.
I do, however, have one bone to pick: GBU is conspicuous by its absence. Always a favourite reference for its acerbic and fearless approach – in that 1978 issue you summed-up the Mini 850 (£2091) as ‘Decrepit and completely outclassed’, the Triumph Spitfire (£3246) with ‘Oh death, where is thy sting?’ and the Saab 99 (£4250) to be a ‘Thoughtful car for thoughtful people’ – I look forwards to the return of the GBU. David Bearn
A lack of space ruled it out for one month only. BM
One car, one job
I’d question one aspect of your praise for the Rolls-Royce Ghost in your preview in the October issue. The fact that they have been able to give the car a fixed and uniform set-up stems, as you rightly say, from its ‘singularity of purpose’. They can afford to do that because their customers generally own at least a half-dozen cars fit to cover all kinds of needs and use. So, it is not because other manufacturers have been unable to reach ‘one set-up that you’re 100 per cent happy with’ but because, for the vast majority of people, one car has to fill a variety of roles and adequately perform under profoundly different circumstances.
Giuseppe Papuli
Square pegs
Unless I missed it, you didn’t include your glowing review of the Allegro in your Best of CAR review. As I remember, you were particularly enamoured with the ‘quartic’ steering wheel. I suppose embarrassment precludes a reprint? Nigel Healey
Get your fresh car mags here!
Many congratulations on your 700th!
It’s mine too, never having missed a copy. I remember vividly buying the first issue of Small Car from a newsagent’s stall in Southend market at the age of 13 . It seemed like a breath of fresh air compared to The Motor and has remained so.
I’m sure you’ll outlast me!
Ian Osborne
Avert your gaze, Sir David
Thank you for your 700th anniversary issue. I’ve been with you almost continuously since 1970.
On a different tack, reader Phil Taylor’s letter made me think. Referring to Mark Walton’s piece about the G-Class Mercedes – which expressed concern about what other people might think about it – Taylor says: ‘Who gives a monkey’s what other people think? Life’s too short.’
A few years ago I’d have agreed with him wholeheartedly. Today, I’m not
so sure. Surely things have changed? Three years ago I sold my beloved Porsche and bought a ‘sensible’ car because I’d started to feel guilty about being seen driving it. In this climatically challenged age, driving brazenly glitzy, ostentatious cars just feels wrong. It’s like sticking two fingers up at David Attenborough. Or maybe I’m just getting over sensitive in my old age? Christopher Waite
I couldn’t agree more, Christopher. I think some people are becoming more sensitive to the extent to which they display their wealth, though it’s surely still a conscientious minority. BM
Missed opportunities
I owned an original NSX many years ago, and later an Accord Type R. Despite Hondas being mostly boring and useless over the last decade, my blood still has Honda DNA.
I love the little Honda E. However, Honda has sent it out onto the market with one hand tied behind its back, like it did with the S2000 and CR-Z – spending loads of money creating a car then forcing it to spend its entire life with a single engine choice limiting the market appeal. This time it’s the range. In terms of eciency (which nobody buying electric cars seems to discuss), and in terms of it being the best price versus intended use, their battery size is correct. But correct doesn’t always end up being the best seller.
Why not release it with another variant with a bigger battery option? Even if it was ‘incorrect’, even if it was more expensive, even if nobody bought it, it would have been worthwhile because nobody reviewing it would start ranting about the lack of range. Lee Mallabar
This is the problem. Some will need more range; many won’t. BM