Your letters, including the magnificence of BMW’s i3 and why talking about the Aventador’s infotainment is missing the point
CAR’S NEW LOOK + FERRARI TRIBUTO + SAM SMITH’S FINEST HOUR
Well done us
The new issue of CAR magazine (April 2019) dropped through the door this morning. As a subscriber for over 20 years I’ve seen a few redesigns, and this is one of the best. I’m not even sure which article to pick first!
I particularly like the reader involvement (One year on and The shortlist) – and with that in mind I’d love to tell you about my VW Golf GTE… Simon Hull
Thanks for your positive feedback Simon – a lot of hard work went into the new-look CAR, so it’s fantastic to hear it’s going down well among the loyalists! And you can read more about your GTE on page 140… BM
Now you see me…
The point raised by letter writer Ray White in the April issue about the Audi e-Tron’s use of cameras instead of mirrors got me thinking about when I was younger.
When those cameras are inevitably smashed off in an all-too-likely filtering prang, how to repair them? You won’t be able to gaffer-tape any old mirror in their place like my first C-reg Ford Fiesta and all the Ford Transits I’ve driven over the years...
The cost and convenience will be a double-lose for owners. Technology for technology’s sake in my view…
Sam Cli ord
Couldn’t agree more. Justifying the additional cost and complexity of new tech is di cult enough when the advantage is clear – and here that’s just not the case… so far at least. BM
Still the magic number
A spot of garage cleaning yielded unexpected treasure – my longthought-lost copy of CAR, September 1988 wherein Messrs Green, Setright and Bremner were let loose in a BMW 3-series. In the interim BMW has gone on to do other things – of course the purists hate them.
And yet the spirit of that car is alive and well. A fortnight spent house-sitting/dog-walking for a cousin gave me access to the family car, an ⊲
i3. As my first exposure to an electric/ hybrid vehicle, I had a ball – every day to the mall or to do errands had me grinning like that Cheshire cat of old. The left-hand-drive M3 never came to South Africa but its latterday relative is doing just great.
Keep on being the flea in the kennel. G Cooper
Waze to go
Unusually it was the Our Cars section that I found really involving in the February issue.
The Bentley Bentayga, loaded with nearly 78k worth of extras: obscene.
Tim Pollard’s description of why people (like me) buy a Lexus: spot on.
The references in both the Bentayga and Suzuki Swift pieces to Apple CarPlay now fitted to many cars: sadly Lexus don’t fit it, but my wife’s Suzuki Ignis has it. I drove it recently and found the excellent Waze app on my phone is available on CarPlay.
Because it’s updated constantly by so many users I find it far more accurate than the sat-navs fitted as standard by Lexus or Suzuki, better even than Google or Apple Maps.
On a journey through France in December it outperformed the Lexus by only warning about live incidents, not ones that were cleared the day before yesterday.
Reg Holmes
Rage on
In his March column Mark Walton wrote about driving around Hong Kong. I lived and worked in Hong Kong for 23 years and feel qualified to comment on his findings regarding sat-nav use and road rage.
The use of sat-nav hasn’t caught on for certain reasons. The number of private car owners is less than 10 per cent of the adult population and the large majority of this 10 per cent do not drive during the week, merely using their cars at weekends or holidays. The sheer volume of trac, and shortage of parking spaces, means most drivers favour using public transport, which is cheaper, quicker and more convenient. Most drivers only ever drive to places they’re familiar with, hence not much need for sat-nav.
Although Mark didn’t notice any road rage, I can assure him that it does exist though not on the scale I have encountered here now that I have retired back to Britain. He was likely spared it since he is European and Caucasian, making him less likely to be abused (he wouldn’t understand the abuse anyway). It is quite common to see undertaking, no signalling and last-minute lane changes.
As most vehicles on the roads are container trucks, lorries, buses and taxis which far outnumber private cars, the main mantra is ‘Time is money’ and any hold-up for road rage will likely cost the drivers and their companies. Steven Wong
Too big, too heavy
There’s no faulting your logic in the April issue comparison test between the AMG GT 4 Door, Alpine B5 and Porsche Panamera. It sounds like the Porsche does a better job than either of the others of squaring the circle by being good for drivers, good for passengers and extremely quick.
But (speaking as an ex-owner) there’s something a little off about the Panamera. It’s just a bit too big in town, a bit ungainly to look at, and lacking the magic of ‘proper’ Porsches, by which I mean the Cayman/Boxster and 911.
I’d really like to see Porsche try again with the 924-944-968 idea – or, to look
at it another way, a lowered Macan (if you accept that the Panamera is a lowered Cayenne).
Phil Murphy
Reading the road
Surely Sam Smith’s brief report about his drive in an old Mercedes from Tennessee to Seattle is worthy of a fuller article – or didn’t he have a camera with him?
Just think – memories of past (car) loves are often really memories of trips made in those cars, and a trip like Sam’s will be something he’ll never forget. Articles about such journeys, with insights into the people and places along the way, are so much more interesting than comparisons of supercars, or treatises about the latest electric – yawn, sorry, can’t go on.
Richard Corke
That column was a great swansong from Sam, wasn’t it? And don’t worry – Sam will continue to contribute to CAR. BM
Don’t blame the car
With respect to the Toyota GT86 needing more torque to fulfill your dreams of drifting (Quick Group Test, March): you’re not drifting it right !
Try a higher cornering speed, one where you are close to the lateral grip limit – then stomp on the loud pedal.
Drifting in the true sense is not the same as power-sliding. The latter is brute force, and although some people master it and make it look quite artistic it will never be as elegant as the former. Emil Heise
Driver’s cars
Regarding the V12 Ferrari vs Lamborghini test in the March issue, your first big question was ‘Intuitive infotainment?’! Is that really going to be the first question on CAR readers’ minds? Robert Young
What were we thinking?! BM
Welcome home
Having taken a 27-year sabbatical from buying CAR, in a moment of wanton crazed avarice I took out a subscription and got that same feeling that I got back in 1983 when my half-brother’s subscription was delivered and I got to open the brown envelope containing literally weeks of pleasure courtesy of LJK, Steady Barker and the gang. It was good to see there are still some old friends at CAR – Georg Kacher and my hero as a boy, Gavin Green – alongside the groundbreaking and still witty GBU. CAR magazine set the template that all others now follow and that DNA, I am happy to say, is still evident.
My only sadness is that it seems we stand at the end of an age – the motor car as we have known for over 100 years is in its final act. Age is not something anyone wishes on themselves but I am certainly glad I was a wide-eyed car-obsessed boy in the ’70s and ’80s and I am very glad my half-brother had the good taste to take out a subscription to CAR. Thanks for the memories. Antony O’Brien ⊲
Hyper-miling, hyper-tyring
I am appalled by the fuel consumption of many of the vehicles you test. In December 2012 I bought one of the last Mk6 VW Golf TDI Blue Motion models brand new. It has now completed about 55,000 miles. I have kept a record of fuel consumed. Usually it gives me 60-plus miles per gallon, but if I am doing a lot of urban driving – say through central London – it does drop into the 50s and even the upper 40s. The optimum mix of fuel economy and reasonable progress is achieved if I cruise at 65mph. I do not sprint away from trac lights and roundabouts and that has paid other dividends. I am still on the original Michelins, although they will need changing very soon. Roger Potts
Not so fast
Volvo is talking about limiting the top speed of its cars to 112mph, and highlighting the dangers of distraction and intoxication. Volvo is also talking about technologically enforcing lower speeds near schools and hospitals. Their right to walk in safety clearly outweighs your right to drive like a twerp.
What worries me is the prospect of such technology being introduced prematurely, to suit political and marketing deadlines rather than when it’s ready, as we’ve seen with some self-driving tech.
Marcus Dunsfold
Rock the bloc
What a joy! Georg Kacher and Tom Salt’s Yugo story (April issue) summed up so much that’s intriguing, important and exciting about cars, car culture and the car industry.
Even without Georg’s insightful words, Tom’s photos spoke volumes about the significance of this car in the former Yugoslavia. Nice to see CAR doing this sort of thing again.
Ray Smith
More than acceptable
You’ve won me over with the new format. The Yugo piece is a real return to form – CAR’s always been famous for such good stories.
Darren Smith
Thanks to all the readers who commented on the changes. Keep the feedback coming. BM