Random muse about cars and stuff

[Mark T Jones]

(Yes, business is quiet).

A friend of ours has just treated himself to a new (used) Range Rover Autobiography. That's the glitzy, top of the range jobby.

I'll admit that the whole off-road / SUV thing has passed me by - my tastes never really progressed beyond seat-of-the-pants / feel the acceleration. But if if t's your bag, it is a very smart, plush motor.

He's so excited that he actually offered to drive when we all went out for a meal.

On leaving the restaurant, we saw that the 'puddle lights' actually project the words Range Rover into said puddle. Then I discovered an ambient light setting where you can change the colour of the lights in the footwells. Even he looked a bit embarrassed about the vanity of it all.

But afterwards, Mrs Jones & I thought about it - the reality is that cars are so good, that manufacturers are actually struggling with ways to make their plush models stand out.

Well into my driving career, things like floor mats, mud flaps & cassette players were extras, or reserved for fancy spec models. Into the '90s BMW didn't actually give you a radio - claiming 'our customers like to select their own'.

These days, your basic Dacia Sandero gives a spec level that used to be reserved for CEOs, performance that used to be attributed to sports cars (albeit without handling) plus the added bonus that it won't have started to rust in 3 years.

Obviously there is a big change in tech, but is there anywhere left to go with the specs of vehicles?

 

[The Byre]

Hell yes!

1. Electric but actually working and a 1000 mile range minimum (e.g. the coming Aptera.)
https://www.aptera.us/

2. Self-driving.

3. No road noise - cars are still too noisy and Range Rovers included.

4. Your friend with that gin palace car will soon start to feel the 'keep-that-sucker-on-the-road' pinch as things go wrong, so cars have to be far more reliable - plenty of scope there! It's the luxury end where the problems lie - Bentley, Range Rover and now that these things have all the toys and gimmicks, Mercedes. They break! Amazingly, a Dacia is more reliable.

5. Sat Navs that work and self-update.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Hell yes!

1. Electric but actually working and a 1000 mile range minimum (e.g. the coming Aptera.)
https://www.aptera.us/. Time will tell I guess.

2. Self-driving. Yawn.

3. No road noise - cars are still too noisy and Range Rovers included. Big yawn.

4. Your friend with that gin palace car will soon start to feel the 'keep-that-sucker-on-the-road' pinch as things go wrong, so cars have to be far more reliable - plenty of scope there! It's the luxury end where the problems lie - Bentley, Range Rover and now that these things have all the toys and gimmicks, Mercedes. They break! Amazingly, a Dacia is more reliable. Yip - we did discuss the 'when things go wrong' scenario. Having done some collection & delivery for JLR, it's definitely more when than if. The only reason that Jaguar isn't on my wish list.

5. Sat Navs that work and self-update. I often wonder why the satnav on a £80 phone is way superior to that on a £50K car.

I'm sure you are largely correct, but that is tech rather than spec.

Perhaps tech will trump spec in future?

Happy to say that my wish-list car is petrol & manual. And reasonably noisy.

 

[Fagin2021]

One day, a mouse was walking through the jungle when he heard an huge trumpeting and roaring coming from a deep pit in a clearing.

Peering into the pit, he saw an elephant who’d fallen in.

“Help”, shouted the elephant, “I’m trapped. Can you get me out?”

“Sure”, said the mouse, and rushed back home to get his Range Rover Autobiography and a tow rope. Back at the pit he lowered the rope to the elephant. “Tie this around you and I’ll pull you out.”

Revving his motor, the mouse hauled the elephant out of the pit.

“Thanks”, said the elephant, “if there’s anything I can do to repay you, just ask”.

As luck would have it, a few days later the elephant was strolling through the jungle when he heard a frantic squeaking coming from a hole in the ground. It was the mouse who had saved him.

“Please”, cried the mouse, “can you help me out of this hole?”

“No problem”, the elephant replied, and standing over the hole he lowered his huge todger to the bottom. The mouse scrambled up the elephant’s John Thomas to freedom.

The mouse and the elephant lived happily ever after and the moral of the story is..

If you’ve got a big pecker, you don’t need a Range Rover Autobiography.

 

[Mark T Jones]

One day, a mouse was walking through the jungle when he heard an huge trumpeting and roaring coming from a deep pit in a clearing.

Peering into the pit, he saw an elephant who’d fallen in.

“Help”, shouted the elephant, “I’m trapped. Can you get me out?”

“Sure”, said the mouse, and rushed back home to get his Range Rover Autobiography and a tow rope. Back at the pit he lowered the rope to the elephant. “Tie this around you and I’ll pull you out.”

Revving his motor, the mouse hauled the elephant out of the pit.

“Thanks”, said the elephant, “if there’s anything I can do to repay you, just ask”.

As luck would have it, a few days later the elephant was strolling through the jungle when he heard a frantic squeaking coming from a hole in the ground. It was the mouse who had saved him.

“Please”, cried the mouse, “can you help me out of this hole?”

“No problem”, the elephant replied, and standing over the hole he lowered his huge todger to the bottom. The mouse scrambled up the elephant’s John Thomas to freedom.

The mouse and the elephant lived happily ever after and the moral of the story is..

If you’ve got a big pecker, you don’t need a Range Rover Autobiography.

LOL.

I'll be sure to pass it on!

 

[KM-Tiger]

Gin palace or Dacia?

Why spend more money to sit in the same traffic queue?

That's the reality of motoring in the UK now, and it's going to get worse.

 

[Mark T Jones]

4. Your friend with that gin palace car will soon start to feel the 'keep-that-sucker-on-the-road' pinch as things go wrong, so cars have to be far more reliable - plenty of scope there! It's the luxury end where the problems lie - Bentley, Range Rover and now that these things have all the toys and gimmicks, Mercedes. They break! Amazingly, a Dacia is more reliable.

Back to my early career in finance

Me, trying to justify financing a Bentley for a customer 'Look, the statements show that he has the means to repay'.

Them. 'It's not the finance payments that will cripple him, it's the running costs'.

 

[intheTRADE]

Gin palace or Dacia?

Why spend more money to sit in the same traffic queue?

That's the reality of motoring in the UK now, and it's going to get worse.

My thoughts exactly

I've never had an interest in cars or a fascination with them. Millions do which is their right but I have just never been able to get my head round the money that people spend on latest model cars to sit on the same roads and do exactly the same as cheaper cars.

My 2015 second hand Insignia with radio and electric windows does me just fine and gets me to the same places I need to be that a £20, £30, £40k plus car would do.

 

[Ian J]

Into the '90s BMW didn't actually give you a radio - claiming 'our customers like to select their own'.

BMW are incredibly tight fisted with their "extras" I have just bought a new £45,000 BMW and adaptive headlights are a £900 extra whilst they are standard on my wife's £17,000 Seat

 

[intheTRADE]

BMW are incredibly tight fisted with their "extras" I have just bought a new £45,000 BMW and adaptive headlights are a £900 extra whilst they are standard on my wife's £17,000 Seat

900 quid to not to have to reach and switch your lights on. The world has gone nuts!

 

[KM-Tiger]

BMW are incredibly tight fisted with their "extras"

Are indicators still an extra?

 

[Ian J]

I'll admit that the whole off-road / SUV thing has passed me by - my tastes never really progressed beyond seat-of-the-pants / feel the acceleration.

They can be very useful in Winter. We live in a small close so the snow takes longer to melt as there is no through traffic and to make it worse our drive slopes down towards the house. Ten years ago I was driving a rear wheel drive BMW 645Ci which was exactly the sort of "seat-of-the-pants / feel the acceleration" kind of car that you like but the big problem came in Winter when there was snow on the ground as I couldn't get it off the drive.

Fortunately my neighbour works for JLR and has a Discovery as a company car and he took my lad to school when the weather was bad.

I have had four wheel drive cars ever since although not all have been SUVs but I have now gone back to a rear wheel drive car and am hoping that we have a kind winter

 

[Ian J]

900 quid to not to have to reach and switch your lights on. The world has gone nuts!

You are talking about automatic headlights not adaptive ones

 

[Mark T Jones]

They can be very useful in Winter. We live in a small close so the snow takes longer to melt as there is no through traffic and to make it worse our drive slopes down towards the house. Ten years ago I was driving a rear wheel drive BMW 645Ci which was exactly the sort of "seat-of-the-pants / feel the acceleration" kind of car that you like but the big problem came in Winter when there was snow on the ground as I couldn't get it off the drive.

Fortunately my neighbour works for JLR and has a Discovery as a company car and he took my lad to school when the weather was bad.

I have had four wheel drive cars ever since although not all have been SUVs but I have now gone back to a rear wheel drive car and am hoping that we have a kind winter

Indeed. I used to live in a small village, which evidently didn't appear on snow plough sat nav (they should have used the one on their phone)

The 4 X 4 owners had a jolly old time on the odd occasion that it snowed. I benefited hugely from the fact that they liked to show off by towing RWD motors!

 

[Mark T Jones]

My thoughts exactly

I've never had an interest in cars or a fascination with them. Millions do which is their right but I have just never been able to get my head round the money that people spend on latest model cars to sit on the same roads and do exactly the same as cheaper cars.

My 2015 second hand Insignia with radio and electric windows does me just fine and gets me to the same places I need to be that a £20, £30, £40k plus car would do.

It is true that you can get a hell of a lot of car for pretty small money if you are relaxed about it.

If luxury was my thing, I'd go for a used Phaeton - which are specular VFM.

My real foolish spending is behind me, but I still enjoy a good, quick motor and am happy to pay for the right one.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

I had a Ford Ranger for a while, and for the one or two days in the year I needed the 4 wheel drive capability it was truly excellent. However, the other 360-odd days of the year, it was impractically large, and of course being a Ford it was quite unreliable.

Its semi-apocryphal that BMWs are completely useless in the snow. Being able to drive in poor weather conditions is far more about tyres than anything else.

 

[Ozzy]

If you’ve got a big pecker, you don’t need a Range Rover Autobiography.

/me looks awkwardly out the office window and then down...

However, in my defence night before last I was transporting two large containers of water across two fields in the boot, and at the weekend the boot was filled with stable matting, feed and two bails of hay.
Four years ago I towed two cars out a ditch in the snow, and no way my pecker could do that

I never used to be one for car luxury, but to be honest I have got accustomed to the RR. For my lifestyle I do need something that can drive across a field in heavy rain whilst also being a comfortable drive to a meeting with clients.

2. Self-driving.
3. No road noise - cars are still too noisy and Range Rovers included.

I would take self-driving in a heartbeat, would very much like a car to drive me to a destination whilst I either sleep or catch up on work.
I also love the silence when my P400 is running on electric, my drive to work is purely electric and I just find it "cool" that it's completely smooth and silent.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I had a Ford Ranger for a while, and for the one or two days in the year I needed the 4 wheel drive capability it was truly excellent. However, the other 360-odd days of the year, it was impractically large, and of course being a Ford it was quite unreliable.

Its semi-apocryphal that BMWs are completely useless in the snow. Being able to drive in poor weather conditions is far more about tyres than anything else.

Presumably popular amongst your client base?

Tyres are often overlooked. In Germany (as I'm sure @byre will tell us) winter wheels & tyres are absolutely the norm.

 

[Mark T Jones]

/me looks awkwardly out the office window and then down...

However, in my defence night before last I was transporting two large containers of water across two fields in the boot, and at the weekend the boot was filled with stable matting, feed and two bails of hay.
Four years ago I towed two cars out a ditch in the snow, and no way my pecker could do that

I never used to be one for car luxury, but to be honest I have got accustomed to the RR. For my lifestyle I do need something that can drive across a field in heavy rain whilst also being a comfortable drive to a meeting with clients.


I would take self-driving in a heartbeat, would very much like a car to drive me to a destination whilst I either sleep or catch up on work.
I also love the silence when my P400 is running on electric, my drive to work is purely electric and I just find it "cool" that it's completely smooth and silent.

The idea of self driving cars makes me shudder - though I have no doubt it is coming.

I did catch an interesting discussion the other day about how ethics rather than pure science needs to be built into them - for example, if a dog runs out, what is the car programmed to do.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

Presumably popular amongst your client base?

Yes everyone who I with drives a pickup, but with good reason.

Whenever I told anyone I had the car for putting my Doberman in the back, people would say "driving about in your pickup with a dog in the back? Do you do driveways as well?"

 

[CazzieB]

I'm sure you are largely correct, but that is tech rather than spec.

Perhaps tech will trump spec in future?

Happy to say that my wish-list car is petrol & manual. And reasonably noisy.

Both my cars are petrol, but autos (due to disability) a 30 yr old XJS & an 11yr old XFR (5ltr V8 super charged), both of which have increase in price since I have owned them. And the spec on both cars is just as good as most cars today

 

[Fagin2021]

I would take self-driving in a heartbeat, would very much like a car to drive me to a destination whilst I either sleep or catch up on work.

You do realise that if self-driving becomes the norm, a proportion of cars will arrive at their destination with a dead driver?

 

[Mark T Jones]

Both my cars are petrol, but autos (due to disability) a 30 yr old XJS & an 11yr old XFR (5ltr V8 super charged), both of which have increase in price since I have owned them. And the spec on both cars is just as good as most cars today

Nice motors!

 

[Ozzy]

The idea of self driving cars makes me shudder - though I have no doubt it is coming.

I do think differently about cars v's bikes. A car is more of a tool for me, hence self-driving will be perfect. Something that is comfortable and serves a purpose to do a task.

However, my motorbike is an absolutely headcase rocket on two wheels. Race prep spec, 0-60 in less than 3 seconds and will rattle windows in the neighbouring town . Shame it's ridden by someone who tends to poodle around just enjoying the low rumble from the cans.

 

[Ozzy]

You do realise that if self-driving becomes the norm, a proportion of cars will arrive at their destination with a dead driver?

My view is that it is going to happen anyway. It wasn't too long ago people objected to cars going over 100mph because the human body wouldn't be able to sustain the G-force and it would kill the driver and passengers.
On one hand so many people die on the roads because of human error and stupidity. Self driving cars will kill some people but the real question is will the net rate be less deaths and injuries than we have currently. We won't know until it happens, but if it is an improvement over what is happening currently then it has to be a good thing.

 

[Fagin2021]

My view is that it is going to happen anyway. It wasn't too long ago people objected to cars going over 100mph because the human body wouldn't be able to sustain the G-force and it would kill the driver and passengers.
On one hand so many people die on the roads because of human error and stupidity. Self driving cars will kill some people but the real question is will the net rate be less deaths and injuries than we have currently. We won't know until it happens, but if it is an improvement over what is happening currently then it has to be a good thing.

I didn't mean the car would kill the driver. I meant the car would arrive in perfect nick but aunty would have expired.

 

[Ian J]

Both my cars are petrol, but autos (due to disability) a 30 yr old XJS & an 11yr old XFR (5ltr V8 super charged),

Once every city and town adopts ULEZ it will cost you a fortune to drive them anywhere

 

[NickGrogan]

I didn't mean the car would kill the driver. I meant the car would arrive in perfect nick but aunty would have expired.

This happens already - Taxis, buses, trains, etc.

 

[MBE2017]

I tend to have large 4x4 type vehicles, shoguns, outlanders, range rovers etc recently. Apart from needing the 4x4 capability, I prefer the higher seating position, I feel it is a lot safer than standard cars. Of course if someone crashes into myself with anything smaller than a mini bus, they will come of the worst.

The biggest point in the luxury spec is to arrive in a decent condition, not totally exhausted by the drive. My large vehicles float along, and I feel I am sitting in a luxury seat, a seven hour drive less tiring than a 20 minute drive in some mini car. Add to that a 3.5l engine purrs along rather than screaming as in a small car.

Each to their own.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Of course if someone crashes into myself with anything smaller than a mini bus, they will come of the worst.
.

Not a safe assumption at all!

 

[Fagin2021]

This happens already - Taxis, buses, trains, etc.

What you meant to say...

This happens already - Taxis, buses, ambulances, trains, etc

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

If you’ve got a big pecker, you don’t need a Range Rover Autobiography.

Which probably explains why most of the RR drivers round these parts are women, although some have a reputation for liking a big pecker

I have a 147mph super car on the drive


.........................a very low mileage 19 year old, 3.0i BMW Z3

Ownership has a number of downsides. On the main roads you hit traffic, on the side roads you hit potholes and tree debris, moving to one side to avoid women who can barely see over the wheel of their RR's, whilst trying to keep your refurbished alloys out of the ditch.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

PS: I think the short term future is here already..

The Citroen Ami


https://www.citroen.co.uk/models/future-models/ami.html

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Since when has a BMW Z3 been a super car

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

The end is here
People are becoming leftie ecoist and they will cycle and take the bus made out of bio mass

 

[CazzieB]

Since when has a BMW Z3 been a super car

I was thinking the same. My XFR is de-restricted and has been at just over 200 mph on the Germany autobaud

 

[Mark T Jones]

Since when has a BMW Z3 been a super car

Definitions are fairly broad, but I'd say for its day the M Sport Coupe made a good case for itself

 

[CazzieB]

Definitions are fairly broad, but I'd say for its day the M Sport Coupe made a good case for itself

That means my 30 yr old XJS is a super car, mine does 148, but its only the 4ltr not the V12

 

[Mark T Jones]

That means my 30 yr old XJS is a super car, mine does 148, but its only the 4ltr not the V12

IF You want it to be, it is. Definitions are vague

 

[The Byre]

Tyres are often overlooked. In Germany (as I'm sure @byre will tell us) winter wheels & tyres are absolutely the norm.

They are compulsory in Winter and for some roads, you must have chains ready to fix or have put on already, depending on local laws.