3.5
Ben Barry,
08 May 2012 13:31
We deal with new cars here at CAR Online, but every now and again an oldie captures our attention and we just have to go and drive it. The Mk1 1965 Lotus Cortina you see here ticks that box, especially within the current context and the recent drama at Hethel. I’ve known Paul Wankle from Classic Cars Ltd in Pleasanton, ...
2.5
Greg Fountain,
27 April 2012 07:00
Nothing against China but it seems to me its influence over the car industry is becoming problematic. The world’s great car makers allowing Chinese tastes to dictate the conception and production of their cars is rather like the world’s great restaurants developing menus entirely to please Americans, merely because there happen to be a lot of them. The fact that ...
4
Ben Barry,
25 April 2012 11:37
Just round the corner from where I live, a lollipop lady used to turn out every morning and every afternoon to dodge speeders and shepherd primary-school children across the road. Then, a little while ago, she disappeared. I don’t mean she’s a missing person or anything bad like that, but our 30mph zone became a lollipop-lady-free zone overnight. For a ...
4
Tim Pollard,
24 April 2012 14:58
1) The Chinese market is the answer to western companies woesThe longest established western brands in China are the ones whose cash tills are ringing loudest. Market leaders VW and GM saw China's potential early and are now reaping the benefit, and still latecomers are scrambling into the Orient. Volkswagen's runt of the litter, Seat, is the latest arrival - ...
4
Gavin Green,
23 April 2012 17:26
In Beijing, the smog is appalling and the traffic dreadful. Outside, we are ringed by coal-burning power stations, trying to fuel the city’s insatiable appetite for energy. The air is so bad you can taste it and feel it when you breathe. China’s newly enriched middle class also has an insatiable appetite for personal mobility, and you can’t blame them ...
4
Greg Fountain,
20 April 2012 16:42
News of the threatened strike at the Mini plant in Oxford is frustrating and disappointing. The last thing anybody on either side wants is a dispute which will damage all parties, and which would mark a return to the bad old days of the last industrial action in 1984, when Rover was running the show. It’s especially tricky at a ...
4.5
Gavin Green,
16 April 2012 14:32
Every time I go to a so called 'developing' country I am reminded of the wonderful appeal of old well-used cars. India and Morocco happen to be two of my favourite destinations. One of their appeals is the horde of old cars - aged Fiats and Morrises in India, ancient Peugeots and Mercedes in Morocco - still providing loyal service ...
Ben Barry recently drove to the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in a Land Rover Discovery. While the company's busy driving from its UK headquarters to Beijing to celebrate the millionth Disco built, CAR managed to snaffle a 4x4 to drive across the Ukraine. Watch Ben Barry's video diary in our player above as he drives into the perimeter ...
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- Stuff Weve Done
- 13 April 2012
3.5
Greg Fountain,
12 April 2012 11:32
There’s a lot of smoke blowing around right now on the subject of Lotus and whether it has a future. I don’t have the inside track on this, but the amount of mud-slinging from commentators and the reciprocal mud being chucked back by the Hethel PR machine suggest something is ‘going on’ Anyone who loves cars should love Lotus, and ...
3.5
Ben Barry,
12 April 2012 07:02
Where Audi is intent on creating cars for market segments that don’t yet exist, the Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT86 sports coupe twins do almost the opposite: they have a market segment all to themselves – the £25k, rear-wheel drive sports coupe market – because everyone else has abandoned it. In decades gone by, young tearaways would have had their pick of ...
