A few of my Favorit things...

[NewcastleFalcon]

The title of the winning letter in December 2017 Practical Classics Magazine...and it struck a chord with me.

"Has car design really lost sight of its objective or am I just getting old?" was the first line.

Whats your view? What are your design requirements for a car?

Mine concurs with the spirit of the letter.....and the Favorit bit.....after being constantly let down by a Renault Vel Statis it was replaced with a Skoda Favorit "surely as modern as any car needs to be".

Join in if you can

Regards Neil

PS and also mentioned in the winning letter....James may writing his column in the Telegraph in 2011....

"the best car I've ever driven, all things considered, was the Citroën AX GT of 1991."

[bobins]

I'm a man of simple needs I want a car that's cheap, safe, comfortable and reliable. I'm not after avant garde, I'm not after prestige, I don't 'aspire' to own a BMW / Audi / Merc or any of the other marques that are allegedly supposed to imply that 'I've made it in the world'. Occasionally I have to drive the works' VW Toerag - if all those 'prestige' brand 4x4/SUV type vehicles are built along the same lines then no wonder so many of them are driven so badly. I found I was completely shut off from the outside world - the little people driving by meant nothing to me as I drifted around the country lanes. Designing a vehicle to cocoon you in your own little world isn't good design, it's downright dangerous design.
..............I'd also quite like to buy a car from a manufacturer / importer that doesn't treat their customers with contempt once they've bought the car.... might be a bit of an impossible ask, that one I struggle to understand why car manufacturers won't build reliable cars these days. The first car was built somewhere around 130 years ago. There's been a hell of a lot of development and innovation since then, but companies like BMW still fit self immolating fuse boxes, Citroen still struggle with the concept of rust and so every one of the C5(X7) window winder mechanisms rusts out, every one of their steering racks goes. Just about every other manufacturer fits duff components - whether they admit to it or not. It's not rocket science, but it does help to show what the manufacturers / importers think of their customers But then if manufacturer's built cars to last, they'd go the same way as SAAB in the end - people would buy a car then have no reason to get rid of it, and they'd sell less cars that way, and that's bad for business - and that's the most important thing in the world.

[Peter.N.]

You need a Peugeot 406 Hdi

Peter

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Has car design really lost sight of its objective or am I just getting old?"
"being constantly let down by a Renault Vel Statis it was replaced with a Skoda Favorit", surely as modern as any car needs to be".

I wholly concur also and grinned myself when I read the same lines.

Talking of grins I thought of Jim reading the ‘Bangernomics’ article, page 88 this month’s issue “given its grin inducing drive I spent weeks sourcing a decent Ka for up to a £1,000 but gave up in the end.... I couldn’t find one what wasn’t fatally rotten”

If the Marketing Men who pay a lot of money for Adverts are anything to go by, then Car Design isn’t even about the car any more, its about the ‘toys’ (Internet Connectivity, Self Raising Tailgates etc) and fashion; particularly at the School Gates. The Dacia Sandero ‘Grasscutter’ ad’ seems to be a refreshing exception "we preferred to give you something useful".

And the being ‘cut off from reality’ as the point already made isn't just about SUV's. In a recent issue, the Old v Modern test, I noted that the comment was made about the Scirocco that the newer car was entirely impractical to drive enthusiastically outside of a racetrack; due to it simply having so much power.

I noted by the way in the course of chatting to a couple of the Practical Classics guys in the course of their Round Britain Run that they seem to be thoroughly decent down-to-earth people.

[JohnD]

so every one of the C5(X7) window winder mechanisms rusts out,

#

So are you telling me the other two will go as well?

[bobins]

In a round-about way you make a good point They're perfectly capable of making rear winder mechanisms that last the distance, it's just the front ones that prove far too tricky for them to deal with

[NewcastleFalcon]

I always used to think electric windows answered a problem which never really existed but you do get so used to them that if you are ever in car/van with wind up windows it feels primitive.

Good job I am not in charge of a major automaker. I wouldn’t be bothering with developing auto pilot/self driving/self parking capabilities or concerning myself how to integrate connectivity and function with mobile devices or the central heating at home.

I could find my A to B reliable and economic motor cars being regarded as dinosaurs and remaining unsold, as I discover that the new generation of car buyers will not touch them with a barge pole.




RegardsNeil

[myglaren]

My second daughter has bee trying out 'roadsters' and fully agrees with the above - test drove a Z3 and a Z4, then a TT. Walked away from them, hated the keyless opening/ignition and all the rest of the flashing lights etc.

Her daily is a G-reg Escort cabriolet and she loves how primitive it is - everything is manual
I think it is as old as she is.

Son in law just bought an Audi A6 3L V6. I'm sure she will hate that too.

[bobins]

The keyless entry and starting is a frightening and, hopefully, short lived gimmick. A tradesman around here had his van stolen the other day whilst he was on a job - someone drove around with one of the key scanners running, picked up his key's 'frequency' whilst the key was in his back pocket, unlocked and started the van, and away they went.
I'm sure some people find it really tricky and confusing to have to unlock a car the traditional way and love their car's ability to unlock and start without them having to get the key out... needless to say, I'm not one of those people.

[JohnD]

needless to say, I'm not one of those people.

Neither am I! Another bit of needless technology just because they have it is stop/start. A couple of weeks ago we sat in a long queue for Border Control at Eurotunnel in Calais. Alongside side us in the next lane was a C1 with stop/start. During the fifteen minutes it took us to travel the 200 or so yards to the kiosks, the stop/start must have activated at least a dozen times. That's an accessory I could well do without. I couldn't help thinking of the repair costs in not too many years time.