Car News-Global and Domestic

[MattBLancs]

I'm staggered, not because it's ugly, that seems to where everything is heading, but that it's not a bloody SUV! It's horrible but at least fairly undeniably a proper coupe from!

I thinks there's another teaser shot to floating about showing the copper colour bit popping out (and possibly a camera lens just visible)

You know, so that what we had to make do with a bit of mirrored glass we now have a great additional number of failure modes instead (camera failed, screen failed, copper bit failed to pop out)

[bobins]

You know, so that what we had to make do with a bit of mirrored glass we now have a great additional number of failure modes instead (camera failed, screen failed, copper bit failed to pop out)

I think the technical term for those failed items in the motoring industry is - "Future income streams"

[mickthemaverick]

I fear 'future income rivers' may be more appropriate!!

[myglaren]

Honda and Nissan plan to merge as the two Japanese firms seek to fight back against competition from the Chinese car industry.

Joining forces would create one of the world's biggest car producers alongside Toyota, Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford.

The potentially multibillion dollar deal to combat "the rise of Chinese power" was a key driver behind the plan, said Honda's chief executive Toshihiro Mibe.

Mr Mibe said a plan to "fight back" needs to be in place by 2030, or they risk being "beaten" by rivals.

The merger, which would include Mitsubishi - of which Nissan is the biggest shareholder - would allow all three companies to share resources against other electric vehicle competitors such as Tesla.

The growing electric car market has been increasingly dominated by Chinese-made electric vehicles, including BYD, which have posed a threat to some of the world's best known car firms.

Beeb.

[ChrisRobin]

Speaking as an insider, This is the biggest change, the motor trade has ever seen or will see I think, Not just for motor car dealers but for everyone, right down to accessory shops and after market parts like GSF, Euro Car parts, they will have to change there business model, if they survive the change, motor manufacturers "getting in bed" with each other is not unusual now, when you think about their dealerships, it is going to take a long while for after sales to hold it's own with EV's only, there is not enough service work on them to keep us going, pollen and BFC every 2 years...wow! there is a balance between sales and after sales to make the dealership work, this will really alter that balance badly. There is going to be a lot of people losing jobs as business try's to stay afloat.

Dealerships will change or die going to multi brand, VW built ours 10 years ago, the only one so far in the world, it didn't really work initially but now they are revisiting it and watching us closely, we have all 5 Major VAG brands under 1 roof, this is a model they are now looking at rolling out world wide just to survive at dealer level.
The way you buy a car will change I guess no more local dealer, you will possibly end up in a car supermarket type place were a few brands will be available to view, but you purchase form the manufacture, which they are already starting to do.

As ICE dies off we will see aftermarket parts companies struggle who needs air filters, oil and fuel filters, sparks, glow plugs, even cambelts all will increase in price then die away slowly. The £15,000 fines are another nail in the ICE coffin we are already telling customers there car is not ready, when it is but if we register it then it could mean fine time therefore putting folk off buying ICE, clever really.

If you put it all together what you are really seeing I feel is the demise of the private car and the push toward Net Zero, the car has some how become a major villain which needs to be removed from society, if you take into account the dealer fines, the new car over £40k 1st reg costs, road tax on EV's, price of fuel which nobody seems to be worried about now like they use to, I think the fuel producers see time running out, Insurance companies upped prices for everyone to cover EV repairs and again I think they see time running out also so make hay whilst the sun is shining as they say, 20mph every where here in Wales it is madness as you get roads 50mph 30, 40, 20 then back to 50 on the same stretch, all done I wonder to make driving more difficult, cyles and pedestrians have more rights on the road than the driver, a 2 mtr gap from the cycle which on most roads is impossible, new confusing roundabouts with onus on cycles and pedestrians, motor vehicle comes last in the pecking order as said all done to try and get you out of your car.
EV's not much going now with charging them is there, people in Victorian terraced streets, how? no new inroads made into that, old electrical sub stations and infrastructure which don't seem to be upgraded ready for total EV's.

We are constantly now being told to use public transport, there a traffic camera, speed camera everywhere, parking spaces in car parks getting smaller and more expensive. I feel we are slowly being pushed out of cars, as Net Zero wont work with all our cars on the road, At my age I rather doubt I will see the full impact but it is coming.

I think the future will look like centralised living, work to be able to get there by walking, cycle or public transport, everything else delivered to your door, only the really wealthy will be able to afford a private car, as the cost of owning and running it will be astronomical.

So enjoy your ICE as best you can, whilst you can.

We are watching history in the making be it good or bad.

[CitroJim]

I believe you're pretty much spot-on there...

I really must get the next order for my AX spares stash done before it's all too late... I already foresee I'll be running at least one of my AXs long after my Picasso has curled up and died due to lack of spares, potentially terminal electronics failures and the sheer (unjustifiable) cost of trying to keep it going.

I can just about live without a car - I did for a year a while back on medical grounds - although I firmly believe I'm currently a member of a very small minority.

[bobins]

Making cars 'unobtainable' for your average Jo Public by, basically, pricing them out of the market is a very <ahem> courageous thing to do. Whether they realise it or not, a car symbolises a fair amount of freedom for most people. It can still represent 'freedom' even if they're not regularly used - the mere fact the car is owned or sitting on the driveway and can be used to go somewhere represents a psychological freedom.
What are the knock-on effects of Jo Public slowly losing those implied freedoms ?

[Gibbo2286]

Unless the government goes really totalitarian I think you're all being a bit too pessimistic, the petrol and diesel cars are here for most of your lifetimes for those prepared to make the effort, think Cuba. https://diplomatictimes.net/2019/01/01/ ... -like-new/

[bobins]

If we were all driving old AXs then I can understand the 'Cuba principle', but most cars these days are overburdened with electronic gimmickry, or locked software or coded parts or unique parts that will prove too expensive to repair for most people.
There's plenty of 10 year old EVs being scrapped as it's not worth the expense of keeping them going due to either unobtainable parts or the cost of those parts.

[ChrisRobin]

I don't know net zero is a big goal and retrospective Governments want to get to it, I see at least twice a week now price updates on parts and they are climbing rapidly, it is also to do with what is gong on in the world but I also think you are looking at again "making hay"
ICE car will be around for decades you only have to look at the classics still going, questionable on if the new vehicle will be a good in 40 years time with all the electronics now on them or of the will end up chicken coups who know, but he point is with out doubt they will be rare, parts as we know now made in abundance of the millions of ICE vehicles will be cut back it has to as they die and go to scrap, they have it is economics, also the prices of the remaining parts will climb, for example I had many years ago a VF 400 Honda it fell over and split it tank, I bought one from Honda @ £250 I had the bike 15 years, toward the end the tank started leaking from pin holes, I enquired about a new one again, this time the price was over £900 as Honda no longer make the tank so it would have to be made by them, so when CitroJim goes to get an air and oil filter for his old Picasso in 30 yrs time who will make them, as there will be virtually no Picassos on the road, if he did find one it would be expensive, see where I am going.
Cars gave us unbound freedom, we will never give it up, you can see that by those who should not have a licence, to old, medical reason, it was taken off them etc, but they still wont give up driving, to get us out of the private car we will need to be forced, make it to expensive for us, make a real pain to drive on the highway, make it really hard to pass MOT's on older vehicles, let the insurance climb to silly price levels, up the tax, up the fuel prices, make more places ULEZ so we find it hard to drive, it has already started very subtle but it has, we are already seeing folk leaving cars SORN now on drives as they are too expensive to run, we as a main dealer are having to lie to customers who want a new ICE vehicle in case it impacts on out EV sales percentage we have to watch and hit that 1st, When EV's first hit the roads tax free we said you will have to pay tax on them eventually, who makes up the short fall in lost revenue? and now they are, next question is what about ALL the ICE vehicles on lower tax rates, you can't drive an ICE polluting vehicle with cheaper road tax than an non polluting EV, where is the sense in that, so we will see a change in road tax ICE will have to be more expensive by there nature which means all of us will see increases my neighbours megane is £30 mine is I think now £210, his will pop up over £190 (EV rate) what will mine go to as it pours out more yukky stuff than his.
Then you look at new EV's anything over £40k 1st year is £10 then four years @ £410 per year, even if you sell that EV after 3 years there is still another 2 years of £410 to pay, it is all out there in bits if you start putting it all together it is quite an eye opener, and I still think we are right on the cusp of the private car demise, it has already started here in the UK, the car has become the cash cow that will forever be giving until it has gone and that includes EV's.
Global warming was the start of it all, for net zero you are going to have to have emissions room for trucks, boats and planes at present, with all the cars on the road you haven't got that free emissions space, they need to first get cut back and eventually go.
That private car gave us unbound freedom, it will be a tough fight to get us to give them up, the main attack I feel will be expense to keep them, the 2nd front will the the hassle of the drive, put them both together and we will have a lot to contend with.

[Gibbo2286]

Still the doom and gloom! Now when I was a lad the car owning public was confined to the rich and a few of the better off management classes, we all desired a car but the bus or bicycle was the main means of transport for daily life, most cars even nowadays sit on the drive or at the roadside for most of their lifetime, in 2002, an average of 9,200 miles per year, but by 2013, they were driving just 7,900 miles, and by 2019, the average car in the UK drove just 7,400 miles – that’s down over 20%. that's about 20 miles a day. CitroJim would walk that.

[ChrisRobin]

It isn't doom and gloom thought is it the future and yes most car do sit at the side of the road mine does sits on the drive at night takes me to work and sits in the work car park as many others do it take me were I want to go when I want to go, it carries timber for me paint, take me on holiday or to the airport to go on holiday, I think the millage has come down now as we work longer, fuel is more expensive, you will see millage drop even more as high street close down with retail shops moving on line, we no longer go out to shop, you have the added issues now of all the camera watching you, the car has become the governmental cash cow. the car has become cheaper which is why the roads, drives, streets are infested with them most houses around me have minimum 3 cars yet two people in the house one chap has 5 drive, front garden and in the street (most annoying) why? people now have moved their fascination from SUV's to vans for some odd reason, everyone now wants a van, but it will come to an end and has started no matter what you want to call it, it is coming.
Manufactures know it is, dealers know it is.

[mickthemaverick]

I do think there is one other element that you haven't mentioned there Chris. I have two cars, the second of which is a toy. I have it purely for the pleasure of driving. I know there are many others in the same state of mind, you only have to see the attendance at car shows and motorsport events to realise that cars are not just about transport and I feel that is the element more likely to cause problems than merely altering the general means of transport!!

Like it or not the world is run by greed, and while those in the oil and motor manufacturing industries have the power and influence that they currently enjoy, they are not going to give it up for the benefit of the world at large!!

[ChrisRobin]

Oh yes it is more than just transport to work, kids to school, shopping to a lot of owners it is so much more than that, the sound of a TVR passing always get radio muted and window opened just to hear it purr as it passes, with EV's that will all go. Motor sport is moving over to electric I am not a fan of F1 but a friend of mine is and he went to the EV version of F1 and said although the racing was good it just missed noise, engine noise.
Sadly when it comes to Governments and Net Zero policies and targets the populations love of motor cars will take a back seat I think, you can't say they never realized they would have to road tax them for a start, they just didn't mention that until the tipping point arrived, it was clear to most of us in the motor trade they would tax them from the start, after all you can't take tax away in the form of fuel duty and not replace it, EV's give nothing back to the government, no road tax, no fuel tax, something had to give, there will be other things just not said but you can see coming, Governments are not very good at transparency.
"and while those in the oil and motor manufacturing industries have the power and influence that they currently enjoy, they are not going to give it up for the benefit of the world at large"
And yet they are. Car manufactures are already changing the way they operate at dealer level, the oil industry will take a big hit, it wont stop producing, but it's biggest customer the car driver will and is declining, and why are all changing? simply because the people that buy their products are the ones being hit, no matter what Government say to car manufactures they will carry on until their products are no longer purchased, cost of owner ship/running is one of the biggest killers of a model.
The swap to EV technology has come quickly do you not think, most manufactures have brought out the token electric car, none put that much effort into advancing those EV,s until they were told NO MORE ICE, and then the tech just seemed to flow from all of them, they haven't got the power and influence you think as they are all joining forces now in a bid to stay afloat.

[CitroJim]

Thanks Chris, whilst I can't offer any intelligent comments, I do enjoy your posts immensely. Do keep them coming