BMW MINI v Fiat 500 - some more thoughts

I've now had a chance to drive the 500 and I was pleasantly surprised, although I think the MINI will still be the driver's choice among the retro small cars if only because of the availability of the sporty Cooper and Cooper S versions which don't (yet) have any direct counterparts in the 500 range. Did someone mention the word Abarth?

On the other hand, for some time to come, it's the rarer 500 that's going to be getting the admiring glances. But the Fiat's strong suit is this; at the moment, the 500 is at least as cool as the MINI but it's much cheaper. In price terms, the 500 range tops out at about the same level as the cheapest stripped out MINI One without essential options such as air con. Against that, of course, though, the MINI has a fantastic depreciation performance and very good multi-year servicing packages.

What's outside today 40 - Fiat 500

Excellent service from Fiat's press department, which got this to me this morning after I contacted them about a booking for the 500 on Monday afternoon. Normally, our press car bookings involve a lead time of several weeks, so Fiat's performance was especially impressive given that the 500 is one of those cars everyone is trying to get their hands on at the moment. Although I'm quite booked up at the moment, I thought I'd better grab the chance to slot this one in when I could.


I haven't had a chance to drive this yet, but I'm sure that looks alone are going to carry the reinvented 500 a long way.


In styling terms, it's much more convincing than some other retro efforts such as the VW New Beetle and Chrysler PT Cruiser - in particular, Fiat has done well to keep the proportions and general look of the original 500 when the new car has a front-mounted engine instead of the rear engine of the old car.


Of course, the car Fiat will be hoping to emulate with the 500 isn't the New Beetle but the BMW MINI - that will be a tougher nut to crack but I think Fiat may be able to do it if the dealer back-up and so on is as good as the car.

Ken changes his mind - again?

Ken Livingstone has confirmed that the London Congestion Charge will in future exempt cars emitting less than 120g/km of C02. Although this is in line with the original thinking for revising the scheme, most recent reports had suggested that the proposed exemption would be dropped because of the large numbers of cars that were expected to sneak in under the limit.

Lots of the car-makers have put out press releases trumpeting which models in their ranges will be exempt. Renault claims that 31 models in its range will be CC free. Apart from Lexus' hybrids, which continue to enjoy the exemption as well, I think the classiest car to slip through is BMW's 118d - not the last word in prestige and luxury, but hardly the sort of hair-shirted economy motor Ken probably had in mind when he first thought of the exemption either.

Blast from the past 11 - Fiat 500

The proper Fiat 500, that is, not the 2008 model. Spotted this on a trailer in Surrey when I was down there a week or two back for the Verdict test of the Kia Picanto.


I think Fiat has captured the spirit of the original very well with the new car but we're still no nearer knowing which precedent for retro models it will follow; will it be a flash in the pan like the New Beetle, or will it endure like the BMW Mini? I hope it succeeds, but it depends quite a lot on boring stuff like resale values and customer service, as well as the buzz generated by the new 500's excellent styling. This is a great chance for Fiat to build its market position - let's hope it doesn't mess it up.

Anorak Corner 7 - the eyeball vent

These were very popular on British cars of the sixties - Cortinas and Hunters, for example - but I was surprised to see them on the 1977 Capri I had on test recently (see below). I thought they'd been phased out by then.


I've always thought this was a very simple and effective design but I recall reading somewhere that they tended to be leaky and draughty, and that's what eventually did for them.


Anyway, so keen was BMW to plunder the back catalogue of British car design for the retro detailing on the MINI that it reinvented the eyeball (see above for an example from last week's Clubman test car). I think the first BMW MINI had just two but the latest revamped version has four. Can't remember whether the 'proper Mini' had eyeballs back in the sixties, though.

What's outside today 32 - MINI Cooper Clubman

Although I love the BMW MINI, I have to confess I was a bit sceptical about the Clubman, especially after all that fuss about the 'door on the wrong side' (the second side door on the right-hand side of the car, which opens into the traffic when the car is parked at the side of the road in RHD markets).


But a few hours with this car were enought to dispel any doubts. It goes just as well as the standard version, and coped easily with a long trip north to Newcastle for the Verdict on Saturday and Sunday. I needed a few cans of Red Bull on the return leg but the Clubman itself was as fresh as a daisy when it arrived back at 1.30 this morning.


I think the combination of maroon metallic (well, Nightfire Red as BMW call it) and silver pillar trim on this particular one looks brilliant and the divided rear van-style doors are fantastic.


I also think the Clubman's stretched styling looks better than that of the normal MINI - especially, and somewhat perversely, on the left-hand side where the lines aren't spoiled by the fussy shutline of that second side-door.

Aston Martin Rapide to be built abroad?

Today's FT had what appears to be a detailed, well-sourced story saying that the new four-door Aston Martin Rapide is likely to be built outside the UK. Four continental European supppliers - Valmet, Pininfarina, Karmann and Magna - are named as possible partners.

The first thing this list tells me is that this is probably not a classical cash-driven off-shoring move. Pininfarina has a great pedigree both as a designer and maker of fully-built cars. Karmann and Magna have also assembled specialist models for prestige manufacturers such as Mercedes, including, in Karmann's case, cars with such challenging features, from a design and manufacturing point of view, as folding metal roofs. Valmet, of course, has produced a very large proportion of the Porsche Boxsters on the road today; as far as I know, nobody has ever suggested that these Finnish-built cars are not as good as their German-made counterparts. On the basis of these companies' track records, I have no doubt Aston will be able to get the Rapide built to the required standard. As I've mentioned here before, some of Karmann's big contracts for fully-built cars are running out over the next year or so, so this company will especially welcome the chance to bid for Aston work.

Free trader that I am, though, I still feel very slightly uneasy about Astons being built abroad, simply because Britishness is such an important part of their identity. Mind you, nobody seems to get too upset at the German Ford-built engines fitted to some of the current models, or the sought-after Zagato cars that have featured in Aston's range in the past.

So if cost isn't the main reason for this possible outsourcing of Rapide production, what is? It looks like capacity constraints at Aston's existing UK facilities are the main reason - the current models are selling very well, and deservedly so.

I think the next UK manufacturing operation to bump up against capacity constraints is likely to be BMW's MINI plant at Oxford, where the new Clubman has joined the standard model and the convertible on the production line. Once again a manufacturer will have to try to judge whether the appeal of a quintessentially British product is likely to be fatally undermined if it is actually built outside the UK (for better or worse, I suspect the answer to that question is a resounding 'no').

Talking of the Clubman, I have now got my hands on this at last, which is the second car I'm testing during a busy two-Verdict weekend. More on that later.

Car of the Year

The European Car of the Year rankings are great fun but the organisers' insistence on using a large, diverse international jury has produced some very strange results indeed over the years.

Nobody could complain about the NSU Ro80 (1968), Peugeot 504 (1969) or the Citroen GS (1971), but what about the Talbot Horizon (1979) or the Renault 9 (1982)? Mercedes has only won once in the CotY's history while BMW has never won at all - barmy.

I haven't yet driven this year's winner, the Fiat 500. Anyone who likes cars will want it to succeed in order for Fiat to have a secure future but I still have a few doubts. The 500 probably has even the BMW Mini beaten for cute retro looks, but it will struggle to match the Mini on the road. Unlike that car, which is based on an expensive bespoke platform, the 500 shares with other small Fiats. Then there's the ownership experience; will the 500's quality levels and Fiat dealers' performance be able seriously to compete with the proposition offered by the Mini - just about the best resale on the market and staggeringly cheap multi-year servicing packages? We shall see.

Of the other cars short-listed this year, I particularly liked the new C-Class (brilliant steering - the thing everyone keeps mentioning) and the Kia cee'd - a great car with keen pricing and a fantastic warranty. But the new car that really got under my skin this year didn't even make it onto that short list. I'm talking about the Land Rover Freelander 2. Normally I think of soft-roaders as being a particularly pointless class of car, and the first-generation Freelander scarcely registered with me at all. But the all-new model is a supremely polished product. Subtly improved styling, a great diesel engine, a beautiful interior and a commanding driving position surprisingly reminiscent of that offered by the larger Land Rover models. Great stuff.

Lots of BMW stuff

Just back from Wiltshire, where I had the chance to try a lot of new BMW model variants. On the face of it what was on show was a range of mid-life updates to the X3, 6 series coupe and 5 series saloon, as well as the new coupe version of the 1 series. Some of this stuff was nevertheless very impressive.

First, the 1 series coupe; I tried two versions of this. The first was the 123d, which despite its name has a 2.0 litre, rather than 2.3 litre diesel engine. It's not just any old 2.0 litre diesel engine though - with 204 horsepower, it's actually the most powerful production 2.0 litre diesel in the world, and, as one of the men from BMW pointed out, provides a specific output of over 100 horsepower per litre, which is the sort of thing you'd traditionally expect from one of the BMW M cars. I also tried the 3.5 litre petrol version of the 1, which was very quick indeed and good value at about £26,000, considering how much performance it provides.


From the most powerful 2.0 litre diesel engine in the world to the most powerful 3.0 litre diesel you can buy, fitted to the misleadingly titled 635d. Wonderful, that's all I can say.


But my personal favourite was the superficially less exciting 520d - this has had its power boosted to 177 horsepower, and when it is equipped with an automatic transmission, as in the case of the one I tried, it is extremely refined. The only drawback of this car from BMW's point of view must surely be that anyone who tries it just won't see the point in buying one of the more expensive models in the range. The same engine does a similarly effective job of powering the X3, which seems to have a much classier interior than it used to.


As well as their impressive on-road performance, these cars all turn in some of the best official fuel consumption and CO2 emissions figures around.

Jaguar XF - great car but too few choices?

This is the new XF, the successor to the old S-Type. If the photos and initial reports are anything to go by, this is going to be a great car. Jaguar seems to have finally shaken off its obsession with retro and produced something stunning - dare I say it even looks a bit like a four-door Aston?



But I still have one or two concerns. In the initial line-up, there's no room for the brilliant 3.6 litre V8 diesel that is used to such magnificent effect in the big Land Rovers. In fact, this hasn't made it into any Jaguar model so far. The XF makes do with the admittedly very agreeable 2.7 litre V6 diesel but could do with the extra firepower in order to compete more effectively with the Germans. Come on, Jag, get cracking. This is urgent stuff.

It's lower down the range, though, that I see the biggest problem. Mercedes and BMW sell far more units of the E Class and 5 Series than Jag does of the S-Type. IMHO, that's not because the Jag is inferior but has much more to do with the fact that Jaguar only competes with the top end of the 5 Series and E Class ranges. The lower-end BMW 523i and 520d, and Mercedes E220CDI are convincing products to which the S-Type range had no response, a mistake - for that is what I think it is - repeated with the initial XF line-up. There was a 2.5 litre petrol version of the S-Type for a bit, but this always seemed to be the poor relation of the range.

Really, there are no bad Jags. Rather, I think the problem has always been that the company tends to produce good cars that slightly miss the mark in market terms (too small, say, or too big or too retro) - unlike Land Rover, its sister company, which hits the bull's eye every time. But I'd love Jaguar to prove me wrong with the XF - and I can't wait to get the chance to drive it.

MINI Clubman - how Mini, how British?

It's hard to believe it but the BMW MINI - or the 'shouty' Mini as I always think of it because of BMW's insistence on spelling the name out in capitals - has been around for about six years and is now in its second generation.


Even today, old bores like me scrutinise BMW's every move for evidence that the company is compromising on the car's Britishness. On the face of it the new Clubman seems to confirm the worst. The single rear side door is optimised for left-hand drive markets, which is to say, it is mounted on the right. That means British rear seat passengers step out into the traffic, not on to the kerb.

Continental and US markets favoured over British buyers? In fairness, I think not. The main reason no rear door can be fitted to the Clubman's left side is that the fuel filler is in the way. And the fuel filler is only on the left hand side because that's the traditional location - the nearside - for the fuel cap on a British RHD car.

Personally, I'd like to have seen BMW be just a little more ambitious with the Clubman, giving it a bit more of a stretch both within the wheelbase and in the tail, i.e. more of an 'estate' shape, in order really to sort the rear legroom and provide some decent luggage space. I think a couple of Italian coachbuilders were offering conversions along these lines. And I'm not too sure I like the - I hope optional - trim that can be seen on some publicity shots, which presumably pays homage to the rear wooden exterior frame on the original. I believe the wood was purely ornamental on the original Mini, compared with the Morris Minor, on which it was structural (I think I've remembered that correctly). But it's still a welcome addition, and I'm sure that like everything else BMW has done with the MINI, it'll be a raging success - and at least the original squared-off Clubman nose hasn't been revived.

What's outside today 15 - Saab 93 BioPower

This is the BioPower version of the Saab 93. That means it can run either on normal unleaded or E85, a mix of 85% bioethanol and 15% unleaded. Externally, it's more or less indistinguishable from the standard model - apart, that is, from the enormous BioPower stickers attached to the sides of this test example.


Yesterday, I took it out on one of my favourite test routes - setting out from Cambridgshire to Norwich on the A11 before heading north to Cromer on the North Norfolk coast and than back home via Cley, Fakenham and Swaffham.

All jolly agreeable, and a route that allowed me to take in a stop-off at a Morrison E85 pump for a quick top-up - the one at the Norwich store, which lies within the shadow of the Carrow Road football ground, in fact.


Got back home in a good mood late in the evening, my head full of moderately warm thoughts towards the comfy, inoffensive if rather bare Saab. Made a cup of tea and casually picked up my copy of the delivery note for the 93 in order to take a closer look at it. What followed was the worst case of what Americans call 'sticker shock' I've had in connection with a Verdict test car since Ford sent us an admittedly very impressive Focus diesel estate about two years ago that had been specced up to the eyeballs for an on the road price of about 25 grand. The Saab - which I should, in fairness, mention is the priciest Vector Sport variant fitted with a few options like metallic paint - comes out at a scarcely believable GBP28,000.


I've always had a soft spot for Saabs and I'm a strong supporter of what the company is doing in promoting E85 with its BioPower models. But that price seems to be hopelessly ambitious to me. Remember that a Skoda Octavia is probably at least as well built as a Saab and, despite being Golf-based, is probably as roomy (in particular where luggage, as opposed to passenger space is concerned) as a 93. But Octavia prices start at about 11 grand; the deeply impressive and very rapid vRS estate version costs about GBP18,500.

Some other yardsticks - Mercedes C Class prices start at GBP23 thousand, BMW 3 Series prices at less than GBP21 thousand. And the Vauxhall Vectra estate starts at less than GBP16K - that's relevant because, as General Motors products, the 93 and the Vectra have quite a lot in common under the skin.

Motoring memories 1 – the launch of the Austin Metro at the NEC Motor Show in 1980

Back in 1980 there was only one story at the Motor Show – the launch of the new Metro, seen as a make-or-break model for British Leyland, then under the management of Sir Michael Edwardes, in the face of scepticism from the recently elected Thatcher government.

At some unearthly hour – I think it was 5am - my equally car-mad school pal Bruce and I got a lift from Bruce's dad to the station for the long journey from deepest Essex to Birmingham. If I remember correctly, we arrived at about 9.30 but the official opening time was 10. Even so, in the excitement (yes, I agree this seems fairly sad from today's perspective), we ran for what felt like miles through the station and the NEC complex to the exhibition entrance, and were rewarded with the discovery that the doors were already open. For a short while, we had the show more or less to ourselves, and made an immediate bee-line for the Metros on the BL stand. We sat in that year's hottest car and gave it a quick once over before deciding to come back later on for a proper look. Of course, when we returned, the BL stand was just one enormous bun-fight with hundreds of eager punters all clamouring to touch or even just catch a glimpse of the Metro, and we couldn't get anywhere near the cars again.

The Metro was a success but it had to soldier on well beyond its sell-by date – its replacement would have been the MINI but BMW kept that for itself, so the short-lived City Rover, based on Tata's Indica had to do the job for MG Rover instead.

Bruce and I have attended many motor shows together since, including, most recently, the latest London show at Expo in Docklands last year. But none have matched the 1980 Brum show for excitement.

Blast from the past 5 - Fiat 500

The Fiat 500 - seen here on Fiat's stand at this year's Geneva Salon d'Automobile. The 500 was built from 1957 to 1975 (although the estate version carried on a little longer) and was replaced by the less visually appealing 126. This 500 is sometimes referred to as the Topolino (or little mouse), although that name is more usually applied to its front-engined predecessor which was launched in 1937.


Of course, the 500 was on display at the Geneva show to promote the forthcoming Nuova 500, which borrows many of its styling themes. Not particularly convinced by most of these retro reinventions of old cars. Only the Mini (or MINI, as BMW insists on calling it) really works, and that's more because it's great to drive and all of the financial numbers stack up, rather than because it represents a true successor to the original Mini.

BMW's Hydrogen 7

I had the chance to try the Hydrogen 7 yesterday at the SMMT test day, and a quick spin around the high-speed bowl at Millbrook showed that while the current 7 has been around for a few years now, it's still pretty good to drive, and also that its impressive performance and refinement do not seem to suffer when this specially-converted version is running on hydrogen.

In fact the Hydrogen 7 is capable of using either hydrogen or unleaded and can even be switched between the two fuels on the move at the press of a button, a change that is scarcely felt at all by driver or passengers.

I haven't looked into hydrogen in as much detail as I have bio-fuels, but I understand that BMW's approach of using liquid hydrogen to power a combustion engine is comparatively unusual; my guess is that this is thought by the company to be the best way of developing cars that can run on alternative fuels but still retain the sporty qualities drivers value in a BMW.

One drawback is that the separate hydrogen tank used by this model eats into the 7's boot space (see photos below), although this is probably no worse than the boots of Lexus' big hybrids, which suffer a similar problem. This does however, remind us of a big advantage enjoyed by cars that can run on bioethanol-based E85, where both unleaded and the alternative fuel can be mixed in any proportions in the same fuel tank and use the same pipework.



At the moment, only about 100 Hydrogen 7s are being built and there is just one UK fuelling point (at Wembley in North London). It's difficult to see big numbers of liquid hydrogen cars being sold, at least until the infrastructure is better developed, but at least BMW is pushing things along. In the meantime, though, the measures incorporated into standard models under the manufacturer's Efficient Dynamics programme, such as cutting, and then automatically restarting, cars' engines when stopped, and exploiting regenerative braking, are likely to have more of an impact.

Proton Gen-2 - beige banished

A long, full and very enjoyable visit to the SMMT test day at Millbrook. More to follow on that but I thought I'd quickly just get this photo up of the Proton Gen-2's new interior colours.


As this shot shows, the Gen-2's dash and interior trim now have a much more sober colour scheme using darkish grey shades that are more in tune with European tastes than the light colours Proton previously used.

The basic architecture of the interior, which I personally find quite attractive, especially the Lotus-style stacked dials ahead of the gear lever, seems to be unchanged. I'm not sure to what extent the textures or materials have been improved, but the change in colours alone gives the Gen-2 quite a lift, as does the free leather upholstery that is being fitted at the moment.

Also visible in this shot is Proton's sword-grip style handbrake handle, which I've always considered a bit naff, but today I drove the Mazda RX-8, which has something similar, and convinced myself that it looked pretty good. It just goes to show how our responses to features like this are conditioned by the badge a car carries. Put it this way; if BMW had been the first to do this with its handbrake handles, everyone else would have copied it by now.

Greenery. There are other ways - perhaps

When it comes to green PR, Toyota seems to be making most of the running at the moment. Hollywood stars have been flocking to the Prius for a good few years now, and Toyota's hybrid also enjoys an exemption from the London congestion charge - evidence of some effective lobbying work, I guess. Honda gets quite a bit of kudos for going down the hybrid route too, while Ford, and especially Saab, have also won a certain amount of recognition for offering cars that can run on E85, which is 85% renewable bioethanol.

But a couple of other manufacturers are now starting to pipe up, and are politely pointing out that you can get some pretty good results in terms of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions without resorting to drastic solutions like stuffing a car full of batteries and electric motors, or switching to alternative fuels.

Citroen, for example, recently published a pamphlet listing some of its achievements in this area. This mentions its new C4 BioTech which can run on E85, and a prototype diesel hybrid C4, but the emphasis is very much on what it's already been able to do with smaller changes to mainstream cars - small diesel engines that have tailpipe emissions that are almost as low as those of the Prius, particulate filters, Sensodrive automated manual gearboxes and stop-start mechanisms that shut down the engine when a car is stationary and automatically restart when you go to set off.

BMW is another manufacturer that is introducing a lot of these smaller changes in its mainstream cars, as I discovered when I spent yesterday trying some of the company's revamped models in Wiltshire. The main visible changes are modest (to my eye barely noticeable) facelifts for the 1-series and the 5-series, and the introduction of a new pretty three door version of the 1. Under the skin, though, there is a bit more going on, a series of improvements that are being introduced piecemeal to different models under the general heading 'Efficient Dynamics'. This comprises stuff like better diesels, energy-saving electric power steering, regenerative braking and a stop-start system similar to Citroen's. The idea is to save fuel without cutting down on the sort of driving enjoyment that BMWs are famous for, and in this the company seems to have succeeded. I was able to try the revised 535d and 118d; the latter had the stop-start system, which works almost imperceptibly; the engine is cut out if you put the car into neutral with the brakes on, say when you stop for a traffic light. The engine restarts immediately as soon as you depress the clutch and put the car into gear. I was impressed to discover that a by-product of the new start system is the car's ability to restart automatically if you stall it as I did on one occasion.



It wasn't all incremental changes, though; for the longer term, BMW is betting on hydrogen in liquid form. I had a chance to see, but not to drive, a 7 series converted to run on the fuel; this had part of its bodywork cut away to show off the big hydrogen tank that sits between the boot and the back seat. There's a chance the Independent may get to try one of these priceless cars - there is a limited production run of 100 for the time being, with only a few making it to the UK - later this year, so I'll be eager to see whether I can get my hands on it.