| The Truth About Cars

SUV Sales Up… In London

By Edward Niedermeyer
July 31, 2008 - 896 views

Despite the fact that SUV are PC pariahs in The Land of Hope and Glory, despite the fact that unleaded costs $8.74 per gallon, SUV sales are up 11 percent on the year. Londoners are buying up SUVs faster than any other municipality. As London's roads haven't reverted to potholes and cobblestones, there must be some other way to logically explain this trend-defying headline. Are the expat Russian billionaires beefing-up their security entourages? Are conservatives celebrating the demise of Ken Livingstone and his $50/day C-charge plan? Is Clarkson on a Landie kick? Why is Old Blighty leading the Charge of the Light Truck Brigade while we here In The Land of the Free run for our Priora at first sign of $4 gas? Whatever the reason keep in mind that Britons consider things like the Daihatsu Terios an "SUV"– even though it sports a 1.5-liter engine and gets a combined 35mpg. Um, not that there's anything wrong with that…

Posted in News Blog | Overseas | Sales | UK | 10 comments

UK to Install Security Cameras for Speed Cameras

By Robert Farago
July 28, 2008 - 33 views

Anyone remember the Monty Python sketch where lost explorers say "Hang on a minute, if we're lost, who's filming us?" And then they're shown greeting the camera crew. And then they repeat, "Hang on, who's filming them?" And reveal another camera crew. Well, you gotta give the Flying Circus credit for prescience. Pistonheads reports that "Angry motorists [in Lancashire] have twice torched the £24,000 speed camera, which is situated on the B5246 at Mere Bow, and last week it was pushed over. Now Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety is threatening to put up another camera to monitor the Gatso." The ire might have a little something to do with the fact that the Lancashire po-po had to rescind 545 speeding tickets for "improper calibration." Anyway, this would not be the UK's first camera-on-camera action. In fact, the most up-to-date UK speed cameras have a built-in security camera, and automatically notify the local constabulary when they're under attack. So the latest motto from The Land of Hope and Glory's glorious leaders must be "Tough on crime, tough on people inspired to commit crime by policing policies designed to raise revenues and punish otherwise law-abiding citizens, for their own good."

Pistonheads »

Posted in Crime & Punishment | News Blog | UK | 11 comments

GM Floats UK CO2 Extortion Scheme

By Robert Farago
July 27, 2008 - 15 views

$They\'re strangling us! (courtesy gmeurope.tv)$ When it comes to government-mandated corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) regs, I'm with GM Car Czar Bob Lutz. It's like forcing a clothing maker to sell smaller shirts to get people to lose weight. If you want to reduce obesity, just raise the price of food. [My add; even MB knows you can't threaten to starve people for their own good.] In any case, no matter what MB and his employer's representatives say, they have a consistent record of gaming the system. Flex-fuel credits anyone? The U.S. "light truck" CAFE exemption is/was The Mother of All Loopholes. (Who says there's no such thing as karma?) And now GM's playing the angles in Europe. The Times reports that UK PM Gordon Brown's entourage arrived at the London Auto show in some Indian sedans and SUVs and dangled £90m of UK taxpayer money for electric automobile development. Over five years. Available to someone. Depending on something. To which GM Europe Prez Carl-Peter Forster responded fuck that shit [paraphrasing]. GM's wants a national sponsor for a "super credit" scheme that would allow ultra-low carbon-dioxide vehicles (below 50g/km) to offset larger and more polluting models. "If Britain was prepared to champion this idea within the EU, GM would consider making its electric vehicles at the Ellesmere Port plant on Merseyside." Sweet.

The Times »

Another Scary Ass Story About UK Car Surveillance You’ll Probably Ignore

By Robert Farago
July 21, 2008 - 18 views

As someone who worked at Cable News Network from Day one to Day 3,650, I understand the true "news pyramid." At the top: international news. In the middle: local news. At the bottom (the foundation): what's going bad in your refrigerator. So I'm not really all that surprised that our largely U.S. audience couldn't give a rat's ass about the fact that the U.K. is rapidly becoming Orwellian, or even bother to wonder what Eric Arthur Blair was on about. Still, the anti-speeding jihad has opened the door to some truly frightening policing. The latest example [via Pistonheads]: "The number plates of speeding drivers will be flashed up on new ‘smart signs’ in a bid to shame them into slowing down… When fully operational, the system will flash up the number plate of any vehicles exceeding the speed limit as a visual reminder to drivers to slow down. The system includes a large trailer-mounted variable message sign and remote speed and Automatic Number Plate Recognition detection units." Privacy? "The agency said the data gathered will not be used for enforcement and the system does not record any personal data, therefore complying with the Data Protection Act." Call me a tin foil hat wearer, but do Brits really buy that?

Pistonheads »

Posted in Crime & Punishment | News Blog | UK | 21 comments

UK Texting Drivers Who Kill Face 7 Years In Prison

By Robert Farago
July 16, 2008 - 9 views

OK, we get it. If you're texting your BFF <3 whilst driving, cause an accident and kill someone, you do hard time. But if I read the Pistonheads story correctly, that's up to seven years. In other words, it's a maximum– not a minimum– sentence. And why pick on texting? Doesn't The Land of Hope and Glory have a general charge of "causing death by dangerous driving," or some such thing? Not yet, they don't. "Ministers now want to see the two new offences – causing death by careless driving and causing death while unlicenced, disqualified or uninsured – pushed through as soon as possible." Again, what's with a separate anti-texting caveat? "The council said it wanted to send a ‘clear message’ to those who text while driving that it will not be tolerated." Uh, OK. But I'm little concerned about the Council throwing the book at killer drivers with a history of "bad driving." "Very serious cases, where drugs, alcohol or persistent bad driving are involved, could warrant a jail term of up to 14 years, the [Sentencing Guidelines] council said." ?4U. Is it prima facie if you accidentally kill someone but have a bad driving record?

Pistonheads »

Posted in Crime & Punishment | News Blog | UK | 9 comments

Land Rover Donates 60 Vehicles to Red Cross

By Justin Berkowitz
July 9, 2008 - 34 views

The expression "doing well by doing good" is totally hot in business/academia. This Third Way thinking attempts to reconcile the [allegedly] conflicting notions of "making enough money to buy a Ferrari and a house in the Hamptons" and "getting enough props for being socially responsible to keep the trophy wife happy." As your average Land Rover belches-out enough CO2 to offend every environmental group on planet earth, Land Rover's got to hold a pity party to make their PC bones. And so they have, by donating 60 vehicles (48 Defenders, eight Discoveries and four Freelanders) to the British Red Cross (BRC) and other national Red Cross societies in "troubled" countries (Sierra Leone, Mongolia, Liberia, Lesotho, South Africa). Accepting the gift, Sir Nicholas Young, the CEO of the BRC, remarked that the people they help are often "in the places that are hardest to reach." True dat. And we applaud both the positive impact of this largesse and its PR efficacy. Every time the BBC shows all hell breaking loose somewhere, the guys handing out medical supplies and food are in a butch Defender 110. Our only question: why didn't Land Rover ship some free vehicles to the Red Cross (or other worthy group) in Tata's Indian pridelands?

Red Cross (UK) »

Bojo Kills C-Charge Hike, Pays Porsche Lawyer Bill

By Edward Niedermeyer
July 8, 2008 - 13 views

London's new Mayor Boris Johnson has scrapped his predecessors plans to hike congestion charges to nearly $50 per day, reports the Times. Not only has BoJo repealed Ken Livingstone's proposed fee bump, but he's even paid Porsche's six-figure legal bill after the German automaker lead the charge against the increase. "I am delighted that we have been able to scrap the £25 charge, which would have hit families and small businesses hardest," said Johnson. "I believe the proposal would actually have made congestion worse by allowing thousands of small cars in for free." And what makes "Red" Ken Livingstone most angry about the reversal of his controversial legacy? Environmental damage? Long commute times? No, it's the lost revenue for the city government. "The claim that £10m has been 'saved' by scrapping the CO2 charge is entirely false - in reality London will lose £30 million - £60million expected annual revenue from the scheme," said Livingstone. With that admission, any pretext that the beefed-up congestion charge is actually an environmental or traffic-calming measure is well and truly put to bed. Along with Mr Livingstone's political career. And good riddance too.

Posted in Green | News Blog | UK | 9 comments

BMW 7-Series Engines Revealed

By Justin Berkowitz
July 4, 2008 - 27 views

While the 4th is an American day of celebration, it's a day of national shame, disgust, and disappointment for our British friends across the Atlantic (Jeremy Clarkson, in particular, is said to be spending the day sobbing and eating some kind of pie with meat, rather than apples). To help combat their dreadful feelings, BMW of UK has put out a press release on the just revealed new uberlux 7-Series sedan. Not surprisingly, it will holster the new twin-turbo V8 engine (badged 750i in The Land of Hope and Glory). The 740i name returns, denoting the sublime 3.0-liter twin turbo six from the 335i, making 326hp– as much power as the last gen 745i V8. The force-fed six will rocket the 740i to 60 in six seconds. Naturally, the "Biggest Losers of 1777" will get a straight-six diesel 7, stumping-up 245 hp and returning some 32 mpg. BMW UK estimates the six-pot oil burner will account for 85 percent of 7-Series UK sales. With a 0 - 60mph time of 7.2 seconds, why not? So, is BMW ready to bring a six cylinder 7-Series to America? Uh, no. But ours (like theirs) will come with enough gizmos to make an S-Class nervous: optional four-wheel steering (!), side view cameras, variable damping suspension, night vision, and something called "post warranty heart attack." On sale in the UK in November; anticipate a similar date for us Yankees.

BMW (UK) »

Ford’s Fiesta ECOnetic to get 66 MPG?

By Justin Berkowitz
July 2, 2008 - 80 views

AutoExpress reports that Ford has prepped a not-so-mean but oh-so-green Fiesta ECOnetic for the British Motor Show. While not officially confirmed for production, odds are it will eventually hit (love tap?) the streets of The Land of Hope and Glory. The ECOnetic Fiesta will have a 1.6-liter turbodiesel powerplant with all of 89hp, as well as loads of aerodynamic mods. Equally important, the UK-market Fiesta will have low enough CO2 emissions to evade London's congestion charge. ECOnetic trim recently debuted on a European Ford Focus, with a claimed 55mpg. As Edward Neidermeyer reported, in real-life testing, the Focus ECOnetic that number dropped to some 37 mpg. If we saw a proportionate drop for the ECOnetic Fiesta, that would mean about 44 real world miles per gallon. That's still very impressive. The new model Fiesta isn't on sale yet, although it is coming to the US with gasoline engines about 12 - 18 months from now. [All numbers are US miles per gallon]