Genesis Line-Up

I'm more of the Phil Collins time than the Peter Gabriel.

I always think of Collins as a Tory sell-out.  He said he'd leave the country if Labour got in.

Rock and Roll, Phil.

But of course, this is a car blog so I am talking about Genesis the car brand.  They have entered the UK market and their line-up is here.  The G80 is featured in this month's Top Gear magazine - it gets 7 out of 10.

Genesis is the upmarket Hyundai brand.

Like Acura is Honda's, Lexus is Toyota's and Infiniti is Nissan's.

Acura never came to the UK, Lexus is very successful while Infiniti tried but gave up last year.  If they had hung on a bit longer, they could have revelled in Ash Sutton's astonishing success in the BTCC in one of their cars - and maybe sold a few more.

Car+Driver have a story about the new all-electric Genesis GV60 coming to America:

It has a fancy gear-knob described as, "an illuminated 'crystal sphere'"

Being a Korean company selling to America, they won't realise that that choice of car colour makes it look like a Citroen Cactus:

That's All.

Urban Grim

No - I don't mean Grime.

Here's Citroen's fairly recently launched Urban EV - the Ami:

It sort of makes the old Ami look acceptable:

And now it has competition.

According to Autocar today, "New ACM City One is battery-swapping urban EV" and "New Opel Rocks-e is Citroen Ami-based urban EV for Germany"

Here's the ACM City One:

Those aren't the batteries on the roof.  I suppose it isn't horrendous on the outside.

But it is on the inside:

Very grim.  Although I do miss a good old-fashioned rocker switch.  And it seems to have heated seats.

It is German - like of course Opel are.  Their new product though is very French:

Obviously taking advantage of one of their Stellantis stablemates.

I don't know if Rocks-e has some significance in German - would a Vauxhall version be called a Roxy?

The story states, "The 2.41m-long, 471kg EV is almost visually unaltered, too, save for the addition of a new 'Vizor'-style front end panel, which brings the Rocks-e into line with Opel-Vauxhall's more mainstream cars."

"The Vizor style front end panel?"  They've just swapped the Citroen badge for an Opel badge!  Mind you, the Opel badge is well suited for an EV.

Top speed is 28mph so probably not one for the Autobahns.

Opel has confirmed its model will head for other markets in 2022, following a German market launch this autumn - this Stellantis-brand badge would fit on the front:

Open Door Policy

What is the difference between in-laws and outlaws?

Outlaws are wanted.

One of my in-laws posted this video on Facebook yesterday:

Several questions and his driver's side rear door were raised.

Did you see the price of the petrol there?  I paid 131.7 a litre yesterday at the local Asda and thought that was bad - interestingly the same price for petrol as for diesel.

The slightly bigger question, though, is "Why was it being driven along with the bloody door open?"

The driver must have known - apparently there are loads of warning gongs that go off if you try to do that sort of thing.

Had the door mechanism failed?  Was he showing off?  In either case, you'd think he might allow a bit of extra space for the overhang when driving through London traffic.

It must have been quite traumatic for the bus driver so I feel ashamed for laughing at my favourite comment added under the Post:

"Typical bus driver, never looks where he's going!"

Arriverderci, Roma

 This rather handsome chap is Mario Lanza:

and this rather handsome car is a Ferrari Roma:

I went down a little Internet rabbit-hole today thanks to a Car+Driver story.

Mario sang "Arriverderci, Roma" and when I looked him up on Google, one of the popular questions about him is apparently, "How much did Mario Lanza weigh at death?"

The answer is 250lbs which is just shy of 18 stone in English money.

This would have made him a bit wide.

Like the Ferrari Roma.

Which costs between 200 and 300 thousand US Dollars which is about 150-225 thousand quid in English money.

Don't know what that is in Euros but whoever decided to drive one down this narrow street probably does:

I'm intrigued by the woman who approaches part way through - is she miffed because she can't get down the road - or is it her car?

Scoot Away

There is so much wrong with this story.

The main problem is that it is a Mail story.

You can tell it is a Mail story by the crappy adverts, the thinly disguised excuses to have lots of stories about scantily clad women down the right-hand column and the comments section full of ignorant people who think that Gary Lineker is a Marxist.

But sometimes, on rare occasions, I will have a quick look at the motoring section in there just in case there is something worth commenting on.

This particular story claims that "A driver has described being left stunned after spotting an e-scooter zipping past his car on the motorway"  The stunned driver still managed to provide some photographs since "his friend managed to snap a quick picture"

He also managed to sell his story to The Mail.

Here is one of a choice of at least two quick pictures:

Was his friend sat on his lap as he was driving?  He doesn't state just how good a friend he is but that looks just as dangerous as riding a scooter along the M42 hard shoulder.

He added, "I have an e-scooter that I use regularly, but I'd never dream of being that stupid"

I wonder where he rides it given that it is illegal to use private e-scooters on public roads or pavements.

Anyway, here is a Muppet called Scooter:

Not to be confused with a muppet riding a scooter or a muppet selling a story about a muppet riding a scooter or a muppet publishing a story about a muppet riding a scooter.

Or maybe a muppet creating a blog post about a muppet publishing a story about a muppet riding a scooter.