Look-a-likes

People say cars all look alike these days.

Cross-over SUVs certainly do.

So it's nice to see something that doesn't look like the rest.

For example Car+Driver are today enthusing about the 2024 Maserati GranCabrio - a car not aimed at grans.

This is what it looks like:

Nothing at all like an early Jag F-Type.

Yesterday, they were talking about the new Lucid Air:

As opposed to the slightly cheaper Peugeot 508...

But at least they aren't crossover-SUVs.

Now, talking about motors and similarities, try listening to this without thinking about Grandstand:

Double Cab U-Turn

No, not taxi cabs - although the rules say that in London at least, they have to be able to do a U-Turn within a 25 foot turning circle.

This story, though, is about double-cab pickup trucks like this one...

...and the rules concerning the tax on them.

I saw this story at lunchtime on the Auto Express website but that appears to be broken right now so here's a link to the local newspaper of the small Hampshire town of Fleet - Fleet News.

On Monday last week, the HMRC announced that vehicles like that yellow one above would be treated as cars rather than commercial vehicles and would therefore no longer be getting the tax breaks afforded to commercial vehicles.

This upset quite a few people - business people and farmers and people who sell double-cab pick-up trucks.

On Thursday, the Government got thrashed in a by-election.  Not really relevant  to this but it pleased me and it's further proof that The Conservatives don't want to be upsetting people - especially business people and farmers and people who sell double-cab pick-up trucks. 

So yesterday the Government did a U-Turn. Nigel Huddleston, financial secretary to the Treasury, said: “We will change the law at the next available Finance Bill in order to avoid tax outcomes that could inadvertently harm farmers, van drivers and the UK’s economy.”

Then maybe they shouldn't have made a law that produced tax outcomes that could inadvertently harm farmers, van drivers and the UK’s economy.

But, let's be honest - they do have form.

Putin gives his little friend a small Japanese hatchback

Everyone's favourite desperate despot (and Ash Sutton lookalike) has given another despot a Toyota Auris:

Although looking at the picture it looks more like a stretched Chrysler 300.

The BBC have the story here.

It's true, Vladimir Putin has gifted Kim Jong-Un an Aurus.

Maybe they should call it the "Kim John Uranus".

This is presumably toadying as Vlad needs to keep Kimmy on his good side.

Looking again at the story it would appear that "Kim Jong-un is believed to be a car enthusiast" - so not all bad then?

And it would also appear that the gift in question was not a Toyota but actually an Aurus limousine.

Bet Donny was jealous.

Medium Wave Goodbye

My in-car entertainment does not include AM radio. 

I'm not convinced that there is much on AM these days anyway.  Radio Wales claim to still be there but I've not picked it up in years.

Good job they are on FM & DAB.

My car doesn't have a CD or cassette or 8-Track player either.  Not a problem as I can just play the stuff on my phone via Bluetooth if I'm not in a radio listening mood.

And no AM shouldn't be a problem either as I am European not American.

According to Car+Driver, over there they are planning to legislate such that all new cars should have AM.

There is some logic to it as AM can cover further distances as mentioned here in this interesting comparison.  That would make it more suitable for some of the more remote States.  And, according to C+D, "In July 2022, one of Canada's largest cellular providers suffered a cross-country outage that left some 12 million people without coverage. But AM radio still provided news and traffic information"

However, that makes it awkward for car manufacturers (apparently EVs in particular will struggle with interference) and it would be expensive to redesign the hardware.

C+D added one of their famous surveys to the article and it looks like there is a small majority who still want AM - maybe they were swayed by the sentence, "Proponents say passing the Act is about providing emergency services or free speech."

In the survey, I went with "You must be joking. It's 2023"

It took one of the commenters to point out that it is actually 2024.

Another one came up with the solution to this problem - carmakers should give away a free AM transistor radio with each new car.

This one costs £9.98 on Amazon and is an ideal gift for a friend who likes to pretend to be an old lady.

Parisian Walkway

At the rate the current mayor is going, that'll be the only way to get around Paris.

First she banned electric scooters.

Now she's making it very expensive to park SUVs in the city.

She's had a vote and 3.11% of the the Paris population said it was a good idea.  How pathetic!  After all, a whole 7.2% wanted to see the back of the scooters.

Needless to say, lot's of people didn't vote.

But how are they defining an SUV?  After all, Volvo define a Polestar 2 as an SUV - and it's very similar in size (including ride-height) to my S60.

So not an SUV.

Apparently, they are going on weight.

But then electric cars are REALLY heavy, what about them?

Well, they are exempt.

As are taxi drivers, tradespeople, health-workers and people with disabilities.

So probably most people in Paris then.

Or, perhaps Mme.Hidalgo is a petrol-head.

Could you imagine if it did actually have an effect?  Imagine a city with no scooters and SUVs!  Just proper cars!

And imagine an end to this sort of thing:

Tesla Sunk

No this isn't an update on Wednesday's post.

This is the story of somebody in Norway driving their Tesla into a fjord and being rescued by people on a floating sauna.

I know.

But you can see it here.

Strange that the first question you ask yourself isn't, "Why have they driven in to the water?"