What does a Renault 5 cost?

About £23K

But that's one of the brand new, most excellent, electric ones.

I was watching an episode of Flipping Bangers this week.

It's a programme I saw a series of a few years back and quite enjoyed.  I assumed that there was only one series and thought no more about it.

Then they started showing more episodes this year.

Then I saw the two blokes off it at The Classic Motor Show talking about their latest endeavours.  Turns out they've gone onto YouTube.

Anyway, I must have been watching Series 2, Episode 7.

It was an original Mark I Renault 5.

They bought it for £1000 and spent £485 doing it up.

I've just found out they they bought it off Sam Brackley, son of Paul Brackley - the mechanic off Wheeler Dealers in the Edd days.

They didn't do anything about the brown headlining or dodgy dash area above the ashtray.  It had obviously spent a lot of time being smoked in.  They didn't mention a smell though.

It also had some black tape pretending to be trim going between the wheels at the bottom of the doors.  They sort of sorted that.

They did do some actually vital stuff too.

Then they sold it to a dealer for £2600.

This was in 2019.

As soon as I saw the car I thought I recognised it - had I remembered it from seeing the show a few years back?

Nope - it wasn't series two that they broadcast.

Turns out I remembered it from here.

Twincam, another of my favourite Youtubers, has some sort of arrangement with auction house Manor Park Classics.

He reviewed it and they sold it last year.

For £4140.

Somebody somewhere has probably not done very well out of that between 2019 and 2024.

It still had the horrible headlining.

So I'll have one of the new ones please.

Van Gogh-ing Nowhere

I had to register to read this article in Autocar.

It was free but I didn't have to register when I read it at lunchtime.

And now they have my details - I've ticked all the don't send me stuff boxes.

On top of that, do I want an organisation who have produced an article with a massive flaw in it having my details?

For those of you who haven't read the article or don't want to register to read the article, they are stating that UK vehicle production is dramatically down on the same period last year due to a significant drop in commercial vehicle production - 78% in fact.

They state that the SMMT have stated that the fall was "mainly down to work taking place at Stellantis’s Ellesmere Port plant, which is being upgraded to take on extra workload resulting from the closure of the firm's Luton factory."

I think, the fall may actually be down to something alluded to there that happened in March - THE CLOSURE IF THE FIRM'S LUTON FACTORY.

Jacked Up

Sometimes when you're walking along the pavement, you may see a glove or a baby's hat on a fence or wall.

Someone has lost it and some other kind soul has put it somewhere safe and visible for when whoever lost it goes back to retrace their steps.

Today I saw this:

I can only assume that somebody had a puncture, swapped the wheel at the roadside then completely forgot about their jack.

And whoever found it and put it out of the way of being a trip-hazard is a diamond.

A Jack of Diamonds.

A Ginger Car for Ginger People

 All of the main car news sites I visit had this one - but Autocar had it first so I'll link to them.

Not sure why they've named it after popular 1970s beat combo ELO though.

It is electric and quite light but absolutely nothing to do with an orchestra.

They claim that it is named after the second letters of the words rest, play and work.

Which should, of course, be "Work, Rest & Play"

But that would be OEL which is harder to say.  It's also the last three letters of Noel.

Which is more appropriate for December and not the first three letters of Elon.

I think I quite like Citroen's new concept MPV:

It's very Citroen.

The interior is very strange and seems to be a mobile office and bedroom (with no curtains)

Lots of weird innovations that you need to read the article to get the full story.

Lots of Blue Sky thinking that if I tried to explain would just lead to confusion.

Kei Proposals

 The orange man-baby has been waxing lyrical about Kei cars.

He has  called them "cute" and "beautiful."

Car+Driver have the story here.

As usual, he is wrong.

Also as usual with Trump, whoever speaks to him most recently is the one he is in agreement with.

He "touted how smaller cars are more efficient thanks to their smaller engines, and he specifically named brands like Honda and Toyota as potential sources for these machines."

Then he will speak to someone from Ford or the oil industry.

He also spoke about how if these cars were to be made available in The States, that they would need to be built there.

Not convinced - Americans don't have a good history of building small cars.