Jog On

 Ooh, look at this exciting car:

Then read today's Autocar headline:

Dacia Jogger is firm's "safest ever" car despite one-star NCAP score

Eek!

Then actually read the article.

It looks like they are being pragmatic about what to spend the cash on in order to make a reasonably-priced, seven-seater people-carrier.  And it doesn't seem too unsafe to me but I wouldn't buy one for other reasons like:

• I don't need a reasonably-priced, seven-seater people-carrier

and

• I'm a badge-snob.

Although when Marc Suss, Dacia’s vice president of engineering, says, "It is far safer than the Logan" then I wouldn't be too happy if I'd bought one of their C-Segment econoboxes - not that I would have because:

• I don't need a C-Segment econobox

and

• I'm a badge-snob.

I also won't be after a Dacia Jogger campervan as touted in this story.

This is because:

• I don't need a future-touted campervan

and

• I'm a badge-snob.

Space Tourism

It looks like NASA are not very pleased with Elon Musk sending his Tesla Roadster off to discover new worlds.

Here's the Metro (the newspaper not the motoring Blogger) story.

 

They are worried about space junk. (They being NASA, not me or the Metro newspaper)

 

I would be more worried about finding charging points.

 

Or more philosophical questions like, "If it was travelling at the Speed of Light, what would happen when you switched on the headlamps?"

 

Anyway, at least the thought of cars touring about space is pretty exciting.

 

Which is presumably why Citroen have a car called a Spacetourer.  They've had it for a couple of years but I never noticed.

 

Presumably because it is this...

- a van-sized people-carrier.

 

I only found out about it today because I read this Autocar story about Citroen renaming their C4 Picassos to be C4 Spacetourers - to bring them into line with it.

 

Now I regard people-carriers (or MPVs) as highly as I regard SUVs and CUVs. In other words - I don't.

 

Someone in the Citroen marketing department is being very optimistic.

 

Maybe they need a rocket under them.

El Nombre del Coche

Buenos Días.

According to Autoguide, Seat are opening up the naming of their new model to the general public.

It's going to be an SUV slotting into their range above the Ateca which isn't a bad-looking car despite being an SUV:

There is  certain samey-ness to most SUVs nowadays - mainstream manufacturers all seem to be concentrating on different sized cross-overs.  Which is boring.  But people keep buying the things so I can't really criticise the business model.

 

Shame.

Anyway, Autoguide announce that the new car won't end up with the name Carry McCarface.  This is a reference to the Polar Research Ship The RRS Sir David Attenborough currently being built up the road from my house.  That ship may have been called Boaty McBoatface if the general public had got their way.

But they didn't.

And Seat insist that their cars are named after Spanish places so it's not an issue.

And when they say "above the Ateca", they don't say if it will be a replacement for the Alhambra (which is more of a people-carrier) or it's going to fit into the range between the two.

I've checked the map and, depending on which route you take, half-way between Ateca and Alhambra is a small place called Buendía.  Which means "Good Day" - a very positive name for a car.

Or they could go for a little town to the South-West of Pamplona.

Adiós.

Some Say... ...He Drives a Kia.

And not a reasonably-priced Kia Cee-apostrophe-D.

There's not a lot to add to this ad review in Car&Driver.

Kia are using, not one, but four, Stig-alikes to advertise the latest version of their Sedona people-carrier.

But it looks like have bottled it when it comes to putting it on Youtube:


They have "digitally enhanced" it.  But black helmets!?  Worried about a lawsuit?

 Maybe the original Stig will want to sue now.

My Family

No, not the popular BBC Sitcom which, in the good old days featured the brilliant Kris Marshall before he went off to appear in the terrible BT adverts which then went on to spawn another series of even worse BT adverts.

 

No, I am talking about the My Family stick people who have taken Australian rear car windows by storm and are apparently doing the same here.

I learnt about them from this Independent story by Gillian Orr (or "Grr!" to her friends).  The idea is you buy stickers to match your own family which can include grandparents and pets.

I wasn't too sure myself - I'm not too keen on window stickers that obstruct views and I also think of them like tattoos which I also don't like as I see it as defacing something nice like a human body or my car.

 

But then I took a look at their UK Website and started selecting characters that matched my own family.  Quite good fun but I won't be shelling out the £9.96 it would cost for these four people.  This will also discrimate against people with big families - it could cost a fortune and they won't be able see properly out of the back of their people-carriers.

Apparently, in Australia, there has been a bit of a backlash and various spoof versions are now appearing including pregnant teens and families with nooses.

Grr! states that "It is yet to be seen whether My Family Stickers will be a big hit over here, but you can bet they’ll be every bit as divisive"

 

Nah, I doubt if most people will even notice them.