Mini Me

I got a book about Minis for Christmas - I found it very interesting - there were even a few mentions of the Metro. I used to drive a Mini back in my student days at the end of the Eighties. It was a 1-litre Mayfair and it was an automatic so you could beat anything away from the lights.

In those days, a Mini Clubman looked like this...

It was basically a standard Mini with a square front and a better dash.

So when MINI (note the capital letters - it's how you're supposed to distinguish the new BMW-Owned version) announced their Clubman you could be forgiven for thinking there would be a similar revision but no - this was to be an estate variant. Now Mini-traditionalists would expect this to be called a Traveller or Countryman like this example here...

Doesn't that look good? Any road up, the MINI Clubman (capital letters!) was a pretty good car except for the doors. They went with the split side-opening rear doors which irritated some drivers due to rear view issues. But I quite like the retro look so that's not my beef. My beef is the suicide-side door behind the driver's door - BMW refused to put this on the left-hand side for right-hand-drive cars so anyone getting out of the back using this door has to do so into the road rather than onto the pavement. This was well-documented when this car was launched in 2008 but I do think that the design of a British-built car based on a British icon should cater for British roads.

The latest incarnation of MINI, due to go on sale in the Autumn, does now use the Countryman name. I spotted this short film on the Fifth Gear site a couple of weeks back and Top Gear Magazine have done a brief review of it. It seems to be bigger than most MINIs - in fact it is Golf-sized (don't you just hate those "it's like a Golf but not a Golf" ads? - maybe I'll do a post about car ads - after all I did do car insurance ads) It has two separate fully-adjustable rear seats (with the option of a bench instead but how often do Mini (or MINI) drivers have three people in the back of their cars?) It also has the option of four-wheel drive which makes you feel a bit safer in the current weather but stuffs your fuel economy. Most importantly, it has conventional, non-controversial rear doors. It does seem, though, to be getting even further away from the true Mini ethos but why not?

For the Mini-traditionalist who likes the MINI, there is the entry-level MINI First and for the Mini-traditionalist who doesn't like the MINI, there are plenty of good, nippy, reliable and cheap small (even Mini-sized) cars from Japan, Korea and Malaysia. And for the real Mini-traditionalist, there are still plenty of real Minis built in the '80s and '90s on the market - I regularly see one on a 51-plate as well.

Faulty Toyotas...

...starring John Creese.

Toyota are fitting a new override system to all of their new cars.

According to BBC News, President Akio Toyoda told reporters in Tokyo that the new system would cut engine power when the accelerator and brakes are applied at the same time.

I think I can see the logic here. If your accelerator pedal is wedged on, then your natural initial reaction would be to use the brake. I'm not sure exactly how the fault fully manifests itself, but if the override actually requires you to put your foot on the accelerator, then this is definitely not going to work in a heading-towards-a-tree-at-40mph situation.

Another problem is that when the engine is switched off, you will lose power-steering and braking capacity as well. Part of the advice currently being given is that switching off the engine will help in a runaway situation but don't take the key out!! - or your steering lock will kick in and much damage will ensue.

I also think any racing or rally drivers might have issues with this solution if every time they use left-foot braking, their cars cut out.

Overall, though, this is obviously a big exercise in reassurance - it probably won't add too much to the cost of manufacture since it will be installed on the production lines. Current owners know that Toyota make good cars and potential future owners will gain a bit of confidence in their purchase.

So Who Makes The Most Reliable Cars?

When I was a nipper, if something had "Made in Japan" stamped on it, you knew it was cheap rubbish. Then, as the Modern Romantics made way for Stock, Aitken and Waterman, the Japanese slowly and quietly sorted out their quality issues and started to build good, cheap, boring cars, the most prolific of which being the many guises of the Toyota Corolla.

Since these were now gaining a reputation for not breaking down, they lost their cheap image and started to put up their prices. This left a nice little niche for the Koreans closely followed by the Malaysians. Remember the excitement of seeing "Made in Korea" on the back of your radio-cassette player? No, me neither.

Any road up, nowadays, I tend to think of cars as follows:

Japanese: Reliable, Boring
Italian: Faulty Wiring, Rusty
French: Stylish, Break down a lot
German: Prestige, Expensive, Reliable Image
American: Big, Fast in a straight line, Cheap Interiors
Korean: Cheap but Reliable
Malaysian: Slightly cheaper than Korean
British: Foreign-owned, More reliable than in the past

Of course there are exceptions to prove all the rules - you couldn't call a Nissan Skyline or Subaru Impreza boring. Lamborghini are part of the VW/Audi Group and have the engines and knowledge that go with that. My Mercedes was built in Germany in 1999 but had many issues shared with Mercs of a similar age outsourced to America and South Africa - I had to superglue on the air-vent handles that fell off and had fuel sender issues resolved under warranty and an expensive battery replacement done out of warranty. Americans are now testing their new cars at the Nürburgring with a view to appealing to European customers.

Reviews of new Renault, Peugeots and Citroens report a massive increase in quality but only time will tell - I still see quite new Lagunas and Meganes being tended to by the Recovery Services.

By getting into bed with the Japanese, the French have been upping their act - comparing the current Nissan and Renault ranges show a lot of cars that look identical apart from the badges - probably because they are. The Vauxhall plant in Luton produce Vauxhall, Opel, Nissan and Renault vans on the same production line.

Similarly, the Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1 are all effectively the same car, built on the same line in the Czech Republic. Oops - this means that now two French names are now subject to the same recalls that are currently embarrassing the World's largest car manufacturer, Toyota.

Toyota claim that the "sticky-brake-pedal" syndrome is not dangerous as long as you get it fixed if you start to notice the problem - that is assuming your local Toyota dealer will have the capacity to handle your case since they are now starting a massive recall programme. This is on top of a floormat-impeding-on-the-pedals recall and now a Prius Braking Issue which has allegedly led to some crashes in The States.

Overall, the recalls are expected to cost Toyota a couple of billion dollars worldwide to remedy. This comes as they just announced a $1.68bn profit for the last Quarter of 2009 following larger losses. The bigger impact, though, may well be on the reputation of the Toyota name.

I suspect, since Toyotas, and Japanese cars in general, tend to keep going for years, that they will soon get over this. But only time will tell.

A Sexist Car-related Joke

One Winter morning a husband and wife in Southern Wyoming were listening to the radio during breakfast. They heard the announcer say, "We are going to have 8 to 10 inches of snow today. You must park your car on the even-numbered side of the street, so the snowploughs can get through

So the good wife went out and moved her car.

A week later while they are eating breakfast again, the radio announcer said, "We are expecting 10 to 12 inches of snow today. You must park your car on the odd-numbered side of the street, so the snowploughs can get through."
The good wife went out and moved her car again.

The next week they are again having breakfast, when the radio announcer says, "We are expecting 12 to 14 inches of snow today. You must park..." Then the electric power went out.

The good wife was very upset, and with a worried look on her face she said, "Honey, I don't know what to do. Which side of the street do I need to park on so the snowploughs can get through?"

With the love and understanding in his voice that all men who are married to Blondes exhibit, the husband replied,

"Why don't you just leave it in the garage this time?"

Petrol Prices Going up Again

I've just filled up my car at 107.9p a litre at my local Shell station. That seems to be a good price - Tescos are asking 111.9p at the moment and I have seen higher.

I don't live too far from the main refinery at Stanlow so that may help but when I visit my in-laws out Manchester way (or is it my out-laws in Manchester way?) I see the prices tend to be about 4p a litre dearer than home.

I'm sure that prices must be at the level they were a year or two back when we had fuel protests and blockades and everyone drove at 60mph on the Motorways to conserve fuel. This time around, I guess there is less fuss because of a combination of the recession and newer cars are actually getting significantly more fuel-efficient. Nobody wants to rock the boat and fewer miles are being travelled enyway.

Here's a graph I stole from moneyweek.com showing oil prices:

It seems to show a sharp dip before Christmas, then a staggering rise and now it should be on its way down again. I'm not sure how precisely petrol prices relate to the raw crude price nor how long this takes effect but I wouldn't be expecting the price hike we are seeing at the moment.

Obviously, a large chunk of fuel costs goes to the Exchequer, maybe being an Election-year, there may be some hope of Alistair trying to win over the motorist but whatever happens, I'm sure post May 6th (if the rumours are true) everything would revert to screwing the petrol-head. I can't see it being any different under the Tories either - remember it was them that introduced the fuel price escalator which Labour made slightly worse but were then forced to scrap.
(I don't like quoting wiki but that is much as I remember it)

Every year or so, an email gets circulated saying how we can beat the Oil Companies by refusing to buy from two of the main suppliers - it's always some combination of Esso, Shell and BP thus forcing them to drop their prices. It'll never work for two reasons:

i) The email was probably started by one of those sad people who just tries to get their emails forwarded to as many people as possible, the chance of everyone getting the same version at the same time is pretty remote.

ii) The British public are too ambivalent to bother anyway. There was a national, well-organised and well-publicised call for everyone to refuse to buy any petrol on one particular Friday around the time of the big fuel-protests at the turn of the Century. This was a tactic that worked with a degree of success in the States causing big problems for the fuel distribution networks and having a significant impact on the Oil Companies over there. It would have been no big deal for British people to fill up on the Thursday or Saturday instead but they didn't do it.

The only way to try to keep fuel prices at a sensible level is to always shop around. To help, I use this site which, although it can be a few days out of date, is generally pretty reliable.