Product Eye
Our team bring you informed analysis of selected new vehicle models and put them in automotive industry perspective
PRODUCT EYE: A truck from China
18 April 2012
Great Wall's quiet entry into the UK market reminds me a little of the arrival of Japanese light commercials in the Antipodes back in the 50s and 60s. Softy-softly, word of mouth.
PRODUCT EYE: Resowing the Ceed
16 April 2012
The so-called 'scenic' route from airport to hotel was anything but – this being Malaga-Marbella on the dual carriageway that slices towns in half – so we resorted to inspecting the interior of the new car more closely.
PRODUCT EYE: Grand Siena answers Fiat Brazil challengers
30 March 2012
It is not just by chance that Fiat manages to sustain market leadership in automobiles and light commercials amidst fierce competition here in Brazil.
PRODUCT EYE: Audi adds another niche with A1 Sportback
23 March 2012
Audi had a record year in 2011 with worldwide sales up 19.2% to 1.3m cars. With sales up 37% in China to 313,000 units last year, targeting growth markets has clearly been successful. But there has also been a long standing strategy to fill out the product range. Dave Leggett takes a look at the latest offering – the A1 Sportback.
PRODUCT EYE: Insignia 1.4 ecoFLEX - the big Vauxhall with the tiny engine
24 February 2012
Europe's CO2-based car taxation system is causing all sorts of odd car and engine combinations. One of the more unusual matches is the large, D-segment Vauxhall Insignia and GM's little 1.4-litre petrol turbo. Does it work?
PRODUCT EYE: Living with a Leaf
13 February 2012
Fresh off the delivery driver's trailer, just as I was about to leave for the office by routine petrol power, the Nissan Leaf, fully charged, reckoned it was good for 62 miles before recharging. Twenty-one miles to the office later, the range was down to 53 miles. Stopping on the way to work out how to change to 'Econ' mode (slower acceleration, increased regenerative braking) must have helped. Such is the fun you can have eking out the volts in an all-electric car.
PRODUCT EYE: Kia Optima 1.7
18 January 2012
How's this for a summary of the old-shape Optima: "the last time Kia had a vehicle in the D segment it was one that, pragmatically, had no credibility whatsoever". So says the company's head of UK media relations.
PRODUCT EYE: Toyota manufacturing chief on updated Avensis
19 December 2011
So you're the world's most famously sensible car company. You've also had one hell of an annus horriblus, a year in fact that could have dealt a killer blow to car companies with a lesser cash pile than Toyota's. Your president has publicly shed tears over the deaths of people for whom a supposedly faulty throttle design was blamed. Now you just want 2011 to be over.
PRODUCT EYE: Chevrolet Camaro, Aveo & Volt
13 October 2011
There are worse ways to spend an unseasonly hot afternoon than driving around Switzerland in a Camaro convertible. I found myself doing this as part of a group flown in to sample four models that will be in European showrooms in the coming months. More of that in a moment.
PRODUCT EYE: Nissan's supercharged Micra
22 September 2011
Nissan's strategy at the small car end of the market has changed quite a bit in recent years.
PRODUCT EYE: Jaguar's XF four cylinder diesel
25 July 2011
We learned in the last week, courtesy of IHS Automotive, that four cylinder engines are now most popular in the US, powering 43% of light vehicles sold in the first six months of this year. Six years ago, V6s had that sort of share. Blame high fuel prices and federal bureaucrats' proposed 2016 corporate fuel economy edict. This side of the Atlantic, the new 2012 four-pot XF diesel has its origins, at least partly, with government pen-pushers, in our case at the European Union.
PRODUCT EYE: A pleasant week in Orlando
7 July 2011
Our story today about the demise of the Chevrolet HHR and its effective replacement in some North American markets by a Korean product reminded me I had recently spent a week in Orlando and not yet written the postcard.
PRODUCT EYE: Ford's Focus on technology
29 March 2011
It's notable that two recent product launches hosted by Ford CEO Alan Mulally have been at consumer electronics shows – one in Las Vegas ahead of the Detroit auto show and a second in Europe from which he was transferred by video to the Geneva show stand for the more traditional presentation. No wonder the emphasis for the redesigned, third generation Focus is on technology.
PRODUCT EYE: Toyota returns to an abandoned segment
8 March 2011
Toyota was one of the originators of the B-MPV (mini-mini-minivan) segment in Europe about a decade ago with the original Yaris Verso (called the Fun CarGo in Japan). And then abandoned it.
