Those three of you who peruse every bit of just-auto’s home page every day will probably already know The Editorial Team had our annual Fun Day Out this week, courtesy of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Test Day.
I’ve been going, on and off, since 1987 and the agenda follows a refreshingly familar, welll-proven and immensely popular programme which I believe is unique to the UK auto industry. After earlier using other venues, the SMMT nowadays books Millbrook, the former Vauxhall Proving Ground (founded 1968), almost every importer/manufacturer shows up with the allocated six cars, caterers lay out a fine breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea – and we show up and go nuts.
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And why wouldn’t you? There’s a ‘hill route’, which dips and dives all over the place with a huge variety of twists and turns, positive and negative corner cambers, and one or two pure evil traps for the inexperienced on the way at too high a speed…
The ‘high speed bowl’ – a two mile circumference, anti-clockwise, five lane, one way mini-M25 motorway with lanes four and five banked; we are limited to 100mph (aw!) and lane four – is great for testing high-speed stability and refinement and the ‘city course’ is useful for trying stop-start systems, low-speed manoeuvrability and EVs. There’s also a leafy, off-piste, Bedfordshire road route for the so inclined with time on their hands.
I usually make a beeline for the expensive/popular exotic sportscar brands first thing before the mob arrives but started this year with Honda, whose redesigned, UK-built CR-V and new 1.6-litre turbodiesel were on my ‘must try’ list. The new SUV – sampled as a 2.2-litre diesel I4/six-speed manual – has better road manners than I expected, tracks, turns in and rides very well and far better than the equally new Toyota RAV-4 I tried later in the day. I also preferred the Honda’s styling inside and out to the rather fussy detailing of the rival’s latest ‘design language’ for bodies and cabins.
Honda’s 1.6-litre diesel – also made, not just assembled, in the UK – was superb, quiet at idle outside, smooth and very refined inside a Civic five-door hatch and very torquey with a strong spread right across the critical rev range. With low consumption and CO2 emissions, it will make sense for tax-sensitive company car user choosers here in the UK and is sure to be be a popular option, especially once available in the CR-V.
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By GlobalDataI like EVs and took a first chance to try Renault’s cute little Zoe (ah, sweet) which has a surprisingly spacious, well detailed and stylish cabin, accelerates with that quick, smooth, silent contempt of CO2 emitters all good EVs exude and is a thoroughly fun drive and a very good handler on the hill route. Every bit as good as alliance partner Nissan’s latest Leaf, just smaller.
Fiat’s new 500L, sampled in equipment-laden UK-spec Lounge trim, polarises people with some fellow journos disliking its looks. But, he says with Family Man hat on, it’s got tons of room front and rear, great rear door access for parents/kids, tables and door cubbies for the toys, a decent boot for the buggy and clobber, a huge sunroof with opening front section (relatively rare now a/c is almost universal) and a shedload of decent equipment including Fiat’s Microsoft-based telematics which Bluetooths your phone to the car, etc. The diesel version was a good drive, as was the I2, petrol, 900cc Panda Twin Air Trekking (speced up a bit like the high-riding pseudo-SUV models Fiat and rivals offer in B- and C-segments in Brazil). I’d not tried this fun little two-pot with its out of balance exhaust note and willingness to pull hard through the gears; it shows you can still have a lot of fun with relatively little in cars even in these high-tech days.
Family Man also showed up at Kia to approve the new seven-seat Carens, light years ahead in appearance, cabin quality, build and driveability of its five-seat old Carens (a popular minicab hereabouts) and seven seat Sedona [Carnival] predecessors. I have moaned to Kia about the lack of a petrol auto option for those of us who do 5,000 miles a year; PRs respond the overwhelming demand in this segment – also contested by the likes of GM’s Zafiras, Renault’s Scenics and Ford’s Grand C-Max – is diesel, so tough…
Jaguar’s two seats only F-type would not be an approved buy by (non-driving) Mrs Deputy Editor and Kids, should a lotto cheque ever drop onto the Roberts’ doormat, but it’s nonetheless superb and will surely sell like hot cakes. Rushed off his feet taking driving bookings (minder/technology guide courteously provided with each car), a PR said the UK order bank was still only about two months but potential buyers elsewhere have not yet been let loose. I tried the V6 with paddle shift, eight speed auto and was shown how the fwap, fwap, fwap sound the exhaust makes as the engine slows from high revs can be switched in and out and learned also that just engineering the exhaust, mostly for the right sound, took one engineer specialist three years of his life. Time was limited, and this is one car you’d want to test for a year. While at JLR, I also sampled the new Range Rover in V8 diesel form (what better way to lord it over the peasantry on one’s estate?) and, finally, sample an automatic diesel Evoque which, surprisingly, didn’t feel as together on the road as the newer Honda CR-V – too-light steering being the major gripe.
Other memorable cars included VW’s ‘R’ Golf cab with a 260PS petrol I4 and six-speed DSG whose acceleration and glued-to-the-road demeanour would probably guarantee a weekly speeding ticket, the attractive new ’50s’, ’60s’ and ’70s’ trim/equipment packages newly introduced for the still-new Beetle Cabriolet and, although it wasn’t new this year, another go in the Camaro convertible which has had a bit of a cabin update since 2012’s test day.
Grunty petrol V8, auto, rear drive – now that’s the proper way to do Chevrolet…
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we had Q1 results from GM and Porsche and BMW and Delphi, more good jobs news from Detroit, as well as ongoing industrial niggle at PSA. We also toured the aluminium body shop at Land Rover Central – it ain’t magic the upcoming I4 Range Rover Sport will be 500kg lighter than models of yore, learned the fate of a Volvo plant and opined on the effects of Europe on Volkswagen fortunes and how changing demographics may affect what the auto industry does in future.
Quite a week then. So we’re being rewarded with a long weekend, thanks to what the Brits still quaintly call a ‘bank holiday’ on Monday.
Have a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy/News Editor, just-auto.com
