A week in cars Tesla’s new saloon
visits; Roman motorists act Smart
Monday
What’s the antidote to boring electric
cars? One brilliant answer emerged this week in the shape of the all-electric
Tesla S saloon, when David Martell, founder and chief exec of Charge-master,
called at our place to show off the elegant-looking example he’d just imported.
As a bloke busily engaged in putting electric-car charging points wherever
they’re needed across the country. You’d expect Martell to make a decent case
for a new Tesla, but when a few of us tried the car for ourselves - sampling
its beauty, refinement, acceleration, quality and the engaging originality of
its screen-based instruments/ control stack. it was clear how much Tesla
founder Elon Musk and his development team deserve the sales success they’re
reputedly starting to have. It may even be that the built-in fascination of
this car’s ‘glass cockpit’ might help counter die waning interest young people
seem to have in owning cars.
Tesla’s
electric saloon deserves to succeed
Tuesday
Couple of days away in Rome chasing culture
with the Steering Committee (and a few hundred thousand others), The Tesla S
might counter the waning interest young people have in owning cars but also
noticed the closeness of die relationship between Roman motorists and the Smart
Fortwo, examples of which are everywhere. It’s amazing what a difference
shearing a meter offa normal city car’s length makes to its viability in a
place as congested as this. And the colorful ones look simply great in the
sunshine. We had a grey import on die home fleet years ago (in a fit of daftness,
I plucked it off the motor show stand) and ran it quite successfully for three
years until the missus started having to do long motorway journeys, and also
managed to clout a badger the size of a hippo. Still like the idea of running
one of the latest, more capable, more powerful Smarts. They work everywhere
now.
Smarts
are two a penny on Rome’s busy streets
Thursday
Am I right to be disappointed by the Fiat
500L? Have always thought that as a modern tribute to an automotive icon, die
current 500 approaches genius level, especially since die shape has to be
wrapped around that collection of awkward hard points dictated by the tall and
boxy Fiat Panda. Like every top-class Fiat from the past 60 years, you don’t
have to search for the nameplate to see what it is. Haring heritage that can be
so effortlessly expressed is a priceless asset, yet it strikes me that Fiat has
failed totally to deploy it with the new SUV. The 500L could be a Renault or a
Toyota. Or anything. Big shame.
Friday
Back in Blighty, I was delighted when the
keeper of test cars tucked me into a Citroen DS3 Cabrio to end the week. As an
admirer of die tin-top DS3 (die dynamics more than the look, to be entirely
truthful), I was a little concerned at how it might drive, having been taught
by venerable road testers past that if you really want to spoil a car or dull
its performance with extra weight, you cut off its head. However, the
fabric-topped Cabrio feels little different from its sibling. It doesn’t shake
unduly and it still goes and steers better than pretty much everything else on
die road. Reminded me, in short, why I’d enjoyed the original.
Soft-top
Citroen rekindled Steve’s love for the DS3
Saturday
Got into terrible strife not so long ago
with a reader who’d bought an automatic Volkswagen Up ASG. In my review, I had
said I’d cheerfully pay the $900-odd ASG option price not to have that
slow- shifting automated manual transmission in any car of mine. But as you
probably know, no one is more inclined to throw a strop than the person whose
new car has just been insulted.
Anyway, I had another go in one - on behalf
of a venerable relative who needs two-pedal motoring in her next car and I have
to report that she found the self-shifting Up quite delightful. “Just don’t try
driving it so fast, Steve,” she said, drawing on 60-odd years of gentle
motoring. “You’ll soon get the hang of it.”
Wanted: affordable Latin flair
Bargain Barchetta won’t break the bank
A friend wants a Fiat Barchetta. He reckons
they’re better looking than Mazda MX-5s and rising in value; I reckoned he was
talking rubbish until I we drove a leggy but honest one. The Uno underbits
aren’t special, but there’s a Latin character that eludes many Italian cars
(see 500L) and comes in I spades for under $3,000.
