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The Tragic Near Miss Models...


Zelandeth

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On 1/24/2020 at 7:13 PM, Zelandeth said:

Still think the C5 was a bloody good idea just utterly mismarketed and 20 years too early.

Launched as an alternative to the bike, with modern battery tech and with the cycle priority present in a lot of cities these days I reckon it would have had a shot at doing reasonably well.

As it was, touted as the car of tomorrow...just...no. 

Yes, I do own one and use it regularly...it is not however a car!

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My kids loved mine and it was great pub transport. Sold to a chap off Retro Rides. 

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Ref the C5. 

Allowed because they it used new legislation which was designed to give assistence to conventional bycyles and tricycles. 

Somehow the C5 managed to fuck up the sales of electric bikes for 20 years. 

If Clive had just produced a conversion kit for normal bikes, he could have cleaned up across the globe. 

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On 3/2/2020 at 11:36 PM, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Chinese involvement, as ever, sounds very opaque.

Could still turn out to be a damp squib.

I remember a couple of years ago reading in the Turkish Air in flight magazine that a Turkish company had bought the rights to make SAABs and planned to make  them as EVs. Can’t remember if that was the 9-3 or 9-5. Either way it’s not the car I would base an EV on. I don’t know if anything has happened. Can’t have been an EU funding scam as Turkey is not in the EU.

 

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9 hours ago, New POD said:

Ref the C5. 

Allowed because they it used new legislation which was designed to give assistence to conventional bycyles and tricycles. 

Somehow the C5 managed to fuck up the sales of electric bikes for 20 years. 

If Clive had just produced a conversion kit for normal bikes, he could have cleaned up across the globe. 

He did. It worked with a belt pushing on the tyre. You can imagine how shit that was.

I would love one and a c5 obviously.

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Everything made by BL/ARG/RG/MGR

So many inspired concepts and ideas. So many opportunities and what might have beens. You may disagree that it was all a collective near miss but may I direct you to huge bit of urban regeneration in an area on the fringes of Birmingham called longbridge.

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10 hours ago, Three Speed said:

I remember a couple of years ago reading in the Turkish Air in flight magazine that a Turkish company had bought the rights to make SAABs and planned to make  them as EVs. Can’t remember if that was the 9-3 or 9-5. Either way it’s not the car I would base an EV on. I don’t know if anything has happened. Can’t have been an EU funding scam as Turkey is not in the EU.

 

The old Saab factory in Trollhättan is being ramped up for production by the these guys https://sonomotors.com/.

It‘s a startup based in Munich who plan to launch an electric car called the Sion. It has solar cells in the body panels and has no relationship whatsoever to any Saab models. Some neat ideas even if the styling takes some getting used to.

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Simply because they've been mentioned recently and a couple more photos of it surfaced in the last batch of stuff I backed up to Google Photos, have a few more photos of Scruffy.  Possibly the tattiest C5 in current operation.

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Beat to heck, but rides well enough and given the punishment it takes getting dragged around the less than perfectly surfaced cycle paths here at high speed by the dogs I don't see that as a bad thing.  Makes it less of a theft target too.

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10 hours ago, Inspiral_Mondays said:

The old Saab factory in Trollhättan is being ramped up for production by the these guys https://sonomotors.com/.

It‘s a startup based in Munich who plan to launch an electric car called the Sion. It has solar cells in the body panels and has no relationship whatsoever to any Saab models. Some neat ideas even if the styling takes some getting used to.

That Sion looks a bit like a Daihatsu YPV.

Daihatsu YRV Hatchback (2001 - 2004) Photos | ParkersSolar-boosted Sono Sion electric car will be made in ...

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On 1/22/2020 at 6:15 AM, New POD said:

The mk5 Escort.

Unfortunately it was the most boring and uncomfortable car ever produced. 

Unfortunately the mk6 wasn't much better. 

The Mk5 RS2000 was the best FWD Escort of them all. The FWD Escort high point. 

Problem was, they looked virtually identical to the crap XR3i so people bought the 3I instead. 

Ford did a cracking job with the RS but apparently put zero effort into the non-RS. Even at the end of Escort production they were still adopting modifications made in 91 to the RS to the rest of the range. 

But it looks like an XR3i, so nobody bought the things. 

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2 hours ago, martc said:

That Sion looks a bit like a Daihatsu YPV.

Daihatsu YRV Hatchback (2001 - 2004) Photos | ParkersSolar-boosted Sono Sion electric car will be made in ...

That Daihatsu is one for the “Cars you didn‘t know existed“ thread. In all my petrol sniffing years, I‘d never heard of it.

 

To be fair it‘s also a flattering picture of the Sion, it looks decidedly awkward from other angles. I guess having solar cells in the body panels restricts the styling possibilities.

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39 minutes ago, Inspiral_Mondays said:

That Daihatsu is one for the “Cars you didn‘t know existed“ thread. In all my petrol sniffing years, I‘d never heard of it.

It's strange isn't it - we have (had) an active Daihatsu dealer (Maple Garage) near us and the YPV, although rare, was not unknown so I just assume everyone else knows about them. Incidentally Maple are now MG dealers, and along with the newly franchised Broach Hill, have flooded East Yorkshire with MG's so again I am always surprised at people thinking they are 'rare'.

We also had a lot of FIAT Ideas around here - again rare elsewhere.

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Austin 3 Litre. A tragic car, released later than it should have been, disliked by the firm that eventually ended up having to produce it, given an unfairly lukewarm reception by the motoring press of the day & canned before its time. However a genuinely good, exceptionally smooth & excellent handling car. It deserved to do better than it did.

Great review here -

 

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Leyland Australia is a sad case really. The Kimberley had a lot of potential as a Landcrab replacement and the Aussie Marina seems to be what the UK version should have been, with the four and six-cylinder E-series and much better fit and finish. I just can't get my head around why the hell they decided to muck about and ruin the Allegro with the E-series when it would fit so easily in the Marina.

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On 3/22/2020 at 7:00 PM, ETCHY said:

Austin 3 Litre. A tragic car, released later than it should have been, disliked by the firm that eventually ended up having to produce it, given an unfairly lukewarm reception by the motoring press of the day & canned before its time. However a genuinely good, exceptionally smooth & excellent handling car. It deserved to do better than it did.

Great review here -

 

I've owned one of these. Ok - but the re-engineered C-series that went into it was so unwilling to rev. Not a great engine. The rest was lovely - a bit like a giant go-kart.  The low-beltline no-nonsense styling has aged well - much better than its contemporaries IMHO.

Fit and finish on mine was great. Longbridge had a Wolseley prototype ready to go - they even put the Rover V8 in it.  There was a VdP too. Whole car took years to get to market - what was really an early mid 60's car that didn't get to showrooms until 1968.

Partly killed by corporate politics. Worth buying if you see one. 

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1 minute ago, Timewaster said:

Has the Riva been re engineered to meet euro emissions regs then? 

I thought that was the reason they stopped importing them to the UK. 

Before they pulled out altogether that is. 

I dont think anyone is making the Riva anymore sadly

id love to be corrected tho!

1 hour ago, bangernomics said:

Sadly no lada.fr, I wonder if I can buy one and have it registered here instead of de? At €15k it seems a good deal for a 5 door.

cant see it being too difficult with how everything is harmonised across the EU etc, I think there might even be 1 or 2 outlets still importing Niva's to the UK, I know there was something going on in the early 2010's at least :) 

https://www.fwi.co.uk/machinery/4x4s/lada-niva-back-on-sale-in-uk

sadly not sure if they are being imported still in 2020!

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The more recent models (can't remember the date I'm afraid) moved to a new multipoint injection system to bring emissions down to Euro compatible levels.  This sadly cannot be fitted to RHD vehicles as the inlet manifold wants to occupy the same space as the steering box.

The real killer on an import Niva is that they fall in the £500/year tax band.  Low gearing, brick wall aerodynamics and ancient mechanical design = lots of CO2.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Probably not far off the mark.  The Nivas have always held their values well and are definitely appreciating these days. 

I got mine in 2004 when they were pretty much as low as they got, but even then it cost me £800 (which was by far the most I'd paid for a car at that point) for a P plate one.  I'd be expecting to pay probably £2500-3000 for one in as good order as mine was if I was buying it now.

The more recent ones (mainstream imports stopped here in 1998 and I believe that was pretty much the end of RHD production) over here at least usually seem to command really strong money - but I think that's because they usually get picked up by people who have been specifically looking for one without the usual rust problems of the older cars.  They're one of those cars that a huge portion of owners have to have the keys pried out of their cold dead hands too, which probably plays a part.

Outside the UK things may well be different if there wasn't such a huge drop off in availability after 1998.

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I had a 3-litre. Nice car but the re-engineered C-series that went into it was so unwilling to rev even when properly set up. It just needed a better engine. The styling has matured very nicely. Was styled by Dick Burzi at Longbridge with input from Pininfarina. Rear end is similar to the Pininfarina Ferrari 250. Just came to market years too late.

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Date:April 5th 2030.

The 2020 Land Rover Defender. A massively expensive SUV that could only ever take sales from its own stablemates in best British Leyland tradition.

Supposed to be launched at a Geneva motor show that never happened and to be driven by the press for U.K. road tests at the start of lockdown,it never stood a chance, even after the Worldwide pandemic, the Global recession that followed it meant none were sold, before the company switched to driverless electric shopping drones.

Land Rover would have us believe it was the start of a new tradition in fact its more rare than an Austin 3 Litre.

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I don't understand why Land Rover didn't come up with a properly utilitarian vehicle to replace the Defender. 

Surely the image of the brand would be improved by having something properly rugged that would be seen being used by aid agencies, armed forces etc. and there wouldn't be an overlap with what already seems like a pretty complicated range of fairly similar vehicles. 

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24 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

I don't understand why Land Rover didn't come up with a properly utilitarian vehicle to replace the Defender. 

Surely the image of the brand would be improved by having something properly rugged that would be seen being used by aid agencies, armed forces etc. and there wouldn't be an overlap with what already seems like a pretty complicated range of fairly similar vehicles. 

Yea and something relatively easy to manufacture. Maybe there is just no money in it - too much competition from Toyota etc? Seems a missed opportunity.

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