We have local Dacia, Suzuki, Honda, Mazda and Renault dealers but in truth we see very few new registrations on any of those brands, perhaps its the reduced sales due to Covid, before that there would probably have been more.

From past experience the Dacia dealer we visited (when buying the uncles Suzuki) had very little product knowledge, the Suzuki dealer lied about his stock (we bought the Suzuki elsewhere), the Honda dealer seems OK, no experience of the Renault dealer but read my recent post about the Mazda dealer and perhaps this is why we see so few of any these cars locally. We drive past the Suzuki glass palace a couple of times a week and pre Covid we used to try and spot the customer, rarely saw one even at the weekend.

What we do see are loads of new Kia's and whilst there is a local Hyundai dealer we see very few of those. When we bought the Ceed it was a totally fuss free experience. Never been there before but he loaned us the car for a couple of hours to get a good feel of it. Same when we checked out the Picanto for the uncle. We ordered the Ceed later in the day after the test drive and whilst the Picanto was the best of the 3 cars we looked at (Celerio, Sandero and Picanto) the fact that the uncle could not see over the high dash (he's 4'6" tall) made it unsuitable.

A bit surprised that ORB is posting about MG's apparent success after his recent experiences.

Not seeing many 21 reg cars around S.Wales. All the cars listed above are at the less expensive area of the market. EVs are up some 20% whatever that means

It seems logical that "up some 20%" means sales have increased by 20%.

I suspect they are inferring that an increase of 20% on a small number is still a small number.

There is no doubt EVs are selling increasing numbers.

Tesla have shifted about 35k Model 3s in the UK already which isn't unimpressive for a £40-£50k car from a manufacturer no one had heard of 5 or 6 years ago.

To put that into perspective they shifted about 20k examples alone in the last year where as someone like Mazda struggles to do 5-6k 6s and someone like Volvo struggles to get to 2000 S60s.

Edited by pd on 09/04/2021 at 18:25

I did mean UK sales and have edited my first post.

sorry if not clear.

If the Dacia sandero turns out to be as good as it looks, then some of the legacy manufacturers will surely be looking over their shoulders.

I read today that the MG brand have a prototype sports car to badged MGB. It is an EV with they say a range of 500miles and 0-60 in 3seconds. Blink and you will miss it!

Some of these EVs are seriously quick and someone should start asking the question are they "safe" to have on our roads purely from the reaction times of some drivers? Not only that but the battery power to achieve such power is surely against the green concept of such cars.

You can get quick ICE cars - do you question the sale of those?

Just because cars are being powered by electricity is not going to mean that there won't be performance models - not every car has to all be about efficiency.

You can get quick ICE cars - do you question the sale of those?

I do!

The obsession these days for manufacturers to make cars ever faster and more powerful is just ridiculous. It amounts to little more than a willie waving exercise and there is virtually no possibility that any more than a fraction of the performance some of these cars have can be accessed outside a race circuit.

When I was young, I remember watching in absolute awe, Tom Selleck zooming about Hawaii in a Ferrari 308, a car which, to my young mind was a 'supercar'. Of course even then, it was actually a 'junior' supercar rather than the full fat supercar, that honour would go to the Ferrari BB 512 at the time. But the point is, the Ferrari 308 in Magnum, being the North American version, would have made 237bhp at most (assuming it was the carb model which lasted up to 1980). The BB 512 made 355bhp when launched, and its replacement in 1984, the Testarossa, made 390bhp. These days, you can buy a 'hot hatch' with 415bhp, and supercars now have so much power, the term 'hypercar' was introduced for stuff like the Bugatti and Koenigsegg making around 1000bhp and more. Now we have these electric hypercars, some of which are knocking on 2000bhp!. In my youth, the fastest accelerating supercar was the Lamborghini Countach QV, which with its circa 450bhp V12 could hit 60mph in just under 5 seconds, a figure which seemed extraordinary at the time!. That 415bhp hot hatch, the Mercedes AMG A45S will do 0-62 in 3.9 seconds, a practical (ish) 5 door hatchback!. The 0-60 time of 3 seconds mentioned for the MG is all well and good, but those 2000bhp electric hypercars I mentioned, they will be hitting 60mph in under 2 seconds.

It is utter madness!, the speed limit in this country is still 70mph (and I can't see that changing now), the roads are ever more congested, town centres are ever more crowded and cars are getting ever bigger (as well as more powerful).

But the morality and safety aspect of inexperienced drivers getting behind the wheel of extremely powerful and accelerative cars with nothing other than the depths of their (or their rich parents) preventing it, is also something which really should be looked at. In this country, in order to drive a motorcycle with more than 47bhp, you need to go through 3 or 4 license levels and need to be at least 21 years old if you have held a license for the previous level down for more than 2 years, otherwise you need to be 24. Why should cars be any different?. I'd say a new 17 year old having passed his or her test, shouldn't be allowed to drive a car with more than 80bhp. If they then manage a couple of years with no accident (for which they were at fault) and no traffic offences, they can then get something with a bit more power, but still no more than a given amount, maybe 120-140bhp?.

Edited by badbusdriver on 10/04/2021 at 10:36

But the morality and safety aspect of inexperienced drivers getting behind the wheel of extremely powerful and accelerative cars with nothing other than the depths of their (or their rich parents) preventing it, is also something which really should be looked at. In this country, in order to drive a motorcycle with more than 47bhp, you need to go through 3 or 4 license levels and need to be at least 21 years old if you have held a license for the previous level down for more than 2 years, otherwise you need to be 24. Why should cars be any different?. I'd say a new 17 year old having passed his or her test, shouldn't be allowed to drive a car with more than 80bhp. If they then manage a couple of years with no accident (for which they were at fault) and no traffic offences, they can then get something with a bit more power, but still no more than a given amount, maybe 120-140bhp?.

This should read,

"nothing other than the depths of their (or their rich parents) pockets preventing it,"

Regarding the Anglia, a friend has recently paid £14k for one. It still looks cute IMHO and I’m really struggling to find anything to inspire me like the Golf mk2 Gti .

Is it me or are modern cars so bland . Soon they will be made by Samsung and LG !

EVs tend to feel fast because of they way they deliver their power. No more revving it to 6000rpm to get max power or 3000 for max torque.

Yes, and the lack of gears/gearbox.

Even with a less powerful EV which doesn't have a particularly fast 0-60 time, it is the 0-30 time you need to look at!. The most powerful Renault Zoe takes (officially) nearly 12 seconds to 60, but you can be fairly certain that it will be first away from the traffic lights against cars which have a much quicker 0-60 time!.