This is an article taken from Todays AOL News section. I thought it may be of interest to those of the Backroom who do not have AOL.
Mike Rutherfords
Premiership champions
If there were football-style league tables for the world's car makers, a few huge and prestigious manufacturers would currently be staring relegation in the face.
I'm thinking of companies such as the once-great Jeep, which was last week named by Warranty Direct as the maker of cars that develop the most failures. Also, I'm sorry to say that I've got Ford in mind - not because its products are in poor shape, but because its crucially important finances are.
Within the past few days, it has been revealed that Uncle Henry lost an average of over $1billion a month during the last full financial year. And there's also the little matter of the crippling $20-odd billion mortgage the firm has recently had to take out to help keep itself afloat. Jaguar, Ford's deeply troubled daughter company, is also a candidate for relegation - at least until the desperately needed replacement for the S-Type appears in showrooms.
And unless a cash-rich buyer can be found for Aston Martin (yet another member of the troubled Ford stable) the future for this tiny but legendary and important British company looks worryingly uncertain. Especially if such a buyer isn't found and Ford is forced to concede, with some justification, that it just can't afford to keep Aston going any longer. Mind you, the possible demotion to lower leagues currently being faced by the likes of Jeep, Ford, Jag and Aston are nothing (they can always bounce back!) compared with the plight of other firms and their now defunct British factories.
At the minute, MG Rover and TVR would happily settle for relegation all the way to the very bottom of the table in the lowest possible league on the basis that things could only get better. But sadly, they might have to come to terms with extinction instead. The global car manufacturing game simply isn't big enough for all the international players that want to take part in it.
Although it's a real tragedy for England that first MG Rover and now TVR are going through near-death experiences the rest of the planet generally doesn't care. The fact is, there are simply too many cars and car makers chasing too few customers.
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On a more positive note, who'd have thought that Hyundai and sister company Kia would come from nowhere to secure positions as newly promoted members of the premier league? They may not be glamorous, but nobody can question their massive improvements in product design and build quality; their highly successful diversification into the fiercely competitive four-wheel-drive sector; and their industry-beating warranties - five years unlimited mileage on all Hyundais, plus eight years (with limitations) on the Kia Cee'd.
Back from the dead Mini now deserves a place in the top flight and would move further up the premiership if only it could iron out its niggly but damaging build-quality issues. Citroën is a firm that, starting from an admittedly low base, continues to win promotion to higher leagues at an impressively quick rate thanks to a combination of industry-leading prices, brilliant designs and much-improved quality. This was confirmed by last week's Warranty Direct report that claimed that the French firm has moved to 10th best in the world.
Skoda has a similar no-nonsense, value-for-money approach and deserves credit - if not promotion - for that. And if one of the most intriguing, eagerly awaited cars of the year - the Fiat 500 - is as good as it's expected to be later this year, the Italian firm that makes it will deservedly receive its biggest boost since the glory days of the original Panda and Uno.
Closer to the top of the rankings, Mazda and Honda are taking over from Toyota/Lexus as the makers of the most reliable cars. Nissan is another Japanese firm that impresses me - not least because it is building the sort of reliable, desirable 4X4s that Jeep used to make. Having dropped out of the premier league in the recent past due to silly but wholly unacceptable quality problems, Volkswagen is back in. And sister company Audi is, for the time being at least, at the very top.
The eagerly awaited and much-hyped 187mph R8 can be largely thanked for that. Frankly, I'm staggered that the company's first proper, mid-engined supercar is as good as it is.
In a few departments (non-manual transmissions, price, storage space) it's worse than a 911. In others (sheer driving pleasure, build quality, desirability) it's equal to the rival Porsche. And in plenty of other categories (power, top speed, looks, noise, street cred and more) it's better.
Equally important is the fact that Audi is just about the ultimate automotive brand today. People who've never owned a supercar before but find themselves lucky enough to afford one may well go for the 911 they've dreamt of owning since childhood. But anyone who's had such a car in the past and experienced the downside of driving a motor with such a provocative, some might say slightly naff, badge will welcome the subtlety, grace and understated charm of the less offensive Audi R8.
The fact that it's very nearly as good as the long-in-the-tooth 911 from day one and will undoubtedly get better as it evolves and adopts other engine options (including a gutsy diesel) is the icing on the cake.
We're barely into 2007, but the Audi R8 already looks set to become the supercar of the year... and, possibly, the decade.
RIP Porsche and the 911. Every dog has its day. Even those with the right pedigree.
Mike Rutherford is a freelance writer, broadcaster and pro-car activist. Currently writing weekly columns for The Daily Telegraph and Auto Express, and monthly columns for The Independent and Motoring & Leisure, he also presents Pulling Power on ITV.
billy
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