HubNut Blog

What’s on my mind?

Dyane: Flaws keep coming

It seems that disaster is never far away with the engine in my Citroen Dyane, yet somehow it manages to avoid catastrophe and just keep going.

Oh look! Oil! Thar she blows…

Somehow, this car got me home from Wiltshire when I bought it despite the ignition timing being too advanced, the oil cooler and cooling fins for the barrels being caked in filth and remnants of a carrier bag further impeding airflow. This is what you get when you decide to drive 140 miles in a car that has spent most of the past few years sitting in a field after years of field use.

I sorted all that out and then drove it to Sussex and back for the Goodwood Revival in September of last year, and it turns out I was luckier than I thought. Aside from the idle disappearing at times, the Dyane was trouble-free on that trip. Even when I twice managed to almost run it out of fuel! Yet work of the winter highlighted that actually, the engine may have suffered a partial seizure at some point, caused by overheating I suspect, especially given the issues contained in the second paragraph of this piece.

Even more remarkable, it turns out that there may have been a very small fracture in one of the small diameter pipes that feeds oil to the cylinder heads! I know that because having had to move said pipe to remove the cylinder head, there’s now a slightly larger fracture in the oil feed pipe, and oil is peeing out at a goodly rate.

So, I’m giving in. I do actually need to spend some money on this car. I’ll be purchasing new cupro-nickel oil feed pipes, which hopefully won’t rot in quite the same way, and I’m adding some much needed rubber pipes into the mix too, for the breather and carburettor – both pipes go to the air filter.

I still maintain that I’ve been lucky though. If one of those oil feed pipes fractures while you’re hurtling along a motorway, you may not know it until the oil has left your engine and it has seized up entirely. Certainly, all this work has confirmed that I was right to take the Dyane off the road for the winter, and while it’s disappointing that my plan to have it back on the road for February has not come to fruition, I can at least take comfort in the fact that the weather has generally remained awful, and the best place for this car is probably in my garage!

There's fumes leaking outta my heads, ach that stinking is all I think about.

The Dyane has spent most of the past few months with its front end missing.

There will be further expenditure in the future too. The front brake discs look a little ‘lippy’ for my liking, both headlamps have lost some silvering, and there’s the big welding project to replace the lower windscreen panel – hopefully taking place next month.

Unsurprisingly, this car has required a fair degree of improving. There’s arguably no bigger gamble for the classic buyer than a project that has been left sitting, especially if it has been left sitting in the elements. It could have been much, much worse though and I’ve really enjoyed the process of steadily making it better.

My Perfect Saturday Pt 2

Right, sod off everything else in my life, I need to get this written! Yes, it’s finally the other half of ‘My Perfect Saturday.’

So, where was I? Ah yes. I had arrived in Cannockcestershire to meet fellow dreadful car enthusiasts at an auction of top quality* motor vehicles. Due to getting lost and enjoying myself far too much, see Part 1, I was a bit late arriving. This meant I had very little time to rush around the assembled lots, picking my faves for the pre-arranged seven categories. Our ‘game’ is to pick the cars we think will fetch least money. They must have a current MOT.

Number 1) Something for the Missus (under 1500cc). Yes, that is ironic and a hark back to sexist times. Don’t tweet me. I chose a ropey 2008 Ford Ka that drove into the auction hall with a very obvious misfire. It made £150.

Number 2) Under the Thumb. For when all glamour eases out of your life and you need an MPV. I ballsed up and chose a shabby Honda Jazz. I was horrified to see it make £800. Drat.

Number 3) Tip Run Tastic. An estate or something with a tow bar. I struck gold here with a disgusting Volvo V40 that made just £60 with a few days of test left.

Dreadful Volvo sold for just £60!

Number 4) Ideal for Export – premium brands. I plumped for a Rover 75 Diesel. It looked quite clean and I would have had it myself for £425. Most people picked the Volvo for this category, though this certainly was not a prestigious example!

Number 5) GLF stands for Goes Like F…you can imagine. I did fairly well with an MG ZR diesel that was a bit crusty around the edges. You can tune them up quite nicely though, and it made £325.

Cheap and quick MG ZR diesel – £325 plus premium.

Number 6) It Came From Korea is a category for anything that isn’t Japanese or European. Options were thin on the ground and I really should have plumped for the awful Hyundai Accent diesel. Instead, I chose a very tidy Hyundai Getz – again guilty of picking something I’d actually like to take home rather than something truly, truly hopeless. I can’t remember what it sold for, but it was too much.

Lastly, Number 7) Pot Luck. Pick any car the colour of a snooker ball. For some reason, I thought a blue Citroen C3 was a good bet but it seems they are actually desirable. Fail. Most people went for a truly abysmal Nissan Micra that had one side pretty much stoved in.

£100 doesn’t get you much. This Micra was awful.

Good fun, though I did very badly indeed. I ‘spent’ £2630 in total and came second from last with my seven cars. A young lad came second and his mum came first! That showed us and our stupid sexist category naming.

It’s great fun though, and all the more amusing when there’s the very real danger of actually buying something. That wins you the competition right there. It may be my only chance to win…

It was a very pleasant way to spend a day though, with mild competition and banter and plenty of tea. Well worth a trip to Cannock. After the exhilaration of the drive there, I took a more straight-forward route home and enjoyed the relaxing side of my new Honda. On Sunday, I even gave it its second wash of the week.

My Perfect Saturday Pt1

Ok, so having a 7am alarm and actually waking up 45 minutes before said alarm would not go down as a perfect start to a perfect day for a lot of people, but Rachel made me a cup of tea for me to consume while still in my bed, and that seemed to set the scene for a rather lovely day.

A car in which I had many funs. As you can see. It was spotlessly clean when I left home…

The plan was to head to a car auction in Staffordshire, where I would meet fellow Autoshiters for a game. That game is pick seven cars, in seven different categories and aim to ‘spend’ as little as possible by following the hammer prices. Autoshiters were heading down from as far away as Glasgow just to take part – one hero drove down from Glasgow, in a Citroen AX! He left at about 3am. Crikey.

I only had a two-hour drive by comparison, and it should have been easy. However, I hurled my sat nav away after it refused to acknowledge the existence of Cannock and so would rely on my memory. Naturally, I didn’t have a map in the car. Despite this, I decided to see if I could remember the scenic route from Newtown to Shrewsbury that ignores the A458 via Welshpool for some rather more entertaining roads.

This plan had only one significant failing. I took the wrong road from Newtown and ended up heading south. I knew Builth Wells really was in the wrong direction so quickly took the B4355 from Dolfor to Knighton. I was in Knighton yesterday, so I knew I didn’t really want to be heading in that direction either, but it was better than Builth.

Only my Honda doesn’t have VTEC Mr Yo. I acquired some graffiti.

By golly! This road is INCREDIBLE! You are never travelling in a straight line. It’s just bend after bend, with altitude changes thrown in for good measure. Fortunately for me, I was in exactly the right car too – my Honda Prelude 2.0i automatic, purchased this very week. Driving on the motorway to get the car home hadn’t really given me chance to discover just how good it is, but now was its chance to truly shine.

The steering is just perfect. The weighting of it could not be better, and assistance just helps. It somehow doesn’t managed to rob too much feel. Yet it’s also wonderfully direct, so you don’t have to turn the wheel very far. The rather firm suspension which had been bothering me, was now absolutely ideal. The Prelude felt taught and responsive, and changed direction beautifully. It was really starting to inspire confidence, and I shocked myself a few times as I exited a corner and glanced at the speedometer!

This was despite me holding back somewhat due to the conditions. Mud and water do not make an ideal racetrack. Public roads are dangerous places to hoon. I was having to rein in my enthusiasm a little. Drive quickly, but not too quickly.

I’m not sure if I’m just getting older and more accepting, or whether I really have finally started to buy cars that I really enjoy driving, but this was truly something special. There’s very little I’ve driven from the past 20 years of production that manages to convey this feeling of utter joy.

You’d think the automatic gearbox would be a hindrance but far from it. I didn’t bother with sport mode, but I just flicked into third gear on the approach to tight-looking bends. It saves the brakes form overwork and gives much better control, ensuring you’re already in the right gear when you want to apply power rather than waiting for the gearbox to catch up. Amazingly, the gearbox is happy to use the torque of the engine, and I found I only went above 3000rpm on steep climbs. Like the XM, this makes it relaxing while also remarkably quick. But it feels much more nimble than the XM – the big Citroen always feels big. And heavy. It’s remarkably capable for a luxurious barge, but a barge it truly is – one with a lot of weight up front.

At Knighton, I joined the A488 which heads via the painfully pretty town of Clun and on towards Shrewsbury. This road had plenty to recommend it too with some seriously sharp corners lurking to catch out the unwary. By the time I reached Shrewsbury, I was exhausted! It had been one of the best drives of my life, and I still wasn’t anywhere near the end of my journey. Now the Prelude could just waft along at motorway speeds with no drama at all.

Both 2-litre, but worlds apart. 60bhp vs 133!

It gave me chance to reflect on the morning’s experience so far. It made me realise that overlooking the 2-litre, especially in slushbox form, is utterly wrong. Would I have had as much or more fun in a manual VTEC? I’m not sure I would. The VTEC effect gives a massive boost in power as you get beyond 4000rpm, but that can quickly get very tiring – not to mention illegal. 60mph can be some way in the distance very briskly indeed. I suspect that every time I got a VTEC on cam, I’d be straight on the brakes hard for the next bend.

As it was, I was using my momentum-conservation skills learned through many years of 2CVing to keep the Prelude at a good pace without the need for harsh acceleration. There really wasn’t room for it anyway! Bends were coming so thick and fast that power absolutely would not have been any advantage at all. I was having all the fun it was possible to have, while remaining at entirely legal speeds. To be honest, I was below 50mph for quite a lot of it!

I arrived in Cannock in a very dirty Prelude, which had very clean brake discs. The filth was almost a badge of honour that had been deservedly won. Though considering I’d washed the car the day before, it was a little annoying…

Part 2 to follow – auction antics! It’ll have to follow as I’ve clearly got a bit carried away here. Sorry.

A bit of retro Japanese action

I knew saving up for 2CV restoration was a dangerous move. You see, normally, I can easily resist cars for sale because I have no money. Buyers tend to demand an exchange of the stuff for whatever it is they’re selling so if you don’t have any, you don’t get very far.

Now German Classics magazine is live though, my income has received a pleasant boost. Straight away, I shuffled most of it into my savings account, thinking it’d be safe there. I kept a little to pay for things I needed, like new walking boots as my old ones have fallen apart at long last, and the occasional pleasant lunch out. Truly a treat.

But stashing the money in my savings account was not enough. When I found a Honda Prelude Mk4 2.0i for sale on a certain forum, my will was tested. And proved about as robust as a bridge made of Pringles. I chucked in a low offer and to my distress, this was accepted. Oh dear. So, I found myself on a succession of trains to Devon all of a sudden, where the steed was located. I hadn’t expected to get up on Monday and buy a car but I was now frantically searching for cheap train tickets (www.splitticketing.com helped here) and by Tuesday, was on my way south. Well, North, West and eventually South because trains are rubbish.

A temptation too far for my feeble will power.

I was in a hurry to collect as I’m currently editing another new magazine, to follow on from German Classics. It’s called Retro Japanese, and perhaps now you can see why my head was turned!

I’ve owned Hondas before, and I like them. Even the 1990s Civic posesses something of the Soichiro Honda flavour that so defined this famous Japanese brand. You can feel the precision of engineering, and the car sits so low to the ground.

Not a hatchback but a two-door with rear wiper!

Clambering aboard the Prelude for the first time – I’ve never so much as driven one – I found myself almost lying on the ground. The scuttle is just as low as I’d come to expect from the Civic, and also Rover’s shared 1980s designs. I like that. I don’t like a scuttle I have to peer over.

Driving home the next day was enjoyable. Sure, it’s only a 2-litre automatic, but it still packs a 133bhp punch, which is plenty for me. I’m a firm believer that there is more to going quickly than out-and-out power, and I was able to hustle the Prelude along very nicely thank you very much.

‘Only’ 133bhp, but more than enough for me. Goes well!

The ride is a little unrefined, but I’d come to expect that. I think Japan probably has smoother roads, and the double-wishbone suspension lacks travel. Something that frustrated many a Rover engineer. It all feels very good in the bends though. The Civic had hideously over-assisted steering but around the straight-ahead, the Prelude feels like it doesn’t have any assistance at all frankly. It turns into bends beautifully and surprisingly even weight distribution and that firm suspension conspire to make it behave wonderfully. No bodyroll, no deviation. I look forward to pushing harder once the weather improves. Frosty or sodden roads do not great confidence make, though the Prelude felt utterly secure.

The automatic gearbox seems to work well, and the fact that the torque converted locks up at about 52mph probably explains why I was able to extract a creditable 34mpg from it. It isn’t overly smooth though, despite what many would regard as a fairly low 89,500 miles. It’s fairly low by my standards, that’s for sure!

Automatic gearbox not the smoothest, but easy on fuel.

The ride then is not cosseting and nor are the firm sports seats, though the bolsters grip me in a far more effective way than the massive lounge chairs in the XM. I did have some backache after several hours, but then to be honest, that’s true of most cars.

Having chosen to read reviews only after I’d formed my own impressions, I learned that the Prelude was considered one of the best handling cars in its class back in the early to mid 1990s. Naturally, most press tests were of the more potent models – VTEC kicked in YO! With those, 185bhp is enough for a 0-62mph time of 7.1 seconds and a top speed of 140mph. I reckon mine is closer to ten seconds for the acceleration dash, and is probably all done by 120mph. Plenty fast enough really. The VTEC could be specified with four-wheel steering too, though I haven’t seen much to suggest this really makes any difference. It seems little more than a fad of those times. Remember the Mitsubishi Galant with four-wheel drive AND four-wheel steer?

A little bland perhaps, but purposeful.

Anyway, in real-world conditions, what I have is more than enough. The 2-litre really is wrongly overlooked. In fact, aside from the poor ride, I haven’t found very much that I don’t like. The ergonomics are a bit Japanese – the mirror adjustment requires you to stuff your elbow down the side of the seat, and the dashboard dimmer switch is obviously located behind the handbrake – but as a driving machine, it feels like a very purposeful one, that’s also more than capable of cruising along at a goodly rate with no stress at all. There is a clonk from the rear suspension, but this seems to be a very common Mk4 and Mk5 Prelude trait that can be solved by inserting washers above the rear damper bush. Hopefully, it’ll prove to be a good buy!

Flourescent dials add a touch of glamour.

Product Test: Pocket-size jump pack

These things have been intriguing me for a while now. How can such a tiny battery start a hefty car engine? So, with German Classics magazine completed and some actual money in my bank account, I went on that there Ebay and purchased one of these jump packs for just £31.75. It was time for a proper review to test exactly what it could do.

Can this unbranded pack really start a car?

It’s entirely unbranded and built in China – fast becoming the country to head to if you want cheap battery tech. It isn’t just a jump pack – there is a really powerful torch, and it comes with several different bundles of wires with which you can power everything from phones to laptops and even, as I discovered, a musical keyboard…

But obviously the key question is, can it start a car? You’ll have to check my video review to find out, but I tested the pack on an 847cc Perodua Nippa, a 1596cc Mazda 2 saloon and a 2088cc Citroen XM turbo diesel. Diesel engines are a challenge for any battery, as the engines use a compression ratio twice that of a petrol engine. They literally squeeze the air to the point that it gets hot enough to ignite the fuel without an external spark. They’re not very easy to turn therefore.

What truly amazes is not only how small these packs are, but how light. And that highlights exactly why electric vehicles (EV) have become viable at long last. My XM uses a huge, heavy lead-acid battery that requires serious effort to lift. If the Nissan LEAF and Tesla Model S used lead acid batteries, the packs would be simply enormous to get the same range. They’d probably have to tow another LEAF or Model S behind them packed full of batteries. I suspect performance would be impacted somewhat.

So these jump packs demonstrate just how far battery technology has come on. And now at such low price too! Sure, larger lead-acid battery packs may include air compressors to deal with a flat tyres, but those compressors (in my experience) usually break after very little time. So my mind is made up. The future is jump packs you can fit in your pocket. It’s the clearest sign yet of why the EV revolution has arrived in town.

Self-driving cars – GO AWAY.

Self-driving cars really are the answer to a question that doesn’t need answering. What a rubbish idea!

Think about it. There’s apparently this dream to be transported from one place to another in a box, without you having to go to the trouble of driving said box yourself. Hardly a new idea – trains and buses have been offering this magnificent service for decades. They even have the added bonus that you don’t have to worry about parking or garaging the things, and there’s no need to worry about servicing or MOTs. You just clamber aboard and end up where you want to go. Sort of.

If the future looks like this then we’re screwed. GO AWAY!

Yet people cling to their cars like heroin addicts to a favourite spoon, even though from what I’ve seen, car ownership in cities can be a hateful, hateful experience. Frankly, even I would rather use public transport. When I go to London, I do.

Perhaps these are the sort of people who welcome the idea of self-driving cars. People who really can’t be doing with the tiresome business of having to move a steering wheel and operate some pedals.

What worries me most is the mixture of self-driving and entirely proper human-driving traffic. This article highlights the concerns. On the face of it, how great it is that robots were not to blame for self-driving accidents. On the other, it’s the unpredictability of these robot cars that is often at fault. If confused, the cars will just stop. Not always appreciated by following traffic and while sure, you should always expect the unexpected when you’re behind the wheel, the truth is that we do anticipate and hedge our bets in a way computers don’t. When you mix the two styles, the recipe is not always comfortable.

I’ve experienced this myself in Volkswagen’s clever e-Golf. It has Adaptive Cruise Control where radar is used to match the e-Golf’s speed to the car in front. This also allows it to detect if an accident is likely and even to brake to avoid a collision.

e-Golf. Prone to bouts of panicky strop due to computers.

Problem 1. I was following a car turning left. The car indicated left and slowed down as expected. Yet the e-Golf panicked and slammed the brakes on really quite hard because it couldn’t anticipate that the car would move out of the way. Annoying. Especially for the car behind me. It looked like I wasn’t paying attention.

Problem 2. I was overtaking a car. Further ahead, a car was turning right and was in the appropriate filter lane. I could see that I would complete my manoeuvre safely within the confines of the road markings, and with plenty of space between all cars. The e-Golf saw the stopped car and panicked and actually applied the brakes even though my foot was on the throttle! I had to stamp down on the throttle to override it, but it interrupted my overtake and caused some digestive discomfort to the driver. And perhaps some swearing.

You see, we may crash an awful lot, but us humans really are quite good at driving. The decisions we make, and how quickly we make them, are very difficult to replicate. How would you programme a computer to see Problem 2 and deal with it safely? How can you programme it to quickly consider so many different factors?

The other problem is that I live in rural Wales. The roads here often lack road markings and/or clear boundaries. Sometimes, it’s hard to judge if two vehicles can pass. Yet, human brains seem pretty adept at making these judgement calls. You also have to adapt your driving style to suit weather conditions and the amount of mud pulled onto the road by tractors and the like. I can’t see self-driving cars getting on very well at all here.

So, they’re better off in cities perhaps, where pedestrian accidents should be a thing of the past – as self-driving cars are always on the look-out and don’t get distracted by girls in short skirts, topless young men or i-pods. But, really, cars should have no place in cities at all. Public transport does a far better job of moving a lot of people.

I therefore can’t help thinking that self-driving cars only exist because tech companies want to show off how clever they are. They are a stupid idea that plenty of us do not want at all. If they really are the future, then I’m bloody glad to say I’m of a generation where we were able to drive our cars and have fun with them. I am not ready to let the computers take over.

The making of German Classics magazine

Just in case you’re missed my tiresome bleating on social media, German Classics Magazine goes on sale on Friday and it’s my first outing as a full-on editor (having been caretaker editor a couple of times on Classic Car Weekly).

German Classics – on sale from 15th Jan 2016!

It was ruddy marvellous to get back into the editorial saddle to be honest, as while writing features is great, there’s something very enjoyable about having an entire cauldron to fill – it’s all about choosing the right ingredients and giving them the right preparation for what I hope you’ll find is a tasty feast!

Mind you, I had forgotten how stressful and pressured the editorial world is. Deadlines come rushing towards you like angry crows, while you sit there trying to keep tabs on several different features at once. Does the copy for that feature look ok? Has that feature even been written yet?

Good grief how I’ve missed it! Once the content is assembled, it’s then a case of working with a designer to get the pages looking something sensible – and that’s a great skill that I admire very much. Left to my own devices, I could only create an utter mess. I just don’t have a graphic designer’s eye.

Then there’s proof reading, and I’m very grateful to Rachel for helping me with this one. As you’ve probably noticed from this very blog, it can be very difficult to accurately proofread your own work and as someone who used to help people write essays and the like, Rachel’s experience proved very useful – even if it did mean some very late nights as press day approached!

Personal German Classics highlight – Fintailed Merc!

Now, all there’s left to do is wait for you, the public, to grab a copy and then comes the really scary bit – feedback! Please do let me know what you think. This is the start of a series of titles and while I like to think I’ve got a good feel for what people want, there’s nothing like actual feedback to help reinforce that feel.

German Classics is on sale on Friday, and I’m now working on the follow-up – Retro Japanese. Yes, I am now wishing I hadn’t sold my 1986 Nissan Bluebird. Oh well!

How long do you need?

Mostly, my job of being a freelance writer involves nothing more exciting than sitting in front of a laptop. I have a phone to hand, plenty of reference material and an eager mind. And tea.

From time to time, I’m lucky enough to get to drive cars and here comes the biggest challenge. There often isn’t time to spend more than an hour or so with a car, and is that really long enough to form firm conclusions? This is especially true of sports cars, where you very rarely get long enough to really test the car – doing so on public roads is not really recommended, and is certainly not safe.

Driving a Porsche 911 is not necessarily a jolly!

Take my own Citroen XM for example. I maintain that for enjoying yourself on public roads, it’s one of the best cars out there. Sure, it’s 110bhp is rather less than the 1001bhp of a Bugatti Veyron, but (and I welcome the chance to prove this), I reckon the Veyron is absolutely no fun at all on the tortuously twisty terrain of mid-Wales. It’s simply too big, and you can’t use even 20% of the potential before you’re having to brake for the next bend. It must be infuriating.

But I’ve driven over 12,000 miles in the XM now, so I’ve come to know it very well. I have discovered that it’ll grip far harder than I have any wish to explore really, and I utterly know what to expect when cornering quickly. Not much steering feedback, great turn-in and a clichéd corner-on-rails experience. Yet, if you jumped behind the wheel for a quick drive of a few miles, I reckon you’d find it pretty underwhelming. Comfortable, certainly, but you might wonder what the fuss is about.

When I drove a Porsche 911 last year, for an upcoming feature in German Classics magazine, I therefore had quite a challenge. Here is a car with a terrifying reputation, and here was me having only ever driven a 911 on a race track (and that was a far grippier 997 version) wondering how I’d get on. You’ll have to read the magazine to find out more – on sale 15th January 2016 – but you’ll note that I’m not dead as I write this, so you’re safe to assume I survived the experience.

I clocked up fewer than 100 miles in that Porsche though, and even then I was covering more ground than I’m often able to. Certainly, it was enough to get a good enough impression for a magazine feature, but I still maintain that you need a good 1000 miles in a car to really stand a chance of understanding it as a daily proposition.

Take Pete Sparrow’s Citroen Ami for instance. I’ve raved about it before, because it is remarkable fun, but would I feel quite so merry about it after 1000 miles? Would the noise just get on my nerves? I feel the same about his BMW-engined 2CV as well. Fun for a bit, but would I get tired with it?

To return to the XM, I think you could drive one for the first time and frankly be a bit bored. It’s through constant ownership that I’ve discovered just how incredible the handling is. I’ve been able to push it far harder than I’d feel happy to do in anyone else’s car – which is another problem. I am emphatically not Top Gear and I’m not happy driving someone else’s car like I’d drive my own. Even in the BMW-engined 2CV, I wasn’t pushing it (even on track) as hard as I dared because I didn’t want to break it (nor cause an issue on a race track about to hold a 24-hour race! Pressure!).

A superb-handling car and some superb roads in mid-Wales.

As well as trying to form impressions about a car, I’m also often having to think about photography, and that’s very distracting. I often need to find a good venue, need to consider light conditions and then actually have to get the camera out and get snapping. Trying to do all this at once, especially when you don’t know the area, well it can be surprisingly hard work! Sure, that’s a first world problem if ever there was one, but I’d like you to understand just how much work goes into a feature like this. It certainly isn’t just a jolly! Hopefully, you enjoy the results.

German Classics goes on sale 15th January 2016 and is edited by Ian Seabrook. On sale in all good newsagents, or available HERE.

My favourite videos of 2015

Excuse the self-promotion as I guide you through my favourite videos of 2015 – my favourite HubNut videos that is. 2015 was a year in which I really stepped up video production, so here are my personal highlights. This is my Top Five.

Number 5 – Nissan e-NV200 Combi

This was the first electric car that I tested long distance, and it has to be said it wasn’t exactly stress-free! Using the Ecotricity Electric Highway, I was able to drive from home in mid-Wales to Bideford in Devon. Choosing to do this in Winter, in a vehicle with a 60-mile range was the problem. This is also a review of the e-NV200 itself. A very useful vehicle but still blighted by good old range anxiety and an inefficient heater.

Number 4 – Perodua Nippa

This one joined the fleet in March, and has proved to be an ideal little runaround. This review was filmed not long after purchase and while it’s certainly a car built cheaply, it continues to run well. Listen to the road noise though!

Number 3 – My first Vlog

Vlogging appears to be a thing – video blogging – so I thought I’d have a go. This is where I began a series of (so far) ten videos. I aired some annoyances with the regime in Saudi Arabia – exacerbated by recent developments as I write – and I also talk about electric cars and the Citroen XM.

Number 2 – Honda Insight first generation

Testing the Honda Insight Mk1

It seems that I love every car that I drive, and I expected the Insight to be no exception. It didn’t quite do it for me, as you can see in this video. Still an appealing car, but not quite what I’d hoped for. It is proving to be a popular video though.

Number 1 – My 2CV and me

Picking one favourite is not easy. My XM V6 video continues to amass a huge number of views, and the Citroen Ami one was an absolute hoot to put together. But, my friend Keith Hicks helped me make a rather special tribute to my 2CV. I still don’t know what the future is for this car, but I’ve had many good adventures in it and I’ve loved every minute behind the wheel.

Thanks for watching. Once the weather improves, I hope to get cracking on some more videos. 2016 promises to be very exciting. Stay tuned!

2016 Fleet Predicitions

I was remarkably on-the-ball with my 2015 predicitions. I foresaw both a Dyane and a Perodua in my life, though sadly this is yet another year gone in which I have not owned a Citroen Ami 6. I have at least driven three this year, all very different. Here’s one write up, and below is a video.

But I was way off in 2014, when I predicted a slow year, then got through three or four cars just over the summer months. I certainly kept the DVLA busy!

So, what of 2016? Well, I don’t reckon the XM will be disappearing anytime soon, and the Perodua will certainly be staying around for a while – though its fate is linked to my aircooled Citroens. The Dyane and 2CV both need work. In theory, if either was in perfect working order, we’d have no need of the Perodua as the good Doctor Seabrook of which I am a marital partner will certainly drive the 2CV, and would probably be ok with the Dyane. She certainly does appreciate low-tech engineering and the complete lack of creature comforts is seen as a positive benefit.

So, what of the two A-Series Citroens? Well, the Dyane first. I’m cheating really, as I know I’ve already booked it in for some welding work in March. Before that, I’ve some mechanical work to complete and I reckon I might have it back on the road in February, weather permitting. Having finally committed to spending some actual money on it, I think it’ll have to become a bit of a keeper, at least for a good chunk of 2016.

So, what of the 2CV? Well, this is much more difficult. I can’t really justify spending what little car fund I have on restoring two vehicles, especially when they both fill the same ‘slot’ on the fleet – ie the cheap-to-run fun machine. Plus, can I really say I’ve missed the 2CV since taking it off the road in April? No, not really. Worryingly, I haven’t actually missed the Dyane all that much… I suspect that’s mostly because the weather has been chronically awful and driving in any vehicle has not exactly been much fun. Probably.

Is it too bold to suggest that the XM might stay another year?

Any cars out there catching my eye? Well, only the Citroen Ami 6 really, and it’s very, very hard to justify buying one while I own a 2CV AND a Dyane. So, 2016 will probably be the year in which I still fail to own one. I really have lost my car buying mojo to be honest. The Volvo was fun, but not for very long, and I only went for it because it was free. The idea of spending actual money to buy a car is just not very appealing at all. This could be famous last words…

But I’m not sure it will be. You see, the XM really is ticking so many boxes that everything else suddenly fades into obscurity. It handles really, really well. It goes well enough for me – I still love the torque delivery. It’s comfortable. It’s quiet. It delivers 45-50mpg. It’s also distinctive, even in boring white, and has enough brilliant engineering to keep me interested despite all the boring things it does so well.

The big question for 2016 – what do I do with this pair?!

Of course, it isn’t perfect, but I long ago gave up any possibility of finding the perfect car. I adore 2CVs, but must concede that they are both noisy and absolutely horrendous to drive on a windy day – unless the wind is behind you. Likewise, the XM has proved to be a real star, but the turning circle is a bit crap, the visibility is awful and you get the feeling that at any moment, some or all of the electrical systems could just fail. The central locking often does just that.

Could this be the one car that has finally put an end to my 60-car search for something good enough? Who knows, but I’m going to stick my neck out and predict it’ll still be here next Christmas. That would be its third in my ownership and that (2CV aside) would be a record for me. Let’s see…

HubNut – celebrating the average!