Jeremy Clarkson - A thousand cc is the new black,

[Ford Jellymoulds]

Has Jeremy bumped his head or is this something to do with the massive cost cutting at the BBC as the credit crunch bites?

 

CLARKSON REPORTS...

I genuinely believe that soon there will be a sea change in our attitude to car ownership. That soon the number of families who own one will start to fall dramatically and that the few who do continue to plunge along in the wake of Mr Toad will drive and dream about machinery that’s far removed from the Ferraris and Range Rovers of today.

 

Then there’s the business with carbon dioxide. The three-cylinder 1-litre petrol engine produces just 99 somethings of CO2 and as a result it falls into the tax-free category; unheard of in a car that runs on unleaded. More important, it should do 70mpg if driven carefully.

 

So, some swings and some roundabouts. As a long-distance car, obviously, it’s about as much use as a horse, but as a station car or an urban runaround, especially if your children have no legs, it’s good. I prefer the cheaper Fiat 500 because I prefer the looks, but, of course, that’ll be less reliable. Either way, these cars are the future. Small. Cheap to run. Good-looking. And surprisingly well kitted out with toys. They really do make Mondeos and Volvos and so on look awfully wasteful and unnecessary.

 

It’s a brave new world and we have to get used to it. A thousand cc is the new black. No g in the corners is the future, and that’s that. I suppose it isn’t the end of the world. Certainly, I’d rather drive an iQ than be driven by Albert in his Cayenne.

THE TIMES - LINK

[jpd80]

Has Jeremy bumped his head or is this something to do with the massive cost cutting at the BBC as the credit crunch bites?

 

THE TIMES - LINK

 

You're taking him out of context and quoting a passage without the preamble.

 

For those interested, read the whole article from the start and you'll find Clarkson is

talking about several subjects at the one time interwoven to form a three page epic.

Here is he link to page 1 - Jeremy Clarkson Toyota iQ

He talks about these things:

1. Being on world tour with Top Gear live and not able to drive himself

2. Being chauffeured in Hong Kong by a very strange driver he calls Albert in a Porsche Cayenne

3. Observations of drivers in the rest of the world and a few interseting anecdotes

4. Back to being chauffeured home by someone else and his preference to self drive.

5. Personal ownership of cars is under attack from rule makers and environmentalists.

6. Families and the 1.0 Toyota iQ

 

And as for your selective quoting here's the full passage:

In short, it doesn’t matter how tired I am or how convenient it might be to have someone run me home; I always prefer to drive myself.

 

Unfortunately, this is becoming increasingly fraught with difficulties. Quite apart from the sheer expense, you have the speed cameras, the problems with parking, the sleeping policemen and the wide-awake ones in their vans. Then, in every major city, there are communists who believe what they hear about the environment and call you a murderer.

 

I genuinely believe that soon there will be a sea change in our attitude to car ownership. That soon the number of families who own one will start to fall dramatically and that the few who do continue to plunge along in the wake of Mr Toad will drive and dream about machinery that’s far removed from the Ferraris and Range Rovers of today.

 

And so, the Toyota iQ. First, the good things. It is 2½in shorter than the original Mini, but because the differential is mounted in front of the engine the cabin is big enough for four seats.

 

Then there’s the business with carbon dioxide. The three-cylinder 1-litre petrol engine produces just 99 somethings of CO2 and as a result it falls into the tax-free category; unheard of in a car that runs on unleaded. More important, it should do 70mpg if driven carefully.

 

Better than all of this, though, is the way it looks. In white, with the tinted windows, it’s like a Stormtrooper’s helmet. I liked that. And I loved the enormous array of equipment too. It’s hard to think of a single toy fitted to my Mercedes that isn’t in the little iQ.

 

Now for the bad things. Yes, there may be space in the back for two seats. But very few people are small enough to actually sit on them. The boot is pitiful as well.

 

Then there’s the price. The entry-level model costs a whopping £9,495. Add an automatic gearbox and the price shoots up by another thousand. And finally there is the performance. Or rather there isn’t. To keep those emissions down, the oomph has had to be abandoned, so that it takes a dreary 14sec to get from 0 to 60. Quite why it needs traction control I have no idea. And why you would ever need the button that turns it off is even more baffling.

 

So, some swings and some roundabouts. As a long-distance car, obviously, it’s about as much use as a horse, but as a station car or an urban runaround, especially if your children have no legs, it’s good. I prefer the cheaper Fiat 500 because I prefer the looks, but, of course, that’ll be less reliable. Either way, these cars are the future. Small. Cheap to run. Good-looking. And surprisingly well kitted out with toys. They really do make Mondeos and Volvos and so on look awfully wasteful and unnecessary.

 

It’s a brave new world and we have to get used to it. A thousand cc is the new black. No g in the corners is the future, and that’s that. I suppose it isn’t the end of the world. Certainly, I’d rather drive an iQ than be driven by Albert in his Cayenne.

 

For those interested about Albert:

This sounds very Elton Johnish but there is one big problem with using chauffeurs. Almost none of them can drive a car.

 

Let us first of all examine the case of the chap I used in Hong Kong. We’ll call him Albert, because that’s his name. Albert had a Porsche Cayenne and what he liked to do was test every one of the speeds it would go. We’d start off with 37 and then we’d do 105, 21, 16, 84, 9, 0, 163, 41 and so on until he’d established that they were all working properly.

 

Then he’d start testing the braking distances: 47 to 41, 50 to 5, 16 to 15 and, once, a terrifying 170 to 3. The range of possibilities was enormous and all of them were very bad, especially as Albert had the spectacularly annoying habit of impersonating the engine noise as we lurched along.

 

Cornering, however, was his speciality. He would make the noise of the tyres screeching as he turned each bend into a series of straight lines interspersed with a series of violent jerks. He was a lovely man. Which is why I felt so guilty, sitting alongside him, imagining what he might look like with a pencil jammed into his throat.

[RichardJensen]

That soon the number of families who own one will start to fall dramatically

 

Maybe in the UK................................

[Ford Jellymoulds]

Maybe in the UK................................

 

Your not far off the truth Richard

 

UK car production dropped 59% & Commercial production dropped off 71% in February. Small cars sector market share is up 42%.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7954349.stm

 

Notice the lack of anything beginning with "D" in this thread Richard.

Edited March 24, 2009 by Ford Jellymoulds

[jpd80]

Your not far off the truth Richard

 

UK car production dropped 59% & Commercial production dropped off 71% in February. Small cars sector market share is up 42%.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7954349.stm

 

Notice the lack of anything beginning with "D" in this thread Richard.

 

Maybe so but getting back to your original question about Clarkson's view of future family cars.

 

I think he's right, people will still dream of owning much nicer vehicles but will just give up

and buy politically correct low CO2 emitting vehicles.

The iQ represents as one of the first petrol based vehicles to achieve under 99g of CO2,

it's got room for four but has many short comings as well.

 

I'll agree the association with Mondeo and Volvo is a bit extreme but I think he's poking fun

at the governments pushing social engineering with regulations forcing change in car buying parameters.