UK’s motor vanity fair (23) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

Apart from a brief trip to Berlin (some pictures of it on this blog), I didn’t have the chance to know how German cars ‘fit’ into the landscape of German cities.

However, I must say that they surely fit on the streets of an elegant British city like Edinburgh – where I saw hundreds of them and I wish I knew why most were either black or grey?! :-)

While even an iconic brand like the Mini is produced under German management (+ technical leadership, I presume), there’s no doubt that Brits love German cars.

Just like Americans who – irrespective of their patriotism requiring them to give a helping hand to their national car manufactures – keep buying German and Japanese brands.

The same ‘love story’ between motorists and German cars can be witnessed in Eastern Europe, although, with some typically ‘Oriental’ features.

In several countries neighbouring the EU, these cars are stolen from richer countries like some men used to kidnap their wives some no longer than a century or so ago.

Then, most of these cars are second hand vehicles, nevertheless, sometimes considered better than brand new cars like Dacia.

And there’s one more peculiarity of these cars – they are quite often driven by a particularly kind of people, the ‘manelists’, devout listeners of ‘manele’.

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

UK’s motor vanity fair (19) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

I guess it was in Brussels (in March 2008), when the idea of this blog series popped into my mind.

And it’s very likely that it was while taking the above picture of the above Mini – the Brit car that received a lot of good publicity (here or here) on this site…

…while I haven’t got any penny for that :-( Maybe it’s never too late for anything, and I could keep dreaming on :-)

And it was still in Brussels where I recently caught a glimpse of a 4-door Mini (other descriptions: here, here and here), the latest innovation of the German-British automaker.

Would this so-called ‘mini-SUV’ ever prove to at least remotely popular as the older Minis?

…or is it more likely to remain an oddity? Given the current dreadful state of the automotive industry, could anyone afford to make it a mere experiment?

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

UK’s motor vanity fair (16) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

Apart from the Congestion Charge making London such a liveable city compared to other metropolises, the UK’s capital is on the way to becoming “the electric car capital of Europe.”

This is the ambition of its Tory mayor, Boris Johnson, who announced over a year ago that he’s planning to invest £ 20 million in this ‘green project’.

Back then, Gordon Brown had promised that the UK Government would give the rest up to £ 60 million, as London couldn’t afford the entire investment.

But that was before the country’s finances went from bad to worse. Would David Cameron’s Government keep Brown’s commitment?

According to Johnson, cars like those in these images – the pics 3 & 4 being provided by C.L., a reader of this blog – should evolve from a mere peculiarity on London’s streets into being an ‘easy choice’ for Londoners.

Even his administration (Greater London Authority – GLA) is supposed to replace at least 1,000 of its fleet with electric vehicles.

It’s very likely that not all of them will be as little as those shown here, rivaling in size with most other small cars.

Actually, this G-Wiz car is smaller than Daimler’s Smart, and BMW’s Mini, and it’s obviously a strange type of vehicle (but already having a car club).

Meant to be driven almost exclusively within cities, not on motorways or country roads, such a car is sold for an average price of £ 7,000 – more than Tata Motors’ Nano :-)

A G-Wiz promises savings of over £ 9,000 per year, and has no carbon footprint… in case some buyers may still be fooled by this (anthropogenic) Global Warming swindle.

Some 100,000 electric cars should appear on London’s streets in a few years, and Johnson promises to build 25,000 charging points.

Not for the sake of reducing carbon emissions, but because such cars would make London even a more pleasant city, I wish Johnson’s ambition would turn into reality!

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

UK’s motor vanity fair (14) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

Irrespective of the fact that silly I don’t remember having noticed at least one Mini in the USA, the BMW-owned brand has some really good news at the beginning of this year – the US is now Mini’s best market, as the Americans have fallen in love with it.

After a year (and how many more to come?!) with bad news for the auto industry, the fact that there were 45,000 Minis sold in the US in 2009 is really amazing. Only 39,000 were sold in the UK.

Is this offering evidence that Americans are probably fed-up with American cars and not with cars in general?! Given the huge distances one has to go through even for shopping or commuting, you can’t be ‘anti-motor’ in America.

But you could get tired with the lack of imagination of the Big Three, and the Mini possibly fulfills a need for another perspective. A car mustn’t look like a typical American car in order to be a good car.

I could hardly believe that, thoughout such a bad year as 2009 has been for the whole automotive industry, mere marketing tricks could have contributed to the Mini’s success in America.

Americans probably bowed to German quality just like the Brits did: uncompromised quality, not deprived of creativity. Don’t these Mini Crossover and Mini Beachcomber look very promising?

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

UK’s motor vanity fair (11) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

If there were a British car that I like, that wouldn’t be a luxurious Jaguar, Aston Martin, Bentley or Rolls-Royce. What I would like to drive – and probably not just as an ‘experience’ but as an owner, using the vehicle every day – is a Mini.

Not that I’d be any auto expert, but I really find this car to be – either the original Mini or the newer BMW Mini – a masterpiece of British (and German, since 2001) craftmanship. I guess any of the fans in this British Mini car club would agree with me.

Anyone knowing me could easily imagine I’m not crazy about fancy vehicles, and even if I had the amount of necessary money, I wouldn’t throw it on a car as a ’motor idol’. But I’d like to have a Mini as a useful (and also pleasing) object.

In my view, given the prices of today in Europe, I guess one could buy a good car with a maximum of 15,000 euros. Spending more would be such a waste, in my opinion.

Sadly, according to the price lists (that can be seen here, here, here – for the UK or here – for Romania), this little car is not quite cheap. Buying a fully optioned version would take the cost well beyond my artificially set limit of 15,000 euros.

Considering the beauty of the car and it’s technical specifications, I’d say it’s a fair price. The only problem is posed by it’s size. It seems to be too small for a family car... However, weren’t the VW Beetle or the Fiat 500 also small? Still, whole families (4-5 people) got into them...

If the future of Vauxhall and Saab (maybe Jaguar as well, as I was writing in a previous episode) doesn’t seem to be bright these days, I hope the that the takeover of Mini by BMW (a decade old this year) was a good deal, and will continue to be so.

.

In 1945, the Brits were too narrow-minded to foresee the future of the Beetle, which they could freely steal from the part of Germany they were occupying, and set productions lines in the UK. It’s good to see that BMW was not equally stupid to let the Mini perish.

Of course, the current Mini only bears some exteriour similarities to the Mini that Mr Bean drove, and it’s a completely different motorized beast on the inside. God willing, maybe one day I’ll drive such a car, although there’s no way this could ever be a ‘priority’ of mine…

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

UK’s motor vanity fair (5) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

As long as this is basically a photographic series, I don’t have much to say in this episode other than offering examples of car brands that the Brits don’t seem to like… or they surely don’t love them as much as the Romanians (or other Europeans) do. I'm assuming this because I could very rarely see them in the UK cities that I have been to.

I’m always completely aware that my opinions may be irrelevant, but as long as no one contradicts what I’m saying, I feel completely free to express them. Therefore, the cars that I thought were much rarer on British roads than in other parts of Europe would be:
+ probably all French brands (Renault, Peugeot, Citroën)
+ most Italian cars (apart from Alfa Romeo, which deserved the full previous episode)
+ Smart (maybe because the Brits have their lovely Mini Cooper/One, a car which is far better looking than a Smart, but not too much bigger)
+ Porsche Cayenne (while Romania seems to be full of this brand!)

.

Ultimately, I also added a picture of a Lexus, another car which is rarely seen everywhere in the world, I guess. Not that there wouldn’t be enough rich people among the British motorists, but this is surely the only Lexus that I’ve ever seen thoughout my journeys in the UK.

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

UK’s motor vanity fair (3) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

If there’s one thing that the Brits couldn’t possibly hate about the Germans (and they still have quite a distaste with many things from that once ‘rival’ nation), well, that would be a... German automobile.

Before I’m going to disclose to you (in a future episode) which brand really left me speechless due to its overwhelming presence on Edinburgh’s streets (anyone feel free to take a guess! :-), here’s another car that the Brits like, but it seemed to me that not to the extent the Beetle is adored in other parts of the world.

Indeed, there’s at least one British fan club of this new VW Beetle, however, I didn’t see as many cars like these as in Bucharest, for instance. Is is because these people have their own Mini Cooper/One as a rival symbol to the Beetle?

Are there other reasons? Am I completely wrong, and, in reality, there are enough new Beetles relative to the size of the UK car market, therefore my unqualified opinion is incorrect? I really don’t know.

Although I feel that my comments are utterly pointless in accompanying this series which is more about images than about words, I can’t help making at least another one.

There is no doubt that the Beetle is a beautiful car, and blesssed are those who like it for what it is – a useful object –, and nothing else! On the other hand, I don’t think car clubs are necessarily something bad, as I believe most of them are about friendship between human beings, not about worshiping ‘motor idols.’

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/ Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Suveniruri fără suflet, suveniruri drăguţe [Soulless souvenirs, nice souvenirs]

La fel precum alte mari oraşe ale lumii văzute de mine, şi Londra suferă de cel puţin o boală adusă de societatea globalistă. Sper că nu par nimănui vreun anarhist nenorocit :-) care detestă capitalismul, dar marea majoritate a suvenirurilor vândute (de oricine altcineva, dar nicidecum de britanici sadea) mi-au părut lipsite de suflet, parcă scoase pe benzile rulante în aceleaşi fabrici din Asia - bănuiţi la care ţară mă refer, dar nu doar în aceea.

Din această categorie: clasicii magneţi de pus pe frigider - £ 0.99, păhăruţele inscripţionate - £ 2, o brichetă cu drapelul UK (Union Jack) - £ 4, un clopoţel - £ 4, farfurii ceramice cu imagini din Londra - £ 23 sau machete ale Big Ben-ului, £ 5-6 cele din gips, £ 20 - din metal, respectiv £ 30 - din cristal. Turnuleţele astea kitschoase mi-au părut bune numai de ţinut pe televizor, ca să ai cu ce să arunci după partener în toiul unei certe conjugale, aşa că aş propune interzicerea lor.

Între suvenirurile care mi-au plăcut se numără veşnicele montaje din gips cu principalele monumente ale oraşului. Acestea costă, în funcţie de mărime, între £ 1.50 şi £ 15 şi îmi plac (sper că şi mamei :-), pentru că se vede efortul picturii manuale. Unele sunt pictate mai neglijent, dar altele cu imensă migală, iar dacă ai rabdare să te uiţi cu atenţie la mai multe, sigur le găseşti şi pe cele din urmă.

Altfel, categoric un lucru bun mi-a părut faptul că, dacă pe reproducerile celebrelor taxiuri galbene (yellow cabs) din New York sau ale trabanturilor din Berlin scria Made in China, la Londra găseşti şi modele de taxiuri negre şi autobuze cu etaj pe care să scrie Made in UK!

Mare lucru e ăsta, pe bune, iar o maşinuţă Mini Cooper (sau Mini One) costă £ 5. Alt lucru bun este că aici poţi lua până la 15-20 cărţi poştale în schimbul unei singure lire, spre deosebire de multe locuri în Bruxelles, unde te poţi păcăli să iei două vederi cu un euro - dar chiar şi acolo exită locuri mai ieftine.

În fine, este plin pe străzile comerciale ale Londrei de suveniruri legate de echipele britanice de fotbal (cu precădere Manchester United, FC Liverpool, Chelsea şi Arsenal), dar sunt 99 la sută sigur că nu este vorba de produsele originale pe care le-ai găsi în magazinele de prezentare ale respectivelor cluburi.

Asta pentru că costă până la de 2-3 ori mai puţin de cât am auzit că ai plăti la magazinele de lângă stadione. De pildă, o căciulă cu emblema echipei favorite - doar £ 13, o puşculiţă - £ 9, un tricou - £ 11, iar fularele, de două tipuri: £ 6, respectiv £ 13.

[Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]