UK’s motor vanity fair (17) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

Any two-seat car is more of an instrument of having fun than a proper means of transport, and there’s no doubt that these MG cars make no exception.

Since 1924, the Brits could buy these automobiles for showing-off, and driving them would have probably meant “I may not be rich, but I can certainly afford it, I’ve got no worries, I am free, I’m Brit, so get out of my way!” :-)

I don’t know of any such ‘official motto’; I just imagined it, seeing how these cars appeared to be screaming “look at me”, especially while I was walking on the streets of Edinburgh.

Obviously, I did look at them, but didn’t find them neither useful (bigger that a Smart car or even a VW Beetle, therefore not saving too much parking space), nor particulary beautiful (feel free to disagree!), as I think Minis are (see here & here).

They didn’t seem as ugly as the creations of Saab Automobile, yet the later models surely lack personality compared to the ones from the 1920s to the early 1950s.

The good news from the company was that, after leaving BMW’s portofolio, it was brought back to life by a Chinese firm. In China, the old name (MG = Morris Garages) wouldn’t have meant anything, so they turned it into MG = Modern Gentlemen.

[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 (12) [Bâlciul deşertăciunilor cu motor din UK]

Although I didn’t like the ‘looks’ of this brand, I couldn’t help noticing quite a few Saab cars, as I was strolling on the streets of Edinburgh.

I couldn’t tell why (I’ve got only ‘aesthetical’ reasons), but I simply find those cars to be some of the ‘ugliest’ in the world.

As always – since there are plenty of jazz and balet fans in the world, why couldn’t there be Saab lovers?! – my opinion could be challenged by the 4,500 members of this Saab Owners Club.

This surely doesn’t look like a car club ‘for the masses’, but rather like some kind of an ‘elite club’.

Not the best of advocates I could invoke, but statistics prove that my dislike is by no means exceptional. Vehicles of this Swedish manufacturer (owned by General Motors) make up only 0,658% of the car park of Britain – some 250,000 cars.

This unofficial history of Saab states that it is one of the quirkiest brands in the world. So be it, but then it seems people tend to buy less and less innovative (weird?!) products in times of crisis.

In spite of the overall car sales in the UK being up 30% in October, Saab sales plummeted by 66.8%.

Results are equally bad elsewhere in Europe, and in the USA as well, therefore the only surprise to me is how some car producers can still survive, after a year of appalling results…

[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]