29 posts tagged “automobile”

When I was a kid, a cabbie living on Colombo Street had a Ford Cortina Mk II for his or her work.
   This was a far smaller car than the usual Holden Belmonts and Kingswoods and Ford Falcons that formed over 95 per cent of the taxi fleet in Wellington.
   I don’t know if (s)he got much business as part of Capital City Cabs, easily the minor player in a town that was dominated by Wellington Taxis and Black & White and Grey Cabs Ltd.
   Today I tailed a Toyota Belta taxicab. This was a Japanese import, and is better known as the Yaris Sedan or Vios in other nations.
   The funny thing is, it didn’t look funny.
   (Those darned Prius taxicabs look funny. They are even funnier on the motorway lugging hundreds of kilograms of batteries and hurting the environment. Especially in a city where cabs have largely been running clean natural gas since the early 1980s.)
   The reason the Belta didn’t look as odd as the Cortina is more testament to how little cars have grown over the years.
   Cabbies in Wellington have been defecting from the Australian full-size sedans to Nissan Cefiros and Teanas for a while, and Toyotas are, as in Dunedin, filling up the taxi ranks.
   Ford diehards are going for the Mondeo, which is larger than the Falcon anyway in most key measurements (width, rear legroom)—just it has a smaller engine and there’s a diesel option.
   If one considers that the Belta comes from the lineage of the Publica and Starlet, then it is tiny.
   But if one considers that the Belta has a very long wheelbase and that it is as wide as mid-sized cars were a decade ago, then no wonder it didn’t look small.
   Small cars are actually quite big, and big enough for most families these days. The only thing that keeps us thinking of them as small is snobbery.
   In fact, the only thing that would look really funny in 2008 is an overly large car, such as a Ford Fairlane, being a cab, especially one not converted to LPG.

From Autocade

Toyota Belta/Toyota Vios. 2005 to date (prod. unknown). 4-door sedan. F/F, 996, 1296, 1495 cm³ (4 cyl. DOHC). Essentially a booted second-generation Vitz, but designed at Toyota’s Japanese studio rather than its French one, predominantly for Asian markets. Sold also as the Yaris sedan in the US and Australasia; Vios in most export markets. Interior duller than Vitz; handling acceptable for a reasonably tall car.

Renault also showed its Laguna Coupé at the Paris salon, although Lucire first reported on the car when Renault boss Carlos Ghosn drove one to Cannes. Here are two videos: one from a Monaco launch and another showing two Laguna Coupés in action.

Two more videos of that beautiful Renault Mégane Coupé. Posted yesterday at Lucire.

Opel has launched the estate version of its Insignia saloon at the Paris Salon. It’s a smart-looking vehicle and if Holden New Zealand wasn’t such a bunch of idiots treating consumers as shoppers at the Warehouse, we’d have it, too, and the company would be raking it in, instead of trying to convince us that the Daewoo Tosca is acceptable. Meanwhile, Ford is cleaning up with the Mondeo in this sector, as is Mazda with the Atenza or 6 in this mid-sized market.

I want one of these. Based on the styling alone, I want one of these.
   And you know, with all the cars I can drive, it takes a lot for me to lust after a car.
   I already own a Mk I Mégane Coupé and since Renault did not make a Mk II (at least not a regular FHC), this is technically the successor to my car.
   Here’s the ad to the newly launched Renault Mégane Coupé.

I reached the 500th model milestone today on Autocade. The 500th entry was a very unlikely one, but it goes to show how varied the models are, and how they are not necessarily cars I even like!

Ford Fairlane (NL). 1996–9 (prod. unknown). 4-door sedan. F/R, 3984 cm³ (6 cyl. OHC), 4942 cm³ (V8 OHV). Final Fairlane on this platform, and last one to have a code unique to itself and LTD—its EA169 successor would be grouped under the AU colloquialism. Ghia trim reintroduced for 1998. Usual luxuries on a fairly rugged platform, beloved of hire car companies Down Under. Roomy and comfortable, though detail finish behind that of European and Japanese luxury cars.

I enjoy these behind-the-scenes design stories a lot, and check out the video of the designer drawing the new BMW 7-series (F01). From Lucire.

Audi A5 3·2 S Line

I love it. Haven’t really opened it up yet—the fastest I have gone so far is 60 km/h. I need to find some tougher roads.
   This is after I cleaned the bird poop off.

I was chatting to Nick Tomlinson au blog, and this ad for the 1988–9 Vauxhall Cavalier came to mind. Yes, the car of the future is the Opel Vectra A!

   No mention of a nuclear power cell, which GM actually did promise us in the Futurama shows of the 1950s.

Un pub britannique de 1988 pour l’Opel Vectra A, s’appelle Vauxhall Cavalier en Grande-Bretagne.

Jensen CV8 in Ellerslie

4 comments

I may have hung out with plenty of the ladies from Miss Universe New Zealand 2008 but in between times, I did work. And on my travels I saw this slightly worn Jensen C-V8 in Ellerslie, Auckland. It’s still a glorious shape. I drove to the end of the street after recognizing its tail end.