Ian Pogson
Well, after 40 years in the industry as an Engineer, I never went to the massive test centre in Bedfordshire. This changed when Mike Humble kindly extended an invitation to me to attend the SMMT Test Day in late May this year of 2023.
This turned out to be a great opportunity to test several cars in a day on the same route, on my own or in tandem with The Incredible Bulk. The day began with a little brekkie and an SMMT summary of trading conditions and warnings of ULEZ creeping across the country. The industry is slowly rising from the mess generated by C-19 imported from the East and chips not being imported. This was followed by a Safety Briefing and a reasonably dignified scramble for track passes. I was pleased to see mine was blue (i.e. I was a Driver) and bore the legend “Over 25”. 40 years over more like!
I had surveyed the cars and manufacturers on offer, from new-to-the-UK Chinese BYD (Build Your Dreams?!!) to Maserati. That is quite a spread. There were a few trucks on show, but sadly only as static exhibits, otherwise my erstwhile companion would have been showing me a few swerves in a Daf XF, which is a tad taller than a Jaguar of the same nomenclature. Interestingly, I was intrigued by a Swedish-designed and built low-step, centre steer truck, the Volta. The Company was only founded in 2019 and there on the Steering Pan at Millbrook was a prototype – now that is world-class work. Design and Development in three years from nothing! Yes, some parts like axles were from notables such as Meritor, but still. 3 Years? I was impressed. Mike wasn’t. Mr Trad lusted after a Daf XD electric. Again!
So, the scheme for the day was to pick a manufacturer and car, sign up and take the car on its designated circuit. My choice was for the Hill Routes, trying a selection of small cars, mostly electric. I like small cars. I like my MGTF. I also hate it almost as much. A car developed for just £40m has many faults. I chase them round regularly, but still love the wind-in-the-lack-of-hair motoring for a couple of grand.
This was my list of cars tested, although lunch and waiting for Mike to unstick himself from the DAF slowed me a tad:-
MG4 BEV (Mike was delayed in traffic, so I started alone)
Peugeot 408 Sport Engineered SW 159cc, Pure Tech 200 PHEV (Mike insisted)
Vauxhall Astra GSX
Toyota CH-R GR Sport Hybrid
Fiat 500 Icon BEV
Mini Cabrio turbo (oh, yes, an engine!)
Nissan Townstar van BEV (first test in UK)
Nissan X-Trail PHEV (Mike joined me after lunch)
Mini Electric Resolute BEV
As worked for SAIC/MG for ten years, I have a pro-bias. My wife Sharon, has a truly
splendid petrol MG HS (see Mike’s views) and daughters Sarah and Jessica both have MG3’s. Sharon’s HS was seen to be such a good tool that daughter-in-law Emily swapped her little Kia for one. £25k or so for a car with all the bells and whistles of cars costing twice as much.
So I plumped for the MG4 BEV, I love the sharp design cues and the crazy colours. On the road (or hill routes of Millbrook), it was a HOOT! Did it make me feel good? Yes! It made me feel young and “dans le vent”, as the Welsh would say (if in gay Paris…) It gripped like a very grippy thing and although a bit lacking in the damping department on the lateral bumps at the entrance to the hills, it was fun. I could become used to that sort of fun.
I have been involved in ICE power trains all my working life. I love a throbby V-twin
motorcycle engine, or a straight six and especially a V8-powered car, but electric is the
present, not the future, a mere stepping-stone to green hydrogen or whatever. I used to
ride an all-electric motorcycle, so I am an electric convert. Almost.
The MG4 was my sort of size, just perfect for the challenging steep rises and falls, blind
corners and short straights in Bedfordshire. I could happily drive that car for a long time.
Lots of toys to play with and I reckon I might have even looked younger in there. (No
chance – Ed). Good retardation, quite intuitive to pilot and apart from a few rattles over the harsh bumps, the comfy seating held me tightly and despite the lack of leg-room in the back, I was pleased. Good “handshake” from the door handles and an excellent shut sound, it felt well screwed together. Fit and finish was 9 out of 10. Great!
It pleases me immensely that the kids fresh from University with not a scooby about cars,
not even able to maintain their own bicycles whom I taught to be Engineers can produce
something as capable as the HS or MG4. Well done me and all my 300 or so (mostly) ex-
MG Rover colleagues. Those kids have come a long way since we started with them in 2005.
Mike’s idea. Personally I loved the looks, but a Peugeot? I cannot divorce the name from
the Top Gear feature on these cars and the barely-alive characters who seem to drive them. Almost polar-opposite from your average BM pilot. I had to admit that the style of some Pugs is very appealing, I liked the 504 pick-up of the 80’s – more useful in Africa than a Land Rover, the 205 GTi is burned into my memory and I had a real thing for the 405 estate in its day, as a shape. I looked out of my Montego Countryman diesel, in Henley Blue, with drool upon my lips as one passed by. Life is relative.
So, to the 408. Very eye-catching. Typical French comfy seats and a fab ride. My driver just had to test the horn and yes, French and LOUD! Excellent ride, a HUD (Head-up Display) and quite a competent machine. It felt not exactly luxurious, but opulent. As we coursed around the rapidly undulating Hill Route, my prejudice about Pugs was rolling away with each expert turn of the wheel by Chauffeur Humble. Presence, poise and a superb colour. A pleasant place to roll across France to Le Mans or Limoges. Very good fit and finish (I like checking panel gaps and flatness; it shows attention to detail and tooling expenditure).
Again, Mike insisted we try one of the UK’s most popular cars; “only” an Astra, but
thousands of buyers cannot all be wrong. Not as good as the MG for a driver’s tool, but the seats are something else – designed in consultation with experts in the human form and the car showed and felt it. Fabulous tool inside, HUD and the like. Very good suspension over the lateral bands (take note, MG), very impressive fit and finish.
As my PhD was all about Perceived Quality Assessment and its measurement, I am fixated on things like panel fit (especially fuel filler flaps/charging point covers). I muse over odour, trim feel, balance on the move, rear ingress/egress, door shut, etc. The Vauxhall scored well on all these points. Even in white it was quite a handsome car and I am sure that many will buy and enjoy an Ellesmere Port special. I would not be embarrassed to be seen in such a vehicle. Quite a peppy little car, this one and a genuine surprise.
Out of pure prejudice, I didn’t sample any over-priced German cars (excepting MINI), as I wouldn’t want to be seen in a BMW or Audi, as that often says something not positive about the driver, whereas an Astra, what does that convey? So good to still have cars made here, MG and Honda take note.
Mike wanted a rattle with yet another contact on the Toyota stand, so I hung around a lot to sample his recommended Toymota, the CH-R. It did look good in the TV adverts, I have to say, when it first appeared and I love the bold styling. It still looks fresh and in this hybrid form (although hybrids for me are a waste, it should be one or the other), it was very competent, surprisingly so. The BEV version wasn’t available, anyway. It surprised me how popular all the Toyotas were, although it did help having the joint Subaru/Toyota BRZ 86 around in a couple of guises.
A bit like Honda’s are in the motorcycle world – easy to ride and intuitive to operate – the CH-R was intuitive. Good seats, lots of room, nothing special, however a somewhat dingy interior in black, and panel gaps much larger than they used to be (I have measured sub- 3mm in the past) and an interesting weave pattern on the door card. Amusing and tactile diamond shapes in the headlining intrigued me, and cost next-to-nothing to create, but add interest. Lots of piano black to lift the interior ambience, and pretty competent on the Hill route. Not as engaging as the benchmark (only as it was the first car I tried) MG4, but again, competent.
Another small car from my target group, this has always fascinated me as a homage to the original. The latest shape is more rounded and of course bigger than the original, but this car made me feel like an eclectic, electric extra in the “Italian Job” re-make. What a fun car! It moved me as a piece of transport along the Hill route, but also as a piece of design it also moved me.
The inviting interior featured a swathe of body-coloured dash swooped across
my near vision and I took great delight in the “Made in Turino” moulding into the recess of the interior door pull (I thought it was Mexico or Poland….). Los of interesting features, such as the push-button on top of the door to open it, but also a regular lift-catch below. Stunning performance and great electric retardation on the downhill descents, this gives a feeling of control to me. This was as much fun as the MG4, but in a smaller package. It handled like a dream, inspired great confidence and this added to the fun element. Excellent ride and handling and yes, I want one! The new top of the tree benchmark car for me.
MINI Convertible Cooper S petrol
Aha! A Real engine in one of my favourite shapes. Sarah had one for a few years pre-
children and I loved that car, a roller-skate on the roads and a show-me-a-roundabout
attitude. I recall back in the late 1990’s when at Longbridge, I was tasked by BMW to clear the old block line in North Works to make way for MINI BIW production, which was going to be built across the railway tracks. Of course, it never happened and MINI started production at Cowley under BM, having started the refurbishment of CAB2 and then sold/gave the company to the Phoenix 4. My first memory of the car was seeing the rear suspension module on top of a cabinet in the Design Office. It looked heavy, complex and yet purposeful.
Today, the car looked like the perfect transport for the day. Roof down and 96 million miles of headroom (or was that a tag-line from another cabrio advert?) I had been eagerly looking forward to this, but could not book a session in an electric open-topper, so settled for the ICE power. When the turbo kicked in, this was an exciting tool to be in! The first car in which I had to give myself the “Now, calm down, Poggo” command. Seriously good on the Hills; one needed to hack around those turns.
No scuttle shake and it was clearly well put together. Sarah’s was made in the NedCar factory in the Netherlands, with this beauty originating in Oxford. This car shouted FUN at you and anyone nearby. Speed freaks line up here. This car made one feel good, with really decent seats, but only enough room in the back for an Action Man puppet, of course.
A neat detail was the Isofix in the front passenger seat, so faffing with a baby seat would be easier, demonstrating a good eye on the real customers. The fascia was interesting; a great central information screen to hark back to Minis of old. Loved the very clear HUD, too. Quite an expensive tool, but there you have it. One of the few cars for which I would trade my TF. 143g/km of CO 2 , though. Ouch!
Hard top this time, so I had to imagine what the electric convertible would be like. Again, a MINI, so great expectations and all of them delivered. Much the same great interior as the cabrio, same great handling, wanting to be pushed all the time and this time with no real effort. Again, good retardation, i.e. what I would want to find in a petrol manual (and something that I really miss in the MGHS, which is a petrol running through a DSG ‘box). The MINI again was a hoot up the hills and also on the way down. A real gas. I can see why these are so popular. Having worked on Sarah’s original One and subsequent cabrio, I know that they are easy to service, well-built and even pretty good in the anti-corrosion stakes.
Nissan Townstar L1 Tekna+ van BEV
This was a lonely half-ton payload van in the show and as no-one was driving any of the
Nissan products at that moment, I thought why not? I was advised that this was the first
opportunity to test the van in the UK, as they had only just taken delivery, so added to the fact that the give-away chocolate on the stand was top-notch, away I went. I use vans
occasionally and was intrigued as to whether it would suit my current work project, an all- electric kiddies driver training car (See Youngdriver.eu). It is a character-changing experience, dropping into a commercial vehicle seat. You become someone else, more
utilitarian, more lager and crisps than one’s normal cider and scratchings character. (Do
substitute your own drink and savoury comestibles here).
The Townstar was functional as one would expect, rear doors and sliding side ones, so perfect access. Again, Japanese
functionality and intuitive controls. I didn’t have a load of empty crisp packets, invoices,
parking tickets and dubious-looking bottles of orange liquid to stuff down the base of the
windscreen, but it looked as if it could contain all the necessities of a van driver on the road.
The dash was quite funky and interesting, the wheel festooned with the usual cruise and ICE controls, the seats were comfy and a lift of the instrument display cover revealed the USB and other connections, with storage for more Red Bull breakfasts and old delivery notes. Out on the hills, this was great, with little of the expected rear end tramp showing, despite it being unladen. I enjoyed the drive and again build quality looked regular Nissan, so reliable and unbreakable. Not much else to say, but it was a competent little van – a claimed 183miles on the WLTP scheme.
This was the last vehicle for which I had time. Again, Mike came along too and we were
both impressed with something we had not experienced before. Compared to my own
diesel auto Mark 1 Freelander with 170,000 on the clock, it was quite a revelation.
Reasonably car-like in feel, intuitive controls again and when one came to roll a seat out of the way to load the rear, or give the kids somewhere different to sit, the requisite straps were obvious in their function. Pretty well all the set re-configurating could be done whilst stood outside, out of the way of tumbling or sliding seats (the centre set slid forward and aft). We were treated to a good, solid, bump-absorbing ride, with no rattles and squeaks. A useful and intriguing feature was the integral rear window blinds for that precious cargo in a baby seat, a bit reminiscent of Freelander and Discovery sun-roof blinds of old. Neat. Better than expected.
My thanks to Mike and the SMMT for the invitation to Millbrook!
Autobritannia 
BRILLIANT!
The combined forces of Humble and Pogson.
Great writeup Ian, look forward to reading more.