The Carchat

I know I'm fickle - just the other day I was loving the Juke, but this little baby has got me all excited. Aside from the back end looking like the design chaps got bored, went home and left the work experience kid to tidy everything up, it's a pretty smart little car.

And you could even close your eyes (possibly not whilst driving) and imagine you're in a McLaren F1, what with that 3-seat layout and fancy cockpit.

Unfortunately, I doubt anyone will buy one - why look like a twat in an unknown brand's car when you can spend £60,000 and look like a twat in an Aston Martin Cygnet? Or why not get a MINI, or a Smart, or a Toyota iQ? And legitimate concerns have been raised already about opening the door in the rain. But I don't even leave the house in the rain, so that's OK.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I realised I had consistently done Bruce Willis down - he's great in Pulp Fiction, 16 Blocks, Fifth Element, Bandits, Sixth Sense - in fact, many of the films I enjoy watching the most he is in. I even quite enjoyed him in Die Hard 4.0 in all his baldness.

The reason I mention all this is that I've recently had a similar epiphany about NIssan - Qashqai, 370Z, Cube, Murano and now the Juke. Admittedly the Micra is Nissan's Armageddon, but we can't have it all ways, them bills have to get paid somehow.

Nissan makes some good cars - it still feels weird for me to say this, but I can't wait until the day that I get to spend some time with a Juke. I think it looks absolutely marvellous, and there's no driving experience short of poking me in the eye every time I press the brake pedal that is going to dampen my quixotic fervour.

Of course, I'd still buy a Cube over anything else with my own money, but that's a whole other fetish and there's time for be to be wooed, Juke...

There's a quick review of the new A1 on the CAR website if you click on the picture.

There's just one question I really have about it - I'm sure it's lovely inside, it has a reasonable ride, it's neatly-styled. But what's the point?

Have we now reached the era in which there is nothing new to say except to expand and do to death every possible niche and marketing venture?

I'm not always a fan of the CG photos of upcoming cars, but I can see that they have a place in a news weekly to promote sales. Will this car look like this? Probably not, but it's a mildly interesting glimpse into the future.

I'm fascinated by the controversy over BMW ditching their rear-wheel drive cars in favour of front-wheel drive numbers - obviously they're not the ultimate driving machines anymore, but I did wonder what Car Chat readers thought about it all.

My biggest concern about BMW is that it must be reaching saturation point with its model range - how many funny little cars and horrid big cars can the market take?

Pretty cool, especially as a "not-Cobra" vintage-styled sports car. Apparently, the LC470 also won the 2009 NASA "Super Unlimited" Championship…you don't see Cobra replicas racing much, do you?

From Viacomit.net:

Lucra Cars, based out of Los Angeles, have revealed the specifications and details of their 2010 LC470 sports/racing car. A one-piece carbon fiber body fits the tubular steel chassis like a glove. Independent suspension all round smoothes the ride yet allows the car to pull 1.3 lateral G through high speed curves and tight corners. Depending on the choice of GM motors mated to a close-ratio Tremec gearbox, the LC470 offers 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, a standing quarter mile in 9.1 secs, 150 mph over the ¼ mile line and top speeds above 180 mph.

Of course, Jalopnik ran the story a few months ago…

The average new vehicle today has approximately 100 different computers using close to 100 million lines of code, all of which are constantly communicating with each other and with hundreds of sensors, Maibaum said.

By comparison, the safety system at Ontario's Darlington nuclear plant uses one computer with 60,000 lines of code.

And how did this happen? By demanding heated seats, rear-seat DVD players, and stability control programs?

A far less expensive and far safer alternative is to take an accredited skid control / advanced driving course, and improve your skills enough to avoid being in an accident.

The best computer ever created lies between our two ears…

You never quite know how much stock to put into these artist's impressions that mags are so fond of pumping out, but this is Autocar's take on the next Beetle.

I have contacts from VW who have told me that the next Beetle will be a sportier steer and less angled at attracting buyers of a more female persuasion, but I'm fascinated to see how Volkswagen squares that with the Scirocco - I can see that a more dynamic Beetle would challenge it somewhat.

For a 'less retro' design, though, it doesn't really move the game on a great deal. I always fancied the Micro Bus concept over the Beetle and it's a shame that the Caravelle made it into production in its place. The Mini had a certain amount of charm that the Beetle lacked, with its retrofied cynicism. It would have been much nicer to have seen VW's designers working with the ideas of the Beetle rather than upscaling and trendying them up.

Still, we shall see - you never quite know how much stock to put in these artist's impressions.

The roof design makes it so much more expressive than the now-boring Audi TT. Thoughts?

Ms Miata doesn't hurt, either. I have no idea if / when it'll be for sale. Full gallery via the carscoop link above.

Aside: I wish I was a warning triangle.

I've seen it in the flesh (well, a styling buck) and this is it. Having said that, it looks much better in person than in a line drawing. Platform? Insignia.