Greenpeace UK is staging a protest outside Volkswagen Group UK’s Milton Keynes headquarters, which it claims has blocked more than 800 staff from starting work this morning.
The environmental organisation is demanding Volkswagen stop building new diesel cars and switch to 100 percent electric.
Mel Evans is Greenpeace’s clean air campaigner and said that, as the UK’s biggest seller of new diesel cars, “Volkswagen is complicit in an air pollution crisis that’s filling up emergency departments and GP surgeries.
Medics and activists are turning @UKVolkswagen HQ into an emergency diesel pollution clinic.
Not even VW can ignore the diesel health crisis when it’s at their place of work – and they definitely can’t ignore it if it’s all over social media too. RT pic.twitter.com/0V9i9iPrpr
“Volkswagen sold us a lie about diesel being clean. Its diesel addition is seriously harming people’s health.”
The firm, she claimed, “won’t meet with us and won’t listen. So today we’ve brought the truth about diesel to its doorstep”.
The Greenpeace demonstration, which went live at 7am, mocked up a hospital with “a diesel pollution clinic outside to offer advice”. Greenpeace also has medics in attendance; it is offering heath checks to staff and members of the public.
The protest, added Greenpeace, was a peaceful one, aimed at securing a meeting with Volkswagen Group UK MD Paul Willis.
Your mission if you choose to accept: help us get @UKVolkswagen’s boss, Paul Willis, to return our calls.
Diesel pollution is causing horrendous suffering across the UK and storing up a lifetime of troubled health for our kids.
Doctor in respiratory medicine, Arash Saleh, was at the protest. “Diesel pollution is causing horrendous suffering acrosss the UK and storing up a lifetime of troubled health for our kids. If you could see it, diesel would be banned tomorrow.”
“Volkswagen is aware of a protest at its Blakelands premises this morning,” said a spokesman for the firm.
“The safety of our employees is our principal concern and so the matter is now being handled by the police.”
In response to Greenpeace’s claims and demands, they added: “The Volkswagen Group has launched the most comprehensive electrification initiative in the automotive industry with “Roadmap E”. This will bring an additional 80 new electric vehicles to the Volkswagen Group model range by 2025.
“Roadmap E brings a 20 billion Euro investment to electric vehicle technology with the goal of 25 per cent of Volkswagen Group vehicle production comprising electrified vehicles by 2025 and 50 per cent by 2030.”
Aston Martin is building a series of brand-new James Bond ‘Goldfinger’ DB5 classics, with each recreation set to sell for £3.3 million. The first cars will be delivered in 2020.
The cars are being built in a partnership between Aston Martin and James Bond film producer EON Productions. They are described as being authentic reproductions – even down to the array of working gadgets each will carry.
Chris Corbould OBE, the special effects guru on eight James Bond films, will develop the gadgets. And, being an Oscar winner, he knows a thing or two about them…
The Aston Martin Goldfinger DB5s will all be built in Newport Pagnell, at Aston Martin Works. That’s where the original DB5s were assembled; the recreations are Aston’s follow-on project from its recent DB4 G.T. continuation series.
Every Goldfinger edition will be finished in the same Silver Birch paint as the original. However, unlike the original, they won’t be road-legal.
Aston Martin & EON Productions to create 25 Goldfinger DB5 continuation cars
· Cars include working gadgets to be developed by Oscar winner Chris Corbould.
· Built at Aston Martin Works, Newport Pagnell–the original home of the DB5
· First customer deliveries scheduled for 2020 pic.twitter.com/fMFpEdKUhy
Andy Palmer, president and CEO, Aston Martin, said: “The connection between Aston Martin and James Bond is something of which we are very proud and it is remarkable that the DB5 remains the definitive James Bond car after so many years.
“To own an Aston Martin has long been an aspiration for James Bond fans, but to own a Silver Birch DB5, complete with gadgets and built to the highest standards in the very same factory as the original James Bond cars? Well, that is surely the ultimate collectors’ fantasy.
“The skilled craftspeople at Aston Martin Works and the expert special effects team from the James Bond films are about to make this fantasy real for 25 very lucky customers.”
Goldfinger was the third James Bond movie and the DB5’s appearance alongside Sean Connery made it a movie legend. Corgi quickly followed up with a die-cast model of the Goldfinger DB5; in 1965 alone, 2.5 million of them were sold.
The DB5 has also featured in 1965’s Thunderball, 1995’s GoldenEye, 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies plus a trio of appearances with Daniel Craig in Casino Royal, Skyfall and Spectre.
The rate at which Tesla Inc. – formerly Tesla Motors – has gone from nothing to something is rivalled only by a Model S P100D in Ludicrous mode. Love him or hate him, Elon Musk has put the electric car maker at the centre of the automotive universe, but the journey hasn’t been as smooth and linear as an EV’s acceleration. This is a brief timeline of Tesla events.
No compromise
Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 “by a group of engineers who wanted to prove that people didn’t need to compromise to drive electric – that electric vehicles can be better, quicker and more fun to drive than gasoline cars”. Its founders: Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, Ian Wright, J.B. Straubel and a guy named Elon Musk. You may have heard of him.
The Tzero
According to a brilliant piece on Business Insider, the story began when product designer Malcolm Smith took a call from Martin Eberhard. He was invited to an office in California where he found Eberhard and his partner Marc Tarpenning working on an electric car using a Piontek Sportech kit car as a base. The car was called the Tzero, and the pair harboured dreams of building an electric car to sell to the public.
Incorporated July 2003
Marc Tarpenning purchased the teslamotors.com domain in April 2003, before the company was incorporated on 1 July 2003. The name pays tribute to Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor of the AC induction motor.
Musk ups his game
Malcolm Smith was one of the first 20 employees of the new car company, with an official title of vice president of vehicle engineering. The next step was to secure funding, as building and sustaining a volume car manufacturer wouldn’t be cheap. Cutting a long story short, Musk invested $7.5 million in the business and became chairman of the board.
PayPal and space rockets
Elon Musk made his money when PayPal was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. He also established SpaceX in the same year. Interviewed for a National Geographic documentary, Musk spoke about his plans for the future of the world. These plans, which he made at college, centred on the internet, making life multiplanetary and sustainable energy.
Under pressure
With so much at stake, it’s understandable that things got a little heated. Musk fell out with Eberhard, who resigned from his executive position and became president of technology, with Michael Marks taking over as interim CEO in 2007. Later in the year, he was replaced by Ze’ev Drori, the former CEO of Clifford Electronics, before Musk took on the role of CEO in 2008.
Job cuts
Tesla Motors wasn’t in the best of shape. By the time Musk became CEO in October 2008, he had already invested $55 million of his own cash and was forced to fire 25 percent of the workforce. The fact that he managed to secure $40 million of funding saved the company from bankruptcy.
Tesla Roadster
The story of the Tesla Roadster begins in 2003, when Eberhard and Tarpenning muscled in on the Lotus stand at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Tesla knew that it had to piggyback an existing platform to get established – the cost of building an entire car would be too prohibitive. Lotus seemed like a good fit, with its own engineering and design divisions, not to mention a track record of working with other companies. At the time, Lotus was building the VX220/Speedster for General Motors.
Tesla Roadster
Tesla struggled to agree on a design for the Roadster. The team didn’t want something that screamed electric like the GM EV1, but it was the British designer Bill Moggridge who sent the team down a path of building something that looked like a traditional sports car, with a hint of retro about it. Following another call for designs, one proposal stood out: that of Barney Hatt, the principal designer at the Lotus Design Studio.
Tesla Roadster
Martin Eberhard emptied a room at his house and invited friends and colleagues to vote on the different proposals. Each person was given red and green sticky-notes, with red for ‘bad’ and green for ‘good’. Writing in 2006, Eberhard said: “No doubt about it. Barney had a few red notes to be sure, but he was hands-down the winner. I never expected it, because his first proposals (before Bill’s brief) were awful.”
Tesla Roadster
The first design mule was completed in 2004, before the Tesla Roadster was unveiled in 2006 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Tesla hoped to sell 100 cars at the event, with guests invited to spend $100,000 on the electric dream. Two weeks later, Tesla had received 127 reservations. The plan was to start shipping in 2006, building 500 cars a year by 2007, before making a profit by 2008. In reality, the Tesla Roadster didn’t start shipping until February 2008, with regular production commencing a month later.
Tesla Roadster
At the time, Tesla claimed that the Roadster could deliver a range of up to 245 miles, although this was revised to 211 miles. It could also hit 60mph in just 3.7 seconds, giving it supercar-levels of performance. Not that Top Gear, and in particular, Jeremy Clarkson, was about to give the Roadster an easy ride.
Tesla vs Top Gear
Clarkson famously claimed that, when driven hard, the true range was just 55 miles, and television footage showed the car being pushed into a hangar by four men. We also watched as one Roadster overheated and the other one suffered from brake failure. Tesla sued the BBC for what it called “libel and malicious falsehood”, claiming “the breakdowns were staged and the statements [were] untrue”. Tesla lost the case.
Tesla Roadster
Early troubles and a 2009 recall aside, the Roadster successfully put Tesla on the automotive map, but what was essentially a second car for wealthy individuals was only ever going to be a springboard for bigger things. Tesla knew that it needed a larger car with mass appeal. That car would be the Model S.
Growing pains
The year 2010 was to be a significant one in the history of Tesla. Elon Musk started by telling a judge that he was out of cash and living off emergency loans, while Tesla had lost a reported $290m in seven years. At the time, the company had sold just 1,063 cars and could boast a mere 12 showrooms around the world. However, the dream was far from over.
Tesla goes public
In April 2010, Daimler acquired a 10 percent equity stake in Tesla, with the American company receiving $50m in return. A few weeks later, the firm received a $465m loan from the US department of energy. Then, in June, Tesla made history by becoming the first American car company to go public since Ford in 1956. It sold 13.3m shares at $17 each.
Tesla factory opens
The next significant step was the purchase of the former General Motors and Toyota factory in Fremont, California. Tesla added skylights to provide the workers with natural light and painted the floors white, giving it the feel of a tech plant, rather than a factory first used by GM in 1962. Employees were also given access to bikes to make their way around the 5.3 million square feet of manufacturing and office space, with machines painted red to make everything feel on-brand.
A new sales and marketing model
Ever the maverick, Elon Musk ripped up the automotive sales and marketing rulebook and adopted a strategy that was more tech-led. There are no dealers, with Tesla creating its own-branded stores. “The type of place we are striving for combines the feel of an Apple store with a Starbucks and a good restaurant,” said Musk. Meanwhile, Tesla decided against using an ad agency or paying for advertising.
Tesla Model S
Musk’s maverick approach to Tesla’s growth strategy was bold but effective, seeing him likened to Tony Stark of Iron Man fame. Invest in reputation first, then worry about profit later, he said in a documentary, with his showmanship helping to mask delays, product issues and financial woes on more than a few occasions. His decision to host a ‘ride and drive’ event to satisfy and pacify impatient Model S customers was a stroke of PR genius.
Tesla Model S
To achieve its aims, Tesla hired the former Toyota production engineering manager Gilbert Passin as vice president of manufacturing. Meanwhile, Tesla drafted in former Mazda North America design chief Franz von Holzhausen as its chief designer. “Tesla is changing the paradigm,” said Franz. “We’re going to turn the world on its ear and create high demand through design. There is a new hunger in the air for automotive design and looking to where automobiles are going in the future. Tesla will capture this through good design and engineering.”
Tesla Model S
Model S deliveries began in June 2012 and the electric saloon started collecting awards within a few months. It also helped Tesla achieve its first quarterly profit in May 2013, before outselling the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series and every large luxury saloon in the US. A year later, Morgan Stanley labelled Tesla “the world’s most important car company.”
The first Supercharger
To satisfy demand, Tesla opened its first Supercharger in California in 2012, before embarking on an ambitious growth strategy. In June 2018, Tesla tweeted that it had opened its 10,000th Supercharger – located in Belleville, around 100 miles east of Toronto. A Supercharger can provide a Model S with around 170 miles of range in just 30 minutes.
Fire fighting
The Model S soon became the poster star of the EV industry – a glamorous, tech-laden advertisement for the electric car. But it wasn’t smooth sailing for the world’s first all-electric luxury car. A series of fires in 2013 led to a drop in share value, with Tesla also reporting disappointing third quarter results. The first fire involved a sharp object puncturing the battery pack, with Musk defending the Model S, saying: “For consumers concerned about fire risk, there should be absolutely zero doubt that it is safer to power a car with a battery than a large tank of highly flammable liquid.”
Tesla Model X
Tesla unveiled the Model X in 2012, with deliveries commencing in September 2015. Tesla calls it “the safest, quickest, most capable sport utility vehicle ever”, with the Model X boasting seven seats, all-wheel drive, a five-star safety rating and a range of up to 295 miles. In December 2015, Tesla announced that it had sold the 100,000th Model S, making it the second best-selling electric car behind the Nissan Leaf.
Tesla Energy
In 2015, Tesla Motors unveiled Tesla Energy, with a promise to deliver storage systems or batteries for homes, business and utility companies. It’s part of a vision to create a fossil fuel-free lifestyle in which people generate their own electricity to power their homes and recharge their car batteries. A year later, Tesla announced plans to buy SolarCity to “create the world’s only integrated sustainable energy company, from energy generation to storage to transportation.”
Tesla Model 3
The Tesla Model 3 was unveiled in 2016, with Musk saying the firm had received 276,000 pre-orders for its affordable electric car. Customers were asked to put down $1,000 deposits to reserve their vehicle with Musk aiming to produce around 500,000 units a year once production reached full capacity. In October, Tesla announced its second and only other quarterly profit.
Tesla Model 3
The first 30 Model 3s were delivered to their owners at an event in Fremont in July 2017, although by the end of the year the firm admitted that delivery numbers were falling well short of expectations. Shares fell as Tesla said: “As we continue to focus on quality and efficiency rather than simply pushing for the highest possible volume in the shortest period of time, we expect to have a slightly more gradual ramp through Q1, likely ending the quarter at a weekly rate of about 2,500 Model 3 vehicles. We intend to achieve the 5,000 per week milestone by the end of Q2.”
Easter eggs and theatre
Always keen to divert attention away from production and financial matters, Tesla has incorporated many so-called ‘Easter eggs’ in its models. These include the Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me on the suspension menu, a Mario Kart setting for Autopilot, a door and light display for the Model X, and the surface of Mars on the map display. More seriously, in February 2017, Tesla Motors officially changed its name to Tesla Inc, marking a symbolic shift for the company.
Global production
Tesla began manufacturing in Portugal and Taiwan in 2017, which followed the opening of an assembly plant in the Netherlands in 2013. The Tilburg factory serves as the final assembly and distribution point for vehicles sold in Europe, with Bryan Batista, European sales director, commenting: “It’s very exciting to see our cars arriving in Europe and being welcomed by their proud owners here in Tilburg. This location is pivotal to Tesla’s European operations, which are expanding rapidly over the coming months with openings of around 15 new stores and service centres.”
Spaceman
In February 2018, Elon Musk sent a Tesla Roadster into space, claiming: “It’s kind of silly and fun, but silly and fun things are important.” The Roadster was placed on the nose cone of the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket on earth, with the stereo programmed to play David Bowie’s Space Oddity on repeat.
Model X accident
A fatal crash involving a Model X hit the headlines in March 2018 after it was revealed that Autopilot was engaged at the time of the accident. “The driver’s hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the collision,” said a company statement. In 2016, a Model S driver was killed in Florida when a driver failed to spot a lorry crossing its path. A preliminary investigation into the Model X crash revealed that the vehicle increased its speed from 62mph to 70.8mph in the three seconds before the collision. Tesla is keen to stress that Autopilot is designed to be used with both hands on the wheel.
Share slumps and losses
In April 2018, shares rose by 6.9 percent when Musk announced that Tesla would not need to raise more capital in 2018, only for the value to slump by 8.6 percent following a bizarre and heated conference call with a group of analysts. He told one analyst he was asking “boring bonehead questions” that were “not cool.”
5,000 Model 3s
In July, Tesla announced that it had built 5,000 Model 3s during the last week of the month, only to reveal its biggest ever loss in August. However, the value of Tesla shares actually increased, with Tesla claiming it will deliver positive cash flow and a profit in the second half of 2018.
Tesla to go private?
Elon Musk announced in August that he was considering taking Tesla private, although the company’s board of directors subsequently said that they had yet to receive a formal proposal. In the latest update, Musk said: “I’m considering taking Tesla private because I believe it could be good for our shareholders, enable Tesla to operate at its best, and advance our mission of accelerating the transition to sustainable energy.”
What’s next?
Tesla has crammed enough events, achievements, controversies and tweets into its first 15 years to last other companies a lifetime. We haven’t mentioned the Gigafactory, which broke ground in 2014 and is expected to be the largest building in the world. Or the ill-advised tweet following the rescue of the boys stuck in a flooded cave. Or the all-new Tesla Roadster and Semi truck. And you can bet your bottom dollar that we haven’t heard the last of Musk’s tweet about taking the company private. Whatever happens, the next 15 years are going to be far from boring.
Adaptive cruise control could cut congestion and reduce the instances of ‘phantom’ traffic jams, according to Ford and scientists from Vanderbilt University, Tennessee.
Using a series of closed-course experiments, the researchers compared the performance of drivers using adaptive cruise control to drivers not using the technology.
More often than not, it is drivers who cause traffic jams, with our delayed reactions having a ripple effect that can cause congestion for no apparent reason. Hence the term ‘phantom’ traffic jam.
Adaptive cruise control uses radar technology to adjust the vehicle’s speed while maintaining a set distance to the car in front. Drivers without the system simply accelerated to keep up with the flow of traffic, before braking when other cars slowed.
The result was that the use of adaptive cruise control reduced the likelihood of a phantom jam, with the researchers concluding that there was a measurable improvement in traffic flow, even if only some of the cars are fitted with adaptive cruise.
The video provides good evidence, even if the experiment was conducted on closed roads using just 36 drivers. It stands to reason that vehicles maintaining a safe distance will create an even flow of traffic, reducing instances of erratic braking and acceleration.
“For years, traffic researchers and engineers have been looking to smart vehicle technologies to reduce traffic congestion, whether that’s vehicles that talk to each other or vehicles that can predict the road ahead,” said Daniel Work, civil engineering professor at Vanderbilt University.
“This demonstration was a unique opportunity to understand how commercially-available active driver-assist technologies can be used to positively influence traffic flow.”
What is adaptive cruise control?
In a nutshell, adaptive cruise control (ACC) uses radar or sensors to adjust the speed of the vehicle to match the flow of traffic, with some systems edging closer to a fully autonomous future. It’s similar to standard cruise control, in that it will maintain a constant speed, but will also accelerate and decelerate to match the prevailing traffic conditions.
Should the car or cars in front of the vehicle begin to slow, the vehicle’s engine management system will act accordingly, applying the brakes if necessary. Visual and audible warnings are given should the driver not react in time, although some systems can bring the car to a complete stop.
Other systems also include a traffic jam assist, which handles the braking and accelerating in areas of congestion. According to the SMMT, 6.9 percent of new cars are fitted with ACC as standard, with 29.3 percent offering it as an option.
The former factory of the Cooper Car Company has been honoured with an English Heritage blue plaque.
From the humble garage in Surbiton, Surrey, Charles Cooper and his son John, along with a team of designers and engineers, masterminded victory in the 1959 and 1960 Formula One World Championships.
The Cooper Car Company was at the forefront of a rear-engine revolution that changed the face of F1, while providing drives for the likes of Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Mike Hawthorn and Jackie Stewart.
Mike Cooper, pictured with his father John, said: “At its heart it was very much a family firm. I remember my dad telling me the story of how, during a really cold spell, the mechanics at the works asked my grandad if the workshop could have central heating.
“My grandad, with my father, promptly went downstairs to the workshop and, with two lengths of tubing, picked up the coke burning stoke which was placed along one wall and placed it in the centre of the workshop, my grandad saying: ‘There you go, central heating!’”
Cooper Cars took part in 129 @F1 races, winning 16 of them 🏁🏆
Cooper took part in 129 F1 races, winning 16 over a nine-year period.
But Charles Cooper was unwilling to expand and invest in the business, and the racing team was left behind both on and off the track. John sold the racing side of the company to the Chipstead Motor Group in April 1965. Meanwhile, Cooper had played a pivotal role in the development of one of the world’s most iconic cars.
The Mini Cooper
In 1959, the British Motor Corporation (BMC) lent a Mini to John Cooper, who set about building a fast version of the people’s car. Alec Issigonis was against the idea, but Cooper presented a prototype to BMC’s MD George Harriman.
Impressed with what he saw, Harriman gave the green light to build 1,000 cars for homologation purposes. The Mini Cooper was born and the rest, as they say, is history.
Of the unassuming building in Surbiton, English Heritage historian Howard Spencer said it’s “a hugely important building to the history of the British car industry” and the company was a “beacon of innovative motor design”.
Hertz sure knows how to throw a party. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the car hire company has bought a fleet of yellow Corvette Z06s – and you’re invited to pop over to the States to have a play.
There are 100 Hertz 100th Anniversary Edition Corvette Z06s, and they will be available to rent at select locations in the USA.
If you’re flying into Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco or Tampa, it’s the only rental car you need.
That’s assuming you’re not intending to take the kids or very much luggage. Or you’re not looking to hypermile your way across the States.
Each Hertz Corvette is painted yellow and black and has custom interior badging – including a personalised Hertz centennial anniversary plaque displaying the model number of the vehicle.
Aside from that, it’s business as usual, which means a supercharged 6.2-litre V8 engine developing 650hp and 650lb ft of torque, eight-speed transmission, 10-speaker Bose sound system and eight-inch touchscreen media system.
The 200-dollar Corvette
A Chevrolet dealer will charge you upwards of $80,000 for the pleasure of owning a Z06, but a Hertz rental costs as little as $199.
We looked at renting a Hertz 100th Corvette from New York and were given a price of $207.66 (£163.38) for 24 hours. The price includes the first 75 miles, but insurance, damage waiver, roadside assistance, additional driver cover and fuel are extra.
Renting a Corvette without the insurance and loss damage waiver isn’t recommended.
Oh, and there’s the small matter of $0.90 per mile after the initial 75 miles.
“Hertz is a leader in the car rental industry for delivering a premium experience that is fuelled by our longstanding commitment to provide our customers with caring and efficient service, and access to a variety of specialty and top-rated vehicles,” said Hertz senior vice president of brand, Jayesh Patel.
“We’re thrilled to continue to delight our customers and build upon our legacy of superior service and unique vehicle offerings with our special Hertz 100th Anniversary Edition Corvette Z06.”
When the ‘Vettes have completed their rental duties, they will sold be sold to the public as cast-iron future classics. Just a few hundred careful owners…
Highways England chief engineer Mike Wilson has insisted England’s road bridges are safe, following the tragic collapse of a structure in Genoa, Italy.
He also revealed that only “a very small proportion of our structures are suspension or cable stayed bridges… [and] none of them are of similar construction to the one in Genoa”.
In a statement aimed at reassuring worried British motorists, Wilson said that “safety is and always will be our top priority”.
Highways England runs a “thorough and regular regime for inspecting all structures, including bridges, on England’s motorways and major A roads, and taking any necessary action to help ensure they stay safe”.
The government department has also committed to “assess any lessons to be learnt and… [bringing] any required changes to standards and processes” when the causes of the Genoa bridge collapse have been investigated and reported.
England’s motorway network and major A roads feature more than 21,000 structures, which are “rigorously” inspected according to design, age and maintenance needs.
General inspections are carried out every two years, and detailed principal inspections typically occur every six years. These involve close inspection of every detail of the structure.
The latest death toll from the Morandi bridge collapse in Genoa is 39. A national day of mourning will take place tomorrow to remember the victims. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has declared a 12-month state of emergency in the region.
Volkswagen of America has announced a custom-colour paint option for the 2019 Golf R called Spektrum Program – and it extends paint options to an amazing 40 different hues. That’s on top of the five standard Golf R colours.
And not only are some of the colours wonderfully retro, Volkswagen has also chosen some retro names for them, too.
Viper Green Metallic will be a hue familiar both to Scirocco buyers and, interestingly, has also featured on the Lamborghini Huracan. Deep Blue Pearl was used on both the Mk4 and Mk5 Golf R32. And Ginster Yellow was a highlight of the late-1990s Colour Edition Mk3 Golf GTI.
The series even goes right back to the original Mk1 Golf GTI, with retro Mars Red.
2019 VW Golf R Mars Red
To give North American Volkswagen enthusiasts the full effect, the firm is launching a 360-degree colouriser, so buyers can choose the colours and then view them online in full. Every dealer will also be carrying a Spektrum Program colour kit, with a paint shop-quality sample of each colour.
Each colour costs $2,500 (around £2,000) and delivery takes two to four months. Volkswagen Canada originally launched the extended colour initiative, and found the take-rate was so high, Volkswagen of America soon took interest – expanding the colour choice to 40 in the process.
How does it work? Each car is hand-painted in a separate paint shop, before returning to the final assembly line for finishing.
It all makes the paltry five colours offered here in the UK seem somewhat mean, no? But as all Volkswagen Golf Rs are built in Germany, we’re wondering about the potential of bringing the Spektrum Program over here. We’ve asked the question and will let you know…
More than 2 million secondhand cars were sold between April and June 2018, reveals the latest data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
A total volume of 2,039,429 used cars marks a decline of just 0.4 percent over 2017 figures – in contrast to the new car market, which is down 5.5 percent year-to-date.
So far in 2018, over 4.1 million secondhand cars have changed hands.
“It’s great to see the used car sector remain in robust health as motorists take advantage of the exciting high-tech models filtering down from the new sector – including some of the latest low emission diesel and alternatively fuelled vehicles,” said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes.
He sounded a note of caution for the rest of 2018, though. “With used sales so closely reflecting the new car market, some cooling is expected over the coming months.
“Given fleet renewal is the fastest way to improve air quality and reduce CO2, we need greater business and consumer confidence to keep both markets moving.”
Green car growth
What’s hot in the secondhand car market at the moment? Used hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars, whose sales rose by more than a quarter. Almost 27,000 of them changed hands in three months, a rise of well over 5,000 on the year before.
Surprisingly, diesel car sales were also up 3.2 percent – and petrol car sales fell 3.3 percent.
The most popular type of used car is the supermini, which accounted for 32.6 percent of the market (despite a 2.6 percent decline). Small and medium-sized family cars are next most popular, but SUVs are growing fast, with a 10.7 percent increase in sales. Executive car transactions were also up.
And the most popular colour of secondhand car? Black, with silver and blue next up, but white proving to be the biggest gainer – followed, unexpectedly, by orange. Green and maroon cars are, however, fast falling out of favour with used car buyers: sales of secondhand green cars were down 14.6 percent.
In a surprise development, Volvo performance division Polestar is releasing software that gives selected all-wheel drive (AWD) Volvo cars and SUVs a more rear-driven feel – to improve both pull-away traction and, more importantly, driver satisfaction when cornering.
The software update increases both how much torque is distributed to the rear wheels, and how often drive is biased rearwards. It is engaged whenever the car’s Dynamic driving mode is selected, or when Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is disengaged.
Called the Polestar AWD optimisation, it launches this month for petrol and diesel versions of the Volvo V90 and S90, the S60, V60 and XC60, and XC40 small SUV.
“We are always fine-tuning the driving experience of Volvo cars,” said the firm’s senior vice president of R&D Henrik Green, “and this upgrade makes the all-wheel drive both smoother and more dynamic.”
Drivers, he said, will enjoy better steering feel and turn-in to corners, enhanced control and feedback, and better off-the-line traction that could help improve acceleration times.
Volvo says the upgrade is an added extra feature to the Polestar optimisation kit – which already sharpens the accelerator pedal and makes it respond more quickly when pressed, speeds up gearchanges, holds onto gears in corners… and, of course, boosts overall engine output.
The effect is expected to be particularly noticeable in Volvo’s ‘Twin Engine’ plug-in hybrid models, which use a fast-reacting electric motor on the rear axle. Polestar is described as Volvo’s electric performance brand and is in the process of launching its first electrified car, the Polestar 1, in a limited run of just 500 cars.
How can you tell if a Volvo has received the Polestar AWD optimisation? Look for the performance division’s trademark blue badge on the bootlid.
Greenpeace UK is staging a protest outside Volkswagen Group UK’s Milton Keynes headquarters, which it claims has blocked more than 800 staff from starting work this morning.
Aston Martin is building a series of brand-new James Bond ‘Goldfinger’ DB5 classics, with each recreation set to sell for £3.3 million. The first cars will be delivered in 2020.
Highways England chief engineer Mike Wilson has insisted England’s road bridges are safe, following the tragic collapse of a structure in Genoa, Italy.
Volkswagen of America has announced a custom-colour paint option for the 2019 Golf R called Spektrum Program – and it extends paint options to an amazing 40 different hues. That’s on top of the five standard Golf R colours.
In a surprise development, Volvo performance division Polestar is releasing software that gives selected all-wheel drive (AWD) Volvo cars and SUVs a more rear-driven feel – to improve both pull-away traction and, more importantly, driver satisfaction when cornering.
