The Week In Cars

This weekend, it’s Goodwood, and the car announcements keep coming.

First, I should mention that MG is featured at this year’s festival. It’s not the MG of old, and connecting the latest EVs with the cars of 1924 is stretching things a little, but the new Cyberster does look interesting and is good value.

Mercedes are celebrating 130 years in motorsport at Goodwood this weekend with some very special cars.

I particularly like the 1990 C11 Group C Racing Car and the 1998 CLK LM, but old F1 cars like the 1955 W 196 R and the even earlier 2-litre Targa Florio from 1924 are exceptional race cars, too.

Look out for Mika Hakkinen, Emerson Fittipaldia, and Bruno Senna, who’ll pilot special McLaren cars up the hill over the weekend.

Maserati will be at Goodwood with two MC20 special series cars and more, including an MC12.

Danish car company Zenvo is debuting their Aurora Agil and Tur cars for the first time in Europe.

On the less exotic side, Honda is showing their Prelude Concept again for the first time (I have a soft spot for a Honda as I still own one and used to have a Prelude many years ago).

But it’s not all about Goodwood.

Another car company I have a soft spot for, Caterham, has created a special one-off 360R that uses repurposed parts from an RAF Puma helicopter.

This car will be auctioned off via Collecting Cars, and the money raised will support Mission Motorsport and the RAF Benevolent Fund.

In addition to being at Goodwood, Bentley has been busy setting records with its new Continental GT Speed, believe it or not, underwater.

In My Opinion…

I’m pretty opinionated, but I think we petrolheads are undervalued and overlooked. So, I’d like to share a few things from this week that I think you’ll appreciate and have a view on.

The F1 Movie’s First Trailer

I’m sure you’ve seen the trailer for the Brad Pitt film, which is “creatively” titled F1.

Is it just me, or does this look like it’ll be full of clichés in terms of both the storyline and the script?

And I was surprised F1 (the organisation, not the film) is happy with the line:

“…who said anything about safe?”

It’s right at the beginning of the trailer, said by Brad Pitt’s character, and not something the sport and the people in it would tolerate in real life.

What Will The UK’s New Government Do For Petrolheads?

With a change of government, we can expect to see some political posturing, and I’m not sure it’ll be good news for people like us.

The new government needs to address the state of the UK's roads and the fact they are not fit for purpose. However, it is more likely that we’ll end up with increased fuel tax and rising costs in related areas like road tax, congestion and low emission zone charges.

There’s bound to be investment in public transport, and they’ll expect us all to buy into EVs, reverting to 2030 for the ban on petrol and diesel cars, but is that what we want?

I want to see government investment in synthetic fuel, which is potentially more relevant. If it’s good enough for old F1 cars, it's good enough for vehicles even we petrolheads enjoy.

But on the plus side, as we petrolheads always look for an excuse to buy more cars, I can “justify” why I need to buy a couple more petrol cars before they’re banned and prices rise as demand rockets the closer we get to 2030.

What’s Happened To Car Dealers?

This is a bit of a rant, but it’s based on my frustrations with the main dealers and the waste and lost opportunities in business.

This week, I had one of my cars looked at and waited while it was done.

Getting an appointment wasn’t easy, and they couldn’t do all the bits as they were too busy (one recall has already been cancelled on me once).

Long story short, I turned up for the appointment, and they said they would do the work and the recall. For this to be done, I’ll need to sit around the dealer for an extra hour or so. They think I have nothing better to do with my afternoon, so I politely declined.

The receptionist and service advisor were very polite. When one of them was nipping out to the local shop, she even asked if I’d like anything, which was a lovely thing to do.

But here’s what I can’t understand, and maybe it’s because of my business background and knowing the importance of a proactive sales and marketing attitude.

I’ll not mention the specific dealer, but when a very “ordinary” Cayenne S is over £123,000 (no wonder it’s in the showroom), many other new and nearly new cars are sitting waiting for a new owner, including a nice-looking Turbo Cab, I hear sales of this brand aren’t so easy now, and I’m a captive customer with nothing to do for over 90 minutes, how many salespeople, at the very least, said hello?

Yes, that’s right, none.

My wife worries whenever I go to a car dealer, as it’s 50/50 that I’ll come back with either a new or an additional car.

As a petrolhead, I could easily be a Dakar owner (they had one for sale), and the car being worked on is overdue for a change. However, I assume this dealer doesn’t have a sales team; they have a sales prevention team.

As I said, the reception and service staff were very polite and professional, and even one of the mechanics who walked past said hello, but sales are a business's lifeblood. And when I see bad business, it frustrates me, even when it’s not my business.

I can indulge in my petrolhead obsession and have bought luxury and supercars for decades, including many from that dealer, so I’m an ideal prospect. And I’m drinking coffee, wandering around, and fiddling with my phone to kill time.

If you gave me this dealership’s salespeople for a few days, I know I could increase their sales by at least 20% and make them more profitable.

In the meantime, I’ll buy another car from Tom Hartley or another specialist dealer who knows how easy it is to sell a car to somebody like me.

So these are my opinions.

What do you think and do you agree with me?

And what have you seen this week that would worry or excite petrolheads like us?

Let me know.