COMMENT
28 AUGUST 2019 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 19
MONDAY
Am I losing it, or are the UK’s smallest cars
getting rapidly more desirable? The sound
of a stampede you’re hearing may well be my
colleagues rushing to affi rm the former, but
I insist there’s mounting evidence of the latter,
the rising appeal of small cars. Look how the
Suzuki Jimny has been rushed. Observe the
enthusiasm that greeted the VW Up GTI. Look
how keen people (every one yet to drive) are on
the new Peugeot 208 and Vauxhall Corsa. And
now, savour with me the latest Nissan Micra into
which I was tucked today by road testers keen to
relieve me of my new Jag.
This Micra is a good-looking baby fi ve-door
powered by a really nice 99bhp, three-cylinder
1.0-litre petrol turbo engine (linked to a CVT)
and it’s as smooth and zippy as you could want.
In fully kitted Tekna spec it’s no giveaway at
£21,000 (today’s PCP buyers hardly notice) but it
steers and handles so neatly, and its compactness
affords you such refreshing space on the road,
that you can’t help feeling the fun. To me the
missing link for the Micra, given it comes from
the creators of the Leaf, is electrifi cation. The fact
that there’s no EV version shows, I suppose, the
enduring diffi culties with size, weight and cost
of batteries. Apparently there’s a Micra range
extender in prospect, and not before time.
TUESDAY
As you’ll see on page 64, I’ve been elected
custodian of Autocar’s new Jaguar I-Pace. In its
short life, this car has become one of those with
true star quality – a car people just want to see
and touch and stand beside, let alone getting
`
I’ve no idea how people with
30 cars have happy lives
a
MY WEEK IN CARS
One major plus from
the Mitsubishi launch
was working again with
ex-Autocar master
photographer Stan
Papior, whose fine work
you see above. Stan left
us a year ago, but his
ability to immortalise
cars as images is as
perfectly honed as ever.
AND ANOTHER THING...
too little. I simply have no idea how people
w it h 1 5 or 30 c a r s m a n a ge t o h av e h app y l i v e s.
It can’t be a pleasure being responsible for all that
tinware, apart from fl attering your ownership
ego. It’ll be a bad day when the Mazda goes, but
as I always think at times like this (such as after
the departure of the Ferrari, the Porsche, the
Corvette, the Elan Sprint, the Lotus Six, the Ford
Model T Speedster and umpteen others), at least
I’ve owned it and enjoyed it.
THURSDAY
When Mitsubishi revealed Silverstone as the
launch venue for its latest (sixth) generation L
pick-up, I wondered why. Turned out that the
Wing exhibition space was perfect for the initial
reveal, and that the estate contained ideal sites
for driving activities – a muddy off-road course,
a rallycross track, a 3500kg towing exercise and
a c c e s s t o a de c e nt r oa d r out e. T he ne w, b e t t e r-
looking L200 is a surprise, proving that withproper damping and suspension development, a
long, high, heavy, unsophisticated commercial
vehicle (with nowt but old-school leaf springs
to carry its live rear axle) can perform well even
in the hoary hands of overambitious hacks who
know neither vehicle nor roads.
Found myself wishing I could drive off home in
the L200 rather than giving it back. Given recent
happy times in a Mercedes X-Class and a Ford
Ranger Raptor, I think I must admit a serious
weakness for such vehicles.
Mitsubishi L200:
unsophisticated, and
all the better for it
GET IN TOUCH
[email protected]^ @StvCr
Steve Cropley
behind the wheel. It’s extraordinary the way
onlookers pick up – even before considering the
electrifi cation bit – on the car’s unalloyed beauty.
Makes me think again of Jaguar’s recent design
boss, Ian Callum: what a superb car to leave
as a legacy.
WEDNESDAY
We have too many cars and motorcycles at my
place – 10 in all – and the arrival of the new Lotus
Cortina has triggered the long-agreed ‘one in, one
out’ policy. Something has to go, and I’ve decided
it must be the ex-Autocar 2015 Mazda MX-5. I’ve
enjoyed this car to the hilt, but have also used itNew Micra only lacks
an electric version