I remember when cars really were rubbish!

Why do we never agree on some cars – is it an age thing? Fraser seems to think so

By Fraser Martin

Fraser Martin Column - I remember when cars really were rubbish

The end of another year and of course, the start of a new one – always a time when one thinks about New Year resolutions and in reality does nothing about them. Let’s face it: if anything was so important or really needed to be done, we’d have done it by now, and the flip of a number isn’t going to make that much difference.

But it also a time of reflection and a time in which we analyse things in what we perceive to be a different light. And it was in this imaginative light, whilst out in the mountains where it is quiet, the air is clear and you have to concentrate so hard on not dropping the Jeep off a cliff, that I stopped to make tea and was having a think:

I contribute to Motoring Middle East, and to a limited number of other ‘publications,’ since CAR Middle East closed down. At CAR, I was fortunate to have things more or less my own way – Shahzad, our sainted Editor, pretty much left me to my own devices. He wisely (otherwise I would have quit as a point of principle!) allowed opinion to reign rather than having an ‘editorial policy’ on vehicles, manufacturers or those who thought they had some hold over our little industry. And let’s remember whilst we are here, that in The Grand Scheme of Things, the market that we are in here in the Emirates, never mind the GCC or the entire Middle East for that matter, is a relatively small one.

Sure there are some manufacturers that, without the numbers generated from this region, would be finding things a bit more difficult, but they are few. The big players pay lipservice to the demands of the region to a large extent because it is a high profile region rather than a high volume region, and in that same Grand Scheme of Things, it is volume that counts. Why else would the likes of Maserati and Ferrari, to name but two, be discussing openly, the diminution of exclusivity at the expense of getting the numbers up?

But I digress. Aside from all that and the unreality of being quite big fish in an astonishingly small pool, I was also pondering the polarisation of opinion within our little team here at MME, and I have come to the conclusion that, in the final analysis, our differing viewpoints as posted and aired on the radio, are largely based on age.

Our formative years, looking back as motoring journalists, were probably those just before we learned to drive but had started really taking an interest in and amassing knowledge of the motor car – from about age 12 to maybe 17. What was around in those days was what started to form the basis of what have become our opinions; cars that were instrumental in starting to develop a viewpoint that would, as we moved from two man-powered wheels to four motorized ones, govern how we drew comparisons between vehicles and how we decided what was good, bad or indifferent.

In my own case, a lot of what was on offer in the late 1960s and early 1970s was pretty dire. My 1965 Vauxhall Victor 101 never worked long enough to be able to identify what was actually wrong with it; the Morris 1000, bought when I started college because running a cheap car was going to be cheaper than public transport, was an outdated car by the time I had learned to drive. Apart from the occasional squirt in stuff we should have never been allowed near, my early days of motoring were almost all concluded in fundamentally poor cars. The difference was that we did not know how poor they were because really good stuff was as rare as hen’s teeth.

So when the new Range Rover first appeared in 1970 it was something of a revelation, as was the V12 Jaguar XJ Coupe. The Triumph Dolomite Sprint, the RS2000 Ford Escort and the big Ford Granadas, the odd Fiat and a smattering of German offerings were better than most. They were certainly better than things like Hillman Avengers, Vauxhall Vivas, BMC 1100s and the rest of the run-of-the-mill products that were not much different technologically than toys from the 1950s. But what they all contributed, was some perspective on which to base future values – and that has done no harm.

When you have driven as much really crap stuff as I have, you know a good one when you see one, even if it is not particularly flashy or special. By the time my colleagues had been ‘formed’ and respectively seen the late 1970s, the 80s and the early 90s, most things automotive had come on leaps and bounds, thanks in no small part to the invasion of the Japanese. The baseline marks had already shifted above and beyond where mine were set. If someone was starting out on this game today, there would be almost nothing that is available internationally, to use as a lowest common denominator!

So, yes, I do like the honesty of the Renault Duster and yes, it does deserve its place alongside the Range Rover Sport: different categories, different prices, different degrees of ability but both 4×4, both SUV and both exceptionally good at doing what they have been asked to do.

I do think the Porsches are good, but is each change in nomenclature carrying enough of a change in perception to make a real difference? Only a true aficionado can tell – I certainly can’t.

The cheap and cheerful Peugeot 308 is a well-enough equipped car for most people, and it is not trying to be anything that it isn’t: there’s no marketing drivel about ‘sporty’ this and ‘emotional’ that associated with a plain, ordinary car that gets you from A to B as it was designed to do. Unlike some who shall remain nameless!

I could go on. But I won’t. What you will continue to get as long as Shahzad, Imthi and I are involved in MME is a set of clear opinions: sometimes they will be polar opposites, sometimes they will coincide but they will always be ours. If you want Press Releases, you are in the wrong shop!

3 responses to “I remember when cars really were rubbish!”

  1. Nick says:

    Truth be known… You really miss your Allegro.

  2. Chris says:

    The only one I can’t get is top right. Hard to see from the picture what that is.Of the rest I don’t think any of them were truly rubbish but some are better than others.

  3. Rob Williamson says:

    Hi Fraser,

    First of all, Happy birthday!

    I’m not too hopeful of getting a reply, but as it’s your birthday, maybe I will. Send an email if you get this.

    All the best.
    Pam and Rob.

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