MY WEEK IN CARS
MONDAY
It always happens: just as I settle into waxing on about the wonders of cheap cars and utility models, Bentley (or someone nearly as good) sends a car to show me what performance, ride quality and refinement are really like.
This time it was a Continental GT V8, a truly beautiful car, and over a few days the Steering Committee and I put 500 miles of wonderful journeys under its wheels. I also shamelessly enjoyed using that special presence that encourages the staff of swanky hotels to park it on their forecourt, not their car park.
Driving a Conti a mile is impressive enough, but you really need time to savour it and to notice that whatever you do, Crewe’s experts at refining car behaviour have been there before you.
My favourite driving phase is a tightish open-road bend, rutted on the outside and taken fast. In an ordinary car, the body roll uses up the outside-wheel suspension travel, so you can hardly expect suppleness – but in the air-sprung Bentley, you get it anyway.
TUESDAY
Dacia Duster update: we’ve just had the two-year/24,000-mile visit to a dealer, the one that combines A and B services in two hours (with a wash) for £299. Fish Brothers of Swindon did the work and washed the car promptly, advising me at the end that my front-kerbside wheel tracking was awry and the suspension’s top swivel bearing was grumbling a bit – possibly a result of pothole damage. It might have cost another £250-ish to fix, but their excellent service receptionist, Jack, rang head office off his own bat to establish that this (admittedly debatable) wear and tear could be handled as a warranty claim. And before you ask, he didn’t know my Autocar connection.
WEDNESDAY
It’s interesting to see manual gearboxes won’t be offered in any Volkswagen Golf GTI model after the impending facelift – another strong indicator that the big electrification changes coming to all cars will be here a long time before any 2035 cut-off. I find that I don’t really mind about the manual’s disappearance from the GTI, although I wouldn’t feel so great if Mazda dropped ‘proper’ gearboxes from the MX-5 right now. And I do wonder what I will make of that car when it’s one-speed and all-electric.
THURSDAY
I joined 20 of the UK’s grown-up business hacks at a welcoming restaurant in London’s Soho to hear Mike Hawes, CEO of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, summarise trading
