Renault are crackers

Don't understand Renault at the moment.  On one hand they are forward thinking and innovative.  They have given us the Espace, Reanultsport have enhanced the Twingo, Clio and Megane.  You have the incomparable Twizzy in the pipeline.  They have revived the fortunes of Dacia using Renault running gear on Dacia bodies. All well and good.

But then they go and make the Fluence.  Saw the first one the other day and it was a bog standard rental in beige, but you had to look twice to even notice it.

I have a feeling this is a car destined to go the same as any other large Renault in the UK.  Ignored neglected and will depreciate at a rapid rate of knots.  Renault 25 anyone, or Safrane, or Vel Satis.  For some reason the UK does not like big French cars, be that from Renault, Citroen with the C6 or Peugeot with the 607.  Not really sure why either.  The cars are good enough to traverse Europe but Brits don't like them.

Maybe someone should start a group for the French large unloved car club ?

Apollo Motors Bolton

When you buy a car from a dealer who are "Specialists in one owner quality vehicles" you would think that's what you end up with.

Having just seen the car a female friend of mine bought it seems like a decent enough 2001 Toyota Celica, in a lovely shade of blue.

However the clutch was slipping so the dealer has "replaced" this.  But it seems to be a bit juddery unless you give it full revs in first and second.  I think a visit to Mr Clutch is in order to double check its OK.  I will let you know how it goes.  At least they could have made sure the aerial  was in one piece.

Spent a few days with an extra passenger in the car, in the form a a dog.  Unfortunately he likes water, puddles, streams, ponds etc.  No matter what you do the whole boot gets full of mud and dog smell.  Now everyone is looking for a niche market and the amount of people transporting hounds is quite considerable.  Cant someone come up with a dog car.  Easy wipe down interior, stowage for water towels etc where they can't be got at.  A ventilation system in the rear to help extract the eau de wet dog smell, built in water bowls, the list is endless.  Surely someone must do one somewhere ? 

I think the best candidate for conversion would be the Mercedes Vaneo, its huge and apart from moving dogs I'm not quite sure why you would want one.

Amarok

Amongt all the fun and excitement of the Shanghai motor show its easy to get sidetracked from other things, apart from China selling us back our motor industry iin knocked down form.  Does the MG brand still mean the same to you ?

I have been struggling to find a car for the man who has had everything.  His automotive boredom threshold is like that of a 2 year in a playpen of coloured balls.

Then I noticed that VW are bringing the American Amarok pickup into the UK.  Now I have a bit of a thing about pickups, or trucks as we would call them in the US.  It all started with a Ford F250, and love to drive them in the States.

The VW Amarok looks like it means business up against most of the japanese Nissans and Mitsubishis' that you can get.  It would also stand out from the crowd in a sea of  Range Rovers and Discoverys that jostle for position outside the school gates in these parts.

Reasonable pricing and decent diesel engines seemed to be marred by a bizzare choice of colours available.  Their is the standard black or white, then the done to death silver, a not bad blue, then you are left with green beige or brown.  I really want to know who is going to order a VW pickup in Mendoza brown ?  Are the 70s back and no one told me.  Even Audi have jumped on the brown bandwagon with your R8 available in teak.  Maybe its just a German thing.

So could this US/German venture succeed in the UK where most other US trucks have failed ?