car comparison tests

The Chinese are preparing their new Skoda Fabia. It will destroy it with everything it boasts, it will be an even bigger and cheaper car

an hour ago | Petr Prokopec

/

Photo: MG Motor

The new Fabia intends to make a little of itself, because the VW concern, pushing for electromobility, will only offer it as a less usable car with almost twice the price. The Chinese controlling MG will bet on more traditional technology and get away with the price hundreds of thousands cheaper, even if they come with an even bigger car.

According to statistics, the Karlovy Vary region is the poorest in the Czech Republic, its residents receive an average of 11,000 crowns less than people in Prague. With a bit of exaggeration, we can say that for some people even a roll for 2.90 CZK will be expensive. So would you open a bakery and pastry shop in these places, offering a croissant for 50 crowns and a pinwheel for a hundred? Probably not, even if you managed to lure the local rich. Even they are not curious about the same thing every day.

Now put Europe in place of the Czech Republic, virtually any Eastern country in place of the Karlovy Vary region, and the Volkswagen concern in place of the aforementioned bakery. Or any other car company blindly desiring pure electromobility. It is pushed by politics, but for customers it is more like that one hundred-crown pinwheel, and a spoiled one at that – it can only look good, it’s not much to enjoy anyway. So, if the Germans really intend to make their plans a reality, then they must prepare one hundred percent for the fall in sales. Chinese brands are starting to penetrate the old continent more and more, which apparently have not lost their judgment and understand that more people will still be interested in rolls.

The traditional British brand MG, which is controlled by the Chinese giant SAIC, has been working hard on the third generation of the MG3 model for some time now. The approximately 4.1-meter hatchback, i.e. an even larger version of the Škoda Fabia, is due to arrive next year. However, we should not expect it in the electric version, instead the main device will be a combination of a four-cylinder one-five, an electric motor and a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 2.1 kWh. The system will then offer 109 combustion and 95 electric horses, i.e. relatively high performance.

Of course, it is still too early for the price, but the size of the battery will be one of the reasons why the British-Chinese hatchback will continue to stick to the ground. At the current price of 13,820 pounds (approx. 391,000 CZK), which, by the way, is only a few hundred crowns higher than the price for which the Dacia Sandero can be had in the country, it will not start, but over the target of 17,000 GBP (482,000 crowns) it should not tip over. And this is not only bad news for the VW concern, because for many people the Germans will not have anything to offer, while the Chinese will.

In order not to speak in general terms, we can immediately mention the ID.2all concept, which will result in production electric cars from VW, Škoda and Cupra. The cheapest version should start around 600,000 crowns, i.e. significantly higher than the MG3. At the same time, there will be no worries about range. In addition, the carmaker does not intend to send any bare-bones to the market, so it will already be possible to count on a pair of 12.3-inch displays as standard, one of which will be used for multimedia.

This is exactly what the Chinese threat looks like, which the head of the concern, Oliver Blume, downplays. That’s a look that may end up breaking his neck. It is enough to realize that people already consider such a basic Fabia for 369,900 CZK to be too expensive. However, its electric successor will start slowly at double that, i.e. even higher than where the top Monte Carlo equipment ends today. So will it really sell like hot cakes?

The Chinese also indicate that, depending on the conditions of individual markets, they will also come with other power units, this time purely gasoline or at most mild-hybrid. In the final, they will actually offer those rolls even at a reduced price. But VW still intends to stick to its plan, most likely intending to keep banging its head on the concrete wall until its skull cracks. And he is not alone, the management not only of MG can thus rub their hands over what Europe has gotten itself into.

The existing MG3 currently starts at 391,000 CZK in Britain, i.e. only six hundred crowns more than the Dacia Sandero, even though it is a bigger car than the Skoda Fabia. Its new generation, even with a hybrid system, should not cost more than 482,000 CZK. On the other hand, VW wants to deploy an electric car that is far less usable for more than 600,000 crowns. This really smacks of suicidal tendencies. Photo: MG Motor

Source: Carscoops

Petr Prokopec

All articles on Autoforum.cz are comments expressing the editor’s or author’s opinion. Except for articles marked as advertising, the content is not sponsored or similarly influenced by third parties.

2023-09-09 07:12:09
#Chinese #preparing #Skoda #Fabia #destroy #boasts #bigger #cheaper #car

The most desirable older car is the car whose manufacturer does not show its back to customers, others should learn from this

yesterday | Petr Prokopec

/

Photo: Porsche

Recently, so many brands are turning their backs not only on loyal clients, but even on arbitrary customers and their wishes, that it hurts the heart. Porsche doesn’t do this for a long time with the 911 and reaps the fruits that others can only dream of. Isn’t it time to hold your nose?

This year, an unusual phenomenon may occur in the Czech Republic, as Škoda Scala and Kamiq will top the sales statistics for the first time ever and perhaps for the last time. Behind everything is the facelift that was introduced a month ago. However, the first specimens are not expected to reach people until the beginning of next year. However, the prices of the introductory version of the First Edition are already known, and in both cases the clientele has to pay CZK 599,900 out of pocket. This is not exactly a small amount, but you can expect excess pressure in the showrooms, due to the original versions.

The car company started offering the discounted Fresh variant, and at the same time discounts were introduced. In addition, they are not exactly cheap, hatchbacks and small SUVs can be purchased from around 450,000 crowns. At the same time, a liter three-cylinder producing 110 horsepower is working under the hood, i.e. the same unit as the First Edition equipment described above. So here we have a quarter of a difference between two slightly identical cars, because the facelift was barely visible from the start.

However, it is not only about Škoda and the resale of some models, there is talk of discounting on all fronts, not excluding the electric one. Manufacturers are finally starting to understand what we have been trying to tell them for a long time – that is, that new cars are becoming less and less attractive to customers, mainly because they go to the hands of the authorities rather than the clientele themselves. In addition, they are increasingly expensive. When we add to that inflation and the increase in the price of almost everything else, it is not surprising that orders for new cars are stagnant and sales are mainly fueled by the processing of those that are even a few years old.

But if someone expected that the market for used cars of all kinds would go hand in hand with this, they are probably in for a minor shock. It is true that discounting is happening, but few people even manage to notice it. This applies mainly to older cars (30 years or more) with a certain historical value. According to the Mobile.de portal, Europeans paid an average of EUR 34,038 (approx. CZK 819,600) in July, i.e. only 1.6 percent less than in the same month last year. At the same time, there were over 30,000 cars available this year.

The most sought-after car in this category is the Porsche 911 of the 964 generation, which was in production between 1989 and 1994. Apart from that, however, the Zuffenhausen sports car can be found one more time in the top ten ranking, at number eight. These are the pieces that have been produced since 1963. And to make matters worse, the Porsche 911 of the 996 generation also reigns supreme among youngtimers, i.e. among used cars whose age cannot be precisely defined, but let’s talk about cars from the turn of the millennium.

We don’t even have to speculate why this is so. The Porsche 911 has been meeting the wishes of the clientele for a long time, which is why it also remains with the rear engine and rear-wheel drive. In addition, it regularly dominates polls focused on quality and reliability. The car company itself maintains good relations with the owners of older models and does not intend to throw them overboard even with the advent of electromobility. On the contrary, with the help of its own production of synthetic fuels, it wants to keep new models with internal combustion engines on offer even after 2035.

It could be a lesson for other car companies, but they seem to have been mostly boarded up in recent years. As for other popular older cars, BMW remains popular, especially the 3 series. Audi then dominates among those young timers, with the TT, A6/S6/RS6 and A4/S4/RS4 models in the rankings. The complete list of both categories can be found below, we will only add that the average price of youngtimers is 7,832 Euros (188,600 CZK). Even this does not represent a significant decrease compared to last year.

The 10 most wanted oldtimers in 2023 according to Mobile.de

1. Porsche 911 (964)
2. Opel Kadett
3. Ford Mustang
4. BMW 325
5. Audi 100
6. VW Beetle
7. BMW 320
8. Porsche 911
9. Mercedes-Benz 190
10.Volkswagen T3

The 10 most wanted youngtimers for 2023 according to Mobile.de

1. Porsche 911 (996)
2. Volkswagen T4 Multivan
3. BMW 520
4. Volkswagen T4
5. Mercedes-Benz E200
6. Audi TT
7. BMW 320
8. Audi A6/S6/RS6
9. BMW 318
10. Audi A4/S4/RS4

The Porsche 911 has been attracting customers for sixty years, while used car buyers are currently interested in both the first water-cooled generation 996 and pieces produced from 1963 to 1994. Photo: Porsche

Source: Mobile.de

Petr Prokopec

All articles on Autoforum.cz are comments expressing the editor’s or author’s opinion. Except for articles marked as advertising, the content is not sponsored or similarly influenced by third parties.

2023-09-01 14:54:06
#desirable #older #car #car #manufacturer #show #customers #learn

The dashboard camera once again filmed what can happen to your car in the service when you are not looking

3 hours ago | Peter Miller

/

Photo: Vortex Radar, press materials

We want to believe that the vast majority of car repair shops are staffed by honest people who want to help you with your problem, get paid adequately for it, and nothing else. At least the exceptions to the rule appear with iron regularity.

Entrusting someone more or less unknown with something that means something to you for whatever reason is always tricky. If you entrust your apartment to craftsmen, you have to hope that they will not start using it as their own, that after coming home in the afternoon you will not find cigarette butts and a drunken beer bottle that you saved for yourself in the trash, a silhouette of a figure on the bed, and the residue of bodily fluids in the toilet, put diplomatically. But no one can ever guarantee you in advance that it won’t happen if you don’t stand behind the person in question all day. And you probably won’t, because if you do, you can slowly do it yourself.

It’s the same with a car. You entrust it with a service and a key, with the understanding that its employees will do some work on it, but your car may just be useful for someone on a shopping trip. Or he’ll like it, so he’ll just hang out with him, show him to the “girls”, whatever. It’s extremely unprofessional if the person doesn’t get your approval (I tell a mechanic I know in advance: “Go ahead and drive it if you like it,” but that’s because I really know him and know he’s going to treat the car politely), yet unfortunately it happens more often than is healthy.

The latest such case took place at an official Chevrolet dealer in Burlington, North Carolina, where one of the owners of an exceptional C7 generation Corvette Z06 wanted to fix a misfire on one of the cylinders. It was already difficult to get the repair shop to do anything, when he first entrusted the car to him and the garage did nothing, then he took it, entrusted it to him again and did nothing, and in the end it took almost a month to fix the car. But the real shock came after taking over the car.

Sunglasses were missing from inside the car, so the owner looked at the dash cam footage from the main photo, which can be purchased as an accessory to the radar detector. Only then did he understand what was happening to his car. The car was gradually misused by two employees, one of whom went to show the car to his wife, girlfriend or anyone, just a complete stranger. She even understood that the camera from the window is probably recording everything that happens to the car, but the service employee was clearly not excited about it.

The other, for a change, was very excitedly driving the car on public roads, but he too probably understood that he might be being recorded, saying, “It’s good,” just to be sure, before explaining his behavior by saying, “I have to make sure it’s good for the customer.” Yes, a post-repair drive is necessary unless the customer discovers that problems persist. But this was far beyond a proper verification of the state of things, not to mention the first trip. Unfortunately, this is far from the first time we’ve seen something like this, so especially with the more interesting cars, you’d better be careful if you don’t want this. Even in authorized services, some people apparently can’t help themselves…

A similar Corvette Z06 has become the subject of abuse, which you can see for yourself in the video below. It’s not really a pretty sight. Illustrated photo: Chevrolet

Source: Carscoops

Petr Miler

All articles on Autoforum.cz are comments expressing the editor’s or author’s opinion. Except for articles marked as advertising, the content is not sponsored or similarly influenced by third parties.

2023-08-27 07:02:24
#dashboard #camera #filmed #happen #car #service

The best BMW M5 E39 was built by VW. It received a unique W10 engine and was driven by Ferdinand Piëch himself, it is for sale

yesterday | Petr Prokopec

/

Photo: GDM Motors, press materials

It is fascinating what could have been quietly created behind the gates of car factories in its time. We learn about one such project more than two decades apart, and the best proof of its existence can be told to you by sir.

Most people associate the BMW M5 with eight-cylinder engines, but their use cannot be considered a rule. The first two generations were six-cylinder, and only in 1998 did the automaker install a 4.9-liter V8 unit, which appears in other forms in the M5 from 2011 until today. The most exceptional is the E60/E61 generation from 2004 to 2004, when the sedan and station wagon received a five-liter ten-cylinder engine. In addition, this unit could be paired with a seven-speed sequential gearbox, both of which had their roots in BMW Sauber’s Formula 1 single-seater.

That five-liter engine was the brand’s first and only production ten-cylinder engine. Like other BMW M engines of the time, it had little in common with the aggregates of a dozen models, and the Munich automaker extracted 507 horsepower and 520 Nm of torque from it. At the time, it achieved more than 100 horsepower per liter, which was exceptional for such a large naturally aspirated engine. On the other hand, however, the unit weighed a considerable 240 kilos, the weight of the car thus increased to a then high 1,730 kilos (even the M3 weighs more today…).

However, few people know that the M5 received a ten-cylinder earlier. After all, the traces of a project more mysterious than a castle in the Carpathians do not lead to Munich, but to Wolfsburg. In 1998, the VW concern also included the brands Bentley and Bugatti under its wings. At the same time, the head of the German Empire at the time, Ferdinand Piëch, entrusted Dr. Sabina Willeke with the development of new engines of unusual concepts, which should differentiate future production from the past. Thus, the W16, W12, W10 and W8 aggregates came to light.

Of this quartet, however, only three units were used in serial production, with the eight-cylinder headed, among other things, under the hood of the Volkswagen Passat, while the twelve-cylinder was mainly associated with British road cruisers. The 16-cylinder unit, on the other hand, had only one user, namely Bugatti, which installed it first on the Veyron and then on the Chiron. After all, this is the swan song of the whole family, which will see its final departure from the scene in about two years.

But back to the ten-cylinder, which was created by combining two VR5 engines. It also had a short life in VW’s offer, however, compared to the W10 unit, ordinary customers could also reach for it. The W10 unit ended up in only one prototype, which was the BMW M5. Specifically, it was a different eight-cylinder generation E39. At that time, Volkswagen did not have any of its own car in which to properly test the engine, so it reached for the em-five, which it made a better car than the Bavarian brand. The engine of an unusual design is supposed to have 507 horses and 550 Nm, i.e. similar parameters as the later fork ten-cylinder from BMW itself.

Piëch liked this combination so much that he started using the car as his personal car. However, he ultimately did not give the green light to the project. The ten-cylinder BMW M5 E39 is therefore a real one-of-a-kind, so we are all the more surprised that it is now on sale. In addition, it is not sent to the world by a car company, but by the Belgian company GDM Motors, which, in addition to racing, also restores classic cars. She refuses to disclose how this rare sedan came to her.

The price is also a question, but in this case, definitely don’t count on the price. The E39 generation is taken to heaven by BMW fans. And even if we have her “hardening” here to a certain extent, the result will hardly be less valuable. Especially when the Volkswagen unit has better parameters, as the Munich eight-cylinder engine sent 400 hp and 500 Nm to the rear. Even for cars without a limiter, this is enough to reach the magic three hundred mark.

With higher power, an even higher value can be expected, while the time required for acceleration to a hundred (4.8 s) certainly went down. Quite possibly, we have here the fastest “factory” M5 E39 in history. Only that factory wasn’t BMW… It’s actually a sleeper of sorts, because apart from the engine, everything on the car was left as it was. Both the rear-wheel drive and the six-speed manual gearbox were therefore retained. Keeping this one-of-a-kind alive can be quite a pain in the ass, but who wouldn’t want to ride like the famous Dr. Piëch?

For sale is a unique BMW M5 E39 fitted with a prototype W10 engine from Volkswagen. The car was once used by Ferdinand Piëch, so its historical value is certainly high. That is also why it is surprising that the car company did not lock it in its depository, but in the case of the use of a foreign donor car, this is understandable. Photo: GDM Motors, press materials

Source: GDM Motors

Petr Prokopec

All articles on Autoforum.cz are comments expressing the editor’s or author’s opinion. Except for articles marked as advertising, the content is not sponsored or similarly influenced by third parties.

2023-08-08 06:24:13
#BMW #E39 #built #received #unique #W10 #engine #driven #Ferdinand #Piëch #sale

The unused VW Passat station wagon TDI for 257 thousand is not a joke or a mistake, you just have to accept that it was not created yesterday

yesterday | Peter Miller

/

Photo: H. Margot, published with permission

It sounds like a joke, but it’s a reality, it’s even a car from the first owner, which has no significant defect in terms of its condition or history. It’s just a B6 type, but for that kind of money?

You might remember the VW Passat B8 we showed you a few years ago. It was only two years old at the time and yet it had driven 544,573 km – we’re not kidding, you can still look at it. It was an extreme of its kind and shows what the car can achieve in such a short time. Moreover, it is not a rarity among the offered Passats, we have already seen several cars driving over 200,000 km per year.

In order to have a complete mosaic, we will also show you what a car of the same type may not “drive” for a much longer time. The VW Passat you are looking at now is 14 years old. And in all that time, he drove as many kilometers as the first-mentioned specimen in about a month and a half, even though it is again a station wagon with a diesel engine created for long distances. That’s called a proper contrast…

So it is logically a morally older piece, but not so much. This is a Passat of the B6 generation, since the B7 version was only a facelift of the B-six and the B8 type is still being produced today (the new B9 is still emerging), we are effectively one generation behind. So it is still a car well prepared to overcome long distances, every Passat can do that, especially as a station wagon with a TDI engine. We don’t know why this car didn’t see more intensive use, but the first and only owner chokes that he really only drove it around 2,000 km a year.

It is not a top-of-the-range specification, but the economical 1.9 TDI BlueMotion does not disappoint in times of general high prices. It is a car running on 4 to 5 liters of diesel, even if you don’t want to. And it has decent equipment, there are also electric heated seats and navigation. For driving every day from Frankfurt to Berlin (or soon from Aš to Ostrava?) it is an almost ideal car, so we are only surprised that the owner did not use it for anything like that. The kilometers he traveled cost him dearly in terms of loss of value.

As we already mentioned, the car still drove somehow, only 26,563 km on the odometer in 14 years is almost a mockery for the Passat TDI. It has received regular care, so technically it should be in 1A condition, visually it could benefit from a proper cleaning. One might still expect such a car to be expensive, because almost every used car is expensive these days, and there is at least a good reason for that. But it doesn’t cost that much.

The owner is asking 10,600 euros for it, i.e. about 257,000 CZK. It’s nothing, but what is sold today for that kind of money for used cars? Here you have a Passat TDI with the potential to drive about a million kilometers for pennies, because even if it lost 100 percent of its residual value, we’re talking tens of pennies per kilometer. For efficient transfers, we would like to say, but for the same money, you cannot even buy a basic Fabia with a three-quarter engine 1.0 and minimal equipment. What will you do with it? How? And how much will it cost you? As always, judge for yourself, your taste may be different. In the end, the Passat B6 has never been very handsome, which can turn some people off.

This 14-year-old Passat has been driven so little that it has not been driven to this day. It’s a rarity on the used market, yet it costs quite a bit, even though it’s a decently equipped diesel station wagon. Photo: H. Margot, published with permission

Source: Volkswagen Passat Variant 1.9 TDI BlueMotion, Navi, AKH@Mobile.de

Petr Miler

All articles on Autoforum.cz are comments expressing the editor’s or author’s opinion. Except for articles marked as advertising, the content is not sponsored or similarly influenced by third parties.

2023-08-06 12:58:14
#unused #Passat #station #wagon #TDI #thousand #joke #mistake #accept #created #yesterday