first impressions

The Japanese fell from sales heights to the very bottom in a few years. And the next novelty can hardly do anything about it, the new compact SUV at a price starting at 1.1 million crowns cannot possibly become a sales hit.

At one time, Honda was one of the most popular foreign car manufacturers in the Czech Republic. After all, it still has a large number of fans, which is evidenced by the fact that the iconic Honday will be held again this year, i.e. a gathering of car owners of this brand. If you want to participate, circle the date from July 7 to 9 on your calendar. Then enter the autodrome in Vysoké Mýto as the destination in the navigation. However, expect to witness considerable nostalgia more than anything else.

The Japanese probably decided a few years ago to voluntarily bury their activities on the old continent. And as quickly as possible. The car company thus began to tailor its innovations only according to the ideas of politicians, despite the fact that only a few of them wander into its showrooms. This strategy then led to the inevitable, a drastic drop in sales.

It is not in the least conceivable that the brand would rise again to the limelight with its electric offensive. Such a Honda e is above all a very expensive car, for a 3,894 millimeter long hatchback with a stated range of 220 kilometers, the local dealership charges a whopping 939,900 CZK. At the same time, this is only one thousand kroner less than what you can get an almost five-meter-long Škoda Superb equipped with a two-liter TDI and a DSG automatic.

The new Honda is starting to push an electric SUV with the somewhat mind-boggling name e:Ny1 onto the European markets. At the same time, it can be looked at a little more favorably than the mentioned hatchback, but even then it is not possible to talk about a car that will attract crowds. In reality, it is an electric version of the Honda HR-V, which is a competitor of the Skoda Karoq. However, while the Czech SUV can be purchased from CZK 665,900, which is already a considerable sum in itself, the e:Ny1 will be available for approximately double that.

Czech prices are still missing, but the Dutch can already order electric SUVs. With the lower level of Elegance equipment, it will cost 47,600 Euros (approx. 1,127,000 CZK), in the case of the higher level Advance, then you have to prepare 51,670 Euros (1,223,000 CZK). In addition to alloy wheels, dual air conditioning, heated front seats and multimedia with a 10.2-inch display, they also get a Pioneer audio system, a panoramic roof and a set of cameras.

As far as technology is concerned, it always remains the same regardless of equipment. So we have batteries with a capacity of 68.8 kWh, with which you should drive up to 412 km. However, you would have to move around in closed laboratories, on real roads your radius of action will be smaller. You get 204 horsepower and 310 Nm under your right foot, so even in this case it’s nothing world-shattering. We would not be so surprised if not a single piece appeared on future Hondas 2033. That is, if someone from the vicinity of Vysoké Mýt doesn’t buy this car…

The new electric SUV called e:Ny1 is probably not going to impress either with its appearance or technology, and certainly not with its price. It almost seems that the Japanese intend to do away with the old continent, but they are afraid to say it outright. Photo: Honda

Source: Car WeekHonda

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.

ID.Buzz’s official name is quirky, so it’s definitely calling for funny nicknames. VW might not even be against it, if the former did not allude to the essence of the bizarre incident that took place in Finland.

At the end of the holidays, it will be a year since Oliver Blume replaced Herbert Diess as head of the Volkswagen Group. During that time, the world’s second largest car manufacturer has undergone changes that, at least in part, return the emphasis to the development of internal combustion models. Nevertheless, electromobility remains a priority for the Germans. To their credit, it must be acknowledged that they are really trying, as evidenced by the upgraded ID.3. Its price dropped below a million crowns, even if only by a proverbial hair. It’s still a kind of madness, but at least VW is moving in the right direction.

Today, however, we will shine a light on the last member of the new electric party, the ID.Buzz model. The appearance of this minivan is to refer to the legendary VW Type 2, or the favorite vehicle of flower children, which many people simply call the Bus. However, while all Woodstock visitors managed to squeeze into it despite its length of only 4,280 millimeters, the novelty, which has grown to 4,712 mm, is intended for only five passengers. So, a few days ago, the Germans also came up with a 4,962 mm long version that has three rows of seats, but it is reserved only for the American market.

Like most of its siblings, the ID.Buzz has a 204-horsepower electric motor mounted on the rear axle, which is paired with batteries with a usable capacity of 77 kWh. With them, it is possible to drive up to 417 kilometers on a single charge, although it is more a wishful thinking of Volkswagen than a reality. He charges a whopping 1,593,854 CZK for a car with a maximum speed limited to just 145 km/h. Therefore, the brand still does not stick to the ground, after all, in the case of a battery drive, such an option does not even exist.

However, ID.Buzz currently has a bigger problem than an unrealistic range or an excessively high purchase price. Because of this, it started to be nicknamed ID.Boom, in Czech we could make it ID.Buch, because in Lahti, Finland, there was an explosion of a specimen connected to a charging station. The whole thing is surrounded by a lot of ambiguity, because the witnesses of the event described that during the charging they heard a loud bang and saw a lot of smoke, but there were no flames. The electric minibus left the scene damaged, but still repairable.

It was this fact that led the investigators to believe that the fault may not be the electric car itself or its battery, but the charging stand. However, before they could properly investigate the incident, the parked car practically burned to the ground. Collecting evidence will therefore be all the more difficult work. However, the Finns have to resort to it already because both the public and the car importer, K-Auto, want to know the conclusions. And of course, the city carsharing company that was its owner also wants them.

The fact that electric cars are a certain ticking time bomb is one of the reasons why we are so opposed to the political pressure associated with them. This is not to say that fires do not occur in internal combustion cars, but in their case, the origin of flames is usually either an accident, old age or neglected technical condition. However, ID.Buzz is completely new. Moreover, one that can apparently catch fire at any time – perhaps even a few days after the explosion or after the initial extinguishment.

Until everything imaginable is adapted to this risk, including the trouble-free entry of fire trucks into garages with limited ceiling height, electric cars must be considered a potential safety problem. And also as an ecological pest, as the chemicals released by burning batteries are highly toxic.

Fires or explosions of electric cars are rare so far, but the problem is what comes next. The new VW ID.Buch minibus, sorry Buzz, which burned down a few days after the initial explosion, could tell about it. Photo: Volkswagen

Source: Yle.fi

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.

Ford has bet basically everything on electric cars and defends its decision as much as it can. One has to be surprised by this even without anything else, but it is even more surprising when such things fall from the mouth of the head of a car company.

Axiom at the beginning: Electric cars are an unsolicited solution for the vast majority of customers, which is forced on people under the guise of some kind of higher good, despite the fact that it is worse and at the same time more expensive. This sentence really cannot be discussed too much, because the offer of these cars came from the political will, which many car companies accepted as theirs due to the easier planning of their own future and the creation of greater barriers to entry into the industry. And there is currently no way to offer a functionally comparable electric car at the price of an internal combustion car.

The problem is essentially both in themselves, i.e. both the limited practical usability and the high price. If at least one of these limits fell, the potential impact of electric cars would increase significantly, but neither of them will. Technically, electric cars are limited by the possibilities of batteries, for which there is no chance of anything significantly better coming any time soon. And for the price, actually. At least there was some hope there, but if even the head of Ford does not believe in such a thing, it is obvious that it is minimal to zero.

Ford has bet practically everything on electric cars, so it should be very optimistic about them. But it’s one thing to tell stories to the press, it’s another to tell them to the company’s investors – the first can be somewhat “snorted”, but the second can easily be criminal. And even Ford CEO Jim Farley prefers not to tell fairy tales.

Reuters reports that Farley said at a meeting with investors that he doesn’t see a chance of getting electric cars down to the level of internal combustion cars before 2030. Considering what politicians and automakers have been telling us for years, the price parity of these types cars within reach, it is a very distant date. Moreover, we are still only talking about price parity, not comparable usability. And to top it all off, it must be added that Farley builds even such expectations on rather tricky foundations.

According to him, the change should come at the moment when the production of the second and third generation of modern electric cars begins. This is expected to happen between 2030 and 2035, when automakers will significantly reduce the cost of electric cars thanks to “dramatically lower labor requirements” because it will be easier to produce electric cars due to their reduced number of parts. In addition, he says they will be equipped with smaller batteries using cheaper materials.

This makes sense in general, but not so much specifically. Electric cars are already less demanding to manufacture today, except for the batteries. Above all, they are expensive and bad, the former due to the lack of precious metals needed for their production. We are not saying that nothing will change in this field by 2030, but betting on it is more of a blind faith than a qualified assumption.

In addition, it should be added that the development of internal combustion cars can continue and if today they were not burdened with various forms of emission allowances and other meaningless instruments (and electric cars were not subsidized with the same money), they would be available for easily a third of the price. It will be very difficult to reduce such a difference to nothing, quite possibly even more difficult than Jim Farley thinks.

Today, the electric Ford Mustang Mach-E is a completely uncompetitive car in terms of usability and price. The head of Ford is betting everything on such, even though he himself says that they will be expensive at least until 2030. And what is to come after that is more of a fortune telling from a crystal ball. Under such circumstances, does the blue oval procedure seem reasonable to you? On me. Photo: Ford

Source: Reuters

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.

The world did not belong to anyone who was not a player, a Slovak bard sings in Czech. Buying the cheapest “flying spur” from Bentley in the entire market with respectable mileage is undoubtedly risky. But what does driving a three-cylinder Fabia give you next to it?

There’s something magically appealing about the cheapest cars of their kind that appear on the menu. We all know that it is not wise to buy such a thing, that no one is rich enough to buy cheap things, but still one is attracted to it. Reason dictates: “Add a few tens of percent to the price and you’ll get a much better car!” But that’s how it is every time – For 400 thousand you can get a used Octavia III, for 500 a new Scala, for 600 a new Octavia IV, for 700 a new Superb, for 800 a BMW 3, for 1 million M3, for 1.5 million M5, for 2 barely used BMW 7… It doesn’t end anywhere, in the end you will find that the best buy is a two-year-old Bentley Bentayga, which has lost half of its original value, but still costs 5 million.

The cheapest car of its kind is always at least the cheapest, and in the end it can also be a Bentley. Moreover, it is available for a much, much more modest price, which is certainly being pushed down by current gasoline prices. Smaller diesel cars will be on the course now – do you have a Golf VII with a TDI engine at home? You are sitting on a golden vein, it is an economical car capable of playing any role. However, our eyes were still more focused on the first generation of the modern Bentley Continental in the sedan version, i.e. the Flying Spur version.

It is a groundbreaking machine of its kind, the first modern Bentley, which was created completely after the takeover of the car company by the Volkswagen concern. It represented a huge step forward for the British brand, a shift between the absolute cream of luxury and advanced technology. From what VW wove into this car, many other cars of the concern lived for many years, from the Audi A8 to the Volkswagen Phaeton. And so, even many years after its birth (in production it lasted an incredible 15 years with one major modernization), it seemed surprisingly competitive, especially in the W12 version.

You can now buy this very car with a powerful six-liter biturbo, which still sends an impressive 560 horsepower to all wheels, at an unbelievably low price. Despite the concept of the car, few people used it for long journeys, so even pieces with a mileage of around 200,000 km are a rarity. This one still has an acceptable 251,000 km on the odometer, yet with a price of 19,440 euros, i.e. about 459,000 CZK, it is clearly the cheapest in European sales today. The seller knows this and clearly states that it is not a perfect car, but at the same time states that the car looks fresh and the engine, transmission and 4×4 drive work flawlessly.

We have no idea if you can make any luck with such a car, but it is tempting to try. For its price today, you won’t get more than a liter Fabia in only slightly better than basic equipment, i.e. a car with – among other things – a sixth engine in terms of volume and a quarter in terms of the number of cylinders. Maybe it will still be a total financial “breakthrough”, but maybe not.

The risk is certainly high, but if you don’t play, you won’t win – as the seller says, with a bit of work, this could be an extremely cheap route to a modern Bentley. And when it stops driving, at least you save on fuel, the consumption of this model is really extreme. In case you were interested, the car is parked in Sofia, Bulgaria, which in itself raises some doubts. But speaking of those songs, you know it: “The Bulgarian currency is the leva, the sharp guys don’t care…”

This is the cheapest drive-thru Bentley Continental Flying Spur for sale. It doesn’t look bad at all, even if it’s been a bit worn. At a price of CZK 459,000, its visual condition is almost miraculous. Photo: Sofauto, published with permission

Source: Sofauto OOD@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.

You’ll have to rub your eyes three times to believe what this car has accomplished in just two years on the road. In some ways it looks almost untouched, but it has put more miles on it every month than most people do in a year or two.

In bazaars, you sometimes come across cars with a rather modest amount of km on the speedometer, but they look like three times as many. You can even be openly surprised by this, but one way or another the seller will reassure himself that these are honest kilometers and that he has them backed up by a number of indisputable documents. And he really doesn’t have to lie – the condition of the car depends more than the mileage on how a person treats the car.

However, we’ve seen cars that had a lot of mileage on them, but looked even worse, and we’ve seen cars with similar mileage that were like new. The latter are, however, absolute exceptions – sometimes thanks to the extraordinary care of the owners, other times simply because someone drives such a large portion of kilometers with them in a short period of time that the visible parts don’t even wear out properly. And the car we have here today is not far from that.

It is a Mercedes-Benz E300de W213 in the station wagon version, or more precisely the S213 type, which was first registered in May 2021. It has now completed exactly 2 years of operation. Normally, a person would do something between 20 and 30 thousand kilometers with such a car, but the E-class is built to be driven a lot, which is what customers often buy it for. But we dare to say that the first owner of this particular Éčko is an extremist among extremists.

He drove an incredible amount of kilometers with the car, it is by far the most driven two-year-old Éčko W213 on sale. We already mentioned the number, but if you forgot it, look at the photos first. You wouldn’t even tell from the outside that this is a car that has been used far beyond the norm, but inside it is evident in places that the car hasn’t been parked in a pensioner’s garage for two years. However, it’s not damaged by mistake, it doesn’t even have a properly polished steering wheel and the leather on the seats is more wrinkled, it just looks like a car with a few tens of thousands of kilometers. But it is nothing like that.

The odometer reads an incredible 370,744 km – that’s not a typo, this car has covered more than 370,000 kilometers in 24 months of operation, so it has circled the Earth almost 10 times in such a short period of time. Look at the display between photos easily three times if you don’t believe it, especially when looking at the other pictures. At the aforementioned age, this meant driving over 185,000 km per year, over 15,400 km per month, over 730 km every working day. Round and round and round. This is almost maddening even from the perspective of a car fanatic.

It does not give many reasons to buy despite its condition, it is simply an extremely used car, on which anything can go wrong at any time. And even the asking price of EUR 29,950, i.e. about CZK 710,000, is not that interesting considering the mileage. But only if you know its real history. With a mileage of around 50,000 km, you cannot buy this version of the Éčka for less than CZK 1.25 million, so for fraudsters there are about half a million reasons to want such a car.

That’s why we’re showing it to you, but it’s one of the adepts at twisting the speedometer, especially by some swindler from the Czech Republic – the history of foreign, especially Dutch, cars is not easy to find here. The car is not mature even at the obligatory 100 km on the odometer, you can easily go even lower with cornering. And sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Who wouldn’t believe?

We are not encouraging anyone to do this, on the contrary, we are trying to prevent a similar step in the future by even mentioning this car. Nevertheless, we have a feeling that sooner or later someone will turn this car in, because in the current situation, perhaps the seller will still have to prove that the speedometer has not been changed upwards. Take this as a warning, you should always check the history of the used car as thoroughly as possible and not accept any compromise when examining the documentation. Even the seemingly impossible can apparently be a reality.

Would you guess that this Mercedes has more than 370,000 kilometers? In two years? That there cannot be 70,000 on the speedometer does not indicate practically anything. Photo: Yildiz Auto’s, published with permission

Zdroj: Yildiz Auto’s@Marktplaats.nl

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.