Tag: Cars

And the hits just keep on coming:

Volkswagen will pause production of one of its most important cars next week amidst growing concerns of a chip shortage that could cripple its outputs.

Chipmaker Nexperia has frozen supply in a fallout from the ongoing US-China trade dispute, causing major disruption for the German automotive giant.

The Dutch government – under pressure from the US Trump administration – seized control of Chinese-owned Nexperia last month, citing intellectual property concerns.

In response, China curbed exports of its finished products that are needed by European car makers.

Of course, VW lies like a Democrat politician:

Volkswagen said earlier this week that it had ‘long planned’ to pause production of the Golf hatchback – its longest-running model and one of its biggest-selling products – at the Wolfsburg factory from next week but initially denied any connection with chip supply chain concerns. 

However, on Wednesday the car maker told workers at other plants it cannot rule out assembly line stoppages due to the ‘dynamic situation’.

Yesterday, VW issued an internal letter to staff saying production had not yet been affected by chip shortages, but it could not ‘rule out an impact on production in the short term’ over supply chain issues. 

And I get mocked for hankering after the good old days…

Oh, you wanted color?

Q.E.D.

Last Saturday I posted a link to a discussion on classic car prices and the market thereof, and  threatened  promised a followup post.  Here it is.

Right off, I’m going to suggest that anyone who’s happy with their 1979 Ford Bronco truck and can’t see the need for even having a discussion which features luxury classic car collecting may feel free not to comment.  This post is not for you.

Let me start this off by looking at an anomaly:  the BMW 507 from the late 1950s.

As anyone should know, this was BMW’s competitor to the Mercedes 300 Gullwing, in that it had a 3.2-liter V8 inside a lightweight chassis.  It nearly bankrupted BMW back then because the market wasn’t willing to spend what amounted to a king’s ransom back then on a car that wasn’t a Gullwing, or (in the U.S.) a similarly-powered Corvette that cost a lot less.

It’s a great pity, because while BMW has pretty much always produced “handsome” cars (as opposed to drop-dead gorgeous ones), many people thought this was a beauty.  Not enough people thought that, of course, which is why hardly any 507s were ever produced, and were bought by only the very wealthy (like Elvis Presley).

Nowadays, of course, it’s a whole ‘nother story, which is why the little thing pictured above sold earlier this year for just over $2 million.

Let me change course for a moment, while I talk about the Porsche 356.

Unlike the 507, Porsche made a zillion of the various sporty 356 models, because they were relatively inexpensive and for the time quite reliable, albeit underpowered.  Because they were inexpensive, not much care was devoted to their upkeep, so they became somewhat scarce through pure attrition.  Then in the mid-2010s people started to remember the 356 with great fondness, and a renewed interest followed, which is why the above-pictured 1958 356 (only two owners, 84,000 original miles, restored but not modified) is currently for sale for around $400k.

Well, that’s just silly, say a couple of people, which is why you can nowadays get a replica of the 356 — looking exactly like the original, down to the badges — with a fiberglass body and a better-than-the-original VW or Subaru engine with better efficiency, reliability and performance.

Cost:  just over $70k.

Now to the puristi, of course, this is an anathema:  it’s not a “real” Porsche, etc. etc. and I can see their point.

But what if you just want to drive a classic, beautiful car that is in good running order, will not cost you an arm and a leg to maintain and looks brand-new?

In other words, you want to drive the shape of the thing, and all the other stuff is irrelevant because of the steep cost of parts, service and so on.

It’s not too dissimilar with fine art, for example, where a decent print of a Monet — in acrylic rather than oil — can cost you mere hundreds, as opposed to the millions demanded for an original Claude.  And honestly, to the non-art history major, it’s just as pretty hanging on your wall.

Still another example is that of the Land Rover Defender.  The old joke about them is that if you want to go into the bush, you take a Land Rover;  but if you want to come back out of the bush, you take a Toyota Land Cruiser.

The chronic unreliability of the Defender is so legendary that it’s a joke in and of itself.  (In the UK, Land Rover drivers acknowledge the oncoming Land Rover drivers by flicking their headlights:  a rueful admission, as the story goes, that yeah, I’m also an idiot.)

Nevertheless, many, many people love the Land Rover (I’m one of them), but are frightened off from buying one because they want to own a truck which doesn’t break down every hundred miles, has headlights and windshield wipers that only occasionally work, isn’t plagued by the usual , and won’t fall apart with rust.

So why not get a truck that looks like a Land Rover Defender, but has a galvanized steel chassis, reliable electricals, and is powered not by the cranky and underpowered original Rover engine but by a nice modern Cadillac 5.3-liter V8?

Cost of the above monster:  just over $100k — pretty much in line with modern-day Defenders — and the mileage on the engine is in the hundreds, not thousands.  (Excuse me for a moment while I wipe off the drool.)

In other words, “driving the shape” shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg, because you’re not driving the all-original heritage, just its appearance.

Which brings me back to the BMW 507.

There’s no industry around to make replicas of the 507, but some guys did make one — and a purdy lil’ thang it is too — with a handmade aluminum body, dropped onto an original BMW 502 chassis and powered by an original 5.2-liter V8, putting out about 150hp.

The thing is, though, that it’s not a replica, but an attempt to re-create the original.  Hence its price:  $540k.

The dealership selling this idiocy is in Dubai, which figures.  Maybe some Arab oil sheikh will be tempted into splashing the cash for it.

Me, even if I won a mega-lottery?  Never in a million years.  I love the 507’s shape, but that’s all I’m interested in driving.  This little luxury plaything?  Nope, no matter how beautiful.

Oh, and in terms of the market:  people who would be enamored of the BMW 507 are in my age bracket — i.e. not much longer for the world, so what you’re left with are people who look on luxury cars purely as an investment.  And I suspect that the market for that era of luxury cars is going to disappear, just as the market for pre-WWII cars has also dipped precipitously as their nostalgia effect dies with the owners thereof.  Even the stratospheric prices for Mercedes Gullwings is softening, or else it’s taking a lot longer to sell them.

I myself would be perfectly happy to own that 356 replica and the Defender restomod.  I’m only interested in shapes;  the rest is irrelevant.

Your task for today, should you accept it:  listen to two very knowledgeable men talk about cars, the people who buy them, and the changing market.

Consider this homework for the next post, to be written next week.

(Those aren’t the actual cars under discussion, just representatives thereof.)

I was never that much into the venerated AC Cobra myself, because like meeting your heroes, it’s one of those things best worshipped from afar.  In other words, the reality of driving a Cobra is, well, a little terrible.  It’s unbelievably loud, the ride is harsh beyond description, and the creature comforts of the cockpit… well, there aren’t any.

Not my cup of tea, in other words.  If I wanted all the above (minus the overpowering roar from the overpowered engine), I’d just get a Lotus 7 / Caterham.

Well, until now.  There’s this bunch of guys who make AC Cobra replicas, and they seem to check off quite a few boxes.  Witness this beauty:

It has heated seats, FFS. [sound of Carroll Shelby’s corpse hitting 12,000rpm]

But for those who think this vision has somehow become pussified, fear not:

That’s a Roush 427R V8, producing 550 horsepower — and even better, it has a TKX 5-speed manual transmission.

(Be still, my over-stimulated heart… okay, groin.)

I’ve never been tempted to drive an AC Cobra on one of my demented long-distance road trips (e.g. here, here and here) because unless there were massages delivered to my aching back every hundred or so miles by beautiful maidens of the Orient, it would just be too damn painful.  But in one of these?  I might be tempted.

“But what about luggage, Kim?”

Oh yeah, that little detail:

I know that the prices of cars nowadays are too stratospheric, and the cars themselves are too gadget-ridden and wind-tunnel anonymized in terms of styling and they’re, well, just pussified.

But for just over $100k, I’m not sure you’d find something as red-blooded and… satisfying as this lovely thing.

If I’m going to risk being labeled a total pussy, though, I’d ask the guys at Backdraft Racing to fashion me a soft top against the rain because frankly, at my age I wouldn’t want to risk pneumonia.  Other than that:  vroom-vroom.