Jeremy's spoken...

Laughed when I read Clarkson's column in the Times/Australian today:

"Much has been written about the Insight, Honda’s new low-priced hybrid......So far, though, you have not been told what it’s like as a car; as a tool for moving you, your friends and your things from place to place........So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more. "

"Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.......At this point you will probably dismiss what I’m saying as the rantings of a petrolhead, and think that I have my head in the sand.
That’s not true. While I have yet to be convinced that man’s 3% contribution to the planet’s greenhouse gases affects the climate, I do recognise that oil is a finite resource and that as it becomes more scarce, the political ramifications could well be dire. I therefore absolutely accept the urgent need for alternative fuels.
But let me be clear that hybrid cars are designed solely to milk the guilt genes of the smug and the foolish. And that pure electric cars, such as the G-Wiz and the Tesla, don’t work at all because they are just too inconvenient.
Since about 1917 the car industry has not had a technological revolution — unlike, say, the world of communications or film. There has never been a 3G moment at Peugeot nor a need to embrace DVD at Nissan. There has been no VHS/Betamax battle between Fiat and Renault."

"The only hope I have is that there are enough fools and madmen out there who will buy an Insight to look sanctimonious outside the school gates. And that the cash this generates can be used to develop something a bit more constructive."

Amen and thanks for saying it Jeremy. I'm no fan of cars, but common sense tells you that the current "carbon pollution" movement is both shrill, and, sadly bereft of alternate solutions. For the deliberate use of a spine, JC must now be elevated to The Bagwan pantheon of Heroes.

Regards
TheBagwan