Archive for January, 2010
‘Other’ cars
Keith Adams I’VE been busy tonight. Had a close encounter with an AC 3000ME earlier in the week and remembered just why I liked them so much. That’s why, instead of going to bed, I did some scribbling and added its story for your reading pleasure… I know, I have no life. It’s the usual [...]
January 29, 2010
· 
Keith Adams · 
4 Comments
Press Report : David Smith steps down as JLR’s CEO
John Reed, Financial Times, 25th January, 2010 Jaguar Land Rover said that David Smith was stepping down as Chief Executive Officer and that Tata Motors, its Indian owner, would assist in the handover while it searched for a new head. The UK luxury marque said nothing about a possible replacement for Mr Smith, except that [...]
January 25, 2010
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
More jobs to do…
Keith Adams With the Rover 3500 back on terra firma in the UK and in the safe hands of MOTest at Farnham, it looks like I have another project to sort out in the coming months. Back in 2008, I put my Saab 9000 Aero in for a repair which, although complex, should have been done [...]
January 25, 2010
· Keith Adams · 15 Comments
The MINI: Car of The Decade
Keith Adams I can already sense the barrage of criticism we’re about to receive for this one but, in choosing the MINI (2000-2006) for AROnline‘s Car of The Decade, I’m looking at a number of factors. However, before you comment, read the full article and look at the picture gallery…
January 24, 2010
· Keith Adams · 4 Comments
MINI : Car of the decade – 2000-2010
Okay, so MG Rover petered out in 2005, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t declare AROnline‘s Car of the Decade for the ‘noughties’. In fact, we reckon that our choice is pretty much on the ball, the way the industry is going right now. We can’t pretend that this is going to be a [...]
January 24, 2010
· Keith Adams · No Comments
MINI : Countryman makes an early debut
MINI’s new Sport Activity Vehicle receives the historic Countryman name, but the five-door variation on the theme is an entirely new – and enlarged – proposition. Unlike the Clubman and subsequent concept vehicles, the new car receives five conventional doors and optional four-wheel drive. The MINI Countryman comes as standard with four seats, while a [...]
January 20, 2010
· Keith Adams · No Comments
This R8′s alright, mate…
Mike Humble Following redundancy last year and my nearly new Passat 2.0TDI going back, I found myself looking for a second-hand car to keep me mobile. After the usual trawling through the weekly inkies such as Auto Trader, I came upon a Rover 214 on eBay that was literally a few miles up the road [...]
January 19, 2010
· Keith Adams · 8 Comments
A delightful ZR
Keith Adams This MG ZR is a little unusual… I must admit that I’m yet to be convinced by CVT transmissions. The Honda Civic IMA and Toyota Prius are the most recent examples I’ve driven and neither quite satisfied me in the way they should have. Yes, I know that, technically, these gearboxes are the [...]
January 17, 2010
· Keith Adams · 2 Comments
Press Report : Towers lifts the lid on Longbridge
Jon Griffin, Birmingham Mail, 15th January, 2010 LONGBRIDGE could have been sunk as long ago as 1994 by Japanese car giant Honda, former MG Rover Chairman John Towers has claimed. In a rare interview for a new West Midland book on the car industry, Mr Towers has revealed that the Japanese firm – which held [...]
January 17, 2010
· Keith Adams · No Comments
Our cars : Project Tomcat Turbo
Update 10 January 2010 The unenviable task of sorting out the Rover Tomcat’s corrosion problems took rather longer to get underway than we were hoping. What with the arrival of the Polish Rover SD1 in the UK, and countless work assignments for Octane magazine, the Rover’s return to rustlessness has taken something of a back [...]
January 10, 2010
· Keith Adams · No Comments
SD1 progress
Keith Adams I’ve been getting a lot of people asking me about my Polski-Rover SD1. Is it MoT’d yet? When will it be on the road again? Will we be seeing it on the show circuit? Well, with a little help from my friends, I went a long way to getting the first question answered [...]
January 9, 2010
· Keith Adams · No Comments
It’s a case of Princess love
Sam Glover My December played host to a grand Allegro adventure. Like Greek epics, my 3000-mile Leyland odyssey was a roller-coaster of love, fighting, joy and betrayal. The ending was tragic. Inevitably, prolonged exposure to the lower-end opulence of 1500SDL trim led me to covert the next rung of the Leyland ladder. I started to [...]
January 6, 2010
· Keith Adams · 8 Comments
Modern Classics
Sam Skelton KWE’s K12 – a modernised classic. There seems to have been a craze in recent years for upgrading and modernising classic cars. Off the top of my head, I can think of a number of cars which could be revamped either by the factory or an outside company: all Bristols, the Jensen Interceptor [...]
January 6, 2010
· Sam Skelton · 4 Comments
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of 2009
Sam Skelton Skelton’s Car of The Year 2009: the Jaguar XJ Right, time to be serious for a moment. 2009 has drawn to a close and I think it’s an appropriate time to list the year’s good, bad and ugly from the world of motoring. I’ll start with the things I’ve liked the look of [...]
January 5, 2010
· Sam Skelton · One Comment
Concepts and prototypes : LDV 201
The Sherpa/LDV 200/400/Pilot Convoy was a perfect example of British industry make-do-and-mend. In an ideal world, the boxy JU/J4-based van would have been replaced sometime in the early 1980s, but it ended up going on a whole lot longer… Here’s the fascinating story of one aborted attempt at replacement, and how it went on to [...]
January 5, 2010
· Keith Adams · No Comments
Adieu 4Car
Nigel Garton The impermanence of the Internet as a medium is never clearer than when a website gets killed. When a mag gets axed it leaves a legacy of thousands of old copies in cupboards and attics. Euthanizing a website by simply redirecting its URL and turning off the server, on the other hand, instantly removes almost [...]
January 3, 2010
· Keith Adams · 5 Comments
Car of the month : January 2010
Maestros are perhaps Austin Rover’s favoured Marmite cars. People either love or hate them. Well, we love ‘em at AROnline and to show just how much, the site’s deputy editor has just invested rather heavily in his to keep it in pristine condition. The car lives in Germany, and has been to Poland and back [...]
January 1, 2010
· Keith Adams · No Comments
