This video is going to be a little different to my normal ones. I usually need to do lots of research to get the story straight. But not this one – this was basically a brain dump! If you don’t know, I once, many moons ago, worked for Microsoft in the Automotive Business Unit or ABU, in fact this is an ABU t-shirt. I started working on the Auto PC – the car stereo you see behind me there – and although I missed ABU’s crowning glory, the Ford SYNC system, I was back in the team to witness first-hand the chaos of the infamous MyFord Touch project. Not much is out there about some of the background to what happened, and I’ve always wanted to tell the real story, what Ford’s PR department didn’t want you to hear.
If you wanted to have the latest cutting-edge technology in your car in 2007 you wouldn’t buy a BMW 7 series or a Mercedes S-Class. You’d own a 2008 Ford Focus with SYNC. It was the crowning achievement of Microsoft’s Automotive team; a device that plays music from media players and supports hands-free phone calls. It was revolutionary at the time and was included in over 1 million vehicles. But it almost never happened. It was the last roll of the dice from a team that had spent years in the wilderness trying to break into the car market.
In 1990 Vauxhall was on top of the world. Ford’s serious misstep with the Sierra in the early 1980s, meant Vauxhall’s well put together Cavalier had cleaned up. The third generation Cavalier had continued those inroads in the late 80s, along with the excellent Astra and Nova that completed their mass car lineup. So, surely the next generation car, the Vectra, would do just as well? I’m sure you can tell from the build-up, that that didn’t happen, but why?
The Jaguar E-type name is iconic, but not so much in the USA. There it was known as the XK-E. But whatever the name, it’s a car that’s like no other. And it’s looks are backed up with handling born from motor racing; this wasn’t a car that was all flash and no substance.
I’m not sure why, but the Triumph TR7 is not a popular car, so many Triumph TR fans tend to wax lyrically about the TR6 and ignore its successor. I thought it was brilliant when I saw a new one on the road in the 1970s, it was something futuristic. But every Triumph TR car is loved in its own way, and to this day there’s a strong community keeping each one of them on the road.
So, we’ve covered the Rover SD1 and its replacement, the Rover 800. Now we come to the last large Rover, the 75. It’s a shame that this was probably the best quality car Rover ever made, but maybe the least popular. But Rover was like a cat on its 9th life, and there’s only so many opportunities you get before it’s game over.
I talked about the Rover SD1 a few weeks ago. That was an unmitigated disaster when it came to production, but between that car and the Rover 800, British Leyland, now Austin Rover had forged a partnership with Honda that would lead to big changes in quality at the British company, and the Rover 800 was the first big partnership between the two companies. So, did it work out better than the SD1?
The Volkswagen Polo has quite a strange birth. I suppose it was a hedge against the Golf being unpopular, but it’s still odd that it was first launched as an Audi just at the moment when that brand was trying to go upmarket. No matter what its genesis, the Polo has gone on to become a big seller for Volkswagen.
The MG Midget is all about fun! It’s a simple, cheap little car that promises open-top thrills which it delivers in spades. It’s a story that spans seven decades from humble roots in Oxfordshire to a world-beating car that conquered America. It was loved by weekend tinkerers, American G.I.’s coming home from the war and F1 racers.
The Spitfire is a beautiful automobile, a thing of wonder penned by an Italian genius, but it almost never happened. If not for a chance find in the dusty corner of a factory it would have remained merely a “could have been”. But Triumph produced a car that still inspires new creations today and has a strong and loyal fan base around the world, nearly 60 years since it burst on the scene.
When we left the Range Rover, it had risen from a farm workhorse to a school run fashion accessory. But in the process it had turned into a steady seller that was keeping Land Rover afloat, despite no update for 24 years. So, what happened after that long overdue facelift? Video link: https://youtu.be/L4PKiUknHj8
The Range Rover is the ultimate go-anywhere luxury SUV. It was born out of Rover’s desire to sell more cars in the USA, and its design was a complete accident. So how did a company known for saloon cars and agricultural off-roaders invent a car that created a brand-new market segment? Video link: https://youtu.be/vxqc3LpqsJc
The Rover SD1 was so nearly a game changer. It was an amazing follow-up to the Triumph 2000 & Rover P6, but it caused so much damage to the Rover name. It was a "space age" shape that looked like it had come right off the set of Blakes 7. And this came out of old, stodgy, British Leyland - the company that had brought us the Morris Marina and Austin Allegro! So why was this amazing car do so badly? Video link: https://youtu.be/N9L7mrUj3mE
It’s 1975 and British Leyland faces an enormous challenge: petrol prices are skyrocketing. BLs own Mini which created this category way back in 1959, is showing its age. It’s too small and is much less practical. Britain had just entered the Common Market, a forerunner to the European Union, and what British Leyland needs is a class-leading “supermini” of its own to take on the rest of Europe. What it doesn’t have is the money to develop it. Video link: https://youtu.be/kduRyHBMNsY