Big Car

What’s going on with Alpine? They’ve had one car on sale since 2018, the A110, with only a second model appearing a couple of months ago, and that’s a rebadged Renault 5. In 6 years they’ve only sold 19,000 cars. And it’s not they’re selling $1M exotic Bugatti’s, The A110 is sold as a relatively affordable sports car. Alpine’s parent Renault have poured a LOT of cash into the brand, and even more into sponsoring a Formula 1 team, and many other motorsports championships, and all with little to show for it. On the face of it, it seems nonsensical, money thrown down the drain, and that was my opinion until I looked a little into Alpine’s strategy. So, just what’s going on, what’s are its chance of success and with the brand haemorrhaging money, and will Renault wind it up before the strategy has a chance to play out?

Ford’s styling department in the 1980s and 1990s could be relied upon to produce hit after hit. We liked the third generation Fiesta, we loved the Mondeo and the Ka, and we positively adored the Ford Focus. But in that period there was one car that stuck out like a sore thumb, the 1994 Ford Scorpio. Buy the Secret Fords book here! Use promo code BIGCAR30 for a total of 30% off the final copies: https://www.stevesaxty.com/secretfords

There’s a lot of focus on the rivalry between the German big three – Volkswagen, BMW & Mercedes, but in Sweden of course there was a rivalry between the “big two” – Volvo and Saab. So, as Volvo’s cars got larger and went upmarket in the 1970s, Saab must have surely taken note and decided that they had to respond. The result was the Saab 9000, produced even though Saab didn’t have the money to develop it. Just how did they find the cash, and was it a hit or was it a miss?

A few months ago I made a video about EVs that touched on robotaxis, and with Tesla’s recent Robotaxi event I thought I’d make a quick follow-up video talking about what was announced.