'The mission is to make people's lives better'

There is a certain irony in the fact that when Ford's Executive Chairman said last week that the automotive future is 'electric and autonomous', it was in the same month that the company announced a stop to building electric versions of its Focus in Europe, writes Brian Byrne. Because they aren’t selling in a still diesel-centric continent.

But William Clay Ford Jr is likely to be right. He is forward looking, and presides over a company which has won its way through 114 years of many changes since his great-grandfather set up his Ford Motor Company in the adopted home of his own Irish emigrant parents, Michigan USA.

Last week was an occasion for Bill Ford to be looking back at least a little, as the guest of honour at the celebration of his company being 100 years in Ireland, and specifically in the Cork of his forebears. In doing so, he offered his view of a legacy which locally touched and improved lives in a similar way to what the vision of his great-grandfather did on a global basis.

"To me, what a company is all about is not about the things you make," he told an audience of students, employees, and journalists at University College Cork. "It's not about the money you make. Yes, you do need to make money, and you do make things if you are a manufacturing company, but what I think makes a company enduring and relevant is that it touches people's lives in a positive way. That you do it around the world, and you can do it consistently."

Ciaran McMahon, Managing Director and Chairman, Ford Ireland, Prof Patrick G O'Shea, President of UCC, William Clay Ford Jr, Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company, Prof John O'Halloran, Director of Quercus Student Talent Programme, at the announcement of Ford scholarships to the Programme.

The consistent element is never easy in an industry, and in a time, where there is a lot of change. Like now, where Bill Ford believes his industry and others are on the cusp of the greatest changes since Henry Ford was setting up his business. “There were lots of new companies trying to make cars. Many started up, many failed. Technology was shifting — you had electric vehicles, steam-powered vehicles, the types of vehicles were quite astounding. It was the Wild West in many ways. And guess what, that's where we are now again."

He believes the role of carmakers like Ford is going to change dramatically, mostly driven by technological advances such as self-driving cars, and also by changes in the concept of ownership of cars. Artificial Intelligence will drive not only vehicles, but also the companies making them, and how they interact with customers. "That is going to be a core competence of a company that wants to remain relevant."

However, against all that change, the company must not lose sight of what he considers the most important thing, that 'the mission is to make people's lives better'. “Companies that can do it well are the ones that will be relevant for the next hundred years."

In car manufacturing, they might not all be the same ones we know today. The Ford boss referenced companies like Google and Apple 'now in our space'. Noting that in the embryo automotive industry, when 'anybody could try anything', nobody knew who the winners would be, he suggested it will be another decade before it is known who will be winning from the current mix of developing technologies and transportation solutions.

"I love where we are. It couldn't be more fun, more interesting. It is a high wire act without a net, but on the other hand it is generating such creativity and such energy that I love it. To me it is the most extraordinary time in my career."

Bill Ford with former CNN correspondent
Gina London in UCC.

Extraordinary times bring new challenges, one of which is the whole ethical underpinning of autonomous car development. Vehicles will have the ability to make decisions that human drivers can't make. "If we see an accident about to happen, all we can do is react and hope for the best, and try to get ourselves out of it. The autonomous vehicle will have such computing power that it will actually be able to choose which pedestrian to dodge, or to choose to crash the car and injure the occupants so that the pedestrian would be saved."

Such issues will require a lot of discussion, and Bill Ford believes that it will have to start in the universities, for them to lead the way because an individual car-making company can’t make such decisions. “Imagine if Ford made one decision, and a company like Toyota made a different one for their cars ... it would be a nightmare."

Bill Ford has already addressed in public another nightmare scenario — where would all the cars go if current ownership patterns persist? In 2011, at a TED conference, he cautioned on an industry enthusiasm that increasing prosperity and the growth of a middle class meant it would be selling 'heaps more cars'. "People are already finding it difficult to drive in cities around the world. As we grow from 7bn to 9bn people, and as the world continues to urbanise, it became very clear to me that we have to change."

Ford Motor Company set up a business unit called 'City as Customer', and visited cities around the world asking 'what would make your lives easier from a transportation point of view?'. One of the common answers was 'get vehicles off the road'. Ford is addressing this in a number of ways, including a pilot scheme in Austin, Texas, with 14-seater Transit shuttles in a service called 'Chariot', which uses a 'crowd-sourcing’ technology to move numbers of people from point to point depending on demand. "It costs a lot less than Uber — unlike some of the ride-hailing companies, it actually picks up more people because you're aggregating 14 people in the vehicle."

Chariot has been deemed very successful in Austin, and the idea will shortly be tested in London as well as a number of other cities. Critical to its success is that it 'knows' the rest of the public transport system, and defines its journeys by showing up at, for instance, subway stations at the time a train arrives. "Not 15 minutes before, not 15 minutes after. Public transport can can take you linearly from point to point, but people move in a messy fashion and they want to get where they want to go, so you need coordination of all transportation assets. And the public need instant access to timetables and menus of options — whether they want to take the fastest or the least expensive option, for instance."

Autonomous vehicles will be a key part of this particular transportation future. And a key incentive for its development will be better access to jobs. "Increasingly in cities, the jobs are not where people are living. So if somebody doesn't own a car, or the transport system doesn't go from where they are to the job, there’s a problem. But in the system I'm describing, that problem should disappear. Roads will be more free, there will be more options to get you there, and we will have accomplished part of the goal to make people's lives better."

Those jobs are also going to be different. Technologies like 3D printing are already changing how things are made. Robots have already taken over difficult jobs on assembly lines, and computers handle their management. IT and software skills are going to be more relevant for employment than hardware. "There is a demand all around the world for people with these skills, and education will have to change to meet that demand. It's not just Ford that will be changing, it is every company out there. Some of them don't know it yet, but those that don't get it are really going to be left behind."

How vehicles are powered is also changing. Even five years ago, bio-fuels such as ethanol produced from crops was very topical, but that has already gone by the wayside because of various issues. Hydrogen as a fuel remains interesting, especially in fuel-cell use, but has stubborn problems including the fact that it is still petro-chemically derived. Fuel-cells are also difficult and expensive to manufacture. "As we sit here today, electrification probably makes a great deal of sense, though there is still the question of how do we get that electric power? Still, electrification is coming, and autonomous vehicles are coming — not always in sync — and we are investing heavily in both."

Efficient mobility is not just a cities matter. There are, for instance, hundreds of millions of people in undeveloped rural areas for whom transportation is critical in accessing proper healthcare. Ford has programmes running to develop ways of helping them. In India, an experiment with 'connected' vehicles brings health monitoring to expectant mothers and their children in remote villages. "The data is transmitted back from the vehicle to a hospital in the nearest city, and doctors there can send back advice to the people in the village. We're also working with some NGOs in Africa who bring food and healthcare to remote communities, helping them map their routes so they can visit three villages a day instead of just one."

In trying to predict the future, Ford Motor Company has a division working on just that. But according to Bill Ford, the real need is for every employee, at all levels, to be thinking about the future and coming up with ideas. Ideas for change, and for coping with change. "In Ford we have an amazing history and an iconic founder, so the default is always to look back. It is also particularly hard to change when things are going well, like now when we have all-time record earnings. But I think this is exactly when we should be changing, when we have the resources now to invest in change.

"In another hundred years, I'd like people to be talking again about how Ford will change in the next hundred. But if we don't get this right, it’s not certain that chance will happen. If you really have people believing that what they are working on is actually going to make society better, that's a very powerful thing.

"Every generation has to reinterpret values for the time they are in, and these will be different things. But the core shouldn't change — caring about each other, caring about the communities in which we operate, in actually trying to improve people's lives. Those things are pretty timeless. Our employees do believe in those things, and seeing the challenges in those terms, then they will grab them."

On the Road to the Clouds

What kind of will power does it take to decide to eliminate your tribe? writes Brian Byrne. To collectively cease to have children, and if one happens to be born that it be thrown from a cliff to its death?

That's part of the tragedy of the Diaguita tribe which lived in what is today northwestern Argentina in the 15th century.

In their city of Quilmes near Cafayete, they resisted the Inca empire which spread from Peru through the Andes, though they later accepted a certain co-existence in return for technologies such as irrigation which the invaders brought. In the Inca decline, the Spanish invaders became their next enemy, and for 130 years they fought against subjugation, eventually being defeated.

Greats of Le Mans

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest sports car endurance race and one of the most famous and influential in motorsports history, write Brian Byrne & Trish Whelan.

The race has been run every year since its inception in 1923 with the exception of 1936, where the race was not run due to worker strikes, and 1940 to 1948, due to World War II. Some 126 total drivers have won in the 81 runnings of the event.

While the distances travelled in the 24 hours were as low as 2,077km in the early days, the race currently sees distances in the high 4,000kms and early 5,000kms, with the longest to date being the 5,410.71kms of the 2010 race, set by the Audi Sport North America team in their Audi R15 TDI plus.

At the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, there was a special presentation highlighting the most famous of the winning cars. Here's our selection from that event.

The 2013 RIAC Classic Car Show

It was the first national car show run by the RIAC since 1908 and the National Classic Car Show in the RDS at the weekend attracted large crowds of enthusiasts and motoring memories, writes Brian Byrne. We went along for a dekko and here are just a few of the lovely machines which caught the attention of our lens.



Owned by Jim Boland for the last 43 years, this beautiful Bentley Speed Six is powered by a 6.5 litre straight six with twin carburettors, and was bought from the Mayor of Cheltenham for the equivalent price of six Opel Kadetts of the time.

Road Test: Lexus GS 450h

In many ways we have gotten so used to driving behind diesel engines, albeit very refined ones, that we have forgotten the merits of a big petrol V6, writes Brian Byrne.

One of those merits is a different kind of quietness. Especially in a Lexus GS 450h, the only full hybrid saloon car in the premium class.

My recent experience with it gave me a lot more than I expected. I guess it is partly because a new Lexus doesn’t come along that often that I needed reminding just why it possibly is close to perfection in luxury automobiling.

Road Test: New Beetle

There's a great affection in Ireland for the old Volkswagen Beetle, which for many of a certain generation was their first car, writes Brian Byrne. And it's fair to say that when the 'New Beetle' was introduced in 1997, it wasn't going to be for them. Or indeed, for the generations who had only heard of the original but only knew the first of the 'New Beetle'.

It was too cuddly. Too feminine for the male cohort of original Beetle lovers. It didn't have the rear air-cooled engine, either, but that wasn't going to be an issue for any new generation buyers happily raised on the FWD Golf that succeeded the Beetle as the modern icon of the brand.

Now, though, the latest iteration of the Beetle might just make it a cool alternative for a new generation, regardless of gender. I first drove it in Germany over a year ago, but in recent months it has begun to come visible in Ireland.

First Drive: Ford Fiesta 2013

It's Ford's longest running nameplate, flagshipping the blue oval's small car business since 1976, writes Brian Byrne. In that time, 15m customers have proudly driven Fiestas off forecourts. As starter cars, family cars, downsizing empty nester cars.

Always, the proposition was the same. Smart, affordable, reliable. Providing uncomplicated motoring, largely for uncomplicated people. That's the most of us.

For 2013, Fiesta has been refreshed substantially. It has also been given a raft of new technologies, and new powertrains. And it has become a true global car for Ford, essentially the same car in Europe, America, China, Australia and South America.

Continental ICOTY awards Thursday

Members of the Irish Motoring Writers Association, including this writer and colleague Trish Whelan, have now voted on what will be the overall Continental Irish Car of the Year 2013, having recently had a refresher day with the shortlist of 11 cars selected from the original field of 36, writes Brian Byrne. In addition, the voting will decide a number of category winners, including Small Car, Compact Family Car, Medium Family/Executive Car, Sports Car, and Luxury Car. The awards will be announced at a lunch this Thursday, 22 November. In Category and Alphabetical order, here are the contenders.


SMALL CAR

The FORD B-MAX is a brand-new and very interesting addition to the Small Car segment. Replacing the former Ford Fusion, this small MPV is based on the Fiesta platform, but in design is a completely different car. Notable innovations are the sliding rear doors, and a unique pillarless structure that provides unbeatable access to the back of the car. The powertrains are extensive for a small-segment in this country, three petrol engines including the award-winning 3-cylinder EcoBoost, and a brand new 1.5 diesel. I like the style, the drive, and the access.

The PEUGEOT 208 is the latest in an iconic line of small hatchbacks, beautifully styled and well thought out for practicality. It has a distinctive interior design, and is well specified with the gadgetry that is required by the smartphone generation. Engines are two petrol, including a sweet 3-cylinder 1.0, and a 1.4 diesel. I particularly like this one for its sexy looks, and the engines are as refined as we expect from the brand.


COMPACT FAMILY

The KIA CEE'D in this new generation is already available in 5-door hatch and a Sportwagon estate, and both are turned out in the best of 21st century style thinking as well as exceptional comfort inside. The engines are a 1.4 petrol in the hatchback only, and 1.4 and 1.6 diesels, all right on the button in terms of refinement and frugality. I like these for the looks and the top-notch quality, as well as great long-distance driving.

The MAZDA CX-5 is this carmaker's shift into contention in the growing and very important compact SUV arena. It has a strong styling, is a good roomy 5-seater with lots of cargo space, and has an interior level of finish that will stand up to longterm tough usage. Power is from a 2.0 petrol or 2.2 a diesel that's good to drive and adds to the economy which a large degree of weightsaving allows for the car. I like it for its comfort, ruggedness, and frugality without sacrifice in power.

The VOLVO V40 is a totally new generation of compact cars from the Swedish-ethos brand. While traditional Volvo style cues are still there, the extended hatchback is a much more cool-looking car than what it replaces. Good room inside, a top level of finish, and a range of 1.6 turbocharged petrol, and 1.6 2.0 diesels make it attractive to a wide variety of potential owners. I like this one for the looks, the drive, and the quietness.


MEDIUM FAMILY/EXECUTIVE

The latest BMW 3 SERIES is stylistically and from an engineering perspective a very worthy evolution of its famous nameplate. More room, unmistakeable in its pedigree, and even more efficient than before, there's also that particular detailing outside and in that is incontrovertibly BMW. I like the looks, the driving, the whole ethos of engineering excellence that permeates the car.

The new KIA OPTIMA is a perfect example of how Korean makers are targeting the mainstream in fleet and medium family markets, with a growing degree of success. Very individually stylish, and with a seriously strong specification, the Optima has potential to change the game here. Power is from a 1.7 diesel that is more than adequate for this large car, performing with verve and economy. I like this for a really distinctive look, its comfort, and a long drive.


LUXURY CARS

The BMW 6 SERIES GRAN COUPE has to be the sexiest car in contention this year, with stunning looks and an elegant sportiness that arguably no other brand on this market can touch. The engineering excellence is a given, and the 3.0 and 4.4 petrol and 3.0 diesel engines are tours de force. I like this for the way they have merged individuality with the essential of being a BMW, and for being simply gorgeous.

The MERCEDES-BENZ M-CLASS has been gently evolved upwards from its already excellent positioning in the large luxury SUV firmament. Smoother looking, and with serious efficiency improvements in its 2.2 and 3.5 diesel powertrain options, this 7-seater can waft large families and their luggage from end to end of a state or country. I like it for its uncomplaining attitude in any circumstance.


SPORTS CARS

The BMW M5 is the ultimate in the 5 Series range and offers neck-snapping acceleration and extreme handling capability in a package that remains a practical large family saloon. There are styling cues that set it off from its humbler brethern, and the 4.4 V8 is a benchmarker in its species. I like this for its achievement in meshing impossibilities.

The TOYOTA GT86 has brought its maker back into a circuit from which it has been too long absent, and has done so without having had to develop extreme technologies. Closer to the true ethos of the affordable sports car, this one offers a pure enthusiastic driving experience without ever having to break driving laws and regulations. I like this one for its honesty and integrity.

Road Test: Jaguar XF Sportbrake

The XF Sportbrake, the most important car from Jaguar in recent years, will play a key role in the brand's redevelopment plans for 2013 along with the new F-Type sportscar and the C-X75 supercar, writes Trish Whelan.

It comes with Jaguar's signature design, performance and durability; authentically providing luxury and modern technologies with the brand's rich heritage. It is a true Jag in every respect and the most efficient Jaguar car ever.

This luxury estate is expected to reach out to new Jaguar customers, attracting people who occasionally need the extra space but who appreciate the performance brands and the quality they represent. Research shows they will have pretty active lifestyles. Half of car sales in Europe in this segment are estates.

Road Test: Mercedes-Benz ML-Class

"A Yank Tank with a Mercedes badge."

My friend's tone was not so much scorn as dismissive, writes Brian Byrne. Even though he'd probably not driven the new generation ML-Class I'd arrived in to his gig. I didn't argue. There's no argument with embedded preconception laced with anti bias.

Yank? OK, along with the GL-Class, the ML is made in the US for the European market. Tank? Well, tough it is. Big too. Nothing wrong with either.

First Drive: VW Golf Mk 7

If you’re a VW Golf fan, you’re in big company. More than 29m of them have been produced since the nameplate was first rolled out in 1974, writes Brian Byrne.

If you’re a Golf fan since that time, you’ll have watched it develop through six generations without ever losing key styling cues that identify it as a Golf.

If you’re a Golf fan, you’ll be waiting for mid-December in your local VW dealership to see the Mk 7 Golf arrive on the showroom floor.



And you’ll be very happy to see that the essential shape that has become the iconic car of Volkswagen in almost four decades still looks like it should do. Like a Golf. Arguably only two other cars in the world have retained their original visual identities. One of them’s a VW too, the Beetle. The other is a Porsche, now coincidentally owned by VW.

It's raining, it's dangerous

We're getting a lot of seriously difficult driving conditions in the current rainy spell. Here's the advice the Institute of Advanced Motorists is offering. We'll all feel, and be safer, if we all follow it.

Before you set off, set your heater controls – rain makes the windows mist up in seconds. You don’t want to be fiddling with controls when you should be concentrating on the road.

Slow down. In the rain your stopping distance should be at least doubled. Giving yourself more space helps you to avoid spray, especially when following a large vehicle.

Keep your eyes on the road ahead and plan your driving so that you can brake, accelerate and steer smoothly – harsh manoeuvres will unbalance the car.

Strong winds can also unsettle your car and even change your direction of travel. Grip your steering wheel firmly and be aware of the effects of the elements on other road users, particularly motorcyclists and flat-sided vehicles.

If you have cruise control, avoid using it on wet roads – it may create problems if you start to aquaplane.

See and be seen. Put your lights on – as a rule of thumb, whenever you need to use your wipers you should also turn your headlights on, and before overtaking put your wipers on their fastest setting.


Do you need to make that journey?
In cases of severe flooding, you should reconsider making the journey at all. If it is unavoidable, and you have to drive through deep water, the IAM recommends drivers take the following precautions:

Drive on the highest section of the road and don't get off if a vehicle is approaching you

Leave time and space to avoid swamping other cars and pedestrians

If you can’t see where you are going to come out of the water, such as when approaching flooding on a bend, think twice about starting to drive into it

In deep water never take your foot off the accelerator, as this could allow water to travel up the exhaust pipe

Once you're out of the water, dry the brakes before you need them. The best way is to lightly apply the brake as you drive along for a few seconds, after checking nothing is following you too closely.

Now, read all that again.

It says in ... Cara Magazine

Tim Severin is best known as a sea-going adventurer and writer who pulled off a number of strange and almost impossible sailing feats, writes Brian Byrne. But in the September issue of the Aer Lingus magazine Cara he recalls quite a different journey undertaken a quarter of a century ago.

It happens to be the last page of the magazine, and if your flight is a short one, go there first. He writes a memoir of his journey to retrace the route of the First Crusade in 1096, a 5,600kms endeavour on horseback from Belgium to Jerusalem.

He and friends did it over two summers, initially with Severin riding a Belgian Ardennes Heavy Horse as he thought would have Duke Godfrey of Bouillon. It didn’t take long to find out that the Duke would in fact have used the carthorse breed only when he got to war, and probably did the journey on an animal more comfortable.

Severin always writes well, and this account is a gem about which I will say no more in case I spoil the piece for you. Worth the flight in itself to read.

The magazine’s cover story is a profile of ’shooting star’ Bernard Brogan who achieved his life’s ambition when he first played for Dublin. A member of a GAA dynasty, he tells of the respect that Irish people have for players who have won All-Ireland medals, and the special relationship that players who fight and win their national competitions together have with each other ... ’it’s a glint in the eye when you meet up’.

I saw a sign in a shop window a couple of weeks ago while in the US, ’Compulsive Shoppers Wanted’, and those are the very people whom Lizzie Gore-Grimes is catering for in her 8-page spread about the shopping options in the Big Apple. “New Yorkers are masters of the perfect accessory,” she writes. “From statement glasses to a quirky hat on a cute dog, they get it just right.” Joanne Murphy’s photographs of people and shops on the trip set off the whole shop till you drop expedition perfectly.

Something completely different is Pol O Conghaille’s exploration of the Big Surf at Fuerteventura. Known to most as a sun holiday hotspot, it is also a surfer’s paradise, he writes. But there are 3,000 hours of sunshine a year there, and you can’t be surfing for all of them, so he offers a wide view of the other attractions for a family on holiday. As he was there with his youngsters and wife, you know it is ’horse’s mouth’ detail.

Copenhagen has recently been rated the best capital city in the world for its quality of life, and anthropologist Roger Norum explores Denmark’s capital with its best design, best metro, best cycling and best restaurant. He takes his own photographs too, and they just might qualify as the recent best of Copenhagen.

Closer to home, Peter Murtagh writes about the 129kms Wicklow Way, in his own county, and it’s interesting to see from my point of view how many parts of it I’m familiar with without ever having done the whole thing. Peter Matthews’ pictures do various sections some real justice.

And as a writer myself, I was particularly intererested to read Brigid Hourican’s interviews with a new guard of Irish writers who are attracting serious attention in our literary world at home and abroad. As she notes, they have moved out of the traditional literary fiction to stake their work in genres such as sport, chick lit, crime, fantasy, horror and children’s fiction.

All the usuals are there. Pete Murphy of EMI is this month’s Smart Traveller, whose favourite business city is London. ’Off The Rails’ presenter Suzie Coen opens her suitcase for inspection and, no surprise, it’s full of big brands. Thriller writer John Connolly tells Shelf Life that big books are best on trips. In the ’Insider’s Guide’ series, Conor Maguire provides pen pictures and real pics of what he considers the best parts of one of his favourite cities in France, Bordeaux. Frances Power spends her ’48 Hours’ in Venice and suggests an early ditching of the map and simply doing walkabout.

Best quote? ’Tumbling head over heels into the Great Atlantic Washing Machine’ as Pol O Conghaile comes off his board during instruction to become a surfer. “It’s simple—until you stand up...,” he adds wryly.

A life’s lesson, that.

First View: Chevrolet Cruze SW

"

Whenever I drive in Germany I'm struck by the number of wagons on the roads, writes Brian Byrne. It's possibly linked to their love of the outdoor lifestyle, which requires lots of stuff to be carted around, but estate versions of every car model that offers them are abundant.

Compare and contrast with Ireland, where the estate is a quite small proportion of the car variants sold, anywhere between six and nine percent, depending on brand and model. Premium makers tend to have a higher percentage of estate buyers.

But maybe there's a hint of a change. The wagon versions of mainstream family compacts like the Hyundai i30 and Kia's cee'd are all selling above average against the standard hatches. Partly, I suspect, because they look more like slightly longer hatchbacks than the vanny traditional estates which used to be offered in the genre. In other words, sportier, not like the favoured vehicle of yore of what used to be called a commercial traveller.

Such thoughts were prompted over the last few days at the international press launch of the Chevrolet Cruze SW. It won't be available in Ireland until sometime towards the end of the year, but it could also help to reshape the Irish perception of the estate car.

Chevrolet is only beginning to get moving here again after a few years of hiatus when the Irish importer disengaged and a new arrangement was made with the UK-based Chevrolet subsidiary of GM Europe. Ten dealers have been appointed, six more applications are being evaluated, and plans are progressing to give the Chevrolet brand a good push for the 2013 market.

My experience with the Cruze SW has been my first extended run with a Chevrolet product since the new arrangement was finalised a couple of months back. I wasn't surprised to find it an encouraging one.

We haven't had the Cruze here until now. It’s very similar to its cousin Opel Astra and is a very successful compact model in the US and Australia, and showing promise in European markets where the Chevrolet brand is one of the few on a growth run (the others being Hyundai and Kia, coincidentally also from Korea where most of the Chevrolet products sold here are built).

The connections with Opel models are clearly visible in the interior, such as the sat-nav and other instrumentation. The SWs I drove over the last couple of days were well trimmed, with close-woven fabric on sections of the dashboard providing a nice textured lift to the plastic.

The estate elements add more cargo space and flexibility, which I'll explore further when the car actually goes on sale in Ireland. Suffice to say for now that there’s some 1,478 litres of cargo capacity with the rear seatbacks folded.

I had the chance to try two powertrains, a 163hp 2.0 diesel, and the 140hp 1.7 diesel which will be the mainstay motor in the Irish market. Both seem very good, but I preferred the smaller one even though it did require more gearshifting to keep it at the top of its game in the scenic and twisting hilly roads above the Rhine. The 6-speed gearbox managing both was pleasant and crisp.

I was expecting the car to handle well, and I wasn’t disappointed. In this configuration, it isn’t ever going to be called on to perform like its WTCC namesakes, but the composed attitude on the launch routes suggested the possibilities of a little fun where safely doable.

On the highway at the speeds permitted in Germany the Cruze SW is a steady and competent vehicle well able to keep up with the powerful travellers in the faster lanes.

It isn’t a great time to be selling cars in Ireland, and it’s an even more difficult one to be relaunching a brand virtually from standstill. But the Cruze in its various forms is certainly a valid proposition in the key compact family market. The segment is competitive, but so is the car.

This will be worth watching.

In Galway for 'The Volvo'

Maybe it’s because being the capital of the western seaboard, Galway is arguably the best city in the country to throw a party even in the rain, writes Brian Byrne.

Which is also probably why they’ve now bitten twice at the Volvo Ocean Race cherry and shown the seaside capitals of the world how it’s done. Doing it so well as the penultimate host last time that they won the race close for this one.

This weekend is the grand finale to an exeptional week of global interest in the city of the pirate queen Grainne Ni Mhaille. Taking the ’is feidir linn’ attitude of Barak Obama to the next level of ’let’s do it global’, the organisers, if a pun can be excused because it’s the best description there is, pushed out the boat in truly magnificent measure.

So even if you had no interest in sailing boats or the sea at all, getting to Galway this last week for even a day was something that has only previously the kind of  ’must do’ for this writer’s generation when Doolin in County Clare was a musical and cultural Mecca.

It seemed like everybody in the nation wanted to be Galway people this week. And getting in through the traffic on Friday afternoon was an experience that suggested every one of those people were also trying to get in there. At the same time.



That the rain followed those of us coming from the east didn’t dampen the buzz hardly at all. There were round-the-world sail racing ships to see, music to hear, food to eat, drink to imbibe.

But most of all, Galway this week was about walking. Divided into two 'villages' of entertainment, enterprise and activity, everything was linked by a myriad of fringe presentations, serious and playful workshops in business, tourism and the arts. The best, and indeed the only way to see it all was on foot. Its walkability is one of Galway's charms as a city, and this made it easy to build this week o0f festivities into it.

It is also too all about Volvo, a brand that encompasses much more than the cars and trucks with which we are most familiar. For the six sailing teams that set off last October in Alicante and arrived in Galway this week after taking the long way around the globe, it's about a place in the sea. As it is for local pleasure sailors who are a big part of the buzz this week.





For those who thronged the Volvo Pavilion it was an eye-opener to the range of technologies which Volvo companies are involved in. From the City Safe car safety systems which drivers could try out for themselves, through engines and components for the aerospace industries, to, of course, the trucks which are such a vital part of supplying the stores and factories of the world. And little boys could experience in simulators the driving of those trucks, a clever imprinting of the brand on young minds.



The attractions also brought other stops on the race route to Galway itself. The Abu Dhabi tourist people had falcons and Formula 1 racing to show, the entertainments included a hakka display from New Zealand, and there were many elements of Portugal and France from the stops closer to home.

But here it was really most about Ireland. At a time when our tourism, food, and knowledge-based industries are key parts of the grand plan to get us out of our current misfortune, there was much to be shown to the international media here for the Ocean Race Finale.



The Innovation Hub hosted yesterday a presentation on raising capital, chaired by Dragon's Den Bobby Kerr. The Food Pavilion had a multiplicity of Ireland's best artisan food and drink, and the culinary skills of Chef Neven Maguire. And Irish fashion was high on the catwalk show of the International Design Collective introduced by Victoria Smurfit.



The official entertainments were more than matched by the hubbub on the city's main thoroughfares last night. Shop Street was thronged with people out for a bit of fun and chat, entertained by a range of busking acts. The languages and visible ethnicities showed that, for this wekend anyhow, Galway has become an international tourism destination second to none. 

It finishes today with the final in-port competition of the six World Race teams. And while the events and attractions are unbuilt next week, no doubt the organisers of the Galway finale will be wondering where to go from here. They have 'gone global' and brought the rest of Ireland's best with them. 

Now it's up to us, I guess, to keep up the momentum of recovery.

First View: Fiat 500L

Motor shows can do cars an injustice, writes Brian Byrne. Sometimes they just don't look right in the flash and hype of a dressy stand.

That's the case with the Fiat 500L, which I have just experienced briefly in the metal where any car should be, on the road.

And whereas I mentally dissed it as ugly when I first saw it at Geneva, the 500L is actually quite a handsome beast in real light on a city street.

It's the next stage of a programme of variants coming out of the 500 'brand'. And if you thought it was just a stretched version of the very successful city car, well, you're wrong.

Think of what Mini did with the Countryman. Then add more space, keep the gentle funkiness of the original car, and here's a real Italian job contender for the title of the roomiest small family car.

Marginally longer than a Punto, but substantially taller, the 500L will change a number of arguments in the sector. The most important being that you have to compromise on space and keep generally in the supermini footprint.

They say, and I found it today to be true, that you can accommodate five 6-footers comfortably in the 500L, and have enough room left for luggage for each.

They stress the airiness of the car, with great visibility all round, and in a jaunt around Turin, where you have to be able to see them cominatcha from all angles, that is also true.

They talked about 'growing up', and this is a grown-up 500, targeted to a different buyer than the swinging singles who have taken the small 500 to their hearts.

It could have been frumpy, which is what I thought at the motor show. But it isn't. The current generation has always been cool, and they claim this one is too. And they may be right, I'm thinking. A young family could consider it cool enough, with its touchscreen entertainment and communications management that will also handle Twitter and Facebook through the UConnect successor to the 'Blue and Me' that Fiat have promoted through recent years.

The dad will go for the optional high-end sound system from American brand leader Beats, and maybe also for the funkiest option yet, an espresso coffee-maker from top Italian brand LavAzza. With a special place to install it, and the specially branded cups and mugs and the coffee storage itself.

On the run through and above Turin, the 1.3 diesel version which will be the Irish market powertrain of choice trundled the 500L handily in traffic, and around hilly villages. It performed well in the kind of environment where it will be mostly used, as a family runabout. One with some charm.

No prices yet, until closer to when the 500L gets to Ireland at the end of the year. But Italians are getting it for €15,550 from now. That's a very entry level price, though—for Ireland it's likely that the diesel engine and local taxes will put the car somewhere a bit above €20,000.

And there's more from the 500 'brand' coming down the line. A crossover styling model version was sneaked by us, the 500X which will a direct competitor for the likes of the Nissan Juke and rolls out in early 2014, and there'll also be a 7-seat version by the end of next year.

More when I get to think about it. But with Fiat expecting to soon reach the millionth current generation 500 ... two thirds of sales so far are outside Italy ... extending their winning way in this manner seems a good move.

End of the world, whimpering in gridlock?

Is there a future for the motor car, asks Brian Byrne? I’m prompted to that thought from a presentation I attended recently, given by a Ford Motor Company ’futurologist’. She has a more corporate title of manager of Ford Global Trends and Futuring, but crystal ball gazing is really what Sheryl Connolly does.

Her job is to ask ’what if?’ questions and then ’write stories’ about resulting answers. There are lots of such scenarios, but in her brief they all boil down to the future of personal transportation.

Especially in a world where the number of passenger cars is forecast to go from its current one billion to 2.5 billion by 2050. Ford’s preoccupation in that scenario is how to keep them all moving.

Road Test: VW up!

When I first wrote about the Volkswagen up! it was on the basis of a relatively short experience driving it in Rome, writes Brian Byrne. Which suited it perfectly, being the small and nippy city car designed for use in the kind of environment where we're told a majority of the globe's population is expected to live in 20 years' time.

I loved it. Then too, I'm one of these drivers who absolutely loves driving in Rome. If you've been there, you know why most of my colleagues think I'm crazy in this regard.

Back here in Ireland, many of us still drive longish distances on a variety of non-city roads, from motorways to country lanes. How would the up! fit in our real world?

Chevrolet 'for everyday heroes'

Chevrolet is a brand 'for the everday hero', according to Mark Terry, MD for Chevrolet UK & Ireland. And as such, particularly in austere times, it has to be 'sensitive' about value for money and providing its customers with assurances about their purchases, writes Brian Byrne.

Which is one reason why a relaunched Chevrolet in Ireland is offering a 5-year warranty on the range just introduced through a revitalised dealer network.

The 'everyday hero' label can apply right across the age profile from the young first-time buyer through the mothers doing schol runs to older people perhaps looking to downsize their cars, and Mark Terry's strategy is to quietly target them all. He doesn't reckon on achieving instant large volumes of sales, but figures there's opportunity in a market somewhat in 'disarray'.

"Chevrolet is 101 years old and has a good, upstanding name. And there's a really good product range now, a great set of vehicles which will appeal to a new set of customers."

For the bread and butter buyer which will be the mainstay of any penetration which Chevrolet will make in Ireland, the key models are Spark, Aveo, Cruze and Orlando. But emotional strings will be pulled with the power image of the Camaro from the brand's US 'muscle car' heritage, while techies will look with interest at the Volt extended range electric car. Even if their budgets or needs don't rise to either of those.

"All of our promotion will be based on lifestyle and emotion, because for our everyday heroes their car is an emotional purchase as well as a practical one. Customers want to feel good about life, and Chevrolet is all about that."

Once the decision was taken to rebuild Chevrolet in Ireland under the direct umbrella of GM Europe, a number of housekeeping matters had to be attended to. In the first instance, appointing Tom McQueirns (above left with Mark Terry) as Country Director brought on board Irish motor industry experience going back to the 1990s, including bringing Daewoo and later Chevrolet to the Irish market.

"We also had to re-establish the network, and ten of the original Chevrolet dealers have come on board, while we're actively talking with three more. Once all that is done, we'll then see about new dealers where we don't have coverage."

Spare parts and warranty provisions have also been put in place over the recent months to cater for Chevrolet owners who bought from the previous franchise.

By the very nature of the relatively low volumes likely in the initial period of rebuilding brand awareness, Chevrolet's dealer profile is primarily in the multi-franchise outlets. But Terry is confident that, down the road, there will be solus dealerships for the brand.

"In the current climate, money for development is scarce. As the market grows, we will make investments."

Dinner under deadly war machines

So what do you do when a friend calls you and says he wants to give you a B52 bomber? writes Brian Byrne. One owner. High mileage with the Strategic Air Command from the mid-50s, followed by 200 combat bombing missions over Vietnam. Will deliver.

You think for a moment, recalls David Lee, then curator of the embryonic American Air Museum section of the Imperial War Museum at Duxford just outside Cambridge.

"Then I told him that we had 4,500 feet of runway at Duxford," David said at the UK launch of the new Chrysler 300C, held in that particular section yesterday. "And I asked him could he land it here?"

There was a longer silence at the American end of the transatlantic phone call. Then, "I'll get back to you."

Well, they did get back. And the fast forward to the end of that chapter was the arrival over Duxford of the B52 one Saturday morning in October of 1983, with the nearby M11 closed and a (just) favourable weather forecast.

"He did four trial runs, then came in and touched at the very start of the runway, and with the help of the brake 'chute he had come down to taxiing speed just at the end."



That B52 is now literally the centrepiece of a purpose built hangar at the Imperial War Museum, and looms massively against the many other planes and missiles which make up the very substantial collection of warplanes which range from a Mitchell bomber (above) through the B29 type that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima, the U2 type (below) from which Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Russia in 1960, along with a copy of the Russian missile that actually shot him down (middle below), and a Lockheed SR71 'Blackbird' (bottom below) reconnaisance plane which could travel at more than three times the speed of sound.







And when you eat the launch dinner under the massive wing of the 8-engined B52, you marvel at the engineering ability that built these extraordinary machines, and the older but no less intriguing planes from WW2.  You admire the bravery of the fighting men who flew them often to their own deaths, but you also feel strongly for those many many more who died underneath their massive destructive power, anonymous to those who pulled the levers to release their deadly loads.

The car? That's a tomorrow's story. No less a story of American engineering and innovation, but a vehicle that you can drive with a much easier conscience than in those magnificent but incredibly deadly flying machines.