Happy new year to all of the Netcars.com blog followers and as with last year, I must apologise for the title of this blog, this will be a strictly motoring-related ‘best bits’ and nothing else. Just as soon as 2012 arrived, it left. It seems like nothing but a distant sport-filled memory sprinkled with Jubilee celebrations; quite a good year to be British I feel. But the motoring industry had its own events to celebrate and a couple of moments which tainted 2012’s record. Nonetheless, here is a whistle-stop tour of some of the most important stories and cars from the last 12 months.
Let’s get the doom and gloom out of the way and kick off with, surprise surprise, January. After its official demise in December, Saab was carved up by the receivers in the New Year. Many unsold cars were scrapped and motoring enthusiasts the world over grieved for what was quite a sad loss.
In lighter news, the beginning of the year saw the unveiling of the Honda NSX, a car I was particularly excited about given the legendary status of the previous model. Details remain fairly vague and we’ve yet to hear of any real confirmation on production.Image credit: image
March was the Geneva Motor Show, typically one of the largest and most important in the motoring calendar. The biggest story was the announcement of the European Car of the Year 2012, the Chevrolet Volt/Vauxhall Ampera, much to my disappointment. My rants about this award can be found by clicking the previous link.
Ferrari also uncovered its new F12, the replacement for the 599. This was an instant hit with everyone; Ferrari reported taking 360 deposits at the Geneva show before the 730bhp V12 was even available for a test drive, no doubt another one that will go down as one of Ferrari’s great legends, already bagging ‘Supercar of the Year 2012’ at the TopGear awards last month.Image credit: image
Somewhat unexpectedly, the A-Class on Mercedes’ stand also attracted a lot of attention; finally Mercedes are bringing the A-Class down to a level where it can compete with the A3 and 1-Series. Rumours suggest that a hardcore AMG version will be unveiled in the first quarter of this year, brace yourselves.
The news stories settled down somewhat until the summer where the pace started to gather again. The Pagani Huayra was finally given a thorough going over by the motoring press and I think it is fair to say that the consensus was ‘pretty damn good’. We’ve waited a long time for this and I’m glad the wait was worth it.Image credit: image
And of course the new Focus ST was really put through its paces to check it could live up to the high standards now set by fast Fords. The writers at TopGear were big fans instantly; the official car of the ‘chav’ retains its ‘sick’ status. Although I think the black press cars of this generation are much more appealing than the first generation ‘outrageous orange’.
As with every year, all of the above could be seen at the superb Goodwood Festival of Speed. I attended the Moving Motor Show for the second time last year and, as I’ve come to expect, it was a brilliant day out. I will admit that the Bentley stand upset me for a couple of reasons (see my previous blogs) but the rest of the day was very impressive. The new DS4 from Citroen, the make-or-break 208 from Peugeot, the gorgeous Evoque and of course a good helping of Veyrons and other rare breeds in the supercar paddock were some of the highlights.
Image credit: image
July also bought the sad news of the passing of Sergio Pininfarina, a great shame and massive loss to the motoring industry, he will be missed.
Goodwood also gave us a look at the beautiful 2013 Aston Martin Vanquish, completing what I think is one of the best looking Aston line-ups that we’ve seen for a long time. It takes the place of Bond’s DBS and is set to be a better driver’s car not to mention one of the best looking Aston’s ever made, in my opinion.
The next batch of big stories comes from September and the Paris Motor Show and let’s make no bones about it, there was one story which stole the limelight by the bucket load: yes, in a year to feel ‘truly British’, the new Range Rover has landed. It was so popular in fact that it took Autocar’s award for the ‘most clicked-on news article’ of 2012. It took the motoring press by storm and has already been considered a huge success. The previous model could give a BMW 7-Series and a Mercedes S-Class a run for their money but this model is luxurious enough and has performance figures good enough to even match the likes of the Bentley Continental GT and the Maserati Quattroporte. If there ever was a true ‘all-rounder’, I think we’ve found it. What’s more, in November, the design director at Land Rover revealed plans for 16 more new Land Rovers by 2020. Suffice it to say that all will be well at Land Rover in 2013.
Image credit: image
Another highlight from Paris was the Mk 7 Golf. I think the Golf consistently has one of the toughest jobs having to maintain such a high reputation with every re-incarnation but it would appear that it has done it once again, being branded an ‘outstanding overall package’; the tagline one has come to expect from a Golf.
The Jaguar F-Type was another Paris headline. The looks created a slightly divided opinion but there was agreement that Jaguar returning to contemporary sports-car making, in true E-Type style, after an almost 40 year absence, is only a good thing.
The McLaren P1 also made an appearance towards the end of the year and I wrote at length about my feelings on my blog a couple of months ago. See the blog post for more details; suffice it to say that the P1 walks away with ‘Disappointment of the Year 2012’ award from me.
So we reach the end of the year. One big change real-world was the decision of the European Court of Human Rights that insurance companies are not allowed to discriminate on grounds of gender when setting insurance premiums, this came into effect on the 21st December and is expected to increase female premiums but slightly lower male ones. I’m planning to do a bit of a round-up of car insurance news in the coming weeks so keep your eyes peeled.
I’d like to finish with the TopGear Car of the Year which was awarded to the Toyota GT86. Now, I’m struggling with this and any help would be much appreciated. The GT86/Subaru BRZ has been one of the most talked about cars of 2012. I’ve read all the articles and, I know people will probably shout at me for this, but I can’t help reaching the end of an article and thinking ‘so what?’. I honestly don’t get the obsession. 21.5% of Autocar readers said this was their favourite car of 2012, meaning it took 1st place. It’s also a nominee for the 2013 European Car of the Year and if you ask me, based upon the past year, I think it’s in with a very good chance of winning. But I’m afraid that I might be losing my petrolheaded-ness because I can’t work out what the big deal is. I’ve decided that I must get my hands on one to give it a drive and then maybe my questions will be answered. Nonetheless, congratulations to Toyota (and Subaru) for a very successful year.
Those are my best bits, what are yours? Comment below and share your views. Next week I’ll take a look at the cars to look forward to in 2013. Thanks for reading.