I put it to you that the Proton Savvy has aged rather well for a budget car launched in 2005. You’ll notice that I’ve chosen images of the postfacelift Savvy for my defence of the Malaysian city car; the 2007 revamp tidied up the tailgate and improved the grille. I’d like to draw your attention to the central exhaust, flared arches, clamshell bonnet, kink along the window line and snazzy yellow dials as reasons to appreciate the Savvy.
As sure as night follows day and cream follows jam*, it was inevitable that the Aston Martin Cygnet would appear in the issue following the Frazer Tickford Metro. Concluding his review of the luxo Metro, Richard Heseltine said: “There is something appealing about a small car with big car luxuries and the Frazer Tickford is both of those things and more. It isn’t as though the idea was lost on Aston Martin Lagonda, either. Think of it as the forerunner of the Cygnet. And then stop thinking.
Rapid, luxurious and economical, BMW’s F06 640d M Sport Gran Coupé is also great value. Words: Guy Baker Photography: Various Sleek, elegant and purposeful, BMW’s F06 Gran Coupé looks expensive, but you can now buy a decent 640d M Sport from as little as £13,000. More balanced than the 6 Series Coupé, and much more fun than a 5 Series, the 640d is both fast and frugal. It also sounds great (for an oil burner) and handles sweetly for such a large car.
Had BMW set out to create a superior mainstream hatchback from scratch, it would surely not have made such a poor fist of it as the Compact. A serious attempt at efficient packaging would have dictated a transverse engine and front-wheel drive. Back to basics, no less. Or forward to Rover. No, the Compact is the product of commercial opportunism, not mould-breaking design. In making a pig’s ear from a silk purse, BMW is guilty of regression, not advance.
Google ‘ugly MPV’ and you’ll be presented with a stream of Fiat Multipla images. All but one of the first 15 results show the criminally under-rated and unfairly panned Italian MPV, with a rear view of the SsangYong Rodius the only thing preventing a clean sweep for the Multipla. It’s as though the designer Ken Greenley saw the Rodius as an opportunity to save the Fiat from a lifetime of derision and cheap laughs. Much like the Multipla, the SsangYong Rodius was designed from the inside out.
Even under German ownership, Škoda always felt like Volkswagen’s slightly eccentric Czech cousin. The range included dull but worthy vehicles – the kind of things driven by non-car people – but there was always an oddball or two. The likes of the Felicia Fun, Fabia vRS diesel and Yeti must have been conceived over a liquid lunch of Pilsner and debauchery. In 2006, Škoda unveiled the Joyster concept, which always sounded like something you’d find in an Ann Summers catalogue. Allegedly.