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Focusing the mind on fun ; STEVE ORME Subaru BRZ [Liverpool Echo (England)](Liverpool Echo (England) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) MANY people think there is only one motoring offence in Britain - speeding - but now it is proposed that people guilty of carelessness, road hogging and driving using a mobile phone will be able to apply for an exciting Pounds 100 fine and three-point endorsement of their talents. You may think all of these misdemeanours are already covered by the Road Traffic Act. Quite so. But when was the last time you saw someone pulled up for tailgating or hogging the middle lane? Hardly ever. There isn't a machine to measure such things so enforcement is going to be a problem. So, I predict that those of us who take pride in good driving will continue to fume and rage. As I see it, there are two remedies. One is to make it legal to shoot out, with a vermin rifle, the tyres of those driving with a phone to one ear and the other is to find something to take your mind off the annoyance. A Subaru BRZ, for instance. One of the reasons some people see no problem in driving under the influence of stupidity is that so many own nanny-state cars which will effectively make all decisions for them. The BRZ focuses the mind on driving for driving's sake. But, before we get onto what makes your entrails agitated in this coupe from a forgotten time, some provenance. Yes this is the Toyota GT86 or, rather, the GT86 is this. Toyota may have had the vision but the BRZ/GT86 is mainly a Subaru production. The only real difference is one of trim and chassis set up. The Toyota is no old maid but the BRZ is a joy. You don't so much steer as arm-wrestle it. Switch off the traction control and there is tailfeather shaking, the like of which you haven't seen since Tina Turner invented legs. This is a fundamentalist, rear-wheel-drive car with a two-litre Subaru flat-four petrol engine, a choice of sixspeed manual or auto gearbox and head-turning looks. In it, the purists will enjoy themselves to the exclusion of all outside irritations. Anyway, tailgaters can always be dispatched into the distance with some clog-craft. The BRZ may pack just 197bhp but, because it's light, can reach 62mph in under seven seconds, pushing on to a maximum likely to land you in speed trap land. Expect about 36mpg. Subaru describes the inside as 'pure'; another word is 'empty'. That's not being unkind. The clear, rev counterdominated instruments and sparse array of switchgear is quite right. It comes in SE or Lux spec, Pounds 25k or Pounds 26,495. Safety kit is outstanding on both: seven airbags, anti-whiplash headrests. Leather seats set the Lux apart, the basics include air-con, cruise, keyless entry, and Bluetooth connection, all well put together in a darkly adult, low-slung, cockpit. One note on practicality. There isn't any. The boot is a good size but the rear seats make a handy shelf. Some say the BRZ competes with Peugeot's RCZ. Not so. The RCZ is a compromise, blowsy, coupe. Whatever the Subaru is, it isn't hogging the middle of the road. DRIVE TALK Taxed onto the scrap heap? THE sky-high cost of a tax disc could soon force tens of thousands of good cars, registered since March 2006, off the road and onto the scrapheap. A study by CAP Automotive, the car running cost experts, reveals that the cost of taxing some cars which are only seven years old is now around a third of their total value. The problem stems from changes to Vehicle Excise Duty bands, which were introduced in 2006 to penalise higher CO2 vehicles. It means that cars registered since March 23 2006 with CO2 emissions between 226 and 255g/km now cost Pounds 475 to tax, while cars that emit more than 255g/km cost Pounds 490 a year. And in the case of a 2006 Renault Laguna 3.0V6 Initiale Auto, that represents almost 35% of the car's trade-in value, which CAP puts at Pounds 1,375. The danger now, according to CAP, is that such cars could rapidly become worthless in the trade, even though they cause relatively little pollution, because older, less economical vehicles tend to be driven less. CAP believes that lowering VED rates for the top 2 CO2 brackets after a certain age would prevent the scrapping of well-maintained vehicles with many years of serviceable life remaining. CAP's car running costs expert Mark Norman said: "We are now in the crazy situation where perfectly good cars have become uneconomical to own because the cost of taxing them could soon approach half their car's value. "This means more and more cars will become unsaleable and will have to be scrapped long before the end of their useful life. "The Government should now consider lowering VED rates for cars that fall into the brackets L and M after a certain age. This would prevent this potential waste of vehicles that do relatively little harm to the environment but provide cheap and comfortable transport for thousands of hard-pressed motorists in austerity Britain." DRIVE TALK Budget brands scoop Tow Car titles SO you think you need a lumbering, large, four-by-four for towing your caravan? Results of the latest Tow Car Awards prove otherwise - in fact, the winners named this week show that some of Britain's best value family cars can more than hold their own with a caravan or trailer hitched-up behind them. Two of the top awards in the 2013 contest have gone to budget brands which caravan and trailer owners may have never even considered a few years ago. The results of this year's competition, run by The Camping and Caravanning Club in conjunction with Practical Caravan and What Car? magazines, prove that smaller, lighter and more economical cars also make great tow cars. Overall winner of the 2013 Tow Car of the Year award was the new Skoda Octavia family hatchback, while the humble Kia Rio 1.4 CRDi was named as the Best Ultra-Light Tow Car on the market. It proves you don't need a hefty 4x4 for towing, as long as the trailer's weight is always sensibly in proportion to the car, say the organisers. Two other compact and affordable cars also proved to be winning tow cars. The competition's Green Award was won by the Honda Civic 1.6 i- DTEC ES, which scored highly for its excellent fuel economy and stable towing, and the low-cost Dacia Duster dCi 110 Ambiance was chosen as the Best Budget 4x4. But just to prove that you can't keep a good mudplugger down, the Land Rover Discovery 4 3.0 SDV6 won the heavyweight class for the fourth time on the trot and is, according to the organisers, the ultimate, tow-anything car. Other class-winners from the 46 models tested include the new Mazda 6 Sport saloon, the Volkswagen Passat Estate 2.0 TDI BlueMotion Technology - its third consecutive class win - and the luxury Jaguar XF 3.0 V6 diesel, which took a class win for the second year in a row, this time with the new Sportbrake model. (c) 2013 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |