Please don't screw this one up!

I'm getting the chance over this holiday Wednesday (sounds weird to say that) to reacquaint myself with the Ford Fiesta, a car I liked a lot during the European preview last year.

Sharp-eyed viewers can see the Ontario dealers' plate on the back - this is a European Fiesta that Ford of Canada has brought in for evaluation purposes, and they loaned it to me for a few days.

Fiesta is not destined for Canadian Ford showrooms until the 2011 model year, but it cannot come too quickly as far as I'm concerned.

It is simply a terrific little car.

Ford has an excellent reputation for vehicle dynamics - in Europe, if not necessarily here.

This reputation was made by cars like this Fiesta.

It rides beautifully - smooth, supple, neither floaty nor harsh.

The steering is light yet ultra-precise, and it handles like a champ.

Even with a small-by-our-standards 1.6 litre four cylinder engine, performance is acceptably brisk, thanks in part to a crisp-shifting five-speed manual gearbox.

How can Ford miss with this little gem?

Well, those of us old enough to remember Ford's previous attempts to bring in their European product are worried. My brother had a 1948 British-built Ford Prefect, fer cryin' out loud. My cousin had an also-British 1955 Consul. When I was a summer student in Noranda Quebec my best bud drove us around in his Mom's cool-if-also-British Zephyr convertible.

Then there was the original Fiesta. It was replaced by the first Escort. The Concrete/Mistake (sorry: Contour/Mystique). The Merkur XR4Ti. The Scorpio. And the current Focus which, once they got around to building it properly, was a pretty good little car until they mushed it up for the most recent version.

All of these were terrific in Europe.

None of them was worth the powder to blow them to hell when they brought them over here.

So I just hope they don't screw up the Fiesta too.

The two most likely sources of screw-up are the suspension (PLEASE don't make it all fat-assed North American mushy on us) and interior trim quality (the whole theme of the European car is that it looks, feels and is equipped like several classes more expensive than it is; I just hope Ford can find American, Canadian and/or Mexican suppliers - our Fiestas will be assembled in Mexico - who can match the level of quality in this test car I have here.)

Not that I wouldn't welcome a few changes. The centre stack on the European car (shown here) is unnecessarily complicated and unintuitive to use. The right-side steering column stalk for wipers is also non-conventional - pulling the lever towards the wheel in most cars activates the windshield washers; in the Fiesta it switches on the rear wiper.

But these are minor issues.

Again Ford, please - DON'T SCREW THIS ONE UP.

As the World's Guiding Light Turns at General Hospital

Facing sales decreases in the thirty percent range world-wide, Porsche appears destined to have its request to borrow 1.5 billion-with-a-b euros (nearly three billion-with-a-b Canadian dollars) from a German state-controlled bank denied.

The money is needed to pay off the sports car company’s dramatic purchase of over half of Volkswagen shares last fall.

Funny thing - the sellers expected to be paid…

Porsche is in negotiations with the Qatar Investment Authority which could see the Middle Eastern government-run financial institution acquire up to twenty-five percent of the heretofore family-owned sports car maker.

Daimler-Benz has also been mentioned as a possible investor - even a purchaser - although both sides describe that as mere ‘speculation’.

It’s all part of the on-going feud between various branches of the Porsche family, and whether Porsche will end up as VW’s tenth brand, or the small Porsche tail will wag the much larger VW dog.

There’s surely a TV Soap Opera show in here somewhere.

Two down...

Number Two daughter got married Saturday.

Everything went spectacularly, especially the weather. Thank you Weather Goddess, wherever you are!

Guess today was a day of rest for her too, because it was pouring most of the day where I was.

I know I've harped on this before, but I wish there was some way I could pull drivers over and just ask them:

"Notice how difficult it is to see the other cars, what with all the rain and road spray?

"Wouldn't it be a lot easier to see them if only they had their taillights on?

"SO WHY THE FRICK DON'T YOU HAVE YOURS ON??!?"

Not one car in ten bothered.

In New York State and some other jurisdictions, it is mandatory to switch on your headlights whenever the wipers are operating. Of course, they don't have mandatory Daytime Running Lights down there; up here I'm dead-nuts certain that many car owners don't know that DRL does not switch on the taillights which, especially in highway driving in the rain are probably more important than the headlights.

Drives me nuts.

The solution - just switch on all your lights, all the time.

Simple.

Safe.

Keep me sane.

Ain't the Internet wonderful?

I met Anatoly Fomin yesterday.

The automotive journalist from Moscow and I were sharing a shuttle at a BMW event in Marseille France.

He said, "Ah, The Toronto Star! I read Wheels on the Internet! I remember your story on the Chinese battery-powered cars at Detroit this year. I was at that show too."

As much as I love newspapers, the chances of Anatoly ever picking up a print edition of Wheels in Moscow are pretty slim...

Alanis Morissette would surely appreciate the irony

So there I was, driving along a regional road near my home today.

Nice Aqua Marine Blue Porsche Cayman.

More-or-less at the speed limit - at the very least, with the flow of traffic.

I saw a local police cruiser parked on the opposite shoulder, obviously on radar patrol.

As you would, I flashed my high beams to warn other traffic. All in the name of assisting the police in their drive to slow people down, of course.

I guess I should have spotted that the very first car approaching me was a dark gray Ford Crown Victoria.

Sure enough. The windshield-level gumballs flashed on. The big U-Turn. And there we were, parked at the side of the road.

Having gone through a court case with Motoring 2009 host Brad Diamond earlier this year on exactly this issue, I knew there was no Highway Traffic Act prohibition against warning other drivers about radar traps.

However, as Crosby Stills and Nash sang, nothing increases your paranoia like looking in the mirror and seeing a PO-lice car.

I did have my car shut off (no idling; no pollution); my four-ways on; my licence already out the driver's side window.

The conversation went something like this:

"Do you know why I pulled you over?"

"Possibly because I flashed my lights to warn motorists about the radar trap?" I volunteered.

"Well, I might have wanted to make sure you weren't in trouble or anything."

"I'm not, am I? Because there is no Highway Traffic Act prohibition against warning people about radar traps."

I knew I was on pretty firm footing here!

"Well, we are trying to do our job and it might be construed as 'obstructing justice'."

"You know that would never fly! Besides, you're trying to slow people down and that's what flashing my headlights is doing too. We're on the same side here!"

Fortunately, the officer was still smiling.

"Do I recognize you?"

"Um, maybe. I write about cars for the Toronto Star and appear on Motoring 2009 on TSN. That's how I know about flashing high beams and radar traps - the TV show's host was charged with that and we got it thrown out of court earlier this year."

"Well, we are working this road because we get people going 30 - 40 over the limit."

(The limit on this stretch of road is 60 km/h; this was neither the time, the place, nor, frankly, the audience, to discuss building roads that are capable of 80 km/h or more, then assigning a lower limit to them. Want to slow people down? Put one-meter wide and 10 cm deep ditches across the road every 50 metres. Nothing else is going to do it.)

"And we like to be able not to just catch speeders, but talk to them, remind them that this speed is not acceptable along here. Also, it's not like we were hiding the cruiser - it is in plain view. If people don't see it, they aren't paying much attention."

"Can't argue with you there. During the fight against photo radar - Mike Harris once told me personally that I was responsible for getting him elected because he pretty much campaigned on that issue, and I have apologized to the province on more than one occasion since - the only valid argument I ever heard in favour of it was if you couldn't see the van parked at the side of the road, you deserved a ticket."

"Yeah, I didn't like photo radar either because it didn't allow us the chance to actually talk to the drivers; there was no educational component to it."

"Still, when it comes to flashing high beams, you can't really charge people with doing something that isn't illegal!"

My licence was returned with a friendly smile.

"Have a nice day!"

"You too, officer."

I have tried not to identify the officer in any way here because I don't want to get anyone in trouble - no ticket was issued.

But this is how all police-citizen interactions should go...

The Swedes stick together

Swedish ultra-supercar maker Koenigsegg has agreed to purchase what remains of SAAB, Sweden's 'other' car maker (other than Volvo).

It's really pretty difficult to see how this will help SAAB.

To survive in the car game as a so-called 'volume' car maker, you have to sell at least 200,000 units per year to amortize the fixed costs of developing and producing a car.

And you have to do that for five, six, seven years.

If you have a strong enough brand identity, like Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce or Bentley, you might get away with selling in the low-single-thousands of cars per year, because you can command high enough prices that your big margins make up for the low volume.

SAAB sold less than 100,000 cars world-wide last year, and is trending 'way worse than that so far this year.

The problem with SAAB is that their cars have traditionally been a bit quirky - sometimes mondo quirky - so they don't have wide-spread appeal.

But if you make them less quirky to expand your marketing horizons, first, they lose the appeal they had to the traditional SAAB owner, and second, they begin to look too much like BMWs, Audis or Mercedes-Benzes. Why would you not just buy one of those?

When GM first bought half of SAAB (they subsequently bought it all), they had just lost out on the bidding for Jaguar (which went to Ford). It seems GM was so intent on buying a luxury European brand that they rushed into the SAAB deal without, apparently, having a clear idea of what to do with it.

They essentially tried the "less quirky" strategy, basing the cars on mid-size Opel platforms from their Germany-based subsidiary. They weren't bad cars at all, and it did give GM a way to get some of that good technology to our shores.

But they could never really establish what the brand stood for (the acronym stands for 'Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget', Swedish for 'Swedish Airplane Company Limited' - it began as an aircraft manufacturing operation, and there still is an aviation division which is not part of this deal).

So, now Koenigsegg takes its shot. They are no strangers to low production volumes - the company made a grand total of 18 cars last year, among them the fastest (395 km/h) car in the world.

Now, SAAB sales may be trending in that direction, but they have a way to go.

Still, it is very difficult to see how whatever skill set Koenigsegg has can be helpful in establishing SAAB as a profitable volume car maker.

As always, time will tell.

Road carnage a world-wide issue

A report from the World Health Organization says that 1.3 million people are killed and between 20 and 50 million injured on roads world-wide every year.

About half of those are not in cars, but are considered 'vulnerable' road users - pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

The problem is disproportionally worse in low-income or developing countries. The study points out that many of these countries do not have laws mandating seat belt or motorcycle helmet use, or effective enforcement of impaired driving laws.

This aspect of the report will come as no surprise to Professor John Adams of the University of London, an expert on risk analysis. Professor Adams has long maintained that the only factor which correlates to traffic casualties in a given country is how long that country has been motorized.

You'd think that the laws mentioned above would have an impact - without question, Canada showed a dramatic drop in traffic deaths when we implemented (and effectively enforced) seat belt legislation in 1976.

Prof. Adams suggests that it is not the laws themselves but the fact that society has come to grips with the fact that it is a big enough problem to require the legislation.

I can't imagine any country attempting to do a double-blind statistical study on whether or not this is true.

With the world getting all excited over a relative handful of deaths from various influenza strains, maybe this report will help us focus on what really matters.

Meanwhile, always wear your seat belt.

To view the entire WHO report, visit:

http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2009/en/index.html

Question on leasing?

Got an e-mail from a reader the other day about his lease.

It's coming due shortly, and he is debating whether to buy out the car for the pre-determined amount - a bit less than half the original MSRP - or walk away.

He loves the car - 2007 Hyundai Sonata, low km, great condition.

But he is wondering if he might be able to arrange a lower buy-out price from the dealer.

I do know three things:

1. If the current market value of the car is lower than the buy-out price, why wouldn't he walk away, then come back in the next day and buy the car for less?

2. Everything is negotiable, especially these days. He has no obligation to buy the car at that or any price.

2. While Hyundai has been doing better than most, dealers should be doing whatever they can to keep a happy customer happy - again, especially these days.

Anyone out there got any knowledge or experience to bear on something like this?

The Indy Race is back!!

Q: What do the SkyDome and the Molson Indy have in common?

A: Everybody refers to them under their old names.

SkyDome of course is now the Rogers Centre - nobody who doesn’t work for the company ever calls it that.

And that Indy Car race is now sponsored by Honda, so it’s the Honda Indy Toronto.

Yep, after an absence of a year due to the merger of the old Champ Car/CART series and the IRL, what used to be one of Toronto’s major summertime events is back, scheduled for July 11.

An old racing partner of mine, David White, is so excited about this he decided to organize a party to kick off the week. It will be held exactly one week previous, Sunday July 5, at the fabulous Hugh’s Room on Roncesvalles.

Part of Dave’s motivation is to highlight the racing successes of his son Matt. Dave was no mean racer in his own day, but the sprog has surpassed the old man, having won the Formula Ford championship two years running. He had won all his races this year too, up until last weekend when he hit a flock of seagulls and finished second.

Dave Winfield anyone?

Matt is running a Porsche in one of the preliminary races at the Honda Indy.

Maj.-Gen. (Ret.) Lewis Mackenzie, former commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Bosnia, will also be on hand. Lew joined the army in the first place so he could afford to buy a race car; since his retirement he has got back into competition, having won a couple of racing championships himself, plus a class win at the Targa Newfoundland.

Stand-up comic Leanne Mladen will add her brand of, um, ‘racy’ comedy.

For your dancing pleasure, Dave has asked ‘The Compleat Works on their Mid-Life Crisis Tour’ to jam for a couple of sets. TCWotMLCT plays the best music ever written - ‘60s to ‘70’s rock ‘n’ roll. Their marketing slogan: “They Weren’t Oldies When We Started Playing Them…”.

"We"? Yes - fair warning: I am in this band, so feel free to bring your own rotten vegetables for tossing. To keep The Star’s ombud’s shorts from getting into a twist, I am not being paid for this gig.

You may also think you recognize our keyboard player - Tim Elia looks more like Bobby Rahal than Bobby Rahal does.

The Compleat Works also offers you the chance at Canadian Idol stardom without having Simon Cowell or Mitsu laugh at you - LIVE KARAOKE!

Want to sing along with a real band? Here's your chance. If it's a reasonably well-known rock tune from that era, The Compleat Works either knows it or can fake it (that's what the bass player does all the time anyway).

OK, your friends will laugh at you, but what are friends for?

Check out the Hugh’s Room web site www.hughsroom.com for directions and details.

Come on down and have some fun, and welcome the Indy back to Toronto!

BMW Affers a World Premier in the Royal York Hotel

A gaggle of Canadian automotive journalists got a world premier Friday, with the unveiling of the BMW 550i Gran Turismo at a lunch meeting with new BMW Canada president Franz Jung.

It was look-but-don't-drive, and in return for being given permission to debut the car here, BMW Canada had to promise Head Office that we couldn't take our own pictures.

Not sure what difference that would make, but those shown here obviously weren't taken inside the Royal York Hotel.

The Gran Turismo is at once a new model, and a precursor to the new 5 Series which is scheduled to debut in 2011.

As the Gran Turismo ('Grand Touring') label implies, the car is intended to be the ideal car for long distance travel, with performance, luxury and carrying capacity.

When I saw a photo of the rear three-quarters view, my first thought was, "X6". Not a compliment, incidentally.

But the Gran Turismo looks a lot better in the flesh / metal than in pictures.

The Gran Turismo is a hatchback, but possibly a hatchback that even Americans might love.

Because the most unique aspect of the car is the dual-function tailgate. Perhaps a little like the separately-opening rear window in some station wagons (I think the original Ford Taurus claims credit for this) the Gran Turismo has a fully-opening tailgate, yet the vertical metal section below the rear glass can also open, giving access to the 'trunk'.

In this mode, the cargo hold is completely sealed from the passenger compartment, reducing or possibly eliminating the noise that can be transferred into the cabin in some hatches.

The rear seat back is a 40 - 20 - 40 split, or all segments can be folded to create a flat floor with about as much total volume as an X5.

Elsewhere, the new front end has a more prominent and more vertical twin-kidney grille. Various character lines highlight the 'power dome' motif on the hood. Expect these details to grace all 5 Series when that line arrives late next year.

Mechanically, the new 5 Series follows BMW's increasing blurriness between marketing descriptions and technical componentry; it will be based on the new 7 Series architecture.

The Gran Turismo will initially be offered as a 550i, with the 400 horsepower twin-turbo 4.4 litre V8 already used in the 750 and X6, and an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission. Other engines will follow.

In each case the Gran Turismo will be positioned (read: priced) above the corresponding 5 Series sedan model. BMW Canada isn't saying how much above, but that it wouldn't be as high as ten grand. I’d guess maybe $4,000 to $5,000.

BMW feels the intended customer will be someone who may be a 5 Series customer, but wants to move up a little in size, luxury and, especially, functionality, without going the SUV route.

With SUVs becoming less politically correct, a happenstance I have been praying for for two decades now, the time might just be ripe for a car like this.