Articles by Paul Pottinger

One million things on four wheels were sold for the first time in a calendar year during 2007, proving that, despite the worst efforts of the RTA

Not so long ago, there was rarely a car worthy of the term 'hot hatch.' Now there's a score of them, so many and of such varying size and abilities that new nomenclature could be coined.I mean, can Ford's $25K Fiesta XR4 (a car that makes droning old men feel young again), Volkswagen's $40K Golf GTI and BMW's near $70K 130i be said to belong to the same genre? All are routinely referred to as hot hatches but their disparity only begins at the price tag.Peugeot's 207 GT is a quick and nimble three door that slots nicely into what the Poms call the super mini class, a space in which the XR4, VW's Polo GTI and Mini might be parked.Indeed, the Pug shares the BMW/PSA 1.6-litre direct injection turbo engine that provides the newer Mini with a welcome bottom-end kick over its super-charged predecessor.Unlike most of these, the GT's $31,490 price tag doesn't buy you the full go. That will come shortly in the form of the 207 GTi A (the lower-case letter signifying a further performance lift).Still, the penultimate 207 has ample charms of its own. Like all such cars, it has grown in dimensions and displacement in recent generations to the point where it now tips the scales at 1376kg, 160kg more than the base 207.The extra pounds bring with them a five-star crash safety rating, something no big Australian car can achieve.The blown 1.6 reaches a maximum 110kW high in the rev range, but taps all its 240Nm from a low 1400rpm. Electronic recalibration will see the GTi extract more of both from the same near-lagless engine (as per Mini's Cooper S), but the GT's 0-100km/h sprint time of 8.1 seconds isn't tardy.In fact, it's rather handy, feeling quicker in the process than indicated by the official stopwatch. The claimed consumption of 95 RON figure of 7.0 litres per 100km is achievable.A reviewer from another publication felt the GT unworthy of the premium over the base petrol model 207. Yes, they might look the same and share much of the same stuff, but you'd need to be clinically comatose not to derive some satisfaction from the warmer gadget. Immediate torque access is married to agility and assuredness through corners that reminds you why grown men continue to gravitate to a class of car once considered the preserve of racing boys.Into your first sweeper, the electrically power-assisted steering necessitates several re-adjustments. The more you play with it, though, the more you'll appreciate the manner in which the weighting changes with cornering force while remaining fingertip friendly in the urban crawl.What defies familiarity is the shift action of the five-speed manual. It's awful: a rubbery, long-throw stick and ill-defined gates.Whether you can live with the Pug is largely a question of how you find it on the nation's worst roads. A typical Sydney goat track makes the GT's ride feel plenty busy, a mid-corner pothole on one of our wonderful B-roads can quicken the pulse.But that's the compromise inherent in such a car. Elsewhere, especially within, the GT's a comfortably appointed Euro whose general ambience and finish is an appreciable improvement on Pugs of yore.Our six-year-old back-seat tester was comfortable in her booster seat behind a long legged adult. And — object lesson to makers of bigger hatches — that 270-litre boot contains a full-size 17-inch spare tyre.As to the glass roof, well they're a popular fixture, though on the only sunny day during our acquaintance, one felt what it is to be cooking in a coq au vin. As with the 207's singular shape, this item is cute rather than convincing.Capable rather than outstanding, the GT occupies middle ground. You'll always be conscious that there's stuff just as good for less money — or better for marginally more. 

There's a pattern forming here. Two years ago, almost to the day, we extended our sympathies to all who had recently bought a BMW 530i.At that point, two years into the life cycle of the E60 5 Series, the fine 170kW 3.0-inline six that had been carried over from the E39 was chucked for an even better unit.The all-new magnesium-aluminium composite unit was good for 190kW at 6600rpm with peak torque remaining 300Nm between 2500 and 4000rpm.Well, wouldn't you know it, 24 months down the line mainstay 530i sedan (and wagon variant) gets another 10 kilowatts and 15 extra Newton metres for a 200kW/315Nm total.Seldom has the wisdom of awaiting a model cycle's mid-life before signing the lease been so crystalline. Not that there's anything new in that notion. As to what's new within the 530i, two innovations vie for the most welcome.First seen in the X5 SUV, the new six-speed automatic transmission is claimed to have 40 per cent faster reaction times and swifter gearshifts. This is controlled  not by a conventional gearstick but an electronic selector lever.This follows the usual shift pattern, but returns to its initial position once the gear selected is in mesh. Smarter yet, the transmission itself is masterminded not by the usual mechanical process, but via electrical signals.To fully appreciate its efficacy, you'd really want to run it alongside the just-superseded 530i with its already excellent six-speed ZF auto set up. Suffice to say, it's seamless. And 'sad' to say it also works so slickly in manual mode that another nail has been hammered into the coffin of the conventional manual.The revised 530i reaches 100km/h from standing one-tenth quicker at 6.6 seconds (fast feats are augmented by revised Dynamic Stability Control with extra brake functions to battle fade and wet weather).And it does so for the same combined fuel claim as before, 9.3 litres per 100km.The other innovation adds desperately needed facility to the enigma that is the i-Drive multi-media system.Also foreshadowed in the X5, this version of i-Drive receives favourite buttons so that preferred functions — be they audio, navigational or telephonic — can be activated by fingertip rather than via the distracting fiddling required to enter and operate this supremely geekish and pointlessly complex system.The E60's cockpit-rather-than-cabin interior has earned it as many gripes as the body styling.Chrome finish on the controls, padding on the door armrests and twin-tone panels address ambience rather than essence, though with the slightly bigger door pockets and a niche to stow your mobile, you've finally got adequate oddment storage.Upholstery and trim options are numerous and such wood grain options as these include are mercifully low-key.While BMW is among the few marquees that bother placing the handbrake for right-hand-drive, the wipers on our car stayed in Europe — they're supposed to go flush against the driver's side of the windshield.Outward embellishments run to mild modifications of the double kidney grille, new tech glass over the lights and LED blinkers, plus an extra light contour on the sills.The options list now includes lane change warning system ($1200), thermal imaging night vision ($4000), active cruise control ($4500) and high-end audio (up to $4000) on top of the up-front $113,500 plus on-roads.The range starts at $84,900 with the 523i sedan with its 130kW 2.5 inline six, up to $231,500 for the weapons-grade V10-powered M5.The 530i remains the 'volume seller' if such a term can be used in this segment and with reason.CARSguide secured the first Australian drive of the revised series, selecting a sedan for a 320km solo test loop from outer Melbourne through rural Victoria to Lake Eildon and circuitously to Tullamarine.If this little jaunt failed to fling us any surprises, it served as a timely clarity reinforcer.If this segment has never been so competitive, then no other entrant will so flatter your driving as a 5 Series.If cruising is effortless, B-road hustling and rapid overtaking are almost too easy.The speed readout on that heads-up display, the item from the optional $2500 Professional Pack that comes closest to being indispensable, seldom seems to have any relation to reality.A brilliantly sorted car, the 530i just doesn't seem to be working hard especially when it is.Tuned less rigidly than a $4000 M-Sport variant (the standard 17-inch tyres are rubber enough, especially when the rubber is of the run flat variety), the 5 remains by some way the most dynamically adroit in its class.It's about time we developed shorthand for handling verities that stem from 50:50 weight distribution and rear-wheel-drive. We're almost as sick of writing them in full as you are of reading them.But these are always there, despite steering that wants for weight to complement its accuracy. The other perennial is price.As ever, as with every BMW, the 530i costs too bloody much. But while sales have taken a hit this year, it's not because of the asking price.They can get away with charging this sort of loot because when it comes to what happens when you get behind the wheel.

Don't you just hate the aphorism “you can have too much of a good thing” — a propaganda line espoused by the few who have it and aren't especially keen on sharing it.Yet with Volkswagen's Golf R32, it has a certain, highly irritating, ring of truth.The question most frequently asked of this uber-hatch since it arrived locally in mid-2006 would be: is it worth the extra whack over the Golf GTI?This should be a no-brainer. On paper, the R32's rorty, direct-injection V6 and all-wheel drive make it a runaway champion in such a comparison.Except, of course, the GTI boasts a marvellous, direct-injection turbo four and has provided the benchmark for the burgeoning hot-hatch brigade in how to do front-wheel drive.Burdened by the 170 extra kilograms that come with its more sophisticated drive train, the R32's performance advantage is so marginal in most circumstances that its $13K or so premium becomes questionable.Then there's the matter of the GTI's almost polymathic aptitude and its less tangible (but very real) sense of tradition and cachet.Purists can be pleased that the R32 is, at long last, available with the same slick, six-speed manual transmission that graces the GTI.Freed from the artificial constraints built into the manual-matic Direct Shift Gearbox — the sole option until now — an R32 can be revved to, and held at, redline. Never mind that DSG is fractionally faster, the manual R32 can be exploited as a performance hatch is intended.Even if the 3.2 FSI V6 doesn't go as hard as it ought at the top end as it gets to 100km/h in a claimed 6.5 seconds, it's a hugely capable and tractable device.Where you'd normally be looking for lower gears on a B-road, fourth and even fifth suffice to keep the momentum up in this 1.5-tonner.The feel through that GTI-derived steering wheel (the best you'll find in anything beneath exotic money) isn't the equal of the ostensibly lesser Golf. It's vague just off centre, and loads up less evenly.Dynamically, though, the 4Motion all-wheel-drive system promotes this hatch to a league above the bum-draggers.The Haldex multi-plate clutch apportions up to 100 per cent of available torque to either axle as required.Even with the ESP switched off, the R32 is almost impossible to upset, providing acres of play room before front-end push becomes an issue. Provocation makes for some squealing from its ultra-grippy, 18-inch tyres, but for the main part, the R32 simply refuses to be moved from your chosen course, an upright and clinically efficient cornerer.Should things somehow all go awry, the stoppers have real power, if a degree too much grabbiness through the pedal.The trade-off for such shoes is excessive noise over the coarse-chip crap that passes for road surfaces in this part of the country. Deal with it.Visually, the R32 strikes as many false notes as true: it's anonymous in certain respects, too obvious in others.The Jetta-like silver grille is less distinctive than the GTI's honeycomb, whereas the fat exhaust pipes jut awkwardly from slightly to each side of centre.Metallic blue, which has become the signature colour for the model, best becomes the R32. In most other hues, it's just another Golf.Divergent design takes continue within. Lurid, faux-steel inserts are incongruous in the otherwise typically VW dark leather interior.From $55K for the three-door manual, the R32 sits well under the comparable Audi A3, and is car enough to throw a real scare into BMW's 130i. To that extent, it's exceptional value and a package sure to please.But another rival comes in the form of the model that bears the same double-consonant badge — one that's less than a second slower to the tonne and is an equally, if not more, engaging drive in most circumstances.The R32-vs-GTI thing remains not so much a case of less being more as such, but of the latter being more than enough.