Modern Cars – Some Misplaced Concepts in New Designs

China is storming the world with its EVs and PHEVs. There are rave reviews about their comfort and performance. I have sat in several of them, but I have yet to drive one myself. My son-in-law, who is in the petrol pump business, understandably does not prioritize buying an EV.

However, he finally bought two: a Lexus LBX hybrid for the family to use and a Fiat Abarth, which is totally EV, for Monica.

Certainly sexy, but can be silly 

We do not give high scores to either. In the case of the Lexus LBX, my grandson was once locked inside the car when the battery failed. And I still cannot understand why you need to pull the door lever twice to open it. Imagine if it is an emergency and the car is new to you! It is undeniably a small car, but anyone with a normal pair of legs will find the rear legroom absolutely torturing!

As for the Abarth, I can only conclude that it is very much a toy. Its range is only about 250km. Two things are particularly annoying: first, there is no gear stick; you have to bend over to press the buttons below the middle of the dashboard to engage D, N, R, or P. Just imagine how flustered you can be when you are trying to change course at a busy junction. The positioning does not allow you to operate these gears intuitively, as we do with normal systems. You literally have to look at the panel to make the change! And unless you are buckled up, you cannot move the car at all. Imagine the inconvenience when you need to move the car just a few feet momentarily.

All this brings me to a memory from years ago. The first car I bought when I joined the workforce was a Toyota Corolla. It cost me around MYR 6,600 then. It was all I could afford on hire-purchase terms. One day, a university mate who happened to be visiting my brother-in-law (who lived next door) decided to drop by my place. He saw my car, gave its tyre a kick, and scornfully remarked, "Japanese car." It's an incident I have remembered all my life.

He was an Esso scholar and was employed by the company after graduating. I worked for MIDA (then FIDA), earning a salary of MYR 1,040 per month, which was not too bad by the standards of the day.

(Interestingly, I had also been offered a job by Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore at a salary of SGD 750—back when the MYR and SGD were at parity. I declined the offer, perhaps shortsightedly, for reasons that seemed sensible at the time.)

But Esso paid much more—something like MYR 2,500 per month, almost double mine. He, like my brother-in-law (also an Esso scholar and then a colleague at the company), had picked up a Fiat 127 (or a Fiat 128, I cannot quite recall) instead. The car cost a couple of hundred ringgit more, maybe around MYR 7,300.

Certainly, Fiat was then considered a step above Toyota. Hence, his scorn at his poor university mate's affordability.

But Fiat today is no longer the Fiat of yesteryear. Today, the Fiat brand, along with many other famous Italian and international marques, is part of a massive corporation called Stellantis. Stellantis was formed in 2021 from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group.

The list of car brands currently under the same corporate umbrella is extensive. Based on Stellantis's official brand portfolio, here are some of the other Italian and international brands you might be thinking of:

• Italian Brands: Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and Lancia are all part of the Stellantis group today. Abarth, Fiat's performance sub-brand, is also included.
• International Brands: The group also owns major American (Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram), French (Citroën, Peugeot, DS Automobiles), and German (Opel) brands, among others.

Ferrari's history is also deeply intertwined with Fiat. Fiat began buying into Ferrari in 1969 and eventually held a 90% stake. However, this is no longer the case. In 2016, Fiat spun off Ferrari, and the company became an independent, publicly traded entity on the stock market.

Today, while no longer owned by Fiat, Ferrari's ownership still has an Italian flavour:

• The largest single shareholder is Exor N.V., an investment company controlled by the Agnelli family, the founders of Fiat.
• Piero Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari's son, also retains a significant personal stake.
• The majority of the company is owned by public shareholders.

But while the Chinese are making huge progress in EV and PHEV technology, the experience I had with the Abarth tells me that some designers are not wearing their thinking caps anymore. Ditto Toyota with its Lexus LBX.

I use a Mercedes-Benz C200. Its gear selector lever is on the right side of the steering wheel. When I first used it, I often found myself instinctively reaching for it whenever I wanted to signal a turn. Each time I accidentally knocked it into reverse for left turns, I would worry that I had just damaged the gearbox. It wasn't until I learned about the electronic safety lockout that my anxiety faded; the system is apparently programmed to simply ignore the command if the car is moving forward. Maybe Fiat is trying to introduce a new concept? Well, common sense tells me that sounds like a rather silly idea."

Nonetheless, while despite their prices, Chinese makes are generally great in terms of features, luxury and performance, I am still not entirely comfortable with the loudness of their styling and the flamboyance of their names. But this is largely a matter of personal taste and opinion.

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