My cheerfulness tonight - 28 January 2025

Motoring Podcast - News Show

FOLLOW UP: GOVERNMENT INTERVENES OVER FINANCE SCANDAL

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has written to the Supreme Court to ask them to not penalise car dealers and finance companies too much, for breaking common law. To read more, click this AMOnline article link here. For more context on how we are at this point, click this link here, from The Conversation.

FOLLOW UP: WESTERN AND CHINESE EV MAKERS TAKE EU TO COURT

BMW and Tesla has joined with BYD, SAIC and Geely to challenge the tariffs imposed on EVs made in China that are brought to Europe. They are arguing that the rates imposed are unfair. If you wish to read further on this, click this AMOnline link here.

FOLLOW UP: NHTSA BLUECRUISE INVESTIGATION SHOCKS

The investigation into Ford’s hands-off eyes-on driving system, called BlueCruise, by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US, has found that the system does not detect stationary vehicles when the car is going over 62mph. This has been implemented to try and prevent false positives being sensed and thus “phantom braking”. Click this Autoevolution article link for more.

FOLLOW UP: GOVERNMENT BACKS GREATER MANCHESTER PLANS

The UK Government has assessed and approved the proposed plans from Greater Manchester, to reduce the amount of nitrogen dioxide in the air. This will take place without the need to charge drivers for a Clean Air Zone, as so many other cities have chosen. If you would like to learn more, click this article link from BBC News, here.

VW GROUP DITCHES AGENCY MODEL FOR EVS

In the UK, the Volkswagen Group will end its use of the agency model, where they sell directly to customers, for their electric vehicles. They are the latest in a number of companies to make this move. Click this Auto Retail Agenda article to read more.

SUBARU HACKED

Ethical hackers found a vulnerability in Subaru’s StarLink connected service that allowed them to access incredible amounts of data and even control some functions of cars remotely. This has now been patched and we have only found out after the fix was deployed by Subaru. If you want to learn more, click this link to Sam Curry’s post detailing what he did and found.

WAYMO HACKED

Jane Manchun Wong, a security researcher, found a hidden element of the Waymo app that allowed her to change what the top dome, on the roof of their vehicles, displayed. Waymo have now closed this off to ‘normal users’. If you want to learn more, click this TechCrunch article link here.

MANY THINGS HACKED

Pwn2Own Automotive 2025 took place over three days last week and found 49 unknown vulnerabilities in software for head units and EV chargers, including Tesla’s own wall charger. On top of which, some known vulnerabilities were exploited again as companies has not fixed them since being alerted to them previously. To learn more, click this BleepingComputer article link here.

JLR INVESTS IN BESPOKE OFFERINGS

JLR is investing £65 million in Castle Bromwich and Nitra, Slovakia plants, to enable them to offer more bespoke paint options to customers. The company states more Range Rover owners are requesting more personalised options. Click this BBC News article link here, for more.

JLR INVESTS IN RARE EARTH RECYCLING COMPANY

Cyclic Materials, a Canadian company that plans to commercially recycle rare earth material from magnets in electric motors, wind turbines, MRI devices and electronic scrap, according to electrive.com. To read more, click this article link here.

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NEW NEW CAR NEWS -

Dacia Bigster

Dacia has revealed their largest SUV, a chunky C-segment vehicle that undercuts the competition with the entire range being under £30,000. There are a couple of trim levels and several powertrain options. To read more, click this Motoring Research article link here.

GWM Ora 03’s new entry level model

GWM Ora has announced a new entry level model for the 03, with a price reduction of £7000, bringing it to £24,995. This will be called the Pure and comes with a range up to 194 miles and much of the kit the Pure+ (which is being retired) did. There will also be a range topping GT, which will be from £32,995 and have more aggressive styling and technology. Click this Autocar article to read more.

LUNCHTIME READ: LET’S HOPE ELON MUSK DOESN’T TAKE EVS WITH HIM

InsideEVs has a piece about the potential for the move to EVs, in the US, to be dealt a significant blow thanks to how the CEO of Tesla is behaving. In the United States the EV industry and adoption is hinged on Tesla, from the visible brand to charging infrastructure, without the company there will be, at best, a stalling and at worst a collapse. If you want to read more, click this article link here.

LIST OF THE WEEK: SHOOT FROM THE HIP

Hagerty is the provider of this week’s list, with it suggesting the 11 coolest shooting brakes, even though some are not technically shooting brakes but estates. Glossing over that, there are some fabulous options for you to pick from, click here to see what they are.

AND FINALLY: GUILTY PLEASURE

PetrolBlog has a series called Guilty Pleasures, where Major Gav shares a car that is a bit of a guilty pleasure. We have chosen to share the Suzuki X-90 as your starter into the series. Do check out the rest of the series on the website. Click here to read about this mad car.