We’ve seen many interesting cars on our trip, and as you can might have guessed, they were always catching our eye. The UK is notably different because they drive on the left side of the roads, and the steering wheels are on the right sides of the cars. This takes a while to get used to, especially as a pedestrian trying to cross a street. After two weeks we still looked both ways every time. The roads themselves are also (in general) much smaller – ponder the age of this place, and you will get an idea. The black-cabs here have a turning radius of 25 feet, and even then we saw some needing to make 3-point turns to get going in the opposite direction to pick up a passenger.
I noted earlier that gasoline is priced at about 85p/liter, that’s over $6.00/gallon. Between the size of the roads, the compact parking spaces, and the fuel prices, smaller/efficient cars are the norm here. We’ve wondered for a while now what gas prices will need to be in the US before we see this as the norm instead of SUVs.
Scooters are also very popular here, and it seems more popular than the last time I was here which was about 2000. The scooters and motorcycles will drive down the shoulder and middle of the lanes to crowd up at the front of an intersection just like what we experienced in Italy a few years go. There was even a scooter shop around the corner from our hotel. Here’s an area for scooter or motorcycle parking with a BMW C1 (with the full cover for the driver)on the end – this is Mary’s favorite kind of scooter.
American car brand are not unusual here, although the model lineups are different. For example, there are Fords everywhere, but almost none of them, with the possible exception of the Focus, are the same. There are also a few variants of the Focus here that we’ve never seen before. We saw a few Chrysler mini-vans, almost all of which were in use as taxis. In London we saw a couple Jeep Grand Cherokees (right-side drive) and one 300C sedan – which looked really strange going down a small London street.
So, let’s start with the smaller cars. Our favorites are the Smart cars (although the City Coupe is being imported by a compay here in Kirkland, and will start to be officially imported into the US in the next year or so). The City Coupes are everywhere in the UK, and we also saw the Four Four micro-sedan, and the Roadster.
There were several very small electric cars around London, and we never did get a brand name of these tiny cars. Interesting to consider that the Smart cars are coming to the US, and these seem to be gaining in popularity here. I wonder if we’ll see these in the US in the years ahead…
The Audi A3 which came to the US last year is everywhere here, and in 3 or 5 door models. The S3 (which looks like a blast) is also pretty common here. Audi makes a lovely model here called the A2 that was high on our list of favorites – it looks like a great car for fuel efficiency, and utility/size.
Honda cars in the UK are all branded Honda (we’ve seen some US Acura models branded as Honda - which isn't a real surprise since that’s how it works in Canada). We did see some unusual models though. The CRV looks different than ours, and the UK is getting a different version of the Civic than we have in the US.
BMWs are very common like they are in Seattle, with mostly the same models. The main difference is that the UK already has a 1 Series car, which is smaller, than the 3 series.
Peugeot cars are very common here, even thought they haven’t been sold in the US for a number of years. Our favorite was this 206 cabriolet model, which were much more common than Miatas.
Fiat cars are popular here, although they sold a small angular Coupe a few years ago that was pretty un-common. We also saw a classic Fiat 500.
We didn’t see many older cars, but we did see a few great classics like the Fiat above. In Central London one afternoon we saw a large 1950s vintage Rolls Royce limo parked at a curb with the driver waiting. Seemed like a classy way to get around London. Here are two others: the Citroen was in Edinburgh, and the Saab was in Notting Hill not far from our hotel.
The small, fuel efficient cars were very common in Scotland, and fairly common outside of central London, but in the middle of London it seemed to be all about the big-money. For starters, taking a car into central London requires a congestion charge of ₤8/day. Yep - nearly $16 a day to take a car into the central most part of town. This means that overwhelmingly central London is either buses, taxis, or the wealthy. Here are some examples.
There were so many Bentleys that I stopped taking photos of them. The Continental GT is very popular (we saw dozens), and we saw several Continental Flying Spurs that had drivers with single passengers in the back seat. One afternoon near Parliament we saw a small motorcade that had a motorcycle police escort. The lead car was a Bentley Flying Spur that was modified with flashing lights at the corners. It was being followed by a Jaguar sedan with red led lights in the rear window that read “Police”.
Mercedes were very popular and the AMG models were the ones to be seen in. One night at dinner I saw at least 4 AMG cars, including the SLK55, and the E55. The notable one is a car we haven’t seen in the states yet, which made it photo-worthy - a new S65.
Some of the cars we saw were just plain rare everywhere. This is a Nissan Skyline GT-R we spotted in Soho.
Aston Martin, being a British manufacturer, was the most common “exotic” car we saw. The DB7 and DB9 models were spotted a couple of times a day. There were a couple specific cars that were notable. The first is the latest Vantage model . The second, is a Vantage circa 1993-1999. The classic one has a V8 model that was the height of technology when it was released, and it’s a bit hard to believe that it has slightly better performance numbers than the new Vantage. It was remarkable to see this classic Vantage in person – and its V8 sounded fantastic!
There were Porsches pretty much everywhere, but we did see a few exceptional cars. We didn’t get a snapshot, but we saw a GT3 on Jermyn Street, and a 911 Turbo S near Downing Street. Also on Jermyn Street, we spotted a Cayenne Turbo S (the first we’ve seen, even though they are being brought to the US). And another extremely rare sighting near our hotel in Edinburgh, a Carrera GT.
We saw a short list of cars that were notable that we didn’t get photos of. We saw an Audi RS4 sedan (which have just started coming to the US), a BMW Z8, and a couple Ferrari F430 spiders – even one with its top down on a threatening gray day. Of specific note, we did not see any Maybach sedans. I was hoping we would see some while we were in the neighborhood near Harrods, but I suspect we didn’t spend enough time on the street or near Kensington to see these high end sedans.
Finally, there were the oddball cars. So funny, weird or unusual that they warranted including here. The Gumball 3000 is "an eight-day, 3000-mile drive across three continents with a goal of uniting nations through a common passion for music, fashion, film and the motorcar". We saw a Range Rover decorated in full Gumball livery as if it had been a support vehicle. The Rolls was hysterical – the ultimate utility vehicle if you live in Kensington. And the warning on the police horse trailer really says it all.
