Mark Creese asked:


Every day we’re told the world is becoming more Americanised, but that, as all the best things are from America this is no bad thing. Space travel, fast food, blues and jazz, theme parks, telephone numbers such as 0-8-0-0-F-U-N-T-I-M-E have all found their way over here. What’s wrong with using numbers on the telephone anyway, why use letters? No, for me the US of A has contributed more than enough for the time being and rather than our culture becoming further Americanised, I vote for us to become Japanised. I mean that’s where the really cool stuff comes from: computer games, Manga cartoons, toilets that shoot water towards your…well you know, that cool robot from television (not available at your Honda dealer) and the most reliable cars on the planet.

Yep for cool stuff that 99 percent of the time will never be used in mainstream markets, Japan is the place to go. It’s the one percent that really does work however that excites me the most. The Sony PlayStation has been the market leader since its inception and the gaming industry as a whole is a multi, multi billion pound yearly business. In fact Japan’s economy alone generated £120 billion through the sale of publishing, games, films and music in 2006 alone. The cars are fast becoming market leaders too. Gone are the days of reliable vehicles that looked like a baby had styled it – enter the simply stunning Nissan GTR or Honda’s most successful hot-hatch the Civic Type R (this unlike the robot is available at your Honda dealer).

The reason why the latest cars from Japan are so well styled whilst maintaining the build quality and reliability you’d expect from the country is that they’ve embraced their culture, which to Western society is, well, bonkers. We’ve all seen the clip shows on TV that showcase the mad game shows Japan have as entertainment. In the UK you answer a few questions correctly and you win some money. In Japan you answer a few questions correctly and then you only have to eat ten snakes, jump through fire and have your leg chopped off to win the big prize.

Then there’s the Bosozoku. Essentially they were a motorcycle gang that started in the mid fifties, but thanks to Manga comics and Anime films such as Akira, the image has been glamourised so the modern day Bosozoku are more style than actual gang fighting and neighbourhood terrorising. They have also branched out to modifying cars with crazy features such as exhausts that reach skywards and end above the roofline. Japanese culture is the perfect ying and yang – they work really hard, they play really, really hard.

You can see now why channelling all the above into a car such as the Nissan GTR is pretty exciting. You have the reliability and build quality from the hard-working Japanese culture, the mad styling from the Manga culture and the incredible handling and on-board computer wizardry from the gaming culture. You can see these elements filtering through to many Japanese car-makers and most notably across their range, Honda.

When judging a car brand, I like to see what their entry-level car is and if that’s good then it’s a good rule of thumb to assume this standard is maintained as the pound signs increase. Using this logic and a trip to your Honda dealer will bring the Honda Jazz before you. It’s a fun little hatchback from the styling to the way it drives around town. In fact it’s not too dissimilar to Doctor Who’s Tardis. Admittedly the Jazz doesn’t transcend time and space, but it’s far bigger on the inside than its exterior would have you believe. The front and rear lights wrap around both ends and a simple arched line down the side completes the shape. It is once again Japan in microcosm: small, functional and stylish.

There are two engines available, a 1.2 litre unit or a 1.4 VTEC litre version. The later is also available with a 6-speed i-SHIFT gearbox that is semi automatic. The funky features don’t end there, with the Jazz offering a panoramic glass roof, a refrigerated glove box and iPod connectivity. Crucially your Honda dealer will take pride in declaring the Jazz emitting just 130g/km CO2 and returning a combined fuel consumption figure of 51.4mpg. The Jazz is cheap to run then, but it’s reasonable to buy in the first place, with prices starting at £9,990 in the UK.

The verdict on the Jazz then is a glowing one. Obviously I’d love a Nissan GTR to embrace my love of all things Japanese, but to suit my wallet and I’m sure the vast majority of readers, nip to your Honda dealer for a sm



Michael

Mark Creese asked:


It’s amazing what people will do if they feel it is socially acceptable. For example auditioning to be locked in a house for three months surrounded by cameras is the gateway to ’stardom’, jumping off a tall building to your imminent death before a piece of cloth catches the air is seen as ‘fun’ and jumping into a freezing cold Scottish lake on New Year’s Day is ‘tradition’. People also think nothing of taking a screwdriver to the family Volkswagen Polo and having a bash at ‘improving’ it themselves.

I must admit that I’m guilty of having a go at modifying my current and previous wheels with mixed success. It’s funny to think that despite the millions of pounds spent designing the car you own; people automatically assume a few hundred quid here and there will improve it. Imagine if you applied this to your household items. Your washing machine for example spins at 1,000 a minute. Have you ever thought of turbo-charging it to boost spin power by 50%? Of course you haven’t as the professionals who built it would’ve done that already if it improved the cleanliness of your clothing.

I’ve got a toasted sandwich maker loving stored at the back of one of my cupboards that’s never seen the light of day. Do I have the urge to mould grooves to make it cook faster on the hot-plate? Clearly not. My PlayStation 3 doesn’t come with a spoiler fitted to make it load faster and my bed hasn’t been lowered to impress the ladies.

The furthest extreme I’ve seen car modifying taken was courtesy of my mate who quite frankly I keep as a friend purely for his humorous antics. Not content with buying a Volkswagen Polo from eBay of all places and then travelling 300 miles to collect a car that clearly wasn’t as specified in the advert, he’s spent a large amount of time flushing his money down the drain modifying the poor car. Let me throw some figures at you. He bought the car for £3000 and has since spent £750 on a exhaust, £100 on silver door pin covers for when the door lock pops up, £150 to have the rear boot handle spray painted, £500 on a sound system that flattens the car battery in five minutes, £150 to have the front grill replaced and the icing on the cake – £200 to have the engine re-mapped.

Now re-mapping isn’t changing the location of the engine parts, but having a boffin with a laptop plugging up to the engine and magically generating more power from it. This sounds great and for £200 you can’t go wrong you must be thinking. Only problem is that Volkswagen are German and no-one designs machinery better than them, particularly when you consider the people employed to do the tricky calculations under the bonnet barely see daylight and instead see numbers flashing before their eyes. As a result, £200 laptop man has managed to confuse the sophisticated computer that controls all facets of the engine working correctly and my mate now drives around with so many warning lights on his dashboard it’s permanently Christmas for him.

What he should’ve done if he wanted a Volkswagen Polo with more oomph is to have purchased the GTi version. The Polo comes with the same turbocharged 1.8 litre engine found in the Audi TT; albeit one that produces 148bhp rather than 237bhp. Clearly Volkswagen have put their sensible hats on as anymore power than the 148 would quite frankly be scary, so no need to get the laptop out then.

Thanks to this relative restraint under the bonnet the chassis can cope with the power, giving you the confidence to throw the car into any corner and feel confident you won’t end up in a hedge. It’ll still race to 60mph in just 8.2 seconds mind. The Polo GTi is what made the original Golf GTi so exciting before it got bloated with age – it looks like the standard hatchback save for a few subtle tweaks to the front grill and ride height, but it has real spirit and the feeling that there is nothing superfluous to distract from the joy of driving it.

It’s far closer to the cost of the original Golf GTi too with a new Polo GTi costing under £15,000 which taking into account inflation is marginally more than the original GTi’s £5,700 price tag in 1981. Compared to the massive £22,000 the Golf GTi now commands new this really is a no brainer. It would save my friend a fortune in time and money – especially a second hand version.

The Volkswagen Polo GTi is perfection – so keep your hands off.



Calvin