In the last Geek Out! I perhaps wandered a little too far into the long grass talking about one-touch electric windows and, in particular, what they tell us about a car maker’s attitude to cost saving. It might have sounded like I thought cost saving was a bad thing, but that’s always not the case. In truth, there’s not a manufacturer on Earth that doesn’t keep a firm grasp on cost, which is why Bentleys contain plenty of shared VW Group bits, and why sitting in a Ferrari used to be like a refresher course on the last decade’s developments in Fiat switches.
If, like me, you think a Golf GTI still costs £18,995 and are staggered to find you can’t get into one now for less than 40 grand, you might sometimes splutter at the cost of new cars. But the truth is, our minds should be boggled that they don’t cost even more. And the reason they don’t is down to careful cost control, bringing relative affordability to the single most mechanically and electronically complicated thing any of us owns. Unless there’s a lock-up behind your house with an F-35 in it. So cost cutting isn’t a bad thing in itself. In fact, when it’s done with intelligence it can be a source of nerdish delight.
I’ve been thinking about this in recent weeks after getting the key to my new urban nip-about, a Dacia Spring. There’s a lot to like about this little electric tin can, from its boingy ride and amusingly roly-poly handling to its impressive efficiency and absurdly low running costs. Since the Spring is an adaptation of the Renault Kwid (a name that might make you think the sub-editor preparing this story for publication just missed a typo but, as it happens, no), it’s a very international car, being originally designed in India by a French company and made in China to be sold under a Romanian badge. But the really interesting thing about the Spring is how cleverly it’s been cost controlled, and it’s reminded me that few companies do this as well as Renault.
