Jon Reay

I always quite liked these... Although this takes some beating:

Well, you had a good run. As I said before, if you can't play nice, you won't be allowed in. Shall we move on?

In a word, yep Seriously though, I'm bored now. Take the mud-slinging somewhere else, please.

...and this, your seventh ranty reply in here (with no other posts anywhere else, funnily enough...) would say much the same about you, so I'd suggest that now is a good time to call it quits. You've had your say – you disagree, we get it. Now, let's leave it at that. Happy families now? Okie doke then.

...we do have other topics here too, y'know

Much as I like Ssangyong, I'm not convinced that they've got a wide enough range to be a proper replacement for Chevy. Can see the logic though – stay with Korean products and all that.

No regrets here. Much, anyway. I do miss this though: But in fairness it was starting to rust in irreparable places like wot all small 90s Fords do eventually. Might pick up a mint-ish one in a few years and show up Baggott's XR2. Also toyed with the idea of buying it back 6 months ago, but it's disappeared off the DVLA's database since then #AccidentalPatridge

Batch does have a habit of doing that. Swear to God he handed me a shopping list the other day and he'd scribbled 'Editor - James Batchelor' on the back.

Thing is though, Nissan have taken such a jump in sales (and let's be honest, product desirability) over the last few years that further growth seems entirely plausible. Look at where the Qashqai and Juke are compared to where the Primera and Almera were ten years ago – there's been quite a change. Vauxhall, on the other hand, are almost exactly where they were in 2003. While Nissan are ploughing on into (and sometimes creating) new segments, Vauxhall have had basically the same model range since 1983. Aside from the Adam, which is a reasonably clever idea but badly executed and far too late to the party, the Corsa, Astra and Insignia have nothing new or remarkable going for them. Current volume is all well and good, but before you start talking about stealing sales from other manufacturers, there has to actually be a reason for buyers to flock to the brand – and I just don't see there being one.

...and just how much some franchised groups need to step up their social media game!

It probably varies case-by-case a bit too. Some of the scratches we had on Bagg's project Peugeot 205 were so deep that you could STILL see them when it was stripped back to the bare metal. That kinda stuff is never going to be fixed quickly.

...and a RenaultSport Clio before both of those, right? Right?

Oh it's imminent, don't worry... Maybe we should do a daily photo.

One of the more hilarious stories I've seen, I think! Actually quite impressed they managed this in the first place... How unlucky is that, though? Being passed by a BBC journalist with a camera...