A huge majority of the cars on British roads are foreign, it seems we are well and truly in a point of time where we aren’t really producing anything, but boy do we love to consume. What is that makes us opt for say, the Volkswagen Polo or Ford Fiesta over our home grown Vauxhall Corsa, of course Vauxhall is popular and doesn’t have too much to worry about, but for some reason foreign cars just seem to be more appealing to the British public, a public who are otherwise moaning about foreigners or going on about how proud they are to be British.  When you think about it there are some very good British cars out there, so we thought we would pitch them against their foreign rivals and see who comes out on top. And of course we won’t be bias at all….

Ssangyong Rexton VS Land Rover Discovery

 

Okay, maybe we are being a little bias here as it isn’t really a fair competition, but we will use it to demonstrate how superior Britain is when it comes to the luxury 4×4 category. The Land Rover Discovery will concede immediately in terms of price as the Ssangyong Rexton is a lot cheaper with prices starting at £19,150 (the Discovery starts at £38,000) having said that there was the Rexton R which was actually similar in price to the Discovery if I remember rightly. But anyway, we have come up with a sensible and definitive test which will tell us which car is better: How many crumpets can you fit in each car. Drum roll please…….. You can fit 10500 crumpets in the Land Rover Discovery and only 6550 in the Rexton. Obviously then, the British Land Rover Discovery has go this battle won.
Britain 1 – 0 Rest of the World

 

Toyota Prius VS Vauxhall Ampera

 

Welcome to the clash of the Green Giants, to cars with good intentions, clean fuel and a soft spot for the environment. But which one is the greener of the two? First of all let us consider the fully charged electric range of each car. The Toyota Prius can do around 10 miles on a full charge, whilst the Ampera can manage a staggering 30 miles! It looking like another victory for blighty! I think most people would be in agreement that the Ampera is much better looking than the Prius and the interior quality is much better in the Ampera. But again we have a specialist test that should tell us which car is better. How many litres of green tea can you fit in each model….. You can fit 1,005 litres in the boot of the Vauxhall Ampera, and 1,120 litres in the boot of the Toyota Prius! Bollocks.

 

Britain 1 – 1 Rest of the World

 

Peugeot RCZ VS Lotus Evora

Now we go against the French, in a battle of speed and agility between the Peugeot RCZ and the Lotus Evora. Again the Evora is pretty expensive when compared to its rival from France, so we must bear that in mind, though the Evora has still got its work cut out as Peugeot RCZ has been dubbed as the best drivers’ car that Peugeot has produced in decades. The quickest RCZ can do 0-60 in 5.7 seconds and the Lotus Evora can do it in 4.3 seconds! Furthermore the Evora has a top speed of 178mph whilst the Peugeot RCZ can do 150mph. Obviously then the Evora seems to be the better car in terms of speed and agility, however when you consider the RCZ is a good £20,00 cheaper, the lines get a little blurred. So we designed a special test…. Which car looks better in a top hat? Without telling him the reason behind the test we got an outside invigilator who is an expert on fashion, to give the verdict. The Lotus Evora won it!

Britain 2 – 1 Rest of the World

Renault Megane VS Vauxhall Astra

Another battle between England and France, and this one sees to extremely popular car pitched against each other, the Vauxhall Astra and the Renault Megane. Both hover around the same sort of price range making this a very important clash, and possibly the fairest of the lot. We are all familiar with both these cars so we won’t go into too much detail, if you need a reminder just look out your window and you’ll probably see a second hand Renault Megane or Astra driving passed within 5 minutes. So to test which one is better we thought we would do a test that could maybe be deemed as slightly more sensible than the previous ones. We are going to add up the out of five scores that each have got on the 3 car review sites: CarBuyer, AutoExpress and AutoCar. Respectively the Astra scored 3.2, 3 and 3.5 giving it a grand total of 9.7/15. The Renault Megane scored 3 across the board giving it 9/15….. Goooooooooooal

Britain 3 – 1 Rest of the World

Volkswagen Polo VS Vauxhall Corsa

We are aware that we are relying on Vauxhall quite a lot for these match ups, but we’re only a small island, so that’s the best we can do. First of all it is worth mentioning that the Vauxhall Corsa is a couple of grand cheaper than the Volkswagen Polo generally speaking so how does it fare agains the Polo. To be honest, we can’t find much to complain about with either car, they are both fantastic to drive, they both offer great value for money and excellent fuel economy so what can separate the Corsa and the Volkswagen Polo? We are starting to wish we put the Corsa against something like the Ssangyong Kyron as I’m afraid this one will have to come down to looks, and a quick vote in the office revealed that 80% thought the Volkswagen Polo is better looking that the Corsa, sorry Vauxhall.

Britain 3 – 2 Rest of the World

Porsche Panamera VS Aston Martin Rapide

For our final battle we decided to draw for the big guns, two cars from two different manufacturers which both have their names in the hall of fame and are renowned for their prestige and luxury. Both the Panamera and the Rapid are classed a 5 door hatchbacks and I think one thing we can safely say from the off is that the Aston has the Porsche won in the looks department. We would say the Aston Martin is more fun to drive, but the Panamera would be faster on the motorway and a little more comfortable too, so that depends on what you fancy really and doesn’t do much to settle the dispute. Both will drop in price substantially after 3 years ownership so you might want to think twice if you are planning on buying only to sell down the line as a second hand Porsche Panamera or used Rapide. The Panamera is considerably cheaper than the Aston Martin Rapide and you can even get some of the lower specs for less than half the price of the Rapide so unfortunately we cannot justify the Rapide winning this one.

Britain 3 – 3 Rest of the World

So it has ended a draw, but it was still a high scorer so you can’t complain. I guess it shows that while there is plenty to be proud about in the British motor history, there is nothing wrong with enjoying what the rest of the world has on offer.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2014 at 11:58 am and is filed under Fun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.