Ugly and tinny cars

["Ed Prytherch" <dixiedean@domain.elided>]

I haven't lived in Europe since 1982, so my only experience of modern European
cars is driving rentals in England and Italy. If Tim is so high on Skodas,
they must have improved an awful lot.
In 1967, I was riding a 350 Velocette in Manchester when a lady driving a new
Skoda 1000 pulled out of an intersection in front of me. I hit it at 35 mph,
in the middle of the front passenger side door. The car was totaled. The roof
of the car caved in on the driver and she went to hospital with a suspected
fractured skull. I broke a finger, my friend who was riding pillion chipped a
bone in his ankle, and I rebuilt the bike. I remember seeing the Skoda being
towed off with all four wheels pointing in different directions. It would have
been funny if I hadn't been hurting so much.

Earlier this year I rented a car from Avis at Manchester Airport. The guy
behind the desk had a funny accent or a speech impediment and I found him hard
to understand. He asked if I would take a !@#$%%^^. I asked him to repeat the
question. I still didn't know what he was talking about. I said "Is it a car?"
He said "Yes". I said "I'll take it." It turned out to be a Fiat Multipla. It
is definitely the ugliest thing that I have ever driven. I'd say that the more
distance that there is between the designers of the next Alfa's and the
wierdos who designed the Multipla, the better off we will all be.

Ed Prytherch, Columbia SC
73 GTV
79 Spider

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