Volvo’s Concept You again showed off the firm’s Scaleable Platform Architecture at the 2011 Frankfurt IAA.

SPA will underpin most of the brand’s future models. Instead of creating unique platforms for each car, Volvo has created a modular system that ensures the same components can be used across all model lines.

Rather like a big LEGO kit, it dramatically cuts the amount of bespoke components for each model and ensures Volvo has the ability to develop new cars almost at will.

Want a bigger car than car X? SPA allows the wheelbase to be stretched, an common electrical systems, driveline, suspension and other parts to be used. Bingo: one car Y is yours.

It’s little short of brilliant and will mean that although initial investment is high, future products will be cheaper and, crucially, faster to develop.

However, while it’s radical, it’s not the first time Volvo has done this. Indeed, we can still buy one of the original Volvo ‘scaleable platform’ cars, in the form of the XC90…

Volvo SPA MkI

Volvo developed its first highly flexible platform architecture when it was also an independent, before Ford ownership. The 1999 Volvo S80 debuted it, and it would appear in many more core Volvos over the years.

The platform was dubbed P2 and was designed to offer both standard and long-wheelbase variants, plus front-wheel and four-wheel drive capability.

The full line-up of P2 cars is impressive:

• 1999-2006 Volvo S80 (P23)

• 2001-2009 Volvo S60 (P24)

• 2001-2007 Volvo V70 (P26E)

• 2002-2007 Volvo XC70 (P26L)

• 2003-date Volvo XC90 (P28)

P2 was clearly well-considered, and ensured an independent company could still offer a range of cars able to take on German premium rivals. Indeed, the ingenuity of it is perhaps what attracted Ford to Volvo in the first place.

Ford was so impressed, it actually used a variation of P2 in its own cars, the D3 platform. It lost some of the higher-cost componentry such as aluminum suspension arms, but still, hundreds of thousands of Ford 500, Ford Taurus and, in newer D4 form, the Ford Flex and Lincoln MKT.

Of course, with Ford ownership came the opportunity for Volvo to tap into readymade platforms. So, for the replacement Volvo S80 and Volvo V70, Ford’s C/D architecture was utilised: the same that also underpins the Land Rover Freelander, Ford Mondeo and Ford S-Max amongst others.

But now, Volvo is independent from a large European-focused maker again. It has the might of Geely behind it, but Geely does not yet make cars able to take on the best of the Europeans and US brands. So, Volvo must start again, with an all-new platform structure.

Hence, SPA. It’s returning to the smart construction it was using before Ford bought it, and is set once again to enjoy the flexibility of a platform architecture designed from the start to be flexible and, well, scaleable.

Other makers are doing it: the Saab Phoenix and Mazda SkyActiv-Chassis use a similar philosophy. But Volvo is closest with a production version, and many a production engineer is watching on with interest.

There’s a lot of clever engineering going on in Volvo right now. SPA is one of the headliners: but how much will legions of S80s, V70s and, indeed, the XC90 that’s still being made in ever-impressive quantities over at Torslanda help the engineers bring SPA to life? More, I suspect, than we perhaps realise.

+ Volvo man gets cool

+ Volvo English Channel Ocean Race

+ How Ford would have made a Rover

Ford recently announced a series of future model plans in a surprise revelation whose openness took many by surprise.

That’s the way it has to be now, a spokesman told me. ‘One Ford’ means decisions are made on a worldwide level. To ensure everyone is in sync, they have to be revealed early.

Has one snuck through, though? We already know the Fiesta is to receive a mild facelift towards the end of the year. The model plans said so. But has Ford revealed it early, without telling anyone in the UK?

Ford, see, has just announced the Fiesta Centura, a limited edition of 1000 to mark 100 years of Ford of Britain. Only available in black (cute), it has extras, including… LED running lights.

Bear with me here. It is a minor facelift, after all… the clue is in the details.

Fitted to the front bumper, these look not dissimilar to those on the Ford Mondeo (although a close up reveals they are actually different: more LEDs in the Fiesta…).

This, though, isn’t the sort of thing you normally see on special editions. Engineers and technicians have had to work on this, to integrate it into the electrical system, ensure it passes legislation and so on: you don’t normally do all that for a limited run car.

Design, too: shaping the LEDs into the front bumper, checking the aero in this critical area, making sure they pass lighting regulations. Oh, and vehicle development: ensuring the lights last the course, don’t get in the way of anything else, don’t break after 18 months. Lots of people will have had a say here.

That’s not all for the Fiesta Centura, either. Those door mirror caps are new. And the Titanium didn’t previously have so much chrome on its upper front grille, either.

Is this, then, the look that we’re going to see on future high-series Fiestas? We know the facelift won’t be major – the Fiesta is such a good-looking car, and a perpetual UK best-seller (over 52k were sold in the UK in just 6 months of 2011 – making it, again, the only car to break the six-figure barrier by year-end?) that it doesn’t need any visual changes yet.

What Ford instead wants to do is enhance the high-series versions, to ensure people keep on choosing rich mixes of Fiestas (all the better for profit margins).

Making more money

LED running lights are supercool. They’re what make the Citroen DS3 stand out so vividly. Bring them to the Fiesta and, trust me, many people will be encouraged to make the step up to a Titanium (or whatever series they feature on).

So, is this the teaser of the facelifted Fiesta, revealed early before its official unveil later in the year? We’ll have to see. But if it is, and LEDs are coming to Fiesta, expect to see growing numbers of them in the coming years.

Ford wants to become more premium, and sell richer models: small steps like this are all part of the reason why it will do so. After all, nobody understands what customers really want better than Ford…

+ The brilliance of the Citroen DS3

+ The misguidance of the Ford Fiesta

+ New Ford Focus raises great expectations

BMW price list spotters will have noticed something unfamiliar on the new BMW 5 Series tables: the option of Xirallic alongside regular metallic paint

It costs the same as normal metallic, and only comes in two hues: Imperial Blue or Sophisto Grey.

So, what is it? A special type of metallic paint, that’s what. It was developed and patented in Japan, by an outpost of Germany’s Merck KGaA. It is also produced in Japan; indeed, the world’s only plant making Xirallic is in Onahama.

Xirallic promises a lighter body colour, greater colour intensity and a stronger paint lustre. The ‘glitter’ effect is more intense, which has led some to dub it ‘glistening’ paint (although Xirallic itself is much cooler).

It’s created using a smart substrate invented by Merck’s Japanese boffins back in 2000: aluminium oxide platelets are synthetically produced, using a clever crystallisation process. They are then coated with metal oxides.

This means Xirallic paint is finely grained and boasts a narrow distribution of particle size, for a flawless finish: by playing with the substrates themselves, previously-unseen new metallic paint effects can be produced, although it is the sheer intensity of colour and sparkle that impresses most.

Coming to a car near you soon, then? Well, maybe: the company needs to gear up its production facilities first, because a sole plant won’t be able to feed the world.

Even worse, though, the plant is also yet another Japanese industrial victim of the earthquake. It was damaged and production has been hit, meaning supplies are in even shorter supply.

Indeed, this may well be another reason why you’ve heard of Xirallic recently: Ford’s recently been in the news for not being able to offer many colours in its 2011 range, due to shortages in Xirallic.

It has since used another pigment for its metallic colours, but it’s taken some time, and means wholesale changes across the board: brochures, dealer inventories, press photographs, touch-up paint kits, model codes, you name it. Many more makers are experiencing the same.

Xirallic certainly does shine, and it’s a paint technology many are going to love in the future. For now, though, with the plant remaining offline, it’s living under something of a cloud. Fingers crossed the situation is sorted soon: with a name so cool, it deserves no less.

UPDATE: The Onahama plant has restarted production, and is aiming for a return to full production by June. Merck is also to open a new plant in Germany making the pigment by the end of the year – finally adding additional production.

But will the demand be there? Already, many makers have been forced to switch to alternative pigments, due to the supply issues. Will they return?

+ Secrets of the new BMW 5 Series

+ BMW HQ: ahead of its time?

+ BMW April Fool brilliance (once again)

Rover underwhelmed the world with the 1995 Rover 400.

There were many cars that could have marked the point where the more recent Rover rot set in: I point to this overpriced, bland-looking, too-small replacement for one of Rover’s top-5 best cars ever.

The reasons for its mediocrity are much, much-discussed elsewhere. Even so, there were surprises and delights that could be gleaned from the launch: tediously dull it sure was, but it still had its moments.

MOMENTS

The 400 was the last Rover-Honda co-car. As with the 600, author Steve Cropley explained, it was basically a Honda with Richard Woolley-designed Rover clothes. Doors were common (what IS it with BL cars and shared doors?) but all the other panels were different.

It was 6 inches shorter than the Vauxhall Cavalier class of cars Rover intended to pitch it against. A lot smaller, in other words.

Why the apparent naively in stealing such a large slice of Ford Mondeo sector sales, then? Well, because it was 4 inches longer than the old Rover 400 – and as that car had proven surprisingly successful in the large family car market, so Rover’s plans may not have been so misguided after all.

HONDA CONSTRUCTION

It was launched with 1.4-litre and the then-new 1.6-litre version of the K-series engine. Rover was reluctant to give a date to Cropley for the launch of the 1.8-litre version, “although they admit proving work has begun”. Was it proving, even back then, that the head gasket was weak?

The build of the bodies was of interest: they were all built by Honda’s plant in Swindon. The Rover creation happened at Longbridge; conversely, it turned into a Honda Civic at Swindon.

The all-steel body was an impressive 20 percent stiffer than its predecessor, which Rover said allowed it to optimise NVH. It also allowed it to improve the ride quality over even the Honda it was derived from. Rover recalibrated the dampers, too – so successfully that Autocar was told it set “a new comfort standard for Rover cars”. Rover benchmarked it against the ‘supple’ Peugeot 306, apparently, rather than ‘stiffer’ German hatchbacks.

The Longbridge firm fitted more wood and its own-brand seats inside: these were actually new-look versions of those in the old Rover 200/400. The steering wheel was also carried over from before. Good ol’ British enterprise.

BULLISH

Rover was bullish: Cropley was told Longbridge had been equipped to build more than 200,000 of them a year. Double the number of old Rover 400s: the usual eye-watering BL trick of sales optimism had clearly returned.

Even so, Cropley reckoned the design, manufacturer and quality control showed the “lifesaving” influences of Honda: significant traits he’d noticed, given the foibles of British cars of the past. Rover qualities were, he reckoned, the shape, the engines and the suspension refinement, proving “Rover had accumulated expertise of its own”.

Sage words: Rover engineers continued to prove this in future years, too – but Cropley had picked up on a key point. With the loss of Honda, after 16 years, Rover lost a partner to design and productionise all-new cars.

Cropley actually revealed the downfall of Rover, years before it actually happened. It may well have boasted ample expertise of its own, which the wonderful Rover 75 proved to aplomb. But, with the loss of BMW, Rover lost the ‘lifesaving’ influences in design, manufacture and quality control that would provide the raw materials the skilled engineers could work from.

The final irony is the fact this same Rover 400 was still on sale a decade later, as the Rover 45, in the company’s dying days. Being orphaned meant Rover simply couldn’t replace it. Mediocre it may well have been, but the Rover 400 was also a landmark car – the last all-new volume family Rover be launched (the 75 was a sector above and not a volume car to the same extent; the Rover 35/55? They, alas, were never to arrive…).

It wasn’t rotten, but it wasn’t good enough, even when new. See why I think it’s a rotter?

+ MG insight ensures insurance advantage

+ Why Victoria Beckham is right for Range Rover

+ MINI theory on two nation future

Ford may have to correct a rare tactical oversight soon, and make an OE sat nav system available on the current shape Ford Fiesta.

I did the launch of the brilliant Fiesta back in 2008, and the lack of sat nav was something the brand manager gladly told me was intentional. Such was the low percentage of supermini buyers that choose it, she explained, it simply wasn’t economic to integrate such a system into the Fiesta.

Not when it was a global car developed to serve worldwide buyers.

Much better to go for a bespoke system that would give a user-appealing large-format digital central screen to all buyers. This is more generous than reserving a colour screen for a select few happy to add 10% to the car’s list price with the sat nav option.

That was then, though. And now? Superminis are continuing to boom in popularity. This is being driven, in part, by downsizing – moving from larger cars into smaller, more fuel efficient (and lower-tax) models.

And when people downsize, they often upgrade. Cheerio Focus Zetec, hello Fiesta Titanium. Ford admits as much, by boasting about what a high proportion of Fiesta sales are Titanium spec.

But they’re missing a massive profits-generating, sales-incentivising trick now: sat nav is becoming a must-have on larger cars. That expectation will be carried with these buyers to their downsize option. Can’t offer it? Then why should they bother?

Ford’s becoming isolated here: Peugeot offers sat nav, as does Volkswagen, as does Vauxhall – and Renault’s ingenious TomTom system on the Clio actually comes as standard on two out of the three trim lines. In such comparison charts, the Ford Fiesta looks glaringly underspecced.

You can almost stake money on the fact Ford engineers are busily working on a sat nav offer for the current Fiesta. It may even use the excellent system from the new Focus, which seems to share so much global thinking with the Fiesta (proving a world car can still have region-specific tech).

A rare example of Ford misguidance? We shall see.

+ Ford flawless factsheet find: PR finery

+ Evernote inspires Ford

+ Ford clears way for quick dealer profits

Evernote is a notemaking tool I use on my iPhone and iMac desktop. It synchronises in seconds and is great for making text notes or photo reminders on the move.

The Ford C-Max (there is a link, trust me…) is a more mature, more well-rounded version of the original Ford compact MPV, that is now less awkward thanks to the presence of the Grand C-Max 7-seater. It doesn’t have to pretend to be a Vauxhall Zafira wannabe, and can instead be the practical-sporting family holdall the original always should have been.

Boy, there’s some VW-like detailing at work there, though. If Ford’s aspiring to take on the Golf Plus with this, it’s going about things the right way. VW buyers buy VW after VW because of the firm’s attention to detail. Ford’s clearly been made aware of this, and is having a go itself.

In what way? Look to the trip computer for evidence. Set between the dials within its own colour hi-res VDU, this has graphical treats aplenty. One comes with the trip computer: scroll through the menus, and you get an option for multi-display.

This shows 4 different parameters in one screen – it’s so useful, I’m amazed nobody’s done it like this before (or have they..?). I scratched my head for a few days too, trying to remember what it reminded me of.

Then it came to me.

Evernote users will have discovered that if they turn their iPhone through 90 degrees, the screen changes.Instead of displaying a vertical list, it shows the four Evernote options in grid format. Remind you of anything? Yup…

Ford’s trying to tech itself up, and become known not only as a maker of brilliant driving machines, but also of technologically advanced cars employing must-have new features.

Details such as this will really help it there. Tech geeks will get it; they’ll know that the people who developed it are clearly tech geeks themselves, who probably made notes on devising such a feature on their own Evernote App one weekend during the C-Max’s development.

I for one reckon the similarity is intentional – and thus feel that bit more confident in Ford’s technology claims. After all, if the guys engineering the car are using the same geeky gadgets as me, who am I to (ahem) doubt ‘em..?

+ Ford adding smart stop start

+ Ban the electronic fuel gauge

+ Why BSM pass rate may increase with Vauxhall Corsa deal

Ford in North America will, by next year, have fitted Auto Start Stop to all new cars on sale.

This will save at least 4% in fuel used, for every new Ford sold in the world’s second-largest car market.

Depending on usage, the savings can stretch as high as 10%: after living with stop-start in a VW Golf Bluemotion, this seems pretty believable. Fuel economy used to plummet once I turned off the motorway during my daily commute. Not anymore.

Just one thing, that first struck me back when I drove a stop-start Mercedes A-Class a few years ago. When the engine was off, the water pump stopped (as, of course, it would)… and the heater started blowing cold, not hot.

This was hardly a step forward: it was a bit like driving a 1950s classic, whose dynamo-powered headlights would dim when you stopped. Not a clever thing, that.

Luckily, Ford’s being smart. Fully aware that US buyers wouldn’t take this, the firm’s fitting stop-start 2.0: not only does it have a larger-capacity battery and upgraded starter motor, it also has an electric pump to keep the coolant flowing through the engine.

Thus ensuring the heater still blows hot. Small detail? Seemingly yes – but experience of that A-Class on a January test drive taught me that such things matter.

Far from being a cheap add-on way of massaging fuel-saving legislation, stop-start is actually quite involved technology. Land Rover was the first one to really understand the intricacies involved: an engineer explained to me just what went into developing the Freelander Td4_e at its launch in 2008.

This included ensuring the radio stayed on, the CD didn’t jump, the sat nav didn’t reset, the phone call that was underway when the car came to a halt didn’t cut out. Tiny, easily-overlooked details, that can drive customers mad when they discover them, should engineers not have.

Land Rover, of course, went one step further. The engineers there are genius: they hated the diesel shudder that most oil-burners exhibit when switched off – and knew that this would become exceedingly annoying when magnified thanks to stop-start.

So, they massaged the fuel injection and valve timing, to ensure there was no resistance when it cut off. Smooth run-down, in other words. Once you’re aware of how some diesels shudder when you turn them off, you’ll really appreciate this.

The rush to stop-start is obvious: due to the way official fuel consumption tests are arranged, standardisation can give official mpg gains, that town-bound users will find are magnified.

Trouble is, some makers did this without giving thought to the implications of such a system.

Mercedes has to rank as guilty here, for its chilling blast of switch-off sufferance. It’s not alone, I’m sure. But it’s a transgression that’s going to be rectified soon – because others aren’t falling for it.

Stop-start: Smart, but also dumb, if not integrated by the smart.

+ VW Golf Bluemotion: GTI for eco greens

+ New Ford Focus raises great expectations

+ Vauxhall does the electric car market a favour

Ford Focus first drives started landing at 9am on Friday 14 Jan, as Ford lifted the embargo on sessions it ran late last year.

I wasn’t part of ‘em, but we shouldn’t have long to wait until we can have a go: the new Ford Focus goes on sale in early March, from the UK’s biggest network of car dealers. Drives will be open to all men.

What, though, am I expecting from it? I’ve purposely not read much on the new model up to now, in order for me to muse on what I reckon needs improving on the current one. Goodness knows, Ford will have done this to the nth degree: what, then, are the bits that stick out to me as sore?

The last current-shape Ford Focus I drove was an Econetic. And, frankly, it was a bit disappointing, by Ford’s usual sky-high standards. I was pretty nonplussed.

Why? Ride, mainly. I know the Econetic has lower, stiffer suspension and eco tyres, but that’s still no excuse for its jitters. It’s hardly rock-hard, but there’s irritation there that’s absent from a Golf.

Also, it’s the low-speed ride that’s guilty – the current Focus is very stable and compliant at speed. Meaning Ford will have worked on refining the suspension bushing and tyre sidewall tuning with the new Focus, perchance?

Some of this irritability, mind, may have been perceived rather than actual, because of suspension noise: the rival Golf 6 is, audibly, much better damped over bumps, with little crash or clatter vocals. I expect Ford to thus improve noise insulation on the new Focus.

Indeed, more generally, the new Ford Focus should be a quieter and more assured machine, with a greater feeling of upmarket tactile quality.

Even back in 1998, Ford engineers were looking enviously at the Golf’s quality jump, a gap that’s remained ever since. So lovely is the latest Golf 6 inside, Ford will surely have been working hard to near it.

What about handling? There are more questions here. The current Ford Focus still handles sublimely – period. Will the new one move the game further on, maintain its current high level – or trade some of its advantage for more stability, assuredness and ride refinement? Interesting conundrum.

Furthermore, Ford’s switched to electric power steering, something it said it would only do once it could match hydraulic systems for feel and response. Is this now the case? The EPAS in the Fiesta is pretty good, but that’s a smaller and lighter car. How will it fare in the heavier, more EPAS motor-challenging Focus?

In brief, I expect a more refined, smoother-riding, more premium Ford Focus. One that still handles really well, but is more of a complete picture for passengers, too.

The driver may suffer a little from a touch less steering feel, but they’ll be rewarded with much better mechanical integration, including engines with meticulously-tuned torque curves. Everything else, from gearchange to steering wheel design, will show all the fanaticism of Ford’s leading-edge designers.

That’s what I expect, anyway. The reality? Time will tell: soon as I drive it, I’ll let you know…

+ Why Ford Econetics break the rules

+ Ford clears the way for quick dealer profits

+ How Ford would have made a Rover

Ford Quickclear heated windscreen tech is something invented not for customer convenience, but to please the UK’s largest car dealer network.

Well, sort of.

History time: it’s been around since the 1980s, and was designed to make life easier on winter mornings. Drive away in seconds, instead of minutes, went the promo (remember the man with the Orion in the print ads?).

Whether that was actually possible in cars with chokes, choking on sub-zero temperatures, is a moot point, but the thought was there.

Actually, though, I reckon it was developed to be a dealer-pleaser, too.

Dealer hots

Ford has more than 500 dealers across the UK (and maybe loads more back in the day). Each may have, ooh, between 20 and 100 used cars sat outside to lure people in.

Enter one cold snap, and cue frosted-over windscreens for each. What will be obscured by such an event? Yes, the price sticker hanging from the sunvisor behind the opaque screen.

In terms of manhours, this represents a lot of expenditure (and a veritable deluge of moaning). How better would it be to slash (silence) this with just the press of a button?

Of course, it wasn’t a perfect plan. Not all cars would be fitted with Quickclear screens. The higher-margin posh cars would be, though (Granada Ghia X and the like). They’re the ones in which dealers would have most cash tied up, and which they wanted to sell fast.

Quickclear would ensure the risk of missing vital marketing opportunities were minimised. Cue dealers quickly clear(n?)ing up (ahem).

OK, I admit. Ford probably didn’t invent Quickclear to please its dealer network. There, I jest, with tongue in cheek.

But knowing how thorough the brand is, I don’t doubt the consideration could have helped push the tech through in the planning meet, or featured in the strategy document presented to the Board…

+ What other unexpected uses for car tech can you think of?
+ Do you know of any other ‘Eureka’ type car inventions?
+ Ford is market leader and has Quickclear: coincidence?

FORD ran a press launch for the facelifted S-Max range last month – and, in each test car, laid an A4 factsheet.

I cribbed one of these and was so impressed, I thought I’d share it here.

Basically, it contains everything a motoring journo needs to know on the launch drive of a new car. Which, remember, we usually approach blind, or armed with but the merest facts. This, thus, is magic to us.

See, you tell us all about the car at the press conference in the evening. All that doesn’t help us upon first acquaintance, though!

To Ford’s marvelous factsheet, then. Basically, it’s a double-side of A4, with all the key gen: sales stats and facts, what the ‘new’ car you’re in is, in a nutshell, all about, plus the background of how it came to be.

Then, bulletpoints. Indeed, categorised bulletpoints! Of exactly what’s new, both outside and in (and we really love bulletpoints).

Snippets such as ‘New LED tail lights’, ‘Chrome strip around glass area’ and ‘New interior colour, graphics and materials’ help us no end in pinpointing the bits you’ve changed – and making a judgment on them at the time, rather than from memory.

Ford even goes on to summarise the car’s new technology – in a line or two, not a chapter or two! – and then outlines other engines and transmissions also available.

In short, it’s a dream. Journos can nick it (which, of course, we will do) and be fully genned up afterwards, plus far better informed at the time. That’s how easily pleased we are, see..!

Now Ford’s got the ball rolling, though, who’s going to improve on it?

+ What’s your favourite car maker press format?
+ When a maker mentions interior quality, do you rate this by tapping said parts with your knuckle?
+ What’s an absolute press release no-no?

BMW shows professionalism of PR industry

Social media strategy advice needed!

Save BBC 6Music and the Ford Zephyr