Letter From Europe, Lifetime Achievement Trophy To Andrew, Subby Crosstrek, Hot Drink Hot Cars, Wet Bride, Wet Budapest

Letter From Europe
Back In California
By Andrew Frankl
European Editor
The Auto Channel

Dear audience, greetings from Belvedere after a long Summer of love, travel and adventure. Regular reader's know that I met a lovely lady back in July 2023 and we are still going strong.

Kata was present at the Budapest Intercontinental where I received a lifetime award trophy from the Hungarian equivalent of Britain’s Royal Automobile Club. TV, radio, newspapers, it was quite a party! And of course courtesy of the internet I’ve received congrats from all over the World. But that was a month ago and I have no intention of sitting on my laurels. Far from it.

I have a new test car, a Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness which I took to Sonoma Raceway . The event was entitled Velocity International with expensive exhibits such as McLaren, Ferrari, Pagani- you name it.

The funniest thing was that the millionaire financing the event is a gentleman called Jeff O’Neill and as the event didn’t have a main sponsor he decided to launch a new drink and name the event after the new drink. I had absolutely no idea what Catalyst stood for but the nice lady who gave me a can explained it. Essentially it is another Red Bull or Monster with tons of caffeine.

My neighbor car guy Tom Price took the opportunity to display several cars from his huge repertoire, from Volvo to Lamborghini. Hugely successful and incredibly modest, a classic example of how to behave with millions in the bank. A far cry from the don’t you know who I am characters who will remain nameless.

But, back to the Subaru. I am a huge fan with reservations. 182 hp at 5,800 rpm is just not sufficient. The word gutless comes to mind and while the brand is massively popular in the mountains, getting there with five up and luggage would not be a picnic following trucks in the slow lane all the way to Truckee.

I took the Crosstrek off road at Sonoma and the Yokohama Geolander tires performed admirably.

Fuel consumption is also fine at around 27 miles per gallon and the increased ground clearance is a blessing. What is not a blessing in fact is totally unacceptable is the horn. It is a farce, arguably the worst horn ever attached to an automobile. As John McEnroe would say-you cannot be serious. Subaru please change it asap, even the coyote laughed as it wandered across the road in front of me.

What I do love and wish other manufacturers would follow is the warning sign when you are being overtaken. It is on the cowling and not in the mirror where it is often invisible in the sunshine.

The Crosstrek might be a bit gutless and it may have the World’s worst horn but as far as value for money is concerned it must be at the top of every sensible person’s shopping list. Fantastic value at 35 thousand dollars and will I am sure run for ever.

But back to the summer and a story which I simply have to share. Friends have invited us to the wedding of their daughter in Ravello on the Amalfi coast of Italy. Sounded great so daughter Annabelle and I got on Virgin Atlantic in San Francisco and after a quick change were in Naples where it was raining cats and dogs.

The cruise had to be canceled but they’ve managed to find a venue at very short notice, for 75 people in the middle of the peak season, I will never know how but they did it! So the following day all we had to do was turn up at the Catholic Church on the town square. So far so good except for one thing. At the Church they put lit candles all way along and of all things one candle managed to singe the bride’s dress! Admittedly she will never ever were it again but still it would have been nice to take it back to London in one piece.

Then on to rainy Budapest where I received my trophy, it was quite a scene as the river overflowed and, the trams had to be stopped along the Danube and all the tourists who paid a fortune for cruising all the way up to Amsterdam ended up in buses. Not quite as romantic as a dinner on the upper deck but the ships were simply too tall and could not get under the bridges. A first world problem but still very unpleasant if you’d traveled 10 thousand miles to start the trip.

Now on to the second Best of the Bay gathering for the Western Automotive Journalists. I will of course be there and will send you a full report next month.