I never understood what place Buick had within GM in the first place. Mainstream but not as much as Chevrolet, luxurious but not as much as Cadillac, sporty but not as much as Pontiac. I don’t get it.

WANNA MERGE WITH MEEEEE???

I don’t think so, Tavares is quite aware of the sad fact that some people are extremely prejudiced against French cars and will never buy a Peugeot no matter how good they are. I think the plan is to sell these people Opels that are actually Peugeots underneath, and I don’t think they’ll notice, because if they still…

The Chevy name in Europe has been completely tainted because by the end they mostly sold rebadged Daewoos, and those were terrible.

What about Cadillac? Those are good and engineered in the US, no? It’s probably easier to make a good cheap platform out of a good expensive one than the opposite.

Premium as a concept didn’t exist at the time of Voisins and the SM. Those are luxury cars. Ever since the premium segment has been, more or less, invented by Mercedes / Audi / BMW in the 80's or 90's, there hasn’t been a true French competitor to that. That’s what I meant.

I imagine Holdens very will mostly become rebadged Chevys.

It’s an Alpine, you philistine.

Doubt that would happen, too much tech in it. Brand-new bespoke aluminium construction, Getrag gearbox, custom Sabelt seats, custom Brembo brakes, double-wishbone suspension all round...

Classic 911s are not even that small, all things considered.

Let’s hope it never becomes “USA - for parts”

I apologise for the aggressive message, it just comes up so often with so many cars that I’m genuinely sick of it by now, Audi this, Audi that... Out of curiosity, what do you see in there that reminds you of a TT? I don’t really see it. Maybe the roofline?

First gear: for the time being the current deals to rebadge Opels as Buicks or Holdens (Cascada, new Regal / Commodore) will be honoured by PSA. After that, who knows?

The chief engineer says it’s easy to get in and out of, for a start.

Two seater. It’s really small, 20cm less than a Cayman.

Honestly, I’m sick of everyone comparing every single car ever made to the TT. This car looks nothing like the TT and has nothing in common with it design-wise (TT is a front-engined, FWD 4-seater, this is a mid-engined, RWD 2-seater). We get it, Audis are brilliant, can we move on?

Yup, license-made Alpines built in Bulgaria.

Don’t tell me you believe these anti-aluminium truck commercials.

Alpines have always been about making an affordable sports car out of mainstream (specifically, Renault) parts. The A106 and A108 were based on the Renault Dauphine, the A110 on the R8.

I cannot recall a more fastuous couple of weeks for French car companies for as long as I’ve loved French cars, which is to say as long as I’ve lived (granted, it’s not that long).