It's very refreshing to follow a channel which features normal cars and cars which are long forgot by the masses. Supercars are just getting boring nowadays
That's why I stopped watching Top Gear. Who cares about the Super Panamericana GT Turbo Elite etc etc. That show just became a playground for the presenters, and we're supposed to be interested in watching them playing and enjoying themselves in it. Err.... no.
This may seem strange (and showing my age) but when I first saw it from the side and back I had flashbacks to Ed Strikers car from the old UFO tv show (you know the ones they made from some old Zephyrs) Yes I would drive that. Hmmm VW overestimating the fuel consumption of diesel ...who would have thought !
If you drive it hard and mostly uphill you will get a very different mpg figure (less than 100 mpg) to driving it gently on the flat (over 300 mpg) but who cares - nobody ever bought an XL1 for its fuel economy, any fool can work that out! It's only about fun, exclusivity, and technical fascination!
I just love the design of this - that radical aerodynamic look is just gorgeous! But wouldn't this be a much better car as a pure EV? I guess VW was just a little bit too early with this one...
Not necessarily. Battery energy/weight ratio is much worse and it can run on battery alone for a decent range. If you’re not using the full battery every trip you’re just dragging around unneeded weight.
WOW! That was a rare opportunity to drive such a rare car! Thank you for sharing - I had yet only seen press footage of this car that impressed me very much when it was presented!
The old lady's face in the car park as you pass, Ian........ HELP. HELP. A SPACE SHIP IS PASSING ME........ What a picture 🤭🤭🤭 As usual Ian a fantastic video filled with great content & interested facts.
Wonderful looking concept, but suddenly when compared to my old 1996 Citroen AX 1.4d doing 64mpg with amazingly comfortable seats, a boot full of stuff and a kayak on the roof it doesn't seem so impressive.
@urbex2007 It is absolutely true that to get 3 litres per 100km or about 300mpg then you need to use the battery as well. I agree this is a bit of a con since it only lasts about 20 miles or whatever it is. However even after the battery runs out you should be able to achieve 2 litres per 100km if driven in the right conditions. This is about 130mpg. I have no idea why you think it only does 28mpg.
I seem to remember the AX Diesel set a world record for doing 1000 miles on a tank. I had the 106 diesel with the same engine, took it up to Skye and averaged 75mpg.
If this was driven in the same manner and conditions as your AX when you got 64mpg, this one would probably have gotten at least 150mpg though. Consumption numbers vary wildly based on driving, I can easily get my quite big Renault talisman estate to 75mpg on a run, for example.
WOW that is a rare car, glad you got your hands on it, i renember it being in the news and stuff for being the 1L/100km car (only 200 where made and sold at a loss for 100.000€)
Actually 250 were made, of which 200 were sold. No loss was made. VW never marketed this car for a very good reason: it was because they had absolutely no interest whatsoever in how many of this model they might be able to sell. They only ever intended to make 250. The project was only to enable them to learn how to make their every day mainstream cars more efficient and to learn what compromises buyers could live with in the real world. VW typically spend over 1 billion pounds just facelifting a golf! This project also cost 1 billion and that is a normal R & D budget at VW's level for this kind of learning exercise. They gave their engineers a seemingly impossible target to achieve of getting 100km from 1 litre of fuel - THIS was the only point of this car. It took them 12 years to achieve that goal, and in order to achieve it the car HAD to be this light, this aerodynamic, etc. How many they might sell was never a question on the table. Only when you know all this does this car make any sense. They 200 of them and kept 50 back for ongoing research. If VW had needed to recoup their 1 billion pounds development costs by selling 200 cars, they would have had to sell then at £5 million pounds each, and that would mean they would have made a loss of £4.9 million on each car. No, they are recouping their 1 billion by using what they have learned from this project to make their future mainstream cars more efficient by being lighter and more aerodynamic etc etc etc etc.
Really good to see this. I didn't even know that they had escaped into the wild; thought they were just in-house and show cars. Fabulous to see - I want one too.
the person stepping out of the turquoise UP at around the 3 minute mark is looking at the car wondering whether it was just sugar her husband put in the tea that morning! Looks remarkable, but also oddly relatable - the maps and more satnav unit is the one used in older UPs (and possibly other VWs) which I think they have done away with now, and I can't help but think interior design cues of the car suggest some relation to the UP in design. I can't help but think it'd benefit from a rear view "mirror" in the normal place that is actually just a screen showing what's on a camera. Ive driven with my car full up in the back so I couldn't use the rear view, and it felt very alien just having to use the side mirrors and my shoulder more. Respect for van drivers increased after that. I am looking forward to a time when cars like this are as regular as normal cars are now.
Top gear , with gear , no don't think so , hubnut is the one, brilliant little insight to something hardly anyone will see on the British roads, well done hubnut brilliant, little vid. 👌
Very interesting, I didn't even know these existed. I normally find modern VW cars as exciting as listening to someone talk about wallpaper paste, but that's a great looking thing.
Normal doors and a back window would benefit this strange little critter and I do like that it is equipped with a shifter and not a silly knob on the dash. Thanks for the great vid.
Same as happened to Marty in BTTF 2, and just one of many reasons why gull-wing / butterfly / Lamborghini doors, whilst cool to look at, are completely impractical for cars. The best arrangement is actually suicide doors - very easy to get in and out of a car that has them - but regular front hinged doors are a good compromise. If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it!
@@rich_edwards79 yes good point but on the other hand, in the case of the XL1 it is so low that they had to have those butterfly doors to make it possible to get in reasonably easily.
I don’t know how I managed to miss this. If your friend really managed 130mpg on a 5000km trip without recharging that is an *incredible* performance. I’d even call it one of the most interesting modern times. If they were affordable I’d have one in an instant. Charge it daily for emission free commuting and have an efficient diesel engine for the longer distances. Heck I even think it looks sub-zero cool. It’s also a total departure of what ususally carries a VW badge, traditional VW buyers would run away from this.
One issue with this sort of tech and the narrative that can go with it in terms of environmentalism is typified by things like replacing a mirror with a camera, display unit and wiring to go with it. It is environmental providing you ignore where it isn't.
I agree. But the car was not designed to be environmentally friendly, but energy efficient. That has a lot of overlap, but it is very different at the same time.
But typical of the avenues manufacturers go down. This sort of vehicle would have its energy efficiency marketed as environmentally friendly if it went into mass production.
@@RoobehTunes Lotus did an interesting prototype Elise with a body made, iirc, of hemp. Hemp seat fabric etc, bio fuel engine. I wonder how environmentally friendly it really was? Hmmm... must consult Mr Google on the matter.
Fantastic Ian, though I'm sure you were glad to give it back safely. I believe the MD of Listers has one of these in his fleet. I think Rachel's initial reaction was funny:)
@@aaron___6014 In concept and execution very much the same. Both obsess over every mpg. Both were/are trying too hard to look like "The Car of The Future". Both are/were commercial flops on purpose as a market test
The XL1 reminded me of the Honda Insight. It certainly has concept car looks. The doors were a bit DeLorean-esque. The Triumph 1300 had folding window winders back in 1966 so that isn't a first for VW.
1000 miles on a gallon of dirty water sounds even better. Some police departments in the US converted their vehicles to hydrodrive to save money. I think we all should, Mr OPEC!
What a really unusual car, I love it,You have some great friends with nice toys. the road noise/rumble was quite loud on the video for me & I was having a bit of trouble hearing what you said, (My hearing is rubbish) but I was in stitches reading the subtitles, I've no idea how the audio is transcribed into script but it is well funny.
Is it safe to say that no one has ever heard about this car before? Well it is certainly different , is what I can say about this car. Also it was hilarious to see Mrs Hubnut's face as soon as she got into the car , she was so confused bless her 😄😄
Ah, lucky me! I'm a "babyboomer"! I've driven everything from Austin A35 vans to my son's 2014 1.5 A180 diesel with it's £21 a year road tax. But if this is the future I'll gratefully (from a motoring perspective) be out of it. Most valid contribution here from Mrs HubNut - the comment on looking at a computer whilst driving. I realised this 15 years ago when I got behind the wheel of what was Nissan's French design revolution - the P12 Primera. Computer screens in cars - deadly!
Hi Ian, earlier this year we had a Toyota Rav hybrid hybrid which was a big practical car with a decent boot. Took a bit of getting used to but surprisingly I ended up enjoying the car. For me the only thing that would stop me buying one, other than the cost, was the handbook stated you couldn’t tow anything!! Have you ever driven one? Mrs Hubnut might give this car her stamp of approval. Regards
Only hybrids I've driven before this were a first-gen Honda Insight (I have a video of that on here) and a Lexus CT200h, which I thought was absolutely awful in pretty much every way possible.
Yeah I saw that one at Heritage - it's done only about 300 miles but its interior is badly scuffed (presumably by customers getting in and out of it like a fairground ride) - might explain the relatively low asking price.
The first time I saw this car I thought it was a three wheel configuration i.e. 2 at the front and 1 at the back providing traction . There is something odd about taper styling , I appreciate it reduces drag but it’s an acquired taste shall we say . Great road test , I enjoyed it immensely .
Sad that they only made 200, that used market price is not ever going to go down. A really interesting car and a nice design too. You were lucky you got to try one, they are going to be a future desirable classic without a doubt. I nearly bought a Lupo 3L some years ago but the gearbox on them could only last for 22.000 km. i now have a 1.2 TSi Caddy and that is a joy to drive. A big car with a tiny turbo charged engine that feels a lot more powerful than it is.
@@GoldenCroc Out of the 6 3L's I know personally, 4 have had gearbox issues, 3 of which required complete replacements - 1 car is on its third box by 230.000 km.. This includes cars imported from Germany and cars bought from new in Denmark. The 3L is a great car and a likely future classic, but the DSG box in them was not always robust and it took some time to get right. By the time VW did the Polo Bluemotoion they had gotten the durability right. I have seen 1 manual conversion in a 3L and an engine swapped one - 3L exterior with GTi interior and petrol TSi engine. Would still love one, but only if I knew the DSG had been serviced or updated. The garage where I tested 2 cars myself were 3L specialists and were not surprised when the first car they let me drive only made it 20 meters down the road. The second changed gears like a learner driver on their first drive. So I gave up and settled for a Wagon R+. Ugly but tall and room for 24 crates of beer ;-)
The sounds from this vehicle remind me of the French 'Sans Permis', you hear them coming and they arrive 5 minutes later. Very good concept but I can't really see the point in spending £130k to save a few bob on diesel. There's no boot space so you couldn't take it on holiday, for a commuting vehicle highly impractical in an urban situation. I don't really see where it's intended market is? In the average 'up and over door' garage it would fit, but then due to the doors you couldn't get out. My 14 year old Fiat Doblo might be old hat, but it does give me 63.1 mpg, plenty of space, and for £300 I'm not complaining. I've also saved myself £129,700 (enough to buy 2 or 3 houses in this part of Wales!). Brilliant video Ian.
Nobody bought one of these to save on fuel! They bought them because they are rare and exclusive and incredible fun to own and drive, and likely to turn a good profit when they come to sell up - and that's it. The reviewer showed you the boot stuffed full of charger unit, when in fact every owner leaves the charger at home in the garage, which means you have 140 litres for luggage, plus about another 30 litres behind the driver's seat for squashy bags. Pretty reasonable for a fun weekend car I would say. Where is its market? People who already have a fast car and a luxury car and want a fun talking point car as well - and there are plenty of them of course. The doors thing is actually the opposite to what you think - they are in fact MORE practical than normal doors because, as they are opening, on the way up they never actually project any further sideways from the car than the minimum amount that you have to open a normal car door in order to just about be able to squeeze yourself through the gap!
I very much liked Mrs. HubNut's reactions which, I think, could be summarised as 'underwhelmed' or "Hmmm". Otherwise: * Holy Road Noise, Batman. * It's not a patch on Fireball XL5, is it.
Reminds me of the GM Ultralite of the early 1990s & Demolition Man (93') fame. Amazing mpg but your Rover 45 is still cheaper per mile when the respective asking prices are considered £375 vs £130,000!
I saw a video with a contemporary review of a DeLorean not so long ago, and I gather that their engineering solution to the out-of-reach door problem was a dangly strap. Which rather runs against the futuristic theme, but I had to admire for its pragmatism.
Knowing what those are currently valued at, I'd have been terrified driving that unicorn. I spent ages poring over the one in the VW museum in Wolfsburg.
I can remember seeing one of these seriously rare XL1s in the showroom in Swansea. On recollection, the car cost supercar money, at £115,000, but no car in history was as fuel efficient as this thing. IT JUST GOES TO SHOW THE FUTURE IS NOT ELECTRIC!!!
It is amazing all the coo! ,Weird, different retro, modern,goofy vehiclesyou get to drive. Thanks forintroduceding me them. It looks like something out of U.F.O. the old Thames based SiFi show
It's very interesting as all of the technology for this car was developed in conjunction with the successful Le Mans winning Audi World Endurance Championship LMP1 team. This has now been put into production in the Audi e-tron series of road cars. Love the futuristic look of this car though.
The 1.6d 55bhp engine that was also in mk2 Fiesta's,early Orions before being replaced with the 1.8 Endura diesel. The AX 14D if driven carefully or on A roads could do over 70mpg. It would never do any less than 55mpg as well. Ford and PSA were really ahead of their time when it came to making extremely economical diesel engines. It's only now that diesel engines can achieve that sort of mpg.
you are the envy of those Top Geary people . I would have laughed so much if you'd got a picture of Tok next to it . I'm trying to remember if those monitors on doors get blocked by knees . There was a prototype in the 90's that did the same kinda thing, Great Vid
Very interesting, I wonder what Frank Costin could have done with modern running gear in the Reliant based Mono? I quite enjoy these modern eco projects. Keep up the good work!
Very cool its 2018 you'd think all cars would look this futuristic by now. But I suppose if it were in the present it wouldnt be futuristic now would it.
Just saw this review and found it very interesting since I drive a 2000, 1st Generation Honda Insight with 5-speed gearbox. It has been averaging 55 US mpg using the (extremely good!) Air Conditioning during this Summer of sustained heat, and 60 or so US mpg on those rare occasions when the A/C has not been needed. That's 66 Imperial mpg and 72 Imperial mpg or 23 km/l and 26 km/l for those living in Litre-land. I can live with that. And consider it quite good value for money out of a $500.00 car with 316,000 miles on! The Volkswagen looks neat, tho... But I fear that it does not fall within my realm of affordability!
Looks cool. Only 70mpg in my 2018 Prius but twice the interior space. Shame about the fox, would love to see something electric or hybrid on the fleet.
That is a heroically strange vehicle. And for a HubNut road test that is high praise indeed. Personally, for the price of a (the) UK spec vehicle for sale in the UK I would rather have a big Bentley, but I suppose that would fail the mpg criteria...
when you were both sitting in the car with the camera towards you, it looked like you were in the cockpit of an aircraft. A 2 cylinder diesel aircraft. I am really impressed with mrs Hubnut's hat and must sort one for myself (thereby making them undesirable! )
Buy it, Ian - it'll dovetail into the Hubnut fleet nicely. You're trip back into town with Mrs Hubnut looked like a little boy trying to outline the finer points of his new Dinky toy to a little girl. She's a gem, your missus.
I just saw you in devils bridge! I was sitting in the cafe as you turned round outside the front in the invacar 😁 wouldve brought you a drink if you came in 😂
The Wolfsburg widget. A hybrid with irreproachable Green credentials, which include interior ergonomics designed perfectly for hominids, of the arboreal variety.
A very interesting car, and not one I have seen reviewed before. Hopefully this video will do very well for you Ian. On another note I am getting hub-nut itches to own a cheap and reasonably simple car. My autotrader searches for less than £1k and less than 50k miles are producing all sorts of interesting stuff. Including a Rover 75. Perhaps it needs to be done (though I do own an LS400 already).
Great video! I’ve never seen anything about the XL1 except in car magazines. When i look at it I expect it to be fully electric, not with a tiny diesel in the back; not enough room for batteries I suspect = low range hence hybrid. I think you could get these in a limited colour palette but I think the white is the best it makes it look very futuristic!
![[TH] JFT vs RLF - VCT Ascension Pacific - Day 2](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PuIH7w_jO6c/mqdefault.jpg)
Looks like a Honda Insight had a one night stand with a Stormtrooper
Everyone says they look like an Insight, which is very weird because when you put them side by side they look totally different.
It's very refreshing to follow a channel which features normal cars and cars which are long forgot by the masses. Supercars are just getting boring nowadays
Well said my friend. I comment about that same point all the time on this channel.
That's why I stopped watching Top Gear. Who cares about the Super Panamericana GT Turbo Elite etc etc. That show just became a playground for the presenters, and we're supposed to be interested in watching them playing and enjoying themselves in it. Err.... no.
Yes very well said...
A vision of the future with the soundtrack from a cement mixer!?
THAT my friend is the noise of performance vehicles to come !!! LOL.
This may seem strange (and showing my age) but when I first saw it from the side and back I had flashbacks to Ed Strikers car from the old UFO tv show (you know the ones they made from some old Zephyrs) Yes I would drive that. Hmmm VW overestimating the fuel consumption of diesel ...who would have thought !
Likewise about straker's car .
Where Ed Straker pulls up outside the building that pretends to be Harlington-Straker Film Studios, it's now Neptune House at BBC Elstree :)
If you drive it hard and mostly uphill you will get a very different mpg figure (less than 100 mpg) to driving it gently on the flat (over 300 mpg) but who cares - nobody ever bought an XL1 for its fuel economy, any fool can work that out! It's only about fun, exclusivity, and technical fascination!
I just love the design of this - that radical aerodynamic look is just gorgeous! But wouldn't this be a much better car as a pure EV? I guess VW was just a little bit too early with this one...
Not necessarily. Battery energy/weight ratio is much worse and it can run on battery alone for a decent range. If you’re not using the full battery every trip you’re just dragging around unneeded weight.
looks how a Citroen DS would have ended up had they continued to develop it.
or a 2 CV
WOW! That was a rare opportunity to drive such a rare car! Thank you for sharing - I had yet only seen press footage of this car that impressed me very much when it was presented!
The old lady's face in the car park as you pass, Ian........ HELP. HELP. A SPACE SHIP IS PASSING ME........
What a picture 🤭🤭🤭
As usual Ian a fantastic video filled with great content & interested facts.
@Tone. even the gauge!!!!
Wonderful looking concept, but suddenly when compared to my old 1996 Citroen AX 1.4d doing 64mpg with amazingly comfortable seats, a boot full of stuff and a kayak on the roof it doesn't seem so impressive.
@urbex2007
It is absolutely true that to get 3 litres per 100km or about 300mpg then you need to use the battery as well. I agree this is a bit of a con since it only lasts about 20 miles or whatever it is.
However even after the battery runs out you should be able to achieve 2 litres per 100km if driven in the right conditions. This is about 130mpg.
I have no idea why you think it only does 28mpg.
Kudos to your AX14D ! The owner of a Suzuki Celerio told me he gets 75mpg on a run, and that's on petrol :-) Smoke on THAT, Mr London Mayor...
I seem to remember the AX Diesel set a world record for doing 1000 miles on a tank. I had the 106 diesel with the same engine, took it up to Skye and averaged 75mpg.
If this was driven in the same manner and conditions as your AX when you got 64mpg, this one would probably have gotten at least 150mpg though. Consumption numbers vary wildly based on driving, I can easily get my quite big Renault talisman estate to 75mpg on a run, for example.
WOW that is a rare car, glad you got your hands on it, i renember it being in the news and stuff for being the 1L/100km car (only 200 where made and sold at a loss for 100.000€)
Actually 250 were made, of which 200 were sold. No loss was made. VW never marketed this car for a very good reason: it was because they had absolutely no interest whatsoever in how many of this model they might be able to sell. They only ever intended to make 250. The project was only to enable them to learn how to make their every day mainstream cars more efficient and to learn what compromises buyers could live with in the real world. VW typically spend over 1 billion pounds just facelifting a golf! This project also cost 1 billion and that is a normal R & D budget at VW's level for this kind of learning exercise. They gave their engineers a seemingly impossible target to achieve of getting 100km from 1 litre of fuel - THIS was the only point of this car. It took them 12 years to achieve that goal, and in order to achieve it the car HAD to be this light, this aerodynamic, etc. How many they might sell was never a question on the table. Only when you know all this does this car make any sense. They 200 of them and kept 50 back for ongoing research. If VW had needed to recoup their 1 billion pounds development costs by selling 200 cars, they would have had to sell then at £5 million pounds each, and that would mean they would have made a loss of £4.9 million on each car. No, they are recouping their 1 billion by using what they have learned from this project to make their future mainstream cars more efficient by being lighter and more aerodynamic etc etc etc etc.
Really good to see this. I didn't even know that they had escaped into the wild; thought they were just in-house and show cars. Fabulous to see - I want one too.
Instantly liked this car. One critique; With no windshield mounted rear view mirror, it should have a dedicated monitor in its stead.
Sounds just like your Chinese twin cylinder tyre inflator powering the XL 1.
about the same HP , lol
Jusb1066 Still has a top speed of over 150km/h, which isn't bad for the HP :P
the person stepping out of the turquoise UP at around the 3 minute mark is looking at the car wondering whether it was just sugar her husband put in the tea that morning! Looks remarkable, but also oddly relatable - the maps and more satnav unit is the one used in older UPs (and possibly other VWs) which I think they have done away with now, and I can't help but think interior design cues of the car suggest some relation to the UP in design. I can't help but think it'd benefit from a rear view "mirror" in the normal place that is actually just a screen showing what's on a camera. Ive driven with my car full up in the back so I couldn't use the rear view, and it felt very alien just having to use the side mirrors and my shoulder more. Respect for van drivers increased after that.
I am looking forward to a time when cars like this are as regular as normal cars are now.
The Rover looks gutted. Make sure you give her some love. Not literally, just a wash or something
The kind of thing that Rick Deckard - Blade Runner - would use as his weekend runabout. I personally love it. X
Top gear , with gear , no don't think so , hubnut is the one, brilliant little insight to something hardly anyone will see on the British roads, well done hubnut brilliant, little vid. 👌
Finally, the cars from Back to the Future lI are here
If it could fly like Griff"s old 635 CSi it would be cool. As it is, it's just old tech in a radically styled body shell.
Look up griffs 635 some guy has re commissioned it on youtube.
Very interesting, I didn't even know these existed. I normally find modern VW cars as exciting as listening to someone talk about wallpaper paste, but that's a great looking thing.
Wow Iain,what a treat,thanks for this.Being of the Dolomite persuasion I’m impressed with your knowledge of folding Triumph 1300 window winders👍
I let out an audible "oooOOOooohhh" when this popped up. Very interesting piece of engineering!
Normal doors and a back window would benefit this strange little critter and I do like that it is equipped with a shifter and not a silly knob on the dash. Thanks for the great vid.
It's obvious Mrs. HubNut is the stylish one. 😀☕
Fascinating review you have again surpassed yourself...
Looks like something out of total recall
All it needs is Robert Picardo as the driver.
i absolutely love this car so much
How did i miss this a year ago!?
Awesome, awesome video.
I didn't like how the rain water driped off the roof into the car when Mrs Hubnut opened the door to get in.
Same as happened to Marty in BTTF 2, and just one of many reasons why gull-wing / butterfly / Lamborghini doors, whilst cool to look at, are completely impractical for cars. The best arrangement is actually suicide doors - very easy to get in and out of a car that has them - but regular front hinged doors are a good compromise. If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it!
@@rich_edwards79 yes good point but on the other hand, in the case of the XL1 it is so low that they had to have those butterfly doors to make it possible to get in reasonably easily.
I don’t know how I managed to miss this. If your friend really managed 130mpg on a 5000km trip without recharging that is an *incredible* performance. I’d even call it one of the most interesting modern times. If they were affordable I’d have one in an instant. Charge it daily for emission free commuting and have an efficient diesel engine for the longer distances. Heck I even think it looks sub-zero cool.
It’s also a total departure of what ususally carries a VW badge, traditional VW buyers would run away from this.
Rear engine, two-door? Is VW getting back to it's old Beetle roots? The 40 HP engine, the same as my 64 Bug.
Can only imagine the looks you got driving that around. Truly blade runner esque just not flying
The swansong for Dr. Ferdinand Piech at Volkswagen
One issue with this sort of tech and the narrative that can go with it in terms of environmentalism is typified by things like replacing a mirror with a camera, display unit and wiring to go with it. It is environmental providing you ignore where it isn't.
@Senapspiser basically a diesel lotus :P
I agree. But the car was not designed to be environmentally friendly, but energy efficient. That has a lot of overlap, but it is very different at the same time.
But typical of the avenues manufacturers go down. This sort of vehicle would have its energy efficiency marketed as environmentally friendly if it went into mass production.
@@RoobehTunes Lotus did an interesting prototype Elise with a body made, iirc, of hemp. Hemp seat fabric etc, bio fuel engine. I wonder how environmentally friendly it really was? Hmmm... must consult Mr Google on the matter.
Fascinating Hubnut. It always seem to be raining in Wales......that is because it is🤔
Hi, Peter! Yep. I seem to remember that Jonah found the interior of whales pretty damp, too... 🐳
Looks like something out of the historic movies with the “future concept “ of cars , a very interesting thing though
Fascinating!! Nice to see Mrs Hub Nut too....
Former Mrs HubNut...
@@HubNut Former, yes...
The milage you got is exactly in the ballpark of the economy of the old Audi A2, an eminently practical car.
Your friend must be extremely extravagant 😂👍🏻
..and knows a good investment when he sees one!
Affluent? 💎 :-)
I love that 2 cylinder sound!
Fantastic Ian, though I'm sure you were glad to give it back safely. I believe the MD of Listers has one of these in his fleet. I think Rachel's initial reaction was funny:)
I saw one at the VW dealer in New Southdate in 2014. Amazing thing, door mirrors are actually cameras. Fabulous car.
Honda called, they want their old Insight back.
Looks nothing like an insight.
@@aaron___6014 In concept and execution very much the same. Both obsess over every mpg. Both were/are trying too hard to look like "The Car of The Future". Both are/were commercial flops on purpose as a market test
I remember this car coming out some years back and finding the figures fascinating. But I've never seen one on the road. Great vid.
Seems to be the opposite of most cars, noisy on the inside, silent on the outside. 😊
maybe in the future we'll all have longer arms
Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust.
Geoff LOL
The XL1 reminded me of the Honda Insight. It certainly has concept car looks. The doors were a bit DeLorean-esque. The Triumph 1300 had folding window winders back in 1966 so that isn't a first for VW.
1000 miles on a gallon of dirty water sounds even better.
Some police departments in the US converted their vehicles to hydrodrive to save money. I think we all should, Mr OPEC!
What a magic piece of kit. For two people around town, I think it is great, but alas don't plan on going anywhere with luggage. Where do I buy one? ;)
Loving those sick McLaren F1 doors and windows.
Anyone else have to Fireball XL5 theme in their head?....just me then.
What a really unusual car, I love it,You have some great friends with nice toys. the road noise/rumble was quite loud on the video for me & I was having a bit of trouble hearing what you said, (My hearing is rubbish) but I was in stitches reading the subtitles, I've no idea how the audio is transcribed into script but it is well funny.
Yes, there were sound issues sadly. Subtitles (apart from my little comments) entirely courtesy of TH-cam's randomness!
car form ufo tv series 1970s
Is it safe to say that no one has ever heard about this car before? Well it is certainly different , is what I can say about this car. Also it was hilarious to see Mrs Hubnut's face as soon as she got into the car , she was so confused bless her 😄😄
If a Scirocco and an Insight did the the beast with two backs they'd have this monstrosity.
It sounds like my old washing machine on full chat.
Ah, lucky me! I'm a "babyboomer"! I've driven everything from Austin A35 vans to my son's 2014 1.5 A180 diesel with it's £21 a year road tax. But if this is the future I'll gratefully (from a motoring perspective) be out of it. Most valid contribution here from Mrs HubNut - the comment on looking at a computer whilst driving. I realised this 15 years ago when I got behind the wheel of what was Nissan's French design revolution - the P12 Primera. Computer screens in cars - deadly!
Oh those Primera heating controls! Bloody awful.
Hi Ian, earlier this year we had a Toyota Rav hybrid hybrid which was a big practical car with a decent boot. Took a bit of getting used to but surprisingly I ended up enjoying the car. For me the only thing that would stop me buying one, other than the cost, was the handbook stated you couldn’t tow anything!! Have you ever driven one? Mrs Hubnut might give this car her stamp of approval. Regards
Only hybrids I've driven before this were a first-gen Honda Insight (I have a video of that on here) and a Lexus CT200h, which I thought was absolutely awful in pretty much every way possible.
Triangle of Doom for the passenger side looks like the largest so far in all the vehicles you have driven !
Merely an enormous corner of disappointment.
This exact car in the video was at the christmas lights switch on, in a town nearby 😂
Bilmey I never knew it was so rare when I saw one at Heritage Volkswagen last week in the showroom!
Yeah I saw that one at Heritage - it's done only about 300 miles but its interior is badly scuffed (presumably by customers getting in and out of it like a fairground ride) - might explain the relatively low asking price.
The first time I saw this car I thought it was a three wheel configuration i.e. 2 at the front and 1 at the back providing traction . There is something odd about taper styling , I appreciate it reduces drag but it’s an acquired taste shall we say . Great road test , I enjoyed it immensely .
In the company where I work, we developed the side windows (which are made of plastic, not glass). Quite interesting to see you drive one!
Yeah that's right the side windows are polycarbonate but have a special coating developed by NASA which makes them non-scratch,
Sad that they only made 200, that used market price is not ever going to go down. A really interesting car and a nice design too. You were lucky you got to try one, they are going to be a future desirable classic without a doubt. I nearly bought a Lupo 3L some years ago but the gearbox on them could only last for 22.000 km. i now have a 1.2 TSi Caddy and that is a joy to drive. A big car with a tiny turbo charged engine that feels a lot more powerful than it is.
Hope you mean "could last" as in "might last", because I know of ones well in excess of 300 000km on original gearbox.
@@GoldenCroc Out of the 6 3L's I know personally, 4 have had gearbox issues, 3 of which required complete replacements - 1 car is on its third box by 230.000 km.. This includes cars imported from Germany and cars bought from new in Denmark. The 3L is a great car and a likely future classic, but the DSG box in them was not always robust and it took some time to get right. By the time VW did the Polo Bluemotoion they had gotten the durability right. I have seen 1 manual conversion in a 3L and an engine swapped one - 3L exterior with GTi interior and petrol TSi engine. Would still love one, but only if I knew the DSG had been serviced or updated. The garage where I tested 2 cars myself were 3L specialists and were not surprised when the first car they let me drive only made it 20 meters down the road. The second changed gears like a learner driver on their first drive. So I gave up and settled for a Wagon R+. Ugly but tall and room for 24 crates of beer ;-)
The sounds from this vehicle remind me of the French 'Sans Permis', you hear them coming and they arrive 5 minutes later. Very good concept but I can't really see the point in spending £130k to save a few bob on diesel. There's no boot space so you couldn't take it on holiday, for a commuting vehicle highly impractical in an urban situation. I don't really see where it's intended market is? In the average 'up and over door' garage it would fit, but then due to the doors you couldn't get out. My 14 year old Fiat Doblo might be old hat, but it does give me 63.1 mpg, plenty of space, and for £300 I'm not complaining. I've also saved myself £129,700 (enough to buy 2 or 3 houses in this part of Wales!). Brilliant video Ian.
Nobody bought one of these to save on fuel! They bought them because they are rare and exclusive and incredible fun to own and drive, and likely to turn a good profit when they come to sell up - and that's it. The reviewer showed you the boot stuffed full of charger unit, when in fact every owner leaves the charger at home in the garage, which means you have 140 litres for luggage, plus about another 30 litres behind the driver's seat for squashy bags. Pretty reasonable for a fun weekend car I would say. Where is its market? People who already have a fast car and a luxury car and want a fun talking point car as well - and there are plenty of them of course. The doors thing is actually the opposite to what you think - they are in fact MORE practical than normal doors because, as they are opening, on the way up they never actually project any further sideways from the car than the minimum amount that you have to open a normal car door in order to just about be able to squeeze yourself through the gap!
LOOKS COOL!
I think Mrs Hubnut's enthusiasm level would be a
about the same as my other half's would be!
I very much liked Mrs. HubNut's reactions which, I think, could be summarised as 'underwhelmed' or "Hmmm".
Otherwise:
* Holy Road Noise, Batman.
* It's not a patch on Fireball XL5, is it.
To be fair, the single windscreen wiper worked very well.
Reminds me of the GM Ultralite of the early 1990s & Demolition Man (93') fame. Amazing mpg but your Rover 45 is still cheaper per mile when the respective asking prices are considered £375 vs £130,000!
Not when you factor in that XL1's will be worth a lot more than £130k in the relatively near future. Buyers are already sitting on a profit.
I saw a video with a contemporary review of a DeLorean not so long ago, and I gather that their engineering solution to the out-of-reach door problem was a dangly strap. Which rather runs against the futuristic theme, but I had to admire for its pragmatism.
Knowing what those are currently valued at, I'd have been terrified driving that unicorn. I spent ages poring over the one in the VW museum in Wolfsburg.
I can remember seeing one of these seriously rare XL1s in the showroom in Swansea.
On recollection, the car cost supercar money, at £115,000, but no car in history was as fuel efficient as this thing.
IT JUST GOES TO SHOW THE FUTURE IS NOT ELECTRIC!!!
The infotainment screen could be linked to a rear facing camera to act as a neat rear-view mirror maybe?
Given the dinosaurs you usually drive, I bet it's like going from a 40s era typewriter to a top of the range gaming pc with Windows 11.
The back end reminds me of a Citroen DS and I did hear any wiper action comment
It is amazing all the coo! ,Weird, different retro, modern,goofy vehiclesyou get to drive. Thanks forintroduceding me them. It looks like something out of U.F.O. the old Thames based SiFi show
but can you put a steam engine in it
I'd like to see it fitted with a wood gasifier personally. Tried and tested WW2 technology! And probably still more ecological than any diseasel.
It's very interesting as all of the technology for this car was developed in conjunction with the successful Le Mans winning Audi World Endurance Championship LMP1 team. This has now been put into production in the Audi e-tron series of road cars. Love the futuristic look of this car though.
my 15 year old escort van does 50 mpg and i do not spare the horses .
Bloody good vans and the older mk3/4 Escort diesels could do 60-70mpg not bad for the mid 80's.
@@jaggass
was that the 1.8 diesel 50 bhp?
mapping out richness and blocking/mapping out egr valve helps mpg
The 1.6d 55bhp engine that was also in mk2 Fiesta's,early Orions before being replaced with the 1.8 Endura diesel. The AX 14D if driven carefully or on A roads could do over 70mpg. It would never do any less than 55mpg as well. Ford and PSA were really ahead of their time when it came to making extremely economical diesel engines. It's only now that diesel engines can achieve that sort of mpg.
The Endura Diesel isn't that good from cold but once it's got going there's no stopping it. It's bulletproof as well.
WOW That's Iconic 🚕👌
Love the idea of a hybrid diesel. A little diesel at that but the two cylinder clatter sounds great! Needs to be more affordable :s
How fast the future can look old.
you are the envy of those Top Geary people . I would have laughed so much if you'd got a picture of Tok next to it .
I'm trying to remember if those monitors on doors get blocked by knees . There was a prototype in the 90's that did the same kinda thing, Great Vid
I did get a picture of TWC next to it! Look at the cover. ;-)
Sorry I'm multi tasking painting and listening and I only noticed now
Very interesting, I wonder what Frank Costin could have done with modern running gear in the Reliant based Mono? I quite enjoy these modern eco projects. Keep up the good work!
Very cool its 2018 you'd think all cars would look this futuristic by now. But I suppose if it were in the present it wouldnt be futuristic now would it.
Just saw this review and found it very interesting since I drive a 2000, 1st Generation Honda Insight with 5-speed gearbox.
It has been averaging 55 US mpg using the (extremely good!) Air Conditioning during this Summer of sustained heat, and 60 or so US mpg on those rare occasions when the A/C has not been needed.
That's 66 Imperial mpg and 72 Imperial mpg or 23 km/l and 26 km/l for those living in Litre-land.
I can live with that. And consider it quite good value for money out of a $500.00 car with 316,000 miles on!
The Volkswagen looks neat, tho... But I fear that it does not fall within my realm of affordability!
Looks cool. Only 70mpg in my 2018 Prius but twice the interior space. Shame about the fox, would love to see something electric or hybrid on the fleet.
The fox is pretty green and doesnt have a petrol engine
Finally l/100km. I can understand something :)
Interesting car, thanks Ian.
That is a heroically strange vehicle. And for a HubNut road test that is high praise indeed. Personally, for the price of a (the) UK spec vehicle for sale in the UK I would rather have a big Bentley, but I suppose that would fail the mpg criteria...
when you were both sitting in the car with the camera towards you, it looked like you were in the cockpit of an aircraft. A 2 cylinder diesel aircraft. I am really impressed with mrs Hubnut's hat and must sort one for myself (thereby making them undesirable! )
I love the look on Mrs HubNut's face - completely bemused by the XL1 :-)
Enough is enough! Nutti you must do an electric car conversion, personally i'd do a Citroen DS21
Buy it, Ian - it'll dovetail into the Hubnut fleet nicely.
You're trip back into town with Mrs Hubnut looked like a little boy trying to outline the finer points of his new Dinky toy to a little girl. She's a gem, your missus.
Bet that was strange driving on the left side of the car. Great Vid as usual.
Not that odd for me. The Mighty Dacia is LHD and we drove that all the way back from Romania this summer.
I think it's gorgeous anyway; love a pretty car; who needs fantastic speed.
I just saw you in devils bridge! I was sitting in the cafe as you turned round outside the front in the invacar 😁 wouldve brought you a drink if you came in 😂
Ha! Test drive. An unsuccessful one sadly. Back to the workshop. Thanks for the drink offer!
Hi Ian looks nice but couldn’t stop looking at the gear stick at the side of you shaking
The Wolfsburg widget. A hybrid with irreproachable Green credentials, which include interior ergonomics designed perfectly for hominids, of the arboreal variety.
A very interesting car, and not one I have seen reviewed before. Hopefully this video will do very well for you Ian.
On another note I am getting hub-nut itches to own a cheap and reasonably simple car. My autotrader searches for less than £1k and less than 50k miles are producing all sorts of interesting stuff. Including a Rover 75. Perhaps it needs to be done (though I do own an LS400 already).
Great video! I’ve never seen anything about the XL1 except in car magazines. When i look at it I expect it to be fully electric, not with a tiny diesel in the back; not enough room for batteries I suspect = low range hence hybrid. I think you could get these in a limited colour palette but I think the white is the best it makes it look very futuristic!
Far more futuristic in silver in my opinion. But its a personal thing I guess.