Hello again, seasoned compatriots, after a hearty meal at the end of day two we have arisen early on a Sunday to see much of what else Barcelona is known for. Or at least what we remembered from last time as well as what our daughter wanted to show us. Note that Sunday is generally a day on which most retail establishments are closed in Europe, so many people including workers truly relax or do things of a non-consumer nature.
This is great, if not for the fact that it tends to create greater masses of people wandering around and sometimes results in larger crowds than normal. But that’s okay since we are on vacation and time is cheap today, we have all day and not a care in the world. We’ve decided to start the day by taking a subway and then walking the rest of the way to Parc Güell, one of Barcelona’s signature features. Come and join us, we don’t walk very fast…
Parc Güell (you can pronounce it “parkwell”) is up on a hillside overlooking the city, so sort of an urban hike to get there. On the way we saw various cars, such as this Fiat Multipla, often referred to as one of the ugliest cars ever made. Hindsight may be a little less harsh as it’s also quite practical and time has softened its looks somewhat. Which doesn’t mean it’s not still ugly but it’s not as alone as it once was in that category. At least it’s a good color. Just don’t look at it from the front.
Yes, Dacias are on the menu again today. Yesterday we saw a working man’s Dacia Dokker, here is the passenger version. The single slider on this one is on the street side since this is a one-way street, clearly illustrating the limitations of the single door design. Presumably this is cheaper than a second door version and probably works just fine once accustomed to it.
And a Dacia Sandero which reminds me mostly of a Nissan Kicks which we do get over here and I’m a big fan of without actually owning anything remotely similar. Along with the Hyundai Venue and other small and taller cars, all of which look sort of 4x4ish but are all resolutely front wheel drive only. I think I can trace that back to being a fan of the Matra Rancho as a child, which if you don’t know it was a 1970s car that looked more like a 90s Land Rover than most 90s Land Rovers did yet was exclusively FWD as well. It was French of course which explains it all without actually explaining anything.
Since we opened the door to the French just there, they pried it all the way open and presented me with a mid 2000’s Renault Megane Coupe Cabriolet, Renault’s entry in the around that time burgeoning folding hardtop convertible boomlet. Fairly angular yet still curvaceous I’m of mixed minds about it, it’s sort of euro-chic but not really something I miss seeing all that much. The Pontiac G6 convertible is probably the closest analogue to it both in market position and execution I think even though this is smaller, i.e. euro-sized.
But then, as we rounded the final turn, we were passed by something and I flubbed the camera only to see it take a turn into a parking lot of tour buses. I figured that can’t be the correct place for it so was ready when the driver figured that out as well and exited again, taking a very wide turn towards me. Do you know it?
Yes, it’s a Nissan Terrano II. These were actually built in a Nissan plant in Spain between 1993 and 2005 and were available in 3-door (as this one is) as well as longer 5-door versions. And (drumroll!) there was also a version built by Nissan and sold by Ford named the Ford Maverick! Yes there was another Maverick between that ’70s mini-Torino that I love to dislike and Ford’s new little c*ck-tease of a cheap hybrid 40mpg truck that they are seemingly only able to make about two dozen available every year at the bait and switch $20k price.
It was facelifted more times than Joan Rivers, but I think this is one of the final versions, so early to mid 2000s with the third or fourth facelift. It’s also 4WD so not a pretender. Sizewise it’s similar to the first generation Toyota RAV4 but comes across as a little skinnier if that’s possible. Our Aussie friends had access to this one as well.
Finally we got to Parc Güell which my pictures do no justice to and in fact I didn’t take very many anyway. It’s a very large park on a hillside that was developed by the famed modernist artist Antoni Gaudi. There’s a network of trails with buildings, plantings, some (not much) religious imagery, and lots of interesting features. Here we are at the base, near the exit in fact, we entered higher up on the side maybe half a mile away(?). That columned thing you see is actually entered from the top where it is a huge sandy expanse ringed by a continuous mosaic tiled bench in sort of a wave form. You don’t even realize you are on top of a structure until you’ve explored the whole expanse.
Here’s a snapshot of one of my kids (the Jaguar wagon driver!) petting the mosaic lizard on the steps. The whole staircase is mosaic’ed as is the whole structure behind it. That structure has 86 columns each about 20 feet high supporting the vast space above it.
This is inside the forest of columns looking straight up and if you click, it should enlarge and you’ll note that it’s again all mosaic tilework. Now imagine that times a few hundred. It’s simply magnificent and I’m completely not doing it justice. And it’s just one aspect of the whole park. If you’re there, check it out, it’s a relaxing couple of hours of walking around but look closely at stuff.
I ran across this scale model of the columned thing later that day and am glad I took a picture as it illustrated this part of the place well. The whole top is covered in sand (or pathway gravel, whatever) and must hold several thousand people. Around the edge is the continuous bench, at the bottom is that lizard again. Here’s a link to Lonely Planet’s description of Parc Güell if you’re interested in more info and far better pictures.
At the bottom near the exit are two small houses, both very interesting and while Gaudi lived in one of them, he didn’t actually design either of them. One is now a gift shop so I went in and as interesting as the whole Parc Güell was, in the gift shop I saw the most astounding thing that I will forever kick myself for not having the cojones to simply take a picture of. Coming down the stairs from the second floor was a young woman with various piercings dressed in a relatively short skirt. As I waited at the bottom for her to descend (it was a very narrow staircase), her hem slid up a bit and on the front of her thigh was an outline tattoo of a Ford Sierra Cosworth.
Yes, pretty much exactly that. I only caught a momentary glimpse but it’s a shape of a car that imprinted on my brain early in the ’80s and there’s no way I could have gotten a pic without probably getting a swift kick in the head but it might have been worth it, of course what I should have done is politely asked, who knows… It was about 4″ wide so not exactly subtle, and of a car that was far older than the young woman was. A true fan, indeed. I was mightily impressed and whenceforth shall forever think of that young woman’s artwork when seeing any Ford Sierra. Anyway, we then left after I took a moment to compose myself.
To the left of the exit was a Daewoo Nubira, the only Daewoo I’ve seen in the wild in some time and a shape I’m confident I’ll never see tattooed on a thigh nor anywhere else. This is actually the same as the first-year Nubira that we received in the United States before it was facelifted, yet Daewoos from that era are still around, perhaps they aren’t nearly as bad as we assumed back then.
Wandering down the hill a different way towards our next destination we saw more cars, such as this mid ’90s Opel Astra, a shape that was built in at least twelve assembly plants and sold pretty much all over the world except North America. If I squint it even looks vaguely Daewoo-ish even though Daewoo only built a version of its predecessor (not this one) that GM then foisted upon us as the Pontiac LeMans. No, not that LeMans, the 1980s LeMans. Only GM could come up with a scheme wherein a GM company had designed and was already building a given car, yet they then had someone else build that same car in slightly worse form, then badged it as another brand of GM car and tried to sell it. The mind, it is boggled.
This guy doesn’t realize his VW Vanagon (syncro? I think so) is worth a veritable mint if he could get it across the ocean to the U.S. I recall that color on mid-late ’80s Jettas, it works well on this too.
And then we stumbled across my favorite find of the day (not counting the Ford Sierra Cosworth, of course). A Renault R10-1300.
It sparkled from half a block away, the only chrome visible for miles. The little French rear-engined beauty just sucked me in sitting there looking just so…I was ready to bum a yellow Gauloise from a passerby but almost nobody in Europe seems to smoke anymore either.
It seems the dealer still exists in Carnon, France about a couple of hundred miles from Barcelona on a peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea. This car appears to be of the one final year that the 1300 engine was fitted into the 10’s body, so a 1971 unless I’m totally misunderstanding things.
A 1300 is probably what most of your riding lawnmowers use but in early ’70s Europe in such a small and light car it was quite likely delightful on the roads around the Med.
I love the color, the 3-lug wheels, the wheels themselves look MoPar-ish, and the rear window sliders are cool too. The whole thing is neatly styled, a little frumpy but cool nonetheless, like an Alfa Giulia or so. Same same but different… I just realized my family is in the background, wife and daughter discussing something and the boys checking out the rack of rental e-bikes. None of them paying any attention to me after I just (as is often the case) ran across the street to take care of (this) business.
My man here doesn’t believe in just the powers of The Club, no, he also employs the steering-brake pedal lock device. Never mind that four people could probably just lift the whole car up. Check out the padding on the door panels. Tres chic!
I think Kinby lights (below the bumper here) are correct to the car’s period and I believe were made in Spain (? Daniel?). Check out the bumper shape, it just goes all over the place like a mustache above the license plate area. Anyway, gotta move on now.
But right across the street was a little Alfa Romeo MiTo, built between 2008 and 2013, then facelifted and produced for another half-decade.
But not for us because we can’t have nice things. We wouldn’t have bought a 2-door hatchback Italian car anyway I suppose to be honest. Well, maybe five or so of us might have but only if it was used.
And then that brings us around the corner to this magnificent sight, (the) La Sagrada Familia. This basilica is also a Gaudi creation (actually, he took it over and redesigned it after construction had started). Note that the crane isn’t there to restore it, they are in fact still building it. Construction started in 1882, Gaudi took over a year later, worked on it until his death in 1926 and is buried in its crypt.
This picture of just the upper work gives a better view of the Gothic and Art Nouveau styles, not that I’m any kind of architecture critic or expert. The spires are of course what draws the eye and there are several still to be built.
I attempted my go-to favorite trick but even the postcards have the cranes in them, so no luck there. It’s quite amazing, they do hold mass there, it was consecrated in 2010, and expected to be finished in the next decade. Perhaps. Apparently Gaudi is said to have remarked that “My client is not in a hurry”. However we were, and after walking around it and taking numerous photos of other tourists and having them take pictures of us we kept going…
It was about this time that my son took notice of all the scooters and started badgering me about how we needed one. So we started looking at what was parked curbside. A red Vespa is always worthy of a picture.
As is this proud peacock of a scooter, in this case a Peugeot!
It’s a Django and it begged to be unchained! It’s quite large, actually, and that huge box on the back seems to have quite the cargo capacity. If we do get one it’ll be a lot smaller than this.
But probably still larger than this Suzuki Ignis, the same as the one that Mr. and Mrs. DougD went around Ireland in. This Spanish one is a little quicker than theirs because it’s red. What a great car but again, no surprise that we can’t have nice things, especially things we can’t fit into. The DougD’s are Canadian so they still (mostly) fit into stuff as long as they don’t indulge in the poutine (the Canadians in general I mean, not the DougD’s)…
The population of Spain isn’t immune to EVs either, in this case the Chinese built Lynk&Co. Is it trying to sound like Lincoln Co.? Does that work? I saw several of these and they don’t seem to be poorly assembled or anything, well no worse than your average iPhone or laptop anyway. If it had a Peugeot or Buick or even a Volvo badge on it I don’t think anyone would be the wiser.
If you don’t hate SUVs or Crossovers or whatever, it isn’t ugly and could stand a chance anywhere. It’s not overly large in real life, but in this real life there’s a tiny little old VW Polo in front of it which makes it look enormous. It isn’t, it’s more like a Mazda CX-5, maybe a VW Tiguan I think.
Another Gaudi building, they are dotted all around Barcelona.
Toyota Prius Plus taxi. Muy popular. For good reason, just like in NYC and Chicago, right? Cabbies go for reliable, economical, long-lived vehicles and the only thing better than cheap and easy to repair like a Crown Vic is one that rarely needs any repair to begin with. Oh what a feeling!
And here we are atop yet another Barcelona hillside with another glass of Sangria, this time on Montjuic Hill at the Olympic Swimming Pool complex after riding in a funicular to get up here (using our normal metro pass, no extra charge!). This is actually the Water Polo pool, the diving pool is just to the left. Many think this was built for the ’92 Olympics but it was in fact just heavily refurbished for that event, originally dating back to 1929 when there was just one pool, then modernized in the 50s and then again for 1992. The view is outstanding. And at the top of the grandstands that we were sitting in is a bar, hence the libation in hand.
The pools are open to the public in July and August, but the bar and seating is open year-round (I think). Pricing was quite reasonable for the drinks and the view is spectacular. My video above is about thirteen seconds long but the view lasts a lot longer…
Heading back to our place I mused as to why once again we couldn’t have the nice things, in this case the actual station wagon version of the current Toyota Corolla instead of just the sedan and the hatchback that they seem to call a semi-wagon or something. The actual wagon seems so useful, is available as a hybrid and is extremely popular in Europe both among private owners as well as taxi operators, it seems these are taking over for the Prius Plus although they don’t seem quite as spacious due to the lower roofline. Still, better than the sedan and hatch, no?
After dinner and drinks to celebrate our last evening in Barcelona, this Alfa Romeo 159 wagon was parked near our street. The phone-cam shot it like this, no edits, so moody. Just needs some smoke or steam from the manhole cover…
Daddy likes! But it was time to get to bed as we had a cab scheduled for 4am to get us to the aeropuerto for the next leg of our adventure.
Which showed up on time and treated us to a ride in a SEAT Leon wagon, which is basically a VW Golf/Jetta wagon with more flair in the styling. TDI engine in this case, about 150k kilometers on the clock, not a rattle, and the fit, finish, and material quality of a modern VW/Audi Group vehicle. Alright, time to check in to the lounge while we await the flight to our next destination! Arrivederci, mis amigos!
I forgot what a unique profile a Renault 10 cuts when viewed directly from the side. And that one sure has an impressive collection of lighting out back! I’m wondering what the amber lamps below the bumper are for. Hmm. An old lady in my neighborhood drove a screamingly yellow-green 1970 or 71 Renault 10 from as far back as I can remember until the mid-to-late 1990’s. She lived in an impossibly tiny house that was in immaculate condition, as was her car.
My R12 wagon had a rather large front overhang, too, but it had the entire engine hanging out ahead of the front axle… that car ripped through the snow amazingly well with its pizza cutter tires (on Michelin 3 lug wheels too).
My Dad bought a ’68 R10 new at Almartin motors in South Burlington (near the airport). He previously had a used ’59 Beetle, but one of the teenagers living at the end of our street plowed into it parked in front of our house on Killarney drive, it was totalled, probably not too big a loss, spending it’s life in Vermont it was a rust bucket after 9 years.
At the time, my Dad had started making trips to Corbeil-Essonnes south of Paris; it was a sister plant to Essex Junction and pretty common at the time, frequently had yield issues. Right out of college, my Dad, a chemist, started working on semiconductors in particular processing was his area, which he did since 1956, by 1968 he’d already worked for a half dozen companies since college, most no longer exist, but were at the time marketed their products (there was lots of shakeup in the field, and of course capital requirements were very large, even though the features were still pretty large, in fact he still worked on some discrete devices (and some Germanium, Gallium Arsenide). He became a bit of a francophile despite having no connection to the country other than visiting it pretty regularly (all for business, the vacation trips didn’t happen till much later). That’s probably one reason he got the R10; of course he was a family man and it didn’t hurt that the R10 had 4 doors vs the 2 doors for the Beetle. Prior to college he was in the US Army stationed near the Czech border in the early 50’s and instead of a Jeep, he was often assigned a Beetle, so by the time he got the ’59 he’d already been pretty well acquainted with them.
I think his R10 had the 1100 cc watercooled rear engine. His of course was US spec, it had sealed beam headlights surrounded by an amber and white light that wrapped around the side. It also had a “home market” light that I guess is per some European lighting standard (maybe France) but they didn’t delete it for US import. Of course this car is European spec and doesn’t have the US sealed beam lights, but it still seems to have way more lights than standard…in particular the extra lights around the taillights in the rear…my Dad’s ’68 also had these taillights but lacked the other lights on this….similarly, he didn’t have front fog lights this one has.
He had his through 1974…I started driving that year, but right after he traded in the R10, I never got to drive it. Believe it or not, it was due to the gas shortage…the R10 got pretty good gas mileage, but it was a manual, and my Dad wanted my Mom to be able to drive something other than our large V8 station wagon but she’s never been comfortable with a manual, so even the 2nd car would now be an automatic so she could also drive it…even though the automatic got worse gas mileage than the standard.
Last fall, one of the ladies I met my first job out of college attended a wedding near where I live now (about 1800 miles from where we worked together, she still lives back there)…I found out she also drove an R10 while in college (I didn’t know her then)…it was a very uncommon car even then new, but we lived in New England, not too far from Quebec province back then, so there were maybe a few more French cars than you’d normally encounter partly due to that proximity.
I hadn’t seen her in 37 years (don’t go back hardly at all) but knew her pretty well for awhile, not sure how we got on the topic (I met her for lunch, since I wasn’t involved in the wedding).
I will forever be grateful to the driver of an R10 who helped me when I ran out of gas on a rural Virginia road on a Sunday morning in the summer of 1975. He took me to a gas station, and back to put in a gallon or two (back when gas stations would loan you a gas can) and make sure my F100, borrowed from work without permission for a Sunday outing, fired up. Not so grateful to the scores of domestic car driving folks going to wherever people in rural Virginia go on Sunday mornings …. the R10 driver had a small Buddha statue on his dashboard.
Hmm…what color was the R10? His was kind of a silver grey. Even when new, they were uncommon (that’s why I was surprised that an ex-co worker had one, even back in the day).
Having said that, one of my friends inherited a 1961 NSU Prinz from his father in North Dakota. Such a small car, if it got stuck for traction, he and his brother would get out and lift the car to a point to where the tires could get better traction. His father bought it for the engine, he was planning on moving it into a tractor (never happened)…one of his friend’s wife is restoring it.
I forgot to mention that we moved from Essex Junction to Manassas VA in 1969, the R10 came with us, so it was actually traded in there in 1974.
They opened a new plant for memory, which never had the demand expected (this would be bipolar memory, for mainframes and AS400) so they moved us back to Vermont in mid 1975. I even had a summer job testing 4k bipolar memory back in 1979, but I don’t think memory lasted much longer, it quickly became a commodity and hard to make much of a margin on, sure its been years since they’ve made any.
As a 2nd car, our R10 never had much mileage on it…think it only had about 22k on it when it was traded in. It had a new clutch, it went in Washington DC when my Dad took me to a Senators game. He nursed it home trying to time the traffic lights (probably easier in 1971 or so than it would be now).
Buda statue?..not when my Dad had his (but it left our family in early 1974). It had really comfortable seats…though as a ’68, no head rests yet. His had no radio, guess it had a heater but that was it. Also great visibility out…you sat pretty high and the glass area was pretty good…better vision out than the Beetle. The front trunk was front hinged, lined in rubber, and the spare tire fit into the “U” upkick in the front bumper…it came with Michelin radials (my Dad’s first car with radial tires)…and 4 wheel disc brakes…not bad for an inexpensive car (probably less than $2000 new).
Rear engine rear drive cars were pretty popular in snow country before FWD became common….my Dad later bought a 1976 Subaru DL new (in Winooski) but FWD wasn’t yet too common thought VW and Honda had it they were very expensive…and Saab was even pricier. We moved by the time
What a great time you are having. But I can hear it now: “Daaaaaad, will you stop with the car pictures?” 🙂 Also, you did not mention if the kick in the head you expected to follow a photo of the young lady’s tattoo would be coming from the young lady herself or from Mrs. Klein.
I cannot share your enthusiasm for the Renault R10. I remember seeing these in little black & white magazine ads when they were new. After having the Dauphine imprint itself on my young mind as what a Renault should look like, the R10 was just an ungainly mess that I don’t think has improved with time.
The white Alfa looks delighted to see you.
I think the ungainly mess part is precisely what I find so fetching about the R10! The Alfa does look delighted, if it could it might try to give me a hug.
Wow great update, thanks for the shout out on the Ignis. I don’t know if I’d like to drive in Barcelona, so it wasn’t us. BTW I think Poutine would kill you if you ate it every day.
I’d seen photos of that Park Guell from other freinds who went to Spain, but just the famous blue wall. I didn’t realize there was more to it than that.
I noticed the Jim Morrison sticker in the rear window of the R10, could Jim be alive and living in Spain? In high school back in the 80’s I had several friends who insisted that he was still living but you don’t hear too much about that theory these days.
Jim along with Jimi and Janis will live on forever…It may as well be here, I can think of worse places.
The white Alfa (3617HBF) is not a Giulietta, but a MiTo.
The MiTo was built from 2008 to 2018 and is based on the Fiat Grande Punto. (It was actually intended as a smaller affordable brother to the 8C Competizione).
The vehicle pictured is a pre-facelift (2008-2013).
Doh! Of course, thank you and corrected.
a Daewoo Nubira sedan… This is actually the predecessor to the Nubira that we received in the United States
There was only one “generation” of Nubira worldwide. This would be a pre-facelift car that isn’t actually the sedan but rather the 5-door hatchback. The first year US cars had this face, and for that one year the hatch was also on offer. This car (J100 designation) is the direct antecedent to both generations of the Chevrolet Cruze (J300/J400); the intermediary was the Lacetti (J200), sold here as the Suzuki Forza/Reno.
Fun fact: Daewoo actually prepared and backed one of these very Nubira hatchbacks for participation in the 1999 season of the SCCA ProRally series, as seen here on that year’s Lake Superior event:
DoubleDoh! The Nubira is the most interesting (low bar alert!) of the three that were on offer precisely due to everything you mentioned as well as having a wagon. Daewoo packed a lot into the short time they were offered here…
I love houses, buildings and other architectural built environments at least as much as cars, and Gaudi is the equivalent of Marcello Gandini to me; actually he’s even better. I really should see Barcelona in person, having gazed at his work in books since about the same time I discovered Gandini.
The US version of the R10 had extensions from the upper part of the front bumper, which made the main part’s curvature less obvious. This is better.
Yes, the Corolla hybrid has rather taken over the Prius’ role in Europe.
I would have asked her to let me photo her tattoo. I’m pretty fearless that way. And I suspect she would have gladly obliged. But that’s said sitting here in my bed at 6 in the morning.
Seems this Renault 10 has a loving owner. I remember them on the streets in the 70s and 80s always having rusty fenders. At this car, the rear ones look like new – maybe restored or replaced? Whatever, good to see it is taking care of.
Alfa MiTo, not Giulietta,which is quite large by comparison.☺️
Huh, my original correction did not take, fixed for good now, thanks!
Two different friends of ours are in Spain now, posting great pictures and descriptions of sights, food, experiences. But no cars, so thank you Jim. The strongest automotive memory of my last and only visit to Barcelona in 2004 is navigating the traffic, pre-GPS or smart phone, to our hotel on a very narrow street in the heart of the city. At least our rental Mégane was narrower than our friends’ Fiat Multipla. So thanks also for posting photos of both of those cars, though our Mégane was not a convertible. The Gaudi buildings look the same as ever, but there were no Priuses or EV’s to be seen almost 20 years ago. Aside from traffic, our biggest challenge traveling with school age kids was that restaurants didn’t really seem ready to serve dinner until 10pm or so. And of course, Catalan is NOT Spanish … locals seemed more willing to speak English.
Edit: to be clear, we drove into the city, and out a few days later. It was easy and fun to get around on foot and Metro, so dealing with traffic and navigation was fortunately brief.
I have a long-time Volvo buddy whose kids grew up in 245s. His daughter recently got this tattoo.
–
Confirmed. Kinby was a brand—or possibly a long-ago mergee—of FAESSA, FAros ESpaña SA (“Spain Headlamps Inc”), which was assimilated into the Valeo collective with Cibié; Ducellier; Elma; Frankani; Marchal; Neiman; PASA (Proyectores España SA, “Spain Headlights Inc”); Seima; Signalvision. Can’t tell from here if the headlamps are also Kinby-FAESSA items, or Cibies. This car also has amber turn signal repeaters near the front of each fender—no surprise; Spain was an early adopter—but it also has olde-tyme parking lights further back on each fender, showing white light to the front and red to the rear as pictured closer here. This is the type that gave rise to the British English term “side lights”, as in “front side lights” and “rear side lights”, which Americans call “parking” and “tail” lights respectively, and aren’t to be confused with side marker lights. Whee!–Yes.
I always knew you had the ability to be concise, Daniel 🙂
Shush, you; I have a reputation to downhold.
If Toyota build something anything really they include a hybrid as an option, a friend of mine lives her Corolla Fielder(Corolla wagon) but it sucks gas, Im surprised she hasnt bought the hybrid version I see so many of, Crown hybrid? certainly.
Daewoo were still stamping out Astras under their own brand name in the late 90s Cielo or something similar, havent seen one recently, but they came back with a vengence with horrid shitbox called Kalleos we got em as Holden Barinas you call them a Chevy Spark.
That was the Matiz,I think, its successor in Australia was the Holden Barina Spark,which was a size smaller than the regular Barina.
The Kalos became the Barina when Holden ditched the Opel Corsa-based model around 2001-2.
Wow! Barcelona looks like a city I could like. For me that’s really saying something. All those fascinating Gaudi structures. What an amazing vision that man had.
Fascinating cars too. Someone really doesn’t want to lose that Renault. I was going to say ‘lovely old Renault’ but the cataracts aren’t that bad yet; let’s go with ‘fascinating’. (And please excuse any typos I miss.) The Ignis is quite familiar here, and I saw a MiTo in my town a few months back, didn’t realize they’d sold them in Australia.