The elegant Jabra Stone headset is also exquisitely packaged

The elegant packaging of the Jabra Stone gives you the first clue that you’re in for a treat. The delights within are revealed through a series of precision-engineered twists and clicks.

It’s unlikely to win any awards for the greenest packaging but the presentation case is a thing of beauty in itself - perhaps it seemed logical to seat the Stone in a box that wouldn’t disgrace a serious ‘rock’?

And now to the content within.

The Jabra Stone headset earpiece appears to have been delicately scalloped from a solid smooth pebble (or Stone), the remainder of which forms the charging base.

Having charged the unit, pairing the Stone with my iPhone was a doddle. I didn’t even consult the instructions and was underway in no time.

The Stone sat comfortably in my ear. Its light weight meant that I soon forgot I was wearing it. Generally a good thing except for the time when I dozed off on the sofa, awaking a while later to find my baby daughter playing with it as it had fallen out during my slumber.

The ’swipe’ volume control is slick and sound quality is very good. My friend at the other end of the line didn’t even realise that I was ‘hands-free’.

Uniting the headset with its charging base restores it to its pure, almost ovoid, state.

The only minor gripe is that the plug adapter cable is on the short side. Perfect for desktop outlets but mine were fully occupied at the time.

Talktime on the headset is short compared to previous Jabra units I’ve tried at only 2 hours, but the charging base can store an additional 6 hours.

In summary, the Jabra Stone is the first bluetooth headset I’ve come across that could genuinely be described as cool.

It’s designed to be worn on your right ear only (fine for me) and retails at around £69.99.

I was somewhat surprised to see that Citroen was promoting its new DS3 at last month’s MPH Show with the slogan ‘Anti Retro’. Clearly a reference to the car’s contemporary design in stark contrast to that of its key intended competitor - the MINI.

I find this odd on two fronts:

Firstly, Citroen is trading on a retro nameplate with DS. Granted, the car bears no resemblance to the original, but the company is happy for customers to make the positive connection with the iconic Bertoni-designed saloon from the 1950s.

Secondly, I would argue that Citroen’s latest concept car, the Revolte, unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show (and previewed beforehand on Facebook), showed some rather distinctly retro traits, although admittedly it stopped short of simply becoming a caricature of the 2CV.

At last year’s Geneva Show, in response to rumours and a slick ‘leaked’ digital image of just such a car, I put the question to Mark Lloyd, Citroen’s Design Chief responsible for both the DS3 and the new C3 (which share a platform incidentally), as to whether retro designs such as the MINI and the Fiat 500, were merely a cop-out - an admission that a design team couldn’t come up with anything new and appealing.

Lloyd’s response was quite resolute:

“Our job [as designers] is to create cars that people want to buy.” In principle, if the demand is there for such vehicles, then why not?

He went on to point out that the MINI, ignoring its design, was fundamentally a good car. If it were a bad car, then the design would be unlikely to save it.

So what’s the deal?

Is the Anti-Retro slogan simply part of a very targeted advertising campaign against BMW’s updated interpretation of Issigonis’ masterpiece, or are we likely to see Citroen go Pro-Retro if the public’s reaction to the Revolte is deemed to be positive?

Citroen’s official line is no to retro, but given Lloyd’s unwillingness to rule out the possibility, I’m banking on the latter.

Watch this space.

At the UK launch of the Fiat Bravo in the summer of 2007, I asked Steve Norman (then Marketing Director Worldwide for Fiat Group)  whether there would be an Abarth version of the C-segment hatch. Steve’s answer was a categorical no. “We are serious about tbe Abarth brand’s sporting intent. We got it wrong in the past with the likes of the Stilo Abarth. That was more about bodykits and badges than genuine performance enhancement.”

It seems that Norman was true to his word. No Bravo Abarth has broken cover to date and the 500 and Punto models are acknowledged as proper sports-bred machines.

I was reminded of our conversation when I learned of Renault’s plan to revive the Gordini brand for some of its Renaultsport models.

Steve Norman is now Senior Vice President, Global Marketing for the Renault group and I find myself wondering whether Gordini will be more about badges and bodykits or whether it will represent something truly unique. I’m hoping for the latter but we’ll know more when the Twingo Gordini breaks cover this week.

During times of recession, the public like to fall back on traditional and trusted names, so playing the nostalgia card with Gordini seems like a wise move for Renault - but only if it amounts to more than special blue paint and white stripes.

I’ll be watching closely…

I recently took part in the Tacheback campaign which helps to raise money and awareness for the Everyman male cancer charity by encouraging men (and perhaps women?) to grow a sponsored moustache for a month.

Feeling somewhat guilty about asking for money to merely grow a ‘tache’ while others are running half marathons and undertaking grueling treks up mountains, I decided that at the very least, I would publish regular photographs on the Tacheback site which would track my stubbly and then bristly progress, while laying myself open to a fair degree of ridicule.

Where am I going with this?

Well, as I played with the razor and reshaped my facial hair arrangement over the course of the month, I found that the results could be as dramatic, in terms of altering my appearance, as undergoing plastic surgery.

So when it comes to ‘facelifting’ cars at the mid-point in their life-cycles, could the manufacturers exercise a little more restraint, freshening the appearance of a model by mildly updating facial graphics rather than tugging and tucking skin?

Well, I think the Fiat Punto Evo may be one example of this. To me, this car, more than any other - appears moustachioed.

But if it’s a full-on goatee you’re after, SEAT’s Ibiza Cupra Bocanegra takes the crown. I put the hot hatch through its paces at the UK launch this week. Its very name translates as black mouth and that ‘bearded’ scowl distinguishes the Bocanegra from the rest of the Ibizas as the swarthy villain of the range.

If you can think of any other cars that look like they’re sporting whiskers, drop me a line and we’ll see if we can put together a top 10.

Detailed third-scale model of Qazana SUV and a full-size clay being milled

Nissan Design Europe opened its doors to the public for the first time last week since its inauguration some 6 years ago. The occasion was the Nissan East West exhibition which formed part of the 2009 London Design Festival.

From September 23rd to the 25th, Nissan organised a series of tours of its West London facility enabling visitors to discover more about the automotive design process.

Digital Group Leader David Harrison showed us around an exhibit that included a detailed third scale model of the Qazana SUV which, he said, is due to hit the market in 2010 - although the name is yet to be confirmed.

The studio setting provided a viewing platform overlooking the clay-modelling facility which included a full-size  plate as well as third-scale and quarter-scale set-ups. Watching the robotised arms carving away at the clay was quite hypnotic and the whole experience gave a fascinating insight into the key stages of vehicle design.

The Paddington studio was set up in order to deliver designs more suited to European tastes and the results have really borne out the exercise. The Qashqai for example (designed completely in London), has smashed all expectations, selling well over 300,000 units per year.

Scale models were supported with extensive design renderings and non-automotive products which provide influences to the designers - things like lightweight flasks, running shoes and backpacks.

As well as the tour, a series of arts and design installations were exhibited by various artists under the theme of ‘East meets West: the cultural crossroads of creativity’.

I say well done to NIssan for relaxing its usually watertight security to allow us a rare glimpse behind the scenes of designing and creating a car.

Check out our gallery for more pictures from our visit to Nissan Design Europe.

We’ve been putting some effort into social media over the last few months, setting up a presence on Twitter, creating a Facebook page, sorting out our YouTube channel and, most recently, setting up a Flickr account.

The aim in a nutshell is to reach out to our audience and engage with them in a space in which they feel comfortable. Informed opinion suggests that a less formal approach is favoured by users so simply replicating website content and posting standard newsfeeds is not the way to go.

Hence we try to add genuine comment from the team and also occasionally create bespoke content which is not available on our website. This can include snapshots taken on an iPhone, witty (well, we think so) comments surrounding a news story, outtake videos or additional photography from a road test shoot.

We keep an eye on what our friends at the car manufacturers are up to in the social media space and most recently, the gongs for the best use have gone to Fiat, for their tie-up with music-sharing service Spotify promoting the 500C, but especially Citroën for releasing a shadowy photo of a forthcoming concept car which demonstrates a somewhat 2CV-esque silhouette on its Facebook page ahead of any official release from the press office.

This simple act demonstrates a company that understands the value of reaching out to its friends/fans/followers and rewarding them for their loyalty by sharing a little secret - behaving more like a human being than a corporate body.

Honda has launched a new online comparison tool that it says, “enables any customer or potential customer to compare Honda cars against any other car in the market and calculate the potential savings on offer.”

It is a bold move to publicly pit your product against its competitors and this speaks volumes in terms of Honda’s confidence in its range of cars.

I’d say that confidence is not misplaced either, as it took me a few minutes to find 4 cars (comment if you’d like to know what they are) to line up alongside a Jazz that would place the baby Honda last in terms of whole life running costs.

However, I do find myself wondering why Honda, and other car manufacturers, bother creating such tools at all since modern-day consumers (and car buyers in particular) are simply too savvy to rely on information provided by vendors. Some will be sceptical that data is presented in a fair and balanced way, but even the more trusting will simply carry out their research on good-quality independent websites with no conflict of interests.

Tom Gardner, Head of Marketing – Cars for Honda (UK) says, “We want to support retail and corporate customers by helping them make an informed purchase decision based on the issues that are relevant to them. The car comparator enables the customer to do this with impartial, third party data.”

Even if the data is supplied by an impartial third party, the primary goal of a car manufacturer’s website is to promote and ultimately sell that manufacturer’s cars. So when it comes to displaying comparison data to the potential customer, Honda, as you might expect, lists all the standard features on its own product above those of its competitors.

This is not in the best interests of the customer who would truly benefit from seeing the features listed in terms of relevance… I simply cannot imagine what kind of car buyer deems a digital clock to be more important than power steering.

Honda’s advertising is renowned for taking an intelligent approach. Perhaps it should credit its customers with a little more of the same.

Fiat UK Marketing Director Elena Bernardelli addresses the press at the Launch of the Fiat 500 C

When Marketing Director Elena Bernardelli told us about Fiat’s sponsorship deal linking the 500 C to up and coming UK band Florence And The Machine, I pondered whether the terms of such an association would have had to have been rubber-stamped in Italy.

Since the announcement to the UK motoring press was met with almost complete silence as journalists turned to one another whispering, “I’ve never heard of them”, I imagined that the sell-in to the big bosses in Turin might have gone something like this:

BigBoss: “So oo ees dees Florenz en da mesheen ? I nevar erd ov dem.”

FiatUK: It’s a great fit. You know, Florence - like the great Italian city of culture, Firenze – and machine means macchina (Italian for car)!

BigBoss: “Fantastico! Fiat 500 C - Firenze e la Macchina. Eet’s perfect!

Yes, I think that’s exactly how it played out.

Read more about Fiat’s UK progress in the feature: Fiat finds 500 way to build a brand

I do sympathise with Charis’ blog Speechless or clueless?

Regular readers may recall I’ve had issues with Hertz in the past but in these budget-conscious times, I was tempted into “giving them another go” by a promotion on the .co.uk site which promises a 20% discount on rentals booked 30 days in advance.

I checked the prices prior to booking my airline tickets and the prices looked good. I returned to the site a week later (still well ahead of the 30-day cut-off) and went through the identical process but instead of the keen prices, I got the following message:

Not all requirements for the Rate Code - LITE requested have been met. We have removed the Rate Code from your request to provide you with the best rate returned. If you would still like to take advantage of the Rate Code, please refer to the offer details to meet all necessary requirements. [DRX142]

After trying again several times to try to work out what I’d done wrong, I filled in a query form since I couldn’t find a telephone number to ring. I was promised a reply within 2 working days. 1 week later - nothing.

My wife then found a telephone number on the Hertz.com website. The customer service chap at first told me that the promotion had ended! I pointed out that it was still being displayed on the website and then he investigated further and came up with the following explanation:

“It probably means that the particular location’s office has removed itself from the promotion…”

I can accept that the fine print in the terms and conditions covers this possibility, but the complete lack of clarity in the rate code message is in itself a customer services disaster. The absence of a ‘call me’ facility on the website which instead features innumerable FAQs is a also a failing and then the lack of contact within the stated 2 working days is abysmal.

To top this off with a customer services representative who doesn’t even know whether the promotion is running…..

Book with Hertz again? No.

Recommend to a friend? No.

Blog about the miserable service? Yes.

Hertz.co.uk - FAIL