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U.S. issues new tariff threat, this time against British-built cars

WASHINGTON — Britain is the United States' closest ally but their long friendship may be sorely tested as the two countries try to forge a new trade agreement after Britain's exit from the European Union. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday in London that he was optimistic that a bilateral deal with Britain could be reached as soon as this year. But Mnuchin gave up no ground after a second meeting with his UK counterpart, Sajid Javid. Javid has insisted that Britain will proceed with a unilateral digital services tax, despite a U.S. threat to levy retaliatory tariffs on British-made autos. Mnuchin told reporters after Saturday's meeting that such taxes would discriminate against big U.S. tech companies like Alphabet Inc's Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. The UK Treasury declined to comment on the private meeting. The divide highlights the challenges ahead as the Trump administration seeks a new bilateral agreement with Britain, part of a broader push to rebalance relations with nearly all its major trading partners. The stakes are high — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pegged the trade deal with United States as a way to ease the pain of breaking with Europe, Britain's largest trade partner. U.S. President Donald Trump, has promised a "massive" trade deal to support Brexit, the product of a populist movement similar to his "America First" agenda. The goodwill and special relationship the two countries have enjoyed for decades may not count for much, experts say. "Trump is not going to be doing Johnson any favors," said Amanda Sloat, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington. "He's not going to give him a trade deal without major concessions." Even before the digital tax issue arose, the Trump administration threatened to tax foreign car imports, which could hit British-made Jaguar, Land Rover, Mini, and Honda Civic hatchback cars. Stiff U.S. trade demands include increased access for U.S. farm goods, concessions that will be difficult for Britain's entrenched natural food culture to swallow. The United States also wants Britain to change the way its National Health Service prices drugs and allow in more U.S. pharmaceuticals, which could prove politically unpopular for Johnson's government. Washington's demand that London block Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for national security reasons could also cloud talks.

Unlatched Jaguar E-Type hood doesn't prevent blind overtakes at Goodwood

One of the things about Goodwood Revival that really sticks with you is that the classic racing cars are really driven hard there. It's never a slow parade around the track, but instead the vintage Ferraris and Jaguars really battle each other, metal against metal, lap after lap. The result is often scraped and bent sheetmetal, no matter how pricelessly valuable the vintage cars are. This clip, shared on the Goodwood Road & Racing YouTube channel, really shows the attitude that makes Goodwood what it is. Rob Huff, in a fixed-roof E-type, is chasing after Nigel Greensall in an E-type Roadster in the Kinrara Trophy race, and man, he really wants to get past. The problem is that every time the nose of Huff's Jaguar gently taps the rear quarter of the white Jaguar, the car's large hood wants to flip up and obscure the view, making overtaking even harder than it already is. Clearly Greensall doesn't want to let Huff ahead of him all that easily. We can only imagine how much work it takes to keep a classic Jaguar like that pointing in the right direction on a slightly wet track, let alone driving blind on a racecourse due to a massive clamshell hood in the way. At least we get a view of the XK six-cylinder engine. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

2018 Jaguar F-Pace: Ambient lighting is fun and frustrating

Like so many other automobiles from this decade, our long-term Jaguar F-Pace crossover has customizable interior lighting, a part of the $2,350 Luxury Interior Package. I've previously admitted to the fact that ambient lighting has me split in opinion. On the one hand I know that it's probably going to end up being dated and uncool in the future. On the other, I actually quite enjoy it, possibly because I grew up in the neon-fueled world of early '00s import tuner culture. I also like it from a color-coordination perspective. Our Jaguar's bold blue hue called Caesium can be brought inside with equally bright illumination. It's very satisfying. But that satisfaction of having everything just so is quickly sullied as the center stack and switches are only one color that can't be changed. Admittedly, that's completely normal, but unlike many of those other cars that use neutral white illumination, the Jag's light up in the same blue/teal color that made your Razr phone look cool so many years ago. And so whether you bathe your cabin in blue, red, purple or green light, the ambient lighting will clash with the main switch gear. You can pick a shade of blue for the ambient lighting that roughly matches the switches, but I don't want to compromise my color preference because Jaguar didn't put in LEDs in that would be neutral (or, even better, change to match the ambient settings). I have other complaints about color-matching in the car, too. The instrument panel, which is a flat screen, has a few different display modes, but most of the readouts use a similar (but not quite the same) blue/teal color as the switchgear. So that doesn't match, either. Then, in the sport mode, the instrument screen switches to red. That brings me to my next gripe: all the ambient lighting switches to red when choosing this mode. I get it, red means sporty and Jaguar wants everything about sport mode to feel sporty. But damn it, I paid for custom lighting, let me keep that lighting when I'm also in a sporty mood. I actually sometimes skip the sport mode because I want to be swathed in my favorite hue more than I want slightly more sporty driving dynamics. Oh, and of course the switchgear remains teal/blue even in sport mode. So yes, this is picky. But that's the beauty of evaluating a car like the F-Pace over a longer period of time.