PGO Hemera

I’ve been called a car snob more times than I can count, and that’s fine, because I only ever hear this from people who don’t know much about cars.

You, dear reader, presumably know more than the average bear about cars — so I have a confession — I’m not a car snob so much as I’m a lacklustre car enthusiast.

See, I’m often like, “blah blah blah, this new car is shit” or “blah blah blah Citroën did that in 1982” and so on.

Do I ever give you real alternatives? No.

Do ever I give you reasons to spend your hard-earned money on rare, quirky, but otherwise perfectly OK automobiles?

No, I do not.

That changes today, with the PGO Hemera — a very real new car you can buy now. In fact, you could have bought one at any point in the last 17 years, as it had entered production in 2008 (and was refreshed in concert with other PGOs after 2013).

It’s as if Porsche never stopped development of its 356 range in the 1960s, and suffered a hostile takeover by a small French team in the 2000s — who then decided to make the car mid-engined and add a shooting brake version.

Engine? Mostly from hot Peugeots, with some models more recently using the BMW 3-cylinder found mainly (here in North America) under the hood of the MINI Cooper S.

Acceleration, speed, handling, features, comfort, refinement — all a damn sight better than the little German car that less refined folk are so happy to claim this copied.

Well, PGO has been making this car for as many years (17) as Porsche built the 356 (17), and I see more TVR / French weirdness in its lines than inspiration from the highly refined, wind-shaped teardrops that Stuttgart’s most famous sports cars are known for being. The Hemera is the most unique of the range, owing to that roofline — the open roof cars are much more