The opinions of AA spokesman Edmund King’s are often sought as a representative of the motoring public spokesman on behalf the motorist and his common sense views are always a welcome counterpoint to anti-car minorities. His recent remark that the chancellor should...
The awards’ season is well underway with various groups and publications giving gongs left-right-centre. Certificates fall like autumn leaves and in some cases it’s definitely a situation of giving something to some category to justify putting on the event and...
This month the WLTP, the world harmonised light vehicle test procedure, goes live. This replaces the NEDC consumption test which dated from the 1970s. WLTP imposes far more stringent, ‘real world’ controls including analysis of emissions during idling and under full...
This month will see the annual meeting of the motoring writers’ groups and motor industry companies. While I know Kieron Fennelly will be representing thewesterngroup and has a few points to make on our behalf, I don’t know who will be attending and speaking for the...
This is the holiday season and quite a few of us will be driving to or through France. As usual we can enjoy the better roads and apart from the usual bottlenecks, less traffic, but beware: the French have reduced national speed limit on single carriageway roads to...
It’s almost here. THE best-kept secret in the automotive calendar emerges from its temperate state deep in the Cheddar Gorge caves on Wednesday 6 June. Then, the ageless army from thewesterngroup membership will muster at Castle Combe Circuit for the...
I recently attended an event organised by a ‘premium’ manufacturer for journalists to try some of its increasingly wide range. The company’s PR supremo informed the gathering that not only was his the ‘leading’ premium brand, but if you added up all the horsepower of...
There is a reason that a clock-face is circular: time goes around. On a different scale of time, so does thewesterngroup driving day, the PR Day for the industry to let its hair down and enjoy its products. Registration is well underway for this year’s #DD2018 on 6...
In an age when information is efficiently disseminated via the Internet and product reveals have become theatrical productions in their own right, I really don’t see the point of modern motor shows. With the Geneva show kicking off the European season, I’m tempted to...
I’ve long held the tongue in cheek view that, once a manufacturer wheels out a range of heritage vehicles on a product launch, it’s game over for the newer, shiny stuff. Why? If your head isn’t turned by a slice of well-preserved nostalgia you might want to...
From a professional perspective I won’t be sad to see the back of 2017. No doubt such a bold, albeit negative, statement isn’t exactly what you’ve settled down to read, but I feel it’s worth saying. Before I put you right off your remaining mince pie, let me...
I write this post-Budget, or ‘Autumn Statement’ in new money. If there’s one thing the Government – any government – fails to understand it’s the issues motorists and businesses have to deal with on a regular basis. Watching from the sidelines this year, I saw...
In a few days I will be handing over the reins of thewesterngroup to a new chairman, and it’s with pride I slip from the saddle. Over the last two years we have held a couple of memorable driving days and enjoyed a number of events put on for the group by our...
Last month I aired the concerns of both journalists and PR professionals who are coping with the rise of “influencers” and paid-for blogs which are distorting the motoring scene. Paid for supplied editorial has been with us for decades in various forms but generally...
Everyone can see a revolution coming to our roads and the automotive industry within a generation, and this is going to be accompanied by a quieter change in the way we cover that momentous event as motoring journalists. The days of the pure motoring writer who was...
So, the car as we know it is going to be dead inside a generation by 2040. Somehow I think not. The continuing story of the automobile since the 1880s has been driven by evolution and I cannot see this changing despite the Stelvio statements of Governments...
