Cars
In a fearful world, the Volvo makes me feel safe
There is a World of Volvo museum in Sweden which I long to see. It was made by the architect…
Does a dog-friendly car exist?
The valet parking man at Gatwick climbed out of my car with an expression that suggested he’d just driven a…
Driverless cars must learn to drive like Brits
I’ve ridden in Waymo driverless taxis in both Miami and Austin and it is, as you would expect, a slightly…
The Grand Tour is the perfect TV to pass out to
The Grand Tour – aka Amazon does Top Gear – is back with a new trio of presenters. Whether you…
‘An Essex boy at heart’: VW Golf GTI reviewed
I have been waiting for the VW Golf GTI, because the boy – it would be a stretch to call…
A BMW has no soul – but does that matter?
It’s the way of good cars that, on driving one, you begin to embody it: to become it. In a…
Has the Ford Capri gone woke?
The Ford Capri is a paradigm of self-deception, but cars are men’s mirrors, and they want to be deceived by…
There is no car more beautiful than an Aston Martin
The oddities at the Penzance Rotary Club Classic Car & Bike Show included a golden thing that looked like the…
Blame the EU for your increasingly bossy car
When Eileen, a 75-year-old British grandmother, bought a brand-new car she found its advanced driver-assistance repeatedly told her the speed…
Britain is hooked on car finance
It’s unnerving to think how close Britain came to financial disaster last Friday, ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on…
Why driving at 80mph won’t save you time
The device you see on this page is called a ‘paceometer’ and was devised by behavioural scientists Eyal Peer and…
Hell is a speed awareness course
The builder boyfriend sat nervously in front of my laptop as I logged him in to do his speed awareness…
A challenge for the electric car sceptics
I once heard of a couple who were teachers in their mid-fifties. Having pooled the proceeds from selling both their…
The lost art of getting lost
One of the quietly profound pleasures of travel is renting cars in ‘unusual’ locations. I’ve done it in Azerbaijan, Colombia,…
My hunt for the perfect ‘mum van’
I spent my childhood being ferried around in my mom’s minivan, a hunter green Ford Windstar. Compared with most family…
Art deco gave veneer and frivolity a bad name
The jazz style was the blowsy filling between the noxious crusts of two world wars. More than 30 years passed…
The unsayable case for cars
Rob Henderson is justly famous for coining the phrase ‘luxury beliefs’. These are opinions which are unshakeably held irrespective of…
No one wants American cars
The weekend’s Scunthorpe drama was a distraction from endless chatter about Donald Trump and his tariffs. Perhaps Downing Street’s spinners…
Is this London’s most anti-car borough?
In a city at war with the car, there’s plenty of competition. Lambeth has hiked the cost of residents’ parking…
The joy of hiring an old banger
There is always much to look forward to on a holiday with friends in France (the day one supermarket sweep,…
Highway robbery
The backlash against Ulez is only the beginning
Let’s rise up in our road rage
Whether you’re more afraid of the forces of order or the forces of chaos is generally a matter of disposition.…
The Wiki Man
Our local Sainsbury’s, though admirable in every other way, has a slightly inflated estimate of the disabled population of Seven-oaks,…
