Motoring opinion

Ben Pulman wonders if tuned cars break mass-produced monotony or just ruin your car Before the new Mercedes C-class was launched, more than 15 million miles were covered by prototypes in one of Merc's...

It took having a few children for Ben Whitworth to finally understand Volvo's appeal I never really got Volvo. Sure, I’ve driven all the models in its transition from cumbersome and quirky to sleek...

He's set to achieve our wildest dreams, so what's with the cheap digs, asks Ben Barry The British always like to cut people down to size. That’s why, even as a UK driver is set to clinch the Formula 1...

Car makers are leading us on a merry dance with burgeoning eco brands, says Tim Pollard Don't know about you, but I'm bamboozled by the manufacturers' attempts to save the planet. Watching their...

To paraphrase Fernando Alonso, winning the constructor’s championship isn’t anywhere near as big a deal as winning the drivers’ championship. And that’s why, despite the unprecedented £50m fine (minus...

CAR's resident M3 expert Ben Barry enters a drift competition at the Nurburgring The choice was easy: stay at home and take the weekend easy; or leave work on Friday for a 1000-mile round trip to the...

Tim Pollard is fed up with wildly excessive speedo readings. Here's why It was a few miles into my drive of Audi's slinky new A5 3.0 TDI when I noticed it. The oh-so-cool, Germanically precise...

Happiness is watching a load of old 60s and 70s muscle cars pounding the quarter mile You either get muscle cars or you don't. Dynamically they're mostly rubbish, but what you lose in steering feel,...

Serenity or sportiness - what should the key characteristic of today's executive saloon be, asks Gavin Green What a joy to drive an ‘executive’ car that puts comfort first! Most of the big selling...

From his first Mercedes to his long-term Seat, Ben Whitworth's memories all centre around cars... My wife uses songs. My brother (Lieutenant Commander, RN) uses ships. My best mate uses rugby matches.

When Glen Waddington is not ensuring our magazine gets to the printers on time, our production editor can normally be found caressing car cabins... I’m a trim-feeler. It’s what I do every time I get...

US car makers now control less than half the domestic market. Tim Pollard isn't surprised While Britain was deluged with the wettest July on record, the American car industry was inundated with...

Ben Pulman wonders how sincere some car makers' eco efforts are... I recently sat down to watch Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. While I fell asleep by the end of it – due to tiredness, not boredom I...

Do premium badges guarantee slick design? Not if you squint at a Proton, says Ben Whitworth Snarled up in traffic trying to get into Chichester last Saturday morning, I spotted the rear of a...

Ben Pulman stumbles across the new Jag XF on his first day in a new job A first day on the job is usually a letdown; all mind-numbing admin and IT problems. Not at CAR. My first (and second) day found...

Are Land Rovers and their ilk really killing the planet? Think again, argues Gavin Green I have been driving a Land Rover Discovery 3 diesel these past few weeks. It comfortably took my family of five...

Tim Pollard mulls over the speculation surrounding the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover These are exciting times in the car industry. The building blocks of the mega-mergers of the late twentieth and...

Ben Oliver sits through Al Gore's Live Earth concerts and bemoans the gas-guzzling celebs Watch the footage of last Saturday’s Live Earth concert at Wembley and I’ll be easy to spot. Row 10, seat 264,...

Ever wondered what F1 stars do the night before a big race? Ben Barry joins Honda's F1 team Last Saturday evening I had the most surreal experience of my career on CAR. Invited to Silverstone for an...

Bigger isn't better. Why the new M3 has lost its forebears' purity, by Ben Whitworth I hope I'm not alone in feeling a little luke-warm about the Whole BMW M3 Thing. Yes, it's a formidable steer and...

Many blame Ford for Jag's problems. Gavin Green says problems run deeper than that As the one-time greatest name in British motoring limps like a mortally wounded wildcat to its new home (private...

Do we prefer comfort and luxury or the simple pleasures of a car with character? Asks Ben Oliver Of all the cars on sale in the UK, I don’t think you could identify two more different than the Land...

Bugatti is about to increase Veyron production. Tim Pollard asks, why bother? So Bugatti is stepping up Veyron production from 60 cars built in its first year to around 75 annually. 'We want to...

The Concept CS is said to herald BMW's new design direction. Tim Pollard ponders the new look 'Beauty is back!', says the front cover of the new, July 2007 issue of CAR Magazine. We had quite a few...

Can Lewis Hamilton win the F1 crown at his first attempt? Ben Oliver follows his fortunes Anybody else having their Sundays ruined by Lewis bloody Hamilton? Just when I’d written off Formula One as an...

Ben Oliver salutes those who take part in the Isle of Man TT racesJust like the motorcycle itself, if the Isle of Man TT races were invented today they’d be banned by tomorrow. Instead, the event is...

Ben Barry applauds Tata's shift from cheap 'n' cheerful to cheap 'n' green While the alternative energy debate has been gathering momentum over the last couple of years in Europe and North America,...

Today's crackdown on the most polluting cars is all smoke and mirrors, reckons Ben Oliver So Gordon Brown has doubled the top rate of car tax to £400 in 2008. How many people do you think will be...

NAC's reopening of MG's Longbridge production plant won't fool buyers, argues Ben Oliver I once heard of a man so keen to support the British car industry that he bought not one but two Rover 800s -...

Chris Chilton argues for regular retesting of all drivers Anyone see Jo Brand campaigning to get old drivers off the road on telly the other night? She reckoned British drivers over 70 should be...

Who exactly would pay £4.7 million for a Ferrari, even a really nice 330 Testa Rossa, asks Tim Pollard So a Le Mans-winning 1962 Ferrari 330 TRI/LM Testa Rossa Spyder has just sold for a record £4.7...

Hopes raised by glitzy concepts, then dashed by the mundane reality. By Andy Franklin CAR Online's latest scoop inside the XF got me thinking. Why do manufacturers continue to tease us with concept...

Speccing a new car has become more complicated than ever, reckons Tim Pollard As the lucky recipient of CAR's forthcoming long-term Cooper S, I've been spending a lot of time with my snout buried in...

Popping your Ferrari virginity is fraught with the risk of disappointment, says Ben Barry Two weeks ago I'd never driven a Ferrari. I'd had the F40 poster on the wall, played Outrun with a Testarossa,...

To understand Ferrari, you must go to Italy, says Ben Oliver To really 'get' Ferrari, you've got to go to Italy. Viewed from anywhere else, it's too easy to see Ferrari as elitist; a maker of...

The most beautiful Ferrari? CAR's design editor pores over our pick of the bunch They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the subject of the most beautiful Ferrari splits opinion more...