#BrownCarGuy – News, Views & Reviews!
Some of you are going to hate this post. I get it – you’re petrolheads, purists, the warriors of the rev counter, who scoff at the idea of “silent but speedy.” But here you are. You clicked, didn’t you? And I see you… thanks for hanging about.
2024 has been a wild ride for the automotive world, and not the fun kind. Instead, we’re seeing some of the biggest names in the business struggle to keep their wheels on the road. Ford, Porsche, Audi, and Tesla – these household names are facing a tough year, with sales plummeting and new challengers emerging. So what’s causing these once-dominant brands to falter?
Hagerty, the gurus of classic car insurance and valuations, have just released their third-quarter report for 2024, and they’ve spotted some intriguing trends. The market may be cooling down, but these five surprising cars are hot right now!
If I told you that the world’s most crooked street is no longer in San Francisco, would you believe me? No? Well, buckle up because it’s true, and you won’t believe where it’s now located. Welcome to Bahria Town, Karachi—home to Pakistan’s version of San Francisco’s iconic Lombard Street. But they haven’t just replicated it—they’ve taken the title for the world’s crookedest road with a whopping 12 corners compared to Lombard’s eight!
In the UK, we’ve all heard about the Government’s plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035. It was originally supposed to happen by 2030, but in 2023, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed it back five years. Of course, Labour has said they’d reverse that if they get into power, but let’s be honest – whether it’s 2030 or 2035, will it actually happen?
The Paris Motor Show 2024 has brought a mix of nostalgia, cutting-edge tech, and a glimpse into the future of motoring. Once considered the hub for unveiling new cars, motor shows have become less crucial with the rise of digital media, but Paris this year has captured the attention of enthusiasts, especially with the French manufacturers leading the charge. From iconic revivals to hydrogen-powered innovations, let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest announcements.
In this podcast I’m catching up with my mate Kirpal Singh Randhawa, founder of West London Classics, the car club that’s gone from a small group of petrolheads getting together to chat about carburettors, to one of the most significant forces in London’s car community!
The ULEZ scrappage scheme in London was meant to help clean up the city’s air by encouraging the removal of older, more polluting vehicles from the road. But for classic car lovers like myself, it’s heart-wrenching to see future collectibles and cherished cars crushed before their time. To uncover exactly what has been lost, I submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Transport for London (TfL) to find out which cars were scrapped in the most recent ULEZ scheme. Today, I got my answer.
The UK new car market rose 1.0% in the key ‘74’ plate change month of September, to 275,239 units, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The sales figures were the best since 2020, but still -19.8% off pre-Covid September 2019.
Big Brother – you know, the iconic and voyeuristic reality TV experiment – is back this weekend. I won’t be watching. It was fascinating when it first aired 24 years ago, but now it’s just a tired rehash of a formula that’s been worked to death and beyond. What did catch my attention, though, were the hype-building adverts on ITV, featuring mice in a maze – or rather, in a miniaturised version of the Big Brother house.
Continue reading “Are We Mice in a Maze? “