#BrownCarGuy – News, Views & Reviews!
It seems 2025 has become the year of goodbyes. Not to friends or family, thankfully, but to some truly iconic cars that shaped the modern motoring landscape. Recently, I waved off the Nissan GT-R, then the Honda Civic Type R. And now, with a lump in the throat and perhaps a tear in the eye, it’s time to say farewell to the Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman. This is one that hits hard.
2025 seems to be turning into the year of goodbyes. We’ve already waved off some truly iconic cars, and now another legend is leaving the stage. The Honda Civic Type R – the hot hatch that became the poster child for every petrolhead who loved high revs, razor-sharp handling and red-badge bragging rights – has been discontinued in Europe after nearly three decades.
But Honda hasn’t just shut the door and turned off the lights. Instead, they’ve given us a parting gift: an interactive Honda Dream Drives Map, packed with over 120 of Europe’s greatest driving roads. It’s their way of saying “thanks for the memories” – and a reminder that great roads, great cars and great drives will always matter.
Before you even parked up today, someone decided who you are – just from your car. In that instant, they didn’t just judge you, they wrote your entire life story. Might as well have been spray-painted across your bonnet.
It’s one of my favourite events of the year, and the Concours of Elegance has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious motoring events on the global calendar. This year’s edition at Hampton Court Palace was no exception. For three glorious days – Friday through Sunday – the palace grounds were transformed into a celebration of motoring excellence.
Times are tough, and for the car industry, it’s frankly tougher than most. Since the rush to electrification gathered pace less than a decade ago, legacy carmakers have been stumbling through a fog of big losses, plant closures, new supply chains, and enormous investment.
Here we go again. Lotus is back in the headlines. And it isn’t the first time they’ve left us asking: can Lotus actually survive? I’ve been a Lotus fan since childhood. I still remember falling hopelessly in love with the Lotus Esprit – the Bond car, the wedge, the icon. But Lotus has always been a company perpetually on the brink. Toyota tried to steady the ship, GM had a go, Proton kept the lights on, and now Geely – the Chinese giant – holds the reins. Yet still, Lotus seems to live life permanently on the edge of the abyss.
From the farewell of Nissan’s mighty GT-R to shocking truths about touchscreens, the classic car market shake-up, car show fatigue, Polestar’s bold new SUV, Desi nostalgia, licence changes, giveaways, and even the culture war hitting your garage – August 2025 had it all. Here’s your one-stop catch-up on the biggest, boldest BrownCarGuy.com stories of the month.
Continue reading “BrownCarGuy August Round-Up”
After 18 years, production has finally stopped. Forty-eight thousand units later, the last Nissan GT-R R35 – a Midnight Purple T-Spec – has quietly rolled out of Nissan’s Tochigi plant, bound for a lucky customer in Japan. Perhaps not for too long, but for now, we have a world without the GT-R – and that’s a significant moment in automotive history, for this has been one very special monster. So let’s rewind.
I’ve been reviewing cars long enough to remember when car dashboards had more buttons than Nasa’s Space Shuttle! You could reach out, jab a button, twist a knob or flip a toggle, without looking, barely using any brain processing power and still get the job done.
Today it’s swipe up, left, right or down, tap a menu, navigate a load of icons, drill down the page and finally you… crash into a pier and die. All for the sake of turning on the bum heater.
The classic car world is buzzing right now, and not necessarily for the right reasons. Prices that seemed unstoppable in the post-pandemic boom have cooled dramatically. Nearly 90% of collectible cars either dropped in value or stayed flat last year. That sounds grim, doesn’t it? But hold on – it’s not all doom and gloom. Around 8% of models did rise, and the surprising part? It wasn’t the usual suspects like E-Types and DB5s. No, it was the Datsun Zs, Toyota MR2s, Porsche 996s, and Cosworths that stole the show.
