Cars
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,…
Electric dreams
A couple of years ago I thought seriously about buying an electric car. Not a hybrid, but the full monty.…
Airheads
The arrogance of the ‘Tyre Extinguishers’
Road to hell
The blight of the 20mph speed limit
A vroom of one’s own
Oh how I loved my old Mini
Why secondhand cars are first-rate
The Department for Transport recently ended a £1,500 subsidy towards the price of new, lower-priced electric cars one year earlier…
Signs of the times
My driveway now lies in the middle of an ‘Average Speed Check Zone’. It’s a wonderful arrangement – for me…
The hidden cost of parked cars
Much of the current antipathy towards the car derives from the excessive influence Londoners exert over national debates. London is…
Highway to hell
I did a speed awareness course on Monday. For the uninitiated, you have the option of doing one of these…
An idea whose time has come – at last
Thornton Wilder remarked that there are individuals who fall in love with an idea long before its appointed rendezvous with…
