Euro and green NCAP

A few thoughts about New Car Assessment Programmes. Euro NCAP is the long-running European car safety testing scheme initiated in 1997, which the UK still recognises, since Brexit. The 2001 Renault Laguna, with four airbags, was the first car given five stars for occupant safety, yet the car would fail to get a single Euro NCAP […]

I’ve heard Tesla owners refer to Easter eggs contained within their cars – What does that mean?

One of the things that has set Tesla apart from other manufacturers, and created a notoriously devoted fanbase of owners, is the ‘Easter eggs’ found within its cars. So what are they? Sadly Elon Musk doesn’t send you a chocolate egg each year – although that would be nice – but no, it’s the term […]

Guilty as charged

My wife works in education and once said that she liked children, but why bring your work home? Generally, I subscribe to this view, partly because when I speak to young people, I seem to change from being a regular human being into a patronising old fart. ‘So, young man, what’s happening in the hit […]

Bright Spark

One of the most widely held beliefs about electric cars is that the public charging infrastructure isn’t very good and that it will struggle to serve the increasing number of electric cars pouring onto our roads. I’ve always been sceptical about this. By 2019, for example, it was already being reported that the UK had […]

Bright Spark

For most of my life, I’ve been a fan of the BBC’s Top Gear. I used to love Old Top Gear, as it is often called, which featured our own legend, Sue Baker, among others, and I was always glued to the Clarkson-era New Top Gear as well. But apart from a few bright spots, […]