Geneva brings out my inner middle-aged petrolhead

GENEVA’S a great place to pretend you’re rich and middle-aged.

Not only is it full of banks and infused with a sense of order and tidiness, but it’s also just about the only place in Europe where you can broaden your already sagging waistline with entire shops dedicated to Toblerone. Oh, and once a year there’s a show stuffed with shiny new supercars too.

I’ve just jetted back from my first ever visit to something that ought to be on every car fan’s bucket list. The Geneva Motor Show is where you go to take the pulse of the motoring world because so many manufacturers use it to launch new cars, and it’s where the European Car of the Year gets announced (congratulations Vauxhall, by the way).

Really I ought have been sensible and reported back faithfully to your Champion-reading chums what the new Renault Scenic’s like – but I failed because I got distracted by the shiny supercars. You would too, given the choice between a Scenic and the new Porsche 911 Turbo S.

So I ended up pretending to be rich, middle aged and with just one question – which one car would I forgo the Easyjet flight for and drive back to Blighty? One of the show’s big stars – the Bugatti Chiron – is out straight away because its makers have wimped out of making it the world’s fastest production car by limiting its top speed to (just) 261mph. It’s 11mph faster than a Golf GTI and nearly seven times as powerful – but when it comes down to it it’ll still lose you a game of Top Trumps.

Ford’s GT gives just as much visual theatre for a fraction of the price but the mid-engined arrival that really won me over was Honda’s new NSX. Not only does it use clever hybrid technology to go fast in a vaguely eco-friendly way, but it looks stunning in the flesh. The Nineties original might have been a flop here, but I really hope this one does better.

The NSX is an amazing bit of kit – but the one car that really won me over was a small sports car made not by robots in Japan, but craftsmen in Worcestershire. Morgan’s EV3 might only be a one-off show car for now but I really hope they make it; it’s essentially the slightly bonkers Threewheeler, but with an electric motor rather than a tuned motorcycle engine. Not only does it look completely unhinged and promise to be on the fun side of terrifying to drive, but it’s also the most compelling argument I’ve seen yet for people like me – the petrolheads – to take up eat-your-greens electric motoring.

Count me in.

Originally published in the 9 March issue of The Champion

Want a Ford Cougar? You gotta haggle...

I NEARLY bought a Ford Cougar by mistake the other day. Having been lured in by the online prospect of a cheap V6 coupe for the price most of you spend on package holidays I ended up in North London's dodgiest-looking secondhand car lot - and ended up walking away.

Sorry for the Minder-esque opening but that's genuinely how it happened. If you're not familiar with it the Cougar's a sort of two-door Mondeo with crisper detailing and an aggressive front end, and it's now in the same price doldrums the Capri was 15 years ago. In the end the one I looked at was in the midst of a three-deep crowd of rather ropey-looking cars guarded by two rather angry dogs with a sales office operated from - and I'm not making this up - a garden shed hastily erected in the middle. Oh, and the car itself had a broken radiator grille held in place with some string and made a rather worrying whine when it started up.

But the biggest disappointment was that walking away meant I couldn't down with some Arthur Daley-esque character and thrash out a deal. My boss had already told me if I'd be sacked from motoring journalism if I couldn't bag this V6 beast for under £500, but in the end I concluded this particular Cougar looked like one very poorly cat. Which is a shame because I like haggling - but apparently the vast majority of you don't.

Apparently 55% of you would rather not talk turkey when it comes to car prices and find the experience of negotiating a deal uncomfortable. My generation is apparently the worst for it, with 71% of younger buyers preferring not to get involved at all and would much rather pay full whack and get it over and done with. Which is staggering, because haggling is a time honoured way of getting more for your money.

It needn't be unpleasant and it's not about rude or abrasive to whoever's trying to flog you a set of wheels - all it takes is a polite "Can I make you an offer?" and doing your homework beforehand. Far from being intimidating, haggling is a wonderful game of motoring chess to be enjoyed and a skill to be honed. You learn what the car's going to be worth elsewhere and factor it into the negotiations. You use the little niggles and faults you find as bargaining chips. Most importantly you know the power of politely declining and walking away - if the deal isn't right or the seller's rude or dismissive, you stay calm and remember patience is the key to finding the right car.

That's part of the reason why I never go for classified ads which tersely end with 'NO OFFERS' - it almost seems a bit unsporting. Ending things with 'ono' - as in Or Nearest Offer - gives you and the seller the chance to strike up a deal that works for both parties, and it's important because it helps keep the market on its toes and prices realistic.

If you're thinking of getting another car don't be put off by the idea that haggling is frightening - it really isn't, and the more you do it the better a deal you'll get it. Top tip though; if it involves batting your way past angry dogs and chatting to shifty blokes in garden sheds, it's probably best looking elsewhere.

Originally published in the 2 March issue of The Champion

Vignale takes the Ford Mondeo upmarket

A MORE upmarket twist on the Ford Mondeo will available to order in the UK from next month.

The Ford Vignale Mondeo, which is more luxurious than the car it’s based on and finished by hand at a separate factory in Spain, will be available more powerful versions of the Mondeo’s existing engines, including a 240bhp 2.0-litre petrol engine.

It costs £29,045, and will be followed by a Vignale version of the S-Max later this year.

Ford's clever gadget definitely deserves the boot

TYPICAL. Only a week after one manufacturer teases us with a reason to get rid of all the gimmicks in the nation’s new cars, another gives you something entirely sensible I’m surprised wasn’t invented decades ago.

Ford has clearly been listening to people like my sister – parents who happen to use the C-Max in their tireless quest to ferry their offspring and all the associated clobber to school and back.

A trick Ford has already tried on its Kuga off-roader is now being applied to a small MPV clearly aimed at young families – a boot release you can operate with your foot!

I genuinely don’t know why more manufacturers aren’t offering this sort of thing, seeing as you don’t need to be someone raising a brace of snotty toddlers to appreciate it. While cars with boots that open electrically aren’t anything new, they tend to be pricey optional extras and they’re only as good as the wires behind them. This is a much simpler premise – using your foot to do a job your hand can’t.

Anyone who’s ever made the mistake of manhandling a flat pack shelf through IKEA’s car park on a busy Saturday afternoon and then wished they could sprout a third arm to operate the boot release will know exactly what I mean.

You’re able to somehow operate the remote central locking, but using either of your hands to physically open the boot is going to risk dropping the entire shelf and damaging it.

In the past elbows, knees or even noses have been forced to act as impromptu substitute hands to end the misery and get the boot of whichever MPV or estate car I’m using open, but while it’s only an occasional bit of IKEA-based suffering for me I feel for the thousands of mums and dads who have to put up with this inherent car design weakness every time they go on a family outing.

That’s why Ford – and indeed – any other manufacturer who’s got a similar system on the cards – should be applauded for reasons their customers do not have three arms.

Without wanting to sound like a political party broadcast, no family in this country should have to put up with fumbling around on a rainy Thursday night with an armful of shopping and Fisher Price toys and an audience of two screaming toddlers while they fumble around attempting to get the boot of their brand new car open.

I know most car gadgets solve problems that don’t really exist – that’s you, power steering and lane departure warning systems – but once in a while someone comes up with something genuinely clever.

Foot-operated boots are in the latter category. I’m sure the nation’s mums and dads will agree.

The new Ford Focus RS might not win any beauty contests, but I still want one

FORD’S new Focus RS will use a four-wheel-drive system to deliver its power more effectively – exactly the same trick the legendary Escort RS Cosworth did back in the early 1990s.

The third generation of the family-sized hot hatch will use a turbcharged 2.3 litre version of the company’s EcoBoost engine to churn out 320bhp, and should be available towards the end of the year. The shape might not win as many beauty awards as its more conventional-looking predecessor, but it's designed with one thing in mind; to keep the engine, closely related to the one also being used in the new Ford Mustang, as cool as possible during hard driving.

It’s the 30^th Ford to wear the company’s RS badge, following in the footsteps of the Sierra RS Cosworth and the Escort RS2000. Just like these classic fast Fords, the new Focus RS has an instant want-one factor.

Car makers should resist the urge to do cover versions of their classic hits

A MATE of mine put it to me the other week that the Volkswagen Type 2 – known to surfers, hippies and holidaymakers everywhere as simply the Campervan – is the most depicted car of all time.

Just about every bit of tourist tat imaginable, from teatowels and tee-shirts to pint glasses and USB sticks has featured the rear-engined workhorse at some point in order to lend said souvenir a groovy air of free love. Everybody knows what a Type 2 looks like – even if they insist (normally incorrectly) on calling it a Volkswagen Campervan. 

It’s one of a handful of old cars that still have that cult currency no matter where you are – and one of only two, I reckon, that haven’t been shamelessly reinvented. The Mini, the Fiat 500 and the Volkswagen Beetle have all been done. There are only a couple of names which people really remember left – so why are the car makers still at it?

Take the Maserati Ghibli, for instance. If you’re a Champion reader who’s ended up on the motoring pages because you’re looking for the Sports section but got a bit lost then chances are you won’t be able to picture a Maserati Ghibli without consulting Google – so it’s got no resonance. If, on the other hand, you pride yourself on being a petrolhead, you’ll know it’s an old Italian supercar. So you’ll feel a bit fobbed off to discover the revived version isn’t a ground-hugging missile, but a diesel-engined four-door saloon. 

The other trip down Memory Lane which I’m still yet to understand is the new Vauxhall Viva. There is, of course, much to commend about the old Viva, but do you see it on teatowels and mugs at souvenir shops in holiday resorts? Nope. I understand why it’s a revival in a name only, but unless you owned one back in the Seventies or read Practical Classics, it’s just not a name that’ll ring a bell with your mates.

Redoing your old offerings as new models is duller than hearing those breathy-voiced Eighties cover versions that always seem to pop up in John Lewis’ festive ads, or seeing the best the cinema has to offer are yet more comic character reboots. I don’t want a new Ford Cortina or a revived Vauxhall Chevette in the same way I’d dread a TV remake of Only Fools and Horses or yet another outing for Do They Know It’s Christmas.

Why hasn’t there been a new Type 2, or a new Citroёn 2CV or Ford Capri? It’s simple; the manufacturers have resisted the urge to do cover versions of their classics because they’ve got more exciting and innovative things to show you. The makers of these great cars from the past were doing them as ‘new’ to their best of their abilities – and that’s why we cherish the good ‘uns as classics decades later. I applaud the people still doing that today, resisting the urge to do cover versions of their old cars and using their imagination to come up with genuinely modern – and usually brilliant – new cars.

More of that in 2015 please!

How to ruin one of Ford's finest efforts

IMAGINE sitting down, glass of champers in hand, to watch the perfect theatrical performance.

It’s a hit new play which has received rave reviews in all the papers – including, naturally, The Champion. The venue offers a view of the stage unobscured by even the tallest of fellow showgoers, and acoustics Bang and Olufsen would be proud of. From the off, you’re gripped by a script blending all the best elements of Shakespeare, Noël Coward and Willy Russell, delivered by an ensemble cast comprising Dame Helen Mirren, Martin Freeman and Timothy Dalton.

You’re hooked, and as the first act draws to a climatic close Richard E.Grant launches into his finest soliloquy since he quoted Hamlet to a pack of wolves at the end of Withnail and I. Yet mid-sentence, amid this bout of theatrical perfection, a work experience student wanders onto clumsily onto the stage, knocks over one of the props, and looks at the leading man with an expression so exasperated it kills the whole performance stone dead.

“Am I on yet?” he asks pointlessly, but it’s too late. Consider your night ruined!

That’s how I felt after spending the best part of 500 miles with a Ford S-Max last weekend, gorging myself on everything from narrow country lanes to motorway outside lanes. 

While it’s starting to show its age it’s hard to deny that it looks great for a people carrier – a box on wheels with added seats, essentially. Its Mondeo-based underpinnings make it far more fun than any slab-sided diesel family wagon has any right to be, and the car’s star leading light, in the form of the 2.0 litre, TDCi turbodiesel engine, delivers a gutsy and reassuring performance.

It’s still my favourite people mover, but there’s a place in hell reserved for the automatic transmission.

The PowerShift system is like the work experience student ruining Richard E.Grant’s greatest moment – just when the turbodiesel comes on song, the gearbox wanders in, spending an eternity asking whether you’d like it to change up and then delivering a huge jerk of torque long after the overtaking opportunity’s gone. It’s particularly bad when pulling out of junctions, delivering a pause Jeremy Clarkson would be proud of at precisely the point.... ....when you don’t want it.

It’s not that I’m anti-auto, as I’m now on my second car equipped with a ‘slush box’, but this particular system was definitely the weakest link on a great package, hindering the whole of the car with its dim-witted demeanour. Happily, there is a manual mode on the PowerShift system which works very effectively, but that defeats the point of having an expensive, self-shifting transmission at your disposal. 

If you’re the sort of frustrated mum or dad who needs a family wagon capable of conveying seven but secretly wants a car that’s fun to drive, then by all means go out and look at an S-Max. Just make sure it’s a manual.

Ford adds even more luxury to its fastest Fiesta

FORD has fitted even more luxuries to its fastest Fiesta to create a new range-topping version of the hot hatch.

The new version of the Fiesta ST, called the ST-3, throws toys including cruise control, a keyless entry system and rain-sensitive windscreens to the car, and costs £19,250.

For more information on the ST and the rest of the Fiesta range head to www.ford.co.uk

The Focus is (still) the best family all rounder

THE OTHER day I stayed in a hotel room with the world’s most sophisticated shower as its top trump.

I was briefly amazed by the way it had mood lighting, an inbuilt radio to allow you to tune in to The Archers mid-rinse, and an in-shower telephone so you could ring your mum to counter those horrendous I’ve-forgotten-my-towel scenarios you only ever encounter once you’re truly ensconsed in the wash. However, the hotel itself didn’t have a bar, so it failed immediately in my imaginary Tripadvisor review.

Another suite I tried had – get this, Life On Cars readers fortunate enough to own an S-Class – electrically-operated curtains. Again, this hugely impressed me, right up until the point I wanted to show off this marvellous invention to the rest of the world and promptly found out I’d be charged a small fortune to access Facebook. Given that WiFi these days is about as important as water, you’d expect to be included in the (already hefty) hotel bill.

My point is that all hotels seem to offer a perfect blend of things you’d want for a night away – but never at the same time. In much the same way that nobody yet offers the perfect family hatchback.

For years, I’ve argued to anyone who’d care to listen that Ford’s Focus offers the best compromise of a decidedly mixed bunch – and a few hours blasting across Britain’s countryside in a 1.6 diesel version confirmed that it’s still one of the best contenders out there. You’ll love it because it’s a hoot to drive when it’s off the motorway, your other half will love it because it’s quiet and refined when it is, and the kids in the back are unlikely to complain about the generous helpings of space.

But – not unlike most of the hotels I’ve been putting my head down in lately – you get the feeling it’d be improved immeasurably if it borrowed a few more ingredients from elsewhere.

The 2.2 litre diesel Honda uses to such wonderful effect, for starters. That it manages to move something as hefty as the CR-V around with such aplomb is a miracle in itself, but mate it with the Civic and you have a powerhouse that manages to be startling quick and eerily quiet while refusing to do less than 45 to the gallon. Imagine how much better all family hatches would be if they had one under the bonnet?

The Italians should be put in charge of styling, if the Alfa Giulietta is anything to go by, while Volkswagen’s best engineers must be kidnapped from Wolfsburg and set to work on the interior for the perfect family hatchback. Nissan would take the lead on marketing, judging by the sales phenomenon it has created with the Qashqai, and the French would be in charge of all those tempting cashback deals.

Blending the Focus’ talents as an all-rounder with the shiniest gems from the opposition would create one heck of a family hatchback. Which you’d all ignore, because you’d still want a 1-Series instead.

Farewell, Ford Mondeo

FORGET oil, diamonds or the mysterious underground gas that's been getting you so fracking angry lately. I reckon the world’s most valuable commodity is attention.

Studies have shown that while attention occurs naturally in all human brains – even the ones of reality TV stars – it runs out completely if you try to mine it for more than about 45 minutes or so. Once that’s gone, all you’re left with a dangerous void of mentally planning your next holiday, pondering the plot of Sherlock and wondering whether you really did lock your front door when you left the house this morning.

Even a few seconds of not having an abundant supply of attention at your disposal can cause all sorts of problems. I know this, because that’s roughly how long it took for another driver to write my FordMondeo off beyond repair.

Regular readers might recall how proud I was to finally depart the 1990s and plump my posterior onto the leather lined throne of something modern for a change. The 2.0 litre Ghia X might have been 12 years old but it came stashed with an armada of gizmos so extensive it’d make viewers of The Gadget Show proud. Electric seats and an electric sunroof. Cruise control and a six CD autochanger. It had all of these things, and just about everything else besides.

Yet none of these gadgets could have prevented its fate on that dark evening in deepest Peterborough, as I gradually drew to a stop on the approach to a roundabout somewhere near the A1. The only clue I had that a rather rushed sales manager was about to indulge in a spot of creative parking – as in parking his company 3-Series half a foot into the Mondeo’s rear bumper – was the fleeting glimpse of a set of headlights in the rear view mirror, racing towards me through the darkness.

It is, to my mind, the worst kind of collision you can be involved in; the sort which you can do absolutely nothing about, other than watch it happen. You can be the best driver in the world (which, incidentally, I’m definitely not) and it still isn’t going to stop an errant Audi ploughing into your pride and joy. 

For the sake of driving too fast, too close and not nearly attentively enough, you end up causing weeks of headaches for people you’ve never met. In fact, having a car written off through no fault of my own is getting off lucky; what would have happened if Beemer Boy had been doing the full 70mph he was legally entitled to on that stretch of road?

So the Mondeo is gone. Luckily, I’m not.

Ford goes bigger and bolder for the new Ka

FORD’S Ka looks set to be sold in five-door form for the first time, if a show car unveiled this week is anything to go by.

The company used its European unveiling of the new Mustang to showcase a new hatchback with styling strongly influenced by the current Fiesta and forthcoming Mondeo. It is also significantly larger than both the original Ka, launched in 1996, and its 2008 successor.

Ford has said it is committed to a third generation version of the Ka, but has yet to announce when it will arrive in the UK. 

Are you ready for a Europe-friendly Ford Mustang?

Ford’s Mustang will celebrate its impending 50^th anniversary with something a little special next month – the first ever version of the car designed with European motoring in mind.

While British drivers have long been able to buy the all-American coupe by having one imported from the States, Ford has announced they will unveil a new generation of the car next Thursday (December 5) which will be officially offered for sale across Europe for the first time.

Jim Farley, Ford's global vice president of marketing, sales and service, said: “Mustang has come to be much more than just a car for its legions of fans spanning the globe from New Zealand to Iceland and Shanghai to Berlin.

“When you experience Mustang, it ignites a sense of optimism and independence that inspires us all. We have kicked off the countdown to the all-new Ford Mustang – with a new design, greater refinement, performance and innovative new technologies, Mustang is ready for the next 50 years."

Mustang fans can go to www.mustanginspires.com to find out about the new car - and to immerse themselves in nostalgic tales from 50 years of its predecessors.

My name is David and I'm a fuel economy addict

MY EYES light up as I get ever bigger readouts emerging from the dashboard. Over the past few weeks, the cut ‘n’ thrust of the morning commute has made a numbers junkie out of me.

Only it isn’t the need for speed or a readiness for revs and redlines that’s got me hooked. It’s the cheap-looking digital display – seemingly stolen from a Casio calculator – that tells me what I’m getting for my gallon.

Regular readers will know that earlier this summer I chucked a grand in the direction of a 51-plate Ford Mondeo. It’s a Ghia X which means it comes with electric everything, a feisty foursome of leather seats and the joys of cruise control, but by far and away its most impressive feature is the two litre beast which lives beneath the bonnet. While I’ll never get bored of its silky smoothness or the 148 Dagenham-bred horses which haul it along, it’s the fuel economy which proves so frustratingly addictive.

Every drive is a mission to eke another tenth of a mile to the gallon out of it. Thanks to a crummy digital readout between the speedo and the rev counter, I have inadvertently become the polar opposite of a boy racer, completely obsessed with fuel economy.

This, by the way, isn’t my attempt to get all politically trendy and jump on the cost-of-living debate. Fuel’s expensive whatever you’re driving, and the Mondeo is always doing somewhere in the region of 34 miles to the gallon. That’s exactly what my much lighter Mazda MX-5 used to get from its 1.6 litre engine, so for a thumping great two litre to get that from a far heavier saloon is, in my book, extraordinary.

But it’s never enough because that display compels you to try and beat your own record every time you go for a drive. Why do 34 to the gallon when you can do 34.1?

It’s ridiculous; it’s the fastest and most powerful car I’ve ever owned and yet every morning I drive it to work like an elderly parish priest, gently caressing the gas pedal and politely declining overtaking opportunities because of the cranial rush you get from being awarded an extra tenth of the mile to the gallon. On one afternoon, I actually got my photographer friend in the passenger seat to take a shot of that glorious moment when I got 35 whole miles to the gallon. For reasons I'm still not entirely sure of, it mattered.

The first step to dealing with an addiction is talking about it. I’m a fuel economy addict, but I guess it’s better than being hooked on speed.

A new arrival on the Life On Cars fleet!

A full flotilla of electric windows, heated leather seats, cruise control, a heated front windscreen and a stereo that swallows six CDs at any given moment.

That's the sort of specification that would've made an early Lexus owner a little envious, and that's before I get to the electrically adjustable seats, the electric sunroof and air conditioning that leaves you cooler than Steve McQueen on a skiing trip. It also comes with plenty in the way of mid-range whallop from beneath the bonnet, and a dynamism that'll make a BMW owner blush (even though they'd never to admit to it).

Welcome to the club class world of the Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X. Specifically, the one I've just bought. For a grand.

Why have I gone for a Blue Oval badged family saloon, particularly when I'm not a family man? Firstly, because the car that's been my everyday wheels of choice - my Rover 214SEI - is approaching the end of its life as a useful commuting tool. It's been a fine companion and I've grown to love its easygoing vibe, its tasteful half leather seats and plastiwood trim, and its utter refusal to break down, even in a snowdrift in deepest Cumbria. But ever since my offices moved from Southport to Peterborough and my new place of residence became the outside lane of the A1, this £300, 17-year-old slice of Anglo-Japanese engineering has been operating beyond its brief.

What I really needed, I figured, was something with oomph sufficient to deal with all the motorway work I've been assigned of late. A task the Mondeo was born to tackle.

My particular car might have done more than 100,000 miles in its dozen summers of existence, but it's also been serviced on the dot by the only owner it's had from new, and had every worn component replaced with a near religious devotion to reliability. As a result, it actually feels tighter than some cars I've driven with half the mileage.

More importantly - and to revisit something I wrote earlier this year - everyone I know who really knows their stuff on cars rates the Mondeo. The Great British Public might have moved to the Nissan Juke at one end and the 3-Series BMW on the other, leaving the Ford favourite lingering in a sales figures no man's land, but every Mondeo has always demonstrated that family cars can be finely balanced things which revel in a good corner or two. A finely balanced thing which, by the way, comes with absolutely every gadget you could possibly want - most of which are expensive extras in a BMW 320i.

So was I right to opt for a Ford as the Rover's eventual successor? Is it a belting saloon car bargain? Or have I bought a 12-year-old, 108,000 mile breakdown catastophe just waiting to happen?

Watch this space...

You don't have to be a woman to appreciate the Ford Fiesta

FORD’S Fiesta is one of my motoring favourites – and, judging by the stash of awards it’s been showered with, quite a lot of you like it too.

So you might have missed that the clever EcoBoost version has just been crowned Women’s World Car of the Year. I still can’t quite get my head around - and I know I’m probably going to get a few sexism bells ringing straight away – the idea of a motoring award judged entirely by women. Surely, what makes it excellent engenders it to either gender?

In the same way that a MOWO Awards would provoke no end of controversy in the music world, a Men’s Car of the Year would get every member of the Germaine Greer fan club on the organisers’ case, asking how they could dare to disregard the needs of 50% of the world’s population. But as far as I can tell, WWCOTY is pointless because the ladies like the Fiesta for exactly the same reasons as everybody else does.

The women on the panel are all experienced motoring hacks and raved about the Fiesta because it crams fun, feistiness, eco-consciousness, safety and – dare I say it – sex appeal into a small, value-for-money package – pretty much exactly the same reasons I love the current Fiesta. In fact, with the possible exception of Peugeot’s 208 I reckon it’s still the best supermini, five long years after it was launched.

Women’s World Car of the Year though, I reckon, reinforces by its very existence the urban myth that women don’t know as much about cars as men do – something which is, of course, complete cobblers. There are plenty of women who I’ll happily ask for an opinion on for a matter of motoring, particularly because there’s quite a few of them who actually know aspects of the subject better than I do!

 If it were a case that all motoring awards panels were stuffy, gentlemen’s club affairs which hadn’t moved out of the 1950s and genuinely thought women’s opinions weren’t worth considering, than I’d understand. But I grew up in a post-Thatcher era of Girl Power where Vicki Butler-Henderson’s views on cars meant as much as Jeremy Clarkson’s did. Female opinions on motoring matter too much for them to be sidelined into their own gender-specific awards.

Ford’s Fiesta is just a brilliant little car, full stop. You don’t have to be a woman to know that…

Car park at Donington proves an unlikely haven for classic spotters

ONE of the great things about going to a car show is that the automotive exotica isn't always limited to the exhibits inside the gates.

A lot of petrolheads enjoy taking their pride and joy to the event with them, which is why I've always reckoned it's worth having a nose around the car park before you head home to see if there's anything special hiding among the Astras and Qashqais.

In the case of this year's Donington Historic Festival the public car park proved to be particularly prolific, with the fantastically rare Porsche 911 Speedster you see above giving an idea of just some of the surprises in store.

Here's just a few of the automotive treats that were in store...

Traditionalist Morgan or exuberant Ferrari F355 - which would you pick for a blast through the countryside?

A sports car classic in Italian racing red takes centre stage in Donington's car park. Oh, and there's a Ferrari Dino too.

No prizes for guessing which one I'd pick...

Rover 214SEi owned by Yours Truly, Lotus Elise and Austin Healey Sprite pose for the camera.

How many car parks have you spotted an Alfa Romeo SZ in lately? Liking the Astra GTE alongside it too - a surprisingly rare sight on British roads these days!

Two very different Sixties classics - a Citroen DS21 and an MGB Roadster - add a touch of style to the car park.

Oh-so-Seventies shade of gold seems to suit this Series 3 Jaguar XJ6 perfectly.

Porsche 911 GT3 wins our approval. Questionable registration plate doesn't.

Ford Fiesta RS Turbo - when was the last time you saw one?

Check out Life On Cars later this week for some of the highlights from inside this year's Donington Historic Festival.

So you want a secondhand supermini...

AN OBSERVATION about first cars. All the sensible people I know, having chucked away their L-plates, go for something sensible that’ll start up first thing on a frosty morning. The petrolheads don’t. 

There’s a lot to be said for making for your first car an automotive adventure in itself, which is why my first car was a 1983 Mini. Despite being held together largely with gaffer tape and string I loved driving it but even I’ll concede it wasn’t exactly an everyday car, because every day was a new and exciting way for it to entertain you with a breakdown. Whisper it softly, but during my first stint as a reporter in North Wales my “everyday car” was a borrowed Vauxhall Corsa! 

So I understood completely when a friend asked for a few car buying suggestions, not on some crusty old Sixties sports car, but a sensible, cheap secondhand supermini that’d actually be capable of getting her and her clobber up to a new job in Northumberland. She also bought a Mini as her first car, and while she’d rather sell her right arm than her pride ‘n’ joy I can understand why she’d want a more sensible automotive sidekick for the long trips to the North East. 

There’s plenty on offer - even in these days of spiralling insurance, it’s still possible to buy, insure and tax a decent set of wheels for less than a grand – but if it were my money I’d be looking at Peugeot’s 306, VW’s Lupo, Skoda’s Fabia and the earlier, funkier versions of Toyota’s Yaris. They’re all usefully younger than my trusty old Rover, should eake out a few more miles to the gallon and – by virtue of being younger – have plenty of life left in them. The Peugeot, in particular, would offer you more smiles per gallon too because it’s always been a fine handler – perfect if your other car’s an old Mini and you’ve got some Northumbrian country roads to play with. 

But, when it came down to sealing the deal, it wasn’t a 306 she went for, or a Yaris, Fabia or Lupo for that matter. In fact, she’d gone for the supermini you can pick up for buttons these days because everybody owned one and as a result there’s still millions to choose from. The supermini I’ve driven on countless occasions and always secretly enjoyed because it rides and handles so well. The supermini, in fact, that I passed my driving test in and which – had I not decided to go for that infernal Mini – probably would’ve been my first car. 

The supermini I’d completely forgotten about. Ladies and gentleman, I give you the Ford Fiesta!

Don't punish younger drivers. Just give them a Luton van

LOTS of people in cardigans have been using this last week to call for even tougher restrictions on those pesky young drivers who keep passing their test and then crashing.

Among the suggestions being bandied about by the bores-that-be are restricting them to cars as woefully underpowered as the one-litre Kia Picanto I tried the other day, banning them from venturing onto Britain’s highways and byways once the sun goes down, and bringing in yoof-specific drink-driving laws that’ll land them in prison for twenty years if they’re caught in the possession of wine gums.

In fact, the only sensible idea that hasn’t come from someone who’d otherwise suggest reintroducing National Service is tougher, more plentiful driving lessons, and a harder driving test to match. It’s mad, for instance, that my newly-qualified mate can freely venture onto the M6 at rush hour, despite not having had a single lesson on motorway driving!

I, however, have found an even better way to encourage careful driving after moving house last week. Insist everyone does their driving test – and all the lessons leading up to it – in a Ford Transit Luton van packed to the brim with their most prized possessions.

Driving something the size of a student flat is a little nerve-racking at the best of times, but knowing it’s weighed down with your furniture, your DVDs, your carefully accumulated copies of Evo magazine and the IKEA bookcases you gingerly screwed together on an idle Sunday afternoon does tend to focus your mind on driving more carefully.

The windy West Lancashire lanes I use to get to the motorway network – lanes I’d normally enjoy driving – were mildly terrifying, not only because a Luton van is so long and so wide, but because the cargo in the back is yours. It also encourages you, thanks to its appetite for diesel, to go easy on the throttle, and if you can park one, you can park pretty much anything.

Make cocky, over-confident new drivers – like me not that long ago – do their lessons and tests in vans fully loaded with their prized personal belongings and they’ll learn more about defensive driving and not taking risks than any 1950s-style motoring curfews.

You never know. There might even be a few less hot hatches wrapped around trees as a result…

Fire up the... Ford Focus 1.0 EcoBoost

JOURNALISTS have feet made of lead and a need to get absolutely everywhere as quickly as possible.

That's one of the curious conclusions I've drawn from driving the new EcoBoost version of Ford's Focus, which mates a clever, award-winning new engine with the A* student of the family hatchback class. Make no mistake; it's an intruiging take on one of Britain's selling cars, especially given that nearly a fifth of Focuses being sold are EcoBoosts.

The key ingredient is the engine, which you can also find slotted into the Fiesta, Kuga, B-Max, and, in the fullness of time, the Mondeo too. The top pub fact about this extraordinary new powerplant is that it's physically small enough to fit on a sheet of A4 paper, but thanks to direct injection and a turbo this 1.0 litre, three-cylinder motor more than punches above its weight, being not only the winner of a string of car industry awards but also being potent enough to work in the real world. Smooth, nicely revvy and equipped with 125bhp and 170nm of torque, underpowered this Focus ain't.

The Ecoboost engine works well in the Focus too, with the light weight and characterful performance complimenting the car's reputation for being the family hatch with a sense of fun - keener drivers are going to love its fluid handling in particular. It's keenly priced too, with the Zetec S version I drove weighing at a shade over £19,000, putting on a par with a similarly powerful 1.6 engine but cheaper to run and kinder to the environment.

Or is it? Ford reckons the Focus EcoBoost should be able to get you more than fifty miles for your gallon of unleaded but a quick peek at the trip computer on the particular car I drove showed the journos who'd been driving it around before me had got a shade over 36mpg, and a few minutes in Google's company revealed stories from other reviewers - and owners - who struggled to get anything like the official consumption figures.

I think the Focus EcoBoost is a great package which mates an already accomplished car to an award-winningly good engine, but on the crucial issue of fuel economy I can only conclude either a) it's not quite as frugal as you'd think or b) us car reviewers really are too hamfisted and heavy-footed for our own good.

Until Ford let me borrow one long enough to really how much fuel it sips the jury's out on an otherwise thoroughly good contender for your cash.

Spotted: Ford Cortina 1600E

 

I'VE got to admit my lunch break was brightened up quite a bit when I spotted this classic Ford on one of Southport's streets.

This isn't just a Ford Cortina MK2, it's the really rather tasty 1600E version which came with walnut trimmed dashboard and door cappings, Rostyle wheels, bucket seats and sports steering wheel among other niceties. It's no longer a car you're likely to see every day, so its late Sixties slimline styling stands out even more on the rare occasion you do come across one.

The 1600E was also - and this is a great petrolhead pub fact - Jeremy Clarkson's first car...

Is this your pride and joy? If it is, I'd love to hear more about it...