Life On Cars has been facelifted!

EAGLE-EYED readers - yes, both of them - will have already spotted that Life On Cars has been treated to a bit of a facelift.

The blog's had a great year, including being honoured as one of only two motoring blogs to win in the Automotive category of the inaugural UK Blog Awards back in April.

In the aftermath of the awards I got a lot of great feedback about Life On Cars and how to tweak the blog. In particular, the authors of Creditplus - another nominee in the UK Blog Awards - made quite a few useful observations.

Creditplus writer James Dwyer wrote back in September: "Two things immediately stand out. One, David is an authority on his chosen subject (classic cars), and two, the blogpost is written in a personal and friendly style that gives the reader an insight into David’s character.

"The posts are long and detailed, covering a variety of topics within David’s area of expertise. The website isn’t that flashy, but it's the high quality content that appeals."

I couldn't agree more - a motoring hack I might be, but a web design guru I'm emphatically not. That's why I've entrusted fellow blogger Natalie Bassling to give the site a complete refresh, meaning I can concentrate on bringing you more motoring tales - even ones which involve looking a bit silly while standing next to a Corvette - without getting bogged down in how Life On Cars looks and works.

Personally, I think it looks great, but I'd be keen to know what you think. Feel free to get in touch with your motoring stories and details of shows!

Mid-life facelift for BMW X3 confirmed

A NEW version of BMW’s X3 will go on sale across the UK later this summer, it has been announced.

The off-roader has been treated to an extensive facelift and will go on sale in July, with customers able to choose from four different variants, with all the engines on offer being diesel-powered.

Prices for the entry-level model, the X3 sDrive18d SE, start at £30,990.

Life On Cars changes gear

YOU don't have to be particularly eagle-eyed to spot that Life On Cars has been treated to a bit of a revamp.

What you might not know, however, is that Sefton and West Lancashire's favourite motoring blog has looked largely the same since November 2010, when I gave it a bit of a facelift to bring into the line with the various shades of blue that make up the house colours at The Champion.

You can, of course, still catch up with the printed column in the eight editions of the newspaper every Wednesday, but with all the other changes it only seemed right to give the blog a bit of a sprucing up, including bringing in a bit of red - oh all right, a lot of red - to match Classic Car Weekly and its equally scarlet logo.

But while the colour's changed and some of the pictures and stories might come from a little further afield, with CCW being a publication with national reach, the anecdotes of automotive misfortune, the tips for events in the North West and all the other things Life On Cars covers will continue.

So while you'll be seeing red with the artwork, hopefully you won't be seeing red with any of the articles!

Read more of David's motoring stories - including a full page report on his MGB GT - in the latest edition of Classic Car Weekly (published Wednesday, April 17).

Peugeot takes a scalpel to the RCZ

 

PEUGEOT has either ruined or improved one of the most stylish cars it's ever made, if the first pictures of a new facelift are anything to go by.

I know that not everyone who reads Life On Cars agreed with my reckoning that the RC Z is one of the best looking cars the French firm's ever produced - while I said it's "probably one of those exotic-yet-attainable style icons you get once in a generation", at least one of you took the time to write in and challenge my views of what makes a good looking car, saying "the roof looks like a backside". No matter what you make of the coupe and its double-bubble roof, you can't deny it's a boring car to look at.

The new version, don't get me wrong, keeps the RCZ looking fresh in a field of a new arrivals, with Hyundai's Veloster on one side and Toyota's GT-86 on the other chomping for a bite of the coupe cake. I just don't think - and I know style is a very personal and subjective thing - that it looks quite as good as the original.

As always, feel free to disagree...