Opinion: car makers vs Autocar - how we rub along

In days gone by, the car-v-press situation was heavily split. It could be much more adversarial and also far too cordial. On the cordial side, the daily newspapers and the older organs were populated by “gentlemen” who saw supporting car makers as a kind of patriotic duty. They wouldn't put it like this, but they often appeared to scorn the public, even approving of the fact that a new car’s first customers were the testers of its final prototypes. That spawned the notion of the “Friday car” and the idea that you shouldn’t buy a new car from early production.

The adversarial side of the press was inhabited by critics who understood that some of the industry’s output were deeply imperfect products that needed urgent improvement, and the only way to help that happen was to be extremely blunt about their shortcomings. The old-time car bosses’ view of the specialist press “we’re all part of one big industry” thankfully waned, and fair criticism gained traction.

But there were difficult times. I once promoted an angry, 18-month freeze between Rolls-Royce and the magazine for which I then worked by describing the latest Silver Something as “The Prince of Whales”, on the grounds that as a result of gross under-investment it wasn’t remotely fulfilling its duty to attempt, at least, to be The Best Car In The World.

The bigwigs at British Leyland were upset, too, when we wrote about the Triumph Spitfire as “A Triumph of Ignorance” on grounds that it had a crude swing-axle rear suspension that was apt to deposit anyone who drove it hard backwards through the hedge. Or in hospital. You were after all supposed to be able to drive a sports car hard. Even their advertising said so, unhindered at the time by bans on such suggestions. Eventually they changed the rear suspension, not greatly but enough.

Mind you, those were the olden days. Today’s cars hit a much higher standard. They’re not perfect and they’re still enormously different (provided you look well enough). Their results in the “fitness for purpose” test we apply to all cars still vary widely and their longer term ownership experiences are also very different. So though you’ll hear people say it, the suggestion that all cars are the same these days is the nonsense it always was. There’s still a best and a worst, and we’ll keep telling you about that.

Today, buying a new car has never been a safer thing to do — from the financial, life preservation and enjoyment points of view — which is why we fervently hope you’ll indulge what (if you’re like us) are your pent-up, lockdown dreams of owning a new car once this horrible interruption to our lives is over. There’s never been a better time.

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