Comment
Gavin Green: Want a car of the year? You're spoilt for choice
Published: 13 December 2005
Renault Clio wins Car of the Year! The Bollinger must have popped in Boulogne-Billancourt, site of Renault's world headquarters. Dealers throughout Europe prepared for the customer stampede! Clio sales will boom!
Walter Harris: Politicians and the pleasures of fast cars
Published: 13 December 2005
In December 1965, the 70mph limit on motorways was brought in by Tom Fraser, the Labour transport minister, as an "emergency" measure. There was a faint whiff of the man with the red flag about it.
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 13 December 2005
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 06 December 2005
Alexei Sayle: 'Spit, swear or fight. But don't get a navigator'
Published: 06 December 2005
I was in Liverpool a couple of weeks ago, taking my mum to the local Tesco, and, just as I was pulling out onto the main road, the sky suddenly went dark, birds took flight in fear and a terrible rumbling filled my ears. The cause of this disruption wasn't the apocalypse, but its close cousin, a giant American Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) - in this case a black Lincoln Navigator sporting the personalised numberplate "DIOUFI".
Sean O'Grady: The SUV arms race has just escalated
Published: 06 December 2005
I have just spent a few days in what may well be the most environmentally unfriendly car in Britain today: the Dodge Ram SRT-10. As you might expect, it's from the United States and conforms to all the stereotypes of the modern American car. The double cab pick-up is, by European standards, huge in every respect. I decided that I should try to stick to bus routes with it, because it's about as wide as a bus and almost as long.
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 29 November 2005
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 22 November 2005
Alexei Sayle: Which is more dangerous: a bomb or a bike?
Published: 22 November 2005
My dedication to the world of motor vehicles extends to my clothing. I don't actually have anything with a car-maker's logo on it, but I've got some nice Harley-Davidson boots. I did have a load of Caterpillar stuff, but I'm boycotting them due to their involvement with Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes.
Sean O'Grady: Who's the green hypocrite now, then?
Published: 22 November 2005
Here at Independent Motoring we often have to cope with spirited contributions from readers complaining about our very existence at a time when the globe is threatened by global warming and The Independent, rightly, campaigns on all manner of green issues. As editor of the section I always try to respond to each letter carefully, but some of it verges on hate mail. I try not to take it personally, but it can be very vitriolic. "Hypocrite" is the usual charge.
Tim Luckhurst: The eurocrats should get on their bikes
Published: 15 November 2005
Ruth Brandon: Just fill her up to defy global ageing process
Published: 15 November 2005
Alexei Sayle: Camden Council, capitalism and Chinese whispers
Published: 08 November 2005
Mike Rutherford: Lies, damned lies, and statistics on fuel costs
Published: 08 November 2005
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 08 November 2005
Ruth Brandon: What's so wrong with my driving, dear?
Published: 01 November 2005
My husband and I have driven all over the world. Twice, we've driven across America from coast to coast - not to mention all over Europe. Lots and lots of wheeling. But in all these trips, there are five words that have never crossed his lips. They are: 'It's your turn to drive.'
Sean O'Grady: Saving the planet will kill you, it seems
Published: 01 November 2005
Just when I finally got attached to our long-term test Toyota Prius I find out that it's about to kill me. Well, I exaggerate, of course. Normally, this smooth, economical green machine induces me to drive more slowly and carefully than I usually do, which is good news. It isn't a car that screams out: "Go mad. Rev. Overtake. Sod the cyclists. Sod the planet." Quite the opposite. The dashboard's "Energy Monitor" display keeps me graphically informed about how much petrol I'm using and whether the electric motor, petrol engine or a combination of both is doing the work and/or pushing energy back into the batteries for use later on. In this way, it quietly encourages fuel economy and safe driving.
David Williams: Drink driving epidemic shows signs of return
Published: 25 October 2005
When Barbara Castle, the Minister for Transport in 1967, introduced roadside breath tests as part of her Road Safety Bill, it was heralded by the road safety movement as a major breakthrough in stemming the huge social problem of road accidents directly related to the consumption of alcohol. Yet 12 years later in 1979 the number of road deaths from drinking and driving stood at a record level of 1,380 with 18,000 others injured.
Alexei Sayle: You heard it from me first
Published: 25 October 2005
I know I have a tendency to claim to have invented things. And not just stand-up comedy things, either, but also the hovercraft, the hydraulic sleeve valve and determinism. But I'm certain that it really was me who came up with the line, "you really need a 4WD to go down to Sainsbury's". Satirising, as it does, the use of 4WDs solely in an urban environment, it is a line that other people are still using to this day.
Tim Luckhurst: Motorcyclists in bus lanes? Oh yes, minister
Published: 18 October 2005
This column is dedicated to the lady in the red VW Beetle who nearly turned my journey to collect my son from football into a trip to casualty. She didn't see my big, brightly coloured motorcycle filtering past her as she turned right without indicating. She was shocked when I sought an explanation. Then she rallied and told me it was my "own fault for trying to jump the queue". My concern is that the minister responsible for traffic management may agree with her.
Alexei Sayle: Great movie, but the car is really the star
Published: 11 October 2005
A few nights ago, I went to see David Cronenberg's new film A History of Violence. In the movie, a seemingly mild-mannered café owner living in a remote town in the rural USA turns out to be not quite what he seems after foiling a robbery at his café with lethal force.
Gavin Green: Porsche is the loser in this sale
Published: 04 October 2005
Volkswagen was inspired by an Austrian fanatic (yes, that one). It was resurrected by a British army major, and it became wealthy by producing Europe's most successful export to North America (yes, that car). More recently, it made a series of high-profile acquisitions, including Skoda, Seat and Bentley. Volkswagen is now a very international business.
Alexei Sayle: Buy a JCB to keep people at bay
Published: 27 September 2005
A lecturer once said, on the subject of urban planning, that most people in the US have not met anyone who disagrees with them. What he meant was that most people in North America have never encountered anyone who contradicts their view of the world and the opinions they hold. The reason for this is that they travel everywhere in cars, for in a car you are free to choose who is in it with you and what radio station or music you listen to.
Mike Rutherford: Donate 'scrap' cars to Africa
Published: 20 September 2005
On a quiet afternoon last year towards the end of a press trip driving out of Botswana into still poorer Zambia in a new Jeep Cherokee, I found myself scanning the side of the road for a candidate to inherit my walking boots. It didn't take too long to spot a young lad, in rags, limping along with a tyre over his shoulder and looking understandably bewildered when I brought the Jeep to an abrupt halt alongside him, bunged him a pair of socks, my weary but still thoroughly usable boots and a quick lesson in how best to securely tie the long, heavy-duty laces.
Alexei Sayle: This column is animal-free
Published: 13 September 2005
WHEN I WAS a fat kid in the late 1950s, I was fascinated by the stuff astronauts ate while in space: three-course beef dinners with soup, Yorkshire pudding and a rhubarb crumble packed into a toothpaste type tube always seemed an ideal way to cram in a huge meal in as little time as possible. I was reminded of those meals when I saw on the news the substance with which NGOs have been feeding famine victims in Niger - a high-protein paste called "Plumpy Nut". Boy, I'd really like to get my hands on a few cartons of that!
