Hooked on cars - what is your choice?

I think it is important for us all to have hobbies or interests outside of work to enable us to enter the "chill zone" when needed or wanted.

Outside of family and work (and my golden Retriever), my greatest passion is about cars. Not in a mechanical way but rather knowledge of the market, pricing, what is good and what is not. This is based on my personal experiences as well motoring reviews in a large number of publications (and my obsession in looking at the prices of a large variety of cars on Carsales.com.au).

Where did it all begin?

It all started when I was a kid with my father working for BMC in Zetland (and for those who don't know or remember what BMC was, it was the British Motor Corporation which made Morris, Austin , MG and finally Leyland cars, including Mini's and MG's). I still remember the factory open days when I would get to walk through the factory and sit in a chassis of a Mini, with no body yet attached. Many a time I would go to the factory and stand outside the fence peering in to see if I could spot any new models that were going to be released, including the ill-fated Leyland P76.

Although the old BMC factory at Zetland has been replaced by a new residential suburb, those early days made me the car nut that I am today. I am a longstanding avid reader of motoring magazines (I still have boxes of magazines dating back to the early 1970's) and websites and a Top Gear tragic. I went to Coventry and had a personal tour of the Jaguar factory in 1985, went to every Sydney motor show (remember them?) from about the age of 6 and have owned most brands of cars.

2017 Awards

We are fast approaching the annual car of the year awards made by various motoring publications. Given my passion I thought that I would provide my personal thoughts on what I believe are the preferred cars to own in some of the usual categories of vehicle for which awards are made and also for a category for which no awards are made.

Small Cars

Having recently tried the latest in Japanese cars as well as the VW Polo (for the purposes of buying my daughter's first car), I think the Polo still wins hands down. It feels solid, has a great ride, is quiet, economic and doesn't feel like a small car. The power is sufficient, even on the base car, and in some respects the base car is actually preferred. It has the best ride, is obviously the cheapest and is very well equipped including Apple play and reversing camera.

The Polo has won a number of awards in the past but despite it no longer being the new kid on the block, overall I do not believe it has been overtaken by any of its new rivals

Medium Hatchback

I agree with the general view that you can't go past the VW Golf in this category and possibly in some others. It has all the qualities of its little brother (the Polo) but takes them up a notch or three. Again, the Golf has won a number of awards in the past but this is no reason to discount its credentials or worthiness to continue to win this category.

Although I previously thought it was perhaps a bit ho-hum, the GTI and R Line versions add that touch of pizzazz and difference to overcome any suggestion of blandness.

Medium luxury

Clearly the Mercedes C Class is the king of this class but its looks (particularly the slightly drooping back) are not sporty. This comment can also be made in respect of the 3 Series BMW and the Audi A4. All good cars.

I like my cars (whether 4 door, hatch or 2 door) to be sporty. For this reason in my view the winner in this class is the XE Jaguar. It has won high praise from motoring journalists around the world, with the only criticism being that its interior can be a bit boring and perhaps, in some respects, not having a luxury feel. I agree with this but also believe this can easily be fixed by ordering the light coloured interior trim rather than black.

In my view, a car with tan, beige, white or even light grey seats and interior trim will always look a lot classier and more expensive than the same car with a black interior. This would also seem to be the view of such car makers as Ferrari where a beige leather interior is the rule rather than the exception.

Wagon

This is not a category for which motoring publications in Australia provide awards. We have abandoned wagons in favour of SUV's. Personally I do not understand why this is the case as the running costs for an SUV, will generally be higher than for a wagon. In addition, some SUV's do not offer any more luggage room than a wagon. And what about the high loading lip at the back of an SUV relative to a wagon - not really ideal for lifting your large dog or any other heavy object into the back of the vehicle.

So for those who have resisted the SUV craze here are my suggestions for wagons:

Small to medium:  Peugeot 308. This European Car of the Year recipient is underrated but highly regarded. In addition, good deals can be found on them.

Large: Mazda 6. A great car recently further improved. In my view the wagon has always been the better looking body type.

Luxury: This one is a tie between the C Class Mercedes (the wagon does not have the droopy rear end of the sedan) and the new Audi A4 (which has always been a favourite of the people who like wagons). For larger cars I would give the award to the E Class Mercedes Wagon and the Skoda Superb Wagon.

I am always happy to discuss cars and would welcome receiving your thoughts or discussing cars with you. Stay tuned for further car blogs.

E; [email protected]