A new approach

Ever since the advent of Which? car tests, certain motor journals have become more critical in their road-test assessments and have evolved elaborate schemes for making comparisons between different cars, blinding their readers with science or pseudo-science. In America there has been a fresh approach, in the form of a motor magazine which publishes very revealing findings about road-test cars. It eschews advertising but obtains the cars it tests from manufacturers’ Press fleets. Its recent objects were summarised in some of its article headings. It would be unfair to the paper, though perhaps more satisfactory for the car manufacturers, to give the answers, but the very nature of the captions at least shows how automobile thinking is trending in the States—”Volvo 544—Best Obsolete Car on the Road? “, Cornet & Fairlane—Sisters Under the Skin, is one a Wallflower?”. ” Jaguar v. Corvette—completely different but very much alike. Which for you?”, “Cadillac, Continental, Imperial—America’s Finest Automobiles. You Don’t Say!” “Corsair Corsa—Will it Overcome Corsair’s Poor Reputation?”, “Pontiac GTO—Is This the World’s Worst Car?”, “Plymouth Valient—Most Underrated?”, “Chevrolet Impala—Does it have anything but Sexy Styling?”. “Ford Falcon—Is it really the Modern Model-A or has it gone High Hat?”, “Rambler Ambassador—Still for Old Men?”, ” Should You Trade Your VW for an M.G.?” “Buick Owners Diary— how one buyer coped with his lemon,” And so on.

Tony Hegbourne

Following his accident at Spa, when he suffered severe injuries included a fractured spine and leg, Tony Hegbourne wishes to thank all those who have written, for their letters of encouragement to him whilst he was in hospital at Verviers, Belgium.