It all started with my stepdad Adrian, proclaiming that he has found a really nice Porsche 911 Carrera S complete with the Tiptronic semi-auto gearbox, for £10,000. I was really impressed and began a hunt for bargains for myself. Nowadays i’m actually addicted to doing so because i’ve found a number of highly desirable cars for not much money at all.

For example, want an expensive, top-end sports coupe? Then you can get a Jaguar XKR for around £8k onwards. High mileage being the only issues, which isn’t really an issue so long as you maintain the car regularly and look after it. Another example - one for the fans of the winding backroads - is the Mitsubishi Evo. On winding welsh B roads there’s simply nothing faster than an Evo. With the Evo X being £30,000 and the IX model still relatively new, the trick is to go for the Evo VIII. It’s better looking than the IX and has the same horsepower. Want one? Pick one up for £8k. In black too, if you fancy.

If the Evo’s not quite your thing but still want to blitz the backroads, there’s always the legendary Skyline R34 GTR. I found one in black with only 60k miles on the clock for £6000. And you can pick up an R33 model for half that.

Still want something with a bit of class and not something very Boy Racer-ish? How about a 2002 BMW M5 for around £8k-£9k, complete with that lovely 5.0L V8 and all that high tech luxury equipment? With speed that will tear your face off and yet a comfortable GT cruising mode that will soothe your fevered brow, you’re going to struggle to find a nicer car for the same money.

I’m probably shooting myself in the foot by telling you all about this because if you’re anything like me you’ll be phoning your bank manager tomorrow morning and will probably beat me to the best deals, but it really does show why the bottom is falling out of the car trade in dealerships. The case in the UK used to be that for a cheap deal you usually looked at old cars that were usually rusty old bangers. The best deals were usually nice cars that needed a bit of work on them. Nowadays though the cars aren’t that old and some of them are really nice cars, whilst dealerships are selling new cars for - lets be honest - a hell of a lot of money. A decent hatchback will cost more than £18,000. And a sports car for less than £20,000? Forget it. But the biggest problem is their roster of used cars. Because each car is checked, valeted and serviced by their in-house service teams they feel it warrants the ability to charge around twice as much for a used car compared to the price you’d pay if you bought one from a bloke in a private trade.

The problem with buying these bargains is you have to be really careful and know your stuff. You have to know what to look for when you go to visit the car. The big secret is this - it’s not hard to do so, even if you don’t know much about cars. You can usually find guides on the internet that will tell you exactly what to look for on specific models of cars, and more commonly a list of general things you should check on any used car you buy. If necessary bring a print-out of the guide with you, and if the owner refuses to give you permission to carry out said checks, walk away. Even if you really want the car, it’s not worth any amount of money if it’s just going to die on you.

Also, the best thing about private trades? It’s really easy to barter and haggle on the price, especially now the country is in a recession and every penny counts.

I’ve glanced at my traffic figures for the first time today. It’s the first time since the site launch because the site is still new and - if we’re honest - sorely underdeveloped. However, this didn’t stop quite a lot of you from visiting, did it? I mean, 31 RSS feeds? Why do you like me so much?

Either way, i’m overjoyed about this surprising good news, and it’s inspired confidence in me to do a lot more and become a lot more dedicated with this site. I’d like to thank you all for your attention to this website as it means quite a lot to me, perhaps more than it should. To show my appreciation i’ve decided to go ahead and fully develop the site into something that will truly merit a lot of attention, and have already drafted a list of changes that you can expect to see in place very soon. In fact, i’ll set a deadline. Let’s call it February 25th. It gives me a month or so.

The changes themselves? Well here’s what i’ve got in mind so far:

• First issue with the site is the appearance. I’m scouting for talented designers to design an original and visually pleasing website design. This means that the crappy red and black corvette design will be ditched. Any offers to help with this will be welcomed.
• A ‘classifieds’ section will be implemented so that users can advertise their cars on this site for a small fee. I already have a decent number of people interested in advertising here so this will be up very soon. Not only will the small fee get you your advertising space but I can help design and structure your advert, providing you give me at least one photo of your car and some information about it.
• Road tests. Oh yes. See, many of you are coming here after searching for cars like the VW Scirocco and the Jaguar XFR, and whilst I can talk to you about them all day long, I can’t yet tell you what they’re like to drive. Incidentally, i’ve had some suggestions about videoing the road tests and presenting them like you would a TV motoring show. I really want to do that but doing so requires at least two people, and if the result is going to look like the work of a blair-witch handicam then there’s no point. I can’t be proud of third-rate work. Again, any camera buffs willing to help will be greatly appreciated.
• Message boards. I’ve already got a couple of people interested in helping me develop one. This will allow us to sign up and air our thoughts and opinions about cars, motoring life and this website. Once it’s up i’ll also make it a base for which suggestions for the website can be offered.

Speaking of which, at this stage i’m still brainstorming. Got a helpful suggestion or want to volunteer or even become a part of the team? Leave a comment below and we’ll talk.

Again, many thanks for your interest. It’s inspiring.

The world-famous Detroit Motor Show is underway and a lot of new metal is being unveiled, ranging from green eco cars such as the Fisker Karma (A rival to the Tesla electric sports car, and ironically created by the same man who designed the Tesla) to red-hot metal such as Audi’s new and improved version of their already-stupidly-popular Audi R8. In this article we’ll start with the most important aspect - the Brits.

First person to point out that Jaguar is now an Indian company will be shot. Jags are British, regardless of paperwork. End of.

Big news from Jaguar. They didn’t unveil a new ‘car’ per se, so much as a new engine. They’ve developed a whole new supercharged V8 engine - a 5.0L glorious little beast - and said as an aside that they’re popping it into a brand new Jaguar XKR and an even-more-brand-new performance version of their XF, creating the ‘XFR’.

The XFR (pictured above) will - thanks to the new V8 and lots of high tech mechanical bits - produce a staggering 510bhp, with a 0-60mph time of 4.7 seconds. Of course, this would all make sense in the sports coupe Jaguar XKR, but the really big news is this XFR because remember - this is a four-door executive saloon. it’s got nice carpets, a gorgeous leather interior, and all the creature comforts you’d expect in something like an S-class mercedes. And yet this car will only be 0.1 of a second slower than the sports coupe, the XKR. So even if you have a wife and kids you can still have a car that will utterly destroy a lot of performance cars on the road today.

The engine is actually pretty clean too… by V8 standards. The Jag’s rivals would be the BMW M5 and M6, which produce less power despite having big V10 engines. They produce at least 350g/km of CO2 whereas the Jag’s engine is expected to produce less than 300g. So you can own a car like this and be comfortable in the knowledge that there is virtually no car in the same class as this that produces less CO2 per kilometre. Although those interested in a car this powerful really wouldn’t give a damn anyway, if we’re honest.

As evidence to support the comment I made above, Jaguar says both cars will get a ferrari-style electronic differential (mechanical bits in charge of the wheels) that can be set by the driver for their driving taste, including (and I quote): “easy drifting when the traction control is turned off”.

Yeah. I’d imagine with 510bhp and rear wheel drive, drifting would definitely be possible. See what I mean about their target audience?

You’ll have noticed the new styling cues that seem to have been inspired by (or copied completely from) the Aston Martin DBS, which is definitely no bad thing. New side skirts, alloys and bonnet vents. It trades the XF’s elegance for a more muscular and aggressive appearance. It worked wonders with the DBS and in my opinion it’s done the same job with the XFR.

Finally the bad news is the XKR version is set to cost £72,400 and will arrive in March/April time this year. But the XFR - which is at least as good as the XKR but slightly slower - will be less than £60k. Why it’s so much cheaper I don’t quite understand.

Where I live the surrounding carpark area is full of beautiful modern cars - new-style black Audi TT, BMW Z4, Golf R32, Mini Cooper S, and even a Vauxhall Monaro. There’s no getting away from the fact that they’re very good, nice cars. But by far the most beautiful car here, by miles and miles, and the one that stands out from the crowd the most? A black 1988 MkII Ford Fiesta 1.1L. It’s a classic - cream leather interior, metal wingmirrors, and the classic body shell and chassis similar to that of the classic Austin Metro. Furthermore the owner appears to have kept it in absolute pristine condition - no imperfection whatsoever. No rust, no paint fade, no flaking, not even a spot of bird shit. Even the paint finish is like glass - waxed and polished to a shine. It’s a nice car by itself, but made better by the obvious fact that the owner really has looked after it. I bet it drives as good today as it did when it was new too.

And look at me talk - I quickly brush over the nice, new cars mentioned in the beginning, whilst fawning over what should be an old banger. It’s made me think - are newer cars getting uglier? Why don’t we have any beautiful cars anymore? Think about it. Case in point can be the Ford Mustang. 1967 and 1968 saw the legendary ‘Fastback’ GT390 and GT500 models. What do we have now? A huge slab with wheels and headlights. Next case in point? Porsche. My family are classic Porsche enthusiasts and we’ve got a 924 Turbo and a 928-S, both in blue. We even had a white 944 Turbo at one point. But if you went to a dealership now, what can you get? A 911, a Cayman and a Boxster - all of which just look like variants of the 911 design (which is a great design - for a 911. Come on Porsche! Show some variety!) So why this change? Why aren’t cars built to look beautiful anymore?

My guess is this: Cost. Cars are far more expensive than they used to be, as manufacturers are abusing the general belief that buying a car is the second most expensive investment next to buying a house. This means fewer people are willing to buy new cars. In fact most car sales nowadays are second-hand cars, private trades being especially popular since the best bargains are found on sites like autotrader. This means that in order to cut their losses, manufacturers are trying to find cheaper ways of making good cars, and the easiest way to do that is to keep their designs low-budget and simple. Up-market brands such as Audis, BMWs and even some VW cars like the Phaeton and Scirocco do still use high quality paint and appear to have an expensive finish and look about them. But Peugeots? Citroens? Fords? Renaults? The paint is lighter and thinner, and that makes them look cheap. Or ‘affordable’ as manufacturers prefer to call it.

In terms of business, its the angel and the devil. The fastest selling car of all time was the 1960’s Ford Mustang - a very beautiful car and very well priced back in the day. But the best-selling car of all time - the car that sold the most units - was the Toyota Corolla. A simple car that had nothing particular about it other than it was cheap to buy. Unfortunately instead of looking at the fastest selling car and taking leaves out of the mustang’s book, manufacturers have opted for the best selling car simply because it’s a lot cheaper to make. So now we have millions of cars that aren’t too beautiful, and the prices of each car only really correlates to the brand name and how fast said car is.

My advice? Buy a beautiful classic and take good care of it, before there’s none left in the world.