As I start this blog, please let me give you some information on what I am trying to achieve.
What is the first thing we as car enthusiasts do as we think about making that next new car purchase? Now I know what I do, and I am sure that a lots of other people do the same, we go onto YouTube, we go down to the news agents and pick up a copy of publications such as Top Gear, Evo, or What Car, we go online and start to read blogs, long term tests and take in all the information and reviews we can on the car we have set our hearts on. Now most of the time these are great ways of finding out about potential purchases. They list the good and bad points about cars, what to look for when purchasing and how they perform, and it's at this point where my frustration begins.
Now it would appear that the life of a motoring journalist is, at times, a very good job to have. Being flown from one side of the world to the other to test out the latest release from top motoring manufacturers, being taken to sunny locations usually with closed race tracks and being given a brand new car to thrash within an inch of its life and then come home and tell us all about it. And this is where it appears to all fall down for 'Mr General Public' because unlike Mr Motoring journalist we do not have race tracks at our disposal. Now the car in the hands of a Hack on a race track I am sure it all handles perfectly, sets a lap time of 1.25 maybe 0.5 of a second faster or slower than its closest rival from another manufacturer, gives an MPG figure of blah blah blah. None of which actually tells you what the car is like to live with in a real world situation.
Now I did all of the above research when it came to me buying my Golf GTI, I have watched the car being driven hard along sunny Spanish roads, thrashed around test tracks at brake neck speeds, being put up against rivals such as the BMW 135I on an airfield in Surrey. And all of these sources pretty much come to the same conclusion about the GTI, that it is currently one of the best all round cars that money can buy. But is it? Have these conclusions been reached by only having tested the car by a Hack on a race track or specifically chosen road by VW that brings out the best in the chassis?
Now I am not a motoring journalist, all I will be doing is trying to provide an insight into real world ownership of a car and what it is really like to live with on an every day level.
