December

By the time you’re reading this, the Christmas road test is two or more weeks old, so I’m already getting nervous about finding the next one. Of the (I think) 15 I’ve written, the tall ship Pelican of London is only the second one to be powered by sails. And although it has only been a tall ship for a little over a decade, it had its masts and sails added much later than its build, and because it was constructed in the late 1940s as a fishing trawler, it’s the ‘oldest’ vehicle that I’ve ever put through the Christmas road test mill. The other sail-powered boat I’ve tested was a round-the-world racing yacht, but there have been other ships during my time too: two Royal Navy ones, plus the Isle of Wight hovercraft. I don’t think, however, I or this magazine has ever Christmas road tested a submarine. Navies don’t tend to lend those out to magazines very much. Still, for 2024, we live in hope.

To December’s other road tests? Ah. Well. There are only two issues in December, and this particular mag features the entire year’s road tests for your perusal, so I won’t dwell on them. Curiously enough, though, the road test year’s most extreme numbers heavily feature the only other road test I’ve written this year. I like to keep my hand in now and again with figuring cars and writing our full eight-page tests even though the road test desk is not the one I sit at any more. So the road testers humoured me by having a Citroën Ami sent my way. I can’t help thinking they’re trying to tell me something.

December is typically a slower month for car reviews yet the Smart #3 (6/13 December) is a reasonable biggie, but moreover I’m particularly intrigued by the idea of the Lexus LBX. In columns, I’ve occasionally banged on about how I’d like a truly luxurious small car. The LBX is sub-4.2m long but wears a Lexus badge. Lexus isn’t the first premium car brand to make something that small, and Lexuses perhaps don’t pursue absolute refinement as they once did, but still: I really want to have a go, and I’d like it to be good.

Because conversely this magazine also features a Land Rover Defender that’s as big as it gets. I see a lot of Defenders around (and Range Rovers – I live near Bicester Village, after all) and they are pushing right up to the limits of what’s an acceptable size in the UK. Yet go to the US – the biggest market – and they look compact compared with stateside trucks and SUVs. I don’t t