Steve Cropley
TUESDAY
We can be pretty certain that legendary UK volume car builders Herbert Austin and William Morris – serious rivals in their pre-war heyday – rarely got together for a friendly chinwag. To fix this, and mark the fact that the British Motor Museum has opened a superb new exhibit that places the offices of these great men side by side, Matt Prior and I met this week at Gaydon to make our My Week In Cars podcast inside Austin’s impressive panelled office.
Never mind that we had to gain access by crawling through the fireplace, the ambience was amazing. Even more surprising was how the two offices lay bare the contrasting characters of their incumbents: Austin, the correct and conventional businessman; Morris, the hypochondriac philanthropist who gave today’s equivalent of £1 billion to charity during his lifetime. The display has virtual portrayals of the famous pair actually speaking. Don’t miss it.
WEDNESDAY
Interesting to read the Geneva motor show organisers’ bullish summary of last week’s greatly reduced event in a report just issued. They described a big success, of course, citing 37 exhibitors, 23 premieres (13 of them world debuts) and 157 vehicles on show. This tally gives every new electric bicycle as much weight as the new Renault 5, so it’s a bit of an exaggeration. Still, they counted in 168,000 visitors, attracted 2000 hacks and have already set dates for 2025, between 17 and 25 February. Seems reports of this show’s death may have been exaggerated…
THURSDAY
What constitutes good customer service? It can be great without being expensive, according to a venerable friend, who used to run garages. He cites the example of a city-bound customer who bought a Peugeot but felt bamboozled by its six-speed gearbox. She wanted her old five-speed back, but was quoted thousands by a nearby dealership to change. Bring it in this afternoon, madam, said my friend, and we’ll fix it for free. “We fitted her a knob with a five-speed pattern,” he told me. “She drove happily for many years.”
FRIDAY
What motorsport will you do this year? I trust this question is bothering you, now that the days are lengthening and slowly rising temperatures mean you can survive time in the garage.
The question is on my own mind, raised by recent sightings at Bicester Heritage of the well-thras
