MY YEAR IN CARS
Steve Cropley
Last year, signing off here, I reckoned “big stuff” would happen during 2024, and indeed it did. What was especially fascinating was that, for all we think we know about automotive progress, many of the key events were far beyond our ability to predict.
Who’d have thought the values of used electric cars would fall so far that even the Porsche Taycan, one of the best EVs going, would be shunned as a trade-in because values were uncertain? Who’d have thought Jaguar would bow so quickly out of selling cars in the UK, leaving a two-year void? Or that it would leave its enviable 102-year heritage quite so far behind in pursuit of Reimagination? Who’d have thought our (admittedly new) national government would need to see plans for the actual, physical closure of a Vauxhall plant before starting a desperately needed rethink of the ZEV mandate?
What then, in such serious times, can be the value of one car lover’s annual reminiscences, mostly retrieved from an iPhone? I wondered this several times while making these selections, but the answer was always the same. For me, at least, they summarise another joy-filled year at Autocar, and I hope they show my wider belief that the delight of driving and owning cars can continue unabated. I wish this for all of us.