Steve Cropley: A year in motoring

If it weren't for the shortness of the days, I’d swear we were in April.

So rapidly has the motoring year flashed by – a few highlights recorded here on my phone’s camera – that it’s difficult to believe salt is once more coating our roads, hobby cars are locked away, homeward trips from work are tackled in darkness and it’s time for Christmas. 

This year

As usual, the magnificent managers, innovators and fulfilment personnel of the motor industry are primarily responsible for our breakneck dash through the year. Most manufacturers have seen hard times. All know only one way to combat their problems: to make better cars. A list of arrivals proves the point: Mini, BMW i3, Range Rover Sport, Jaguar F-Type, Mercedes S-class and more.

Next year

The Chinese and US car markets, which justify so much of the car world’s investment, are bullish again. Even the worst markets of Europe are beginning to turn. A generation of new cars, the product of unprecedented levels of creativity, awaits us in 2014. There may have been a better time in the past 120 years to follow the progress of the world’s automobile industry, but I seriously doubt it.

Meanwhile...

…let me send hearty season’s greetings to you, who support us so loyally. Without you, 
this website and the magazine could not be in their current healthy state and our jobs would not be worth doing. So when we all raise a glass over the next few days, the first 
quaff will be for you.