Alex Robbins has been a motoring journalist for more than 14 years. He spent two years as What Car?’s Used Cars Editor before launching a successful career as a freelance journalist, contributing to a wide variety of titles including What Car?, Autocar, and Classic & Sports Car. Alex also writes a weekly column as a motoring agony uncle for The Daily Telegraph, and has commentated on matters automotive on national radio. He was also awarded the Newspress EV Writer of the Year award in 2023. In Alex’s garage is a 1970 Citroën D Spécial, which is his pride and joy – when it’s working. When not driving or working on his Citroën, Alex spends his free time poring through used and classic car classifieds, trying to work out which automotive liability to buy next.
Alex is an expert in:
- Used cars
- New cars
- Classic cars
- Electric and hybrid cars
- Product reviews
Alex Robbins Questions & Answers:
What’s the best piece of advice you could offer a car buyer?
Do the maths. Don’t just grab what seems to be a good monthly deal; work out how much you’ll pay over the course of your entire finance contract, and add in the car’s running costs – fuel, insurance, maintenance, and so on – to work out the entire cost of ownership. You might find a car that costs you more per month actually works out cheaper in the long run because it’s much less costly to run. But you’ll only know if you sit down with a calculator, do your research, and work it all out.
What’s the best car you’ve ever driven?
The 1970 Citroën D Special. What’s that? It doesn’t count if you’ve only driven it a couple of times and then it broke down? Oh, OK then. In that case I’d have to say the latest Bentley Continental GT. Yes, I’ve got expensive tastes, but the Conti really does have it all – style, space, opulence, extraordinary comfort and fabulous performance. It achieves what it sets out to do with aplomb – and it’s utterly gorgeous into the mix. It’s the first car I’d go out and buy if I won the lottery.
What will the car market look like in 20 years?
Not as different to today as you’d expect. The past 20 years have shown me that the future never feels quite as radical as we think it will, and I suspect buyers will probably still buy and use cars the same way. However, electric cars will be everywhere, which rather goes without saying. But as efficiency becomes a watchword – with buyers seeking out EVs that get longer ranges from smaller, lighter batteries – we might also see the appeal of SUVs wear off, as buyers seek out more aerodynamically efficient shapes with lower rooflines and longer, more flowing tails.
I think we’ll see these streamliner EVs joined by a cohort of hydrogen-powered cars, too. As we find ways of creating it that aren’t as reliant on fossil fuels as they are today, it’ll become the fuel of choice for vehicles like HGVs in which electric batteries are impractical, which will jump-start a proliferation of hydrogen filling stations around the country. Once that takes place, we’ll also see more hydrogen models released that can take advantage of this network of filling stations – and they’ll be popular with buyers who can’t charge EVs at home.
