Car-Tastrophes: 80 Automotive Atrocities from the Past 20 Years

Having spent the last 20-odd years driving different cars on a weekly basis, often twice a week, George Fowler is more qualified than most to hold an opinion that counts. A reader of his Motormouth column once asked him what he thought about a car he’d praised, and added: ＂I know you get paid by the manufacturers to say nice things, so I just wondered what you really thought.＂ That week, a furious Fowler absolutely slaughtered the then new Nissan Primera, and added at the end of his column: ＂How much do you think Nissan paid me for that, Mr Smith of Preston?＂ He didn’t get a reply. If your car is, or was, remotely good then you won’t find it in this book. On the other hand, if it’s here, don’t expect any sympathy.

George ’Motormouth’ Fowler began a lifetime in journalism at the age of 19, with the Macclesfield Advertiser, where he rose to become sports editor, before leaving at the age of 24 to join Raymonds News Agency in their Stoke-on-Trent office. Here, he covered all kinds of news stories, including the notorious murderer Donald Nielson, known as the Black Panther, a series of mysterious ’earthquakes’ caused by old mines collapsing, plus Stoke City and Port Vale football clubs. At the age of 26 he moved to the Lincolnshire Echo and covered Lincoln City, who were then managed by eventual England manager Graham Taylor. After two years at Lincoln he joined the Sheffield Star as a sub-editor where, after only a year, he was invited to move to the features desk of the Daily Express. After a few months with the Express, the Daily Star was born in 1978, and - as it was the sister paper of the Express - it was simply a job of moving from one room to another. He has worked for the Daily Star ever since, fulfilling his life long passion for cars by becoming Motoring Editor in 1995.

Honest John wrote the Motoring Agony Column in The Daily Telegraph single-handedly for 20 years, from January 1995 to January 2015, and started his own website - honestjohn.co.uk - in 2000. Having answered around 800,000 letters, emails and ’Ask HJs’ from Telegraph readers and devotees of his own website, he uniquely knows what turns the British public on, and off, about cars. He has also compiled the world’s biggest car-by-car review section, highlighting car problem areas: if you ever want to know ＂what could possibly go wrong,＂ have a look, over at honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/