It’s always been a surprise to people that, despite being someone who avidly followed Formula One for a good ten years, I really don’t care much for cars. Recently someone asked me what car I drive, the vehicle I have sat in pretty much every day for two years, and it took me about twenty minutes to remember. I’ve always loved the freedom and independence being a driver gives you, but in terms of the mechanics, I couldn’t be less interested.

So, I bought a new car. I know what you’re thinking, “when I read on this blog that the new car buying process was starting, it sounded like we were going to enjoy tales from every step along the journey.” Well, yea, except that was five years ago. My old car kept on keeping on for longer than expected, and then of course, life got in the way, and I didn’t buy a new car.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the return of Top Gear - the new and not-so-improved version with Chris Evans and Matt Le Blanc. My basic conclusion of that show was that it didn’t have enough new things to make it worthy of the revamp name. I was keen to see what the Clarkson, Hammond and May trio would do in their Amazon Prime odyssey, and six episodes in, I think we have a good idea of how it’s panning out.

I hadn’t really been paying attention to the BMW Group’s Next 100 celebration with concept cars ahoy - that is until I saw this video with their take on the future of Rolls Royce. “Are you ready?” the breathy voiceover lady oozes. Erm, not sure that I am actually! I don’t really like what they’ve done with the square tyres here, it looks angular and odd and generally leaves a boxy bad taste in my mouth.

Google have finally taken the plunge and announced they will be building their own self-driving cars, rather than attempting to adapt existing machinery to be self-sufficient. It makes sense, after testing out the viability of the concept, to then start from the ground up and create a new vehicle. The design is a bit bubble car, but if it serves the purpose, there’s always room for improvement on that front.

The Verge posted a hands on video of the new CarPlay interface from Apple - Siri in your car, basically. It looks good. Well, no, it looks rubbish. But compared to what my current car does (which is nothing) and what other cars look like (which is awful), it’s not a bad step up. The crucial thing about this new wave of in-car tech is that they are apps, they are upgradable, and so you don’t end up with a car with a CD player in it long after you ditched all those little round discs.

Another post about how things are made, after the video about Steinway pianos, but this time we’re in the world of automotives. The Tesla Model S is a somewhat revolutionary product, and we know the automotive industry is high-profile in robotics, but this video showed some of the amazing robots at work making the Tesla cars. The machines that move the cars along following magnetic paths are amazing. Plus, the robot that puts the seats in and then changes to put the windows on too actually blew my mind.

I’ve been catching up on some RSS feeds recently (where I am getting down to a reasonable number of unlistened podcasts, my unread items has been creeping up), and I spotted this crazy little item earlier in the month. A DeLorean that is also a boat. It’s cool, and fun, but I took umbridge with the concept almost immediately simply because of this, in the Engadget story where I saw it:

My poor car is starting to get a bit worn around the edges. It’s been in and out of the garage over the past few months and is costing a few pennies to keep running. I can’t complain as it has been a reasonably well behaved vehicle for the majority of its life and it was bound to start racking up some repair bills at some point. Whilst I’m sure it still has some miles left in it, I’m starting to think ahead to the next model that might take its place.

I bought a new car. I didn’t mean to. It just happened. Mr C: So, which one would you have if you were going to get one? Me: Dunno. I don’t need a new car. Mr C: Hypothetically speaking. Me: I don’t need a new car. Mr C: Do you like this one? Me: It’s okay. Mr C: Let’s sit in it. Me: Why? Mr C: Just sit in it and see what you think.