No party for motoring

It's not just the financial institutions who are in trouble at the minute. The world of motoring is going slightly mad too.

In recent days there has been a series of developments in and around the car industry that could have enormous implications for the 50 million people in Britain who use cars on a daily basis.

First the positive news: the Mazda MX-5 is now being sold with discounts of up to £3,300. This means you can take delivery of one for less than £13,000. I am slightly concerned that Mazda and other car companies are almost giving away some of their products for little or no profit. Motor manufacturers are like the rest of us - if they're not profitable today, they’re not going to be around to serve you tomorrow.

Rover has already proved that point. And Jaguar almost did the same before Tata of India, a surprisingly wealthy industrial giant, stepped in and bailed-out the Coventry firm. Not that Tata hasn't got major problems of its own right now. I'm sceptical that the Indians can sell their much-hyped Nano city car for £1,250 because the price of steel and other components has risen sharply, making the £1,250 sticker price almost impossible and the proposed Nano factory in India has been expensively aborted.

The Nano will cost more to make than previously suggested. That means that it will cost much more to buy.

Even the Paris Motor Show has been blighted by problems including strikes inconveniencing people trying to get in and out of France, a Channel Tunnel which isn't working as it should, plus a tough new crackdown on drivers who are being stopped by the Gendarmerie and fined on the spot like never before.

Closer to home, massive falls in the sales of new cars are currently the worst in living memory. In September they were 21% lower than in the same month last year, with orders for 4X4s and luxury cars slumping by over 40%. When bullying politicians and ecomentalists declare war on such expensive cars and the people who buy and use them it's inevitable that they'll help kill off these vehicles…..and, quite possibly, the companies who make them. Also, the SMMT says 43% per cent of all new cars are now diesels. There really is no need for anybody to buy a petrol-engined vehicle these days. Apart from the obvious financial and environmental benefits of being massively more fuel efficient, diesels are as satisfying to drive and often as quiet as their petrol equivalents. Yes, even some of the fastest sports and racing cars can and do run on diesel.

More domestic motoring madness occurred on October 2 when the Institute of Advanced Motorists issued a list of driving tips/warnings to drivers, the first one of which read: "Don't crash." A motoring organisation that that formally issues a "Don’t crash" instruction to drivers is as daft and patronising as a swimming organisation telling swimmers not to drown.

In summary I’m providing a brief message from each party. The Lib Dems are repeating their call for “the introduction of road user pricing.”

Labour "announced £25million" to help Britain's bus network. Such a suspiciously-worded statement doesn’t actually say that the money will be spent.

The Tories have just announced that their transport priority is to spend billions on a high speed rail line between London and Northern England. Never mind that the priority for the rail industry should be to make the trains more reliable for the people who pay through the nose to commute to work on the damn things on a daily basis.

And never forget that the best, most logical, convenient and cost effective way for couples, entire families or groups of friends to travel long distances is by a mode of transport known as the private, self-drive motor car.