[Ralph] Nader: what he effectively instigated was legislation covering the design especially the safety features of cars. ibid.
The Amphicar’s ahead-of-its-time capabilities. ibid.
Sinclair C5: ‘This is brilliant. I like it.’ ibid.
Two of motor power’s most innovative pioneers – Karl Benz und Gottlieb Daimler. Their dream of a fast self-powered road vehicle changed almost every aspect of modern life. And it helped define the twentieth century. Ronald Top, More Industrial Revelations s4e6: Europe – Exploding Engines, Discovery 2006
When steam-power really got going as a moving force it wasn’t on the roads, it was on the railways. By the 1860s locomotives were criss-crossing Europe, but on the roads self-powered vehicles were in for a bumpy ride especially in England. ibid.
This is a single-cylinder four-stroke engine which uses petrol as a fuel. ibid.
It was the first time the world saw a motorcycle, and it is the first ever petrol-driven vehicle. By an amazing coincidence just sixty kilometres away another motor-car pioneer was testing a rival prototype. Karl Benz had made a fortune making engines for industry but his real goal was to create a car. And that’s exactly what he did in 1886. ibid.
Land Transport ... The car itself is a rolling definition of excellence ... The Rolls Royce ... A Silver Ghost set you back £3,500. Rory McGrath, Industrial Revelations s5e4: Vehicles, Discovery 2006
The first internationally celebrated British roadster. Sex on four wheels. The car James Bond should have driven. The E-Type Jaguar ... unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show 1961. ibid.
No, no, no. There’s no such thing as cheap and cheerful. It’s cheap and nasty & expensive and cheerful. Jeremy Clarkson
If you are clinically insane, by which I mean you wake up in the morning, and you think you are an onion, this is your car. Jeremy Clarkson, re BMWX3
Bugatti Veyron: quite the most stunning piece of automotive engineering ever created ... At a stroke then, the Veyron has rendered everything I’ve ever said about any other car obsolete. It’s rewritten the rule book, moved the goalposts and in the process, given Mother Nature a bloody nose. Jeremy Clarkson
Propelled across the land in a carriage of no horse-drawn, belching Satan’s black wind into our clean and local air. This is a decent town and a local shop – there’s nothing for you here. The League of Gentlemen s2e4: Death in Royston Vasey, Edward to petrol-seeking visitor, BBC 2000
It was the carburetor that gave the Daimler car company a head start over all the others. James Burke, Connections s1e6: Thunder In The Skies, BBC 1978
The environmental effects of the automobile are well known: motor vehicles cause, for example, as much as 75% of the noise and 80% of the air pollution in our cities, and the industry must face mounting pressure from environmentalists. Stewart Udall
So what drove this shift towards diesel? Well, back in the 90s the world was worried about global warming. The race was on to cut carbon emissions. Diesel produced less carbon dioxide than petrol. Dispatches: The Great Car Con, Channel 4 2015
A Labour environment spokesman now admits his party got it badly wrong. ibid.
Diesel was meant to be cleaner; in fact it is a killer. ibid.
Was the drive for diesel a massive failure of public policy? ibid.
Diesels are still the best sellers. ibid.
Fancy a new car on finance? Low monthly payments with an upgrade every three years or so? Millions of us do. But are the new deals really as good as they seem? Dispatches: Secrets of Your New Car, Channel 4 2017
£32 billions of credit on cars in the last year alone. ibid.
Personal Contract Purchase or PCP. ibid.
Six million Americans are three months behind on their car repayments. ibid.
The truth about Britain’s electric car revolution. With pump prices at a record high, driving green has never been more popular. We reveal that hundreds of charging points are not working. We discover your new hybrid could be worse than a diesel on some harmful emissions. And will a second-hand electric car keep you on the road? Dispatches: The Truth About Electric Cars, Channel 4 2021
All the hybrids performed worse than the new diesel cars. ibid.
We investigate the astonishing rise in the price of cars … This crazy market is even bewildering insiders. Dispatches: Why is My Car So Expensive? Channel 4 2022
In the twenty-first century the number of cars on Britain’s roads has gone up by almost a fifth. ibid.
The chip shortage may be about to get a whole lot worse. ibid.
We now think it hilarious that medieval streets were used as open sewers. Equally, our descendants will say: ‘You won’t believe this, but people were once allowed to hurl a couple of tons of dangerous metal around smashing into each other.’ Norman Foster
Now Jaguar is delving back into its past to build six new lightweights solely for the super-rich. Hand made to the highest standards ... You have to be chosen. Inside Jaguar: Making a Million, Channel 4 2015
Street racing: it’s an American sub-culture that dates back to the days of hot-rods and drive-ins. Today young men in Compton California say it’s the only thing steering them away from a life of gang membership and drugs. LA Street Racers, National Geographic 2013
135th Street Compton California 2.00 a.m. These streets are home to gangs like the Crips and the Bloods. ibid.
So many residents here despise the street racers. ibid.
Almost everyone here has been charged with one driving offence or other. ibid.
Running from the law can get you killed. ibid.
Dwight: I bet you get pulled over by the cops a lot because of your race.
Kelly: Well they say it’s because of texting, but maybe you’re right. The Office US s6e23: Body Language, NBC 2010
You drive. I got a car full of fox meat. The Office US s7e15: The Search, Dwight
Every forty seconds a car is stolen in America. 80% disappear without a trace. American Underworld: Grand Theft Auto/Identity Theft, Discovery 2011
You see cars; this guy sees money. ibid.
Britain is hooked on diesel. Half of our new cars guzzle it. And the German motor giant Volkswagen is a market leader. Their cars promised owners they were doing their bit for the planet. But VW was fooling everyone with a clever scam to beat the emissions test. Panorama: The VW Emissions Scandal, BBC 2015
For UK drivers it’s the biggest change we’ve ever seen. When will you go electric? Some are already trying to make it work. While others think we’re a long way off. Is our charging network ready for the big switch? Panorama: Electric Cars: Is It Time to Buy? BBC 2023
Thus did I fall victim to Europe’s fastest-growing industry – car theft. Every month thousands of cars would be stolen from the streets of northern Europe in preparation for their illegal export to Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Misha Glenny, McMafia
As the oligarchs started to funnel huge amounts of cash into their pockets and organisations, there was a sudden rise in the demand not just for Western cars, but for luxury cars. ibid.
By the late 1990s, some 15,000 cars and 5,000 vans and trucks were hijacked annually in South Africa, while another 100,000 were stolen while unattended. ibid.
Dear Mr Edwardes,
As a patriot, I am becoming increasingly distressed by the farce that the mere mention of ‘British Leyland’ by a music-hall comedian gives rise to gales of ignorant laughter ...
I would remind you, Sir, that every time someone laughs at ‘British Leyland’ they are laughing at Great Britain.
In the circumstances I would earnestly suggest that you change the name of the company either to ‘Japanese Leyland’ or to ‘Jamaican Leyland’ … Henry Root, The Henry Root Letters, to Michael Edwardes 31st March 1979
Lord Denning: The learner-driver may be doing his best, but his incompetent best is not good enough. He must drive in as good a manner as a driver of skill. Nettleship v Weston [1971] 2 QB 691 CA
When it started America was unprepared: from across the ocean it came: little cars determined to change the buying habits of a nation, and for a while there was no stopping them. Who Killed Vincent Chin? TV clip, 1987
I was driving through Michigan, the heart of America’s car industry; it’s also home to a sub-culture of car smashing called demolition derby which I hope to get involved in. Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends s2e4: Demolition Derby, BBC 1999
’90s rally legend Colin McRae … A man who lived life to the limit and drove the limit too … ‘He was the people’s champion’ … Britain’s first rally champion. Racing Legends s1e3: Colin McRae, Chris Hoy commentating, BBC 2013