From the Chair: September 2021
Electric cars are slowly improving, a development that some members of the WG recently were able to ascertain for themselves driving Honda’s new battery entry to the European market, the E. But while their manufacturers energetically promote them, electric cars remain...
From the Chair: July 2021
While the pandemic with its daily statistics and intermittent lockdowns has naturally dominated the news for a year-and-a-half, other matters of interest, not to say concern, have often been overlooked. A case in point is the rise and rise of urban clean air zones,...From the chair June 2021
Slowly, very slowly, things are getting back to normal for motoring journalists, prs, the industry and dealers but no-one knows what that “new normal” will be or how it will work out and that is potentially a sticking point for everyone which will not take...
From the chair: April 2021
The recent Evergreen affair underlines just how much the motor industry is at the mercy of supply chains over which it has little control. The Suez Canal bottleneck will probably result in some shipments arriving three-to four-weeks late and for car manufacturers it...
From the chair: March 2021
There are a few weeds to be taken care of as the motor industry, energy providers, related suppliers and authorities take us down the green road towards 2030 and onwards. The haste and race to have low emission cars and other vehicles on our roads is tripping over...
From the chair: February 2021
Journalists and PRs in the motoring world share their love of cars and that has been severely tested over the last 12 months. Jobs have gone, people have gone, plans shelved and events cancelled, including our own WGMW PR Driving Day 2020. Some...
From the chair January 2021
I think every member will be glad to see the back of 2020. It has destroyed many lives, businesses, overturned accepted social norms and events. It has also brought a lot of us closer together, removed veils and opened eyes to what is happening in front of them. As a...
From the Chair: 1 December 2020
After a truly different year, the Western Group of Motoring Writers broke new ground with its first on-line AGM. It didn’t go as well as we wanted but certainly most members who wanted to were able to join in and generally it ran as a Real World round-table...
From the chair: 1 November 2020
Well Lockdown 2.0, or if you live in Wales Lockdown 2.5, is underway and highlights how differently the Coronavirus is being tackled. Strictly speaking, only essential travel is being permitted whether you live in Wales, England or Scotland and it’s been...
From the chair: 1 October 2020
It has been a very strange summer. The national lockdown really hit journalists, PR departments and dealerships together with manufacturers in a way no one could have expected as we celebrated the arrival of 2020 in January. It was tough then with the global economy...
From the chair: 1 Sept 2020
The SMMT still hopes to run its 2020 driving day, eventually. Latest is a move to 1 October, when the Government permits larger gatherings for business and sporting events. The SMMT and Millbrook have been working on the familiar pattern for the day but it will be...
From the chair: August 2020
Whither the UK motor industry? SMMT car registration data shows that for January to June 2020, new car registrations were half the corresponding figure for the first half of 2019, and if June 2020 improved to 65% of the 2019 level, this is certainly the very best hope...
From the chair: July 2020
There’s a new normal shaping the motoring world and how journalists and PRs react to it and one another. Motor shows seem to be dying faster than the fashions of the human models used to adorn the stands as the traditional calendar is not just screwed up and thrown...
From the chair: June 2020
This week we should have been enjoying the famous Western Group PR Driving Day, but instead we are all suffering to various degrees from the lingering effects of the Coronavirus-19 pandemic. In just over two- months our motoring world has ground to standstill....
From the chair: May 2020
A few months ago, no-one could have accurately predicted the volcanic social upheaval now shaking itself through Britain, the rest of the world and our particular automotive industry. Vehicle production stopped, roads emptied, showrooms closed and motorsport become...Powered by 
