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Simon Heptinstall

Simon Heptinstall

The Spectator

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AI’s come for our carmakers

During the first half of this year, Chinese carmakers achieved a feat of hyper-production that sounds less like industrial manufacturing and more like...

29.07.2026 9

The Spectator

Simon Heptinstall

How Volkswagen drove its own demise

I moved on from most of my father’s automotive prejudices. He refused to buy from the Japanese ‘who treated our prisoners so cruelly’, French...

20.07.2026 10

The Spectator

Simon Heptinstall

Why the death of the manual car matters

There was a time when any travel involved engaging in a delicate, tactile negotiation with the material world. To step into a motor car (or...

13.07.2026 10

The Spectator

Simon Heptinstall

The rise of ‘autobesity’

It’s a busy Saturday morning and in the supermarket car parks of Britain we are forced to indulge in a cartoonish game of automotive...

05.07.2026 20

The Spectator

Simon Heptinstall

The British road trip is over

You set off on a spring morning, windows down, full of hope. Sunglasses, flasks of tea and a picnic rug are packed. You are ready to experience the...

13.04.2026 20

The Spectator

Simon Heptinstall

Driven to distraction / Blame the EU for your increasingly bossy car

12.01.2026 40

The Spectator

Simon Heptinstall

Driven to distraction / Blame the EU for your increasingly bossy car

08.01.2026 30

The Spectator

Simon Heptinstall

History for hire / The scourge of the cultural inheritance tax

11.11.2025 30

The Spectator

Simon Heptinstall