I passed my driving test on the third attempt in 2001, but I must have been a car enthusiast since around 1986, when I was still under five years old. Years of leafing through the annual Which? car buyers guide which my mother used to buy, a succession of older friends who were petrolheads and a misspent youth watching Top Gear (both the original and newer formats), and an even more misspent adulthood watching automotive Youtube videos has led me to buy a string of cars. (I have sometimes owned more than one simultaneously.) Finally, in 2017 I decided to use the incredible amount of encyclopedic knowledge I had gained over the last 31 years to helping others to making better car buying decisions. I have not always made the best ones myself, but this folly means that I know many of the pitfalls to avoid.

I am married to the beautiful and creative Cate, who loves floristry, gardening and music, and we live in Hampshire, a few miles from the South Coast, although I have sourced vehicles from all over South East, and sometimes further afield.