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Private buyers importing from Belgium, politicians calling for electric cars, Toyota introducing a luxury brand to rival BMW and Mercedes-Benz; all feature in the second of a series of brand new compilations of columns, features and road tests by award-winning motoring writer Eric Dymock.
Now published, the 1990 selection recalls the Consumers' Association Action Pack, "Importing a car - how to save up to 30 per cent on the list price by buying within the EC." British buyers had been stumping up more for cars than anywhere else in what was still called the Common Market. Now they were searching Europe for bargains.
Politicians with en eye for the green vote in 1990, demanded electrics must be made, even if none were sold. Exhaust emission controls and safety legislation came in. Mercedes-Benz cars racing in the German national championship were running on lead-free fuel and being fitted with catalytic converters.
Toyota created Lexus to break into the luxury market. Refined, quiet and large, trimmed with wood and leather and of exemplary quality, Lexus was already making inroads into the United States after a year-long media campaign.
These stories from Eric’s extensive archives are now available to download as an e-book, titled ‘Eric Dymock on Cars 1990’. It highlights the 100 Best Cars, motoring columns, features on automotive developments, road tests and topical reports from the first year of the decade, providing a unique insight into motoring history with modern comments on what happened afterwards. Highlights include:
- Accounts from motor shows, including Geneva.
- Buyers throttling back on classic cars. High interest rates and too many vehicles triggered a downturn. Prices tumbled at auctions. “Within 36 hours the acceleration in classic car prices was at an end.”
- One new car in 20 sold in Britain had a diesel engine. In 2010 diesels overtook petrol cars.
- Folklore on Fangio. Driving for Ferrari in 1956, the Argentinian world champion accused the team of skulduggery.
- Eric Dymock became the first motoring correspondent to test-drive the Triumph Lynx, intended successor to the Triumph Stag.
This full-length anthology is available to download to Kindles from Amazon for an introductory £1.31, or on to ipads and androids as well as other reading tablets from itunes or online bookstores. Eric Dymock on Cars 1990 can also be viewed on PCs, Macs, ipods or iphones by downloading the free Kindles app from Amazon.