The media is continually under pressure to report on exciting stories which are going to sell newspapers. Unfortunately there are sometimes  ‘slow news days” and you get the feeling that the journalist are just desperate to fill up their columns. For example:

Wayne and Coleen Rooney’s car takes a beating after trip to safari park!

Is this news? Most people with young children will at some point take them to a Safari park for a day out. Since Safari parks became quite common in the early 70s, visitors have been aware that your Audi Q7 essex car is probably going to get damaged. Your even more at risk if you go through the money enclosure. Of course as this was Wayne and Coleen the newspapers found it necessary to report on it. The reported actually stated that the primates were particularly paying attention to the Rooney’s car. Perhaps they wanted an autograph!

Are any articles about Amy Childs really news? Most people don’t even know who she. is Unfortunately it looks more and more likely that she is going to be gracing the front pages of newspapers for some time to come. For those not in the know, Amy Childs was formerly in the reality soap, “The Only Way Is Essex”! This weeks “hot” headlines were along the lines of “Amy Childs goes rock chick”. Who cares? Furthermore it is now Winter and it looks like she is wearing less than in the Summer.

I enjoy popular culture but I think it is time that the newspapers started to take themselves more seriously otherwise this world will find itself in more trouble than it is already. Have you ever watched the film “Idiocracy”?

The horrific crash on the M5 during Friday’s rush hour has shocked many people. Reports suggest that it is the worst road incident in the UK for about 20 years. Seven people have been killed and up to 50 were injured, some with life changing injuries. Unfortunately emergency crews are all too familiar with dealing with these types of incidents on a regular basis. Five people are killed on British roads every day and for emergency services, it is all in days work.

The cause of the crash is currently being investigated. The weather on Friday evening was particularly bad with heavy rain causing problems with visibility. However the investigations have begun with a nearby bonfire and fire work display. Some eyewitnesses said that smoke from the event was drifting across the carriage way and making visibility even worse. I feel sorry for the organisers of the bonfire and just hope they had all the necessary permits to host the event.

For the families of the victims who died in the Audi A6 London car crash, explanations as to the cause of the incident may give them some closure. However it may be some time before the investigation is completed. Perhaps we should follow the lead of America who are currently considering putting “black box” type recorders in all vehicles. The system would record vehicle data and in the event of a crash it could be a quicker and cheaper way of determining what caused the accident.

We should all learn from the incident on Friday night, slow down and keep your distance.

Volkswagen re-introduced the Golf Cabriolet in September this year, it made a return after being absent in the line-up for nearly 9 years. The new soft top Golf is smaller than the Volkswagen EOS in London and has a fabric roof compared to a hard top retractable. The soft top on the Golf opens in an impressive 9.5 seconds.

Volkswagen did a lot of work to get rid of the roof on the Golf, modifications include reshaped sill sections, diagonal bracing bars in the front and rear under body, boxing-in of the space between rear sub frame and spare wheel well, and enclosure of the bottom of the engine bay. And there I was thinking it was a simple roof chop!

The Golf Cabriolet has already been voted Open-top Car of the Year at the 2011 Scottish Car of the Year awards. It collected this first award within the first month of going on sale, there will be many more to follow.

This summer VW presented the Golf R Cabriolet at the Worthersee tuning festival in Austria. The R Cabriolet has the same engine has the hard top model, producing 266 bhp via a turbo charged petrol engine. It can do the 0-60 sprint in less than 6 seconds and has a top speed of 155 mph – making it the fastest convertible Golf to be ever produced.

The R model differs from the normal Golf Cabriolet, it comes with a ‘sports chassis’ and sits 25mm lower than the standard Cabriolet and it has 19-inch Talladega alloys. The Golf R Cabriolet uses 17-inch internally ventilated brake discs and special blue high-performance brake callipers to make sure the car stops!

Also at the show was a GTI version of the cabriolet, more on that later!