90 years of the road test: how buying and owning a car has changed

During the 1960s and ’70s, an entire cottage industry of under-the-arches welders grew up, re-engineering the sills and rear subframe mountings of BMC Minis and 1100s and the MacPherson strut towers of Fords and Hillmans. Visit scrapyards in those days and most cars would have no more than 70,000-80,000 miles on the clock, their lives finished by crumbling bodywork and, quite likely, engines that burned oil and synchro that no longer meshed.

Advances in metallurgy, in high-precision machining and the greater effectiveness of oils have given engines, gearboxes, differentials and driveshafts durability that the owners of 1950s cars could barely dream of.

The same applies to bodywork. In 1928, virtually every car on British roads had a separate chassis to which bodywork made from steel, aluminium, wood and even fabric was attached. Mud, rain and road salt would attack not only the chassis but also the wood. The arrival of pressed steel monocoque bodies might have reduced the material types used, but the onset of rust in welded seams could be still more devastating. It’s only in the past 30 years that most car makers have mastered the art of corrosion- proofing bodywork.

Yet despite these pitfalls, millions of eager would-be car owners have willingly indebted themselves to get behind the wheel, the manufacturers and money-lenders dreaming up new ways to ease the financial pain (or at least to delay it) of acquiring what was usually the second-most-expensive item in one’s life after a house. The availability of credit – or buying on the never-never, or on tick, as it was once called – massively boosted new car markets, with staged payments making cars available for millions more than the few who could afford to buy outright.

Today, more than 80% of private UK buyers use a personal contract purchase (PCP), this bountiful arrangement allowing the wide-eyed shopper to acquire a more expensive machine because they only pay for part of it over the term. At the end, they either hand the car back or, more likely, take out a new PCP. Enabling punters to afford the unaffordable has been fundamental to the industry’s growth, besides allowing us to savour its fruits.

Which have at least come within closer reach since 1928, when we tested that Austin Seven England Sunshine Saloon. It cost £128 then, representing 67% of the average wage in 1934. Today, its distant descendant, a basic three-door Mini One, costs £15,905, or 58% of today’s £27,271 average salary. What comes after you leave the showroom with your new car has changed too. The rise of consumer rights, increasing mechanical reliability and the competitiveness of manufacturers have massively improved the guarantees that come with cars. During the 1970s and before, the excited acquirer would typically get no more than a six-month manufacturer’s warranty, limited to 6000 miles and with no guarantee against corrosion. The process of committing yourself has inevitably changed, too, although not as much as one might expect, with most new car sales occurring on the premises of a franchised dealer.

Buyers might carry out most of their research online, both into the car itself and finance, but they still like to see and feel the metal before signing, and to talk to a human while doing it. Some things, it seems, do not change.