Following a diverse career that included PR-ing Q branch-aping covert surveillance kit and secondary school teaching, Keith followed his automotive passions by launching an award-winning blog in 2011, switching to full-time car journalism with Bauer Media two years later, writing for Parkers as well as CAR Magazine’s print and online guises.
Rapidly rising through the ranks to become the first managing editor of Bauer’s New Car Automotive Hub, he eventually sought a fresh challenge by moving into the automotive data industry, but the lure of a return to journalism eventually proved too strong to resist and he ventured into the world of freelancing in early 2024.
In addition to his contributions to Autocar, Keith’s also written for BuyaCar, Carwow, Classic Car Weekly, the Daily Mail, Diesel&EcoCar, HeyCar, Honest John, MSN Cars, Practical Classics and The Telegraph.
He’s also the go-to guy for many automotive PRs when it comes to researching their brand’s historic model ranges, using his ever-expanding personal archive of car sales ephemera and magazines to determine technical specifications, pricing data and detailed timelines.
Keith graduated first from the University of Lincoln with a BA in Management Studies in 1998, then in 2002 from Sheffield Hallam University with a PGCE in Secondary Education.
Keith is an expert in:
- Car reviews
- Automotive data
- Current, recent and classic cars
- Car industry history
Keith Jones Q&A
Which article are you most proud of?
With my consumer journalism hat on, few things come close to readers’ correspondence to the effect of my car review clarity directly influencing their buying decisions. Switching to geek mode and shining a spotlight on historical nuggets of car information that most articles don’t bother referencing is especially satisfying — if you need to know the differences between Granada Scorpios and Scorpio Granadas, holler in this direction.
What's the best car you've ever driven?
Whenever I’m about to drive a car I’ve not experienced before, my starting point is that it could become the best I’ve driven, comparing each of its credentials against my back catalogue of reference points of alternatives that were brilliant at this or excellent at that. Substituting ‘best’ for ‘most special’ opens opportunities for other factors, such as people and places, to amplify what any car can offer, hence my fond memories of a Ford S-Max on the North Coast 500, a Mercedes V-Class on the Stelvio Pass and negotiating a Renault Twizy through a branch of B&Q.
What will the car industry look like in 20 years?
My fear is that consumer conservatism won’t be especially open to the radical packaging and styling opportunities that electrification brings, so I expect models of the mid-2040s to not look wildly dissimilar to today’s. I do think we’ll see a sensible embrace of more appropriately sized cars — and battery packs — depending on how and where they’re most frequently used. The industry itself will see further consolidation to maximise economies of scale, with a third of legacy brands we’re familiar with today being retired, replaced by newcomers, many which don’t yet even exist.
