Alistair Darling - last year's model

According to the 'News' section of last night's Top Gear, the Hyundai Sonata has had a bit of a face lift.

So as if Alistair Darling didn't have enough to feel depressed about with the collapse of Northern Rock, the loss of two CDs containing half the nation's personal data, and tax receipts running at far below the expected level as the economy slows down, his shiny new Sonata is now out of date.

Mind you, although most of his problems were inherited from his predecessor, I fear Mr Darling is now in danger of becoming last year's model himself.

Cars on TV 1 - NDTV's Car and Bike Show

NDTV is an Indian 24 hour news channel; it's carried on Sky as Channel 513. Every Sunday morning at 10.30 it broadcasts its motoring programme the Car and Bike Show.

This provides a window on a different motoring world altogether. There's none of your knowing Top Gear style irony and cynicism here but a lot of breathless enthusiasm for the latest scooters and budget motors. Interesting to see what's available on the Indian market, too. Last week's show had a review of the Chevrolet Avea (not sure whether that's a small American Chevy or a Korean Daewoo-style effort) which majored on the chrome strip on the bootlid, chrome being quite a big subject that features quite heavily on this programme.

Truly fascinating and well worth a look.

Cool Wall Fridge Magnets (2)

Now had a chance to put my Top Gear Cool Wall fridge magnets up.

In my 'Sub-Zero' category, I've got the Aston Martin V8 Roadster, the Alfa Spider, the Alfa 8C, the Skoda Roomster, the Porsche Cayman and the Ford Focus ST.

There are magnets for the presenters as well in the TG set. I'm afraid that while Messrs Clarkson, Hammond and May are all brilliant at what they do, they are all in the 'Uncool' category on my fridge door. That's because they're all white middle-class, middle-aged men who are obsessed with cars - there's no way anyone who falls into this category (and I'd include myself in this) can regarded as cool. The mysterious Stig? Now that's a different matter - his magnet is in the 'Sub-Zero' section.

Top Gear magazine - 'Cool Wall' fridge magnets!

I'm a big fan of Top Gear the TV programme but I don't often read Top Gear magazine. The August issue is well worth buying, though, because it comes with a set of fridge magnets that allow you to set up your own version of the famous 'Cool Wall'; hours of innocent fun, I'm sure!

Haven't set mine up yet, but I think I agree with the TG assessment that the Aston Vantage is sub-zero.