How to become a motoring journalist

It always used to be ‘what’s the best car you’ve driven?’, but it’s not any more. Today, the question I get asked more than any other is ‘how do I become a motoring journalist?’.

It’s understandable. Post-Covid, and especially for young people, the workplace ain’t what it used to be. With inflation high, the prospect of home ownership more remote than ever and large periods of your working life spent at home alone, it’s tempting to want to escape to a world populated by fast, beautiful cars in sun-soaked locations.

But before I answer the question, allow me to pose another: should you become a motoring journalist?

When I was a lad (and he hates it every time I mention it), motoring journalists like Steve Cropley were movie stars to me. I never thought of being one myself, because I knew I wasn’t worthy. How it happened anyway is too long and boring a story to repeat here. And while I know every generation tells the next that ‘things aren’t what they used to be’, in this case it really is true.

Some things have stayed the same, or at least similar. It is not now, nor has it ever been, for instance, a business to enter for those wanting to get rich quick – or at all. For every Jeremy Clarkson, there are hundreds and, around the world, thousands for whom earning a living this way means accepting that while you may make enough to get by, there will be few occupations indeed where your quality of life is at more significant variance to your standard of living. But yes: at least for some car hacks, motor noters, muttering rotters or whatever else you want to call them, there are still fast cars out there, exotic launch locations and so on. At least if you’re a road tester or similar.

But even for them, that is not most days. Most days is trying to persuade manufacturers to lend you cars for tests, or filling in spec sheets, or writing first drives, or going on photoshoots of not terribly interesting but quite important compact crossover hybrid SUVs. None of which is a remotely bad way to pass the time, but nor is it reclining on a chaise longue while gorgeous people tempt you by dangling perfectly ripened fruit above your open mouth.

But the business has changed in significant ways and, for the aspirational rotter, not necessarily in a good way. It is now a much more precarious existence than once it was, and harder to get into. Magazine reader numbers across the board have been in a state of steady decline for 20 years, a path tracked closely by a drop in advertising revenue, the lifeblood of almost all publications. But while many of the jobs lost this way have been replaced by online opportunities, the skill sets required are somewhat different.

The automotive website is a voracious beast with an insatiable hunger for stories, so while you once might have been expected to turn out a decent story or two per week, you may now have to do that each day. Or present a video. Plenty of us have what are known as great faces for radio, who regard the prospect of standing in front of a camera and speaking coherently and intelligently on any subject for any amount of time with complete horror.

But if you’re to be a thoroughly modern, not to mention successful, car journo, it will help your cause no end if you can.

You will need to be a master of social media too, and how to write in such a way that the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) spiders that crawl over your copy once it’s published will see fit to promote it to somewhere near the top of people’s feeds. When I started out, this stuff didn’t even exist. Now it could not be more important.

Have I managed to dissuade you yet? No? Excellent, then perhaps you should become a motoring journalist. But how?

First have a long, hard look in the mirror and be very honest with yourself. Most people who talk to me about getting into this racket want to be road testers, and understandably so. But on top of being prepared to work long hours for modest reward, the job requires a curious and unusual skill set. Not only must you be able to both drive and write to the required standard (in itself not exactly a common combination of talents), you must also be able to analyse accurately a car’s behaviour relative to that of its competitor set.

And that’s not a given, either: the late and very great Swedish driver Ronnie Peterson drove his race engineers potty with his absolute inability to provide any meaningful feedback on how his Lotus Formula 1 car was behaving on track. But he was kept on because he had a talent for driving like few others before or since. But in our world, that’s not enough.

But that’s the good news: yes, you need to be able to drive quickly and safely to do this job, but you don’t need to be a semi-professional racing driver. Indeed, most road testers will get through their entire careers without ever racing a car, usually because they can’t afford it. And in terms of being able to do the job, it doesn’t matter a jot. What actually matters is that your opinions are consistent and reliable and that you can communicate them well.

And there’s the crux of it: the one absolutely non-negotiable component of this job is an ability to write. There are fabulous drivers out there who don’t make it in this business but many who are merely quite able who do, because they know how to engage the reader and convey their thoughts in ways that are both simple and entertaining. If any star quality is required in this trade, it is that.