MY WEEK IN CARS

If a car industry executive ever faced a precipitous climb to success, that man is surely Adrian Hallmark, new CEO of Aston Martin. His first public job last week was to announce that as a result of component supply disruption (among other problems), the company would deliver 1000 fewer cars than planned this year. The news brought an immediate 25% drop in a share price already 95% below the 2018 flotation level.

- Steve Cropley

MONDAY

I'm not an Aston investor, but I'm going to enjoy watching the company's progress closely.

As our testers will tell you, its cars are better than they have been for decades. Other great products are coming. And Aston has fallen so far now that it must surely be at a carpet level.

Hallmark is smart, is determined and likes problems. He has a far better understanding of manufacturing than most CEOS, plus an instinct for clear communication. Judging by these first utterances, he also has decent freedom to operate - although we have still to see how prominent Aston chairman Lawrence Stroll intends to be.

Call me crazy, but I think and hope we're now looking at recovery.

TUESDAY

I took myself back to Caterham's new headquarters in Kent, along with my elder son, to get more serious about buying a car. I went by train for the ridiculous reason that a crane was blocking my garage. The associated fuss, which included trudging a mile in the rain, made me ever surer that private cars would endure.