Back behind the wheel

The good news for 2026 is felt immedi- ately at the pumps

- Marlan Padayachee

Wide selection: South Africa's car park remains diverse, the author says, from entry-level hatchbacks to family crossovers, like this BMW X3.

(BMW SA)

Greetings, goodwill and good wishes to the motoring fraternity — from everyday motorists and fleet operators to vehicle manufacturers, logistics players and transport workers - as South Africa embarks on another year on the roads in 2026.

This week, I am back behind the steering wheel — a comeback columnist on all matters motoring, mobility and the political economy of transport.

For those who remember the days when newspapers were read cover to cover, I was among the original Top Gear motoring writers, when print journalism was still the premium showroom for ideas, analysis and aspiration.

Those years behind the wheel of brand-new vehicles — what locals affectionately called “brand new from the box”, invariably referred to cars as she — remain etched in memory. Under the original byline By Top Gear in the print media, motoring was not merely a beat; it was a passion.

The smell of new leather, the precision of engineering and the rigours of off-the-beaten-track testing lingered long after the just-off-the-production-line cars had been returned to their makers.

From Assembly Line to Open Road: Durban, at the time, was a dead-end street for many matriculants. CVs disappeared into File 13. My own entry into the industrial side of motoring came via an internship on the Toyota SA assembly line in Prospecton, counting and auditing body parts and accessories — a grounding in how cars are actually made before they are marketed, sold and romanticised.

Then came an advert for a cub reporter at Argus Printing and Publishing Company. On a rainswept Saturday, I emerged from dozens of applicants.