How Bangernomics found a voice with James Ruppert

Bangernomics may be 25 years old, but I’ve been reading James Ruppert’s unique take on cheap-but-enticing cars for even longer.

Ruppert had already established himself as the country’s predominant voice on ‘cheapies’ by the time the B-word was coined, and we’ll always be proud that the birth took place within the pages of Autocar.

Ruppert’s first offering was a buyers’ guide on the Alfa Romeo GTV. As soon as we tuned into his uniquely wry tone of voice, which mixes no-nonsense knowledge with a deep love of low prices that has been his stock-in-trade ever since, we knew we had to have more.

At this time of year especially, Ruppert gets his face in Autocar because dreaming of enticing cheap cars is a holiday pursuit for which we all have time.

Ruppert wasn’t always a bargains-first man. In his early days he sold shiny, expensive cars from a dealership in Park Lane. But that didn’t last because he didn’t feel comfortable, and he was soon giving us punters the lowdown on strategies used by car salesmen to charm our money away. Very soon his audience and his unique appeal became established, and he has never looked back. Nor do we want him to.

Read our celebration of 25 years of Bangernomics here

Steve Cropley

Title: Editor-in-chief

Steve Cropley is the oldest of Autocar’s editorial team, or the most experienced if you want to be polite about it. He joined over 30 years ago, and has driven many cars and interviewed many people in half a century in the business.

Cropley, who regards himself as the magazine’s “long stop”, has seen many changes since Autocar was a print-only affair, but claims that in such a fast moving environment he has little appetite for looking back.

He has been surprised and delighted by the generous reception afforded the My Week In Cars podcast he makes with long suffering colleague Matt Prior, and calls it the most enjoyable part of his working week.

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