About

You’ve found Auto Trader Blog; a little corner of the internet for the Auto Trader editorial team. We’ll be posting about our loves, gripes and stuff that makes us laugh.

The Team…

Adrian Higgins - Editor
The editorial Jedi for Auto Trader, Adrian cut his teeth on a variety of local and national press, before joining the UK’s biggest motoring website in 2007. Adrian’s noble steed used to be a MG of 1977 vintage, but there’s only so many times you can replace your upper trunions without getting a bit fed up.

Dream car: Only three people have heard of it, but it has to be the Spyker D12 Peking-to-Paris. It’s a crazy super-SUV complete with a 500bhp engine, rear-opening suicide doors, a-la Mazda RX-8, and the greatest retro interior ever installed in a car.


Stuart Milne - Deputy Editor
Stuart is a lifelong petrolhead, and has spent his entire working life writing about or selling cars. One of his first memories is being giving a Matchbox model of an Mk4 Cortina – which goes some way to explain his fascination with old Fords. He currently drives a 1994 Toyota MR2 (it’s a Rev 3 for all those aficionados out there) when he’s not roadtesting cars for Auto Trader.

Dream car: Other than my current MR2, it’d have to be the Ford Sierra RS500 from the mid-1980s. I remember the likes of Andy Rouse and Steve Soper oversteering their 500bhp Sierras around Brands Hatch – I’d never seen racing like it before – or since.


Keith Collantine – Deputy Trade Editor
Keith lives and breathes motor racing. From Formula 1 to touring cars and all points in between, if it’s got four wheels and goes fast you can guarantee he’s a fan. He writes Trackside every Monday for the autotrader.co.uk and you can read more of his thoughts on the biggest stories, controversies and crashes from the world of motor racing on the Auto Trader blog.

Keith also writes for f1fanatic.co.uk and maximummotorsport.co.uk

Dream car: There is no greater car than the McLaren F1. The first production car with a carbon fibre chassis from the same inspired minds that first used it in Formula 1. Ruthlessly efficient and dramatically purposeful.


Alex Eckford – Writer
Auto Trader’s resident writer, features guru and tea-making expert. Apart from knowing his way around a kettle, he’s a bit handy with a camera and composes the odd song. He’s previously written for GQ.com and once had a letter published in the Beano. Not recently.

Dream car: McLaren Mercedes SLR. Or an Aston Martin Vantage. Not choosy really.


Adrian Hearn – Junior Writer
Adrian hails from a little part of the world called Somerset, which contrary to some, does have cars and roads. After college he went to uni in Liverpool before heading to London to see if the streets were paved with gold. They were actually paved with mould, chewing gum, congestion and traffic wardens.

Dream car: I change my mind too often to have a favourite, but I do hate the G-Wiz. This boils down to the one time I HAD to be a passenger in one. There was no room and lots of schoolchildren laughed at me. And it’s a stupid, slow but incredibly dangerous car. I’m not bitter though…


Vijay Pattni – Junior Writer
Vijay was given a harsh start in life. He was brought kicking and screaming into this world in a dodgy hospital in Birmingham and was once strangely adopted by a rather large rottweiler when he was two. Still, using Mowgli-esque powers of survival, he escaped the Black Country to become a journalist. To this day, he can sometimes be found huddled in a kennel dreaming of a simpler time.

Dream car: Z4 M Coupe. And I don’t care how good the new RS4 is – I want a new BMW M3 too. Although I do hear a hardcore CSL version may be on the cards, so…


Andrew Goodwin - Junior Writer
Andrew hails from a village so small the only public transport was a bus for the elderly and disabled. He passed his test weeks after his 17th birthday and formed a strong bond with the motorcar. He currently drives a Fiesta ST which has excellent sheep, tractor – and now he’s in London – moped dodging abilities.

Dream car: I’m going to be down to earth and say the Porsche Cayman S. It’s fast enough, and small enough to make the most of British roads and unlike a supercar you don’t have to worry about going out in public in it – who really wants to do a reverse park in a Lambo?


Dominic Sacco - Junior Copy Writer
The resident newbie of the team, Dom is a strange Essex/Italian hybrid who recently finished a journalism degree in sunny Bournemouth, before joining Trader Media’s graduate scheme. He can usually be found jumping around Essex with a guitar or thumping away on his X-Box (when not writing motoring advice features for the Auto Trader website, of course). Dom describes himself as a perfectionist with a sense of humour.

Dream car: It has to be none other than the Subaru Impreza WRX. Why? Because I’m a realistic guy. Also, because it’s about time someone smashed that silly Essex boy racer stereotype to pieces!