Steve Huntingford
Steve Huntingford combines front-line new car testing with editorial leadership, focusing on clear, comparative reviews that link performance, practicality and price for modern car buyers.
New car reviews across electric and mainstream models
Steve Huntingford is a motoring journalist with more than 20 years’ experience and editor of What Car? since 2016. He oversees all of the magazine and website’s editorial output, both online and in print, while continuing to write detailed reviews of new models.
His recent work includes reviews of mainstream and premium cars such as the Hyundai Ioniq 3, Ford Explorer and Lexus LS, each framed around pricing, specifications and everyday usability.
Electric cars feature heavily in his recent portfolio, with reviews of models such as the Hyundai Ioniq 3, BMW i5, BYD Seal, XPENG G6 and Changan Deepal S05. These pieces foreground range, charging, ride comfort and cabin refinement, with titles and snippets that highlight how an electric car grips in corners, behaves at motorway speeds and fits family use. His coverage of the Changan Deepal S05 as the smaller and more affordable of a brand’s two electric family SUVs shows a consistent focus on positioning new entrants within the wider market and clarifying where they sit on price and practicality.
Huntingford’s reviews typically follow a structured format, signposting “Review [year], Price & Specs” and then unpacking how a car drives, how comfortable it is and what buyers get for their money. The repeated attention to price and specification across saloons, hatchbacks, SUVs and 4x4s underlines his role in helping readers compare competing models rather than treating each in isolation.
This mix of technical description and straightforward value analysis distinguishes his work from generic motoring coverage that might focus only on performance or style.
Performance variants and driver-focused cars
Alongside mainstream models, Huntingford regularly covers performance-oriented versions and driver-focused cars, using measured language to balance speed with usability.
His review of the BMW Alpina B4 Gran Coupé describes it as “seriously fast, comfortable and agile”, encapsulating his typical approach of weighing acceleration and handling against ride comfort and day-to-day livability. Similar themes appear in his coverage of the Lotus Eletre, where he notes its grip in corners, comfort at speed and noise levels at 70mph, again giving readers a rounded sense of what the car is like to live with rather than just how quickly it can be driven.
Performance variants of electric cars form another strand of his work, exemplified by his review of the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N and other sporty EV saloons.
In these pieces he treats powertrain and chassis upgrades as part of a broader question about whether the car still works as a daily driver, rather than as purely track-focused machinery. His coverage of the Hyundai i20 N’s return as an affordable hybrid hot hatch extends this pattern into smaller, enthusiast-oriented models, linking emerging electrified performance technology with questions of accessibility and running costs.
Across these driver-focused stories, Huntingford’s distinguishing feature is restraint: he acknowledges speed and agility but anchors them in comfort, refinement and practicality, making the content useful both for enthusiasts and for buyers who simply want a capable everyday car. The repeated pairing of phrases such as “fast, comfortable and agile” with observations about noise and ride quality shows a consistent editorial choice to keep performance in context.
Editorial leadership and consumer trust
In addition to road testing, Huntingford plays a central role in shaping the masthead’s standards and communicating them to readers. As editor he leads the team responsible for reviews, consumer content and awards coverage, and is credited accordingly in What Car?’s Awards 2025 material and “Why you can trust” explainer.
That trust piece sets out how the outlet tests cars, handles data and maintains independence, and his byline on it highlights his involvement not just in producing reviews but in defining the framework that underpins them.
His experience extends beyond the masthead, with prior senior roles at a major national newspaper and contributions to several other motoring titles and general media outlets.
He frequently appears on television and radio as an expert on motoring issues and the automotive industry, including slots on major news and talk channels, which reinforces his positioning as a spokesperson able to explain complex automotive topics in concise terms. Taken together, his ongoing hands-on testing, his responsibility for the outlet’s editorial standards and his regular broadcast work mark him out as a journalist whose coverage is both technically grounded and shaped by a broad view of how car buyers use information to make decisions.
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