MY FIRST CAR
News reader and presenter Martine Croxall wanted an MG for her first car but had to settle for a Ford Fiesta.
“My dad insisted and I have to say he was right,” says Martine, who was a familiar face on the BBC.
But Martine – who studied at Leeds University and retains a great affection for the city – got her own way eventually.
“I bought an MGB GT in October 2022 and I love it,” she said. “My Dad was very much into cars and I am too.”
Martine grew up in Leicestershire surrounded by good cars. Her father Ian, a businessman, drove Aston Martins and an E-Type Jaguar and was a familiar face at a motor club in Hinckley.
After he died, the family sponsored a trophy at the club and it was there that Martine saw the MGB GT for sale and bought it. “It was fate,” she said. “Everything had come full circle.”
It was a far cry from the Fiesta which she got about the same time she joined the BBC in Leicestershire. “It was a very good car and my Dad was right,” she said. “I had it for nine years and it meant the world to me. I was just starting out and the Fiesta was the perfect car. I would have loved an MG but it was good to wait for it.”
Now she has moved on to a workhorse Peugeot 5008 which is full of children and dog paraphernalia. “It looks like a farm vehicle,” she said. The MG, however, is her fun car which she takes out on “high days and holidays”. She said: “The person we bought it off knew my Dad so it was nice and fitting that we should have it. The car had an interesting background. It was registered in Cornwall and it spent some time as a left hand drive in California before being brought back to the UK.”
She worked on BBC Radio Leicester and
East Midlands Today before moving on to BBC News and BBC World News.