Journo snap shot: Matt Campbell, CarsGuide

Matt Campbell isn’t just a car guy. He lives, breathes and often bleeds cars. Not literal cars, but like, he’s accident prone and whenever he works on cars he tends to hurt himself.

Ever since his dad introduced him to everything automotive in his formative years - including Scalextric slot cars and Matchbox toys - Matt has always had a love of vehicles with four wheels, or more. On a trip around Australia at the age of six, Matt honed his truck-spotting skills and could name a Mack or Scania through kilometres of heat haze. And while his dream at that age was to be a truck driver, his love of words got in the way by the time he got to university.

Matt studied a Bachelor of Media and was awarded for his writing, and he managed to get a start with Fairfax’s Drive section through his tutor (and Fairfax contributor at the time), Tony Davis. It just so happened that Matt wrote an assignment on the way electric cars are a stepping stone towards hydrogen power becoming a mainstream alternative, and it’s fair to say his crystal ball was pretty right. Since graduating, Matt has worked for Drive, CarAdvice and now CarsGuide, where he’s been senior editor since late 2017. His day-to-day job might look like fun and fairytales to the casual observer, but Matt really gets his jollies in organising shoots, planning the calendar, and spreadsheeting as much content planning as he can. In recent times, Matt has been focusing more on the CarsGuide team’s video output, with comparison tests and reviews proving to be a huge winner for both viewers and OEMs alike.

While a lot of motoring journalists have enviable garages with high-end offerings, Matt likes to keep it real. He currently has two budget beaters in the driveway - a 2007 Suzuki Jimny and a newly added 2001 Audi TT quattro. He often daydreams of owning his favourite car of all time - the Audi RS6 Avant - but then he remembers that it costs about $250,000, and that could buy a lot of older, more interesting cars. Now, he just needs to build a bigger garage.

Journo snap shot

Matt Campbell, CarsGuide