Thats depth of field. What that means is that the camera has been focused on a set point (which you decide). Due to the camera being focused on a specific point it means that the back ground will be blurred.
Apologies for the hijack but this will show what I mean a bit better....
On this shot you can see that area I wanted in focus what the frame under the petrol tank, that means that ONLY that point is in focus and everything else is out of focus...
Same thing on this shot.... I only wanted to focus on the 'S' on the tank, due to the lens I was using having a very shallow DOF it means the 'S' is super sharp and the background is out of focus.
Its very cool when you get it right, and some lenses have a shallower DOF than others. This one is about as shallow as it gets (50mm f1.8 prime lens).
Here's something that I reckon can explain it better than I can!.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field
hijack over!
Gav,
In todays shot the sky looks a bit burnt out and the car has a lot of reflections on it. Try a polarising filter, will help a lot with vehicle shots as it takes the glare and reflections out
Welcome to expensive photography!.
T