First Vehicle Leasing – Official Blog

Here’s a question for you to mull over for a couple of minutes. Would you buy a fantastic car at a good price knowing that it had a famous previous owner you didn’t like?

This question came to my mind when I saw that a Ferrari 458 Italia once owned by Chris Evans is on sale at the decent looking price of £18,950. Oh, hang on a second. It’s actually £189,950, is it? Not quite so tempting any more then really.

I don’t actually have anything against Christopher James Evans, even though he is probably the only person in the world who can challenge Chris Moyles to the title of” Person With The Biggest Distance Between Their Own Perception of How Funny They Are And The Reality”.

But what if the car was previously owned by someone you really hated or, even worse, an infamous murderer or despot? Would you drive Franco’s old Limo, Mussolini’s second hand Alfa Romeo or JR Ewing’s Cadillac? It seems like a question of scruples to me and I certainly wouldn’t do it if the car was instantly recognisable.

I am Just Nipping Out in the Hitlermobile for Some Milk

Can you imagine driving along in a convertible Mercedes 770 covered in swastikas? Apparently a Russian collector / madman paid $8 million to get Hitler’s old car, although I wonder if he ever pops down to the shops in it.

Back to Evans though, and if you really want to know then his Ferrari has a little over 5,500 miles on the clock, has had at least one careful owner (yeah, right) and a fetching aubergine colour. At the risk of digressing again, does anyone know why Americans call aubergines eggplants? Would they describe this vehicle as eggplant colored? That just sounds weird, although even weirder is the fact that the eggplant is actually a berry and a close relative of tobacco.

After all this eggplant based weirdness I can only say that it is a dangerous game looking at cars from famous and infamous people. Unless you are a mad Russian billionaire with a taste for swastikas that is.

It’s a while ago and it may have been bigger news in the Netherlands, due to the fact that it was a Dutch company that played cavalry to the company’s rescue – unfortunately they ran into a General Custer-inspired bloodbath – but I’m sure you know this: Sweden’s Saab is no more.

Saab was sold by GM to Spyker, a Dutch sports car builder that has been pretty much loss making for as long as it exists. The alternative was to pull the plug on Saab and so Victor Müller, CEO of Spyker, was given a heroic reception when he came to inspect his new plant after the deal. He had ambitious plans and ideas, but it didn’t take a year before the company walked into a quick sand of cash flow problems. A ridiculously long soap ensued and in the end salvation was there in the form of Chinese investment.

However, GM, who, to protect its technological interests, still had a say in the matter as part of the sales agreement with Spyker, blocked the road forward for Saab. Some nonsense reason about them not wanting their tech IP to flow into China and all that. Like GM doesn’t already have and run its own plants in China, like the technology that Saab made use off was so incredibly high-tech and like the Chinese don’t already copy anything anyway!

Well, proof of that has landed once again, in the form of news about the iminent C70G by Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC). C70G, that’s a name that makes me think about Volvo, that other Swedish carmaker, and it’s not the only thing about it that has that effect. Those headlights are a 100% rip-off from the new S60. The grill they took from a C-class Mercedes by the way. But you can’t blame them.  It takes time to set up an automotive industry that can churn out quality problems and copying is just the fastest way to get there. They’ll get there soon enough, don’t worry.

On the other hand, I have more of an issue with GM. Why? Because underneath the skin of the C70G is a Saab. The old 9-5, the technology of which Saab sold to BAIC back in 2009. Just to be clear, Saab was still owned by GM at that time. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? It seems GM wasn’t at all worried about its technology when it said ‘no’ to Saab’s Chinese aid and just saw an easy opportunity to commit homicide on a potential future competitor.

So died one of the last automotive companies with a very own, distinctive character. And now it reincarnated in the body of a not-so-pretty mongrel that lacks exactly this soul.

They are a bit wacky out Nevada way, aren’t they?

I think too much sun and gambling might have gone to their heads. Well, how else can you explain away the fact that they are going to let driverless cars onto their roads?

The project to get these futuristic cars out and about and causing mayhem comes from Google. It seems that lasers, radar sensors and video cameras all add up to make it possible for them to get around without a human being in sight.
Actually, that last bit isn’t quite true. No homo sapien needs to drive the vehicle but two people need to sit in the car whenever it is driving itself. It then follows routes which have been marked out by Google staff.

A Lot of Testing

The test car has done over 140,000 miles without any accidents, apart from when someone ran into the back of it at traffic lights. It isn’t clear whether the vehicle has the option of shouting abuse at the other driver in a robotic voice when this happens, although I like to think that it does.

During the testing period the driverless car got to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and cruise along the Pacific Coast highway. It was designed by a chap called Sebastian Thrun, who is vice president at Google as well as a Stanford University professor.

Do I want a car that drives itself? The idea certainly appeals me to, as I could take some photos when I drive to the beach or finish reading my book on the trip to work.
However, after the novelty value wears off might it just be like getting driven around by your Dad? It is sure to get to your destination safely and probably won’t like you turning up the radio too loud or sticking your head out of the window.
For me a lot of the fun of being in a car is driving and I get bored when someone else drives. So no, I don’t think I’ll be getting driven around Las Vegas anytime soon.

If I told you that you could get hold of a Bugatti Veyron for absolutely nothing would you be at all interested?
You are darn tooting you would. Let’s face it, these days none of us can afford to knock back a free can of Vimto never mind the world’s fastest production car. However, if you are already dreaming of your cravat billowing in the wind and people of the opposite sex swooning at your feet then it is time to bring you back down to earth I am afraid.

The car I am talking here is a rather cool little model of the Bugatti Veyron. Thanks to the magic of the internet you can print off all of the pieces you need to put together your very own replica of this beauty.

How Many Sheets of Paper?

It is 2 and a half feet long and looks rather splendid. The one word of warning though is that you need to print out and then put together 159 different parts on 44 sheets of cardboards. Speaking as someone who trembles uncontrollably at the thought of a set of IKEA assembly instructions I have to suggest that it may be a tricky little job to put together your own car this way.

You will need a lot of patience to get this done. Maybe if you have a child who needs some discipline instilled in them you can get them to do it for you instead of having them out washing and waxing your real car all day long. I guess some people might see it as a fun kind of hobby but I personally prefer hobbies which don’t involve spending endless hours sitting on the floor trying to work out how the wheels ended up on the bonnet.

Now if someone can only come up with a paper mache Ferrari or a Mini made out of old toilet rolls then maybe I will have second thoughts about the matter.

Who did you think was going to help us a little with petrol prices?

It certainly wasn’t going to be the government, the petrol companies or even your favourite motoring programme.
Thankfully, if there is one institution I still have a degree of faith in it is the great British supermarket.

It is hard to recall now but there used to be a time when our only reasonable shopping options were the local corner shop or the mini market which opened up a few blocks away. In either of these shopping emporiums one could have expected to find out of date Hula Hoops, chocolate biscuits of dubious origin with no English written anywhere on the packets and a grumpy assistant.

No More Cheese Sauce?

Things all changed when one of the big chains decided that they would bring us the modern shopping experience in an all singing and all dancing new hypermarket. This was just a year or so after our local Wimpy had turned into a Burger King.
I was a trifle disappointed to lose forever that bizarre cheese sauce they used on their burgers but the sense of progress was palpable in my community.

Anyway, my local supermarkets now offer me the chance to buy some cheap goods (I got a great camera the other day) with the benefit of a reasonably entertaining few hours into the bargain. And now they’ve gone and kicked off a blooming petrol price war.

Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda are the chains who have decided to lop a couple of pence off their unleaded petrol and diesel. Between them they account for 1,250 filling stations across the UK so hopefully it will have a knock on effect across the industry. A couple of pence isn’t a very big hill of beans but it could be the start of a new trend if we are lucky.

Lada may have a questionable reputation with us in the West, its parent company, AutoVAZ (actually spelled as AvtoVAZ), are doing quite well in Mother Russia.

So well, in fact, that the Renault-Nissan alliance has announced it will be drastically increasing its stakes in the company. In 2008 they bought 25% of shares and, as stated now, by 2014 they will have 67%, giving them a majority share and the power to call the shots.

Lada is the biggest brand in the Russian car market, delivering nearly 600,000 units last year. Also, last month prime minister Vladimir Putin cut the ribbon to open a new production line, increasing total capacity to one million Ladas per annum. It would seem they’ve got quite a bit of confidence then.

Despite that, Renault-Nissan must not fully appreciate the current line-up of the brand, let alone the quality of the vehicles, as it has also announced to invest in a sincere modernisation of the Lada product. Smart company that they are, they are starting by pulling the automotive industry’s oldest – and cheapest – trick: rebadging. In July the Lada Largus will be introduced, being a rebadged version of the Dacia Logan MCV. You know, that’s that budget break from Romania.

I’m not sure if that looks any better than the Lada Granta, Kalina, Priora, Samara, Riva and Niva that constitute the current brand portfolio, but at least it’ll be put together a bit better, at least in the eyes of us Westerners. In the future, Renault-Nissan have announced more Lada vehicles will be based on their own French-Japanese technology, so quality soon shouldn’t be an issue anymore. I just hope they don’t make Lada an extension of its Dacia budget brand and instead give it a face of its own. Rough, Russian and drunk, but charming as the piece of no-nonsense engineering that is the Lada Niva.

I hope Renault-Nissan will not decide to stop the Niva’s production (like they have with the Riva). That little cult-thing is a joy to see on the roads, even though it only happens once a year on average.

The law has been rightly harsh on drink drivers for some years now but what about those irresponsible motorists who drive while under the influence of drugs?

At the moment the situation is that the prosecution lawyers need to prove that the drugs impaired the driver’s ability to get around safely. That is about to change though, with the Crime, Communications and Court Bill on its way.

The new legislation will ensure that both illegal drugs and prescription medicines are covered and that motorists can be arrested if they fail the new drugyalyser test, which is like a standard breath test for alcohol levels and is designed to detect the most common types of drug.

I have never driven after drinking (although one of my worst ever performances at Super Hang On came after a few tipples) and I wouldn’t know an illegal drug if I fell over it. However, on a more serious note, I have driven after taken a fair amount of medicine and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

They say that you shouldn’t drive, operate heavy machinery or watch daytime TV after taking certain medicines but I had always thought that it was a bit of an exaggeration. Having completely forgot about my earlier experience with a ZX Spectrum and a bottle of cheap cider I decided to make the trip home in my car.

Even Rock the Casbah Didn’t Help

My eyes started getting heavy and even winding down the window and putting The Clash on the radio didn’t help me. It is probably the closest I have ever come to crashing. Apart from the time I crashed, of course.

To sum up, anything which can help make people realise that this kind of thing is dangerous has got to be a good thing. The new laws will give drivers up a year’s ban and a fine of up to £5,000, so there really is no excuse for ignoring them.