One United Word Of Vehicles

We seem to go through waves pf demands for vehicles that car manufacturers have to adapt to very quickly if they wish to remain successful. Not so long ago the SUV or 4×4’s as we like to call them in the UK were the thing to have, we even seemed to handle the high fuel costs of the time. But now, we are back to where the success of companies and especially those with large fleets of vehicles have to control their purse stings more than ever.

As so many cars are sold to companies for fleet use, manufacturers know they have to keep their customers costs down, if they want to share in the success, so low emissions are now high  priority with other things such as cheaper replacement parts and services.

One of the latest manufacturers to announce lower costs for its fleet drivers is Mazda, who claim their new Mazda 3 will deliver lower fleet costs, the Co2 figure quoted is 3.5 less than before on some models and residual values being set at 30%, of course customer demand may change resalable values. This means that some models will drop on their benefit in kind tax obligation, making them more attractive to fleet drivers as well as the companies who tend to lease or buy them.

Most manufacturers of course are now trying to deliver the same comfort and performance as before with lower costs to run, as they know only be giving the customer what they want will deliver success.

The Christmas Top Gear special normally starts a new series and the 28th Dec saw an eagerly awaited road trip across India, hopefully with all the tension and humour of previous events. But within 20 minutes or so, there was sufficient evidence that this episode would not be to the standard of previous road trips.

First of all, the 3 presenters turned up with what appeared to be, pretty good cars, an immaculate mini, a Rolls Royce and a Jaguar XJS, at least 2 of these probably deserved to not be inflicted with the normal Top Gear punishment and kept in the way they had been up to now.

Instead of leaving their starting point of Bombay to head into the chaotic roads of India, they decided to first do a challenge within Bombay of delivering meals to compete with the locals. So the road trip, became nothing more than, how to try and make people laugh. The only glint came from “Hamster”, when he turned quickly on his Mini to see tins of food fly off his roof. Except the quick turn appeared to to be staged very badly as the road was empty except for him, something that you would not see in India. We then se James May drive out of Bombay in his Rolls Royce, pretending he was lost. “Jezza” got there on time but with only a few meals and of course a lot of spills.

So now we are ready for the road story that will see them tackle 1000s of miles of open road!! Well no! They went on a train, with the cars in the back, and decided to pretend to entertain the passengers on the train, with drums double bass and keyboard. Amazing how that double bass just appeared.

Now comes the part where they dress the train in Banners marketing the British exports and James misses the train. We see him miss the train at one end, then appear with his rug sack at the next end, mmm, how did he get that?

The decoration of the train goes bad when the exact train cars with the banners separate, leaving half banners that say funny things; never seen that before!

Now the cars are back on the road and its time for a staged hill climb. Jeremy now has his crash helmet with him (where do that come from)? Nothing more to say about this part.

With 30 minutes to go on this 1 and 1/2 hour special, the guys head off in their cars towards China, at last we see what we wanted to see an hour ago. Dangerous roads, mad driving and of course the cars all get some customisation. Then we see some amazing scenery as the rough roads come to play. At last some good Top Gear stuff.

I can excuse the cricket match with the locals, it did seem appropriate compared with the earlier farce. Then the 3 cars are left on pedestals where they ended to celebrate British car making.

We know that Top Gear specials are scripted and we know that most things are staged, but this episode was just too unreal, and the apparent mishaps, like driving a mini digger into the Rolls or blowing up a room with a big firework just looked stupid rather than funny.

It was if this episode had no script at all, and something needed to fill the 90 mins, so it was made up as they went with sketches that would have been rejected by just about everyone else.

If the guys had just driven out of Bombay with their cars , more would have happened, it would have been funnier and more entertaining and a real adventure, not the disappointment of 2011. Lets hope the new series is better.

The art of taking a car that has been written off by the insurance companies (deemed as uneconomical to repair) then putting time and money to prove the insurance companies wrong. We say art deliberately as you should not assume that all salvage projects can be repaired cheaper than just saving up and buying that car from a normal auction yard.

The first thing you need to know is not everyone who buys salvage wants to repair the car. So supposing you are buying a vehicle though a broker like SalvageSpareFinder, you may find yourself bidding against a breaker yard who sees more value in the car as parts than as a working vehicle.

So you should cost all your parts first, then add on a bit more, then take into account your time and labour, research how much the vehicle is worth when repaired and only then set a price as a limit, before entering any salvage auction.

If you do the work, you can end up with something that will turn a profit or save money, do it wrong and you could find a large bill and nothing more than a scrap car.

OK we have started another one of those news sites that state they will write about a certain subject, so it for a few days and then stop. We are no perfect and this site is not just about vehicles, but right from the start we want you all to know, the post will be just now and again and not like the starts coming out every night.

Today was the royal wedding of William and Kate and with the exception of those awful mini busses than transported the junior royal family, there were some statements out there over which make of vehicles are in fashion with the royals. It seems Jaguar came out tops, with Rolls Royce doing the important stuff, probably only because they had the glass fitted so everyone could see Kate. Its a real shame that none of these British marques are actually owned by the British anymore, even though it seemed correct to use these vehicles. We saw loads of Range Rovers also, probably used by the security, again another make sold off to foreigners.

Anyway the first day of our news site, was born on the day Kate and William became the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, good luck to them and us.