[thebigseats]

Just two choice words to counter the utter B.S. being spouted here:

Mercedes Benz.

Nothing else matters.

[esselle]

Austin Reed plays Henry Poole I’m afraid……

[LuganoPirate]

Have to agree with the Range Rover being the best 4 x 4 x far! We’ve also had 5 and In South Africa we each have a Discovery. My 4.6 HSE Vogue from 2000 is still going strong with just 260,000 kms on the clock. I’m now seriously tempted with the Range Rover Sport V8. It’s quite an impressive motor.

Esselle, I was also there last year, in June. Did you see the full scale model of the car they built for one of these computer games? They made a 1:20 scale model for the photos and then the designers thought why not build it full size. And they did! Thanks for the hotel suggestion. I’ll make a note of it though apparently Bentley are hosting us so not sure where they’ll put us. Hope it’s not a Premier Inn 😉

[IanFromHKG]

Mercs don’t do it for me. They are vastly better since they realised a few years back that good cars don’t need to look hideous from the outside, and have fake wood trim and seat cushions made of concrete on the inside, but….

Mind you, what do I know. A while ago the Memsahib said I should buy an AM and I said no. I must have been mad…

Some friends of ours recently went on an AM experience day and were so smitten that as soon as they got back to HK they charged round to the local showroom and excitedly said they were interested in buying a Vanquish. Unfortunately, the salesman replied in perfect Hong-Kong-accented English, saying “Ah yes, the WankWish!”. Ooops… They ended up buying one in France, where they knew the locals might not be able to pronounce it properly, but at least they wouldn’t call it THAT!

[AllOverTheGaff]

Ian_from_HKG – 26/03/2015 14:36 GMT
“Ah yes, the WankWish!”. Ooops…

HA! Brilliant! Having been to a couple of AM owners days things, your HK salesman might just be onto something……

🙂
Rgds.
AOTG.

[AllOverTheGaff]

AnthonyDunn – 26/03/2015 13:23 GMT
You’ve clearly not spent enough time recently thumbing through the car mags whilst your other half is cruising the supermarket aisles…. Jaguar has very impressive plans for its new vehicle developments that are clearly aimed at attracting a much younger buyer

I do read rather a few car mags, one of my main hobbies is cars actually.

I understand what Jaguar are trying to do, and in fairness, my Rangey shares a lot of parts and software with the new Jag range from the Tata bins, so I can certainly vouch for their exquisite quality.

The issue I’d have buying a Jag, is that there are equally as good options out there, many of them cheaper, almost all of which won’t depreciate like a lead weight and none of which carry the ‘old man’ tag on their bonnet.

They are moving in the right direction, and with Jag trying to get to younger crowd, and with me becoming less young by the day, who knows, we might just meet in the middle.

All that said, if I want a V8 roadster, it’d be an Aston. If I want a luxury saloon – I’ll stick with my Rangey, and if I want a GT cruiser…..again….I’d likely go for an Aston which will cost me more as an initial purchase, but cost of ownership would be somewhat better over a term.

Rgds.
AOTG.

[AnthonyDunn]

@ AllOverTheGaff – 26/03/2015 15:02 GMT

As a demonstration of the ultimate in supremely good taste, I agree, an Aston it has to be. I can but dream….

[esselle]

It just demonstrates that one car is not enough…….I would never contemplate driving 400 miles in the Aston, but would be very happy doing it in the Rangie.

As an aside, to AnthonyDunn’s comment, when I traded my first Aston (V8 Roadster, Bucks Green with Sandstorm) it was bought by a 78 year old widow!!!

[LuganoPirate]

Ian, I once owned one of those. Perhaps I should now deny it’s existence 😉

Great story though and delighted your friends made the purchase. As a Governor of your old school, I must however concur with your self diagnosis! Go redeem yourself and buy one!

[AnthonyDunn]

@MartynSinclair – 26/03/2015 10:25 GMT

This reminds me of a trip some years back to the Buck House Summer opening…

As my aged mother-in-law was not able to walk far, we got permission to drive to the Palace. As Snr Management is averse to buying some of the rather more expensive pieces of automotive real-estate we are talking about here, we had a plain white Renault 5 Automatic. Driving across in front of the Palace, the ladies proceeded to do the royal drive-by wave whilst I was torn between either cringing in embarrassment or wiping away the tears of laughter. The boys-in-blue thought it was rather comical too.

[LuganoPirate]

Anthony, you can find very good, low mileage DB9’s at a very good price. If you buy from a dealer you can even get an extended warranty. The DB9 was perhaps the most reliable Aston built, is extremely fast (where legal of course) and comfortable.

Esselle, I tend to agree, the furthest we drove in the Aston was to the South of France (Monaco / Cannes) which from Lugano is about 400 kms (250 miles). Even with the roof down it was a relaxing drive. My longer trips, especially with family, are always done in the Range Rover.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Crickey – BT Forum has changed to TopGear Forum 🙂

I have no idea with cars. Never have and never will. To me they are a huge waste of money and generally of resources. That’s what happens to one’s thinking when you live in a Green, Hippy Left of Centre Eco Town! I do actually now drive – but not very often. Planes / Trains I know a bit about. but cars…..nope – draw a blank there!

That’s my application for the vacant BBC position.

[AllOverTheGaff]

TimFitzgeraldTC – 26/03/2015 17:15 GMT
To me they are a huge waste of money and generally of resources.

Oh my.

Oh dear.

Oh dear oh dear.

Rgds.
AOTG.

[esselle]

Anthony
If you want top down, go for a Vantage rather than a Volante, as the latter didn’t have the chassis for it until recently.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Hi AOTG

I do appreciate the engineering that goes into cars. I just wish perhaps some of the £10’s of billions spent annually on Automotive R&D / Advertising was actually spent of R&D in “Green” energy (not to say that some of this R&D isn’t making things “greener”). I just think that globally we don’t always have our priorities right and could be argued where capitalism as an economic system totally fails (won’t go on – going way off thread!!) . I’m not expecting anyone to agree with me and I totally understand why a car lover would say oh dear oh dear as that is an opinion you are allowed to have!

🙂

[Author]

Posts