Cars start decaying the moment they are built. Some manage to accumulate character while most don’t. What do you do?
One response is obsessive polishing and maintenance. The other is stoic acceptance. For many the response is to oscillate in between the two, starting with careful stewardship of the new possession. Why do people fight physics? And why is it that cars don’t last longer? Continue reading “Theme: Material – Decay”
Mercedes have a channel designed for owners of their older cars. Now Porsche is following suit.
But Bristol were there long before, since most of their business revolved around re-selling their cars and keeping them on the road. In the case of Mercedes and Porsche the turn-over will be rather bigger than Bristol’s cottage industry. Is this the start of a trend?
Porsche have opened a centre in Gelderland, Holland to cater for the sales, service and restoration of their discontinued models. This is what they are offering (caution: chunk of cut-and-pasted text): “More than 70 per cent of the vehicles ever produced by Porsche are still running today. To ensure that these classic cars Continue reading “Future-Proofing Your Business”
Ideally, an article on the theme of economy should contain no words at all – a conceit I did explore briefly, but the results proved disappointing.
Instead we reprise a piece from DTW’s early days which I’m forced to concede, runs to 1941 words. So while on one hand it does meet the brief, it also misses it by several nautical miles. Sorry.
The fact that ‘Durable Car Ownership – a new approach to low cost motoring’ didn’t knock Jackie Collins off the best seller lists in 1982 is probably due as much to its minority subject matter as a sorry lack of carnal shenanigans. It wasn’t a fashionable subject then and given that it’s been out of print for some years, probably wouldn’t be now.
Its author, Charles Ware, had his reasons for writing it – even if, as founder and MD of the Morris Minor Centre in Bath, those of a more cynical mien saw it as an attempt to Continue reading “Theme: Economy – The Durable Car”
For the very rich there are two modes of consumption.
One is to buy the latest thing and replace it as soon as something better comes along. The other mode is to buy something that lasts forever like a castle or a Bristol. The Filton-based firm was a small one and prided itself on the quality of its vehicles. And they are cars that last, being capable of almost indefinite service life, much like a castle, as it happens.
Continue reading “Theme : Facelifts – Bristol Cars and Facelifts as a Way of Life”
What happens to old cars when they die, Mummy?
Whilst trying to find a download of a W211 Owners Manual for a friend’s ten year old E Class, I came across the above (full text below). Now, although the US website did finally provide the manual, Mercedes’ UK site appears to provide no such service. Despite the fact that it would only cost them a tiny sum to make electronic manuals for older cars available to owners, it’s telling that MB UK don’t see this as a priority.
Driven To Write 