Archive for June, 2010
Fancy Driving An Audi? Leasing A Company Car Could Be The Answer
Owning a car can be an enormous strain on the bank account. Sometimes I don’t think it is worth the pain that it causes my wallet and wonder what the alternatives are instead. It is not that I own a flashy vehicle or that I am unfortunate enough to be in a high insurance bracket. Bless any young man under the age of 25 who wants to drive a car with an engine bigger than a hairdryer will need the backing of the World Bank to fund it! But having an ageing Audi from what surely must be the early 1900s still manages to break the bank.
Once I’ve paid the insurance a mere thirty five quid a month including breakdown recovery I might add! road tax which equates to around fifteen of my precious golden nuggets a month and a parking permit a snip at around a pound a week; well we’re talking about fifty five quid a month before I’ve even put petrol in. Once you add MOT servicing and the occasional tyre bulb and windscreen wiper I guess it’s a bit more like eighty great British pounds. I could buy a few nice tops with that kind of cash. I don’t really use the car anyway I live in town and the kids are quite frankly too embarrassed by the state of our family wagon to ever ask for a lift.
I’ve toyed with the idea of ditching the trusty rust bucket in favour of busses and trains but to be honest my hair frizzes badly in the rain and I don’t like to spend four hours getting to a place that I could reach in twenty minutes if I took a car. There must be another way of propelling myself along the surface of the earth for cups of tea with far flung friends and family. Given that I rarely use the car and the costs are slowly incurring… a grand a year before petrol I might as well make those occasional trips in style comfort and class in someone else’s car. Here is my plan…
I’m going to get my boss to get me a car a company car a flashy shiny new car. I’ll persuade him to get a vehicle that we could all use for travelling to important meetings and things like that. It’s important we make a good impression! Obviously being a business savvy bloke he’ll not willingly splash out on a flash set of wheels if it is going to cost either him or the company. The solution is in leasing; much more sensible than buying.
Vehicle leasing is relatively painless to arrange and is generally easier and cheaper than getting a loan for a new car. Why pay massive loan repayments every month on a car that is depreciating in value? Instead smaller payments could be made on a top quality car that gets replaced once the lease is up. A permanently new car for less than the cost of an ageing one that surely makes economic sense that no boss can decline.
My idea is good for the environment and the business bank account. With a pool car available for everyone to use there is a shared insurance only one road tax one service one MOT one parking ticket etcetera. And with a shared vehicle for business use fewer employees will be driving to work just to use their car to go to a meeting. I am a genius; a pool car is definitely the way. I wonder if I can persuade the boss to order an Audi in flamingo pink with neon orange suede interior ooh and a blue fluffy steering wheel and don’t forget the dice!
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the automotive industry.Find out more about Audi leasing and the types of car available to lease at Amber Vehicle Solutions
Everything You Need To Know About Range Rover Leasing
Are you bored with taking a walk in the park on a Saturday afternoon? Does fishing not rock your boat? Have you had enough of hanging around sale rails in the same old high street shops? If so you may well need an excitement injection delivered to your weekend. If you have a job where you spend most of your working week sitting in a dusty office and listening to upset customers on the end of the telephone it is understandable that you want to make the most of your weekend or any spare time for that matter. Planning each day off as it comes can often end up with doing the same old boring thing week after week. It’s time to pick up the gauntlet and challenge yourself to find something more exciting to do with your time.
I have always liked the idea of going on a dirt day out. Driving around the countryside in a 4X4 mastering an obstacle course and trying to stay alive whilst screaming for all my life is worth. The trouble with these days is that they are pretty much oneoff red letter days that cost a month’s wages and leave you craving more. Well I think I have found a solution all it requires is a little bit of sweet talk to convince a couple of friends that they want to put a bit of spark back in to their life and finding a farmer that wants to earn money than the government subsidise his land for. Yes folks I’m talking regular off road 4X4 rallying days.
Living on the edge of town and of life itself it sometimes feels I am close enough to the countryside to get a bit of the latest gossip that has been trickling my way. There is talk of a farmer opening up his land to the public to allow them to bring their vehicles and brave the course he has set up. He is apparently charging as little as twenty five pounds per day per vehicle which means that gathering a group can work out as an economical idea. As little as a fiver each and not only do you all get a turn over the course of the day to pit your skills against the course but also each other. And don’t forget the fear inducing fact that you will get to be passengers while your companions tears it around the course causing you all to feel like you are on a ride at Alton Towers.
The best vehicle for the job is definitely a sport diesel 4X4. This diesel beast is big enough to fit all contenders in comfortably and has a solidity that will give you a feeling of being safe and secure even when you’re going headlong into a fifteen foot ditch with a hill gradient of twenty five per cent. This mechanical beast has a nifty little feature that allows the driver to pick an off road terrain setting and the clever electronic and engine work beautifully together to make sure that your driving doesn’t get you stuck in a rut unlike the day job! It can cope with mud and deep water sand gravel and rough terrain whether it’s snow ice or rocks. Perfect. So get your mates to club in to hire or lease a super duper off road wonder and take it to the farm to blow away the cobwebs and inject a bit of life into your bloodstream. It certainly beats getting out the scalextric on a Saturday afternoon.
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the motoring industry.Find out more about Range Rover leasing and the performace power behind cars available for hire.
DCPerformance Become Official Blueflame Performance Exhaust Dealers
DCPerformance are pleased to announce that they have become official dealers for the world renowned performance exhaust manufacturers Blueflame. With nearly 1000 models in their exhaust range including exhaust manifolds decat cat bypass pipes high flow sports catalytic convertors downpipes centre sections and of course backboxes the Blueflame exhaust range is a welcome addition to the already considerable catalogue of performance exhausts that DCPerformance offer their customers.
DCPerformance have the entire range available through their website at www.dcperformance.co.uk and in most cases you can even see a photograph of the whole system so you know exactly what to expect to arrive at your door when you order one of the Blueflame exhausts. You can see the range of Blueflame products at http://www.dcperformance.co.uk/cheapest/blueflame.html
Blueflame have been producing exhaust systems for nearly 25 years. Their mission as they state on their website is “to provide cutting edge designed products utilising the finest quality materials manufactured to the highest standards at a competitive price” and they certainly achieve this. The quality of their products is superb. All exhaust systems and manifolds are made from 304 grade aircraft spec stainless steel to ensure that each exhaust component will last a lifetime; this is backed by their lifetime guarantee excluding sports cats which have a two year warranty.
The entire range of Blueflame exhausts is designed and built in the UK and they cater for not only the aftermarket exhausts field but also large OEM productions as well as smaller niche systems. Blueflame’s skilled development team also offer a full bespoke design and build service for one off systems so if you have a unique design you want for your car Blueflame can build the system to your specifications.
Blueflame are ISO9001 accredited for quality control which together with their Tier 1 Original Equipment capability and race team experience means there is no question as to their excellence in the performance exhaust arena. This is why Blueflame are approved for producing OEM exhausts for Lotus and have produced exhausts for many of the TVR range.
Each Blueflame exhaust is designed from scratch after careful analysis of the OEM system to ensure the perfect fit. The engine then get some attention to calculate the required gas flow and the ideal exhaust pipe diameters in order to produce an exhaust system which helps the engine breath better increasing power output by ensuring that the gas flow through the performance system is constant and uninterrupted. Blueflame careful design the systems to sounds just right deep and throaty yet unobtrusive no boy racer exhaust here!
Every system is dyno tested to ensure that it gives performance gains with no additional modifications to the vehicle. That said the system will help boost power output further with induction improvements and an ECU remap.
So if you are considering swapping your tired exhaust then look no further than a Blueflame exhaust system. Now that DCPerformance are official Blueflame dealers there is no better time to upgrade to an exhaust system which offers outstanding quality with impressive power gains all at very reasonable prices.
About the writer: DCPerformance sell performance car parts and styling and tuning accessories online. DCPerformance stock induction kits exhausts suspension and alloy wheels from leading brands like KN Janspeed Bilstein Koni Mongoose Eibach and many more. Our website has over 100000 products available to order online. We also offer car audio and vehicle security installation. DCPerformance as part of the DCDezign group has been trading since 2001.