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Bolivian Highway
When we listed the ten worst driving habits in our last newsletter and on our blog here, some readers responded that bad habits are directly related to bad roads. Fair point we thought…
So when we had this email arrive in our ‘in box’ we had to put it on the blog.
This really is a road in Bolivia, that we would all dread to drive on.
Read on and see if you could imagine yourself at the wheel.
Stremnaya Road is nicknamed ‘The Road of Death’ and it will take no convincing as to how appropriate that is..
So far it looks just a little challenging, but this is just the start. The next few shots will start you stomach churning!
Hang On - I Wish I Had The Inside Lane
Actually, I Don't Think He Heard Your Horn
Ooops... Lost The Kerb This Morning
Not Much Further Now
Oh Good God...
Phew.. The Worst Is Behind Us
Now that has to be the most frightening journey we’ve ever been on. What’s the worst road you’ve ever experienced? Surely it can’t have been as bad as this?
However there are dodgy roads right around the world, including Australia, so please let us know your worst experiences below and we’ll put them on the site (pictures would be great, too!).
Will Aston Martin Be Sold Yet Again?
Aston Martin arguably makes the most beautiful sports cars in the World, and has done so for over ninety years, but under several different owners.
The most recent owner change was just a few years ago, when Ford sold out to a consortium headed by a Kuwaiti investment outfit.
However the latest news is that they – The Kuwaiti Investment Dar, are in financial difficulties and have defaulted on some loans.
At the same time Aston Martin themselves aren’t having such a good time either, due to the global financial crisis, having dispensed with a third of its workforce last December.
The Kuwaiti Investment Dar says that it may have to sell some of its assets to help reduce debt, so that may well mean that this iconic brand will be up for sale yet again.
But then who would have the spare cash to take the risk of investing in the really top end luxury car market today?
Storm Erupts Over Ex-Rental Vehicles
A huge storm has erupted in the UK over the highly misleading practice of hiding the identity of ex-rental cars unwittingly bought by the public from official dealerships, paying thousands of dollars more than their real worth.
The UK tabloid newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, reports that it is a widespread practice for car rental companies to register their cars under an ‘innocent’ business name, and then pass their used stock onto the public as a ‘one owner vehicle’.
Of course it’s a one owner vehicle! But with many tens or hundreds of drivers, some of whom love to thrash rental cars!
Had the cars been honestly revealed as ex-rental cars they would have commanded thousands of dollars less in the market place.
The Daily Telegraph claims that two of the UK’s biggest car hire firms used a ‘front’ company name to register vehicles, meaning buyers didn’t recognise the ‘real’ previous owner from the registration documents.
The most controversial cases involve cars that were previously hired out by National Car Rental, which is owned by Europcar, Britains biggest car hire company, which has a fleet totalling 54,000.
The company registered the vehicles in the name of Provincial Securities Ltd. a compnay it owns that did no business.
Can it, does it happen here?
Well, frankly we don’t know. We hope not, but that’s a wish, not a certainty.
If you know, one way or the other, then let us, and our customers, know too.
GM Finally Settles On Buyer For Opel, Vauxhall
General Motors has finally annointed Magna International Inc., a Canadian car parts conglomerate and its Russian bank partner, Sberbank as the buyers for 55 percent of the shares in its European operation that produces Opel cars in Germany and Vauxhalls in the UK.
GM will still own a 35 percent stake and employees will own the remaining 10 percent.
Magna have always been the favoured bidder with the German government, even after receiving a last minute increased offer from the other final contenders, RHJ International.
Magna have undertaken not to close any plants nor dispense with any jobs at Opel, but they have not made the same commitment to the British government who are now seeking urgent talks with senior Vauxhall management to abate plant closures and further job losses in the UK.
The main UK plant at Ellesmere Port is slated to produce GM’s proposed all-electric car, the Ampera, and it is expected that some hard bargaining will ensue between Vauxhall and the government over who pays for a national public network of battery charging centres.
Naturally Vauxhall wants the public purse to fund it, but at what cost and guarantees?
Let the bargaining begin!
Level 2, 9 Help Street